Thursday morning I got up to teach my first English class at the segundaria. I think it went fairly well. Teenagers in large groups don’t warm up super quickly, but at least they are more familiar with me now. I think I’m going to teach some English classes throughout my diagnostic in hopes that the students will get more accustomed to me (and me to them, let’s be honest.) Later that morning Kyle stopped by to see me. It was nice to show someone around my site and it’s always nice to talk to someone who has been in the position I’m in now. Apparently everyone is confused for a little while when they get to site, so I shouldn’t feel alarmed :-P Thursday afternoon I went for a walk. Exercising doesn’t seem to be very common around here, but since everything I do will be perceived as somewhat strange I might as well add it to the list. My goal is to actually be able to jog some, but at this point I’m just still working on breathing. I also went to Yungay with Dona Norca and Faviola. It’s a larger city about ten minutes up the road. There seem to be a lot of interesting places near my site and I I can’t to start visiting them.
Friday I had two more English classes. The fourth year of segundaria is broken up into three sections so I taught the same lesson to all of them. My second class on Friday was the best of the three by far. I’m sure I felt a little more comfortable by then, but also the students seemed more interested in participating. Not a bad start I guess. During lunch my host mom handed me a Spanish cook book, so I spent some time reading that. I think I might try out a few of the recipes sometime, they looked easy enough.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
August 24: now I just have to figure out how to start
Wednesday morning I made my rounds to say hello to my socios. At the school I talked with Sra. Yolanda about getting into some English classes. The English professor just had her baby, so they were very willing to have me come to the classes some. From the school I walked up to the posta de salud to catch up with Sra. Doriza. I ended up having a cup of coffee with Doriza and Cruz, the obstetrician. From there I just decided to walk through town and introduce myself to whoever I could, I sort of think this is something I will be repeating for a while. I ended up sitting in one of the tiendas for about an hour talking with the woman who owns it. She’s pretty convinced that I need to study psychology so everyone can tell me their problems while I’m here. I was flattered she thought I was smart enough learn all that from a book, but I was careful to explain to her that that was not my role in the town. Apparently PCVs get asked weird stuff like this all the time……It’s a good thing I was listening during those conversations or I might’ve been really shocked :-P That afternoon I went for the usual walk with my host family and on our way home we got invited to a party for dinner. That night, while on the phone with me, Mom had the chance to hear firsthand as the band paraded down the street and into the house; followed closely by the fireworks the get set off at any and all events. At the party I made friends with some more of the ladies in the town. I’m considering changing my program to adult development. Women over the age of 40 in this town think I’m the greatest; whereas the kids just still think I’m weird. I basically am going to be the “weird kid” for the next two years so I might as well just embrace it I danced some more at the party (anyone surprised?). My new best friends, Nadie, Nelly and Alice, all set on the bench and cheered me on while my host mom just beamed. After a little while it was time to parade up through the town to the shrine they had moved the day before. So I was sent sprinting back to our house to get more jackets for everyone. No one seems to get that I still can’t breathe up here. After a dead sprint both ways I certainly didn’t need a jacket anymore, but one doesn’t naysay a collection of Peruvian Doñas :-P We started to follow the band up the mountain, but we never got all the way there. Paula, the 3-year-old, fell asleep on her mom’s shoulders so we headed back to the house. Don’t worry, I hear they carry Saints around for a lot of holidays, so I’m sure I’ll get another chance.
August 23: Hi ho, Hi ho, it’s off to site I go
Tuesday morning Jeff, Ali and I got breakfast before we finished our shopping. I got a ropero and hangers for my clothes (there are no shelves in my room). It’s pretty amazing how quickly our moving in allowance goes away and that’s even with some fairly successful bargaining. For lunch the three of us discovered yet another wonderful café in Huaraz. We hung out for a little while before they helped me load my stuff into a taxi and sent me on my way. I had a huge suitcase, hiking backpack, ropero, mattress and a market bag of stuff….. luckily there was room for me in the front seat. :-P I got to Mancos about 4 in the afternoon and had just enough time to haul my stuff into my room before my host mom took me to the fiesta at the school. From the school we went to the town plaza to watch some dancing and then join the procession as the men carried a giant wooden San Roque up the hill. During site visit my host mom discovered that I can dance, so now every time music turns on she makes me get up and dance. This time happened to be in the town plaza with a guy wearing a two foot headdress, a gold tunic and beads tied to his shins. Did I mention we were the only ones dancing and it was in front of the entire town? Being inconspicuous….ever…. is not a trait retained by many PCVs.
August 22: how many beds can you fit in one taxi?
Monday morning I forced myself out of bed to go shopping with John William, Keren and Ali. John William had offered to help us find everything, so I didn’t want to miss out. On our way to the market we ran into Kyle, who reminded us that there was still cake at CA Café; which we promptly went and ate. Nothing like a healthy breakfast to start the day, huh? We actually did a great job on a shopping adventure. I bought a mattress, sheets, blanket and the other girls bought bed frames. It turns out that in Peru, if you want to test out a mattress, it’s perfectly acceptable to ask for the mattress to be put down on the ground or even the road if the store is too small. Sometimes you even get to go up tiny, creepy stair cases into weird storage attics too look at MORE mattresses. This is why I do everything in groups in Peru :-P
After piling all of our purchases into some taxis and storing them at the hostel, we decided to take the guys out to lunch to say thanks for all their help. Nothing like a little menú in the afternoon. Menú is just a set of meals you can pick from for a set price. It’s pretty cheap and generally good, both very important when living on a peace corps budget :-P
That night we mostly just hung around the hostel. There’s internet at the hostel, so we all got caught up on emails and stuff. There’s also a kitchen so we cooked instead of going out. I think there were plans to watch a movie, but after multiple nights of little sleep I was in bed before ten. Excellent!
After piling all of our purchases into some taxis and storing them at the hostel, we decided to take the guys out to lunch to say thanks for all their help. Nothing like a little menú in the afternoon. Menú is just a set of meals you can pick from for a set price. It’s pretty cheap and generally good, both very important when living on a peace corps budget :-P
That night we mostly just hung around the hostel. There’s internet at the hostel, so we all got caught up on emails and stuff. There’s also a kitchen so we cooked instead of going out. I think there were plans to watch a movie, but after multiple nights of little sleep I was in bed before ten. Excellent!
August 21: Welcome to Huaraz….there may have been some line dancing involved
We got into the city around 6 am and hauled all over our stuff up to the storage room in the hostel; we got there too early for a room to be ready. Then, following the usual steps, we went to CA Café for breakfast. We met some more Ancash volunteers or tried to at least, we sort of ended up half asleep on couches. Before the regional meeting Ali, Keren and I tried to go in search of a lock and a knit hat. By the time we got to the plaza we were all so confused that I just bought a lollipop and we went straight back to the cafe. This whole event was even more amusing because as we were standing in a circle, pointing three different directions, one of the other volunteers was just sitting on a bench watching. He eventually asked if we were lost, but we couldn’t even explain why were in the plaza in the first place.……can anyone say sleep deprivation? :-P
After breakfast was the regional meeting. The five of us got to meet pretty much everyone that lives in Ancash and they made us cards! In general I think the regional meetings are going to be very useful, but that morning the five of us were doing everything we could just to keep our eyes open. The last week of PST is not a restful time. Luckily we were able to go take naps as soon as the meeting was over….and showers. Have a mentioned that our hostel has hot showers. Love it!
Once we were rested and clean and generally human again we joined in for the evening’s festivities. Sophie, the Ancahs PCVC, is leaving us; so Sunday night was her going away party. We cooked in the hostel and then went back to the CA Café for a potluck and a talent show. Being the new kids in the group, we figured we should perform, so Brice taught as all some country line dance. I can safely say it was a hit I also did the tap routine I had made up for the host family celebration in Lima. Turns out its way harder to tap dance at higher elevations, of course breathing in general is harder too. After the talent show we stopped back by the hostel to drop off the food containers before heading to some other local Huaraz hang out for a while. Overall we basically got the best welcome anyone could have asked for and I can’t wait to spend more time with the Ancash family.
After breakfast was the regional meeting. The five of us got to meet pretty much everyone that lives in Ancash and they made us cards! In general I think the regional meetings are going to be very useful, but that morning the five of us were doing everything we could just to keep our eyes open. The last week of PST is not a restful time. Luckily we were able to go take naps as soon as the meeting was over….and showers. Have a mentioned that our hostel has hot showers. Love it!
Once we were rested and clean and generally human again we joined in for the evening’s festivities. Sophie, the Ancahs PCVC, is leaving us; so Sunday night was her going away party. We cooked in the hostel and then went back to the CA Café for a potluck and a talent show. Being the new kids in the group, we figured we should perform, so Brice taught as all some country line dance. I can safely say it was a hit I also did the tap routine I had made up for the host family celebration in Lima. Turns out its way harder to tap dance at higher elevations, of course breathing in general is harder too. After the talent show we stopped back by the hostel to drop off the food containers before heading to some other local Huaraz hang out for a while. Overall we basically got the best welcome anyone could have asked for and I can’t wait to spend more time with the Ancash family.
August 20: I’m leaving on a jet plane….well, actually it’s just another Cruz del Sur bus
Saturday morning I woke up WAY earlier than I wanted to, considering how late we’d all stayed out the night before. No one wanted to say good-bye, so we just waited for as long as possible. I spent most of the day packing up all of my stuff and cleaning my room. Mid-morning I went to Kelsey’s and we decided to take one last trip to our local tienda for junk food. We sat on the curb for a while before returning to our packing. I didn’t have to leave until later afternoon, so I took a break from packing to help my host mom cook Causa, it’s one of my favorite Peruvian dishes so they decided to make it for our last lunch together. Before lunch I went back over to Kelsey’s for our prearranged time to say good bye…..neither of us felt like crying before we had too. Kelsey and I were neighbors and in the same group for everything during training, so saying goodbye to her was about as much fun as one would think. Looks like I’ll be taking some vacations to Piura during my two years Went back to my house, lunch was amazing; I actually ate till it hurt. Then I really had nothing left to do but finish packing because Jon and Kelsey had already left the neighborhood. Keren and Jeff met up at my house for the three of us to catch a cab to Lima. We went to the PC office before the bus station, so I got to see Kelsey and Kyle again. Yay! Then we went to catch our bus. We got first floor this time; which means the seats have more space and learn father back. Wahoo! Still didn’t sleep very much, but at least I was comfortable while I was awake this time :-P
August 19: Swearing in – The world called and today we answered.
