Who has the turtle? and I AM NOT MOLLY!

January has been an interesting month. My town´s anniversary was this past week (central day being the 29th) meaning that the past 2 weeks have had various events and festivities planned and not a whole lot of people working on anything outside of the anniversary.

Despite this, I managed to get a group of Health Promoters focused in the promotion of healthy lifestyles and the prevention of HIV, AIDS and STDs. We have about 20 youth and 5 adults participating and it seems to be going well. I had to fight with the municipality to let us use the auditorium because the Miss Cayaltí candidates had practice, despite the municipality signing an agreement with an organization in Chiclayo and 2 other districts saying they would support HIV/AIDS prevention efforts and having previously agreed to let us use the auditorium for Health Promoters. In the end I have a signed note from one of the guys in the municipality saying to let us use the space. We´re working with the organization that the Municipality signed an agreement with, Viviendo en Positivo (Living Positive), which is formed of people living with HIV and AIDs and also gays and sex workers. They obviously have more experience with the topic than I do and probably more than the obstetrician or nurse do. Even higher ups in the health system are incredibly underskilled. Bringing me to my next topic.

I am continually amazed/frustrated at what passes as a professional here. Respected and experienced doctors and health professionals regularly insist that someone has a cold because of sleeping with a fan on, eating ice cream, eating hot food and drinking a cold drink, being embarrassed among other things. These are people that should know the basics of health that sicknesses are caused by viruses and bacteria. I understand when a layperson says that; its lore that´s been passed down for generations. But really. If you have completed training to be a nurse and especially if you are a doctor, you should know that a bacteria or virus getting past someone´s immune system is what causes colds, flu, and respiratory infections. Maybe eating ice cream could give you a stomach ache if the dairy wasn´t properly pasteurized but again that would be the culprit of a bacteria! I find it a really sad state of affairs when my high school health education is superior than that of a trained nurse. I know I´m here to help, but I´m also supposed to have people in the community to work with. I could spend two years trying to train health professionals (which I´m really not qualified to do at all...).

Molly. Molly was a really great volunteer from Peru 5 I believe, meaning she left 2 years ago. There was another volunteer that came after her from Peru 9 but she was only here for 3 months and then went home, so no one really remembers her. But Molly was very outgoing, liked to run and play sports, and had no qualms about being dragged out in front of the whole town to dance Marinera or Huayno. I am not Molly. I´m less than outgoing and am not at all athletic. And most of all I really don´t like dancing, especially in front of the whole town. More and more I´ve been getting people calling me Molly or telling me "why don´t you do such and such, Molly used to" Or You´re the same as Molly , right? No. I am not Molly. I am Sara. I have my own personality, my own likes and dislikes and my own strengths and weaknesses. This has come to a culmination lately with the anniversary. A group of old women sitting on a bench in the park while a band was playing yelled to me "Profe! why aren´t you dancing? Why aren´t you like Molly.. Molly liked to dance!" Between wanting to correct them-- I am not a profe-- and wanting to hit them in the face I calmly, though probably a bit tersly replied that I am not Molly, I am Sara. We´re different. And anyways, you´re not dancing either! Goodbye. That, and they must have not seen when I did get pulled out to dance Huayno after the parade in front of everyone and though really not wanting to, went without a fight and put on a smile, because it was the respectful thing to do.

More and more I´m craving people that understand me and don´t pick apart my every move or laugh at me all the time. The difficulties of December have continued, but in a different form. At least now I have some mini successes to reflect on and I at least feel somewhat useful.

Now for some funnies. So this past week I went to the city of Piura for a conference on Monitoring and Evaluation of Projects, specifically those funded by PEPFAR (President´s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief), ie my Health Promoters. Well, we were supposed to bring community partners, but no one wanted to leave Cayalti for the anniversary (great timing!) so I went alone. I travelled with the people Nicole (my site mate in Zaña) was bringing since she was already up in Piura for HIV Initiative Committee meetings. One of them was a minor (one of her health promoters) and we didn´t know that to get on an interprovincial bus she would need notarized permision from her mother or father. Well, she was intent on going. She wanted us to say that the other woman was her aunt, that her mom was waiting in Piura, that we should forge a document, that we should combi hop. I was like no no no. This will not do. 1. combi hopping (the most viable option) can be dangerous and we were travelling with luggage .. i had my computer and 2. interprovincially I have to travel on approved busses. So she finally more or less accepted her fate that she´d have to go back to Zaña. I accompanied her to the terminal and put her on a bus. Well, at the door of the bus was a clown. A clown very insitent on saying hi to me. Despite replying to his Hola, he insisted again.. maybe I didn´t say hola loud enough. Either way, it was weird first having to have the clown move so she could get on the bus and then having the little hola match. So I get back to the bus station, we buy tickets and wait about 30 mins for the bus. Meanwhile, the security guard is walking around asking "Who has the turtle??" I look up, confused, and see two women with a small carboard box under their feet with various nickel sized holes cut into it. Then I heard them say "Better we don´t admit to it..." They topped this off by trying to give it water, a process which involved spilling a great deal of water on the box and lots of giggling. Unfortunately they weren´t on our bus so I didn´t get to see if the turtle caused any more drama or not. The best part of Piura though was a really yummy restaurant where I had an amazing salad and an ice cream place that has amazing milkshakes.

