1 year olds have the coolest birthday parties

March 9th was the regional meeting for all the volunteers in Cajamarca.  It takes roughly 7 hours to travel from Tacabamba to Cajamarca, but it’s worth it when all the volunteers get together.  When we gather it feels like for a little while you can just relax.  Only a volunteer would understand when your host mom tells you that you got that cold because you took a shower at night, or when the municipality lost your document for the 5^th time, or when you walk 2 hours each way for a meeting that no one bothers to show up for.  In Cajamarca there is a big grocery store where we can buy cheese, peanut butter, and pringles.  It always feels like a mini vacation when we go to Cajamarca.

On the way back from Cajamarca Diamond and I were invited to Ellie’s host sister’s daughter’s 1^st birthday.  Kaory’s birthday was a huge event.  Diamond and I showed up a little late, but we jumped right in.  Every kid in the whole town was invited for this party.  There were snacks, music, some older cousins dressed up like Minnie Mouse and Strawberry Shortcake, and I think there were at least 8 cakes.  We arrived in time for the ‘hora loca’ or ‘crazy time.’  Ellie’s job was to pass out whistles, paper masks, headbands, and other party favors.  My job was to shoot confetti over the whole crowd from this tube that opened kind of like a role of Pilsbury crescent rolls.  Also I tried to take pictures on Ellie’s camera.  It was wild, dancing, kids fighting for favors, and so much fun.  I am definitely planning on having a ‘hora loca’ at my wedding, just maybe minus the whistles.

After the ‘hora loca’ it was time to pass out jello cups, then sandwiches, then sing happy birthday, cut the cake, the piñata (which by the way was not the way we do piñatas in the states; the small kids where shuffled forward so they wouldn’t get trampled and then the bottom of the piñata simply was pulled out by an adult), and finally each kid upon exit was handed a balloon with a picture of baby Kaory’s face printed on it.  Each activity was executed by a team of adults that included Ellie, Diamond, and I.  Some parts were accompanied by a special song; happy birthday, there was an ‘hora loca’ theme song, and also I believe there was a piñata time theme song.

I overheard Ellie’s host sister and mother talking about food running out, because there were some party crashers.  Apparently some mothers from a nearby community were passing by and had their kids walk into the party.  Since the all the kids in Conchan were invited, the doors were open and everything was so wild, I guess checking invitations or saying something to the party crashers directly was not something they were willing to do.  In the end it all turned out okay, it didn’t seem like they ran out of snacks or had to exclude any of the kids whose moms invited themselves.  After all the towns children left it was time for the adult party.  We all got big plates of rice, potatoes, and chicken with chicha morada drink (a beverage made from blue corn and sugar).  Then it was time for huayno dancing and drinking circles.  Of course Diamond, Ellie, and I really brought our best dance moves and broke up the huayno with some old favorites; the shopping cart, sprinkler, running man, etc. 

Huayno dancing is basically a two-step.  Depending on the person there may or may not be arms involved, but if you are really into the dance it is a lot of jumping around.  I like it because it is easy and everyone can participate.  I don’t like huayno, because when you dance you are not supposed to make eye-contact with your partner.  This is not something people have told me, but rather something I have learned from observation.  If you watch a line of people huayno dancing everyone will be looking at their feet, to their side, anywhere except for the person across from them.  It is kind of funny to watch.

This week started off kind of slowly.  At Monday afternoon exercise class I was the first person to arrive and the municipality turned out to be closed.  I waited for a little while, but no one has attended the class except Diamond and I for at least 3 weeks.  Well, not counting the time that my host brother Sergio and his friends came to the class-it was really cute.  The point of the story is that Diamond and I had heard so much positive feedback about doing an aerobics class.

