2 posts in 1 week... it's a miracle!

Only a week has past (not even..) since I last wrote, but a lot has happened. Nicole and I are making great progress on our College Fair.. It's in less than 2 weeks, so hopefully all will be done on time :)

Today is election day all over Peru! They're electing town mayor, regional president (kinda like state governor?) and the regional president's councilmen. It's kinda a big deal. A TON of money has been spent on campaigns- signs, rallies, concerts, buying votes. In my town, there are a total of NINE candidates for mayor- for a town of 16,000 people. Let me just say elections in Peru are kinda crazy. There has been a ban on purchasing or consuming alcohol since Friday and goes until tomorrow, although this evening it will probably be broken once results are read. In Peru, voting is mandatory. If you don't vote, you don't get a sticker on your ID card, and without that sticker you can't get a job or do any sort of "tramites" (documents, for lack of a better word). In order to get that sticker, you have to pay a fine that varies from S/.70- S/.15, depending on the poverty of the place you vote in. Absentee ballots don't exist, so if you're registered to vote in Cayalti, but live in Lima, you have to travel back to Cayalti just to vote. Recently, they passed some legislation that allows Peruvians living abroad to vote, but from what I heard, only a certain percentage of those votes count.. don't quote me on that! The exciting part is that we get to do this allll over again in April for presidential elections. Yay!

In other not so happy news, last night we found out that my host uncle, Tio Jose, died of a heart attack. He was just here on Wednesday and was helping me with my College Fair project. He gave me great contacts for 3 institutions and I was going to invite him to the Feria when he came today to vote in the local elections. He was fine when we saw him just a couple days ago. Apparently he went and saw other family members in Cayalti and called some friends he had been out of touch with for awhile. They're saying he was despidiendose.. saying goodbye to everyone. Saturday morning he woke up with problems with his eye or his vision and then went for a run. He was overweight, but ate healthily for a Peruvian and tried to get exercise. He was only 58. After the run he came back for lunch and had a really really bad headache, so he went to lay down. His wife was concerned and went to check on him not even 3 minutes later and found him more or less foaming from the mouth. His son took him to the hospital, where he passed away. I'm finding it hard to wrap my mind around it that I just saw the man on Wednesday and on Saturday he was dead. My host family is distraught. He was a very kind and giving man and really believed in education. He helped my host sister through college and was helping some of my cousins and my brother too. I remember joking that no matter what time we ate lonche (our evening meal), be it 5pm or 10pm, he was there... like he had a sixth sense for food. Tio Jose would show up with bread or a newspaper and would sit for hours talking (I'll admit I often got bored) about everything, especially current events. He'll buried in Trujillo tomorrow (about 3 hours south of where I live) and my family left in a hurry today. Tio Jose was a professor at the national university in Chiclayo, and they sent a bus to Trujillo and my family took advantage of this free transportation to be able to go to his funeral. I was thinking about going, but opted to stay home. I don't do well at funerals, and peruvian funerals are particularly sad. They stay up all night sitting on hard benches "acompanando"-- keeping the body company. The mom/sisters/wife often cry, no, wail and its a sound that just pierces your heart. Then they take the body and walk from the house to the church and the church to the cemetery accompanied by a band and more crying. It was just more than I think I could handle, and I also I thought my family might want some time without having to worry about the gringa. Rest in peace Tio Jose, you'll be missed by many.

So in the month since I last wrote, I've continued to be pretty busy. My PEPFAR project got approved (yay!) just waiting on the money... We were supposed to get together and work on materials last Wednesday and have our first charla on Thursday, but the school had a Spring Dance and canceled classes, so our charla was canceled as well. I'm going to try to re-schedule for this week so we don't get too far behind.

The Feria Vocacional is coming along, we're about 2.5 weeks out (ahhhh!!!) and so far have 8 institutions confirmed for participating. This week we are starting to invite the secondary schools and figure out the transportation. I was figuring out food costs and it is going to be less than HALF of what we planned! yay! I also went to my municipality asking for help paying for the lunches since our grant won't pay for food, and to my great surprise they approved my solicitud and are going to help out! big yay! This weekend are the mayoral and regional president elections, so I have to go back next week to coordinate it all, since the person I need is not in the office since she is running for re-election. Still, VERY exciting. Still have to get posters and handouts made to publicize the Feria. I talked to one of the radios, and they are going to help us promote it and invite us to their talk show one day to blab about it for the better part of an hour. Who's excited?!?! We still have a lot of work ahead of us, but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The event is coinciding with my school's anniversary and is being included in their anniversary programing and the teachers are getting pretty excited about it. I think even if we only have those 8 institutions come, it will be a success. 

Speaking of my school, I've been pretty busy with them these past weeks, and it shows in the way the teachers treat me. Since they see me twice a week (and this past week daily) they are getting used to me being there and have realized their job is not in jeopardy and have been very welcoming. When we were talking about the anniversary programing, they told me they want me to participate in or attend all the events, specifically, they want me to parade with the school because as one teacher told me "eres parte de la institucion"- you're part of the institution. I'm really happy at my school for the most part. The one tutoria teacher that was never supportive of me, has completely stopped coming to class and doesn't even say hi to me when he sees me in the school. In Peru, not saying hi to someone, especially someone you know, is a big offense. I'm not sure what his deal is, but I don't let it bother me. Whether this particular teacher likes me or not is not why I'm here. My kids are happy and are learning something, and that is what is important to me. 

