September = 1 year in Peru!

Hi everyone,

Wow, I feel like it has been ages since I wrote an update about my simple little life here in Peru. I´m sure that could be due to a lot of things, including Greg and Jackie´s visit taking up time or being really busy with Peace Corps projects! But I think both of those are only half truths. The real truth is that I this month was filled with Peace Corps run workshops which were dragging me away from my town and not leaving us much time to sit on the internet because us volunteers were happy to have reunions with each other. When I finally got back to my town about a week ago, I made a pact with myself to stay in town as much as possible and avoid unneccesary trips to the city or even to the main town. Hence, I have been internet and technology free most of the time, but missing all of you a lot! It´s always a thrill, and a little overwhelming, to get online and have a ton of emails (admittedly mostly from Peace Corps) to catch up on.

So what have I been doing then, sitting around in my still elecrticity free town? Well actually, more then I expected! My town´s school recently had a visit from the Ministy of Environment of Peru because of its great participation in an environmental netork of local schools (which a third year volunteer in my town organized and I help out in one institution). This meant having a few frustrating meetings with the school staff and fun outings with the students organizing the trash and trash cans. They have made a wonderful first step buying trashcans and making recycling bins for every classroom, but unfortunately the disposal process is still lacking and that is where I will be focusing my energies in the upcoming weeks. I found it comical that the Primary kids (elementary level) were much more aware of what to put in each colored bin then the highschool level kids. This month I will also be starting english classes for adults in my town, as well as working with an NGO to start small vegetable gardens and potentially fish farming. I´m sure it will be a slow process with the NGO, but I´m happy that they have taken an interest in my town and in my work and that they have kept up contact. Plus it makes my community happy!

On a more personal level, my time that I have dedicated to staying in town has led me to feel more and more like a member of the community. After Greg and Jackie left, I decided to make an effort to include myself in more things and not let uncomfortableness or shyness hold me back. Since then, I have learned how to cut and pick out good cooking firewood (before I was an inactive observer), how to skin and cut fish that the guys catch (my spear fishing has taken a downturn in luck), learned more slang and been more and more filled in local gossip. Unfortunately, knowing gossip can sometimes be a sad realization when you find out that someone talks about you for no reason. But I guess it is the same all over the world. Mostly, no matter what I hear, I feel honored that I am being entrusted with information and feel more knowledgeable about the people with whom I share my life. Just today in fact I felt like a real trusted community member instead of an outsider on my way into town. I was in a moto when it stopped to talk to another moto driver who sad he needed the number of a kid in town. He asked me if I had it and when I said yes, he entrusted me with money to buy the kid some ore phone credit while I was in town. The night before, another friend did the same, asking me to buy him some credit while I am in town. It seems like a small insignificant thing, but it feels much bigger to me to be acknoledged as someone who knows other people and their phone numbers and to be trusted with favors and money.

In terms of my personal family life in my Peruvian family, things have changed a lot since the time I arrived. My oldest host sister who is 17 years old is now engaged to her boyfriend of two years. Yes, she is really young and I was not thrilled to hear her announcement, especially when I heard she wouldn´t finish highschool either. But, like most things in life, it is much more complicated then it sounds. My other host sister has her 15th birthday coming up the 25th of September. In Peru, the 15th birthday of a girl is a big deal, kind of like a coming of age celebration. They literally invest hundres of soles in one big party. They have put down payments on dresses, cakes, a sound sistem, decorations, and bought two turkeys to eat that day. They have arranged for 7 pairs of young kids to learn a synchronized dance the night of the party to perform before my host sister will come out with her partner. It is going to be a night to remember and I´m really glad I will get to be a party of it.
Oddly enough, this birthday party story ties in to the theme of death. Here in Peru, there is a tradition of observing something called ¨luto¨ when someone dies. This means that when a family member dies, everyone in the family dresses in black and does not go to parties, dance or drink or a set period of time depending how close the family member is. This means, for parents or kids it could be years in black with no partying. For a grandparent or greatgrandparent I think it is less, a couple of months. The time periods of this type of mournig are not fixed, but are chosen by each individual and generally known by the public. Anyway, my host siblings great grandmother was very sick for the past few months and my host Dad always made reference to the fact that if she died, we would not have my host sister´s birthday party. Unfortunately and saddly, she passed away four days ago. Luckily for the family, they had been expecting it for some time and were not taken too much by surprise. This event threw my host sister into a period of insecurity, after all the invitations and organization she had invested in her party, was her dad going to cancle it all? Well, it looks like no, he wont cancle it because he has already invested too much money in the party. He tells me he just wont dance at the party as he drinks a few beers yesterday durring a day off work in Peru. I found the whole ordeal interesting and a good cultural exchange for me.


