A Few Observations

While I was on the coast, I started to think a lot about the education system here in Peru. I have thought about it numerous times before as I think it is lacking a lot, but I revisited the subject just recently because Carol and Martin attend something called “vacaciones útiles” at one of the schools in Ferreñafe. The way Chabu and explained it to me before, I thought it was an extracurricular type thing where they took music, dance, art, etc. classes because they do not get much of that throughout the year. However, it turns out that it is essentially summer school, but not for kids who did poorly in the last school year, but for kids who want to do well the next year – it’s prep work for what they will encounter in the next grade. They go to class Monday – Friday from 8 to 1 pm and even have tests! Any extracurricular activities are done in the afternoons after school (the kids are currently learning to play the recorder – that was fun).

Since the education system is so poor here, you have to go to summer school to help you get ahead and get a more thorough education. The new government realizes something needs to be done about education in Peru so it has implemented a teacher evaluation. All teachers (I’m not sure if it applies to private school teachers as well) must take an exam to show their expertise in their subject area. Although it is not designed to cause people to loose their jobs, teachers fear this is what will happen and therefore are refusing to take these exams. It’s frustrating because teachers are the very ones who are hindering development in the schools – a little ironic in my opinion.

One cool thing I did encounter while I was on the coast was a school of Bellas Artes where Chabu and her teacher both teach. It is run during the summer by a retired teacher who has an interest in pursuing the arts in Ferreñafe. Chabu teaches a painting class and her sister teachers an embroidery class. They also have music, drawing, dance, and many more classes that they offer the community for a very cheap rate. It was really fun to see and the teacher seemed to be a very genuine guy. I found it very encouraging after the disappointment in the traditional education system.

Being on the coast I definitely noticed a difference in lifestyle and the people. Life in the Sierra is much more rustic and atrasado (behind) than life on the coast. The houses that I saw on the coast were very nice and much more modern than anything I’ve seen while living in the mountains. The people are very warm and friendly and not nearly as reserved as those in the Sierra. I guess being on the coast, the people are influenced more by life outside of Peru, but it was really interesting to note. We only saw about 3 indigenous people the whole time we were there and they seemed really out of place, whereas in Cajamarca, they blend in much more. Two of them I saw standing on the sidewalk one evening as I went to buy more water. They seemed mesmerized by something, but I looked where they were looked and all I saw was a house. As I got closer, I realized what was calling their attention – a telenovela that was playing on the TV inside someone’s house. The window was open just right so these people could stand across the street and watch the program.

Although the people appear to be more modern and advanced, it doesn’t mean they don’t have their crazy superstitions. My friend Molly was telling me that she just bought a fan for her room because she can’t sleep at night from the extreme heat. Her host mom comes in the room every night and turns it off because she insists the cool breeze it projects on Molly is going to kill her. Molly told her she always uses one at home and she’s sure she’ll be okay so please leave it on. Her host mom reluctantly agreed, but said, “fine, but don’t blame me if you don’t wake up one morning.” Oh man. Also, my friend Steve was telling me how he got really sick in his site from eating bad tuna fish and his family was convinced he had conchaque. Of course when you’re sick, understanding Spanish is that much harder, especially when they introduce these crazy words and illnesses we’ve never heard of. They told him conchaque is something you get when you’re embarrassed by food. This could mean you ate more than anyone else, you asked for seconds and there weren’t any, you took the last bit of the food, etc. The symptoms for this crazy illness are diarrhea, nausea, headache, vomiting, dizziness, high fever, etc. Since Steve had all of these symptoms, there was no doubt in their mind he had conchaque. They told him there are two ways to cure it. One is by wrapping a piece of your hair around your finger and yanking it out. The popping noise it makes when you yank it out is the conchaque being released. Unfortunately, this was not an option for Steve has he has a shaved head so that left him with option number two – cracking your back. Yes you guessed it, the conchaque is released by all of the cracks. Luckily Steve’s host dad, who works at the health center, came home shortly after and said he thought Steve had just eaten bad tuna so he escaped having his back cracked. How can you not love this country?

Moving onto my next favorite topic about Peru: creativity – or lack thereof. In my youth group meeting on Tuesday we played this game called “Two Truths and a Lie”. The idea is that you say three sentences to the group and one of them is a lie. The group then has to guess which is the lie (obviously the more obscure your sentences are, the harder it is to guess). I’ve played this game numerous times with Americans and it’s always really fun. I went first to give the girls an idea – that was my first mistake. I said, 1.) I used to live in Chile, 2.) I am afraid of birds, and 3.) I have been to Bolivia three times. They originally guessed my fear of birds was a lie and then living in Chile so it worked well because I stumped them. Then I asked who wanted to follow. Of course no one wanted to because they said they couldn’t think of anything. Finally one girl said she was ready. Here were her three sentences: 1.) I have been to Ecuador, 2.) I have been to Argentina, 3.) I like rats. Oh boy. Every girl that continued after that (only 3 more out of the 10 went) said two places they’ve been and something about animals. Oh boy. Clearly we weren’t ready for that game yet.

One encouraging thing I’ve come across while being in Peru is the healthy body image they promote. As you all know, they think having some meat on your bones is really beautiful compared to the disgusting and impossible to reach super skinny image our country promotes. I really noticed this when I was watching a news show like Entertainment Tonight at the bus station. The host of the show was really beautiful, but I noticed she was not super skinny as she would be if she were the host of a show in the U.S. She was so much more “normal” than the woman all over our TV screens. Maybe we should take a lesson in this and stop promoting such an unhealthy ideal.

And last but not least, Peruvians are always wearing shirts from the U.S. that say ridiculous things that must have been misprints. Of course these people have no idea what they say or what they mean so I always find it amusing. One day I saw a man with a Philadelphia Eagles hat on and almost had a heart attack. Now how does someone in Bambamarca, Peru end up with a hat like that? Well it happened again. I was standing in line at the bank today and a woman in front of me was wearing an Old Glory All-American BBQ tshirt. I thought the logo looked kind of familiar, but couldn’t place it. Then she turned around and on the back it said Georgetown! That was it – Old Glory in Georgetown. I wanted to tell her I’ve actually been there, but was pretty sure she didn’t care so I just enjoyed the moment by myself. What a small world.