Thursday, May 20, 2010

Peru #3

Some other cultural observations of note: The sizes of the food (los tamanos de la comida) are much smaller here; especially the drinks. When you order a medium combo of anything, you get what would be a junior size soft drink. Maybe its cause they don't have ice. Also, almost anyone you talk to is very friendly if you approach them, although they may have a look of discontent on their face before you start talking. They all want to understand you, and I'm getting much better at interpreting the rapid speech I encounter every time I speak to a local.  I feel like in America its more often the opposite, like someone might smile at you and seem friendly, but in reality they would rather not have a conversation.
  Hablas castellano? Si? Si! Hablas bien, pero quiero practicar mi ingles. I have heard that more often than I thought I would, and what usually follows is a conversation in which I speak mostly castellano (Spanish), and he or she speaks mostly English. That happened with a vendor today at the market we went to, and the girl was so nice, I didn't even feel like bargaining with her. I know she probably thought I was a stupid American for taking the first price she offered, but when she told me she was taking classes to make her English better so her daughter would have more opportunities, my heart melted. I am a little proud that almost all my souvenir shopping is done, though.
We went to McDonald's today, and it was interesting because McDonald's is one of the cleanest, nicest places to eat in the whole city. The best part about the trip was the mayonnaise, oddly enough. It had more flavor than normal mayonnaise, and I used it to dip my nuggets in. I thought about what Sara would say if she saw me eating something other than ranch on my chicken. :)
I think this evening we will hand out more brochures/flyers on the street corners with the young people from the church, seeing as Cesar (a neurosurgeon here in Lima and preacher at the church) has not given Ava the list of potential contacts for Bible studies yet. This is a picture of the street corner near Tottus that we stood at to hand out flyers last night:
Its actually on the bridge next to the street corner, but you can see the "ttus" of Tottus up in the left corner in blue. I am beginning to really love this city.

So far everyone we've met here has been absolutely wonderful. Our little youth group (comprised mostly of university students) includes Cindi, Mikael, Magnum, Geraldo, Julio, Carmen, and Miguel, or Miki (son of Cesar). Miki has worn this black-and-white houndstooth scarf every day that Joseph has been eyeing, and today we found one at a street kiosk for only 10 soles! Thats about 3 dollars. He also got me a matching one (mine's hot pink and black) and the lady gave us both for a discount. He is so excited about matching Miki tonight when we see him.
Funny story. On Tuesday, when we first met the youth at the church, Joseph and Mikael became fast friends. I also am quite enamored with Mikael and his girlfriend Cindi, because Mikael was deaf and now has a cochlear implant (its so hard to translate the speech-pathology jargon I know in English, but I try), and Cindi is studying to be a nurse (enfermera) and she tells me about the healthcare system here all the time. Anyway, we were at Tottus (similar to a Walmart Supercenter), and Mikael and Joseph suddenly went off a little ways by themselves. I saw Joseph look up at me and laugh and I knew exactly what they were talking about. As Joseph tells it, this is what their conversation went like (a translation, of course):
Mikael: Is Molly your girlfriend?
Joseph: No, haha
M: Your sister?
J: No
M: Your cousin?
J: No
M: Your best friend?
J: Well, closer to best friend than girlfriend.
M: You want her to be, though.
J: No, no, thats not going to happen.
M: You could pray to God for it to happen!
J: hahahahahahah
M: Well, whatever the case, (and this he actually said partly in English) you would make beautiful pareja (couple).
So then Joseph comes to tell me all of this, and not even five minutes after he tells me, Mikael pulls him over again and says
Mikael: You know why I say that?
Joseph: Ummm, no?
M: Because of your faces. Your faces estan enamorados. (are in love)
Needless to say, Joseph and I have had a good laugh about all this, and are very comfortable pretending to be novios (boyfriend/girlfriend) just to freak people out. I call him Carino or Amorcito, and he calls me Querida. Or in English we say "muffincakes" and "honeybunches." Its altogether very entertaining, and useful if I happen to get whistled at on the sidewalk. All Joseph has to do is throw an arm around me and they hush up. Too bad his eyes are closed in this picture. I love it. :)
Hasta luego,
Molly

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