Preguntitas

Things are going really well over here in my little town in Peru. I'm actually starting up little projects which makes me feel like a real volunteer! I'm working with the school to start tree planting with some of the students, as well as a trash management/recycling program for the whole school. It makes me feel good to be starting some real things in my town that will hopefully be of some use in the long run!

I guess my thoughts for today are that I have been having more and more trouble thinking of things to write that are funny/interesting as things here are getting more and more normal for me and I don't really notice the funny little cultural differences as much as I used to. I guess what comes up the most in conversation with the other volunteers are the struggles of having friends in site. I feel like I am really really lucky because I do feel like I have some actual friends in my town who I spend time with and talk to about real things like cultural differences, politics, etc. I know that is really hard for a lot of volunteers to find so I feel blessed. I honestly don't know how I would get by without them. But, several of these stated friends are males, and that causes a lot of problems in itself in a macho society mixed with a tiny gossipy song where dancing for more then one song with a boy might mean you like them. However, "problems" is an overstatement, it just means I get a lot of jokes about how I am going to get married and never leave my town. Always a good laugh at the very least.

Most of all, for this email I wanted to share an email I recently got from a friend and she said that even though she has read my emails and seen pictures, she still had lots of questions. I read her questions and laughed at loud at the simple wonderfulness of it and decided to attach them here and respond to them in this email. They are as follows:

Do you have any time for yourself and if yes what do you do?
The answer to the first is something that does get to me from time to time. It is veeeery difficult in my family of 8 and three bedrooms to find time for myself. Combine that with constant neighbors and friends visiting and the fact that bathing is a very public affair and alone time is almost exclusively for when I sleep. However, now that my host siblings have started school again, there is often time when there are only two or three of us in the house and it really feels like down time because I can choose the music we listen to sometimes and can sit at the table and not be talked to for extended period of time. It's been a nice change and I can honestly say its something I (and I think most north americans would agree) needed. So, what I do in my semi-alone time is read, make bracelets, study some spanish, or write. The only other alone time I get is during my runs in the mornings. I really enjoy my routine of running and then going to the river alone (because everyone else thinks you'll get seriously ill bathing so early in the morning). That morning bathing is the most alone I probably ever get.

Are you reading any books?
As I mentioned, I like to read when it is quiet in my house and right now I am read "Grapes of Wrath" which is about the great depression and the migration westward in the U.S. It is really good and I'm glad I am reading this classic. I plan on reading the entire twilight series after that... haha.

Can you even bake things over there with the complicated stove system?
I don't bake anything because my family doesn't have an oven. They cook only with firewood and I shy away from the kitchen for fear of burning food or myself. The only thing I touch is the kettle where the boiled water is! But, I do plan on making pancakes for my family very soon and I am looking forward to that!

How do you listen to music? Do you miss non-Peruvian music?
In my house we listen to music ALL day and night long. My host sister literally sleeps with a portable radio in her bed that I can hear all night long. But of course, this is almost exclusively cumbia, reaggaton, wino or criole music. Luckily, I really like cumbia and reggaeton and can tolerate the others (even enjoy them at times). I don't really get to listen to my own music because I don't have an ipod and cant ever use my computer (due to that no electricity thing....). But, I can make CD's for the family on which I occasionally stick on an english song so I can hear it when I want to in the house, which is nice. But truth be told, I don't miss American music THAT much.... yet. Who knows how I'll feel a few months from now, right?

Is anyone teaching to further your guitar playing skills?
Unfortunately, no one is helping me with guitar. I thought I would have a lot more time to practice then I actually do and whenever I take my guitar out I get swarmed by neighbors and kids to play with it even though none of them know how to play at all. So, my guitar playing is not getting much better, although I am hoping to come up with some plan to progress in the near future. Any tips for learning from my musical readers are welcome (ehem Wendy or Greg).

Do you watch telenovela or is that not Peruvian at all and I'm just being a big ignoramus?
Telenovelas, also known as Peruvian soap operas, are all the rage here and they are TERRIBLE. A lot of people in town watch them in the evenings on battery powered, black and white, fuzzy TV's. I did at first, but mostly to be social and hang out with people. Now I avoid it and am grateful that the TV in my house doesn't work. However, we can play movies on our TV and the other night I got stuck watching the worst movie I had ever seen probably in my entire life. It was a Peruvian evangelical film, the quality of which I probably could replicate myself on my camera video setting. I went to bed early to avoid watching it all.

What's the arts like - performance and visual?
I don't know much about the art scene hear because I don't think there is much going on here in the small towns. I'm sure there is more of an art scene in the city of Chiclayo but I cant say I know anything about it. However, dancing here is a big and important art form. At every concert in the towns, the band they will pause for a little bit to let two kids from the town do a dance to marinera in full out dress and suites. It is always really cool and everyone crowds around to see it.