Friday morning started with taking the official photos for our Peru visas and signing the volunteer oath. We also had a meeting with Sanjay, the country director, where he talked a little bit more about the history of the Peace Corps. After his talk we had a quick meeting to give each of the staff members a certificate of appreciation for their work during training. The whole training staff is absolutely wonderful and I know for a fact that I am going to be a better volunteer because of them. Muchisimas gracias por todos! After the meeting some of us went over to the campestre nearby for lunch. We thought we’d celebrate the day with a nice meal. After lunch we went back to the center to get changed into our nice clothes; we clean up pretty well if I do say so myself :-P There was something very surreal about the whole afternoon. We were in the same garden and buildings that we’d been in for ten weeks; but this time the girls were in dresses, the guys were wearing suits and we were all getting ready to swear in as volunteers. We finally got there. And we got there as a whole group too. I am proud to say that we are the first group in almost ten years to make it all the way through training without a trainee going home. Way to go Peru 17!
The ceremony was at 3 in the afternoon and our host parents were invited to watch. The American Ambassador to Peru came to the ceremony to lead us in our oath. She’s was kept to a very strict schedule due to security reasons, but I was actually one of the few of us that got to speak with her when I gave her a copy of our group photo. Pretty cool. During the ceremony, in addition to the Ambassador, Kathleen and Sanjay gave speeches to represent the staff; Ali and Patrick spoke for the trainees; and Kelsey’s dad spoke for the host families. Then they called all of us to the front of the room, by name, to take our oath as Peace Corps Volunteers. It was a pretty overwhelming moment. While I was taking my oath I was looking at the faces of the staff that helped me prepare to start this journey and at the faces of my friends who are going with me. I don’t really know how to explain it, but I know I’ll never, ever forget it.
After the ceremony there was a reception in the garden. We took a TON of photos and did a little bit more crying. Emotions are tough little buggers to control sometimes :-P We said bye to all the staff and bye to the training center. It’s so hard to wrap my head around the fact that now things are starting…or maybe they’re just starting again…..or maybe they never stopped……. am I leaving or arriving….can I do both at the same time? One things is for sure, before we got to the Santa Eulalia training center someone told me it looked a little like the jungle when you walked in; they weren’t lying and I’m going to miss it.
After leaving the center Kelsey and I went into Chosica to run some more errands and then went back to our respective houses to eat dinner with the host families. That night though was our night. The last time we were all going to be together in Chosica. So we roamed around town going to all our favorite haunts. Dancing, eating, drinking, laughing….all the things we do well in a group. Love you guys!
The ceremony was at 3 in the afternoon and our host parents were invited to watch. The American Ambassador to Peru came to the ceremony to lead us in our oath. She’s was kept to a very strict schedule due to security reasons, but I was actually one of the few of us that got to speak with her when I gave her a copy of our group photo. Pretty cool. During the ceremony, in addition to the Ambassador, Kathleen and Sanjay gave speeches to represent the staff; Ali and Patrick spoke for the trainees; and Kelsey’s dad spoke for the host families. Then they called all of us to the front of the room, by name, to take our oath as Peace Corps Volunteers. It was a pretty overwhelming moment. While I was taking my oath I was looking at the faces of the staff that helped me prepare to start this journey and at the faces of my friends who are going with me. I don’t really know how to explain it, but I know I’ll never, ever forget it.
After the ceremony there was a reception in the garden. We took a TON of photos and did a little bit more crying. Emotions are tough little buggers to control sometimes :-P We said bye to all the staff and bye to the training center. It’s so hard to wrap my head around the fact that now things are starting…or maybe they’re just starting again…..or maybe they never stopped……. am I leaving or arriving….can I do both at the same time? One things is for sure, before we got to the Santa Eulalia training center someone told me it looked a little like the jungle when you walked in; they weren’t lying and I’m going to miss it.
After leaving the center Kelsey and I went into Chosica to run some more errands and then went back to our respective houses to eat dinner with the host families. That night though was our night. The last time we were all going to be together in Chosica. So we roamed around town going to all our favorite haunts. Dancing, eating, drinking, laughing….all the things we do well in a group. Love you guys!
August 18: Host Family Party or “Juntos….somos….an equipo de doble animales”
Thursday was our last TAPs group meeting with our Tech Trainers….sniff. Lindsay wrote us all a note saying bye and we took a photo of our whole TAPs group in a pyramid. It was much harder to stage that photo than you might think. We also had a meeting with Lucia and Evan (our new PCVC) about the first three months at site and how we need to always remember to behave. I suppose it’s good to be reminded of this from time to time :-P After our meetings we started getting ready for the host family party. Everyone was finishing up their food and we rearranged the chairs so all of our families could sit in the garden. A bunch of the staff came to the party as well and Luis brought me the package of mine that had been in customs forever. Hurray! Cedric is finally in Peru!!
During the party we had a few acts put together to entertain our families. Faith sang a few songs in Spanish; the advanced Spanish class performed a skit they had written; Zach, Matt and Jon played their own translations of I Believe I Can Fly and Lean on Me; and I tap danced. It’s been ages since I’ve done any tap dancing so it was great to have a chance. After our performances we served the food, which was absolute madness for a few a little while because there were so many people there. It went well though and everyone said the food was really good.
After cleaning up the center we all headed home. I worked on packing some of my things and then I went to bed early. I’ll be honest; I got a little homesick when I started thinking about the swearing in ceremony the next day. It’s another big step for all of us and it felt weird to know that my parents wouldn’t be there for it.
During the party we had a few acts put together to entertain our families. Faith sang a few songs in Spanish; the advanced Spanish class performed a skit they had written; Zach, Matt and Jon played their own translations of I Believe I Can Fly and Lean on Me; and I tap danced. It’s been ages since I’ve done any tap dancing so it was great to have a chance. After our performances we served the food, which was absolute madness for a few a little while because there were so many people there. It went well though and everyone said the food was really good.
After cleaning up the center we all headed home. I worked on packing some of my things and then I went to bed early. I’ll be honest; I got a little homesick when I started thinking about the swearing in ceremony the next day. It’s another big step for all of us and it felt weird to know that my parents wouldn’t be there for it.
August 17: “put some brain in it”
Wednesday morning was our final exam, of sorts. We had a few quizzes and then we had to go through a series of interviews/ simulations to see how we handle them. It was things like finding a safe taxi, explaining the Peace Corps, dealing with inappropriate comments…..all in Spanish of course. After test time we had our last medical charla with Jorge. I am going to miss the comedic relief provided by the PCMOs. Hopefully I don’t turn into one of the crazy stories they tell the new training class :-P After lunch we had a little fiesta with our Spanish classes. Our group and the class right above us worked together a fair bit, so we had our fiesta together. We had tons of snacks and we taught Giovana and Karim how to Soulja Boy and electric slide…… American dance culture at its finest. We also had a cuy shaped piñata and played a game of dizzy bat. Helpful hint: after stuffing yourself with pringles, brownies and besos de mosas (imagine a smores bon bon); wait at least an hour before attempting dizzy bat. Otherwise you’ll throw up
After class Kelsey and I went to Chosica again to pick up our photos and buy stuff for the host family party. Gotta say, Wal-Mart is convenient, but I could really get used to this market shopping thing. It’s like a little scavenger hunt and you get to haggle at the end. After the market I met up with some of the other trainees at a restaurant we all call the pizza-taco place. None of us have ever eaten the pizza and the tacos are actually burritos, but the name stuck. This was the first time I’d gone and I’m a little sad about it…..the tacos are crazy good and now I don’t have all that much time to eat more of them :-P After dinner I went home to make no-bake cookies with Jon and Kelsey. It’s a super easy recipe were you just melt all the ingredients, add oatmeal and then spoon them out to dry overnight. They are A-mazing and I will most certainly be repeating them at my site. I had a great time cooking with Kelsey and Jon too. We should’ve done it way earlier in training; made things feel very home-y.
After class Kelsey and I went to Chosica again to pick up our photos and buy stuff for the host family party. Gotta say, Wal-Mart is convenient, but I could really get used to this market shopping thing. It’s like a little scavenger hunt and you get to haggle at the end. After the market I met up with some of the other trainees at a restaurant we all call the pizza-taco place. None of us have ever eaten the pizza and the tacos are actually burritos, but the name stuck. This was the first time I’d gone and I’m a little sad about it…..the tacos are crazy good and now I don’t have all that much time to eat more of them :-P After dinner I went home to make no-bake cookies with Jon and Kelsey. It’s a super easy recipe were you just melt all the ingredients, add oatmeal and then spoon them out to dry overnight. They are A-mazing and I will most certainly be repeating them at my site. I had a great time cooking with Kelsey and Jon too. We should’ve done it way earlier in training; made things feel very home-y.
August 15 & 16: “Where’s Waldo? Maybe he knows. His name is Sandro….”
Monday morning was back in our very own Santa Eulalia training center. We each had our third language interview that morning and when we weren’t in the interviews we worked on our CD projects. Luckily I wrote a fair bit of mine before site visit; I knew that I wasn’t going to have any interest in writing a paper during the last week of training. We had a long lunch and some of us watched Tangled while we ate. Such a great Disney movie! Lunch break got even better when Carl turned up with the mail. I got all sorts of wonderful things. Love you guys!<3 After lunch we had a debrief with Lucia and Miriam about our site visits. I was great to hear a little about everyone’s adventure. I think we’re all in for an interesting two years :-P We also had our last general assembly to make sure everything was sorted out for the host family party later in the week. Later that night I went to my friend Jeff’s house to steal movies and TV shows off of his hard drive…..we all want to watch a movie from time to time and there’s no blockbuster in Peru.
Tuesday we all turned in our community diagnostic projects and presented them in small groups. It’s so nice to be done with that :-P No more homework…..for like 6 days. We had our mental health chat with the doctors; theories on how to keep us sane. Of course that’s assuming that we were all sane when we got here. There is some debate on this point. After class Kelsey and I went into Chosica to get our group photo printed as a gift for our host families. We really lucked out with this project. Turns out some host cousin of Kelsey’s has a photo printing store, so we got a great deal. That night Kelsey and I hung out and swapped photos in her room for a while.
Tuesday we all turned in our community diagnostic projects and presented them in small groups. It’s so nice to be done with that :-P No more homework…..for like 6 days. We had our mental health chat with the doctors; theories on how to keep us sane. Of course that’s assuming that we were all sane when we got here. There is some debate on this point. After class Kelsey and I went into Chosica to get our group photo printed as a gift for our host families. We really lucked out with this project. Turns out some host cousin of Kelsey’s has a photo printing store, so we got a great deal. That night Kelsey and I hung out and swapped photos in her room for a while.
