Home is Chiclayo, Peru, the financial and commercial capital of northern Peru. It is known as the City of Friendship and the pearl of the north in Peru, located but eight miles inland from the Pacific coast.
Its strategic geographic location makes it a rail, communications, and automotive hub. Modern touches include large supermarkets, banking chains, warehouses, hospitals, clinics, and galleries. It’s also 80 degrees pretty much year-round.So imagine what it was like for Regina Quinones and Judith Vasquez when they arrived on windswept Block Island on December 18 to begin a three month “internship” at the Block Island Grocery, which wraps up today, March 25. A little culture shock indeed.
First there was the language barrier, and Christmas and holiday traditional foods that had to be learned. After all back home potatoes are sold in arrobas, and meats and cheeses sliced in the metric system. Talk about jumping in feet first.Then there was the cold. Oh yea, that cold.
They quickly learned, post-holidays, that real locals are rarely in a hurry, often more interested in a chat and getting to know one, and they regularly disarmed any customer’s anxiety with smiles and eyes that could melt ice.
