Humo

No, humo isn't short for humor or humorous. There's nothing funny about it actually. Humo means smoke in Spanish and I can't seem to escape it. Smoking cigarettes is very popular here in Uruguay and you can't walk down the streets without breathing someone's second hand cloud. Now, the sky has become hazy with smoke blowing in from Argentina. We spent what seemed like a solid month breathing smoke from forest fires back in Kalispell and it felt like such a relief when I got away from it. Except, you can't escape it: my eyes are itching again and I have to take my allergy medicine to combat it. The interesting thing about the fire is that it is coming from a forest blaze started by a group of farmers as a way of protesting something I don't really understand. But the fire has grown out of control and is now supposedly the biggest that Argentina has ever had. Lot's of forest and farmland is being burned, but hopefully no property or loss of life will occur because of a silly protest.

Home, Home on the Range

So this entry is a little tardy…well, really tardy. As in it slept through class, but better late than never, eh? Experiencing culture vicariously through a sporadically writing 20 year old is so fun, isn’t it?
On March 29th, about 3 weeks ago, we took a group trip to an estancia, or a working ranch, about a 2 hour drive into the interior of Uruguay. We were planning to have a lot of fun with ample free time to do whatever we wanted to get out of the city and relax in some fresh air and sunshine. We rode bikes around some dirt roads. Branson and I even found some single track through a glade of trees: Mountain Bike Uruguay! Yeah! Then we could take either row boats or canoes into the lake on the property. Cody Veteto and I took a canoe around and had fun singing “Kiss de Girl” to the other row boats, attempting to draw a comparison between their row boats and the one in Disney’s Little Mermaid. Sadly, our amazing humor seemed to be lost on the ears of our compañeros. Later we had a lunch of really good food with grilled beef and chicken and all types of salad. After lunch, a smaller group of us went out horse back riding and talked our guide into letting us run the horses. He, the guide, took us around the lake and ran us through a narrow strip of trees giving me the feeling of chasing deer or elk through the woods. What a rush! I’ve never loped on a horse for that long of stretch. It was an amazing feeling. Back at the main casa, we swam in the pool and took turns being crazy and throwing each other into the pool. Adding to the entertainment, Hansen Penya, our program director’s 6 year old son, kept wanting us to throw him into the air. Naturally, we Core-Four tried endlessly to get him to flip in the air. We never got it, but he was a good sport! :) At 4:00 we had a Merienda, a type of high tea, with more tasty food. When we were completely stuffed, we boarded the bus back to Montevideo.
Upon returning, several of us climbers went to a Rock Climbing BBQ that we had been invited to. It was a fun time socializing (in our broken Spanish) with our friends outside of a climbing context. Climbers have to be some of the funnest people I’ve ever made friends with… Although we had eaten all day long, or so it seemed, we ate a lot of food at the barbeque. This included trying some more “exotic” entres: kidney, intestine, and blood sausage. Mrs. McAlister, my 9th grade history teacher, would be so proud of me. None of us cared much for the texture of the kidney or the taste of the intestine, but both were deemed mediocre by those present who had had it before, so I will never know if it actually would be something I’d like or not.
Some future things with the rock climbing club: we have a climbing trip to Minas next weekend and I’ll try to take some pictures of the gym we’ve been going to in order to post them here.

Hey look! It's a "Watch-Frog"!!!

I'd like a Mate. Shaken, not stirred.

Now, by popular demand, you get to learn about Mate...

While preparing to go down to Montevideo, one of the things that we were told to look out for culturally was a drink called mate (pronounced mah-teh, with emphasis on the first syllable). It’s a hot drink made by steeping the leaves of the yerba mate plant in hot water and drunk from a gourd. Much like coffee or strong tea, mate contains caffeine and people down here were supposed to drink it all day and all night in order to keep up with their crazy lifestyles of late night parties and early rising for work. And, honestly, we weren’t disappointed when we arrived: most everyone does indeed drink it.

Drinkers of mate themselves aren’t hard to spot either. You see then walking down the street with a thermos of hot water under one arm along with a gourd-looking thing with a metal straw sticking out from it. The calabash gourd, itself called the mate, is usually covered in leather and can be decorated any way that you’d like. The metal straw is called a bombilla and strains the leaves as you drink (seems interesting to drink something hot through a metal straw, but that’s what they do). Also something you would notice are all the leather materas, or “mate bags” that people carry slung over their shoulders to hold their thermos and gourd when not in use.

