El Kiwi en Sudamérica

A long overdue post... mainly about buses!

2008-12-12T18:59:00.002-03:00

Hi everyone (that means you! all three of you!)
Sorry about not posting another post since the latest post... my bad
Thing is, I don't really have any excuse really, I haven't been that busy or anything... I'm just wondering where to start. I may as well do a quick recap, and maybe an annecdote or three:
The rest of my time in Brasil was good, except for the lame weather in Florianopolis and Rio (when I went to see the statue of Jesus, Cristo Redentor, I couldn't see the city below, and could only barely even see the statue for the misty rain :( ) but at least i had a few good days there so I know how amazing both those places are on a good day. Salvador was good fun, nice and tropical with a great vibe in the streets. The only problem was that I wanted to go straight afterwards to Foz Do Iguazu, right on the border with Argentina... which meant a 34 hour bus trip to Sao Paulo, where I stopped over for a few hours and had a look around (I'll give you one word for the city-Immense) then it was a 14 hr trip t Iguazu over night... Which addd up to three nights in a row on the bus... happy days!
But Iguazu was amazing, I had a great time there, the waterfalls must be considered one of the most amazing sites in the world- phenomonal
then it was of to Paraguay, just across the border. It's not the most touristy country in the world- there's not a lot to do- it's supposedly the most corrupt country in the world outside of Africa, and it's South America 2nd poorest. But It was cool to chill out there for a few days.
I went ot church there on Sunday night, and then got invited out with some of the peeps to a movie and dinner afterwards, and went with them to the country where alot of the church was staying for the long weekend the next day for a barbeque and copious amounts of Terere (its like Mate, but with ice and cold water, if that means anything to you- if that doesn't, its this herb stuff chopped into bits, then put into a cup like thing until its nearly full, then water is poured in and you drink through this straw that has a sieve at the bottom, so you dont suck up the herby bits) which is a communal drink that gets passed and passed around- good times!
I got to see some Jesuit ruins in the south of the country later on that week as well.

Then, it was off to Bolivia, where I am now, just chilling in Santa Cruz. It's very different here to the steriotype of Bolivia (High altitude, barren climate, peeps in traditional gears drinking coca tea riding llamas etc...) It's tropical with a bit of a different mix of people and vibe.

I would tell you about the bus trip, but you guys must be sick of that by now- but this last one was kinda rugged coz the majority was off road, with the windows wide open in an old bus rattling around... But it was kinda fun though- even though I was kinda annoyed at the guys who sold me my tickets, who told me it had air conditioning and everything- next time I'm in Paraguay i'm gonna find those guys and..... anyways, you get the picture, and... ooops I actually told you about the bus trip, my bad

That's about it for now, i'll try update this sooner rather than later, so I can write up some more stories etc. instead of just give details----- I'm sure i've bored you all to tears

take care,
Nathan

A story

2008-11-15T20:07:00.002-03:00

Today I´m not going to write about whats happening now... I´ll take us on a journey to the future:

2068 AD- Family gathering, some nice beach, I don´t know which country:
An old man is sitting in the sun, just enjoying a relaxing day with all his kids and their families.
Some of his grandchildren came and asked him to tell them one of his stories about some of the stuff he got up to, back in the day. The old man thought for a minute, and then he told them to call all the grandchildren around.
Soon all his grandchildren gathered around, as they always loved his stories, and the old man started and he told them:

''When I was about 22, I was lucky enough to go on a trip to South America. After arriving in Brazil, after literally only a few days, I knew that your grandmother would be Brasilian''

As you can guess, I'm really enjoying myself here in Brasil... I'm in Florianopolis in the south of Brasil. I think it's gonna be real hard to move on to the next place... It's paradise: great beaches, great people, great music (I went to a samba party last night, with live music and everything... they were playing a whole lot of old school stuff (so i'm told) but yeah, it was awesome)

anyways, I better go, take care everyone

Nathan

I'm back!

2008-11-11T13:37:00.002-03:00

Ok, for you who are not in the know (and if your not in the know, it's my fault for beinga sad guy and not telling you) I'm back in South America for a bit of a trip (Late Oct till mid Mar)...
so, even though I wasn't planning it before, I'm resurrecting the blog. It won't be anything too crazy- probably a few anecdotes or weird stuff thats happened... and if your lucky I might put up some photos, if im not too lazy (or if the internet is cheap) anyways, I'll get started:

Punta del Este, Uruguay:

Chilling, chilling on the beach. Chilling and trying not to get burnt but also trying to get a tan before getting to Brasil.
I haven't been up to much here. I've been here the last 3 nights, and, apart from a surfing lesson I just had (the waves are so good here), things have been quiet as.
I'm really looking forward to heading to Brazil tonight overnight (first to Porto Alegre (11 hours), then i'll catch the first bus I can to Florianopolis- another 5-6 hours away)
The ticket: way too expensive... its costing me $100 NZ just to get to Porto Alegre (I miss the bus fares in Peru oh so much)
Talking of expensive, Uruguay is expensive as... It's helped me in some ways though.. i dunno, get into the traveller/backpacker save money vibe... I don't think things are gonna get much cheaper across in Brazil (Unless I can hustle some free accomodation at someones house on their couch or something)... but these expensive countries will soon pass.

you know what? I should give you guys a quick recap just to get you all up to speed on things... to give you some context... So, here we go:
Spent the first week pretty much in Carlos Paz (near Cordoba if that means anything to you) helping out with a conference for Pastors/churchy peeps etc... Had an awesome time there, meet some great people.
Then went back to Buenos Aires, spent a few days in the centre, then two days in San Isidro, on e of the cities that make up greater buenos aires, with the guy I sat by on the plane flying over (a real surfy guy who has been working in NZ on a working holiday visa...great guy)
then I was off to Colonia, Uruguay on the ferry the next day, and one of the peeps form teh hostel happened to be going there too for the day, so we had a good time crossing over on the ferry, looking at the sites, and nearly killing ourselves driving around the town on a golf cart (way too much fun)
Then, it was off to Montevideo, which was pretty uneventful really, apart from getting sunburnt on a patch were i missed sunscreen on my back... I guess I was still out of practice putting it on then as well.

So, yeah, that's about it... I'll keep you all in touch with a post hopefully once a week.

Take care, hope I didn't lose you all with the recap

fotos con el grupo de jovenes en Arequipa

2007-11-28T19:41:00.000-03:00

con David ySeth
con Miguel y Pablo
otro vez
con Daniella y Anace
Todos....

y con Gabriel

Disculpa por la mala calidad, mi camera no puede tomar fotos buenas con luz artificial... entonces hay muchos ojos rojos (¡ mis ojos especialmente !)

I'm back!

2007-08-06T18:36:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the delay in between posts... I wasn't really keeping up with posting during my travels through Chile and Argentina. But I'm back home now, trying to sort out some work and just generally get back to normal life (it's gonna be real hard).
The trip itself was great, despite all of the stuff that went wrong, and all of the near misses (like nearly missing a bus when I crossed the border into Chile, because I forgot to change the time on my watch, only to realize this when the bus was supposed to leave, then stressing because my luggage was in storage, which was closed... fun times).
But the worst would have been when my passport, money, camera and other stuff was stolen in the bus terminal in Mendoza, Argentina (another long story).
However, I had a great time, made heaps of new friends and got to see another large part of the continent. But I'm dieing to see more, so I started planning the next trip while in Chile (but I probably started thinking about it in Arequipa) so we'll see when I can get back over that way.

I'm not sure what I'll be doing on this blog in the near future, maybe I'll put up some funny/crazy stories from my travels, or maybe change it to cover what I'm up to back home.
Thanks to all of you regular readers for keeping in touch with what I've been doing, It was cool to keep in touch in that way.
If you have any tips etc. on how I could've made this blog better, post up a comment.

take care, and God bless,

Nathan

Im alive

2007-06-25T20:33:00.000-04:00

Sorry peeps,i've just been kinda busy travelling to Cuzco, getting sick, and then going to Chile.
But all's good and im having a great time... i'll try be a good boy and post something more substancial-but that'll take work,and I jsut haven't been in a blogging vibe lately (also internet charges here a whole lot more expensive... like a dollar fifty an hour,instead of 40 cents... one of the many differences between Chile and Peru.

anyways, the money is ticking away, so I better go,

look after yourselves,

Nathan

Trip to Puquina with the church

2007-06-05T18:18:00.000-04:00

I’ll start with a pat on the back *pat* for posting so soon… not… some things never change!
Anyways, the only big thing that’s happened lately was the churches trip to Puquina.
The subplot of this trip (for me) requires me to write about some (a lot of) stuff for context:
While pretending to be fit at the gym, I did some exercises on my calves, and got back home a little sore- but nothing out of the ordinary… then the next day I played football with early in the morning with some students and teachers from the language school. I felt a little tight before hand, but not that bad… it still felt normal.
In the afternoon I went shopping in central Arequipa, and was limping a little… and later at night my calves were all tight…
Anyways, when I got up early Sunday morning- and when I say early I mean Geneva Convention breaking, criminal bad (ok, just 4.30). My right calf was quite bad, but I thought it would go soon, or at least not get any worse…. Hahaha, how unaware of what was going to happen.

Anthony was quite crook, so Anthony, Roxanna and Melissa stayed home (it’s not worth risking things, esp. so far away from ‘civilisation’ (ok, a bit harsh to everyone who lives there… but it’s far away from good medical care, and at about 3,000 metres or something). Consequently, Ronny and Rocio picked me up at 5.15, on the way to pick up some of the Church from San Pedro.
Around this time of year it’s quite cold here at night/early morning, so things were a bit chilly… all the locals talk up the cold, and dress for it too. Funnily enough this time of year is the worse for sunburn, as the sky is really clear- and the sun more intense.
Anyways, back to the trip… we filled up the van with people from San Pedro, and I really mean filled… so I had to sit all scrunched up all the way to the church…and got mad pins and needles. So when I got out, it must’ve looked hilarious, as my leg was dead, and completely tensed up.
There must have been about 60 of us who went into total, every seat was filled, and the fun times commenced.
Everyone was in a surprisingly good mood for a bus trip at 6 in the morning on a really bad road (it’s only about 70 or something Km to Puquina, but it’s a really shocking road, and has quite a climb at the start). Ronny got us singing for a while some short choruses (most which I didn’t know very well), which we eventually stopped, then we chatted, played other games the rest of the way. The thing that made me laugh was this conversation I was having with those around me, to do with family characteristics etc. The subject was where I got my green eyes from, because some have seen the family pics… then Susannah blurts out a few rows away with this gem of a joke: “the neighbour”, which got me laughing so much that she didn’t know if I got her joke… anyways, I guess the mix of hair/eye colours in my family isn’t something that happens often here, so it actually becomes interesting (It’s funny as well how many times I’ve been asked what country my Dad is from…)
So, we eventually arrived- and the bus couldn’t navigate the narrow streets. Which meant that we all had to walk all the way down the hill, then back up to the church. So of we all went, and I’d have to be honest here- Maxamiliana, one of the old ladies from the church, with horrible knees, walked it… So I felt as if I had to tough it out, and not (excuse my language) ‘bitch’ about it as it were.
Pretty soon after we all arrived we started the service in the church building there.
The church building was put up after the earthquake when the church helped by building some 30 homes, and someone was selling the land for really cheap… so it made sense to put something up.
After the service, everyone went around and did whatever; some went for a look around town, others to a river nearby, but I was stuck pretty much- so I had an early lunch. I had quite a good chat about stuff with Alfredo- he’s the bomb, always a good laugh.
A bit later on the volleyball net came out, so I played on one foot for a bit, I guess I was hoping that maybe some movement would do me some good (ummm, no). But I tried to take some pics… and they all turned out pretty lame. By about this time I started to feel uncharacteristically cold (you know, that sick cold) which made things interesting… after sitting in the sun and watching some action for a bit we all went in for lunch (I got a few offers of some lunch- nice food too- but I was not feeling hungry at all). I don’t know how many times I had to explain what my problem was, and in how many ways (I think I figured out how in a clear manner by the end of the day) and how many opinions I heard on what was wrong, and what remedies would sort me out, some of the church members have an amazing knowledge of natural remedies etc… fascinating stuff.
So, after a lateish lunch, and a little bit more hanging out around the church, we set of back home at around 3ish. So we walked all the way back to the bus, and I was so feeling everything (sick, altitude, my leg) but I eventually made it- and I said to myself this classic quote of Sir Edmund Hillary, after he got back to base camp after climbing Mount Everest: “we knocked the bastard off” (I love classical quotes), it makes me laugh every time.
The trip back wasn’t the most fun time experience I’ve had- I was feeling like crap so I won’t bore you with the details. So, after over 3 hours in the bus, we got back. I was cold as and dieing to get home.
Once I eventually got back things didn’t look too good. I think the combination of my leg and feeling sick made the problem seem worse than it was. The Greens called up this ambulance/health care service that they’re subscribed to (it covers anyone in the house) that came around, and the doctor dude pretty much told me that It was only a muscular problem, and that I needed to rest it for two weeks, put a special cream on it, and take some tablets.
I’m writing this about a week and a half since then, and I’m feeling pretty good. My leg still isn’t 100% but I can walk (not jump, run) which is a relief I guess. I’m off to Cuzco tomorrow night which should be good times… unfortunately my mate hasn’t been able to make it, so I’m going alone. At this time of year it’s really busy up that way, with a few different festivals etc. and the best weather for visiting the sites (although it’s a bit chilly right now). I guess I just hoping that my leg will hold up, and that everything will work out just fine. I am expecting it to be pretty pricey, which is a shame… but I’ll be doing things on the cheap for sure. The leg of course rules out doing the Inca Trail, but I can live with that (it saves me having to buy/hire all the special gear etc… what a hassle)
It’s going to be weird though being in the majority, as there are so many gringos that make their way to Cuzco and the sites…
So, you can all look forward to the next blog, it should be good times up there, I hope nothing goes wrong (I don’t know how many times I’ve been told to watch out for stuff, I should be fine if I don’t do anything stupid (not like that’s ever happened haha)

Anyways, look after yourselves, and I’ll keep you all posted on what happens.