I don't remember if I mentioned it before or no, but the deWaal Foundation has a program called PreNatal that works in preventing babies being born with a disability. One of their strategies is preventing teenage pregnancies, since they carry more risk for a baby being born with a disability. They came to my school and did their program with the 4th and 5th graders. The leaders they trained were invited to a meeting in Chiclayo with the leaders from other schools and they had a poster contest. We didn't win, but the kids enjoyed meeting other kids and loved being in a fancy hotel with 6th floor views of the city. This past weekend, a group of 8 students participated in a sociodrama (social theater) contest. They only really had a week of practices and sometimes weren't always too focused and I wrote the script in about 2 hrs while falling asleep. They did a great job of fixing the script and changing parts as they felt necessary and in the end, did an AMAZING job. We didn't have money for transportation, so they were asked to put half of their transportation cost and I put the other half, and they made it money well spent. Because we didn't have money, we weren't able to bring students to cheer them on, which was kinda sad. My kids placed 2nd out of 4 schools... they were only beat by TWO POINTS. And the team that beat them stole their incubator that we spent 2 hours and half a roll of duct tape making. Grrrr. Let me just say that Ciudad Eten are a bunch of tramposos! hahah.

Maybe some pictures soon... until then, cuidense!

I'll take it as a good sign that I haven't updated in awhile, and chalk it up to being busy... haha. I've officially been a volunteer for a year! They always said that the first year was the hardest, and that the second is when things start to click, or fall into place. It sure is true. I've got a good amount of projects going on and feel like I've done some good things here. At least my students seem to like me; one class even made chocolate cake! (yes, i can be bought with chocolate.. smart kids!)

July was a rather busy month. I had Camp VALOR (50 teenage boys for 2.5 days....) and then right after that (at the same time actually..) the new trainees (now volunteers) came up for FBT... the week of practice in the field to see what its "really like". They came to my site and taught Vocational Orientation to 3 of my 4 classes. I think I need to take them with my every week, because even the worst behaved classes were angels. (that's also when they made cake...) Then I went down to Lima for a training session about working with Community Disability Organizations and a surprise (for me) session on goal 3.2. I had about 1 hour to whip up something. I got to spend Fiestas Patrias with Isa and some of her friends; ate yummy food, had some good drinks and good times.

August started with the PEPFAR conference-- a 3 day event talking about how to create HIV prevention projects. I had a whopping FOUR socios turn up! Three were sent as replacements for the people I invited, but it ended up working out for the best. I finally got an in with the health post. For the rest of August, I went at least once a week to the health post to meet with the doctor and/or obstetrician to plan our project. I submitted it last week and is approved pending paperwork that I am turning in tomorrow. The basic gist is that we are doing monthly sessions with the 4th grade high schoolers (2nd to last year, about 14-15 yrs old) about HIV prevention and have a t-shirt design contest with the winning class getting t-shirts. And us too, of course! The culminating event is a parade (known here as pasacalle) for World AIDS Day on Dec. 1st. I didn't want to do another one, but got talked into it by the doctor and obstetrician. They promised they would help me and that I wouldn't be as stressed as last year. After looking at my pictures they told me it looked like I had a great parade last year and they didn't understand why I was anxious. I'll take it as a good sign that I mentioned it to my school director and he offered up the school band's support!

Nicole, my sitemate, and I are also hard at work planning a College Fair. This was a new concept to most people we talked to, so there was a bit of confusion. Some of that might have been that at first we referred to it as a "Feria de Carreras". Carrera can mean race or career (how they refer to majors in college). Now we are calling it a "Feria Vocacional de Universidades e Institutos" which more or less translates to a University and Institute Vocational Fair, and the idea gets across a lot quicker. So far, 3 of the 4 institutions we have invited have confirmed that they are coming. We still need to invite a LOT of institutions, so there's a lot of work to be done still. We are also compiling a University and Institute Guide to give to each High School that has basic information about majors, costs and admissions requirements. The idea for this started because even though we are only 1 hour from the city, many of our kids and their families don't have money or time to spend a day or more in the city going from school to school getting information. We wanted to bring the information TO them and also make it available to our youth in caserios (small rural areas away from town center). For those kids, the idea of going to a technical institute might be a whole new concept, since their families are mostly dedicated to agriculture or animal raising. It's all very exciting, and a bit stressful as the days pass. But I think it will end up being a great thing for our kids and their families.

So right now I'm in Lima for mid-service medical exams. Tons of fun. I've been poked and prodded just about everywhere, but turns out I'm A-ok. Got to go to the dermatologist and get some persistent acne checked out and have my psoriasis looked at too. The fish oil mom brought has been awesome, but he wants me to use some stronger steroid too. Hopefully that will get rid of the bit that's still there.

I'll look through photos and see if there's anything fun to put up. I lost my camera at the end of July, it literally disappeared, so no photos since then. just got a new one brought from America, so I get to take more pictures! yay.

Really missing home and everyone there, but buoyed by the small successes I'm having here.

¡Feliz Aniversario!

This past week marked my 1 of living in Peru. It’s had its ups and downs for sure, but I’ve made it to this point alive, healthy, and happy. I’ve had lots of new and interesting experiences and have met some wonderful people along the way. One year down, 1 year 3 months to go. I’ve been in site for about 9 months, and I feel like things are finally starting to get going on the work front. Vocational Orientation is up and running, though not with the complete support of the teachers. One of my teachers is amazing and participates in the classes. The other one is a blob. He usually doesn’t show up, or comes late and leaves early, always with some sort of excuse. And the five minutes he is in the room he doesn’t participate in anything. Luckily I have mostly good kids and hopefully they are getting something out of it. We’ve been spending a lot of time focusing on identifying their strengths and abilities and they really struggle with it. I have two more activities planned to try to get them to see their good qualities.

