Out and about in Lima District-- Cajamarca!!! My new home!??!

October 6th-17^th

I’ve done so much the last couple weeks and now I have been living in Peru for a month. Sometimes I have to take a step back and let that sink in because here everything has just become so routine. There are tough times when I miss people back home, hot showers, internet access at my house, and a list of other things, but overall the days are still great. Emotions are much more up and down here. I can go from having a frustrating morning where my Spanish isn’t exactly on target, but then in a couple hours I am in another type of session almost jumping out of my seat at the new techniques and technical info we are learning. Then I might go out with other trainees and have an amazing night and my Spanish will be back on at home with my family. The order isn’t exactly a pattern like this and everyday is different. The routine and all the random events thrown in here and there has made the last 4 weeks fly by.

Early on a couple of weeks ago we were introduced to SharePoint. SharePoint is an online resource and social networking site for Peace Corps Peru. All volunteers that have served in Peru since the site has been started have had access to SharePoint and have been able to upload helpful resources as well as smaller information, like what concert may be coming to Lima and soon and who would like to go, or maybe they are putting on an event in there province and need to get the word out to other interested volunteers. The amount of techniques and teaching resources is astonishing and beats any site I have ever seen like this and been a part of. I found out this week that I will be able to purchase a USB adapter that will give me wireless internet anywhere, all the way down to my room at my site. This will run a good 100 soles a month, but all things considered $35/month for internet in the middle of the Peruvian mountains will be worth it. I can’t pass up having SharePoint at my fingertips as well as the ability to communicate with people back home, and of course Google and Facebook.

I enjoyed another great night out in Chosica with a large group of PC trainees Wednesday and Saturday we got the group together again for Cubano Fest. After a couple hours of pregame hang out at the local bodegas in Santa Eulalia we all made it to an outdoor discoteca where we danced the night away even making it on stage to sing with the live band for a song or two. I also met a new Peruvian friend on the way to Santa Eulalia, a 26 year old writer named Diego who lives in Lima. It is nice to have a friend in Lima now like many other volunteers. When I make it in to Lima during service and need a friend to show me the town I know who I can call now. There are a few benefits of my room not being inside the main part of my house here. Being able to come home at 4:30 in the morning without waking up my host parents would be one of those benefits. It’s comforting to know that I know my surroundings well enough down here that at night and perhaps a little buzzed still I can make it home without a problem.

Saturday was also the first trip to Agraria University in Lima. We spent the day learning about different Peruvian vegetables and fruits among other things. We were taught how to make our own planters, how to make compost, what plants grow where and how, and we were able to do hands on work seeding plants and planting seeds as well. I knew a good portion of the gardening material, but in the end it really takes a long time and a lot of practice to know how each plant should be planted and the different care each specific plant needs.

For the first two days of the next week we had language training at my house. My parents went all out preparing snacks for my class and the convenience of sleeping in longer made the experience very easy and enjoyable.

We always have current volunteers come in from their sites to give presentations on their work and their specific areas of service and this week the youth and development volunteers came in and I was immediately interested. Working with kids has always been easy for me and once you get past their scared phase where they are awkwardly trying to figure you out it can be the most rewarding experiences out there in my opinion. There are a lot of clichés thrown around like children are the future, but down here in the work we might do it can often be much clearer truth. I sat on the edge of my seat listening for new techniques as well as initiatives that I could possibly be a part of in the not so distant future.

This last Thursday we went to the main offices in Lima for Peace Corps Peru. I had a meeting with the country director of Peace Corps Peru and we were given a tour of the whole site including introductions to every single staff member. After meeting the staff, other trainees and I are convinced that the Peace Corps has found the nicest, most helpful people in Peru to fill out their team. That night was the most anxious night for me over the last few weeks. I had my second language interview and my second interview with the Associate Program in Country Director (APCD) for the health program.

