Winter, Rain and Screwed Up Priorities

I can finally say that the winter has come, Sadly...The last 5 days Sicchez has been drenched with rain forcing most people to stay in doors or on their porches. This has forced me to change my plans of doing house visits in Las Vegas, the farthest Caserio from Sicchez, because the thought of walking back in the rain 2 and a half hours doesnt seem to appealing. Although I had planned to do house visits in Las Vegas before the rain had come, my socio told me that he would not be able to accompany me due to his profound amount of work he still had to do before leaving for Christmas vacation...Little did I know his overwhelming amount of work included a trip in the ambulance (supposedly only for emergencies...at least thats what he told me 3 days earlier) to a forested area an hour away from Sicchez to cut/pick out a christmas tree...I guess our work in the health center finding out what is wrong in the different caserios (towns) had to wait...

Well it seems that this week I am just going to have to do the house visits in the nearest caserio with a different socio from that town due to the rain and my socios early trip to Ica...hopefully it goes well...

Piura City, Health Clinic and La Bicicleta!

After writing in my blog about two weeks ago I had the chance to travel back to Piura City to meet other volunteers and feel like an adult once again! For the first time since arriving in Peru I had the opportunity to choose where and when I wanted to eat. What a concept! I never thought I would be so content to watch tv and go on the internet...wow the things that make me happy now! Following my rendeavous in Piura I returned to Sicchez for what would turn out to be quite an interesting couple of weeks. While my first couple of days consisted of giving charlas (informational sessions on health-in spanish of course) and teaching english to the secondary school kids, the upcoming sunday would really show me how funny Peru can truly be...That sunday at a free health clinic in town, orthodontists who had arrived from Trujillo in order to inform the public on dental health and make free teeth cleanings (also extracted some teeth from some unlucky Peruvians), decided to hand out vast quantities of candy. While the orthodontists handed out candies, I couldnt stop thinking, this is why 99% of all adults in my town have cavities. Moreover, I just couldnt stop laughing at the fact that no one in my health post thought this was ironic. I guess they are just used to the irony and seemingly senseless promotions that occur in Peru!

Following the health promotion clinic I got my first call from my parents, which was amazing and quite entertaining. While talking to my parents really brightened my day, the fact that I had to dodge falling drunk guys like heat seeking red turtle shells in a game of battle mode in mario cart racing made the conversation truly noteworthy. As I was talking to my parents I had the privilege to watch one old guy fall straight to the ground and another guy come up to me with a druken stupor, begging me to drink with him....Sadly this is something I am going to have to get used to due my towns insistence on getting completely hammered basically every sunday. Its so bad that after lunch I dont want to leave the house because I fear/know I will have to consume large quantities of cuñaso with 40/50 year old Peruvian (slurring) men.

Following the escapades of Sunday I was once again struck by the diarrhea bug. Although it lasted only one day and wasnt too painful, I did have to stay in the house most of the day in order to regain back my energy. Lets just say that I went to the bathroom twice in the morning and stayed in their for 30 minute durations while every liquid and solid mass flew out of my body like its freedom relied on the velocity it came out...Sadly I was almost impressed how much left my body! I apologize to those with weak stomachs and vivid imaginations, however i believe that these bowel problems of mine are quite funny after the fact...

The REAL Peruvian Experience Begins....

After ten weeks of constant stress and continous training my friends and I have finally become volunteers. Following our graduation ceremony we all shared laughs and cries as we began to realize that our weeks together were finally over. Although I thought I would be estatic to end Peace Corps training, a major part of me wanted to continue, due solely to the friendships I had made (which were being forced to end as we became volunteers) during the ten weeks of training. While I pride myself on my ability to stay calm and mentally tough, I could not have been more of an emotional train wreck. As I was saying goodbye to two of my good buddies (who I probably wont see for at least one year) I realized how close we had all become in such a short span of time. For 10 weeks we had endured the ups and downs of training and had managed to become blood brothers/members of a united wolf pack. Now like 7 year old spartan warriors we were being asked to prove ourselves out in the wild, better known as Peru...Hopefully like King Leonidus we will be able to conquer our fears (not to mention kill a wolf-300 reference) and feelings of loneliness on our quest to become successful PC volunteers.

Following our graduation and of course my emotional breakdown, the Piura volunteers and I took a bus ride that we would never forget. Although I thought I would have trouble sleeping due to my nerves, I never would have imagined that a 1 yr old baby (Devils son) would be the cause of my restlessness. Lets just say for three hours I was deciding which pillow would work best to suffocate this devil child... Hopefully the first hours of my service as a PC volunteer are not a precursor for the rest of my time here in Peru....