My Health Promoters are planning a movie night on Saturday in front of the park to talk about HIV prevention, show some testimonies, and then show a movie. It is their first activity that they are planning, so hopefully it will go well. They’re also in the process of designing t-shirts for when they do events. We’ll see on Sunday what designs they come up with :)

Last week I had a charla with a group of moms in one of the neighborhoods (not so far away as the caserios, but not exactly close to much either). It was in a small neighborhood chapel dedicated to some saint and an obstetrician came from Chiclayo and talked about women’s reproductive health. I hope to continue monthly charlas with this group of women and talk about all sorts of topics from hand washing to family violence. Any suggestions or resources, let me know! We’re also planning a Pap smear campaign where professionals will come from Chiclayo and for only S/.5 the women get a pap smear. This usually costs S/.10 plus another S/.7-10 for travel so it’s a great opportunity for the women. They will also bring medicine and I’m hoping to coordinate to have HIV tests available for free at the same time. The HIV test costs S/.35 if you get it done privately, but the Health Post has a certain amount of them to give to women of childbearing age to help prevent vertical transmission (mother to child).

I just got hooked up with an NGO in Chiclayo that works with preventing disabilities and part of their strategy is working to prevent teenage pregnancies. They will be working with the 4th and 5th graders at San Martín, one of the high schools, in my town. So I’ve been trying to coordinate with the person in charge of the NGO and the directors at the school to get a group trained and then for them to give the charlas to the other students; we’ll see how all that goes.

After months of feeling like I’m doing nothing here, I finally feel like perhaps I’m actually having some sort of impact. We’ll see about the whole “behavior change” thing being successful, but at least I’m doing something, hopefully.
I’ve spent months complaining about the heat, well, now the cold is here. I’m sleeping in sweatpants and socks and have worn jeans various times in the past couple weeks. The mosquitoes are still out and biting, and my blood is still just as sweet. Mom comes in just over a week, and she’s going to think I’m a liar for all the talk about how hot it is here, and now it’s cold.
The new group of Youth Development and Small Business volunteers come this week. Peru 15. Crazy to think, we won’t be the youngest odd number group anymore. I’ll be going down in July to give a training about working with community disability groups and so will get to meet at least the YD volunteers. There will be 35 of them! That’s how many were in my WHOLE group. Craziness.

more pictures!

So I had a post typed up, ready to copy and paste, and then went to do just that, and realized that my document was saved in Word 2007, and this high class internet establishment doesn´t have that, or even the compatability pack installed. Thank you Peru. So, you just get the pictures today.

Me and Yilda at her "Cordones" ceremony. She asked me to put her cordones on for the ceremony. She is a brigadier general... a school leader. The cordones is that yellow rope, the blue on her shoulders and the embelm on her lapel pocket. It was a lot for an inexperienced gringa!

Grandmom´s NoBakes.. cooked like never before! Guinea pigs in the background, baby ducks underfoot and a headlamp because the one light in the "kitchen" is useless.

Bettina on her birthday pretending chomp down on the cake. With Doña Hilda´s help I made her a delicious chocolate cake which I iced and she decorated.

Me and Doña Juana, my host grandmother, on her 91st birthday. But she´s actually older... they don´t know exactly when she was born.

Awesome photo mural around the PC logo in a community library another volunteer built in his site. It´s a sweet library.

Caramelo more recently. He was tired after his bath. His mange got better all by itself. He still follows me around sometimes and causes all sorts of problems.

Picture Time!

Doing my godmotherly duties and holding the baby. Who was sound asleep until the padre poured cold water on his head.

Segundo, Yadira, Baby Randy, Me, and Alex (the godfather). He was always apart in all the pictures.

The formal picture. I'm the only one smiling, notice?

Me with ANDY YAIPEN from GRUPO CINCO!!! This is like getting your picture taken with NSYNC back in the day. They came to my site right after the anniversary. So now I have seen both Hermanos Yaipen and Grupo Cinco in my site.. sweet!

My Health Promoters! Not all of them finished, but here they are, with Anna (to the right of the banner) and Humberto (sitting in the middle) from Viviendo en Positivo from Chiclayo.

Employing "non-formal education techniques" to show how HIV works in the body to destroy your immune system. Thank you Victor and Yilda for volunteering!

My Community Diagnostic presentation. Of the people you can see, two are relatives and one is my AMAZING site mate Nicole. My socio told me I was "toda congresista" because I was dressed up.

Me and my friend Yilda. She really helps lift my spirits when I'm wondering what the heck I'm doing here. She's bound to do great things in this world! :-)

CARAMELO!! This was when he was newly adopted, so he was rather mangey still. He's been eating better and plays with me so he's happy and now, even without treatment (or a bath! I'm a bad doggy mommy) his mange is clearing up. I thought he looked like a CowTail (the candy) but I couldn't call him that, because that would just be weird.. and worse in Spanish (Cola de Vaca) so I decided on Caramelo, or caramel in Spanish. But here it also means any small candy, so they were still confused. Oh well. He's a cutey. And follows me EVERYWHERE! even into the school director's office and to the Combi stop!

Health Promoters Graduation. These aren't all of them, just the ones that didn't get perfect attendance.. haha. In the back row with me are the town Governor and Ana. I was really sick that day and had a bad fever. Still had to give speeches and smile though!

Yilda and I helped Nicole with an HIV charla she did with the women in a rural part of her site. The woman was so gung-ho about getting the condom ALL the way down the banana that the banana popped out of my hands and went flying.

Pretty good save though, and all the women thought it was hysterical. I had previously mentioned that I really like giving charlas about condom use, because it really empowers women and gives the information they can teach their daughters and granddaughters and thereby is empowering generations of women. So it was even better, when I was so "excited" about doing a condom demonstration that I couldn't hold on to it.

