¡Feliz Navidad!

Merry Christmas everyone! I thought I´d write today since I have time and today (Christmas Eve) is really more of a celebration here in Peru than actual Christmas day. I thought I´d also take this time to talk about how x-mas is celebrated down here.

The past couple of weeks I´ve been asking people in my town how Christmas is celebrated here and more than a few people mentioned that it is a rather sad holiday. When I asked why, they said because parents don´t have enough money to buy there kids presents. For this, it´s traditional for the local government and/or other organizations to hold chocolatadas and give out toys to children. A chocolatada is a giving of hot chocolate and paneton - a sweet bread with dried fruit (kind of like fruit cake, but actually very different...and it actually tastes good!). I went to a chocolatada last week held by the Red Cross and it occured to me "these could very well be the only gifts that some of these kids receive - new ones at least." Afterwards, my host-mom asked me if Christmas is celebrated similarly in my country and if the government gives out gifts to kids. I immediately felt awkward and tried to come up with a polite way to tell her that for the most part, parents buy presents for their own children. I actually did tell her this, but then when on to explain that the economy is very different in the United States and often, parents have jobs where they are able to save some money to buy presents. Usually by explaining economic differences between the 2 countries is my skapegoat that most people seem to understand. Most people I´ve talked to here about difference between the US and Peru understand that the economy is very different and that because of the government and the infrastructure the US has, we have many more opportunities to get an education, find a good job, save some money, etc. But I digress...

I guess you could say that this is "sad" but people appear to be pretty happy with their paneton and the kids are excited to have a new toy. I´m looking forward to tonight. Apparently it is tradition to stay awake until the wee hours of the morning, gather with family and at midnight everyone hugs and wishes one another a Feliz Navidad. That seems pretty happy to me.

I am definitely homesick and wishing I could be home with my family and friends for Christmas Day, but at the same time I am happy to be sharing the holiday with another culture. It humbles me and reminds me to be grateful to have a family, friends and my health. I hope you all have a very merry Christmas and be sure to be thankful to be sharing the time together. Oh and eat lots of cookies and other sweets for me!

It´s hot here in the desert...weird

Hi everyone! I hope all is well at home and people are having fun getting ready for the holidays. This is definitely a hard time to be away from everyone, but I´m trying to just keep busy and not think about it too much.

Things are going pretty well here. I´m trying to get used to not having a schedule and really be self-motivated, but doing that in Spanish in an unfamiliar place is definitely a challenge. I have to admit that I was a little down the forst week at site, but I decided to be proactive and get moving. Since then I´ve started running (although not as much as I´d like) and I´ve already finished interviewing one sector of my community (there are 8 in total and I decided that I can only do a portion of the community since there are about 1000 houses). I´m excited that the Red Cross is working in my community - although the circumstances (being the earthquake) are unfortunate - so I have already talked to them about working together and they seem excited. They will be here until 2010 as well, so I´m excited to have their support.

I can´t say that anything real interesting has happened. I still feel like I´m settling into my site (this is week 3) and getting to know people. I went to a nearby laguna on Sunday which my town is cleaning up in hopes of turning it into a tourist attraction. The laguna is beautiful and right smack dab in the middle of sand dunes, so the vistas are amazing. I will try to post pictures soon, but I´m still working on an affordable computer situation in my town.

Sorry for the short post, but I´ve already been at this internet cafe for 2.5 hours and I need to get back to my site before dark. I hope you are all doing well and have a wonderful holiday season. I love and miss you all!

2 years...wow

I´m now in my 3rd full day at site as an official Peace Corps Volunteer.

