It's almost unreal to step outside of myself and realize, Hey you were born in a developing country that is absolutely beautiful and rich in culture, with great family bonds, beautiful castellano and amazing food. Hey you have your entire NALVARTE side of the family in Peru, your own house down there where you took your first steps, and your beloved foods are everywhere!
I had the incredible chance to spend 3 amazing weeks in Lima with my momma. I hadn't been back to Peru since i was 18, and for my mom it had been 5 years.
ARRIVAL:: After a very long long day of traveling, we started our decent to Lima around 11:30pm. As soon as i saw the city lights and we kept getting closer and closer to the ground, i began cryingggg. I am such a baby, it was such an overwhelming feeling of happiness to be back in PERU!! I can't even explain the feeling, i was "HOME". MY culture, MY people, MY family, MY language, My EVERYTHING!! It is such a humbling feeling to be back. I'm so grateful!
Stepping out into the terminal, I was still crying! After we found our way to baggage claim, it was time to look for our family. my Tio Jorge was there waiting with a big smile. AHHH!
FASTFORWARD: we get to my house in Previ and my twin cousins, Noelia and Angie are already running outside to greet me. yep, more waterworks. WHAT WAS WRONG WITH ME! I could not stop crying. Actually, i knew exactly why i was crying. I FINALLY GOT TO SEE MY NALVARTE FAMILY!! it was such a sweet moment for me. My grandma, uncles and aunts and cousins. oh what a blessing!!
3 WEEKS OF FULL PERUVIAN CULTURE. I LOVE MY LIFE!:: I could sit here and write about every amazing second of my trip to Peru, but ill share some random highlights. July 28th is Peru's independence day from España, and we took a 4 hour ride to MATUCANA in the Cierra Peruana. I was grumpy, SO grumpy cause 1)4 hours on different buses and on a bad road...ugh! 2) i wanted to stay in the city for the cool army stuff and 3) i did NOT want to wake up at 4am to get ready. NO NO NO! I was being such a booger but then i shut myself up when i looked around me...I WAS IN FREAKING SOUTH AMERICA, in PERU...i should be excited to travel to Matucana for Fiestas Patria. I popped my motion sickness pill, took a nap and enjoyed my day. We saw the parade, ate yummy food and went to a CORRIDA DE TOROS.we had front row seats and it was awesome. the Bulls weren't super psycho scary, but just enough to get me to scream a lot of times. watch this:
hahaha too funny!
The major reason of this trip was to be with family and friends. Just relaxing at home in Previ and enjoying our foods. We had people come over ALL THE TIME. Not once did i wake up to an empty house. Someone was always over for breakfast which i loved!
oh,..breakfast. Mmmm! the smell of FRRRRESH french bread, jamonada de pais con mantequilla, ...MmmMmm my mouth waters just thinking of it. French bread here is wack! Just wait till you try the bread in Peru...uhhhmayyzeeeng.
Walking down my street felt like i was famous. Why? cause my family is pretty well known in my "barrio". My papa was a well respected general in the Peruvian Air Force and he did a lot of good for the community. Everyone knows the Nalvartes ;) Im being silly...but at the same time, i'm not kidding haha! We constantly were stopped with the same reaction: "Luisa (my mom)...is that you?!! oh my gosh i had no idea you were in Peru!...and who is this...NO WAY...little darlene? oh my gosh you're so grown up, you look just like your mom, oh my gosh i can't believe this is the little 4 yr old girl i knew!!"....muahaha im cute.
GREETING people is a big deal and shows your respect for others. Walking in and waiving "HELLO" is RUDE. If you are the person to arrive, you are to go around and hug & kiss everyone in the room. PRETTY AWESOME if you ask me, it's my culture :) . People ask me if it weirds me out to hug&kiss since i grew up in the States and that's not common here...but it doesn't weird me out at all. It literally is SO natural to do that. *hug* *kiss* *introduction*. Perfectly normal. I enjoyed the greeting a little more whenever it was a STUDLY Peruvian Man greeting me. Like my neighbor, Oscar. Muahaha he and his 2 older brothers grew up with my brothers, they were all BFF. Oscar is the youngest, 25, and a musician/radio talk person. He looks like KAKA the brazilian soccer player. Anyways, his hug&kiss were always extra long, but ohh i didn't mind at all!! I love Spanish greetings,...why can't we all just hug & kiss as our HELLO??...hehe!!
