Contemplation of Liberation- Piura Vida

Discomfort

2010-04-14T10:54:00.000-07:00

As I step on the small alvocado green 15-seater bus, my mind is immediately taken back to my other life by the aromas of exhaust and mildew. My other life where I am tough and accustomed to discomfort and simple conversation. My other life, that is more difficult in many ways, but the simplicity keeps me complacent. I find myself at ease heading back to site after a good 12 days of vacation; the best vacation I have ever had up to this time. I begin to ready my body for the less pleasurable ride ahead along with the rains, mud, and darkness that are in front of me as I adjust my backpack between my legs and sink into the overused seat cushions beneath me. To prepare my mind is a slower process and endures the change throughout the journey beginning with the smells as the air thickens with hints of sweat as people fill the bus.

I become astonished at my resiliance to discomfort as I look at the seat across the isle from me and notice stains on the cushion, no doubt from the oral discharge of a weary passenger in the past. In seconds thereafter, I begin to feel the moisture between my back and the seat behind me from the morning heat and try to avoid considering the residual sweat particles that reside in the seat that are now mixing with mine. I think that my resiliance is a learned behavior executed by simply ignoring the discomfort and alleviated by the fact that no one else seems to be troubled. Once moving, I contribute to ignoring the discomfort of the trip by falling asleep, something at which I have always had success and in this time, it was no different.

As I awake from the jerks and accelerations, I find myself in a semi-lucid state and begin to try and put things into perspective again. I am headed back to site after a long vacation to the jungle with my friends. It feels as if I have been gone 2 months even though it has only been 12 days. My vacation was a time where I felt at ease, could easily express myself to my friends, and enjoyed the luxuries of eating what I wanted, sleeping when I wanted, and spend what I wanted. In light of this, I had continually battled with feelings of guilt. Guilt because I got to do and experience what many people in my site never could. Guilt because while I was having fun in the jungle, the people at my site were working and my projects were at a standstill. Now I was going to be back and face the questions about what I had done on my vacation and try to sugarcoat the fact that although I supposedly lived like them, I had certain benefits that they don't have. This is everypresent in my mind.

Now I am back at site and looking at how to take on from where I left off. After unpacking, cleaning, and visiting close friends, I quickly remember all the things that need to go on my to-do list. I see myself taking on too much like I did last year. I am trying to isolate a few important projects to follow through with more effectively, but we will see what actually happens.

Stayed tuned for pics and descriptions of the jungle and a summary of my projects in site. Enjoy pics of my site in the meantime.

My site at night with nightly fog rolling in.

A Little Bit of Sum'n

2010-02-26T10:19:00.000-08:00

It's amazing how much one's mindset can change in a little over a year about certain aspects such as cleanliness, happiness, what is edible and what is not, and most significantly (yet broadly stated): life. You can hold you're laughter back about the life part, this is not one of those posts that try to get too deep and philosophical that it ends up being cliché and crosses over to the sappy side. I am simply saying that when so many key aspects of one's physical environment is changed, it tends to affects the ways that one thinks and in turn can change one's motivations and goals. I won't get into why my views on cleanliness have been altered to spare the reader (which may be my mom) of judgment of me and my showering and bathroom habits. However, getting at what I now find edible is something I barely find worthy of writing about, although maybe myself a year and a half ago would disagree. Now the only thing that I am challenged by is how to allow myself to eat more bone (I am now able to consume the cartilage!). I now almost enjoy mondongo (intestines of cow and pig) and prefer rellenos (pig intestine filled with blood, Yuca Leaf, and Yerba Buena), Cuey (Guinea Pig), and other dishes that are probably interesting to hear about but now can't even quite think of since it's a part of my daily diet.

Happiness however, is still something that confuses me here. I am caught between my views in the States of being happy and how people are seemingly happy here. I see people in poverty, people with lots of responsibility, people that have nothing to do, and people that have no life term goals or opportunities, simply content with how things are going- enjoying fiestas, dancing, smiling, conversing. This confuses me. Up to now, this confused me more internally and unconsciously, but now I think I have been able to articulate it to myself. I arrived here subconsciously thinking "why are people wasting so much time in remedial tasks rather than trying to advance and provide themselves with opportunities and ease for their futures and their kids' future?" Now I understand a little more after being here for a while. I think it's a mix between not having trust or confidence that they are capable or worthy of it, becoming so entangled with daily chores and daily life that the big picture cannot be seen, and that advancement (or, my previous perception of advancement) isn't necessarily their goal. Seeing this, along with reading some books such as Three Cups of Tea and Irresistible Revolution, has helped me to understand that what I -slash my culture - view as important in life isn't necessarily what others view as important in life or what IS actually important in life. I have seen through my time here, that yeah, people want better stoves, latrines, and infrastructure to better their lives physically, but really, I think everyone (as individuals) just want people to care, to listen. I feel that people have appreciated more from me simply visiting them on a continual basis than what I can provide them (although they appreciate handouts too). In all sincerity and for risk of being cliché, I have found the most valuable thing that I can give people is my time.

