murals, beauty pagents, children - EEK

As I may have mentioned before I have become and elementary school teacher. It was purely an accident and I'm still surprised to find 35 kids looking at me every afternoon. Currently, I'm painting a mural of the world map with about 120 elementary school kids 9-12 years old. Happily, not all at the same time- in groups of about 30. It's crazy and hard. I'm open to all suggestions. The town government said that they would fund the project but didn't actually go and buy the stuff in time for the summer camp to start so I have had 120 kids with nothing to do for the past couple weeks. Fortunately, things are looking up. We got paint and now we have a big white wall to paint. I did have to spend a lot out of pocket which hurt. I was out there all night a couple of days ago scraping the damn thing and yesterday the 5th graders went crazy with primer. Craziness. I'll definitely let you know how this goes. All advice about dealing with kids welcome. This is not my area. Eeek!!

Also in a bizarre turn of events, I'm helping to organize the Miss Rinconada Llicuar contest... Really, there are no words.

How did this happen? What am I doing in Peru again? Words of wisdom friends?

Photos from the afore mentioned yunse:

Also- Photos from my women's group meeting. We started a recreational night on Wednesdays for women. I think it will be fun. So far so good- only minimal political strife. They asked me about yoga and we did some :)

tumbin´ the yunse

I went to a really fun fiesta last night. It's the beginning of Carnival season in Rinconada Llicuar. Apparently Carnivales last for a month and culminate in 3 days which are really, really crazy Carnival at Fat Tuesday, but that's still a ways off. Last night was the first Yunse. I remain mystified by the origin of this celebration, (wikipedia had nothing) but basically they start by cutting down a pretty big tree. Then, they put a whole lot of stuff in the branches, like plastic dishes chairs, mop buckets, and clothes. Next, they move it to another spot, stand it up, and plant it. Finally, people are invited to take turns cutting it down again and when it falls it's like a giant adult piñata. Everyone runs like crazy underneath the giant, heavy, falling trunk to get their buckets and t-shirts. It is insanity accompanied by a fireworks castle, Huyano music, and an all-night dance drenched in Crystal beer and chicha.

I discovered that there are a few catches to the Yunse, for me. First, the people who put it on are just folks from town and they spend a lot of money on the whole affair. They're called the Majordomos. The folks that the Majordomos invite to chop at the tree with an axe are supposed to contribute money and put it on the next year, but it's an honor to be invited. So even though I didn't really know this before yesterday, when they invited me to cut the tree down I suspected that this was somehow asking me for money and fortunately I called my host mom over to help me communicate with this random drunk guy who was trying to hand me the axe. She told him that I would do him the honor of taking a few stabs at the tree but in my special position as a ¨volunteer of peace¨ that I would not be paying for the following year´s Yunse. He was into it so I had to take the axe and hack at this tree in front of oh maybe, 800 people. As I was hammering away at this tree, which really they want you to do some damage because it takes along time to chop down a tree, I was thinking so I'm surrounded by a circle of drunk men dancing the marinara waving red, green and blue flags and I'm chopping down a piñata-tree and in the Spanglish that is my inner monologue of late I had this cryptic ditty about tumbin´ the Yunse going in my head. (Tumbar means to chop in Spanish.)

Tumbin the Yunse
Tumbin the Yunse
Crystal oils my axe
These go-go guys marinera their flags
Probably will want me to drink lots of chicha after this...
Tumbin the Yunse
Wait what happens if it falls this way?
A donde debo correr?
Tumbin the Yunse
Is that guy urinating over there?
Hay dios mio.
Tumbin the Yunse

I hate it when I start to giggle to myself in front of 800 people. At the end of the day, one of the main things that I'm learning in Peru is how to do bizarre stuff that kind of freaks me out gracefully and in front of hundreds of people. I suppose that this is a good skill to have; I mean seems like it could serve me well later and I mean wielding an axe is kind of cool.

Photos to come. OH and they douse you in water and talcum powder as part of the fun. It was a blast.

Me and my bike

The day after Christmas I got a bike! Well it's not really mine. Peace Corps lent it to me and now I'm getting used to looking like the friendly neighborhood Mormon. The Peace Corps rule is that you have to wear a helmet. Everyone in town thinks that this is hilarious and jokes that my bike is a motorcycle- because that's the only place where they would ever wear a helmet. Now I can travel between Rinconada and Llicuar in under 20 minutes- nice.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Christmas in Rinconada was lovely and New Year in Piura was a dance, dance revolution. (I love kinesthetic video game references.) Here are some photos, sadly I don't really have any photos of New Year's Eve because we went dancing and I didn't want to take my camera to the club, but it was great fun. And Christmas photos didn't turn out too well. I mostly asked other to take photos with me in them but my camera wasn't focusing that well. Oh well.



Christmas in Rinconada was so nice. People stay up all night. They wish one another Merry Christmas at the stroke of midnight then there are toasts, dinner, hot chocolate and panetonne which is sort of like fruitcake. Finally, everyone walks around the town visiting friends and relatives. There are kids carrying paper lanterns with candles inside AND this is odd there are two guys who dress up and tell each other jokes. They're kind of like wandering minstrel joke tellers, very, very not politically correct. One dresses up like ¨The old black guy¨and the other is ¨The transvestite¨a big crowd of people follows as they walk though the streets. They make fun of one another and of people in the crowd. I didn't hang around very long, because I really stick out and didn't want to become the butt of jokes that I don't understand!




This is the Chocoletada that took place on Dec. 22. A Chocoletada is a gathering where a group makes hot chocolate and buys panetonne (fruitcake-like bread) then they give it away. This is one that the town government put on. Sometimes these come with toy give aways ans this one had bags of groceries for moms and toys for kids. It was totally insane. I did a presentation of a story called Anita Cochinita (Piggy Little Anita) about a little girl who doesn't wash her hands and goes to the bathroom in the fields. This makes her sick, but then the doctor cures her parasites and she lives happily ever after. Fun times.





This is the mayor giving away the first bag of groceries to a greatful mom.






Then on Christmas Day there are more wandering minstrels. Only this is a band that plays marinera music. I don't actually know how to dance the marinera, but this guys really wanted me to learn.




For New Years a bunch of Peace Corps volunteers met up in Piura and we hung out for a couple of days. I considered staying in Rinconada for New Year but there is currently a bit of rivalry between differing political groups and that gets pretty ugly when all the men get really wasted on chicha and beer. So,I decided to high tail it to the city where drunken debauchery does not include fist fights. (Don't worry mom. It's fine.)