Spelunking

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April 3, 2006


I’ll start a blog, though I may have to finish it later, as there is a chance one or two of my students from the evening class may show up. As many of you know, my evening class was a bit of a bust, though the morning class is still going great guns. We had an international lunch at the school on Saturday, and it was great fun. We set up tables in the classroom and had lunch from 2-4 PM or later. I fixed “bocadillos Americanos” American sandwiches. Apparently they don’t eat sandwiches here, so it was a novelty. Imagine tuna fish and egg salad sandwiches being a novelty!! One girl brought a huge lemon meringue pie, which was also a big hit.

On Sunday, I spent the day volunteering to help with a field trip for the children at the homeless shelter. We took them to the Wari ruins, about an hour away. The Wari apparently predated the Incas by about 1000 years. It was pretty interesting, but a bit difficult to follow the lecture in Spanish.

Before we actually went to the ruins we went on a long hike, up and down hills, over rock piles, and through fields of cacti. We arrived at a spot the director of the shelter knew about, where there were some pretty deep caves. It was my first experience with spelunking. I am pretty claustrophobic, so I have never tried it before. I thought if a bunch of kids can do it, I can do it! The director, Hugo, tied a long rope to a big rock at the beginning, and down we went. We went in a long way, walking, crawling, slipping and sliding. The whole way I was thinking to myself, “What goes down must come up!” I think I said that about one of our other hikes. We got to a point where we couldn’t make ourselves any smaller, and turned around and crawled out. It was not difficult, and the kids got a real kick out of it. It was VERY dark in there-kind of strange to walk where you don’t know where you are putting your feet down!

When we were finally out (and VERY dirty I might add) we hiked some more and found a nice place for a picnic and had lunch. I was able to try the cactus fruit called tuna. You can see them in the photos, they’re red. At that point I thought, that was an interesting adventure, now let’s go home. BUT…..

We walked to some fields where many Wari artifacts had been found, and looked for painted pottery shards for a hour or so. I found two, but of course it’s illegal to take things like that out of the country. Apparently the Peruvians go there all the time to look for artifacts. It’s a little surprising the area isn’t more protected. These fields were near an area where some excavating had been done, and we saw some burial crypts, an elaborate irrigation system, a big circular arena, and a huge stone table where sacrifices of animals took place. Of course, for the children the sacrificial table was the highlight of the trip!

And THEN I thought , ok, we’ve seen it all, hiked for hours, listened to a history of the Waris, all of this in the hot sun, now let’s go home…..

BUT, there was still the tour of another excavation and a tour of a small museum. It was all pretty interesting, but by the time we got back, I was completely exhausted. Not to mention the two cactus spines that speared me! The one in my hand came out pretty easily, but the one in my knee was as big as a good sized darning needle and in pretty deep. When I tried to pull it out, it broke off just below the skin, and I had to do minor surgery when we got back. My poor knee is still stiff. I can hear Jim now,” Well why didn’t you stay away from the spines?” 1. They were everywhere (check out the photos on webshots) and 2. I am a klutz. The one in my knee I fell on, that’s why it went in so deep.

So, there are my latest adventures. Tomorrow one of my students is taking me shopping for some earrings, and DVDs. DVDs here are about $1. I’m going to start a small collection to share at home. Shopping is always a chore-a long walk to get there, and a long climb up the hill to get home.

My Spanish is coming along slowly. I found a new set of books I wish I had discovered a long time ago. The instruction is much more logical, and I am learning a lot in a hurry. The new book,s and flashcards-that’s my new system. I should’ve started the flashcards a long time ago-just lazy! I am at the point where I can carry on a conversation that the local people can understand, but they have to speak in pretty simple sentences. Hence, the flashcards to expand my vocabulary in a hurry. I can continue to work on it at home with these new books.

That’s all for now. Take care, I miss you all
Kathy

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