Tremblor

The sign says "Caution, there are kids here too! signed, the fox" Love it.




Buenas a todos!

Monday night, I felt my first temblor!! Or, my first little earthquake. I shouldn’t sound excited, but I thought it was pretty cool. Not surprisingly, I was in the bathroom and I heard the roof rattle a little and thought to myself “is this an earthquake?” but told myself it wasn’t because it was only the roof I could hear and see. I thought maybe it was a low flying plane (which afterwards I realized was a little ridiculous because I had never heard or seen any planes around here). But when I came out of the bathroom, my host Mom asked me right away if I had felt it. I said yes, but I didn’t know it was an earthquake and they told me about past earthquakes, big ones and small ones. My host Mom was living here in Lima apparently when there was a REALLY bad one in 1970 or in the 70’s (I’m not sure which one she meant). The last bad one in Peru was in 2005, and primarily hit Ica, a province a little bit south of Lima. Apparently there are several earthquakes everyday in Peru, but they are so small that usually people don’t even feel them.

Other then mini-natural occurrences (not quite a disaster), I am not in week 6 of my Peace Corps training. While my Spanish is still progressing in what feels like a snails pace, I feel more and more equipped to handle my future projects every day. It is great to feel like I might actually be able to contribute something to a community. What I really love about the Peace Corps mandate is that their aim to make things geared towards one particular community, after getting to know that community thoroughly. They also aim to make everything they do sustainable because they want the projects we start to continue after we leave. They say that if we are doing something alone, we are doing it wrong because we should be involving as many community members as possible in everything we do. After all of my blended environment and anthropology training, I feel like this job is exactly what I was meant to do at this point in my life. Hopefully I can succeed in starting a few useful things in my future community.


Class I taught.. very interesting situation where we were supposed to teach 12 to 13 year olds and ended up with 15 and 16 year olds. They thought our lesson was really comical, but they were good sports more or less.

I guess I should also admit to finding my weakness in terms of dulces (sweets) that satisfy my sweet tooth. There is a pastry and coffee café right down the street from our training center that in constantly visited by volunteers. I had my first dessert there this week and almost died from the goodness of it. Combine that with the delicious candy bars I have been introduced to and now I understand why female volunteers tend to gain 10 pounds in training! Rice, potatoes and chocolate, diet of champions!

The chocolate addiction we are all feeling was not helped when, on the way to one of our field trips, our bus stopped at a mysterious rest stop with tons of American candy! We were all a little overwhelmed. The real cool thing however, was where we went on this field trip. We went to a protected park that is covered in grass, trees and greenery in the middle of a desert! It was really cool to drive for miles along pure sand, and suddenly drive into a mass of green! We were all very happy to be there. I guess how it works is that it is a valley, and the clouds and mist that form from the ocean somehow get trapped in there and feel the soil with condensation. There is never actually rain, just moist clouds. While hiking through the area, there was a mist everywhere, it was like walking in clouds the whole time! It is difficult to explain, but it was really neat to see. The other weird thing is that it is only there for about 4-5 months out of the year and we happened to visit the park at its peak of greenery. Beautiful. For anyone who has read Life of Pi, this place reminded me of how I imagined the green floating island Pi encounters while floating around at sea.


Saturday, we went around Lima looking at the small protected wetlands that are often polluted by people using the water for all kinds of things. It was fun... but the best part was ending on the beach! We all ate our tupperware lunches from home in the sand, and then a lot of the volunteers stripped down to their underware and ran into the ocean! It was awesome and hillarious. What a good way to spend a friday afternoon in Peru!

I write this entry while thinking about my cousins wedding that is this weekend. I am sad to be missing all of my family together for such a great celebration. I wish I could be there with all of you, but my heart is there and I love you all!

Hiking adventure

Hello everyone!

Today’s big news is that I finally got out of the suburbs of Lima for a little adventure! It was SOOO nice to get out of the dusty, desert towns we live in (and love!) for a short while and experience some nature… probably more like the stuff we are going to live in for two years! What happened is that my program group (medio ambiente/MAC/environment) went out on an excursion to the mountains to learn about plants and how they are grown and utilized at higher altitudes. What most of us got out of it was a 2 ½ hour to 3 hour hike up and down a mountain at over 2,500 meters to a waterfall. The view was fantastic, the exercise was great, and breathing in less dust for a couple hours was priceless.