The swearing-in ceremony was held on Friday at the training center. We were one of the only training groups (I heard the only, but maybe us and one other group) to have all members swear-in, so that was exciting. The ceremony was very nice with speeches from one of the host-moms, a guy from the embassy, and a fellow trainee, Douglas, who gave an amazing speech even though he was very sick and vomitted right before and after his speech. Then we all made our tearful goodbyes to our host-families. I wasn´t sure if I would cry, but as soon as I hugged my 5 year old sister, I could feel the tears welling up. I had thought that my 12 year old sister couldn´t come the the ceremony because she wouldn´t get home from school in time, but I later learned that she did in fact get home in time, but didn´t want to come because she knew she would be upset and cry...I think my heart broke into a million pieces when I heard that. But I was able to talk to her on the phone and of course I will get to see the whole family whenever I go back to the training center over the next couple of years.

So here I am now at site. So far I´m feeling a little lost. I wake up each morning wondering how I can fill my day so as not to get bored. It´s...kind of working. I checked in with the health post, but I always seem to get confused looks when I talk to the people there. My municipality guy, Walter, is always very helpful and accompanied me to Humay (where the municipality actually is - about a 20 min drive from my site) to meet the mayor. Beyond that I´ve been handing out the official letters that my APCD (my WatSan director) gave us to officially present ourselves to various community members. Peruvians are big on having official documents and getting them stamped so, under the advice of Walter, I made sure to get copies of each letter and have the copy signed and stamped for my own files. Now I have credibility...yes!

Tomorrow I will go to Pisco which is the biggest city near me and get a dresser, set up my PO Box and do some other stuff that I can´t do here in Bernales. On Friday I have a introduction at a school in Humay. Beyond that...well I´m not sure. I almost just want to jump in and start my community diagnostic, which I think I will next week, but I need to get the forms which are on a disc, which I can´t access from the local internet cafe. I really need to spend a day or 2 just going through information and getting a plan of attack, but it´s difficult without a computer. it seems strange to say that, I mean this is Peace Corps, right? Computer access doesn´t seem like it would be necessary, but we do actually have a survey with valuable information that my APCD needs for data collection purposes. I also want to add to the survey so that I can have thorough information, but again, I need a computer to really get that all organized. Ugh! In the meantime I feel like I´m kind of at a stand still and I´m worried that people are going to wonder when I´m going to start "working." Maybe I will talk to my municipality guy and see if there´s another computer somewhere that I can use. I´d like to say that I wish I had a laptop, but 3 volunteers have already had thiers stolen since arriving here, so I think I´m better without one. Still, it´s hard.

I finished reading my book today, which was my excuse to go to the plaza and just hang out. That way I was not staying in my house and it gave people a chance to talk to me if they wanted (which a few people did). All of my other books and reading material are in a box in Lima waiting to be sent to me...ugh again. So I guess I will read through my World Map Project manual which we received after swearing in which is the only reason it´s not in the box with the rest of my reading material.

Due to this free time, and in hopes of looking like I´m actually doing something, I´m thinking about starting the World Map Project and possibly start teaching some English classes (I haven´t the faintest idea how to do the latter, but I figure I´ll just figure it out and start with basic conversation depending on the ages of attendees). Maybe I´ll also start a garden in my back yard...we´ll see.

I hope I am not souding negative. I expected the beginning to be like this - a little awkward, feeling a little lost, etc. - and it is just that. I am still very hopeful of future projects and really want to get started doing the community disgnostic so I can really meet/get to know people and start getting an idea of projects to do.

I made the comments section public, so hopefully you all can post comments if you´d like. I would love to hear from all of you. I will set up my PO Box soon (tomorrow hopefully) and send that info out ASAP. Take care and talk to you soon!

Another transition

Sooo...

2 weeks ago were site vists. I actually saw my site during FBT, so it was great to have some reference going into the town. I received a wonderful welcome from everyone I met and I´m excited to start woking in Bernales. A lot of the work will be as a result of the earthquake that hit the area in 2007 - a lot of higiene work most likely. The Red Cross is also working in my town, so I´m hoping to partner with them as well. Eventually I would love to do a bathroom/letrine project (most likely composting toliets) since the majority of the people just go out to the fields to do what they gotta do. But, like everything we do, we have to spend a lot of time getting to know the community and the people and find out what their wants and needs are first.

