29 in the Andes

I just turned 29 and my birthday happily overlapped with Holy Week and Easter and my parents were able to come visit! We adventured together visiting my site Rinconada Llicuar, as well as Piura, Lima and Cuzco. At my site everyone was welcoming and excited to meet my family. The family that I live with insisted that my parents stay at their house and the whole family slept in one room so my parents could have a bed. It was overwhelmingly generous. Then we went on to Cuzco, breathtaking - literally and figuratively at 11,000 feet, where there was a landslide on the train tacks down from Machu Picchu and we had a run in with the Peruvian National Police in Cuzco - I really have to keep an eye on my parents! Both incidents ended well and have the added benefit of being good stories.

When my parents came to visit my town, Rinconada Llicuar, one of the elementary schools where I work threw a surprise program for their visit and my 29th birthday. It was so generous and kind that overwhelmed by all of the emotion both me and my mom cried. I do realize that it is not that difficult to make me cry, but none the less it was very touching and is now of course the talk of the town. Each class did a dance or sang a song, one even did a lip sync with dance movements to a popular pop song. And the 5th graders performed the marinera, a dance typical from the region in honor of my parents visit. Then my parents and I all had to give a little speech. I have never been so grateful that they speak Spanish.

In Cuzco, my dad and I developed a theory that Machu Picchu was not actually a regular city as Hiram Bingham suggested but a purely religious or ceremonial place. (Okay, so some archaeologist has probably thought this before, but whatever.) I'll spare you the details of the grand theory, but visiting Mach Picchu it's easy to believe that it was a spiritual center for the Inca. It's nestled in a cloud forest, overlooking the snow capped peaks of the Andes, and home to ancient temples, stone altars, bubbling fountains and stone work built to mirror the shapes of the surrounding mountains.

Then I came home to some upsetting realities. I'm sure that many of you know this already, but the Supreme Court in the US is certainly waxing moralistic these days, in the words of Justice Kennedy "protecting women" from their apparent inability to understand medical procedures. Here's an interesting editorial form the NY Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/19/opinion/19thu1.html?ex=1334721600&en=409b757492039e0d&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink