When does it get easier?

Some days, I feel like the world is just pointing its finger at me and laughing. Every time I take a step forward, something happens and I fall back three steps and have to start all over. I try and make plans with a friend and then they don't show up. I think I know what I'm doing when in reality, someone is following behind and fixing everything that I have just done. Most days I find myself searching for something that I can do that is actually useful. A lot of days I feel like I am fighting with Cusco, and usually Cusco wins. The taxi drivers try to charge us a higher fare, we get called all kinds of names in the street, and we have to accept the fact that we will never fit it, we will always stand out, no matter how much time we spend here. We go out for chicken and sit down at a table and no one bothers to tell us that we have to order at the counter first and it takes us 15 minutes to figure it out. Both Catherine and I are desperately trying to make friends, but things just never seem to go our way. If it can go wrong, it usually does, and when you think it can't get worse, it does. When I need to call someone, our cell phone doesn't work, our landlady isn't home, so we can't borrow her phone, and the public telephone up the street isn't out and I don't have any change. I lost our cell phone on New Years and the next day I was supposed to go to a concert with a friend from work. I went to the spot we agreed to meet and waited for over an hour , but he never came. The next day he explained that there weren't any buses running so he couldn't get there and that he had tried to call me but of course I didn't get his calls because I had lost the phone. I was working at the cash register and forgot to mark down that a customer had already paid. He went to leave and we made him come back because we thought he hadn't paid and he got mad and yelled at me and said that a foreigner shouldn't be doing this kind of work and he only wanted to deal with Peruvians. The tough realization is that my help is not really needed here. There are already enough people who know what they are doing that work here everyday. I help out, but things would continue on just fine, sometimes even better, without my help. There is one thing that I can offer that nobody else here can do and I started that this week. My first week of English classes went surprisingly well, but it is going to be hard work. The pronunciations of everything is really difficult, but everyone if very eager to learn. I still wonder if this is even a useful thing, but it's what they want, and it makes me feel like I am contributing a little. I love talking and hanging out with everyone, but some days that just isn't enough and I get frustrated because I feel like I should be doing something more. I have a lot of time left to figure it all out and I know that eventually, hopefully, things will get easier. For now, however, I'm still looking for ways to make up with Cusco, because we really are going to have to get along.

Ringing in the New Year

The New Year celebration here was crazy. Catherine and I made plans to go out with friends but, of course, they didn't work out so we ended up going out on our own to experience New Year's Eve in Peru. The big celebration is in the Plaza de Armas, the main square in the middle of the city. We got there around 10:30 and ran into someone we knew, so we were not alone to celebrate. Around 11 p.m. everyone starts setting off these fireworks and the plaza is filled with smoke and noise. There had to be around a thousand people there. We bought some beer and toasted the New Year on the steps of the main cathedral in the square as what seemed like millions of fireworks went off all around us at midnight. The we joined everyone in running around the square so that we would have good luck in the New Year. There were people running with there luggage because they hope to travel in the coming year and almost everyone was wearing something yellow, which apparently is good luck too. The entire day vendors were out in the street selling all kinds of yellow things, but the most popular is yellow underwear which you are supposed to wear on the outside of your clothes. It turned out to be a fun night and Catherine and I both enjoyed ourselves. I wish everyone a very blessed New Year full of Peace and Happiness!