Peace Corps is a huge choice, and it is for the reason that I was initially afraid of. A problem doesn't affect you if you are unaware of it, but once it comes into view, a new responsibility is then placed at your feet to accept or not...

It's Been a While

2010-01-05T06:58:00.000-08:00

Umm... hi. I guess I've kinda neglected this thing lately (lately = like 5 months). Whoops. Well I honestly have no idea how to summarize all the crazy,inexplicable, halarious, confusing, interesting, and fun events that have passed since then, but I'll try to remember a few; at least the interesting ones.

----ADVISORY: After reading this over, I realize there is a lot of complaining in this entry, so beware, and try not to judge me too much... I think this entry helped to diffuse some embedded frusteration (which should probably be saved for a journal instead of a blog).

First, an update in my work and general life. I guess this will provide for some necessary background. I just got back from a trip home to New Mexico for Christmas! It was very much what I wanted and needed. I think it also helped me to appreciate Peruvian culture more when I returned. Before I left I was getting a little frusterated with the slowness and ineffciencies in the culture here. I feel like you want me to insert an example here so:

The other day I needed to buy an in-country plane ticket for an upcoming trip. I went to the LAN office to to buy my ticket. I selected all the necessary information and then was told that I needed to go to a bank to pay them (w/ my credit card). Once waiting in the line at the bank for about 30-40 mins, I finally get my turn to speak to the bank attendent only to realize that no, in fact they do not accept credit cards there. Right. Okay. So then, knowing that I cannot make my purchase without cash (which I did not have, which is another story in inefficiency), I decided to go back the hotel and rest since it was late and I was tired from running errands all day. The next day, I was able to borrow cash from a friend, and then went back to the LAN office to repeat the process since I was aware that whatever takes place in the system when buying a ticket goes invalid the following day. So then it was time to wait in line at the bank again, but this time, paying with cash was thankfully not a problem. I then went back to the LAN office with my reciept showing that I paid and to see if there was any fun tasks ahead of me. My favorite part is what follows:

Me: Hi, I just paid and here's my reciept. Now, what do I need to do?
Lady: That's it, you're all done.

My friend: So is there not any type of validation you have to do on your end to prove that we paid?

Lady: Oh yeah! Hold on (going back to the computer to enter in the reciept information).

Me: Thinking: riiiight... so what would have happened if I would have just walked away without knowing that she had to do that?

Moving back to excuses why I haven't kept up my blog, I was also super busy the months before with scheduled activities EVERYDAY of the week, which gets really tiring when there aren't any days of descansa and you have to cook most of your own meals, and people continually want to get you drunk and keep you up forever and everything runs behind schedule and people take advantage of your time and you should spend time with your host family and family friends and you don't sleep much and your shower doesn't work and you have to walk around your house and downstairs to collect water. -Sorry for the unprovoked tangent-. I would travel most of the days to the campo meeting with JASS's (Junta Administradoras de los Servicios de Saneamiento), or water and sanitation committees and teaching disinfection methods and clorination processes. This consists of organizing the meeting by sending out invitations (convocatorios) and/or radio announcements, collecting materials to take like chloro, a bucket, a venonuclisis hose and dropper, brushes, and most importantly transportation and people to go with you! The organization part is usually the most difficult and most challenging. When we get there, we usually have to walk another 10 mins - 1 hour to the meeting center and wait another hour for people to start showing up. After we make small talk for 20 mins, we start a meeting and then head to look at the water system. The system can be anywhere from 10 mins away to 1.5 hours away, always uphill. Here are a few pics of the nice views we get to see though.

Speaking about some of the work I've done in the meantime:

I organized a Healthy Living project along with the Municipality and the Health Post in a nearby caserio after completing surveys about the needs and wants of the community. The project included various educative sessions and a few hands-on workships to help promote health in the home. The themes hit on aspects from personal hygiene to family well-being, family trash management, safe water use, nutriction, and went over the common illneses that the families face. The families that completed the necessary requirements are receieving materials to build better stoves, which relocate the smoke from the wood outside the house therefore not contaminating the air inside house which can affect various health aspects for the family members among other benefits (preventing lung disease, eye problems, back problems, and is overall a healther way to keep food away from animals and bugs on the floor).

Now that I'm back and it's rainy season, I have a lot more time. Most of the people here head to the city because it can be a miserable season to be here. First offi, hardly any people are here; secondly, it rains all the time; thirs, the mud is terrible and the raods become dangerous. Sweet right? Actually, I am enjoying it. I'm teaching math to 3rd and 4th graders at the summer school that the municipality puts on. I am also enjoying meeting with the tourism committee that I got invited to be on.

