With Every Season, Turn, Turn, Turn

I was beginning to feel like Peruvian Autumn was really more like spring time in California. In April, we had cool mornings and evenings along with sunny, warm days. Because of Peru’s close location to the equator, we don’t experience seasonal changes like those in the US. For starters, the length of day never changes, not noticeably anyway. Whether it’s July or January, it will be dark by 6:30, give or take 10 minutes. Its tropical climate also doesn’t cause a dramatic change in the foods that are eaten. Unlike the states, seasonal foods such as asparagus, squashes and oranges, are available year round and are always fresh and locally grown.

Walking into the produce department of any supermarket in the US, it might not even occur to a person which foods are in and out of season. What this person might not realize is that the grapes she is buying in December are from the southern hemisphere. Americans are used to getting anything they want, whenever they want it. Bananas, for example, are a year round staple for many Americans. A month without bananas is unfathomable to some. But bananas do not grow anywhere on the continental US and must be shipped in.

Peru has a very different food mentality. You eat what is local and when it is in season. Luckily for us, because of its diverse climates, Peru offers an amazing assortment of local produce year round. I consider myself quite lucky for getting posted in a Peace Corps country with this kind of variety. Many PCV`s world wide are not as fortunate. The average Peruvian doesn’t have the money to buy food that is imported from all around the world and out of season. There are some things they don’t grow in Peru and therefore miss out on. Berries would be one of the biggest things I miss. But as I’ve mentioned before, the list of fruit you can get in Peru that you can’t get in the US, trumps the reverse. And at least bananas are always, ALWAYS in season, and local. I walk past banana trees on my way to work everyday. In fact, I walk past banana trees, potatoes and broccoli, all growing side by side. This country is really unique in some aspects.

I was really starting to get used to this timeless, seasonless place where there are always fresh to greens and amazing tomatoes, as if it were always summer. Then yesterday morning I woke up and came face to face with reality. In Peru, there aren’t really 4 seasons so much as 2. In the mountains, they have rainy season and dry season. In Lima, they have the sunny season.....and the gray. Coincidentally, the mountain and the desert seasons are inversed. While the facebook status messages from all the people living in the mountains are praising the end of the rainy season and the on set of beautiful weather, I am cursing the cloudy heavens "it’s not time, I’m not ready. Please, just one more month!!!!". But alas, instead of the gradual change of seasons inching in and out, I went to bed on a summery sunday night and woke up to winter.

This may seem like an over-dramatization, but as I was recounting my disbelief of the overnight seasonal change to a PCV in northern Peru, she said that the exact same thing happened to her on the same sunday night. I look back at my first three months when I arrived at site and remember them being cold, dark and lonely, and I’m not even talking about the weather. The Lima gray just reflected the way I felt inside. Maybe it’s just a coincidence that my spirits and life all seemed to improve with the weather. I cannot believe the clouds have come back so quickly. By my count, we only had 4 months of sun. Looking ahead to 8 months of gray skies, especially with what I associate them with, gives me an unsettled feeling.

But at the same time, I cannot stop aching for the coldest months to arrive. Very cunningly, I planned my biggest escapes and best vacations for the dead of winter. The unsettled feeling that pours over me is quickly washed away when I think that in just one months time, my parents will arrive and we’ll be off to Machu Picchu (up in the sierra where the weather is inversely sunny). Then in July I will go to the northern part of Peru to run my marathon, which I hope will be some where between cool and warm weather. At the end of July I have free vacation for the Peruvian Independence Day and escape from Lima yet again.

August is shaping up to be my most eventful month yet. Right after my independence day vacation, my friend Amanda will be coming to Lima for a few days with some med school friends before they hit up Machu Picchu. Then All of Peru 9 will be coming into Lima for our one year medical checks. After this week of having all my friends in town, I fly home to the states for 2 weeks.

My poor friends are receiving relentless emails about how excited I am and all the things I want to do with them when I get home. Thinking about California in August is the only way I can get a warm smile on my face after looking up at the gray sky here. So to all my friends who are being bombarded with a ton of over zealous emails, I’m sorry. But I beg that you humor me and all my warm weather fantasies. I’m sure as the departure date draws nearer, I’ll not only submit my friends through private emails to the trivial things I am obsessing about going home, and start annoying my blog readers with all the things I want to do in the very short 2 weeks I’ll be home.