We got our cellphones on Friday. Hurray! They are tiny and don’t have very good reception, but we now have a way to communicate with each other without having to run across town. We also had our TAPs groups meetings to go over the final details for FBT. We got the schedule….the week is going to be crazy I think and I can’t wait. We also had a Junta Directive meeting. We’re trying to get the Peru 17 souvenirs organized so we can order them. I think we’re going to be getting some really cool stuff.
Friday night some of us went up to Santa Eulalia para la fiesta del Dia de la Virgen Carmen. There was a big band and a huge tower of fireworks on the cancha. Sadly, because of my curfew, I had to leave before the fireworks. The music was great though and I hear the fireworks were fantastic. I will see one of these towers up close one day. Peruvian Independence day is coming up soon, so maybe that’ll be my chance.
Friday, July 29, 2011
July 14: I love when children give me presents :-P
Thursday morning we had a few hours of Spanish class before we went on another school visit. Kelsey and I decided to try the Personal Flag activity on a larger group of kids and it went really well. The teacher was super involved, which always makes these random school visits go better. Two of the students in our class gave me bead bracelets. It was great! I hadn’t even walked into the room when I got the first one ☺ I also ended up signing autographs. It’s a little strange to me how commonly we get asked to sign random scraps of paper. The first time I saw it happen I just thought the kids were being crazy, but we really get asked a lot. Pretty funny.
Thursday night Kelsey, Jon and I planned a session to talk with or host families for our Community Diagnostic project. Only my host mom and Jon’s host mom actually showed up, but we did the activity anyway and it went really well. It’s called a FODA analysis or a SWOT analysis in English. It’s a conversation about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a community. They two ladies had a lot of interesting things to say and the conversation was actually really fun. This is the first time I have really felt I was able to show some of my personality in Spanish. It sounds sort of silly, but it can actually be hard when you don’t have the ability to make a person laugh in the language you are speaking. So that night was great because be the end of it we were all tearing up from laughing so much about the parade of gringos we think we should have in the neighborhood. My host mom also told me that she thinks my Spanish has improved a lot. I went to bed grinning ☺
Thursday night Kelsey, Jon and I planned a session to talk with or host families for our Community Diagnostic project. Only my host mom and Jon’s host mom actually showed up, but we did the activity anyway and it went really well. It’s called a FODA analysis or a SWOT analysis in English. It’s a conversation about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a community. They two ladies had a lot of interesting things to say and the conversation was actually really fun. This is the first time I have really felt I was able to show some of my personality in Spanish. It sounds sort of silly, but it can actually be hard when you don’t have the ability to make a person laugh in the language you are speaking. So that night was great because be the end of it we were all tearing up from laughing so much about the parade of gringos we think we should have in the neighborhood. My host mom also told me that she thinks my Spanish has improved a lot. I went to bed grinning ☺
July 12 & 13: Piero’s Birthday and time to tryout the Emergency Action Plan
We had our TAPs interviews on Tuesday morning. These are part of how they evaluate our process throughout the ten weeks of training. I’ll be honest though, Lindsay and I spend some of time planning how we were going to see the final Harry Potter movie during FBT. So excited! That afternoon we had a special meeting with Kathleen so she could explain that we wouldn’t be having classes the following day. There was a strike of combi and taxi drivers planned for the department of Lima and they decided it would be better if none of us tried to travel out of our neighborhoods that day. Also there would be no way for any of the teachers to get to us, because they all live in Lima. So we had what’s called a Standfast. It’s the first level of the Peace Corps Emergency Action Plan and it means we are to stay within our host communities until we hear further instructions. Apparently there had been some talk of the possibility that the paro might get a little violent so PC staff doesn’t want us out and about.
Tuesday night was a party for Piero’s 4th birthday. Some of the family came over and we ate a lot of food. It was fun :-P The music got turned on eventually and we all spend a while trying to talk Piero into dancing; when that didn’t work they turned to me. So I danced with Piero’s godfather in the middle of a circle of my host family members. Even better? The whole thing is on video just in case anybody missed it ha ha. Turns out the salsa dancing I used to do in the states is a little different then how they were dancing at the party. So I guess I have some more dancing to learn….its hard work, but someone has to do it :-P
Wednesday was basically a snow day….in the South. Meaning we all stayed home and nothing really happened with the riot. Although it’s better in this case, because strikers getting violent would be far more complicated than the inch of forecasted snow actually falling on a snow day. I woke up Wednesday morning to do some homework with Kelsey and that afternoon we went on a walk with Jeff. Kelsey, Jeff, Jon and I also sat around Kels’ living room chatting for a bit. That night I watched 27 Dresses on my computer. Over all, a pretty relaxed day and I loved it.
Tuesday night was a party for Piero’s 4th birthday. Some of the family came over and we ate a lot of food. It was fun :-P The music got turned on eventually and we all spend a while trying to talk Piero into dancing; when that didn’t work they turned to me. So I danced with Piero’s godfather in the middle of a circle of my host family members. Even better? The whole thing is on video just in case anybody missed it ha ha. Turns out the salsa dancing I used to do in the states is a little different then how they were dancing at the party. So I guess I have some more dancing to learn….its hard work, but someone has to do it :-P
Wednesday was basically a snow day….in the South. Meaning we all stayed home and nothing really happened with the riot. Although it’s better in this case, because strikers getting violent would be far more complicated than the inch of forecasted snow actually falling on a snow day. I woke up Wednesday morning to do some homework with Kelsey and that afternoon we went on a walk with Jeff. Kelsey, Jeff, Jon and I also sat around Kels’ living room chatting for a bit. That night I watched 27 Dresses on my computer. Over all, a pretty relaxed day and I loved it.
July 11: Can I just have a re-do?
So I can honestly say Monday was not one of my better days. All the PCVs talk about how occasionally things just catch up to you and Monday was definitely that for me. I have been fighting a cold for a while and my host dad keeps coming up with reasons why he thinks I might be sick. Monday’s was that I shower in the mornings and I got a good long lecture telling me I should just stop showering. Not only do I not know enough Spanish to politely tell him that he’s wrong, I don’t want to appear disrespectful. So I just got out of the house as fast as I could. Then somewhere in the day I got a bug bite on my ankle that apparently I’m allergic to, because my ankle got really hot and swelled up like a balloon. That was cute. We also got a pretty long talk about sexual assault that morning. Very informative, but not exactly the amusing distraction I was hoping for. Oh well. I got some good news that afternoon though, I moved up a level in my Spanish class! Hurray! After class Kelsey and I went to Chosica to get money out of the bank, that’s right, we have debit cards now :-P Then we went to Plaze Vea so I could buy a new pillow. I went home to do a little homework and then decided to break in my new pillow by going to sleep early. Today’s lesson….tell someone if you’re having a bad day and then shake it off. Cookies help too ☺
July 9 & 10: Peruvian Smurfs and “I thought there was going to be dancing”
Saturday morning we went on a hike to a waterfall near San Geronimo de Surco. It’s a town about 1.5 hours from Santa Eulalia. The hike was great. The sun was out and there were lots of things for us to stop and look at: a religious shrine, a waterfall and some really old ruins. The view from the shrine was amazing and while the waterfall was more of a trickle than a fall it was in a beautiful spot and we all sat there for lunch. I spent a lot of time talking with Lindsay, my TAPs group leader, on the hike. She told me about all the craziness that has been her 5 years in the Peace Corps and I actually ended up talking about Nat and Mark’s accident. You two now have more people sending you good wishes from Peru <3 After lunch we hiked back down the mountain and stopped to look at the ruins. I have absolutely no idea how to write the name of the culture, but it sounded like Yow-Yow, I think. Remember this was all in another language. Anyway, our guide was telling us how they were actually a race of fairly short people and then he started pointing out the different houses. To give you an idea of the size of these houses, I’m pretty sure any child over the age of ten could not walk through the doors up right. Now it was eventually cleared up that they weren’t that short; part of the houses were underground…..we were all confused for a bit though :-P Fun fact, in case you’re wondering, Smurf is Pitufo in Spanish.
