Be Agressive, be be Agressive

At first glance Cusco would appear to be a very 'gay friendly' city. Actually I think it is, just like many large Canadian cities but most don´t seem to advertise it as much as Cusco. That is what I thought until I discovered that the city flag happens to be a rainbow but purple in some other spot. I guess that explains why a main round-about near the city square flies a skittles coloured flag with its monuments.

My cheerleading title actually refers to the fact that being taken out of my comfort zone has revealed that I am a big wimp. My assertiveness level is comparable to my sporting ability. Atleast weekly, often biweekly, the adults in the orphanage I volunteer in blatantly ask me to purchase things. This isn´t exactly the centre of poverty either. I understand that they have little but never lack anything important. As soon as the pushing starts though my Spanish ability lessens, I shuffle the feet, anything to avoid the situation. It would be better for all involved if I could manage an outright NO. Today it was markers and supplies for a celebration. Project grow a spine is officially in progress.

Lastly, I had promised to share a bit more history, that of Wiracocha. I like to think of this story as one of the biggest You-Have-Got-to-Be-Kidding-Me´s ever. The word is that an Incan emperor was somewhat of an imperialist and also had some brains. He desired a unified (ie. easy to manage) kingdom and devised that the best way to accomplish this was to unify the pantheistic culture under one religion or God. He reached back into pre-inca culture and pulled up Wiracocha. Here is the kicker: Wiracocha was a God in man form, white, with the force of a beast and the awaited saviour of sorts. All was fine and dandy until, you guessed it, white dudes on horses (force of beasts) showed up demanding their share aka. all of the riches of the land. The great kingdom was mostly felled in just years thanks to a story. I can just picture the king making it up too: ¨Perfect. Like that´s ever going to happen¨.