To emphasize its popularity, I’ll point out that it is the National Drink in Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay and also has a firm footing in southern Brazil. And people drink it everywhere and at any time. I mentioned earlier that the senators and representatives even drink it while in session at the Legislative Palace. Every gas station that you go to in Argentina has hot water available to fill up your thermos, however you should think twice about drinking and driving. In Uruguay, drinking mate while driving is illegal and drinking it while on the city busses is also prohibited mostly due to the danger of spilling hot water on yourself or others.

Originally, mate was drunk by the Gauchos of Uruguay and Argentina. These original cowboys can attest to the nutritional value of the drink. Their diet generally consisted of meat and mate! It was also something to pass the time while they sat around the fire after a hard day’s work.

There are regional differences to mate. In Uruguay, it’s pretty much only drunk hot and in the calabash gourds. People are very particular about their gourds and even have separate ones if they decide to add sweet water or tea to the yerba leaves. They say that it has to be the certain type of gourd to bring out the flavor. I can’t tell any difference, it’s all pretty bitter. The people in Argentina are less “hard-core” about the gourds and sometimes prefer to drink it in smaller plastic or metal cups. But still the drink is mostly hot. Further north in the hotter regions of Brazil and Paraguay, people drink it more like a chilled drink with iced water or tea with lemon. Most of the plants harvested are located in Paraguay, where it originated. Also, in Paraguay, many people add other herbs to their yerba leaf concoction. Overseas, Syria has become the largest importer of yerba mate and it is a popular drink there and in Lebanon. I don’t know if they drink it any differently or if it is as popular as here.

Another thing that make drinking mate so appealing to me is the sharing culture that goes along with it. Many people drink it alone, but it’s very common to see couples walking down the street with one gourd and thermos between them or to see a group of people sitting in at a restaurant or in front of a house passing a gourd between each other. One person has the thermos and “prepares” the gourd by adding the leaves and the bombilla. Then hot water is poured into a cavity created on one side of the gourd. The preparer takes the first drink to test the preparation/flavor. If it is satisfactory, he refills it with water and passes it to the next person. You have to drink all the water until you make a slurping sound with the straw and then hand it back to the preparer. He will refill it and pass it back until you thank him while you return the gourd. I think it’s pretty cool to be able to share a drink in a community like that.

I don’t think that there is any equivalent in the U.S., although espressos, lattes, and other coffee drinks come close. There is a need in both our cultures for the stimulation of caffeine and therefore it’s pretty common to see many people going to work or class with drink of choice in hand. What we don’t have in the States is the idea of sharing our drinks: “What’s mine is mine and you’re not going to have any of my $4.50 double-shot vanilla-mint espresso.”

Spring Break Part Four: Some Reflection and Final Day in Peru

Our last day in Cusco was a more relaxing, lazy day due to the intensity of the day before in Machu Picchu. I had fully intended on doing an extended hike to some of the ruins outside the city, but due to a lack of interest (on both the people I was with and myself [I needed someone else to be interested because of safety concerns in those particular ruins]) and a general feeling of foot weariness I decided no to. We slept in and had the breakfast we had become accustomed to over the past week in hostels: bread with butter and jam and coca tea to drink. I was ready to get back to Montevideo and have some oatmeal. The rest of the day was taken up with more shopping and wandering of the city. We visited the Coricancha museum, which is the great Sun Temple of the Incas, and had a tour of the catholic church built on its ruins. Then a friend and I hiked up to a large statue of Jesus overlooking the city that we could see from our hostel around dusk, just to say that I had at least started the trek that I had wanted to do earlier that day. After that was a little dinner and some card games. We felt exhausted and certain that it must be midnight when we decided to go to bed. However, when I looked at my watch it was only 9:30. It’s so weird how much our perception of time can be altered.

The next day began our long flight home. We first flew from Cusco to Lima with more amazing views (see Part Two below). Then we had a 9 hour layover in the Lima airport. We all made the best of it with card games, jokes, and reading. Thank goodness all our flights were on time and everything else went smoothly because after a night flight to Santiago and a 3 hour nap in the Chilean airport, tensions were forming in our group and patience was running thin. We made it home all safe and sound, minus some items we had forgotten or misplaced along the way, but with more than enough stories and memories to make up for them.

It’s really hard to know where to begin on a reflection of this trip. As I’m typing this blog entry I’m sitting in a hotel room in Foz de Iguazu on an amazing Brazil trip that has been a lot of fun (you’ll hear more on that later, hopefully before June), but can’t even begin to hold a candle to the Peru trip. I have never downloaded so many pictures from one trip onto my computer before. It is interesting to contemplate why I have so many pictures from our Machu Picchu excursion in particular because most of them all look the same. All of us with cameras were constantly taking pictures of the city even though we were really only getting different angles of the same thing. What made us take so many pictures? I think it can be explained in a spiritual sense: how we are inevitably worldly beings and when we experience something so awe-inspiring, something with beauty that transcends anything we have ever experienced before, something that allows us to see a little bit of God, we have no idea how to respond. As a result, our group resorted to taking picture after picture in hopes of capturing the entire experience, knowing that digital pixels will never do it justice.

