Michelle Meets Lima

Evidently it’s pretty clear to the Peruvians that I’m a foreigner. I walk down the street and men greet me. One woman asked me what time it was just to practice her English. A few college kids requested to film an interview with me for their English class: What is your name? How old are you? Where are you from? Etc. I even met a young man who offered to be my tour guide—an offer I took, which turned into a bit of a mini-adventure involving a ride in a fisherman’s boat, questionable Salsa dancing, and lots of miscommunication.

They say that communication is 90% nonverbal. This may be true, but without that verbal 10%, it’s pretty hard to understand what people are saying I’m finding. I don’t speak Spanish. For the record, I’ve tried.  I took Spanish in high school. I took it in college. I took a six week immersion class in Buenos Aires and then lived there for a year. But for whatever reason, I still can’t speak it.  Now, I can fake Spanish for 5 or 10 minutes, but when the conversation gets beyond where you’re from and the members of your family, I just don’t have the vocabulary, never mind the grammar, to express myself. I’m hoping that this trip will be a turning point for me, but I’m not holding my breath…

Fortunately, after an afternoon full of “No entiendo”  and “Otra ves, por favor” and “Lo siento. Quiero entenderte” with my unofficial “tour guide” I met with my GAP English speaking tour group. There are 14 people on the tour, 11 of whom were there tonight. It seems like a pretty nice group. I can’t yet tell who, if anyone, I will wish the tour had been without come three weeks from now.  Of those 11, I’m the only American.  Our tour guide (a real one) seems nice, and he will speak Spanish slowly and clearly to those of us who want to practice ours, so maybe this really will be a turning point for my language acquisition.

We ate as a group tonight. I had ceviche, the famous Peruvian raw fish dish, and another Lima specialty called causa de pollo, a dish involving mashed potatoes, mayonnaise, and chicken.  Both were good, but I don’t know that I’ll order either again.

Tomorrow we leave for Pisco and Paracas. More later…