Thankfully I'm an official volunteer now!

This year Thanksgiving was surprisingly similar to the real deal in the USA.  I kicked it off by baking all the apple pies on wednesday night and I was up late babysitting the oven at my host family's house.  That felt familiar; the panicky night before cooking is a time old tradition at the Barrie household, to be short on oven space and time. Then on Thanksgiving day the staff at the training center prepared us a giant meal.  It was delicious!  Some things were a little different than usual, for example the stuffing had hot dog in it this year.  Although hot dog stuffing is not as good as my mom's stuffing it was pretty darn good.  Those Peruvians cooked some awesome Thanksgiving food and when we all sat down at the same table, with turkey hands that the other aspirantes had decorated, and said what we were thankful for I felt really happy.  I was so proud when I saw one of my tech trainers loosen her belt a little after that meal and it made it all feel more authentic.

That afternoon we threw a party for the host families.  There was food, a talent show, and dancing.  One of the language teachers had spent the last 2 weeks working with a group of us on a special dance routine.  The dance routine did involve a lot of jumping, but besides the slight nausea from post-gluttonous lunch-jumping I think our group danced very well.  My host brother Sting and I did a special duet for everyone.  I've attached a link to where I posted it on you tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSmBSqjSEPg&feature=feedu.  The song is in Spanish, but it'cute.  When I got home from class wednesday night Sting told me he wanted to do a solo act too, and his mom even rented him a special costume.  He's a little ham and was so excited to perform.  (P.S. we're lip syncing!)

On Friday we had the big official swearing in ceremony.  The ceremony was really nice.  The U.S. ambassador for Peru had a big entourage of security and a bunch of host families were locked out of the ceremony if they arrived after 3pm, because it was a security risk to leave the doors open while the ambassador was there.  After the ceremony I found out my host grandma waited outside the gates for the hour long ceremony-I felt kind of guilty about that since she caught a bus over to see a boring ceremony.

Yesterday and today I am in Lima with all my bags packed.  This evening the Cajamarca Super Chicas are busing it up north!  I got to see the U of M/ Ohio State game yesterday with some other alumni's in from my training group at a sports bar in Lima.  It was pretty surreal to watch American t.v. in Peru and on the streets the rest of the day in my Michigan gear I met quite a few fans.

Since I have access to high speed internet for the rest of day today I'll try to blog some more about Cajamarca and if anyone is available to skype I'll be looking out for people to call this afternoon.

-KB

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

Field based training in Ancash!

This week my training class traveled to Ancash for Field Based Training.  Ancash is the state just north of Lima.  We took an overnight bus from Lima, which turned out to be pretty comfortable.  The type of travel bus we took had big cushy seats that leaned way back, blankets, pillows, and employees that were very reminiscent of flight attendants.  We arrived early Wednesday morning in Huarez; the capital city of Ancash (Lansing to Michigan kind of relationship), and hopped into smaller vans to drive about an hour and half further to our hostel.

The hostel was beautiful.  I stayed in a room with 7 other girls-it felt like summer camp.  The view was amazing, because we stayed in a town close to Huascaran-the tallest mountain in Peru.  Unlike the mountains around Lima; barren dirt mountains, the mountains in Ancash were green, snowy, and I could even see cascades of glacial waters.  I took photos, but I am not a great photographer and I don’t think I caught it fully.  I promise to check through the other volunteer’s facebook pictures to find some better ones to post later.  Wednesday we walked down the road to a local school and the trainers used a science classroom to give us some lectures about site placements (we find out Tuesday I am excited and terrified to find out) and living with host families at our sites.  Later we went back to the hostel and had more lectures there.  The topics were about the Peruvian health system, how to work with community counterparts, and other stuff like that. 

Wednesday night several people got really sick.  I feel very lucky I wasn’t one of them.  It was just the usual Peace Corps stuff; vomiting and diarrhea, which apparently I should start getting used to now since volunteers are frequently sick.  Before people started getting really sick though, a couple of us played Euchre.  I was so excited to find others who knew how to play.  One of the girls in my training group; Allison, actually went to U of M too and we sort of knew each other on campus.  She and I both have a close mutual friend who is living in Khazakstan right now as a PC volunteer.  It was kind of surreal to be sitting in a hostel in Peru playing Euchre.

