I attended school in Peru until the second grade, then my family moved to the States. I don't remember much about those days. The school was a few well-built buildings, two stories tall. Schoolyard was blacktop with some trees, the whole grounds sorrounded by a high stone wall.

I remember my grandmother's... house is the closest word. My family live with Ama for a while. The house was at the end of this sort of alleyway. Not an alley like in the US. This one was much wider and paved with this white with black dotted marble-like stone. Four houses lined the alley, two at one end, one on each side, the open end connecting to the sidewalk.

Ama's house was at the end, on the right. Actually, it shared a wall with the other house at the end. It was two stories, hardwood floors, with a small patio at the side. The whole place was crowded but spacious. Lots of furniture and stuff, yet lots of room (although I was quite small back then).

We had a maid (Sylvia). My sister and I played with the neighbor's kids, Ursula and Teresita. Don't remember exactly what we played. There was another boy who I played with, Renaldo is his name. He had a big collection of plastic soldiers - medieval, modern, western. Also castles and forts to set up the soldiers. We'd play by setting up our soldiers and then taking turns throwing a die, trying to knock the enemy soldiers down.

Ama lived in Lima. It was relatively built up, not crowded though like in San Francisco. I'm not too sure what to compare Lima to, kind of like a major city in the fifties or sixties. Not modern looking, but it's clean and not run-down. Lot of people walked, fair number of cars.

There was a market like a block away. A small theater a handful of blocks away. A park a couple of blocks away. Didn't really get outside my block much, most of my time was spent in the alley playing. I remember seeing my first movie, "S.O.S. Submarino Nuclear", or "Gray Lady Down" in the US release.

There was television. Not many channels and the television was black and white. I wasn't much into television then, there were so many other things to do. I do remember watching Ultraman... Hmm, don't remember any other shows.

My sister and I had a lot of Legos. We would build these Lego villages and vehicles and such. Not well made as I recall, but it was fun. Now that I think back on it, I remember the crib where my sister slept in. So I must have been, what 3, 4, 5?

I remember waking up Ama in the middle of the night so she could warm up a glass of milk, which always tasted really good. It's not until years later that I realized that she put sugar in the milk to make it taste good. And when it cooled the milk got this film on top of it.