Diamond's Birthday, breast feeding marches, peruvian humor, and fish holes

This week has gone by relatively fast. On Monday was our site visit with Emilia-that was a long day. Then on Tuesday Diamond and I went up to Ayaque with Yovani. Also Diamond's host family threw her a special surprise birthday breakfast. Laura made pancakes and shared the Costco size maple syrup her family brought for her when they recently visited. Plus, the host family made tamales and birthday cake.

The Peruvians weren't super impressed with the maple syrup which was disappointing since to us it was like eating a taste of home. We sang happy birthday in English, then in Spanish, then a verse I didn't recognize, and finally they told Diamond that she had to take a bite out of the cake. This was the first time I have heard of this tradition, but where I lived before in the campo people don't usually have cake on their birthdays since almost nobody has an oven.

Diamond, Yovani, and I hiked up to a nearby community called Ayaque. Diamond and I are planning on doing a big latrine building project in Ayaque. Things happen slowy though so right now we are spending time writing up a draft of a plan and accompanying Yovani on her house visits with mom's in Ayaque. At the end of September we have a community meeting lined up in Ayaque and we are planning on getting families signed up to be involved at that time.

In the afternoon on Tuesday the three of us; Diamond, Laura, and I, went to the health post to give a presentation to the doctor and nurse in charge of child health about Peace Corps. Our boss Emilia asked us to do the presentation in an effort to get the health post to work with us more. They are very understaffed and don't really work with us very much. It seems like they can't bring themselves to take the small amount of time to coordinate with us volunteers, and if the would we could do a lot of great promotion work basically for them. We're talking work that the health post could take credit for on their monthly informes to the ministry of health, but the health post will not take the time to plan and coordinate with us. It is super frustrating. I hope the presentation helped.

On Wednesday in the afternoon we went out to a community with Melva another Predesci facilitator. Predesci is this amazing NGO that is funded by the regional government of Cajamarca. They work in rural health promotion; focusing in on pregnant women and women with children under 1 year. They are pretty much Peace Corps health volunteers on steroids. They are Peruvians so they speak the language, know the system, and they have very specific jobs to carry out designated by their NGO-unlike us volunteers since when we show up we are supposed to work with the community to develop a project that the people want.

The Predesci representatives are currently working on forming these groups called CODECOs; Comite de Desarrollo Comunitario or Commitee for Community Development, in the small poorer surrounding communities outside of Tacabamba itself. Diamond and I attended, because we thought it would be a great way to observe how to organize a working commitee since we are going to need to form 2 commitees for our latrine project. The community that we went to was the one where Laura did her latrine project and she needed to talk with them about some upcoming visits they would be having.

The meeting started really late, but when it finally started it was productive. It was really helpful for me to see how Melva ran the meeting and helped the people get themselves a little more organized. The idea behind these commitees is that now the people can represent themselves a little more. Instead of waiting around for the municipality in Tacabamba or for an NGO to come in and give them construction projects, they can now go directly to the municipality themselves with their requests and ideas. As a volunteer our job is to kind of hold our rural community's hand through the process of asking the municipality for money and working with the health post. The goal is that by the end of a big project the community can organize itself more and work together to do community projects. Sometimes it is a bit of a foreign concept here; to join together and get things done for the community as a whole.

Anyhow, at the end of the meeting I was able to make a short announcement about doing an older adult health class. I was surprised by how much interest there was. We'll see if the people actually show up to my meetings, but I now have a list of 15 older adults that way they are interested in coming to educative sessions about how to take care of their health. I am super excited to work with them. I think our first session is going to be on diabetes.

Yesterday I talked with my old host mom Dalila for the first time in a while.  She asked me how I was doing, I asked how the family was doing, and I also asked about how my 3 'boyfriends' were doing.  In San Juan my host family had this running joke with me that I had 3 boyfriends; the director of the secondary school, the care taker of the primary school, and our 105 year old neighbor.  The director of the secondary school was sort of friendly with me, but he always managed to avoid me when I needed to work with him on coordinating for the youth health promoters.  I privately liked to call him Warrio, because of his mustache's striking resemblance to the video game character.  The primary school care taker is a really nice guy-he even gave me an exta set of keys to use during my english classes.  The 105 year neighbor man is named Delphin which means dolphin in Spanish.  I met him when I was doing my community diagnostic report, because I interviewed him to ask about how San Juan was founded. 