But, I of course cannot forget to mention the car rides there. Now, I cant believe I haven’t mentioned this before, but riding in vehicles in Peru is nuts. I have never seen cars and busses get so close together at such high speeds without hitting each other. The first couple times I rode in a combi (the busses) and could see out the front windshield, I was sure I was going to die. I still clench my seat when I am paying attention to the driving, but I have learned to zone it out. It is also not uncommon for a combi driver going into Lima at high speeds and frequent screeching halts to answer his cell phone and chat for a while. There are also no stop signs or lights on the small roads and cars tend to just honk as they approach intersections to alert other cars that they are coming. All this just to tell you that we took a combi and two cars up to the mountains the other day. I was in the mini-combi with 11 or 12 others and we our combined weight was so much that the combi had to stop to cool down from overheating one time. And one girls shoes that were sitting on the ground of the bus got so hot that she burned herself on the metal part of the shoelace. It was pretty crazy. Then, when we got there, we had to drive up a tinee tiny road with absolutely no walls or fences up a winding path to the town we were going to. The combi couldn’t make it up so we waited for the two cars to come back for us. The one I rode in and was listening to cumbia mixes of Michael Jackson. Despite the relaxing atmosphere, this winding little road really felt like the place I would meet my end. It was terrifying driving up there. But we made it, we hiked, we ate lunch, and somehow made it back down to face the scary highway another time with cars driving in both direction in both lanes and cliffs just around every bend to roll off of.


Picture of cows blocking the road on the way down. Very fun.

That night, tired from hiking and filthy, I rushed home to be whisked off by my host Mom to a party for my host brothers special education school. It was very entertaining to go to a club with all his classmates for two hours (7pm-9pm) and dance to cumbia, wino and latin versions of some American pop songs. I danced awkwardly with students to the amusement of my host Mom and tried to not be given too much sangria. That might sounds strange, but I am living in a culture where there is a dual standard for women. One standard is that we are expected to never drink in excess, on tiny amounts. The other standard (and this is actually true from many sources including my host Mom and Peace Corps training) is that we can NEVER allowed to say no when someone offers to give us or pour us a drink because it is considered as rude as slapping someone’s hand away when they want to shake it. Thus, women have to learn how to avoid being given too much to drink. And it makes for even more of a challenge when you are the only white, blonde chica in the room trying to remain anonymous. Not going to happen. But it all turned out ok, with my host Mom helping my with my sangria while elegantly drinking hers at a snails pace.

Also, in the mountains and today, it rained!!! Only a little, I can barely call it rain, but it was so cool! This is a desert so rain is neat to see. Usually everyday is exactly the same, hot and dry… sometimes with clouds. I was really excited to feel a little drizzle of rain. But I might eat those words in a few weeks when I move to the north of Peru in the rainy season and a possible El Nino year… who knows?

Last but not least, I have barely spoken Spanish in two days because training has monopolized my life and I feel like I suddenly forgot everyone! It is frustrating to feel like I am going backwards, not forwards. But I guess once I move to my site I will never be speaking English and I’ll have no where to go but up!

time flys

Well, a few days I wrote an entry that was pretty boring and was going to send it pretty much every day this week, but something always got in the way. I either ran out of time, or the internet café I like the most was full of people and I didn’t have time to wait for a spot. But, luckily, now I have a LOT more interesting things to say and pictures to share!

This week was a little stressful for all of us because it was leading up to our Spanish entrevistas (interviews) out of which we will be places in a new Spanish class that focuses more on our programs. So in my case, I’ll be learning more vocab about the environment and things like that. Also, we were all seemed to have low energy because the repetition of 9-10 hour days of constant information was wearing all of us thing. But, luckily, interesting things happened to keep us stimulated! For example, another birthday! This time, the party planning committee had the birthday boy sit in front of our entire training class while someone in a giant chicken suit came in and danced for him. Always interesting with Peru 14! As for my interview, I was lucky to have a very sweet teacher that I love as my interviewer. However, right before I got really nervous. But I think I did pretty well, I talked a lot faster and a lost more fluid than the first one, with a few mistakes for sure, but I guess that is to be expected. However, I was mad at myself afterwards for not using a specific tense that we learned in my level class that I know really well that I should have demonstrated to my interviewer.

