Step 1: Just add paint...

Want some toys? ´Just add paint´ should be the Peruvian slogan!

Paint flattened bottle caps. (then string on round piece of wire) = musical intrument

Paint evaporated milk tins = building blocks
(with string) stilts
(with or without pebbles inserted through convenitently located holes on the top) = musical instrument

(My favourite) Paint cross sectional slices of bones = beads.
Advice for interesting beads: Get hold of a spine, and also thiegh bones. These dye in duotone as the spongy type bone on the inside absorbs more paint.

Of course this isn´t to say that they don´t have all the barbies, legos and puzzles too!

"A taste of home" - ???

Last night I spent a fun evening out on the town with Sandy, my hermana, her friends and later a few Gringo friends from the language school. We had already been sampling the night scene, all abuzzing with people, live shows, and dancing.

The comment in question came about one particular disco when one guy commented that ´I can imagine this place as one of those small clubs in London´ and another said it ´Finally gives a taste of home´.

A taste of home? I beg to differ! This was just one of tens or hundreds of clubs in Cusco, yet it is by far better than anything in Bermuda, a supposedly rich, hip modern culture. Compare this one place, Caos, to anywhere in Bermuda:

• It has space
• It has a thermostat that works
• It has a) modern light system and b)cool, sensibly designed glass floors
• It has live bands that are fully appreciated, unlike any groups in Bermuda, save perhaps at The PO.
• It has bathrooms that were designed as a work of art in themselves, unlike many place unmentionble for their less than desirable situation.
• It has a whole cross-section of disco goers, Peruvian, other Latinos, Gringos, old, young. Compare this to any club in Bermuda, whether it be Swinging Doors or the Splash.

A taste of home? I wish!

Potatoes

Reading a news article posted by the BBC news on 4th October 2005, claiming they could just now confirm that the original potato was dometicated from a potato in Peru, made me laugh. Certainly within a short time (a few hours at most!) in Peru I´d learnt that this was not a theory to dispute, it simply has always been fact.

Peru is definitely is the center of the potato world! I think they now have something like over 4000 different species. Today there are whole organisations devoted to keeping the strains seperate. Each type of potato has a specific use, some only for soups, some only for frying, some only for frying for the toppings on soups, some just for baking, some just for baking with chicken, some just for baking with red meat, some that get freeze dried during winter and others that are really purple or really yellow and are for decoration!!

Unfortunately I´m not a huge fan of potatoes myself, but it is still interesting to see, with huge sections of markets taken over just for potatoes!

My first one!

Hola!!
I realise I should hve started this when I first began my adventure here in Peru, but better late than never! My life here is still unfolding. I have just finished my time at the Spanish school here in Cusco, so on Monday, life as a volunteer will really start for real.

So far I´ve spent the afternoons at Hogar Amantani, a home for abandoned children, so I´ve got to know a some fo the children well, but now I´m looking forward to working with even more of them. Whatever their age they are all so happy and caring children. Sometimes (actually often) I think how much Western children could learn from them! Although they all have a sad or traumatic background, they hardly show it and are definitely appreciating the work that Pilar, Oscar and Maria have given them with the home.

That´s all for now, stories of life in Peru will follow...