August 14: get ready, get set…..week 10
Sunday morning we got into Lima around 5 am….once again our bus had some air conditioning issues. Ugh! We went by the Peace Corps office to use the internet; which wasn’t working so well so Jeff, Keren and I just caught a cab back to Santa Eulalia. My host family didn’t think I was getting home until later so they were pretty surprised when I walked through the door at 7:30 in the morning :-P I ate breakfast with Sra. Isabel and told her all about my new site. I spent the rest of the day catching up on writing my blog and finishing up my community diagnostic. I also went to Kelsey’s when she finally got back to we could dish about our respective sites. I’m really going to miss that girl. I also said bye to my host brother Luis. He spends his weeks in Lima, so I wasn’t going to see him again before I moved. Strange……
August 13: back to the big city…..and then back to the bigger city
Saturday morning I woke up and headed back into Huaraz fairly early. We all wanted to spend some more time looking around the city. I dropped my stuff off at the hostel and then met Jeff for coffee at the wonderful California Café. Ali, Keren and Brice started trickling into the city as well. We mostly spent the mornings taking showers and enjoying a long breakfast. I’m gonna love capital city weekends :-P That afternoon we walked around the markets to look at prices on the things we will need for our rooms….the market here has all sorts of stuff! Later we had a meeting with Nelly in the hostel to talk about our site visits. It sounds like everyone really had a good week and that we’re all going to like out sites. Fingers crossed! For dinner we decided to make Kraft Mac and Cheese; the real kind, straight out of the blue box. We found it in the market We cooked and then hung out on the back porch of the hostel until it was time to catch our bus back to Lima for a last week of training. Crazy!
August 12: and I thought alarm clocks were bad…..
Friday morning started with me being woken by a hog being slaughtered in the side yard of the house. Not a noise I ever want to hear again. My watch alarm hadn’t gone off at this point, but I was wide awake so I got up. After breakfast I met up with Lucy, one of the techs at the health post so we could catch a combi together to another town in the district. We were supposed to meet up with Doriza around 8 to go visit houses in the area to look at the kitchen improvements. After looking through all the Avon magazines and moving party decorations across the street to another building; we headed out on visits around 11. The first house we went to was SO beautifully campo. We had to walk down this narrow, winding path between a stream and the various chacras. On the way up the path we passed the sheep with a tiny lamb, a big pig and a tiny puppy; all roaming in the yard. The only way I can think to explain it is that if some tourist trap wanted to have a reenactment of a Quechua house it would look like this, except this one was real. You couldn’t even see the highway from the front yard. It was great. We ended up walking around to about 15 houses altogether. This was another big cultural lesson for me, to see the way different people live around here. After the house visits we came back to the health post for lunch….cuy and papa of course. I actually had my own half a cuy this time. I’ll be honest, the flavor is not bad, but it takes SO much work to get that tiny little bit of meat. I think I’ll stick with chicken, thanks. After lunch I headed back to Mancos with Lucy. I’m glad that I’m slowly meeting more and more people that work at the health post. The rest of the day was pretty relaxed. I watched some TV with my host brother and took a walk with the ladies in my host fam. This seems to be turning into a routine and I’m not mad about it. It gets may face out around the community and it’s a chance for me to get to know my family more.
August 11:
Thursday morning started out with a hot shower….man, am I happy about that! I ended up working out of my Spanish workbook for a little while until it was time to go over to the school for the earthquake drill. There is a risk of earthquakes around Peru, so Thursday was a department wide drill. Sra. Doriza and some of the health post staff were at the drill, along with the alcalde and a lady from the UGEL (district school board) who was there to monitor the whole thing. Some of the kids even had to act like they were injured so the others could practice safely getting them out of the building so they wouldn’t be caught inside if it collapsed. Luckily terremotes aren’t super frequent events. After the simulacro I went back to the house and watched Peru’s equivalent of the history channel. The program was about one of the many native cultures that survive in Peru today; super interesting. Just after lunch I went back to the school to sit in on a teachers’ meeting; trying to get my face out there. After the meeting I talked with the English professor for a few minutes. She’s really nice and I think I will be helping out with her classes here at the beginning. The only trick is that she’s about to have a baby any day now; which may complicate planning just a little bit :-P Vamos a ver. Later in the afternoon I walked around town with Dona Norka and Faviola again. They took me to meet the woman that runs the Vaso de Leche; a city run organization the gives milk to families with young kids or expecting mothers. They do a lot of house visits with this organization, so I’m hoping to help out in the beginning as a way to meet more of the town. Thursday night I was in the living room with my host brother Jon Paul while he was flipping through all the TV channels. He came upon a program teaching the basics of tap dancing….that’s right, tap dancing. He told me he had never seen tap dancing before and was totally surprised when I told that I’d done it for most of my life. Jon Paul was actually trying to do some of the steps under the table. Did I just get an idea for a youth group activity……..
August 10: The grand tour begins
So I spent Wednesday meeting people around my town…….my town. Ah! I started out at the school. Every morning the kids line up before class, it’s called formation. So I went to meet with Sra. Yolanda, she’s the directora. The Senora introduced me to everyone and explained a little bit about my job. She then gave me the mic so I talked a little bit about myself and the Peace Corps. I thought I was doing really well until I realized I had forgotten to tell them my name :-P oh well. After showing my face at the school Sra. Yolanda walked me over to the municipality to meet the alcalde, but he wasn’t there. I will definitely need to go back over there to meet people again. Back in the plaza we ran into Sra. Doriza on her way to health post, so I went with her. She too decided that I needed to meet the alcalde and immediately walked me back into the municipality….not surprisingly; he hadn’t shown up in the last ten minutes. I met some of the employees at the health post while waiting for a health promoters’ meeting to start. Turns out the OB for the health post has studied some English and wants to learn more. I offered to do a language exchange with her, so hopefully that will happen. The meeting was with a group of representatives from each of the nearby casarias who help the health post get its messages out. Cars aren’t common here and many people can’t or won’t pay to travel to the main health post, so these promoters work to bring the information to them. The meeting was very long, but it’s an interesting program. After eating lunch with the health group, I went back over to the school to say hello to Sra. Yolanda. The school is directly next to my house, so sticking my head in the door to say hello may be part of my daily schedule Back at my new house I watched some TV with my host sister-in-law Faviola. I love that TV counts as language practice on the days that I don’t feel like working out of a book ha ha ha. Later that evening I walked back through town to the health post with the ladies of my host family. We met some more staff and got invited to walk across the street for the birthday party of the GP’s mother. That was a great cultural experience. I danced the traditional dance from around here. The name sounds like “wine-o” but I know that’s not how it’s spelled, so I’ll have to get back to you on that. Apparently I’m pretty good at it and apparently that’s an endless source of amusement for people in my town :-P We actually went to another birthday party later on that night where I danced again. I did well the first time so now my host mom keeps making me dance. Somehow I always knew dancing would play a key role in my integration :-P
August 9: Socio Day and my first glimpse of Mancos
Tuesday we had meetings at a nearby hotel with each of our community partners. It was SUCH a strange feeling to wait in the room knowing that our socios were on their way to meet us. It felt real all over again (a common thread throughout site visit :-P). My socios are Senora Doriza from the health post and Senora Yolanda for the secondary school. Both women seem friendly and I am sincerely looking forward to working with them. Tuesday’s meetings discussed the roles of the volunteer in a site and the roles of the community counterpart. There was also a discussion of the types of things volunteers won’t be doing, which can be just as important for everyone to know. We did skits during the meeting and it was great to see all the socios participating and being a little silly. It bodes well for our lives as youth volunteers. Another task during the meetings was to create schedules for ourselves for site visit and for our first week at site. I have a lot to do :-P That afternoon we all went to our separate sites and I’ll admit to tearing up just a teeny bit when the five of us circled up before leaving. Feeling that excited and that nervous at the same time can bring the emotional walls down just a little bit. Sra. Yolanda and I caught a combi to Mancos; only one hour. Overall I really lucked out with the logistics of my site. Mancos is beautiful. It’s a small little town that basically serves as the gate into the Huascaran Mountain; which, incidentally, is breathtaking and can be seen from my house My house is directly next to the school and its very nice. My family seems great and the cherry on top is that I have a calientador. For those of you keeping score at home, that’s a machine that makes the water hot in the shower. Wahoo! Although I can say with certainty that these machines are more common in Ancash than Lima, so the odds were in my favor. The water around here was recently glacial, so it’s downright reasonable to have a way to warm it up. I actually went to sleep by around 9 that night. After all the nerves and excitement of the day, my brain just could stay awake any longer :-P
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared, but overall meeting my socios and seeing my site left me more excited than anything else. That’s a good start right?
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared, but overall meeting my socios and seeing my site left me more excited than anything else. That’s a good start right?
August 8: Welcome to Huaraz…..my new capital city
So after a fairly long and mostly uncomfortable bus ride (apparently Cruz del Sur and I have different definitions of “comfortable temperature”) we arrived in Huaraz around 6 AM. Ali and Jeff both came to Huaraz for FBT so we gathered up our bags and they led us to the hostel. When we rounded the last corner there were a handful of current Ancash volunteers waiting for us with posters and hugs! Apparently they had planned to meet us at the actual station, but I guess we got there a little early :-P After a lovely hot shower I took a nap in the hostel for a bit, no one really felt like starting our city tour at 6:30 in the am. After nap time we all went to California Café, which is PC hang out numero uno in Huaraz. The food is amazing, the couches are cozy, the wifi is free and there’s a lending library for PCVs….. perf! During breakfast the five of us talk with all the Ancash kids that were in the capital that weekend. After breakfast we went on a walking tour with Sophie, the Ancash PCVL. Huaraz is pretty fantastic and I’m super excited that it’s going to be my capital city for the next two years. Lots of people come to Ancash for trekking trips, so there’s lots to do and all kinds of good food for the tourists :-P In between eating and looking around the markets we all just sat on the back porch of the hostel to take in the view. The mountains here are A-mazing.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
August 7: starting to feel nervous again…..
I spent Sunday morning getting my stuff packed up to go on site visit. Kelsey and I took turns sitting in each other’s rooms while the other one was packing. She and I got placed in sites very far away from each other, so we starting to have a little separation anxiety :-P In all honestly though, I really am starting to get nervous again. I adjusted to PST and it went by so fast, now things are really starting and I’m getting a bit anxious. I know it will all be fine but it’s a little bit like leaving for the Peace Corps all over again. Fingers crossed that my site visit goes well…..I’m about to get the first glimpse of my future.
August 4, 5 & 6: the post site assignment haze…….
Thursday was a mix of meetings. The groups from each department got to sit down with our regional coordinators to discuss more specifics. Oh my gosh! I can’t believe I belong to a department now…..it just crazy! We also got the schedule for site visits and our socio day in the department capitals. All the details of when we’ll be making our first impressions. No pressure :-P
Friday we had a medical charla with Suni and Carmen, the other two PCMOs. We talked about common medical emergencies and what to do about them. No all of us will be living close to hospitals, so they give us information on how to safely make it to the nearest medical post. We also heard a lot of funny stories about the medical calls the PCMOs receive. I’m telling you….Peace Corp PCMOs need to write books. We also had our final chats with our TAPs leaders about our progress throughout training. In Spanish class that afternoon we watched Palomas de Papel. It’s a Peruvian movie about a boy who gets caught up with the Sendero Luminoso. The movie was really goods, but it’s a tough topic to discuss. That night we all went out to karaoke in Chosica; which was a blast. We all cheer on the Peruvians while they sing Spanish songs and then they laugh at us when we tear up English song. I also put on a little show, by salsa dancing with one of the Peruvian guys. Of course everyone else sat down when they saw me stand up……nothing like putting on a show. It was great fun to really really salsa dance and the guy was actually a really good lead. Lots of fun!