It was not surprising that no one showed up, but for some reason I just started crying in front of the building.  A guy that I recognized as an employee of the Municipality was watching me and I told him about how everyone I had spoken to had told me how much they wanted aerobics classes, how Diamond and I had paid for radio spots advertising the class, how we had printed copies of calendars to pass out, and still no one would come to our classes.  He told me that the people of Tacabamba are ‘verguenzosos’ or ‘embarassed’ to say ‘no’ to me.  I never thought that that would be something that I missed or wanted to hear, but I really do miss people just saying ‘no’ when they don’t want to do something.  I hate how people say ‘yes’ and then just don’t bother to show up.  I fall for it every time

Later on in the week I walked out to Solugan; the community where my former sitemate Laura did a latrines project, to talk with the teniente (an elected community leader recognized by the municipality).  Ronnie is a very polite kind family man.  I went out to Solugan with the intension of pitching the idea of my ‘old person health’ classes, but Ronnie had a long laundry list of things he needed help with.  The stuff he was asking for wasn’t about getting free stuff, or English classes, or agreeing to project work he had no intention of following through on.  He asked me for small things that would make a big difference in his community and it made me feel so happy to be asked for real help.

At the end of Laura’s latrine project there had been some materials left over and the community voted on what to do with the extra latrines.  One of the extras was going to be built for the local kindergarten so the kids didn’t have to hold it during class time.  However, due to the location of the kindergarten and some disagreements from neighbors about building a latrine on their land, the latrine would have to be built in a tricky spot.  Ronnie asked me to help them get one of the municipality engineers to come out to help them build.  They needed some professional advice and Ronnie was having trouble getting anyone to help him out at the Municipality building. 

That afternoon when I got back from Solugan I went into the Municipality talked with one of the engineers I know, got the name of another engineer who knows about latrine construction and water table stuff, and wrote up a formal document asking this engineer to go out to Solugan to help.  I don’t know if it’s because I’m a gringa, because I live in Tacabamba, or because I am really not so ‘verguenzosa’ to be pushy and make a fuss, but I was able to get the ball rolling for Ronnie and those poor kindergarteners in just a couple hours.    

Ronnie also asked me about the possibility of doing a cuy hutch building project.  Almost everyone I have met in Cajamarca raises cuys.  In the more rural communities (read: poorer) a lot of times people just have all their guinea pigs running loose on the kitchen floor, which is really unhygienic.  However, if people are really poor or also really stubborn they will argue and argue with you that their cuys die from cold when they take them out of the kitchen.  Maybe that is true, but even if they put all the cuys in a hutch that was in the kitchen it would still be so much cleaner.  Ronnie told me that people in his community were too poor to buy all the materials needed to make hutches to get their cuys off the kitchen floor, but could I help them ask for materials from the Municipality.

Asking for money from the local government has been a super frustrating pass time of mine since I moved to Tacabamba, but what Ronnie was asking me to do was to teach him how to do something for himself and his community.  This is what Peace Corps is supposed to be all about; helping people learn how to do their own projects.  Most of the time I feel like I am shoving Peace Corps project goals down people’s unwilling throats-especially when I work with moms on nutrition and hygiene.  People are busy, why should they care what some foreign girl with bad Spanish has to say about how they should live their lives, I totally understand why they do not want to come sit in a class that I am giving.  This is different though.  This is his idea, his project; he wants to work with me to learn how to do this for his community on his own in the future.  I am going to teach Ronnie how to write up the documents that he needs to ask for money and I’ll sit in the municipality with him waiting to get face time with someone to whom we will pitch the idea.

On some level I am worried that this might not work out, because nothing really does seem to work out how you plan it to.  However, I am going to give it my best pushiest without verguenza gringa shot and we’ll see if we can get the wire mesh and nails to build the hutches for the families in Solugan. 

Although, it’s all still in the planning phase right now I feel more hopeful.  And if I can’t get anything to really work at least I know I tried my best and it’s not time to give up yet.  Rainy season makes everything feel so difficult; your clothes don’t dry on the line, people don’t show up to things because they don’t want to be out in the rain, and also hiking in mud out to a community tires you out so much faster, but school started 2 weeks ago and the health Center is finally done with their work plan for 2013 (even though ahem, we are ¼ way into the year).  So, maybe I will get to be a good volunteer in the end.  Fingers crossed my sex ed classes don’t fall through at the high school.

