¡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!