FOODS...the reason to why i gained so much weight on this trip... WAS CAUSE I DIDNT STOP EATING!!...ask me if the food was worth the extra pounds?...OH HECK FREAKING YES!!!....people, you dont understand. PERUVIAN FOOD IS AMAZING!! top ranked in the food world. no joke. I spent my days eating everything!! my favorites include: salchi papa, pollo broaster, anticuchos, pansitas, pollo ala braza, chifa, aji de gallina, papa rellena, lomo saltado, pollo al orno...ETC. You have no idea what these foods are. Believe me, you try it and you will wanna travel to peru STAT! ...i hate ice cream. I like the super plain ones but if you know me, you know i rarely want ice cream. but in peru, DONOFRIO ice cream is to die for! i had ice cream almost every day! i dont know what it is, but hot dog it is DELISH!!! the drinks...INKA COLA and KOLA IGLESA. my weakness. All day everyday i had those drinks. breakfast, lunch, dinner and in between...gulp gulp gulp. *ahhh* refreshing :)
IN PERU, WE DANCE FOR EVERY OCCASION......dance is such a strong part of the culture. If we are celebrating a birthday, wedding, death, an arrival, ANY occasion,..we dance! Music is everywhere and it's impossible to not move your body to the beat. CHILDREN EVERYWHERE DANCE. i love it!! we had some music playing in the background at my tias house and her grandson (12) handed us some pictures while dancing. No one is shy to dance. Dance runs through our blood naturally. one of my little girls was 3 yrs old and danced her salsa so adorably cute! family and friends all moved to the beat. The markets had music blasting and you would randomly see a group of people just DANCING. it was HAPPY. Music and dance brought us all together. Salsa, merengue, cumbia, toneras...everything all sorts of music played and everyone danced. Boys, girls, men and women...even my 84 yr old grandpa danced. I have a Special Uncle who fell from a 3 story house when he was 2yrs old so he has some cerebral trauma and is still at a 2 yr old mentality even though he's 40. One day, i put on some music at my grandmas house and he ran down. I smiled and said "TIO, BAILA" (uncle, dance!) and....he did. of course, i cried haha but words can't explain how amazing music and dance is in Peru. it literally runs through everyones blood. it's "weird" if you dont dance and clap in happiness to the rhythm of the music. PERUVIANS LOVE TO DANCE.
let's talk poverty... It is everywhere! Unfortunately, peru is a developing country. If only you saw what i have seen, i guarantee you that you will think twice about what you're grateful for...YOU HAVE NO IDEA. of course, im generalizing,..many have served missions in extremely poor areas and others have come from it. I'm just saying, there are so many of you that i know are so blessed that have never had to dig through trash to find 20 cents for a piece of bread. have you?...This is the part of my trip that was hardest for me. I wont get into detail because I hold this part of my trip close to my heart. I did a lot of things that most people my age wouldn't do or think of doing and things that my friends have no idea i did. i'm not "an angel" or "amazing" like i was told while doing these things in Peru,...I tried my very hardest to make someones day better while being there and I pray for them everyday. Writing this right now i'm already tearing up. It's something that ill never be able to put into words, an emotion so overpowering that it infuriates me that i dont have the power to change the poverty level in that country. that i dont have the power to build homes for all the homeless, help all those who are dying due to lack of money to see a doctor for a simple cough, to clothe all those who are walking around in torn shirts in the middle of winter, to give a starving new born the appropriate foods and vitamins,...oh my gosh if only you knew.....
Natural love....it's all in the culture! You meet someone and they smile and greet you as if they were your best friend, your sister, your brother or your own parents. *hug and kiss* "may i offer you a drink? are you hungry? would you like some of this..this this"...it's amazing. They are very humble, but even so they will share with you what little they have and they do it with such a huge smile and sincere love. Every perfect strangers says hello to each other in the street, i get called "señorita" with such respect, i love it. RESPECT is one of the most important aspects of my culture. It's very sweet to feel like the perfect strangers you run into will greet you and treat you like a sister. I loved the malls and markets cause i heard "buenas tardes señorita, como esta? la puedo ayudar a buscar algo?" . wahhh take me back!! i miss it so much already!!
