Well, this is it. I can’t believe we’re to this point.
On Tuesday, the day after I got back from Piura, I went to Colibri, determined to go out with a bang! This resolve led me to hang out a lot at the desk that one of the lead teachers used. It was an ideal spot, because a lot of other volunteers liked to hang around there, too. Kids would come there, and Elizabeth, the teacher who used it, would often go off to help them. If she couldn’t, or if one of us could, we would go off with the kid who needed help or needed a bathroom break. I went home from work that day quite pleased with myself. Perhaps I had finally figured this thing out.
The next day, all the teachers were absent for the majority of the afternoon, so it was left to the volunteers. At one point I was very discouraged. What had happened to having finally figured it out? My determination did not waver, and I ended up leaving even more satisfied than yesterday. I had managed to help out several kids with their homework as well as various other things, both alone and with other volunteers. That day it was impressed on me especially strongly that my success and my work satisfaction depended solely on me. Of course, I could utilize others, help others, etc., but ultimately it was largely up to me what kind of day I was going to have. As much as I would have liked to have had a repeat of the day before, Wednesday was probably one of the most empowering days I’ve had on this internship at Colibri. I am also happy to report that Thursday followed much the same pattern as that latter half of Wednesday.
Thursday night after I was done with work, I met Anna, Annie, Kyle, and Ella at the Plaza de Regocijo. From there, we and a group of tourists took a van to the observatory, where we learned about and looked at stars that made up the constellations only visible in the southern hemisphere. When the Europeans saw them and started naming them and making star charts, they described them as being similar to all the new wildlife they were seeing. And then, of course, there was a constellation that later astronomers had to divide into thirds—the Great Ship.
The Last Day!
Confession: A few years ago I found this computer game that I came to like very much. It had become obsolete and could no longer run on my laptop–until now. Because I had graduated my Spanish class the week before, I found a lot of time to engage this satisfying, mindless way to pass the time when in reality I didn’t have so much time to pass. Upon realizing this, I got up early Friday morning and hiked up above the city to Saqsaywaman. It was so sublime and so peaceful, away from all the noise. But for one or two groups of people, I was the only one I noticed amid the ruins.
I walked around, feeling the architecture. It was incredible how seamlessly it all fit together without any mortar! What I’ve come to learn in Peru is that while the Incas built many structures that are marvelous engineering feats, they found many others when they first settled the valley in which Cuzco now sits. Saqsaywaman is apparently one such complex they found, according to their oral traditions. I would have to research it more to find out how old it is.
As I admired the stone walls and the way they all fit together, I met an older man who said he lived in front of the ruins. After introductions, he said, “Would you like to come with me and meditate in the center? There’s a lot of good energy there.”
“Sure,” I said. So I followed him to this rock a little ways off, where we sat down and meditated for about twenty minutes. In the midst of our meditation, he gave me some coca leaves and told me to eat them, which I did. Then he took another couple of leaves and said, “Put these to your heart … now to your head … and now kiss them.” I did as he told me to do.
I’ve heard things about the energy up here at Saqsaywaman, and as much as I was imagining what it might be like to have a mystical experience as a result of that energy, which others have had, I honestly didn’t think anything would happen. I’m not making this up when I tell you that I was wrong. Nothing crazy happened while we sat on the rock, beneath the strong late-morning sun, soaking in the lofty silence and the freshness of the area; but when I left, with a chacana necklace and two totem poles bearing the snake, the fox, and the condor that he had given me for a price, my spirits, which had been rather low, were quite high, and my thoughts, which had been more negative and critical, were so different. Maybe I’m just really receptive to the benefits of meditation. Maybe the energy up there really does work wonders on a person. Whatever it was, as I walked away from the ruins a some time later, I felt, and still feel, refined, elated, exultant, complete.
After an hour’s searching and following different directions, I next arrived at the lookout of the Cristo Blanco statue, but I didn’t take any pictures because I was near more people this time. Not long after, I turned around and headed back. At one point I was redirected because there was construction on a big bridge, and the area around it was a mess. I was grateful for the help. The person who redirected me was a member of a locally famous band who performed a fusion of salsa and chicha cumbia, Peruvian cumbia. He was cool. From there I took many hundreds of steps down into the city and from there headed back toward home to meet my Spanish professor for lunch. We ate some delicious traditional Andean food. I had fried guinea pig–I can’t remember what she had.
