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
 

 

2nd and 3rd goal work

I didn't get a whole lot of good work done this week, but Laura, Diamond, Ellie, and I did film a music video. I know, I know, being a Peace Corps volunteer is so much work, right? Well, we decided that filming this music video was really all about Peace Corps third goal-which is to promote cross cultural understanding amongst Americans. Our music video is 'Cajamarca Girls' sung to the sound of Katy Perry's 'California Gurls', but with some different lyrics about our region of Peru.

Our music video is in the style of the Huayno music videos we have here in Cajamarca. Huayno is a genre of music that is typical of the sierras. I find the music to be annoying at times, but also I catch myself humming and singing along in the combes (big vans that serve as the only form of public transportation here in Cajamarca). Along with the music Huayno also has a typical dance. It is basically a 2 step and depending on the dancer's enthusiasm may or may not involve spinning, hands, or switching places with your dance partner. Huayno is danced at all the parties here, and it can be danced in pairs facing each other. 

I enjoy Huayno dancing because it is so simple, but since it is so simple it gets kind of boring after a while. If your partner is an enthusiastic dancer it can be more of an aerobic experience involving a lot of jumping and spinning. Normally it is repetitive and both parties awkwardly avoid eye contact throughout the entire song.

Our music video is in the style of Huayno music videos because they are really low budget and have a charmingly formulaic quality. There is a lot of dancing in a line doing the huayno two step, very bad transitions and effects, and weird nature shots randomly sprinkled in between. Here is a link to a Hermanas Ayay music video; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of61wje1RQY   , they are a super popular huayno group from Bambamarca.

Last week Laura and I bought our traditional outfits so that we could wear them in our music video. So we set out to make the video in our campo outfits with our 12 year old cameraman Leo; Diamond and Laura's neighbor kid who amazingly followed us around for about 3 hours. We picked several locations around town to film, but wherever we went we attracted a lot of attention. I wish we could have filmed the people just stopping what they were doing to stare at us, but Leo kept the camera on us. So we still have some editing work to do, but by next Wednesday we should have the video all ready to put up on youtube. The master plan is to put it up on youtube and we can all become mildly famous. We will then send our video into Ellen Degeneres and she'll obviously love us and fly us out to be on her show. Cross your fingers it all works out....we have so much free time on our hands to scheme and daydream.

It was really fun hanging out while we did the music video. The four of us speak in a lot of spanglish, because weirdly I often catch myself forgetting words in English. The worst part is that for all the bad English my Spanish is not really improving either. I have plateaued and I am too lazy to be serious about studying. Some of my favorite things said where; toe thumbs for big toes, unbathens for people that don't shower, cookie snacks/chip snacks for cookies or chips, and I can't think of any other good ones right now.

Laura made homemade bagels and Ellie brought cream cheese from the grocery store 6 hours away in Cajamarca. We sat around eating bagels, reading about the elections and hurricane Sandy the day after the music video. Laura is leaving really soon for end of service; she has been here exactly one year longer than I have, and it was nice to have some quality bonding time together. We are all going to miss her so much, but we are also excited for her since she is staring her new life back in the U.S.

Today we had a Halloween party at the elementary school.  The second goal of Peace Corps is promote cross cultural understanding in our host countries, basically to teach Peruvians about American culture.  There wasn't a huge turnout, but I think it was better that way. As it was the kids were a little wild and I don't know if there would have been enough candy to go around. Diamond, Laura, and I were probably the most dressed up out of all the kids. We did Halloween relay races; walk like a zombie, hop like a frog, fly on a broom, etc, danced, and played a game Laura invented similar to pin-the-tale-on-the-donkey but instead pin the ingredients in the witch's cauldron.