Sunday was the first meeting of our youth group that Nick, Kelsey and I have been working on. We live in a tiny little association that is actually just half of one street, so it’s been pretty difficult to find a whole group of children. Finally we just decided to go with Kelsey’s three host siblings. Not exactly the idea of the original project, but it’s more important that we actually have the meetings at this point :-P Anyway, we started out with a dinamica called human knot and then we did something called The Personal Flag to get them thinking about personal values and goal setting. Afterwards we had peanut butter and bananas as our healthy snack. Now this may seem unremarkable to you, but peanut butter is quite rare down here and, therefore, a nearly priceless commodity amongst many PCVs. I was more excited than the kids that Kelsey decided to share! After the snack we turned on some music and scared the little kids with our dancing….wait I mean, we all had a little dance party in Kels’ living room.
Sunday was the first meeting of our youth group that Nick, Kelsey and I have been working on. We live in a tiny little association that is actually just half of one street, so it’s been pretty difficult to find a whole group of children. Finally we just decided to go with Kelsey’s three host siblings. Not exactly the idea of the original project, but it’s more important that we actually have the meetings at this point :-P Anyway, we started out with a dinamica called human knot and then we did something called The Personal Flag to get them thinking about personal values and goal setting. Afterwards we had peanut butter and bananas as our healthy snack. Now this may seem unremarkable to you, but peanut butter is quite rare down here and, therefore, a nearly priceless commodity amongst many PCVs. I was more excited than the kids that Kelsey decided to share! After the snack we turned on some music and scared the little kids with our dancing….wait I mean, we all had a little dance party in Kels’ living room.
July 8: Head, Shoulders, Knees and Choes
Friday morning I had my second language interview, we all get evaluated halfway through training to readjust our language levels and groups. After the interviews we went to another school visit. We got to the school at the end of recreo, so we joined in on the games for a little while. I played volley with some girls while they filled me in on who liked who :-P Nick and I taught an English class to ten year olds this time. We taught them Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. The “t” is a little tough for them to pronounce so it comes out like a “ch” most of the time, but they really seemed to like the activity. Now I know that none of you know Nick, but he’s a little over six feet tall and blond….why is this relevant you ask? Well part of our activity was taping the names of body parts to Nick’s actual body. The kids were climbing over each other to be able to tape things to the “giant gringo’s” face. It was all I could do not to fall over. That would have been a fine impression for our trainers, no? Me lying on the floor and Nick wandering around the front of class with one shoe on and paper stuck all over his face :-P Why only one shoe? You might wonder to yourself. The sticky note for “choes” had to go somewhere. After the English lesson we took them outside to play Pato Pato Ganzo. (That’s Duck Duck Goose to you.) The kids loved making us the goose so they could run screaming and laughing in a circle while we chased. You think it might have gotten old after a few times, but no. What did I learn this morning? Kids are kids, no matter what language they’re speaking :-P
After the school visit we had a medical chat with Jorge, I know you guys are as excited about these as I am now. The man really needs a tv show or at least a video series :-P Friday’s was on drugs and alcohol. It was pretty much what you expect on the subject, don’t do drugs and don’t drink too much. There were a few exceptions though. For one, we were taught the proper etiquette for a drinking circle…that’s right, the medic taught us how to politely drink in groups :-P We also got a list of places that might surprise us to find alcohol, my favorite was the school board meetings ha ha ha. After Jorge’s talk we met with our TAPs groups……turns out we’re going to La Libertad for field based training!!!! Stay tuned!
After the school visit we had a medical chat with Jorge, I know you guys are as excited about these as I am now. The man really needs a tv show or at least a video series :-P Friday’s was on drugs and alcohol. It was pretty much what you expect on the subject, don’t do drugs and don’t drink too much. There were a few exceptions though. For one, we were taught the proper etiquette for a drinking circle…that’s right, the medic taught us how to politely drink in groups :-P We also got a list of places that might surprise us to find alcohol, my favorite was the school board meetings ha ha ha. After Jorge’s talk we met with our TAPs groups……turns out we’re going to La Libertad for field based training!!!! Stay tuned!
July 5 & 6: Peace Corps office and another PCV panel
Tuesday morning found me a little worse for wear. My stomach and I had a disagreement for most of the night, so I was a little concerned about getting on the combi and going to Lima. I went though and I’m glad I did, we got a lot of interesting information. In the morning some of the Spanish classes went to an archeology museum to look at the exhibits on the past cultures of Peru. Some of these cultures are from thousands of years ago. It was very cool and I would love to go back, because I, unfortunately, ended up asleep in the van once the tour was over. After the musuem we went to the Peace Corps office for a handful of meetings and two interviews. The first was with the APCD and it was another step in the site assignment process and the second was a chance for our country director, Sanjay, to get to know us better. I did my best to rally for both of these because I really just wanted to be asleep :-P After the interviews I went and slept in the infirmary with Kelsey, she has the same crappy cold, while everyone else walked over to the mall for a little while. We ended up getting home pretty late because of traffic, so I just ate a little bit more soup and went to bed. Sometimes you just need to go to bed and reset.
Wednesday morning I was feeling a lot better, so I headed off to the training center for basically an entire day of PCV panels. The different volunteer committees came to talk to us about their work and tell us about the resources they can provide for various projects. It’s fun to hear about other people’s projects and it’s always great because at the end they basically open up the floor for anything we feel like asking. That night I went to my friend Jeff’s house to use his computer…..always nice when I don’t have to pay for the internet.
Wednesday morning I was feeling a lot better, so I headed off to the training center for basically an entire day of PCV panels. The different volunteer committees came to talk to us about their work and tell us about the resources they can provide for various projects. It’s fun to hear about other people’s projects and it’s always great because at the end they basically open up the floor for anything we feel like asking. That night I went to my friend Jeff’s house to use his computer…..always nice when I don’t have to pay for the internet.