I´m excited and also very nervous to go to site. I´ve gotten very used to my little life and routine here in Yanacoto. My new house and family are great, but different of course. My new family seems a little shy around me, but that´s to be suspected. Things I am excited about are:
- we have dairy cows so I get fresh milk every morning
- our pigs just gave birth so there are adorable piglets running around
- there is a 2 month old baby in the family. Normally I would not be excited about this, but so far I haven´t heard him cry, so he´s just adorable and fun to bounce around

This past week was great. We went to the PC office in Lima to get to know that staff and resources there. They served us chinese food for lunch and pizza and apple pie for dessert and we had a dance lesson, so all of that was awesome. This next week will consist of a lot of wrap up, packing, saying goodbye :(, swearing in and then one last night all together in Lima. After that, we all take off for our sites on Saturday. The next time all the volunteers will be together will be in March for ¨Reconnect.¨ Again, it´s so crazy to think that I´ll be living and working in a small rural town in Peru, speaking only Spanish, but it´s exciting to think about the projects I might do and the people I will get to know and work with. I´m also excited about the skills I might learn. Aside from all the professional mumbo jumbo, I´m joining a crochet group, I want to bug the local baker to let me help him, and I would love to find and join an Afro-Peruvian dance class (my region is know for this, it´s not just random)...so we´ll see. My plan so far is just to keep myself busy so that I don´t get bored and lonely.

Anyway, I hope everyone is well at home. I´m missing you all very much right now - Thanksgiving is always hard to miss for me. Eat lots of turkey, Grandma H´s cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie for me. Chau!

To the land of wine and pisco I go!

Unfortunately emails and facebook have taken up so much of my time today, so this will be a short post, but...I received my site assignment! I will be going to Bernales which is in the region of Ica!!! We actually visited this site during FBT and they told us that is would be someone´s site, be we had no idea whose it woudl be. I´m so excited! I´m a little jealous of the volunteers who have beautiful green sites near the mountains since I´m in the desert, but oh well. I can go sandboarding and go see the Nazca Lines which will both be awesome.

In a few hours I leave for site visits. We go to the regional capital today and hang out and then meet our counterparts and families tomorrow! I´m excited but also very nervous/anxious. I realized that unlike study abroad and training, there are acutally going to be expectations of me and I will have to perfrom and ya know, try to get something accomplished. While rationale tells me that everything will work out just fine and I´ll do great, nerves tell me things will be awkward for a while (and they undoubtedly will be). As always, starting something new is uncomfortable and there´s always an adjustment period, so once I get through that, everything will be fine I´m sure. In hopes of trying to deter some awkwardness this week, I wrote out about a million questions to ask my counterparts (who are a doctor and the mayor of my town). They were a little excessive - I started writing some questions about whether or not teens learn sex education and STIs - not exactly appriopriate for the first meeting I don´t think, not to mention I´m not a health volunteer (I just like to go on tangents).

Anyway, I have to put the last few things in my backpack and head out. Hope everyone is well in the US. I think about you all constantly! Chau!

quarter century...weird

Hi everyone. Sorry I´ve haven´t written in a while...the one post a week isn´t really happening and I kinda doubt it ever will. Anyway, so much has happened since my lat post, so I´ll try to summarize it all in a short post. I´m going to start with the most recent (since it´s the freshest in my mind)...

This past week was FBT (Field Based Training...Peace Corps is a little crazy with all the acronyms). My WATSAN (Water and Sanitation) group went to Paracas in the province of Ica, which is just south of Lima - about a 3 hour bus ride. The week was really wonderful except for Friday when about 75% of the group got food poisioning and could barely move except to go to the bathroom to give it a workout of a lifetime. Aside from that, the week was great experience in working with NGOs, doing manual labor, and talking with families door to door. I definitely feel more prepared to go to site now! I´m already so excited to get to work to promote some of the things we´ve been learning during the past few months of training.