I asked Dalila about how my 'boyfriends' were doing and she told me that Delphin had died.  I expressed that I was sorry to hear the news  and while I was talking she quickly replied 'he's not dead, I was just kidding.'  I have to give Dalila a lot of credit, because she totally get's me.  I was shocked that she made a joke like that, because it is so outside of what I consider to be 'peruvian humor' and it was hilarious.  The conversation ended with me promising to go visit San Juan next weekend.  We are planning on eating Priscilla my favorite pig.  I only hope that I get there early enough in the day to give her a good belly rub before we eat her for dinner!

Also yesterday the kids had school off.  I really couldn't tell you what the holiday was and neither could my brother Sergio.  There is this wierd hole in the floor where Sergio is trying to raise fish that he caught in the river.  It's really big and nicely tiled on the inside.  Maybe it was once a water tank of some kind.  Every once in a while my host mom Rosa asks little Sergio (that's what we call him, not to be confused with his dad; big Sergio) to wash out the hole in the floor where the fish lives.  This is so bizarre on so many levels that I had to take a picture. 

My understanding is that the end goal is for the fish to become big enough to eat and they can begin breeding them for a continuous supply of fish at the restaurant.  However, I have never seen anyone open that hatch to the fish to feed them.  To clean the fish tank/hole Sergio has to bale out all the water and catch the fish in a bucket.  The hole is much deeper than he is tall, so he practically has to swim during parts of the process.  I took a picture, becuase it just struck me as so ridiculous to have a hole in the floor where you keep fish.

Chau for now and thanks for reading,
kb

I added this picture as a reminder of what the kitchen was like when I lived in San Juan as a juxtaposition to the beautiful kitchen in Tacabamba at Diamond and Laura's host family's house.

This is a view from during our walk back down to Tacabamba from Ayaque

Diamond and I

a parade for the week of 'lactancia materna exclusiva' or 'exclusive breast feeding'

this mom's sign says that babies under 6 months should only drink breast milk not cow's milk

Sergio cleaning out the hole in the floor where the river fish live.

Diamond's surprise birthday breakfast.

pancakes with maple syrup!

Ancash Adventures

July 28^th is Peruvian Independence Day and volunteers get to take 4 free vacation days. I felt kind of guilty going on vacation when I only have been in my new town for 2 weeks, but I also really wanted to get out of Cajamarca for a while. A couple other volunteers planned the whole vacation to a department called Ancash. Ancash is internationally known amongst big time hikers and moutain climbers. The capital city of Ancash; Huaraz, is a pretty touristy place. We wanted to come for a visit to eat delicious food and try to do a little hiking. We have been talking about the bagels and micro brewery beer for months amongst ourselves in Cajamarca. (bagels are really hard to find and there is a cafe in Huaraz known amongst the volunteers for it's awesome breakfast food-especially bagels)

It is a long trip between Cajamarca and Ancash. First I had to get myself to Cajamarca city which took about 6 hours of bus rides. Next I took an overnight bus between Cajamarca and Trujillo; a bigger city on the coast. The following day I had another night bus to catch between Trujillo and Huaraz, but it left me with a day of waiting around by myself in Trujillo. Trujillo is a big city and I don't know it too well, but I found out that the grocery store in Trujillo sells green tabasco sauce, Heinz ketchup, and Snyder's brand pretzels. I was super excited to eat a big mac at the McDonalds-I hadn't eaten McDonalds since last year before I left the states. Peruvian McDonalds unfortunately does not have a dollar menu, but along with ketchup and mustard you can also serve yourself aji or peruvian hot sauce on your burger or you can have an Inka Cola instead of a Coke for your drink.

Thursday I finally made it to my destination Huaraz, Ancash. I met up with 4 other volunteer friends; Ellie and Jennifer also from Cajamarca, Allison a U of M grad too who lives in a department called Piura, and Julianne who lives in Lambayaque. The first thing we did after we put our things down at the hostel was to go eat bagels and drink good coffee. We spent the rest of the day walking around Huaraz and planning which hike to go on. We ate delicious Indian food-I know can you believe it Indian food in Peru!

On the second day in Huaraz we woke up at 5am to catch a combe; which is sort of like a extra large van that serves as the main form of public transportation, out to the national park where the girls had picked a hike. The hike was to a glacial lake called laguna 69, and it was supposed to be about 3 hours from the trailhead. The driver we had hired to drive us up to the park from the main highway where the combe let us off told us that we needed to meet him back at the trailhead at 3pm because he said the park would close at 3:30.

I'm not an experienced hiker, none of us are. The altitude got to us fast. The views were amazing and we were so determined to get to the lagoon. We started out the hike with a young Czech couple, but they passed us pretty early on. The directions we received from the driver were that after the first little lake it would only be about a half an hour until the big lake. So when we reached the first lake exhausted and freezing we just kept walking. The trouble was that the trail was pretty much unmarked after that and we were starting to run low on time.

