Soccer and spanish lessons

Ingrid has written a very descriptive email detailing the events at the soccer match and I will import it into the blog as soon as possible but I would like to add that there is really nothing like Latin American soccer fever.

We were given tickets to go watch the regional peruvian team play one of the regional bolivian teams and the energy at the stadium was fantastic! Not to mention the whole family atmosphere...

no alcohol present at all, unlike our Kiwi rugby matches. When the Peruvian team scored a goal, the young boys chanting the cheers would rush up to the fence line ringing the pitch and climb all the way to the top, shaking the fence and screaming at the top of their lungs. It was a most interesting experience to see this hoard of young people... boys and girls, run to the fence and scale it, threatening to bring it down with their excitement!

We also started spanish lessons with a lady called Paty and we have yet to take a photo of her but we do have a photo of her dog, Lulu

and the couple of shots of the 300 year old house she lives in which had been passed down from the conquitadores! She has been exceptionally kind to us but also a very hard teacher who sets lots and lots of homework!

Paty lives on a street called Calle Purgatorio which translated into English means Purgatory Street. She tells us of the story of when a long time ago, when the Peruvians had to pay tax to the Spanish, there was a tax colector who lived on the street. The tax collector wanted to be rich and so devised a way to scare the locals into paying more tax. He would drag chains down the street at night, pretending to be the spirit of death and threatened that if anyone did not pay their tax, they would be sentenced to an eternity in Purgatory. Now, this only works if you are Catholic and yes, Peru is dominated by Catholicism in all its extremity.

So, spanish lessons in Purgatory anyone?