2-4-11
I really like my host family so far! It turns out that I am the fifth student they’ve hosted through SIT, so they’re old pros. They already plan to host a sixth student. Margarita, the mom, told me that she prefers female students since most of the household is female. It also turns out that all the people I met earlier live here! I’m alone on this floor, but on the second floor Margarita and Victor, their three daughters, three grandparents, and one of the daughter’s husband and son. Then on the third floor they showed me that they have eight dogs! Iris, the daughter who has talked to me most so far, couldn’t even remember all the doggy names, so I doubt that I’ll learn them. I know Lula is yellow and has a doggy sweater. She said they’re waiting to cut the dogs’ hair and bathe them after the rainy season so they don’t get dirty again and waste the effort…but the rainy season doesn’t end for a long long time.
Yesterday after I wrote my post I went to the market, which is one of the largest supermarkets in the city, with Sebastian (known as Sebas), Iris, Margarita, and Victor. We went to buy bread for dinner. I was a little worried about dinner since lunch was enormous, but dinner consisted of tea and some bread. More like a nighttime snack. We bundled Sebas up and put him into his stroller. He’s full of smiles and laughter at home, but on the street he’s super serious. His dad laughed about that when I told him later. He’s quite the character for a one year old! At dinner, two of the grandparents, who I think I’m really going to like, tried to teach me a bit of Quechua. I think I immediately forgot it. The grandma, who is blind, is very funny and she wanted me to teach her an English curse word in exchange for a Quechua curse word. I laughed and told her not at the dinner table! Then I played with Sebas for a very long time. He had just gone to a birthday party a couple days ago and loved the piñata they had there. So now his drum is a “piñata” and you have to lift and shake it, then tell him to collect the candies. He then goes from person to person sharing his “candies”. I love little kids! Sebas dragged me into the other room where they were peeling corn to make a corn cake tomorrow. I’ve never even considered peeling corn before! However, corn kernels here are much much much larger, as well as white, so I guess why not peel them. Choclo is corn on the cob, Maiz is the dried kernels.
This morning went just fine. I ate breakfast with my host mom, then she walked me over to the school. I figured out how they drink their coffee! The key is to have a glass of hot water to which you add just a little bit of the coffee concentrate. This tasted much better! I put Nesquik in my coffee and my host mom had never tried it, but she sampled mine and seemed to think it was a good combo after all. We took our Spanish placement exam in the morning and had to return in the afternoon to take the oral exam. At lunchtime a bunch more family came because they are cutting Sebas’ hair for the first time. He’s only one and a half, so I suppose the first time they cut it is monumental. Yesterday when we went to Mega (a grocery store) Iris told me about cutting hair, but for some reason I think I got caballo and cabello mixed up and thought that she was going to cut a horse’s hair! I think she was referring to Sebas!
I don’t know how you spell this, but “I love you” is pronounced Muna Kwikiy. The hilarious grandma taught me that yesterday. In the afternoon I took my oral Spanish exam, which went pretty well, and after that we started our Quechua lessons. Whoa is this language different! The sounds necessary to pronounce words are just sooo different from English. Q is very much in the back of the throat, Hs are sort of an exaggerated expiration of air, and a consonant then apostrophe, like Q’, requires a glottal stop. It’s beautiful, but hard. I don’t know how much I’ll actually pick up. Classes went a bit longer today than normal, til 6, and after that a bunch of us went to Claro so that they could buy cell phones. I already had one that Celia gave me, but now almost everyone has the updated version of my very simple phone. I taught them how to use it. After that I went home for dinner, which consisted of coffee and un postre, which was the pastel de choclo that I helped them start yesterday. It was sweet and delicious! After such an enormous lunch I couldn’t have handled more!
At the dinner table I learned all about Julissa’s, my host sister, work. She works in the center of town and so far as I understand she works with a company that tests the ability of teachers all over the country. Important job! I showed off all the Quechua I’d learned to the grandmothers and they were quite impressed. After that Iris showed me how to use the internet, which is really easy, and I skyped with Nate. It had been a while! Then I went out with the whole group to the centro to go dance and have a good time. First we went to Muse too, which I recognized from earlier with Maggie. It’s nice to recognize where we go! It was fun! But I think that next time we need to go in smaller groups….we were far too obvious. Anyways, today was a great day! My host mom said that tomorrow we will eat cuy! Wish me luck with that…
Hasta Mañana
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