This is me continuing my detailed holiday account
On Christmas Day itself, I found myself in a better mood, managed to listen to Frank Sinatra’s ¨Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas¨ sans lagrimas (tears) and had a nice whole hearted breakfast of chicken and rice with my family (this was of course, after my daily L.S.M. (loose stool movement). We (the six other Peru fourteeners in Tumbes) and I decided to hit up the beach for the day to catch a little Vitamin D. We headed over to a town called La Cruz where I have two friends volunteering. I will never take for granted the fact that I have a beach 30 minutes from my house. We all hung out, bronzed and swam out to one of the fishing boats that had been left empty for the day. After falsely believing I had enough upper body strength to haul my +10lbs. body onto the stern and failing miserably, I was helped aboard and we all chilled out on a boat that made me thankful I had gotten my tetanus shot. Seriously.
After swimming back to shore, we got some ceviche for lunch and had a few cervezas and broke out the Gato Negro (Chilean boxed wine). I’m not sure if I’ve detailed for you all ceviche but it’s pretty good here and I’m getting used to it. It’s raw fish soaked in lime juice which is acidic enough to kill all the bacteria that would otherwise, make you sick form eating fish straight out of the ocean. So we ate all that up, exchanged secret santa gifts and headed back to the playa where we continued our festivities into the late afternoon by playing extreme soccer boys vs. girls style. Two days later, my body is still sore and if it’s possible, I have sand-burn on my legs.
That night, we all had a slumber party at my friend Allyse’s where I shouldn’t have, but did, watch the Exorcism of Emily Rose (how Christmas appropriate- not). I had no idea that “Emily Rose” is Deb from Dexter (one of my favorite tv shows)! So that made it a little bit more bearable to watch (I kept my eyes closed for the majority of the film) but still found it hard to sleep last night. Unluckily for me though, a mosquito found his/her/its way into my mosquito net last night and now I am +13 bug bites on the legs. I question myself every day why Noah thought it was necessary to let those God-forsaken bugs on his ark and not unicorns. Talk about a bad trade off.
Speaking of unicorns, I finally put up both my world and US map (that Abby had given me) in my room and I looked super cultured now with those put up along with my Peruvian art posters! One of them was a secret santa gift given to me by a man that works in my health post. It’s a framed poster of a princess with a crown full of diamonds blowing magic dust into the air that manifests itself into a unicorn jumping over the moon. Let’s just say that Peruvians and I may have different tastes in wall art. Don’t worry, I will put a picture of it up on facebook.
So yes folks, there you have it- my first Christmas in Peru. I made it through alive, am still here, and can’t wait until New Years now! I hope you all had a nice time with family and whether you celebrate Christmas or not, enjoyed their company during the holiday season! I would like to give a shout out to my Papa Jim who unfairly had to spend Christmas Eve, Day and more in the hospital recuperating from both jaw and hip surgery. However, I have heard that his spirit has not faltered and I want you to know Papa Jim that I love you so much and wish I could be there with you! Also, happy birthday to mama kane (re: Emmy Lou) who celebrated her ____ birthday yesterday! Love you mom!
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Deck the Halls
Hi guys! I know, it’s been awhile…sorry! It’s not because unexciting things are going on, it was actually because too many things were going on and I couldn’t find a chance to write. But, to let you all know, I survived Christmas without a tear shed! I wouldn’t say the same for Christmas Eve, that’s a different story but Christmas Day was a day well spent. Although Christmas has come and gone, but for me, it’s still happening because I am continuing to receive all of your all’s thoughtful gifts! Really, you’re amazing. Uncle Jeff and Aunt Debbie? You must have noticed that my skin complexion is deteriorating due to the 98% humidity and I thank you for the Neutrogena Wave! My face already feels more exfoliated and clean (they have a 100% guarantee folks). Also, my dad is going to buy crabs tomorrow so they can try the old bay with them! I have no idea how my family is planning on preparing the little crustaceans but with enough old bay, it’s gotta taste pretty good. And Uncle Tim and Patty? I’m using that amazon gift card to finally buy a constellation map of the southern hemisphere and maybe a yoga book so I can be a semi-professional yoga teacher. So thanks for all of that fam!