Overall, things have been really great here. The weather is starting to get warm again which means ripe bananas and avacados are coming back! I cant wait for fruit season again! Also, this September 11th, while reflecting on the twin towers and those who lost their lives that day in the United States, I will also be celebrating my year anniversary in Peru. I cant believe in 11 day one year ago I landed in the country that will be my home for two years of my life. I want to say thank you to all my family and friends that have kept in touch and continue to write me, send me things and send me love. You have no idea how much it helps to hear stories from home and to be kept up to date. It meant a lot to hear from all of you when my dog died because I feel like people from the U.S. have much stronger connections with their pets then the community I live in and it was nice to get condolences from people who understand that connection because a person and their dog. I want to say for the millionth time that I LOVE getting emails, no matter what they are about because it reminds me of home and makes me feel connected. So even if you just want to send me a list of this delicious american foods you ate that day or that week, silly things you pet or kid did, or your weekly ¨to do¨ list, go for it because I love any little detail you want to send and I will make a concentrated effort to respond with personalized emails.

Love you all, thanks again. Saludos a todos de mi comunidad. Les extaño un cantidad!

Carolyn/¨Carito¨

PS for great pictures of my town, my life here and pictures of Greg and Jackie´s visit, check out my and Jackie´s facebook albums!

A year after graduation

Well I cant even believe it but I was thinking today in my moto ride into town that it has been over a year since I graduated from University!

But before I get into that, I want to send a shout out to my Dad, Happy 50th Birthday! Wish I could be there to celebrate with you!

Thinking back on a the first year I can remember without studying, I feel like I have forgotten a LOT of my information from studies, but also learned a ton. The other day friend of mine that likes to know and ask random facts, asked me what the first classified evolutionary human was and I blanked. Also, thinking in Spanish and trying to remember things I learned in English is sometimes a challenge. I'm trying to cram in so much vocabulary and sentence structure that trying to think back on first year anthropology classes was just not going to happen.

But I feel like I have had a very happy and interesting year. I have met so many new people, both Peruvian and American and I have been introduced and even integrated into an entirely new culture. I have gotten over my dreamy first phase where I thought everything was beautiful and perfect and now see both the good and the bad. It makes me feel good though, like I'm actually learning something about the people I live with, and not just being a passive outsider/observer.

In terms of my Peace Corps work, I feel like things are going really well! I now am recognized sometimes in meetings to say a few things about what I am doing and to remind people of my upcoming meetings. I work a LOT with the school and they have been sooooo great and excited about everything and anything I come up with. They even bought themselves trash cans last week! A huge first step, now we just need to move to the management of that trash. But what makes me really happy is that they are including me in planning their years goals in terms of environmental education and I cant wait to be a part of the students education!

Outside of my work, I continue to have friends and to be close with a few of my host siblings. I feel more like part of the family now, joking around and sharing food. My younger host brother always gives me his veggies that he doesn't want now and I always give him the rice I cant finish. It is a great trade! More importantly, it makes me feel less like a guest and more like someone who lives in the house as a member of the family and I really like that.

Anyway, just a few reflections on my year outside of school in the "real" world! Much love and thanks for reading!

-Carolyn

Training my dog to "six"

So I thought I´d just write a few quick updates.

This Monday I held my big community meeting in which I presented my community diagnostic that I finished of my community in respects to environmental problems. I was incredibly nerouse, but it actually went REALLY well. I identified with my community problems that I have seen that I think we can improve together. These included a general trash clean up and maybe a system of mini landfills instead of trash burning, as well as a program of reforestation that they were really interested in. I think the town is upset with all the trees that are being cut down to put in light posts for the electricity we are supposedly going to get in the future. Anyway, I felt really good and my friends and host Dad told me that I presented really well and that my spanish was great! Although, a few days later my best friend mentioned a few words I said wrong... but not enough to deflate my ego! Most importantly, I think I reminded people that I am there with goals and hopes to work with the community to improve the quality of life for them and for me because I am a member of their community too! And that I am not just there to go to their parties and be a form of entertainment to watch how I dance and who I dance with.