After spending two days in Piura City buying groceries and flea repellent, Megan and I (sitemate) finally set off to Sicchez, which would be our home for the next two years...Following our 7 hours bus ride into the sierra of Peru we arrived in Sicchez ready for our Peruvian experience to begin...

Although previous volunteers have told us that the first weeks start off really slow, my time in Sicchez has been nothing but fast paced. Not only have I met a majority of the town leaders but I have also met with floor contractors, who will hopefully finish putting concrete on my floors before Sicchez becomes overrun with rain and mud. In addition to meeting many "important" people in my town, I have had my fair shair of run-ins with the town drunks, whose drink of choice is Cunyaso, a cheap but deadly alcoholic beverage. Cunyaso, which I believe is made out of everclear, volcanic lava and baboons ass is the worst drink I have tasted in my life. While discussing U.S immigration policies with 5 Peruvians, I was forced to drink Cunyaso, which made me want to rip out my stomach and cry for my mom. Not only did it taste like acid but it also made me think that I had superpowers...which I definitely dont have...Following my last shot of Cunyaso I decided that I had enough jumping ability to cross over an entire draining canal, which separated the house from the street. However, just as the movie white man cant jump shows, my white ass cant jump even when I am charged up with an out of this world drink...


P.S. Yesterday was the first glimpse that I got of what Sicchez will look like in the raining season. Although my family told me that the rain was weak in comparison to the storms they recieve in March, I still got an idea of what my town will look like in the raining season...lets just say I am going to be doing alot of reading, writing and watching movies (1/3 of my town leaves during the raining season to visit family elsewhere)

Chipillico, Piura and Alto Puria

I just got back from alta Piura! What an exhausting trip! During the trip I had the pleasure of spending 3 days in Chipillico, a small town in alta Piura where three volunteers are living in close proximity. During the first three days we did some house visits and charlas (talks to kids in local school about some health issue) about self esteem. While these were not that interesting we did have the chance to make a radio spot in the town, which would be broadcasted to the entire valley sometime after we left. The radio spot went pretty well although i definitely realized how gringo my accent is when compared to native speakers. I sometimes have a problem pronunciating every word instead of just flowing every word into the next, which will be something I will have to work on. Following the radio spot we were forced to work the next day (mid day in the searing heat) in a biohuerto (garden) ,which I believe contributed to my bacterial illness, due to the fact that I was already exhausted (immune system was down) and I didnt get to properly wash my hands before eating a popsicle that I rubbed my hands all over (the popsicle is encapsulated in plastic and you have to rip at it to open it up). Consequently, I got a bacterial infection, which almost caused me to pass out the next day when we had meetings with our future socios (future site work companions)... I shouldn´t have gone in the first place to the meetings, however my APCD strongly advised me to attend due to the fact that my socios had come 7 hours away in Sicchez to meet me...So I went and definitely felt like vomiting/passing out the entire time..What a great first impression! Following our meetings I went back to the hostal with some other sick volunteers and we spent the entire afternoon/night glued to our beds (thankfully we did due to the fact that our hostel got robbed that afternoon by two gunmen).

After spending the night in Piura, Megan and I (we are site mates) took the long6 hour journey to Sicchez with our socios. Following the journey we were brought to our host families for a short introduction before heading to the town muncipality in order to meet all the local leaders and most importantly give a speech to the public. Thankfully my speech was a success and all the people enjoyed my enthusiasm and sense of humor...I still dont know how I was able to muster any energy due to my bacterial infection which made every action seemingly impossible. However, I got through it and although I still feel symptoms of nausea a week after contracting the virus...I am still alive and well completely exhausted still...

New Sites to Come...

            Tomorrow morning we are heading to the Peru headquarters in order to find out where we will be living for the next two years of our lives. Although I have done a great job of being unbiased towards 95% of the sites there is one site that I truly hope not to live in…While I don’t feel comfortable saying the name of the town I will say that it looks like a place from the movie Mad Max (As my friend Pat proclaimed when we were showed video of this particular site, “Where is the Thunder dome”). As everyone keeps saying though…you can only hope and pray that you won’t be send there…and if you are, you will just have to re-group and find the good aspects of your site.

            Wish me well!!!