Well I think I've mostly caught up on where I'm at. I'll try to think of better stories for the next time. I think the issue is that after dealing with some situations, nothing really stands out anymore as unusual. I'll try to keep better track! (and keep my complaining to my journal).

Downtime

2009-06-25T19:07:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-02T05:08:00.000-07:00

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.

Seriously?

2009-04-18T08:01:00.001-07:00

I'm beginning to think that I'm not supposed to go back to site. So here's the story. Please don't judge me... I'm a little embarassed to say so, but I haven't been in site since the 24th of March. Wow! So all my out-of-sitedness has an explanation, which was discussed on the previous blog post up to my AIDS workshop which ended last Wednesday. After this I had made plans to go home the following day, as would be expected, but started feeling sick, so I stayed another day. I felt worse, so I stayed another day and started taking an antibiotic after talking with our doctor on the phone. Then I felt a little better and was more confident in not having a fun case of diarhea or vomiting during the 5 hour roller coaster ride back to site, so I decided to leave the following day. I was a little nervous about being weak because all I've eaten the last 3 days was like 6 Ritz crackers and a half a piece of Pizza (bad idea). But I was able to pack up all my stuff that I needed or picked up throughout my almost month-long excursion (which is a lot) and manage to get it to the bus terminal to head to site. I get there, have them put my stuff in the backage area, go to pick up my ticket that I reserved the previous day and realized the lady had forgotten to write my name down to reserve my seat. I could have stood for about half of the way, although I'm not sure I could have handled it today. Based on my options, I decided that another day of rest wouldn't hurt to get myself better, I could see my friends that are in town one last day, and just deal with lugging my stuff around one more day.

So here I am back in the hotel spending more money for another stay, still not in site, and feeling super guilty and like an unproductive Peace Corps volunteer. One day I will get back to site. I'm hoping that day is tomorrow.

It is evident by my 'mood' demonstrated in this blog that I am not super happy with the situation at hand (mainly due to guilt), but as I look as possible positives I see that this guilt may provide me with some extra drive to be a badass worker when I return. There you have it: Bad; and Good.

Instead of putting pics up of the hotel room that I stayed in for the last 3 days, which would be super boring, here are pics of other fun things over my month-long 'excursion'.

I'm a congrejo!

Out of Site Out of Mind

2009-04-09T07:33:00.000-07:00

Man, I've been out of site a lot lately and have undergoing some feelings of guilt. Although many of these reasons have been Peace Corps related, and the others Peace Corps appproved, I am looking at going back to a whole new world in my site. After getting back from Reconnect, I had to head out again for something called PDM which is a project developement workshop to be attended with selected community members. I went ahead and attached a vacation trip to Ayacucho with a few awesome Peace Corps friends Frieda and Fletcher (aka Fletch City) to visit my sponsor child. He is a great kid and always had a smile on his face. I had brought him some gifts: a soccer uniform of Peru, a soccer ball, stickers, writting and drawing materials with colors, and some books. He seemed to really like them, which made me happy. We met in the NGO office along with the mom and members of the NGO and then headed to a park to play. The experience was great but went by fast. I was very glad I had that opportunity since it is so rare that sponsors have the opportunity to visit their sponsor kids.

After the PDM workshop, I felt much better about getting a good sustainable project started. Instead of spreading my work throughout several caserios, we felt that choosing one or two and doing a lot within those caserios would be more sustainable and overall a better idea. I can't wait to get the project plan together and start! I'm happy I have a project that I'm excited about now. Unfortunately, I won't be back in site until a few days after Easter because it wasn't really worth going back to site between my arrival from the PDM workshop in Lima and a regional meeting in my capital city. After the regional meeting, I had another couple-day period that I chose to spend visiting Eric's site near the regional capital. I loved his site (except the mosquitos) and realized how different the Peace Corps Peru atmosphere is for everyone. I went along with Matt and Mark and we helped a bit with the World Map project and a trial compost batch. Eric's host family was great. The mosquitos were not.

Now I'm back in the regional capital about to head out to the beach with other volunteers to celebrate our semana santa vacation. When I come back I have another workshop on AIDS and HIV through a US government initiative and then I finally get to go back to site. I've been gone for so long and feel pretty bad and guilty about it. I head that it is drying up and the sun us out, so it should be pretty different to see. I can't wait to start being outside and running again in site. This is a difficult season for the Sierra volunteers. I still think I like it better than the mosquitos though.

I hope everyone is well. Send questions if you have them! Have a happy Easter!

Peace Corps is so Hard!