Thanks for reading and chau for now,

kb

PS: I wrote this blog post last week, but we had no internet.  Some updates include: I have permission to teach sex-ed in a rural high school in a community called El Naranjo.  It only took me about an hour of the 4 hour long parent association meeting to convince the community that I was not in fact a spy working for the American mining companies that work in Cajamarca.  I start classes on Monday.  Ronnie never called my back and I haven't heard from him in about a week.  I wrote up all his documents and we are ready to get this engineer thing going whenever I get his signature.  Tomorrow is Palm Sunday or Domingo de Los Ramos-I am so excited for the procession and religious ceremony.  Pictures to come soon!

Here are some pictures of Kaory's 1st birthday celebration:

Ellie passing out the goodies the wild kids

during the hora loca

the Peace Corps ladies with Diamond's host momma Adelaida-one of my favorite people

Photo opportunity with the birthday girl and her cakes

Ellie with the balloons with Kaory's face on them

the pinata, plus you can kinda see the camera crew (really it was only 2 people; one person with the camera and another with the light) to record the whole event

post- hora loca we are all exhausted and the place was pretty much trashed.  So then we danced all over and drank a lot of beer of course.

 

giant glossy poster with Kaory's face on it, check!  They nailed it!







 

 

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Quick visit

This last week I spent in Ann Arbor.  I only had one interview, but I am still on the wait list at 3 other schools.  The interview was a MMI or multiple mini interviews, and it wasn’t as stressful as I would have imagined.  I am very lucky that I was able to come in for any interviews at all, because it is so expensive to travel and there are a lot of restrictions on out of country travel in Peace Corps.  Let’s just say, my bosses in Lima were not too happy that I was coming back to the U.S. so soon after spending 3 weeks at Christmas out of site. 

The interview was at 8:30 am in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan which is about 2 hours from my parent’s home in Ann Arbor.  So my dad offered to drive up with me the night before and stay at Motel 8.    The whole drive up we spent talking about potential interview questions and how I should answer.  I was nervous.  I think it was partly because when I skype called all my schools the week before to remind them I would be in the U.S. and ask for interviews the response was that several just rejected me on the spot.  So I was feeling like I wasn’t such a worthy candidate.  After all, an admissions counselor at Wayne State told me that “no respectable medical school would accept someone with grades as low as yours,” and things like that stick no matter how hard to shake it off. 

The best part of going with my dad was that when we arrived in Mt. Pleasant at around 9:45pm he looked at me and said ‘we need some snacks.’  We went to the grocery store he let me pick out chips, cookies, and beer.  It’s like we are the same person sometimes.

The next day I woke up and found myself in a room full of people in suits.  I was one of 4 or 5 other candidates/interviewees that showed up not in a suit.  They stuck as all in an auditorium and let sweat for about a 15 minute wait, but it felt way longer in my head.  I could hear people all around me making small talk; an activity in which I excel and enjoy to participate in, and I just sat there in my head freaking out.  Then came a moment when the admissions people passed around a microphone and asked each of us to introduce ourselves; name, hometown, where you studied, and where you live now.  I was happy for this moment, because as nervous as I was I knew that it might intimidate the others that I flew in all the way from Peru and that I am a Peace Corps volunteer.

On some level all volunteers know that people back at home are impressed by what we do.  The secret is that we volunteers (maybe I should only speak for myself) feel like big fat fakers.  Day to day life in Peru doesn’t feel so impressive.  I came into Peace Corps thinking that I would make big changes or at least I would be able to see the difference I had made….whatever that really means.  Then you show up and you realize; the reason a country has invited Peace Corps volunteers is probably because those kind of changes are so difficult to make happen. 

That is not to say that I regret joining Peace Corps.  This week I went to my sister Jessie’s school and spoke in front of 2 classrooms about Peru and about Peace Corps.  I think they were 7^th and 8^th graders.  One kid; who I suspect was prompted by her teacher, asked me if I would do Peace Corps again now that I know what it is like.  Any volunteer can tell you that that is one loaded question.  On the one hand I have received this amazing once in a lifetime experience to live in another culture, learn another language, I am seeing the world from a different perspective, and I’m supposed to get to help people too. 