Nathan

Anticuchos and special Mothers' day thing

2007-05-22T12:14:00.000-04:00

Alrighty, sorry for the delay between posts... I don't really have an excuse, except that I haven't been in a blogging mood...
Well, I guess I should start with the anticuchos sale. As I hate arriving early (esp. when I’m more of a ‘spare wheel’ in proceedings) I thought I’d aim to arrived about half an hour late. But, surprise surprise, I was the first one there (there goes that plan), but only by a few minutes- which is to say that the others arrived on the Peruvian social clock- but strangely enough everyone seems to arrive on time for church.
Anyways, so we set up the gear outside Aldolfo, Sabina, Amy, Juan and Daisy’s, quite close to where we have church.
The afternoon started of really hot, the sun was beating down as it nearly always does here. So, as any good boy who hates getting a red face would do, I pulled out the sunscreen and shared it around. Many Peruvians are quite ‘sunsmart’, so they all plastered it on as well.
The preparation of these ‘antichuchos’ went as follows. Clara (one of the Mums helping us out) had prepared the kebab like ‘anticuchos’ ready to put them on the Barbie, and had some potatoes and corn that went with them. So she would put the anties on the Barbie with the potatoes, then when someone bought one, they’d get a anti with a potato, some corn (the corn here is really big for some reason) with some hard out hot sauce. We sold them for 1 nuevo sol each, or round about 50 cents NZ.
So there wasn’t as much to do as when I helped with the panuelos (or whatever those doughnutty things were called), which required more hands on help. So this time I just mainly chilled and ate the product. So we sold them for a good few hours, and had a great time chatting etc. So, as promised, I took a few pics- the one with me behind the Barbie was staged (it wasn’t my idea) but anyways, here they are:
Umm, this isn't a pic from the food thing, but it's one of some of the peeps from YG
Me, hard at work
The barbie with some of the crew
Me, hard at work again
Misti at night, next to the church
Chacani, from the roof of the new house

This all was for the Mothers’ day special service we were planning. After the three fundraisers that we had we raised quite a pile of cash. So, on the Friday before, I went with Ronny to buy the stuff at the market.
I’ve driven by this market heaps of times, but I’ve never walked around in it. It’s pretty much got everything spread out over a huge area. Unfortunately we didn’t enter it, as there was a stall that had everything in it.
This is pretty much what we got the Mums:
Rice, sugar, rolled oats, milk, lentils, pasta, oil, and I’m sure some other stuff I forgot… which made quite a nice little gift.

As well, someone had the bright idea of having a choir, Which resulted in me being called in to be a part of it. Little did I know that there was such a thing as a mothers’ day song- but I soon found out (Mothers’ day here is evidently more important than in New Zealand). I’ll give you a few translated quotes to give you an idea of what the song was like.
“you are the precious (or beautiful) gift from heaven, you are the precious gift of love, the fortress that I have in my life, you are my greatest treasure, you are a blessing from heaven…”
or in the other song…
“Dear (beloved) Mamá, I love you, and I will never forget you. I promise myself to you for ever, to make you always happy”
I think I translated that alright, anyways, Everyone else didn’t seem to think “ this is like a full on love song for my Mum, or at least has that vibe, and it seems weird” I guess it must be cultural- But I can’t imagine any Kiwi guys being thrilled at singing that kind of song- despite how much we all love our Mum.
Speaking of lyrics, I though I may as well put down so of my favourite lines from a hitting song.
(Calle 13, Atrevete) “It doesn’t matter if she likes Green Day, it doesn’t matter if she likes Coldplay” This song was a huge hit last year, it has some other great lines as well… “You came like an Amazon (referring to the Greek myths about a tribe of warrior women) like Brazil, you came to kill like kill bill” and “She knows karate and cooks with tomato sauce” to name a few of the lines.
It’s quite tricky to translate, especially as the song is quite fast. And, of course, I can’t get the translation to rhyme at all, which is obviously a big part of the charm. For the record Calle 13 is a Mexican Reggaeton group.

On the Sunday everything went well. We had a pretty good crowd, and the gifts were well appreciated. The singing went good as well, but not exactly a vintage performance on my part. I couldn’t hit the high notes with volume on “Precioso Don de Cielo” (I’ll blame the climate haha) to be precise. I didn’t take any pics, as I was on the video camera for Anthony- but I believe that some of you have seen some pics that he sent to my Dad. If you’re wondering, I was dressed up as that was the plan for the choir…

In more up to date news, we’ve just moved house to another area of town. The old house we were in had to be reoccupied by its owners (to make a long story short)’and another house couldn’t be found in the same zone. The new place is near the language school where I take classes, it’s a nice part of town, and the house is better (except the lack of a garden). I love the view from the roof, as you can see the three mountains that dominate the skyline here- Chacani, El Misti, and Pichu Pichu. It’s crazy to think that those mountains look so big, even though the city here is at around the same altitude as Mount Hutt (if I remember correctly) and Chacani, the tallest of the mountains, is over 6,000 metres above sea level.

I suppose that’s all I have to put up today, but there’s some fun times coming soon which include:
A trip with the Church to Pucina this Sunday
I’ll be going to Cuzco and Machu Pichu in the next few weeks with a mate from the UK that I worked with in Chile (remember James from my earlier posts?) If he turns up in time, that is…
And I might write up something about my ever improving Fútbol skills. I’ve been playing quite a bit, with students from the institute and with the crew from church. I guess the skills I still haven’t mastered would be dribbling and defensive foot positioning- but if a situation only calls for a deft kicks I’m not that bad. I’ve also been watching a bit on the telly, mainly Champions league action- It’s nice to see some pros in action, see the lines they run and the passing tactics.
If only they had a touch rugby competition here… or a basketball one at the moment…
I’ve only got another month here in Arequipa, which is kinda surprising, then after that I’m hitting the road for a month to visit my mates in Chile (for two weeks) and then two weeks in Argentina, visiting my distant relatives and meeting up with some contacts (two weeks as well) which will be ‘good times’

Look after yourselves,

Nathan

2007-04-25T12:08:00.000-04:00

Good times…
As most of my blog posts seem to be incident related, I don’t have a whole lot to write about this time, so I guess I should write some compelling anecdotes of the ‘mundane/normal’ things that happen around me, and maybe some incisive social commentary if I can get in the mood. Consequently this blog will probably be even more disjointed than usual.
I quite like useless lists… let me treat you to The 10 Things I’ll miss when I go home, and The 10 Things I won’t miss when I get home.

So in no particular order of preference:

The 10 things I’ll miss when I get home

1. The ever-present sound of Reggaeton and other forms of Latin music blaring all over the place
2. The oh so cheap buses that fill the city, for less than 30 cents NZ (60 centavos) a ride – and a smaller "carbon footprint"* to boot
3. The brilliant cuisine that is rich in flavour, and a lot better than Chilean fare (excluding the magnificent empanadas and completos)
4. All the chicas bonitas here (and in Chile and Argentina as well, of course)
5. The almost always sunny weather
6. Inca Cola, la bebida del Perú
7. Having the Language barrier as an excuse for misdemeanours and mistakes
8. Following Futból, esp. the passion and fun times watching live
9. The wonderful E-café down the road. Where I go, almost daily, to chill out and browse the net etc. for the price of around about 50 cents an hour. I also treat myself each time to a bottle of Inca kola/fanta/kola real for only around about 30 cents
10. Cheap stuff: clothing, bootleg mp3 cds, dvds of the latest movies**, food, bus travel, taxis… it goes on and on.

You may have noticed that I have put down specific people. I don’t regard people as things, and if I put them on the list would have to be huge.
*Personally, I’m in the sceptic camp in regards to the Human element in global warming, for the record. The hysteria has seemed to escalate 20 fold from a year ago, or even more. But I’m all for saving energy, from a ‘green’ and economic perspective- but unfortunately I can see this hysteria hurting the third world, in regards to them enjoying and benefiting from developing, the price of goods such as coal etc. in the market, and in unfair pressure with threats to hurt exports etc.
**I regard my purchases of pirated stuff as my part in the protest of the locals against unreasonable prices in these kind of countries. These big companies are too narrow-minded to fix prices at a reasonable level for the locals, which fuels the copying of product. You can tell when the prices are too high when piracy is wide spread to the point where real copies are hard to come bye, even rental places don’t exist. So, I have stood up for the oppressed and helped them in their struggle against this corruption. Which reminds me I need to get some more movies to practice my Spanish. The learning method I use is to watch the movie first in English with Spanish subtitles, then in the dubbed version-it works a treat, except when the end of the movie is cut off (I’m still somewhat in the dark as to what happens after the old guy in the new James Bond movie is shot in the leg- I’m pretty sure that’s very close to the end…I’m looking forward to Spiderman 3 hahaha
(I guess I did get in the mood for social commentary after all!)
Ok, On to the next list

10 things I won’t miss…

1. Having to put used toilet paper in the rubbish bin beside the loo, instead of the way God designed it- flush it down! It has something to do with the design of the toilet, and the sewage systems that can’t handle paper and… the other stuff
2. Quite possibly the most annoying thing would have to be this: after meeting a (fluent in Spanish) foreigner from a non-English speaking country, and starting the conversation in Spanish – and relatively fluently I might add. Then the other person asks me where I’m from, and when they find out it’s an English speaking country, they switch to English-which I take as an insult to my intelligence and ability in the language… quite an unfair and unnecessary put-down- even though my ability is not affecting the conversation in any way… which makes me so want to tell them ******* ******* ** ******! (Well not really all that... but something might pop out) It really ticks me off. I know they never had that problem, as what percentage of the foreigners here speak their language! This hasn’t happened to me that often, but it really grates me – I should prepare a slightly harsh phrase in Spanish that sounds extremely fluent…. Brooohahahahaaha (excuse me for this point, my blood was really boiling at the time, but it does capture my feelings somewhat)
3. This following snap shot of a conversation has happened to me so many times, it’s quite strange how often this happens (generally with, dare I say, less educated people without much knowledge of other countries):
Random person: "Where are you from?"
Me: Nueva Zelanda (New Zealand of course)
R.P: "Holanda?"
Me: "No, (slowly) nueva zelanda"
R.P: "Is it in Europe?"
Me: "No, in Oceania, near Australia"
Which, sometimes leads to: "do you have kangaroos"
4. Not being able to watch Rugby (I caught some All Blacks games in Chile, but I’m not sure if they show them here)
5. Not being able to buy Hair-wax (Maribel hasn’t got me some yet, and I’m sceptical that it’ll be the good stuff
6. Making embarrassing mistakes in Spanish, that make me look like a real idiot… all too often- though they haven’t had the comedy that sometimes comes, like this example when someone that Anthony knows mistook ‘empanada’ (a savoury pastry) and ‘empleada’ (Woman that works in the house, like a maid really) when he said this hilarious sentence:
"I like my empleadas hot" (of course he was trying to refer to the food… although he has a very valid point that he made!)
The only personal example I can think of is when I was in Chile staying at Omar and Waldo’s place, when I called the kitchen (la cocina) ‘la cochina’ which means ‘filthy, dirty’ but more specifically in regards to humans, and I was using the feminine form of the word as well…
7. The earthquakes: A few weeks back we had quite a big shake, which didn’t phase me that much, but if it got any stronger I would’ve freaked out. To my credit I preformed better that some foreigners here who run outside in panic (supposedly my German friends I went to the beach did just that, I can so picture them doing it!!! Hahaha)
8. Being on a bus that’s full to overflowing with smelly people. Not at all pleasant.
9. People thinking I’m tall, and the small space between the seats, low roofs that make them look like they have a point. It’s also a hassle to get shoes, esp. cheap ones. It does have its advantages though, in crowds especially.
10. Crime: Thankfully I’ve only been affected personally once (and was part of the reason. see the blog entry about my trip here). But it’s something to worry about, as I always here stories of peoples near misses or times they were robbed. One day I was in the bus and I heard some woman shouting, I looked outside to see someone running off with a lady’s handbag, and, much to the disgust of the people inside the bus, no one helped or noticed it quick enough to stop him. The rest of the trip I was thinking of what I’d have done if I were in the position to help. I guess (if I was in a noble mood) chased after the dude and nailed him, or if he was running toward me clothesline him or something (you can tell I’m missing Rugby, right?). But you never know if someone has a knife or if he has friends. But I could possibly count on the ‘mob justice’ culture that is prevalent here to stir up bystanders… I’ve obviously thought about this too much.

