For the History Geeks...

For those of you who care little for history, you might want to skip the following long-winded post. Today both teams (ours and the St. Louis crew that is also here) took a day for cultural education of the pre-Inca people of Peru and went south towards the city of Trujillo. This entailed a three-hour drive, which was fairly uneventful, unless you count the time one of the vans was randomly selected to be stopped at a checkpoint.

Our first stop was Huaca de la Luna (roughly translated as the temple of the moon), one of a pair of large adobe structures from the Moche people, who were wiped out by the Incas. The Moches’ religion was all about duality (white/black, land/sea, etc.); ergo, Huaca de la Luna’s counterpart is Huaca del Sol (Temple of the Sun), which has not yet been excavated and is in poorer condition due to the looting of the Spanish conquistadors. The Huaca was built in layers since each new king would cover over the old temple and build a layer on top of it when he came to power. We saw images of the Moches’ principle god on several of the walls, and our tour guide explained the intricate symbolism of the various parts of the design. We also witnessed the rooms formerly used for human sacrifice—one more experience that makes me glad that Jesus is the only sacrifice I need!

Lunch was next on our agenda, and we got our first taste of “real” American food when we took our repast at a food court with all sorts of good old fast food. A large group of us ended up in Papa John’s. Terrance says the Peruvian version of Papa John’s is closer to its American counterpart than Pizza Hut—apparently their pepperoni pizza might have one or two pepperonis hidden in the cheese and just enough sauce to substantiate the claim that they did, indeed, include that ingredient. Before we left the food court, we paid a visit to an ice cream place, and I tried some delicious orange flavor which Marta (a member of the St. Louis group who grew up in Peru) says is from oucuma, a type of fruit.

Through our post-lunch stupor, we managed to stumble into the vans so we could make our way to Chan Chan, a palace of the Chimu people, another pre-Incan, Peruvian culture. The palace, which is one of nine in the vicinity, is located right on the ocean, which explains the importance that the Chimus placed on the ocean and fishing—designs of pelicans, fishing nets, and ocean waves covered the adobe walls.

A three-hour drive home took most of the evening, and we got another taste of Peruvian driving. (I think the goal is to pass as many cars as you can.) We ate a late supper back here at the school and decided to spend some time resting up before another day of work tomorrow—our last with the St. Louis group before they head home. : (

Oh, and one last note: let me set the record straight on Ben’s post from Thursday the 18th: I was NOT the only one to fall asleep in church, but Ben wouldn’t know that since he wasn’t there…

Signing off for Team Peru,
Jukebox Jean