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.