Ancash (Mato, Musho, Juarez)

Following my ass of fire debacle, I had the chance to finally do something new, which came in the form of a 3 day trip to Ancash with my fellow Health colleagues. On the first day we separated into small groups of two in order to teach mothers about childhood stimulation (constantly saying new words in front of your kid, exercising your child’s senses, etc). While I was not able to meet with the two mothers I was assigned to talk with (Peace Corps doesn’t take into account that doing host visits right near lunch hour on a busy workday is not a good idea) I did have a great time participating in a photo shoot with my friend Emily. Although we didn’t perform our task, we sure did get pictures of Mato (first town we visited in Ancash) and ourselves. In the afternoon, my health group of 6 people hung out with kids in the community and made piñata’s, which ended up being pretty fun. Following our arts and crafts session we all had dinner in Mato. Then for whatever reason, following dinner, I got called out to talk to these Peruvian ladies who had assembled outside the place we were eating. Since I didn’t feel like saying a speech in front of 12 Peruvian ladies, I decided to do the next best thing, which was dance erotically in front of them…sadly my erotic dancing provoked them to ask for more thrusting and shirt swinging. Although Peruvians are very reserved people generally, they do love it when people act ‘unreserved’.

After my swinger’s moment in Mato, my health group and I went to Musho early in the morning in order to learn how to build latrines. The volunteer living in Musho was a nice guy who told us some great pointers to get through service and help the maximum amount of people. While he showed us the techniques of building latrines, his best contribution to our group was his advice “Your not here for the goals of the Health program…You are here in order to improve the town in the most ways possible even if it doesn’t correspond necessarily with the health goals”. That was amazing to hear because we are constantly told we need to try and fulfill these set goals even when in some cases the towns already have sufficient amounts of cocina mejoradas or latrines. In addition to his great device, he also helped bake some amazing cupcakes, which were fantastic (mainly due to the fact that Peru does not sell cupcakes or sadly…chocolate chip cookies).

Following our day in Musho we returned to Mato in order to build cocina mejoradas and learn the proper techniques of performing a community diagnostic. While the community diagnostic was nothing to write home about, the cocinas project was informative and quite fun. Since there were only two guys in my group I had to do most of the manual labor work, which consisted of tearing down the existing cocina mejorada and building it back up, primarily with a mix of dried and wet mud. While the cocina is made up of seemingly stone-age materials, it functions well and prevents a majority of the smoke from staying in the kitchen. Let’s just say it works a lot better than the fire-pit method, which makes people want to rip their eyes out from the continued exposure to smoke.

Shortly after building our cocina mejorada in Mato, the health groups were whisked off to Juarez in order to take red eye buses back to Lima. Thankfully, our program directors allowed us to spend a few hours in Juarez to eat and chill out after such an energy-consuming trip. While in Juarez some volunteers and I went to a restaurant called Café Indino, which made us some of the best breakfast burritos and banana pancakes I have ever had in my life. ¡Talk about bon appetite! I felt like going missing in Juarez for awhile just so I could keep going back to that place in the morning…Sadly I think that might be the best breakfast food I might have here in Peru…Pero…¡Espero que no!

El Bosque

Last Sunday I was invited to the annual Bingo day at El Bosque, a private club right near my pueblo. It was quite an amazing and at the same time hilarious experience, due to the fact that I got to swim in a gigantic (more than Olympic size) pool while my family continues to run out of water on a weekly basis. Sadly Yanacoto residents

 only receive water 2 times per week while the country club, El Bosque, has enough water to maintain a lake, two gigantic swimming pools and a forest. While spending time at the pool, I could not help laughing at the situation I was in…Here I was swimming in this private pool in Peru next to barren hillsides which are home to not only my host family but also hundreds more. I felt like an oil tycoon living the high life in some foreign country while the country inhab

itants scrap for food and water…Basically the exact opposite thing I want to achieve while I am in Peru…

            Following my graceful swim in the pool, my buddy Patrick and I went to the main event area where we enjoyed the oddest game I have ever seen in my life. The game consisted of 50 or more boxes surrounding a disoriented cuye (guinea pig). I know…you are saying cruel maybe even inhumane… but I know that you are also saying dam that sounds interesting tell me more. So I will…So the cuye gets put in a designated box right in the middle of 50 other boxes which form a circle around him. After people set their bets on numbers like it’s a roulette table the game master sets down the cuye and the game begins. Following 30 seconds of disorientation, the cuye finally figures out that 40 people, plus the game master are watching him, so it scrambles to the closest box in order to evade the terror that has overcome him…Let’s just say this will only be seen in Peru! I hope!