On that note, after this meeting I held I realized how much my Spanish really has improved. I noticed that I was understanding almost everything in people's conversations and that I could jump in with my own stories and feel comfortable explaining things. That is not to say that I am fluent and never have problems expressing what I want... just that I feel a million times more comfortable in this language then I did 9 months ago! It also means that I am starting to get the dirt on people and how they feel about so-and-so and their neighbors, etc. It's a little sad to have my little eutopia break down, but a nice sign that I am really integrating and starting to understand what is going on around me.

I also had the fortune of attending a meeting last week that was supposed to be about bringing to light to the community, which it was. But it turned into a meeting of the Rondas where a Mom and her son were settling a property dispute about whether or not one of her 10 sons had the right to build a church on the property of their father that has passed away. The Rondas are the group that keep order in the town, kind of like a self organized police force. It got me thinking about how interesting it is that there are no police or lawyers in my little tiny town, and yet they have organized in such a way that they keep the peace, have property established and have a place to present problems and have them settled with community imput. Really cool for me to see, although it did drag out for a looooong time, haha.



My dog is big and beautiful! I´m am training him to sit and my family gets a kick out of it. My youngest siblings have starting yelling "six" at him (an attempt at saying "sit" in english). It is really fun to watch them take their leftover bones or whatever they were eating and hold it up yelling "six!" at my hungry little baby boy. However, its hard to call him a baby when he has gotten so big so fast! I cant believe he was a tiny puppy only 5 months ago! I´m also working on his barking at strangers habit, but my family likes this quality about him (he is protecting the house) so it is hard to change.

I also recently cooked for my family for the first time and it was a fun experience. I made chicken fajitas, with a little help from my host Mom making the chicken. I had my 8 family members and my best friend over to be the judges of my homemade salsa, guacamole, and stir fried peppers and onions. Overall, I think they liked it and they had never had the tortilla wraps before so it was a good new experience. Of course, they were served on top of a big plate of rice to ensure everyone was full, haha. But we ate the rice with my salsa and guacamole and it was all good. Now my best friend insists I am a "chef" and nominates me in random meeting to help with food preparation.... not annoying at ALL.

Otherwise, things have been good in my little Peruvian home. I have been playing late night, moonlit soccer lately because it is a full moon. Only once a month do we all go out and play together because the night is the only time we are all free and the moon is the only light we have to play with!

I guess that is all I have for today, I miss you all and thank you for your support, love and emails! Keep me updated!

Brujeria

I just want to start out by saying that the other night I ate guinea pig for dinner by candle light, and because it was so dark, I almost mistook the meat on my plate for chicken! So, I guess guinea pig really does taste like chicken! But, I figured it out because the skin is much different and my host brother told me we were ¨eating rat¨... which kind of gave it away!

Things in town are good, although I went through a little funk feeling frustrated with my work last week and have been and will be out of site a lot in the next two weeks due to mandatory peace corps meetings. Not to mention it is really hard to feel like a profesional when I am not great at the language and am expected to suddenly know a lot about planting trees, building mini land fills and knowing about organic fertilizers.... Not really what I did in college, but that is what an environmental volunteer is supposed to do. Not to mention my family can really bug me at times, which I guess means I am just more and more a part of their family! My siblings annoy me like normal siblings should with lots of shouting and demands for attention. My host Dad makes an absurd amount of corny jokes that, if I don´t laugh
appropriately, he will reexplain slowly and in detail until he is sure I absolutely understand. My oldest teenage host sister is always just... being an irresponsible 16 year old and try´s to use me to get to do things like watch novelas at night (apparently they can do pretty much anything in terms of getting permission from their Dad if I ask to do it and ask for my sisters to accompany me). I try to do some stuff with them to get them a little free time away from constant cooking and cleaning, but I just really hate novelas and prefer to hang out at the house in the evenings and either play soccer, watch soccer, or wait for friends to come visit or call. Then there is my 19 year old host brother who is convinced I can a) find him a
professional soccer team to play for in the US that will pay him, and b) bring him to the US with me in two year in order to fulfill goal (a). So, that is always a funny and interesting conversation with him, especially since the main reason he wants to do that is to earn money (in dollars) to come back to Peru and buy a car. Yes, buying a car is his ultimate goal, but he is unwilling to earn the money in any other way other than playing professional soccer in the US.