Peru 13 and our counterparts at our Project Design and Management conference. See if you can spot my forehead! My socio is the third from the left kneeling and my boss is the woman in the orange shirt on the right.

My nephew/godson, Randy, bathing and enjoying the water

Despite having a ton of plastic balls to play with, Randy decided that a carrot makes a good toy and that he wanted to share it with me :)

More of Randy bathing. It's hysterical how he jumps up when the water drips down his face! *Naked Baby Alert*

Is anyone still reading this??

So I just realized that it’s been about 2.5 months since I last posted on my blog. Ooops. Of course, a lot has happened. February was pretty much just finishing up my Health Promoters course and not much else. They had their clausura (graduation) on March 6th with a ceremony in the municipality along with Nicole’s Health Promoters since they never got a clausura. We finished with 13 Health Promoters, 11 youth and 2 women, and they all presented final projects. The mayor wasn’t there because he went to Spain, and we had to drag the assistant mayor (is that a term??) out of her office to come and say a few words. No one from the Health Post came and neither did they come from the schools. The cable people came and filmed it and it was live on TV!

I had a fever and it was really hot that day and I broke my phone. Let’s just say that sweat and phone screens don’t get along very well. After many emails and phone calls and trips to Chiclayo, I have a “new” phone which is really just an old phone from a volunteer that left. I call it the piedra—the rock—because it pretty much is. It’s an old school Nokia, but much more practical for PCV life than the flip phone I had before; I don’t have Tetris anymore, but I’ve got a FLASHLIGHT!!!

So for my Health Promoters I made a manual for them, to help them when they do their talks and what not. I showed to my APCD (my boss in PC speak) and she liked it and wants to send it off to Washington to make it available to volunteers in other countries. I’m gonna be famous! At least in the Spanish-speaking Peace Corps world… lol.

OH! I forgot that towards the end of February I presented my Community Diagnostic, a 50ish page document, all in Spanish that took me 3 months to research and write. This should be more important for the people of my town, than for me, but of the 35 institutions that I invited, only 5 bothered to show up. Mind you, that inviting 35 institutions means writing a formal “oficio” or letter and making copies and THEN walking all over town in the sun and heat handing them out and making sure everyone signs the “cargo” (my copy) to prove they got it. Just handing them out was an all day affair. (I did the same for my health promoters graduation with worse results…) So for the presentation I got all dressed, put on make up, heels, slacks, and a blouse I had to IRON. I was nervous mostly because I know how judgmental my town can be and knew that no matter what I did or didn’t do it wouldn’t be right or sufficient. And I was right. After presenting, I opened it up for questions and the first comment I got was, “I congratulate you for what you’ve done, but there’s a lot of holes in it and it still lacks a lot.” Well gee thanks. Glad I spent 3 months of my life doing something that no one here has ever attempted to do, oh and I did preface by saying it’s a living document and in no way am I pretending that it’s complete. The joys of being a volunteer… you’re likely the one most invested in what you are doing in the community.

Since the end of March, I haven’t been in site very much. I left on Sunday March 21 (happy bday mom!) for a dentist appointment and a meeting in Lima. I was back in site Thursday morning and left that Wednesday morning (the 31st) for vacation! We got 4 free vacation days for Semana Santa (Holy Week) and so I took advantage and went to Mancora, a sunny beach in Piura. I ate a lot of yummy food, got some sun and went out until the wee hours of the morning. Easter Sunday I had an omelet at a restaurant owned by gringos called Green Eggs and Ham, but it was nothing like Easter at home. No Peeps and chocolate crosses and jelly beans (though mom says they’re on the way!). Then I travelled back to Piura and had a delicious salad at Cappuccinos (third time eating there in 5 days.. yes!) and then got on a bus back to Chiclayo and back to site. I luckily have no crazy Semana Santa stories, unlike others from my group that got lost in the Colca Canyon or were stuck on a dugout canoe for 18 hours with 14 people in the Jungle.

On the way to Lima, my laptop got a “golpe”, it was hit somehow, and the screen broke, it was white and had lines going across it. I took it to get fixed before heading on vacation, and $210 later I have a shiny new laptop screen!

So I came back from vacation Sunday night and left again Monday afternoon for PDM- Project and Design Management- a training we had in Lima and had to bring a counterpart from our sites. I brought Felix, the treasurer from the Association of People with Disabilities. We planned a project to train the association members in different types of crafts and artesania so that they can sell them and improve their economic situation. It was a long 2.5 days. I was supposed to have a dentist appointment on Monday (I have to get a crown remade) but since there were no bus tickets for Easter Sunday I had to travel on Monday. Instead my dentist appointment was Friday, after the training. It’s a series of 3 appointments and the second was yesterday. Unfortunately something happened, the mould wasn’t right or something, but the tooth base didn’t fit right, so they had to re-make the form and send it out again. So I have another appointment on Monday to do what was supposed to happen yesterday. After that, there’s one more appointment… hopefully on Wednesday. If not, it will be Thursday. Thursday and Friday I have a meeting of Special Ed volunteers to plan training for Peru 15 and talk about best practices etc. So I need to be out of Lima Wednesday night. That and I’m getting tired of Lima. It’ll have been over 2 weeks in Lima… and about 3 weeks out of site (4 if we don’t count the fact that I was there for like 20 hours…)

To break it up, last weekend I went to see my host sister Yadira and my nephews Bryam and Randy. It was nice to see them after not seeing them for a few months and also to get out of the touristy section of Lima for a bit. I’m going to go see my training host family this weekend since I only got to see them for about 2 hours when we were in Chaclacayo for PDM. I’m really excited to get to spend some real time with them and get out of the hostel for a night or two.

