6 Weeks In...

Today marks the end of my sixth week in Peru. Here are 10 of my first reflections on life and culture here in Cayma where I live:

1. People iron their laundry. All of it. And you might not believe it, but I even caught my host mom ironing my underwear.
2. For breakfast, it is common to make juice with a little bit of water and a blend of fresh fruits. I love this. And I can't wait to "try this at home."
3. Peruvians - yound and old - party hard and stay out late on the weekends. My host mom is just over fifty and she got in at 2am last night. Go figure.
4. It is Peruvian law that employees must work 48 hours a week. Many work more. However, they day is structured a little differently. They got to work from 9-2ish. Then they come home for lunch (the biggest meal of the day) with their families and for time to relax until 4. Then they go back to work until 7:30 or 8. When they come home for the day, they usually eat a small meal and my family normally has tea.
5. Here in Cayma, you can walk EVERYWHERE. To church, to the grocery store, to the gym, to the pool - you name it and it's close by. (I walked everywhere in Tisovec last year, but there was really nowhere to walk to.) In Cayma, there are always people on the move.
6. Many women choose to "cargar" their children. This means, they carry them in a blanket, called a lliclla, on their back. I am currently in the process of learning how to do this, and I am hoping to explain more in a blog later this week.
7. I love mangoes. They are my new favorite thing.
8. As is true of most places in Central and South America, time is relative. People are habitually late, but in the eyes of the Peruvians it seems that they not so much worried about being somewhere "on time" but "in time." I am slowly starting to adjust my internal clock to allow for the fact that everyone makes an entrance ten to twenty minutes late.
9. This is not surprising, but is worth stating: everyone is Catholic.
10. As in Slovakia, I have a new name - one that I just started being called this week: Meg-ita. This is a diminuitive form of "Meghan" and is used for friends and family.