Alone on Putu Kusi, I reflected on another thing: the Incan city of Machu Picchu is so impressive due to the Incan architecture built high in the mountains. Man, made in the image of God, can do powerful things. And yet, even with all the blessings that God gave them, the Incan people still worshipped creation: the sun, the moon, the rain, and even the Inca (the leader of the people) himself. What a huge expression of the grace of God, loving humans even while they completely ignore him.

For some final reflection, I’ll leave you with another underdeveloped thought of mine. I learned a lot about the Spanish conquest of Peru and how the Europeans inevitably had a negative, degrading view of the indigenous peoples, often calling them savages or “uncivilized.” What is it that makes someone civilized? The Incas had a sophisticated form of government, miles of roads built high in the Andes, and social structures that allowed many people of different backgrounds to live together. The conquerors came and plundered the towns that they came across, raping women stealing food from the people. I think a lot of us need to reexamine the way we view other people, even if it be subconscious...

Spring Break Part Three: Machu Picchu

Tuesday morning saw us up bright and early for our bus/train ride to Aguas Calientes, the closest little town to Machu Picchu. Aguas has grown up mostly from tourism to the Incan city and to the hot springs that give it its name, but also from a hydroelectric power plant in the vicinity. The entire trip there was filled with view after view of huge, mysterious mountains shrouded in mist. Once to the town, we dropped off our stuff at the hostel and loaded another bus up to the city itself for a guided tour of the ruins. There are few things in this world that live up the word ‘awesome’ that we throw around so much. Machu Picchu, with its massive stone buildings that have stood the test of time surrounded by the gorgeous Andes Mountains, lives up to such a word. The weather added to the effect: we had a mixture of rain, clouds, and the occasional clear view of the entire city. We learned a lot from the tour guide, about which theories regard the purposes of each structure and the different theories on the purpose of the city itself: how it could possibly be a religious center, a place to study the stars, or even an Incan University. She also informed us about some other possibilities for hiking in the area, and a few of us began to form a plan…

We boarded the bus once again, for our switch-backed road back down the mountain for a buffet lunch included in our package. We were entertained by live Peruvian music just outside the door and enjoyed a wonderful meal with each other after our soggy morning at Machu Picchu. After a little bit of a struggle at the ATM, a group of us walked down the train tracks toward a train head that I had found online and the guide mentioned earlier that day. The hikers’ trail leads up Putu Kusi, or Laughing Mountain, and would provide a spectacular view of the ruins from the summit. However, it was almost nightfall and we only wanted to have a look at the trail which is famed for its wooden ladders leading upward through the rock, one of which is supposed to have at least 161 rungs on it. We made it to the ladders and headed back down, not wanting to get lost in the dark getting back to Aguas Calientes.

While looking for some other members of the group, we ran into a girl from Nevada studying abroad in Chile this semester. She was supposed to meet up with her uncle and go on the Incan trail, but the company botched her spot and she was going to have to meet them in the city on the next day after entertaining herself for 3 days. We ended up eating pizza and playing pool with her and some other students she had run into on her trip to AC. Through our conversation, we discovered that they were planning on hiking up the ruins from the town early the next morning. Being the hard-core group that we were, we made plans to meet them in the square the next morning and accompany them up the mountain to Machu Picchu.

Rising at 4:30 am, we met our new friends in the square and hiked up to ruins in the dark. I had my headlamp and Branson had his flash light, but we ended up not needed either because of moonlight lighting our way. We beat many of the people who took the first busses up the city and were able to get into the sanctuary in time to see the sun top the peaks to the east of the city. Then we got in line to climb Huayna Picchu, or Young Peak, the highest sugar-loaf mountain situated behind the city in photographs. They only let 400 people climb the mountain everyday and you have to early in the morning if you want to have a chance. We stormed the peak, and never looked back in our conquest of the area.

