Do You Peru

Crazy good times. Lev, Poorani and myself headed south for spring break to visit Sam Young. Sam is Peace Corpsing (PC) for dos anos in Peru imparting his vast knowledge of I-banking, bankruptcy, and large scale debt reduction on the small village of Shupluy, population 147. Sam was placed in the business section of the PC and is doing what he can to infuse an economic structure and spark business. So far he's about 0 for 5000...but that's not quite his fault. With a town of less than 200 there's only so much you can do regarding business, and so much happens to be nothing. In this regard Sam reads over a 1000 pages a week, plays soccer and volley with the kids, teaches english to unwanting students and hangs out with his PC buds whenever he can.

When we first arrived in Peru we stayed in Lima for a night and then left the next morning for Huaraz, the capital of the state Sam is in, where Lev promply got as many bags stolen from him as possible. After an 8 hour bus ride, 2 dubbed movies, and 1 game of bingo later we arrived in the picturesque city of Huaraz situated in the cordia negras high up in a mountain valley. After a meal, some Inca Cola and a churroz we layed down in our hostel beds and said good night to Huaraz. The next day we made our way to Shupluy where we stayed for the next 3 days. This was by far my favorite time in Peru. I have never spent extended periods of time with native peoples of any country. It was great opportunity to see how people live and work, not the glitsy glam hotel experience of a normal vacation. We were able to interact with most of the town. Everyone in Sams town in muy tranquilo, for better or worse...nothing seems to get done, but nonone worries and most people are content. We played volleyball and soccer with the towns kids, sat in on an english class, and got to practice our spanish. Apparently, i'm on a 1st grade spanish speaking level...although even the first graders had to correct my speach. Sams mom is great and makes amazing food on very limited kitchen equipment. Soups, quinoa, tortillas, papas fritas, rice...she cooked up a storm. During the days at Sams site we took some day hiking trips including one in Mt. Huascaran national park and one that ended up taking us oven a zipline. After Sams site we headed up north with a bunch of PC'ers (i mentioned lev got his bag stolen...in it were our plane tickets to Machu Pichu...needless to say we didn't go there) so we vacationed on the beach with about 20 PC volunteers. This was alos a great time because we got to learn a ton about Peace Corps on a very candid intimate level. Well, after almost loosing lev to the pacific ocean and some great ceviche we headed back to Lima and the U.S. We would like to thank Sam and his host family for being so kind.