Days 12-13: Are You a Man or a Woman?

Every day at school, I have a new conversation with a student that teaches me a little more about the culture here (or at least allows me to draw general conclusions that may or may not be accurate). Yesterday, it came in the form of a question that felt like a direct insult, but I later realized was an honest inquiry into differences between my culture and that of the kids here.

Yesterday afternoon, I was working with a class of kindergarteners, aka five-year-olds who are spending as much energy trying to understand the world around them as I am trying to understand the things they say to me in Spanish. As I was trying to explain a game to a group of them, one girl was staring at me intently. Once I finished explaining, she looked up at me and asked, “Are you a man or a woman?” After recovering from the initial shock, I responded by showing her my braid and saying “What do you think?!” She responded “woman,” and then we both went on our merry ways.

Of course, I didn’t stop thinking about it, trying to figure out why she was confused about my gender. Sure, I was wearing long shorts and a t-shirt, but all the girls wear that during gym class. I moved to my extremities, and started thinking about my shoes and my hat. I realized that I was wearing Adidas Sambas, which are typical indoor soccer shoes- and only boys play soccer at this school. I was also wearing a baseball cap, and based on what I’ve seen, that seems to be something that the boys wear more than the girls.

After that in-depth analysis (I’m crazy, I know), I decided that she wasn’t really asking me if I was a man or a woman. She was saying “You look like a woman, but you’re wearing things that fit my description of ‘man,’ and I am five years old and this confuses me.” I also might just be saying that to make myself feel better… but I prefer to think of it as a learning experience.

Today, we (accidentally) went exploring in San Blas again, the gorgeous neighborhood that we visited the second day. It was an accident because we initially went out in search of an ice cream place that one of our coordinators recommended, only to find out that it doesn’t exist anymore. Nobody panic though, we found another good ice cream place- it was okay in the end. This view was a result of the accidental exploring:

I can never figure out who’s in charge of knowing where the power lines go in this city.

I also found this little llama who was totally not amused by us taking pictures.

For dinner we went back to San Blas to try a place we had passed earlier- it looked cheap and had typical Peruvian dishes, and those were our main criteria. The food was good but the atmosphere was even better:

The windows were open, giving you a view of the city below and the mountains in the background

Tomorrow, I’m going on a guided tour of some of the most historical parts of the city. I’m really excited, because I keep finding myself looking at landmarks (or even just down at the streets I use every day) wondering who built them and how long they’ve existed. I’ll let you know if I learn anything good (I betcha I will).

Due to popular demand (mainly my dad), I need to post this picture of the cuy palace I saw the other day in Pisac before I sign off. My dad wanted me to post it when I eat cuy, with this picture next to a picture of the one on my plate, but I decided that may be offensive to some. Without further ado, here are the royal conditions under which the cuy in a restaurant in Pisac live before being eaten (I wonder if they pick them out like we do with lobster?):

That’s all for now, next time I’ll be armed with some fun historical facts to wield throughout my post. Look out.

Spanish Word of the Day: “matar”- meaning “to kill” literally, but also meaning “to spike” in volleyball (my hands are bruised from playing so much volleyball with the kids today).

(Instead of coming up with a new way to sign off every time, I’m going to start giving fun Spanish words of the day that I learned recently)