CONTEST!

See that? That's currently the GirlSportWorks logo.

Hence, we're having a CONTEST! to see who can design a better one.

The logo should appear less Apple computer circa 1988 and more Girls + Sports + Peru (in that order) circa 2010. We're looking for something more modern, engaging, and aesthetically pleasant. The logo can be hand-drawn, although we are looking for something simple. You may decide to design an image or simply to play around with our name, GirlSportWorks.

Winner will receive a Cusco care package from yours truly- maybe with an autographed photo? It's also a great resume entry for those looking to expand their versatility and/or graphic art portfolios. If you know anyone who might be interested, please let them know about this opportunity.

Please contact me directly at eboyson@gmail.com with any questions or ideas.

Behind Blue Eyes

Going along with the South American theme and your blue eyed blogger, I thought I'd post this editorial my (blue eyed) father brought to my attention- it's in response to Brazilian President Lula's comment that the current economic "crisis was caused by the irrational behavior of white people with blue eyes"... and then columnist Maureen Dowd does a little research to reveal that "Surveys show that people with blue eyes are considered more intelligent, attractive and sociable". Something to chew on...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/opinion/29dowd.html

Weekend fun

Alex and I were both FINALLY feeling healthy this weekend, gracias a Dios. We woke up yesterday eager to utilize our new found strength, but were a bit intimidated by the dark dark dark clouds. Eventually the sun came out and it was a glorious day (that happens a lot here)! We headed out and up towards Templo de la Luna, another ruins site up in the mountains. The ruins were super cool, as always, and Alex and I climbed as high as we could and found a little nook in a patch of grass wedged between a few rocks and took in the view and it all was all very peaceful. The air quality in Cusco is really awful- tons of pollution and a severe lack of vehicle emissions restrictions, so it's- excuse the pun- a real breath of fresh air to get up high in the mountains and not feel like you're damaging your lungs.

For dinner, we went to our favorite vegetarian spot. Eventually an entire blog posting will be dedicated to the food here, as it as more than worthy of one, but for now I'll just say that everything is super cheap, fresh, and delicious. I am getting spoiled. Then we headed to Pepe Zetas, a great bar with a much more Peruvian crowd than most spots in Cusco, which tend to be more populated by tourists. There was a band playing, who despite viciously butchering the words to all their Beatles covers, were fun to watch and listen to. The amount of free live music here in Cusco is unbelievable. It's literally everywhere, every night of the week, and it's GOOD! It's a shame live music has become such an expensive luxury at home... anyway, then we went to the much talked about Roots, the closest thing to a nightclub Cusco has (think Tom Tom's, 18th and Red, or Old Port Tavern). It was mostly tourists and they played the same music the DJ at my high school dances played. I got really sweaty. In other words, it was amazing. Most of you know my love for dance parties any time, any place, so needless to say, I'll be returning to Roots. At 3 am, Al and I walked home, watched an episode of Arrested Development, and went to bed.

Our high intensity Saturday resulted in a very lazy Sunday... not much to report. Here are some pictures I took on the hike yesterday:

Danger: Wall about to fall

Someones living room a long long time ago

Cave!

Another cave!

The hole in the rock in the middle is (was) a tomb. We walked up there, and then Alex slipped and fell on a cactus. It was funny, you're allowed to laugh.

Are you tired of looking at my pictures of mountains yet? They're just so beautiful!

The view from the nook we found, where we discussed life, love, and where we were going to eat dinner

Hope everyone had a great weekend!!

In case you doubted me...

Profe Elise in action!

Cusco goes to sleep

Today was a great day because:

a. After suffering from a sinus infection for legit 2 weeks, I finally got antibiotics on Monday and woke up this morning feeling so much better. I still can't breathe through my nose (which is great since I'm already lacking oxygen), but getting there.

b. We taught baseball to the girls today and it was SO FUN!! While it's a little difficult to explain since there are so many rules, we simplified it as much as possible (no such thing as a non force out, foul balls, striking out, etc). It brought me back to Little League days when we were still learning to throw and how to swing the bat. I also felt like a true profesora, since I could give helpful advice that made sense to the girls.

c. After class, Al and I climbed up to "El Mirador" which is a great place to watch the sun fade away over Cusco. Below are some photos I took.

Hike to Sacsayhuamán

Last weekend, Alex brought me up to Sacsayhuamán, another Incan ruin right outside of Cusco (often overshadowed by Machu Picchu). At 12,150 feet, some believe the walls were a form of fortification, while others believe it was only used to form the head of the Puma that Sacsayhuamán along with Cuzco form when seen from above.