When I finally get back to site, I’ll be starting a Vocational Orientation class with all of the 5th graders (last year of HS) at San Martin, one of the public High Schools. It was supposed to start the 13th, but I was stuck in Lima still. I’ll be working with about 100 students, hopefully helping them to learn to set goals and figure out what they want to do when they graduate in December. Most kids in my community want to be “great professionals” but don’t know what they want to be exactly or aren’t doing anything to help reach that goal of being a great professional. Teen pregnancy in my site is at about 9.5% and went from 30 cases in 2008 to 77 cases in 2009. Kids are having sex at a very young age and not thinking about the consequences. I want them to set goals for their lives and realize that having a baby is going to make it hard to go to college or even the institute and will change their lives forever. I’m going to work in some HIV/AIDS and general sex ed sessions so hopefully that will help on that front.

The best part is that my site mate and I are planning an awesome Career/College Fair in October to bring representatives from the colleges and institutes in the area to my town to give the kids a chance to get information from them without having to go all the way to Chiclayo. We’re also going to have a parent session about how to pay for it and other worries parents have. We want to invite a couple of professionals (based on the kids’ interests) to come and talk about their profession and also how they got to where they are. Like I said, it’s gonna be amazing!
While I’ve been on a “sabbatical” in Lima, I was informed that there is now dengue in my site. Dengue is carried by mosquitoes (which LOVE my blood!) that bite during the day. It’s treatable the first time, but according to our PC doctor, the second time you’re pretty much guaranteed to die. I will be bathing even more in bug repellent than I did before!

I’ll post some pictures in a separate post since this one is already so long. Sorry if it’s an incredibly boring post but not too much exciting has been going on. Especially not here alone in Lima…

I miss everyone incredibly and am counting down the days until my mommy comes (64 days!!) and waiting anxiously until my sister figures out when she is coming. It will be so amazing to see my family again. And also get clothes that fit properly!!!

Until the next time,
Sarita

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.

Rain

24 November 2009
Today I woke up to the familiar sound of rain falling. Familiar in another life. Here in my desert home in Northern Peru it’s a very foreign sound. I awoke and thought the sound I heard was the water coming from the tap someone left open until it ran dry yesterday morning or maybe that I was delusional. I looked out my window through the mesh I duct taped in to keep the bugs out and looked at my “backyard”, which is really a small area we call a corral where we raise ducks and guinea pigs and noticed that the ducks were drenched and the dirt floor was now mud. At first I was glum; trekking around in the rain is not my favorite thing to do because then you’re stuck in wet clothes. But then I realized I’d finally get to break out my spiffy raincoat to wear as I made my way to the special school. I stepped out of my room and grabbed my tea cup, since it oddly wasn’t yet on the table. No sooner than I set the cup on the table, my host mom comes running into the “dining room” fretting that the water isn’t boiled yet because she thought I wouldn’t be getting up early. Confused, I stood there; she knows that on Tuesdays and Thursdays I go to the special school at 9 and am up somewhere between 8 and 8:30. Then, with a chuckle, I realize it’s because of the rain. Because it’s raining, there probably won’t be school. I must have looked surprised or incredulous because she tells me, “Ven. Mira!” as she directs me to the door to look at the lake forming in front of our door and rain continuing to come down. With a laugh I think, “What the crap… we’re not in Cajamarca!”, and follow instructions to go back to bed despite wanting to go play in the rain. Cajamarca is another department, in the mountains of Peru, where it is currently wet season and volunteers make good use of their raincoats.
Later, as we’re eating lunch, my host mom asks if it rains like that in the states to which I say yes. My host sister asks if we have thunder and lightning storms, and I tell her I LOVE THEM. Then my host mom asks if I like to go out and play in the rain. I LOVE PLAYING IN THE RAIN! Laughing and slightly embarrassed, I tell her that I wanted to go play in the rain, but didn’t want the neighbors to think I’ve completely lost it. She told me I should have gone and played in the rain anyway and that she likes to go stand in the rain and get wet. So now I know, the next time it rains cats and dogs in the desert I’m taking my host mom to go play in the rain.

So November has been flying by. I have about 2 weeks to finish and turn in a draft of my diagnostic and then another week to turn in the final copy. December is looking to be rather full as well! Pretty much everyday there is something booked and for about a week I'll be out of site.

One of the other volunteers working in Special Ed is organizing a conference in her site about Disability and we'll each bring people from our site to participate. The following day, we're having a meeting among volunteers to work on best practices manuals and starting to organize the Disability Committee. THEN I leave that night for our Early IST which is our meeting after 4 months. It'll be the first time in 4 months I'll be seeing most of the youth volunteers and I'll also have to present my community diagnostic and turn in my final draft. I'm going to stay a couple days to visit my training host family.

I'm currently "gestionar-ing" or organizing for a group from the US to come to my site and help our youth out with hearing aids! It all started with a comment from the Deaf-Mute class teacher about wanting hearing aids for her students. I did some research and sent an email for more information and they wrote back asking about transport and how many people etc. It's still up in the air, but they are coordinating with one of their team members who has connections to Peru to see when his next trip to Lima is planned. (!!!!) All crossable parts of my body are crossed that it ends up working out.