Thanks for reading and Chau for now,

kb

 

**my pictures are not loading.  I'll be sure to post them next time I have better internet.  Also I should be able to post a youtube link to our amazing huayno music video...

traje tradicional

Disclaimer: this post is kind of moody brooding and a bit of a downer, but don't worry then it gets more positive

This week during house visits to Ayaque (the community where Diamond and I are going to do our Healthy Homes project) I met a 13 year old pregnant girl. I was with an obstetriz from the Health post; in Peru an obstetriz an entirely different profession than nurse or physician with a focus in women's health. Since I have been visit Ayaque weekly for about a month now I know my way around fairly well and an obstetriz named Luz asked me to help her visit the homes of the pregnant women in the community.

Luz read me the names of the women we were going to visit and there was a name I didn't recognize. I asked a local woman and found out she was the daughter of one of the moms I know from my project. We went up to her house and it turned out I had seen this girl around before. I was blindsided when the Luz asked her how old she was and the girl turned out to be 13. My little sister Jessie is 13. When I was a 13 year old I had acne, braces, I didn't know how to fix my hair or how to dress, I spent most of my time avoiding this one kid who bullied me and reading Meg Cabot books. I remember being terrified of boys. At middle school 'fun nights' my friends and I would dance in a tight circle so that we didn't have to deal with the embarrassment of interacting with the opposite sex. This 13 year old is 8 months pregnant.

The department (or state) where I live is called Cajamarca has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Peru. The obstetriz Luz took the opportunity to try to remind and scare the girl to ensure that she would come down to the health center to give birth. I was torn, because I knew that Luz meant to scare her for her own good and yet I couldn't help but see her as a terrified 13 year old. I felt like it was a situation beyond my Spanish level so I just stayed out of the conversation.

It was one of those encounters that makes me feel very sad and at the same time very lucky. I am so lucky that I got to be a kid for as long as I was able to be one. I feel sad that there is nothing I can do to help girls like that girl. I thought coming into Peace Corps that I would be able to make some impact here, but now it feels like I would be lucky if I reached just a person or two. The problems are just too big, but if I can help the women in Ayaque feel like they have a little more control over their lives I would feel very proud of myself.

Okay, there were fun things that happened too! I tried to make pizza for the first time with this new host family. Rosa (my host mom here in Tacabamba) has asked me plenty of times to teach her how to cook American food. What is American food exactly? Burgers, they're from Germany I think. Pizza is from Italy. I really didn't know what was distinctly American, but pizza is very un-Peruvian so we picked that. I thought that Rosa and I would cook together and it would be a nice bonding moment for us. What actually happened is that I bought the ingredients and cooked by myself. Rosa was out. She asked me to wait for her, but then she didn't show up.

Perhaps it wasn't the best time to do some weird food experiments, but I figured I'm a health volunteer so what better opportunity to show my host family how good vegetables can be. I made the pizza sauce with carrots and peppers in it and I thought it was delicious. So while I was cooking the pizza little Sergio (my 12 year old host bro) was around the house with a couple of his friends. I lured them away from their video games with some popcorn that I made and we hung out while the pizza cooked. First we ate popcorn and danced around to Gangnam Style or as the Peruvians call it the 'horsey dance'. Then we played Pass the Pigs and Go Fish.

Big Sergio (my host dad) even played Pass the Pigs with us and I think it was one of the first times I have seen him laugh. So I missed the bonding time with Rosa, but I felt pretty proud of myself for being such a good sister.

Thanks for reading. Chau for now!

Kb

here's a picture of Laura and I in our traditional outfits.

feels like I'm finally getting to work!

Since the last time I posted I have been doing a lot of baseline house visits. The goal is to visit the homes of all the participating families just to evaluate how their home is now and their level of knowledge in various preventative health topics. I check out the family's kitchen, the latrine, ask questions about how to prevent diarrhea, and what are 2 signs of malnutrition, etc. I am so lucky to have such an active community health promoter in Ayaque where we are working.

Florencia is an energetic 62 year old woman who is a volunteer community health promoter for Ayaque. On my first day of house visits she met me in a pair of flip flops, a long braid hanging out from under her baseball cap, and while we walked she was rolling thread into a ball. By around noon I was ready to be done for the day. I had climbed up the mountain to get to Ayaque and then Florencia and I climbed another peak to get to some of the farther houses. I would catch my self panting, sweating profusely, and stumbling in the loose rocks on the upward path, while Florencia effortlessly made her way in flip flops. Florencia kept me working until about 3:30 in the afternoon and I didn't make it back down to Tacabamba until at least 5pm.