Well, that was some serious cathartic therapy there, but it was getting fairly hard to remember negative stuff (though I got fairly heated up at times). But, I think I’ve only realized recently how long a year is away from the fam – even though the wonders of video calls on skype almost make me feel as if I’m home, but then when I get off then I feel as if I’m transported instantaneously to the other side of the world. So here’s a big shout out to my family: Miss you guys heaps, I look forward to being really there in three months. (Don’t read into that sentence that I’m homesick or anything, but after having completed over ¾ of my trip, I’m starting to feel that time is running out, which gives me feelings of sadness mixed with anticipation of the next journey, whatever that entails).

The next instalment of the blog will/should have (D.V) extensive coverage of the selling of Anti-cuchos (kinda like a kebab thing on a stick)with the youth group to raise money for the foodstuffs we are giving the mums on Mothers day. Hopefully I’ll take some mean video footage as well.
In a few weeks there’ll be a baptismal service, which will be tight, as quite a number are getting baptised.
I may also be heading to Lima in a few weeks time with the Greens, as Anthony needs to renew his passport- so we’ll spend a few days there- should be "good times".
Look after yourselves, keep it real, peace out, Kia kaha, or whatever ending phrase you happen to fancy.
Nathan

Haircut and Holy Week

2007-04-11T11:59:00.000-04:00

As per usual, I will give you the gritty details etc. of my latest haircut (while you all scream, “He’s always writing about this! He’s obsessed…” or perhaps “Yes! I love it when he writes about his escapades in the fashion world!”
This latest doo wasn’t really planned – more of a result of circumstances – so here is the blow by blow-dry account:
I was chatting to Maribel the other day at church, and I asked her how her hairdressing training was going. Next thing you know, out she pulls her practice book, and shows me the pages of men’s haircuts that she needs to do. So, despite the apparent lack of need on my part, I told her that she should give me a call when it’s a good time. I noticed that there were gaps in the manicure section of her practice- but unfortunately she didn’t take my offer to help out with that.
On the following Wednesday (at prayer meeting) Maribel asked if I could do it the next day at 10, which fitted into my schedule perfectly. After telling Anthony about it out came all of the usual “your brave” comments that go around when you say your getting a practice cut. She cut Ronny’s hair once recently, and it looked all right… So I was quietly confident that it’d be all right.
After finding the Salon (after taking a bus to get there – not as easy as it sounds, due to the educated guess work involved – Respect!), I hesitantly went up the stairs to the salon. From the outside it didn’t look that big, but appearances were deceiving, as I’d find out.
As I reached the entrance I saw this room full of Hairdressers and noticed that there were adjoining rooms to the side. I felt the all too common ‘everyone’s eyes are on me’ as I don’t think they get many male customers, especially foreign ones.
So I asked if Maribel was there, waited for her to come (she was in the process of getting her hair done) and so I subsequently went and watched chatted while she got finished (all of the hairdressers seem to do each others hair – a perfect way to fill up downtime!).
While this was getting done, I got to see that the salon must’ve had around 20 employees, all with female cliental. The staff all wore these pink apronish outfits, and the clients were with pink over thingies. The walls were all covered with the usual picks of models with their way out to boring haircuts. I searched franticly for some men’s examples, to find a small array of pics across in the next room…
So, after she was finished, it was all go. The pink over thing looked all class on me, for the record. Maribel stared with a bit of hesitation, which freaked me out somewhat. Thankfully the tutor guy came by and gave her some tips, and demonstrated some technique. Tutor dude didn’t seem to fit the stereotype of the male hairdresser-In other words he didn’t have a good enough haircut/outfit to be considered as possibly gay, But he sure did have some mean as skills with the scissors.
So, Maribel finished off the job, and it looked all good – and she’s gonna source me some wax that I can use instead of the gel that seems to be the only thing they sell here- happy days!
-Money making idea #276- Become an importer of Hair wax, and convince a footballer or two to use the product to make it sufficiently macho for public consumption.
So, here's a pic right after the cut (in reality I had hardly anything cut off, not that I needed much)…
from left, Maribel, some randoms and me.

Anyway, last week was a fairly big event for the people here, being holy week and all. I first got to see some of the action on the Sunday before; as, in between youth group and the evening service, there was a procession that went by the church. There wasn’t that many people involved, but there were the sounds of explosions into the cool early evening air- some people were laying out this powder and little cardboard tubes full of the stuff, then lighting it as the procession came by. One guy was also firing off full on flares into the sky… and I was so thinking ‘I need to get myself some of those’ but when I asked where you could buy them I was told they were illegal (¡agua fiestas!).
Around here there is quite a ‘Semana Santa’ tradition, as I found out during the week. At the language place I’m studying at we had a day where we cooked some tradition Easter treats dishes; a seafood soup traditionally eaten on Good Friday (complete with fish eggs- quite crunchy) and some desserts. We also had an in-depth look at what happens each day of the week, and the points of the cross- interesting stuff. My favourite tradition would have to be “la quema de Judas” or the burning of Judas. What happens is this; some people make a paper ‘Judas’ loaded with fireworks, and then they hang him with some rope. Before lighting him up, they read his ‘will’ with ridiculous things that they bequeath to famous locals etc. for example, if the mayor was overweight they might write “give my diet pills and aerobics video to…”, I didn’t get to watch this performance, as it was early Sunday morning- sounds like good times though.
At the Church we had two special services, on the Thursday and Friday nights. Things went well, there was a lot of ‘fringe’ people and a few first time visitors as well.
We (the youth group) have started raising some money for Mother’s day, to buy the Mums some rice, sugar etc. as times a hard for so many. So two weekends ago we made and sold anticuchos (kebab kind of things- delicious) and this Saturday we’re making something else- but I forgot the name (one of the many trials of my time in S.A has been trying to remember what dishes are called, so when some asks me “have you had this before” I normally have to answer “ummm…. Maybe?) That is if I don’t climb Misti, the volcano that dominates the skyline. Some of the students will be climbing it this weekend- it’s a huge as mountain, some 6,000 metres or so, but right now to climb it you need crampons once you get near the top- unlike other times of the year where there is basically no snow. I’m probably not going to go, as it’ll cost me a bit of money to get boots as well, esp. in my size (though I’ll need some if I do the Inca trail, unless I (cheat) take the train). We’ll see.
On the fútbol front, Melgar are still top of the table, despite losing to Bolognesi in the weekend.
Colo-Colo is, after starting with two losses, have proceeded to destroy the other teams in their group in the Copa Libertadores (the champions league of Latin America). Not a small feat at all considering their pool, which includes River Plate (Argentina) famous for their rivalry with Boca Juniors (Maradonna’s team, back in the day).
So they’re looking good to finish top of their group, then proceed to the 1/8th finals or something. Fingers crossed they'll continue their from the Copa Sudamerica (like the UEFA cup) despite the loss of both Matias Fernandez and Alexis Sanchez to clubs in Europe… Sanchez is, in the next few years, going to be huge… you heard it here first. He’s only 17, has great footwork and is as quick as anything. Matias will be pretty handy too, esp. considering his knack at scoring free kicks.
Ok, you can all wake up now… hahaha
That’s all for now, I’ll try think up something interesting for the next installment.

¿Quieres perder tu tiempo? Buscas qué estoy escribiendo… las paginas del red son buenas para traducir frases- ¿sí o no?

Nathan

2007-03-28T12:35:00.000-04:00

Well, I’m not sure where I should start… I haven’t been doing anything outrageous lately- I’ll start writing, and then I may remember- we’ll see.
Since coming back from Bolivia I’ve moved into the Greens place, just down the road from where I was before. My bedroom is on the roof, with an ensuite and double bed Funnily enough I’ve seemed to move up a ‘notch’ in quality/luxury at each long-term stop on my trip- starting with the tiny room in Santiago, to a big bedroom in the last place, and now an ensuite- way to experience the hardships of Missionary life - I guess it’s a time to be content when ‘abounding’ as the Apostle Paul says. Anyway, now to some stuff that I’ve been up to:

His last weekend I got to go to the Futból again; this time against a more popular team- Universitario. I was a bit late in arriving (as I went to Puquina that morning with Ronny) so I waited in the line outside the stadium, with my ticket and with a Melgar shirt on. The shirt got me heaps of comments/questions/respect from other fans, and lots of laughs too. I guess not too many gringos go to the games and sit in the cheap seats. I got in about 10 minutes into the first half, spotted Julio waving at me way up the stand. So I pushed my way up, and just as I got seated Melgar scored. Melgar seemed to be lacking impetus in attack. Universitario had some quiet good players, and looked far more dangerous; however we had improved immensely in defence from the shocker we had vs. Sport boys. La U scored right before half time, by some brilliant play from their Colombian striker. We played a bit better in the second half, but still lacking creativity around the goal- although there was some improvement. With about 10 minutes to go we scored, sending the sell-out crowd into hysterics for a few minutes (and much relief personally, I was starting to wonder if I ‘jinxed’ the team). While we were leaving I got more comments etc. due to my shirt, and some friendly security advise (“wear that bag on your front”, I generally don’t do that, but in a crowd like that they had a very valid point) Fun times all round, can’t wait for the next big game.
I’ve restarted Spanish classes, but now only two classes a week (instead of the 10 a week with the full time schedule), which has been great. In general my fluency is improving at a good rate. I’d say, for only having been here for 3 months and having arrived with really crappy Spanish, I’m doing quite well.
My schedule is quite chilled out, which has its pluses, including time to be able to read (I’ve nearly finished The Bondage of the Will by Martin Luther- deep aye- respect!), think (this may sound really weird/mystical but having time to be able to, dare I say ‘meditate’ about stuff, things I’m coming into contact here, my future, issues in general – think things through is probably a better way to put it) hang out with locals and indulge my internet addiction (surfing the net, not the blog posting or email writing variety unfortunately). As well, there’s a Gym down the road that’s really cheap ($1.25 a time) so I go there every so often to blow of some steam.
I was hoping to play in a Basketball comp here, but the season starts in July. But I’ve had the chance to play a few time at ‘club international’ and would’ve done really well- due to my size, mad skills and from what I saw of the competition (hahaha, but seriously I’m a decent size here somehow, this one kid told me I could play centre if I was on his High School team). So it looks as if there won’t be involvement in any team sports here like Touch Rugby (they only have rugby in Lima at a few posh schools).
On the language front I have possibly my biggest/funniest mistake yet. I was chatting to one of the girls from the church and she told me some ‘goss’ about her sister and one of the guys at the church (that they were an item) and she asked me if I understood who/what she was saying. So I said “el está con su hermano” or
“so-in-so (I’m not telling you who-I’m sworn to secrecy) is with his sister” I accidentally said ‘su’ (his/her/its/polite your) instead of “tu” (your) which got us laughing- as I knew I had made a mistake as soon as I said it. I quite often have problems with tu and su, as grammatically speaking I can use both to refer to ‘your’ … I mix up formal and informal far too much when I speak…
I’ve had some problems about my ticket the last few weeks (finally resolved).
It was really all my problem, as I didn’t get a flexible enough ticket (I wasn’t really aware of the 1 year restriction I had on the other ticket). So, to make a long story short, I had to cancel my ticket, and buy another with the credit and extra cash. Thankfully it wasn’t prohibitively more expensive. The main problem was that, at the start, I was trying to sort it out remotely/via Email with an agency in Chile. I was only aware of there being one office in Peru (Lima)- however I discovered (after a few weeks of trying on the net) that there was an office in Arequipa- Which annoyed me no end… (It wasn’t in my info about overseas offices- so I (naturally) assumed that there wasn’t one here).
Anyway, you can circle the 26th of July on your calendar as the date that the prodigal son returns to NZ (with a few months to spare before the Rugby world cup- (¡Vamos All Blacks!). Those reading in Chile/Argentina can expect me to be hanging around in their respective countries for 2 weeks each before I leave. I’ll be sorting out the exact dates in the next few weeks.
anyway, that me for this post, and (finally)here are the photos from the trip:

Me, on top of a hill near by Desaguadero
Right by the immigrations office in Bolivia
From left: Jessica, Ader's friend, and Ader
The houses by the lake
And an overhead view ofthe peruvian side of Desaguadero

and a view of La Paz

I'd put up more photos but Blogspot is really slow today with uploading.