My town was recently invaded by 14 gringos and 34 more Peruvians from Trujillo. My community's Disability Association coordinated with a group from Trujillo (Corazones Unidos con Personas con Discapacidad) and a group from the US (Joni and Friends: Wheels for the World) to come and donate wheelchairs, walkers, and crutches to a ton of people from Cayalti and the area. I have mixed opinions on it. The people did great things for my town's people with disability, but one in particular was less than open to my presence. I was talking to a 12 year old boy who was getting a wheelchair and his grandmother to find out if he goes to the Special School and to introduce myself (do my job... get to know community and those I'm serving) and he told me I couldn't be in that area "so as not to interrupt the job they are doing". The effect of the assistive devices continues after they leave as does the person's life. They were there 4 days, I'll be here 2 years. These are the people I'll be working with and it helps my job to be able to know their situations. Unfortunately, this one person (not gringo!) made what should have been a joyous event be a rather unpleasant memory. (AND the grandma brought her grandson the next week to school and there I was able to continue talking with her and building a relationship!)

I haven't put many pictures up recently (though I did just find a post that had pictures that was saved but never published and published it) but I've been working on a video to show before I present my diagnostic to my community. Seeing as Peruvians are notoriously late to meetings, I figured I'd aprovechar (take advantage) of it to show a video of pictures of my past 3 months in site and some of the things the youth are doing. I'll be adding more to it up until I have to present, but here's the sneak peek!

So it´s been over a month since I´ve written, and I´m not really sure what to update on. I don´t really know what I did this month. I made a little progress on my diagnostic and have even started writing the introduction, but still lack the basic demographic and health information. I helped out with an Escuela de Lideres (School of Leaders) workshop and was able to get some diagnostic info from the students there. Recently helped with Escuela de Padres (school of parents) and got some info from the parents. Other than that diagnostic stuff I´ve been going to the special school twice a week and teaching my english class.

I feel well adjusted to my town, but am still searching for how exactly I fit in with the
organizations I´ll be working with. I don´t want to just be another set of hands at the special school but don´t yet have the confianza with the teachers to try and make any changes. The school year is winding down (dec. 30ish it ends) and so I think I´ll continue observing and thinking of things for next year. I participated in a march for inclusion a couple weeks back in Chiclayo, but nothing was done IN my town for the week of inclusion.

My english classes are going. And while it´s not exactly what I want to be doing it gives me something to do and for the most part the kids seem to enjoy it. They are doing demolition and then reconstructing in the school, so our classroom has changed. They now study in the afternoon and are in a room the size of a closet. there is barely room to pass through the 2 rows of double desks. BUT we now have a white board!! I greatly prefer white boards to chalk boards in the states, but here the preference is even greater. In the states, at least chalk boards are typically smooth and you can more or less read what is written on them. Here, the chalk board is part of the plaster wall that has been painted with chalk board paint and is bumpy and makes the writing almost illegible.

I have pictures to post and stories to go along with them, but will do that later. Just wanted you all (those few that read this.. haha) to know I´m alive and well and enjoying my peruvian life.

Also, if you get the ganas (desire) to send me anything, I would love crossword puzzles. I did the one in the newspaper almost daily before, but the crossword puzzles here are weird- and in spanish. So if someone wants to clip their daily puzzle, save up a few and send them to me I would be forever grateful. Other things that make my life happy: chocolate, notes about what´s going on, magazines you´ve already read- I don´t really get much world news down here, swedish fish, and if someone could figure out how to send chicken harvest soup and the salad bar from prospector´s I would be in love! :)

Love and miss everyone and hope you´re enjoying Fall while I sweat my butt off down here.

Pictures

So I found this post that I saved, but never posted. Pictures of my birthday (dancing with pops, Yilda and her mom presenting me with my cake, my host mom chopping up some freshly killed duck) a shot of dusk in the middle of the desert on the way home from Chiclayo, and some of Cayalti's youth dancing Marinera the typical coastal dance.

Today I was asked when I am going to "empezar regalando"- start giving, as in when I´m I going to start giving things out. clearly gringos only come to give away things. the poor woman was incredibly confused when I explained that I´m not giving out anything, and that I´ll be here for two years.

Lesson to the gringos: when you travel or go abroad for charity, don´t just give things out. It creates a culture in which people expect all gringos to come bearing gifts and reduces their ability to be self sufficient. Work WITH the people, give them your time and friendship, share your skills. The whole the give a man a fish thing.. it´s true.

In other news. I´ve been keeping busy with my special school 2 days a week, working on my diagnostic (though not as much as I should be..) and going to various meetings here and in Chiclayo. I just promised to teach my dad´s elementary kids English 1 hour a week, starting next Wednesday so we´ll see how that goes. I have no idea how to teach English so this should fun. I´m meeting tons of people, most of whom I don´t remember their name but at least I try to remember their position or role, such as the lady that works in the municipality or which school they are the director of, etc. still no marriage proposals, though one guy straight up asked me to have his child and I´ve had plenty of people tell me they are sure I´ll find my Peruvian boyfriend and in the same breath warn me about Peruvian men.

Oh, I also apparently have really tasty blood. The mosquitoes have eaten me alive, mostly my arms and my face which makes for an attractive look. I´m told that once the mosquitoes get to know me, they won´t bite as much. Still, I asked the doctor to send me some bug repellent which I will coat myself in every day. I couldn´t figure out why there were so many mosquitoes (and I've been told it´s not even mosquito season yet) and then the doctor mentioned all the rice fields and it clicked. My town is surrounded by rice fields, sugar cane, and corn. Growing rice involved large amounts of stagnant water and mosquitoes breed in stagnant water. Thus making my site mosquito heaven. Note to self-turn down any possible invite to work the rice fields.

ok, it´s time for my afternoon siesta. let´s see how many mosquitoes bite me in my sleep.

