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

<table style="width:194px;"><tr><td align="center" style="height:194px;background:url(https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/104213625657795834605/20120531?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPDq2Ky5gP24Ug&feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-se4S0fIQEyM/T8umQatiZ9E/AAAAAAAACGg/u-sfXIxFat8/s160-c/20120531.jpg" width="160" height="160" style="margin:1px 0 0 4px;"></a></td></tr><tr><td style="text-align:center;font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:11px"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/104213625657795834605/20120531?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPDq2Ky5gP24Ug&feat=embedwebsite" style="color:#4D4D4D;font-weight:bold;text-decoration:none;">2012-05-31</a></td></tr></table>

meet my host dad Joel

This week went by a lot faster than I thought it would.  My mom is coming to visit next week and I thought it would take forever to get through this week.  I did find myself loosing my temper a little more easily than usual and being generally stressed out.  I spent the early part of the week finishing up with my first VRF or volunteer report form. 

On Wednesday I went with one of the nurses from the health post to do a demonstrative nutrition session with a group of moms in sector 8.  The moms are part of a government program called Juntos-I’ve written about it before in pervious posts.  There are a lot of sectors in San Juan, but sector 8 has kind of become it’s own independent entity.  While the rest of the Juntos moms from every other sector all meet together in a huge group of 180 women, the moms in sector 8 have their own meetings of 25. 

I was excited to attend my first demonstrative session and the understanding was that I would pretty much observe to get an idea for how they worked.  The meeting started at 9am and went on well past 2:30.  The first 3 ½ hours or so were spent preparing and assembling humas.  Humas are a typical dish for this time of year when the corn is ready to harvest.  If you know what tamales are like then you’ll have a good idea about humas.  The difference is that humas are made with fresh corn and sugar is added to the corn paste to sweeten it up. 

Humitas are very labor intensive; first you shuck the corn, then you remove the kernels by hand, grind the corn into a paste with a tool that attaches to the side of a table and reeling a handle to move the internal grinding parts, then stuff the corn paste into the husk again with some cheese pressed into the middle, and finally boil everything to cook the corn.  The result is sort of like a sweet corn noodle filled with cheese.  And for Peruvian food it’s pretty good.  The only trouble is that when you make humas it’s a lot of work, so people make a ton of them.  Then we eat them for a couple days, and there’s no refrigeration so they get all dried out and sometime they turn a funky color.  Hot out of the pot though they are delicious. 

On Thursday I did a charla or talk about dental hygiene with the elementary health promoters.  It was a lot of fun.  They are my favorite to work with.  In the afternoon I helped my high schooler health promoters cram for their first charla on sex ed.  The previous volunteer Annie, trained a group of high school kids in a sexual education course to get them ready to be peer youth educators.  So when I got here I had a ready made group of peer educators and this week they taught their first class with the 6^th graders from the elementary school.  It was awesome to see it all come together.  The goal is to eventually get these youth health promoters teaching in the high school regularly, but the director of the secondary school is not super into working with me-err dealing with me is how it feels when I am around him (he gets all huffy and is always checking his watch, that kinda stuff) ha!

At dinner on Thursday night I found out my host dad threatened to kick this guy’s ass for me a couple months ago.  In January around the time when the new mayor was sworn in I was invited to join a drinking circle one afternoon at the paradero in Bambamarca (where the cars pick up and drop off for my site).  I wrote about it in a blog post; how the mayor’s elderly uncle proposed marriage to me while drooling on himself and intermittently falling asleep.  I did not mention how one of the newly elected regidores of my community repeatedly showed me his DNI card (Documento Nacional de Identidad-his Peruvian ID) because it said that he was single.  He was really intoxicated and I wasn’t.  It made me uncomfortable since he was a community leader and at that point I thought I might have to work with him on projects.  I mentioned it to my host family and we all laughed about it, but later without my knowing my host dad Joel talked with that regidor.  Joel quoted himself as saying (well this is my translation) ‘watch yourself around my gringa or you’ll have to answer to me, and you call yourself a regidor of this town.’ 

I was completely surprised he did this, but it does explain how the last couple times I have seen that regidor guy he was really quiet around me.  Host dad Joel to my rescue!  Then another funny thing happened with host dad Joel; I caught him brushing his teeth with soap.  I immediately asked him what he was doing and he simply told me they had run out of tooth paste.  This was noteable for several reasons: 1. I have never ever seen anyone in my host family brush their teeth before, 2. that tooth brush is the one that sits out by the outdoor sink all the time and I have seen my brother use it to clean shoes among other things, 3. how long has he been brushing his teeth with soap???  It happened to be the day that I had taught the dental hygiene class and I told him that he could use salt or baking soda if he didn’t have tooth paste.  I tried to sound friendly concerned instead of disgusted and appalled.     

Anyhow, I feel really lucky to have a host family that cares that much.