As mostly of you know, last Sunday was my birthday - thank you for all of the birthday wishes! One of my fellow aspirantes gave me a bouquet of flowers on Friday whish was awesome and totally unexpected. I woke up Sunday morning to ¨Feliz Cumpleaños¨ hugs and kisses from my host family. Soon after my extended host family came over to celebrate. I´ll tell you what, there´s nothing like delicious chocolate cake at 9am...I loved it! After that I packed to get ready for FBT. My WATSAN group wished me a Happy Birthday and we all ate dinner together in Paracas, they sang to me and I got to try my first pisco sour (Paracas is about half an hour away from Pisco, so you pretty much have to drink pisco sours). All in all it was a great birthday!

Last we we had 2 days of feria (not sure what the translation is) which was each language group being assigend a Peruvian province and doing a presentation on it in Spanish. My class got Arequipa which is a beautiful province in southern Peru (Arequipa is also the second largest city in the country). My group decided to present in the form of a TV news program. I was the announcer and the others were reporters. It went very well, but the best/most embarrassing part was dressing up in traditional ariquipeño clothing and doing a dance with a classmate for the entertainment of the other aspirantes and training staff. I felt ridiculous, but people seemed to enjoy it and the clothing was amazing.

I´m sure I´m leaving out some other things that have happened or that I´ve done, but those are all the highlights I can think of for the moment. In general, things are going very well. I am getting homesick which I´m pretty sure is because of the upcoming holidays, but I know I´ll be fine and get through it. I hope all is well in the US. I miss you all and am thinking of you all at home. Chau!

Earthquake!

I experienced my first temblor (tremor/small earthquake) on Monday night...it was awesome! My host mom and 5 year old sister were kind of scared so I hid my excitement. It really was tiny. I heard a noise, which I thought was a large truck, and then I started feeling th ground shake a little. So normally you´re supposed to go into a doorway during an earthquake, but my whole family ran outside, so I followed suit (considering my entire house is made out of concrete, I think this was actually a pretty good idea).

Today is the bday of a fellow aspirante (we´re called this for now since we aren´t officially volunteers yet) so last night he and his host family threw a big party...grafitti that is. It was awesome. I was a little worried that it might get a littl out of control, but it was fine. Everyone had a great time and no one got out of control. It was pretty hilarious to see the expressions on the faces of the Peruvians, but when I asked them what they thought of the whole thing, they said they thought it was fun. For those of you who don´t know what a grafitti party is...you wear a plain white t-shirt and write on one another with markers. So now I have a crazy t-shirt that I´ll probably use for pajamas.

Today is a holiday celebrating the victory of some battle, so we have the day off. It´s nice to have a break, but I think I actually prefer to be busy. I´ve been feeling a littl down the past few days and I think it actually has something to do with that fact that I´m not working. I´ve gon from working about 60 hours a week to not working at all. While I dfinitely love what I´m doing and feel so grateful for the amazing training I´m receiving, I´m somewhat frustrated that I´m not contributing to Peruvian society (yes, I know, PC is also about cultural exchange, but still). One of my biggest regrets from my study-abroad experience was not volunteering and just going to school, traveling and partying. I know I will have 2 full years to make wonderful contributions to my Peruvian community, but for now I guess I´m just feeling antsy.

Well that´s all for now. I have some studying to do and I need to get ready for my language interview tomorrow. Chau!

I´ll eat anything with cinnamon

This past week in Peru was the best one thus far!