As far as soccer playing for me goes, our next big girls game is on my birthday, May 1st! Oh goody! Luckily, this time we will be prepared... but not because we are training together much at all of because we are playing a different team. No, we will be in luck due to a much better theory. Recently, my host sister came home from delivering the breakfasts in the morning and said ¨carolyn, I just talked to (a friend) and I found out why we lost the game!¨ to which I just looked at her quizzically and thought that we lost because we didn´t play very well. She said ¨the other team was doing witchcraft on us!¨ to which I responded ¨ooooor, we played bad.¨ She denied this and said ¨no no no, my friend just found out they have a witch on the team and that is why you couldn´t score, next time we will be prepared!¨ This was just too interesting so I decided to go and seek out our friend, the source of this interesting news. I found out that the other team does indeed have a trained witch and that is why the other team was so sure they would win (the raised the bets that we always have to make from 100 to 150...). She said that all we have to do for the next game to counter the witchcraft is throw ice on the goal line before the game and put garlic in our shoes. So, on my birthday I am looking forward to have garlicky smelling feet and not being the victim of anymore witchcraftery!

Of course you are all probably wondering about my little joy in my life, my dog! He is growing so much and reminds me of a lanky teenager now. He is still beautiful and always wants to cuddle me. He also makes me proud because he protects me from anything that comes near me or the house... including small children. This would probably be seen as a bad thing in the US (dogs barking as strangers in a vicious manner usually is) but here, it is seen as a protector and people always comment on how much he takes care of me and it secretly makes me feel good inside. Especially since at the end of the day he climbs up in my lap while I´m in the hammock and cuddles with me and never ever barks at me! He has been a little jealous lately though because there is a new puppy in the family that is hard to resist and
my siblings have stopped paying so much attention to my little baby cause he is bigger and not as cute anymore.

So in terms of good fortune, I have my dog and am also lucky enough to have my best friend that seriously keeps me sane when all the tiny Peruvian cultural differences might push me over the edge. I am so happy that I found someone that is smart, patient and gets a kick out of teaching me new vocabulary and helping me with my Spanish. Having someone to have really, interesting conversations with about religion, politics and my project ideas really helps me through the days. However, the drawbacks of having a male best friend include constant jokes about him being my future husband and my host uncles complaining that I will steal one of their soccer players ¨when¨ (not if) I bring him to the US with me. If you cant tell, bringing people to the US and marriage are favorite conversation topics for a lot of the Peruvians I know. The other favorite is commenting on weight gain. I try not to let the ¨you are looking so much fatter¨ comments get to me because I know they mean that I am being fed well and it is a compliment to my family. BUT, when I get it more than once... or even more than twice a day by small children and remarkably skinny teenage boys, it can get to be a bit much. It is just not something an American girl can get used to easily I guess!

Much love!

Easter Weekend

Easter weekend was pretty laid back in my site. No Easter egg hunts (sad), I heard there was a religious movie about the beginning of the world shown at the church though... haha.