This week I have been exposed to a los of new customs. I have learned to eat paneton and drink hot chocolate with ease (despite the fact that I truly believe it has been the cause of all of my diarrhea this week), drink pisco straight from the bottle (brings me back to my Kumchaka vodka days of college), milk cows and celebrate Christmas Peruvian style. I will now detail for you all, the events that passed on Dec. 24th and 25th.
I woke up Christmas Eve at 5:30 in the morning so I could go with my cousin Ronny to get the daily milk. From a cow’s udders. We walked up a hill to my neighbor’s house and I sat in awe as I watched my first cow get milked. It was awesome! My sister came along for the ride too and remarked at one point how one of the calfs was “bien gordita” (pretty fat). I then replied in broken Spanish (yes, it’s still broken) that just because this particular calf’s ribs weren’t protruding like Christian Bale’s in “The Machinist” doesn’t mean it’s fat. It means it’s not starving to death from eating solely dry crumpled corn husks. She didn’t see my point. This is interesting for me to note because I consider my sister “bien gordita” and think it would be a good idea for her to lay off the butter and sugar for a bit (then again, I should probably too). So yes, after that was finished we walked down with about a liter and a half of warm, fresh, leche de vaca. I was in a great mood. This mood was severely shaken (not broken, just rattled) when I passed by cute little ol grandma’s house. My uncle Keko was outside skinning one of the sheep my cousin herds around all day. Now, I was okay with what I was watching because I recognized it as a glimpse of the Circle of Life but couldn’t help but commenting how mean it was to have two other sheep brought out and tied up right next to their now, hair-less friend, getting a glimpse of what lay in store for them in about ten more minutes. Once again, my perro Blanco was chewing on something raw and rather grizzly looking (not to mention fresh out of the abdominal cavity) and made myself promise I would never let him lick me again. I def. heard a few animal’s cries and bleeps cut short suddenly throughout that whole day. YUM! peta obvi hasn’t made its way down south yet. Don’t worry, we had chicken for dinner.
Later that afternoon, my sister roused me from my afternoon siesta to tell me there were some community moms outside wanting to speak with me. Thinking this was going to be a conversation about teaching English classes, I sat down on a bench as ten mothers came around and swarmed me like chum in a shark tank. One introduced herself and after saludos were exchanged, asked me if I could be a madrina, or godmother to her son who was graduating from primary school next week. I was once warned in training to be wary of being a godparent because it at times, can leave you in debt to financially aiding children which can really suck. However, I was told I was going to be only a “second godmother”, which all I had to do was buy a little quarter of a cake for a kid for his graduation party. Feeling like this couldn’t end too badly, I said yeah, I can buy a cake and come to your party on Tuesday night. This is when it got bad. The mothers invaded my house to talk to my mom. I then found out that there was not just one child involved, there were seventeen. I accepted into being a godmother to seventeen of them slash buying seventeen fourths of a cake. I had been tricked (or so it felt like it). After they left, my dad informed me of the cost of these little “cakes” and after doing the math, it looked like I was about to spend a fourth of my monthly stipend buying sweets for kids I had never met before. He also informed me that the mothers had come to me because they assumed I had money because I am white. How little do they know. In reality, I am poor and a volunteer but they don’t see it that way. So as a result, I felt tricked AND used. And shitty. I threw my mango on the floor, stomped to my room and shut my door when I proceeded to have a little mini cry sesh. I think the crying was also provoked by the fact that I was 4000 miles away from home for Christmas and Josh Groban’s “Silent Night” was playing in the background.
Unfortunately for my friend Maggie, she called in the middle of all of this. I, like an emotional woman during her time of the month, cried and said I wanted to go home (sorry you had to be the one on the other side of the line, mags I swear I’m not always like that). I went to lie down on the bed so I could talk in a more relaxed manner when my bed collapsed out from under me and fell into three pieces. This provoked more tears and anger at the fact that people believe you can sleep comfortably on wooden slats with cardboard covering them in the first place (there is a little thin mattress that goes on top of the cardboard, no worries). However, after time, I calmed down, collected my thoughts, got my brother to re-nail my bed together and took a nap (disclaimer: the next day I went to one of the mothers and informed them that Peace Corps didn’t allow me to take part in any godparent business for reasons that in reality, are completely invalid but worked enough so that I got out of being a madrina and now don’t have to worry about getting 17 professionally decorated cakes for little rugrats).
