Vamos al mercado!

Walking through the market.

We have spent many days walking to and from B Group school and passing by the sight that you see above. We knew there was a market of some type located one block away from school, but never really ventured in to see the different shops or look for anything. 

One Saturday, Monique and I decided to check it out while waiting for Aimee and Erin to finish class. As we began walking through the market, we realized it was MUCH bigger than we had previously anticipated! I thought it was - at the most - a couple blocks long. We made it about one block before we realized that the Carmen de la Legua market stretched down side streets and into a building as well!

A sidestreet of the market.

Looking into the market building. This was packed full of shops, too!

You can find just about ANYTHING at the market. There are clothes and shoes, fresh fruits and vegetables, mini restaurants serving ceviche or other typical foods, plants, cleaning products, school supplies, and whole chickens to be purchased, DVDs and way, WAY more!

An advantage of purchasing items at the market in Carmen de la Legua compared to going to a larger supermarket is that you can barter with the shop owners. Because of this, you can typically find much cheaper prices AND your money goes to local families!

One crazy aspect of the market is that at the end of each day, every shop is taken apart and carted away by the owners. This means that everything you see in these pictures is gone by the evening, and brought back the next day! I cannot imagine packing and unpacking my shop EACH day. That's a TON of work!

Beautiful plants and flowers for sale.

A cevichería - where you can purchase different types of ceviche. People will sit on the stools in the front and eat right there!

Another side street of the market. This section was specifically clothes.

You can buy just about every type of rice and corn here! I didn't even know that this many existed!

This picture captures only some of the varieties of fruits and vegetables you can buy here!

Need some cleaning products? They are available here!

Pick a cereal, any cereal! They will fill a bag with whatever you want!

Lots of shoes to choose from. :)

Echevela, the Berrospid family helper, shops at the market daily. She purchases most of the food that we eat at the market! This includes meat, fruit, vegetables, rice, and potatoes. She has also found some exotic Peruvian fruit that we have tried... pacay, granadillas, and tuna are a few. I'll have to show you pictures another day as I'm off to get my nails done for Yanina's wedding tonight! Can't wait to tell you all about it!

La Marcha

Yesterday was one of the best days yet! Since we arrived, Daniel has been talking about la marcha, a day when all of the schools in Carmen de la Legua compete in a marching contest. At B Group, students have been practicing for the march for weeks. Each day, students spend time marching on the roof of the school. Only the best marchers are selected to participate, so students invest much time and energy into practicing and rehearsal. The school competes in the primary and secondary levels and the B Group teachers march with each group as well.


There was no school on Thursday, as students and teachers alike met to practice, practice, practice! Monique, Aimee, Erin, and I went with the teachers to watch them practice marching by the river. As we were watching, Daniel approached me and asked me if I would like to participate in the march with the other teachers! I immediately said YES and away I went to practice. :) 

Marching with with the other teachers during practice. The woman in front of me is the director of the elementary school. Janina, an English teacher at the Language Center is to my left.

Daniel takes the march very seriously, as you can see here in the picture!

After about an hour of practicing the march, we went back to the school and starting making arrangements for my uniform. Just like in the military, everyone needs to match! I ended up borrowing Sofia's (another English teacher from the Language Center) clothes and shoes. We are the same size!

Thursday night, we also made signs for B. Group. Aimee, Erin, and Monique proudly displayed them during the march! It was nice to see the signs so I knew where they were sitting. 

One Spanish and one English sign! Everyone got a big kick out of them. :)

We woke up early Friday morning and had breakfast with Daniel before heading to the main plaza in Carmen de la Legua. When we arrived, there were bands playing, many students in their uniforms, schools practicing on all the side streets, and lots of excitement in the air!

Me with some other English teachers from B Group. This is after they helped me finish getting ready. I needed a bun cover for my hair, black socks, and the flag pin! Thanks, ladies!

Even the smallest kiddos participated! Here is group dressed as little sailors. There were wee ones dressed in many different outfits, including army soldiers, traditional Peruvian clothes, nurses, and many more!

A picture with a couple of the girls from B Group in their uniform! They are from the primary school.

We got to the plaza around 8:30 am. At this time, Erin, Aimee, and Monique went to the bleachers to watch the march from there. Unfortunately, yesterday was a SUNNY day in Carmen de la Legua and they felt it! Everyone got quite a bit a sun while waiting and watching the march. 


As for the me and the other teachers, We were able to see the behind-the-scenes action! Because the primary school WON last year, they marched last of all the primary schools. We waited, and waited, and waited... Finally, we started inching closer to the plaza. It was encouraging to hear the crowd bursting with energy and excitement as we neared the march. We marched with the primary around 1 PM.