So the sad part is that we did not make it up to the laguna 69, because we were starting to get worried about missing our car out of the park. Plus, we were exhausted and the trail was unmarked so we weren't even sure if we were climbing the right trail. We went back to the little lake to eat a packed bologna and cheese sandwiches. It snowed while we ate.

I got it in my head before we went to Ancash that I wanted to do a naked lake jump. It's something that a lot of volunteers do and I thought I should do it since I probably won't have another chance to jump in a glacial lake. It was very cold and I didn't really jump in. It was more of a fast dunk during which I shouted curse words. I cut my foot on something in the lake, but I didn't notice until we got back to our hostel. I must have been too cold to feel it very much. When we got back my sock was full of blood.

On our third day we went out to visit 2 other volunteers that live in Ancash. Their site was beautiful. We cooked lentil burgers and sweet potato fries on Katie and Ben's cocina mejorada or improved cook stove. It was so nice to see them. Katie and Ben are a married couple. Katie is a health volunteer and Ben is an environment volunteer. Their home was so cozy and nice. They are so happy and that made me feel good.

And that was the last day of vacation. After that Ellie, Jennifer, and I did the 2 days of overnight bus back to Cajamarca. In Trujillo we met up with another volunteer Christina and we all went to see the new Batman movie at the theater, and it was IN ENGLISH!!!!! We also walked around the stores in the mall and it felt like we were in the states a little bit. Especially, this one store called Sodimac which is bascially Peruvian Lowes or Home Depot.

The rest of the week was mostly uneventful so I'll just include highlights. My new host brother Sergio turned 12 and we had a really nice family lunch. He and I made a banana bread for a cake, but he also had some cake that his mom bought from a bakery. He also got a new puppy for his birthday. It is the tiniest dog I have ever seen. I worry she is too little to be away from her momma yet, but they assure me she'll be fine. Her name is Lulu and she is so little she doesn't even know how to eat food yet. Most of the roof guinea pigs that my host family raises are bigger than her.

Diamond and I got our first real assignment. We planned and gave a very successful training session for local health promoters. The topics were good communication, how to plan a class or training session, and how to do a good house visit. In Peru home visits are emphasized for more rural communities, but the health posts are often too overwhelmed with patients to go out and do door to door promotion. Local volunteers are supposed to get trained and help work as an extension of the health post, but it doesn't usually work that way. In my previous community the health post would claim a list of names as trained health promoters and gather the money from the ministry of health to fund the program. However, those people didn't actually attend any trainings or do any health promotion. It was just a way for the health workers to get a little extra money for parties or buying lunch.

I finished up all my secondary medical school applications, except for Wayne State I'm still waiting on them to send me theirs. I am so lucky to have my amazing Mom, Dad, and friends Carol, Laura, and Diamond who helped me proof read all the essays. I really appreciate all the help.

Also Diamond and I went to Conchon to visit Ellie to inaugurate her new gas cook stove. We ate sweet potatoes and tea for dinner. And I learned how to make a fishtail braid on Ellie. It was a good 2 weeks.

Chau for now,

kb

the pictures are a little out of order...

Dinner at the Indian food restaurant Chili Heaven

views during the hike

Host sister Yossy and brother Sergio at the family birthday lunch

Lulu the world's smallest dog

Lulu meeting a baby guinea pig

Diamond and I at our first real charla or talk

preping for the lake jump

lake jump surprise

Jennifer said that this donkey stunk

Jennifer and I rode the whole way up to the national park in the trunk of this guy's car to save a couple soles.  Boy was that an uncomfortable ride.  The road was really bad and one point the driver even had to pull over to change a popped tire.

visiting Katie and Ben in Shirapucru

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.

Site Change

Since the last time I posted on my blog a lot has happened. The strikes and protests in Cajamarca escalated and 3 protestors were killed on July 3^rd. On the 4^th an official 'state of emergency' was declared and the people of Bambamarca flooded the streets to protest the killings. The military police used tear gas bombs to dissipate crowds. One local man was shot in the back while he was trying to run away from a tear gas bomb. The following day Peace Corps decided it was getting a little too crazy and the regional coordinator for Cajamarca; Jose, came to take me and my two site mates out of the district.

By that time Peace Corps had told me that they were moving me to a new site about 3 ½ hours from Bambamarca. They also decided to move another volunteer from my training group who also lived in a town surrounding Bambamarca; my friend Diamond, and we are now going to be site mates. For several days Peace Corps had the Bambamarca area volunteers stay at a hostel in Chota; this is where we go for regional meetings and it is also were the closest Serpost is located, and wait until we were cleared to return to our sites to pack up our things.