Bolivia, the ordeal...

2007-03-07T14:24:00.000-03:00

Well, I’ve just recently came back from an epic weekend with the youth group to Desaguadero, a town that is split over the Peru-Bolivia border on the shores of Lake Huyñaymarka (I first though it was Lake Titicaca, but it might be a connecting wing or something…)
About 15 of us went (including some Mums and other women in the church to keep us on our best behaviour) to visit a church on the Peru side, that we have some contact with one of their members, Hilda, who works in Arequipa. Unfortunately she couldn’t make it there until Sunday.
We took the over-night bus (7.30p.m-3.00am) on Thursday night, and, surprisingly got some sleep. So, we arrived at around about 3, to be greeted by cold weather, altitude, and a muddy street with various buses waiting till the border opened. So, we walked down the street for about 20 minutes until we got to Hilda’s house (her son, Romario led the way) which had one room, two beds, a concrete floor, and no power. So, as we were all kinda cold, and there wasn’t heaps of space to sleep, we went to a roadside stall to have a coffee and some bread (cheap as chips, but dodgy as well, like old cups that you had to hope had been washed well etc. –good times!)
After that, we headed back to the house where we squeezed 4 people on to each bed, and the others on the floor somehow, or chilling outside. The room had a nice ambiance about it, with candlelight and all. Some gave up trying to get to sleep- which created more space for me so I got maybe 2 hours before I was awoken (at 6ish) saying that we were heading off to look around.
By this time the town was alive with tricycle taxis, and people own tricycles loaded with stuff, and just people in general milling around. So, after walking around bit, we found a restaurant (still a little dodgy, but a lot better than earlier… this would become a reoccurring theme during the weekend) for breakfast, then the rain poured down (and I suddenly remember that I’d forgot my rain jacket… happy days)
So, through the muddy streets we went, we all were caught out (in Arequipa it only rains in the afternoon). We eventually found a plastic dealer, so we bought sheets of plastic to make poncho thingies, oh so styley I might add…
Eventually the rain calmed down a bit, and we went to the other side of the town to Bolivia! I was expecting tight as control on the border, but people just wandered across, so I joined them- not sure if I was entering in illegally.
With the constant threat in my mind of problems with police I made a plan to save myself if they asked, I’d just show them my photocopy of my passport, not the real thing, so they wouldn’t be able to see if I was there legitimately. Despite my concerns (which would be forever put to rest later) nothing happened, I wasn’t even breaking any rules per se, as they had tight controls down the road from the town, so I was in a kind of in between area- even thought there was all the official signs and offices on either side of the river. It did feel more adventurous for a while, with the made up threat of cell time in my head (or a bribe to get out of it).
After a good look around on the other side, we went back to the Peruvian side to sort out our paper work. All the others only needed their ID cards and to fill out some stuff, which seems to work fairly well. It worked out at a very good time for me, as I needed to get my 90 day visa renewed sometime.
After a long wait for everyone to get processed, we headed off to the Bolivian border buildings (that is, all of us who could go, those who were minors needed parental permission—which was a surprise- so they had to stay- but we were only going for a night) filled out or paper work again, then crossed the border back to Peru to get our stuff (hahaha, I love this part of the world!).

So after getting all our stuff, and changing our money (One Bolivar equals about 20 cents NZ, Bolivia is the poorest country in South America and consequently, the cheapest to travel in) off we went for an adventure in La Paz (at an altitude of around about 3,600-700 in the centre, 4,000 on the outskirts, as the centre is in a valley surrounded by the outlying areas- one of the slums is said to be the fasted growing cities in South America)
The bus trip ($2NZ) was uneventful, and as we arrived the view was amazing- going down into the valley, with buildings all clinging against the hills, quite spectacular really.
After arriving, we soon found accommodation (at 10 B’s, or like, less than $2 NZ) for the night, and no, it wasn’t pretty… budget to the max- and it was sharing a double bed with someone else- but that still great value in my book.
So, we went off for a feed, which was some crappy chicken and rice or noodles- we soon found out that Peruvian cuisine (at least cheap cuisine) was a whole lot better that budget Bolivian fair (it wasn’t even much cheaper than for the same dish in Arequipa, if at all).
After that disappointment, we took a bus to the centre of the city, unfortunately I accidentally left my camera at our accommodation, but we had a great look around- everyone with their eyes peeled for bargains (Ronny had joked that Peruvians are rich in Bolivia, and he wasn’t too far off- in regards to some products) like cheap shoes, electronics clothes etc. We also had a good look at the central square (quite small considering that it has the Presidential palace, the national congress and a cathedral (circa 1800 and something). But it was still nice, and Milward joked how we were going to meet the President, Evo Morales (Think Chavez and you’ve got the right kinda picture). But, alas, we only met shoe shiners, who cleaned some of our shoes (It’s the first time I’ve had it done, quite a weird feeling, I don’t know how to describe it… it feels demeaning I guess…)
Most of the shoe shiners wear balaclavas or something else to cover there face and the stigmatism/shame associated with having to do it.
After that, we took the bus back, and relaxed for the rest of the evening.
That night was a good nights sleep, considering the circumstances (my sleeping bag came though with flying colours- and it meant that I didn’t need to use the dodgy sheets… Milward didn’t want to use them, so he didn’t get much sleep as his jersey and jacket didn’t keep him that warm…)
So, after another dodgy breakfast of some porridgey thing and bread (once again from a dodgy cup, I really should buy my own cup shouldn’t I) we headed off to the markets near the city centre.
I went off by myself (as the others weren’t on the look out for mint Inca style woolly hats etc. ) and had a “absolutely fabulous” time, you could say I shopped like a woman (exaggeration) and say it I did (I love it when I can think of something humorous to say in Spanish, it all ways goes down well- and it doesn’t need to be extremely funny, it’s almost like Fez in ‘that 70’s show’- he can say anything and it’s funny, just because of who he is)
So, for the record I purchased quite a few possible gifts, like styley Inca woolly hats for around $2 NZ (not bad aye) or bootleg Futból shirts for $5, so I got the two local teams; Bolivar and Los Tigres (the ‘tigers’ one with SINCLAIR on the back, for an extra $1), it was probably good I didn’t bring any more money, as I find bargains irresistible (especially when I’m behind a whole lot in my gifts for the family (yep, it’s a mission with a family my size, hope you don’t expect anything too outrageously cool).
The Markets were really cool, great value as I mentioned before, and they all had a good vibe. I found the Futból shirts in this street that seemed to be full of Futból related shops, with all kinds of Jerseys from all over the world (in an ideal world I would have gone over board and got shirts of all my favourite players, or made up my own shirt from scratch which was an option- I so need to design one on my computer and get it made… that’d be something….
I also got the chance to go to the centre of the city again to take photos (albeit without the others for a group shot). Happy days.
I was expecting to have killer problems with the altitude, but, to tell you the truth, I didn’t feel it as a problem… even when walking up and down the hills-though when I had my big bag I felt it (but that’s normal isn’t it? Does that count?).
After meeting up with the others we went off. I found out that the others hadn’t seen the Futból street (which was a disappointment for them, because the stuff there was about a half of the price in Arequipa)
So, we trekked off back to Desaguadero, this time in a mini bus ($2) and got back at around 2 in the afternoon. Everything went really smooth, and I got my visa renewed for until the 1st of June, and we met up with the ones left behind. So, for the afternoon we just relaxed or did whatever in the town. I went up a hill nearby with Ronny and Sabina, one of the Mums that accompanied us on the trip. The view from the top was awesome- of the lake, the mountains, and the town below. So we chatted there for a while, enjoying the view.
That evening was uneventful, we went into the bus waiting area for a feed- some more dodgy coffee and bread on the roadside- and we all made our way back to the house… and then the rain started, then the hail (which was a first time some had seen it before…quite an event for Arequipeñas). By this stage it was dark as, and Ronny was saying that we needed to find some accommodation. But apart from Ader and his friend, who had already sorted something out, no one (even those who said they could before) wanted, or could afford it for the night. So I chipped in with Ronny and got us some rooms at a place down the road, so we were all a bit wet, but happy to get some rest. We left some of the guys in the house, (funnily enough Cesár had a bed to himself, so the other 3 had to share).
After an alight night of sleep we had some breakfast (yep, more dodgy coffee and bread- but you’ve gotta love it if its for 50c).
Then we met up at the house and with Hilda (who had finally arrived) and went to the church.
When we arrived we heard singing while outside, and it didn’t sound like Spanish to me. Lo and behold I was spot on, they were singings in Aymara, in a very traditional way: with a guitarish thing, a drum and with the somewhat different melodies of the Andes. I believe that they use a different musical system than in the west- with less than 8 notes an octave, in a similar way that in the middle ages they used a different system as well. I also have a sneaking suspicion that the originators of this music had a different idea of what was good singing (maybe that too harsh) but, hey, each to their own I guess.
The church was this smallish building, with a wooded floor, wooden chairs and about 15 people (not including us) some others in the church were preparing a morning tea and lunch. After a few songs they welcomed us, and we went up and introduced ourselves. Ronny accidentally said I was from Europe, then corrected himself, but Europe stuck (as I’d find out). Then they went up and did the same thing. Then, after having a snack, we continued singing (this time in Spanish) and listened to a youngish guy give a bilingual sermon (the church official uses three languages, Aymara, Quechua and Spanish) I’m not sure if he was using Aymara or Quechua. After that we sang a song for them, which they then did the same for us.
Then, one of the leaders of the church went up and asked “the guy from Europe” to come up and share something, which freaked me out- they thought I was a full on missionary or pastor or something. So, after Ronny told them some facts (while im standing up there wondering what to say) he said I could talk about anything. So, I pretty much thanked them for their hospitality and how cool it is to have brothers and sisters in Christ all around the world… I hope I didn’t look embarrassed… that pretty much all I said. HE then asked me about what Churches are like back home, how do they worship etc… So, that got my heart rate up high for a good few minutes. Next time I’m in that situation I’ll read some verses or something- Live and learn.
After that this guy preached for ages, in Spanish so we all could understand (most of our group can’t speak much Quechua or Aymara, some of the older ones can more or less). He always lost what verse he was up too which was funny, anyway, after that we all went outside for a meal. The meal included whole gutted fish about the size of sprats, a little tomatoey sauce, potatoes, broad beans, chunyo (like a potato, but black and with a weird texture) which, once again, was probably a little suspect on the hygiene side of things. But I dug in and ate the ‘comida extremo’ as best I could, the fish was really hard to eat, as it had little bones and the head wasn’t that appetizing. I nearly finished everything, but I was full (the altitude does that to you I’ve heard… the food just staying in your stomach).
After that we headed back, and relaxed for a little while, then we went to the bus place to wait for our bus- we left early as rain was imminent in the menacing clouds.
After a long wait, we eventually got into the bus. A lot of the passengers seemed to have come back from epic shopping trips (or had bought lots of stuff to sell) so inside the bus was wild (thankfully not animals, thank God) with people stuffing things all over the bus in every nook and cranny. I guess the bottom was full, and the people here seem to have an aversion to putting their things there, preferring to have it on their lap (this weirds me out to the max, I like my comfort- only a little carry-on).
A few people were doing the rounds, trying to get other passengers to shove stuff under their seats etc. this girl asked me to look after a blanket, which was all good. Then this annoying older lady was going round trying to make people feel bad if they didn’t do her a favour by putting a box under their legs. I was fairly nice to her the first time, telling her that I couldn’t (I didn’t want to as well, I didn’t pay for a seat to have it loaded with other peoples stuff) as I had my bag underneath. So she went away, while she was away my naughty self was thinking of how to say shove that box … you get the picture, I wasn’t amused. She eventually returned in her moaning manner, saying please and begging, with a sad look on her face as if I was letting down my own grandmother. So, I told her, in no uncertain terms “Te dije que no puedo, asi que NO PUEDO- Gracias” (I told you I can’t, so I CAN’T, thank you) which shut her up good. It was quite a satisfying moment, to tell someone to leave me alone in a second language. It also gave me ‘much respect’ from the others in the youth group close by. Daniel said I was “like a Peruvian” … oh, the empowerment of language…
Unfortunately that wasn’t the worse part of the trip. For some reason, once we had reached Puno (I think it was Puno) these official looking dudes got into the bus and started searching for something (I have no idea what) asking people “whose is this bag” and opening this to have a poke around. They really ticked some people off, especially this old lady, who started hitting this guy who was asking to be able to look at some of her and her husbands luggage, he wasn’t thrilled either, so he shouted at them. Thankfully they left me alone, but this must have lasted for about an hour, with the bus stopping at some special check stations or something. I was well annoyed, as I wanted some sleep. Crazy… I couldn’t get to sleep for ages after that, but I must’ve eventually as I woke up to see that we’d reached the outskirts of Arequipa (finally) at around about 3 in the morning. So I caught a Taxi back to my place, tired out…
So that was the trip, I haven’t got sick yet (yes) but typhoid takes 2 weeks to surface (or so I’ve heard) so I’ll keep you posted. I did wake up with a killer earache though… must have been the change in altitude I guess.
Anyway, it was fun times. So the plan over the next little while is pretty much the same, but I should be moving into the Greens place sometime soon. And I should be starting up classes once a week at the language school sometime soon.

