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Published: September 7th 2009
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Hostel courtyard
Arequipay Backpacker's courtyard 6/9/09 from my flat
hola, time for a wee update,
after arriving finally in Arequipa and getting to the hostel, myself and Tomek had a mooch about town, I popped along to the language school to arrange my classes and accomodation for the next day, and on the way back we went into the monastery and had a tour with a guide, so glad we got the guide as she was great, really stiff at first but cracked towards the end and started making jokes, she showed us the living quarters the Dominican nuns had back in the last century, sorry, two centuries ago, and told us about some of their practices, it's quite sick really, some of them there were brainwashed from the age of 3, not allowed to have belongings until they were 16 (when they could leave the convent and marry a 55 year old man, or stay until they die), and even then the belongings were from a list that the mother superior devised (control freak), they could only see their family through a wooden confessional box - and the family were notified by letter if they died, they were not even allowed to talk
Forgive me Father for I have sinned
The new Polish priest Tomek in the confessional box (Iglesia San Juan Bautista) to each other without supervision, they used to mutilate themselves and punish themselves twice a week if they had impure thoughts, and they went to confession every single day for half an hour.... i don't know anyone who has that many impure thoughts, not even deirdre! guess they had to make up things to confess about and then confess about that? anyway, she said they still can beat themselves today (there are about 25 nuns today between the ages of 22 (?!?!) and 96) but have to have permission from the mother superior - what kind of person can justify that?????
anyhoo, that was an experience, i think i'm gonna get up really early one morning to go to mass to see the nuns - it's everyday at 7am, they don't have it so bad now, they have a computer and a television, but still can't see their families apart from through iron gates, or at mass through a holey (haha) partition. the next day we took a walk up to Yanahuara which has amazing views of the city and El Misti, one of the surrounding (and closest) volcanoes. Got some lovely pictures up there, and it was very
token traveller shot
enfrente de El Misti peaceful. We looked in another church 18th century San Juan Bautista, and started to realise, that it wasn't just the monastery that had horrific icons and statues, but all the churches too. Our happy primary school images of a smiling Mary and cute baby Jesus were diminished in seconds, everything had blood on it, thorns galore, terrorised faces and peculiar afro-cum-80's glam rock wigs, the people out here are pretty God fearing and no wonder! Also no wonder why so many of us St.Joseph's/Gregory's 'catholics' have laxed.....!
My situation with the school and accomodation....... I have so far booked 4 weeks of lessons (80 hours) in small groups, but as I am the only student and I requested Alan (on James' great recommendation) I am getting 1-2-1 tuition, 9-1 Mon-Fri. My student accomodation consists of my own room with two beds and lots of space, a large living room with tv, stereo, dvd, sofas and dining table, a big-sized kitchen with all the mod-cons (and some random things i have no idea how to use), a bathroom and a roof terrace.... ! I am the only student here, and if any more arrive then there are 2 other rooms.
Dol, Ijoya and Tomek
just before Tomek and Dol got the bus to Cusco So my course and accomodation together for 4 weeks was £328, it's quite shocking. It's not the best being here on my own, but it's meant I've done all my homework so far, so it's not all bad haha! the food here is great, nice and hot, and ridiculously cheap, at lunch the cafes have 3 courses between 3 and 6 soles (60p-£1.20) which includes a drink, and at dinner it's not even double that. i don't want to exploit how cheap everything is so on Monday I'm going along to one of the volunteer organisations to register, I'm hoping to get some work with some of the kids as they really need some attention, but also they love to talk talk talk and it will help with the linguistics.
I saw a tiny little girl (maybe 3 years) yesterday as i went to the launderette who was just stood in a cart staring out to the street from a carpark sort of area, she was completely on her own with a raggedy old doll that had had most of it's hair out and was bare by any means, as i collected my laundry i crossed the road back to the opening of the carpark and smiled at her, my heart absolutely broke as she smiled back and stared at me, i looked around to see if there was an adult with her and i saw this little old lady just out of sight behind a wall trying to make a living illegally selling beer from a doorway, the old lady was watching the girl from her stool. i smiled at them both again and left, it's been stuck in my head ever since and I'm torn between knowing what to do, I could buy the girl a new doll, which I'm sure she'll be happy with, but what would that mean to her family, that a gringo can give her something they can't, or that they'd rather have the money for food..... I don't know what to do, I'm keen to get my language up to speak to the old lady and ask her. it really affected me anyway, we all had/have so much as kids and just never appreciated it. if something breaks we replace it or have lots of dolls so it doesn't matter, i never thought we were spoiled as kids, but i guess every single one of us was compared to these. what's that phrase? we don't know we're born.
so anyway, on a lighter note, Tomek came back from his colca canyon tour and was absolutely buzzing! he loved it so much that he booked his bus the next day to take him to Cusco so he could 'get on it' and head for Machu Picchu and a 5 day trek, so he left on Friday for his next adventure, I hope to meet up with him when we get back to London. My dutch friend Ijoya (Joy for us Brits) had dinner with me and went herself on the Colca Canyon trip that night, she's back sometime this evening and here at the school until Tuesday where she leaves for New York for 10 days, then home to Amsterdam after a year of travelling, in this year she's learnt English (and I mean fluently!) from travelling around and is now on to Spanish - por que no? - why not? when she leaves she'll be the last person I know here so I'll be glad for the volunteering to meet more non-english speakers and make more friends. I came here to be immersed in the language and that's how it's gonna be, for the first time in my life I'm really enjoying studying.
Today I'm going to have a wonder around town, go to the fake Starbucks and do some more homework (note for Helen Thomas, o,as,a,amos,an o,es,e,emos,en o,es,e,imos,en but why doesn't it stick in my head when speaking? any tips to remember?) and then perhaps go to the market and meet Joy,
so everything's ok here except missing Helen and Babs, but get to see them on the webcam - Babs is funny and stares at the screen!
I'm on skype jaynielondon
byeeeeeeeeeeeeee xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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