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!
Great to hear from you! Sorry about the toilet episodes!! It sounds hopeful that u may start doing a little more hands on training now. Have a great week, love mumxx
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