UNSA Campus Photos

By 10:00 pm on Thursday, I am totally burnt out for the week and refuse to absorb any more information. I am taking only four classes but they should give me 2 credits for philanthropy class since we have an extra an hour and a half session every class day. So, today, I had four classes in a row from 8:30am till 2:15pm, JUST LIKE HIGH SCHOOL! Then, literature hall meeting, yes a theme hall – where we read and discuss more books and stories. In theory, I am also supposed to go to swim practice afterward but I am dropping it after all because I need to drop something – not international club, not dance, not student restaurant nor environmental club. Cooking and grocery shopping add to these workload and Lin is confident that I will stop cooking meals myself by Spring Break (note the capitalization, it marks holiness). Despite these apparent complaints, you can tell that I am secretly in love with being busy (not quite a secret anymore now, is it?). It keeps me moving, and gives me an illusion that I am actually doing something useful. How good it is to be back in a college setting!

But I still miss Peru.

And strangely enough, I even miss UNSA – Universidad Nacional de San Agustin. Abimael Guzman – the leader of Shining Path – was an UNSA student. He also went to a high school that’s right around the corner from my house. Shining Path is a leftist political violence that started in Ayacucho (highlands) and moved up to Lima, the capital. It caused so much misery and pain and death, mainly because the movement poeticized death. The followers are supposed to cross the sea of blood to reach utopia.

Evidently UNSA also hosts students and faculty members that support Pizango, a presidential candidate with a heart for on protecting indigenous rights. He often speaks up against Amazon forest deforestation and commercial exploitation, I believe… Believe because I followed him through a combination of Caroline’s translation and my reading newspapers with the help of a dictionary every seven words. Pizango is against water privatization. His party symbol? A big, blue drop of water. He positions himself directly opposite to that of Alan Garcia, the current president, who’s all about development and industrialization. He published an article in Peru’s El Comercio, titled El Perro del Hortelano. I just found out that you can access to its translation here. When I was in Peru, even Google engine generates only links in Spanish – it may have been a good thing for my Spanish.

You don’t need to look elsewhere to sense the tensions between development and environmental preservation. It is not surprising to find murals and signs that extol environmental virtues at UNSA.

These pictures from UNSA were initially intended for my history paper: Peru’s Past in Peru’s Present. I was planning to analyze murals and statues at UNSA campus and around Arequipa. Then, I found an easier method: to study films and books! As a nerd, I had been appropriating previous student’s books and reading novels on Peru from the beginning. So I just used them for my paper and made a bold claim = books and films show that Peruvians are more resented against their government rather than Shining Path itself for the tragic events from 1980s onward.

In front of Social Science building, statue of Jose Carlos Mariategui, an influential socialist thinker. Guzman took the name Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) from Mariategui’s writing: El Marxismo-Leninismo abrira el sendero luminoso hacia la revolucion, meaning Marxism-Leninism will open the Shining Path to revolution.

This one is to “Arequipa’s heros that fought against military dictatorship,
June 1950, and permanent validity (?) (vigencia) of human rights”

Walk from home to school, writings on the pedestrian bridge

In case anyone’s interested in movies for spring break, these are the films I used for paper:

• La Boca del Lobo (1988),
• Paloma de Papel (2003),
• Ojos Que No Ven (2003),
• Mariposa Negra (2006) and
• La Teta Asustada (2009).

Novels:

• Nicholas Shakespeare’s The Dancer Upstairs
• Mario Vargas Llosa’s Death in the Andes.

After a month in Arequipa

Currently Reading: Death in the Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa.

I am slightly suffering from xanga nostalgia. My old xanga account still receives regular visitors even though I have stopped writing for months now. WordPress is always empty. Basically, I am torn between my desire to keep my thoughts away from people and my tendency to share, discuss and network.

Last night, I went to a salsateca club on Dolores. Caroline’s friends from UNSA and about seven of us danced till almost 1:00 am. So far, I have never been to a club or a dance class without hearing them play Calle Ocho! Clubs on Dolores are more socioeconomically diverse, unlike Forum, the nicer club in El Centro, the central district. Each day, I love Latin America more and more. Like in La Zona in Quito, Dolores was packed with young and old folks clubbing relentlessly.

When I applied for the study abroad program, my school had warned the students to be careful with the way we dress because Arequipa is a fairly conservative city. When I arrived, I had culture shock, not because Arequipeños are conservative, but because they are by far more open than Rangooners. Peruvians seem to be a lot more comfortable with ways of living that will definitely shock my Asian grandmas. That also happens to be exactly what I love about Latin America. Unlike in the States, Peruvians have a solid cultural identity. Unlike in Myanmar, the social rules here in Peru are a lot less suffocating and a lot more direct.

There is also very little concept of planning here. My host mom would knock on my door five minutes before she decides to invite me to a birthday party, for example. I can easily deal with polychronic cultures here in Peru probably because I am only taking one Davidson level class and having a lot less homework. It’s so much less stressful than taking Michael Branch’s class and Dr. Crandall’s International Political Economy classes within the same semester.

My new life in Arequipa

Today is my third morning in Arequipa. My routine includes waking up early and thirsty, switching to BBC while I change, having a breakfast that includes a fresh fruit juice and a cuppa coca tea, nodding and smiling if I don’t understand my host mom’s Spanish and looking up the words later (sometimes).

Arequipa is a much prettier city than Lima. Having been around sun all my life in Yangon, I started to feel suffocated after several foggy, misty days on a bus from Lima to Paracas and Puerto Inca. Arequipa is a completely different scenario. As soon as I entered the city, I saw snow peaked Misty, green plantations and warm evening sun shine. Arequipa was love at first sight.

If Lima is Yangon, Arequipa is Mandalay. All the embassies, NGO headquarters and administration are concentrated in Lima. Arequipeñas surround the Monasterio de Santa Catalina just like the Mandalay palace is surrounded by commercial and residential buildings and the monastic center of Sagaing.

My host mom is the program coordinator and her house is used as the headquarters for the program. We will be taking dance and music lessons here. There is a movie night every Monday at this house, too.  The assistant director of the program – a 2009 Davidson graduate – lives right upstairs and has meals together with my host family. She is sweet and helpful, and I am blessed to be around her. Also, this house is within seven minutes’ walk UNSA, the university we will be attending in Peru. Therefore, I am ten steps away from all the resources. Here are more photos from the program website: http://karlosbotto.com/page2.php (If you go to karlosbotto.com, it’s under noticias y eventos, Davidson en AQP).

In addition to a host brother, a host cousin, and a smiling helper, there is a monkey named Toto, a dog called Moshi, and a turtle that likes to crawl fast and bite people’s shoes. Although most people in this house speak English perfectly, they are strict about using only Spanish around me. Luchito, the brother, is leaving for Lima for his university and this could mean even less English for me! I am sometimes scared I will lose my Burmese language skills. My friends are so kind to let me try my Burmese on them and they say they will nod and smile.

Here is my little nook: