Peruvian Friends
It dawned on me today while strolling with Kelly, my Peruvian buddy, that I have forgotten to mention the cool people who are making our stay here all the more fun. So I thought I’d give them a little shout out.
First we met Richie. Richard Montenegro is the son of Ana, a woman who works with us here in Casa Hogar. He just quit his job to record his album. He was a teacher but controlling the kids was straining his voice, so now he`s a recording artist. He said he’s going to help us out with Spanish which would be great. Shouldn’t be too hard for a guy who speaks Spanish, English, French and Italian. He has one of his songs translated into 63 languages. It’s a project he’s started and it looks amazing. He has a book with all the different versions of his song written in it. I’m translating it into Irish at the moment. He asked Michael to duet with him on his album. Mike’s been entertaining people all over the place here. They can’t understand why I won’t sing a little something for them. I’m sure after a few bars, with my voice, they’d understand alright!
Another cool person I’ve met here is Kelly. I first got to know her at the theatre festival two weeks ago. On Sunday she really bowled me over with her hospitality. It really makes you think about how foreign people are treated in Ireland.
She invited me out for bowling with her friends. Michael had already accepted an invitation to go to a concert at a local school. We had planned to meet outside the Casa Del Niños at midday. I happened to finish up my phone calls earlier than expected, so I got there a little early. I had forgotten people live in the Casa and the woman of the house, Penny, came out to see why I was sitting on her front door step. I quickly apologised and said ”I’m just waiting for my friend”. She asked me who my friend was but in my confusion I forgot what “Quien” means and said 12 o clock instead of Kelly. When Kelly arrived at 12 on the button she was mortified that she’d made me wait. She later told her mother and her boyfriend about the ‘unfortunate’ incident, they were both shocked, I hadn’t even thought twice about it.
Her mother welcomed me into their home. I made as much conversation as I could, thankfully Kelly was there most of the time for translation purposes. Her mother is a sewing teacher and had made me a little purse. I couldn’t believe she’d made it for me, (must get my mother to start making things for my friends when they visit!).
I was terribly nervous about lunch. I had decided that no matter what was put in front of me, I was going to devour it. I had not eaten all day, figured being hungry would help. But I was pleasantly surprised. We had chicken and savory rice, which was absolutely delicious. I was pretty sure eating Kelly’s leftover wasn’t the polite thing to do so I worked away on dessert, which I had brought in an attempt to equal their niceness. I ate with Kelly, her mother and her two younger sisters. During dinner I got invited to one of the sisters, Emily’s baptism. I’m not sure how old Emily is but she was well able to invite me to her own Baptism. That’s on July 21st, which is our week off so my travelling plans have been put back a bit to go wet Emily’s head.
After lunch we met Kelly’s boyfriend, Adrian, and headed into town. I had one more of my social ‘screw ups’ when my foot got tangled in a lady’s foot on the bus and I fell out the door into Adrian’s arms! Luckily Kelly saw the funny side. We met up with four of Kelly’s cousins and then, when walking through a mall bumped into one of the cousin’s friends, Katy. In true Peruvian style Katy shut up the shop she was working in to join us for the afternoon. I presumed she was just popping out on her lunch hour and had to shut up because she was the only one working. But no, she stayed with us all day!
We went for another lunch. And the 7 of them couldn’t comprehend why I wasn’t hungry! Even Kelly ate again. I absolutely couldn’t, so as I type this there is a quarter chicken sitting next to me in a box. The menu was gringa friendly and had photos of all the meals. They were all squares of different types of meat. But one caught my eye. There was no denying that it was a rodent. It had a body, two legs and a two arms. I asked Adrian and he said that yes, it was indeed a guinea pig. They asked if I wanted to order it and I tried to think of a way to explain how a former hamster owner could not eat a guinea pig!
All I could think of to say was “This, in Irlanda, amigo”. All conversations stopped and they all looked at the one who had just called a rodent a friend. I said something like how in Peru dogs are friends, in Ireland guinea pigs are friends. Not entirely true but it got the message across.
I’ve discovered that bowling is thee best way to get to know the names of a group. After looking at the names on a screen for an hour I finally got them all, but can’t recite them right now. It was a close game, only about 5 points between first and last place. I missed about 15 minutes of the game trying to get some drinks in. Efficiency is not a big thing here. I’m blaming that 15 minutes for me not winning. It was cool little place with the Pussycat Dolls blaring and floresent lights.
We strolled the streets for a while after that. I felt I had to work off the food I’d been eating all day. We came upon one of the cousins from Raul’s apartment. I wasn’t too sure what was going on until he pulled out a deck of cards. I was hoping and praying it wasn’t poker, as I have never been able to grasp that. But what ensued what the most fun card game I’ve ever had. You know it’s been a good game when my bloody finger is only one of the many injuries, and my hamstring is aching!
It was a game I’d played at home, people pass cards around until you get four of one type. But the added Peruvian element was that there were 7 spoons in the middle. When someone gets 4 of the same card they had to shout “Chancho”. At this everyone dropped their cards, let go of their common sense and lunged at the table. At one stage the leg of the table came off. People were dashing all over the room to get a spoon; if someone managed to get two they’d fling one as far as they could. The name of the game was almost changed to “Chinchewy” to accomodate me since I kept getting the word wrong. It’s hard to think when you’re jumping out of your chair after a plastic spoon.
Katy got through the whole hour long game without losing once. She is just one of those uber cool people. She never got violent or crazy like some of us, just gracefully and speedily got the spoon. She impressed me earlier with her nonchalant, “Ok, I’ll just close up the shop” attitude. She won bowling and then crushed us all at cards. I’m mad I didn’t get all of their email addresses. Hopefully I’ll see some of them at the Baptism.
To make me feel at home this game, and another one was played in English. Everyone made an effort to speak English and all the numbers were said in English. I would have loved to have said, “Actually if you don’t mind, could we do this in Irish? I prefer that language”, but I figured they were putting themselves out enough. All day, everytime a seat became available on a bus, everyone looked at me and wouldn’t let me not take it. They wouldn’t let me pay for the buses and everytime we went to a new place or even on to a new street, someone made sure to tell me all about it.
Peru was definitely a good choice to start my travels in. Just wish I could take all these people with me!
Tags: 2 - Peru
cybersusst
Hey that game is in ireland, its called spoons or else piggy when you touch your nose, but u dont shout out anything, everyone takes the spoon slyly or touches their nose and the last person to do so or left without a spoon loses!
Well thats what i was taught in the shticks in Kerry!
Sounds like your having loads of fun,nrGrá lolzx
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