So, after a couple days free for vacation, I rushed back for a soccer game I was supposed to play in on Sunday and was sad to hear the other team had forgotten and wasn't going to show up. It has been postponed until this coming Sunday so wish me luck! Which brings me to my soccer life. The woman's soccer team has been seriously pulling itself together with me motivating them to play in games. Most evenings I go on a hunt for the lady players and young boys (who are not old enough yet to play with the big boys) and we play together until it is too dark to see. One night at 8:30pm I got a text from one of the players telling me to come out to play, which surprised me because it was so late. But when I went outside I realized the moon was so bright that it was clear enough to see the players and the ball so we played a good hour of night soccer and it was fantastic! In terms of games, we've had one recently that was amazing! Unfrotunately, we lost, but we played really well and it was an adventure getting there as usual. We piled into a truck and took the bumpy ride full of family and friends to a town 30 minutes away. The field was much better and we actually were going to play the same team as last time. There was a big, intimidating crowd like last time but this time I was expecting it and decided to enjoy it. I played really well, almost scoring several times to the joy of my town fans and even took two girls down, which has been everyone's favorite story since. The other team however, was not so nice and fun loving and kept swearing (although I didn't know that until afterwards when my teammates told me they were swearing) and insulting us. One "insult" was directed right at me when I fell trying to save a ball from going out and a girl from the other team looked right at me and said "what did you eat for lunch today? Potatoes??" in a mocking voice. I wanted to start cracking up because I thought of COURSE I ate potatoes for lunch, everyone in Peru eats potatoes for every meal! But I didn't understand that what she was trying to say, which is apparently that you kick badly if you eat potatoes.....? Comical. After the game, one of the girls from the other team actually came up to me and invited me to play in a big game with them against a team from the capital city. I gave her my number to talk about it later because the response from my teammates and family friends was not positive... I think they would think of me as a traitor if I played with this "brutish" girls as they call them. I don't know if I'm going to play with them yet, although it sounds like a really fun opportunity!

Which brings me to food. A friend recently sent me another list of good questions about food and eating here in Peru that I thought I would share with all of you.

What are the eating habits like, table manners etc? I mean, do they eat with their hands, which hand do they touch food with, how do they chew (mouths open/closed)?
Table manners are VERY different in my house/town. I wont generalize for the whole country because the whole country is not small town and northern. So, in my town, first of all, we ALWAYS eat with spoons. Spoons for every meal for every kind of thing. I have learned that spoons are wonderful tools that I did not appreciate to the fullest in the US. haha. Also, touching your food with your hands is not only acceptable but often necessary. Since we don't have forks or knives, getting the meat off the bone in most cases involves pulling at it with your fingers and teeth. With fish, which we eat a lot of, it is full of bones every time and I spend a good amount of time picking out the little bones with me fingers which I think is amusing to my host siblings who have mastered the skill of spitting them artfully out, usually on the floor. Yes, spitting or throwing food scraps is totally acceptable because the floor is dirt and some animal, dog, chicken, pig, etc will eventually get to it.

Does all the meat have bones in it, where do they put the bones when they are finished chewing the meat off?
Yes. ALL the meat has bones in it. Sometimes more bone then meat. Disposing of them is never a problem because to dog will take them away, even eat whole bones if they can manage to break them with their teeth. It's pretty impressive.

Do they eat all parts of the animal?
I think the answer to this is generally yes. I have seen animal killings and skinnings and I know they use almost everything there is including feet, heads, eyes, etc. Things that are almost inedible will be put in soups for flavoring. Organs and organ sacks are sometimes served to me (to my dismay) and chicken feet are actually very common in Peruvian soups. I don't or cant eat chicken feet, I haven't seen the appeal in it. I've been lucky and haven't gotten anything too strange but I have learned that I do NOT like goat organ sack or liver. I have gotten on several occasions fish heads, eye balls and all, and have learned by observing my siblings that they use the heads as almost a makeshift spoon as well. I do know other volunteers that have eaten goat balls.... yes, testicles. Oh, and cow hearts are actually a specialty here sold on a stick called anticucho. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm sure I'll have to eventually!

Is the food kind like ours where each dish has different kinds of food or is a big kind of feast like thing like at your parents house, where everyone shares everything?
This was actually the hardest and weirdest thing for me to get used to. Everyone gets the same thing for sure, but the way it works is that the Mom, or whoever is cooking/serving, makes everyone's plate for them. No one ever serves themselves, nor is there usually communal food on the table. We are all served specifically, men and special people first (I'm included in this category), children next, and the Mom or server last. This usually means that the first people get the best pieces of meat or the most of whatever it is we are having and the kids end up with very little, mostly rice. The only things that are ever shared are onion or onion and tomatoes "salads" that are put in the table for people to scoop onto their rice. I have never felt comfortable about being given the choice servings, but I am also so grateful to be given good food when I am hungry.

So those are my answers to questions from friends for the day. I love getting questions like this so if anyone has anymore, please send them along! They make me think more about day to day life and the funny little things I get up to.

I miss you all, I hope you had a great Easter weekend. Write to me whenever you can!

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!