Peace Corps is so Hard!

We were pretty spoiled this last week as we had our Reconnect meeting. Beautiful beach setting and great times 'reconnecting' with all the other crazy PC volunteer peeps. There were mullets, Rock-Paper-Scissor tournaments, and 'superbeds' involved. Unfortunately we were reminded of the danger of being a foreigner with a few incidents that occured one night to two groups walking back from the beach. It took a toll on the group, but made us realize - made me realize how much we all mean to each other.

Coming back to my capital city, I was eager to go back to site to get started on a World Water Day Radio ad, but was just too exhausted and couldn't finish a couple of errands in town before heading back to site. Right now, because it's the rainy season, there's only one bus opportunity per day. Fortunately, I have nice friends and Robyn helped me edit the Radio ad that I had put together in very poor Spanish. Thanks Robyn.

Now heading back to site tomorrow, I am feeling a little depressed today. I think most of it is due to lack of sleep. Maybe things will be better tomorrow when I wake up. So what I got going for me this next week is I will be helping with a general meeting about the water to inform the people of the new changes. The next day is World Water Day (March 22) which is a great opportunity to help educate the people of the water issues that people face and will face in the future. I leave the next week to meet my sponsor child and am lucky enough to have Frieda and Fletch to come with me. After that I will head back to Lima for a Project Development meeting where 2 members of my community will be heading down.

Other fun dates... half marathon in July (on the beach) and possibly the Lima marathon in Aug.

Amazing Voyage

So I'm back in the city getting ready to head out to our Reconnect meeting (at the beach!). Reconnect is meeting that each incoming group has after 3 months at site... kinda a 'check-in' time. For one of the first times I was able to take the bus from my site to the city during the daytime and it was amazing! Usually we have to take a madrugada bus (earlybird) at 3am out of site because it's the only one offered during the rainy season. I don't know if it was watching the sunset with the setting or what, but it felt life-changing! Okay, maybe not life-changing, but it had a great affect on my mood. This may also be attributed to the fact that there was a sunset. I realized on this trip that even though I love rain and hadn't consciously felt affected by the lack of sun, when we got out of the clouds I did feel a noticeable change. I felt happy before, but the sun made me feel so much better. I guess I took it for granted living in New Mexico. The summer evening feeling made me want to play soccer like I used to at UNM everyday that I could. The trip started out at my site where we go through the green mountains with many windy turns (like the black range in NM) and lots of mud. It's not unusual to have to stop at least once to push... usually just the guys. After about 3 hours of that, we entered the green ricefield plains surrounded by steep green mountains. There is a huge mix of plant types here including those trees that are more fat in the middle than the top or bottom. I always forget the name of those. There's also moss that grows on the trees and bright red and yellow wildflowers. After the ricefield plaines with a sweet river between, we went into another green lowlands area that is a lush green forest covered by vegetation. All this was enhanced by the fact that it was sunset. This made me a pretty happy camper... yes: happy camper.

In other news... I've started to realize that I am getting used to the strange things that occur here without noticing. I don't know what's weird anymore. For example, the other day I was on the phone with my mom and she asked 'What's that noise in the background?' and I told her 'Oh yeah... that's just the parlante (loudspeaker) for the town. ' I remembered that we don't have those in the US. They give annoucements throughout the day mainly about municipality stuff, but also sometimes when people are selling things and whats on the menu for one of the local 'restaurants'. She said 'You didn't tell me about that' as if I am able to tell her everything that I see and do here (my Mom is so cute). Once I thought about it, I realized the loudspeaker thing started here in Peru. They're not in the US because it would be considered noise pollution and/or violation of people's rights... huh weird. Maybe that's why Im annoyed at 6am on Sunday mornings when I have to listen to Peruvian ballads when I just... would rather not.

But one thing that I have not yet gotten used to (gotten?) is that fact that people throw trash around like their planting seeds or something. It makes me cringe, especially because of the beautiful place they have here and how neglectful they are (not all). On the very trip here I saw the cobrador (guy who collects the money/tickets) throw a glass bottle out the window. He was finished with his drink, and just tossed it out the window... done and done. Really? It feels like watching someone poop right in someone else's house (sorry for the analogy). I guess it's just what they know. They know it's bad, but the actions do not always reflect the knowledge as I have learned a great deal these last few months.

On a mental update, I'm doing pretty well. I'm here; I'm doing what I can; and enjoying as much as possible. My Spanish is still a little frusterating. I actually do get annoyed every once in a while when I get laughed at. It's good that I have a lot of patience. I will go talk to a group of guys that I only kind of know and talk with them for a while and when I walk off I hear them laughing. I'm like... Mannnnn... I know they're laughing at me. Which is fine. It's normal. But after a long day of exhausting Spanish and other issues, sometimes I'm not in the mood to be laughed at. Most of the time, I just laugh at the fact that I'm being laughed at, but again, not always. I think I'm learning Spanish slowly, but I'll keep working at it.

Other than that, when it doesn't rain I play fulbito, which I'm finally getting good at. I am finishing up doing surveys of my area. I mainly did them in the surrounding small villages called caserios. I mostly enjoyed doing them even though it can be exhausting. There are some that go really well. I visisted an old couple a couple weeks ago and after a little bit of talking they really oppened up and were just so happy to have a visitor. There are a lot of issues with the elderly here because once they are unable to work, they need someone to rely on. This couple was really good to me and treated me to boiled potatoes and queso fresco... campo cheese. In the campo when we get offered something, we kinda have to eat it... and all of it. It probably wasn't the most sanitary meal, but I was actually happy about it because I was hungry. I realized I can eat a lot of weird things. Luckily I haven't had stomach problems thus far.

I also finished up teaching summer school last month and there was a little ceremony. I enjoy working with the kids here more than anything. The little kids are awesome. I try not to have favorites, but I can't help it.

I get to go to Ayacucho this month as well to visit my World Vision sponsor child. I got assigned to him about a year before Peace Corps and now that I just happen to be in Peru for Peace Corps, I get to visit. I'm pretty excited about it. This month will be busy with a lot of traveling between this reconnect, visiting my sponsor child, and then a Project Development meeting which we attend with our socios. Should be interesting, so I will try to keep ya posted. Congrats to Keith and Iphigenia getting married! The pics were amazing!

(a congrejo-crab I found in my house & an example of the trail I walk to get to the caserios... there are crabs in the mountains of Peru... weird)