July 4: Celebrating American independence in Peru
For the Fourth of July the small business group came up to Santa Eulalia and we went to a campestre to play games all day. There was another round of Chicken in a Penthouse…..I swear it’s now my favorite game. We also played spud, capture the flag, soccer, football, volleyball and one game of red rover. It took about 3 minutes for the first person to get hurt playing red rover, so I can see why we aren’t allowed to play it in elementary schools anymore. The Peruvian staff members thought it was a riot though :-P The sun was out, so most of us got sunburns, but it was still great to have a play day in the sol. The trainers had an American Flag cake made for us and we all sang the national anthem together before we ate. I was surprised at how emotional I felt when I was singing. Somehow being in another country made me realize how much it can mean to hear people singing your national anthem. Beautiful. After the games Kelsey and I went into Chosica where I FINALLY bought some sweatpants. I just don’t know what I was thinking by not packing them to begin with. That night we met up with a bunch of the group to watch the Uruguay v. Peru game. I do love watching futbol in South America! By the end of the game though, the cold I had been trying not to get had finally caught up with me, so I was ready to go. I caught the combi home, ate a little sopa and crawled into bed.
July 2: Educadores de la Calle
Saturday we went into a district of Lima called Victoria, it’s probably the most dangerous part of the city. We went to meet with an organization called Educadores de la Calle. It’s very common for children to work in the streets with their families and this group works to help them stay in school and maintain relationships with their parents. These children contribute to the lively hood of the families, so the organization isn’t trying to make them stop working. EC is just trying to encourage them to look after their futures as well. We were paired up with someone from the organization to go out and see the market that most of these kids work in. To put this in perspective: they wouldn’t let us walk more than about 20 feet away from the locals that were leading us, but there are kids who spend most of their days working here. The EC program really is amazing and it seemed to be that they are having success with keeping children in school. After going to the market we went over to the Peace Corps office to take a look around and from there we walked to a gigantic mall called Jockey Plaza. Talk about seeing two extremes in one day. It’s basically a tourist trap, but somewhere between Starbucks and Pizza Hut we decided that we didn’t care. :-P Our combi ride home was actually a pretty fun little event. Sabrina, Kelsy, Faith and I were crammed into the front like clowns in a clown car, but the music and people watching were both excellent so we had a good time. That night we all went out into Chosica for a while. We went to a little bar and I actually met another PCV that went to UGA. She was back in Santa Eulalia visiting her host family, so we had a good time talking about Athens. After the bar we all went to a club and danced the night away……which incidentally is the name of a song that I hear roughly 4-5 times a day in Peru.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
June 30 & July 1: cooking class and cooking out
Thursday morning two of the Spanish classes joined together to have a cooking class at my house. So Kelsey, Faith, Jeff, Matt and I met up with Brice, Sabrina, Kimberly and Britt in Chosica to buy ingredients for Aji de Gallina and brownies. We went shopping at the market instead of a grocery store, so we actually went from stall to stall to buy veggies, meats, nuts, spices and whatever else. It was a fun learning experience. The teachers said we got totally hosed on prices though. Apparently we don’t know how to haggle yet :-P Anyway, cooking was fun and I’m pretty sure aji de gallina is my absolute favorite Peruvian dish I’ve had so far. The recipe is coming home with me, so everyone will get to try ☺ We brought out my itunes while were cooking, so there was also a little bit of singing. And of course by a little bit, I mean a lot.
Friday morning the incomparable Jorge came back for another one of his medical charlas. The topic for this one was STDs - complete with photos. The word horrific comes to mind. Honestly, I applaud Jorge and the other PCMOs for the humorous and relaxed way they present all the different medical chats we receive, but even with the fun delivery sometimes I feel like I can understand how some people become hypochondriacs :-P yikes! Don’t worry; we get training on how to teach health promoter classes to our youth groups. So every Peruvian youth I have the chance to work with is going to find out about everything from the common cold to malaria to AIDS. Just remember kids; cleanliness, bug spray and condoms are cool…..because diseases are not.
After our classes on Friday we all went to Lucia’s house for a cook out. I actually ate a hotdog….i’m not sure that I’ll go so far as to say that I liked it, but it wasn’t bad :-P They made a huge bowl of guac though and you’d think none of us had eaten in days by the way we swarmed it. After dinner we played some games and then sat around inside for ice cream and M&Ms. I also got the chance to lay on the deck chairs in the back yard for a little while. There isn’t really a safe place for me to go to get away from the lights at night, so it was wonderful to lie in the backyard and look at the stars. The buses took us back into town and a few of us hung out in Ricardo Palma for a while before heading home.
Friday morning the incomparable Jorge came back for another one of his medical charlas. The topic for this one was STDs - complete with photos. The word horrific comes to mind. Honestly, I applaud Jorge and the other PCMOs for the humorous and relaxed way they present all the different medical chats we receive, but even with the fun delivery sometimes I feel like I can understand how some people become hypochondriacs :-P yikes! Don’t worry; we get training on how to teach health promoter classes to our youth groups. So every Peruvian youth I have the chance to work with is going to find out about everything from the common cold to malaria to AIDS. Just remember kids; cleanliness, bug spray and condoms are cool…..because diseases are not.
After our classes on Friday we all went to Lucia’s house for a cook out. I actually ate a hotdog….i’m not sure that I’ll go so far as to say that I liked it, but it wasn’t bad :-P They made a huge bowl of guac though and you’d think none of us had eaten in days by the way we swarmed it. After dinner we played some games and then sat around inside for ice cream and M&Ms. I also got the chance to lay on the deck chairs in the back yard for a little while. There isn’t really a safe place for me to go to get away from the lights at night, so it was wonderful to lie in the backyard and look at the stars. The buses took us back into town and a few of us hung out in Ricardo Palma for a while before heading home.
June 29
Happy half- birthday to me and happy 5 month anniversary to Nat and Mark! Love you guys!!!
We actually had Wednesday off from class for El Dia del San Pedro. So I got up and read some in the morning. Then I did more homework in the kitchen while Sr. Julio made lombo saltado. Delicious! After lunch I went for a walk. This brings my grand total for times I’ve worked out to two :-P Fortunately I’ll have more control over my schedule at site and will be able to work out. Otherwise I might be wider than I am tall by the time I get home ha ha ha. That night Kelsey, Jeff and I went and bummed around in Chosica. We went to a tiny little bar that might not ever have a name. We meant to catch up with some other people from our group, but we couldn’t ever find them so the three of us just hung out for a few hours.
We actually had Wednesday off from class for El Dia del San Pedro. So I got up and read some in the morning. Then I did more homework in the kitchen while Sr. Julio made lombo saltado. Delicious! After lunch I went for a walk. This brings my grand total for times I’ve worked out to two :-P Fortunately I’ll have more control over my schedule at site and will be able to work out. Otherwise I might be wider than I am tall by the time I get home ha ha ha. That night Kelsey, Jeff and I went and bummed around in Chosica. We went to a tiny little bar that might not ever have a name. We meant to catch up with some other people from our group, but we couldn’t ever find them so the three of us just hung out for a few hours.
27 & 28: I accidentally lied about being Catholic….oops!