The other teachers at B Group patiently waiting to march with the primary school.

Almost ready to march! You can see the crowd to the left. The important people from the community sat on the right.

When they announced B Group, the crowd went CRAZY!  There were flags that said "Yo Amo B Group" (I Love B Group) and the crowd threw pica pica into the air. I was just bursting with pride, even though I am not Peruvian! It was definitely an experience I will NEVER forget. 

We marched through the street, in front of the crowd and all the important members of the community. I could definitely tell that this was a very important thing for B Group and for Carmen de la Legua. All the teachers and students had worked very hard and wanted to WIN!

After we were done marching with the primary, we walked back to march with the secondary students as well. We did the same thing as with the primary, but the secondary had very official flag carriers and even alumni that marched with the school!

The B Group flag carriers. These were the BEST of the BEST marchers from the secondary school. I had 4 students that carried a flag! :) This was taken after the march.

Once we were finished, we went back to B Group to wait for the results. Monique, Aimee, and Erin joined the rest of the teachers at the school later and brought me some new clothes - I don't think I had ever been so happy to see jeans and tennis shoes in my life! :)

Then the news came - the secondary school WON FIRST PLACE! There was a large celebration with all of the teachers of B Group in the lobby of the school. Parents and other students began to congregate in the street by the school, waiting for the students who marched to return.

When they arrived, there was a HUGE party! There was lots of pica pica in the air, loud horns, and cheering. Daniel and the march coach both gave heart-warming speeches, and the students began chanting for a day off on Monday. :) 

The marchers with the happy crowd at the school.

I am so thankful to have had this opportunity to march for B Group! Winning first place was just the icing on the cake. Congratulations B Group Secondary School! I am so proud of you!

Callao of many colors

One of my favorite things about the region in which I live is that the town is always changing. There is construction on almost every street and houses are constantly being improved. It is fun to watch the changes and also to learn about the different construction techniques!

As you have seen before, wood is rarely used in construction because of the frequency of tremors and earthquakes here. Concrete is used to build nearly everything! Currently, the BG9 Language Center is being built just down the road from us. They hope that the second level will be laid before we leave, but so far just the first level has been finished. This will be the new location for all of the language classes at BG9, currently held at the primary school after hours.

A picture of the language center BEFORE the first level of concrete was laid. There will be a pool in the basement!

The first level of concrete has been laid! This is almost the same view as the previous picture - the stairwell is directly in front of me.

What the language center will look like someday... so fancy

!

Another favorite feature of mine is all of the beautiful colors of the houses. You rarely find a white or tan house - rather, bright blue, orange, pink, purple, and other Easter-y colors are popular! Now I am rather used to the variety, but I was in awe at first!

Some houses are tiled, like this one. This is right across the street from Daniel's house.

I love this one! It's very large and sometimes the garage door is open so you can see inside. I have seen parties and also cars parked inside. This is probably the largest house I have seen here in Callao. It's just down the street from our apartment.

These houses remind me of sherbet. :)

PINK! This one is one block from the school.

A pretty dusty blue color.

I like this teal one, especially the terrace on the second level.

The green color is pretty funky. You can also see the construction of the second level and third level with just bricks.

I saved the best for last... my favorite! Mint. :)

 
I hope you enjoyed this short trip around our neighborhood of Carmen de la Legua in Callao. The colors of the houses are cheery, especially now that the sky is always so grey. I miss seeing the blue skies like you see here in these pictures!

Young towns

This past Friday was a holiday here in Peru, so we went with Daniel to his aunt's house in a district on the edge of Lima. While her district was very beautiful with large houses and YARDS, we passed through some pueblos jóvenes along the way. Pueblos jóvenes, or young towns, are newly settled towns in the province of Lima. 


Young towns are created when people from the sierra (high lands) emigrate to Lima. They find land and set up a hut, more or less, in the desert. There they live with others who emigrated, without electricity or running water. Their life is very difficult! After some years (5-10), the city will decide to provide these utilities to the community and install electrical poles and running water to the town.

 You can see a new town in the distance - newly settled.

Somewhere along the way, the people of the town begin to settle even more, replacing their straw or wooden houses with bricks. My understanding is that they use their money to buy bricks - once there are enough bricks to build a wall, they put up one wall. This continues until there are enough bricks for an entire house. They then will start on the second floor.

A very new town. You can see the walls are still wooden on many of these houses.

A new town with a closer view. Many of these buildings are brick already!