Saturday was basically a work day for me. We have a community diagnostic project that we’ve been working on for most of training and it’s finally time to write the paper. I always forgot how much slower I write in Spanish……yikes! This project is a mini version of the community diagnostic we do for the first three months in our sites. It’s going well and I don’t think I’ll have too much to write when I get back from site visit.
Friday we had a medical charla with Suni and Carmen, the other two PCMOs. We talked about common medical emergencies and what to do about them. No all of us will be living close to hospitals, so they give us information on how to safely make it to the nearest medical post. We also heard a lot of funny stories about the medical calls the PCMOs receive. I’m telling you….Peace Corp PCMOs need to write books. We also had our final chats with our TAPs leaders about our progress throughout training. In Spanish class that afternoon we watched Palomas de Papel. It’s a Peruvian movie about a boy who gets caught up with the Sendero Luminoso. The movie was really goods, but it’s a tough topic to discuss. That night we all went out to karaoke in Chosica; which was a blast. We all cheer on the Peruvians while they sing Spanish songs and then they laugh at us when we tear up English song. I also put on a little show, by salsa dancing with one of the Peruvian guys. Of course everyone else sat down when they saw me stand up……nothing like putting on a show. It was great fun to really really salsa dance and the guy was actually a really good lead. Lots of fun!
Saturday was basically a work day for me. We have a community diagnostic project that we’ve been working on for most of training and it’s finally time to write the paper. I always forgot how much slower I write in Spanish……yikes! This project is a mini version of the community diagnostic we do for the first three months in our sites. It’s going well and I don’t think I’ll have too much to write when I get back from site visit.
August 3: SITE ASSIGNMENTS! or “nothing can happen we’re holding hands…..”
So Wednesday was the day of reckoning…..site assignments. Ah! Of course we had a whole morning of Spanish class to get through before they would tell us anything. Sheesh! No I’m kidding. That morning’s lesson was actually really interesting. In my class we each did a quick presentation on the departments that Youth Development works in and then the language facilitators did a presentation over some of the more mystical(?) sides of Peruvian culture. They talked about the practice of passing the cuy or passing the egg over someone’s body to discover what ails them. I actually was one of the volunteers for the passing of the egg….It’s a pretty interesting practice. I don’t personally believe in the effectiveness of these two practices, but I would never underestimate the power a person’s beliefs can hold over them, so it was super interesting to learn about. We also talked about the tri-part cosmovision the holds over from the Inca culture.
The small business group and the whole training staff turned up just before lunch, so we all had lunch followed by cake and ice cream. The food was great and who doesn’t love ice cream…..but man were we ready for some information. After lunch, we got to it. The APCDs don’t just read off a list though, there is always some activity involved. Ours started by each language group having to find their instructor; all of whom were hiding. The instructors gave each of us a paper slice of pizza with different toppings, I was cheese. Then we had to run around the garden to find the rest of the people that made up our pizza. This got tricky because some of the lang. instructors were really hard to find, so that left the rest of us running back and forth shouting pizza toppings for like 5 minutes. “Cheese!” “Pepperoni?” “Tomato?!” “Ah, where is Edith?” ha ha ha. Completing the whole cheese pizza put me, Keren, Jeff, Ali and Brice in a group. On the back of the pizza was a number to letter code we had to break; which sent us in search of Anna Maria, another tech trainer. Anna Maria had the pizza box for us with a riddle inside. Finally we had to unscramble some letters to get the name of our department. I’m moving to Ancash!!!!!!!!!! Of course all of the trainers and upper staff from Lima came out to watch the madness, so they were all taking pictures of us going crazy as each group figured out where we were going.
After the scavenger hunt we met with our regional coordinator Nelly to get our actual site specifics. I am moving to Mancos, Ancash. It’s an hour out of Huaraz, the capital city, and its right at the base of the Huascaran Mountain. Ah!! For the next few hours we alternated between asking Nelly questions and racing around the center to see where our friends were placed. Sadly Kels and I are basically on opposite ends of Peru, but the volunteers in my group are amazing and I think it’s going to be great hanging out with them during the next two years!
Clearly that was the last activity for the day, so once the adrenaline wore off people started trickling out. Kelsey, Jon and I actually went up to the health post in Santa Eulalia to do a quick interview for our community diagnostic project (gotta be a little productive each day :-P). Then we killed some time before heading over to Chaclacayo for dinner. Since Wednesday was such a HUGE day both groups decided to go to a nice dinner together at an Italian restaurant. It was lots of fun and the pizza was fantastic.
I cannot believe I now know where I’ll be living for the next two years! Ancash in better!
The small business group and the whole training staff turned up just before lunch, so we all had lunch followed by cake and ice cream. The food was great and who doesn’t love ice cream…..but man were we ready for some information. After lunch, we got to it. The APCDs don’t just read off a list though, there is always some activity involved. Ours started by each language group having to find their instructor; all of whom were hiding. The instructors gave each of us a paper slice of pizza with different toppings, I was cheese. Then we had to run around the garden to find the rest of the people that made up our pizza. This got tricky because some of the lang. instructors were really hard to find, so that left the rest of us running back and forth shouting pizza toppings for like 5 minutes. “Cheese!” “Pepperoni?” “Tomato?!” “Ah, where is Edith?” ha ha ha. Completing the whole cheese pizza put me, Keren, Jeff, Ali and Brice in a group. On the back of the pizza was a number to letter code we had to break; which sent us in search of Anna Maria, another tech trainer. Anna Maria had the pizza box for us with a riddle inside. Finally we had to unscramble some letters to get the name of our department. I’m moving to Ancash!!!!!!!!!! Of course all of the trainers and upper staff from Lima came out to watch the madness, so they were all taking pictures of us going crazy as each group figured out where we were going.
After the scavenger hunt we met with our regional coordinator Nelly to get our actual site specifics. I am moving to Mancos, Ancash. It’s an hour out of Huaraz, the capital city, and its right at the base of the Huascaran Mountain. Ah!! For the next few hours we alternated between asking Nelly questions and racing around the center to see where our friends were placed. Sadly Kels and I are basically on opposite ends of Peru, but the volunteers in my group are amazing and I think it’s going to be great hanging out with them during the next two years!
Clearly that was the last activity for the day, so once the adrenaline wore off people started trickling out. Kelsey, Jon and I actually went up to the health post in Santa Eulalia to do a quick interview for our community diagnostic project (gotta be a little productive each day :-P). Then we killed some time before heading over to Chaclacayo for dinner. Since Wednesday was such a HUGE day both groups decided to go to a nice dinner together at an Italian restaurant. It was lots of fun and the pizza was fantastic.
I cannot believe I now know where I’ll be living for the next two years! Ancash in better!
August 2: “well yes DeWitt Jones, why indeed?”
Tuesday morning we had Spanish class at Matt’s house. His mom fed us snacks the entire time and there were tiny baby kittens…..spanish class was good too :-P After lunch we had a pretty relaxed day. We watched a video with a Nat Geo photographer talking about using our creativity and we played some team building games. Things got a little exciting when I nearly broke my ankle. No exaggeration here, my friend Amanda told me she actually got nauseous and had to turn around until they got me up :-P We did an activity where 9 of us put our feet into loops attached to 2x4s and tried to walk as a group. I was in the front, so when we lost our balance and fell forward I wasn’t able to get my foot out of the loop before the entire team landed on me. Yikes! Luckily the worst of the injury was just skin burn from the fabric of the loop….thank goodness my ankles are fairly bendy from all those years of dance. Don’t worry, Mom. I’m fine <3
After class I caught a ride to Lima with the tech trainers so I could go to the eye doctor and pick out some prescription sunglasses. The sun around here is no joke. I met up with Phillip from the business group and we went over to Jockey Plaza to the optica. Eye doctor’s appointments are far more exciting in another language. We got through it through and we both picked out nice frames. After the eye doctor we hit up the food court and ate on the cab ride home. Love me some Pizza Hut!
After class I caught a ride to Lima with the tech trainers so I could go to the eye doctor and pick out some prescription sunglasses. The sun around here is no joke. I met up with Phillip from the business group and we went over to Jockey Plaza to the optica. Eye doctor’s appointments are far more exciting in another language. We got through it through and we both picked out nice frames. After the eye doctor we hit up the food court and ate on the cab ride home. Love me some Pizza Hut!
August 1: “es el stick del Pope”
So Monday started with the realization the whole month of July passed while I was in Peru. I can’t believe how time is flying down here. That morning we had Spanish class and in the afternoon we had meetings about the youth camps that Peace Corps volunteers run called ALMA and VALOR. The volunteers in each department get together to organize these four day events and then each of us bring kids from our sites to attend. Both camps focus on leadership and healthy lifestyles. We also talked about ways to work theater activities and projects into our programs…..needless to say I found the day’s discussions very interesting. Camp AND theater? Common on….:-)
July 31: revenge is a dish best served estufada with a side of rice…..
Despite the late night I woke up around 9 am on Sunday morning; which brings me to something I haven’t discussed yet….. roosters. There’s a rooster in the backyard that goes off around 4:30, 5:30 and/or 6:30 everything single morning. When leaving for La Libertad I was super excited not only for FBT but to be rooster free for a week. That is until I realized that the evil creature that lives in my back yard has friends everywhere. If I go postal in South American it could very well be due to poultry :-P How can I solve this problem, you ask……
I ate him for Sunday lunch. Tasty.
I ate him for Sunday lunch. Tasty.
July 30: shake your Kis Kas or “do you sort of feel like a wounded gazelle?”
Saturday morning I cleaned my room and hung out a Kelsey’s for a while before heading up the mountain in Santa Eulalia to watch a horse race. Every year, as part of the Fiestas Patrias celebration they have a race down the side of a mountain. Its multiple heats and they run three riders at a time. All the riders are young guys from the town and I can’t say for certain that any of them really race regularly. At least two horses came in rider-less and a few more were led into the finish with the riders on foot. It was fun to see though and there were lots of people watching and I actually ended up running into a bunch of the other volunteers who came with their host families.
That night I went to a club called the Kis Kas; it’s a club, pool, hotel and restaurant all in one spot. These places are called campestres and they are actually really common around the area. They’re weekend tourist retreats for people from Lima, because the weather is usually so bad in the city. The Kis Kas is one of the nicest campestres around here and it’s certainly the “coolest” with the jovenes, so my host brothers decided to take me to see the DJs. Luis and Julio Cesear told me to be ready around 11 so, being my punctual self, I was read at like 5 till…..we left around 12:15:-P We met up with my friend Sabrina and her host sister when we got there and it was a blast. Apparently when I go out with my host brothers I no longer have a curfew so we danced until about 4:45 in the morning. It was SO much fun! It was also incredibly amusing to be the only two gringas in the whole club….we had an audience pretty much the whole night. Particularly when less popular English songs would turn on and we would be the only ones who got excited. Once they played the Macarena I decided to exit on a high note….ha ha ha.