Sacsayhuamán is also noted for an extensive system of underground passages known as chincanas which connect the fortress to other Inca ruins within Cuzco. Several people have died after becoming lost while seeking a supposed treasure buried along the passages. This has led the city of Cuzco to block off the main entrance to the chincanas in Sacsayhuamán (too bad...)!

To really get inside, you have to pay, so instead we hiked up the mountains of Cusco and got a view of the backside. Eventually we'll take our girls on a cultural field trip there, and then I'll get the view from the inside.

Those walls are SOLID.

On our way up, we passed a mini-ruin (whose name is not coming to mind right this moment). They built this bench for us.

It was really sunny... excuse the eye squinting.

And here are some pics I took along the way...

Funky llamas...

El Cristo... we wouldn't be in South America without a big Jesus looking over us!

View from above of the main plaza in Cusco, Plaza de Armas

What kind of digs will $380/month get you in Cusco?

I will show you! Our house is adorable here and located in the greatest neighborhood in Cusco, San Blas. Our street is Siete Angelitos (seven little angels... we're still looking for the other five). There is what Alex refers to as "the best bar in the world" across the street, delicious sandwiches and empanadas within blocks, two what we would refer to as convenience stores yet they manage to stuff everything we would have in a big store in a tiny space. It's a great place to live, and here is the tour...

When you enter from the street there is an open air area which our neighbor has decked out with plants... also doubles as a mini patio when craving sun.

Door opens: kitchen!

Minifridge... as good as it gets in Peru. Fruit basket!

Exit kitchen, turn right and LIVING ROOM!

Which is also our dining room/ office

Hallway (filled with ball bags)- my room at the end, but first...

Bathroom! Quite lovely and equipped with hot water! Notice the wood paneling behind the mirror on the left- you open up this little cabinet and there is a switch which has to be turned on for hot water- then we wait an hour, then another hour in between each person. So for Alex and me to shower, the whole process takes about 2.5 hours. Small price to pay for hot water...

My bed! Fine when I get into it but wake up every morning with back pain. Looking for a solution... you can't see them, but there are FOUR blankets. It gets chilly here at night with no heat.

The rest of my room- no closet, but since I didn't bring anything that wrinkles, it's not an issue.

Up the death stairs...

To the nook! Alex and I made a major organizational/ condensation effort to clean out this area. The sun floods in from the skylight, so it's about 15 degrees warmer than downstairs. A place for planning class, blogging, movies, food, etc.

"I'm so happy in the nook!"

Alex's room

And that's the house... now you know where I sleep at night!

On a completely unrelated topic- I watched Cadillac Records last night (you can buy movies here on the black market that haven't been released on DVD yet for $1!) and loved it! A must see for music/ Adrian Brody lovers.

Altitude

The concentration of oxygen at sea level is about 21% and the barometric pressure averages 760 mmHg. As altitude increases, the concentration remains the same but the number of oxygen molecules per breath is reduced. At 12,000 feet, the barometric pressure is only 483 mmHg, so there are roughly 40% fewer oxygen molecules per breath. In order to properly oxygenate the body, your breathing rate (even while at rest) has to increase. This extra ventilation increases the oxygen content in the blood, but not to sea level concentrations. Since the amount of oxygen required for activity is the same, the body must adjust to having less oxygen.

However, besides being constantly out of breath, there are several other side effects high altitude brings on:

• Increased appetite – this is due to the increase in the body’s base metabolic rate while exercising at altitude. Put simply, the body must work harder at altitude therefore it requires more energy intake in the form of food.
• Increased bladder activity – as carbon dioxide levels are higher at altitude there will be higher than normal levels of carbon dioxide in the bloodstream. A byproduct of this higher than usual concentration of carbon dioxide is an increase of sodium bicarbonate in the bladder and body. In order to excrete the increased levels of sodium bicarbonate more frequent urination than normal is required. (This particular side effect really hits home, because public restrooms in Cusco are almost impossible to find. They are usually holes in the ground or toilet stalls with urine all over the floor and feces all over the toilet bowl.)
  