During those couple days waiting I was able to go visit my new site Tacabamba, with Jose. There is a current volunteer Laura who lives in Tacabamba right now-she has been in Peru exactly one year longer than Diamond and I. So I will get to have 2 site mates for the next couple months until Laura finishes her service. Tacabamba is very different from the town I lived in before. The streets here are paved, everyone has indoor plumbing, there is a police station, internet, this town has it's own market, and the majority of people have cement floors instead of packed dirt. The poverty seems to be much less here, but then again Tacabamba is a district capital. In other words I went from campo to city in less than a week! So long bucket bathes, hello freezing cold showers, but at least it's a shower!

The process of finding a host family was a bizarre experience. Jose asked Laura to recommend nice families and then we would go door to door explaining the situation. Jose's little spiel went something like this: 'You know Laura, she lives and works here in Tacabamba as a Peace Corps health volunteer, well there are 2 new volunteers that are coming to Tacabamba. They lived in the Bambamarca area but with the strikes and protests we had to move them for safety reasons. We are looking for a host family for these 2 other volunteers and they will be here for a little more than a year,' it kept going, but you get the idea. It was such a strange experience to go door to door asking people if I could live with them for a year. And a lot of people kind of said 'no', nobody flat out said 'no' except for this very nice elderly couple and even they changed there minds after Jose talked their ears off for a half an hour.

That is something about Peruvians that I love and hate; they always tell you what they think you want to here. It's true in the states too, but sometimes in the states you interact with people that just say it like it is and I so appreciate that quality. If you don't want some strange foreign girl to live in your house for a year or so, then speak up and just say 'no' it is completely understandable. These poor families didn't even get any sort of heads up, because Peace Corps made this whole transition for Diamond and I such a rushed priority.

I was lucky enough to find a family at the end of our first visit to Tacabamba. My new family is very nice, but it is still awkward getting used to each other and trying to form a new routine. My last host family had hosted another volunteer and even having had that experience it was still very weird for the first couple months. I have only been here since Wednesday the 11^th and I am trying to remember how long it took for me to get comfortable the last time.

This new family consists of a host mom Rosa who runs a store and a restaurant, a host dad Sergio who is a police man, a 15 year old sister Yossi, and a 12 year old brother also Sergio. Last night I met one of the older children who has his own family and he has a wife and 2 kids. Since my host mom runs a restaurant it seems like she feeds armies of policemen and construction workers who for some reason or another do not cook for themselves. I haven't quite figured out the eating schedule for the family, but I was hoping we would eat together as a family and it doesn't usually work out that way. There are also 2 young girls-I'm guessing in their late teens or early twenties (remember Peruvians have one less year of highschool so these girls are probably recent grads)-that do all the cooking and washing in the restaurant. The are very sweet and are pretty much a part of the family. I hope to make better friends with them so that I can maybe cook for myself a little more. At the moment there is an awkward dynamic of me not knowing what to do or how to act and I just come into the kitchen and wait to be fed when it is meal times. I worry that they think that I think that I just expect them to serve me, really it's more like I don't know how to act about the whole thing yet.

Yesterday, Laura, Diamond, and I went to a meeting at the municipality building and heard a presentation from the director of the health post about potential projects. I had mentioned to him the first time we met that I was interested in working with older adults-which technically is not a Peace Corps goal, but I find it to be very interesting. The director of the health post is a very young doctor-he's maybe 26, and it seems like almost all the employees at the post are very young. The doctor made an announcement at the meeting that I wanted to work in 'salud de mayores' or 'old person health' and introduced me to the doctor in charge of that area. I'm not sure if anything will pan out, but it is exciting to have the opportunity to do some projects in this area.

When Diamond, Jose, and I were leaving my host family in San Juan last week with the Peace Corps car stuffed to the gills with our things there wasn't enough space for Diamond and I to have our own seats. Diamond sat on my lap and sat on the container between the two front seats where the driver can store maps or their sunglasses. I thought I would impress Jose with some of my Peruvian slang that I learned from my San Juan host family and I announced that I was sorry my butt was too big for Diamond and I to share the seat. The vocabulary word that I used for butt was one that my San Juan host mom Dalila used on a daily basis in the house. She would tell me every day that her backside ached from working so hard and I thought it was just a normal slang word for butt. However, as it turned out the word that she was using is extremely vulgar. Jose practically drove the car off the road because he was laughing so hard that I used that word. I was taken by surprise, because no one in my family had ever given me any indication that it was a bad word. That is the kind of stuff I will miss about my previous family-they are kind of like the equivalent of Peruvian rednecks and I loved that about them. None of the other volunteers had a host family that taught them all of the most horrible slang words or ever got into trouble for accidentally swearing-which happened to me on several occasions. I'll miss that, and I know that it will take a lot of time to get to that same level with the new family or they could just be way less inappropriate than the other family. That would be so sad.

