thanksgiving

alright, so here's a quick story while I have internet for a few more hours...
this weekend was thanksgiving, as everyone knows. except in Peru, where no one has heard of it, and they understand the concept of a family get together, but the idea of pilgrims and indians and parades and parties...yea that hasn't reached down here yet
so yesterday, most of the volunteers in my region got together in the capitol city to do thanksgiving, cuz as much as we love experiencing new cultures, thanksgiving is pretty awesome, and I think a lot of people were looking for a taste of home. The volunteers who have been here longer (3 months to a year) had family send up fixings, and a 20 pound frozen turkey was procured, and we wound up sitting down to turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, cranberries, green bean casserole and apple and pumpkin pies. it would have passed for a solid American thanksgiving dinner. BUT, when I sat down next to my friend Pete, and we got past the thanksgiving "what you're thankful for" toast, the first conversation we had afterwards started with "so yesterday, when my host mom was cleaning the pig she had slaughtered that morning in my kitchen..."

so yea that's Peru. Site is good--beautiful, hard and awkward. but i met with the school director and some other people in the town and hopefully soon I'll have some real progress to report.


hope all is well wherever you are and happy thanksgiving

--alex