Some cultural observations....

From Dave:

 

If you like these things, you’ll love Arequipa:

 

Dogs – it seems like every family has one – it certainly seems like the majority of families.  If the dogs decide to take over, it won’t be a contest.  I think I’ve seen one cat. 

 

 

 

Warm sunny days – we haven’t had a drop of rain in three months – and the average high has been around 75 degrees - and that’s normal here.

 

 

 

Car alarms and horns – we have found it to be safe around here, but wow do we hear a lot of car alarms (maybe less expensive car alarms go off a lot?).  For example, when I was helping load up a family into their car after a party, her own car alarm went off twice.  Also, folks (like taxis) will pull up to a house and honk a couple times (I assume to get someone's attention inside).  Doesn't matter if it's 6:00 a.m. or 11:00 at night.  They also use car horns to communicate things like 'I'm passing' 'look out' 'you're not moving fast enough on that light' and the like.  I guess they like car horns here.

 

Corner stores – we have two of them within one block of our house.  They are like the Superettes of old (if you remember that idea).  It’s a shop about the size of a family room in a typical house, that sells candy, toilet paper, bread, liquor, and the like – stacked up to the ceiling.  They are all over the place here.  Want a few eggs at 8:00 at night?  Just go four doors down to Katty’s to buy some.  Reasonable prices too. 

 

Regular garbage pickup – are you tired of once a week garbage pickup?  Come to Arequipa, where we have twice daily garbage pickup – once at about 6:00 a.m., and again at about 10:00 p.m.  No idea why.  It’s not to keep out wild animals – there are none here… except the dogs (see above).

 

Dairy-free ice cream – it’s everywhere.  I think there are 5 places I could get ‘ice cream’ within a two-block radius of our house – street vendors – little shops – in corner shops – and the ingredients always start with: water, sugar, vegetable oil… and end without a drop of dairy to be found.
 

 

Gates – no, not Bill, but wrought iron, or steel gates.  For people, for cars – in front of houses, businesses, even some neighborhoods.  If you don’t have a gate or three, you don’t belong.

 

So, if you’re big on the above, you can "vive la buena vida" in Arequipa. 

Par-tay! Or, the kindergarten graduation fiesta that was as fancy as a wedding reception

*Apologies for the poor photo/video quality; our real camera hasn't surfaced since Thanksgiving so we were stuck using the cell phone.*

So, Miss M is wrapping up kindergarten and they had a big party to celebrate.  We went to the event not knowing exactly what to expect.  We had gotten information on the appropriate clothing to wear, knew we would have a meal, paid for our tickets (including a small token fee for Little A that covered the entertainment and "surprise" prize pack but not her meal...which was just as well given that she doesn't eat wheat and couldn't eat much of the meal anyway.)

The parents had been preparing special surprise entertainment (*spoiler* Dave was a wolf in a children's storybook interpretation....short video clip will be embedded below) and we knew there would be a clown and a piñata.  However...when we got there...the sheer level of decorations was somewhat astounding for us.  It looked like an American wedding reception. 

The cakes- 5 for Ano 5

Waterfall outside

Many rose bouquets

 Getting in on the fun costumes....there isn't really a place to put these pics but I thought they were funny so here they are.

M as an "Angry Bird" (yes, I know it's a piggy)

A, as a decidedly less Angry Bird

The girls had fancy dresses and hair (I took M to a salon near our house and paid about $7 for them to do her hair up in curls, which started falling out as soon as we left.  Thanks to the power of Aqua-Net hair spray, she did still have wavy hair the morning after.  Her straight hair comes directly from both grandmothers. :)   The boys wore suits and parents were dressed in suits, skirts, dresses, and other "Sunday-best" level of clothing. 


The girls and me



The whole fam

The program was as follows:
1. Announcement/processional of the kids (each child escorted by opposite gender parent)

2. Welcome speech by principal
3. Dance of the graduates (with opposite gender parent)

4. Presentation of gifts to teachers of the past three years
5. Lunch (the kids all sat at a head table along with teachers and administrators, who appeared to spend most of the lunch running around helping the kids pour pop, cut meat, etc.)
                                                             


Our meal- chicken cordon bleu, fruit salad with whipped cream, and maybe potatoes?  Not sure.

Our table

6. Presentation of diplomas (recuerdos or remembrances).  This is a big framed picture with one pic of the graduate and a class photo, along with everyone's names.  The children also signed a class book.  During the presentation, they played a mini-slide show of each child (6 pictures) and talked about the child, what they liked about school.  That was all in Spanish, so I didn't catch all of M's, but she said she loved her dad and she had the best mom.  M is doing the traditional Peruvian picture face (no smile).