Thursday night my host Mom and I went to a get together at another family’s house with a volunteer. The Mom of that volunteer was making us hamburgers, fries and a traditional Peruvian dessert. The hamburgers were great! They had the fries in the bun, and 5 different types of sauces to put on the burger, including ketchup and mayonnaise. It was actually the first hamburger I have eaten in…. probably 5 or 6 years. It was good! And I didn’t get sick!

This Saturday, I had Peru’s famous ceviche for the first time. Because we are changing Spanish classes, a few of the teachers organized an outing to try it with a bunch of us after our classes in La Universidad de Agraria (because we would already be in Lima). If you don’t know what it is, it is raw fish on a plate covered in lemon/lime juices with slices on onion all around. I thought it would be weird or interesting and I was scared I wouldn’t like it, but fortunately, it was delicious! I actually really enjoyed it and tonight my host Mom is making it again. And, shockingly, I still have not had any major stomach problems. I will admit to minor ones, but nothing so serious that I had to stay home or had to talk to get medical help. But the best part of the day was getting to hang out with the Spanish teachers. It was great having them to find us ways home without getting ripped off and to argue with combi drivers for us.

Also this week, my host Mom showed me how to make my favorite dish, the beet and fish salad. Turns out it is REALLY simple and the only thing that requires cooking is the rice and boiling the vegetables. If you are interested I’d be happy to send you the recipe. Also with my host Mom this morning we went to the market. I have gone before, but this time I tried to take it in more instead of being overwhelmed. Markets in the outskirts of Lima are beautiful. There are colorful fruits everywhere, a million different kinds of potatoes. There are whole dead chickens hanging at every other corner and fish stands where the skin and shop up the fish right in front of you with bare hands. I watched with my host Mom as a little old woman expertly skinned, chopped, and gutted two entire fish for us… beginning with shopping off their heads. I also played with the live crabs sitting on the table with the fish. All the while, as usual, there are dogs wondering around in the market drawn to the smell of raw meat trying to find scraps on the ground. At one point today, a man stopped me and asked if I spoke English. I had my guard up at first, but felt ok cause my host family was around, but all he wanted was for me to help him translate a sheet of paper he had in English. It was actually fun and good practice for me to try to explain English phrases to him. It was difficult to explain the phrase “that’s far out!,” so I just told him it was slang and is about the equivalent to “chevre” or “cool” in Spanish.

I guess I will end with a party story. Last night there was a party across the street at my friend’s house. All the volunteers came from the other towns and we had a bonfire with s’mores, etc. Even better, my family didn’t give me a curfew because I was going to be so close! They said they would leave the door open for me! Being excited, I decided I didn’t really need to put the lock on my door that night because nothing every happens in my town (there is a guard at the entrance of the town) and I figured I didn’t want to misplace my key. So I put the lock on my door without latching it and, low and behold, my family noticed that right away. So when I got home around midnight (a whole hour later then I usually have to come home!) after having a great time, both of my host parents were still awake which was very unusual. I greeted them and asked them what was going on and they proceeded to tell me that they couldn’t sleep because I hadn’t locked my door and they were worried someone would break in and steal my computer or something and it would be their fault for not warning me. I felt SOOOO bad you wouldn’t even believe. I went to bed full of guilt.

Finally, next weekend I plan on making a traditional breakfast for my family! At first I was thinking of making my favorite combo of bread, cream cheese, avocado and scrambled eggs but someone recommended that I should make bacon. If any of you have recommendations for what to make, please let me know! I want to cook other meals for them at least a couple more times. Also, as usual, please send me updates about everything! I miss you all and looooove hearing from you every time!

Bibliotequa

So today a group of us volunteers went to a local library and played with the kids who hang out there after school. It was organized by the woman who usually plays with them, and it was SUCH a good time! We played a lot of intrudctory games with names, and stuff like musical chairs. A group of us are going to go twice a week for the rest of the time we are here.

Not only was it fun, but also good Spanish practice!

On another note, the only really down side to living in Peru right now are the bugs. They not only bite all the time, but theirs bites leave the biggest, most itchy bumps. It is pretty painful and annoying. All the anti itch cream in the world wouldn´t help against these suckers. Right now, both of my legs are covered because I made the mistake of wearing leggings yesterday, exposing my ankles, and forgot bug spray. I was attacked! Oh well, lesson learned. Always always always carry bug spray or wear pants!