MY MARINERA DANCE INTENSIVE... it was SOOOO STINKING ROUGH!!!! bare foot zapateo. watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pMvwN1s-Q8&feature=related
around 1:10 it shows good foot work. looks simple. But learning the basics and breaking everything down in order to go fast and stomp, point, flick, push, step step accent accent..AHHH!! my instructor said "if your toes aren't bleeding by the end of the routine, you aren't doing it right"...i crapped my pants. uhh I dont like my toes bleeding, k thanks! marinera is beautiful. It represents how a man courts a woman and she is a flirt who almost teases him. But through his respect and effort she falls for him and they fall in love, and in the end, love wins :) it's beautiful! the women is modest with a full dress and the man is respectful. her dress represents a dove...something like that it has a lot of Peruvian history. I LOVED IT!! but boy was it TOUGHHH!! im not a fan of putting a pole on my back to fix my posture. Ill stick to hip hop where i can slouch and be ugly.
These boys stole my heart....this is one of those stories that i previously mentioned I want to keep close to my heart and not openly share. But, this was an experience ill never forget. Again, i cried like a freaking baby but prayed for strength to do something. Without sharing the story, here is a clip of my boys working hard for a few cents which earns them their daily bread....
My Testimony...grew on this trip. For several reasons and several experiences that left me in awe. Something i loved was going to church and entering a FULL sacrament meeting. all 3 sessions were packed and the spirit was SO immensely sweet. They are so eager to learn about the Gospel and they already know SOOOOO MUCH! In their testimony they all shared their gratitude for that tender knock on the door from 2 young missionaries who shared the Gospel and brought their souls into the waters of baptism. It gave me great joy to hear their testimonies and how strong the work is going in Peru. The organization of the church is incredible, i'm so beyond grateful for my experience. Too bad for me, the Temple was closed during my stay in lima :( it's gated so I couldn't even go on Temple grounds cause something was going on with construction. BUMMER. My dream to travel and enter many Temples is still there though, so maybe next time :)
Leaving....To be honest, towards the end of my trip i selfishly began to miss my comfort here in the States. My car, my bed, my computer and cell phone. ew, how worldly and selfish can i be! I was mad at myself. But i couldn't help but miss my commodities i am accustomed to. I feel bad. I get to live in Peru for 3 weeks and help out, but in the end...i know im coming back to the states and to my commodities i'm selfishly used to. ajdfl;ajdfklajdfa anyways....leaving was hard. leaving my family again, my cousins my friends my culture. One part of me was ready to come HOME, but the other part of me wanted to escape my duties and stay there to keep helping and keep on enjoying my time with family. But my life here hadn't stopped... i had to come back to work, school preparations and start my volunteering at the hospital. The night of my flight home my entire family gathered at my home in Previ. friends and neighbors constantly stopped by dropping off gifts and thank you's to us. The love was felt and it was truly humbling. I have so many little kids as friends that i talk to all the time and played with...who surprised me that night. they had kindly gathered their change to buy me my favorite slice of chocolate cake and ice cream. My gosh, they touched my heart tremendously,..ill never forget them. Just thinking about them and everyone brings me to tears. haha i wished i wasn't such a cry baby!! After an emotional nights of goodbyes and hugs...we took off to the international airport where a few family members accompanied us until we entered customs. Upon the airplane, again came the waterworks...
Take off was hard for me. A lot harder than i expected. I reflected on my trip, my experiences and life changing moments that built a stronger testimony. I remembered those things which i saw that brought me to my knees to pray, and remembered those moments of pure love and happiness that made me smile from my heart.By reading this, you will never know the feelings that ran through me...they are special and unique to me and my experience.
I love Peru with all my heart. I love my family with all my heart. I love my experience and all those who touched my heart and made a difference in my life. They probably have no idea they did, but they did in such a great great way.
I LOVE MY HEAVENLY FATHER above all because thanks to my blessing of being able to travel, i was able to learn more, do more and grow more in SO many different ways. He blessed me with the appropriate words, He blessed me with the appropriate reactions and He protected and guided me the entire time. I'm so lucky. SO lucky and SO blessed. I must give back and this trip, was just the beginning....
I've always wanted to go to Peru :-) Loved reading this! I def. want to go now even more!
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