cuentitos

March 8th is “dia de la mujer”, or international woman’s day. While I didn’t do anything special this year (last year was marked by a woman’s soccer game that I played with my community team), I still had it in mind. That day, my new “host niece” was born. My host sister had her first daughter, a little girl. My family was excited, but mostly relieved that the baby was born healthy and my host sister was ok. My host Mom had spent almost a month with her in the city of Chiclayo awaiting the due date and helping out. That meant my 15 year old host sister, Ericka, was left to watch over the house. I actually had a fun month having just her and me as the only two women in the house (my youngest host sister also went to the city with her Mom). We controlled the music in the house, watched American TV (Glee!) in English (which she enjoyed despite not being able to understand anything), and just hanging out more together. Sometimes, hanging out with teenagers, I forget that I, myself, am now an adult and am soon turning the even more adult age of 24.

On another note, I have decided to dedicate this blog entry to funny/interesting things that occur here in my daily life. I think a fun little list would be the best way to get this message across:

1) Now, when I see ducks or chickens I size them up for their fatness and think about how tasty they would be. I often fantasize about killing certain chickens that annoy me by sneaking into the kitchen and trying to steal food off of temporarily abandoned plates. They are a source of constant annoying, noise and food stealing… and I sincerely want to learn how to kill, pluck and prepare a chicken so that I can bring that skill back to the U.S. and have my own chickens. I feel as though this is a long way from when I left for Peru as a vegetarian of six years.

2) Keeping in mind that electricity is still new to my little Peruvian community, TV and movies (in color) are slowly being discovered. The whole culture of Disney, comedies, and horror movies has yet to be discovered here. The most popular movies here are Asian fighting movies. I cannot stress the obsession with ninjas and constantly fighting and killing. Surprisingly, these are actually NOT my favorite kinds of movies, and also not originally English films (as many of my Peruvian friends believe). So, I have taken it upon myself to personally introduce my friends and family to the wonderful world of Disney and popular movies like ‘Black Swan’ and ‘Slumdog Millionaire.’ It has been a rocky road because any movies without constant action or songs and dancing are considered boring and often I am demanded to turn it off or fast forward through the “talking parts” (and yes, I put the movies in Spanish). It is a common practice when watching the popular Asian fighting films to completely ignore the plot by fast forwarding through all the dialogue and only watching the action scenes. However, I have won over the host family with Disney films like ‘The Lion King’ and ‘Mulan.’ The other night I had all of my host sibling piled on my bed while I set up a home theater of sorts with my computer and portable speakers and we watched ‘The Lion King’ together as a family, including my host parents and siblings ranging from six years old to 20. It was a good time, and even some aunts and uncles came in to watch for a while.

3) Privacy: There is none. At any moment in the day I will probably be asked what I am doing, where I am going, or what I am going to do. While this could be viewed as annoying (and honestly, often is), I have finally come to understand it as common practice among all of my community members, not just directed at me. It is a conversation starter, and a way to seem interested in someone. I originally viewed it as an invasion (I don’t want to tell everyone exactly where I’m going and why all the time), but now I have started to understand that people here don’t have the same ideas about privacy and there are different ways to have it. First of all, being alone is very rare here. Kids share bedrooms with a few or all of their siblings their entire lives until they move out (often to start their own families). Those who move away from my town often leave with someone or move in with family in other towns or in the city. So, wanting to do things alone is considered strange. Where am I going with this? I have long since discovered the benefits of always having company, usually keeping my door open and allowing my siblings to feel welcome to come in and hang out while I do whatever I want to do (read, type this email, watch Glee…. Or prepare work materials of course). However, we all want to be alone sometimes and through observation I have figured out that people who want privacy or just don’t want to tell you all of their plans use evasive language like: A: “What are you doing.” B: “Nothing.” A. “Where are you going.” B. “Over there.” There is just not arguing with the logic of “por alla” or “por aqui” which means “for there” or “for here.” There are incredibly common responses for where are you going and what are you doing. Evasive and vague language is key if you want to keep anything to yourself. Also, as a side note, often flat out ignorance is used if you want to keep something to yourself. I find this response more than frustrating, but it is certainly effective. In a culture that is not at all abrasive or confrontational, I can see how ignoring someone is preferred over getting in their face.

