Visiting the Ballumbrosio family: El Carmen part 2

The highlight of the entire trip for me was visiting the home of the Ballumbrosio family which is essentially the heart of African-Peruvian dance and music, and where my friend Aaron stayed. The father of the family, Amador Ballumbrosio was born in El Carmen in 1936 and died in 2009. His passion for dance came from his catholic faith and he is known for continuing the tradition of the Afro-Peruvian dance called "hatajo de negritos" which is performed on December 24 in El Carmen in honor of baby Jesus. He also welcomed people from all over the world to his home to share Afro-Peruvian dance and music; he played the violin, cajón and danced Zapateo (foot work similar to tap, but with barefoot.) He had 15 children and passed down the tradition to them; currently many of them live around the world teaching dance but his daughter Lucy still lives in the house with her children and she grew very close with my friend Aaron when he was staying there. It was so amazing to be welcomed into the home and to see the walls of the house covered in photographs and paintings honoring their father and the family. The front room of the house is where the family performs dances, but has also become a kind of very authentic and personal museum celebrating Afro-Peruvian culture.

Lucy was very generous and talked to us for a while around her friendship with my friend Aaron, her father and the dances. She told us that her father always looked for the hardest part of the floor to dance on barefooted so that it would make the best sound when dancing Zapateo. She also expressed the fact that passing down the authentic dances and preserving this tradition is the legacy that her father left and that his children want to continue. Traditionally women were not allowed to play the cajón drum, but she showed us how to play a rhythm on the drum and how to play the donkey's jawbone, another instrument used in Afro-Peruvian music.

We also tried totuma, a special kind of pisco which is infused with the fruit of a local tree that is supposed to be a natural medicine. By this time, we were all ready to dance, so I asked Lucy to teach us the dance that goes with the rhythm that one of the volunteers named Natasha had learned how to play. So, right there, on the floor where generations of people have danced, we tried our best to move our hips to the music and follow Lucy and of course it was so fun! Several years ago I took a West African dance class in college which I loved and I could definitely see the similarities. After we had somewhat learned the danced and didn't look like complete fools, we took a video of us performing and Lucy's young daughter of about 7 years old joined us and of course was much better than any of us! She was shy at first, but but the time we left, she gave us a picture she had drawn and told us to say hi to Aaron for her- so sweet! Lucy told us that their door is always open and as we were leaving, I found myself hoping that I someday I will return to that house, so filled with pride, love and joy. Music and dance are some of the most powerful forms of expression, communication and community building that we have and it is incredible that despite years of oppression and suffering, this culture is still thriving and bringing people together to celebrate life.

Arriving in El Carmen

Last weekend, we took a much anticipated trip to El Carmen, a small town located about 3 hours south of Lima near the city of Chincha. El Carmen is known throughout Peru as the heart of Afro-Peruvian culture, and especially Afro-Peruvian dance. I probably never would have ever heard about this place if it hadn't been for a friend of mine from high school named Aaron Davis. Aaron studies dance at Connecticut College and discovered El Carmen when studying abroad in Peru last year. He returned to town this summer to live with the Ballbumbrosio family there and learn the traditional dances that have been passed down for generations. While African culture has clearly had a huge impact on all of Latin American as a result of slavery, I did not realize that there were slave plantations in Peru. However, this area of Peru is very dry, but flat and apparently had very good conditions for growing sugar cane and cotton. Therefore, Spanish colonists owned huge haciendas (plantations) with hundreds of slaves. One of the haciendas has been restored and converted to an elegant hotel, which we visited and I will describe later. Anyways, Aaron gave me the contact information for his friend Rolando, a man from the area who works with non-profit organizations there and is used to showing foreigners around. Rolando very graciously took us under his wing, brought us around the town and introduced us to people. When embarking for this trip, I had done some research about the area and talked with Rolando, but I honestly had no idea how the trip was going to go. I'm usually very concerned about planning trips, so this experience required me to have faith and let go, but this was definitely a challenge considering that 8 of my fellow volunteers were relying on me! I am very grateful that they were all willing to go with the flow and risk coming with me! Anyways, getting to El Carmen was an experience in itself. We first took a big coach bus to Chincha and a smaller combi to the town, which is located in the country, out in the middle of many massive agricultural fields. Today people in the area mostly grow asparagus, artichokes, and fruit, and agriculture still dominates the economy. El Carmen, has a beautiful plaza with palm trees and an elegant bright yellow church, but it very much feels like a small sleepy town, especially on the weekdays (we were told that some tourists tend to come on the weekends to see the shows.)

The majority of the people who live there are direct decedents from the African slaves that worked on the plantations. After meeting up with Rolando, we met someone who gave us a spontaneous dance lesson in the middle of the street and then we went to a restaurant to eat the traditional dishes called Carapulcra and sopa seca (A potato, meet, peanut, tomato stew with seasoned noodles). In the afternoon, we got to see the rehearsals for a local dance school that teaches teenagers the traditional afro-peruvian dances to pass them on to the younger generation. The girls dance using a lot of feet work and hip shaking and the boys learn how to play the Cajón. The Cajón is a drum that the slaves developed from fruit boxes that was based on a kind of drum they used in africa made from a hallowed out log. The drummer sits on the top of the box and then drums on different areas of the box for different tones and rhythms. I got to try playing one which was awesome!

