Week 9: A Little Lima Love

After taking a break from traveling outside of Lima the past couple weeks, I have had a chance to better explore this city and what is has to offer. One thing I'm sure of is that I'd take a small town over a city of 10 million people any day for one reason and one reason only: traffic. Growing up in Valentine, the only bad traffic I ever experienced was when people took their horse and buggies down Main Street (an actual event that happened one day when I was already running late to work) or there was a parade. Now, we have to plan our excursions around when traffic will be the worst and still end up sitting in a taxi for an hour to and hour and a half just to get to another district. In the meantime, taxi drivers are weaving in and out of lanes, honking at everyone, slamming on their brakes, and making their passengers sick (me). I see my life flash before my eyes at least once almost every taxi ride.

The bright side of living in such a big city is that you never run out of things to do. After last week, I can finally say I've been to my first international concert and it was everything I could've hoped for. It's no secret that I'm a self-proclaimed concert addict and, at all times, have at the very least one or two concerts lined up. Right now, that number is at five and continually growing. I have been going crazy not hearing live music or having a concert to look forward to since being here so when I saw that Skrillex was going to be in Lima, I jumped at the opportunity. We arrived at the concert around 9 P.M. but in typical Peruvian fashion, everything happens a little later than usual. By the time Skrillex finally came on, it was past 1 in the morning. That's a lot of time to pregame. Too much, really. At one point I thought I was resting my head on Abby's back, but it was actually a random man standing in front of me. Jaja. Thankfully I livened up as soon as his set started and it was amazing. By the time I got home that night, it was 5 A.M. and my feet hated me. You know it was a late night when the doorman of my neighborhood greets me with "good morning" instead of "good evening." The only negative was that I got my phone taken during this outing, so I'm now without a phone until May. Very unfortunate situation from both a personal and photography standpoint, but heaven forbid my life ever be easy.

My Skrillex girls!

The next day, we had an afternoon luncheon at Brisas del Titicaca in Central Lima. The luncheon was an afternoon show where a band and Peruvian dancers perform while you eat. The show was almost four hours long, but it was fantastic. I wish I had photos of the afternoon (no phone problems) because the costumes that the dancers wore blew my mind. The band performed throughout the whole show and was a mixture of choreographed numbers with the men and women dancers and songs where the audience could come onto the stage and dance. These two adorable older women took an interest in our table of white girls and dragged us out onto the dance floor to salsa with them every song. I was reluctant to go at first, but they made the experience so much more fun and memorable. My salsa skills are still horrible, though. But improving! The rest of the weekend was spent recovering from my late night the evening before and coming to the sad realization that I just can't stay out like I used to. Man, 22 is hard. :(

Our professor took us to this park and we then found out later it was empty because
there was a shooting there that week. Always finding the best spots in Lima to hang out. 👍🏼

Okay, I made it through that so now I can get to my favorite part. Last Wednesday, our group from UNK had the opportunity to go to a Shipibo school in Lima. Shipibo schools are schools for children whose indigenous parents or grandparents migrated from the Amazon Rainforest into Lima. In some cases, these children were the first generation in their families to learn Castellano (Peruvian Spanish) as their first language instead of Shipibo. Driving into their community, it was blatantly obvious the poverty that these people lived in. Once we got into the school, though, the children welcomed us with open arms and completely melted my heart. My group taught a group of girls how to play BINGO using math facts and then I got to experience my first recess in about 10 years. Kiara, Alcemy, and Lucerma #1 and 2 (a popular name, apparently) were so sweet and begged me to let them keep the BINGO boards I made. Before I left, Kiara grabbed my hand and led me back into the classroom and showed me that she had hung her board up on her desk and was so proud of it. I'm tearing up thinking about how grateful these children were for the smallest things, even just attention. I wish I hadn't been so apprehensive before going because it was truly the best experience I could have asked for. Kids are awesome.

Kiara and I. Completely melted my heart (and my face because it clearly was so hot that day).
Our Spanish Professor, Rob: You girls all got sunburnt!
Us: No Rob, white people's skin turns red when we get hot.
(Cultural learning goes both ways)

The next day was St. Patrick's Day, so naturally we had class at an Irish Pub in Miraflores, complete with green beer and everything. Before that, though, we watched the changing of the guards in Central Lima and Barrio Chino (Chinatown). The best part of the whole day, honestly, was probably the taxi driver giving us his auxiliary cord and letting us blast American rap music the whole way to Miraflores. Music has never sounded so good. The next day, I dedicated almost the entire day trying to figure out how I could watch March Madness from Peru. I FINALLY figured it out after about four hours, more than a few dollars, and my Aunt Kim's DISH password (thank you!!!). I don't think anyone understands how much I've missed being able to watch any form of sports for the past few months besides soccer. From that point on, I was pretty much glued to my computer screen the rest of the weekend, but I have no regrets. As my time here winds down, I'm realizing how much I still want to do and see, and look forward to a busy next few weeks. Sending love from Peru and Happy Easter to everyone!