2009-03-19T16:31:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-14T05:46:00.000-07:00

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)

I Live in the Clouds

2009-02-07T16:12:00.000-08:00

Seriously… I live in the clouds. This zone is justly called a Cloud Forest; so much humidity that plants grow on power lines and roofs. My experience thus far has also had a cloudening affect on my mind. I don’t know how long it will be until I consider this my reality, but I do know the ups and downs of this life are definitely more varied than I had expected. I feel as though I have been in a long dream since I had arrived in Peru. This second life has been amazing in so many ways and I realize I am actually living the dream that I had for so many years by living in another country in an attempt to serve others. I don’t know how long it will be until I consider this my reality, but I do know the ups and downs of this life are definitely more varied than I had expected.

Since the last (real) post, I have done a couple interesting things. The first of which includes helping in the slaughtering… wow, harsh word… the killing (not much better) of a pig. I was invited by a community member to help in this ‘event’ as it serves as a tradition as well as a overall cultural experience here. It’s more than just the killing of the pig, in the campo, it’s a community event in which everyone takes part in and the meat along with other food components are shared afterwards as a type of celebration. For some reason, it takes place in the madrugada (early morning) at 3AM. This could be for one or each of three reasons, 1) a simple precedent set by tradition, 2) it takes a whole day and many helpers to kill the pig and make all the meal preparations, or 3) The screaming of the pig will not annoy people during the day… but on second thought it has the opposite effect of people sleeping at night. First, I help walk the pig in front of the house of my friend, then a huge pot of boiling water was readied. Once the water was boiling, a group of 5 people tied up the pigs hands and feet and when the pig was secure, the butcher stabbed the pig in the chest aiming for the heart, which I was later surprised he has achieved with amazing accuracy. The blood was drained into a bin (and kept for later) and the pig slowly died. Then the hot water was used to burn off all the hair on the pigs body and helped along with knifes. After all the hair was removed, everyone began cutting the pig apart very methodically. All parts of the pig was kept. The intestines were saved to be cleaned out and used as sausage, the skins made chicharrones, and of course the meat makes everything else. For some reason, people are interested in buying the head and feet, which I guess they also prepare in a certain way? The pig parts were then weighed and reported, and the cooking began. I ate everything they gave me.

Another interesting thing that I started was teaching English and Math at vacaciones utiles, a type of summer school. I have been teaching the secondary (mid and high school kids) and been having fun getting to know them. However this program has problems keeping kids to go to class since they go by shear will and are held by nothing. The little primary school kids, or minis as I like to call them, are super cute. I have fun playing with them. The whole school had an outing to a nearby (and beautiful) seminary where we played games and got to interact. It’s so weird to be the non-separation of church and state… something I’m not used to yet. There’s signs in the school that says “God Loves You”. Of course I have no problem with it since I’m Catholic, but I’m sure other volunteers are not too fond of this. To make a long story short, Engineering is fun, but there are definite thoughts of joining my family in the teaching thing. Oh yeah, and school is amazing! It’s nothing special in terms of it’s structure, but it overlooks a beautiful view of the surrounding green lush mountains and overlapping clouds.

I have also started doing encuestas (surveys) that are necessary for Peace Corps. I like this because I get to meet the families from the campo and many times, the offer me food or drink, which can be interesting, but I haven’t had problems eating any of it so far. I get scared that I will be full from the previous house and not be able to finish something… can be disrespectful, but so far, so good.

There have been some other interesting things that have also happened, including the issues that have come up with the building of a new water treatment facility in my site, but I will get into some interesting customs that I have witnessed thus far. These things are not necessarily restricted to Peru, but at least what I have seen in my specific community. For example, sometimes when I ask a ‘Si’ or ‘No’ question, I get a response that is ‘Si’ but while sucking in. I don’t quite understand it. It’s almost like a hiccup, but after the 50th time hearing it, I realize that that’s just something people do. Also, I live in the land of the mud right now, and my clothes definitely reflect it. How in the hell do Peruvians keep their stuff so clean… ESPECIALLY THEIR SHOES! I seriously make an effort, but after a couple minutes of walking, I have mud stains on my pants, and my shoes are noticeably dirty. Peruvians judge people a lot by their clothes and appearance and I know I get some looks and some ‘So you were in the campo huh?’ I want to say… ‘no, I just live here in the mud’. Actually that’s no so bad - next time I will say that. There’s more, but I guess I forgot right now, so I will come back to that another time.

My schedule recently has been teaching two classes in the mornings from 9-1 on Monday’s and Tuesday’s, and usually working with the JASS (Junta Administradora de Servicios Sanitario – the elected group in charge of the water) as they are transitioning to the new water system. I have been able to get close with the two engineers on the project that have had a lot of patience with me and my Spanish and have overall helped me a lot. It doesn’t feel like I’ve been doing that much, but I haven’t been home very often except for the last couple days, which I have needed. So this wasn’t the amazing post that I promised, and for that I am very sorry, but I think you will forgive me, yeah?

