"Lanzar:" To Throw

I arrived here, in Huanuco, at 4:30 am on Saturday morning. The first thing my taxi driver did was attempt to put my gigantic duffel on the back of a motorcycle. The attempt was hardly successful and it took almost 20 minutes to rectify.

When I arrived the hotel I had reserved the day before, the infamous "hotel game" ensued. This game is one where the person who owns the hotel acts as if they have never heard of you. I think they do this because they have overbooked the hotel and now have very limited space. After arguing for a moment, it turned out there was a single room left and it was on the 5th floor. At 5 am, I was willing to make concessions I usually do not make. So we lugged my huge bag and extra stuff up many, many stairs to a room that smelled like cooked cabbage. I was concerned about bugs. Sometimes, the prices of rooms change once one arrives. In this case, my room price went up about 60 cents as my room quality went down.

Needless to say, I changed hotels the next morning. The woman who owned the hotel was absolutely shocked that I did not want to stay at her fine establishment. She even offered to let me change rooms in a few days. By that point, I had carried all my stuff back down the 5 flights of stairs. Who needs to go to the gym when you can just play the hotel game?

My new hotel is double the price (a whopping $20 a night), but significantly cleaner and without odor. Apparently the water in Huanuco goes out quite frequently, so I find myself showering a lot just in case I can't again for awhile.

Wednesday I did not leave the hotel. There was a national strike (or riot, whatever we prefer to call it) across Peru. Every time I would discuss the strike with people, they would use the Spanish verb "to throw" which led me to believe that those who are protesting throw things at those who are not.

Since nothing would be open, I was told to "gather provisions." It felt very much like preparing for a hurricane. I bought bread, water, and fruit and waited for the storm to start.

It started around 8am with yelling. Then there was a march around the city. I did not witness either of these things simply out of fear of the "throwing." By about 3pm everyone was tired and things had completely died down. By 4pm I bravely ventured outside to discover the city as a ghost town. The taxi drivers were on strike too, so it was the first time in my Peruvian life that I did not almost die while trying to cross the street. There are positives in everything I guess.

The Day the Laptops Arrived

So I have been here in Peru a little over a month. I have been teaching hundreds of students technology on one little computer. It seems that there was a mistake with my schedule and I kept missing the mass arrival of machines by one week or so.

It is really frustrating to miss the arrival of the machines once. It is more frustrating the second time. By the third time it is a bit hard to have hope. Yet, like they always say, the "third time is a charm." Who ever "they" is even predicated the arrival of laptop in Arequipa correctly. My Spanish grammar in relation to the laptops had always included the progressive or future tense (the laptops are arriving or the laptops will arrive).

We got to the local Ministry of Education in Mollendo, Arequipa (located, quite conveniently, 2.5 hours by bus away from our hotel) and discovered that the laptop had arrived! That's right, past tense. Shock.

We took the laptops to the school, handed them out, and were finally able to watch children connect. They connected, discovered their ability to chat, and completely lost interest in what the teacher was saying. The director of the local ministry office kept trying to tell me something about a ceremony. I wasn't really listening and it was about that time that a first grader with a very bad cold sneezed on me. I just nodded, said "yes I understand" and went back to fixing computers.

A word to the wise: If someone mentions the word "ceremony" in Peru, it may be in your best interest to listen. The next day we arrived to find the school transformed with a large tent, speaker system, and everyone dressed quite professionally.

Apparently the Ministry of Education (from Lima), including the nice man who lets me live with him in Lima, was coming to see the children with laptops and have a ceremony. I know, I know, I should have paid better attention.

The ceremony was a hit. Kids dressed like old men and danced in circles with sticks. I have no idea why (I don't think they know either). Others sang and read poems.

During the ceremony all the kids had their laptops out and were experimenting with them. During a very important (but agreeably boring) speaker, a few discovered the joys of the music creation program. By working together (as the program encourages) they could almost completely drown out the speaker. There was much sadness when I temporarily disabled their speakers.

On a serious note, I really do believe that these laptops will change the educational system in Arequipa. Already, the children are learning to type. They are teaching their families and working to find ways to connect to internet. They are taking pictures of their communities and finding ways to document their lives. And of course, they can now make enough music to completely overpower their teachers. A tool in and of itself.

A LA DERECHA!!! A LA DERECHA!!! (To the right, to the right)

If anyone ever asks me if I saw the Nazca Lines while I was in Peru, I will most assuredly tell them yes. When they ask me if I almost died, I will nod my head vigorously and try not to think about the flight.

For those who are not ancient Incan experts (i.e. most of us), the Nazca lines are figures drawn in the desert of Peru. They were left there by the Incans. Why? While there are a hundred different guesses, no one really knows what they were purpose they served. In fact, no one could even see them until the early 1900s when air planes rose above the deserts of Peru.

Since the people of Nazca were not able to recognize the lines from the ground, it makes sense that tourists aren't able to either. Unfortunately Continental Airlines does not fly over the lines. Neither does Delta. Only Aero Condor makes the trip. The plane was not exactly a Boeing 757.

Actually, the plane only had 6 seats. We had to sit according to our weight in order to maintain balance. Before "take off" we were each given a "special airplane bag" and a set of headphones. I would like to set the record straight and maintain that, although I did turn a bit green, I never used my "special airplane bag" during our flight.

The takeoff was a bit rough as we bounced off the runway. The flight was much rougher. The desert stretched out in front of us, and the Nazca Lines were everywhere at once. Seeing the figures themselves is a bit difficult, and the pilot wanted to make sure everyone got to see them.
Usually the left side of the plane would go first. The pilot would dip the plane completely sideways, while shouting the name of the figure we were looking at in Spanish. Everyone on the right side of the plane would cramp the people on the left, trying to get an early view. The plane would spiral downwards for a few seconds and then it would be the right side's turn.

Now the pilot would shout "A LA DERECHA, A LA DERECHA" (ON THE RIGHT, ON THE RIGHT). Everyone on the right would now peer down as the plane barrel rolled to the right 180 degrees. Peering downwards for a few seconds usually was enough time for me to spot the figure, take a picture, contemplate losing my lunch, and talk myself out of it. There were over 10 figures and the ride lasted 30 minutes. Self control is a beautiful thing…

The photos of the lines are below. I have added some circles to make spotting them a bit easier for you than it was for me.

The plane.

A monkey (I liked this one the best).

A hummingbird!

A spider.