starting over

I guess I forgot how fast the first few weeks go by when you get to a new site. I am meeting new people, learning names, finding my way to new places around town, trying to find a new routine and understand my new host family's routine, and generally following around Laura the 16er volunteer who has been in Peru exactly 1 year longer than Diamond and I. Every night by 9:30 I can't keep my eyes open I'm so tired. I got kind of sick this week. Which is weird since I expected here in the 'city' things would be way more hygienic than they were previously in the campo. Maybe, I had resistance to those campo germs after 7 months and now there are new bugs shocking my system.

Diamond and I hiked up to a community called Ayaque on Wednesday morning. We went up there with a woman who works for an NGO in the area; she and her co-workers do personalized house visits for every pregnant woman and mother with a child under 1 year. It is quite impressive what these PREDECI people do going door to door bringing the healthcare to the people hardest to reach. I have included some pictures below of the path up to Ayaque. For the record when people told me that Ayaque was nearby I was not expecting a 2 hour hike. First it was about 45 minutes of switch backs that went straight up the side of the mountain and after reaching the top we still had a ways to hike in. I was still a little sick the day of the hike and I had a horrible moment where I thought to myself: this is it, I'm going to poop my pants right now. Practically every volunteer has a pooping of the pants episode and I have so far managed to avoid one. The climb almost got me. It was a close call, but I'm still in it for that bet I made.

When we finally got to Ayaque, Yovanni the PREDECI promoter we were with told us that the people in Ayaque have no electricity, no water, and no latrines. Ayaque sounds like a great place to do some construction projects paired with health promotion classes; hand washing, safe water, nutrition, tooth brushing, and hygiene. Even though the families in Ayaque are extremely poor, people still offered us food when we visited their homes. It is a Peruvian custom to invite people to eat and it is a sign of your thanks. The more food you are given the more appreciation you are being shown by your host. So for a very poor family to offer you food it is a very important honor and it would be highly offensive to turn them down or not to eat it all. It's something that we volunteers often joke about amongst ourselves. If one volunteer buys a beer or food and offers to share with you, and then you offer to pay them back (since we are all pretty poor here), they can always play the 'I just invitar-ed you, therefore you aren't allowed to offer to pay me' card.

At one of the homes the woman in charge of the household offered the three of us; Diamond, Yovanni, and I, huge heaping mugs full of cooked gourd. It is kind of like eating the guts of a pumpkin cooked up with a bit of milk and sugar. This dish is almost always served cold and people spit out the black shells of seeds onto the ground while they eat. It doesn't taste bad per say, but I did not want to eat such a giant portion and I felt really sick already that day. Yovanni silently whipped out a plastic bag from her backpack and when our hostess wasn't looking she would quietly quickly shovel her chiclayo into the bag. The three of us were sitting on a long wooden bench against the side of the house, made out of a board of wood balanced on a rocks and covered with a handwoven blanket. After I had scooped out most of my chiclayo into the bag I switched mugs with Diamond, but then I made a grave mistake. I didn't keep a good hold of the plastic bag and big glob of chiclayo fell out plopping on the ground. Diamond covered for me right away by moving her feet to block the spill from the view of the family. Then I had to nonchalantly scoop up the mess without the family noticing. Yovanni and I had almost gave it all away with our suppressed laughter at my clumsiness.

Later on Wednesday Diamond, Laura, and I went to the town down the road called Conchan to visit another volunteer friend Ellie. It was so cozy to have a group of us. Ellie showed us around her town and we went back to her house to cook dinner. We attempted to make burritos. I elected that we use lentils since they are cheap and easy to find here, but none of us had ever cooked lentils before. They turned out a little tasteless, but avacado, homemade tortilla, tomato, onions, and tobasco sauce made up for it completely. Also Ellie invitar-ed us some homemade peanut butter and apples, which tasted like America! It was wonderful. Ellie taught us how to make homemade granola for breakfast the next day in her host families electric oven and we drank real coffee-not the instant stuff I drink daily while I imagine all the free coffee I drank at Sweetwaters before I left. 

The next morning we worked on painting a sign that Ellie is making for a library project she is doing in her town. We played What a Girl Wants in the background on my laptop-it's an old Amanda Bynes teenage girl flick about a girl who grows up with her single mom, going to England and finding her dad, who turns out to be Brittish semi-royalty Colin Firth. It was nice to just pretend to be in the states for a while. Ellie even had a recent Glamour magazine that her mom had sent her. I was in heaven.

This week went by fast. Things are still a little awkward around the new host family, but they are very friendly so I'm sure it will turn out fine. I feel optimistic about project work especially with Diamond here too. My host brother is still following me around a little too closely, but I am confident that I will become less interesting as the newness wears off. This week I received emails from U of M, Michigan State, and Oakland medical schools with links to their secondary applications. I'm still waiting on Wayne State-which is were I really want to go when I get back.

Chau for now,

kb

market day in Tacabamba, from left to right: Diamond, my host brother Sergio, Ellie, Me, Laura, and in front Rinaldo and Angie-Laura and Diamond's adorable host siblings.

On our house visits in Ayaque

pictures from HIVAids classes Diamond and I are helping Laura with. 

This is a game that helps demonstrate how the imune system works.

okay, so I uploaded this picture badly.  However, this is the trail up to Ayaque, the white pathway up the mountain.

my host bro Sergio and some neighbor boys climbed up the hill above my new home with me.  There is a big white Jesus statue up there.

view from Jesus' feet, again there's Ayaque path

Friday night we attended a beauty contest.  Although there were only 4 contestants the whole thing went on for over 3 hours.  Between the 3 times the girls walked for the judges, local kids did dances, poetry, sang songs, and did what they called 'dramas'-those were the most painful.  Laura was asked to be a judge.

teaching the HIV/Aids class with high school kids

views from my room; below is the main living area.  the stairs lead up to my room and under the stairs is the bathroom.  the sink is on the left side.  the door at the bottom of the stairs leads to the kitchen and restaurant in the front of the house.

my room, it's a little messy right now.  I'm hoping to get a bookshelf soon, that'll help a lot.