The interviews both turned out better than I could have hoped for. My language interview could have gone a tiny bit better, but it was leaps and bounds better than my first interview. In this interview I could actually have a conversation and not just throw random words together about the weather. My interview with my APCD was reviled incredible news. It’s not 100% official just yet, the Peace Corps always tends to have this game of suspense and ambiguity that they play from the very beginning, but with that said it’s looking like I am going to the department of Cajamarca. Cajamarca is north of Lima and Ancash, but it isn’t right next to Ecuador like some other possible sites for volunteers. It has hills and mountains in the two sites I may be going to and the beach is also relatively close. I might replace a volunteer who is in a site there now or I would be placed in brand new site. Peru’s largest Carnaval is in Cajamarca and the HIV/AIDS rates are much lower than all the other departments where volunteers are being placed. I don’t know my possible work still, but knowing a site and having two provinces to research in the next two weeks before I hear officially has given me a great goal to prepare for. Now that I know where I might be living for the next two years it can be a little hard to stay focused sometimes and not drift off thinking about how amazing it will be during classes. I was given much more information than most other volunteers, but everything is subject to change. We go to Ancash in a week and a half and after our five day trip in the Sierra many minds could change and many people could be mixed up again, who knows with Peace Corps.

Another trip to Agraria University topped off the great week of news and learning as we observed how to raise small birds like chickens, ducks, and turkeys. Not a big deal to people in the states, but here these birds can be the best source of food for your family or your community at site. The real fun started when we went to Mira Flores after Agraria and checked out the beach. It was my first ocean view in Peru and it didn’t disappoint at all. We were offered surf lesson and spoke with a very personable older vendor who had lived in the U.S. for two years 12 years ago. The beach trip put us all in a good mood for our next stop at OKTOBERFEST. I wasn’t sure if my brain was ready to handle three different cultures at the same time, but the night was a huge success and I now know why we are called poor Peace Corps volunteers, we always spend all of our money going out. While expensive, Oktoberfest was a blast. I went with different people than I have usually been out with and the entertainment and Cusqueṅa kept us going strong for hours before a few of us made our way out of the party to find some Chinese food and the way home.

 My first taste of cuy in Peru!

Mira Flores-Savage Garden-Combi/Sardine Can

Last weekend was pretty laid back compared to most days in Peru. On Saturday I helped my host mom wash my clothes after breakfast. I felt bad bringing in a large bag of clothes and just taking off, but as I helped it seemed like I just got in her way more than I helped. It was nice to see how to wash certain clothes by hand but half way through the session ended as she shooed me out of the room towards my host dad. Alejandro and my sister Made took me over to the Chaclacayo cemetery on the hillside in Huascaran. I’d wanted to go over and see how the layout and art is different from that of American cemeteries and I was very surprised at how normal and easy it was for us to walk around in the cemetery and see all the different structures. I felt a little strange taking pictures, but it not like it hasn’t been done before. In many cases the tombs were just above ground with maybe a foot or so of cement closing them in a small area. Some had little houses for decorations and others had somewhat traditional headstones. The most striking thing to me was the large walls standing row after row 15 feet tall with at least 75 graves in each large wall. All the tombs are cemented in and have decorations on the outside. This trip revealed to me what my host dad does also. He creates his own intricate stencils and transfers his beautiful work onto the equivalent of gravestones in the cemetery. I believe he also owned a small hardware/paint store at one point because I noticed a large store sign partially uncovered in the house with many small supplies in one room as well. I haven’t brought it up because it isn’t functional at the moment and I don’t want to bring up bad feelings if there are any.

Sunday, I watched “The Incredibles” with my sister and I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that the movie was animated in Spanish and I didn’t have to sit through two hours of dubbed over cartoons. After lunch, I spent the rest of the day in Chosica with another volunteer Kati, looking for more cheap movies, enjoying street vendor food, and playing cards in the park while taking in the Sunday scene. What I will remember the most about the Sunday trip to Chosica is the combi rides. Sunday was Election Day in Peru and if you think politics in the US get crazy, you wouldn’t believe what you see down here. Voting is mandatory in Peru and if you don’t vote you can’t travel outside of your province, you can’t get simple licenses for identification or for opening businesses, and you are basically limited to off grid life unless you want to pay the steep fine that comes with not doing your civic duty. Because voting is mandatory everybody is trying to get into town all day, from 8:00AM to 4:00PM. The first combi (small busses with seating for 22-24 people) we took had at least 50 people packed in it. This wasn’t terrible if you can stand hot recycled air and a different appalling smell for 15-20 minutes. The ride back was another fun experience because on this combi we managed to shove in at least 60 people. If we hit a big enough bump the guy pressed up against the front of me would have landed one right on my lips and the two people behind me would have surpassed their second base status that they had already achieved. I remember a project I did in middle school were we had to through an egg in a container off the roof of the school. The egg had to remain intact if you were to receive an A grade. I recall using a sort of bedding foam and a little plastic sack for a parachute. I have never felt more like that egg than when I was on that combi and I couldn’t move 4 inches in any direction. Anyways, it was a learning experience….don’t go anywhere on Election Day in Peru if you can help it.