In this way, you can generally tell how old a part of town in by looking at the height of the buildings and how completed they are. Once a level is completed, they also cover it with a type of concrete and paint the house. Here in Callao, you can definitely see this represented in the houses! 

This is a normal site here in Callao. You can see the first floor is completed and painted on the center building. The second floor is still brick, without the concrete and paint over the top. The building on the far left has concrete but no paint yet!

I found this incredibly interesting! Daniel told us that the population of Lima is very hard to determine because people are constantly moving into pueblos jóvenes. Each day, the population is changing. I know this is typical of any city, but in the US it takes a very different form.

La Comida Peruana

Here in Peru, people are serious about their food! In fact, the first week that I was here, many students asked me if I liked the Peruvian food. I have liked just about everything I have tried - from ceviche to parihuela to chicha morada to anticuchos to pollo a la brasa!

Each day we walk to Daniel's house for our meals. His mother and their helper prepare each meal in their kitchen and serve us at the dining room table. We typically eat with Daniel, although sometimes his mother or brother Roberto joins us at the table. Depending on the meal and our conversation, we can be at the table for more than an hour chatting! I love our conversations, but sometimes we end up late for school because we were talking for so long! :)

Erin and Monique starting lunch at Daniel's house. We all sit around the table and chat for an hour or more each mealtime!

Breakfast is a larger meal than in the US and can include anything from yogurt to eggs to hamburgers! A typical breakfast is yogurt with cereal, a cheese or avocado sandwich, and warm milk that you can add powdered coffee or chocolate (like Quik!) to. However, as I said before, we have had eggs with hot dogs, chicken patties, and even hamburgers for breakfast! The drink can take many different forms, although usually we have the drink I described earlier. This morning, we had a very thick hot chocolate, and we have also drank a very concentrated coffee that dilute with hot water.

Lunches are our largest meal of the day. We return back to Daniel's for lunch - school is over BEFORE lunch so the school does not serve a meal! A typical lunch includes rice and potatoes with a side of meat, plus a postre (dessert) of course. :) I like the consistency of the lunches - that I generally know what to expect and love having something sweet at the end. For those of you who know me, that shouldn't come as a surprise. Usually I cannot finish the whole meal - there is a TON of food! We don't get a whole lot of exercise here so I have less of an appetite, although it is hard not to eat the food when it tastes so good. 

Another aspect of lunch that I LOVE is fresh juice. Cheverita, the Berrospid's family helper, makes a different juice almost every day! Chicha morada is a typical juice made from corn and pineapple. My favorite (so far) is jugo de maracuya - passion fruit juice. I could drink a whole pitcher, but I try to hold myself to two glasses.

A typical lunch for us - with potatoes, rice, and some meat. I think there is chicken with the potatoes here. YUM!

Another delicious lunch. Rice, veggies, and some very tasty meat. I LOVE this meat - it is very tender and has some delicious spices. It reminds me of Chipotle! Postre is served on the side - today, pudding!

Yesterday's lunch! Chicken, rice, corn (You can eat it off the cob! I'm not missing that part of summer :)), and yuca - similar to a potato. The long thing is a bean! 

Supper is a small meal and is served around 8 PM. A typical supper is some kind of soup with bread. Last Tuesday, after eating our whole bowl of soup, Daniel told us that Tuesday is Pizza Day! He then proceeded to order Papa John's delivery. When it arrived, we all sat around the table and had our second course - meat lover's pizza! :) 

Daniel also takes us out to eat - especially on the weekends. He loves taking us to restaurants that serve traditional Peruvian food, like ceviche, pollo a la brasa, and anticuchos. Sometimes we go together, and sometimes with his WHOLE family. It is a fun adventure trying to follow their conversations! :)

Ceviche is a VERY popular food here - all of my students asked me if I had tried ceviche. Ceviche is seafood that is prepared with lemon and spices; the fish or shrimp is cooked when it reacts with the lemon. I liked ceviche, but the texture and appearance of the fish were difficult to get past. However, it really didn't taste like fish at all!

Parihuela was a delicious, but kinda spicy soup that we ate with the ceviche. You can see the crab sticking out of the soup - there were many other kinds of seafood inside the soup as well! I liked this a lot, but preferred to stick with crab and shrimp meat. 

Last night, Daniel took us all to La Norteña. I LOVED this place - it is very popular with the native Peruvians. It isn't fancy, but they serve good food and lots of it! Their most popular dish is anticuchos... aka, beef heart. Yes, the heart of a cow, served on a stick! Maybe it'll hit the MN state fair in the next few years! :) I tried it and although it wasn't my favorite, it wasn't awful, either! I definitely was happy to eat my chicken, but I am glad that I tried it. This place also served many other types of organs of animals, including (I think... this vocab is all new for me!) liver, gizzards, stomach, and others. This is very Peruvian - people eat the WHOLE animal here. It tastes some getting used to. :)

The famous ceviche! Served with corn and sweet potatoes.

