Weekly Wisdom #2

I spend most of my time valiantly trying to integrate and understand Peruvian people and culture. I speak in another language, live with a foreign family and voluntarily ride Peruvian public transportation. It’s exhausting. So sometimes it’s a relief (and fun) to relax in my gringa-ness and revel in the fact that people don’t expect me to speak the language. So, in the spirit of embracing differences and making the most out of my stupidity, I’ve compiled a new type of list.

Things you can do when you’re white (in Peru):
· Bring champagne and orange juice into a fast food pollo a la brasa restaurant to make your own mimosas. Drink loudly and obnoxiously, then argue with the waiter when he tries to charge a corkage fee (seriously, a corkage fee in a fast food restaurant?). Successfully refuse to pay the full charge (less than $5) on the grounds that you in fact opened your bottles of champagne.
· Agree to pay S./13 for a taxi. Hand the drive S./10 while your friend grabs the two rolls of toilet paper that are inexplicably in the center console. Pretend not to understand when he asks you for the extra S./3 (roughly $1), despite the 10 minute conversation you had in Spanish less than 5 minutes earlier. Get out.
· Fill up your water bottle from a water cooler in a pharmacy from which you purchased nothing.
· Pay S./1 for two people to home from Lima on a combi (cost should be about S./8 for two people). Feign sleep for much of the ride to avoid the cobrador, then actually fall asleep. Wake up, yell to get off, hand your one sol and don’t look back.

I realize after typing this that I look incredibly cheap. It’s true we do a lot of bargaining and haggling over prices, but I pay the correct price 95% of the time. The combi drivers can be incredibly obnoxious and often try to charge a gringo price, so it feels vindictive to pull one over on them every once in a while. Also, please remember that we are living on less than $3 a day right now. Every centimo counts. And the above all happened in one day, making it seem especially funny and clever.

This past week was pretty uneventful. July 28 is Peru’s independence day so we didn’t have classes Monday or Tuesday. The celebrations were subdued this year because of swine flu. Peru is very concerned about the swine flu. Schools have been closed since July 15 and won’t re-open until the second week of August. I don’t believe there have been a dramatic increase in cases, it’s just that they don’t have enough medicine so an outbreak could be devastating. Anyway, I spent a lot of time with my host family. We watched many movies and spent hours playing cards. I taught them Go Fish and for the past week, my host dad has said, “Jessica, ir al pescar,” every time I’ve seen him. Apparently they really liked the game.

I am leaving this afternoon to head to my site for the next week. I will be living in a tiny town (population: 1000) outside of Chiclayo, the regional capital of Lambayeque (north of Lima, on the coast). I’m really excited to see my town, meet my new host family and counterparts and start this whole Peace Corps thing. It’s sure to be an awkward and funny week. Can’t wait to share some great stories when I return!

Miss you all!