Estoy aqui, y casi listo

We arrived this morning to our departmental capital and will be headed to our sites this week. Here are some more pictures in review of training. There are some good stories of the end-of-training partying which may or may not encompass falling down stairs at a bar in Lima and getting two black eyes, peeing on someone's clothes, and so forth (not by me....). Leaving Lima, I was actually a bit sad as I realized I began to like Lima, maybe because I finally got to spend time in Miraflores (and failed to take pictures-for once). My feelings about going to site: nervous due to my poor Spanish skills, worried about acceptance, and questioning my overall readiness, but nevertheless, I'm headed out. It was hard saying goodbye to my fellow volunteer peeps, but my weird mood lately kept me from getting very emotional. I remember a lot of good times in training like the soccer tournament in 3 de Octubre, the anniversaries of the communities of 3 de Oct. and Yanacoto with the Toro Locos, the crazy presentations at the training center, the awesome, crazy combi rides, of course the awesome parties, and much, much more.

Background

I decided I needed one more blog for background, but after this will be some more specific and therefore better stories. So, this is some background of my life here in training and the next one will be a review of some of the good times in training. After getting here from staging in DC, my first impressions were of Lima as we flew in. Oh, and apparently I lost the visa slip that we each received upon leaving the airport, so that may be a problem later on, but I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we get there, right?... sure. Okay. I hope I’m not offending anyone, but Lima is not the prettiest of cities. Most of this statement is attributed to seemingly ever-present cloudy/smoggy feeling. I hold this same feeling as of today as we have been there several times for many of the weekends that we (trainees) attend sessions at the University of Agradia in Molina to learn about agricultural aspects of Peru. It has really been great going there many of the weekends. Many of the times we end up going to the mall-Jockey Plaza, where we take a step back into ‘America’ and take on the role of being ‘Pitucos’, or as people describe it, the snobby upper-class. This group is only really present in major cities and is not really representative of much of Peru. There are some really beautiful and historical places in Lima such as Mira Flores, the Plaza de Armas, and Miraflores, but unfortunately again, only a certain cross-section of the people that live in Lima go there.

My family: I think I was really lucky to get the family that I got here. In spite of being from NM, I have a pretty low-level ability to speak and communicate in general in Spanish. This made for a pretty interesting first day with my host family, as they probably thought I was a huge idiot. My mother, Felicia (Julia) is very patient and caring and is always worried about me. My father, Caesar, is great all-around and has a great sense of humor, which I sadly feel is generally wasted on me due to my lack of understanding at times. We still have a great time sometimes at the dinner table. He works as a moso (waiter) at a military country nearby. I have two older brothers, Allen (27) and Jimmy (22). Allen works in construction in Lima. He gets up and leaves the house around 4am and returns around 8pm, when he stays here. His girlfriend, who seems very cool and down to earth is pregnant, so he has a lot of weight on his shoulders and there’s a lot going on there that is not really within my realm of knowledge. Jimmy seems like a really kind person but also seems to be a bit of a loner. He stays up late working at the panaderia that my family uses at the municipality with the help of a non-governmental organization (NGO). I think he gets home around 2 and sleeps until 10 or so and hangs out around the house. He is waiting for his certificate from his technical school in which studied to be an electrician. When he receives the certificate, he wants to get a job in Lima. Madelyn, my younger sister (13) goes to school during the day and is super shy. Either she doesn’t like me at all, or she’s just super shy or uncomfortable around me because she does not talk to me at all unless she has to.

Training center: We have a crazy-nice training center where we have classes on language and culture, technical sessions for each technical group, security charlas, health charlas, and other random things which we attend from 8-5 five times a week. Our instructors are really cool. They all apparently have master’s degrees of some kind. It really builds a sense of community after 3 months. We have of lot of presentations and activities that we do that usually end up getting a little crazy.

