El Jueves - 5/29

Today was our last day teaching/learning at Jose Quiñones because tomorrow we are just going for the "closing ceremony" they are throwing for us - they say it's going to be a special surprise.  As we did the past two days, when we got to the school we split up into groups to go to various English classes.  I ended up in a group that went back to the same class that I was with the first day, which also had some kids in it that I played soccer with yesterday, and they were really excited to see me again, as I was to see them.  The class surprised us with an array of peruvian dishes to taste and learn about so we spent the class being pampered with delicious traditional peruvian dishes.  The class had split into groups themselves and prepared presentations (in English) about the dishes they made.  We had papa a la huancaina (potatoes and hard-boiled eggs in a delicious cheese sauce), picarones (donuts peruvian-style), arroz con leche (similar to rice pudding), and a type of cake that I forget the name of.  All the dishes were unbelievable and I was really impressed by the English presentations the students gave about their dishes.

After the English classes we went back to the cafeteria for another lecture.  This was was titled "Peru in the 20th and 21st centuries - Economic Bonanza," and was really interesting for me, as I love economics and politics.  I got to learn about the current Peruvian president, and how the Peruvian economy has been shifting over recent years.  Peru is modernizing very rapidly and the new President is making strides in bringing Peru into the global economy - better for the wealthy class of Peru as it brings in more money to the "economy" (or free market) but unclear if it is good for the poorer people of Peru, as the President has shied away a bit from the leftist platform on which he ran.  I talked a little bit with the presenter afterwards because I had a few questions about the Peruvian perspective on leftism and what the reaction has been to a president who ran on a far-left platform and has moved more towards the center since taking office (not too dissimilar from our own President).