Dear Grandpop,

You would like Peru. You´d be frustrated by people not speaking English, but you would love them for their ingenuity. Riding in a mototaxi to a caserio, or small farm community, I saw all sorts of jerry-rigged things. Nothing ever goes to the trash until it has lived it´s life at least 4 or 5 times over. I´ve seen tables attached to bicycles to create carts and bicycles that are beyond their years but still work thanks to Peruvian ingenuity. Their ingenuity spreads even into jobs. They think of everything to make money, find a need and fill it. Pretty much every family has some sort of side business, and often that business has a side business. For example we make copies, type documents, print, and bind manuals. But the side business of the side business is that we also sell snacks and gum, pens and erasers. All to earn a couple extra soles. Where our bathroom wall doesn´t go up all the way, cardboard boxes have been sewn together and taped up to fill in the 1 foot gap. Most cars should not run. And I don´t mean by US standards. they just shouldn´t work, but they do. Held together with wire and dirt they rumble down the road, a typical station wagon loaded with at least 5 passengers plus the driver and who knows how much other cargo. It´s a mechanics dream.

You would also like the big machines. While the farms are mostly run by manual labor- men and women bent over planting, weeding, and harvesting there are also a good number of big machines. If you were here, you´d probably be able to tell me what they´re all for, but I have no idea, ust that they´re BIG. Our street was being paved and there were more big machines, but also men with buckets of sand and a broom. Quite the contrast.

Most of all, you´d like the drinking circles and cheap beer. It´s not uncomon to start at 9 am on a Sunday and spend the whole day drinking. Or after a long day in the fields to partake in a drinking circle. Sometimes they drink canaso, a strong homemade liquor they make from sugar cane, but usually its one of Peru´s various cheap beers, Pilsen and Cristal and once in awhile Brahma if the money´s really tight. If they´re in a spending mood, they might splurge for a Cusquena which is not too bad. Grandpop, you could pass hours in a drinking circle sharing a couple cases of beer and stories about your farm equipment and what you jerry-rigged that day.

I could see you sitting around shooting the breeze with any number of the various old men I see hanging around town. And when I see something poorly jerry-rigged, I smile and think to myself "My grandpa coulda done better."

A couple of photos

¡¡¡Los Hermanos Yaipen!!! I went to their concert in Chosica with my family and ended up front row with a group of friends. It was amazing. This was during their hip thrusting part. There was also booty shaking and overall flirting with the audience. Los Hermanos Yaipen are to Peru what NSYNC was to the US in their day. Needless to say, it was an unforgettable night

Dear US Taxpayers: Be proud. Peru just welcomed 36 new Peace Corp Volunteers into their communities and homes. These 36 people are set out to do great things and be prime examples of US citizens. Keep us in your thoughts, as our job isn´t always the easiest but is bound to be an adventure. This picture is from the first and last time I, as a PCV, will be clean and well put together- at least until Close of Service in two years. Next to me is Franny, a fellow Lambayequean, Youth Volunteer and my best friend here. Next to her is Isa, our wonderful and fearless Tech Trainer. She is an amazing person and a great friend and fellow clumsy person :)

My Lima family at swearing in. Pops was taking the picture and Vivi was running around getting dirty or eating. I miss these people like crazy, but am blessed with another great family here in Lambayeque.


This is what being a Youth PCV is all about. Getting hugged by 14 mothers and a father all at once with heads landing where you´d rather they didn´t. This was a dinamica we did at the end of the Escuela de Padres session and it allowed normally reserved parents to be silly for a little. The session was about healthy communication with your children. Part of my job is working with parents of youth to change some behaviors at home and thereby improve the lives of the youth. I had so much fun and I think the parents enjoyed it too. I love my job!!

More later. These took about 30 minutes to load, I was surprised it didn´t take longer.

A week ago today, I arrived in my site a bit disoriented, overwhelmed and tired. I knew only my family and my socio and a few random people I met during site visit, or rather, they knew me. I couldn’t tell you their name or role in the community. I lugged all my stuff into my room, looked around, sat on my bed and cried. I was overwhelmed with thoughts of “what the hell have I gotten myself into?!?” and a release of adrenaline that had been building up all week. Today I came back from a night in Chiclayo, our capital city and as I was walking the few blocks to my house was greeted by name by no less than 5 people. I can place these people now, though I might still not know their name, I can tell you where they fit in the community. It put a big smile on my face to know that in one short week I have become more of a familiar face. I still have a long way to go as I still get stares and whistles even (Sunday is drinking circle day which makes that even worse) but people here know me. It’s becoming home, slowly but surely. My family is absolutely amazing. We get along great and already have various inside jokes. They miraculously get my sense of humor even through my jumbled Spanish and put up with my less than cheery morning self. It was hard to leave my Lima family, the wonderful Quispes, but the pain was eased by being welcomed into such a great family here in Lambayeque.
Monday was a really awkward day. I didn’t know what to do with myself and was still feeling very overwhelmed. I also was rather entrenched in a lovely cold I brought with my from Lima (I guess that is what a week of stress and then going out until 5am does to your immune system!) I decided that Monday would be one day. My one day to mope to do nothing and be more or less antisocial. Tuesday I would get up and go. Do SOMETHING. Well, since Tuesday I’ve been fairly busy. I’ve been going to various meetings with parents, students, female community leaders and even was invited to a regional meeting in Chiclayo with the president of a national NGO is that is starting to work with youth in my area. Monday I think I’m helping to weigh and measure students as part of a physical and psychological check that my socio is working on. This week I want to start meeting with different school directors and get working on my community diagnostic. I also want to identify a school and group of kids with whom I can work on the World Map Project. I think I might also spend some time reading in the park and putting my face out there.

