Holidays

I will stop making promises to update more frequently because I always have to follow them with excuses for failing to follow through. My excuse this time is the holidays, and I´m sure others were busy as well.

The weekend before Christmas I travelled south to Sullana to visit some friends. Sullana is a large city, but I didn´t see another Gringo (white-skinned tourist) the whole time. As a 6´4¨ male with brown hair, blue eyes, and European ancestry, I´m not often in the minority. This eye-opening trip did a good bit for my empathy.

For our fiesta in the school, I had the honor of being Papa Noel and handing out gifts from Samaritan´s Purse to all the children. This incredible opportunity has undoubtably been the highlight of my time in Peru. I laughed when they introduced me as ¨Papa Noel, from the United States!¨ I tried to explain afterwards that the real Santa lives in the North Pole, but for some reason they didn´t believe me. The website for the school is here: http://www.amneyoperu.org/ and if you look hard enough, you can find photos of me in a puffy red suit and snowy white beard.

Christmas Eve was celebrated very simply with some friends over egg nog (which Peruvians think they invented) and cheviche (which they did). Of course, Christmas is not the same without Granny´s warm hugs and Nashville´s cool weather, but hopefully next year I will appreciate them that much more.

On New Years, an American friend had a small get-together where I was able to speak in English and debate our next president´s political policies. I returned home that morning skeptical of my friend´s fiscal/social opinions but overwhelmingly thankful for my natural-born citizenship in the United States.

At our Christmas party, I found out the school would not open again until March- I never realized that summer vacation in Peru is January and February. I am constantly surprised at these insignificant deviations in tradition. For example, when I learned to dial 215 in case of emergency, I was baffled, but then I realized, ¨Why 911?¨ I´m slowly dismantling my assumption that the world operates on our watch and learning that so many things are arbitrary products of culture.

To stay busy, I scored a job in a yoga resort/hotel. I work as a waiter for breakfast and dinner (a few hours a day) in exchange for gourmet food, yoga classes, nominal pay, and interaction with hippies from around the world. Next week we are hosting a Bhuddist monk to run one of our yoga workshops.

I love my job but I haven´t forgotten my priorities. Starting Monday, a friend and I are opening the school for the summer to let kids work in the garden, do crafts, and give the parents some time to themselves. I can´t wait.