Thursday we drove up the mountain to a different community to work with a volunteer and see what kind of projects she does.  The volunteer Kaitlyn had us do home visits with the health promoters from her site and we learned how to build latrines.  It was really great to see a volunteer in action and to see a real community.  It gave me a better feel for what I might be doing as a volunteer and the standard of living of people in the campo.  Most people had running water, but not a ton of electricity, no toilets-just latrines, and even the cocinas mejoradas (improved cook stoves) were still just wood burning stoves. 

Friday we went back to the same community and learned how to build cocinas mejoradas.  The kitchens that I saw (which I was told by the volunteers are very typical) were small windowless rooms and all the walls were blackened with soot.  Without ventilation there is a ton of soot in the air and there is an increased risk for respiratory infections.  The improved stoves are more fuel efficient and include a chimney to get that smoke out of the kitchen.  On Friday my group built the base for one of these types of stoves, because it takes a day for the base to dry we didn’t get to learn how to build the top.  The family was supposed to have made the base the day before we got there, but they forgot or had some other reason.  Apparently this too is a common occurrence during projects.  We call it la hora peruana or Peruvian time, because there is just a sense of a slower pace here.  The staff use this term too in a loving way, but I think volunteers use it in a little less loving way.  I can only imagine how many ways this will drive me crazy when I get going on my work. 

After building the base for the cocina mejorada; which by the way is a big government campaign here to build 50,000 stoves by the end of 2015ish, we did a photo scavenger hunt.  I thought it was pretty fun, but a lot of people didn’t like it so much.  Essentially we had to walk all around town and ask people questions.  It is really awkward to interrupt people and talk to them in broken Spanish, and it wasn’t always even benign questions.  We had to ask someone to teach us how to dance.  We were supposed to get photographic evidence of things.  For example one of the things to find was twins-and on Thursday I had gone to a house on a health post visit where twin little boys lived.  My scavenger hunt team went back to that house, knocked on the door, and asked this woman if we could take a picture with her kids.  It’s hard to imagine Americans being receptive to this kind of invasion of privacy, so it felt very uncomfortable.  I also got to hop on a horse in someone’s backyard, carry a baby on my back with a sling of clothe, and learn how to say ‘how are you’ in Quechua.  So I had a good time-the more shy volunteers not so much.

Saturday was this big surprise day.  We were all so excited, because the staff wouldn’t tell us a thing and we heard from the Water and Sanitation volunteers that their surprise was to go sand boarding.  We packed all our stuff and left the hostel earlier than usual to drive to our surprise.  The surprise turned out to be this really weird 4 hour session on spiritual health stuff.  We practiced hugging each other for about 1 hour-not kidding, hugging!  We talked about how the power of positive thought could cure people of their illnesses, which I found to be really funny since we are health volunteers.  This couple that taught the class told us that they had lived in the mountains for the past 30 years and they never use any kinds of medicine, they only eat the food they grow in their own garden, whenever they feel sick I guess they just think happy thoughts.  We also did a bunch of activities with blindfolds-practicing nonverbal communication we divided into groups and walked around this big steep hill one person guiding a group of blindfolded people.  Then we talked a lot about our feelings.  We ate lunch blindfolded with our hands and we weren’t allowed to talk to one another, because were supposed to experience our food. 

I was kind of disappointed.  It was okay, and I guess it was team building.  Mostly I was completely jealous that the other training group got to go sandboarding.  It irritated me when the couple told us about how positive thoughts have been known to cure cancer and AIDs.  It was kind of a funny experience and we all had a good laugh afterwards.  After our surprise we drove back to Huarez and had free time until our overnight bus.  By the time we got to Huarez everyone was starving.  Two current volunteers met us in Huarez to show us around.  We divided into groups and my group went to a barbeque place.  It was amazing.  I spilt a chicken with two other girls-it was so delicious, but we couldn’t finish it.  When we left the restaurant we all felt sick we were so stuffed with food, but it was totally worth it.  We got to walk around for a couple hours, but it was dark and rainy so I didn’t really see the city. 

We got back to Lima this morning really early around 5:30 and I caught a cab back to Chaclacayo with the other 2 girls in my neighborhood.  It was such a fun time and really helpful for understanding more what service is like.  On Tuesday we find out where we are going and Wednesday we are all going to our regional capitals for more training.  So I am only home for today, Monday, Tuesday and then I’m gone again for around 10 days.  When I get back I will have seen my regional capital, met other volunteers that will be working/living near me, and I will get to meet my new host family, see the community, meet my community counterpart (the person who I will potentially work with in my community).  I am kind of terrified.  So wish me luck.  I’ll have a lot to write about when I get back! 