That night I went to a club called the Kis Kas; it’s a club, pool, hotel and restaurant all in one spot. These places are called campestres and they are actually really common around the area. They’re weekend tourist retreats for people from Lima, because the weather is usually so bad in the city. The Kis Kas is one of the nicest campestres around here and it’s certainly the “coolest” with the jovenes, so my host brothers decided to take me to see the DJs. Luis and Julio Cesear told me to be ready around 11 so, being my punctual self, I was read at like 5 till…..we left around 12:15:-P We met up with my friend Sabrina and her host sister when we got there and it was a blast. Apparently when I go out with my host brothers I no longer have a curfew so we danced until about 4:45 in the morning. It was SO much fun! It was also incredibly amusing to be the only two gringas in the whole club….we had an audience pretty much the whole night. Particularly when less popular English songs would turn on and we would be the only ones who got excited. Once they played the Macarena I decided to exit on a high note….ha ha ha.
July 28 & 29: Peruvian Independence Day OR guac-fest 2011 and some hiking
Thursday was the Peruvian Independence Day and the beginning of our four-day, Fiestas Partrias weekend. We didn’t have class so a Jessica, Jon, Kelsey, Cat, Matt, Britt, Ali, Richard, Katy, Nicole, Nick, Adrian, Kyle and I met in Yanacoto for a hike. Yanacoto is one of the communities that part of our group lives in and there are ancient geogliffs cut into the mountains behind it. One of the locals from the town even hiked with us to tell us about the history of the symbols. It was a cool morning. Afterwards we went over to Richard’s house to make “lunch”, but we ended up just making a huge bowl of guacamole. Not mad about it! After lunch we went up to a pool in Santa Eulalia for a little while to enjoy the sun some more. That night I hung out with my host mom and her sister Nelly. I really enjoy talking to the two of them because they don’t insist on always talking about “simple” things to make sure I understand. They talk about whatever they want and then help me catch up if I get lost.
Friday i mostly spent the day around the house watching the Grand Military Parade with my host family. It’s a tradition every year for the Air Force, Marines, Army and Police to march in a big parade through Lima. My host brother is a cop so we tried to watch for him. We weren’t able to pick him out, but the whole thing was quite an event; very traditional and formal. There is a particular march that they all do and they line up all the different divisions of each group. I think it lasted about four hours all together. That night I went up to Santa Eulalia to hang out with Nick, Chris, Amanda and Kyle. Nick’s host house is right on a really pretty part of the river, so we sat out by that. Loving the four day weekend!
Friday i mostly spent the day around the house watching the Grand Military Parade with my host family. It’s a tradition every year for the Air Force, Marines, Army and Police to march in a big parade through Lima. My host brother is a cop so we tried to watch for him. We weren’t able to pick him out, but the whole thing was quite an event; very traditional and formal. There is a particular march that they all do and they line up all the different divisions of each group. I think it lasted about four hours all together. That night I went up to Santa Eulalia to hang out with Nick, Chris, Amanda and Kyle. Nick’s host house is right on a really pretty part of the river, so we sat out by that. Loving the four day weekend!
July 27: Michael Westin may have just come to my training class…….
Wednesday we had class with the Small Business group at the Chaclacayo Center. It’s a nice building and it was fun to see their training site. In the morning we had an intercambio session were the two different program taught some of our work themes to each other. Frequently there is overlap between programs with the activities we will do at site, so it’s good to learn some from other groups. The rest of the morning was cultural activities in honor of Peruvian Independence Day. The language facilitators performed some of the traditional dances from around Peru and we all tried to sing the Peruvian National Anthem. We also had an hora loca; which is apparently all the rage right now at parties. Basically everyone just gets balloons and dances like crazy for a little while. At ours Carl, one of the staff members, put on a giant cuy suit and ran around throwing confetti at us. Carl is a rockstar by the way. He’s one of the Peruvian staff members that help out with driving, tech support, getting our mail and….apparently….dressing like a giant cuy. His exact job title is still a mystery to most of us :-P but we’d pretty much be lost without him.
For lunch we went out exploring the restaurants of Chaclacayo. Our training center only has one little tienda by it, so it was fun to walk around a town during the break. Britt, Ali and I decided to get Chifa; which is Peruvian Chinese food. After lunch we had a security meeting with a staff member from the US Embassy. It turns out he is actually a federal agent of some sort. Sadly I think we were all more amused with speculating about him and his career than we were with his talk. In our defense he was a large man, wearing a black suit that started his “security briefing” by telling us he might “double tap” some security issues we’ve heard about before. Oh and he also talked about some “hilo” landings he been involved in. When he asked for questions at the end I don’t think a single one of us had a relevant question in mind ha ha. Next we had a rotation of sessions on popular activities that most PVCs use, like World Map, granola and some craft projects. I got a lot of cool ideas that I can’t wait to use. We ended our day in a Q&A with a Peruvian historian. The guy was very knowledgeable and it was interesting so see what sort of Peru questions we all had floating around in our heads.
For lunch we went out exploring the restaurants of Chaclacayo. Our training center only has one little tienda by it, so it was fun to walk around a town during the break. Britt, Ali and I decided to get Chifa; which is Peruvian Chinese food. After lunch we had a security meeting with a staff member from the US Embassy. It turns out he is actually a federal agent of some sort. Sadly I think we were all more amused with speculating about him and his career than we were with his talk. In our defense he was a large man, wearing a black suit that started his “security briefing” by telling us he might “double tap” some security issues we’ve heard about before. Oh and he also talked about some “hilo” landings he been involved in. When he asked for questions at the end I don’t think a single one of us had a relevant question in mind ha ha. Next we had a rotation of sessions on popular activities that most PVCs use, like World Map, granola and some craft projects. I got a lot of cool ideas that I can’t wait to use. We ended our day in a Q&A with a Peruvian historian. The guy was very knowledgeable and it was interesting so see what sort of Peru questions we all had floating around in our heads.
July 26: “Shalom, that bug says” and watch out for that….palm tree?
Tuesday morning we had language class in a few places around Santa Eulalia. We started out by going to the commiseria to talk with a cop about the police system in the district and about problems with delinquency in the area. The real excitement though was when my friend Jon managed to cut his forehead open by walking into the frond of some strange cactus, palm tree type plant. There’s not a lot of greenery around these parts, but apparently it can defend itself :-P Unfortunately that morning was one of the times I still have when my Spanish completely fails me. This man spoke so quickly I nearly went cross eyed….that’s right, cross eyed. Amusing tid-bit, apparently when learning languages most people try to read lips along with listening. Keep that in mind the next time you’re talking with a non-English speaker and they’re staring at your lips, its normal. I basically had to wait for each new question because it would provide a break in his monologue and give me the chance to try to pick up the thread again. Oh well, can’t win them all.
After the commiseria we walked up to another neighborhood in Santa Eulalia called Buenos Aires. There was a parade of the local school kids in celebration of the Fiestas Patrias that were coming up. There is a tradition of marching for national holidays in Peru. All the students and teachers practice for the weeks leading up to the parades. It’s quite formal and there is generally a prize for the class that marches the best. I particularly enjoyed seeing all the little primaria kids in their full uniforms.
That afternoon was had another round of tech training classes and there was a presentation from a current volunteer. She talked about a literacy and leadership program that she’s been doing at her site. She’s held workshops with the older students to work on literacy and public speaking skills, and then set up times for the older kids to go read books to classes of younger kids. I absolutely love this project and really hope to have the chance to try something like it in my site. We also met out new Peace Corps Volunteer Coordinator Evan. The PCVC is a third year volunteer position whose job is to keep track of us pretty much. Evan will be around to support us if we need it. He seems super cool and I look forward to working with him.
After the commiseria we walked up to another neighborhood in Santa Eulalia called Buenos Aires. There was a parade of the local school kids in celebration of the Fiestas Patrias that were coming up. There is a tradition of marching for national holidays in Peru. All the students and teachers practice for the weeks leading up to the parades. It’s quite formal and there is generally a prize for the class that marches the best. I particularly enjoyed seeing all the little primaria kids in their full uniforms.
That afternoon was had another round of tech training classes and there was a presentation from a current volunteer. She talked about a literacy and leadership program that she’s been doing at her site. She’s held workshops with the older students to work on literacy and public speaking skills, and then set up times for the older kids to go read books to classes of younger kids. I absolutely love this project and really hope to have the chance to try something like it in my site. We also met out new Peace Corps Volunteer Coordinator Evan. The PCVC is a third year volunteer position whose job is to keep track of us pretty much. Evan will be around to support us if we need it. He seems super cool and I look forward to working with him.
July 25: “yeah, but there’s no pocket for your dignity”
Monday was designed to ease us back into the training routine. For starters it reminded us that there are actually 34 people in our training class, not just the 12 that were in La Libertad with me. I sort of forgot they existed…..FBT is a little intense :-P That morning each group did a presentation over their FBT trips. Naturally the presentations spiraled into group jokes and half sentences that told whole stories to the people that were there, but it looks like everyone really enjoyed themselves and I can’t wait to go see more of Peru for myself. After the presentations we had another delightful session with our friendly PCMO Jorge. This one was over common medical issues we will likely face. One of Jorge’s many amazing characteristics that allow him to be our wonderful PCMO is that he’s not easily fazed. I know I will appreciate this in the future. However, listening to him casually explain that a person puking live worms out of their stomach isn’t really all that bad, because they can’t really hurt you…..is pushing some sort of limit ><. Apparently there is a facebook group dedicated to Jorge and the crazy stuff he says, I think I need to join.
Monday afternoon we had language class where we each had to talk about the things we found most interesting about our FBT sites. The highlight of the whole day came when Giovanna asked Kelsey and me if we spoke Spanish all day every day during the trip. I’ll be the first to admit that’s not how things went, but apparently Giovanna could tell a difference in our Spanish in just one week. She said Kelsey and I had both improved. We both lost a little bit more of our fear of being wrong; which oddly enough is a good thing when learning languages because it allows you to speak more easily (even if the words aren’t exactly right). Kels and I were grinning like fools for the rest of the day.
Fun Spanish word of the day, they call a fanny pack a “canguro”…..say it out loud a few times.
Monday afternoon we had language class where we each had to talk about the things we found most interesting about our FBT sites. The highlight of the whole day came when Giovanna asked Kelsey and me if we spoke Spanish all day every day during the trip. I’ll be the first to admit that’s not how things went, but apparently Giovanna could tell a difference in our Spanish in just one week. She said Kelsey and I had both improved. We both lost a little bit more of our fear of being wrong; which oddly enough is a good thing when learning languages because it allows you to speak more easily (even if the words aren’t exactly right). Kels and I were grinning like fools for the rest of the day.
