Older but none the wiser!!

Last Saturday, the 14th April I turned 30. I know, no one else can believe it, people here think am just 25 or 26, it is so nice to look younger than you really are. 

Unlike most other people my age, I have actually been looking forward to turning 30 since I was 28, not sure why. However, when I realised I was going to be turning 30 away from home, I was a bit sad as thought who am I going to celebrate with. Well I need not have worried, as here I am in the country which knows are to celebrate and celebrate well.

My birthday celebrations started off on the Friday night at Fellowship Group were there were three of us celebrating our birthdays, so we had three cakes and they were carrot cakes, my favourite.

Rosita, Jose and me

And on Saturday morning I had to get up out of my bed at 7am, not nice on your birthday, but it was worthwhile as my Peruvian mum put on a birthday breakfast for me and invited the Latin Link team round to celebrate with me. It was lovely, we had fruit juice, bread, avocado, ham. Also Linda (a fellow strider) got up early that morning and made potato bread so we had some of that, was lovely. We also had cake - never before have I eaten birthday cake for breakfast,  but it was lovely and again the cake was a carrot cake... yummy. 

Rut-Maria, me and the cake.... I am blowing out the candle

I got lots of lovely presents from the team that morning, but there was one present which I was not expecting and it was from my sister. My mentor, Ruth Turner who is from Rasharkin, was home at Christmas, and my family went to see her. While we were at her house, my sister, without me knowing, slipped her a present to take back to Peru with her to keep for my birthday. So on Saturday morning she presented it to me, I was taken aback by my sister's careful preparations and by the present - it was a book of photos of my whole life (so far)... was amazing, it nearly set Cecily off in tears. I tell you something, my sister is a dark horse... and can't believe she did that for me while studying for exams over Christmas. And thanks to all my friends and family who contributed messages to the book as well, was so sweet. I loved all my presents and cards, but this particular present will be treasured forever. 

Me and the Book

That's not the end of the celebrations. Saturday lunchtime was spent with Latin Link Arequipa team in a restaurant in Santa Catalina monastery, it was really nice inside and the food was gorgeous. The company was good as well. It was a ladies only event because Paul, the only man in the team was away in Huaraz. 

Clockwise: Rosie, Linda, Ruth T, Ruth G, Cecily and Me.

And at night I went to the cinema with Ruth and Linda, all in all a good day was had. I enjoyed the celebrations.

But they weren't over yet, because on Monday at language school they have cake for me (yes, it was carrot cake - can you tell its my favourite, people know me well here already!)

In Peru, one of the traditions on your birthday is for you to have the cake shoved in your face. I escaped this tradition on the Friday and Saturday but unfortunately was not going to escape it on the Monday - even if I wanted to I couldn't as Pedro, the school's main man gave me no choice and the other students wouldn't let me get away without it happening either, it has happened to them so why not me! So after resisting for about 3 minutes, I gave it and let him shove it in my face. However, I was not going to be the only one with cake on my face, so i decided to run after Pedro and make sure he got some on his face too.

The good thing about having the cake shoved in your face, is that you have to eat the piece that your face touched, and it is always the biggest piece of cake! 

Pedro, me and the cake  - the before shot

Me with the cake on my face  - the after shot!

I think when I come back to Britain, I am going to bring that tradition with me, so watch out on your birthday's everyone, especially those who have big birthday's coming up next year (hear that Dad!!!)

The Seven Churches

On the Thursday of Holy Week, which is known as Maundy Thursday in United Kingdom, it is a tradition for people in Arequipa to visit all the churches in the center of Arequipa, of which there is seven. I spent the day with Lourdes, a girl from Church and we toured the churches. 


Services were being held in some of the Churches including the Cathedral so because of that and the throngs of people in them, we did not stay long in any of them, but it was good to see in them and see how similar they are with all the statues of the different saints and the paintings and statues of Jesus himself. The statues of  Jesus were mostly of him on the cross. 


I did not get to see all of the Seven churches, just Five of them.


The Cathedral

The Cathedral occupies all of the front of the Plaza de Armas, which is the main square in Arequipa. It is built in a neo-renaissance style with two towers and a stylized Gothic vault. Construction on the Cathedral was started in 1621 and finished in 1656. However, in 2001 a huge earthquake hit Arequipa and damaged both the towers, so much that one collapsed, but it was rebuilt again... but if you look carefully you can see there is a colour difference between both towers. 

La Compania

La Compania  originally erected in 1573 and followed the design of Gaspar Baez, but unfortunately it was also a victim of an earthquake but this time in 1584, so the church had to be rebuilt again in the late seventeenth century, finally completed in 1698.

