What do an oasis, a penguin and something 2,400 years old have in common

They're all found in Peru!
I'm out of superlatives to describe this country. On Friday I went on an excursion with the International Studies Abroad (ISA) to three places:
1) Huacachina-This is an oasis in the middle of the coastal desert in south-western Peru. An argous six hour bus ride arrived us to the magnificant speciman of a resort. Two hours after unloading the bus and getting checked in to the hotel, we embarked on our first two part excursion. The first part was to go tearing around the vast desert in HUGE incredible powerful dune-buggies. These bad boys hold 11 people plus the driver (whom I believe was insane, or just really liked his job). I have no idea how many horse-power they are, but suffice to say it's "sufficiente!" He took our group on a wild ride up and down gigantic sand dunes at I would guess 40-55 mph for about 20 minutes. We finally crested our last sand dune and then it was time for part two: sand-surfing! This is exactly what it would seem, although the boards used are about half the size of regular snowboards, so think of it being for midgets (sorry to all midgets offended by this description.)
I was the second to surf down the dune, and did quite well until the end, when I leaned back and proceded take a sand bath. Also, although the sand is soft and fine to the touch, it doesn't feel good to eat it...or get it in every oraface of your body.
So after being at the bottom of the dune, and waiting for the rest of the group to fall down it, our driver picked us up, and whisked us away to two more dunes...repeat process above only harder and more times! I loved every second of it, and hated the entire next day.

2)Paracas-Left the hotel, still full of sand, and took a two hour bus ride to the coast, where we got on a twin 200hp. mercury engine boat and sped off into the Pacific Ocean for a nature preserve. Along the way we spotted bottle-nosed dolphins, sea lions, and yes...penguins! We also saw one of the world's largest islands where they harvest guano (yes that means bird poo) for fertilizer. Mmmm...the smell of money...smells aweful!
Then it was a six hour bus ride after lunch to Nazca. This was aweful for many reasons. I was incredibly stiff from yesterday, still had sand in most of my possessions, and was a bit motion sick from the previous bus ride and boat ride. Didn't puke, but I should've.
Upon arriving in Nazca, we unloaded and ckd. in for the night. I showered again to remove more sand and my soreness, both with marginal sucess.

3) Nazca-For those of you that are not familiar with the Nazca lines, they are multiple sets of geometrically perfect lines and drawings in the middle of the Peruvian desert. One of the amazing things is that carbon testing dates them to be from around 300BC-600/700AD. Another interesting fact is that they were not discovered until the 1900s. Why? Because they are too vast to view from the ground! So why would these ancient people build these lines and animal drawings? No one is for sure, but one of the most interesting drawings may give a clue-it's of an astronaut! No joke-look up the pic on the internet-I only took a video of it and it's a half hour long, so it would never fit in a file, but yeah...aliens.
Now this may make many of you laugh, but there is some popular opinion that the sight was the location of an alien visit, and the Nazca people constructed the lines and drawings to serve as an homage to their "gods" and also to give them an arial map of how and where to land upon returning.
I will say no more of theories because regardless of why they are there, the Nazca lines are one of the most beautiful sights I have ever flown over, and one of Earth's true mistories.

To say the least I had a good weekend-and I am going to the jungle on Thursday! Oh yeah

Parapente

Here is the overdue video...

Pics from Huaca Pucllana

Here are four Pics from Huaca Pucllana which is one of the newest ruin sites in Lima-located right in the middle of the city.





I think the most intersting facts about this site were: They were not descovered until about 1970-they were not made a historic site until 1981, so some of the site has been destroyed by construction compaines.
Multiple tribes inhabited the site, and each time an new tribe came, they built a new temple on top of the previous one-so the "gran pyramid" actually extends deep into the ground, but they cannot excavate for fear that the pyramid would collapse. Bringing me to the next and I believe most intesting fact: The idigenous peoples built all pyramids and walls by hand, creating each adobe brick individually and letting it sun dry. In the last picture, you can see fingerprints from where hands crafted each brick. The manner in wihch they laid the bricks was also unique. Because of the fault line that runs under the coast of Lima, they did not pack each brick right next to each other, rather in a vertical fashion with space in between each adobe. This allowed for the walls and temples to absorb the shock and also flex in a sense in the event of an earthquake.

Intersting place I must say, especially a sight in the middle of a gigantic city
t~

Exito!!!

This means sucess!! I am referring to the fact that I was able to go paragliding-I am seeing improvement in my students, I am soon to be traveling to many wonderful sights, I have just seen some beautiful and impressive ruins, and I just ate an amazing sandwich.

