The good, the bad, and crying in public is ugly

This week I made a trip out to visit my first host family in San Juan.  I find the trip to be stressful.  It is about 3 hours of bus travel to get from Tacabamba to Bambamarca and from Bamba I waited for over an hour for a truck to fill up so we could ride up to San Juan.  However, once I got there it was a great relief.  I was greeted so warmly by my entire host family.  It felt amazing. 

I brought Witman, Eduar, and my host sisters (who weren't in town, because they are in University in Cajamarca) University of Michigan t-shirts.  The boys were so excited.  They wore them around the whole time I was there.  We walked in the rain to my previous sitemate's site to deliver something from Nate and Kelsey.  It took us about an hour each way, because of the mud.  We baked a chocolate cake.  I helped my host mom Dalila, host grandma Niceda, and some other neighbor women make tamales.  We ate a big family dinner.  We laughed, danced, sang, and were generally very inappropriate.  It was great. 

The next day I stayed through lunch.  After lunch I took Witman and Eduar down to Bambamarca with me to teach them how to use email.  We parted ways and I headed to the home of one of the nurses that I used to work with in San Juan.  She always invites me to her house.  Doli was very close with the previous 2 volunteers that lived in San Juan and she briefly host mom to a small business volunteer Josh, but he had a site change after a year.  Doli is a very kind woman and someone I really enjoy spending time with.  I didn't really get to spend time with her this visit, because she was frantically working on finishing the 2012 end of year reports for the health post. 

It was kind of an awkward visit, because I felt like I was just by myself in her house.  I hung out with Roymer her 5 year old son, but watching him play plants vs. zombies got old quickly.  I made a pizza, because she and I had talked about making pizza together.  We didn't eat it until 9pm.  The next day when I woke up her co-workers were back and I was sitting by myself in the kitchen again.  I decided to leave earlier than we had planned.  I just didn't want to sit around waiting, I felt like I needed to get back to site to get things done. 

So I guess writing this blog post isn't exactly getting things done, but it makes me feel  better.  It is a big effort for me to go visit Bambamarca; time, money, and it is sort of stressful bouncing from house to house with my stuff in a plastic bag.  It is really difficult when I am leaving San Juan and every one's response is to do this whiny nagging 'don't go, you only just got here,' and 'just stay another day, come on.'  It is nice to know that they love me, but it is hard when they do that to me.

I got to Chota today and I was really excited to finally call this woman from the admissions office at University of Illinois medical school.  She had called my parent's home phone on Friday last week saying that she needed to speak with me.  I tried calling her on Monday and Tuesday with no luck; she wasn't in the office and the second time the Internet was not strong enough to support a skype call.  Today when I called her I found out that all the urgency was about her needed to tell me that I would not be receiving an interview.  I was crushed.  I had worked myself up into the giddy happy fantasy that she was trying to get a hold of me to let me know that University of Illinois wanted to interview me when I will be home in February. 

I sent an email to all the schools where I applied to let them know that I would be in the U.S. in February and I was still very interested in an interview.  I thought I had gotten a bite.  I was so upset when she told me that my application was incomplete, because I only had two academic letters of recommendation.  When I was in school I didn't realize I need three and I got two; one from my biochemistry teacher who I really liked and one from my physics professor (because it was one of my only pre-med science classes that I got an A in and I was pretty surprised myself that I liked physics so much). 

I was kind of rude to her on the phone.  I was crying in the internet cafe, not a totally new thing for me-it's happened before.  Although, it has happened it is always humiliating.  I asked her why she couldn't have just emailed me the information.  Instead I was hanging on to this idea that I had an interview for 5 days and I had been trying to contact her for 3 of those days.  It just seemed unfair to me that it was so hard to get a hold of her when I am the one riding in a bus to get to the internet.  This lady probably has internet on her phone and she couldn't email me back Monday in response to the email I sent her on Friday.  (*this is what I think whenever anyone in the U.S. doesn't respond to an email quickly, "that person probably has internet on their phone what gives??)