As for my outlook on life: it varies so much here, I cannot keep up with my own emotions. At times I feel like I am living my dream and could not picture a better way to be spending my two years (in a badass place!) and other times I feel like I am wasting my time, other people’s time, the government’s money, and being away from my family for no reason. No matter strong I thought I was, I at times encounter that fragileness that cuts to my soul where I can actually physically feel pain in my heart. I think it’s important to experience this state of being because this nakedness of comfort makes you realize your true being and what and who you really are

It's on its way... It's on its way I promise!

2009-01-29T14:37:00.000-08:00

What up peeps. So I've been very behind on my posts, and for this I apologize. A little bit of business, and a little bit of virus issues are to blame but the next one will be a fun-filled adventure-packed wild-ride kinda blog. So since I have set the bar a bit high, I better start on it and live up to these expectations I have just set.

Wishing you all well, and could someone maybe send me a frisbe or two, and/or hacky-sac? The kids here really like simple games asi. Oh.. and/or maybe a football (regular size or mini). I have a lot of kids asking me about American football.

Meanwhile... here's a sweet pic of the paisaje.

Bienvenida 2009

2009-01-03T12:31:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone! 2009 huh… weird right? I made sure and switched my cell to Spanish before I made a couple texts to my friends. Feliz ano is different than feliz año.

So here, as in many latin cultures, it is tradition to stay up late on holidays partying. Here, the town fiesta goes until 6am, and the drinking… whenever you can make it home I guess. I had a great time and was able to stay pretty sober throughout -to my astonishment. I had made sure to eat a lot beforehand and take a little nap to raise my tolerance. I made it through 3 drinking circles and had a decent amount of beer, but for the first time in Peru, I held my own. The circles included one of community members, one of my friends, and then a circle with the family (mainly the uncles).

You may be catching a sense of sourness from me toward alcohol, and I guess I should admit that I am definitely starting to feel this way. After seeing the effects it has on the community as a whole, I am really developing a bit of detestation for alcohol. I want to point out that even though I perceive alcohol in such a bad light, I don’t really sit and judge the people (or the culture or community) that drinks. With the way it’s handled here and accepted, I am in no place to judge why people make the decisions that they do because it’s not something that I can understand since I am not from here. But I hate the fact that I know some great people here who are great friends but change into Mr. Hyde when they hit a certain point. One incident that I won’t talk too much about on this blog left a cute little 5 yr. old girl (who was alone) crying in the middle of the fiesta at 4am after a drunk guy stumbled by her with a rock in his hand looking to fight another guy. I got her to sit with the family for a bit and thankfully she felt better after I let her take some pictures with my camera.

Well, turning the mood a little bit (sorry to get so downer), I did have a good time and enjoyed experiencing the New Year’s fiesta in a place I would never expect to be at this time… rural Peru. I stayed up late and it took me about a day to get back to things.

This morning I was able to get back to my routine of running in the morning and was very glad that I did. The community was soooo beautiful this morning. Everything is getting greener from the rains and the community was covered in a giant cloud. As I ran in the hills above I was ran through the clouds and as I was coming down the clouds were clearing a bit and I could see the community below along with the sunrise. Later in the morning the clouds were huddled around the surrounding steep mountains. I think I am starting the take the beautiful setting for granted a bit, but this morning I realized how lucky I am to be in this place.

In answering some questions asked, I will get into some of my everyday life here. Many of tasks are outlined and highly recommended by Peace Corps (with good reason in my opinion). For example, during these first three months, it is most important for me to become submersed into the community and become ‘known’. This also provides a method of security because as we become accepted into the community, the community will begin to look out for us. Also, trust (confianza) is a huge deal, especially in more rural areas. It is key to build this throughout our time here as a volunteer. In the meantime while trust is being built through interaction with the members of the community, we are also collecting information about the community. This information guides us as to what types of projects are needed/useful and desired by the community. I highlight desired because even if the community needs something, but doesn’t want it, this will not be a sustainable venture and will end up being a waste of our time. Moving on from preaching a bit, my tasks up to now have therefore been participating with the people here and visiting the diverse groups within my community (the mayor, municipality employees, doctors, store owners, lay people, etc.). From this data I can assess what types of activities into which I can put my time. Possible ideas are working with the wastewater system (because right now it goes straight to the river), working with building latrines in the surrounding more rural areas, and capacitating the JASS’s (groups that deal with the water and sanitation services) to be more effective. My location is a little different that most Peace Corps volunteers because I am in a bigger community. With this comes some great advantages (internet, higher probability of toilets, diverse types of people, less isolation), but then there are also disadvantages (more work to be known, more complex community dynamic, bad community habits are amplified).