So where to start...?
1) On Sunday, the sun rose and I could immediately feel the breeze coming from the ocean, bringing the wonderful aroma of salt and commerece, and also the thought of jumping off a cliff attached to a parachute. After eating a feast with my host family for Father's Day, I quickly found a taxi to take me to "Larco Mar" the paragliding sight.
I had already set up an appointment with Arturo, a seasoned pro in the business (I am a self-proclaimed adventurer, but jumping over a cliff with a novice isn't my idea of fun...or smart) I got a crash...haha...course in how to hook into the parachute. He then collected all his lines so they were not entangled-and then with the help of another worker, we ran/hopped to the edge of the cliff-where I was immediately ordered to jump off.

What an amazing feeling!!! The flight lasted for about 15 minutes, fully sufficient to see a good portion of the Lima coast. What I was not prepared for was this...for the first seven or ten minutes, my "pelotas" (i'll let everyone figure this word out for themselves) were in my throat. By the time I got my bearings, stopped hyper-ventilating, and enjoyed the flight-it was almost over. I still had quite the experience-and view!

As of now, I am trying to squish the video I took into proper size-it and some pics will be posted shortly:)

2) In regards to my students: I am feeling like they are grasping my message and that they are thouroughly enjoying my presence. Makes a guy all fuzzy inside...that's all I'll say about this.

3) The ruins!! I also will be posting some pics of two ruin sites I visited. They are Pachacamac and Huaca Pullcaman. The former is just south of Lima and situated on the Pacific Coast, the latter smack-dab in the middle of Lima. Both are impressive and I will also post pics. of them with a due description to follow.

4) I am online to travel to the Nazca Lines to see one of the most beautiful and mathematically incricate and concise sites on the planet. Oh, plus I get to go sandboarding...hehe. This will be 27 June.
Then over our most wonderful day of Independance, I will be going to the jungle!! Pirhana(sp?) fishing here I come!
And most importantly-I have just obtained, (well I just bought them) tickets for my girlfriend (Bethany) and I. We will be traveling together for 8 days ( 20 July-28 July) in Peru. We will be flyingb to a city called "Puno" and visiting Lake Titicaca. We then will be taking a scenic bus tour and spending four days in Cusco-where lies one of the seven acient wonders of the world...Macchu Picchu. Then we fly back to Lima for 2 or 3 days visiting muesums and such. I am overwhelmed with joy to be experiencing this place with my love! Words cannot express how I feel, so I will not try and describe it-it's just perfect...

5) And before I forget-I just ate the most amazing "sanguchon!" That means big sandwich, literally. There is a Peruvian chef named "Gaston" and he opened a sort of fast food joint that sells original Peruvian dishes in sandwiches-Oh my god-it's Heaven between bread!!! I just ate, "aji de gallina" (pepper chicken)in a sandwich with eggs on tops and smothered in a very tasty sauce. I swear if it's the last thing I do in my life, I will open a restaurant and serve dishes from all the places I have traveled on this beautiful planet.

Lastly, and most importantly-Yesterday was Father's Day-I didn't get a chance to talk to my pops personally-but I would like to let everyone know that he has been my biggest role model and most ardent supporters in all my adventures and decisions. I am forever greatful for his guidance and love-without it I would not be the person I am today. So pops...I love you and Happy Father's Day-even if it's a day late-but hey, that's me...

Pics. will follow
t~
ps-pardon the spelling errors-half the time I'm thinking in Spanish and can't remember how to spell words-the other half I'm watching the Discovery Channel and am not paying attention to what I'm typing...oops.

Motivation

Somedays this word comes easier than others. I am having a bit of trouble finding reasons to motivate the students I teach, and trying to find the motivation to teach them. I feel at times it would be easier to send money and then just remove myself from the situation.

This is problematic for two reasons. 1) I don't have the money to fix a problem. 2) Money will not fix the problem.

The main problem I am facing is again how to motivate people to change. I took a course on persuasion in college-seems I have forgotten the basic priciples of said course. I know what the basic problems are: they lack clean water, proper nutrition, sanitation, and education. I know the priciple area to focus on is education, although at times it seems hard when very few students attend classes or there is not sufficient light to teach basic grammar.

I am not writing this blog to complain about my lack of resources. I have been blessed by the my family and my friends and Uncle Sam to learn that most of your resources lie inside, which basically boil down to...do you have the desire to create change, and if so...what are you willing to do to accomplish said change?

I honestly do not have a background in teaching education nor seriously the credientials to teach, but this should be the last thing on my mind-even if it isn't...

I am trying to make a change, but it is difficult when trying to overcome the most simplest of obstacles-I beg of any of you that have backgrounds in teaching to help me-

I once heard while deployed to Bosnia that when trying to make a change, "It's like watching the grass grow. You will never see the effect/change you made until you return-then it becomes like a wide open field."

Well said Mr. Osmanovic (my former interpreter).

