Colca: Sunday

We got up bright and early Sunday morning...like 5:30 early. :( We had a quick breakfast of bread, jam and hot tea, and then we hit the road. We drove to a few lookouts over the canyon and also made a stop in a small town to give away some clothing.

Our host families had been putting aside clothing that they don´t use to give to some of the poorer families we encountered our trip. What was hard about the donation, though, was that it was direct (so no education...just temporary help) and there wasn´t enough to go around. That´s because, once one person in the town heard that there were 30 white people giving away clothes, they told someone else. And that person told someone else. Until the whole town is there in the square, waiting around people with only a few blankets left to give.

Honestly, the people on the trip were and still are divided about that service opportunity. Of course, it´s better to give than not at all, but was that the best way it could´ve been handled? Furthermore, the people in the town thanked US, not the people who deserved the credit. Tonight, the group is meeting to discuss the Colca trip with special attention focused on the donation.

After that stop, we drove to the next town where we ate lunch and saw a funny ¨Llamasutra¨ shirt. Unfortunately, no one bought it. If they had, I would´ve pointed them out and told my host mom, ¨Tacky. THAT is tacky!¨ since it´s still not perfectly clear to her. We´re getting there, one tacky Peruvian at a time! ;)

After we left the town, we drove for a while down PAVED roads (thank you Jesus!) And then we came to a high plateau (about 16,000 ft) and looked at rocks stacked on top of each other. There were fields and fields of these little rock monuments.

There was also a bathroom. Add it to the list of my faves. This particular water closet was a circular stone hut with a thatched roof. This means many cracks. Which means COLD since the wind was whipping up there on that plateau. There were actually two huts, but I don´t count one of them since there was a ring of, for lack of a better word, scat around the donation hole in the floor. So after I made ¨psssss¨ noises for Dr. Mangan´s daughter, Caroline, I entered the clean hut and did my business with knees knocking. Good gosh, it was cold! But, at least my hut´s floor was fairly clean. Nothing but dirt! :)

Feeling quite satisfied with my bathroom adventure, I hopped back on the bus, covered up with my coat and had David read our homework aloud to me. You see, we had an entire book to read that weekend and none of us had had time to do it. But finally, with the paved roads, we had time and the means to read without getting sick.

I must say, David has a funny British accent, so the time went by quickly. When he was tired, we switched, and I read aloud. Dr. Mangan was in the seat in front of us, and she just laughed. She knows the author of the book from college. She said she´d have to tell the author about our funny readings and that she should consider having us make an audiobook. ¨From Subjects to Citizens¨. By Sarah C. Chambers. Read by David Baker and Devon Weeks. (insert chime noise)

So, by the time we got home around 5p, we were thoroughly exhausted, glad to have done SOME homework, and ready for a nap! Now, I appreciate Arequipa so much more...it´s much easier to breathe here! There´s an obvious difference between Colca and Arequipa´s air supply. Actually, I´m still catching up on my sleep, I was so tired last weekend, but at least I´m breathing easy!

As for the song of that day, it´s a song I´ve had for a few years. It´s in Portuguese, so I don´t really understand it. Also, it´s a samba, which means it´s FAST. A few weeks ago, I recommended this tune to our group´s dance instructor. They actually introduced it last week, and since then, this song has been stuck in everyone´s heads. Tonight, at our dance lesson, we´ll be doing some quick grapevine kind of dance to this song. So enjoy, translate if you´d like and think of me hustlin to this for an hour straight tonight!

Magalenha


Vem Magalenha rojão, traz a lenha pro fogão, vem fazer armação.
Hoje é um dia de sol, alegria de coió*, é curtir o verão.

Vem Magalenha rojão, traz a senha pro fogão.. te te te coração.
Hoje é um dia de sol, alegria de xodó, meu dever de verão.

Te te te te te te

O calangulango, do calango da pretinha,
to cantando essa mudinha pra senhora se lembrar,
daquele tempo que vivia lá na roça com uma filha na barriga e outra filha pra cria.