Parihuela, a Peruvian soup with seafood, obviously! There were shrimp and other seafood pieces in the soup, and it was a little spicy. 

All of the workers preparing anticuchos and the other meals at La Norteña.

Daniel with his anticuchos, potatoes, and corn.

Daniel´s family sitting around the table at La Norteña.

Picarones - our postre for the night! Fried dough with miel (honey) on top. I thought it tasted like a french toast sticks!

Finally, I do need to emphasize one amazing thing that I have tried here in Peru - Inca Kola. It is a very yellow-y pop that is served just about everywhere. Someone told me that Peru is one of the only countries where Coke is not the #1 pop - it is Inca Kola! It is very fizzy, like Mt. Dew, but it tastes like a big piece of bubblegum! 

The FABULOUS Inca Kola.  Daniel says it is best served in glass bottles - YUM.

I am looking forward to trying MORE delicious Peruvian food. Can't wait to share it with you!

The Fortaleza de Real Felipe

Last Friday, June 15, we arrived at school like usual. I taught my first class, a 5th grade class in the primary school. Students were learning about water by creating circle graphs (YES!! MATH!!), reading articles about potable water in the world, and completing listening activities about typical water usage. They thought I was pretty funny - acting out different activities such as brushing my teeth, washing my car, and taking a shower. :)

When I returned back to the teacher's workroom, another English teacher told me and the other teachers that Daniel was planning to take us on a trip for the rest of the day. We missed the remainder of our classes that day as he took us to La Punta, another district here in Callao.

The drive there was very interesting. We passed by many sections of Callao, including a very poor area where most houses were shacks made of woven straw or pieces of wood or cardboard. Carmen de la Legua, where we are currently living, looked luxurious compared to the conditions in these neighborhoods.

Our first destination was Fortaleza de Real Felipe, a large fort that was built in the 1700s by the Spaniards. The main purpose was to guard the coast against pirates. The whole fort was in the shape of a regular pentagon, with points that extended at each vertex of the pentagon. We took a tour of the structure, and some highlights are shown below!

My favorite part was the pirate who came to life after posing as a sculpture. The kiddos that were in the same tour group as us just loved it! We each received an eye patch and posed with the pirate. He was quite the ladies man. :)

Posing with the guards at the entrance to the Fortaleza.

Aimee and I watching the pirates come in...

We found the pirate!

In front of the Memorial to the Unknown Soldier. 

Another highlight of the tour was the view on top of the King's Tower. We were able to see two islands in the distance, as well as Miraflores to our south. Typically, Lima is cloud-covered and very grey. We have had very good luck with the weather since we arrived! As you can see, the weather is just about perfect. Friday was in the low 80s and blue skies everywhere!

An interesting part of the fort was inside the King's Tower. They showed us a room where the Spaniards kept 70-80 indigenous people. The room looked like a long hallway - about 3 feet wide and 20-25 feet long. Because of the dimensions of the room, the prisoners had to stand at all times. The Spaniards gave them food and water once a week, but there was not enough to go around. Most of the prisoners passed away of hunger. So sad.

Monique and Aimee on top of the King's Tower. You can see one of the islands to the left of them.

Leaving the Fortaleza. You can see the entrance in the middle of the picture, with the King's Tower
to the right of the entrance.

After we left the Fortaleza, we drove to La Punta. This area is the nicest part of the province of Callao. In fact, there is an entrance and exit to this area, and it is walled in! There are many shops and beautiful houses. We walked along the coast and stopped to listen to the waves crash along the rocky beach. I was able to skip a rock that Monique found, just like back in Minnesota! 

This area was a stark contrast to the neighborhoods that we passed by on the way there. It is incredible how differently the rich and poor live here in Lima. Like I said, this rich neighborhood was closed off with a wall! Here in Carmen de la Legua, the district is still developing. Some streets are very clean and "pretty" to our American standards, while others are full of construction equipment and have lots of stray dogs or garbage strewn through the street.

I will talk more about this in the future, but this strong contrast between the rich and poor here became very apparent to me while on this trip.

Walking in La Punta. It was so beautiful!

Aimee, Erin, Monique, and Daniel sitting on the "beach" in La Punta.

Rock skipping on the beach. :)

YOLO has made it all the way to Lima! The name of this ice cream shop translates to Where YOLO = Where You Only Live Once. My students would LOVE this!!