Fun Spanish word of the day, they call a fanny pack a “canguro”…..say it out loud a few times.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
July 23: We’re riding cama cama style! (FBT Day 7)
Saturday morning we went back to Bello Horizonte to paint a mural with the kids at Ian’s site. The mural is a wonderful picture of cartoon mountains hugging their little town. Richard drew it to help with the medio ambiente theme they were working on. This activity was probably the most stereotypically “peace corp” I’ve felt yet. We were wearing ratty clothes and slowly getting covered in paint while we helped elementary school kids paint a rugged, brick wall. It was amazing! For lunch we went to the one restaurant in Ian’s site for pollo a la brasa….which is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. We also got to try some red pineapple that Kelsi had brought along from her site. That was a fun new treat; imagine a regular pineapple but good and tart. Look in to it.
Back in Trujillo we kidnapped Ian and Kelsi to take them to a Starbucks and surprise them with the cards from our group. Then Lindsay surprised all of us with yummy chocolate treats. There are many, many reasons why Lindsay’s TAPs group is the best, but the fact that there is always food around is probably in the top five :-P We bummed around the mall for a bit and then headed back into Trujillo to kill time before catching the bus home. We traveled overnight so the bus didn’t leave until 10:30. Nick, Sabrina, Jessica and I walked around downtown Trujillo for a while and snacked on some street food for dinner. We had an 8 hour bus ride in the near future and didn’t really want to sit down, so Nick and I just wandered the streets of Trujillo looking at all the cool colonial buildings for a while. At the bus station we realized we were actually riding back to Lima on the cama cama beds! That means the seat leans all the way back flat and there is a foot part that comes up to make the rest of the bed. They even give you a pillow, a fleece blanket and dinner. Yeah buddy! We got back to Lima around 6:30 in the morning, and then had to catch a cab back to Santa Eulalia. We had a little bit of trouble when the two cab drivers taking the 8 of us back realized that they didn’t actually know where Santa Eulalia was. It’s farther from Lima than they thought so they tried to change the price on us half way through the trip. Luckily our driver was reasonable enough to realize that it was their mistake, but the other driver pulled off the highway and flagged down another cab to make the girls change cabs because he refused to drive all the way back. It was annoying but not terribly alarming, so after that little snafu we got all the way home. I went promptly to sleep.
Over all FBT was absolutely fantastic. Everyone says that it’s one of the best experiences of training and they are absolutely right……Kelsi and Ian, you guys planned one excellent FBT. Lindsay, you’re the best TAPs leader ever and quite the dancer if I might add. Kelsay, Amanda R, Jessica, Kerry, Sabrina, Kidist, Jenny, Richard, Brice, Nick and Adrian….we all know our TAPs group was the best. En tu cara, other groups! Thanks for the memories La Libertad.
I’d like to sign off with the immortal words of one Brice Corts, occasionally know as Super Man or the sole member of Team Brice, “thank you for your happy.”
Back in Trujillo we kidnapped Ian and Kelsi to take them to a Starbucks and surprise them with the cards from our group. Then Lindsay surprised all of us with yummy chocolate treats. There are many, many reasons why Lindsay’s TAPs group is the best, but the fact that there is always food around is probably in the top five :-P We bummed around the mall for a bit and then headed back into Trujillo to kill time before catching the bus home. We traveled overnight so the bus didn’t leave until 10:30. Nick, Sabrina, Jessica and I walked around downtown Trujillo for a while and snacked on some street food for dinner. We had an 8 hour bus ride in the near future and didn’t really want to sit down, so Nick and I just wandered the streets of Trujillo looking at all the cool colonial buildings for a while. At the bus station we realized we were actually riding back to Lima on the cama cama beds! That means the seat leans all the way back flat and there is a foot part that comes up to make the rest of the bed. They even give you a pillow, a fleece blanket and dinner. Yeah buddy! We got back to Lima around 6:30 in the morning, and then had to catch a cab back to Santa Eulalia. We had a little bit of trouble when the two cab drivers taking the 8 of us back realized that they didn’t actually know where Santa Eulalia was. It’s farther from Lima than they thought so they tried to change the price on us half way through the trip. Luckily our driver was reasonable enough to realize that it was their mistake, but the other driver pulled off the highway and flagged down another cab to make the girls change cabs because he refused to drive all the way back. It was annoying but not terribly alarming, so after that little snafu we got all the way home. I went promptly to sleep.
Over all FBT was absolutely fantastic. Everyone says that it’s one of the best experiences of training and they are absolutely right……Kelsi and Ian, you guys planned one excellent FBT. Lindsay, you’re the best TAPs leader ever and quite the dancer if I might add. Kelsay, Amanda R, Jessica, Kerry, Sabrina, Kidist, Jenny, Richard, Brice, Nick and Adrian….we all know our TAPs group was the best. En tu cara, other groups! Thanks for the memories La Libertad.
I’d like to sign off with the immortal words of one Brice Corts, occasionally know as Super Man or the sole member of Team Brice, “thank you for your happy.”
July 22: are you espias? OR Harry Potter and the Dealthy Hallows Part 2…at last! (FBT Day 6)
So not only did I go to sleep fairly early the night before, but we got to sleep in until almost 8:30 on Friday morning….it was delightful to catch up on sleep. The morning got off to an interesting start when we woke up to find out that there was no water in our house, luckily none of us shower everyday anymore :-P We headed back over to the school to give our health charlas. Upon arrival we discovered that the school director decided Friday would be a field day instead and invited a whole other school over to join in on the activities. However; this sort of last minute changing of plans is fairly common, so it was another practical lesson for all of us. We eventually managed to convince some kids that they really did want to leave the voley game and come to a hygiene charla. Patti totally killed it….I could take classroom management lessons from her and she’s only 16. The kids even did really well, considering there were sports tournaments raging right outside the window. I’m pretty sure the back row of the room was a different set of kids every time we turned around though. Ha ha ha, I don’t blame them. They perked up for the tip-i-tap though; those things are always a hit. For lunch we went back to the same restaurant as before, it’s the only one in the town. The food was great though so we didn’t mind in the least. After lunch we walked around the town practicing some of our community diagnostic tools. Nick and I talked with the mayor and went to the police station to ask some questions…..they asked if we were spies :-P Its sort of a running joke that some people think we actually work for the CIA, so Nick and I just busted out laughing. After doing some interview’s we went to Kelsi’s house to meet her host family and eat some pineapple. Pineapple is the primary industry in Poroto, so they were very excited for us to try it. They won my vote. If anyone ever tries to sell you a pineapple from Poroto, buy it.
After the pineapple we clown cared….I mean combi-ed….our way back to Trujillo. We had the evening to ourselves so Amanda R, Jessica and I went to a little café to get some dinner. It was interesting to be back in a place where American tourists may happen by. I turns out that I’m confused by English now as well. I hear it’s a good sign though, when we start forgetting how to speak English so easily. Do keep this in mind when reading anything I write ha ha ha. At 9:30 Richard, Lindsay and I caught a cab over to the mall to see the 10:30 showing of the last Harry Potter. There was only one show a day in English and it was the latest. But whatever- I loved it!!! Learned a few fun things too: 1. You can, in fact, sneak Starbucks coffee into a movie theater in your purse if you want to….you have to walk a little funny so you don’t spill though and 2. Boom is “pom” in Spanish subtitles. Thank you, Professor McGonagall.
After the pineapple we clown cared….I mean combi-ed….our way back to Trujillo. We had the evening to ourselves so Amanda R, Jessica and I went to a little café to get some dinner. It was interesting to be back in a place where American tourists may happen by. I turns out that I’m confused by English now as well. I hear it’s a good sign though, when we start forgetting how to speak English so easily. Do keep this in mind when reading anything I write ha ha ha. At 9:30 Richard, Lindsay and I caught a cab over to the mall to see the 10:30 showing of the last Harry Potter. There was only one show a day in English and it was the latest. But whatever- I loved it!!! Learned a few fun things too: 1. You can, in fact, sneak Starbucks coffee into a movie theater in your purse if you want to….you have to walk a little funny so you don’t spill though and 2. Boom is “pom” in Spanish subtitles. Thank you, Professor McGonagall.
July 21: “So there are 11 beds and 16 of us…..?” (FBT Day 5)
Thursday was a pretty early morning for all of us. We needed to be packed and heading to our next site in time to teach classes that morning. We got breakfast on the way and then stuffed ourselves into another bus. Pretty much every time we would flag down a combi someone would say “oh man, there’s no way we’ll all fit in,” and somehow we always did…..luggage and all. I posit that the concept of a clown car may have originated in some obscure Peruvian town :-P Anyway, we arrived in Poroto with time to spare. So Kelsi took us all to the campestre to drop off our luggage, where they seemed to have forgotten we were coming. After some discussion, the owners told us they would have the rooms ready by the time we got back that night. (see blog title). After that we all went over to the school in Poroto to …wait for it….do some more charlas! Sabrina and I worked together to teach about the importance of recycling and how you can actually reuse materials yourself to make things instead of just turning stuff over to recycling plants. We taught the kids how to make beads out of old magazines and then we strung them all together to make bracelets. The students really seemed to enjoy themselves, even the boys. We were a little concerned when we walked in the class with a jewelry activity planned and saw that 2/3 of the class was male, but they were great about it. Both Sabrina and I had had tough classes the day before, so it was great to have our activities go well. I also loved learning how to make the beads myself…..i might make a bracelet or two of my own when I have the time The classes ended but we still had time before our next activity so we hung out with the kids during their break hour. It was great to just talk with the kids, instead of being worried about teaching. We went to another school in a little caseria called Mochal. This was a primaria school and we played dinamicas with the kids for about an hour. After lunch we went over to Kelsi’s health post to meet with her group of student health promoters. We divided into groups and worked with one of the kids to prepare a health charla for the following day. Kelsey and I worked with a girl named Patti and she pretty much has my vote when she decides to run for president. She’s the equivalent of a senior in the segundaria school and just basically rocks. We decided to talk about dental hygiene and hand washing….there was even a large model of teeth involved. Kelsey and I were pretty sleep deprived by this point of FBT so our planning session rapidly deteriorated into a comedy act :-P Once we started using the large teeth to talk through, Patty basically thought we were nuts. But we are, so it’s appropriate.
After the health post some of us started walking back to the campestre. We decided to cook dinner for ourselves that night, so we headed back to get started. It turned out the kitchens on in our little campestre houses had no gas for the stove or even cooking utensils for that matter ……however there was a restaurant that the owners let us use. We made banana oatmeal pancakes and veggie egg scramble. Yummy! There was even some peanut butter to smear on the pancakes! Life is sweet It was great fun to crowd into the kitchen and cook dinner together. Since we had planned everything that afternoon we were actually done for the night so Lindsey, Richard, Amanda, Kelsey and I had a dance party. We even took things a step further by setting up our cameras to take self-timed photos of our ridiculous dancing….. wait, I mean our amazing dancing. That’s where my current facebook photo came from, in case you’re wondering. The night got even better when Sabrina and I managed to snag a double bed to share and went to bed by 11.