Anyway, props if you made it this far down the blog, I’ve probably set some new personal bests (just like the All Blacks in Graham Henrys master programme, how fun would that be to be a part – sounds like a perfect reality TV idea, with the people with the biggest gains etc. not getting eliminated, like that losing fat one The biggest loser, or something)
Alright, look after yourselves, and God bless.

Nathan
(i'll put up photos soonish...)

The aftermath of Carnival, and my first Fútbol game here

2007-02-20T12:51:00.000-03:00

In my last post I hyped up the locals way of celebrating carnival, and I was pretty much on the money except for the fact that this year the government had passed some new laws- Pretty much threatening to imprison people who soaked/powdered/etc anyone who wasn't playing... for up to 4 years. So that stopped the gangs that in the past have roamed the streets wetting everyone, sometimes with coloured water: which had disastrous effects on peoples clothing, and they sometimes used it as a front to rob people in mobs etc. -Especially in Lima (as I've been told many times, crime is a lot more full-on in Lima)

So the people were very well behaved during the earlier weeks, but you'd always see people (normally girls) who had been soaked or powdered (With stuff kinda like powder paint or something) which was always a good laugh.

My first time I was targeted was in the centre of town walking around, and some girls were following me with a little spray gun... so not exactly that crazy.

Next would be at the School that the Peruvian "YMCA" or (ACJ (Asociacion Cristiano de Jovenes) in Spanish) has in one of the slum areas (I went there twice last week to help out, it's summer school right now-so I was mainly just hanging around with the kiddies and playing games etc, I hope to go there about once a week for the morning to help out, chill with the kids- it's a great work they do out there). And this was the 16th, two days before the actual carnival day. So the kids were pumped up ready for a water fight, so they had to wait till 12 when we had finished, to make a long story short the boys went full on and soaked the female volunteers (lucky me not getting targeted, the kids call the others 'maricones' (roughly queer in English) if they wet someone of the same sex) so I was safe until I jokingly asked for a water balloon from one of the boys and popped it on his head, so, they soaked me, and then reinforcements came in for the girls side... so, I got drenched and ran off to catch the bus- to the amusement of the other passengers.

But the worst came on the day itself: I went to the fútbol with Julio, Pablo and Juan Carlos (which I’ll cover in depth soon) and all the action in the streets had seemed to have died down (before we saw hoards of guys and people in trucks etc, armed to the teeth with all manner of wetting equipment) so I didn't take the bottles of water in my bag like I did in the morning while I was at church (It pays to be prepared) when I went to Youth Group (we've just started up for the year pretty much) so, I took the bus like I had a few times before- but I accidentally took the wrong one (I thought Bolivar was an abbreviation of Simon Bolivar, the location of the Church) So when the bus took a turn the wrong way I started to get worried... We made our way into this huge market (the principle one of the city) so I got off the bus in this really interesting part, trying to recognize a bus to take, or some familiar street. I seemed to be in a part of the market with a-lot people second hand stuff, ranging from electronics to shoes, first up this guy asked me if I had any valuables to sell, to which I replied "no"... then I asked him and some of the other guys if they knew of a bus to Simon Bolivar- Which weirded them out big time, so they asked me if I wanted to go to the Plaza de Armas (the central square of Arequipa) I guess most 'turistas' don't really want to go to a poor comuna in the city with nothing that exciting.

So I walked off to find a bus or catch a taxi (which can be a problem, as there are so many taxis but a lot of the companies aren't that reputable- even some locals avoid them... but It's not the best to get in a dodgy taxi that can take a 'rich' gringo anywhere (if they knew the truth I could get in any taxi, dream on) and take their stuff. So, I was walking around, trying to look like I knew where I was going, trying to find a taxi or bus. Thankfully I found a principle street that I recognized, so I started walking up that, by all these stalls with everything from pirated music/movies, clothes to food.

So, while I was walking I saw ahead of me a few girls with powder on them, hanging around some people selling powder by some other stalls. I thought I was pretty safe walking there, I wasn't a threat (so according to the rules a non-combatant) but, just as I reached where they were I caught a glimpse of one of their faces, with a mischievous look. Then, next thing you know, I was attacked by them (official estimates vary, from the exaggerated 10 I told the driver of the taxi I eventually went in, the 5 I told the youth group about, and the maybe only three which doesn't sound as exciting. I didn't count as they smeared it in my face) with them throwing powder all over my t-shirt, my bag and my face. In hindsight I realise that I should have turned around and grabbed some powder from the woman there selling it, but rational thought gave way to a mix of the 'survival instinct' and the 'this is really funny so I should laugh instinct’. After the attack the reactions I got were priceless. Best of all was arriving at YG, sneaking in the back because I was late, and seeing the faces of anyone who saw me sneak in. I think it was definitely a great conversation started and it was fun telling the story... I think it has, fairly or not, given me the reputation of being a good laugh, and extra acceptance in the group.

So, next Carnival I'm not gonna be caught out!

The fútbol was good fun, and a lot cheaper than when I went in Chile (and a lot less important a match). It only cost $4 NZ to get in, which made sense as we were sitting in the cheapest seating area. The whole stadium (except for the small covered stand for the people with money ($12 NZ) was old-school embankment style concrete seating.

We arrived about 10-15 minutes before kick off, with the two Melgar mad fanatics sectiones starting to chant etc. (Melgar is a suburb in Arequipa, and the most popular team, the new team, Arequipa total- now that’s a cool name...) Melgar's colours are red and black and the other team wore pink- The aptly named "Sports Boys" from Lima. I so need to get one of their jerseys!

The game was Sunday afternoon (carnival as I mentioned before) which may have affected the crowd... the crowd didn't get into the songs like they did at the Colo Colo game I went to in Chile, But I guess who wants to sing in a 1/3 full stadium, unless your in a huge group of fans (next game I should go in team colours and join in on the fun. The game was played in generally sunny conditions, and I always love a free flowing rugby game in the afternoon, so I had high hopes for a high scoring match.

The match started terribly for Melgar, with a free kick badly defended. Melgar didn't seem to have much get up and go in the first half, but they had the majority of possession (this is starting to sound like the match report or something, anyway, I'll continue) The second half started well for Melgar, with far more positive play with the ball, still with the majority of possession. Finally they scored of a nice kick that finished of a great cross to make it a draw. I felt as if the game was going Melgars way; But the manly men from Sports Boys still had some fuel left in the tank, and they subsequently scored three easy goals (thanks to some lame defence from Melgar) and almost made Juan Carlos cry (ok, I made the last bit up, Melgar fans have tasted enough defeat in their recent history to be able to cope- and it's a long season... but it was surprising considering the start they have had to the season- most markedly their 2-0 whitewash of the reigning champions, Alianza Lima, last week. But it's still early days in the competition).

In other related Fútbol news I'm still making up my mind as to which team I will support. I made the decision far to fast in Chile, and had to eventually back two teams (much to the amusement of my friends) but I don't want to be in that situation again. Melgar is the early favourites, with Sporting Cristal (Pablo's favourite team, which got knocked out of the Copa Libertadores very early on, and in a disastrous manner) Arequipa Total (what a name, but I haven't had a chance to have a good look at their jersey) with an outside chance amongst others. I will keep you all posted on developments in this regard.

I’m slowly regaining my Samson like powers after my haircut, but it's slow going...So here are the promised photos, and a bonus one: this is of a sign on the way to Mollendo (another beach I have visited, this time for a day trip with some from the Youth Group that Pablo goes to (and I go to as well)) It pretty much says "our city is clean, keep it this way" which is all well and good... but the accompanying diagrams of someone.... I think you can make it out in the photo.

If the city councils here actually wanted to solve this problem, they could make public toilets, and free ones, or really really cheap. I'm sure people don't get a kick out of defecating/urinating in public... (That was an interesting sentence). That (the lack of public toilets) would have to be one of my pet hates. Thankfully I haven't encountered a 'no 2' on my travels yet (only doggie doo, or what I hope is!!!)
Before:
After:

Anyway, that was a really really long post- You could say that I’m doing penance for my slackness during carnival- so now it's time to be serious during lent (I’m not really an expert on such things on some churches calendars, so to find out that 40 days (not including Sundays) before ash Wednesday- or good Friday, or something).

Look after yourselves, and God bless,

Nathan

Some Photos....

2007-02-03T21:14:00.000-03:00

Well, i've promised for a long time now to put more up... these are of my time in Chile- the new hair cut ones are on the way....

From left: Ignacio (or Nacho) Me (duh) and Manuel
Pierre, Jessenia, Daniel, Leen, Marcela and me at the touch prize giving- end of season night
With John- A chilean legend and other award nominee (he used to live in NZ believe it or not, when he was a kid back in the day- I once went to his place and he has this '87 All Blacks poster- and he knew more names on it than me...)
From Left: Jean Pierre, Daniel, me , Susanah, Nicole and Sebastian
Me with Seba, Nicole and Xavier

World carnival celebrations #184

2007-02-01T19:24:00.000-03:00

Well, I mentioned in one of the comments that I should write little articles on stuff that goes on here in general- instead of the usual boring posts about my life... so here is the first instalment:

Carnival is celebrated in many different countries around the world- Most notably in Rio de Jainero, Brazil. From what i've gathered over the years the idea is to go crazy for a few days, be a bit naughty before Lent, a time of giving up things, of being a good boy/girl.
The way the locals here in Arequipa celebrate (well, one of the ways) is an 18 day long water fight, starting on the first of Febuary, and culminating on the 18th- were everything goes mad.
Supposedly it's the classic boys v.s girls battle (guess who gets really into it?) but quite often the victim is indiscriminately targeted (I guess that has to do with the ''lets do all the bad things we can before it's too late'')
From what i've heard from Anthony about it it's a real pain for motorists- It pretty much makes it a necesity to have the windows up or you're gonna get wet.
I even saw the bus I was about to take a few days ago get pelted (naughty kids, can't you wait a few days?) so things are starting to heat up...

So, I'll keep you posted on all the developments in this tradicion. I should really get some supplies in the next few days, find a good place to hide, and drench some unsuspecting 'chicas'!