The views from the top were worth every stinkin’ stone stair we had to climb to reach it. One of most incredible things was the building and terraces built on the top for a sort of watchtower to protect the city. We climbed almost entirely in a cloud and were disappointed we weren’t going to get a view of Machu Picchu. Fortunately, the clouds decided to thin and break frequently on our way back down, causing a pause in our descent and a mad scramble for our cameras. Before going back into the ruins, we climbed Huchuy Picchu, the second highest sugar-loaf peak you see in the pictures for more incredible views. The coolest thing about this peak is that there was no one else up there, we had the summit to ourselves. After that, we hiked through the city ruins and up to the ancient Incan Bridge which provided passage along a sheer cliff in order to finish a road system down the Urubambu Valley. Then it was back to the city and up to the Inti Punktu, or Sun Gate, where the Incan Trail comes into the sanctuary. By that time, our group (now nicknamed the “Core Four”) was feeling our escapades of the morning and took our time walking back to the main ruins. We were ahead of schedule and allowed ourselves some chill time just sitting and viewing the city and appreciating the awesome-ness of its structures and location. Walking among us and the other thousand tourists in the sanctuary were a heard of wild llamas complete with several young ones. It was very cool to see them walking around the terraces, trying to picture what it all might have looked like when it was flourishing. Then we literally ran back down the mountain (racing the descending busses) and refueled back in town with Snickers bars and generic brand Gatorades. We topped off our incredible day by climbing Putu Kusi and its many ladders. It rained on us the entire time but, once again, we lucked out and the clouds broke for long enough to catch yet another angle on the ruins of Machu Picchu. Finally it was back to the town for a quick bite of some delicious chicken enchiladas “to go” as we caught our train back to Cusco.

I Got Rhythm, I Got Music

The Wednesday night before we left for Brazil, we went again to the Teatro Solis to watch a Brazilian rock artist Chico César. His show was very entertaining and he involved the audience a lot (I wish I could have participated more, but since he was speaking in Spanish and singing in Portuguese…I know, more and more excuses). It opened with him and his drummer accompanist playing/singing a number while he was playing a weird looking instrument and manipulating the sound with a synthesizer. As the rest of the show continued he played two different guitars, sang, and danced while the drummer had some solos. In an attempt to explain his music/style, I would have to say that he was a mix of Bobby McFerrin and John Mayer, light rock with guitar but using a lot of mouth percussion/sound effects and body movements. Overall it was very enjoyable and was a good introduction to our Brazil trip we took the next week.

Another Brick in the Wall...Teachers! Leave them kids alone!

I'm really enjoying all my classes and this semester has been one filled with growth for me as a scholar and a follower of Christ. I look forward to using my experiences in the classroom and on the streets in my future. (Another cool thing about classes down here: we only met 4 days a week, giving us 3-day weekends every week! Talk about getting spoiled…)
Here’s a list of the classes I took:
· Beginning Spanish I & 2
· INTS: Latin American Studies
· Christianity in Culture
· Differential Equations (Guided study)
Beginning Spanish 1 & 2: Studying Spanish in a semi-immersed environment has been a lot of fun. It actually gives you incentive to learn in class because you’re actually going to go out and use the stuff you just learned. We have the class 4 days a week and we really have to work hard to keep up with our crazy teacher Amelia. She is a really great teacher and balances bookwork with oral practice and singing contemporary Spanish songs in class. We also have a Spanish lab where we can practice the vocabulary and grammar and pronunciation in a smaller group context. Many days in lab we learn “scripts” and then have to go out of the house and talk to random people. Very stressful for a introverted person like me, let me tell you. But the people of Montevideo are really nice and all you have to say is that you're learning spanish (Estoy aprendiendo espanol.) and they become really nice and helpful.
INTS: Latin American Studies: This is a class that studies basic structures of culture and the history of Latin America and Montevideo/Uruguay in particular. For assignments we get to go out and explore museums and monuments and statues writing about what we saw and experienced in a journal. Lynette Sharp-Penya, our on-site program director, teaches this class.
Christianity in Culture: This class, taught by Prof. Ken Cukrowski, is teaching us to examine culture while thinking theologically. We’ve discussed issues such as capital punishment, abortion, women’s rights, and homosexuality. It’s been very interesting both to hear the views of other students in my class and to develop my own thoughts and beliefs on these issues. Where culture is concerned, we’re getting a double serving by examining the culture of Uruguay and Latin America and then compare it to our culture back home, often discovering some unfavorable things that we do in our daily lives, especially with regards to our treatment of other people.
Differential Equations: DE has been quite an experience for me and Marissa, the other physics major studying abroad this semester. We had to take the class as a prerequisite to a lot of upper level physics classes that we will have to take in the future, but obviously they don’t offer anything like that down here. So, we are taking it as a guided study, basically teaching ourselves the ins and outs of modeling with differential equations, doing homework on our own, and faxing our tests and quizzes to the professor back in Abilene. It’s been a lot of work keeping up with the class at ACU, but the work will pay off in the long run.

And now next semester I get to look forward to Thermodynamics, Solid State Physics, Math Methods for Physics and Engineering, and Business and Professional Writing. Whew! I'll take back anything I ever said bad about classes in Uruguay...