With regards to what we actually did Christmas-related on Thursday was completely different than what I was used to. Part of the family went to Mass and afterwards, sat around (I took a powernap) until midnight when we lit fireworks and ate dinner. Dinner was actually pretty good minus the wine that was served that tastes like (and I quote my Tumbes friend Greg) “Welsch’s grape juice with three times as much sugar.” We had chicken and rice (a novelty), pasta (bleh) and tomatoes (mmm!) with paneton (fruitcake like- double bleh) and chocolate cocoa. Afterwards, we all sat outside and passed the botella while drinking wine and pisco. I finally called it quits around 2 and hit the hay.
I will give my family a lot of credit though. They really tried hard to make my Christmas as American-friendly as possible. They made a makeshift stocking for me and filled it with candy and gave me a set of earrings, a ring and a Peruvian party shirt (*see 80’s styled clothing) that really meant a lot to me. They really are good people. My mom Rebecca (mother of Pili) from Tres de Octubre also called to wish me a Feliz Navidad which was super great and sent love from the whole fam. I miss them a lot too. They said that my room is still vacio if I want to come back whenever to use it.
Okay, I wasn’t really planning on writing this much for just Christmas Eve so I’ll pick up my next story (Christmas Day) in my next blog so you all don’t feel like your eyes are going to pop out. To be continued…
This week I have been exposed to a los of new customs. I have learned to eat paneton and drink hot chocolate with ease (despite the fact that I truly believe it has been the cause of all of my diarrhea this week), drink pisco straight from the bottle (brings me back to my Kumchaka vodka days of college), milk cows and celebrate Christmas Peruvian style. I will now detail for you all, the events that passed on Dec. 24th and 25th.
I woke up Christmas Eve at 5:30 in the morning so I could go with my cousin Ronny to get the daily milk. From a cow’s udders. We walked up a hill to my neighbor’s house and I sat in awe as I watched my first cow get milked. It was awesome! My sister came along for the ride too and remarked at one point how one of the calfs was “bien gordita” (pretty fat). I then replied in broken Spanish (yes, it’s still broken) that just because this particular calf’s ribs weren’t protruding like Christian Bale’s in “The Machinist” doesn’t mean it’s fat. It means it’s not starving to death from eating solely dry crumpled corn husks. She didn’t see my point. This is interesting for me to note because I consider my sister “bien gordita” and think it would be a good idea for her to lay off the butter and sugar for a bit (then again, I should probably too). So yes, after that was finished we walked down with about a liter and a half of warm, fresh, leche de vaca. I was in a great mood. This mood was severely shaken (not broken, just rattled) when I passed by cute little ol grandma’s house. My uncle Keko was outside skinning one of the sheep my cousin herds around all day. Now, I was okay with what I was watching because I recognized it as a glimpse of the Circle of Life but couldn’t help but commenting how mean it was to have two other sheep brought out and tied up right next to their now, hair-less friend, getting a glimpse of what lay in store for them in about ten more minutes. Once again, my perro Blanco was chewing on something raw and rather grizzly looking (not to mention fresh out of the abdominal cavity) and made myself promise I would never let him lick me again. I def. heard a few animal’s cries and bleeps cut short suddenly throughout that whole day. YUM! peta obvi hasn’t made its way down south yet. Don’t worry, we had chicken for dinner.
Later that afternoon, my sister roused me from my afternoon siesta to tell me there were some community moms outside wanting to speak with me. Thinking this was going to be a conversation about teaching English classes, I sat down on a bench as ten mothers came around and swarmed me like chum in a shark tank. One introduced herself and after saludos were exchanged, asked me if I could be a madrina, or godmother to her son who was graduating from primary school next week. I was once warned in training to be wary of being a godparent because it at times, can leave you in debt to financially aiding children which can really suck. However, I was told I was going to be only a “second godmother”, which all I had to do was buy a little quarter of a cake for a kid for his graduation party. Feeling like this couldn’t end too badly, I said yeah, I can buy a cake and come to your party on Tuesday night. This is when it got bad. The mothers invaded my house to talk to my mom. I then found out that there was not just one child involved, there were seventeen. I accepted into being a godmother to seventeen of them slash buying seventeen fourths of a cake. I had been tricked (or so it felt like it). After they left, my dad informed me of the cost of these little “cakes” and after doing the math, it looked like I was about to spend a fourth of my monthly stipend buying sweets for kids I had never met before. He also informed me that the mothers had come to me because they assumed I had money because I am white. How little do they know. In reality, I am poor and a volunteer but they don’t see it that way. So as a result, I felt tricked AND used. And shitty. I threw my mango on the floor, stomped to my room and shut my door when I proceeded to have a little mini cry sesh. I think the crying was also provoked by the fact that I was 4000 miles away from home for Christmas and Josh Groban’s “Silent Night” was playing in the background.