How is child-rearing different there?
Wow, where to even begin. Child rearing is VERY different here. I'm not sure how to explain it but it feels like kids grow up at a very early age. My older host sisters are like mini-mom's to the other kids. They cook, clean house, take care of the younger siblings, feed the animals, carry water, etc. It's nuts how much work my 14 year old host sister does. There seems to be a lot more yelling in general, and little boys seem to be able to get away with a lot. I guess my general observation is that kids are often treated like mini-adults after the age of 4 or 5. I never feel really shocked or appalled by anything, it just is what it is, a different culture of rearing children.

Does it smell great there when you run around in the rain?
Unfortunately the rain doesn't make is smell that great because the town is a big dust bowl and it just turns to mud. I'm sure if I happened to be up in the green hills right now (summer) it might smell really cool. But the rain definitely makes me FEEL really goo because it breaks the heat for a little while... but also brings out the mosquitoes... catch22 huh?

Much love to all, thanks for reading and sharing with me!

Sunday Markets

As I may or may not have explained, I am living in a district kind of what you might call “suburb” town that is governed under the main town, where there is internet, restaurants and running water! Therefore, the main town is what is referred most commonly as “El Pueblo” and on Sunday’s it is a hoping place! Everyone comes into town from all the surrounding towns like mine in tons of motos and a million little stands and street venders appear from seemingly no where. It is a completely different place then on weekdays. Everything is a little cheaper and haggling is constant. Not to mention how many people you run into! It is a very social day, and I am always entertained by the countless young boys and girls strutting around in the central park (a tiny like “park” of cement and benches and few trees) in their best outfits trying to impress each other and eating 50 cent jello, ice cream or sodas. It is really fun, but also overwhelming to go to town on Sundays. For me, it has become a bonding experience for my oldest host sister, Fanny, and I. We have started going together to shop, walk around, socialize with our friends and famiy and eventually attend a soccer game in the stadium to watch one of our friends play with a big fancy team! These league teams apparently even pay their players a little, and one of my community friends was recruited to play for them so we go out to support him, along with a handful of other people from my town, on Sundays and enjoy a good game of soccer… usually with some 50 cent ice creams too.


Other then Sundays, my days can vary greatly depending on what is going on. I have found out that everything is very last minute, or at least seems that way for me. We will suddenly be heading to the river to wash clothes, or play. So maybe someone will come over and invite me to go hunt for firewood in the hills or go on a fishing adventure. The days are full of a lot of free time for me. I read, write, chat with my host siblings and pretty much wait around for the afternoons when everyone comes home from work and has free time and the heat finally dies down a TINY bit. The afternoons and evenings are full of adventure… if you can call what I do an adventure. For example, this week I spontaneously invited myself to the school with my host Dad and ended up helping all the parents in town sweep, clean desks and chairs, and just generally tidy up the school grounds for a few hours. Afterwards, I was invited by one of my good friends sisters to go “bath” with her, which I took as an honor because it means she wants to spend time with me. Another day, heading down to watch the evening soccer games, I joined in with a bunch of kids playing their own game, girls versus boys. The girls ended up cleaning up with very little help from me! I love that my community is conducive to female soccer playing while so many other communities restrict female sport playing to volleyball. And yet another night I went over to say hi to a friend and neighbor that owns a little shop and farmacy and ended up helping her package up a bunch of candies, listening to music and joking around for a while. I know I have probably mentioned this several times in other emails, but not having electricity really changes social connections because there is just nothing to do but spend time together and joke around. If there is one thing I love almost above all else about the Peruvians I have met and known it is their almost constant upbeat attitude. I feel like whoever I am with is always laughing, joking around or picking on me in general.



Which leads to the other daily adventure for me. Local women LOVE playing matchmaker for me and or telling me how much fatter I am. A regular day will consist of at LEAST one person telling me that I will marry someone from our town and never leave, and/or lovingly proclaiming that I am much fatter then when I arrived. Usually something like “you were SO skinny when you got here and look at you now!” while pinching my arm flab and generally making me feel like a spectacle. The worst is when these comments are combined and then proclaimed to one of my “eligible bachelors” who then have to awkwardly tell me that I am indeed nice and fat and try to get out of the situation. It makes for some very entertaining interactions.



The final notable thing is that mango season has come to an end in terms of having enough work for my family and friends. Which is both a blessing and a curse because a lot of the youth are now out of work and have to wait for the next seasonal job, but means that my friends are back to visiting me! Last night I finally got a long overdue visit from several of my host brother’s friends just to chat with me! It was a great evening of joking around with them and sending ourselves saludos (shoutouts) over the radio and playing with music and cell phones. I still have not gotten over how cell phone crazed people are in my electricity-less, super poor town. They play with them constantly and almost all of them have songs, photos, videos, etc to share and pass around. But mostly, I am just hoping that while my friends are jobless, it will mean a lot more social time and card playing in my life!

Thank you all again for your love and support, keep me updated! Abrazos para todos!