• Insomnia
• Swelling of the face, hands, feet and/or knees with a weight gain of 4-12 pounds, mostly occurring in women. Cute.
• Sunburn- there is less atmosphere to block out the sun's burning ultraviolet rays, so sunburn occurs more readily. Again, this one really hits home with my skin.
• Brain executive function: in a study of nine mountain climbers, six of the nine climbers had lower than average scores on the Digit Symbol test, which measures executive functions such as the ability to anticipate outcomes and adapt to changing situations.
• Memory: the same climbers scored lower than average on the Prose Memory test (immediate recall) and on the Rey's Figure test (delayed recall).
• Weakened immune system because of the lack of oxygen in the air. As a result, it's significantly easier to get sick (like my poor friend Alex who has a vicious sinus infection that won't go away) and much harder to get better.
• Increased gas and flatulence.... yeah.

I took this picture on a hike Alex and I went on over the weekend... hopefully you can sense the proximity to the clouds and thus our incredibly high altitude which interferes in our lives in oh so many ways!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Mail!

Though it was co-addressed to Alex and me, I received my first piece of mail here in Cusco from Mr. Evan Madow. It was a great letter, written with a typewritter, full of news from back home, anecdotes, and pictures from sophomore year. Evan did have an unfair advantage in the race to be the first one to send me a mail- a competition I know you were all trying to win- as no one else had my address, so I will give it to you now. All things welcome!

Elise Boyson
Siete Angelitos 607
San Blas, Cusco
PERU

¡Dia de Deportes!

To kick off the school year, as had been done previously in GSW history, we held a Mother-Daughter Day yesterday for the girls at one of our schools and their mothers/ sisters/ cousins. We promised sports, games, food, music, and fun. Alex and I struggled to decide on what food we should serve, considering it was being held during lunch hour (12-2). Finally we decided to preorder mass amounts of empanadas and little sandwiches, to be picked up at 10:45 am and 11 am. We also had to buy decorations for the "field" (read: cement), decide what games we were going to play, make an awesome mix CD, and make sure all the girls got from the school to the field. There were a lot of logistics and a little stress that went into the planning, so Friday night Alex and I decided to blow a little steam off at the bar across the street's Tribute to Pink Floyd & Led Zeppelin night. Best Stairway to Heaven cover I've ever heard, and a great throwback to GJHS.

Saturday morning:

Obstacle 1: We go to pick up the empanadas at 10:45, and no one seems to have prepared anything. We find out they have been cooked, just not packaged, so we scrambled to do this as quickly as possible. Got out of there at 11 am. Only slightly behind schedule, and only slightly annoyed with Peruvian's lack of time awareness and management skills.

Obstacle 2: We go to pick up the sandwiches, and no one has any idea what we're talking about. "5 minutes!" they say. Yeah, right. We finally get out of there around 11:30 am, half an hour before the party is supposed to begin, without having set up the volleyball net or decorated the field. Very behind schedule, very annoyed.

All our junk... this picture doesn't do the quantity justice: 2 hula hoops, 3 soccer balls and 2 volleyballs, a huge bag with a box of 30 empanadas, and a massive suitcase with a boombox, cups, paper towels, and 2 huge boxes with 30 empanadas each. Plus two backpacks on Alex's back.

Obstacle 3: We arrive at the field, and there are 20 testosterone filled Peruvian men playing their Saturday game of fútbol. Alex braves the men and says WE'RE HAVING A PARTY HERE AT NOON and they agree to leave at noon. There were also three men drunkenly passed out around the edge of the field.

Notice the DOUBLE backpack look Alex is sporting. And the "Don't mess with me" face.

Despite the complications, we managed to pull the whole thing off with smashing success, we agreed. Though not as many moms came as we had hoped (Saturday is for cooking, cleaning, shopping, etc.), the moms that did come were incredible and it was great to talk with them about the program a little more. We played mostly volleyball- it's like Peruvian women's crack- but a few other fun games, my favorite being what I like to call Flashdance, but Alex says it's called Freezedance. We played the Vengaboys and shouted "MUEVANSE!!!" and they had to move- dance, jump, whatever- until the music stopped, and if they didn't stop, they were out. It was so fun! Alex got really into it. Passersby thought they were hallucinating.

As a result of the overestimation of how many moms would come, we were also able to feed an entire neighborhood with leftover ham sandwiches and Inca Cola. That felt good.

All in all, it was a really great event and a perfect way for all of us- me, Alex, the moms, the girls- to get psyched about the new school year. Alex and I walked home from the field with our balls and hula hoops in hand and boombox on full volume listening to Bob Marley (a Cusco music staple) and Enrique Inglesias feeling quite triumphant.

