My First Seder

I recently got back from an 11 day excursion to Lima and a department called Ica, just south of Lima to celebrate Semana Santa (Holy Week) with my friends, but before I get into the details of the Ica trip, I should back track a little bit. Hana’s parents arrived on March 30th to spend two weeks visiting Hana and getting a little taste for Peru. Her father is a Rabbi and coordinated with our country director to lead a Seder at his house for Passover. The invitation was extended to all Jewish volunteers and a few interested non-Jews. Since I have the benefit of being Hana’s friend, I fit into the latter category and was one of the privileged non-Jews who got to participate in the Seder.

Since we were invited to the Seder, vacation started a little early for Lindsay and me, but we weren’t complaining – a few extra days in Lima means lots of delicious food! Neither of us had been to a Seder before so we looked it up on the internet to see what it was all about. We read that the “Seder plate” is made up of bitter herbs, a hard-boiled egg, salt water, an a paste that is made to represent mortar. All of the foods are symbols that are used to help retell the story of the exodus of the Children of Israel from ancient Egypt, but to be honest none of them sounded particularly appetizing, at least not as our meal for the night, so we decided we’d stop somewhere and eat a meal before we went so we weren’t miserable and starving the whole time. You can imagine our embarrassment when we mentioned this to our friends and they informed us it would be an entire dinner, not just these few things. Oopsie. (We did, however, stop at McDonald’s on the walk to our director’s house because we hadn’t had lunch. Lindsay and I shared a McFlurry as an appetizer to the Seder and some other friends got their fill with a burger even though we were all aware at this point that we’d be eating a full meal – what we’ll do for good food!).

I loved the Seder. Hana’s family is reform Jewish so the story-telling was very modern and her Dad tied in many current events, music, quotes, etc. We were able to debate certain topics, such as immigration, and everyone was encouraged to ask questions anywhere along the way. One of the main themes of the night was that we’re all equal so no one is discouraged from holding anything back. I really liked that idea. Hana’s parents, Jeff and Debbie, brought a book they use at home called A Night of Questions, which was used as a guide. It had beautiful illustrations, interesting observations, and many songs in both English and Hebrew. Hana’s dad had also made a supplement to the book that related the night more to our Peace Corps experience. It was really special for all of us. At one point of the Seder, you hide some matzah (they said this is done to include the kids and keep them interested). In order for the leader (Jeff) to get it back, he must bargain with the person who found it (Cheridyn). They settled on Hana’s parents donating some money to Peace Corps Peru on behalf of all of us who attended the Seder. It was the perfect ending to a great evening and really tied it all together. Our country director decided to match the contribution and we're currently deciding on how the money will be used (in one of our communities).

In addition to the Seder, Lindsay and I got to go out to dinner the night before with just Hana and her parents. It was so much fun to spend time with them and get to know them better. The only time I had met them before that was at graduation so things were really hectic for all of us and we didn’t get to spend much time together. This time everything was much more relaxed and we had a lot of fun laughing and telling stories about our experiences here. They reminded me a lot of my parents and made me more and more excited by the minute for their trip down here – only six more weeks! Besides for the delicious Italian dinner they treated us to, they also brought us fresh bagels from the States. You can imagine that that was almost better than the Italian food for me. I was happy as a clam!

The first couple of times I went to Lima, I wasn’t that impressed. I thought the city was huge and dirty, but know I’ve realized that I just hadn’t found the good parts yet. The city is so huge and I’m slowly, but surely, finding my niche there. We stayed in a neighborhood of Lima called Miraflores. It was absolutely beautiful and very clean and modern. It reminds me a lot of the United States so I’m sure that’s why we all like it so much. Because of that, we spent our time there exploring restaurants, grocery stores, parks, and little boutiques. We decided to share all of our meals to maximize the number of places we could go. We still managed to go to Starbucks every morning for a frappacino, but then shared the rest of our meals for the day. It’s funny because I went to Starbucks, at the most, once a month at home, but here, it’s the very thing I want. It’s the same way with Pizza Hut, Dunkin’ Donuts, etc. I never wanted them at home when they were so readily available, but here they are the very things I crave and look forward to when I go to Lima – all the comforts of home.

The best restaurant we found was actually a buffet called La Bistecca. It’s really classy with while tablecloths and real napkins (that’s nearly underheard of here) and I didn’t actually eat there, but just looking at the food made me drool. I haven’t seen food that delicious looking since I left home. They had paella, an Argentine-style parilla (high quality meats), homemade pastas, pizza, sushi, and tons of fresh salad and vegetables. The best part is the chocolate fountain they have for dessert and all of this is only $12 per person for lunch! I know this sounds cheap to all of you, but it’s pretty expensive for Peru so that’ll definitely be a place I’ll go with my parents (please).

I FINALLY got my computer fixed when I was in Lima after the guys at Cajamarca only seemed to make it worse (as confirmed by the guy in Lima). The place in Lima is an authorized Toshiba dealer so I trusted them. I could tell immediately when I talked to the guy that he knew what he was talking about. I am now happy to report that it’s working properly – unfortunately it cost Giff a pretty penny to fix, but cheaper than the alternatives. I made a point to go back to the place in Cajamarca to demand my money back since the only thing they did was make the computer worse by erasing all of the information. The guy who worked on my computer insisted that I shouldn’t get my money back because he “fixed” it by replacing the operating system. Yeah that’s just great, because in doing so, you managed to erase all of my information and put a Spanish operating system on my computer so now the keyboard doesn’t do what the keys says it does because it’s all in Spanish. Thanks for all of your help! He insists he can recover all of my information, I just have to leave the computer there for longer because it takes a long time. I told him that I’ve brought it in four times and left it there for a week one time and still NOTHING has changed. He tells me all he needs is two more days, but I’m not sure I trust him to touch my computer again. I don’t think he actually knows anything about laptops because everyone time one of us brings ours in, he says it’s the operating system and just reformats our computers. AHHHH. Needless to say, I didn’t get my money back.