So I cried for a while, bought myself a coca-cola and a chocolate muffin.  I feel better now, but worried.  I am so worried that I won't get in anywhere and that will mean that things won't go as planned.  I guess if Peace Corps has taught me anything it is to expect that nothing you plan will work out how you planned it to.  So what if I don't get into any of my schools?  I will deal with it and things will work out in a different way.  It is going to be okay. 

I am so lucky that I have such an amazing family and great friends who make me feel strong.  I am so lucky also, because I will get to have an interview at Central Michigan University in February.  Now, that one will go as planned I'm sure of it-I got a confirmation email itinerary and everything.  Sheesh the U.S. advance email itineraries are wonderful.  On the other hand coca-cola in Peru is made with real sugar...it's pretty wonderful too.

Thanks for reading.  Chau for now,
kb
*lots of photos of San Juan visit to come, I forgot to pack the cord for my camera-whoops.  Plus, my old person health class is on friday-I think it's going to be great!

Carnival; when child snipers attack!

This week felt especially productive.  Diamond and I started writing a grant to fund a boys leadership camp in May, we got permission from the UGEL (Unidad de Gestion Educativa Local = United Administration Education Local) to teach sexual education classes in several high schools in our district, we went to a community meeting in El Naranjo one of the places we have been looking at for one of us to work, and I scheduled 2 more meetings in El Naranjo (sexual health with the ronderos and older adult health). 

My extended host family is still here so there is a house full of people at all times.  I am lucky that I have such a kind host family.  Rosa’s brother and sister have both invited me to go visit their homes.  And they tease me when I say ‘yes’, but explain that I don’t know if I will be able to get vacation time.  It would be especially interesting to go visit Rosa’s sister Elva, because she lives in the amazon jungle.  Plus, now I’m pretty close with her kids.  Still it really bothered me that they made such a big deal that I gave them what I like to call a 'peruvian yes', because I have to deal with that all the time.  Everyday people promise me they will show up to one of my meetings or work with me on something and then just completely flake out.  I have come to expect it at this point-so why where they so shocked? 

Since it is vacations the kids (and adults) around town have been playing a lot of carnivales, which is an excuse to soak innocent neighbors and friends.  I don’t mind playing carnivales with water guns, but the water balloons hurt.  And since anyone at any time could be playing I am constantly on the lookout for water balloons.  The kids hide in the balconies and throw their ammunition like snipers.  It’s fun, but it’s also a little stressful to constantly be looking over your shoulder.  Plus, Diamond and I pose as extra fun targets, so we get hit a lot. 

This week I went to what I think would best be described as a Peruvian wake.  A woman in a nearby community died of cancer, Rosa and her sister Elva were close to her and we went to her family’s house out in the country.  I did not know what to expect, but it really wasn’t very different from any event state side.  The woman’s family cooked a huge meal so they could be prepared to feed anyone who came to show their respects.  Only they cooked over small fires.  There were flies everywhere, probably because of the quantity of raw meat that was processed by hand by a group of women that plopped pieces of flesh into a large plastic tub and tossed the bone and fat aside. 

The smoke and the heat made me really tired and my eyes teary.  Every guest was invited in groups of 6 or so to sit at the kitchen table and eat a big plate of food.  The food was good, but we had just eaten lunch back at the house.  I didn’t know we were going unlike Rosa and her sister who didn’t eat lunch in preparation; I had to wolf down second lunch.  The quantity of food you are given is a reflection of how respected or loved you are by a Peruvian woman (at least that is my theory), and if you don’t finish your plate that is a sign of disrespect.  No matter what excuse you make or how much to tell a Peruvian momma you love her food, if you don’t eat your whole plate you can bet she’s going to hold a little grudge.

