Ready for May...

Last week I got back from a Semana Santa (Easter) vacation at the beach.  Volunteers had 4 days off, because Semana Santa is a federal holiday in Peru.  In order to get to the beach myself and 4 other volunteers from my area spent 3 hours in a combe to get to Cajamarca, from Cajamarca a 10 hour overnight bus to Chiclayo, from Chiclayo a 3 hour bus to Piura, and from Piura a 2 1/2ish hour van to Mancora.  Whew, it was a long trip.  Mancora is a very touristy beach town in far northern Peru.  It's pretty close to the border with Ecuador.

The hostel we stayed at was filled with thin, tanned, rich European 20-somethings year olds.  Most of whom came for the great surfing.  It was fun listening to all the accents.  The food is really good in Mancora, because it is so touristy.  We ate steak, swordfish, Thai food, salad,  diet coke, and most importantly BURRITOS!!!!  It was awesome.

After two days in Mancora we were all beached out and we went back into Piura city.  The heat on the coast was incredible.  The only time there was a bit of a break was at night, but even then it was hot enough to make it difficult to fall asleep.  Visiting the coast definitely made me appreciate living in the mountains yet again.  We may not have toilets or high speed internet, but the weather is so beautiful and so are the views.  On the coast it's nothing, but sand and scraggly trees (at least where we were-I don't want to bash the entire coastline of Peru, who knows what the rest of it is like).  In the big city we got to go to the movies....twice!  We saw The Hunger Games and This Means War.  I'm sure the predictable Reese Witherspoon romantic comedy would have been annoying if I was living in the states, but due to the extreme lack of American culture  in my diet I thought it was hilarious.  And we didn't even have to watch those movies dubbed, instead they had spanish subtitles.

We made the 20 hour trip back to Cajamarca Monday through Tuesday.  I made it back to my site Tuesday mid-morning, because the overnight buses pull in at around 5 am.  On Tuesday afternoon I gave my first official charla or talk to a group of moms and the topic was early childhood stimulation.  I thought the charla went okay.  That is until the nurse from the health post apologized to all the women for how bad my spanish is, telling them that I was still learning and they needed to give me more time.  I was pretty upset.  I guess I deserved it for not practicing more or looking over my materials while I was on vacation.  So if I had any doubts before about whether my spanish was improving, it is very clear now that I need to get to work in my grammar books.

The rest of the week was pretty slow.  There was another strike in my department against the mines that are contaminating the water.  During the strikes they close down health posts, schools, and sometimes even block the roads.  On the day of the strike I hung out around my house.  In the afternoon a group of people slaughtered a cow in the Plaza de Armas.  I watched the process with a group of kids and dogs that had gathered around the men and women.  It was quite gory.  I have pictures to post below-but if you do not like blood please skip my pictures this post.  

The cow was slaughtered for another town party.  This time in honor of a new transportation business that will begin serving my town; bringing people to and from Bambamarca (the bigger town down the mountain, that has a market and for me internet!).  Everyone is very excited for these new cars, because it will mean more mobility for the people and possibly lower prices.  

On Thursday a group of probably 30 women cooked the beef, rice, and potatoes in large cast iron pots in the street over little fires.  There was enough food for lunch and dinner for anyone that showed up in the plaza to claim their plate.  At night there was dancing again, but I skipped it this time.  Since the last party everyone in my town (people I know and strangers on the street) have been commenting about how I danced last time.  I also heard some men making fun of Grisero (the man I danced with before) for dancing with the gringa.  I was a little miffed at the whole group of them for teasing me when they were too embarrassed to even dance themselves.  It really bothers me that they like to pressure me to dance only to laugh at me.  Sometimes it's no big deal being the silly gringa and getting a laugh out of everyone, but playing that part tires me out other times.

Friday was my english teaching day and I was teaching the kids colors.  When I could tell I had lost their attention I called them all outside to try to play color-tag.  However, either due to my bad spanish or possibly kids don't play the same kinds of games in Peru, they could not understand how to play.  I tried acting it out and some kids picked it up, but the majority of the class just stood there and didn't run or ran away from the school instead of the other side of the playing field.  I finally gave up and asked them to draw me pictures and label the colors they used.  

In the afternoon on Friday was my first youth group meeting and it didn't have a very good turn out.  I suppose it was my fault for not advertising more at the high school.  I put up a poster with information for the time and place.  Also I went to the two 4th grade (equivalent to high school sophomores, around 15 or 16 years old) classrooms and invited those students.  Only 5 kids showed up, and they were all the kids that had participated in the previous volunteer's youth group.  I was disappointed in not getting any new interest, but the kids that did show up seemed really enthusiastic and genuinely interested in being health promoters.

This weekend I came into Chota with the other Peru 18ers and other health volunteers.  I went to the post office and I had soo much mail.  Thank you everyone for the letters and packages (Aunt Jenny, Sesame x 2, Mom, Ainsley, Babu and Beepa, Cherny, Annie, and Mrs. Moran).  The jealousy among the other volunteers at how much mail I receive is now a running joke. 

I have some interesting photos below.

Chau for now,

kb

Brunch at a cafe on the beach

My first solo charla.  Afterward the nurse apologized profusely for how bad my spanish was-sad day...

some of the rowdy noisy kids that disrupted my charla-they're pretty cute huh?

It's not a party until ya slaughter a cow in the plaza de armas!

this teenage boy joined in with the adults hacking the cow into manageable pieces with axes.

Can you see my favorite dog Messi across the way sitting on top of the crumbling wall of the church?

Eduar and I climbed around what's left of the catholic church in my town.  They are in the process of tearing it down right now to rebuild a new one out of 'materiales nobles' ie. cement or brick instead of adobe.

Here is a shot of what was the inside of the church, now filled with blocks of adobe bricks.  

Apparently the adobe is formed into bricks before it is covered over with more mud/straw mixture.

Here is what the front of the church looks like.

Handwashing charla at the primary school

two kids from each class were picked to be vigilantes-err at least I think that's what it translates to in english.  Either way this is my team of health promoters!