back in time.

wow. it's hard to hold on to everything we are learning. Just got back from spending the night on an island in Lake Titicaca. We all stayed with different Quechuan families on the Island. It was incredible, like seeing life in the times before. The houses were made out of mud. There were cockroaches on the floor. The mother cooked with only a fire. No stove, nothing. Rice, Pancakes, Chicken, and tea all cooked over a flaming fire which filled the tiny eating area with smoke that smelled of eucalyptus trees. The dad is a farmer (during the rainy season) and other parts of the year is a fisher-and has to go out every morning at 2:30 or 3. He and his wife have 5 kids (one of which is going to the university in Puno- he can visit once a year if he's lucky). The children walk 1 hour to school everyday. The women didn't really speak Spanish that well, but the men did. It was so weird. Spanish to the Quechuan people is like English is to the Spanish people - a way to connect with the bigger world. I found it really exciting. It made me look at Spanish in a whole new way. It is exactly what I have been wanting from Peru. A chance to see life before craziness. Before modernness. And it was exactly what I needed. I saw family united in a different way. I saw children grown up in a different way. A type of survival way. Everyone helping everyone. Everyone had little, and yet they all had everything. One of the children was named Richard. He was 10 years old, already knew Spanish... and stayed by his mom's side the whole time she would be cooking a meal. I bought a Coca-Cola from their family to help support them. Afterwards, I offered it to Richard. He had had Coca-Cola in his house all his life, for tourists, and yet never tried it. I can't express the emotion in his eyes when I gave it to him. That was life. That was what I am searching for. But that was almost matched when I offered it to his mom. I don't know if she'd ever tried it, but she definitely hadn't had it in quite a long time. In the end of the night we all (the exchange students) offered gifts to the family. Mine included salt, brown sugar, 2 holly starr wristbands for the girls (how weird, holly starr wristbands on an island in Lake Titicaca), and "canchita" (basically a sweet popcorn). I cannot, i really cannot tell you the significance of giving. All I can say, is something Holly told me a while back. "Don't think of it as a task... realize that God is trying to give you a blessing by having you give your gifts to those less fortunate. Accept that blessing. The blessing of Joy. he is trying to give you joy." I love this. I loved playing soccer late into the night with kids I didn't even know, listening to one of the only radios on the island. I loved watching a kids face (Coco) when India offered him to listen to her Ipod. I loved waking up with the sun, looking over lake titicaca with a cockroach in the window seal. Living life simply... now that's more like it. Pictures to come;-) Blessings, Lucas