Hauscaran is one of the tallest mountains in Peru.

volunteers walking down to Mancos for training sessions.

I thought this view was really beautiful.

I couldn't get over how beautiful this mountain is.

Latrine building.

It felt like we traveled back in time.

My latrine building team.

Alison and I, go blue!

  

Week 5 of PST

I can’t believe how fast this week went by.  Last week we had language interviews and this week the classes were updated based on our new levels-I am now an intermediate medium…I think.  We had a lot of tech training this week; early childhood stimulation, nutrition, professionalism in Peace Corps, training on home visits, learning about the structure of MINSA (Ministry of Salud/health).  On Thursday we got to visit a local Centro de Salud.  We were able to observe a doctor on home visits and ask several different health professionals about their work.  In Peru there is nationalized healthcare, but I am a little fuzzy on the rules.  The people that are recognized to be at the poverty level or below in extreme poverty receive free healthcare.  The people that can afford to pay are responsible for paying for services, but not for consultations.  The way it was described to me was that walking in the door is free, but if you get stitches you will be charged for the cost of the supplies.  Our trainers also told us that rich people often have private healthcare insurance, and that if a volunteer needs medical attention they are sent to private clinics.

Ohh, I almost forgot, we got cell phones this week too.  So far I am not able to make calls except to other volunteers, but when I know more information I will update my blog with contact info.  Just incase people want to call, because it is tricky to coordinate skype sometimes.

Yesterday our group learned about small animal husbandry; specifically raising cuyes or guinea pigs!  I’m so sad I forgot my camera for crianza de cuyes.  The cuy class was in some guy’s backyard.  He gave us lots of advice on how to feed and raise cuyes in a healthy sustainable way.    His set-up was quite impressive and when I asked him he told me that it started out as a little hobby with only 3 cuyes.  Now he is up to his ears in cuyes and he says he eats cuy about 3-4 nights a week, because he has so many.  After this local man showed off his cuyes to us, we got a presentation from a current volunteer who did a big animal husbandry project in her site with guinea pigs.  It was both interesting and very scary.  The problems she was describing with her communities lack of interest was a bit disheartening, but I’m always glad when the volunteers tell it like it is.  I think it’s better for me to have a realistic idea of how to judge success in my future projects. 

With all these presentations from current volunteers I am getting more and more excited about finding out my site and getting to know my community.  Also I am getting scared to leave Chaclacayo and Pre-service training.  I have a giant security blanket of Americans around me almost at all times.  I have little to no responsibilities and I get to live in a super structured schedule-something that I thrive in.  I knew that when I signed up for Peace Corps one of the hardest parts for me would be the lack of structure when I get to my community and it is a goal of mine to become more flexible.  Some days two years sounds like such a short time and other days I feel like two years is forever.  I have to admit I have already started daydreaming a lot about when I would like to visit home.  I think maybe Christmas 2012 would be a good time, but in Peru December through February is summer vacations and there may be certain projects that I will want to do during that time. 

After the guinea pigs on Saturday I went with my family to Metro; the new grocery store that opened last week.  It’s a pretty big deal around here, everyone is very excited about the new store.  I have to admit that I was pretty impressed by the moving walkway that takes you downstairs into the store-like the walkways at airports except at an incline, because the store is underground.  The fact that Metro is underground in itself is pretty impressive considering that Peru has a lot of earthquakes.  I told my family I wanted to buy a pumpkin and show them how Americans decorate for Halloween.  There is Halloween stuff here in Chaclacayo, but I think it is just because of the proximity to Lima.  According to the Peace Corps staff (who are Peruvians) celebrating Halloween started around 10 years ago.  At my family’s store there are decorations and masks for sale-so it seems fairly mainstream here.  My grandma told me that kids trick-or-treat in my neighborhood.  So I’ll see how the Peruvians do Halloween and report back. 

Anyhow, I bought a pumpkin and peanut butter.  Both of which were pretty expensive.  I got my family to try apples with peanut butter and they loved it!  They told me they had never heard of fruit with peanut butter, to which I responded we need to have chocolate and peanut butter next time.  I wanted to have my brother and sister carve the pumpkin, but after talking it over with mama Vicki and Charo we decided it would better just to draw on faces.  They told me that if we put a carved pumpkin outside someone in the neighborhood would most likely take it.  Also after I explained that I could not make a pie if we carved the pumpkin, it was decided that pie trumps that particular American tradition. 

