the seeds of history

1) Ate guinea pig yesterday, and made some less than tactful jibes when a girl mentioned that she had one for a pet. It was tough but flavorful.

2) Last night John and I wandered out of our "family´s" home cooking haven and ate some of the most wonderful food I have tasted in awhile. Peruvian food is bueno.

3) We wandered into the self-proclaimed "highest Irish pub in the world," called Paddy O´Flaherty´s, where they had broadcast the first David Beckham in LA match earlier in the afternoon. Place was crawling with Irish, and with ESPN in the background, we might really have been anywhere.

That is what I am hoping to avoid as much as possible, the feeling of being a little ex-patriot in a bubble. I became impatient this morning when I realized that we don´t have anything to do at the school until 3 this afternoon, and what to do with myself? Stay in the chilly room? Wander around?

And wander around I did, self-consciously taking some pictures with my boyfriend´s dad´s manual camera that I borrowed in February and have yet to give back.

Some of the girls staying at Residencia Perez shocked us today by revealing that they did not, in fact, know from WHICH country the colonists won its "independence" back in 1775. They also, unapologetically, bemoaned the fact that one time at a bar someone had asked "all the girls" in their group how many states are in the United States, and they guessed 52.

It is independence weekend in Peru, mainly Lima, this weekend. I was asking which independence they were celebrating--rather sarcastically.

I was reading about Andean coca leaf rituals before rousting myself out of bed.
A ritual of blowing on "k´intu", or three of the best coca leaves in the bag, is called "phukuy." As you blow on the leaves in your hand, you make an invocation, mentioning Earth (Pacha, Pacha Mama, Santa Tira, and so on), Sacred Places, and your ayllu, or neighborhood.

Hallpakusunchis means "Let´s chew coca together."

The United States has launched a mission of trying to get rid of all Peruvian coca plants, because when you add lime to the coca plant and refine it, it produces, you guessed it, cocaine. This is not the first time that the US completely negated the value of all other cultures due to its short-sighted self interest.

As for me, the earthy tasting coca leaves in my tea have aided this outsider already.