            After spending time watching the guinea pig run around we participated in a giant game of bingo and then headed off to the cafeteria in order to get some “American” food. While eating my hamburger I had this weird feeling that I was eating an uncooked burger and that I would be paying for this lapse in culinary skills at some point in the near future. Boy could I have been more right…About 2 hours after eating my burger I had Hiroshima rumbles in my stomach, which basically notified me that if you don’t find yourself a bathroom in the next few minutes your bowel system will be surprising you with a good ol’ poo in your pants (Supposedly 70% of Peru volunteers poop their pants at one time during their 2 year service- we have already had two kids join this club due to incidents like this one). Thankfully I arrived just in time to pee out of my butt (sorry about the graphic imagery). Talk about blowing fire from your anus…I felt like I was going to get a second-degree burn it came out so hot. ¡NO BUENO! Following my incident I spent the next two days with major chaffing and an upset stomach, which made me fearful that my upcoming trip in Ancash would be disastrous/unforgettably disastrous.

 

             

Postcards and Feelings of Home

While this post is not going to make anyway laugh the way I hope my previous blogs have I must write to express my gratitude to all the people that have sent me postcards or packages. I am finally beginning to feel that I can stay in touch with the states/family in one way or another. This past week I recieved a hilarious card from my aunt Nina in England, which had one of the funniest and unexpected titles I have ever seen on a card...it said and I am paraphrasing...Dont raise your hand to hit your kids because you would be leaving your groin open. Lets just say I was not expecting that type of card from my aunt. In addition to the card I recieved 2 epìsodes of Californication plus some baseball coverage, which I thought was hilarious due to the fact that it was the day after the Phillies beat the Dodgers to get into the World Series (the dvd had coverage of the rockies vs phillies). I just found out that my grandmother is also sending me a book which should be amazing due to the fact that every volunteer says that I will have more than plenty ´´me´´ time to read or learn an instrument (Peace Corps instrument of choice being the guitar). Although recieving a package in the States is pretty cool usually (unless its a summon to the court)...recieving packages/postcards in Peru is freakin amazing. I cant even describe how I feel when I got to the post office. Even scrooge who works at the post office cant bring down my mood! (Btw why is it that most post office personnel hate life...I should do a research paper on this topic at some point in my life...I feel like it would be not that bad of a job...most people are happy when they recieve packages)

Domingo y Sexto Semana de Entrenamiento y SCORPIONS!

This past Sunday I woke up at 9:15am, which should be considered a miracle due to the music videos my host brothers put on in the morning (Danzas Peruanas- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plavOHZL_MA&feature=related) plus the always obnoxious altavoz/loudspeaker that goes off at 6:30 every morning. Following breakfast with my family I went back to my room to watch the first part of Dances with Wolves before heading off to the internet cafe in order to ichat with the padres (parents not that bad baseball team to the south of LA). It was great to finally see my parents although during my chat with them I realized that two months away from them still hadn't changed my dad's terrible sense of humor. Following our chat I had lunch with my parents, which had to be one of the most depressing lunches I have ever had. During lunch my host dad talked about his struggles being a taxista and how he is at the moment searching for another job (He says it is becoming extremely hard to support the family on his income...which makes me realize that without the Peace Corps monthly stipend they would definitely be in the tanks). He also informed me that his father had left him as a kid and that the reason his brother had been over the night before till 4am (yelling/being a drunken college kid basically) was that his brother was also struggling and had to vent over everything that had happened to them as kids...Let's just say that after our lunch conversation I needed to hit up Pat's place in order to relax and put my mind on something else...which sadly was the worst movie ever created G.I Joe. 

This is now the sixth week of training (4 weeks left before I am living somewhere else for 2 years) and I just wanted to tell you that...I just killed a freakin huge Scorpion. Although I was going to talk about my night out at Chosica this past monday for Brett's birthday,  I believe that this scorpion' assassination that I just participated in is so much more badass...Thanks to my host brother's shreaks and good eyesight I was able to battle it out against a mouse-sized scorpion...I might be exaggerating its size but dam do I feel accomplished/badass right now

Ladrones, Borracheros y Mucho Mas

This past Monday we got a visit from a volunteer serving in the sierra of Ancash. It was great to hear from someone who is actually going through the grind of being a volunteer and what he does to entertain himself when he is having a rough time. Moreover, it was fascinating to hear where he was living and the characters that are living in his town. His host father, the mayor, is widely known as the town drunk and on Christmas the volunteer was awoken by the sound of the mayor taking a piss on the paper-thin wall that separates their rooms. In addition, he showed us pictures of Peruvian mothers who were obviously smashed, walking the streets of his pueblo, with babies over their shoulders and beers in their hands. Although it was a little funny it was sad to see mothers being so cavalier with their children’s safety. I hope if there is anything this volunteer can do it will be to show the mothers and fathers that they need to better examples for their kids…