Also during carnival is a special tradition called a yunsa tree.  During this carnival celebration; which seems to go from New Year to Easter from what I can gather (not exactly the catholic Lent I know), the yunsa tree is moved week to week between different neighborhoods or communities.  The tree is filled with prizes.  The one that I saw last weekend in Tacabamba had shirts, brooms, big drums of cooking oil, toys, and lots of other stuff.  At the end of the yunsa tree weekly traveling parties people take turns trying to cut it down.  When you take your swing at the tree anything that falls out is yours to keep, but if you are the one to cut the tree down on your turn you are obligated to purchase all the prizes for the next tree.

I went with my visiting host aunt Elva and a family friend Manuel to the yunsa dance on Saturday night.  I had fun dancing.  I'm not such a big fan of the drinking circles, but at one point in the night I was being included in 3 independent circles.  Drinking circles are the just the way that people drink beer at parties.  Everyone in the circle shares a cup and a bottle of beer, it goes around person by person.  I think of it as doing beer shots...warm beer shots, yum right?  Not so much, but you get used to it after a couple parties. 

The music at the yunsa tree party was so loud that I couldn't hear anyone.  Even when a very intoxicated older gentleman shouted into my ear (he spit quite a bit on my face) I still couldn't understand what he was saying.  It may or may not have been worsened by the fact that in December I ruptured my ear drum on my right side.  The next day I was having a lot of ear pain and ringing on one side, but it went away by that Monday. 

This week Diamond and I started our aerobics classes.  Our first class was kind of a flop.  Only 3 people showed up; we calculated our BMIs and did 30 minutes of cardio.  However, we have high hopes for the future. Tomorrow I am scheduled to do a hygiene charla in a nearby community.  I was invited by one of our community health promoters.  It makes me feel really happy that these promoters that we helped to train are doing their own classes in their communities.  I'm excited to see how she does.  Plus, I'm doing the 'ano, mano, boca' or 'butt, hand, mouth' talk about how if you don't wash your hands you are basically eating your poop, thus giving yourself and your family parasites or diarrhea.  That one is always a fun one.

Chau for now, thanks for reading.

kb

first weekend back in Peru Marta invited Diamond and I to her family's home in Chota for lunch.  Marta works for a Peruvian NGO and she is one of my favorite people in Tacabamba.  The is me with her niece Tatiana.

Tatiana playing the princess game with me

she's making me beautiful like a princess she told me

now it's my turn

she was so friendly.  She asked Diamond and I if we are sisters.

Diamond and I with Marta's parents.  I had a good one with Marta too, but it's not uploading right now.  I'll put it up next time.

 

 

 

 

 

First week back...

Coming back to Peru was rough.  It probably didn’t help that the trip back up to my site from Lima is exhausting.  I immediately felt very alone and I was alone for those 2 days traveling to Tacabamba.  Right now it is summer vacation from school in Peru.  Where I live in Cajamarca a lot of people leave their communities to make extra money as migrant workers during the coffee harvest in the jungle.  So there is not a lot of project work to look forward to during January and February, because people just aren’t around.

When I got home to Tacabamba on Tuesday night I was surprised to find 3 new kids at my house.  My host mom Rosa’s nephews and niece are staying with us for vacations.  They are a pretty rambunctious group and immediately showered me with questions.  My favorite was ‘are you a man or a woman?’ which I thought was uncalled for, but 5 year old Jesus just wasn’t sure about me.  He also asked me if I was married or if I have kids; pretty typical I get that a lot from adults too. 

The next day I hiked up to Ayaque with Diamond and Marta.  Marta works for a Peruvian NGO that has a lot of the same goals as Peace Corps health and we work together a lot.  Marta took over for the promoter who was in charge of Ayaque last year and she needed someone to show her around.  I did not want to hike up to Ayaque the community where Diamond and I spent so much time developing a project only to have it flop in early December, but I figured it would be good for me not to wallow alone in my room.  And it was, good for me.

Showing Marta around really made me realize what a big deal it is that Diamond and I put in all those hours visiting houses and getting to know that community.  I knew names, faces, where the worst dogs live, and the people there knew me too.  So it really sucks that our project didn’t work out and it won’t count towards anything, but I did successfully get to know this community that is so isolated that it seems to often get passed over.   And although my project didn’t work out, I will still be able to advocate on behalf of the community throughout this Municipality project.  Maybe I can keep them honest and make sure that Ayaque doesn’t get forgotten again.

