However, I have found most people willing to discuss it civilly and respectfully, and were more than happy to answer my questions I had about Peruvian politics, of which I am certinaly no expert.
While I was certainly nervous about coming to Peru, and my experience so far has been somewhat planned by Peace Corps to keep me safe, almost everyone I have met and worked with in Peru has been at the very least amicable, at best lifelong friends. There are certainly cultural differences that are sometimes hard to wrap my head around, but people have been so nice and understanding at all the taboos I unknowingly commit, it's hard to be bothered by them. I have certainly picked up some of their habits that my friends from the U.S. would be bothered by!
What I have taken to heart in the past 7 or so months here in Peru is that despite differences in culture and worldviews, we are all still human beings. We are all just doing our best to figure our lives out one day at a time, and we all just want to get along and treat each other kindly, and be treated kindly in return. We all like to laugh and spend time with people we care about. You will certainly run into people you don't get along with, but the percentage of those people is the same as it is in the United States.
For Semana Santa, which is the week-long holiday leading up to Easter, I visited Tarma about an hour away. They have an amazing custom where they make artwork of a kind of paint-by-numbers using flower petals. Different groups from within and around Tarma get a section of the plaza to create their artworks, which usually represents something from their community like a special dance, an animal or a unique location.