Saturday Fiestas

On Saturday’s, those of us in the Health (Sauld) and Environment (Medio Ambiente) program’s are bussed out to the University of Agraria in Lima. We are very lucky to have the opportunity to study there once a week. There is always a bilingual, renowned agricultural professor that comes to talk to us about trees, plant life, and agriculture in Peru. I have learned a lot of interesting things about Peru. Besides the fact that most people know that there are three biomes, I learned that the upward current in the Ocean that borders Peru brings cold water from the South. The water is too cold to evaporate, which contributes to the lack of rainfall on the coast. Furthermore, the Andes Mountains block clouds coming from the East, stopping more rainfall. Therefore, the Peruvian coast line deserts are some of the driest in the world. And it looks like I will be living in one! I’m not too worried because I am already in a desert right now, and it is not bad at all! However, the medio ambiente coordinator keeps warning us to “be prepared to live in a cave” so I really don’t know what to expect in terms of living conditions when I leave Lima.

Another interesting fact I learned was that in the old days, there was a type of potato among some Peruvian cultures in the sierra (mountains) that was called and is still called something like “to make the sisters in-law cry.” The story is that this particular potato was used when a man wanted to find a wife. He would go to a family and the sisters of the family would peel this potato. Whoever peeled it the best, would win the hand of the man, causing the other sisters sadness and shame. While that tradition has ended, the story remains. I thought it was really cool. Especially since the one time I tried to help my host Mom peel a potato with a knife, I butchered it so badly and the all laughed my host Mom called it her “poor potato”

And finally, I learned that the different hats people wear in Peru and symbolize where they are from. Apparently, if you are Peruvian and see someone wearing a certain hat, you can tell which province they are from, or if they live in the mountains or the Sierra. Very cool!

In most of my posts, I mention things that are funny or fun about Peru. I’m sure some of you might be interested to know if there are any challenges. Of coarse there are! But they are far from discouraging. For example, there is no hot water, ever, and there is no running water from 10pm at night to 5am in the morning. It makes me Saturday nights interesting if I go out with friends because I don’t have any running water to wash my face or brush my teeth when I get home. Also, it is challenging to have to be cautious about food and water all the time. I cant eat fruits or veggies that were not boiled or were not cleaned by my family or me. Also, being cautious about being robbed is a constant dark cloud. Our training staff says we are all innocent and trust everyone, and they proceed to tell us stories about volunteers getting robbed of all sorts of things. But I guess the most challenging thing at all for me is trying to maintain a healthy diet and lifestyle. Unlike most people, I have really enjoyed almost everything I have eaten. I don’t mind the rice and potatoes and chicken at all! But, I am lucky because my host family keeps a fruit bowl stocked just for me to bring for snacks and eat whenever I want. They also use more veggies then I think a lot of other families do. Friday night I ate my favorite dinner so far. I looked at my plate and it was a pile of purple (actually bright purple, no joke) with rice on the side. I was looking at a plate of white and purple. As usual, I dug right in. It was AMAZING! It had a mix of cooked beets and diced cooked fish. It was so delicious and simple. My host Mom is going to show me how to make it on Thursday this week, so I will be sure to let you all know how it goes!

If you were wondering what Peruvians do for fun, the answer is mostly dance and play soccer or volleyball. I am amazed by how important dancing is in this culture! Everyone, boys and girls, adults and kids dance all the time. It is so great. Last night, the third of October, I went out to a festival at a town called Tres de Octubre (Third of October). Everyone was out in the town and the kids all had planned organized dances. Some of them were cool Peruvian dances in bright colored outfits. But, as one of my volunteers put it “you think Pan Flute music is the music of Peru, but really it is Michael Jackson.” I have hears SO much Michael Jackson here. Last night, several groups of kids performed dances to Michael Jackson, including four boys who did classic Michael moves. It was great! They had the white glove and everything. Then today, I went to a Parade celebrating the anniversary of another town and most of the pictures in this post are from that event.

Oh Spanish. Some day’s I feel great, other days I feel like I have gotten worse. But, there is no doubt in my mind that I understand more than I did before. This coming Friday I have an interview for re-placement. One of the main problems with out learning is that we spend about 4-6 hours a day speaking English. Not just with each other, but in our technical training groups (like environment). It is important they do this, because it is important we all understand the technical language that we might not know in Spanish, but it definitely puts you out of the Spanish speaking groove. However, starting next week there is going to be a lot more Spanglish or pure Spanish classes and I am nervous, but really looking forward to it. I think it will help a lot to have Spanish all the time.