So far our plan for an adult exercise class is not coming together so well, but I’m sure we’ll wear the municipality down.  We aren’t asking for any funding just a space to do the class, so I’m crossing my fingers that we get all the documents signed and stamped soon.  In the meantime the search is on for a new community to work in this year.  In December Diamond and I made a list of all the communities in the district that have a secondary school and a health post.  Now we need to find one that fits for a healthy homes project. 

I’m trying to keep busy.  I’m trying not to worry about med school stuff too much.  I’m trying to not let the rainy season bum me out too much.

Chau for now,

kb

 

 

 

 

Back to the Rainy Season Reality

I am so lucky.  I was able to go back to the U.S. for the holidays and spend 3 whole weeks surrounded by the people I love.  It felt amazing to be back in my country.  I felt like I fit, I knew how things worked and what to expect.  It was wonderful to be able to express myself fully.  The amount of love and support I felt was incredible. 

On Sunday I left Detroit.  All the sleep deprived travel time between Miami, Lima, and now (I still have 7 hours of van rides to go as I am writing from the regional capital Cajamarca) back to my community Tacabamba.  I am surprised at how emotional it has been.  The sadness of leaving has surprised me.  Rationally I know that I have my Peruvian family and friends (I actually have 2 families since I had that site change in July), not to mention my wonderful Peace Corps family in the volunteers. 

It is much harder than I expected it to be.  However, I have so many great things to look forward to and I need to keep those in mind.  Plus, I have been here for 15 months already and as one volunteer friend pointed out we are 3/5th of the way finished with our service. 

So I'm on my way today to reunite with my Peruvian family in Tacabamba and survive the combes from here to there.  I have more to reflect on, but I think I'll post it this weekend.  I'm started to get worried about no getting back to site until really late.  Thank you everyone who welcomed me home.  I love you all so so much. 

hasta este fin de semana,
kb

I'll be home for Christmas

Last week all of the volunteers from my training group came together for the first time since our last group wide training event which was in April for medical checks and our mid-service conference.  The first three days we had med checks; a visit with the doctors, the dentist, and a parasite test.  It was really nice to catch up with everyone and we had a lot of free time to just hang out in Lima.  We volunteers really get excited about good food, because often in site we eat a lot of the same thing over and over.  For me in the sierras that means a lot of rice, potatoes, and fried egg.  In Lima we could eat burritos, Indian food, pizza, or felafel, the food choices are endless!  (*burrito means 'little donkey' in Spanish, except apparently in Mexico where it means delicious food...but the name confusion has proven to be an embarrassing disappointment on more than one occasion)

A few highlights of the week in Lima with the rest of my training group Peru 18;
Going with a group of friends to give our stool samples!  Finding out I have no parasites was actually kind of disappointing, because it means that all the times I got sick was just food poisoning and having a parasite would be way more bad ass.
A visit to the national museum.
On my friend Christina's birthday a group of us went out to eat burritos (and I don't mean little donkeys) and go dancing.
Staying in a backpackers hostel we were in rooms with 4 bunks and lockers.  So in our room we had 2 strangers; sick Lewis and Emma, a sort of friendly couple from England.  Sick Lewis spent all his time in bed and may or may not have gotten me really sick before I left.  However, it was really fun to refer to 'sick Lewis' all week, he and his girlfriend Emma told me they plan to rent motorbikes and drive to Colombia.  To really pant the picture for the reader I want to make sure that you imagine Lewis with dreadlocks down to his butt and lot of piercings/tattoos while Emma wore a lot of tiny clothes and a fanny pack at all times.
Getting a pedicure was nice, but I was seriously embarrassed about how gross my feet were.
Going to Parque Kennedy; a park named for President Kennedy that is full of cats.  A local church feeds thereby supporting a very large population of homeless cats, that roam this park.  I felt like I was on cat safari.
Playing euchre one night with 2 other volunteers and a very friendly Canadian man named Glen who was probably in his late sixties.  It was one of my favorite and weirdest moments of the week.