Monday was our first trip to Lima, our first time back to the mega-metropolis since we were whisked away from the airport three weeks ago. Every level language class went to Mira Flores for different projects and practice. Mira Flores is hardly the real Peru and I have trouble calling it Lima because it is gringo central and the spot where we were dropped off was a beautiful park named John F. Kennedy Park. Don’t get me wrong, Mira Flores is beautiful but when my Spanish class decided to eat at Pizza Hut and Burger King across the street from the McDonalds I felt like I was not embracing Peru and the new places I haven’t experienced yet. I ate Pizza Hut in the US three weeks ago and to do it here would have just been too early for me to give in and want American food. I made my way to a local deli which I’m sure is just a Mira Flores tourist trap anyways, but I had to order in Spanish still, from a menu I didn’t recognize and I avoided going the American fast food route that I was so used to back home. Mira Flores will definately be a fun time to come back to, but I want to explore some more night life and different parts of Lima too. Our trip back took over 3 hours in two different combis, even with our driver bypassing numerous red lights with lines of cars at them by driving off road or on the sidewalk.

Wednesday was another installment of Charla Time in Chosica with the environment group and a surprisingly large number of health program trainees. We accomplished the feat of drinking the little restaurant out of all their beer while we shared more great stories and hopes for the following weeks and years. I had my first chicken sandwich from a street vendor and it was better even better than I expected it to be, and for two soles it was a steal! No sickness either, I’m starting to think I have an iron stomach down here. This goes for things I can actually get down. I have had almost every part of the chicken now and I have only been incapable of eating one part. For me this part was las patas de pollo (chicken feet). I came home for lunch after language class one day this week and I was greeted with a chicken feet soup and then the second course of rice and potatoes interspersed with more chicken toes. I’ve been able to stomach chicken liver, heart, and other odd organs and tendons here and there, but I could I only get one little toe down before I knew my gag reflex was not having it (no chewing option available, not a good idea). When I go to site I will have to eat way worse food and my mom’s cooking here is great so I’m not complaining, but it is another part of training yourself that you don’t think of until you go through it.

More technical training this week has provided mass amounts of information and useful tools/techniques that I can’t wait to use when I get to site. Working on homework with my sister is becoming more and more fun as my Spanish gets better. I also enjoy seeing her do well in her English. One night this week we were working on her English homework when she pulled out an assignment where she had to fill in certain parts of lyrics to a song. I was taken aback when I glanced at the song and immediately middle school and high school dances popped into head. They are using Savage Garden’s, “I Knew I Loved You before I Met You” as a learning tool. It killed me inside a little, but I admitted I knew every word and found myself humming the tune as I helped her fill in the document. No matter the exact assignment I enjoy teaching and trading off my language knowledge from English to get more help in Spanish.

We only have a half day of training Friday because of the holiday to remember the La Guerra del Pacifico with Chile. This was a war in which Chile invaded Peru in the late 1800s and early 1900s with the help of the British and many atrocities were committed against Peruvian women and children as well and many men as well. The relationship with Chile is still very shaky to say the least. I didn’t know much of Peru’s history before this experience, but my eyes have been opened and it is clear to see why certain parts of Peru are the way they are and why they feel the way the way they do. There is anger towards Spain of course because of hundreds of years of colonialism, but there are many Spanish descendants here and after a few generations there are also large numbers of people who are descendants of Peruvian and Spanish heritage. This doesn’t even cover all the indigenous people in the Sierra (mountains) or in the Selva (jungle).

This weekend we go back to a different a part of Lima to learn about organic farming and small animal husbandry at the Agraria University. Both topics are high on my list of things I want to learn and both can be very useful for better nutrition and improving other aspects of health like: mental health-due to self esteem, income generation for better nutrition and other improvements, and learning better ways to prevent illness through better sanitation and food prep practices.

