We have spent 5 weeks in Cajamarca, Peru. Exploring the countryside, history, music, and food has been a great experience. On Saturday we boarded an overnight bus to Lima. The seats converted into fully reclined beds, but the road was so bumpy that we didn’t sleep very well. We have already received a few calls from friends in Cajamarca, wishing us well. We will miss them all very much.

We spent Sunday night (December 7th) at the lovely home of  Kristy Krahl, who used to be a teacher at Carlos Gilbert Elementary. She is now an administrator at an international school in Lima. She was an excellent host and it was nice to get to know her (thanks to a thoughtful email from Dolores Pong). She made us chili and cornbread, which made us feel right at home.

From The Big Field Trip – Peru, November 2008

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we spent catching up on some work and study, but we also spent time with our friends Theresa, Mike, and Ollanta, friends of ours from Santa Fe. Theresa is a native of Lima, and the family tries to spend a few months in Peru each winter. Bella had a sleepover with Ollanta, who is also eight. They have known each other since they were both three. We spent time at Theresa’s parents’ home, walked through different neighborhoods, and went to the Lima zoo.

From The Big Field Trip – Peru, November 2008

On Wednesday night (December 10th) we boarded a plane for Brazil and arrived at our apartment in the Porto Barra neighborhood of Salvador on Thursday afternoon. After a day of recouperation we began our Portuguese lessons on Friday morning. Cyrus and Bella have seperate lessons, followed by lessons for Angela and me. We are only one block from nice city beach and we can swim every day.

We will stay in Salvador until December 29th. Although we will not have any company over the Christmas Holidays, my brother, Spencer, and my mom and step-dad are both thinking about coming to stay with us in January and February. We are looking forward to it.

Before we begin our posts from Brazil, we need to catch up on a few posts from Peru. I thought I would print a few more Peru-inspired poems and Cyrus still has a couple of movies that are not yet finished. He has been working hard, but has been pushing the envelope a bit and has experienced some technical difficulties. Look for them soon.

Poems:

Cinquain - We used a variation of the form that many elementary students use. There is one word on the first line (the subject), two words on the second line (adjectives describing the subject), three words on the third line  (action words), four words on the fourth line (a four word phrase that expresses feelings about the subject), and one word on the fifth line (re-stating the subject or theme in a different way). 

Market

Colorful Loud

Pushing Shouting Selling

It Makes Me Stressed

Mercado

By Cyrus, Peru, November, 2008

From The Big Field Trip – Peru, November 2008

Hike

Long Beautiful

Walking Carrying Climbing

My Feet Hurt A lot

Trek

By Cyrus, Peru, November, 2008

From The Big Field Trip – Peru, November 2008

Lake

Water Birds

Falling Swimming Splashing

Hot Happy Sad Cold

Sticks

By Isabella, Peru, November, 2008

Hotel

Uncomfortable Smelly

Scratching Freezing Yelling

Very Uncomfortable Straw Mattress

Hostel

By Cyrus, Peru, November, 2008

From The Big Field Trip – Peru, November 2008

Rock

Red  Orange

Jumping  Running  Painting

Hurt  Scared  Happy  Adventurous

Paint

By Isabella, Peru, November, 2008

From The Big Field Trip – Peru, November 2008

Guide

Fun Knowledgeable

Walking Telling Helping

He Only Spoke Spanish

Marcelino

By Cyrus, Peru, November, 2008

Sonnet - Cyrus tried his had at the English version of this poetry form. There are three stanzas of four lines. They each have 10 syllables and have an a-b-a-b rhyming pattern. The poem ends with a couplet, two rhyming lines also with 10 syllables each. The final couplet usually has an unexpected change or twist in theme or tone. It was quite a challenge for him.

Cajamarca

Cajamarca is in Northern Peru

It’s in the Mountains and sometimes is cold

This town has a great typical green stew

Of my life this is an interesting fold

The people speak Spanish here, which is neat

Lucky for us my mom speaks Spanish

There are lots of new people here, including Marlith

Her daughter Eva, who doesn’t like fish

Each weekend we go on tours with good guides

Marlith owns the company, “Inca Baths”

To get to the sites we take long bus rides

On one long Inca trail I hurt my calves

Unfortunately we will leave Peru

December tenth. I hope we come back soon!