After that, she and I took a taxi to the San Pedro market, where we met Annie, one of my classmates. Annie helped me do some Christmas shopping. I was later to learn that that one mostly clothes shopping endeavor had been for the most part a great success.
Next I went to Colibri to bid everyone good-bye. I didn’t tell them I was leaving because I thought they knew when I was leaving. This was not the case, and we were all disappointed. It was the least emotional good-bye, probably because I’d let it all out before then. It felt so abrupt, like all of Friday had felt.
A little later that evening, we went to this art café for some dinner, teas, and audiovisual art. It was the best café I’ve been to! I could have done homework there! I could have gone there so many times more!
At last, not long after, I said good-bye to Astrid, our host mom, who wouldn’t be able to help me get a taxi tomorrow because I was leaving especially early that morning. She thanked me for the gift I had given her and for everything else, and I did the same. I’m so grateful that I got to spend these three months with her and her family. They have been incredible, and it felt like I was leaving my family. Then Annie offered to help me pack, and I took her up on it, hence the reason we finished before midnight, definitely a feat.
The next morning, I got up and hauled my belongings out of my room, never to come back–at least for now. Cadel, the younger of Astrid’s kids, helped me to get it into a taxi. With that, I gave him the set of keys I had used to enter the house and thanked him for everything. And that was it! That was really it!
Were it not for mechanical problems with the first plane we had boarded in Lima to fly to Los Angeles, I would have landed in Vegas later that night. As it was, we got to California aboard a different plane a little later in the day, late enough that I had to check into a hotel and fly out the next morning. I had been told that reentering the United States would be a hassle, but all they did was take my picture. And that was that. No misunderstandings, no needing to come back to resolve things with customs. It was all done. Just a flight to Vegas.
The next morning was perfect. I landed in Vegas, and the reunion with my family was what it should have been after three months apart. I had my first glass of straight cold milk; we spoke nothing but English; and we purchased in dollars, to name a few things. I was home.
Final Thoughts
I’ve taken many an education class at SUU, and I’ve taken many a Spanish class and learned it on my mission, albeit in the states. No way could I have learned what I have learned about the language, about Peruvian culture, about teaching, etc., sitting in a classroom, the way I have learned it over the past three months. I still don’t feel totally qualified to be a certified middle or high school English teacher or a teacher of English as a foreign language, but the things I’ve gained from this experience have given it all so much more substance. In the coming semesters, I, along with future professors and employers, will have so much more to work with in regards to me because I was daily put in situations where I had to immerse myself not only in Spanish but in hands-on work settings that required me to go above and beyond where I’ve ever gone before to be successful. When I spoke English before, for example, and even now, if I’m not careful, it’s so easy to let things go because I’m completely fluent in it, and understanding requires little, if any, effort. In Spanish, even after three months and significant growth, I still have to be much more attentive and present and ask for clarification from time to time. This puts me in a place and in a mind set where speaking up and being proactive becomes the norm on another level. In that same vein, working with generally less progressive attitudes about blindness has made me a more patient person. I’m not saying I’m perfect or that I’m there–wherever “there” is–yet, but in order to mentally thrive, I had to learn how to deal with these attitudes somewhat differently than how I’ve been able to deal with them back home. I think the biggest challenge now is that I’m back where everything is much easier, and it’s possible to forget for a moment these invaluable things I’ve gotten from being in South America. If I’m being honest, while I don’t believe I failed at Colibri by any stretch, I find myself not having fully realized the visions of success I had for myself there, for whatever that’s worth. I am, however, much more confident that I can realize such visions for future endeavors.
I’m really glad that I was able to share this experience with all of you. While I do not like to publicly write about myself at all, living, working, learning, and traveling in the Spanish-speaking world has been something I’ve wanted to do so much for so long, and it meant enough to me that I wanted to help you share with me in the ups and downs, the ins and outs, of it as best I could. For anyone who may have found this via SUU’s learning abroad page, I hope this was informative and enjoyable. To everyone else reading this, thank you for everything, your support, your mentoring, for letting me share this with you. You were as much a part of this as were my efforts to make it happen. I thought a study abroad, never mind working abroad, was way out of my league, a nice thought but something for more qualified people. Now, we did it!
If you ever get to reading this, thank you Anna, Kyle, and Annie, for your friendship and for letting me share in your adventure in Peru with you. I hope we can maintain what we built over these past three months. Thank you also for helping with pictures and videos. Thank you for being awesome! Thank you for everything!
Ciau!
Traveling in Peru 