On Thursday and Friday we had mid-service conference with the Peace Corps health staff.  It was really nice, but I had trouble staying focused and participating since I was so excited about leaving Friday night for the states.  It was also really difficult to hear about the successes of the other volunteers; I am happy for them, but also really jealous.  With the site change in July and more recently the healthy homes project that Diamond and I were planning fell apart-I'm feeling pretty dejected.  My hope is that being home for a couple weeks will help me to be more motivated to start fresh in January, after all I am kind of an expert now at staring fresh third times a charm, I hope.

On Friday night I went to the airport with Ellie and Hayden two of my best friends in Peru, also volunteers in Cajamarca.  We had a scare-err I had a scare, Ellie and Hayden were both very calm, when the taxi broke down for a while.  At the airport we discovered that as Peace Corps volunteers we can go through the diplomat lines.  We felt pretty proud of ourselves.  It does say on our Peace Corps passports that we work for the American embassy.

On Saturday morning during my layover in Miami an elderly woman from Brazil found me and latched on for about 2 hours prior to takeoff.  She was coming to Michigan, Ann Arbor specifically, to visit her doctor son and his newly pregnant wife.  However, she spoke no English.  She spoke some Spanish, but mostly Portuguese.  When she spoke to me and I confused her Portuguese for Spanish we became fast friends.

I'm at my parent's house typing this write now.  It feels like so much has changed and at the same time nothing has changed.  Definitely seeing Jessie and Eric was really weird at first.  I cannot get over how tall they both are, but especially Jessie-it's like she is walking on stilts or something.  Kevin the cat is all grown up and he's not such a great cat.  I would have thought with such a great name that he would be better, but he doesn't really like me.  So I think I have mostly escaped the reverse culture shock, but I still haven't left the house yet so only time will tell.  I may freak out in a Walmart or an Applebee's, I've got plenty of time to do it still.

Below is a link to the Peace Corps website about the top states and cities where volunteers are from.  Michigan made the state list and Ann Arbor made a list for the highest per capita.

http://www.peacecorps.gov/resources/media/press/2155/?from=hp_banner_topstates

Also, finally here is a link to the much anticipated music video that we made in site.  Diamond, Laura, Ellie, and I had so much fun making this.  We think it's great, but it's probably pretty weird.  I wrote a short description of important vocabulary words on youtube.

http://youtu.be/58qI-IEKqes

Happy Holidays!
kb

Camp ALMA and Thanksgiving

**Disclaimer; there is a lot of vomiting in this blog post**

Last weekend was the girls leadership conference put on by the volunteers in Cajamarca. The conference is called Alma; which means 'soul' in Spanish, but it is also an acronym for Activdades de Liderazgo para Mujeres Adolescentes (leadership activities for adolescent women). Camp Alma was a great success. Each volunteer brought 2 girls from their community to attend and all together there were around 30 girls at the camp. 

For my sitemate Diamond and I the trip from our site Tacabamba to the regional capital Cajamarca city is about 7 hours. We have to hop bus to bus; well it's actually public transport vans called combes, between all the bigger cities along the way. The ride between Bambamarca and Cajamarca is the worst stretch because of the elevation changes and all the curves in the road that the drivers take at full speed. We filled a whole van of just Peace Corps volunteers and their girls. That last leg of the drive the girls all started to get sick; one by one barf bags were passed around and the girls would quietly cough. I am always so impressed by how quietly Peruvians vomit on car rides. I know that it sounds weird, but they are so quiet you wouldn't even know they have been sick until they throw their barf bags out the moving car window. Since we volunteers make the trip fairly regularly none of us get too car sick.

We finally arrived at the camp at around 8pm and we were all exhausted. It was exciting to see all the other volunteers that live in southern Cajamarca that we don't get to see that often. Also we had pizza for dinner which was pretty great. Usually pizza that I have had in Peru has sauce that tastes like sweet ketchup or it doesn't have sauce all-which really makes or breaks the pizza in my opinion. Pizza is one of those elusive foods that I often try to make for my host family, but it is never as good as I remember it being in the States.