All in all, Tacabamba seems great. It is going to take me a while to re-settle all over again and the idea of starting from scratch with a new family just makes me want to go hide in my room. Luckily the kids are really sweet. Especially the 12 year old, who came to my door this morning before he left for school to ask me if we could play Uno again tonight and was very interested in reading Harry Potter with me. I cried so much on the night we went back to my site to pack all my things, it was Diamond, Jose and I in the Peace Corps car. I don't know that I will ever feel the same connection with this new family that I had with my inappropriate gross first family that loved to tease me like crazy. I will miss them so much. I was surprised that I felt sad even about leaving the dirty little dog Pon Chon Chinita, but she is always so happy to see me and always comes and sits by me when I would go outside to read. I'm hopefull that those first 7 months in San Juan weren't for nothing and that they will help me here in my new site Tacabamba. Plus, I keep telling myself that it's only 5 more months until I get to come home for Christmas! That should go by fast.

Chau for now,

KB

P.S.

A work in progress-I am trying to write a silly song about Tacabamba. Other volunteers have made music videos and songs about their sites or regions. So far I have 'there ain't no bamba like Tacabamba,' it's catchy right?

Bullfights, wormy friends, and

We have just completed week 4 of the strike! It was a slow week again. There are a ton of rumor getting thrown around about what is going to happen in the protests. I have heard that people are planning on building homemade bombs to carry to the mine sites and they intend to blow up the mining construction equipment. Who knows if this is true, but I feel pretty confident that the Peruvian government is not going to start intervening in this protest until people are killed. The mining operations are a couple hours away from my site, but people from my town are participating.

*****I am not in danger, I will not be leaving my site, and I will be nowhere near these protests******

It was another week of lots of reading, croqueting with neighbor ladies and family, soccer and frisbee in the afternoons with neighborhood boys, and general laziness. Schools are still closed and the health post is now open, but they refuse to health promotion out in the country during the strike. Some highlights include; reading Harry Potter with Witman and Eduar, the cat had 4 new kittens, Diani and I perfected the art of banana bread in my electric bubble oven, AAAAAND I snuck away to a bullfight on Thursday!

There was a town fiesta in Chota last week. In the bigger towns like Bambamarca or Chota that means beauty paegents, artesan fairs, dances, futbol tournaments, carnival rides, so much beer, bullfights, and apparently motocross competitions. In small towns like mine I am guessing it's more beer, futbol, and dancing-not necessarily in that order. However, my town had to cancel it's annual fiesta for the strikes. So I made a quick trip to Chota to see the bullfights with the other volunteers.

Bullfights are quite violent and it didn't help that on the day that I went it seemed to be amature matador day. The matador's outfits were pretty fun, all sparkles, pink socks, tight pants, and little slippers. The other volunteers and I stayed for the first 4 bulls and then left. I really wanted to go out to the street to eat the bull meat in the evening after the fight, but we ended up eating cheap fried chicken close by the hostel.

Yesterday I went to a clinic in Chota to have myself tested for parasites. So I have dodged the parasite bullet (the worst is giardia), but I do have 2 different types of worms! Here are the links to wikipedia pages on my worms if you want to see some pictures:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinworm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entamoeba_coli

It's really not a big deal to have worms and the Peace Corps doctors called me in a prescription for the meds to kill them.  However, the fact that I have worms means that my entire host family is pretty much guaranteed to have them too.  That'll be a funny conversation.  No really, we joke about how Witman's worms get hungary at dinner sometimes-no it's just a confirmed thing.

Today I am headed back to my site. Maybe classes will start again next week and I can start to get some project work going, or maybe not. Either way I'm planning on reading, croqueting, and frisbeeing up a storm in my town.

Remember I get internet on weekends if anyone wants to skype I always look forward to calls from home!  I am starved for contact with Americans and going stir crazy at my site, if you have a litte time on the weekends to get a call from Peru I would be thrilled.  I know it sounds pathetic, but I look forward to calling the states all week, every week.  Just email me barrie.km@gmail.com with your phone number in the states or your skype name and when I come into Bambamarca next weekend I'll give you a call.

chau for now,
kb

new latrine hole

new pig pens that I helped build a couple weeks ago

The final product of all the fence building and digging we did.  The plan is to keep all the pigs, ducks, and buy some chickens.  I am going to get to be a chicken lady very soon.