Next week our group is going to Ancash-the department north of Lima-for field based training.  It sounds like fun.  We are going to learn about how to build latrines and improved cook stoves.  We will also get to shadow some current volunteers and see the work that they are doing.  The schedule sounds crazy busy, but I think it will be exciting to see a new parts of Peru.  Plus, several people in my group are going to be assigned to this particular region, so this could be were I’m going to live for the next 2 years! 

Next Sunday I’ll promise to write all about adventures in Ancash!

*Mail call:  thanks for the letters Mom and double from Nana, all the other volunteers were so jealous when I had mail.  Also Mom, that package still hasn’t made it, but I’m crossing my fingers for tomorrow.  I’ll let you know when it comes in.

**Little known fact: guinea pigs only have 2 nipples.  When the cuy guy told us that I asked him ‘like humans’ and he thought that was a really weird question/statement, but I honestly cannot think of another animal that only has 2 nipples (discounting monkeys/apes).  

my brother Sting in the family store relaxing behind the counter.

Pre-pumkin decoration.

The final product.

Sting was pretty excited.

Sting trying to scare me with his costume.

Family lunch on Sunday.  From Left to Right: Sting, Miller, Miller's dad Roberto, Me, Mama Vicky, Karina, and Charo.  Leslly took the photo, because she's 13 and she doesn't like to have her picture taken.

The rest of the week after Monday was really busy.  Everyone had language interviews on wed/thursday to re-evaluate our levels and to sort of shuffle up new langauge groups.  I felt like mine went really well and on monday I will have my first class with the new group.  We also had interviews with the Health APCD or Associate Peace Corps Director about our site placements.  She only asked 2 questions; 'Do you prefer hot or cold weather?', and 'Do you prefer structure or less structure?'.  I told her I liked cold and structure- I'm crossing my fingers for the sierras!
The 'highlight' of wednesday was getting bitten by a street dog in the evening when I was playing with my host brother and his friends.  It wasn't a bad bite, but it scared me a little.  Since I couldn't be more expressive in spanish I announced that 'that is a bad dog, I don't like that dog.'  My little brother piped up that she was actually a very nice dog-needless to say I was a little miffed at Sting.  I left the futbol game to protest that stinking dog, but Sting absolutely loves all dogs and would never say a bad thing about any of them.  I guess in a way that's pretty cute.  Now that I think about it more it reminds me of my brother Eric and his love for insects.
Thursday we did a small project with early childhood stimulation this week.  In groups we were matched with one of our classmate's host siblings under age 5.  We drafted a plan of activities to do with the child and explanations for the mothers as to why these activities were useful.  Then we went on little home visits and tried to deliver little presentations in spanish.  With my group the little girl was very young; only a little over 1 year, and she was pretty shy when a group of 5 gringos showed up at her house.  So the activity part didn't work out so well, but the mother very patiently let us try to explain technical reasons for early stimulation in spanish and she also had some very thoughtful questions for us-super helpful.  So I thought it was a nice way for us to see how things could be in a real life PCV teaching moment, but it's a baby step since we were talking with a mom who lives with a trainee and we worked in groups.

Saturday we went back to the Universidad Agraria to learn how to make compost!  So I scooped a lot of poop on Saturday and learned some very useful vocabulary.  I had fun, but it was pretty gross.  Especially since after the class we went to this giant shopping mall called Jockey Plaza.  I felt so bad walking through stores covered in poo!  I bought an external hard drive at a really nice department store at the suggestion of other volunteers, but I have no idea how to use it.  I guess I just have to look it up on google, but just having one makes me feel better since everyone said they were so important.

Today I'm making apple pie for my host family.  I hope I don't mess it up-I would love to impress them with something very American.

October 10th

*I wrote this on Monday, but I didn't get around to the internet cafe until today....so it's a mix of what I wrote monday and other stuff I added in today*

Today was the first day of my 4 week of training.  The first two weeks felt like two months, but now time is flying by.  My training schedule feels a lot like being back in school.  I have language classes most days in the mornings from 8am-12pm.  We get an hour for lunch and then from 1-5pm we have more classes in various topics; technical training, culture lectures, and lectures from the Peace Corps doctor about volunteer health.  A lot of our training is somewhat theoretical, but it is slowing starting to feel more applicable to real life.  It must be difficult for Peace Corps to design training sessions for volunteers since each community is very different.  Peru has so many different types of natural environments and volunteers are placed in the majority of them.  On Tuesday November 1^st I will find out my site assignment and then I will have a better idea of what Peace Corps is going to be like for me.

