Tuesday, March 13, 2012

The culture trap!





My dear friends, be careful what you do! Did you know that if someone asks you to cut their baby´s nails and you do it means you will become their godmother and have to foot the bill for every need he or she may have? I didn´t either. But luckily I didn´t have any nail clippers so I avoided becoming finanically responsible for another human being!
I went to my first onsha the other day. What is an onsha you may ask? Well, cut down a tree and put it IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD and then proceed to decorate it with a bunch of random things. Add music and spend the night drinking and dancing around it. At midnight cut the tree down. That is an onsha. Here is a picture. We are currently in onsha season which means that you may frequently find your way blocked by a strangely decorated tree. You have to love this country!
Yesterday I attempted my first lasagna here and it actually turned out well! yay! The thing that looks and tastes like mashed potatos is actually a vegetable call oca. It is yummy when you prepare it correctly which I didn´t. Oh well. The other photo is César´s mother and Elsa about to eat yummy chicken in white sauce :) Everybody seems to be in a bad mood today so I am camping out in my bedroom and writing my blog!
César is off to Chiclayo tomorrow night to solve my visa problem for me, hopefully it works so I can stay until June!
Have you ever had someone in your house sleep with a giant steak knife? No? Welcome to my life! Apparently a steak knife is useful to stab your shadow if it attempts to kill you. If you happen to be haunted by your shadow you can solve this problem by firstly rubbing an egg all over your body and then cracking it into a glass. Should you see any black bits in the egg that is your shadow. Funnily enough that didn´t work as the egg was normal. The next procedure is to take the clothes of the haunted one and put grains and oats etc in it, and then procced to have him or her walk around with a knife stabbing the air. This is a deadly serious ceremony. I now have the knife under lock and key to prevent any unfortunate stabbings from occuring.
Well, work is normal. I am teaching my students manners. I now ignore all whats and huhs and will only respond to, ¨excuse me teacher, could you repeat that please?¨ which sounds lovely coming from the lips of adolescents!
Ron, the American TESL evaluator came to observe our classes last week and he said that I am a good teacher which is high praise coming from him so I was super excited about that. We don´t get our official evaluation for a couple of weeks though. We get an hour long audio commentary about our class as well as a rating from 0-5. I am hoping for a 4 or higher. I will let you know how I do! :)
I included a picture of homework which one of my students presented to me, I thought it was super cute. Good artist right! She is going to be a lawyer though, not an artist.
Well, César´s mother is still living in our kitchen while she gets better. I won´t comment on how I feel about her.
Yesterday Elsa and I walked for an hour around the market and there was no broccoli which I find extremely sad and now we must eat lunch without broccoli once again.
I suppose I should get my classes ready now.
Take care! xx

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