By Cyrus, Peru, November, 2008

We welcome all of you to respond with poetry of your own. Thanks for the haiku poetry that you submitted Ethan and Bertie. We’ll make a Brazil post soon!

From The Big Field Trip – Peru, November 2008

     Cyrus and my room is the first room on the left. My mom and dad and Cruz’s room is last on the left. The kitchen is first on the right and the living room is last on the right. When I play with Cruz we usually play downstairs. We water the plants and play with the scateboard. It almost tripped my mom when she came in the door.

From The Big Field Trip – Peru, November 2008

     One night I heard something that sounded like an old man who had been smoking for a lot of years. But it was a cat! I call him the Screaching Grandpa Cat. I wake up to a dog barking most mornings. He is goldish, orangish, yellow. A big black dog bites it and fights it, and every day that I see it it has more and more scratches.

     When you walk around town, you see lots of awesome sites. When I first walk out my front door, a dog with a pink collar greets me, beging for food. I keep some dog food in my pocket to feed her. I probably shouldn’t have given it food because if I forget to bring dog food it follows me all around town. I call her “The Dog with the Pink Collar”.

From The Big Field Trip – Peru, November 2008

     When you walk to the end of our block you can go into a panaderia, which means bread shop. You can get many different kinds of bread. It is sometimes difficult to decide which kind of bread to choose. I like the kind of bread called panecitos, which means little bread.

     When you cross our street there is a bookstore where we buy notebooks, folders, and markers. When you pass the breadshop and go left you will get to a design shop. Most of the time there is a kitten there. She is sometimes behind the desk. She is white and has a spot of grey, white, orange, and yellow mixed together.

From The Big Field Trip – Peru, November 2008

     When we go to a market we get food and toilet paper. I got a dragon egg there. The people who sell meat use an axe to cut the meat because it cuts through the bone. Dogs, sick and hungry, trot around. Sometimes they even steal food. I like the market of all of the different kinds of food. My favorite foods from the market are jello and kiwi.

From The Big Field Trip – Peru, November 2008

     The main plaza in Cajamarca is the Plaza de Armas. It was built on the old Inca Plaza. There is a water fountian in the middle of the plaza. Boys and girls hold hands, sit on benches, and walk around. People sell sunglasses when it is sunny, umbrellas when it is rainy, and there are carts of candy all the time. I like to buy Bubblues when I go to there. Bubblues is gum that has juice insie that blasts out. I run around and play on the walls with Cruz at the plaza. Once a security guard said, “You can’t climb on things, and you can’t go on the grass”, but nobody ever listens.

From The Big Field Trip – Peru, November 2008

Cyrus, Bella, and Jason are teaching English to two 6^th grade classes at a school in the country, and Angela and Jason are teaching an English class to a group of 12 adults in the neighboring town of Inca Baths.

In addition to all of this we are still taking treks and excursions around town and into the countryside. We are also very busy with homeschooling and work.

Cyrus and Bella are exploring poetry during school time. They have been using the people and landscapes of Northern Peru as inspiration for writing their own poetry. I thought I would post some of their Haiku poems along with pictures of the things that inspired them. Haiku poems are an ancient style of verse from Japan. They are traditionally written in three lines with 5 syllables on the first line, 7 syllables on the second, and 5 syllables on the third line. They capture a moment in time, and often show contrasting images. Scenes from nature are often the focus of Haiku poetry.

Green grass all around

Sitting criss-cross with a lamb

A girl dressed in blue

Isabella Kirkman, November, 2008

From the big field trip

We run down rocks very fast

In the rock’s shadow

From the big field trip

Forests of towering rocks

Above winding trail

Cyrus Kirkman, November, 2008

From the big field trip

Cyrus Kirkman, November, 2008

We invite you to respond with some Haiku poetry of your own.

Bella says, “Please write 1 or 2 Haiku poems.” She also wants you to know that “you don’t need to use exact sentences”.