New Adventures in Ayacucho

So it has been quite some time since our last post, apologies to all. Since we last wrote we have really settled into our life here in Peru but not without the expected ups and downs of living abroad. I believe it was the first week after we last posted we visited a FINCA socia in her home for lunch. It was a beautiful experience but certainly one of the more shocking experiences we have had so far. Her house was up in the hills of Ayacucho, with an awesome view of the mountains but also a dismal view of life for many here in Peru. The house was more of a compound where her and all of her children and grandchildren lived together with spotty electricity, no indoor plumbing, and plenty of mud. The "kitchen" was a fire with a few metal rods for pots and pans to sit on.

Sara with the ninos

The kitchen!

The courtyard

They prepared us the meal from scratch, which in this case meant slaughtering a few guinea pigs (cuy), skinning them, washing them, and frying them up on the "stove." Sara and I spent most of the afternoon playing with the numerous grandchildren running around while the adults cooked the cuy as well as some potatoes and soup. They were thrilled to show us photo albums of the numerous gringos they have hosted. While we were certainly taken aback by the sanitary conditions, or lackthereof, I think it was a really good introduction and insight into the way many of the FINCA socias live. Eating cuy was an inevitable experience which honestly wasn't that bad, though I probably won't be ordering it any time soon. Also, we made some new friends and even convinced their oldest granddaughter, Dorkas, to attend our classes the next week (which she did!)

Freshly slaughtered cuy being cleaned

Last weekend we had an exciting excursion to the small town of Quinoa, 45 minutes from Ayacucho and 600 meters higher in the Andes. It was beautiful countryside and a nice break from the dusty city. At many view points you can look down and see Ayacucho below, it is really cool. While for us the highlights of quinoa are the scenery, the notable tourist attraction is giant, phallic, obelisk on top of a hill that commemorates Peru's last battle for independence against the Spaniards.

The obelisk!

View from the foot of the obelisk

Girlfriends!!!

We're looking forward to a four day weekend because of the celebrations surrounding All Saints' Day. We're not really sure what this entails but we've heard there is lots of traditional food and religious parades (not that special considering they happen almost everyday here).

I'm not going to say much more today other than I was sick for a few days this week. I had kind of nasty cold that kept me out of work for a few days. I'm all better now but you all better look forward to Sara's next post about having to venture out in Ayacucho alone for a few days! Ahhhhhh!

besos