Mi comida es tu comida

Latin Americans are famous for their hospitality. We´ve all heard ´´mi casa es tu casa´´ my house is your house. That´s great and all, but think about the logical conclusions. Then it´s ´my room is your room´ and ´my food is your food´ and even ´my iPod is your iPod´. Things disappear all the time. It´s great when I am hungry, because someone will give me food. If I need money, a friend would give me the last dime she had. But when I come home looking forward to an egg sandwich and my five eggs and ten pieces of bread are gone, eaten, it gets a little frustrating. And I absolutely have to order people to give my iPod back, which they pick up out of my room, which they entered without permission, and which they are listening to in the town center. Salasaca is very safe, and stealing is almost incomprehensible. But we have very different cultural concepts of stealing. In the United States, we would probably consider taking a 300 dollar iPod out of someone´s house without permission stealing. Here, there is no thought that it is wrong, and there are no bad intentions. But it´s hard to adapt to.

The Quichua is coming along nicely. My Quichua teacher, Francisca, has asked me to help her high school daughter with English, in exchange for my Quichua lessons. What can I say? So my day is quite full now. Get up at 7. 7-8 breakfast with Robert. 9-10 hike to school. 10-1 teach little children. 1-2 hike to Francisca´s house. 2-3 Quichua lessons, speaking short stupid sentences and making a fool of myself generally. 3-4 give English lessons. 4-5 hike to the town in the pouring rain. Then it´s time to make food, use the computer, study Quichua, prepare lessons, read, write, and maybe, finally, sleep.

Good days. Alli punllakuna.