After Lima it’s Cubano Fest in a town 45 minutes away and right next door to a handful of volunteers from the WatSan/Environment program. If we stay in Lima or make the long trip back for Cubano Fest, this weekend should be full of excitement. Oh, I almost forgot about the late night soccer game Friday night that I might get to play in and a possible cockfight Saturday I could go watch down the street from my house.

Out in Chosica

October 2^nd

The week of field experience

Tuesday and Wednesday were consumed by more classed but the best thing about the training in Peace Corps is that they try to make it fun and non-formal at least half of the time. We split up into small groups on Wednesday and participated in a mock debate between different types of aide organizations in Peru (International NGOs/National NGOs/Peru gov). The debate gave us a good luck at how we can work with other organizations and what the Peace Corps has to offer.

The real highlight Wednesday was meeting up with the other group of trainees from environment and water sanitation in Chosica. The other group of trainees came out with a group of almost 20 people and we ended up sharing stories over a few cervezas and pesco sours. It seems easier to bond with that group and you can tell there is a little more closeness within the group than in the health group. My only guess to why this would be is that we have 30 females, many of which have strong ties back home. I’m just speculating but I could see that being a factor in the process of opening up and being real with the whole group. We also have four women who are 5-8 years older than the average age of our group. These women are all awesome people and great leaders as well, but it does seem harder to close the friendship gap for me. The other group is a little more evenly spread with guys and girls and on top of that they talk about hanging out every day after class and just relaxing over a couple drinks. You can see the jokes flying back and forth like they have known each other for much longer than 2 weeks. I really enjoy the people in the health group, but I just have to realize that it’s going to be a different type of group. It was exactly what I needed to get past that midweek mark and I hope we can make it a permanent event for the next 8 weeks until we are spread out across the country.

On Thursday we got out of the classroom and made our way to a health center in the morning. The center was on the lower end of health centers and the difference was very obvious. It was interesting to actually see the difference between this local health center and the ones back home. Even with the difference in facilities and tools the staff seems to care for their patience just as much as any good health care provider would do. Our main goal was to see what kind of facilities the people have and what treatment is available in the Chaclacayo community, but while we were there we gained important vocabulary that we should know for our work coming up in the near future.

The afternoon was a little more upbeat as we took the whole health group to a high school in the town of 3 de Octubre. We got great practice in working our different community diagnostics with the classes. My teaching group of 4 worked with a group of 8-10 kids to map out there community how they know it now and then how they see it in ten years. The kids we worked with were very cooperative and I was very happy with the Spanish I was able to use to help with activity. All the community diagnostic tools worked really well in the classroom and I can’t wait to actually use them in the field two months from now.

Thursday was an exhausting day for me and Friday brought a very welcomed slow morning of technical training. We received our ATM cards and cell phones are on their way soon. It seems like a strange joke to give us these objects of normalcy and then a month later put us somewhere where we won’t really use either. For the time being I can’t complain though, it will be nice to be able to contact other volunteers and my family without going to a pay phone or street vendor and dropping a couple soles every time. Friday afternoon we went into Chosica as a class. For a few people this was their first trip, but I consider myself close to a local in Chosica at this point. I have made the trip close to ten times now and it’s just another easy trip to me now. The giant white Jesus statue, the central park, and the hundreds of little stores and restaurants that line the streets make Chosica my favorite place to go as of yet. My objectives changed a little on this trip, as we had three pages of interview questions we had to get out and put to use. At first I still had my nervous voice when asking people more than two or three quick questions, but as I did more and more interviews the practice brought more confidence to the process and by the end I was able to joke around with a few of my interviewees and I really loved the assignment.

Side note: I went to Chosica the previous night with my sister and bought Shrek 4, The Other Guys, and Get Him to the Greek for a grand total of 9 soles (3.25$). A deal I could get used to!!

Elections are this weekend so the entire country is dry from Friday to Monday morning. No going out and partying, but with everything basically shut down I will have a lot of time to get in some much needed sleep and studying. Other things will come up, but down here I never plan for anything too concrete because schedules are always changing on a dime. Visiting a cool cemetery in my town, doing homework, and hanging out with my host sister are on my to-do list.