Following our informational session with the volunteer from Peru 12, some volunteers and I went to Chosica in order to celebrate the city’s anniversary. While it was an amazing experience 3 people in our group were sadly introduced to the renowned thievery that plagues Peru. In fact, Peru has such a reputation for thievery that Bolivians, their poorer neighbors to the east, alert their fellow countrymen when they recognize a Peruvian outsider, in order to reduce the likelihood of being robbed. I hope that I will be able to get through my 2 years of service with little or no incidents of thievery but I am not going to hold my breath. Following our night out in Chosica we were supposed to get a security talk from Enrique, our bad ass security consultant, who was a major in the Peruvian military and is most likely a descendant from King Theonidus (Spartan King from 300), however a major incident had occurred in our group (the previous Saturday), which prevented him from speaking to us…I am not supposed to explain what happened for confidentiality reasons but lets just say it made our small pick pocketing incidents not important. Whatever the case I can’t wait till the next security meeting with Enrique because he reminds me of Robert De’Niro in Meet the Parents. Although he is a great guy I definitely would not want to cross him…if I did I would probably end up in a Peruvian prison having to lick up urine for the rest of eternity.

In other interesting news, this week we got new language groups (language groups were altered so that we would hang out with people in our specific programs) and for the first time our health class went outside the training center to talk with health personal in Chosica. While in Chosica we learned about performing health diagnostics in our rural communities and had the opportunity to go into certain communities around Chosica in order to with the people about the major needs/issues in their pueblos. Although it was sad to see people living in certain conditions I couldn’t help but be perplexed by some people’s views on life. Maybe being an only child in the United States has predisposed me to this viewpoint, but I believe parents should not have a kid (or in this case of Peru another kid) unless they have the financial wherewithal to do so…One of the major problems I have seen her is the lack of foresight, especially in regards to having a family. So many families, including my host family, are cash strapped due to what I perceive is a cultural insistence on having a large family (My host family thought my real parents were crazy or had something wrong with them when they found out I was an only child…they couldn’t grasp the fact that my parents had made the decision to have only one in order to provide the best life for me). Although it is going to be hard to change this cultural norm, I hope that when I get to my next site I will be able to work with some organization on the benefits of family planning. While this is a touchy subject, I hope I will be able to make some headway into this issue, because I definitely believe having smaller families would drastically change the quality of life for most Peruvians.

Changing to a different topic, it was great to get my second bout of con bicicleta this past Saturday. Following a very suspicious dinner of sopa de maiz (corn soup) I woke up to the feelings of world war 3 in my stomach. Consequently I rushed to the bathroom and felt the surge of what seemed like 8 pounds of poop rush out of my body. What a feeling! Although I thought I was done with my diarrheic symptoms I was granted the surprise rush of stomach pain while driving back from La Agraria (45 min drive from our training center) on the already uncomfortable combi. While I was lucky not to have pooped my pants on the drive back (thus joining the 70% of volunteers who poop their pants while in Peru) I did get to have the lovely experience of sitting on the toilet 3 times in an 1 1/2 hour time frame. Lets just say diarrhea and I have become unlikely friends and will probably remain unlikely friends for the next two years to come!

Danzas and Chaclacayo Library

This past sunday I finally had the chance to sleep in, however thanks to my throbbing bladder pains, Yanacoto´s loud speaker (altavoz) and loud host siblings I was forced to wake up at 7:40 in the morning. For whatever reason there is a person in Yanacoto that is permitted to go on this loud speaker at an inhumane hour in order to inform the people in my barrio about god knows what...Some volunteers and I who live in Yanacoto have tried to figure out where this guy lives so we can disappear him, HOWEVER we have yet to figure out his whereabouts and consequently he still continues to wake us up at around 6:40am everyday. ¡Que lastima! (What a shame!) Well after waking up I decided to eat with my host siblings (host mom went to church at 8am and my host dad was taking a coma) and begin my spanish harry potter book. After reading my harry potter book and realizing how i could integrate words like wand and witches into my spanish vocabulary I decided to work on my homework so that I would not have to worry about it later on when I was supposed to be at the local colegio watching my host brother and sister do peruvian national dances (and for whatever reason they added grease and michael jackson dances to the ancient incan dances-don´t ask me why).
Following lunch with my family I went to Patricks house in order to relax and watch some soccer on the television. I am so glad that someone in my neighborhood has espn deportes because watching religious movies everyday gets a bit old after awhile...After watching a game between real madrid and sevilla Patrick and I went to the local colegio in order to get seats and watch the ancient peruvian dances (coupled with some dances form MJ and Grease). Watching some of the kids dance was amazing, especially the kids that weren´t apart of the dancing group that decided to run into the middle of the stage and make their own interpretive dances. Following the ¨danzas¨ there was a fireworks show which was quite impressive especially due to the fact that one guy decided to but this huge contraption on his back which was blowing fireworks off in every direction...Let´s just say it was dangerous to be in the area of this fireworks show.
Despues de los fuegos artificiales (After the fireworks) I went to Patricks house to watch a movie before finally going to bed. After waking up at 7 in the morning due to the loudspeaker I decided to lay in my bed a little bit longer so that the ¨bear¨ in me would not come out (my parents call me the bear in the morning when I am a bit feisty). What started off as a rocky day turned for the worse when I had my inability to converse day which every volunteer seems to have. I felt like a baby learning to say his first word...I could barely understand my parents (especially my father who tends to mumble his words from time to time) and my vocabulary was about the same as a mute person. ¡Que lastima! I felt like screaming however I am pretty sure I would not have been able to do that correctly...Thankfully my rough day turned for the better when some volunteers and I went to the local library in order to play/hang out with kids in the community. Many kids live with drug abusing parents so it was nice to be able to help out and make their days a little better...even if it was just for an hour. The great thing is many volunteers have already begun to make an effort to help out in their own communities even though there has been no pressure to do so...