Fruit, Fruit and more Fruit!

Several weeks ago, our wonderful security guard Tito invited us to visit the central fruit market in Lima early in the morning and I couldn't say no to this awesome opportunity even though it required getting up at 5:30am! We never would have ventured to this massive market that is way beyond the boundaries of the usual touristy circle of Lima, but with Tito as our trusty guide and fruit enthusiast, we were able to experience a truly authentic Peruvian morning ritual. The MASSIVE market is packed floor to ceiling with fruit stands selling bulk boxes of every kind of imaginable fruit. The bananas, mangoes, pineapples, oranges, etc are packed and displayed perfectly into wooden boxes, freshly harvested from the farms all around Peru. Fruit distributors come from all around Lima to buy their daily bulk quantities of fruit. Weaving in between all the fruit sellers was definitely an adrenaline rush because it was quite possible to get run over or bumped into by the many people balancing huge boxes of fruit on their shoulders or pushing big carts. As we scurried through the rows and rows of fruit, people were hawking their fruit and bargaining. I have never seen SO MUCH delicious looking, fresh fruit in my life! There were giant baskets filled with hundreds of pineapples...and they only cost about $2 each! Once we had taken in the scene a bit, Tito helped us to buy some fruit! We bought some incredible mangoes- so perfectly fresh and juicy! We also bought peaches, strawberries, a pineapple, avocados and a papaya for Tito as a thank you present for bringing us to the market. It is amazing to live somewhere where fresh, tropical fruit is so cheap and delicious...I'm definitely going to miss it when I return to the US! I feel very grateful that my experience here has allowed me to truly get to know Peruvians and see a window into their lives that I think very few foreigners see. Unfortunately I didn't bring a camera with me to the market, but one of my friends did so I'm going to try to get some pictures from her when she returns from her travels.

Mermaids and Magic: Day Two of Huacachina

This is the second post in a series about my trip to Huacachina with my friends a couple weekends ago. Our second day in Huacachina, we prepared to leave, but first we had to visit the lake and the statue of the mermaid on the banks. As I was walking there, a Peruvian guy started telling me the legend of the mermaid. The story goes that she seduces men and leads them to the lake where they drown. However, the guy decided to embellish the tale by telling me that the mermaid was blond and blue eyed...similar to me of course. The moment we reached the statue, we quickly realized that the mermaid was dark with brown hair, however my friends immediately named me the "cirenita" (little mermaid) and then I willingly took a lot of embarrassing photos posing in front of the statue. Needless to say, my Peruvian friends never get tired of calling me la cirenita. The day only got stranger. Our sand buggy driver from the previous day recommended that we check out a little town outside the city known for the brujas (witches.) It sounded intriguing so off we went and found ourselves in the midst of yet another bizarre Peruvian legend about a witch that supposedly lived in this area and a statue and park had been constructed in her honor. The nearby bar was advertising a drink called "orgasm of the witch" but other than that it was a bit of a letdown. However, when sitting in the park pondering this bizarre place, we saw the cutest little group of piglets come running through the park, with their little curly tails held high. Nearby someone was selling kitchen pots. Soon a couple little boys came by to bother us and try to get us to pay them to bring us to a supposedly bewitched tree with seven heads. Interestingly this strange palm tree, which did in fact have seven trunks and was extremely strange looking was located right next to a beautiful church in the middle of this tiny town. It all sounds like a crazy dream or someone rewriting Alice in Wonderland to take place in Peru. However, it made me realize that it only takes a legend or a strange natural phenomena to make a place significant and different cultures have a huge variety of reasons why they visit these "sacred" or "bewitched" places. Soon we were heading back to Lima, leaving a trail of sand behind us and marveling, but mostly laughing about how unreal the whole weekend was. (Unfortunately I have no photos of this bizarre day because my camera was broken due to the sand stuck in it, so ironically I could actually be making all of this up. But I will try to post one of my friends photos.)

Adventures in Huacachina

I'm still catching up on my blog posts because I have been so busy lately! Two weekend ago, I traveled to Huacachina which is near the city of Ica in southern Peru about 5 hours from Lima with some friends. I had heard about and seen pictures of it and I dreamed of going because it is a gorgeous desert filled with enormous dunes that look almost like the Savanna desert! Its a landscape completely different from anything I had ever experienced! Not surprisingly, the Oasis has become a backpackers paradise filled with cheap hostels, bars and sand buggy tours. We arrived and I was really strange for me to all of a sudden be surrounded by tourists and...white people! Anyways, let me backtrack. The first thing that we did when we arrived in Ica was visit a local vineyard that is well known for their sweet wine and Pisco. Pisco is a hard alcohol which is made from distilled fermented grapes and is used to make the delicious pisco sour- Peru's most famous and strong drink! Although the vineyard is a total tourist trap (we left with quite a bit of alcohol....I even bought I little bottle of pisco so I can prepare a pisco sour for some lucky friends) it was actually really interesting to go on the tour to see the places that were used traditionally to make the pisco- included a giant terrace where people stamped on the grapes to create the juice and the giant pots that they used to ferment the grapes (which were actually originally used by the Inkas to ferment chincha- corn alcohol and then we adapted by the Spaniards.) After learning about the process, we of course had to try some of the wine and pisco. Boy is it strong- pisco is something like 45% alcohol so it certainly warms up your belly. The pisco sour is pisco blended with lime juice, simple syrup, ice and egg whites which makes it foamy. It is kind of like Peru's version of the Margarita.