Transportation: So I remember the first say that our parents had to take us to school and show us where to get off and came to pick us up later that day to show us how to get back home. Super-funny right? We all felt like 5 year-olds in kindergarten again, but I’m not arguing that I didn’t want it because I remember being pretty intimidated. Plus, the transportation here, a small-sized bus called a ‘combi’ or more properly termed ‘coaster’ can be a daily adventure. 20% of the time the cobrador tries to make you pay more than you should (70 centimos when it should only be 50… or at times more when you are obviously white and not from there). In addition to the frequent arguments, at times you get on to the ~20 seat death machine to a packed house of +45 people with your leg hanging out the door because the door can’t close with so many people. American perceptions of personal space are definitely not respected in this occasion and needs some time for getting adjusted to circumstances like this. A worse situation is when you get stuck towards the back and have to politely slide through the 20 standing people with your backpack in order to get off at your stop-all to the yelling of the cobrador. If you fail to do this, you may have a walk a good distance in sometimes dangerous situations. The speed on these things can be pretty awesome though! Don’t worry Ma’, I’m fine.
The other Volunteers: I feel like we have a really cool group of people. The vast majority of the group is really outgoing and fun. Because there is so much over-the-top-ness, I have come to appreciate the more tranquilo people many times. As far as the people I hang out with, I will mention them by name so they will read my blog. Let’s see… Mark T. is from Texas and he’s the ‘Cholo’ of the group (Mexican slag, not Peruvian). He’s half Mexican-American like me, so together I guess we make a full Mexican-American? He was walking around for a while with a modified stick for his dog friends in our neighborhood. I like hanging out with him. Also, there’s ‘Chino-Mark’, Mark V. from California, went to school in Hawaii, and is full Filipino. I actually don’t like that guy… J/K Mark, J/K. I really appreciate his chillness, how he lowers the seriousness of things that should not be serious to be funny, and definitely the randomness that he brings to the group. Other people in my community that I hang out with are Lindsey, super-fun energetic girl from Kentucky, Jared, an all-around good guy from Minnesota, Flecther (Fletch-City, aka Fletch, aka Fletch Cuidad, aka mucho mas…) who is from Colorado and is a really nice friendly happy-go-lucky person, James T. who is very experienced in the art of partying and his companion Erica W. (Corona) who is also very skilled in this department. Also, Erika L. the bebe of the group with super-blue eyes and is always happy and eager for life, Richard (Ricardo), who would be perfect for SNL as he reminds me of Chris Farley… funny guy, Karen, from Michigan who I appreciate very much for the simple reason that we just click, Jessica, the first person I met from the group in DC, very intelligent and a good friend. And I will be mentioning more of these cool peeps in a future blog.

What I’m Doing

So I have one more week left of training and have a lot that I could address in light of the fact that this is my first real post and that a lot has gone down over this time. First, I will provide a little background. I arrived in Peru for Peace Corps on September 12, 2008 with a group of 47 people from across the US. We all have undergone 10 weeks of training so far in language and culture and technical training in addition to other things like safety and security. One week more, and we will be heading out to each of our respective sites throughout the different regions of Peru. Within our group, we are broken down into disciplines of Medioambiente (environmental health), Salud (Health), and the group to which I belong (which is the first of its kind in PC Peru since the program restarted in 2002), Agua y Saneamiento (Water and Sanitation, aka WatSan). We have also picked up a former Bolivian volunteer who was recently evacuated along with the entire group of Bolivian volunteers a couple months ago.

So, as any other blog goes, here are my thoughts and the situations that I experience throughout my service here in PC.

Coming into PC, my motivations were clear. I believe firmly in the goodness of all people and their ability to manifest goodness in daily life. Stemming from this, I realized a sense of responsibility based on, what I consider, an amazingly privileged life. I have never understood the seemingly unfairness of life. What have I done to deserve such a privileged life? What have I done to deserve a life where I could be born on one side of a border to an amazing, loving, and stable family where simply by birth I am open to a wealth of opportunity, while another person endures a life that is very opposite? The answer is nothing… I am simply lucky from my perspective. I obviously do not understand the way of the world and how the greater control works, but I feel a responsibility to do at least something within my ability to share my capacities which have been based on my fortune. I would love to have a positive influence on those who will never know opportunity, who view survival as their first goal. I apologize for the seriousness of this first blog, but this is obviously something that I am passionate about. My feelings with regard to this and then coupled with an opportunity to see new places in the world and actually live with a community that lives a very different way of life made my decision to join PC very easy. Basically it came down to service, adventure, and learning. I cannot think of a better way to spend two years of my life. This is exactly what I want.

.... again applogies for the serious blog, the next one will have some more fun info!

Getting Ready

I finally got my blog up just as I'm getting ready for the site visit. Info and pics coming soon!