It was great to get out of the classroom and do hands-on learning (aka non-formal education...a theme for one of the days). It started Wednesday with Spanish class. We spent the morning in the market in Chosica (about a 20 min bus ride) getting ingredients needed to make lunch on Thursday. Then on Thursday we made lunch! We made rocoto relleno (spicy stuffed peppers) and arroz con leche (rice pudding). They were both amazingly delicious and made me disgustingly stuffed. I don´t think I would be able to make the stuffed peppers on my own - they take forever and have a million ingredients - but I plan to make the rice pudding for sure. So far there have been a few dishes that my host mom had made that I´d like her to teach me how to make.

I guess now would be a good time to discuss Peruvian food (well at least what I´ve had so far). Every meal (well, not bfast) contains rice and potatoes. We eat a lot a chicken which I´m actually pretty happy about. Usually every chicken, potato, rice combo has some sort of sauce, so I usually just end up mixing them all together which is also pretty delicious. Also, Peruvians love aji (hot sauce) so if my rice is just too bland to eat alone, I just put some aji with it. I´m soooo glad to be back to a land of delicios fruit! Every morning I have some sort of juice. So far I´ve had pineapple, orange (I know not exciting, but it is fresh squeezed), strawberry and papaya - I´m even starting to like papaya! There are so many amazing fruits that just don´t even exist in the US (at least I haven´t seen them in Meijer).

After cooking and eating our amazing meal on Thursday, our WATSAN (Water and Sanitation) group split up and went out into ¨the field¨ to do a diagnostic. My group went to a little town about 30 mins away by car. We talked to the president of the town city council and some people from an international NGO that implemented the water system 6 years ago (as in, this town has only had running water for 6 years). We also got to see composting toliets which was really interesting.

In summary, it was just awesome to actually get to do things out of the classroom that will help us directly with what we´ll be doing when to get to our sites.

Training has been going really well in general and it seems like everyone is really settling in and get used to the routine. I´ve been really enjoying my time lately and I feel like I´m really starting to get to know people and feel comfortable with the routine as well.

Ok that´s all for now. I hope all is well at home! Un abrazo!

todo tranquilo.

Above is a foto of my host family: Ana Cristina (5), Adolfo, Eufemia (it was her b-day), and Kiara (12).

I feel bad that I haven´t really done any blogs yet, but most days I am just too exhausted from Spanish and technical clases, that I just go home, hang out with my host family and go to bed. I slept until about 10am this morning and layed in bed until about noon, so I feel pretty good today.

Peruvian life so far has been pretty good so far.

The past couple of years when I thought about what my 2 years in the PC would be like, I really didn´t think about what training would be like. I am very grateful for what I am getting - I have awesome teachers who are very well versed in their fields - but it´s just so exhausting. Furthermore, it definitely feels like I´m back in high school.

I´ve been pleasantly purprised and how easy it was to get back to my relaxed self like I was in Ecuador. It´s just so nice to not have to worry about so many different things going on at once. At the same time, I feel like I haven´t really had time to truly process what´s going on, but I think I´m maintaining a ¨come what may¨mind-set.

Well enough of that. Here are a few random facts/highlights of my time so far:
- I practically climb a mountain everyday to get to my house which is awesome because of the amout of carbs Peruvians (and in turn, I) consume.
- I started taking yoga. 2 volunteers offered to lead classes 3 times a week.
- I´ve already eaten ceviche (raw fish dish) and cuy (guinea pig).
- I got to go to a quiceñera yesterday and dance salsa/cumbia which was sweat.
- Yesterday we went to this organic farm and planted lettuce. We get to spend 6 Saturday´s there and learn how to do stuff...I´m pretty excited.
- Our training center is awesome. They converted this old house/masion into classrooms and offcies. There are a bunch of gardens and huge patio in back. It´s awesome. I´ll put up pics soon.

Well I think that´s it for now. I´ll try to write soon about my family and my house. More to come!!

Estoy aqui

I don´t have much to say at the moment mostly just because I´m exhausted after today´s ¨mission impossible¨assignment, but I´m here, I´m well, everyone is wonderful, etc.

I promise to write more later. I love and miss you all back in the states. I hope all is well!