Estoy en Peru!

So here I am in Peru! I cant believe it sometimes, and sometimes I cant believe it has only been a week! We started out with a day and a half in a conference facility where we were promptly run ragged with information, interviews and more information. All was good though, and there were high spirits amongst all of us out of excitment for just arriving! We were then brought to the training facility on Sunday, where we were picked up by our host families. My host family is great! At first, I was very confused about who lived there and who didn´t, but I have slowly started to figure it out. I spend most of my time with my host mom, sister and neice who stay home most of the time. Each day, I am in training from 8am to 5pm, and then I usually stay for a little time extra for exercise that I will explain below.

I get time to use the internet every couple of days and it is in a rather hot internet cafe in my town. So, I have not had much time to update this week, but I am happy to finally write down a few things. My town is basically two roads going up a really steep hill with houses and small tiendas (shops) all along it. It gets dark around 6 30 and I get home from ¨school¨around 6 or later depending, and I don´t like to walk home alone in the dark. Even though my ¨family¨tells me that this peublo es muy tranquillo... or very safe and calm... aparently nothing ever happens in terms of crime.

So, other than my pueblo, my host family is doing very well. My host mom stays home all day and cooks and cleans. There are 9 of us (aparently) living in one house with one bathroom and she is always preparing food for us. Today I attempted to help her peel a potatoe with a knife and she finished three by the time I finished one. Everyone laughed at how chopped up my potatoe was. But it is all in good fun. Also, my host mom almost never makes red meat... which has been GREAT for me! We only eat chicken and fish, rice and veggies, all of my favorites. I think she is getting tired of me telling her how good the food is. But I am always serious! I love her food, its great. Most mornings, we get pan y palto or bread and avacado, which is probably my favorite possible breakfast minus eggs and creme cheese. My host mom and host sister are great and are patient with me while I learn. I also have a 1 year old sobrina (neice), who has really taken a liking to me. Whenever I come home I try to play with her as much as I can and whenever I leave she crys. She is always grabbing my finger and pulling me around wherever she wants me to go. It is REALLY cute and I love her to death. I also have two dogs, one little and one big! It reminds me of home... except they are much more free and can just wander the town and play with other dogs whenever they want. Dogs are a bit scary here. Today on my way home, one of them ran around me barking and I seriously thought it might bite me. I think this is the only time I have ever been a little afraid of a dog. Most of them are very mellow though, just laying aorund the streets and playing and fighting with each other.

As for the actual Peace Corps experience, it is very intense training. We have Spanish classes from 8am to noon every day, and then a lunch break with our familys, and then from 1pm to 5pm we have technical classes (for me, the environment) about things we can implement in our future communities, and health lessons about common illnesses and dangers in Peru. My spanish class is completely in spanish, no english at all, and only has four people including me, and I am at the intermediate low level. My teacher is really sweet and patient and has a lot of faith in us. At first I didn´t talk much and she asked me if everything was ok and I told her I can understand everything, I am just afraid of talking. She said that I am at a very good level and shouldn´t worry, because by the time we are done, I will know a lot more and will be in a good place. Ever since, I have felt more confident and talk a lot more durring class.

More interestingly, today, we had a health class in dental hygeine and diarrea. As one of my compadres put it, the main lesson was to ¨not eat diarrea.¨ Of coarse, the actual lesson was about how there is no flouride in the water so we have to keep our teeth clean. The diarrea part was more intense. Apparently more than 70% of volunteers get it, and it is the most common form of illness. He made us raise our hands if we had already had it (I haven´t yet) and told us to get comfortable talking about. I have never learned so much about poop in my life! It was funny though, and I guess it is more appropriate to talk about here. The second day in my house, my family explained to me that they call diarrea ¨la bicicleta¨or, the bicycle, because diarrea is an ugly word. And they often ask me if the food they give me is giving me the bicicleta. haha.

Other than learning about poop, I have enjoyed my group. I haven´t made a strong friendship connection with anyone yet, mostly just a lot of nice people that I talk to occasionally. My training group has organized an after school workout group that runs twice a week and does yoga the other two days because a couple people are yoga instructors. Not only that, but a bunch of people stay after to play guitar together and sings, etc. It is very trainquil at the training site and I really enjoy the after school sessions. In training today, the environment group made two giant compost piles. I learned a lot about compost today that I had never known and got really dirty in the process. It was a good time all around.

Also, yesterday, my head coordinator explained the places we might go as environmental volunteers. He said the majority of us will be bathing with buckets (which I haven´t had the pleasure of doing just yet) and that some of us will have no internet and no phone. Some of us will have one of the other, and some of us will have both. It scared me a little being so disconnected, but then I heard someone say ¨I think we all still have one foot in the U.S.¨ and I think he is right. I always look forward to sending and getting updates (please email me as much as you can!) but I don´t know how much longer I will be able to do that. I am half scared and half excited. But I always remember that this experience is nothing but good for me and I am learning a lot.

Funny thing about Peru that you may or may not have known
1. toilet paper goes in the trash, not in the toilet, because the pipes are too small and it will clog them
2. the word for the guinea pig meat everyone warned me about is cuy (pronounces coo eee)
3. none of the water is ok to drink... it all has to be boiled or something to clean it. Luckily, my family does this so I always have clean water around.