PC Birthday's

Since last Sunday we have already had two birthday celebrations for Peru Peace Corps Volunteers. The first celebration was this Monday for Travis. For his birthday, Olivia, a PC volunteer, called a Mariachi band and had everybody clapping and singing to Mexican Mariachi canciones. The best part of the celebration was the surprised look on all of our faces as we heard a Mexican Mariachi band interrupt our training session. We all couldn’t believe it…While Travis’ birthday was great I knew that I had to think of something interesting and comical for my best friend Patrick. My ideas were calling in a stripper (immediately crushed after realizing our training director was a former nun) or a clown. However, while talking with the local librarian about volunteering and possibly renting a Harry Potter book in Spanish I happened to encounter a Barney costume. Although the Barney costume looked like it had gone through both world wars I knew it was the best plan I had…Consequently I asked the librarian the day of Patrick’s birthday if I could use the costume for the day in order to spice up my friends birthday. Thankfully she obliged and I whisked off with the costume just in time to surprise Patrick at the training center. While the costume might have given me skin and respiratory diseases it was quite the reaction, not only from him but also the entire volunteer group. I have yet to see the pictures, however I am sure they will be great…Following Pat’s birthday at the training center we all grabbed a few beers at the local tavern and then headed back to our host families for dinner. After dinner I went to Patrick’s house to hang out and watch a movie. Although I thought the night was over after watching Orange County, Patrick got a surprise birthday celebration from his family, which included eating cake and watching a video of the 90’s greatest rock hits.

Lima, Training and Estar con bicicleta

I am sorry that it has been so long since I last blogged however I have been very busy with a host of trips throughout the department of Lima. More noteworthy I have been overcome with extreme bowel movements that the Peruvians have coined as "estar con bicicleta". While I don't understand the connotation of the term exactly I have basically been dealing with diarrhea for about 4 or 5 days now. I am still not sure what I ate or the reason for my continued bowel movements however it started last thursday night when i awoke at 3:3oam sweating and with terrible stomach pain. While the stomach pain declined after giving my offering to the porcelain god I still had a nagging headache and fever. Consequently I took some Vitamin C tablets, Pepto and advil (designed for headache/fever) to try and resuscitate myself before heading to Lima in the morning. Although I probably shouldnt have gone to Lima in the morning after my nights debacle, I decided to suck it up and head with my group to the capital city. After a short trip we arrived in the smoggy condensed city of Lima. I hope my description of the city demonstrates my true feelings toward the city...Following a short tour/lunch in Lima my language group followed my professor to Miraflores, a nice suburb of the city. Miraflores was amazing (great food, atmosphere and location-right near the beach) however my friends and I would regret staying as long as we did...Following a failed attempt to go to a bar with 30+ gringos my friends Patrick, Pete and John decided to head back to Yanacoto in time for dinner. While we realized we would probably be a little late to dinner(dinner is usually at 730) we wanted to make it back in a reasonable hour so that our host parents would not worry about us or waste food on our absent bodies. However what we failed to realize was that by leaving at 6:00pm from Miraflores we would be leaving at prime traffic hours and that a trip of one hour would take more than 3 hours. While 3 1/2 hours in a bus fails in comparison to my bus trip from rio de janeiro to iguazu (30+ hours) the trip is noteworthy due to the fact that all of us except for John had to stand up for most of the time in a crowded combi (peruvian bus). More noteworthy is the sad reality that we jumped on a combi that was on the verge of breaking down (at one point the combi traveled at around 5 mph for 2 miles after having already broken down twice in the city). The combi was in such bad shape in fact that one peruvian lady threatened to call the cops on the driver because he was burning up the clutch so bad trying to get the bus rolling. After 3 1/2 hours of pure hell we finally reached our destination and chugged up the hill to get to bed so that we would get a decent amount of sleep before heading off to the outskirts of Lima at 730 in the morning.