We both wear the same kind of campo skirts, we both have our hair in braids mine blond and hers white, and we both wear our caps during visits. I really enjoy the company of Florencia she is a kind and hard working woman. I am so lucky to have someone who is willing to show me around the community, because the homes are so far apart. She also knows where the meanest dogs live and she has much better aim than I did when we had to throw rocks at them. Sometimes I like to remember how horrified I was when I first got here at seeing people throwing rocks at dogs or hitting them with sticks. Now, I'm the first one to grab a hand full of rocks. When I lived in San Juan a couple dogs bit me, but it was rainy season so they bit into my rubber boots (also a pig bit me once, they can be really mean).

Each time Diamond and I hike up to Ayaque it gets easier. I still get tired and sweaty, but now my body aches less. Maybe it's the altitude change or maybe I'm just out of shape, but by the third switch back Diamond and I usually stop talking to focus on heavy breathing and sweating off all our sunscreen. When we make it to the top we split up to go visit our various houses. We split the community in half so we could each form our own groups of moms to work with.

I try to carry at least a liter of water ever time, because Ayaque does not have a water system. Women and children have to haul water from ponds or creeks around their community-so I try not to ask for water as it is such a precious commodity. Despite Ayaque being such a poor community the families are incredibly generous. Often women invite me food. Here inviting someone food is a sign of respect and in some circumstances it is expected. I am always hoping not to get invited, because once you are invited it is rude not to finish your plate.

I bought myself a sling shot at the market. Apparently it strikes the Peruvians as very funny that I want to learn how to use a sling shot. I'm not sure if it is because I am a gringa, a female, or an adult. Sling shots are generally used by little boys, but the dogs in Ayaque are really mean and I think it would be useful to learn how to defend myself. I've been getting lessons from my host brother and from little boys in Ayaque sometimes when I'm up there.

The big budget meeting that the municipality was supposed to have this week; that I marked in my calendar 2 months ago as the day when we would find out if we got funding for the latrines project, never happened. When Diamond and I went to the municipality to excitedly ask if we had received funding they told us that they had forgotten about the meeting and it would be rescheduled for the next week. I was so angry, but not as surprised as I might have been when I first got here. I guess if the local government was really efficient and projects were happening here than they wouldn't need Peace Corps volunteers.

This week Laura's sex Ed classes started up again and I tagged along. Mostly I walked around the class rooms and tried to quiet students down or wake kids up. This last class in her project is about contraceptives and abstinence. She teaches the kids about abstinence and the various forms of contraceptives that are available at the Health post here; condoms, birth control pills, and birth control shots. At the end of the class Laura does a condom demonstration with a carved wooden dildo from the Health Center. I know that in public school in Ann Arbor we had sex Ed in 5^th grade, one year in middle school, and in 10^th grade I had another health class. I liked to help with an activity at the end of class where the kids read little dialogs with a negative attitude or pressure to have sex followed by a comeback response. Since a large portion of the population in Peru is Catholic we like to let the kids know that the Pope has fairly recently proclaimed that condom use is acceptable if Catholics are using them to protect themselves from HIV. Although there's not a whole lot of HIV in rural northern Peru there is a ton of teenage pregnancy, but if kids can justify using condoms during their sac religious premarital sex all the better, right?!

I included some pictures from the Peru 16 Despedida (goodbye) fiesta. My group is Peru 18 and the 16ers arrived in Peru exactly one year before my training group. They are starting to finish up with their service which is super exciting. For the party I tried to put together some homemade karaoke. I thought if I found the YouTube karaoke versions of music I could rip the music and videos with words so that we could have English karaoke songs. I probably spent about 6 hours downloading music and searching for good versions of the songs without lyrics. One of the restaurants the volunteers frequent agreed to put 2 cases of beer in the fridge for us and let us use the sound system for the karaoke (Peruvians usually drink their beer room temperature, gag). As it turned out the sound system at the restaurant was a little outdated and would not get along with any one's ipods, mp3 players, or my USB. So my karaoke was a total flop. It didn't matter though we still had a great time.