Earthquakes can be quite damaging things. There has not been an earthquake in Arequipa since 2001 but according to the people who look out for them, think they are called Geologists, they are expecting one pretty soon - thankfully I now have my Go-Bag (full of essentials in case of an earthquake) so am ready to go, but am praying there isn't one as they are not very nice to be in the middle of I hear. 

San Augustin

San Augustin was built in 1575 and again was practically destroyed by a strong earthquake in 1868 but was restored again in the 19th Century and was rebuilt to the original details. 

San Francisco

San Francisco church was built in 1569 and again was designed by Gaspar Baez. However, after an earthquake in 1687, it had to be remolded and enlargened which saw it become the largest construction made from ashlar.

There is a statue of Francis of Assisi outside the church and this is because the church is linked with the Franciscan order due to the fact that the colonial cloisters were built by them - this conists of a small convent, a small temple of the Third Order of San Francisco and a small square.

Francis of Assisi

Santo Domingo

Unfortunately we did not get to this church until gone 6pm so it was dark and I was unable to take a photo of it, but here is a photo courtesy of google:

Santo Domingo was built by the Domnican Order who were the first order to arrive in Arequipa. Again this church was affected by earthquakes in 1582, 1605, 1958 and 1960. In the earthquake of 1960 the only thing left standing of the church was its ornate lateral portal and the Belfry. Again it was restored to its original design. 

So even though all these churches have been affected by earthquakes, they have not been left as rubble due to the indomitable fighting spirit of the Peruvians and the fact that these churches are very important to them. 

So that is the tale of my visit to the 5 of the 7 churches, the other two are Santa Catalina, which I will definitely visit in the next year and San Lazaro which I do not think is open anymore for people to look into. 

Easter in Peru

Many people have been asking me how was Easter in Peru, am sure it was very different from what you have experienced in England/Ireland. I am afraid my answer to this questions, is I have no idea. The reason for this is because I was sick over Easter and spent the whole weekend in my bed. I did not even get to experience the lovely foods they eat especially at Easter, because my Peruvian mum put me on a diet of chicken soup with potatoes or just chicken and rice. Plain foods are the answer when sick.

However, I did manage to experience two special things - Easter Special at School and The visiting of the 7 churches in Arequipa.

On the Wednesday of Holy Week, the language school held a special Easter event for all the students in order for us to help understand more about the Peruvian culture and learn about the traditions of each country represented in the school.

On Good Friday, a special meal is eaten which consists of a special soup called Chupe de Viernes which is made with cray fish, eggs, rice, and a variety of vegetables. So Abi, one of the teachers in the school taught us about the soup and what it meant, as well as showing us how it was made, and finally we were allowed to enjoy some  - however, don't me asking me what it was like because due to the eggs in the soup and my allergy to eggs, I unfortunately could not eat any. But I have been told it was lovely, so I take people's word for it.

The Ingredients for the Soup

The Soup being cooked

The Finished Product

The lunch on Good Friday also consists of arroz con leche (creamed rice) and Mezzamorra Morada, which is made from purple corn and fruit. I did not have any during Easter, but did eat some tonight for tea and can say that it is lovely.  If you want to make it, please find the recipe here: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Mazamorra-Morada but remember you will need purple corn and don't know if you can get that in Britian! Sorry, you will just have to come to Peru to taste it.

While the soup was cooking, each student talked about the Easter traditions in their country. The students int the school come from many different countries: Australia, Northern Ireland, Scotland, England, Germany, Russia, Denmark, Kazakstan, Norway and the United States of America. So we heard about the traditions in each of these countries. And I learnt a few things:

It seems out of the three British Nations represented that Northern Ireland celebrates more than the other England and Scotland. However, Tony from England told us an interesting thing - there is now a Christian company who make Easter Eggs and they are sold in the four major supermarkets in England... interesting). 

One of the traditions in Kazakstan is making a cake for Easter, which Liza who is from there, made and brought in for us to see and eat. 

It seems that out of all the countries represented, that Germany is the country similar to Peru, in that it takes celebration of Easter seriously - think this is because they are both deeply rooted in Catholicism. One of the German students, Katya, hid loads of painted hard boiled eggs around the school for us to find - this was fun. She reminded us it was important to find all the eggs, because one year her mum hid eggs for her and her siblings, but they did not find all the eggs but did not realise this until a couple of months later a horrible smell emanated from the living room and there behind the sofa they found a rotten egg! 

We did find ALL the eggs

This has turned out to be a long post, so will talk about the visiting of the 7 churches in a separate post. 

Culture Project: Find out about two Peruvian authors/sports people

In one of my earlier posts I mentioned that I had to do culture projects for the year I was in Peru so I can learn more about the Peruvian people and the culture. I also said I would share these on my blog so everyone else can learn as well.

Peru has many famous sports people and literary figures and my first project was to find out about two of these people and I chose Nolberto Solano, a footballer and Santiago Roncagliolo an author.