I'm not sure what brought it on, but I got really sick the first night of camp. I think it is probably parasites acting up, but I'll find out for sure in 2 weeks when I got to Lima for mid-service medical checks. The next day; the first real day of camp, I was miserable. As a group leader I was supposed to accompany the girls in all their activities of the day, but I ended up taking lots of naps and making frequent visits to the bathroom. I felt really nauseous all day, my stomach just hurt with what I like to call 'bubble gut', and I had a fever. I had sulfur burps which is the main reason why I thought it was parasites; gross carbonated smelly burps is a symptom of giardia.

Despite the nausea I would have stretches of time when I could be distracted enough to do fun stuff. The first day the girls had lectures on alcoholism, sexism, self esteem, and did a lot of team building games. We taught the girls how to dance gangnam style or 'the horsey dance' as the kids in my site often call it. I missed a lot of the first day, because I kept slipping off to my room to sleep. On day two I felt a lot better. We did field games with the girls and I was in charge of the human knot game. There was a career panel in the afternoon. Women with various professions came in to talk to the girls about their experiences. The girls in my group asked questions such as; 'did you parents support you in your studies,' 'is there sexism in your work place,' and 'do you enjoy your job?'

In the evening the girls prepared for a mock project plan that they prepared for imaginary communities. For example; my girls were supposed to think of a project to improve the self esteem of the high school students in their pretend community. They designed a pretend project with classes taught at the high school about various topics including; bullying, peer pressure, and self esteem. They prepared for a mock debate that they participated in on the last day of camp. And we had the girls practice how to put on condoms. The majority of the girls knew how to check the condoms and put them on, because they had been in the sexual education classes that volunteers often put on in high schools. There was also a bonfire that last night. We taught the girls how to make smores

On the last day of camp the girls wrapped up all the group project work they had been doing; putting on presentations about their imaginary community projects and the mock debate in teams. We left Cajamarca at around 1:30pm and made it back to our site by around 8 pm. It was a long long day. The girls all received special certificates and t-shirts. They had to do a lot of speaking in front of groups, working with other girls they had never met from the other volunteer's communities, and problem solving in the imaginary project plans.

This week Diamond, Ellie, and I went into Chota to make Thanksgiving dinner with Barbara another volunteer who lives in Chota. We made so much food; baked maccaroni, a baked chicken, sweet potato casserole, carrots and broccoli, and apple crisp. It was really nice to spend Thanksgiving all together. Being so far from the States at times like Thanksgiving is sometimes really emotional. It sort of caught me off guard, but the friday after Thanksgiving I went to visit my previous host family and all the sudden it hit me. I just sort of had a little melt down. I had traveled pretty far out of my way to go see my old family and when I arrived it seemed like my host mom was surprised to see me. I had called them earlier in the week to confirm, plus earlier that day and still she acted surprised. No one was home except my host mom, my brother Witman was playing with his friends. The room that used to me mine she told me was off limits, because they were renting it out to someone else. Instead she had me put my things into the room where they used to keep all the guinea pigs they raise to eat.

My old host family's business is buying milk from the neighbors and making cheese to sell in Bambamarca. I spent the afternoon sitting around by myself while my host mom Dalila was running around receiving the milk and making cheese. Neighbor women would walk in with their milk to drop off and see me asking 'where have you been?' I had to leave in such a rush in July, because it was technically an emergency evacuation/site change and apparently no one from my host family had bothered to explain where I had gone or why I had left. Over and over I explained why I left, where I was living now, and I tried to emphasize how it wasn't my decision to leave, because sometimes it felt like these neighbors where angry with me.