Thanks for reading!  Chau for now.
kb

Ellie and I being silly at the Despedida party-Ellie asked me to pick her up and carry her

Sunday morning breakfast with our 16ers.  Diamond designed a t-shirt for the occasion, a couple of us are wearing it in the pic.

reaping the spoils of the 16ers departure: loads of pads and tampons!!!  I dealt them out like cards so we would all get our equal share-thanks Kelsey for sharing

with our regional coordinator Jose

gringos on the dance floor!!! 

health promoters, grocery store visits, and 12 year old host brothers

It's been getting pretty busy around here since the last time I posted. Last weekend was the first ever Pasos Adelante Congress in Chota. Pasos Adelante is a series of classes written by Peace Corps volunteers for teaching youth various life skills. The course covers topics from; leadership, decision making, self esteem, sexuality, good communication, HIV/AIDs, STIs, how to use contraception, to basic anatomy of human sexual organs. The conference was planned for kids that had finished the Pasos class and had interest in continuing work with their Peace Corps volunteer as a youth health promoter.

Laura; the Peru 16er whose site Diamond and I have invaded with our site change, did a gigantic Pasos Adelante project with the entire student body of the high school in Tacabamba. The municipality and health post came together to agree that the class was a great idea. They came together long enough to see the project started and then left Laura to teach the 500+ students on her own. When Diamond and I got here in July Laura let us help out with some of the classes. It was super helpful to feel useful and to get out of the house when I first moved sites. I really appreciated getting to do the classes.

So all three of us invited 2 kids each to go with us for the weekend long conference in Chota way back in the first week of September. And last week; the week of the conference, we were scrambling to find our kids. Part of the problem was that teachers have been on a nation-wide strike since that first week of September, also there was the town party so kids flaked out on bringing back their permission slips for that time too, and finally people flake out because that's how things operate here. Since teachers are on indefinite strike lots of families just up and left town for impromptu vacations. Laura lost her two kids that way, I lost one of mine, and also I just couldn't get a hold of the other girl I invited.

***It blew my mind the idea that people could just up and leave the way they did. I still can't kick my American way of seeing the world. I understand more of how Peruvians see the world, but just think about living in a reality where you don't have to clock in and out of work. Here your 'job' is whenever you want to show up and whenever you want to leave. People work in the fields, or open a store in the front of their house, or drive a mototaxi when they need cash. It is so different here and it still gets to me sometimes.***

The kid I lost to an impromptu vacation was my 15 year old host sister Yossi. I invited her, because I want to get to know her better. Also admittedly I wanted to suck up a little to my new host family. She was excited until one morning I went downstairs for breakfast and my host mom Rosa told me that big Sergio, little Sergio, and Yossi had left on a vacation to go visit big Sergio's family. I asked about when they would come back and she said she didn't know. So 2 days before the event I was frantically scrambling to find more kids to bring. I thought it would be more difficult to get parents to agree to let me; someone they don't know at all, take their kids for 3 days 2 nights of this health promoter conference in Chota 2 hours away from Tacabamba. It turned out not to be such a big deal to get parents to sign those permission slips.

In the end we scraped together a good sized group of kids and we made to the conference. The event was so much fun. It was kind of like being a summer camp counselor for a weekend, except that the kids were attending lectures that we put on instead of doing arts and crafts, archery, and canoeing. It was a really great bonding moment for us volunteers, but also for the teens. At the end of the camp the kids from the various sites where volunteers live were signing each others notebooks like yearbooks. It was really sweet and I am really excited to work with our group from Tacabamba.

