Today I solved the mystery of the mysterious math papers! Before class, I talked with a few of my classmates, and they explained to me that when a professor gives papers to one student, it is my job to find that student and pay him or her to make copies for me. I get it now! And now I have the papers, too. And they weren't homework, actually. Just practice problems for the control (quiz) that we are having tomorrow.
One of my classes is called Analisis de la Realidad Peruana (Analisis of the Peruvian Reality). It is a class that is mandatory for all students at San Pablo, and a professor is teaching a slightly different version of it to five of us from Calvin since we don't have the same background knowledge as the San Pablo students. This class has been very interesting. I have learned a lot. And I'll tell you about it now so that YOU can learn a lot, too!!
So, most of the land that is now the country of Peru used to be the Incan Empire. The Incan Empire really only lasted 100 years, and while the empire had an amazing governing system, there really was no nation. The Incans didn't have a national identity. Rather, the empire consisted of many different localized groups of people who all had their own languages but were under the same organization. The power of the Incans was in their organization. It was a collective society, divided into ayllus. Each ayllu (it's like a community) had a boss, and they worked as a group to feed the members and make sure that everyone had enough.
Fransisco Pizarro is known as the man who conquered the Incan Empire... but he didn't really have to do much. By the time he arrived in the empire, things were falling apart on their own. There was a bit of a civil war going on. Two brothers were fighting to be the next emperor, and the entire territory was divided. The economic system was also falling apart. The nobility was beginning to own land, which really got in the way of the whole collective society thing. The nobility wanted the best land, which left the not-so-great land for the the ayllus to work with.
Basically the empire was falling apart, and Fransisco Pizarro didn't really have to do anything at all. As we seek to understand the Peruvian Reality in this class, one of the important things that we have talked about is that today's Peru is not just the descendant of the indiginous people who lived here before Europeans arrived. The Peruvian culture is a mezcla, a mix of indiginous and European and other groups who have been involved in the nation's history.
Father, I thank You so so so much for all that I'm learning here in Arequipa, and for the people that I'm getting to know here. Thank You for my classmates and mi familia. Thank You for all that You are teaching me. Thank You for the joy that You have given me here! Show me how to share that joy with the people around me, Jesus! Help me to keep my eyes open to see what You are doing and to join You.
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