In boring news about myself I got my hair cut two days ago, with mixed reviews.
I'm somewhat afraid that i'll lose my magical powers or something. It's been funny some of the coments at the institute, mainly in the lines of ''oh, there's a new student'' but it's been all good. I think I prefer the big hair- but I couldn't leave it forever. So, I guess I'll need to wait 5 or 6 months for it all to grow back...
Fotos of the hair do are on the way...

Anyway, look after yourselves, and God bless

Nathan

2007-01-21T17:30:00.000-03:00

Well, Camaná once again treated me to a great time- the camp was all "good times"In all, about 80 turned up, I left earlier in the morning with Anthony and some others to get things ready etc (and get a another sneak preview of the beach!) before the others arrived. I guess before I talk of some of the stuff we got up to I should give you a brief idea of the schedule: If you were to give the schedule one word that summed it up I’d be this: Chilled...The day started at around 6-7 to get up (or earlier- on the first day some of the guys woke up to play football at around 5 (it's alot cooler then, but still crazy) thankfully it was only the first day that was so early)After that was the time slot for a Bible reading/study, I was in the young guys group, with Ronny leading it.Then breakfast, a morning meeting with singing and a talk- THEN TO THE BEACH (from 10.30 till 1.00) less than a five-minute walkThen lunch, a siesta/nothing time (or football), then games in 2 teams, ranging from volleyball to sack races etc. for points in the competition.Then dinner, Indoor games/competitions later (a play of a bible story, a song as a team and more crazy games)Then nothing until bedtime at 10.So, as you can see, it was a very chilled schedule and not packed out at all.The people were all really friendly, and it didn't take me too long to make friends. It was a little weird at the start though, sorting stuff out in the cabin, I could kinda feel a 'who is this guy' vibe. But that passed after the first full day. It's quite strange looking back now to think how I fit into the camp lifestyle in a different culture. Normally I get more vocal back home (depending on the crowd) and here was the same, but in a very different way. The games were alot of fun, but sometime hard to understand... but they were all patient with me. Volleyball was great fun, as, for the first time in my life, I was the tallest one at camp (weird aye) so they were always passing for spikes (funnily enough the term they use for spike "matar" is literally 'to kill'). Also the games at the beach were a highlight- as my team kicked butt, and sand is always the best for crashing in. It also amused the rest of the people close by; mostly with the Sand sculpture competition and with a classic combination race, which went like this:Firstly the competitor would jump in a sack up to a container full of water, fish out a wrapped lolly, then run to the next container with flour and take out another lolly, then run up to a stick in the sand, place their forehead on the stick and run around it 10 times, run to a line and do a 'roly poly' then run back to the next team member. Some of the players didn't seem to have a high dizziness threshold, esp. Angél how fell about three time on his way back (into the crowd on the side) while trying to run straight (I wish I had it on video, it was classic..) and of course all the competitors had flour all over their faces... good times. People were always stopping and having a look (we made a bit of a scene In some ways I guess)The camp was full of characters, like this little chubby kid (I called him 'gordito' lit, little fatty- the -ito on the end is either used to talk of something’s size or as a term of endearment--I was called 'gringito' all the time) who was always a good laugh, loved singing, full of life. Ader was another legend at the camp, all the guys really (I was really bad at learning the names, as it seemed weird and out of place to ask someone once you had done so much with them and they knew your name... it was a big group as well).The beach treated us to some wonderful surf, and, strangely enough, it was different everyday- ranging from big walls of foam, to waves with a half decent break (never lasting that long though) In general the waves were powerful and really easy to body surf (some times for a good 5 metres) Unfortunately there were sometimes holes that you could walk into and (far rarer than last time) sometimes a little bit of a rip, but I don't think I ever felt it during the week (unlike at New Years). I did well on the tan... with only my nose showing signs of redness; the rest of me is "casi Peruano"(nearly Peruvian) which was a running joke during the week.One of the days some of us went into Camaná (the town itself) for a seafood delight called cerviche (fish chopped into little bits with lemon juice and a soup with it- muy rico) and some queso helado (an ice-cream typical in Arequipa), which was another culinary experience. The food here is great: Generally full of flavour and cheap (for example our cerviche meal cost 4 soles, or $2 NZ/600 Chilean pesos for those reading this in Chile) including a coke, and the ice-cream is only 1 sol (or 50c NZ, 150 pesos) I've been fortunate not to get really sick (yet) from food here, I should be more careful with my food sources really- the main problem has been my stomach adjusting to the different microbes here. All in all I’m having a great time here, I recommence my Spanish classes tomorrow, and well be working with both the past tenses (I need to learn when to use which, and how the work abit more... I know a little now). The first week went really well, with me having to cover about 200 and something irregular verbs in the present tense (I hope there isn't as many irregulars in the other tenses) and filling in other gaps: Masculine/feminine, adjectives and more. Julio is my teacher for the grammar and Juan Carlos for the conversational class. The people at the institute are really awesome, both the teachers and the students- Anyway, I better finish off now... Look after yourselves and enjoy these photos:

Some Delicious Cuy (guniea pig)
Antonio (the cook) and Ronny
Puquina in the highlands around Arequipa (I htink it's at around 3,000 metres above sea level)
At Puqunia: If you look close you ca see the ridges that the Incas created back in the day

Me as King Darius with 'Gordito' In one of the races at the beach, with Ader holding my legs
Some of the girls racing
Some of the boys: Daniel (If I remeber correctly) Cesar, Horacio, Ivan and Ader
And osme of the others (I wont even try with the names, but its a cool pic)

I'll put up some more picks this week, including ones that I haven't put up yet from my time in Chile.

Just a short note...

2007-01-14T20:01:00.000-03:00

I'm off to Camaná again, with the church for Camp until the 15th, so I probably won't be able to check my email much during that time (i'd be suprised if I can even once) so, as i'm unprepared for a long post, i'll tell you some things to look forward to in a week or so...
I ate my first guinea pig yesterday ina little town three hours away... not to shabby- you just had to eat around the head, hands and feet- mmmmm, ¡muy rico!
of course the upcoming church camp will feature heavily...
and some stuff about my time at the institute learning Spanish
Photos if i can get to an ecafe with a CD drive....

anyway, have a fun week, as I have some serious tanning, swimming, beach futból, camp shower action the next few days...

Nathan

My time here so far...

2007-01-05T13:34:00.000-03:00

Arequipa! POR FIN!!!!
Peru is the best thing since sliced bread! (What a weird saying, because in general sliced bread is the cheap crappy stuff)
You probably think I'm writing this in the Highlands, with a friendly Llama outside, wearing a poncho and chewing coca leaves - That'd be great actually - But I'm in a city with twice as many people as Christchurch (that doesn't say much does it!) But my point is this: Peru has everything!
My time here has been awesome so far. I'm sorry I haven't written a Peru post yet, having to catch up and stuff, but I’ve only been here for less than two weeks (and I was away for part of that time, away from my laptop, but I’ll get to that)
So, yeah, the day after arriving I went to the Greens church here and got to meet the people, get a feel for the place etc. It went really well, the people are friendly, but there is a slightly different cultural vibe. For example in Chile, when a man greats a woman they kiss each other on the cheek, but here it's only some who practice that- a soft hand shake is the other mode of greeting (interesting aye...I read this in a guide book before arriving so I was kinda ready, but I now I'm a bit hesitant when I greet someone, but it's all really about going with the flow).
The people at church are poor, some are without work, and pay is shocking- poverty stares you in the face in Peru, In Chile it was kinda on a different level (it exists definitely, but in different forms, and more often hidden - More like a glance now and then).
The people are really friendly, and it's Bacán to be able to hit the ground running (ok, more like walking - with a Zimmer frame!) in regards to making friends with the church. I had a good chat to the young people after the service (it was a bit quieter than usual due to peeps being away for Christmas) todos son buena onda.

That evening we had a Christmas celebration at the house I'm staying at with the extended family and some missionaries from Germany (I'm staying with Anthony's brother and law, and some more of the family live nearby as well) so we sang some carols, played some games, had a feed and had a great time. And at midnight the whole city seemed to be setting off a whole lot of crazy cheap/loud/dangerous yet fun fireworks, which was a good laugh.
The next day I just relaxed really, we went to the Green's place for lunch (which I kinda missed as I gave the fam a skype call at the time...) but caught some leftovers. It's really weird to arrive somewhere and the next day celebrate Christmas with some people you hardly even know- But it was good times- Different to my usual Navidad experience (For the record my first time away from the family for Christmas, and I definitely missed a lot of the build-up etc.)
The next few days consisted of: Sleeping in a lot, having a look around the city with Anthony, going to the Wednesday nite prayer meeting, the Thursday evangelistic meeting in San Pedro (a poor town/suburb on the outskirts of the city), a visit to another poor outskirts area with another of Anthony's brother in laws to look at the social work he is involved with out there with the Peruvian version of the YMCA (good work, I'll probably be there in some of my free time to help out) and hanging out with some of the young people I’ve met here- Some young German guys on a one-year short term mission trip, and some locals as well! All good fun.
Actually for New Years I went with some of them (including of cause the German dudes (from now on I call them either by their names: Rudy, Nataniel and 'kique' (short for Enrique I think- His name might be Henrich in German? I didn't really get the full story…) Or 'Los alemanes' (Germans in Spanish)) so, back to the point, I went with the Alemanes and some other to a beach house in Camaná (right by the 'playa') for a few days. Camaná is the second best thing since sliced bread! The beach is a favourite getaway for Arequipeñas (People from Arequipa, and also a brand of Beer for the record) and at this time of year is packed out. It has a nice beach a little way away from the town, with 'Punta arena' the place with the most action. It's quite a surfy beach, but the waves aren't good for surfing- but not too shabby for body boarding.
We were further down the beach where it was a bit quieter, in Mauricio's girlfriends family's holiday home (which was getting its finishing touches done to it) so there was a whole lot other friends of theirs as well, which lead to busy showers and fun times!
To make a long story short I should put down some highlights/things of interest of my time there, or just random thoughts:
The waves were really random, at times really powerful, but not with any good break to catch. They were more like walls of foamy water at times- but heaps of fun to jump around in/get thrown around by. But unfortunately they sometimes packed a nasty rip or two in to make things un poco peligroso. I saw two rescues by the 'salva vidas’; two girls got pulled out (really close to us at the time) and a friend of theirs tried to help them out, but was pulled away as well. They all got pulled out really far, esp. the guy, but after about 15 minutes they were all back at the beach (thankfully the life-guards were right where we were) and the other was a group of drunk men who didn't take necessary precautions and got pulled away as well. There were a whole lot of them, and I’m not sure if they all got pulled out the water. Beer was really easy to get your hands on at the beach, even some of the stands would come out and supply you with some bottles (very handy) but I guess some people don't look after themselves- It's not the best mix in the world!
We went out two of the nights (New years eve being one of them of course), to the same ‘Discoteca’, which was great fun. There were a whole pile of them right at 'la Punta' (one which we saw advertised in Arequipa "para gente cool" which we thought was pretty funny spanglish, and became an inside joke over the weekend- the party for gente cool looked pretty lame actually, judging from the lame hats some old people there where wearing (you know the type, cheesy new years hats). So we had a great time with all of us, sometimes making a big group showing off our moves in the middle... good times
New Years eve went kinda like this, a late dinner, chilling afterwards, some Peruvian pisco with sprite, blowing up balloons and draping streamers around, waiting for the clock to strike... and once it stuck; Champagne, fireworks all over the town (like at Christmas) and then of to the Punta for a night out.
On New Years we had a mean as BBQ, chilled as we always did at the beach (and working on the killer tan that I now posses, los alemanes had some burning action. most notably kique hahaha, I did warn them...) and sand boarding on the hills around the town (a whole lot of fun, and sand in every crevice of my body- we just sat down on the boards as they weren't that flash... and, more often than not, we'd careen down the hill at breakneck speeds in a cloud of sand)
The last few days I've just been relaxing, attending various meetings of the church, saying goodbye to los Alemanes, as they now have to go back to the Jungle where their mission is (in Pulcama for the record) they were here just for Christmas to meet up with some friends they made while they were studying Spanish (at the same institute that I’ll be studying at for about a month) so I’ll probably visit them in the Jungle, to use up my Malaria pills (woo woo, I’ve always wanted to go to the jungle, I might even take the boat up to the border with Brazil/Colombia on the Amazon (now that'll be a serious adventure, and would add to my passports stamp collection!)
I might be going with Ronny (a Peruvian pastor that works with Anthony) to a village about three hours away this Saturday, but I’m not 100% sure on that yet.
I'll also be starting my Spanish classes on the 8th for a week, then after that I'm off to Camaná another time, this time with the Church for the annual Church Camp (the 15th to the 20th) so I’m quite pumped for both of those things, It'll be a great time with a lot of beach soccer and a great opportunity to get to know the people of the church. There's probably going to be about 60-70 people there. Peru is a country of many different things: Jungle! Beach! (Ok it's not that amazing, but in the north I’ve heard it is) Mountains! Ruins! Culture! (I should really put cultures, as there are more than one) and more... It's definitely quite exciting to be here, and I hope this post was interesting enough, I know there's a lot that I had to leave out -for brevity (well, not today) and for the sake of anonymity! I guess I’ll need to make up a 'friend' that needs to behave better, that stays up too late, eats too much, and has interesting escapades but that'll be beside the point.
So, yeah, God bless, look after yoursleves, and tune in for the next not-so-exciting episode.
and soon I put up a whole lot of photos (I ned to buy some more CDs for them...)
Nos Vemos,

Nathan

The Trip...