As I said before, I don’t really have a normal Peace Corps living situation with a host family, but I am really getting to know and like my ‘host brother’ Humberto who is the owner of my apartment and his brother Cesar who lives next door to me. Yes, washing myself and my clothes can be hard because I don’t have a tap inside my house and going to the bathroom can be inconvenient as it is outside, but day-by-day it turns out fine and I know I am in a much better living situation than my fellow PCV’s without light, water, walls, doors, and other such ‘necessities’. After talking with Humberto today, I found out it might be possible for me to put in a spiket and drain right outside my door to nowhere on the’ balcony’. Speaking about my other family, I spend a lot of time with Sasha’s host family, who also accept me as part of their family. The mom, Charo, is a teacher in segundaria, and the husband Felizardo is a tech at the health post. They have 2 daughters, Caty 18, and Cinthia 23, and one son, Paul 25, who were all home for the holidays along with other cousins and aunts and uncles. They are a very modern family for my community in many ways.

Ryan on speaking Spanish: So, as you may or may not know, I am pretty annoyed with my lack of Spanish speaking ability. I think I may have some learning deficiency or something in this area. I really feel like I’m going nowhere with it sometimes. But I try to have fun with it a little and am learning to read people’s faces, which is pretty hilarious sometimes. I wonder ‘Did I just say what I meant to say?’ or ‘Did they ask me how long I’ve been here or how long I’m staying?’. In short, I am making some progress, but not as fast as I would like and hoped. I know you’re thinking ‘you’re from NM and your family speaks and therefore it should be easier for you’, but maybe that was the problem. I knew a few phrases and accents and such, but maybe I tuned out the rest growing up because I couldn’t understand what my mom was telling my grandma so I gave up on listening, and now I’m used to tuning Spanish out…. Or something. Yeah… that will be my excuse K. I usually do not get too tired of speaking it as some of my PC friends do, but then again I have Sasha here as an English outlet.

Wow… kinda long blog this time, yeah. Well, I will get to more questions another day along with the upcoming story of tomorrow morning: The slaughtering of a pig followed by: The eating of a pig. Hope you guys all had a Happy New Year’s and begin the year right!

Quick Catch Up….

2008-12-31T10:08:00.000-08:00

So I have been behind on blogs because there has been a lot going on. Things are going pretty great here, but I think I’m starting to emerge out of the ‘honeymoon’ phase, as PC calls it. This is basically the time where the changes are fresh a new and therefore exciting for the sake of being different. I think the next phase is where things start to get a little complicated, so I hope I’m ready.

Now Christmas is over, and I’m getting ready for New Years. I’m trying to decide if I want to stay in site or head out to Piura. I would like to not necessarily be here in site because there are a lot of drunks around anyway, and I think New Years will have even more borrachos around… yay. Although it can be a little funny at times to see drunk men passed out in the middle of the street, it shouldn’t be something common, right? Maybe this is just my conservative US mentality that thinks this is sad and maybe this is one example of how my perspective on things will change. But I need to ask: do I want to change? I’ll leave that as is for now because that’s something very long and complicated (and boring).

But to catch up on what I’ve been doing, here’s a few things with pictures to show you some of what my site looks like. The first couple weeks I was mainly just getting to know people, set up my room, and organize some ideas. I got to meet a couple of the engineers working on the new water treatment plant that is almost done being built. Currently, there is pretty much no treatment of the town’s water of which the source is a nearby river that is already highly contaminated. I’ve heard different accounts of if there is even chlorination that is being carried out (but I think not). The water from the tap in Santo Domingo is visibly dirty and does not have odor but definitely has particles. I have also recently found out from a water test in October that there is a fecal coliform count of 102 fcu /100ml....cfu = colony forming units (Although coliforms are not hazardous to people’s health, this measure is used as an indicator for other types of contaminants in the water. I don’t know for sure the acceptable level in the US, but I believe this level should be somewhere below 1. I’ll get back to you on that (Kelly?). It seems that most people boil their water and/or use other in-house treatment methods like ceramic filters. I will look more into this when I conduct my surveys next month. Getting back to the engineers, they have been great in explaining things to me slowly so that I understand in Spanish and clearly. They have been great friends as well. Good contacts to have in Peru. At times, they have probably thought that I am an idiot, but have been nice to me anyways. I’m impressed at the workmanship on the system considering the absence of machinery.

Also, I got to sit in on some ‘educative sessions’ (formerly known as Charlas) that Sasha gave in Environmental Health and I also gave a couple little educative sessions to a 6th grade class and a kindergarten class. Pretty much all I did in the kindergarten class was talk about how cool water is and that I thought it looked better without trash in it. I’m not sure if this is effective to talk to kids of this age about the importance of water, but I sure had fun drawing pictures of rivers and rain and coloring with them. Just kidding, I think that above getting to know these cute kids, they got something out of it.