Following another bout of "estar con bicicleta" in the morning I rolled out to chaclacayo to meet with the other gringos and take a bus out to La Agraria. Before heading onto the bus my erratic bowel patterns made me question my ability to be in a bus for over 30 minutes however i took the risk and jumped in the combi. After finally making it to La Agraria I was glad to not be apart of the 70% club (70% of Peruvian peace corps volunteers poop their pants during service...generally on bus rides) however my symptoms made my experience at the botanical college mostly awful. I had the chills, no energy and until I drank some hot tea was probably in the worst mood since I had arrived in Peru. Following my gloomy morning experience at La Agraria some girls and I went to lunch in Chaclacayo, which was an uplifting and fun experience (although my mornings dreary attitude bore the brunt of some jokes). Despues de almuerzo, I returned to Yanacoto to take a nap and have dinner with my family before (stupidly) going out to the bars in Chosica. While going out was not the greatest idea I felt it was a necessary release from the weekly strain of constantly going to training from 8am to 5pm…Lets not forget I have been used to getting up at 10am, eating pancakes, working out and then hanging out with friends for most of the summer so this has been quite the shock for me! After a short night out on the town I decided to get to bed early so that I could possibly revive myself for the upcoming week.

            Little did I know that my host family would be up at 8am on Sunday listening to religious songs! I felt that I had awoken to a living nightmare…After realizing that the songs would persist for awhile I decided to join the family and have some breakfast. Following breakfast I took a short siesta and watched a few scenes of Apocalypse Now before being called to lunch. What I thought would be an uneventful lunch with my family turned into an hour sermon with the “lider” of the church on the 3 tenants of faith in the Evangelical church as well as the obstacles that men face before reaching the gates of heaven. Lets just say I never had any religious conversations with my family while eating…EVER. However, since arriving in Yanacoto I have become quite accustomed to hearing all aspects of Evangelical faith and now believe that I am even stronger in my beliefs that I will never pass my faith/lack of faith to anyone else…

            Following lunch I went to work on my finishing my language homework and began to prepare my excuse as to why I didn’t feel comfortable going to church anymore…Although I want to immerse myself in the culture and strengthen my relationship with my host family, I feel that my time would be better spent improving my Spanish vocabulary and conversing with my friend Pat’s Peruvian brother (who has been quite helpful due to his persistence in making us always speak Spanish in front of him as well as his willingness to deal with our at times mangled Spanish). Well thankfully for me this past Sunday I was able to get out of another reunion (refer back to my first post if u forgot about the peculiarity of Evangelical reunions), which saved me 2 1/2 hours in a church and the strange feeling of holding up a sign in front of about 100 Peruvians. Thank goodness for young host brothers/sisters who need to be in bed by 9pm!

            Well hopefully next week is just as eventful as the previous two…just without all the drama, estar con bicicleta and continuous religious conversations!

                       

           

             