Chau for now- and my American mom will be here in 4 days, my Peruvian mom and I are so excited for the visit!!!!!

kb

I split my english class into 2 teams to draw a person and label all the parts.

finished product: team 1

finished product: team 2

Peer educators at work!

after their first charla

the moms in sector 8 getting the fire started for cooking all those humas

kids playing while we wait for the nutrition session to start

grinding the fresh corn

this is what the corn paste looks like 

last Sunday I attempted to make a Mother's Day pizza in my new electric oven-it was a flop, but it looked pretty...

close encounters of a Peruvian kind

******Disclaimer*******  if you are at all offended or upset by the mention of poop, you should immediately close this webpage and return next week for the following post-this week's post will surely upset you....

On Wednesday I spent the day in Chota.  I mostly wanted to get a Jillian Michaels workout video from Hayden, but I also had some packages to pick up at Serpost.  I also sent some letters. 

I had an awesome exchange with this guy on the combe back to Bambamarca.  I met up with Ellie and her sister Laura who is visiting right now, to travel back to Bamba together.  When we got onto the combe this guy sat next to me and asked me if I was a Peace Corps volunteer.  It turned out he was from Tacabamba which is where another volunteer; Laura Olsen, is living.  This guy was super friendly and not the least bit deterred when Ellie, Laura, and I spoke in English.  He had his cell phone out and he wanted to play his American music for us.  He proudly told me that his favorite American music was ‘ochentas’ or eighties as well as heavy metal.  I told him I liked eighties music so he proceeded to play songs from his phone and ask me to translate the lyrics. 

So there I was on a van from Chota to Bambamarca translating the lyrics from Journey Don’t Stop Believing.  I even tried to sing my badly translated lyrics and play a little air guitar.  It was a surreal moment.  I was laughing so hard I cried.  After about 10 minutes or so it became clear that this guy wanted to spend the whole hour long ride having me badly translate lyrics for him.  So I quickly put my head phones on while he took a phone call. 

The head phones didn’t seem to deter him from talking to me-so I gave up and kept up the small talk.  It turned out he was a mechanical engineer and worked for a very famous mine in the area.  The mine is famous around here, because the people are fiercely protesting the progress of a certain project that will supposedly contaminate the entire water source for my district.  I say ‘supposedly’, because I try to keep in mind that the people who are preaching all the protests and strikes are uneducated and this is a political matter.  I don’t have any real sources of information on the subject.  I tend to lean towards the political beliefs of the local people in my area, but I know that there has to be another side to the story.  After all how could the president of Peru allow the sole water source for a whole district of Cajamarca be destroyed?  It has to be illegal.  Which leads me to believe that the accusations may be exaggerated. 

Anyhow, as soon as he told me he was a minero I was a little worried about talking with him.  I didn’t want the other people in the car to think that I was in favor of the mining projects.  It was interesting to hear him so casually defend the mines.  Around here the people vehemently protest anything to do with the mines.  It seems like such a horrible sacrifice to make for a gold mine.  As it turns out this particular gold mine is a significant money earner for the Peruvian government…perhaps, that is why the government which is centralized in Lima doesn’t want to quite the mining projects.  Any kind of contamination won’t be effecting the leaders in Lima-it’s over a 16 hour car ride away. 

It was a memorable combe ride today.  I am happy to have these kind of exchanges to remember my time in Peru.  I try to focus on the good ones instead of the bad ones. 

On Thursday I had a whole different kind of encounter.  Diamond, Jose Tarfur, and I met with the mayor of Bambamarca.  The line of people to talk with the mayor was very long.  Instead of having people make appointments, they just have people get time to talk with the mayor on a first come first serve basis.  So Diamond and I waited for about 2 hours to get into the Mayor’s office for a chat. 

The mayor was nice enough.  Wednesday night I made banana bread with the ulterior motive of taking some to our meeting with the mayor.  I figured it would be a good way to make an impression on him and who doesn’t respond well to baked goods I ask you?  In Peru it is customary to share any food that you have with the people around you.  While we waited in line for 2 hours I ran through the scenario of whipping out the banana bread and passing a bit to everyone, but I knew if I did it there wouldn’t be any left for the mayor.  I was so hungry by the end of our waiting time that I was almost ready to sneak into the bathroom and eat a slice-but I held it together. 

I would like to note that in the municipality waiting area they have a flat screen tv mounted on the wall so that people can watch as they wait.  For the entire time I was there the t.v. was on Animal Planet channel.  I thought it was kind of funny they didn’t have a news channel on and instead we watched a show about ‘Fuga Animales’ or ‘Escaped Animals’.  It was quite entertaining.