Fun and exciting news: I finally got to eat cuy! The counterpart of Sasha, my site mate, invited us to eat cuy (guinea pig) with her family. Sasha actually had the honor of killing a couple of the cuyes. She’s pretty tough. It was good the way it was made for us; similar to chicken. Supposedly it contains a lot protein and very little cholesterol. I didn’t really like the head of the cuy (see pics). It has a different flavor.

Well thanks for those of you who read my blog. I hope you are enjoying it. If you want to hear about something specific, feel free to email me or comment. I’m actually getting on answering your suggestions Sonya. See next blog. Life has changed so much for me, and I am now realizing that I am taking for granted those changes from my ‘normal’ life I the states. I don’t realize what is strange anymore; as I told my mother ‘Not much here surprises me anymore.’ Oh yeah… that reminds me of a quick story. Because of the new water system, many of the streets are being dug up to put and remove pipeline. For this reason, there are huge holes in the street and the other day I saw a donkey fall into one loaded with wood. It was crazy and I wanted to take a picture, but I felt it was a little inappropriate for some reason at the time. Poor donkey. This was right before I saw two bulls fighting on the street. Random yeah? Hasta luego!

Navidad Abroadidad

2008-12-25T11:26:00.000-08:00

First starting of with a celebration of Hanakah in Piura city for Sasha and Peter, a series of more unusual feelings began. This is something that I am now much accustomed to in the Peace Corps: mixes of feelings. A group of us, Peru 12 volunteers in Piura, arranged to meet up in Piura city last weekend to take care of some more errands, purchasing of household items, and to just hang out a bit after our first couple weeks. It really can be energizing to get out of the campo for a bit to regain perspective and take a break, or in many cases like mine, a shower. All involved included Jessica, Lindsey, Eric, Matteo, Mark, Sasha, me, and a special guest from Tumbes, Sarah Walker, who had a medical checkup on her leg which she hurt from getting robbed a few weeks ago (see her blog for more details). It didn’t really feel like Christmas for a while because the weather is so hot here. But then I went into a shopping center and heard the Christmas music (in English) and saw the big Christmas tree and decorations in the plaza downtown. It made me a little sad to realize that it actually was Christmas and that my family back home was doing all the things that I was used to doing for Christmas that I was going to miss out on.

On my return, I was greeted by a beautiful dead mouse/rat on my floor in front of the doorway. Kinda gross. What’s the difference between a mouse and a rat, anyone know? I think it was a mouse. I feel much better now about my living situation because now I have a ropero (closet-thing), a gas stove, more tinas (plastic bins to store water and wash things), a bucket to try to make a soil filter, and more blankets. I still have to figure out a better way to wash myself and my clothes, but I have more utilities now. I feel a little spoiled because my apartment is pretty big, but I am very happy to have a lot of room!

I had a great time on Christmas Eve spending it with Sasha’s host family. The other host brother and sister, Paul and Cyntia, who are studying in Piura City, came home on the same bus as us to spend Christmas with the family. I went to the late mass at the church where the kids put on a little play of the posadas which is apparently a tradition for that mass here. After I got back from mass, we ate a good meal of chicken, salad, rice, and of course paneton and chocolatada. This family is very dynamic and has a lot of personality. At midnight, everyone shared hugs and wished each other ‘Feliz Navidad’ which was really nice to see along with the absence of presents. We had a good time eating, listening to music, and talking. After eating, Paul, Caty, Sasha, and I went on a hike in the dark up to the road out of town to see the stars. It was super tranquil and I had to remind myself that I wasn’t back in NM due to the clear sky and the scenery of the mountains in the dark.

Overall I had a great Christmas in spite of not being able to be with my family. I thought it could be hard, but it really helped just being around a family and feeling somewhat a part of that family. It was interesting being away from home, but in all, it was not super-different than what I am used to. I think a lot of it has to do with similarities throughout latin culture. I hope you all had a great Christmas and were someone where you felt at home.

Bull Fights and More

2008-12-12T12:55:00.000-08:00

Today I saw a bullfight. No, not a normal bullfight with matadors and a stadium and such, but two bulls actually fighting. The downfall was that it was not spontaneous; it is an arranged event here where I live where people put their bulls up against others’ bulls in a huge soccer field and everyone surrounds the bulls until they fight (which apparently is inevitable with time). There is definitely a certain appeal to it, but my better nature wins out and I feel overall that it is an event that is a little cruel since it has nothing to do with the will of the animal and is simply for the pleasure of watching and betting. Although, I feel that it is not the worst thing since neither of the bulls ever seems to get hurt. I was glad that I went overall to get a firsthand glimpse at this cultural event and decide for myself what I thought of it. It was interesting because the scenery was gorgeous. A huge soccer field surrounded by steep, green mountains covered by clouds and hills filled with campo Peruvians and their gigantic hats watching from each opportune vista. These bulls were huge, which is surprising considering the lack of food that the Peruvians who raise them endure.