As usual, I love you all! Keep me posted!

Brithday´s

Please forgive me in advance, this is a long one! Also, I sent it out as an email to family, so you may have already read it!




First of all, Mom, I want to thank you for all the candy you sent me! Personally, I am not a huge fan of candy (I loooove cookies!), but you should have seen the faces on my fellow volunteers when I opened the packages at the training center! I obviously let anyone who wanted something take whatever they wanted and passed candy corn around during information sessions and everyone loved it. People even came and found me saying “I heard you have chocolate from the U.S!”… a very exciting time. As for my host family, they also seemed to really enjoy it. I think it was really different because, as I have come to learn, everything in the U.S. is made from sugar processed from corn, whereas here in Peru, they use “real sugar.” Now I understand the labels at on the Mexican coca-colas in Wegmans! “With real sugar” actually means… with REAL sugar, not corn syrup. Cool, eh?

And now on to the title of the e'mail, birthdays! There happened to be two volunteer birthday´s this week. The very first one, this tuesday, no one really knew what was going to happen. We have training everday from 8am to 5pm. On Tuesday, durring a session on STD´s and right after I got three shots for rabies, yellow fever, etc, a MARIACHE BAND marched into training and started playing songs! They dedicated everything to the birthday boy and made all of the females in the room dance around him. It was sooo fun and funny! I was bummed I didn´t have my camera, but a lot of people did, so I will either have pictures on facebook or flicker in the future. Then today, after training, we set up a piñata and a cake for the second birthday boy. When he walked in, one of the other volunteers charged in in a full barney costume! I kid you not... fully dressed as barney! I guess he borrowed it from a nearby library. Anyway, good times all around. We have one volunteer who is VERY dedicated to making birthday´s special and she has done a really good job so far. And we are all loving it!

Also today, the U.S. ambassador to Peru visited us! He ate lunch with us and gave us and hour of questions and answers. Sometimes I foget that I am working for a U.S. government agency, and it always an honor and a reminder when people from other agencies come in and treat us like we are very special for doing what we are doing.

As for my Spanish, well, there isn’t a moment I am not thinking about it. It is obviously the most important aspect of my training in my opinion. Recently however, I have come out of my shell in terms of speaking. I try out talking about all kinds of things at home. My host Mom has even started explaining things about all the local politics in my pueblo, like who likes whom, why some houses are so fancy and others are not, etc. Turns out, there is quite a lot of conflict among the host families of my classmates. My host Mom and I have been having long conversations about our Pueblo and who she likes and doesn´t like. Also, two of my host brothers know a bit of English, one is an English teacher and the other is training to be one. So, sometimes, they will use their teaching techniques on me to help me with Spanish and I really enjoy it because they are really sweet. Last night, while we were all talking about the neighborhood dramas, my host brother described my neighborhood with a word I didn´t know. He made me ask my Spanish teacher what it was today, to make it a kind of scavenger hunt for me. Turns out, he was calling them snobs. But the whole point is that I love the time they spend helping me and talking to me.

But of course, my Spanish is far from perfect. The other day my family almost fell over laughing when I asked if the dessert we were eating had “gallinas” in it when I meant to say “galletas.” Basically, I asked if there was chicken in the dessert instead of cookies/sweet crackers. I realized my mistake right away however, and corrected myself. But it was too late, they were laughing to hard! But I am always happy when people are laughing, and I’d rather make mistakes that are funny then shy away from practicing.

I guess the last fun story for today is that our Spanish classes continue to be incredibly interesting. The other day, and I am not exaggerating when I say this, we had lessons on how to turn down men at dances. They actually did skits to demonstrate good excuses when you don’t want to dance with someone, or if you want to stop dancing with someone. It was pretty hysterical. After which, they gave us a few dance lessons and we all hoped around awkwardly trying to learn what I now will call the Peruvian shuffle/hop.




As usual, I want you all to know that I love you and miss you all the time! Thank you for all of your e-mails and attention, it makes me laugh and smile every time to read about how you guys are doing. So tell me all the stories you want, about your dogs, cats, kids or spouses! I love them!