Futbol, Chosica y Rabid Dogs

While adjusting to the chernobyl air quality in Yanacoto has been tough to say the least (many residents burn their trash creating a fog of toxins that would make even lance armstrong weeze after walking 2o feet) there have been many aspects of my Yanacoto living experience that have dramatically improved since I last blogged. For instance I finally took the plunge into my everest cold shower the other day after realizing that I could no longer continue to disregard my personal hygiene. Although I have been great about brushing my teeth and washing my hands (in fear that i either would begin to have nasty brown teeth or suffer severe diarrahea which is a major problem among peace corps volunteers in Peru) the thought of a cold shower seemed too overwhelming to overcome. However after days of contemplation and sweaty armpits I finally decided that enough was enough... While the rush of the freezing cold water made me act like a person performing in dances with the stars it was nice to finally smell good again.
Since arriving in Yanacoto I have had a steady diet of rice, rice and more rice. Although I have yet to have rice in the morning it seems that it is only a matter of time before they put rice on my plate with eggs and bread. I know that once i get back to the states i will definitely not have rice for probably a year...The great thing about it is all the volunteers are having the same diet and during lunch we essentially compare the amounts of rice we have in our prepared lunches. I cannot complain too much though due to the fact that all the families resources are severely limited and my host mother does everything possible to make sure that I at least have something else to supplement the rice and potatoes.
Although I have been having a great time since arriving in Peru last thursday was an incredible experience. Some volunteers and I decided to go to the closest city, Chosica, after training in order to play soccer at this amazing turf soccer field. Although it was quite small (big enough for a 6 on 6 game for Peruvians) we had enough room to play 4 on 4 and then 5 on 5 when two peruvians decided to join our game. While my soccer abilities don´t remind most people of cristiano ronaldo I was able to muster a few goals and some respect from the local players. After finishing our set of soccer games the owner of the stadium demanded we take a picture with his camera to put in his office...lets just say we thought we were pretty cool or as the people in peru say pensamos que fuimos la cagada...we thought we were the shit.
After going to training friday we finally had the weekend to relax, hang out, complete a few peace corps assigments and go out at night...Although friday was not worth talking about due to the fact that everyone felt too tired to go out, saturday was filled with noteworthy events. First my buddy Nate and I went to Chosica to talk to the local health administrators about viviendas saludables (healthy living areas) in Peru. After finishing our assignment we went back to Yanacoto where I had lunch with my family and then had the opportunity to participate in a local soccer match at the nearby high school. Although it was not as fun as our game in chosica it was great to be out in the community and meet some of the people who live in my cerro. Moreover, my buddy tyler and I impressed quite a few people with our double header connection for a goal...although it was quite impressive we still lost the game 3-1. While peruvians are notoriously bad at soccer, they are still better than a gringo who is finally beginning to learn and play the game...After finishing the game all the pc volunteers had dinner and got ready for the night upcoming. While it was hard to connect with everyone in our volunteer group (due to the fact that peace corps does not give us phones during training) about 12 volunteers from my community, yanacoto, went to chosica for the night. Although the night started off a bit strange with the dance floor being traded between the peruvians and us.. it finally got better when i decided to run onto the dance floor during a lull and basically do my best impersonation of ben stiller in along came polly. Lets just say the dancing pistols were out of the holster!
After saturday nights dancing fest i woke up sunday morning at 830 to go out to the "famous" hieroglyphics nearby. Lets just say there is a huge drawing of a snake and a head in the sand and my parents dont even think it was incan or pre-incan but in fact just some old residents from Yanacoto who decided to draw some images in the sand. Whatever the case may be it was definitely not what I thought it was going to be...After my expedition I went with my family to a birthday/christian event that was full of child games with religious overtones. What turned from a different experience turned very noteworthy when my family made me present myself in front of the entire group and explain who I was...in spanish...Moreover, I was later asked to talk in front of the entire group about my experience that day and how I met the birthday man...i met him last week (it was a 50th birthday party without alcohol and full of games like el baile de los patos...the dancing duck game...lets just say its been a little different then my experience at U of A or anywhere else I have been in my life!)

Yanacoto

Since arriving in Peru last friday I have been in constant motion due to the extensive peace corps training and my host family´s four young children. After the first 2 days of training in Lima I thought that training could not be more tiring (waking up at 7:30 and attending classes till 5...then eating and going to discotechas until 12 with the other peace corps volunteers). However, I could not have been more wrong. After meeting my host family on sunday and departing with them to the city of yanacoto, peru i had the mistaken perception that i would finally be able to get a good nights rest. HA...wrong again. After putting my bags down i immediately began to talk to my host father walter about american politics, peruvian politics and the influence of chavez in south america. Then we immediately transitioned into a quick dinner before heading off to chosica in order to find me an alarm clock and get a tour of the city. While touring chosica and el parque principal i had the pleasure of seeing a dance off between two aspiring hip hop dance groups who pranced around to michael jackson songs. Although i thought this was enough entertainment for the night i did not realize that hours later i would be holding up a poster for a peruvian pastor to read. I am not sure how to transition into my first peruvian mass experience however i will say that it was quite a show. It reminded me of my days at notre dame high school combined with a hint of the film borat where people in the front rows throw themselves around in odd manners. QUITE THE EXPERIENCE! After mass my family decided to go to dinner once again with other church members where i gorged myself with endless food until it was finally time to say goodnight. Following a short sleep i woke up the next morning exhausted and not ready to start my first week of real pc training in chaclamayo peru. What started as a peaceful breakfast quickly turned into a mad scramble to get to the training site on time. As my host mother and i rushed to the buses i failed to remember the recklessness of south american bus drivers. Consequently after stepping into the bus i was greeted with a quick burst of speed resulting in my quick fall to the ground right in front of a bus load of peruvians...talk about making a first impression in my town...After make disgraceful fall my host mom and i showed up to the training site 10 minutes late to the looks of...really...late on the first day...Well what can you do...as my host mom said i finally transitioned into the peruvian lifestyle of showing up late to all important things. Well i could go on about my last two days however i feel that they fail in comparison to my first day in yanacoto so i will end my first post right here.