2006-12-28T20:58:00.000-03:00

So, I went to the bus station at around about 9 on the morning of the 18th of December, to leave a city that had been so good to me. No problems with the bus, a 6-7 hour trip to La Serena. The trip up was fairly uneventful, the same dry, suprisingly deserty terrain (the cactus were Bacán but nothing else was of interest really).
I arrived in La Serena at around about 4 in the afternoon, found my accomadation just across the road from the bus station, and then went for soemthing to eat, then afterwards for a walk around the beach. I was hopeing to find some 'action' around the beach, some night life, but I guess Mondays don't feature on the social calendars of La Serenaens. So, after a big walk around and a cold sea breeze coming in (I didn't bring a jersey, it's summer, right?). But the next day was great weather, I headed off around 11ish and spent all afternoon at the beach, until I had to catch the bus to Iquique at 6ish. I'd grade La Serena a B- Quite a nice beach (extremly long, which is good in the busy times of year) but it's hard to judge when everything is so quiet, I can tell that around the peak period it'd be great fun, places would actually be open etc.)
The bus to Iquique was one of epic proportions, 18 hours (Demasiado largo yo creo, eso es la razón que no me gusto la viaje) in a Semi Cama bus... But I somehow slept, but it wasn't anything close to what I'd call quality sleep.
So, I arrived in Iquique, famous for its casino, its beaches and for its immense Duty free zone. The first two hostels I tryed to find weren't where the guide said they were, but on the way to the next option I encountered a residencial (kinda like a budget Motel) so I went in there (I had been walking with my heavy bags for around a half an hour, so I just needed to find somewhere) And they gave me a room with like 4 beds and cable for around 15 NZ dollars a night (not bad value I thought). But It didn't have an ensuite unfourtunatly. After that I went off to get a feed, then to the beach! The beach was nice, fairly quite, the weather wasn't amazing but it was nice. So I spent the afternoon there, I went back for a walk in the evening again but still not much was happening (except for a big christmas market thing, where I bought a mean as brazil beach towel) and that I found out that next door to the place I was staying was "las chicas de la Harem" which I hadn't noticed before (as the sigh was higher up and it didn't really grab my attention) and it sounded as if it was fairly busy... and I could hear music when I was in my room- so next time I don't think I'll stay there!) . The thursday was good though, I started by going to the duty free zone, which would have been fun if I had money!
They had like hundreds of little shops selling everything from Electronics, cloths, booze, things for cars- pretty much anything. Afterwards I went to the beach, and the weather was mint! The waves were sooo goood as well. I tryed abit of bodysurfing in the waves, but I didn't have to much luck with that- they were kinda hard to judge and, even though they weren't that high, they were very powerful (I got throw around in some of them, hahaha, great times...)
So, after yet another good day at the beach, I took all my things to the bus station at around about 6.30. My bus was late (only 20 minutes or so) for some reason which was a pain (and the first time i'd encountered that in Chile) so I arrived in Arica later than I wanted. But things didn't work out too bad because just as I left the bus station a man asked in English if I needed a place to stay which worked out good- pretty good value, very close to the station, a host who helped out with some advice and, most importantly, close to one of the beaches. So, I went for a walk around, I had quite possibly one of the most complete completos ever (there buns were quite abit bigger than the usual, so they could load it up with even more avocado, tomato and other fillings) and for the first time on my trip I bumped into a discoteca that was open, so I went in and found out it was really empty. So I waited around for a while, had a few drinks, bumped into a scary dude who had issues and eventually left because it was boring and nothing was happening (and it was a far too old crowd for my liking... traveling by yourself does have quite a few downsides).
The next day was more of the same really, chilling at the beach (it was the roughest out of all of them, but nice all the same) and I headed of to the international terminal to catch a 'collectivo' (a car that, like a bus, has a set route) to Tacna, Peru (Peru baby!). I was thinking that this was gonna be one of those difficult situations where i'd have no idea what I was suppossed to do. However my fears were dispeled when at the entrance alot of drivers were trying to fill up there cars, so they were asking me instead.
I choose to go with this one guy, and while we were waiting for the paperwork/more passengers this guy from China who has been living in NY for the last few years came with us. Which worked out good, esp. for him because he had some problems at the border and he know like, no spanish. So that was abit of a mission. It was funny to see the contrasts in border control between my other border experiance- at the border between Chile and Argentina they had all that declaration rigmarole/ xrays etc. but at the Peru border we walked though the Xray room, and out the other side just to follow protocol, even though the machine was broken! Hahahaha, but that went fairly smoothly. Arriving in Tacna though was another thing. There were alot of people hanging around the bus-station to 'help' of course (and fair enough) for a fee. And I guess that when they saw me they thought 'money', if only that was true hahaha. So this dude helped me get a ticket and a hostel with this other guys hanging around.
It was weird for them I guess because we had a chat and I don;t think they get that very often, and they were like "come out for a drink afterwards" very insistently, like "we'll be here at 8" which kinda spooked me out, and this guy I thought was a fellow passenger said, those guys are crazy, come out with me (which sounded like a far better idea, he seemed really nice) so I went for a few quiets with him and one of the other guys turned up too, and, as it turns out, he worked at the terminal! But things were going ok I thought. But, to make a log story short the guys scammed me by fabricating a bill, and by not having any money to pay there half, and the ran off pretty much leaving me with 75 cents NZ to get back, and that got me really angry (I was ticked during it too, because I could see what they were doing, but I didn't know how to back out- In hind site I do, but thats always 20/20 as they say. But some people at the bar helped me out (some were just as scary hahaha) by giving me another 50 cents to get back home on the taxi. But God was good to me despite what happened... Things could have been worse. I got back safe enough to my hostel, really annoyed at myself. So if you see a Peruvian guy called Victor you know what to do to him...
The next day went a whole lot better, once I found out were to board my bus. I was sitting by this nice guy Rudolfo, and we had a good chat on the way. The problem was that we got a flat tire, so we were over an hour late. But it wasn't too bad in the bus, as they played some movies (including Bruce Poderoso, or Bruce Almighty in English) so they trip wasn't too bad, and there weren't any chickens sitting beside me, or even on the bus! By the time we arrived at the bus station I was getting abit worried, as I had sorted out with Anthony the night before over the phone when I'd arrive- and I was 1.5 hours late. So i got out the bus, and when I didn't find him in the first two minutes started to think of what I would need to do if I couldn't find him (why I didn't get a cellphone number I don't know) anyway, after about 10 minutes I saw him, and everything worked out all right. But suprisingly they had dropped me off at the wrong station (instead of the one across the road) and Anthony was just checking across there just in case. So I arrived, shattered, stopped by at the Greens place before going to my accomadation (down the road with Anthony's brother-in-law and his family- another familia Bacán) so I slept very well that night... If you made it through this post, all power to you- as you can probably see it somewhat served the purpose of letting me get some things off my chest!
Tune in soon for the lowdown on times in Arequipa.
Nos Vemos,

Nathan

see below, as I've kinda just done a double post...

The time just before my trip to Arequipa...

2006-12-28T20:52:00.000-03:00

For the Record: Im in Arequipa, all safe, and loving it...

Disclaimer: as I'm writing this on my laptop (not connected to the internet) I'll probably miss some stuff (as well I've got alot to cover), so, anyway, here it goes:

The last week or so of my time in Santiago was one of mixed feelings, Feelings of excitement about the next step, and feelings of sadness for having to leave all my friends. Also, sorting out my stuff was a mission and a half- my bag is only so big - so I had to give some things away (they had asked at Becka's church for some clothes for the people in Renca, a poor comuna in Santiago, so that worked out well) and I left some things with a family from church.
Because I was such a busy boy the last few weeks of my time there I'll write about some of the highlights:
Viña del Mar was good times, just chilling at the beach and stuff, having a mean as Asado at Silvia's place with the crew. Also that weekend was Ashlee's goodbye party with heaps of Ice-cream and old school Michael Jackson. Also afterwards some of us headed off to Suecia for a night out.
That last week of school was very chilled out, I only helped with a swimming class, and picking up Pizza for some classes. But the rest of the time was on the net, mucking around in the staff room etc.James left for England for Christmas (lucky $@$">#$@$ hahaha) which left me as the only Gappy, and the last two days of the week without the kids was very relaxed. We even went for abit of a tour around the city with Daisy, the Spanish teacher. We saw the central squares, a museum about the history of the city, and we got to watch/hear the cannon get fired on Santa Lucia (a really beautiful park/hill/castley thing) from the inside of the tower. And I tell you; it was a full on explosion. Funnily the cartridge they use now is a whole lot smaller than what they used in the past, so now it's only heard in the central city, instead of the whole of Santiago. You could say that the guy who fires the cannon is a bit of a local celeb, and he has a important job as all the churches ring their bells after hearing it (he's kinda like the character "Admiral Boom" from Mary Poppins if you remember him- I definitely shouldn't- It's funny how often I betray my image by letting out a reference to a musical or a kids movie, hahaha.)
After the tour we had the end of year party for Upper Prep (classes for 8-12 yr.olds) at one of the teachers houses. It was cool to be able to relax and be in a more social setting. They were all like 'we're losing one of the gappys who actually did something..." but I’ll definitely pass by the school for a visit on my way back through (and get a free lunch...) they're all a good laugh, good people.
That night was the Christmas service with Church, which consisted of singing, items by some of the church, and a great message by Omar. Afterwards was a feed and a chat with the people, fun times.
Saturday was Touch finals day, starting at 1.30 in the afternoon with us playing one of the other 'bottom of the table finishing teams', the mighty T-Birds. We were missing a few people, so we only had a girls sub. But the other team was missing a few so they couldn't even field a full team. So we only played a half instead, because the winner (us) had to play the Anzacs at around 3ish. So we played them as well, and played a fairly good game I believe. Unfortunately I didn't score any tries but I set up two and had some good runs.
After that we sat around and watched the other games, culminating with the final, which was won by Speed. It was a fun season but It was frustrating as well because we were lacking a guru/on the field leader to direct the play, so I didn't get the chance to run from depth that often. But I set up heaps of tries for our wingers, and I've found out that people only buy the dummies and tricks if there's someone following you up...
That night was the award ceremony and I knew I was up for one award (new male player of the season) and that there was gonna be some eats/drinks so I went along (and to catch up with mates before going of course). 'chino' had taken a whole lot of photos during the day, and unfortunately he caught me in action and, as he had told me earlier in the day, all the photos had me running in majestic glory with some tongue action, which was a good laugh for all. I didn't win the New Player award (Ben did, he's a legend) and Leen from my team won the new girl player of the season (well deserved). But, I did win something; you could call it an award that rewards different talent- 'the most touchable award' I'm sure you get it... I was nominated along with John (another legend, good guy) and someone else who didn't go to the podium, but anyway, that was a pleasant surprise hahaha. I'll definitely miss the crew from touch, good people.
Sunday went well too, the service was fairly normalish, but afterwards they surprised me by having a special thing for me, saying goodbye, which was really awesome of them. I would have gone all emotional but they were making me smile too much about other things. I really appreciate all that they did for me in Chile, how patience they were with me with my Spanish, and their hospitality. So, I left Santiago with mixed emotions as I mentioned before, not sure if I was ready for another uprooting of all my foundations once again (definite dejavoo action happening) all ready for my trip (via La Serena, Iquique, Arica in Chile (all beach cities) and Tacna in Peru) With all my stuff stuffed into my bags. I was thinking how weird it was that I'd been there for 6 months, but wasn't at all a seasoned traveller in regards to finding accommodation etc. but as you'll find out in the next edition things went all right, well , kinda.

no me gusta a decir 'Adios'...