In other news, I have decided that it would be a good time to start stressing myself out about what to do come August 2011. Namely what do I want to go back to school for and which test will be required so that I can start studying.

Oh, and have I mentioned how ungodly hot it is? Really it´s probably only 85-90º, but there´s no AC and the sun is ridiculously strong (hence 2 sunburns in 1 week...). Adobe is a great insulater, but unfortunately my room is like a jail cell and there is no air flow what so ever and I can only put up with so much of my family in the living room where there is airflow. TV, music on the computer and a nephew playing cajon on every imaginable surface and whining is a bit much.

Please February, be kind to this Peace Corps Volunteer....

Merry? Christmas and Happy New Year!

So the holidays have past and I'm rather glad to be done with them. I really struggled with Christmas this year; it was a lot harder being away from my family than I thought it would be. It's not the first time I've spent Christmas away from my family (as I explained various time to my Peruvian family) but the other time was when I was in Chile. The 25th I was in Chile with my amazing host family, but by the 28th or 29th I was home and was able to have a late Christmas with my family. It's not the same when you know you won't being seeing your family for another 6 months (thank God my mommy is coming in June!!!). Add to that a bratty nephew who couldn't stop bickering for the evening or even just for the meal- despite me asking him to be peaceful for 20 minutes. It reminded me of everything I hated about Christmas with my step family. I was miserable. I tried to put on a happy face and enjoy experiencing a different Christmas, but it was really really hard. When my mom was finally able to get through to call me on the 25th at night (stupid Pingo kept cutting out and she had to call direct... the sacrifices mommies make for their kids:)) I answered the phone bawling. I needed to hear her voice and at least have a little bit of a virtual Christmas. That was probably the most expensive phone call I've ever received or made, but it helped me forget how much at that moment i was thinking about calling it quits and going home.

So, besides the bratty nephew, here's Christmas in Peru. For starters, they celebrate on the 24th with a dinner at midnight. We didn't have a tree- the old one was trashed and my sister didn't get paid in time to get a new one and Christmas merchandise is not in stores as late as it is in the States, so by the time I realized we weren't getting a tree and offered to buy one, there weren't any to be bought. We didn't even put our Nativity up until about 5pm on Christmas Eve, finished just in time to go to mass. So we went to mass, came back and hung around until midnight when we "hugged" (like half body pat on the back) and said Merry Christmas and then ate. We had some wine, my host sister's boyfriend came over and he and my host dad downed two bottles of wine, while I went to bed. Most interesting part of Christmas in Peru: the nativity scenes. They aren't the basic Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, 3 Kings. No no. They are sometimes 3 or 4 levels, include houses, townspeople, and all sorts of animals-- even saw a giraffe in one..

Nativity Scene in the church

Giraffe in the church Nativity Scene

My host sister proudly displaying the Nativity she put together

Close up of our Nativity

Christmas Dinner Before

And After (hot chocolate, shot of wine, chicken, bread, sweet empanada, paneton)

My youth association (youth workers assoc.) did a secret santa or here, amigo secreto (secret friend) and I got a picture frame. Gotta print some pictures since my frame count is now to 2. I would have never thought 15/16 year old girls would go gaga for stuffed animals, but most of the girls wanted stuffed animals and were really happy when that's what they got. Here, when you buy a stuffed animal, they spray it with perfume and wrap it for you. All for 10 soles ($3.50).

New Years. Much like Christmas with the dinner at midnight thing and fake hugs, but this time Happy Year is said. But there are a lot of traditions for New Year's in Peru. Things you should do to celebrate New Year's in Peru.

1. Wear yellow. Yellow underwear are even more lucky than just yellow clothes. Everything is Yellow. Unfortunately, my only yellow shirt and yellow undies were in the dirty clothes pile. That and I think the yellow undies are supposed to be new...

2. Burn a "Muneca". Take your old clothes and fill them with hay (make a scarecrow) put it in the street and at midnight light it on fire. This is to get rid of all the bad from the previous year and start anew. When every street has a burning doll in the middle of it and firecrackers are going off, it also has the effect of making the town look like a war zone.

3. Run around the block with a suitcase. This is to ensure that you will travel in the coming year. And also makes you look like a complete idiot.

4. Eat 12 grapes while making a wish with each grape. After 3 grapes, someone asked what my wishes were and I realized that I had forgotten to make wishes and was just eating grapes. Oops.

5. Drink. This goes without saying or explanation.

New Year's was better than Christmas, mostly because it's not as big of a family holiday and I accepted the fact that my nephew would be a pain. We had more paneton and empanadas but didn't have chocolate this time, just tea.

The holiday season also included a wedding and a baptism, details about those to follow.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year's! I'm sad I didn't get to see the White Christmas we had at home this year. Instead I had my sweaty Christmas :) I love and miss everyone back home, and the holidays only reiterated this fact even more.