My brother David emailed me some fun questions about Peru and I thought you may be interested to read about them;

-What types of American popular culture have infiltrated Peru?

-What is the food like?

-Do you know any Peruvian slang words?

As far as pop culture goes-at least where I am living in Chaclacayo-there is a big presence of American t.v., music, movies, etc.  People in my community watch a lot of television.  I was very surprised by this when I first arrived, but my family has a lot of the same channels that my family in the U.S. has.  My brother and sister watch cartoon network, Nickelodeon, and Disney channel (all dubbed in Spanish).  I was also surprised the number of hours spent in front of the tv- a ballpark guess on my host brother is around 4 + hours per day.  In Peru the school days are shorter, or at least the state schools are shorter.  Younger kids 8am-1pm and older kids 8-2pm (there is no middle school here, just collegio primaria and collegio secondaria).  Justin Beiber is very popular here, but my sister is also a big fan of a Korean singing group.  Korean popular culture has a presence in Peru as well.  Everyone here is a fan –or hincha- of futbol.  It’s a really big deal here.  I watched a game with my family on Tuesday; Peru vs. Chile, and we got our butts whipped by Chile.  I love the futbol announcer's voice and his style of speaking.  He just rolls r's all over the place and screams 'GOOOOOOLLLLLLL!!!!!'  So even though Peru lost I found it interesting to watch.

The food here has been really good.  The staples are rice and potatoes.  In my family eggs are also a staple, because of the chickens we keep on the roof.  One of the dinners we have most is white rice, fried banana, and a fried egg.  It's really good, but I'm pretty sure it's not too healthy.  Raw veggies seem to be very uncommon.  Once we had a salad at lunch and I made a really big fuss over how much I liked it, because I wanted my host grandma to make one again.

Fruit is a different story, there are a ton to try.  My new favorite is called granadilla.  Granadillas have a semi-hard shell that you have to crack open.  Underneath the shell is something that kind of looks like a membrane and you have to pop or tear it open.  In the middle are these weird juicy and slimy seeds.  They look really gross; kind of like frog eggs, but they taste really good.  Plus it is kind of fun to eat!  I’m not sure if they sell granadillas in American supermarkets, but a lot of times fruits and vegetables have different names in Spanish than English. 

I have slowly been learning Peruvian slang, but I have a lot of work to do.  A lot of times I will hear a new word, but later I will forget it and have to ask about it again.  Thankfully my host family is very patient with me asking over and over ‘how do you say?’ or ‘what is this called.’  Learning a new language is really fun, but also very tiring.  We get Spanish for four hours a day, but after school I don’t get to rest since I speak Spanish with my family.  Sometimes I get really frustrated with not being able to say what I want to say, but usually it just motivates me to work harder to learn new words. 

*Send me more questions!

¡Chao!

Pictures from last weekend trip to Lima with the language classes-this time we actually saw the downtown part of Lima:

The president's home in Lima.

The last supper with guinea pig as the main dish.

The beach!

My language group at the Plaza del Armas.

Photo problems and Lima visit!

I've heard/read comments from several people that my pictures are not working.  I signed up for a Picasa account through gmail before I left, but I am somewhat computer challenged.  I sent out an email through my Picasa to 'share' my album thus far and if anyone didn't get emailed and wants to be-please leave a comment on this post.

Yesterday my training class went on our first field trip to Lima.  We didn’t get to see downtown.  The University was probably around an hour away, but it was still definitely the big city.  Just a little different from big cities I have been to in the U.S.  Our field trip was to the Universidad Agraria to learn about organic gardening.  As a health volunteer I have three primary goals; 1. rural health promotion, 2. rural environmental health promotion, 2. healthy sexual behavior promotion.  There are several very general formulaic projects to use as a guideline and one of them is promoting family gardens.  Gardens are relatively cheap for families and they introduce a lot of nutrition.  It was really fun to get dirty and furiously try to memorized names of different vegetables in Spanish. 

