day three on my own and all is well. mike and i have temporarily gone different directions, him to cuzco and me to huancayo. huancayo is not at all a nice city, itīs big, dirty, the market smells bad... the day i arrived there was a poor man in the street and his pants were so torn that only the waist and stips of the legs were left. you could see most of his legs and his bare bum! i think mike, that it might be the same guy we saw last time that had his penis hanging out. anyhow, i am here for a week or two to indulge in the art of creating textiles with natural alpaca/sheep wool, spun by hand, and dyed by hand with all natural dyes. ah, and woven on wobbly old wooden looms...
there is a town about 3o minutes from huancayo called hualhuas that is a weaving hub in peru. this is where i will be taking classes of spinning, dying, and weaving. yesterday, i got a demo from a really friendly man, who specializes in the making of the wool, from spinning to dying. he got out a bag full of tiny little insects that live in cacti. these bugs are used in the dying process because when they are dead and dried the blood turns to powder. sure enough, after he spit on his fingers and then squished one tiny insect between two fingers, there was a vibrant dark purple paste! how cool! (and gross..)
so the next week will be educational, with weaving classes in the morning in hualhuas and spanish classes in the afternoons in huancayo. the hostal that i am staying in is a gorgeous old house, brightly painted in pink and yellow. complete with old creaky doors and floors and of course the best part; lots of animals. three dogs, a snugglynuggly bony black cat, and a spanish speaking parrot who my roommate Asaf from israel likes to bring into our room to hang out with him.
the people staying at the hostal are really nice, and last night we spent the night dancing and drinking... a lebanese guy from sweden taught me some arab dance moves and i danced with lots of machismo peruanos that really know how to shake their bums!
PUQUIO: it was great. got to know lots of kids in the town through working with the schools. got a really concrete feel for the pace of life in a small andean campesino town, with all its charms and grievances. also, the mural we painted turned out to be freakinī awesome! mike has the digicam so we will finally have some new photos up soon, mural included.
with manos libres, there was a contest to elect 8 kids from puquio to go to a week long national confernce in lima on human rights. the confernce, organized by UNICEF, had 180 kids from all over peru. At this conference there was a chance for 4 kids to be chosen to go to an international conference on human right and guess what! a little fellow named walter, FRUM PUQUIO was chosen!! yay!!!
so thatīs all for now, i will write soon and tell you all about flower picking and bug squishing....
love jess
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