Poco a Poco

Warning – although I had mentioned that I’ll try not to have super-wordy posts, I reserve the right to have lengthy ones at times… and this is one of them! Hopefully I’ll include enough pictures here to break up the wordiness. (A side note about the pictures: Blogger is driving me crazy because I can't place them correctly without throwing off the text somehow - anyone who has tips to share, please do!)

Here we are at the end of another week, and poco a poco things are feeling more familiar. I see some of the same families at the park each time Simon and I go out. We’ve been piecing together different parts of our neighborhood and finding new ways to get places. Certain things don’t seem so strange anymore. 


Time has started speeding up again; it had slowed to a tiny crawl there for a couple of weeks when I wondered each morning how we would possibly make it through the next 18 hours or so. It’s one thing to have a lot of time on your hands and no place to be as a single person or as a couple. There are cafes to sit in, journals to write in, books to read. But with a toddler, a lot of our energy has been split between going to our classes & exploring Lima with going to parks and finding ways for Simon to play and run around. The house where we’re staying has an elderly dog, Argos, who Simon is simultaneously in love with and terrified of. Simon has also enjoyed playing with a fire truck that the señora has loaned him. It’s fun to watch his delight in riding it as well as his elation when he actually pets Argos. 

Simon is mimicking all the sirens he hears and is experimenting with different ways to use his vocal chords. He picks things up so quickly right now. Everything, such as: saying “chao” and “bien” (not super clearly, but about as clearly as he says other words), mimicking the hand motions of the señora and her son, climbing the ladder at the park, handling a very full glass of yogurt and drinking it carefully… I am consistently wowed by him. 

Each week our schedules have changed a bit as the school figures out which teachers are available when, and matches that with our one requirement that we cannot be in class at the same time (since one of us must be able to be with Simon). My class has stayed pretty constant, with the same teacher and fellow student as the first week. Sam’s gone from private classes to a group class back to private classes, with a new teacher almost every week, and a different class time every single week. It’s a good way to prepare us for constant change, no? I’m impressed with Sam and his tenacity at learning Spanish. He started studying in earnest at the beginning of this year, and has improved rapidly since we’ve gotten here. He starts up conversations with our housemates here, never mind if he has the grammar or vocabulary right. I admire his attitude and am trying to copy it more. I’m the one who obsesses over getting everything right. Ah, whatever. I’ve been able to realize that I am learning, improving, and I have ten more months to work at it full-time. How excellent! 

Earlier this week, I was seriously considering taking a break from Spanish classes. The biggest reasons I could come up with to not do this were: I need to keep learning Spanish and it provides some structure to my day. But my two-hour class was grammar, grammar, grammar, with the same tired examples thrown in. As in, we’d learn a new structure and then Julie and I would both be asked to provide examples. It was fun to be practicing the subjunctive and getting a better handle on when/how to use it, but our imaginations were limited and so we’d provide similar examples for everything. “If you won the lottery, what would you do?” “If I won the lottery, I’d travel around the world.”

Mexico is my comparison country, as it’s the only other country I’ve really traveled in as an adult; I’ve traveled there half a dozen times over the last 15 years, with stays ranging from two weeks to almost four months. I took Spanish classes for a month in the beautiful city of Guanajuato and loved the mix of grammar and conversation classes with topical classes such as Mexican history, literature, economics, and muralism. I was working on my Spanish at the same time that I was inspired by different, quirky facets of beauty in Mexico’s culture.

So I was a bit tired of grammar-only classes. I wanted more of Peruvian culture mixed in with it. Luckily, the day that I was ready to quit and go find another language school for next week, we ditched the grammar and had an incredible conversation about poverty in Lima vs. the U.S. While I am very much just beginning to learn about the rampant poverty here, it was fascinating to hear my teacher’s views and that of the other student. We joked about getting back together in six months to compare our reactions and solutions then… and while it was said laughingly, I do wish we could have that conversation.

The next day we had a similarly intense conversation about Steve Jobs, his 2005 commencement address at Stanford, and our goals and priorities in life. The following day was full of how to figure out when we are getting ripped off because we aren’t Peruvian and possible responses (“Look, if I were Peruvian, you wouldn’t charge me extra. Tell me the right price and I’ll pay it!” While I’m nowhere near having that flow off of my tongue, especially in an argument, it was great to practice.). Our teacher did an excellent job of integrating all that grammar practice in the context of each of those very real conversations. This is the class I wanted. So I left the week excited for one more week of conversation between the three of us.

I’ve been keenly missing my La Leche group in Indianapolis; this amazing group of women is one reason why my transition from being a way-over-full-time nonprofit fundraiser and manager to being a full-time mom went so easily. I found so many impressive examples of mothering and several good friends there, and nearly every week Simon and I had some sort of La Leche gathering, including a playgroup I started as a way to help more moms like me connect in between meetings. While there is a La Leche chapter here in our neighborhood, it meets just once a month, and occurred the day before we arrived in Lima. So while I know that it’s just a matter of time before our lives begin to include friends, busy-ness, and volunteering, I’ve been missing having friends for myself and familiar playmates for Simon. He plays well with the other toddlers at the parks, but he is really eyeing their cool toys and makes a go for them as soon as he has a chance. 

We have one more week of classes and the homestay, followed by a week off. Then we move into our apartment across the street from Manos Amigos and begin volunteering with them. We are really looking forward to that! While living at the house has been fine at times and excruciating at others, it has definitely helped me look forward to the next stage of living here, even though there are some things I’ve been worrying about (of course!). Once we have a little more distance between us and our current living situation, I’ll write about it and more of the humor will come through. For now, here’s to one more week of classes, meandering around our neighborhood, and yummy food!