After the conference Jennifer and I went down to Cajamarca to meet up with a friend of ours from our Peru 18 training group. Christina called me and said 'I need a vacation, I bought a bus ticket to Cajamarca,' about 3 weeks ago. I was excited to see her, drink boxed wine, and go to the grocery store. Going to the grocery store is a really exciting activity for us volunteers-we know it's kind of pathetic, but just walking around is kind of like being in America, ha! Ellie came down to meet us and we got to watch American football while eating real cheddar cheese.

Also we went to the Inca Baths. The Inca Baths are the most famous tourist attraction around Cajamarca. Mom and I visited them when she was here in May, but we just looked. This time we got in the water and it was really fun. Outside are the giant stone baths full of those bright colored bacteria/fungus that grows in hot springs. There are also several long buildings filled with small rooms with tiled bath tubs. For just 6 soles we had a hot tub room for ourselves. The faucet let in boiling hot water from the natural hot springs. And for the group of us it was heaven. I don't think I have taken a bath since I was in the states. I have a cold shower in my new site, before I had stand in one bucket and pour water over my head from another bucket, and whenever I stay in a hostel I get a hot shower. A real bath though, I don't think I have seen a bathtub in Peru.

On Wednesday I went with my regional coordinator Jose, Alonso (his title is Program Specialist and he is pretty much my favorite person from the Lima office), and Barbara (the third year volunteer who lives in Chota and did all the planning and organizing for the awesome Pasos conference) on a site development visit. The next group of health volunteers arrived in mid-September to Lima, just like how I did last year. So right now Peace Corps is finalizing the sites where these new guys will live/work. It was really interesting to see the process of site development. We made a meeting with the mayor (who flaked out and never showed up), with the health post (they were a lovely group of people all very excited to have an extra person to help with health promotion), and visited 2 potential host families.

On Saturday Diamond and I gave a training class for the local community health promoters. In each of the surrounding communities there are supposed to be at least 2 health promoters. These people volunteer to serve as a point of contact for their neighbors when they have health questions. The health post uses these community health promoters to help them gather information and do door to door promotion. Even though we had to plan the class from this super boring manual from the Ministry of Health the class was still pretty fun. This months topic was child health. We reviewed nutrition, hygiene, domestic violence, how to prevent accidents (please store your machete out of reach of your two year old,), and danger signs (which symptoms are bad enough you better take your kid to the health post). I think most of it was pretty common sense and therefore a little boring for the promoters. However I learned some good new vocabulary words and got to test a carrot cake recipe on the class.

When I got back from the health promoter class I was tired and just wanted to sit around in my room not speaking in Spanish. My host brother Sergio had other plans. He really wanted to eat a pineapple that I brought back with me from Cajamarca. My friend Christina gave it to me to bring back, since she lugged it all the way from her department and we never got around to eating it at the hostel. I told him I wasn't hungry and we could eat it later, but he's 12 so he kept pushing. Then I lost my temper a little and told him I didn't have to share with him since it was my pineapple (so much arguing over a stupid pineapple). I thought I had won the battle, but about ten minutes later I heard a little knock on my door and Sergio asked me if I was ready yet. So I told him to go ahead and eat it without me. He looked uncomfortable, so when he left I thought that he wouldn't do it. Later I checked the fridge and saw that little Sergio called my bluff. That entire pineapple was gone. I couldn't help but laugh to myself, because I had invitar-ed (invited) him so I couldn't get upset or be surprised. 

Now that I am starting to feel busy I finally feel more useful. Diamond and I are still waiting to hear back about funding for the latrine project. Although now we have a modified plan; if the mayor of Tacabamba decides it's not in his budget then we will ask his arch enemy the mayor of Chota for the funding. It might be kind of awkward pitting them against themselves, but it's better then those 60 families getting passed over again.