After the health post some of us started walking back to the campestre. We decided to cook dinner for ourselves that night, so we headed back to get started. It turned out the kitchens on in our little campestre houses had no gas for the stove or even cooking utensils for that matter ……however there was a restaurant that the owners let us use. We made banana oatmeal pancakes and veggie egg scramble. Yummy! There was even some peanut butter to smear on the pancakes! Life is sweet It was great fun to crowd into the kitchen and cook dinner together. Since we had planned everything that afternoon we were actually done for the night so Lindsey, Richard, Amanda, Kelsey and I had a dance party. We even took things a step further by setting up our cameras to take self-timed photos of our ridiculous dancing….. wait, I mean our amazing dancing. That’s where my current facebook photo came from, in case you’re wondering. The night got even better when Sabrina and I managed to snag a double bed to share and went to bed by 11.
July 20: there are children on desks and my food still has a head, but we have hot water! (FBT Day 4)
Wednesday morning we packed up and headed for Otuzco, a city in the Sierra. We’re actually the only FBT group that got to see sites in both the Sierra and the Costa so that was pretty exciting. Otuzco is an amazing town and I hope to have time to go back to visit, apparently there are some pretty crazy festivals in town. Anyway, the ride to Otuzco was a little less cool. It was a bus that curved and bumped its way up a mountain. This genius decided to tempt fate even more by trying to read over her lesson plan on the bus…..considering that I can’t even read on an interstate at home I’m not really sure what I was thinking. My entrance to the town was a little less than grand when I stumbled off the bus still clutching the plastic bad I had been trying not to puke in. I wasn’t the only one feeling a little green around the gills either, but we only had enough time to take our stuff to the hostel before heading straight to the school to teach.
So the solo classes were a little bit of an adventure for everyone. For my class the teachers combined two classes so I had about 45 9-10 year olds. They really were sweet kids, but I had a few boys that wanted nothing more than to strangle each other and then the rest of them want to talk constantly about everything other than hand washing. I did my best to control the class, but it just didn’t really work. I definitely have some work to do on my classroom management skills. The only time they were all quiet was when I pulled out my knife to cut the bottom of the bottle for my tip-i-tap. Though it was incredibly amusing, I don’t think waving a knife around is a classroom management technique I should use very often :-P I left my class feeling like I had dealt with some difficult children, but it turns out I got off easy. Brice, another trainee, had a class where the kids got up and starting jumping from desk to desk. Apparently there are some photos floating around, hopefully I can get my hands on one. Either way I learned a new word to describe those kids: chuqui. It’s pronounced like chew + key. I just assumed it was another new word for me until my Spanish teach started explaining about this little, scary doll that kills people in a bunch of horror movies……got it yet? That’s how Peruvians spell Chucky. Then, because there is never a dull moment in Peace Corps, one of the teachers asked if we could all just go give charlas to the other classes too….this time we divided into pairs and picked one of our two charlas to present. Kelsey and I decided to talk about the environment, which was great fun because one her activities was walking into the room with a huge bag of trash and tossing it around while having a random conversation with each other. We were illustrating the point that throwing trash in a classroom is strange but few people think twice about throwing trash in the street.
After all the teaching excitement we went to lunch in town. This was a different experience from the other two sites so far because there were actually multiple restaurants to choose from. Otuzco is a city of about 12,000 so there’s more there. It’s now time for another food update and this one might actually be the biggest one yet…..I tried cuy. Not only that, but I tried cuy that still had a head attached. Yes there is a photo, I promise. I won’t go so far as to say that I like the cuy, but i am willing to give it another shot in the future. Next time I would prefer that my cuy not be staring at my while I gnaw on it though. Anyway, after lunch some of us went on a hike into the mountains around Otuzco. So beautiful! While we were hiking I had another “I can’t believe I’m here” moment. Some days I just can’t believe that real life for me right now means I can go hiking in the Peruvian Sierra. I’m a lucky girl. After the hike I went back and took the most amazing hot shower I’ve had in almost two months. The water was hot, not lukewarm and there was legit water pressure. For dinner we decided to sample the street food. This is a huge no-no when first getting to Peru because it’s basically a sure fire way to get the trots until your stomach becomes more accustomed. We haven’t really been here that long ourselves, but there was no way any of us were saying no to papitas reyenas. Delicious! After dinner was another group meeting and more charla assignments.
So the solo classes were a little bit of an adventure for everyone. For my class the teachers combined two classes so I had about 45 9-10 year olds. They really were sweet kids, but I had a few boys that wanted nothing more than to strangle each other and then the rest of them want to talk constantly about everything other than hand washing. I did my best to control the class, but it just didn’t really work. I definitely have some work to do on my classroom management skills. The only time they were all quiet was when I pulled out my knife to cut the bottom of the bottle for my tip-i-tap. Though it was incredibly amusing, I don’t think waving a knife around is a classroom management technique I should use very often :-P I left my class feeling like I had dealt with some difficult children, but it turns out I got off easy. Brice, another trainee, had a class where the kids got up and starting jumping from desk to desk. Apparently there are some photos floating around, hopefully I can get my hands on one. Either way I learned a new word to describe those kids: chuqui. It’s pronounced like chew + key. I just assumed it was another new word for me until my Spanish teach started explaining about this little, scary doll that kills people in a bunch of horror movies……got it yet? That’s how Peruvians spell Chucky. Then, because there is never a dull moment in Peace Corps, one of the teachers asked if we could all just go give charlas to the other classes too….this time we divided into pairs and picked one of our two charlas to present. Kelsey and I decided to talk about the environment, which was great fun because one her activities was walking into the room with a huge bag of trash and tossing it around while having a random conversation with each other. We were illustrating the point that throwing trash in a classroom is strange but few people think twice about throwing trash in the street.
After all the teaching excitement we went to lunch in town. This was a different experience from the other two sites so far because there were actually multiple restaurants to choose from. Otuzco is a city of about 12,000 so there’s more there. It’s now time for another food update and this one might actually be the biggest one yet…..I tried cuy. Not only that, but I tried cuy that still had a head attached. Yes there is a photo, I promise. I won’t go so far as to say that I like the cuy, but i am willing to give it another shot in the future. Next time I would prefer that my cuy not be staring at my while I gnaw on it though. Anyway, after lunch some of us went on a hike into the mountains around Otuzco. So beautiful! While we were hiking I had another “I can’t believe I’m here” moment. Some days I just can’t believe that real life for me right now means I can go hiking in the Peruvian Sierra. I’m a lucky girl. After the hike I went back and took the most amazing hot shower I’ve had in almost two months. The water was hot, not lukewarm and there was legit water pressure. For dinner we decided to sample the street food. This is a huge no-no when first getting to Peru because it’s basically a sure fire way to get the trots until your stomach becomes more accustomed. We haven’t really been here that long ourselves, but there was no way any of us were saying no to papitas reyenas. Delicious! After dinner was another group meeting and more charla assignments.
July 19: “it’s like two Indian tribes meeting in the woods” (FBT Day 3)
On Tuesday morning we went out to Ian’s site in Bello Horizonte, it’s a really small. On our way to the town we stopped at the nearby school to spend the morning teaching and observing classes. To kick things off, Kidist and I taught an English class to 10 and 11 years olds. We worked on numbers and colors. The kids were really cool and seemed interested. The teacher also participated in our activities, which helps keep the kids in line. The teacher actually asked us if we would come back the next week to teach again….I would love to help out, but I think the 9 hour commute from Lima would be a little much :-P After our English classes we observed Kelsi and Ian give a charla to the kids about the importance of communicating with parents. After watching though we were split up amongst the other segundaria classrooms to give charlas on the same topic. Kidist and I went in with what we thought were pretty good ideas, but neither of us felt like the class went well. We had a lot of trouble getting the kids to participate. That’s something we have all been told to expect in our classrooms at first, so it was a good lesson. We also had some kids with attitude problems, which was irritating, but the tech trainers said we both did a pretty good job dealing with them. Over all that morning’s lesson was to have WAY more planned that you think you’ll need. Factoring discussion time into a session plan only really works if the kids actually talk :-P
After the school we went to the restaurant that’s nearby for lunch before heading all the way to Bello Horizonte. So like I said, it’s pretty small, but there happens to be another group of gringos working in the town as well. It’s a project with students from Yale and University of Ohio to build a health post over the next three years. It’s a really cool project and it was an absolute riot when we came walking up over the hill and encountered another group speaking English. Everyone just stopped talking and stared all confused- like for a few seconds. I was particularly excited to meet this group because it reminded me that we all may have to opportunity to work with other charities or NGO groups in our own sites. After a fond, English farewell to the health post kids and a walking tour of Bello Horizonte (roughly 15 minutes); we went to an aldea (orphanage) that Ian works with. There are about 55 kids at the aldea right now and unfortunately most of them are there because they had to be removed from their families. This aldea seems pretty amazing. The kids live in small groups with a tia to look after them. And we certainly can’t prove this, but the tias just might be angels. Most of them have families of their own but they live 6 days a week at the center looking after the kids. According to Ian they work for nothing some months if the money from the government doesn’t come on time. It turned out that some of the residents of the aldea were actually in our classes that we taught in the school, so we got to hang out with some of the kids more. We turned up to the aldea with grand plans of educational games and self-esteem activities, but the younger kids saw a big group of gringos and just wanted to play. So we busted out the volley ball, soccer ball, football and Frisbee…..all on the same concha mind you, so sometimes you had to catch the Frisbee and kick the soccer ball with in seconds of each other. It was great!
After the aldea we caught a combi back to Trujillo. We had our evening meeting and we all got assigned a solo charla for the next day. Yikes! I was assigned to teach 8 and 9 year olds about the importance of hand-washing and how to make a tip-i-tap. A tip-i-tap is a wonderful little device that allows you to run water to wash your hands with even if there is no running water in your house. In Peru it’s very common to only have running water for a few hours a day. A tip-i-tap is just a plastic water bottle hung upside down with the bottom of the bottle cut off so you can pour in water. Then you loosen the cap on the bottle just enough to allow a trickle of water out. You can even save the bottom of the bottle to use as a soap dish if you’re feeling fancy. The idea is to fill up the bottle when you have running water and then use it when the water is turned off. Pretty cool, huh? Yeah I think so too, but at the time I was more concerned with figuring out how to teach a class by myself for an hour. After the meeting I went out for pizza with Ian, Sabrina and Richard. This pizza was amazing; it had real tomato sauce on it! After dinner I went back to the hostel to prepare my lesson plan and convince myself to not be nervous….it didn’t work :-P
After the school we went to the restaurant that’s nearby for lunch before heading all the way to Bello Horizonte. So like I said, it’s pretty small, but there happens to be another group of gringos working in the town as well. It’s a project with students from Yale and University of Ohio to build a health post over the next three years. It’s a really cool project and it was an absolute riot when we came walking up over the hill and encountered another group speaking English. Everyone just stopped talking and stared all confused- like for a few seconds. I was particularly excited to meet this group because it reminded me that we all may have to opportunity to work with other charities or NGO groups in our own sites. After a fond, English farewell to the health post kids and a walking tour of Bello Horizonte (roughly 15 minutes); we went to an aldea (orphanage) that Ian works with. There are about 55 kids at the aldea right now and unfortunately most of them are there because they had to be removed from their families. This aldea seems pretty amazing. The kids live in small groups with a tia to look after them. And we certainly can’t prove this, but the tias just might be angels. Most of them have families of their own but they live 6 days a week at the center looking after the kids. According to Ian they work for nothing some months if the money from the government doesn’t come on time. It turned out that some of the residents of the aldea were actually in our classes that we taught in the school, so we got to hang out with some of the kids more. We turned up to the aldea with grand plans of educational games and self-esteem activities, but the younger kids saw a big group of gringos and just wanted to play. So we busted out the volley ball, soccer ball, football and Frisbee…..all on the same concha mind you, so sometimes you had to catch the Frisbee and kick the soccer ball with in seconds of each other. It was great!