4) Carbo-loading. Yup, I eat LOTS of carbs. That is probably the reason for the initial weight gain, followed by my inspiration to train for a marathon to stay healthy. In a world without refrigerators or a nearby local market, my only real option is to eat every meal with my family. Some volunteers have the joy of preparing a lot of all of their own food. I often fantasize about this possibility, but to keep myself sane I think of the down sides. Peruvian families often feel like it is a personal affront on their cooking or their ability to take care of you if they cant feed you or if you turn down their food. Therefore, if I cooked for myself (and I did try a brief fling with making oatmeal for breakfast), it would most likely only cause confusion and unneeded stress between me and my host family. So, I stick to eating my white rice with spaghetti on top. Oh yes, that is a typical plate. Sometimes there is chicken on top of all of that or an avocado to eat with it. But the super carb-loading is no exaggeration. I like to think about atkins dieters coming to my community and seeing the panic in their eyes and the confusion in Peruvians eyes when they cant find a single carb-free plate! Lucky for me, I love the food but just try to keep it in moderation. Without getting into my own personal eating habits, I thought it would be interesting to list a few delicacies that my host mother and sister (excellent cooks if you are asking me!) like to prepare:
a. Arroz con pollo – a classic lunch of dinner of white rice with a small piece of chicken on top. Often this is accompanied by what only can be described a ‘tinee-tiny’ onion or onion and tomato salad.
b. Sopa con arroz – this is a typical lunch, hot soup (in 100 degree, full sunshine afternoons) and a plate of white rice on the side. There soups always consist of noodles (sometimes only noodles), and occasionally special things like carrots (just a tiny bit) and potatoes. They taste amazing but you health nuts have probably noted the lack of vegetable portions…
c. Chifles y huevo frito – this is my favorite dinner that consists of fried bananas and a fried egg. Everything fried but ooooh so tasty… and hey, there is no white rice in this one right? Wouldn’t want to overdo it.
d. Arroz con pescado y yuka o camote – this is my absolute favorite breakfast. It consists of white rice with some boiled either yukas (a kind of potato) or sweet potatoes on the side and stir fried fresh fish with onions and tomatoes on top. It is incredibly delicious and probably the most nutritious meal I get. On Sunday’s they almost always serve this and ditch the rice!

So there are four classic meals, just to give you all examples. Canned tuna and beans were not mentioned but are also staples, served at least every other day. More rarely we get things like a little bit of pork or beef meat, ray meat. My overall favorite things to be prepared are beans, any kind. Lentils, white beans, brown beans, whatever, they always prepare them perfectly and they complement rice really well. In fact, I think rice and beans were meant to be served together! Just to wrap up all the food talk, I know that this part might come off very sarcastic but the truth is I do honestly love the food I am served. It might lack in some important vitamins and minerals that come from vegetables and leafy greens, but it tastes really amazing every time and does the trick (if the trick is making you full and giving you energy to perform physical labor all day)!

5) This will be the closing tale and it is more of a fun story. The other day I went to visit a friend of mine in my community. She is a 26 year old, married pre-school teacher who goes to the city every Saturday (a 3 hour journey, one way) to study in the university to get her degree in teaching and move up to be an elementary school teacher. In other words, she is super cool. She invited me over to cook with her, but it mostly turned out to be her cooking and explaining relatively simple cooking techniques to me. People in my town do not actually believe I know how to cook even the simplest things and are afraid to let me be in charge of things. So, she cooked me delicious meal of spaghetti with tuna on rice with a side of ceviche (raw fish “cooked” in lime juice... a Peruvian classic) and we downed it with an ice cold pepsi (her family has a refrigerator). The fun part was afterwords, when she decided to put on dance instruction videos and we burned off our super carbo meal with dance moves and jumping around her room like crazy people. It’s moments like those that I remember we are all people who like to have fun, even with out different languages, foods, customs and manners. We all like to get down and boogie!