Monday we had Spanish class at Faith’s house and then we walked back to the center for classes in the afternoon. They brought in a committee that focuses on teaching English, which is something a lot of us will be asked to do at site. The volunteers on the committee actually brought in some members of our host family so we could observe them teaching an English lesson. I expect that it was fairly awkward for the family members, but they were great sports about it and the experience was super helpful. Also it’s always really nice to talk with currently serving volunteers. Later that night I went to watch a movie at Jeff’s house. When I got there a friend of Jeff’s host mom was at the house and they started talking to Jeff and I about religion. This is not at all uncommon, I get asked about my religious beliefs all the time. Anyway, this time I had some trouble understanding and accidently answered yes when she asked if I was Catholic. I missed the fact that she had started asking questions :-P Anway, Jeff really is Catholic and she thought I was, so she gave us both a blessing. Jeff knows I’m not Catholic though, so he made fun of me for a minute or two after the lady left. I suppose any blessing is a good blessing though, right?
Tuesday was had Spanish class at Faith’s again. One of our assignments that morning was to walk over to the commedor popular and speak with the ladies that run it. A commedor popular is cafeteria type place where people can get something to eat for very little money. The particular one that we went too was just for kids. For various reasons parents can’t always make or provide lunch for the kids so they can come to this place after they get out of school and get a good meal. They ladies were very nice and very proud of the work that they do.
I think Tuesday was one of the most thought provoking days I’ve had yet. Before we went to the commedor we listened to a song about the tough lives that a lot of Peruvian children lead. Giovanna actually started crying while she was trying to explain the situations some youth face. And not so long ago in a history lesson; Kathleen, our lead tech trainer, started crying while trying to explain the atrocities committed by the Sendero Luminoso. After our lesson with Giovanna, I was forced to process the fact that, twice in two weeks, I had seen someone cry while explaining realities they’ve witnessed in their own lives. I think some days I get so caught up in figuring out my own life here in Peru that I forget I am here for a purpose: to help.
Tuesday was had Spanish class at Faith’s again. One of our assignments that morning was to walk over to the commedor popular and speak with the ladies that run it. A commedor popular is cafeteria type place where people can get something to eat for very little money. The particular one that we went too was just for kids. For various reasons parents can’t always make or provide lunch for the kids so they can come to this place after they get out of school and get a good meal. They ladies were very nice and very proud of the work that they do.
I think Tuesday was one of the most thought provoking days I’ve had yet. Before we went to the commedor we listened to a song about the tough lives that a lot of Peruvian children lead. Giovanna actually started crying while she was trying to explain the situations some youth face. And not so long ago in a history lesson; Kathleen, our lead tech trainer, started crying while trying to explain the atrocities committed by the Sendero Luminoso. After our lesson with Giovanna, I was forced to process the fact that, twice in two weeks, I had seen someone cry while explaining realities they’ve witnessed in their own lives. I think some days I get so caught up in figuring out my own life here in Peru that I forget I am here for a purpose: to help.
Sunday 26: Dancing in the Streets
Sunday was pretty laid back. Watched a movie with Kelsey, did some homework, talked with my host dad, and cleaned my room….the basics. Sunday night though, might be one of my favorite memories yet. The Festival del Cruce was going on all weekend in Ricardo Palma. That’s the neighborhood next to mine and the explanation for the dancing firework man. So Sunday night Kelsey, Jeff, Jon, Faith and I walked around the town to see the end of the festival. There were two brass bands playing by the shrine with the cross of Ricardo Palma, so we stayed to watch. All of the sudden the two bands just picked up and started parading through the streets. Then the crowd formed these big circles that rotated and moved down the streets in between the two bands. We all held hands and just danced in circles around and around the town square and then up and down some streets until the bands got to the next place that wanted to stop and play. And at any point a person could decide to dance into the middle of the circle, pulling everyone with them. It was amazing!
June 25: First trip to Lima and hats made of fireworks
Saturday morning Jeff, Kelsey, Jon, Faith and I waited for the bus at the gas station near our house. The language teachers told us to be there just before 8 so naturally the bus got there around 8:30. Anyway, we went to the Plaza de Armas first. It’s one of the older parts of Lima and its where the president’s palace and the main cathedral are located. At the plaza we broke into our language groups and were given various tasks to do while walking around the area. There are a lot of tourists at the plaza so we stood out less. Or at least I thought we did until my friend Zack and his group got surrounded by little Peruvian girls. I’m pretty sure he was signing autographs by the end :-P After the plaza we went to Miraflores, another main part of the city. There was actually a dance competition going on in the park so we stopped to watch for a little while. It was a collection of schools that came to show off the traditional dances of Peru. Needless to say, I could’ve stayed all day.
Our classes ended around lunch time so the language instructors took us to a mall type place right on the ocean. It was a little touristy, but it had lots of food options and a great view of the Pacific. This was actually the first time a few people in our group had ever seen the Pacific Ocean, pretty cool. I am slightly ashamed to say that we actually ate at the Chili’s for lunch. Only a little though, because we had a good time AND I got ranch dressing with my french fries! Oh yeah! On top of that, there was a Starbucks. So I got myself a grand, non-fat latte for the ride home. Not going to tell you how much I paid for it though :-P Speaking of the ride home….that was a bit of an adventure. We caught the bus to some other part of town, where we had to talk a collectivo driver into getting all of us back to Chosica. The conversation took a while, but it ended up working out well. The four of us that live near each other talked a guy into driving us all the way back to the gas station by our house. The ride took a while; the traffic in Lima is absurd.
Saturday night we all went to a bar owned by the host family of Nick, one of the other PCTs. Pretty much everyone was there and we had a blast just dancing and generally acting crazy. I did conclusively prove that my Spanish is even worse in bars though. Between the music and all the people, I might as well not even know Spanish. Oh well. Once I got home I was getting ready for bed, but I kept hearing fireworks going off like crazy. Naturally I opened my window to watch. Instead of a normal show though, I saw a guy dancing up and down the opposite bank of the river wearing a hat with fireworks shooting out of it. It was a fireworks display with legs, drunken legs :-P I actually hung out my window for a good 15 minutes just staring. And yes, in case you’re wondering, the fireworks did continue all night. They party for whole weekends around here.
Our classes ended around lunch time so the language instructors took us to a mall type place right on the ocean. It was a little touristy, but it had lots of food options and a great view of the Pacific. This was actually the first time a few people in our group had ever seen the Pacific Ocean, pretty cool. I am slightly ashamed to say that we actually ate at the Chili’s for lunch. Only a little though, because we had a good time AND I got ranch dressing with my french fries! Oh yeah! On top of that, there was a Starbucks. So I got myself a grand, non-fat latte for the ride home. Not going to tell you how much I paid for it though :-P Speaking of the ride home….that was a bit of an adventure. We caught the bus to some other part of town, where we had to talk a collectivo driver into getting all of us back to Chosica. The conversation took a while, but it ended up working out well. The four of us that live near each other talked a guy into driving us all the way back to the gas station by our house. The ride took a while; the traffic in Lima is absurd.
Saturday night we all went to a bar owned by the host family of Nick, one of the other PCTs. Pretty much everyone was there and we had a blast just dancing and generally acting crazy. I did conclusively prove that my Spanish is even worse in bars though. Between the music and all the people, I might as well not even know Spanish. Oh well. Once I got home I was getting ready for bed, but I kept hearing fireworks going off like crazy. Naturally I opened my window to watch. Instead of a normal show though, I saw a guy dancing up and down the opposite bank of the river wearing a hat with fireworks shooting out of it. It was a fireworks display with legs, drunken legs :-P I actually hung out my window for a good 15 minutes just staring. And yes, in case you’re wondering, the fireworks did continue all night. They party for whole weekends around here.
