Fiestas patrias

Yesterday and today mark Peru's annual independence day celebrations, or fiestas patrias. Each and every house has a Peruvian flag proudly flying, decorations are everywhere in public spaces, and this weekend has been full of parades, special foods, and celebrations. Of course, the Peace Corps training staff was not going to let such an important day pass unnoticed. Friday, we arrived at the center to be greeted by the entire staff decked out in traditional Peruvian dress and ready to party.

We sang the Peruvian national anthem and other patriotic songs, and then it was time for the main attraction: demonstrations of typical dances from each of Peru's regions.

Little did the staff know, we had surprises of our own in store for them. Tipped off about the upcoming festivities by one of the language teachers, we trainees prepared our own dance show. What started off as a nice and tranquilo rendition of another traditional Peruvian dance (the group in white and pink below) quickly took a crazy turn - when the Peruvian song was about to end, we switched the music to a popular dance tune here, and all 43 of us ran up to perform the flash mob-esque routine we'd learned earlier that week. Though our choreography was a little discombobulated, we had a blast performing and the staff got a kick out of our antics - our training director even said this was the best fiestas patrias show she'd ever experienced from a training group.

Realizing that this weekend was not only fiestas patrias, but also our last full weekend together as a group (we're traveling the next two) Peru 19 took it upon ourselves to make the most of it. Friday afternoon began with some fútbol, then later in the evening we all reunited at Steve's house to watch a replay of the Olympic opening ceremonies - new records were set for the maximum number of PCVs that can possibly fit into one small tv room. Once we'd seen the Peruvian team march into the stadium, we headed out for a night of dancing in Chosica. After a solid nap Saturday afternoon, it was time to gear up for Nydelis' birthday party, which brought the rest of the Peru 19 crew to our humble neighborhood of Huascata for another night of fun together.

It is crazy to think there's only three weeks of training left, and one of those is spent traveling out to visit our sites - the time here is just flying by.