El ritmo

Long time no post. I guess I'm starting to get in the rhythm of things here.

Around 7 in the morning I start fighting the sounds of the city- the perpetual car alarms, honking, and chatter from the surrounding apartments- until I finally get up around 8. Then I catch a crazy combi (bus) to go to school, my internship at Aprodeh (a human rights organization), or the children's hospital to volunteer, depending on the day. Afterwards, I take another combi to Ruiz to eat lunch with my friends under the same tree in the courtyard, and then I try to work on homework but inevitably get pulled into a conversation or a game of volleyball. Then I sit in class, counting down the minutes until I can leave to go home. Another combi. Home. Shower. Eat (by now it's usually 9 or 10). Talk to friends. Homework. Fall asleep on Skype with Chris. Repeat. Though I admit that this routine was broken by Semana Santa and Parciales (mid-terms!) this week.

It's the weekends that I look forward to most... to playing guitar facing the expanse of the sea and to hanging out with my causas (buddies) until the sun comes up. Yet everything speeds by and I find myself sitting on my bed on Sunday afternoon reliving flashbacks from the weekend wondering where time went.

Two Sundays ago we went to an archeological site just outside Lima called Pachacámac. Perhaps it was because of the heat and the fact that I didn't really sleep before going, but the whole time I felt like a ghost haunting what once was a great civilization. Although Peru is famous for the Incas, I am constantly surprised by the number of grand civilizations that existed before the Incans (like the ones that inhabited Pachacámac). It was a beautiful site, from the carefully constructed puzzle-piece walls made of stones of different sizes to the pyramids with gorgeous views of the desert and the ocean.

After lunch we visited a ceramic workshop in the artesian district. The shop was modest, but full of thousands of colorful ceramics illuminated by a soft, natural light that peeked through the roof. I noticed that the shop had a few signs posted about fair trade and ecological issues, and it turns out that the artesian collective is partnered with Ten Thousand Villages, a fair trade craft store in the US (with a store that just opened in Charlottesville)! What a small world. I am a huge advocate of fair trade and happy to see it functioning and in action. While we were at the workshop, we each got to make our own miniature ceramic using the molds from the shop too. The owner was elated and proud to share his craft with us.

And Easter weekend I traveled to Huaraz with the girls and some friends from school. That was an amazing experience too. Check back later for the whole story, though I have no idea how I am going to be able to condense 4 days and 700 pictures into one blogpost....

*credit goes to Johanna for the fotos since I forgot my SD card at home.