After the aldea we caught a combi back to Trujillo. We had our evening meeting and we all got assigned a solo charla for the next day. Yikes! I was assigned to teach 8 and 9 year olds about the importance of hand-washing and how to make a tip-i-tap. A tip-i-tap is a wonderful little device that allows you to run water to wash your hands with even if there is no running water in your house. In Peru it’s very common to only have running water for a few hours a day. A tip-i-tap is just a plastic water bottle hung upside down with the bottom of the bottle cut off so you can pour in water. Then you loosen the cap on the bottle just enough to allow a trickle of water out. You can even save the bottom of the bottle to use as a soap dish if you’re feeling fancy. The idea is to fill up the bottle when you have running water and then use it when the water is turned off. Pretty cool, huh? Yeah I think so too, but at the time I was more concerned with figuring out how to teach a class by myself for an hour. After the meeting I went out for pizza with Ian, Sabrina and Richard. This pizza was amazing; it had real tomato sauce on it! After dinner I went back to the hostel to prepare my lesson plan and convince myself to not be nervous….it didn’t work :-P
July 18: surf school and fluoride treatments for 4-year-olds (FBT Day 2)
Monday we went to a town called Puerto Malabrigo. It’s the site of PCVs name Erin and Keith and it’s about 1 ½ hours out of Trujillo. This town is also a surfer town. Actually it’s in competition for the longest left handed wave(?) in the world. Now I couldn’t begin to tell you what that means, but all the surfers talked about it like it was something to be excited over :-P That morning we went to the health post to look around and meet up with the dentist. From there we all went to an inicial school (basically Peruvian kindergarten) to watch the dentist give a charla about dental hygiene. After the talk we took all the kids to brush their teeth and then used a Q-Tip to apply fluoride gel to their teeth. The kids were SO cute and it was going great until one of the little boys puked on Kerry. Apparently some of the kids didn’t think the fluoride tasted too great ha ha ha. After the dentist’s talk we went over to the special education school, they’re called CEBEs here. The director of the school gave us a presentation over the work done in special education schools and the problems faced by the special needs population. Very few schools in Peru practice inclusion of special needs students and many towns don’t have CEBEs, so there are a lot of special needs children who “fall through the cracks,” so to speak. It’s unfortunate, but improvements are being made. After the presentation we got to spend time with the students in the CEBE. We actually hung out with them while they brushed their teeth as well; Erin is a health volunteer, so this is a project of hers. The students were amazing! Sadly at lunch Erin told us her take on the CEBE director. Apparently she puts on a pretty good show during presentations, but she’s a bit of a problem herself. Erin tried to get a grant to do a project at the school, but the director wouldn’t give the appropriate information because Erin wouldn’t agree to use the money to buy a cell phone for her. Also at the beginning of the school year Erin went with the director out to neighboring pueblos to find students who might need to attend the CEBE. After telling the parents their students could attend and that the municipality might even be able to help with the cost of traveling to the school; the director turned the names of those students in to get the money from the government but the students never came to the school. Overall we were much less impressed with the director by the end of lunch.
After lunch we went to the beach to meet up with the surf school. The kids have to clean up parts of the beach before they are allowed to go out and surf, so we cleaned with them. A few people from out group actually put on wetsuits and got in the water with the kids, the rest of us hung out on the beach in the sun. Back in Trujillo that night we got pollo a la brasa for dinner. It’s one of the most common dishes I’ve seen and its super tasty. After dinner, Lindsay and I decided we needed another cup of coffee so we stopped by our little coffee shop again. I had already forgotten how nice it was to sit and chat in coffee shops, that’s not really part of small town life in Peru. Hmmm…..maybe I’ll change that. I could have coffee hour with the older kids at my site. I need to keep that in mind. After coffee I went back to the hostel to work on my lesson plans for the next day.
After lunch we went to the beach to meet up with the surf school. The kids have to clean up parts of the beach before they are allowed to go out and surf, so we cleaned with them. A few people from out group actually put on wetsuits and got in the water with the kids, the rest of us hung out on the beach in the sun. Back in Trujillo that night we got pollo a la brasa for dinner. It’s one of the most common dishes I’ve seen and its super tasty. After dinner, Lindsay and I decided we needed another cup of coffee so we stopped by our little coffee shop again. I had already forgotten how nice it was to sit and chat in coffee shops, that’s not really part of small town life in Peru. Hmmm…..maybe I’ll change that. I could have coffee hour with the older kids at my site. I need to keep that in mind. After coffee I went back to the hostel to work on my lesson plans for the next day.
July 17: Welcome to Tujillo, let the eating begin…..(FBT Day 1)
So we arrived in Trujillo around 7 ish in the morning. Ian and Kelsi, the PCVs that led our FBT, met us at the station which was nice because we didn’t have to think very hard about how to find the hostel. The hostel is right near the plaza in Trujillo and it’s in this really neat old colonial building. We had time to settle into our rooms and take showers before everything started. That morning a bunch of the PCVs from La Libertad came to Trujillo to meet us and answer some questions. After the PCV panel we had a scavenger hunt around Trujillo. We had to find various types of stores and food. We didn’t find all of the answers; but Kelsey, Sabrina and I did get invited to a party which was cool even if we couldn’t go. After the scavenger hunt we took a combi out to a town called Huanchaco. It’s a TOTAL surfer town and apparently a pretty cool place to vacation. Since we were on the coast we decided it was only appropriate to have ceviche. Yum! After lunch we walked along the road that lines the beach looking at all the clothes and crafts for sale. We also went on the hunt for dessert. You’ll see this is a theme throughout the week. A good overall explanation is that we ate everything that wasn’t nailed down…..and some of us might have even tried to eat some things that were :-P Anyway, on the hunt for the panqueques house we split an order of picarones. These are the Peruvian addition to the grand culinary tradition of frying bread and covering it in something sweet. Picture a doughnut shaped funnel cake drizzled in honey. A little farther down the beach we found the panqueques in this amazing little restaurant run by a Dutch ex-pat. So we all ordered what amounted to crepes. I got one with chocolate and my friend Nick got one with ice-cream so we could cut them in half and trade. There is a photo of Nick and I each trying to eat a crepe that we rolled up around a scoop of ice cream before it melted all over our hands :-P
Back in Trujillo that night we discovered a great little coffee shop right next door to our hostel, so we piled into the couches and let Richard do tarot readings for us. Later that night Lindsay, Richard, Kerry, Kidist, Jenny and I set off for the mall to see the last Harry Potter movie, but sadly the tickets were more than we thought and not everyone wanted to pay. So instead we got the bright idea to go in search of this pizza place Lindsay knew about. The story was is the guy goes to the states twice a year to buy mozzarella and real pepperoni (which is hard to find around here for some reason). It turns out our directions were not exactly accurate…..an hour and half of running around Trujillo later though we did get some pretty excellent pizza. Nothing like a good food adventure in a new city :-P
Back in Trujillo that night we discovered a great little coffee shop right next door to our hostel, so we piled into the couches and let Richard do tarot readings for us. Later that night Lindsay, Richard, Kerry, Kidist, Jenny and I set off for the mall to see the last Harry Potter movie, but sadly the tickets were more than we thought and not everyone wanted to pay. So instead we got the bright idea to go in search of this pizza place Lindsay knew about. The story was is the guy goes to the states twice a year to buy mozzarella and real pepperoni (which is hard to find around here for some reason). It turns out our directions were not exactly accurate…..an hour and half of running around Trujillo later though we did get some pretty excellent pizza. Nothing like a good food adventure in a new city :-P
July 16: FBT prep and my first pollada
I basically spent Saturday getting ready to leave town later that night. I packed up my stuff for FBT, which was sort of like putting together a puzzle. Lindsay told us to bring the smallest bags that we could, so I decided to fit everything into my book bad and a shoulder bag. In ended up being fine, but I wasn’t sure how it would work out at first :-P After packing I went to the locoturio for a little while, just to say hey to folks before I left town for a while. When I got on facebook book I realized that Tucker week at the beach was starting back in the states. I’m glad I was going to La Libertad for the week or I might have gotten a little sad over missing it. I love you guys and I hope it’s a blast!
Saturday afternoon I went up to Santa Eulalia with Jeff and Richard to go to a pollada for Kidist’s mom. A pollada is a really common type of fundraiser around here. The food was great and we were all happy to help out Kidist’s host mom. After lunch a few of us sat around Kidist’s living room and took turns using her internet. That was the first time I had been on skype since I got down here.
After the pollada I went back to my house and hung around until it was time to go. Sabrina, Kelsey, Amanda and I all rode to Lima together and our taxi driver ended up being some host cousin of mine. Apparently Ramiro was going to drive us, but then Peru won the soccer game so and the other guys in the family made this younger cousin take us so they could stay and party. Guess everyone has to take a turn being the low man on the totem pole :-P We didn’t get caught in much traffic so we got to the bus station early and played cards while we waited. Lindsay showed up with Duncan Doughnuts for us and then once we got on the bus we found out the seats lay almost entirely flat….and they have pull out foot rests. Over all FBT was getting off to a fantastic start!
Saturday afternoon I went up to Santa Eulalia with Jeff and Richard to go to a pollada for Kidist’s mom. A pollada is a really common type of fundraiser around here. The food was great and we were all happy to help out Kidist’s host mom. After lunch a few of us sat around Kidist’s living room and took turns using her internet. That was the first time I had been on skype since I got down here.
After the pollada I went back to my house and hung around until it was time to go. Sabrina, Kelsey, Amanda and I all rode to Lima together and our taxi driver ended up being some host cousin of mine. Apparently Ramiro was going to drive us, but then Peru won the soccer game so and the other guys in the family made this younger cousin take us so they could stay and party. Guess everyone has to take a turn being the low man on the totem pole :-P We didn’t get caught in much traffic so we got to the bus station early and played cards while we waited. Lindsay showed up with Duncan Doughnuts for us and then once we got on the bus we found out the seats lay almost entirely flat….and they have pull out foot rests. Over all FBT was getting off to a fantastic start!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)