Anyhow, it surprised me how upset all this made me. It got better when we ate dinner together; Dalila, Witman, and I. Also I did not end up having to sleep by myself in the guinea pig room. Instead Dalila made up a bed from me upstairs in the family living space, where I had never previously been invited. Witman said something to me that made me feel so happy; he told me that he was reading Harry Potter and asked if I could find him a copy of the second book since he like reading so much. That was what I really wanted for him-to become a reader.

The next morning Witman had to go to school; kids in my department have Saturday classes to make up for all the school lost from the protests. I got to see my little cousin Eduar though, because his teacher apparently didn't go on strike with the others back in September. He showed me his new puppy and we talked about what he wants to be when he grows up. When it was time for me to leave he told me he didn't want me to go and I nearly cried. I really miss them both Witman and Eduar. They were my best friends for the first 8 months of service.

Visiting my old site is really difficult and it's hard to explain why. I miss the way that family made me feel about myself. I felt like I was apart of them and their lives. There were also not such good feelings. They would often ask to borrow money from me and I constantly felt like I needed to be on the look out for being taken advantage of. I think the good feelings outweigh the bad ones though and I feel like I still want to find a way to balance them into my life here in Peru.

So this Thanksgiving I had a lot to be thankful for, but mostly I just feel excited to be coming home to visit in December. I can't wait to see all my family and friends. I can't thank you all enough for the motivation and courage you have given me. I couldn't do this without you guys, so thanks.

Thanks for reading and see you soon!

kb

my team of girls doing the spagetti challenge; they recieved spagetti noodles, string, a little masking tape, and a marshmellow the goal is to make the highest structure possible.

Hayden and I at the field games

human knot game

bonefire with smores!

my team presenting their project plan

hanging out while the girls ran around doing field games

I love how they put the earrings on the llamas

one of my girls Lesly (on the left) won a game where everyone puts a loop of masking tape on their nose and touch noses.  Whoever gets the most tape on their nose wins.

teaching gangnam stlye again

Diamond and I with all our girls from Tacabamba

the whole group

all the volunteers
 

Welcome Peru 20

This week was the regional FBT or field based training for Peru 20. The new health volunteers came up on Wednesday. It felt like we had been waiting so long for the newbies. I was so excited our bosses in Lima decided that Diamond and I would be allowed to host the 20ers, because at first they told us they weren't sure about it since we have only been in our new site for a few months.

The first big training activity we had planned was at Jennifer's site. We were going to take the 20ers on house visits for Jennifer's improved cook stove project moms. Since Diamond, Ellie, and I were all going to get paired up with a new volunteer we went out to Jennifer's early to find the houses so that we would know them the next day with the 20ers. The dogs are really bad at Jennifer's site. Jennifer's host family dog followed us around while we visited the homes that we would need to lead the new volunteers to for practicing house visits. Her poor dog was attacked by a couple of much bigger dogs and Jennifer had to carry him for a while after since he was too scared to keep walking.

One of our goals as health volunteers is to work with moms on 'healthy homes' projects. Healthy homes is a pretty broad goal, but it almost always involves house visits. Especially where I live in the sierras hygiene is often lacking in rural homes. It's often really basic stuff to Americans, but if you think about how it was drilled into us as kids and if you imagine if it never had been it makes more sense. Also there is a lot of extreme poverty and understandably brushing teeth or buying a new bar of soap is not the top priority when kids are malnourished. Another important part of the situation is that women here are overloaded with all the information from the Ministry of Health about how they should be; you should be washing your hands, brushing your teeth, washing your vegetables before you cook, you shouldn't let your cuys (guinea pigs) run around loose on the floor in your kitchen, and the list goes on. These women have it all memorized; when you ask them the questions they know the answers. However, they are not necessarily practicing the hygiene rules that they can regurgitate on command. That is where Peace Corps volunteers come in, part of our goal is to visit homes to observe, motivate, and pressure moms into actually making healthy changes in their homes. That is why house visits are so important.

After a long day of walking around in the campo in rubber boots (so uncomfortable and also so much foot sweat, yuck) we caught a van out to Tacabamba. On Friday Ellie had the trainees in her site; they taught a sex education class in the high school and learned about library projects. Saturday morning Diamond and I had a community health promoter training session to give, but since the trainees were visiting they planned it all. They were so creative and they made the class so interactive for the community health promoters.