Soon we set off for Huacachina and I very quickly found myself buckled into a sand buggy (like a giant four wheel quad) about to have one of the the most terrifyingly amazing experiences of my life. Thank god I didn't realize what I was getting myself into (and I was still feeling a little warm from that pisco) or I never would have consented. We drove out on to the giant sand dunes and before I knew it, we were tearing across the sand, mounting the summits of the dunes and then tearing down the sides at crazy speeds. I have never screamed so much in my life. Our driver was an older man with a big smile, a warm heart and a love of making girls scream. We stopped at the stop of one dune to take in the incredible view and I breathed a sign of relief- I think I finally understand why people do crazy things for the adrenaline rush...I was never so aware that I was ALIVE! All around us were beautifully sculpted dunes as far as the eye could see and the sand I stroked with my hands was extremely soft and perfectly rippled. Before I knew it, we were off again and then we stopped at the top of a dune and our driver started getting out the sand boards which are similar to snowboards. He informed us we were going to ride down this massive dune on our stomachs and I freaked out. I have always been terrified of heights and snowboarding and basically everything. However, our driver, who by then had informed me that people call him "sonrisa" (smile) would not take no for an answer. He coaxed me to lie down on the board, use my legs as breaks and told me "si se peude Sarita!" (you can do it!) and gave me a push down the dune. I screammmmmmeeedddd for the entire 30 seconds or however long it was that I zipped down the dune. Then I reached the bottom and realized for the second time that day- wow, I'm alive and that was terrifyingly fun! I jumped to my feet with a big smile on my face and Smile gave me a huge thumbs up. There were so much sand in my shoes I could hardly walk. I am still finding sand in my clothes to this day. As we headed back to civilization, the wind whipped trough my hair, I crunched on sand in my mouth and I continued to scream for dear life. But the sun was setting over the top of the gorgeous dunes, I was in the company of amazing friends and I had found a Peruvian father- Smile had given me that push that I needed to accomplish something I never dreamed of ever doing.

A wonderful lunch!

Several weekends ago, one of my favorite adult students named Hilda invited me to her house for a delicious and very special meal. Two months ago, when Hilda first started in my beginner English for women, she knew zero English and learning was really hard for her at first. Learning a new language is hard, especially for someone who is a older. However, her daughter Jaquelin is also in one of my adolescent English classes and has been helping her mother to learn too! I love Hilda because she always asks questions, laughs at her mistakes and works really hard in class! I really admire her for her perseverance and sense of humor. Anyways, I was talking with her one day about Peruvian food, a favorite topic of conversation because Peruvians are very proud of their cuisine! I told her I hadn't tried ceviche yet (raw fish with lime juice) because I was afraid to try it at a restaurant and get sick (that is the american whimp coming out in me because Peruvians literally eat it from food carts in the street. They have stomachs of steal). So Hilda then so kindly invited me to her house for lunch the next weekend and it was one of the most delicious meals I have had in Peru so far! It was so special to be in her home and see her preparing the meal. I helped to squeeze the limes and oranges for the ceviche and I got to watch Hilda while she cooked the tomatoes, carrots, chicken and spices to make a tallarin rojo sauce (red pasta sauce). Jaquelin showed me pictures of her when she was a baby and her school books. Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to spend there because I had to teach another class in the afternoon but I really enjoyed the food and now I can say that I have eaten ceviche- the pride of Peru and I liked it! These kind of personal cultural experiences are what make this teaching experience so special and rewarding!

Soccer Tournment!

A couple of weeks ago, Light and Leadership held a soccer tournament for all of the kids in our programs and it was a huge hit! We went up to the different zones to pick up the kids in a bus and they ran excitedly to meet us, all decked out in their soccer jerseys. Everyone plays soccer here starting when they can barely walk and they play every possible patch of dirt. I am currently trying to learn how to play with our peruvian friends and we play every sunday night at a lighted field that you can rent out. I have discovered that I am a much better goalie than player, but I still have A LOT to learn but its a lot of fun to play with friends. Anyways, our peruvian friends (who are also english students) helped out as coaches and it was really cute to see them cheering for the kids. Below, a picture of one of my adult english students Jose with his team of boys from Los Alamos.

It was really fun to see all of the kids from the different areas of Huaycán playing together and they all played really well. Unfortunately there were a lot more boys than girls, but I recently had a class full of girls and we played a great game of soccer together. During my time here in Huaycán I have been definitely learning the value of team sports and trying to get over my past frustration and fear of sports. Seeing how sports brings people together, builds community (and is awesome exercise) here is really cool. Below, a picture of all of the kids and coaches on the soccer field.