So I think those are my most current updates and stories although I could continue on tangents about awkward river bathing experiences, my dog’s belief that he is bigger and stronger then 300 pound pigs and things my cat is a stuffed animal, or the fact that apparently small children “beat me” in mango eating skills. But, I’ll save those for the next entry.

Until then, keep drinking fresh coffee, eating bagels and cheeses, and overdo it on those vegetables for me! Love you all, thanks for reading!

Summer School

Sorry for the long delay in updating! Sometimes I want to put up an update and I cant figure out how to sign in and I loose patience in my limited internet time and thats that. But, I have to say that I’m feeling really good these days and things seem to be looking up. Everyone told us volunteers that things move faster and are easier (but more busy!) when the second year of service starts, and that couldn’t be more true! I feel like I cant keep up with the amount of ideas I have, applications I want to write, and projects I want to get started and it feels great! I am even more grateful for regular electricity in my community and the outlet I recently got installed in my room because I can now do computer work in my house. Although, admittedly I still seldom use my computer in my town because there are always a swarm of children around who come in and want to touch the keyboard and learn about computer use… which really interrupts my train of thought. Not to mention I’ve decided to take on a strict running schedule and am teaching classes and am utterly exhausted by 9pm every night and don’t want to do anything else but sleep.


I am enjoying my host family, and feel like our relationship has improved largely to my improvement in attitude after my trip home to the states. Also, I am much busier and go to bed earlier then before, meaning the time I spend with them is less but more meaningful. I may not have mentioned clearly before, but food in a constant stress for every volunteer because we live in areas where nutrition is always a problem. Not to mention it is difficult to feel a lack of control over your own diet and life in a foreign country where you can hardly control anything at all. Therefore, food becomes a stress and focal point for many volunteers, whether they attempt to cook for themselves but still get served their families meals making for uncomfortable confrontations, or be it you’re your family gets angry when you don’t finish your plate, thinking you don’t like it or are insulting their cooking. For me, food continues to be a stress because it is the regular choice between hot soup with only noodles in it on a blazing hot afternoon, or pasta with maybe some chicken bones and white rice on the side. However, I am happy that it is fruit season and can acceptably chow down on mangoes, bananas and avocados all day long. While I still cant quite face cooking with firewood and expect to succeed, I have taken a more active role in the kitchen by constantly being on cleanup crew, and bringing in things that I enjoy to prepare to the family, like eggs for omlettes or carrots for carrot salads. This change is mostly due to the fact that the new kitchen is in a more central location and where we all are. Before, the kitchen was a backroom that I felt a little unwelcome in. Everyone is always in the new kitchen and I like to be a part of food preparation, even if it is just washing the dishes once or twice a day.


My big piece of news is that my best friend’s family decided to give me a new dog. They chose it for me because it has green eyes like mine. He is absolutely precious and a well received new joy in my life. I have decided to call him “botas blancas” which means “which boots” because he has four white feet like he’s wearing boots. However, my community gets a kick out of it because the term “white boots” is commonly used as slang for the “other woman” or man that someone is cheating with due to a very popular cumbia song. So whenever I announce that I’m going to the rive with my “botas blancas” I get the expected roar of laughter and walk away with my tiny like 2 month old puppy following in tow. But, he is incredibly amusing and adorable and make me happy every day. I am even more protective of him then I was of my first dog and have made rules very clear to my siblings like no torturing him to make him into an aggressive dog, and no bathing him with detergent in the river because it destroys his young, fragile skin. I also pamper him with flee medicine and dog food. He is a lucky little pup!