Thanks for reading! Chau for now,

KB

Group shot of the first ever Pasos Adelante Congress

Condom race

Health promoter class in Tacabamba

Tacabamba Fest 2012

This past week was the Tacabamba fiesta. It was a big deal. Tacabamba was flooded with visitors. There were bullfights every afternoon for three days and nightly concerts. Peruvians are good partiers. The blasting sound systems at the fútbol field a few blocks from my host family's house that were converted to fair grounds where on nightly until around 4 or 5 am. I went to the fair grounds for the concerts a couple of the nights. Everyone groups up into drinking circles formed around crates of beer. There were also very large fireworks displays every night usually at around 1am, but the hour changed depending on the night.

Overall I am really glad that the party is over. It was really stressful to have so many out of towners around. I stick out. The stares and whispers get old. Since public drinking and drunkenness are not illegal people's inhibitions were down and my guard was way up. I remember when I was in high school I used to think it was kind of exciting to get a cat call from men-running on Dixboro road near my parent's house, but I have had enough of it for a life time. I mostly get called 'gringa', but I also get 'micha' which is Quechua for 'cat'. People with green eyes get called 'micha' here, because they have cat's eyes.

I was so excited when on Wednesday night my host brother and sister in-law asked me to go with them to the concert. Since my host dad Sergio is a police officer there are always tons of cops eating at the house (remember my host mom run's a restaurant out of the front of the house). So when we went to the concert my host brother Iban and a couple police officers that frequent the house bought a case of beer. I think I may have described a drinking circle in another blog post, but essentially big bottles of warm beer are cracked open and a small plastic cup is passed around. Depending on your company, men will pour the beer for the women. It is polite to-I want to call it salute, but I'm not so sure if that's the right word-the person to their left who has just passed them the beer. Then you drink what I like to think of as little beer shots and throw the foam onto the ground behind you outside of the circle. Finally you pass along the beer and cup to the person on your right.

I was excited to be invited by my host brother Iban and his wife Yanette, because I still feel like I have a lot of work to do with connecting with this new host family. Iban got kind of drunk and liked to brag to his friends that we are brother and sister, can't you tell? Also we danced a lot. I danced with all the men in the circle, even the police officer Luis who seemed like he hated every minute of dancing. My other host sister Paola came in for the party. She works as a police officer in Cajamarca (the capital city of this department= Cajamarca, Cajamarca). She is really sweet and patient. I was lucky she came with us to the party, because at 2 am when the guys bought another huge crate of beer she and I were practically falling asleep standing up so we went home.

The other days and nights of the party Ellie came in from the town about 30 minutes away. All 4 of us; Laura, Diamond, Ellie, and I, spent a lot of quality American time together. Laura showed us a music video called 'Gangnam Style' (sp?) and we practiced the 'horsey' dance from the video. We cooked good food, painted our nails, and just hung out. Laura is an amazing cook. She made quesadillas on homemade tortillas one night and lasagna with a loaf of homemade rosemary bread on the side. Carby and cheese city so good, yay!

There were 3 days of bullfights. I went with my host siblings for one of the days. I like bullfights, but they are very stylized and therefore repetitive. First the bull comes out and runs around for a while so everyone can get a good look at him. Next 2 men on horseback come out-both men and horses are heavily padded. The riders stab the bull in the back of the neck on a big fleshy part of the back behind the head. Then 2 men on foot; I guess they might be assistant matadors since they wear the same little outfits, run out into the arena and stab decorated foot and a half long sticks into the bull's back. These lances or sticks must have a hook or barb in the end of them because if they are stabbed correctly they stay in the bull's flesh for the remainder of the fight.

Then the matador 'dances' with the bull by himself. At this point the bull is usually heavily bleeding out of his back and his tongue is hanging out of his mouth with exhaustion. The bull charges, the matador jumps aside, and when he is ready the matador attempts to stab a sword into the same fleshy part of the bull's back. If he is a good matador his sword will go right threw the bull's heart and the bull will die pretty quickly. If he misses then they have another process. The matador gets one more stab and if he misses again they stab the bull threw it's skull instead.

