Downtime

I have been in site for almost 7 months now... wow. And in Peru for 10? That can't be right. Sometimes I feel super-integrated (whatever that means), but other times I feel like I am still just a stranger in another country.

Right now I feel a little stuck. This week I was pretty unproductive with another fiesta (anniversary of one of the colegios), my counterpart being out of town, and outright laziness from my own lack of motivation lately. It's definitely been a down week, but nothing compared to what many volunteers go through. Overall I am very happy; I'm in a great town with internet, some cell phone service, a partial variety of food, and a beautiful view everyday! The rough times for me come from guilt from being here and simply feeling incompetant, unproductive, or outright inutil. Is that an English word or Spanish word? I don't even know anymore.


On a positive note for today, I had a fun session teaching minis (kids from pre-school) a little English. Like I said before, I'm not sure how useful it is for them, but I know I sure have fun hanging out with them and just doing something productive. The kids at that age sure give a lot of love and I can feel it. I think because a lot of times they don't get attention at home. I will also be starting to teach an English class once a week for kids in the institute (ages 17-24). I normally wouln't be inspired to do this and don't see a huge benefit for them, but this group has expressed a big interest, and seemingly a lot of people will come. I'm looking to use it as a group to have some fun, play some games, and give them whatever help they want in learning English. They have a lot of benefits since English is everywhere.

A Little bit of Everything

So I'm not too sure how to start this one because there's so much to say since my last blog, but I think I will begin by illustrating a sample experience from the other day to paint a picture of a typical day in the life of a Peace Corps volunteer. I wake up to frigid and still dark winter morning in my poorly supported bed matress. I hestitate to leave my well-blanketed, yet still slightly insufficient bed domain still beaming with residual warmth from a good night's rest, but find the will power to thrust myself into the day by throwing the covers off my warm body and popping out of bed. I look around in slight dissapointment to find a somewhat disordered house from me lazily throwing previously worn clothes and work materials due to a recent increase in schedule. I decide that a shower is worth the effort today in spite of the coldness because I hadn't showed in two days due to not running in two days and I should appear more presentable and not smell for the meeting that I was to attend in the morning in a caserio (small annex) about an hour away. Skipping forward past the terribly cold shower and preparing breakfast, I now find myself holding onto metal bars in the back of a truck on a windy muddy road with a health post worker. We are heading to another Peace Corps volunteer's site with my JASS (Junta Administadora de Servicios de Saneamiento: elected group from the community to be in charge of the water) to attend a training on administration and operation of JASS. Holding on tight through the bumps and rotations of the truck, I look around at the vast green scenery and valley below (way below) and ask myself: Where am I? Am I really living here? I realize my confusion about reality by hearing from within the truck a song I haven't heard in years by The Outfield (80's music). This reminds me of my childhood and my sisters back home which explains my confusion due to such cultural intertwining that I experience. I get brought back into reality realizing that I am cold from the rain that I now feel in addition to the reminance of my bone-chilling cold shower earlier that morning. I quickly remember that I should pay attention since I brach hit me in the face last time I was riding in a truck on the very same road.

It's crazy that I've been here for more than 6 months-a half a year in site!- but I still am amazed by the fact that I live here and how beautiful it is here! I can honestly say that this is the happiest that I've been in a long time (not that I was that unhappy before) and that this is exactly what I was wanting from this experience. It's indecribable how satisfying daily interactions can be exemplifying the integration that has taken place in this period of time that I have lived in my site. I am utterly content by the work that I am doing and the progress that I am TRYING to make. I realize how difficult developement is. But it's strange that I can actually feel the developement taking place. I've always wanted to live in the past to see and be a part of developement, and now I have the chance. I've told people how I feel like I've went back in time but with a few modern-day conveniences like phone and internet.

So moving on to real news and updates in what I have been doing here. I got to be the padrino (sponsor) of two olympic games, one for the technoligical institute in my town and one for one of the 'high schools'. Funny story: the communication issue does not just reside in the language barrier... so I was elected to be the sponsor of this 5th cycle of the nursing program at the institute and had understood (along with the madrina-other sponsor- who speaks spanish) that we were to buy sporting shirts just for girls. We later found out that we were supposed to buy unisex shirts since there were also boys in the group. THIS WAS NOT THE FAULT OF MY INABILITY TO SPEAK OR UNDERSTAND SPANISH! It's just a part of the culture for things to be unclear. Like for example, time. A meeting at 8am means it will start anywhere from 8:30 to 10:30 depending on the perceived importance of the meeting. This can waste a lot of time for a PC volunteer. Nuff said. Back to the olympiadas, my boys soccer (fulbito) team ended up winning the tournament, and I ended up getting to play a game with the professors, which was fun even though my team lost.