Finally, I would like to talk about a new project of mine. Now, normally I am not one to advocate for donating to causes, I think that is a personal choice and people should not feel pressured. However, with no pressure what-so-ever, I would like to make all of you aware that I recently was awarded $500 from a water charity that donates specifically to Peace Corps volunteer water projects. Their policy is to front the money so that the project doesn’t have to wait, and relies on friends, family and random people from the American community to donate to the project afterward, slowly paying back the amount. I applied so that I could buy an electric water pump for my school so that the school in my community could finally have water flowing during school hours. The infrastructure is all there because there used to be a gasoline powered pump, but due to lack of money and government help, the pump went mainly unused. Now it is completely non-functional and kids are forced to carry gallon jugs of water from the river for any hand washing, plant watering or drinking water needs. This uses up their class time and hinders and reforestation projects or sanitation projects the school undertakes with its students. I don’t want to ramble on about it, so if you are interested in donating or just reading about my project (it’s got a picture of me, some kids and my name one it!), here is the web-site: http://appropriateprojects.com/node/531

Death and weddings, new Peruvian experiences

Happy Halloween family and friends! I feel like I’ve had an eventful couple of weeks full of interesting Peruvian tales for you all.

Firstly and most importantly, last night my town was finally blessed with electricity! I couldn’t believe it when I went outside and saw the lamp posts that had been set up and sitting around for weeks, lighting up the night. I was the first in my family to notice and called to the rest to come out and see and we all burst into smiles and cheers and I was almost moved to tears. It is truly incredible that closing the year of 2010, there are still so many people that live with so little that we in America are blessed with and mostly take for granted. To hear the cheers of the neighbor kids in the night screaming Luz, Tenemos luz” or “Light! We have light!” and running out into the dimly lit soccer fields with balls to play for a little while and celebrate was something I am blessed to have experienced. While most of the houses still do not have their wiring hooked up so almost no one has electricity in their houses, it was still a very significant and beautiful night. A few local boys celebrated by playing a game of soccer on the cement platform that was really well lit up. Overall it was a happy and life changing night for the several communities that will have access to electricity for the first time in their lives. For me personally, I feel lucky that I had almost an entire year to see the community function without electricity like they always have, and now I will get a whole year more to see how things change, improve, or become different. I’m really excited to get to be a part of the advancing in some people’s lives.

But before the lights turned on for the first time, my oldest host sister got married! Saving you all the complications involved, the gist of the story is that she is 17 years old, has been with her boyfriend for 2 years, and they got married on the 23rd of October. She now lives in her husband’s family’s house, which is only the next town over, but my host parents are really struggling emotionally with her absence. However, the party was a blast! A grand total of 5 of my volunteer friends came out to join me in the Peruvian dancing, drinking and celebrating festivities. We started by watching the fiancés sign their legal documents and accept each other as spouses in the municipality in the city of Olmos (my town is a part of the city, kind of like a suburb). We then piled into a truck and went out to my house, where there were decorations and cakes and people waiting for us to arrive. My friends and I watched as the newlyweds drove up in a car and paraded around as we all threw rice on them happily. Then there were speeches, throwing of the bouquet and the newlywed’s first (public) kiss. Overall it was a really lovely ceremony that was only a little darkened by the sad faces of my host parents, who I do not think were quiet ready to loose their first daughter. My friends had a fantastic time dancing and getting to know my community. They loved it, as almost everyone does that comes to visit. We were up until about 5am, woke up again around 8am. Peruvians like to hand out the cakes from parties the morning after the party instead of handing it out during the night, so we had a breakfast of wedding cake. After they left I slept for almost the entire day while then my host Dad and uncles continued to drink until that evening (another common Peruvian thing, to keep drinking the day after a big party). Overall I had a lot of fun, but it has and will continue to change the dynamics in my house. It feels different without my host sister, but the good thing is that she still lives close and my host parents will still get to see her a lot.