After getting over a brief sickness, things seem to be looking okay. I think I finally made it through a rough spell of a stomach bacterial infection that lasted about 4 days. Unfortunately, this was coupled with a really difficult night of the flu which amplified the discomfort (engineering word usage for you, Scott and Kelly). Getting sick REALLY SUCKS when you live alone –hope you don’t read this mom-, but Sasha and her family were close by and Sasha checked on me that night to make sure I wasn’t dead. Jay Kay. I’m fine, it was just a hard night. I am really happy that I didn’t quite resort to taking CIPRO.

On a lighter note, my house is pretty awesome. I have a two-room place with more space that I need for the little that I have. The first room from the street I am using for storage and my future kitchen where I will put my gas stove when I buy it. The second room is a little smaller and long which I use as my bedroom where my bed is and my clothes. I have a sweet door near my bed that opens up to a scenic view of a creek and the mountains in back. I am stoked because I love to have space and spread out.
I have a unique case as a volunteer in Peru where I am actually kinda renting from a family rather than having a host family. The Peace Corps in Peru uses host families in almost all cases for many reasons. First of all, it provides safety to be located within a family structure as the family provides protection for the volunteer. Also it helps the volunteer integrate into the culture through becoming part of a Peruvian family and also creates more opportunity to meet others through the family. Therefore, there are definite ups and downs to having my own place, but realizing the downsides helps me to understand the initiatives that I must take to achieve the same benefits. For example, I am currently eating with the host family of Sasha, and am therefore a pseudo-host member of their family as well where I can integrate with them, speak Spanish with them, but go home when I need some freedom. I feel like I get the best of both worlds, but I try not to make things too easy for myself. So like I was saying… my house is super nice and spacious and has an awesome view… but my bathroom and shower situation is not ideal. It is by no meals terrible, but more difficult than I would like. There is a shower and toilet facility behind my house near the river that I can see out my back door near my bed. The toilet now has a door, which is awesome, but the water in the shower doesn’t work and needs a curtain to the outside (actually has a curtain with a big hole). The hard part of the situation is that I have a door in back, but it is located on the 2nd floor and lacks a staircase. So the door is more like a window. To use the bathroom, I go out my front door, walk down the street a bit, unlock another door to an alleyway, walk down the alleyway and through a borage of rosters, hens, etc., and a garden to use the bathroom which until yesterday, I didn’t know how to flush (I know… I know). The flushing is another story, but the jest of it is that it lacked a handle to flush, but the top was open, therefore I knew I just open up the chamber to allow for flow. The problem was that there was no device that I could see outside of the water in the tank to make the chamber open, and with no light and knowledge of super-dirty water in the tank, I thought ‘No way do they stick their hands in the water every time to flush’… but yeah… I found out that is what needs to happen. Luckily the landlord caught the idea of my problem and attached a string to the chamber opening in the water, so now we don’t have to stick our hands in the water. Sorry for the long description, but it could have been worse by incorporating the logistics of when there was not water for a couple days. Oh yeah… and also my sickness and semi-frequent visits to the bathroom with no knowledge of how to flush the toilet is another story not appropriate for blogs.
Another story includes my first ‘bath’ since I got here to Santo Domingo. Considering the aforementioned shower situation, I decided it would be most easy and overall less cold and awkward to try and use wash clothes with water in plastic buckets to bath myself inside my house. I don’t think this was necessarily a bad idea, but it definitely lacked thought. It was a bit of a mess, and took around 1 hour to prepare, wash, and clean up, but I learned a lot from it and laughed a little about how weird it was. I realize that since I will most likely go into the city every 2 or 3 weekends or so, I will bath every 5 – 7 days (on average), and will only have to bath like ~3 times a month, which I think I can do as long as I don’t get too dirty. We’ll see how this works out.
Well these are my recent thoughts. My overall humor lately since coming out of my sickness is pretty good and optimistic. I met a lot of people today and am feeling more and more integrated. I know there are rough days ahead and days where I don’t feel like being social but should be anyways. Right now I am very satisfied with the situation and am amazed at the beauty of the land that I get to call home for the next two years. Don’t be surprised if my next blog sounds totally opposite.

Estoy aqui, y casi listo

2008-11-30T18:03:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-25T18:30:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-23T14:40:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-09T08:34:00.000-08:00

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