First Impressions of Cajamarca

***I thought I posted this entry on Sunday, but apparently it didn't save to the blog.  Whoops!***

When I first got to Peru I experienced some culture shock, but it is nothing compared to how I felt visiting my new community.  My town is called San Juan de Lacamaca in the departamento (state) of Cajamarca.  There are 4 other health volunteers going to Cajamarca with me and we are all relatively close; less than 2 hours by car away from each other.  There are so many things to describe I don’t know where to start. 

The bus ride from Lima up to Cajamarca is 16 hours.  When we arrived in Cajamarca city (my new regional capital) we caught another bus-a smaller one called a combe- for a 3 hour drive to Bambamarca.  For me Bambamarca is the closest big ‘city’, but it’s not really that big.  They do have internet and I feel confident that I can buy pretty much anything I might need in Bamba.  Then in Bamba I have to find the paradero for San Juan; which is a designated spot where cars travel back and forth between two towns all day.  Each of the surrounding small towns has their own paradero, as well as the closest big cities like Cajamarca.  It’s a different system instead of having one centralized location like I would imagine is more common in the U.S., but it is seems pretty efficient.

The landscape that we drove through between Cajamarca city and Bambamarca was amazing.  It kind of felt like we were driving through middle earth in Lord of the Rings, or possibly old timey west meets Ireland.  It was breathtaking.  Then it really started to hit me that this was were I was going to be living for the next two years.  My site is considered to be a sierra site.  The climate varies depending on how high up in the mountains you are, but even the ‘cold’ sites don’t feel very cold to me.  Right now is the beginning of rainy season and it will keep on raining through March.  In the small towns like San Juan there is no escaping the mud.  Since we hang all the clothes on the line to dry I’d bet that it’ll be a little moist this time of year and clothes will never feel completely dry.

The first part of the trip up to Cajamarca we traveled in a group and visited 2 different sites of current volunteers.  We got to see what kind of projects they were working on and help out with the work.  The first site we visited was San Antonio de Lacamaca-my neighbors- the site of a married couple Nate and Kelsey.  They both went to U of M and Kelsey actually graduated my year in the Psych department too, but we never knew each other.  I should also mention that during the trip our group was dubbed ‘Super Chicas de Cajamaraca’.  The Super Chicas were able to sit in on a health promoter training session on self esteem that Nate and Kelsey organized, as well as a healthy plate fair (sorry it’s a rough translation/name sounds weird in English) for moms and kids at the kindergarten.  Nate and Kelsey planned for the Super Chica trainees to prepare a special recipe for the moms at their healthy plate fair.  Anemia is a big problem in Cajamarca so naturally the recipe was for chocolate blood pancakes.  Nate and Kelsey bought a chicken, but since their vegetarians they wanted help killing her.  So I got to kill my first chicken-I have to admit I was scared to do it at first.  A very pregnant mom showed me how to do it; put one foot on the wings, the other foot standing on the chicken’s feet, and grab the neck and cut about a quarter of the way through.  We caught the blood in a pot and the pancakes we made were actually really delicious. 

Later at the fair there was a healthy plate contest between all the moms.  Each mom had prepared something and the nurses from the local health post were supposed to come in and be the judges.  However, the nurses flaked out.  At the last minute another trainee named Diamond and I got to be the judges.  We walked down the table and using the same spoon to taste test every dish we scored food for nutrition, presentation, taste, and we also got a group of kids to taste everything so we could find out what kids would eat.  It was intimidating at first, but then it was fun.  One of the dishes was a stew made out of pig skin with the fat still attached.  The mom who had prepared that one gave me a little plate and scooped a big portion of pig skin for me.  I had to eat it, because I was judging but also it is really rude not to eat food that people offer to you in Peru.  That was the grossest thing I’ve eaten thus far in Peru or that I can remember eating-not that I’m dramatic or anything. 

Later on in the week we visited a site called Paccha, which is probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.  I took pictures, but I don’t think I captured it.  The volunteer who lives in Paccha; Brad, had us help out with a mural painting project, a charla (chat) with a group of moms about safe water and diarrhea, and home visits.  It was pretty fun to do the educational sessions with real moms, because we have been practicing giving them to each other in training for the last 8 weeks.  The home visits were on our last morning in Paccha.  It was a rainy foggy morning.  Paccha is a mountain site in the campo- so picture homes on the side of a mountain with little walking paths between them.  We split up into groups, but homes in the campo don’t have addresses you just have to ask people ‘do you know where so and so lives?’.  Also there wasn’t a whole lot of cell phone service on the side of that particular mountain.  Kelsey and I got lost for what felt like an hour.  By the end of it we had both slide in the mud and at one point I thought we were close to getting attacked by a particularly unfriendly german shepard.  It was so ridiculous I couldn’t help but find it to be really very funny.  When we finally all found each other everyone was tired, wet, and covered in mud.  We went back to the hostel and had an awesome bonding experience watching Tangled on my laptop. *Peace Corps volunteers all have extensive external hard drives full of movies, tv shows, music, and P90X – thus I had a ripped copy of Tangled from my friend Katie’s computer*

