Gringolandia (by Lawrence)

Green Street, version 2.0 (aka Carmen Alto)

Interpretive dance in the living room/hall/kitchen zone







Well, we're not in Kansas anymore. And we're definitely not in Sucre anymore either. As we continue to try and settle into Cusco, we are feeling a bit like Cusco may not be the kind of place that anyone actually settles into.

The population here appears to be equal parts travelers and Peruvians. The voices lofting up to our second story windows throughout the day and night are just as likely to be speaking German, English, or French as they are to be speaking Spanish or Quechua. Many of the Peruvians selling us food in restaurants or driving us in taxis are more interested in speaking to us in broken English than listening to us speak broken Spanish. Everywhere we walk we are asked to buy artwork by men carrying around leather portfolios, bracelets by women weaving with
tiny looms attached to their feet while they sit in doorways, therapeutic massages by pretty women brandishing shiny little promotional pamphlets, and meals from maitre d's chasing us down while waving menus in our faces as we attempt to cross the Plaza d'Armas. The Cusco that we have experienced is a city that lives, breathes, and eats tourism.

It's funny, but when we lived in Sucre, Bolivia in the mid 1990s we complained about its provinciality. We joked about the backwardness of it all -- the steaming bowl of chicken soup served with a chicken's foot, talons and all, sticking up out of it; the corner store where you could buy toothpaste, blasting caps, condoms, butter, and the newspaper; the dirt roads, so poorly maintained that you expected your bus to careen into oblivion on every corner. We thought Cusco would be a different kind of place for us to spend the year, a place we all might have an easier time becoming accustomed to. Well, it is different... but be careful of what you ask for. This is a more modern city with sophisticated food, reliable electric and phone service, paved roads, running water, and supermarkets, but it is difficult for an outsider to fit in as anything other than a tourist. Assimilation on any level looks pretty unlikely.

However, I don't think it is entirely fair to attribute our experience solely to geography and the tourism driven economy. 2009 is a different era. When I last lived in South America there was no internet. The fact that I am able to "chat" in real time with friends around the world or have video calls with them using skype transforms the experience of living here at the most basic level. Instead of feeling completely isolated from my home culture, I feel more like a sentry who has been sent on a mission to observe another place and report back to my countrymen about it. This also makes assimilation not only less likely, but less desirable. Why try to fit in when you can remain comfortably in your own skin and visit with your friends back home whenever you want? It's easier to remain the cheeky outsider.

Apologies to all the academics watching out there for this laymen's analysis of the conundrum of being a gringo in Cusco.

Later in the day...

Just back from picking Sophia up from school. She had a fun day! She is going to try to take the bus back into the city tomorrow with the other 4 year olds... Hopefully that will go OK. I had a nice chat with some of the other gringo parents picking up their kids. They all acknowledged how hard it is to "just live" in this city as a non-native -- always being seen as a potential customer for some trinket or service.



Me and Isabel discussing the finer points of data landmarks over a bowl of freshly popped corn













Isabel is taking at least this week off from school and homeschooling with me. We are having a good time together and Isabel says she feels like she is learning a lot more working one-on-one with me. She is continuing her Spanish lessons in the afternoon. She may go back to school on Monday, but we're not sure yet. She reports epic boredom while at school, primarily because she doesn't speak Spanish. I think that if she gives it a try, she might actually like it, but she isn't totally sold yet.

Enjoy the pictures of our new place.

Dinner prep