June 23 & 24: School visits, Feria and this is why you need to wash the fruit
Thursday morning we had a history lesson with Kathleen, the head of our technical training. She’s married to a Peruvian and has lived here for much of her life, so she is in a unique position to teach us a lot about Peruvian history but with a full understanding of the United States as well. Super interesting! We learned about the Spanish colonization, the republic the followed, one of the more famous military coups and the Sendero Luminoso. The SL is a terrorist organization that operated in Peru in the 80s, it’s a scary time in Peruvian history. After history class we divided into our TAPs groups and went to observe classes in the local schools. About 4 of us were placed in each classroom and we all came back with different experiences. Our teacher, at first, was very hesitant to even let us in the classroom because the school director had forgotten to tell the teachers we were coming. Once we were in the class though, the teacher basically opened up the floor for his students to ask us questions. While this was not the point of our visit, it was very interesting. We were in a class of 5th year segundaria students, so basically seniors. It was a little scary because we thought we weren’t going to have to speak with the group, but they basically wanted to know stuff about the states so it wasn’t bad. However, the teacher decided to ask us about delinquency in the United States and our thoughts on capital punishment. That’s when we found out we had walked into a civics class. Yikes!
Apparently a few of the girls decided I was alright, so they swarmed my desk after class. They invited me to play volleyball with them and to chat with them online and to come back to class the next day. None of which I was actually capable of doing at that moment, but it’s nice to know that at least a few Peruvian teenagers think I’m cool :-P After the school visit we went back to the center for lunch, Spanish class and one of Jorge’s famous medical charlas. This one was on all the diseases we could possibly contract during our time in Peru. It’s a good things he’s a funny man because most of us just walk away scared by the end of these chats…..scared and yet laughing :-P
Friday was el dia de somebody. I know I should remember these things, but I can’t honestly keep the Saints straight sometimes. Instead of classes we had a day of games. Before the games started we elected our Junta Directiva; which is sort of like student counsel for us. I’m one of the vocales, so I go to the meetings to help the officers make decisions. Our two major tasks are the host family celebration at the end of training and the Peru 17 souvenirs. Should be fun!
For the feria we all broke into smaller groups to plan fun activities that you might play in the states. My groups set up bottles that you had to knock over with a ball, like the carnival game. We also played musical chairs, spud, red light/ green light and chicken in the penthouse. Sue and I won our round of chicken in the penthouse and I’m pretty sure it’s the new favorite game of our training class! I’m available to be challenged whenever someone feels brave enough :-P
After our games, the real excitement began. The language staff put together a few traditional feria activities that we might find on celebration days in our host sites. The first was a chance to try one of the traditional dances from Peru. Naturally I volunteered. I was promptly handed a strip of paper the tuck into my waist band and told to dance fast enough that it couldn’t be set on fire. So I wiggled my may around the terrace while the boys chased me with candles...ahhh! For our second activity we had a few rounds of cuy betting. This consists of putting a live cuy in a ring of boxes and betting on which box it will run into, each box had its own prize. There will be pictures on day I promise. Then lastly we moved to the main part of the garden where they hung colorful banners and decorated a tree with balloons and presents. We got in a big circle and danced around the tree while throwing flour at each other and passing a jug of juice (at real celebrations this would be some form of chicha, an alchoholic beverage, but we were in class after all). Then things got even more exciting when they brought out the machete. That’s right, I said machete. We all took turns dancing, in pairs, into the center of the circle to swing the machete a few times at the tree. Then you return to the circle to continue dancing, throwing flour and drinking “juice.” Don’t worry; no actual trees were harmed in the making of this event. The grounds keeper dug a hole and stood an old limb back up for us to chop down, because you hack at the tree until it falls and everyone takes the presents.
Best part? I’m not making any of this up :-P
All our activities were done around 1 at the center so a group of us went to Chosica. The sun was out so we sat around in the park for a few hours. It’s was great. That night though, I learned the hard way that there is a reason staff told us to only eat fruits we could peel at first. I won a delicious bag of plums for my brilliant fire dancing and ate them while I was lying around in the park. Around 8 or 9 it felt like a small, angry creature took up residence in my stomach and I spent much of the night crawling out of bed to the bathroom. No fun at all, but luckily the whole thing played out in just one night. I felt a little worse for wear in the morning, but it was all over in about 12 hours. Phew!
Apparently a few of the girls decided I was alright, so they swarmed my desk after class. They invited me to play volleyball with them and to chat with them online and to come back to class the next day. None of which I was actually capable of doing at that moment, but it’s nice to know that at least a few Peruvian teenagers think I’m cool :-P After the school visit we went back to the center for lunch, Spanish class and one of Jorge’s famous medical charlas. This one was on all the diseases we could possibly contract during our time in Peru. It’s a good things he’s a funny man because most of us just walk away scared by the end of these chats…..scared and yet laughing :-P
Friday was el dia de somebody. I know I should remember these things, but I can’t honestly keep the Saints straight sometimes. Instead of classes we had a day of games. Before the games started we elected our Junta Directiva; which is sort of like student counsel for us. I’m one of the vocales, so I go to the meetings to help the officers make decisions. Our two major tasks are the host family celebration at the end of training and the Peru 17 souvenirs. Should be fun!
For the feria we all broke into smaller groups to plan fun activities that you might play in the states. My groups set up bottles that you had to knock over with a ball, like the carnival game. We also played musical chairs, spud, red light/ green light and chicken in the penthouse. Sue and I won our round of chicken in the penthouse and I’m pretty sure it’s the new favorite game of our training class! I’m available to be challenged whenever someone feels brave enough :-P
After our games, the real excitement began. The language staff put together a few traditional feria activities that we might find on celebration days in our host sites. The first was a chance to try one of the traditional dances from Peru. Naturally I volunteered. I was promptly handed a strip of paper the tuck into my waist band and told to dance fast enough that it couldn’t be set on fire. So I wiggled my may around the terrace while the boys chased me with candles...ahhh! For our second activity we had a few rounds of cuy betting. This consists of putting a live cuy in a ring of boxes and betting on which box it will run into, each box had its own prize. There will be pictures on day I promise. Then lastly we moved to the main part of the garden where they hung colorful banners and decorated a tree with balloons and presents. We got in a big circle and danced around the tree while throwing flour at each other and passing a jug of juice (at real celebrations this would be some form of chicha, an alchoholic beverage, but we were in class after all). Then things got even more exciting when they brought out the machete. That’s right, I said machete. We all took turns dancing, in pairs, into the center of the circle to swing the machete a few times at the tree. Then you return to the circle to continue dancing, throwing flour and drinking “juice.” Don’t worry; no actual trees were harmed in the making of this event. The grounds keeper dug a hole and stood an old limb back up for us to chop down, because you hack at the tree until it falls and everyone takes the presents.