The next day was socio day; all the community counterparts come in to meet us and we all get a presentation from the regional director (my boss) about Peace Corps and the relationship between socios and volunteers.  I had two socios show up; a nurse from the San Juan health post and the director of the biggest primary school in my town.  The socio day was really informative, very important, but very long and at times repetitive.  One thing that came up that I found to be funny was the topic of volunteers as god parents.  In Peru it is customary to have god parents for various occasions in a child’s life including a madrina/padrina of graduation.  My group will be arriving to site in 2 weeks which is very close to the end of the school year and families will be looking for god parents for kids graduating from primary or secondary school.  I have heard the horror stories from other volunteers who were asked and accepted the title of god parent for graduation.  They have to buy an expensive gift for the actual graduation and often they are expected to continue giving gifts indefinitely for the rest of the kid’s life.  Anyhow, the Peace Corps staff nipped that one right in the bud and told all the socios straight out that they needed to make sure that no one in their communities would try to get us to be madrinas to any kids during promociones aka graduations.

After socio day I got to go visit my actual site, meet my new host family, and I was lucky enough to get to spend time with the previous volunteer that I will be replacing.  My site is small.  My family has a home facing the town square or plaza de armas.  There is a store in the downstairs area and upstairs there are 3 rooms.  Two of the rooms are connected and mine is separate.  My room is empty right now, except for the toilet that the family purchased and has yet to install.  During my 3 day visit there was no toilet and no latrine.  The PC rule is that the family has to have some sort of bathroom-latrine or otherwise.  So I had to walk a couple blocks and through a field behind my new host aunt’s house to use her latrine.  The first time I went out there it was dark and I didn’t realize there was a pig pen really close to the latrine.  The pigs scared me, but luckily they were tied up and couldn’t get too close.  I have always thought pigs were so cute, but now I think they are gross and I’m not sure if they bite…I don’t plan on getting close enough to find out.

My new host family is very shy and reserved, which is typical in the sierras.  I have a really difficult time communicating with my new host mom, because she has a really strong campo accent and I have a very strong ingles accent we cannot understand each other.  Annie, the pervious volunteer, is totally fluent in campo-Spanish so I have faith that I’ll get there eventually too.

On my second night of site visit I ate dinner at my host aunt’s house and she kept telling me that I was going to sleep at her house that night.  I was so confused.  Then my host mom showed up and things became clear.  My host aunt and my host mom (sisters-in-law) had a fight over who deserved to host me in their home.  It was super awkward and for a lot of the time I didn’t understand what was going on.  In the end I had to announce that I was going to sleep with my host family, because Peace Corps had assigned me there.  My host aunt spent the rest of the dinner mumbling under her breath and glaring at me-so I hope things are going to be okay with her when I get back.

So my first impressions of San Juan aren’t so great….the people in the community were great.  My family time was extremely uncomfortable, but it was only 3 days and it was a really awkward situation.  My socios were really excited to work with me.  The girl that I am replacing had nothing, but great things to say about her experience.  I think I am a healthy amount of scared-if I wasn’t a little scared about going to go live in the middle of nowhere in Peru that would be unhealthy, right?  I have two more weeks left in Lima before I get sworn in as a Peace Corps volunteer the day after Thanksgiving.  So two more weeks of high speed internet, cell phone service, grocery stores, sitting while I pee instead of squatting over a hole, and I plan on savoring every minute of it here in Lima.  Cajamarca is going to be a big change, but I know that once I get a routine and learn how to understand my host mom I’ll be fine.

Sorry for the long post.  I felt like I couldn’t pick just one anecdote to write!  Mail call:

*Thanks for the pepper spray mom and dad!

*Thanks for the letters: Babu and Beepa, Breanna, Sesame, and Mom!

***mail is slow here and I am moving to Cajamarca in 2 weeks-so if you want to write, please send letters to my new address:

K. Barrie

Casilla 48

Serpost Chota

Cajamarca, Peru

South America

From Left to Rigth: Brad, Diamond, Hayden, Me, Jennifer, Ellie, Kelsey, Nate, and Alonso
The whole regional field based training group in Paccha

Socio Day in Chota

Paccha in the morning

Picture with the San Antonio Health Promoters

Ellie making the chocolate-blood pancakes

Introducing myself to the group of moms and kids at the healthy plate fair.

kids taste testing the food

Me announcing the winners of the healthy plate contest.  The first prize was the chicken we killed for the blood pancakes.

The finished product!

I think I may have site envy....the views in Paccha were so beautiful!

Action pic of a socio-drama at the diarrhea and safe water session we did with Brad's moms in Paccha.

House visit morning.

Post house visits- we are sooo happy to have found our way through the fog back to town.

Super Chicas and Alonso!

Super Chicas take Cajamarca