Well, This is my story. I was born on October 13th 1978, in Gent Belgium. Both my parents (Tommy and Elsa) are Peruvian. They were in Belgium 'cause my Dad was doing a master's degree there. My Mom and my sister Susana went with him and then I joined them in Belgium. When I was about 2 months old my parents came back to Peru and I came along with them. We lived in Lima for a few months and then we moved to a city called Cajamarca in the North of Peru.That's where the picture above was taken. That's me and my sister. I was like a year old and she was 3. We went back and forth between Lima and Cajamarca several times. We used to spend the summers in Lima in a beach called Punta Negra (like the best beach in Lima) south of the city of Lima. When I was about 3 years old We moved to a place called Malpaso. This place is near Huaraz in a valley called "Callejón de Huaylas" This place was awesome!! We lived there for about a year and even though I was 3-4 years old I remember it clearly. Malpaso was a big house with allot of farm lands. We had a bunch of animals ,Chickens, Ducks, Guinea pigs, and a Dog. The people who worked the lands had their own animals, like bulls, Donkeys, cows, etc. Our dog was called Colorina. She was a Labrador/whatever mix. She had like 10 puppies once. We kept one and called him The Doctor. It was a funny thing cause sometimes people would misunderstand when they heard stuff like "Darn! The Doctor pissed on the couch again!". I attended preschool in a nearby town called Carhuaz, it was a public preschool. Malpaso was a very isolated place. We didn't have a phone or electricity. The TV ran on a car Battery and we had a generator for the nights. We grew most of our food ourselves. I remember my mother cooking in the kitchen (which had an incredible view to the black mountains in contrast with snowy peaks) and telling me "David, go to the "chacra" and bring me some carrots, and radish". I would go out there and just recognize the vegetables by the leaves! and I was only 4!

Then we moved back to Lima. I went to another preschool (San Felipe) and we lived in a department in Lince (a district of Lima). This was around 1983. My Dad got an scholarship to do his PhD in North Dakota (in N.D.S.U) so he took it. Six months later we went to join him. We reunited on April 27th 1984, we had never been apart for so long so we declared April 27th Family Day. We still celebrate it every year.

We lived in Fargo for 3 years in the University Village. My Sister and I went to Washington Elementary. We met allot of wonderful people there and that's where I learned English (in case you're wondering). There was people from all over the world in this place. We met people from Uruguay, Argentina. Mexico, Guatemala, India, Sri Lanka, Honduras, South Africa, etc.

The people in Fargo were great too. They were all incredibly kind people. We left Fargo in 1987 and came back to Lima, Peru. I was 9 y/o and I got back to school right away. I went to a school in Lima called Liceo Naval "Almirante Guise". It's a school for marine's children but you can get in it with a recommendation. I started in third grade and finished high school there in 1995. After I got out of school I wanted to go to Medical School but I took the summer off. That summer I decided That it wasn't medicine what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I liked Construction, drawing planes, and math. So I decided to study civil engineering. There were only 3 universities where this career was taught so I chose The Universidad Católica del Perú. It was the closest to home too. I can get there in my bike in 10 minutes.

Since I've been living in Lima I've never missed a summer in Punta Negra. There was a summer I had to be in Lima studying for my admission exam but that was only half the summer. The other half I spent it in the beach as it should be. The picture above was taken in February 1999 (that's summer here), it's me and my dad lying around after lunch in our house in Punta Negra. I absolutely LOVE going to the beach. Specially Punta Negra, this beach is awesome, The people there are the best!

I learned how to bodysurf in Punta Negra, the waves are really strong in the part of the beach people call "El Puerto" and the tubes there are BIG (3-4meters tops). After a while Bodyboarding started to get into me and now I don't know which one to choose as my favorite sport. I love both of them but some days I feel like doing one rather than the other. I never go to the beach without my Viper fins and if I do I feel like I'm naked or something. Sometimes I don't even get in he surf but I have to take my fins! In the picture to the left I'm Bodyboarding in El Puerto. The waves were extremely small that day, but that's the only picture I have of myself bodyboarding. There's a part of Punta Negra that people call Explósivos. It's like the best beach to Bodyboard in the south of Lima. The waves are a perfect left, not too long but long enough, they are really tough waves too, but the bad thing is that you have to get there really early. The best waves come in really early in the morning and by 11: 00 am the waves aren't that good anymore. I consider Punta Negra a big part of my personality. I can't stay too long away from it. I HAVE to be there!

At this time I'm studying civil engineering in the Universidad Católica, I'm not a brilliant student but I'm doing O.K. I get around tutoring math to school students and now I'm also tutoring math in english to some kids that go to the American school of Lima.

There's something else I was leaving out. I absolutely love to draw. I guess I got that from my grandfather, Julio Fairlie. He was the first cartoonist in Peru, very popular in his time. The kind of drawings I like to make are also caricatures and comic strips, but I haven't really gotten into it seriously. I would've liked to get some strips published though but I guess I'm just too lazy. I've heard of allot of comic contests going on, even in my own university, but I've never gotten into one. The picture in the right was taken in March 1999. It's outside my room in Punta Negra. Another thing I really like is animals, I thought about becoming a vet once but there's no future for that in Peru and I wouldn't like to leave this country for business. I have a dog called Zenon, he's a Doberman mix, I can relate allot to him, we both have the same kind of temper, Bad temper that is, although I try to keep it inside. That's how I got the nickname "Banner" after Dr.Bruce Banner, the incredible hulk, who whenever gets mad transforms into a horrible monster! I'm not that temperamental anymore. I've been working on it. But Zenon...He's crazy man! There are even certain words he can't hear. As soon as you say them he just pops and starts growling. He's never bitten anyone but he sure scares the hell out of everybody.