Best part? I’m not making any of this up :-P
All our activities were done around 1 at the center so a group of us went to Chosica. The sun was out so we sat around in the park for a few hours. It’s was great. That night though, I learned the hard way that there is a reason staff told us to only eat fruits we could peel at first. I won a delicious bag of plums for my brilliant fire dancing and ate them while I was lying around in the park. Around 8 or 9 it felt like a small, angry creature took up residence in my stomach and I spent much of the night crawling out of bed to the bathroom. No fun at all, but luckily the whole thing played out in just one night. I felt a little worse for wear in the morning, but it was all over in about 12 hours. Phew!
June 21 & 22
Tuesday we had Spanish class in downtown Chosica. It was another program designed to make us talk to strangers. It really is great that we practice our Spanish with so many people, but sometimes I feel so odd stopping random people to ask even more random questions. For instance, imagine that someone who barely speaks English stopped you in a park to ask about slang terms for modes of transportation. You’d be a little confused, right? Welcome to my Spanish class :-P We also had to ask questions about money, jobs kids have and the amount of fruit we could buy for 2 soles. The cops that patrol the park saw us running back and forth to the Spanish teachers with our worksheets. Luckily they were nice and started giving us answers. The whole thing was a race and Kim and I came in second. Fairly respectable. After we finished with class we all went to a restaurant to celebrate Faith’s birthday and discuss the answers we all found while talking with strangers. This happened to be the same restaurant where we stopped for coffee before class and where we bought cokes during class….the waitress couldn’t figure out why Jeff, Kelsey and I kept coming around. Simple- It’s the only restaurant we knew of at the time ha ha ha. After lunch we went back to the center for our afternoon classes. This was our first experience with a collectivo. It’s basically like a cab except that you might share it with strangers. The car only heads to the destination once it’s full. In our case we had enough to people to fill it up so the only real difference was that the driver didn’t mind fitting 6 people into his 4 seats - two in the front seat and four in the back. Traffic laws are more like suggestions around here. Back at the center Lucia, the Assistant Peace Corps Director in charge of Youth Development, came to talk with us. She’s the lady that’s in charge of our site placements. Needless to say we all felt a little nervous talking with her. On my way home I bought flowers to give to Sra. Isabel for her birthday. Later that night two of Sra. Isabel’s sisters came by and I sat with them for a while and answered tons of questions about the states and about why I’m not married. Don’t worry, this is super common around here :-P
Wednesday was much the same, lots of tech classes and more homework. Luckily Kelsey, my next door neighbor, and I are in a lot of groups together. We don’t have to go very far to do our homework.
Wednesday was much the same, lots of tech classes and more homework. Luckily Kelsey, my next door neighbor, and I are in a lot of groups together. We don’t have to go very far to do our homework.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
June 20 OR “nobody’s rubbing their cuy on me”
So I know I said I wouldn’t bother explaining the quotes, but this one is me so I can. We got into a conversation about these healer/witch doctor type people that advertise their services in a lot of the papers. Giovana, my language instructor, told a story about how they will rub a live cuy (Spanish for guinea pig) over your body, kill it and inspect its entrails in order to find the cause of whatever happens to ail you. See above for my response……
So we had Spanish class at my house Monday morning. I got to show my house to some friends and it’s always fun to have class in a different place. We also had to go wander around in the streets at one point to ask questions of strangers; pretty much part of our routine anymore :-P After class I had to wait for my lunch; which put us a little behind, so Kelsey and I decided to take a mototaxi. Imagine a little vehicle about the size of a golf cart crossed with a motorized tricycle….that’s a mototaxi. It’s the Peruvian version of a tuk tuk. The floor vibrates the entire time and there was some doubt about it successfully getting up some of the larger hills. Kelsey and I felt the need to laugh the whole time. Terrible in terms of us trying not to be tourists, but an absolute blast. ☺ On the way home from class a few of us stopped at a little tienda and got some “wine;” which reminded me of carbonated Dimetapp. Um…… Yummy?
Warning: this is where the reading gets not so nice. There are stray dogs everywhere in our town, so it was bound to happen, but a dog got hit right next to the porch we were sitting on. Apart from being a truly terrible noise; the culture shock came when none of the locals seems shocked at all. I don’t mean that to sound judgmental of them either. The fact is that we do not have as many dogs in the States and therefore do not see this as often. It was hard to hold it together though. Then when the dog found its way under the table next to us to die I decided it was time to go. Fortunately my younger host brother decided to entertain me by asking me for an English lesson, so my day didn’t end on a bad note.
So we had Spanish class at my house Monday morning. I got to show my house to some friends and it’s always fun to have class in a different place. We also had to go wander around in the streets at one point to ask questions of strangers; pretty much part of our routine anymore :-P After class I had to wait for my lunch; which put us a little behind, so Kelsey and I decided to take a mototaxi. Imagine a little vehicle about the size of a golf cart crossed with a motorized tricycle….that’s a mototaxi. It’s the Peruvian version of a tuk tuk. The floor vibrates the entire time and there was some doubt about it successfully getting up some of the larger hills. Kelsey and I felt the need to laugh the whole time. Terrible in terms of us trying not to be tourists, but an absolute blast. ☺ On the way home from class a few of us stopped at a little tienda and got some “wine;” which reminded me of carbonated Dimetapp. Um…… Yummy?
Warning: this is where the reading gets not so nice. There are stray dogs everywhere in our town, so it was bound to happen, but a dog got hit right next to the porch we were sitting on. Apart from being a truly terrible noise; the culture shock came when none of the locals seems shocked at all. I don’t mean that to sound judgmental of them either. The fact is that we do not have as many dogs in the States and therefore do not see this as often. It was hard to hold it together though. Then when the dog found its way under the table next to us to die I decided it was time to go. Fortunately my younger host brother decided to entertain me by asking me for an English lesson, so my day didn’t end on a bad note.
Father’s Day
So for Father’s Day I spent the day with all the men of Sr. Julio’s family. I also had my first experience with the concept of “Peru time.” Which mostly refers to how things run late all the time, but no one is bothered by it. Coming from the States, this runs counter to a key point in my upbringing. At home you show up on time to show respect for the other person, but around here those two concepts are not linked. Arriving late is not seen as disrespectful. I was asked to be at the breakfast table at 7:15, so naturally I am there at 7:10 (I’m looking at you Garry Tucker). We didn’t leave the house until around 8:30 and our 10 am soccer game started around 12:30. The funny thing is that I speak so little Spanish right now that my only option is to go with the flow. Not that I would’ve said anything, but it’s an amazing way to quickly adjust to this sort of schedule. On the way we stopped to collect various family members, so I road next to one of the cousins that speaks English. He told me he was too nervous to think of many things to say, which made me feel better because that’s how I felt in Spanish :-P His English was great though and the rest of family just watched us like a circus act. Love being the Gringa!