Somedays here it feels like the blind leading the blind-but in that case, I leave you with some pictures of Cerrobala (where I teach) and a quote:
En la tierra de los ciegos...el tuerto es rey
"In the land of the blind...the one-eyed man is king"
I hope to be "el tuerto"

hasta...
t~

No wind...no fun

For the first time I do believe in my entire life, I am wishing there was more wind. Coming from good 'ol ND, that's something that's not in short supply.

But when one attempts to fly out over a cliff on a parachute, wind can be your friend. My first attempt at this feat has been thwarted-I will try again ASAP-possibly today.

Seriously, the one day a guy wants some wind...
t~

Tremors

And not the amazing Kevin Bacon movie. Today I was awoken to a tremor here in Lima that registered "5" on the Richter scale. Quite the way to wake up, I must admit.

I was sleeping soundly, then all of a sudden, "Salgan!!!" Now I would say I speak Spanish at least with a mild proficiency, and I know that "salgan" is the command form of "Leave" or "get out" but I coudn't put two and two together. So my host mom started yelling, "Temblor, Tomas, salga." Honestly by the time I got out of bed, put my pants on, and ran downstairs and outside, it was over. It was a bit dissapointing I must admit. Although the tremor itself was almost like sitting on one those cheap vibrating beds, (not that I have used one) but I would equate the experience to that. Nice thing was I didn't have to put any money into a machine-this was totally free! Thank you mother nature!

I am gonna start carrying my camera everwhere, hopefully I can get caught in a full-blown earthquake, video tape it, and then Brian Williams will talk about me on the Nightly News. Or I will get crushed by a falling window, either way...it's win win for Tomas!!

t~

La Gramara Market

Today I had the privledge and pleasure of experiencing one of Lima's largest (if not the largest) open area markets. It is called "La Gramara" and sprawls almost 20 city blocks. No vehicular traffic is allowed, so the streets are open with vendors, peddlers, beggars and thieves. It's an interesting place to say the very least.

I today was on the hunt for some pants and shoes. The pants I want are still being elusive, at least at the price I want, but I found some comfy walking shoes that can double as passable for more formal situations.

This market mainly sells clothing-and as one may imagine, all types, brands, sizes makes and models are here. So is it the real deal? Of course not! But who cares...I paid $20 US bones for a really nice pair of leather and canvas walking shoes (mentioned above).

I was informed this afternoon by my host mother that "La Gramara" does over a million dollars a day in business, and I believe it whole-heartedly.

Yet again another great day in Lima, and for the first time in about 10 days, the sun came out!! Normally, it's cloudy because of fog from the ocean, and it gets mixed with the smog from all the buses. But today I think whoever is in the sky said, "Congrats Tomas, you found some shoes." Or maybe it was just sunny....quien sabe?

Below are four pics from the market today

-they don't do it justice to show how immense it is, but I didn't want to flash the 'ol picture taker in front of 10,000 people-tried to "escongerme" (hide myself) a bit. But still this place is another hidden gem in Lima, not something you would most likely ever find from a tour agency, but something I was lucky enough to be shown by my host family. I love this country...

More still...
t~

First Day of Teaching

Yesterday I had yet another first-Fisrt day of teaching, and I now have a new found respect for teachers. Both for their knowledge of subject material and how to pass it on to others, but also their patience.

I have two classes as I said before. The first was of 11 children ranging from 8-11. The second are adolescents from 12-15. Although initially I believed the younger group more difficult to teach, i was suprised by their eagerness to learn and their ability. I was not prepared for their energy! I should have paid better attention to my brother's children at Christmas!! I almost don't have the energy to teach them for an hour and a half. I am just not accustomed to their attention span.

The adolescents were much more difficult to animate. I would have have had better luck talking to a brick wall! The second class is of 8 students, and two of the boys in the class seem "too cool for school." Tomorrow I will attempt some ice breakers, like talking about sports, or movies, or just putting them to work immediately.

It was also difficult to determine their level of English, some are better than others, and at times I'm not sure where to begin. I think the alphabet is a good place, and place most importance on pronucation. They seem to know some vocab., but just butcher the prounciation. Sounds like some classes I took for Spanish.

I must make an admission, if not a confession. May favorite saying while I was in college was, "Those who can't do, teach. Those that can't teach, teach gym." I retract this statement, well, at least the first part. I still hold no love lost for gym teachers, but that's just me. Maybe I should try and give soccer lessons here, I'd probably kill myself for the difficulty!

Once again, I am humbled from what I have learned, and for the kindness I have found south of the Equator.

On a fun side note, I'm going para-gliding I believe Sunday (weather permitting) and I'm gonna try and take some video and post it. Although here in Lima, I've only had two days of sunshine-so it'll probably be cloudy. I'm getting antsy to see the rest of the country and experience more culture.

For those of you interested in traveling to Peru in general, I suggest www.livinginperu.com
Or for those of you still wondering about what I'm doing: www.sonrisasdeesperanza.org
(it's in English and Spanish)

Take care all,
tomas

first week pics