On Saturday a new volunteer arrived from Finland. I’d never met anyone from Finland before. In my mind I had always lumped the Scandinavians into one group. They’re blond socialists who experience just two seasons: six months of day, then six months of night. They speak pretty much the same language but don’t like to admit it. They produce good music, they’re the most environmentally-friendly people in the world, and they live in small, practical homes filled with IKEA furniture.

It turns out that the Finnish language is quite different from Swedish and Norwegian, and Finland is actually …Read More

Today I was back in Los Alamos to begin a new session of English classes. Serena joined me.

Apparently I’ve become so used to animals in the classroom that I don’t even notice them anymore. At one point Serena came up to me quietly and whispered, “Um, is it okay that there are roosters in here?”

What? Roosters? Oh. Yeah, the neighbor’s roosters. No biggie, as long as they don’t get in the way of the dogs.

I deeply appreciated Serena’s wide-eyed wonder because I know that I was exactly the same way my first few classes. I say this as though I’ve …Read More

I never realized how concerned we are in the States about personal and private space. I’ve been in Huaycan for over a week now, and I’ve discovered that the lack of personal space is exhausting. It never occurred to me until now that I’m used to having an awful lot of time to myself: getting dressed, taking showers, eating breakfast, commuting to and from work, watching tv alone or reading a book, spending any kind of time at all in my bedroom, sleeping, going to the bathroom….

It seems a little ridiculous to consider some of those examples as personal time, …Read More

I’ve tried to write about the last several days, but each time I end up just staring at my computer screen. Each day is packed with new experiences, and it’s impossible to capture everything. I can’t seem to do it justice. So instead of trying to record each day’s events, I’m going to try to focus on one particular aspect of life here for each post. Maybe it will become easier to describe each day after I’ve been here for awhile, and everything isn’t new anymore, but for now, I’ll start small.

The Light …Read More

This morning I went on a walking tour of the neighborhood in Zona D with Lara, Kristin, and Yrma, Luz’s mom. Yrma led us to a nearby “foothill” (it looked more like a mountain to this Midwest girl) that had been divided into different plots of land for people to garden. Since the plots are on the side of the foothill, an extremely steep stone staircase was the only way to access the plots, which were also created with walls of stone. Each flat level was about five feet deep, so the whole side of the foothill looked like a …Read More