You may not actually be able to see the net in this picture... it's not the greatest net ever (very flimsy), and putting stakes into cement is impossible. So we use a lot of rope to string it alllll the way across the "field" and tie each end to the goalpost. Makeshift= key word.

Cool Moms

It is also difficult to decorate a field with limited time and resources. We did our best.

¿Trabajaste?

Yes, I did do some work this week. Classes just started up for all the schools here (again, opposite seasons), so before we actually started classes, we had to go to each of the four schools with jazzy flyers and enthusiastic announcements. The schools we teach at- Los Nogales, Matara, Santoni, and Pacca, are all pretty much the same in terms of size and economic resources, with the exception of Pacca (more on that later). One school is about a 20 minute walk from where we live, the other 2 are a cab ride up the mountains away, and the 4th, Pacca, is a one hour journey consisting of 2 seperate car rides and a motorcycle taxi DEEP into the mountains, hasta el campo.

The girls were super excited to see us and oh so cute (between the ages of 9-14). The boys in the classes were bummed they were excluded from the invitation, but they'll get over it. I'll post pictures of the school once I take them. Other than annoucements, on the work front Alex and I are trying to take on some side projects for GSW- including improving the website (Thanks Evan!), churning out a spring newsletter, and somehow getting computers for one of our schools.

This job is definitely demanding I use a part of my brain I wasn't using daily at Meridian. While my job was challenging, I pretty much knew what I had to do, and how I executed my work was just a matter of time management and organization. This job, however, has tons of room for creativity- in fact, it's crucial. Alex and I have to come up with new and different ways to keep the girls excited about coming to class, and engaged while they're there. I'm definitely racking my brain for all the fun games we played in phys ed and on various sports teams.

On that note- if anyone can remember their favorite game (thanks to camp counselor extraordinaire Kyle Landman for already sending us her favorites) from phys ed/ sports teams/ camp, etc., please send it along!

Initial Thoughts at 11,000 ft

I've now been in Cusco for a week! Luckily for me, Alex has been traveling all over the continent for the last 2 months, and arrived back in Cusco just a few days before me. She too was adjusting to the altitude, so we took it reeeally easy the first couple days, which I think is why I had no altitude sickness at all. Or I'm just superhuman (more likely).

I'd like to think that when I visit new places, I go with few expectations or envisions. However, coming to Cusco, I knew it'd be unlike any place I'd ever lived. Certainly different than North Yarmouth, Maine or Washington, DC, I guessed Cusco would be a little more like Argentina and Brazil, both places I have lived, yet distinct as a result of its Incan roots. Cusco was the capital of the Inca Empire from the 1200s-1532, when the Spaniards conquored the city. The Incan history is still very visible- from the people, who appear far more indigenous than any inhabitants of anywhere I've lived (unless you count serious rednecks in Maine), to the city, where walls and structures the Incans built still stand today!

An Incan llama! This llama and its extended family is the source of this sweater, made out of the much sought after alpaca. I've seen at least 20 tourists wearing this sweater already.

Ok, so the Incans didn't actually paint this mural, but it's still beautiful and a constant reminder of who built this city and how.

The Peruvian culture plays a huge role in what we do here with GSW. Girls are not encouraged to play sports like their male counterparts, so our classes gives them a chance to run around and, hopefully, develop the skills and confidence that sports nurture. However, it's more than that- females here in general experience huge marginalization in all aspects of society, not just sports. Alex and I discussed at length this week with one of our school's Directors the problem of domestic abuse in Cusqueñan homes- both physical and emotional. Girls here just aren't encouraged to grow outside of the box. Anyway, I won't take this gender inequality rant too far, but the point is, one of the many ways this culture is sure to be quite different from others I've immersed myself in is the role and equality of females. While I'm going to try my best to create a loving, open, equal ground atmosphere for the girls during class (which they may not experience at home), the culture here is incredibly deep rooted, and will take more than a few gym classes to change.

Other quick thoughts:

• The city is literally IN the mountains, and it is so, so beautiful!
• I bought 5 bananas for approximately 30 cents, and they were delicious.
• A french couple at the bar across the street danced with Alex and me with more love and enthusiasm than I have ever experienced from any French person. I think this speaks to the people who visit Cusco, and the good vibes the city sends out.
• A sunburn is significantly more likely to occur when 2 miles closer to the sun.
• The schools' toilets are holes in the ground with little nooks to put your feet on. My thighs will come back stronger.
  

I did actually work this week, but I'll save that for the next post!