Witman at work.  He told me he has to dig until the hole is deeper than he is tall.

Paro 2012

The last time I posted I was on my way back to Cajamarca after my Mom's visit. When I got into Cajamarca the volunteers were under a stand fast due to a department-wide strike. There have been several small strikes and lots of protests about the mining projects in my district throughout my time here, but this one is a lot bigger scale. So I flew into Cajamarca and was told by Peace Corps head of safety and security that it was unsafe to travel during the strike. I spent a whole week waiting in Cajamarca. Luckily after the first 4 days by myself some other stranded volunteers came into Cajamarca city and waited out the rest of the time with me.

It wasn't really a bad place to be stuck. I had internet, television, hot water, but during the protests I felt nervous about going outside too much. I spent a lot of time alone watching American tv and feeling pretty lonely. It was a heck of a lot better than my fellow volunteers that were stranded at their sites with absolutely nothing to do with themselves. I spent a lot of time on the phone with the others in their sites. I heard about MCAT study books being opened for the first time, rooms being imaculately cleaned, painting and repainting fingernails, lots of card games with the host family, and general mind numbing boredom from my fellow volunteers. All schools and health posts were shut down and roads were blockaded. It was sort of like everything just stopped. I heard rumors that family owned businesses were being threatened by the Ronda to close their doors to show solidarity with the cause; remember those neighborhood watch type guys in the countryside where there are no police.

Last week myself and 2 other volunteers from the Bambamarca area finally made it through the road blocks into Bambamarca. We were able to get back to our sites, but with the knowledge that we didn't know when this strike would end or how long we would now be stranded in our small towns. It sounds scarier that it really was and I had mentally prepared myself for something to go wrong on the ride into Bambamarca, but it was completely calm. One of the reasons that Peace Corps was so conservative with our returning back to Cajamarca is because the mines in question are owned by an American company. The worry being that someone like me with blonde hair and white skin sticks out here. It's not like Peace Corps is widely known or recognized throughout all the rural communities. I regularly need to explain to people in my town; where there have been 2 previous volunteers, what Peace Corps is about.

That first week of being back at site with no work to do went by faster than I expected. On my first day back I spent pretty much the entire day reading. I would find a spot to sit outside and move from the sun to the shade or cement to a wooden bench. I kept alternating to keep from getting sun burnt and having my butt fall asleep. That day was pretty crappy. On tuesday and wednesday I worked in the field behind my host family's home to help my dad and brother build a new corral. It was really hard work and I felt sore for days afterwards, but it helped pass the time.

At nights I am a little embarassed to say I watched the entire first season of New Girl from my external hard drive. I know that Zooey Deschanel should annoy me, but I love her. Maybe I am just so starved for American-ness that I thought she was charming. I don't want to sound whiny, but it feels really terrible to just sit around doing nothing. I feel like such a failure. I can't get working on my projects and even before this strike started I was already feeling pressured to get things started. Now I just feel like the whole town has stopped and we are all just waiting for something to happen. I shouldn't complain, but I just get thinking about what I would be doing if I hadn't come here. Would I be doing something with myself, because right now it feels like I'm not getting anything done.

This past week was week two for me stuck in site with no hope of getting project work done. The health post opened up this past week, but they were flooded with people since they had been closed the previous 2 weeks. I helped with filing and checking patients in, but I wasn't really able to work on coordinating project plans with the health post. Witman, Eduar, and I have been reading the first Harry Potter out loud most afternoons this week. It's really exciting for me to see them becoming interested in reading. There is not much recreational reading happening out here-none that I have seen so far.

There are rumors that the paro or strike will continue for up to another month depending on what the Peruvian government does in response to the people's demands to end the mining project that threatens the water supply for my district. That means that the kids in my town will have lost almost 2 months of classes (so far they have lost around 4 weeks). I will have lost a lot of time myself for project work, but no one can be interested in working on projects with me when this big political drama is dominating every one's attention.  I feel completely safe in my town-so not to worry.  I am just bored out of my mind with nothing to do with myself.  So here's hoping that the strike ends soon!

Cajamarca have not done a very good job of publicizing their cause-I mean there have got to be some human rights violations going on if their sole water source is truly being threatened. However, if you google this paro there's not too much to read about. Here is what I found if you are interested in reading a little more about what's going on in my area:

http://www.elregionalcajamarca.com/2012/06/16/the-strike-in-cajamarca-rights-violated/

this link seemed a little intense...obviously their target audience is cajamarquinos and the people need to stay riled up to keep the protests going strong.  I would like to emphasize that I am completely safe in my small town surrounded by people who know me as the girl that teaches English, hangs out alot at the health post, and plays Frisbee with their kids.