Finally, I had my first experience with death, not only in Peru, but in my life. While I did not know the man well, he was the uncle of my best friends in town, and the brother of my best friends Mom, who I am very close to. Because I feel so connected to this particular family, I was heartbroken when I heard the news that they’re uncle and brother had just passed away at only 45 years old. I was then introduced to Peruvian customs of death for the first time. While others have passed away in my town, I had never attended what they call “compañas” or “companions” because I never knew the family well and felt a little uncomfortable with going and with death in general. But in this instance, I knew my presence was important so I went with my host parents early that save evening to the compaña. When we arrived, there were already people sitting around outside of the house looking sad. We greeted the wife of the recently deceased as well as his mother and I was led into a room where the man who has passed away was laid out on a table. I knew I was going to see the body, but I didn’t realize how intimate the whole affair would be. People crowded around him, touching him, commenting that he was still warm and that some of his fingers still moved (they hadn’t hardened yet). Feeling a little detached, I took the whole thing in a little bit as an outsider and an observer, curious about how the whole treatment of death is handled in my town. Men discussed the cause of death and talked about when they last saw him or heard him. We all stayed in the room with him, a lot of people touching him, crying and having conversations about what had happened. Finally, I heard the wailing cries of anguish outside as my good friend, the sister of the deceased, arrived with the coffin and burial attire. The community men that were in attendance then all proceeded to help prepare the body to move into the coffin. They put a purple robe and white socks on him over the clothes he was wearing and sprayed him with cologne. They then lifted the body and put it in the coffin and moved the coffin outside in the open so that everyone would be able to come see him more easily. I was impressed with how everyone chipped in; helping to prepare a dead body is not something I think a lot of us can stomach. Here, death seems to be treated (like everything else) very openly and publicly, with everyone taking part and being present. That night and the next day and night were what they called the compaña. A compaña just means that people all come together and do nothing more but sit with the family of the deceased, conversing and just sharing grief. At night the men sometimes shared a beer or yonkey (a really strong liquor). I stayed that first night until 11pm, sitting with the sister of the deceased and massaging her back, talking to her kids (my close friends) and wishing I could somehow help with the grief. The next evening again, I went to be with the family and was greeted very warmly by the mother of the deceased whom I had never met before. She seemed to have picked up on my connection with the family and was very kind to me and made me feel welcome there. Finally, yesterday the 30th of October was the day of the funeral. We all (family and community members) went to the house to meet. Loud sound fireworks were shot off and a small marching band was there to accompany us. Local men and relations shouldered the coffin to carry it in a march to the river (a good 20 minute walk away). We all walked together to the river, the marching band playing music and marching with us, the women and family members in black and crying, and collecting more people as we walked through the town. At the river, three big trucks were waiting to collect us, along with a string of motos and I was surprised how many people had come out. We all traveled to the graveyard where we got out a few yard early to march again. All the while, local men would voluntarily offer to help carry the coffin for a while, and someone was always running ahead to light off a firework that announced our arrival. When we arrived at the graveyard I spotted my best friend, his Dad and grandpa covered in dirt near the giant whole they had been working on digging all day long for the burial. They were red eyed and tired and looked overwhelmed with grief when we walked in with our huge band of people. The coffin was laid out for people to come by and see him one last time, a pastor said a few words and my good friend, the sister of the deceased, said a few words of thanks to everyone for coming out to share this moment with them. The guys who had dug the grave, with help from local men, then lowered the coffin into the grave while we all threw in flower petals and crowded around to watch and then some volunteer men from the community filled the hole back in. Throughout the whole event I was amazed at how people would jump into help at any opportunity, and how the whole thing was done completely by family and friends, no outside hired help. Even the digging of the grave and the making of the cross were done by the family. It was a very sad but very culturally rich thing for me to experience. I feel a lot of sadness for my close family friends, who have become almost a second home and a safe haven for me in my community. Now will begin another tradition called “luto” which means that the family of the deceased cannot dance or drink and must wear black for an extended (varying) period of time. It can be weeks, months or even years and depends on each individual how long they chose to be “de luto.”


If you have made it through this very long post, I hope you enjoyed my updates about things that are going on in my little Peruvian life. I think things will be very different very soon with the electricity. I plan to get my family a blender for Christmas, meaning lots of delicious juices because the mango and banana season is coming back! But, I will be missing you all as Thanksgiving and the holidays approach and I hope you all continue (or start) to write me and let me know how things are going in your lives! I have one year left and I’m hoping it will enrich me, but also fly by so that I can see you all again sooner!


Much love, good wishes and abrazos!

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!