On the other hand I constantly feel disappointed in my accomplishments, when I am really honest with myself I feel this sort of indifference to project work sometimes and I think it is my way of not getting too invested so that when my work falls apart I don’t feel so hurt as I used to let myself feel in the beginning.  I don’t want to be a drama queen here, but that kid really got me thinking.  Why did I join the Peace Corps?  And it reminded me that I worked very hard to get here.  I spent 2 years applying to get here and now I’m here living it while complaining about how difficult it all is for me.  Isn’t that why I wanted to do this in the first place to push myself to do something challenging? 

So, now it’s year 2 and I feel like I need to really do something I can be proud of, but I also don’t want to set myself up to be disappointed.  I need to find a way to feel satisfied with the small things that I have accomplished.  And they feel very small.  However, who knows how those small things will affect someone in the future.  After all, the people that I have met in Peru have caused a profound change in me-simply by including me in their lives.  So it’s not such a stretch that I might have changed a couple people’s ideas along the way.  So my goal for myself is to think about what I have done here in a more positive way and to adjust my expectations for this year without giving up before I even try again.

Whew, sorry for all the heavy posts recently.  Here is a interesting cultural tidbit to offset the seriousness and complaining nature of the rest of the post:

The week before I came back for the interview I was hanging out with the host family and some neighbors in front of host mom Rosa's store.  The power was out so everyone was sitting and talking instead of watching television.  Host aunt Elva decided she wanted to take a ride on the neighbor's motorcycle just for fun.  A lot of people have motorcycles where I live and there are often multiple riders. 

I remember when I first got to Peru I was shocked when I saw a baby on a motorcycle.  Yes, in fact I do know that 'a baby on a motorcycle' sounds ridiculous.  Sometimes the baby is strapped to the mother's back or if the baby is a little older they can sit in front holding on to the handle bars from between the legs of the driver.  Either way it is a little scary-no longer shocking to me, but still scary.  Anyway, host aunt Elva put Iban on the motorcycle with her.  Iban is 2 years old.  He sat between her legs and griped the handle bars (is that what you call them on a motorcycle?). 

They got about a block away and just fell right over.  Don't worry no one was seriously hurt.  It was scary, but no one was injured.  According to Elva, Iban didn't lean into a turn and started to slide off so she shifted her weight to break the fall tipping over the whole bike.  Iban was scared and so his mom took him to a neighbor's house to be 'cleaned'. 

So this is where the interesting cultural tidbit comes in.  In Cajamarca most people I know are believers of modern medicine, but they also believe in curandismo to some extent.  I guess a 'curandero' would translate to 'shaman' or 'traditional healer'.  When kids are scared or upset it is common for them to be 'cleaned' by the curandero or sometimes by any old family member.  What I have seen and heard about is kids getting 'cleaned' with an egg or with a newspaper.  Someone will sort of run the egg or the newspaper over the kids body while saying-from what I can tell-prayers.  The bad energy will leave the child and go into the egg or newspaper. 

Curandismo is not really big here in the mountains, but on the coast it is much more formative presence.  I have heard about getting 'cleaned' with a guinea pig, which sounds kind of fun to me if not a little uncleanly. 

Chau for now and thanks for reading,

kb

 

*here are some pictures of my visit to Bambamarca at the end of January and a few from February.

making tamales for dinner in San Juan

the ladies helped me perfect my husk filling methods

this is where my previous host family makes cheese, with Dalila, Witman, and Eduar

Eduar's got Peace Corps and Michigan swag

goofing off with the cheese molds

waiting for a car down to Bambamarca

 

Some of my extended host family from Tacabamba lives in Lima and generously let me stay with them on my to the states for the interviews.  Host mom Rosa sent me with a package for little Sergio-I was surprised to find that it had an entire pig skin wrapped up inside.

I brought back Michigan shirts for all my host sibs (both families) after my visit home at Christmas

Dad and I went to Detroit during my week home

Detroit feels so big after Tacabamba

I thought the buildings were beautiful

behind me is Canada

We went downtown to see the Detroit Golf Show or something like that, it was pretty bad.  The auto show is definitely more fun.  Although there was a guy who my dad has seen on the golf channel talking about swing theory.  I mostly enjoyed walking around downtown and spending time with my dad. 

 

 

 

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