Nolberto Solano

Nolberto Solano Todco or otherwise known as ‘Nobby’ or ‘Nol’ was born in Callao, Peru on 12 December 1974. He is a Peruvian footballer and last played in 2011 for Hartlepool United who are in League One. He plays in two positions – Midfield and Full Back (don’t ask me to explain those as have no clue).  Out of the many sports stars of Peru that I could have focused one, I chose Nolberto Solano because he used to play for my favourite football team – Newcastle United.

Throughout his football career which spans from 1992 to the present, Nobby has played for 12 clubs and interestingly played for Newcastle United twice, from 1998 – 2004 and then again from 2005-2007, he must have loved the place so much he had to go back. Throughout his time in Newcastle, Nobby scored 45 goals in 240 appearances. His other teams are:

·                     Sporting Cristal  (1992-1993) and (1994-1997)

·                     Deportivo Muncipal (1993-1994)

·                     Boca Juniors (1997-1998)

·                     Aston Villa (2005-2005)

·                     West Ham United (2007-2008)

·                     Larissa (2008)

·                     Universitario de Deportes (2009)

·                     Leicester City (2010)

·                     Hull City (2010-2011)

Throughout his entire career Nobby has scored 115 goals in league football.  From 1994-2009 he was also part of the squad for the national football team of Peru, making 95 appearances and scoring 20 goals. He made his international debut at the age of 18.

He is a very popular figure in Peru and is seen as one of the most famous people from Peru and like Prince William, his wedding was shown live on television, though am not sure the amount of people who watched it would have been the same as those who watched Wills marry Kate last year.

What makes Nobby stand out from other Peruvian footballers?

· He is the first Peruvian footballer to play in England when he signed a contract with Newcastle United for £2.5 million.

·He is the first Peruvian footballer to play in the Premier League

· He is the first Peruvian footballer to play in the FA Cup (in 1999 with Newcastle United, where they were beaten 2-0 by Man Utd, but we won’t discuss that!)

So apart from football, what else is there to say about Nolberto Solano? Well his father, Albino was in the Peruvian Navy and his mother was a housewife and raised him and his four brothers and two sisters. He is the youngest member of the family.

As well as being a talented footballer and being the first choice player in most of his teams to take corner and direct free kicks, he is also an accomplished trumpet player and has his own Salsa band which is called the Geordie Latinos.

In 2012, he began his managerial career and is the coach of Newcastle Benfield. From the sounds of it, Nobby likes Newcastle and even goes as far as calling himself an ‘adopted Geordie’.

Santiago Roncagliolo

Santiago Roncagliolo was born in Lima, Peru but spent most of his childhood in Arequipa. Santiago is a writer by profession.

His father, Rafael Roncagliolo is a renowned political analyst who was forced to leave Peru with his family due to the political tensions that arose in 1968 with the military government. During this time they lived in Mexico. After then tension died down, the family returned to Peru where Santiago continued his studied.

Santiago’s started his writing career with children’s books and a short play called "Your friends would never harm you". However, he is most famous for his novel ‘Abril Rojo’ (Red April) which was published in 2006 and helped him become the youngest ever winner of the Premio Alfaguarad de Novela award which is a Spanish-language literary award and one of the most prestigious in the Spanish language. He also became the youngest ever winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize.

What is Red April about? Well it is a story of a serial killer who is terrorising a tiny Andean village. It is set in the year 2000 at the end of the civil war waged against the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), led by one of the world’s most ruthless terrorists, Abimael Guzman. But although the war is officially over, the atmosphere of fear and dread still pervades these small towns. Political corruption is both rife and strenuously denied.

Abimael Guzman is also the subject of another book by Santiago called La Cuarta Espada, which unlike Red April has not been translated into English.

As well as being an award winning author, Santiago also writes scripts for television soap operas, is a journalist and has also come into contact with the political world landing himself a job with the Human Rights Commission when some politicians needed someone to bring a human touch to their speeches and reports.

Santiago moved to Barcelona, Spain in 2000 and currently lives there but does spend a lot of time in Peru as well. During his first few years of living in Spain, he had no money and was forced to clean houses in order to pay his rent. But that was before his writing career took off and he became a bestselling author.

What else is interesting about Santiago? Well you might have realised his surname is not particularly Peruvian and there is a very interesting story behind that which is – Santiago’s great grandfather was a smuggler and did not really have a last name so adopted the one of Roncagliolo because he thought it was so complicated that nobody in the courts could spell or write it correctly. He bought land in Peru and raised his children there.

Language Blunders

Learning a new language is frustrating because a) it is hard to remember what to say b) there are so many verbs c) there are so many different tenses which you d) you have to remember to conjugate the verbs depending on the tense and who you are talking to/about and finally e) it is so easy to make blunders whilst talking which either offends people or makes them laugh.