I am indescribably happy. My site isn’t gorgeous like Ancash or Cajamarca (do a google picture search to see some of the beauty my fellow PCVs are living in) but it has its charm. The road through the caserios (farms) at sunset is amazing. You’re surrounded by sugar cane and corn fields with mountains off in the distance, a slight breeze blowing and a gorgeous orangey-pink sky. If you look close you might even catch a glimpse of some pretty birds hanging out in the fields. I am living and working with people who are passionate about their work, who realize the potential of their community and are working to better it. I walk around town and a big wave of contentment hits me- how lucky I am to be living the life I am, to be sharing it with amazing people, and to be able to do a little bit of good in the process.

Now for some funny anecdotes from this past week.
A girl I met once just showed up at my door with her English homework asking me to help her. She came again the next day, this time with 3 friends. Those 2 hours each day were so much fun.
- I won Tupperware at a meeting the other day.
- At the same meeting, I watched 30 women participate in communal cry therapy. Two of them were nursing children while crying. I was the only one that thought there was anything odd about this.
- I ate an amazing plate of chicken and French fries. For about $1.25.
- In another meeting- Escuela de Padres- Parents School- I was simultaneously hugged by 15 women. I had various heads in places that women’s heads should not go.
- A man danced to Michael Jackson’s “Billy Jean” at a festival in honor of Saint Rosa of Lima. There was another man, very drunk man, dancing on his knees and on the floor.
- I ate Cuy for the first time today! It was yummy, a bit tough and chewy, but more or less tastes like chicken. It’s a lot of work to eat though.
- I have discovered that it seems that many Peruvians have an unreal obsession with Michael Jackson, especially the song “Thriller”. I have discovered that PCVs (at least from my group) enjoy feeding into this obsession and I think it has rubbed off on a few.
- Also, cheesy America’s Funniest Home Videos type clips, especially those that come from Japan or involve bodily harm, are very popular. It is also acceptable to show said clips for nearly 1 hour while waiting for a meeting to start. I now know how to be prepared!

Photos in the next post. They take forever to load. I miss everyone a ton but and really enjoying myself here.

Pocas horas quedan...

44 hours until I'm officially a United States Peace Corps Volunteer. This day has been over 2 years in the making. These past 11 weeks have flown by. In that time, Yanacoto has become home, the wonderful Quispes have become family, and my fellow trainees and even staff at the center have become friends and confidants. On Friday, all that will be uprooted and I'll be heading off to Lambayeque, 12 hours to the north, to make a new home, family, and friends. I'm excited and terrified, oh so ready and yet oh so hesitant. Training is safe. We're surrounded by gringos and people who more or less understand them and their idiosyncracies, that understand all the transitions we're going through and are accomodating. We have a fixed schedule, and as much as we all despise the damn COTE at times, it provides consistency to our lives. We'll be leaving for site in a few days and when we get there, we'll most likely be the only gringos there, we'll have to explain our role as a PCV and also every single one of our idiosyncracies over and over again, and we'll also be on our own to fill our days which at first could be pretty empty. We'll spend 3 months doing an analysis of our community, but no one will make us get out of bed each day and go talk to school directors or nurses and doctors at the health post. We've had our hands held for 3 months as we've gotten used to life in Peru, learned about Peace Corps Peru, memorized our program goals and objectives (in Spanish and English!), improved our Spanish, and toughed out various illnesses. We've had all sorts of "check for learnings" to test what we've learned, but Friday we begin the biggest test of all-- 2 years as Peace Corps Volunteers.

Picture Post

A couple pictures from the past few weeks.. Enjoy!

My first Picaron that came out looking like it should. I was just a little excited!

The Picaron making process. The key is dipping your hands in salt water.

The band that welcomed me when I got to site. And continued to play for an hour while I was forced to dance. The guy in the far corner is my host sister's fiancee. I'll be going to a wedding in less than a year :-)

Part of my welcome crew. L-R: Host sister Bettina, Host mom Bremilda, me, Counterpart Flor, host mom of volunteer Nicole in Zana, El Profesor (dance teacher- don't actually know his name), Gilda and Fanny, two of the youth I'll be working with. Notice the baby face on the sign.

My new 'kitchen'. It has a roof, but it is pretty much outside. We have a fridge. It's in the dining room, unplugged.

The view from my bedroom window of the ducks and cuy (guinea pig). I'll be eating these guys at some point. Note the clothes line- it's barbed wire.

The bathroom. They put a door on for me. In the back right behind the towels is the only sink we have. The animals are to the right and the kitchen to the left, under the thatched roof.

If you were wondering what an incredibly nervous Sara looks like while being interviewed for the TV, you now know.

Some of the youth I'll be working with after interviewing and talking with the director of the Agriculture department in Chiclayo.

View on the way to my site. My town is super FLAT and there are mountains peeking out around it.

My new family in the north. Bettina (24), my pop Juan, me, mamita Bremilda and my brother Carlos (19). Not pictured are my oldest sister who is 30 and lives in Lima with her 9 month old and her other son, Bryan who is 12 and lives with us.

The men taking apart the Pachamanca. This is the only dish that men cook or help with in Peru. You dig a big hole, build a fire and put rocks on it. Then take out the super hot rocks and layer in potatoes, yams, chicken, meat, sweet tamale like things and really big beans with the rocks, cover it all with leaves and wait an hour. Then you dig it all out and feast.

This was a small plate. I had at least 3 potatoes (different kinds) plus the yam.

Kerry and Madeline, the adopted Quispe. Our families wanted to thank us for the luncheon we made for them and so decided to all come together to make a Pachamanca.

Evan showing his Food Network skills while chopping up some aji for Taco Tuesday at Keith's house.

Keith showing his family how to make tacos. He decided to have a taco party for his family and invited us all. They were DELICIOUS!!!

The taco feast. Enough to feed about 40.