On weekdays training is 8am to 5pm.  These first two weeks have primarily been 8-12 language training classes and afternoons for what PC calls technical training.  We have also had some sessions with the Peace Corps doctor about topics such as Malaria, diarrhea, Rabies, Dengue, and more.  A couple of afternoons we had lecture style classes on Peruvian history.  Tech training is preparation for projects in site.  So this organic gardening class yesterday was really nice, because I felt like I got some substantial information on something that I will actually be implementing in my site.  Thus far we have had a lot of very generalized tech training-with that being said I need to keep reminding myself that it has only been two weeks.

In Peru the water is not potable.  People have to boil their water-which is what my family does, or they can add 3 drops of bleach per liter of water.  This water is fine for bathing, washing clothes, even for brushing teeth, but you can never just grab a glass of water from the sink.  Also where I live there is only running water for a couple hours a day.  So homes have cisterns on the roof to collect water during the hours that the water is running.  My family uses the tank on the roof and they keep two large plastic barrels as well; one in the shower and the other by a certain sink that is just bailed out for dishes or laundry whenever the tank runs out.  Showering in Peru is very cold.  Running water is cold and very low water pressure.  I prefer the stop and go method; I get a little wet soap up as much as possible and rinse as fast as possible.  Then there are the days when I shower after the tank is empty-then I use a Tupperware container to scoop water from the barrel in the shower.  Bucket bathes are not so bad-and since I will probably be bucket bathing for my two years at site I am glad to have conquered at least that fear.

Before I left for Peru I was really worried about toilet paper.  However toilet paper is not a big deal-there is plenty available.  It is just that the plumbing here isn’t built to handle all the paper so when you use the restroom you have to through dirty paper into little trash cans next to the toilet.  I did notice this weekend at the Universidad Agraria that there is not toilet Paper or papel higenico (PH) in public restrooms.  Luckily before I left Jessie, Mom and I unrolled and rerolled some travel sized toilet paper for me to take.

In Chaclacayo I live close enough to the training center to walk to class most days.  There are a couple of other transportation options; taxis, moto-taxis, and combe.  I haven’t used a taxi or moto-taxi, but a moto-taxi is a motorcycle with a little 3 wheeled hutch attached to the back.  They look kind of fun, but I don’t have a clue how much they cost.  I have primarily used combes which are public buses.  The combes drive up and down the main highway and they don’t have any particular schedule for stopping.  If you stand on the side of the road you just stick an arm out and flag one down for the direction you are going.  Combes were a little unnerving at first for me.  Sometimes the cobrador (this is the person that hustles people on and off the combe as well as collecting the fare money) tries to overcharge gringos like myself, but usually if I insist on sencillo or change they’ll give me my money.  Combes are really crowded and the drivers are very forceful with their brakes.  They are pretty uncomfortable, but quick transportation and very cheap.

Today we had a special lunch and Miller’s father came over to eat with us.  Charo and Karina grilled chicken, pork, and possibly some other type of meat on the roof.  Mama Vicky made a salad and boiled potatoes with spicy mustard.  It was the first salad I have had in Peru and I hope that it doesn’t make me sick.  I didn’t see how she washed the raw vegetables and I’m praying she used the bleach water, because if not I may be getting a little sick.  It was definitely one of my favorite things we have eaten thus far!  For desert my host dad Miller grilled plantains inside the peel, which was delicious.  There are several types of bananas here in Peru.  I’m not sure if plantain is just a type of banana or it’s own separate fruit, because they don’t call normal bananas ‘banana’ just ‘platano.’  After lunch we played Pass the Pigs, but we call it ‘chanchitos’ or ‘little pigs.’  Whenever Miller plays there is a prize for the winner or the looser has to do something embarrassing.  My first day with the family I was the looser and I had to dance for everyone.  Today the looser had to do the dishes from lunch.  At the very end I beat Miller and he ended up having to do the dishes.  The women and Miller’s father thought this was hilarious, because it was his first time washing dishes in his life they said.  At mama Vicky’s request I took a picture of Miller doing the dishes for the first time.

Yes, we ate at a Chilis out of desperation.  We were all embarrassed though.

This is the space we have to crawl through to get to the roof.

Charo and Miller doing dishes after the fateful pass the chanchitos game.

Roof laundry

picture from an intersection we walked through in 'Lima', but really about an hour away from downtown.  It looks much less impressive in my pictures...


More pictures to come I promise my hour is up at the cafe!