I have made a few blunders and thought would share them to make people laugh and also to let others out there learning languages that we all make blunders, well I hope we do, don’t want to be the only imperfect one!

Blunder 1:

A few weeks ago my Rut-Maria (my Peruvian mother) asked me would I like to come to walk the dog with her (all in Spanish of course) and I replied in English, hang on till I get my zapallos on and pointed at my feet... she looked at me funnily and then I realised I just told her I was putting my pumpkins on as the word for ‘pumpkin’ is’ zapallo’ and what I wanted to say was’ zapatos’ meaning ‘shoe’.

Maybe I could start a new line of business when I get home – vegetable shoes!

Blunder 2:

At the end of every week I have to pay my fees to the language school.  After my 4th week there I decided I would try and speak Spanish whilst asking Pedro if I could pay him, so confidently I went up to him and said “puedo pegar?”  - meaning ‘can I pay?’, and in response Pedro put his arms up in defence.  It took me a while to realise that I asked him if I could hit him as in Spanish the word for ‘pay’ is  ‘pagar’ and the word I said ‘pegar’ means ‘hit’  -can you see how similar they are and how easy it would be to mistake them...... but an important lesson learnt there. Thankfully Pedro laughed about it, but someone else might just have hit me first!

Blunder 3: 

Last Wednesday night the Latin Link group met at my house, so the night before Rut-Maria and I cleaned up and made sure everything was sparkling and ready for them to come.  At one point during the clean up session, Rut-Maria was out of the room and Fred had come into play, and he was very bouncy, too bouncy in fact because he broke a vase. I went to tell Rut-Maria about it who in turn shouted at Fred whilst I cleaned up the broken pieces of glass. Afterwards I said to Rut-Maria, “Yo sentar mal” which means ‘I feel bad”. At that Rut-Maria burst in to fits of laughter, and I asked ‘Que?’ (What?) and she said ‘sentir que no sentar’ which means ‘feel not sit’.  So instead of saying ‘I feel bad’ (Yo sentir mal) I said ‘I sit bad’ (Yo sentar mal).

Why are words so similar for me to make mistakes like that!

Blunder 4:

Fred, the family dog, eats a lot of food and every mealtime he is jumping around trying to get tit bits of the food we are eating. One night over tea whilst Fred was scrounging for food, Rut-Maria and I were discussing his eating habits and all he likes to eat (which is everything, except he is not that keen on carrots). And I said to her, ‘Fred le gusta cocinar mucho’ meaning ‘Fred likes to eat lots’. Again she laughed and again I was like ‘Que?’ (What?) And I slowly realised that instead of saying ‘eat’ which in Spanish is ‘comer’ I said ‘cocinar’ which means cook. So really I was saying that ‘Fred likes to cook a lot’... can you imagine a dog standing by the cooked stirring the gravy for the roast dinner?!

Blunder 5:

Ok so the latest blunder happened today in language school. Each day my conversational teacher AnaSe asks me ‘what time is it?’, ‘what time did you wake up?’, ‘what did you have for breakfast?’ etc in order to practice talking in Spanish. Today AnaSe asked me ‘¿qué tienen para el almuerzo de ayer?’ which means ‘what did you have for lunch yesterday?’ and I answered with ‘pescado, arroz, zanahorias y tomates seguidos por un perro’ meaning ‘fish, rice, carrots and tomatoes followed by a pear’. This time it was AnaSe’s turn to laugh but before she could correct me, I had realised my mistake....  I had told AnaSe that I had eaten dog! I don’t think Fred would be very happy if I ate him. So what was the mistake, well instead of saying ‘una pera’ (a pear) I said ‘un perro’ (a dog).  I think that is by far the stupidest blunder I have made and in some places I could probably get in trouble for saying I ate dog.

Hope you had a good laugh at me. The good thing is that I have been able to laugh at myself and learn from my mistakes. 

Arequipa Calling

Every few months Latin Link produce a magazine called Latin File which gives updates on the work across Latin America by Latin Link members.

The latest magazine has an article in it entitled Arequipa Calling which has three Latin Link members in Arequipa talking about their calling to mission  - these people are long termer Rosemary Gibson who has been in Peru for 37 years, Cecily MacLagan, who has returned to Peru as a Strider after having already spent 12 years here with Irish Baptist Mission, and of course there is myself, a new Strider whose only connection to Peru before coming here, was growing up in a house with Peruvian tapestries etc...

To read this article please go to:  http://www.latinlink.org.uk/getmedia/26c7cc0c-d9e1-4adb-8ad9-6dbf6d918942/LatinFile_Spring_2012.pdf.aspx.  The Arequipa Calling article is on page 8 and 9. Enjoy reading both Rosemary and Cecily's stories, they are very interesting. Also there are other great pieces in there about the work of Latin Link.