*I forgot to take a picture of the corral that I helped build.  I'll be sure to post it as soon as I get internet again.

My Momma came to visit me!

I got to spend the last 9 days with my mom! I am so lucky she came all the way out here to see me. And she was such a good sport. First she came up to my site in rural northern Peru. First she flew into the Lima airport; which I believe is only airport that receives international flights into Peru, then she flew into the tiny Cajamarca airport. I met her in Cajamarca last week Wednesday and we immediately hopped onto a three hour partially unpaved cramped and stinky van ride back to Bambamarca.

It was so amazing to see her in the airport in Cajamarca. It almost felt like home had come to me in Cajamarca. I didn't realize how much I had missed her and everyone I love back in Michigan until I was crying in the airport hugging her. Yep, we made a scene, but as a gringa I pretty much make scenes wherever I go-so it was old hat for me. After the uncomfortable ride to Bamba I took mom to the market. I had promised my host mom I would buy ingredients for dinner.

Money and food are the two most uncomfortable topics I have to deal with in Peru. My family was so excited about having a visitor and I was worrying about money. I offered to buy some food ingredients instead of straight out paying for her meals-now in retrospect that may have been an easier way of handling the situation. So fresh off the bus I took my mom into the Bambamarca mercado. We bought some crazy fruit for her to try and the dinner ingredients my host mom and I had agreed on.

We went up to my site San Juan Wednesday afternoon. My friend Hayden came up with us to meet my mom and attend the celebration at the elementary school. When we finally got all of our luggage up to my site it was a big relief to just be able to put our bags down and our guard down. I gave my host mom the ingredients we bought at the market, but she had decided to cook something else for dinner and acted confused when I handed them over. Also mom had brought a lot of great loot from the states; new underwear, a super soft sweatshirt, cards from family members, as well as some presents for my host family. The host family present was a tricky situation. After presenting my family with the assorted candies, a bracelet that Jessie made for my host mom, and a Michigan oven mitt, it became clear that my host family had expected more things or maybe different things.

It is all together possible that I am just being a worrier in this case, but I wonder if I should have asked her to bring more. I didn't know what was customary and I was worried about setting a gift giving standard too high that I would have to maintain when I visited the States for Christmas. My host family was incredibly welcoming and genuinely happy to see my mom as well as my volunteer friends that visited. I am so lucky to have such a great Peruvian family. Each night at dinner my whole extended family was in attendance to maximize their time with my Mom. It was the first time I have seen my grandparents eat at my house, usually we all go and eat at their house since they have a bigger kitchen. That was really sweet.

On Thursday morning the elementary school had put together a special welcome ceremony for my mom. We showed up about an hour later than the director and I had agreed upon, but the teachers and kids weren't ready for another hour after that. The ceremony was so adorable. Each class did a small performance; dances, poetry, songs. My host family came to the event too, as well as two more volunteers; Jennifer and Diamond. It was a really fun ceremony. Everyone kept dedicating songs and dances to my mom. After the ceremony we had a Peru vs. U.S.A. volleyball game. The teachers played against us volunteers and we filled out our team with a couple of tall sixth graders.

Later we ate a lunch with the staff of the elementary school. My favorite teacher profesora Silvia organized it all. At lunch we took turns translating between teachers and my mom. After lunch the other volunteers headed out for a Peace Corps event in Cajamarca. So it was just mom and I Thursday night. We had a big family dinner again. Mom was so relieved that we didn't eat guinea pig, instead we had fish and humas.

On Friday we went back to Bamba to leave for Cajamarca. My host dad Joel insisted on going into to Bamba to see us off. At the time he was driving me crazy. I hated feeling like he was thought I couldn't take care of myself, I hated that it felt like he was starting to impede on my time with my mom-I had shared her with them for 2 days now. In the end he saw us off and gave my mom a box of Peruvian chocolate bars. My mom said she thought he was just being fatherly and that he just wanted to be a part of our trip for a little longer. I know he was just being thoughtful, but sometimes I just feel like I need a break from them. They are wonderful, but I need space at times-more space than I ever have needed before. I feel embarrassed sometimes at how I get so easily frustrated and angry here, but I like to tell myself that it is a part of adapting to a new culture.