It's not that a bullfight is boring. However, the fight I went to was 3 hours long and 6 bulls were killed. I just didn't feel the need to go back the next 2 days to watch the same thing over again and again. Sometimes I find myself cheering for the bull, because it seems cruel how they bleed out and run him around in circles until he is dizzy and tired. When one of the bull struck the matador I caught myself screaming with the rest of the crowd. I was happy to note that the meat from the bulls that are killed is sold in the street after the fights. Families can buy it to take home and cook up for dinner or buy some fried up right in front of you.

 

I forgot to mention that before the bullfights and concerts there were several days of fair.  People could bring in their livestock or vegetables to be judged.  During the typical plate contest Peace Corps and Predesci (a local NGO that works in ending malnutrition) teamed up.  First we tried to get the municipality to change the rules of the contest that plates would be judged on their nutrition, but they declined.  So instead we made healthy options and talked to anyone who would listen about nutrition.  Most of our vistors during the fair were kids that colored the vegetable pictures I made copies of to pass out.  Also Diamond and I were in a parade one of the days of the fiesta.  The parade started about 2 hours late and only lasted 10 minutes.  I was sunburned and kind of pissed off, but afterwards we had a fun lunch with the health post employees.  I guess the beer and shiringo (a typical plate from Tacabamba itself-basically a tuna omlette) made up for it and I laughed it off as another instance of getting perued.

 

This week Diamond and I had an important meeting in the community where we want to do our project.  I was under the impression that the meeting was already happening in the community and that we were just going to tag along taking advantage of everyone being in one spot.  However, there was a big miscommunication.  Apparently in order for us to call an official meeting we have to write an official document to the Teniente (I'm not totally clear on his responsibilities, but he's the only kind of leader/representative for this tiny community.  I don't even think he is elected....I have no clue) and he will set off 2 fireworks which is his way of calling everyone to a meeting.  This community is tiny and the houses are all very spread out.  People don't have electricity, running water, or latrines, so I guess it makes sense that the easiest way to call a meeting is with fireworks.

 

So we hike up to Ayaque which is about an hour and a half straight up from Tacabamba and we find out that the people will not come to the meeting since the Teniente didn't call a meeting.  I was really frustrated, but we did get to talk to a small group of moms that were very interested in working with us.  Also we met the Teniente and promised to get him an official document next week so that we could have a real meeting next Thursday.  On the whole the people seemed very interested and also very friendly-quite encouraging.  Now we just have to wait for the municipality to decide if they have enough money in the budget to fund the latrines building project. 

 

Project work is looking good.  I feel like I am making some progress in getting in with my new host family.  Host mom Rosa went to the doctor last week and found out her blood pressure is too high.  Her homework is to go on a half hour walk every day and I am her new walking buddy.

 

Thanks for the mail; Sesame, Kwapis, Nana, Pat, and Yamo family! 

 

Chau for now.  With love,

kb

setting up with the awesome Predesci facilitators/promoters

Ellie and I looking official in our PC polos

just beyond our table set up were big make-shift bleechers for a futbol tournament

some neighbor girls with their little brothers, they were some of the first kids to come visit our table

healthy plates; banana bread (admitantly not so healthy, but everyone loves it), tortilla de verduras (vegetable omelette), papas con queso y higado (cheese, potatoes, and liver), and camote con leche (sweet potato with milk)



our table and beyond the huge crowd of kids coloring

the whole gang

men setting up for the fireworks.  Every night they would construct these gigantic bamboo structures with fireworks attached all over and the levels would light up one at a time.



some out of towners brought in this llama and charged 2 soles to have your picture taken with him

waiting for the parade to start

Lulu and Minina crying to me from the top of the stairs, so cute

the arena had a really awesome view of the mountain range all around us

the rest of these pictures Yossi took for me.  She was acting bored so I handed her my camera-she killed the battery and filled the memory stick.  I only kept some of the better ones though.

he already looks angry and he just got in the pen

kind of hard to see, but the guys on horseback are in this shot.  He's stabbing the bull with his lance thing.

The guy with his hands above his head is jumping out of the way, because he just stabbed those little decorated sticks into the bull's back.

here you can see the flag sticks hanging off the bull's back