We ended up in a town that is called Jicamarca. Or at least I think that’s the name, I never saw it written. I sat with one of the aunts and her daughter Stephanie. Stephanie is a ten-year-old girl; this means she sat next to me and asked every question she could think of for about two hours. Ha ha ha….might sound terrible to some, but I was so happy to have someone that wanted to wade through my Spanish and it was great practice! All the guys were very polite to me, but they were way more interested in killing each other on the soccer pitch. A sentiment I fully supported; the game was fun to watch. We went back to some family member’s house (don’t judge, I met about 30 people that day) to eat. I had more food handed to me than I knew what to do with and it turns out that was just the snack. Because I was then served a mound of rice with roughly half a duck on top of it. Ok. I’m exaggerating just a little, but really my plate could’ve fed at least two people. We ate really quickly because Luis needed to get home to leave for school. Funny tidbit, some of the older tias thought I was Luis’s wife. That was fun…or awkward; but then those two are one and the same in my life anymore. So why worry :-P
We ended up in a town that is called Jicamarca. Or at least I think that’s the name, I never saw it written. I sat with one of the aunts and her daughter Stephanie. Stephanie is a ten-year-old girl; this means she sat next to me and asked every question she could think of for about two hours. Ha ha ha….might sound terrible to some, but I was so happy to have someone that wanted to wade through my Spanish and it was great practice! All the guys were very polite to me, but they were way more interested in killing each other on the soccer pitch. A sentiment I fully supported; the game was fun to watch. We went back to some family member’s house (don’t judge, I met about 30 people that day) to eat. I had more food handed to me than I knew what to do with and it turns out that was just the snack. Because I was then served a mound of rice with roughly half a duck on top of it. Ok. I’m exaggerating just a little, but really my plate could’ve fed at least two people. We ate really quickly because Luis needed to get home to leave for school. Funny tidbit, some of the older tias thought I was Luis’s wife. That was fun…or awkward; but then those two are one and the same in my life anymore. So why worry :-P
June 17 & 18 OR “I’m gonna golpear you”
Friday and Saturday were pretty low key days as far as activities go. Friday morning we presented the information we gathered during our Mission Impossible project. It was fun to hear all the stories from everyone else’s day. We also played some dinamicas, which are games with some sort of educational element. They are a HUGE part of what we will be doing at our sites. Today we had to figure out how to turn over a piece of cloth while standing on it. I would like to mention that it was my idea that finally worked and our group was the only one to successfully find a solution. We also had our usual four hours of Spanish class, no day would be complete without it :-P We had a meeting with Luis, one of the training staff, to discuss the details of electing our own group leaders. Many small towns in Peru have something called a Junta Directiva; which is a governing body for the town. The town elects the members and collectively votes on the important issues in the town. Our tech trainers feel that we should have a Junta Directiva of our own, so we’re going to elect one next week. On Friday we also had our first individual meetings with our Assistant Peace Corps Director. We have a few of these chats, so they can get to know us better before making our site assignments. Friday night Jeff, Jon, Kelsey, Faith and I wandered around Ricardo Palma. This is the neighborhood next to mine so we all live within walking distance of each other.
Saturday morning I took another shower. At some point taking showers will become too unimportant to be included in my blog, but right now I still feel like I have accomplished something every time I survive that cold water :-P After breakfast I played cards with Julio Caesar for a bit. A 17 year old guy that doesn’t mind playing cards with the crazy gringa and helping her with her Spanish, so great! After cards I went to the back yard and made my first attempt at washing my clothes by hand. It was successful, but I need to sort out how to shave some time off this chore. Otherwise I might have to choose between clean clothes and doing my job ha ha ha. After washing my clothes I read in the kitchen while Sr. Julio made lunch. For those of you who are aware of my food preferences, here is another anecdote that may amuse you. My lunch was a salad of canned tuna and red onion dressed in lime juice; served over rice and potatoes of course. What’s more? I loved it! This will absolutely be a recipe I use at my site. That night my other host brother, Luis, drove me around Chosica. We stopped to look at different bridges, statues and buildings around the town. He is super nice as well and I just felt like the biggest goober because I had SO little to say. Can you imagine? Me with nothing to say? It’s both unheard of and frustrating. Good thing I’m not the first PCT in the house.
Saturday morning I took another shower. At some point taking showers will become too unimportant to be included in my blog, but right now I still feel like I have accomplished something every time I survive that cold water :-P After breakfast I played cards with Julio Caesar for a bit. A 17 year old guy that doesn’t mind playing cards with the crazy gringa and helping her with her Spanish, so great! After cards I went to the back yard and made my first attempt at washing my clothes by hand. It was successful, but I need to sort out how to shave some time off this chore. Otherwise I might have to choose between clean clothes and doing my job ha ha ha. After washing my clothes I read in the kitchen while Sr. Julio made lunch. For those of you who are aware of my food preferences, here is another anecdote that may amuse you. My lunch was a salad of canned tuna and red onion dressed in lime juice; served over rice and potatoes of course. What’s more? I loved it! This will absolutely be a recipe I use at my site. That night my other host brother, Luis, drove me around Chosica. We stopped to look at different bridges, statues and buildings around the town. He is super nice as well and I just felt like the biggest goober because I had SO little to say. Can you imagine? Me with nothing to say? It’s both unheard of and frustrating. Good thing I’m not the first PCT in the house.
Mission Impossible OR “excuse my barriga”
So I suppose I should probably address the quotes that will be littering my blog titles from time to time. Occasionally I will be able to explain the significance, but mostly it’s just my homage to some of the crazy things I hear all day. I don’t know if all PST classes are like this, but mine could have its own sitcom. I suppose I could also apologize for the fact that most of the quotes won’t make sense, but the truth is half of them didn’t make sense the first time, so …..
Thursday started out like a normal day in Peace Corps PST, with four hours of Spanish class! We had lunch in the garden around noon, but after that things got tricky. It’s a project called Mission Impossible. They divided us into teams and sent us into Chosica, on our own, to conduct interviews with whoever we could find in the streets. My group was Amanda R, Nick and me. Each group was also given a type of business that they needed to find and ask questions about how it works. My group went to ferreteria (hardware store) where we had to ask, among other things, about the prices of padlocks and whether they sold cement by the kilo. I’m pretty sure the woman though we were crazy, but we got all the info. After the ferreteria we had to ask questions about the education system in Peru, because they want us to become familiar with how things are generally done. We happened to walk past a school as they were letting out for the day, so we stopped to talk with one of the teachers. Next thing you know, we’re in the main office talking to the promoter of the school for almost an hour! So the scary thing is that the groups were roughly divided so everyone had a least one person from the “higher” language classes, except that I was the highest level in group….which made me pretty uncomfortable going into the assignment. We ended up doing really well though. I didn’t have anyone else to hide behind and Amanda is really close to my level, so we worked it out. AND the guy said he could understand us just fine! Wahoo! After the school we also talked to a lady selling ice cream (we wanted a snack) and the girl that worked behind the counter of a farmacia. I can also happily report my first embarrassing language mistake :-P When we were talking to the ice cream lady we were trying to ask questions about the system of discipline in Peruvian schools; we used the wrong word. Only after we asked about “el sistema de castigas,” received a horrified look and a lecture about human rights did we realize that we had just asked this woman if they beat the children in Peruvian schools. Oops! After each interview we would sit on a bench to discuss what we thought we heard and write down notes. We also took a few minutes to laugh at our own absurdity; pretty sure it’s the best way to work through feeling awkward.
After completing our assignments we all met up in the park and got stared at for doing so. A large group of a Americans is something of a curiosity in Chosica :-P We broke up into smaller groups for dinner and afterwards a few of us went to the Plaza Vea, basically a Peruvian Wal-Mart. Excellent! We then successfully found our own way home from the city, another confidence boost!