I was also really upset when my host family told us on Friday morning before my mom and I were leaving for Bambamarca to go on to Cajamarca, that they were all going to come into Cajamarca on Saturday so we could spend the weekend together. I was so frustrated. I felt like they were taking away my time with my mom-my escape from my campo reality. I just felt so angry with them and I spent the rest of Friday and all day Saturday worrying about it all.

What ended up happening was that my host family didn't call all day on Saturday. Mom and I went on a tour of San Francisco church. We walked to the market to people watch and wander. We drank fizzy waters and got ice cream for lunch-a trend throughout our time in Peru. Later we walked to the mall to try to go see a movie. I asked the girl behind the counter if they had the Avengers in English and she assured me it was. We bought our tickets and the movie was most definitely dubbed in Spanish. We walked out and I was ready for a fight. I demanded a refund and was totally surprised when the manager easily agreed. I had worked myself up to be ready for when they tried to rip me off and was happily surprised when there was no problem. I think it was fun for my mom to see me be so sassy in Spanish though.

After the movie flop mom convinced me to call my family to see if they still wanted to meet up. My aunt Esperanza confirmed that she and Witman had stayed in San Juan, but that Dalila and my host grandma Niceda should be in Cajamarca. She also told me I should call them. It kind of pissed me off when she said that, because they had very clearly told me only the day before that they would call me when they got into Cajamarca. However, if they called me it would use their phone credit, so maybe they were waiting for me to call them so it wouldn't cost them anything. We scheduled to meet in the plaza, mom and I waited for about 40 minutes for them to show up. Mom and I had already checked out the mass schedule at the cathedral in the Plaza de Armas, which was a good excuse to get out of hanging out with the host family if they wanted to go hang out at my host sister's apartment.

What ended up happening was that my host mom, grandma, and sisters went to mass at the cathedral with my mom and I. Afterward my mom treated everyone to dinner at a pizza restaurant. It was the first time my host family had tried pizza. Well, the first time besides the disastrous one I made for Mother's Day dinner. It was really nice to see them and my mom was happy to show them her gratitude for taking such good care of me. All around it was a success and I realized how silly it had been for me to worry so much about the whole thing.

We made it to Arequipa Monday night after a couple of hiccups in the travel plans. Arequipa is a pretty big city south of Lima. It is famous for the beautiful Plaza de Armas, lots of colonial architecture, baby alpaca products, and for the 3 volcanoes that surround the city. Mom and I spent 3 days in Arequipa. We ate good food, saw a lot of churches, and searched for the perfect baby alpaca sweater. One of my favorite things we did was visit a museum with a mummified child sacrifice. Her name is Juanita and she was found frozen solid, very well preserved. Scientists were able to test what was in her stomach at the time of death, her hair was still in a braid, and except for some sun damage on her face (she lost her nose and eyes) her skin was all intact.

Here's a google map of the distance between Cajamarca and Arequipa:

http://maps.google.com.pe/maps?hl=es&tab=wl

Also in Arequipa Mom and I toured a monastery. It was so beautiful. We were surprised to learn that in the 1600's the nuns had slaves and maids! There is a part of the monastery Santa Catalina that is still in use today. One of the nuns from Santa Catalina was canonized (became a saint) by Pope John Paul II in the 90's. There wasn't a whole lot of detail on what she did to become a saint except that she converted a lot of people to the Catholic religion and apparently she cured a case of cancer.

Baby alpaca wool products were everywhere in Arequipa. Baby alpaca is very soft and expensive. Also way more expensive as a foreign tourist, but luckily I am a good haggler. Anyhow, we spent a lot of time looking at artisan products. By the third day all I wanted to know was where was all the cheap adult alpaca stuff. As it turns out the adult alpacas also get turned into very delicious burgers. And I did find some cheaper crappier sweaters in the artisan market in Lima.

On the way back to Cajamarca I got to spend a night with my host family from training. I was reunited with Sting, Lesly, and Mama Vicki. Sting's front teeth have grown in and he seemed a lot taller. Lesly baked cookies and Mama Vicki had just as much energy as ever. When I arrived no one had told Mama Vicki I was coming to visit and she was completely surprised. I had been dreading the visit, because I thought it might be weird after not seeing them for 6 months. It was actually really nice to see them all.

I'm writing from Cajamarca right now, because there are currently a lot of protests going on in my department. The people are protesting gold mining projects that are contaminating the water. The whole thing is very political, because these gold mines are a big money maker for the Peruvian government. The roads are blocked right now and people are protesting. There are tons of military police here throughout the entire department of Cajamarca right now, but Peace Corps wants me to stay in Cajamarca city for a while longer.

chau for now,

kb

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