In the afternoon on Saturday we hiked out to the community where Laura did her latrines project so the trainees could see how a completed project looks. We stayed out in Solugan to attend a community meeting with Laura; it was the final meeting of her project. Like all meetings it ran long and by the end it was dark. Laura and Diamond's host family had called moto-taxis for us to get back to Tacabamba, because the hour long hike back would be difficult in the dark. Then it started to rain. There were 9 of us with the trainees, Laura, Diamond, Ellie, Anghie (Laura and Diamond's little host sister), and I. However, only 2 moto-taxis made it out to Solugan. So the first wave of 6 left for Tacabamba and Laura, Ellie, and I waited. While we waited we were invited hard boiled eggs, hot chocolate, and tamales.

In the end another moto did not come for us, so we just started walking. Very quickly we were completely soaked, but it seemed really funny at the time. We caught a ride from a truck that went by when we were about 15 minutes out of Tacabamba; I am still surprised he allowed us in his car since we were soaking. It was about 10:30 pm when we got back to Tacabamba. Ellie and I sloshed over to my host family's home knocking and shouting for someone to let us in (I did not have a key to the house yet, but I made one the very next day). No one would let us in and I had accidentally left my cell phone in my room; it was the only place where I had my host parent's phone numbers. So we had no choice but to go to Laura and Diamond's host family and ask if we could stay the night. Laura and Diamond gave us dry clothes and we staying in an extra room. It was pretty memorable drinking tea dressed in Laura and Diamond's clothes and laughing about how ridiculous the whole thing had been. 

On Sunday, the last day of field based training, we took the trainees to the health center to paint a mural with our youth health promoter group. Diamond and I had asked the teens to draw us a sketch of the mural so that we could scan it and use the projector to project it on the wall, but they all flaked out. Lindsay; one of the trainees, luckily offered to make a sketch for us to use. So we projected Lindsay's drawing up on the wall and let the kids go for it with pencils and later paint. We still have a lot of work to do on the mural, but it was a good start. 

Finally on Sunday afternoon we had the newbies go with us to Laura's world map class. We watched some movie clips about Peru with the kids, played some games, and talked over the kids in English about how the planning and execution of the project went. It was a nice relaxing time with a group of great kids. We of course all danced Gangnam style or 'horsey dance' as well as the 'funky chicken' dance with the kids. When it was time for the trainees to leave town we were in the middle of heavy rains. We waited for a bit, but it didn't let up at all. By the time we made it to where the vans pick up and drop off everyone was soaked. I felt terrible Diamond and I got them all cold and wet before they had to travel.

My favorite part of us walking in the rain to see them off was how all the people would shout at us 'you're going to get wet.' The Peruvians all seemed to stop whatever they were doing to just wait inside for the rain to stop. They shouted at us from under the protection of the overhang of their tin roofs. While they shouted at us I just kept smiling to myself, because we were already completely soaked in a way that I would have thought was apparent. Yet, they kept advising us to get out of the rain since we would get wet. It's cultural moments like that that really make me laugh, because as an American I am always in a hurry to get somewhere and I refuse to change my plans just because of a little rain. Here in Peru people have a different perspective and I admire their more laid back views about time, schedules, appointments.

Anyhow, all in all I think FBT went really well. I am so excited to have the new volunteers up here in northern Cajamarca with us. They are wonderful people. I have some pictures below.

Thanks for reading and chau for now,

kb

 

talking about high blood pressure

Peru 20ers doing a session on heart health
 

community health promoters doing a skit about house visits

group shot

you can't really see it, but this guy as a U of M hat.  For some reason they are really popular down here-I see them all the time.

At Laura's final meeting with her community Solugan

she made a delicious chocolate cake; here she is secretly frosting the cake under the table

tracing the sketch for the mural with the artist Lindsay Ballo

a long line of students waiting to give Laura a kiss