2006-12-14T13:03:00.000-03:00

You won't belive this, but tomorrow is my 6 month anniversary in Chile- And it feels as if i'm leaving home once again (but without the guaranty of returning for a substancial time) and everyone is like "so are you coming back? when?" I could see it happen somehow, but it's easy to say that in the emotional state that is leaving heaps of mates somewhere, and change is one of the hardest things on the planet I believe... and I guess we'll see how my time goes in Peru, and what happens in the next few months. But, for the record, I will probably arrive back home around the middle of July or something- And definetly back before the world cup.

Viña del mar was mint last weekend. Just chilling etc all day.
Things have been quite full on lately, mainly just trying to fit good ops to say goodbye to people. Work finishes up tommorow and there's a Christmasy service with church, saturday I've got touch rugby finals, and Sunday the usual with Church.

On the name front the current leader is Diego, there's abit of a story about it actually (and I liked it before too):
I was in this 'Discoteque'and this girl asked me my name, and I told her 'nathan' and she didn't get it (it was quite load in there) so I said 'n-a-t-h-a-n' but 'natan'is easier to say. But she still didn't get it, so I told her 'Diego' instead, which got her laughing, and then she told her friend beside her and then I told her my my name- and she got it first time... But the weird looks I got from that was classic. And some mates have told me I have a face that could pass as a Diego. BUT there are still 8 days to choose before I get to Peru...

And, por fin, here's some photos:
Me with Pablo and James at Ashlee's goodbye thing (more red eye action)
Sebastien, Ashlee, and Humberto
The only photos I took of the wedding were of the building (see the previous blog for an explianation)
Last YG of the year, some of the crew (a few had left by that stage, and some didn't make it-busy times with exams and such)
On San Cristobal for a multi denominational prayer meeting (it was the bomb)
Classic photo of Borquez (Francisco) and Becka
Borquez, (I forgot this ones name), Xaviera and Pablo at a BBQ at Silvia's place

Alright, so probably the next time i'll write will be on the road or in Arequipa!!!

Chao Chao,

Nathan

My name is...

2006-12-06T12:39:00.000-03:00

Today I'll break away from the normal blog, because I have a problem I need your help with; I need a spanish name.
You may wonder 'why has it taken him so long to figure this out?' or 'I thought his name is Natán' However, I have decided that I need a Latino name-Even though Natán is officialy it (but no-one esle is called this, it's like if I was called Abinidab or some other non-used biblical name) people have a puzzled look when I tell them Natán is my name in Spanish name, I normally get a look as if (that's not even a name)
So, in the great tradition of asian immigrants who come to New Zealand, I'm going to pick a name I like and that people can pronouce.
This is where you, the people come in. I could very easily pick a name that I think is cool but everyone else could think 'you are so not a Raimundo' for example.
So, If you'd like, join me in this journey, help my friends on the ground here, search the net, buy me chocolates and so on and so forth.
The following are some of the prerequisites for my possible name:

Not too common i.e not Juan, Pablo and ideally doesn't sound to much like it's english equiliant (if there is one)
Not too uncommon
One that fits my personality somehow (if that can be graded)
It has to make people go 'ooohh' what a mint-funky-sexy latino name...

So here are a few possibilites, tell me what you think:

Rodrigo
Vicente
Francisco
Diego
Gonzalo
Hilario
Ricardo
Raul
And I don't think i'll be the following
Modesto (lit. sober, moderate haha)
Fidel (cuban stlyes)
Fabio
Tupac (a Quechua name)

Give me some feedback por fa, Rodrigo is the early favorite (as this last weekend I told them my problem and Rodrigo was throw around, and it stuck when they remembered to call me it for the rest of the day) but i've probably forgotten some other great candidates.

The main reason for this is whenever I have forms etc. filled out, whenever I meet new people difficulties arise soley due to my name being difficult. So after chatting to some friends I have decided to do this. So my aim isto have a name before I reach Peru, so I can start my time there with a clear fresh plate)

Alright, look after yourselves, and each other

Nathan

The wedding and more...

2006-12-04T15:10:00.000-03:00

Well, I promised heaps of photos from this but, ummm... once again I failed to deliver - But with reason: No other randoms were taking photos! So, as not to draw attention to myself, I refreined. But I took some mean photos of the outside of the building...

Mean aye! Anyway, it was definitly a good experiance. And it ended at a fairly resonable hour (despite what i'd heard of such events) like at 4ish. So I got an early night.
So things started of at the church with a service. It was with a priest and that which kept things interesting for me, and I was completly lost when there were phrases that everyone said at the same time, but I could kinda sing-a-long to this 'alleuia' chant thing...
Then it was off to the reception, which started off with some 'nibbles', drinks etc. then the full on dinner.
So, yeah, things went like that for a while. I was fourtunate enough to be on a cool table, actually sitting by some who had just recently came back from NZ which was fun. And some others spoke english as well. It's mad, like at these kind of events when I meet people, It's so often that I'll have s conversation in english... It's a welcome break for me, and it's practice for them I guess. But sometimes it's frustrating because they don't give you a chance to show off your language skills (i'm nearly always a cronic slow starter, esp. in noisy situation) ooops, a bit of a hijack: back to the subject...
And eventually the dance floor opened up and through the night the music ranged from a walsey thing to start of with to Reggaeton near the end. But, for the record, I didn't really sample much action out there (i'll blame the shape of the floor coupled with the lack of 'opertunities' haha)
But yeah, that was a fun experiance for sure.
Other highlights of the last little while:
Visiting a property to the South of Santiago with the Moyas to pop by and see what the Valenzuelas were building there (it's gonna be like a place for weekend trips, maybe abit of a little building there, muy Bácan)
Chilling with Alex and Phil and the crew while they were popping by before going back to South Africa
Going to this inter-denominational prayer meeting on San Cristobal, which a killer view of the city and a great bunch of people
Winning our first game in touch against James and the girls team (we've drawn twice with really good teams, and been close so many times, so were still in the running for a spot in the 5-8 playoffs) and we've got one more game to go before finals day.
Visiting families from church and having a good chat about stuff, playing fútbol on the playstation, watching el ultimato pasejero (the ultimate passenger) with Katalina yesterday (reality tv has alot to answer for, doesn't it. In EUP the aim is to get heaps of kids from your school on a bus by doing all these crazy tasks etc... my personal favorite is when they pick a guy and a girl from a team and get them to reinact a kiss from a movie... so they had to do catwoman licking batmans face... last week a mate of mine went to watch some kids from his school and this kid had to lick all the chocolate from a girls face, but he only used the tip of his tongue (he was this fat kid, scarred for life I bet, pobrecito ); )
and to cap things off I would put some photos, but blogger isn't letting me at this momment...
Chao Chao,

Nathan

Coming soon: The Wedding

2006-11-24T10:15:00.000-03:00

Hola Muchachos,

Just thought I'd give you all a little update about what gonna be happening this weekend: I'm going to Omar and Consuelo's wedding- and I can tell it's gonna be GOING OFF!!!!!
So, yeah it's tonight (Friday) starting at 9 with the service, afterwards there's some eats, drinks etc, then dancing until dawn: which I have prepared for impeccably with the dance classes I've taken (I've only had three, but one was really hard out so I didn't learn much, the other two were basic)- watch out Chicas, el maestro de bailar esta aqui, preperan para una experiencia muy distinto y muy soprendente! te estoy tomando el pelo- enserio!
anyway, it should be fun. I'll keep you posted on what happens, and i'll take some photos tambien.

One bad thing about this weekend is that I won't be able to watch the rugby! I was able to watch both games Vs. France but for some reason, the good people at ESPN+ don't have it on.
Taking about rugby, Touch has been fun this season, even though we haven't won yet. We've drawn twice against two top 4 teams, and we've been unlucky. And I've been scoring some ripper tries... but it's real hard for me to get the ball at pace/with depth so that hasn't helped my scoring chances. But it's a good crowd there, i've got heaps of mates on the other teams, which makes it a good laugh.

Oh, I better go, I've got to help with a swimming lesson like now,

Chao Chao,

Nathan

Mendoza, part 2

2006-11-20T13:10:00.000-03:00

*see the previous post for the first part of the Mendoza story*

So, James and myself fancied a night out Argy style, so we wandered around town for a while, but the only thing we could find were pubs (There were a a few English and Irish pubs, believe it or not- I guess it's like us going to a Mexican place in NZ). So, after our fruitless search we asked someone where everything was happening. 'omero is the place' he said/ so we took a taxi out of the town and subsequently arrived at omero and it was completely empty/not even open. But we thought we had hit the jackpot because there was this huge as party or something down the road-but unfourtunatly you had to be 21 to enter... so we just chilled in the central city, to get a feel for the place (from then on the saturday night was the target, so we keep asking people where to go etc.)
The next day we walked all over the town, I bought a big as Argentina flag as a momento and we ate too much good food. Alos we caught the All Blacks game at the Hotel we were staying at (go the AB's).
So, after another steak for the upteenth time, we followed a road on which there was supposed to be some happening places (we were told of one place but it was like 18km out of the city...
So, after a mammoth walk, we encountered a place, and walked in to find hardly any people and dining furniture all over the room. And it was already 12:30 at this stage. So we just chilled and waited for the place to liven up. While we were waiting a live band started playing, and the lead singer was trying to sing some songs in English - he wasn't that bad, but his adaption/interpretation of Bob Sinclar's (no relation, actually it's a stage name of sorts) ''Love Generation" which was hilarious.
Eventually, at around 1:30ish, the staff started to clear up the tables, and then people started pouring in. So in the spirit of the occasion we got dancing.
From what we had heard, girls in Argentina don't act in the same way as those in Chile. In Chile myself and James would be approched by girls, kinda flipping the natural order of things. I guess girls in Argentina have a bit of a sense of decency.
That is what we were supposing but then, out of the blue, we met some girls kinda the chilean way- a pleasant suprise to say the least. So James was with this girl and I was with two (That makes me sound real bad doesn't it, they were friends and it didn't seem to phase them, you could say they had shifts-I can't think of a wholesome sounding desciption for something that was, despite the words "with two" hahaha, why am I putting this in my blog...it was all above board I tell you) and I got to show off some of my salsa moves and some reggaeton as well. But probably the best thing was asking if they wanted to met up the next day for an icecream and have a walk around the city (I was well pleased with myself when I pulled that off)
WE first thought that Argies didn't dance well, because they were rubbish with the first few songs. But then the DJ put on some songs with latin flavour then the place went of- they all were really skillful and that's what they're all about (only a few were practicing the dark arts of 'bailando suico' ) so, yeah I fit (sic) in well.

Sunday morning was a mission and a half! We needed to leave our room at the hotel by 10 in the morning, but we only got back by 6.30, with nothing packed. But we somehow made it on time, had something to eat, walked around town (extremely quite, I guess everyone was asleep) and chilled in the park 'till our rendevous with the girls.

At 4 on the dot they arrived (punctual, I was impressed) and took us to this park up the hill. This park was immense; full of people relaxing, eating, playing futbol etc. And after that we went to an ice-cream joint to chill out (it was yet another hot day). It was real cool being able to understand pretty much all that was being said, and I find that once I get into character (starting to sound like an actor, aren't I- stupid comment) my spanish flows relativley well... so after we said chao to them it was as simple as chill around town, have another fabulous steak, grab our stuff, then get on the bus at 11.

We were extremely tired by this stage, and -excluding the stop at customs- slept all the way home. 'luckly' for us we had work a few hours after we arrived... I was stoked with that, to say the least.

So, here's a few photo's of Menodza:
James, Gimena and Mariena at the park up the hill
Chilling at a streetside restaraunt, in the process of eating a mammoth steak
A cool light which, I suppose, is the shield/logo/thingee of the city
A sampling of the delicious cuisine (it is huge in real life, I wish i had a pic for scale) this was a small one however
MENDOZA!!!!! bring it on!!!!
People walking around the central square
In the Andes (Chile side)
In the Andes (Argentina side)

Look after yourselves,

Nathan