7. Parent Entertainment- one dancing show, followed by a theater production that Dave was in, followed by another dance.  Everyone was in costume.  If you didn't have at least one parent participating (some families had both parents in something), you had to pay a fine.   Dave being in the play got me out of the dance.

Moms dancing (I think this is a dance a famous group Hi 5 does).

The play.  Dave is the energetic wolf trying to steal a crown from a rock.

8. Animacion Infantil: A clown and his sidekick did games (including things like relay races which wore the kids out) and a parent participation where you could earn prizes.  M and I won for tossing your child high up in the air and catching them again.  Not bad for a girl in heels, I say.  After the games, the clown did a puppet show and magic show and then it was Hora Loca (Crazy Hour).  This is apparently normal at Peruvian parties as a wind down/finale activity.  In this case, we had a light show, tubes of confetti, shaving cream, and loud music, all done with people marching around wearing hats, headbands, ties, masks, and other accessories that were handed out, waving long balloons and making noise in addition to the music.  See video clip below.



Magic Show

Balloons at the ready for Hora Loca (Crazy Hour)

9. Distribution of party favors and cake.  (We ate cake earlier, but the kids all got a boxed piece of cake to take home, too.)

It was an incredible amount of work to pull something like this off, and we are thankful to the other parents who did it.  We went to at least 8 or 9 meetings (not counting all of the theater practices) and boy does it seem like a lot of work to plan in a collaborative culture where everyone gets to vote on things like what food is served and what color tablecloths to use.  But the end result was a really fun party.  And long, too...Dave and A left after 5.5 hours and M and I headed out at the end (8 hours after we arrived!)

Living the 1860s Dream

I've taken a little bit of a break from the blog...life had settled into a normal pace and I needed a little time to think, reflect, and get over the 3 month hump.  But, here we are....with Thanksgiving behind us (post coming whenever our camera surfaces) and Christmas and New Year's ahead.  And the first quarter of 2014 brings some travel for us and our first visitors from back home!  We're excited about the activities in the next months.

One of the things I've been doing is comparing and contrasting my life now with what life might have been like in the 1860s in frontier Minnesota.

You may or may not know that my hobby is civilian reenacting with The Living History Society of Minnesota.  I'm in a little bit of history withdrawal here, so I signed up to follow a few reenactment Facebook pages and have been planning my next dresses by pinning pictures of originals to my 1860s Pinterest board.

My sweet girls.

That's me in the middle.  None of that white stuff down here!

But...living here has been both the realization of a dream and the death of a dream.  Specifically.....*STAGE WHISPER*....I don't think I actually would have been as great of a prairie housewife as I've always imagined I would be. 

Here in Peru, I've got many more resources and comforts than I would have had on the prairie- namely, running water, a gas stove, a washing machine (cold water only until recently, but Dave got us into the big leagues with hot water), electricity, and of course, the internet.  On the work side, I've got two kids, responsibility for setting up the house, buying food and other household necessities, a "maid-of-all-work" who does most of the routine cleaning (check out the job duties from 1871), and more.  I'm also fortunate enough to have a husband who does most of the cooking and related clean up and takes a goodly share of the childcare duties.  (Thanks for all you do, DP!)

Food Prep area at our group's annual lyceum (learning event)

Cooking area.  Prep, cooking, and clean up takes ALL DAY.

I'm realizing that no matter how you cut it, running a household with two littles is just a ton of work!  And work that isn't of the nature that makes my heart sing.  The introvert in me really appreciates time alone, which is in short supply when you are in a house with other people all the time.  Our house here is great (and bigger than what we probably would have had on the prairie).  But there is always someone around, so you never really get to be alone.

And while I am really, really, ReaLLy thankful for the opportunity we have here, it's just a little bit sad to me to realize that the romanticized prairie life would have been even harder than I already realized.  And I am thankful to live in the modern era, with all the support and comforts it affords.

*Please note, this post is in no way intended to be a commentary on being at home or working outside the home.  I'm very thankful to live in an era where we have options; had I been living during the 1860s I would not have had many options at all.  My post is just a reflection on the fact that living in the past would have been even harder than I realized after all these years of reenacting.  I hope all readers are able to do as they prefer in their own lives and I am also very grateful for the support of family and friends in my own life choices.