So the meeting with the Alcalde went pretty well I thought.  After that we said our goodbyes to Jose the regional coordinator for Cajamarca and headed off to the internet café.  Diamond skyped her world wise schools class in the states, which was adorable.  They are kindergarteners and had the cutest questions for her.  Although I’m not sure if any of their cute questions could out do ones that I received in a letter from my third graders in Dundee, MI.  Here are some of my favorite questions from the letters I received:

“I like to drink diet pepsi, how about you?” -9 ½ year old Kamran

“My class and I saw a video of you and some other people dancing, what was that?” – 9 year old Elena

“How do you find out what foods have parasites?” -9 y.o. Malia

“Is hamster good to eat?”- 9 y.o. Ty

“Have you watched Mrs. Dowfir?” (my interpretations was Mrs. Doubtfire the Robin Williams movie) – 9 y.o. Trenton

“Do they have tecnoligy there?- 9 y.o. Hannah

And my personal favorite, that was asked in many forms as I wrote to the class about how the homes are made of adobe,

“Dosent your hous kalaps when it rains and I hope you have a good time thear.” -9 y.o. Dustin

Later Diamond and got lunch and ran errands.  She is left Friday for the States.  She is going to her sister’s and her boyfriend’s college graduations.  I’m really excited for her to visit.  We went to the market to look for stuff for her to take home for her family and friends.  She found some sling shots that the campo kids use on angry dogs, little change purses with a long strap that women wear underneath their shirts to avoid getting pick pocketed, and a horrible huayno music video.  The huayno music videos are so funny I know her family will get a kick out of it and I am excited to share huayno with my family when I get back too.  Huayno is this local style of music here in the sierras that I can only describe as a very stylized annoying repetitive kind of music.  The music videos are great, because they are so badly made it’s quite funny to watch.  Also the dancing is great.

While we were out running errands I ran into several people from my town.  Each time we stopped greeted each other and I introduced Diamond.  In Peru people shake hands, but they also do the cheek kiss, which involves leaning in and pressing the right side of your face to the right side of someone else’s face while making a kiss sound.  The trouble with the cheek kiss is that here in the sierras it’s not so common and I am often unsure of when to go in for the kiss or not.  Today I made a bad judgment call and went in for the kiss with one of the conductors or drivers from my town.  He is always really friendly with me, I’ve met his wife and daughters, and he’s even my emergency contact for Peace Corps Emergency Action Plan.  However, I went in for the kiss and he wasn’t ready for it and it was really weird.  Diamond laughed at me a lot, we both laughed a lot after señor Cubas had left us.  The cheek kiss is one of the social niceties of Peru that I will probably never master.

Later after Diamond and I parted ways I new that something was wrong.  We ate lunch at the restaurant in the plaza de armas that has the best chicken sandwiches, but my stomach was in distress.  I knew I needed to find a bathroom or else I was in danger of loosing a bet.  I have a bet with a couple friends from home that every time I poop my pants I owe them a sole a piece and so far I haven’t pooped my pants.  Many many other volunteers have pooped their pants, but I’ve held it together so far.  Today I was so worried.  The thought of riding up the mountain with poopy pants in the crowded pickup truck sounded horrifying. 

I got to the paradero (the place in Bambamarca where the trucks drop off and pick up for my town) and there was a truck full of people waiting for 2 more passengers.  The seats inside the car cost 2 soles and the standing room in the bed of the truck is only 1 sole.  When the weather is nice the truck bed often fills up first and the drivers wait around until they can fill the rest of the seats.  So there was a truck full of people essentially waiting for me so they could get going on their way up the mountain back to San Juan.  However, I thought I was going to poop my pants so I insisted on being let into the nasty bathroom the drivers have a key to unlock at the paradero.  So I was safe, until I realized that those toilets don’t flush-they’re just for urine and there was no trash can to throw my poopy toilet paper.  No where in Peru is it allowed to flush the toilet paper.  The plumbing system is fragile and everyone throws toilet paper into little trash cans next to the toilet.

I was in a poopy pickle.  I decided to put my poopy paper into a plastic bag I had from my shopping and just get into the truck like nothing weird had happened.  I pretended not to be completely embarrassed that the group of men who drive the cars up and down the mountain from my town would soon find out that I had had a diarrhea attack in their bathroom that doesn’t flush.  I pretended that I didn’t have poopy toilet paper in my bag.  Luckily I sat next to this particularly greasy looking old man.  I could tell even without being able to smell that he did not bathe often.  I hoped that people would confuse the poopy smell coming from my stuff with his body odor and general lack of personal hygiene. 

I really lucked out when this guy didn’t get out of the truck until the last stop with me so that it truly was indecipherable whether or not the smell had been me or him.  No one will know-I hope-except for me and my readers.  So the moral of the story is: 1. the chicken sandwich was totally worth it delicious, 2. always carry toilet paper and hand sanitizer with you, and 3. never under appreciate the fact that the campesinos are always going to smell worse than you do!  OOH, and I still am winning the bet, haaha take that Ainz and Jason Fernandez!

Have a nice week and Chau for now!

kb