That night my group decided we would also interview our host parents for the project and I found out that the school we had gone to that afternoon was actually the school that my host brother attended, so I got all sorts of info to add to our presentation. The conversation ended up with me helping Julio Caesar with his English and him helping me with my Spanish. We took turns writing questions down in a notebook and then answering them. Then Piero, the 3-year-old, brought in his little cuaderno and we drew some pictures and talked about the names of vegetables. Might be the best day yet!
Thursday started out like a normal day in Peace Corps PST, with four hours of Spanish class! We had lunch in the garden around noon, but after that things got tricky. It’s a project called Mission Impossible. They divided us into teams and sent us into Chosica, on our own, to conduct interviews with whoever we could find in the streets. My group was Amanda R, Nick and me. Each group was also given a type of business that they needed to find and ask questions about how it works. My group went to ferreteria (hardware store) where we had to ask, among other things, about the prices of padlocks and whether they sold cement by the kilo. I’m pretty sure the woman though we were crazy, but we got all the info. After the ferreteria we had to ask questions about the education system in Peru, because they want us to become familiar with how things are generally done. We happened to walk past a school as they were letting out for the day, so we stopped to talk with one of the teachers. Next thing you know, we’re in the main office talking to the promoter of the school for almost an hour! So the scary thing is that the groups were roughly divided so everyone had a least one person from the “higher” language classes, except that I was the highest level in group….which made me pretty uncomfortable going into the assignment. We ended up doing really well though. I didn’t have anyone else to hide behind and Amanda is really close to my level, so we worked it out. AND the guy said he could understand us just fine! Wahoo! After the school we also talked to a lady selling ice cream (we wanted a snack) and the girl that worked behind the counter of a farmacia. I can also happily report my first embarrassing language mistake :-P When we were talking to the ice cream lady we were trying to ask questions about the system of discipline in Peruvian schools; we used the wrong word. Only after we asked about “el sistema de castigas,” received a horrified look and a lecture about human rights did we realize that we had just asked this woman if they beat the children in Peruvian schools. Oops! After each interview we would sit on a bench to discuss what we thought we heard and write down notes. We also took a few minutes to laugh at our own absurdity; pretty sure it’s the best way to work through feeling awkward.
After completing our assignments we all met up in the park and got stared at for doing so. A large group of a Americans is something of a curiosity in Chosica :-P We broke up into smaller groups for dinner and afterwards a few of us went to the Plaza Vea, basically a Peruvian Wal-Mart. Excellent! We then successfully found our own way home from the city, another confidence boost!
That night my group decided we would also interview our host parents for the project and I found out that the school we had gone to that afternoon was actually the school that my host brother attended, so I got all sorts of info to add to our presentation. The conversation ended up with me helping Julio Caesar with his English and him helping me with my Spanish. We took turns writing questions down in a notebook and then answering them. Then Piero, the 3-year-old, brought in his little cuaderno and we drew some pictures and talked about the names of vegetables. Might be the best day yet!
June 14 & 15
On Tuesday things really got rolling. We divided into our language groups and our TAPs groups. They broke up our language groups according to the phone interviews we had before arriving in Peru. I am in intermediate-mid. This is great because it the level we have to achieve in order to be allowed to go to site, but it’s also scary because I would SO lost if I went to site right now. Hopefully there is nowhere to go but up. My group is me, Kelsey, Jeff and Faith. Our teacher is Giovanna, she’s great but just a little bit intimidating because she speaks so fast. It will be good for me though. Our TAPs groups are the small groups that we have our program training in and they are the same people we will travel with for field based training. FBT is a week spent traveling around to other Peace Corps sites so we can meet other PCVs and see how their projects are going. Super exciting! Tuesday night I spent about an hour over dinner trying to figure out how to get to and from Chosica on my own. We were going to have a project in town later that week and I had NO idea where I was going. There was a lot of drawing of maps that eventually ended with my host dad walking me to the bus stop just so I could see it. The bus/combi system in Peru is loco and I was just a little terrified of ending up in some far flung place ☺
On Wednesday Kelsey and I ran into Jeff and Faith on the way to the center…..one small step towards figuring out where everyone actually lives. We don’t have cellphones yet, so it is unbelievably complicated to sort out social plans. I’m really not sure how people used to manage :-P We had four more hours of Spanish class and I probably could’ve used more. There was also a seminar on the politics in Peru. I realized that, living in the States, it’s easy to forget that most other countries live in some sort of political turmoil. It’s a big deal around here that they’ve had ten consecutive years of democracy. Sort adds a different perspective to things, doesn’t it? We also started with our program training (which I will most likely refer to as tech training). We discussed the various roles that make up the work of a volunteer. On our way home we had to wait with one of the girls at her house because no one was there to let her in. I actually walked back to tell the guard what was going on…..that’s right, I volunteered to speak with someone knowing that they speak no English. More than that, it turned out fine! Once Mary Kate’s host mom turned up the rest of us walked on and met up with some other PCTs at a little tienda on the way home. It’s nice to talk with the other PCTs about things unrelated to our training, after 9 hours of class most of us need a break. When I got home I sat with my host sister in her little bodega for a while. She’s about my age so it was really nice to talk with her. She gave me the insider info about all the other PCTs they’ve had at their house. From the sound of things I might actually be remembered as the book worm :-P well….maybe not actually, because I don’t think that phrase makes any sense here. Something similar though. I do homework most nights and I’m usually asleep pretty early because I have to get up around 6:30 each morning. It sounds like many of the others were….less than concerned with these sorts of things. To each their own ….
On Wednesday Kelsey and I ran into Jeff and Faith on the way to the center…..one small step towards figuring out where everyone actually lives. We don’t have cellphones yet, so it is unbelievably complicated to sort out social plans. I’m really not sure how people used to manage :-P We had four more hours of Spanish class and I probably could’ve used more. There was also a seminar on the politics in Peru. I realized that, living in the States, it’s easy to forget that most other countries live in some sort of political turmoil. It’s a big deal around here that they’ve had ten consecutive years of democracy. Sort adds a different perspective to things, doesn’t it? We also started with our program training (which I will most likely refer to as tech training). We discussed the various roles that make up the work of a volunteer. On our way home we had to wait with one of the girls at her house because no one was there to let her in. I actually walked back to tell the guard what was going on…..that’s right, I volunteered to speak with someone knowing that they speak no English. More than that, it turned out fine! Once Mary Kate’s host mom turned up the rest of us walked on and met up with some other PCTs at a little tienda on the way home. It’s nice to talk with the other PCTs about things unrelated to our training, after 9 hours of class most of us need a break. When I got home I sat with my host sister in her little bodega for a while. She’s about my age so it was really nice to talk with her. She gave me the insider info about all the other PCTs they’ve had at their house. From the sound of things I might actually be remembered as the book worm :-P well….maybe not actually, because I don’t think that phrase makes any sense here. Something similar though. I do homework most nights and I’m usually asleep pretty early because I have to get up around 6:30 each morning. It sounds like many of the others were….less than concerned with these sorts of things. To each their own ….
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