Everything went so fast: Christmas, New Years, and now it´s January 3rd and I´m in Peru... This was very difficult for me at first. I just didn´t want to leave Qori behind for 3 whole weeks. Eventhough he´s being taken care of by his aunt, and even though he is hanging out with his best friend Mokee, and even though nothing is changing for him other than my absence... I was in total despair before my flight. I cried and hugged him, told him that I would be back soon and how much I would miss him...caressing his golden face while he slept like an angel on the bed. I was quiet at the airport, sullen through the checkpoint, and reflective at the gate... But I´m much much better now... His aunt sent me her blog entry. He ate two cans of dog food, went to the best dog park in town, and woke up to his aunt scratching his belly. I realize that I overreacted... And according to his aunt... the blog entry was supposed to help me ¨chillax¨. I can´t help it though. I´m turning more and more into my mother every day.
So now that I´m here in Peru, it is so HOT. It´s nice to leave behind winter. I´m going to be lounging by the pool tomorrow. Yup, those are my plans. We went to see a witch doctor today...just for a consultation (the sister of my husband´s Peruvian friend in the US). My husband was thinking about a ¨cleansing¨. He told her it would be for the 2 of us and his parents. I was a bit surprised. I never thought about what my stand would be on witch doctors. I thought about it some as the witch doctor blabbed on with her hokey song and dance. So I decided it might be fun... But if we do it, I will only do it if no animals are harmed. (I have no idea what it entails, but when I think of it for some reason animal sacrifices come to my mind. That would not be a cleansing for me... to the contrary, I would feel tainted.)
We´ve also been in a lot of taxis today. I realized that in order to operate a motor vehicle in Peru, it is mandatory that you honk your horn for every little thing. In turn, there is a lot less road rage in Peru because you already KNOW that you´re going to get honked at, so you don´t get offended and flip someone the bird. I´ve been studying the art of taxi manuevering in Peru by observing the Peruvian taxi man in his natural environment, and here´s what I found that they use their horn for:
to warn when:
-they are coming up to a blind intersection
-they are coming up to an intersection and do not plan on observing the stop sign (they just roll right through every time!)
-they are planning to run a red light
-they are going to make a right turn from the 3rd left lane over while going super duper fast and there is not much road left (everyone does this... I don´t know how there are no accidents!)
-there is a pedestrian in the road that they could possibly hit (they don´t slow down... they expect the pedestrian to walk faster)
-they are about to move 1/3rd into the other guy´s lane (while the other guy is still in that lane!)Then they simultaneously drive together in the same lane within 12 inches of each other. All the while the other guy is perfectly fine with this.
There´s more but I don´t want to bore you. In regards to that last bullet though... I think I´ve figured it out. Though I think more studies are in order. I´ve decided that in Peru, there is no such thing as lanes. Those white dashes on the ground are merely ¨guidance marks¨. Thus allowing Peruvian taxis to optimize a conventional American three-lane road into a Peruvian four-lane road (where each guy is 1/3rd into the other guy´s lane)and a faux extra lane is created. This is just my theory though.
Well, it´s been a long day. More Peru updates later. And sorry if this is written poorly or doesn´t make sense. I was dozing off at the witch doctor´s (and I wondered if she had done something to me) so I´m pretty tired. Also, it´s kinda hard to type on Peruvian keyboards. You would think it´s the same, but there are subtle differences that keep messing me up!
