Exactly the Same....Completely Different

During my planning for this trip I was preparing for culture shock.... what I have been shocked with instead, is how very similar things are. Little children still speak with excited, high-pitched voices... teenagers still are trying to be cool and fit in with their peers, couples still fall in love, people work, go to school, go to church.... there are so many things that are EXACTLY the same.... i think they would be in any part of the world.
On the other hand, being here is COMPLETELY different! I’m not used to all my food from fruit to meat being fresh.... the chickens arrive clucking at the market at 7am, and are on my plate for dinner at 7pm... the meat I saw hanging on the hook in the open air market this morning is being cooked for lunch- and smells wonderful and tastes great too! (I just have to choose to not think about where it came from). oh, and the language is different here too... but that is becoming less and less of a hinderance.

I have been asked to describe sights, sounds, smells and life here... I shall attempt to do so...

The food...
...the food is great!!! We had a dish called "papa rellena" which is like a mashed potato ball stuffed with really yummy beef, onions, and seasonings.... and then fried... SO GOOD! We also had "lomo saltado" which is beef sautéed with onions and red peppers served over rice... they have a sauce here called "Aji" which is served with almost everything... it's different each time, but it's usually spicy.... but really good.
The Ice cream here is better than Braums! There are also these little cookies called "alfajores" and the are like a cookie sandwich made of soft short-bread type cakes, with a layer of RICH and thick carmel stuff called "manjar blanca."
The fruit here is AMAZING!!!!!!! I had no idea so many types of fruit exist! it seems like everything has more flavor, and the fruit is bigger... we had a fruit called "granadilla" which tasted really good.... on the outside it kinda looks like a hard orange... on the inside it's filled with these little black seeds. the seeds are coated in this gooey jello-type stuff that is really sweet... when you eat the fruit you slurp out all the jello and seeds alike... you just taste it and swallow... it's a little weird... but so good!


There is another fruit called "maracuja" but you don't eat it because it's too strong... Instead, you make a delicious juice out of it! funny story.... we buy all our drinking water in cases of 2 liter bottles... all the water either comes "con gas" (carbonated, like seltzer water) or "sin gas" (normal). we accidentally bought a case of “agua con gas” (carbonated water). we had 4 2-liter bottles of it! and none of us drink carbonated water.... we didn't know what to do... well, when you make maracuja juice, you have to dilute it with water because it's so strong.... so we used our carbonated water to make it... we had "Sparkling Maracuja juice" :-) kinda like the sparkling grape juice in the States... it was GOOD and it packed a punch... it was a new drink for all of us... even our Peruvian hosts.

The sights...
...This is another two sided answer... You will see what you want to see. If you want to see dirt, and poverty, and brokenness, and trash on the streets, and beggars, and street kids..... you will see it all... But, if you choose to look, you will also see a beautiful sky, strong mountain ranges, vibrant splashes of color, a variety of architecture both old, and new... gorgeous flowers, and resourcefulness, creativity, endurance and unshakable strength in the people...


The smells...
... The most common smell while outside is a mixture of dust and diesel exhaust from all the busses, combies, micros, and coasters... not to mention the taxis. You will also smell dogs (there are a lot of dogs, both pets and strays), fresh fruit, meat cooking, and meat waiting to be cooked, flowers, baking bread, hair dye (there are a lot of salons), and some smells that you just do not know what they are.... :)

The sounds...
....in the house it’s generally quiet. We usually have worship music playing in Spanish of sometimes English. The neighbours on the right make blue jeans in their home... our house is separated from theirs by a concrete wall, so we can hear their machines sometimes.... they also play a lot of traditional Peruvian music. The neighbours on the left have small children who play and scream, and a little baby who cries a lot... and a parrot that loves to screech and yell and say “hola” really loud...in the morning, we can hear roosters crowing, and around 7pm every day the trash truck comes with alarms like an ambulance....
... outside of the neighbourhood..... you hear the buzz of constant traffic, impatient car horns, locations and prices shouted from the man at the combie/bus door trying to get you to come on the bus.... little children playing, music of all kinds, multiple conversations of Spanish....