Unfortunately for my friend Maggie, she called in the middle of all of this. I, like an emotional woman during her time of the month, cried and said I wanted to go home (sorry you had to be the one on the other side of the line, mags I swear I’m not always like that). I went to lie down on the bed so I could talk in a more relaxed manner when my bed collapsed out from under me and fell into three pieces. This provoked more tears and anger at the fact that people believe you can sleep comfortably on wooden slats with cardboard covering them in the first place (there is a little thin mattress that goes on top of the cardboard, no worries). However, after time, I calmed down, collected my thoughts, got my brother to re-nail my bed together and took a nap (disclaimer: the next day I went to one of the mothers and informed them that Peace Corps didn’t allow me to take part in any godparent business for reasons that in reality, are completely invalid but worked enough so that I got out of being a madrina and now don’t have to worry about getting 17 professionally decorated cakes for little rugrats).
With regards to what we actually did Christmas-related on Thursday was completely different than what I was used to. Part of the family went to Mass and afterwards, sat around (I took a powernap) until midnight when we lit fireworks and ate dinner. Dinner was actually pretty good minus the wine that was served that tastes like (and I quote my Tumbes friend Greg) “Welsch’s grape juice with three times as much sugar.” We had chicken and rice (a novelty), pasta (bleh) and tomatoes (mmm!) with paneton (fruitcake like- double bleh) and chocolate cocoa. Afterwards, we all sat outside and passed the botella while drinking wine and pisco. I finally called it quits around 2 and hit the hay.
I will give my family a lot of credit though. They really tried hard to make my Christmas as American-friendly as possible. They made a makeshift stocking for me and filled it with candy and gave me a set of earrings, a ring and a Peruvian party shirt (*see 80’s styled clothing) that really meant a lot to me. They really are good people. My mom Rebecca (mother of Pili) from Tres de Octubre also called to wish me a Feliz Navidad which was super great and sent love from the whole fam. I miss them a lot too. They said that my room is still vacio if I want to come back whenever to use it.
Okay, I wasn’t really planning on writing this much for just Christmas Eve so I’ll pick up my next story (Christmas Day) in my next blog so you all don’t feel like your eyes are going to pop out. To be continued…
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
i broke the public computer´s keyboard while writing this
Yello folks, how’s that cold weather treating you? Great? You love it? Florida can suck it? hmmm..yeah that’s what I thought. Cold weather here is nonexistent and I’m just getting a taste right now of what the months of January and February will be bringing. Hell. I am utterly convinced that the Devil would have a jolly ol time up in this joint. I’m not saying this place resembles hell, no way! It just is as hot as it. I currently wear three items of clothing in rotation. A white elastic-banded skirt which has a tendency to get stuck in my underwear, knee-length maroon shorts, and a pair of Nike running shorts. These all accommodate my inflated/bloated self, which probably results form eating rice for every GD meal. I would throw my other pair of Nike shorts into the rotation as well, but a puppy peed all over them and I haven’t washed an item of clothing (minus underwear) since I got here.
Yesterday I went to one of the primary schools to talk with the principal about teaching a culture or geography class during summer vacation which starts in January. After kind of getting shut down in favor of playing sports all day (which Im planning on doing also) I retreated home, hot and sweaty and ready for a nap. My family, sensing my overheatedness, suggested we all go the river Tumbes to cool off which I was definitely in favor of. The river comes into Tumbes from Ecuador and right now is pretty low since we haven’t had rain since last January. However, it still was awesome. Its only a three minute walk from my house and the water is perfect (clean, I’m not so sure, but it felt great). My mom, brother, sister, cousins and I all hung out, sitting and swimming along, making way when horses carrying tons of corn passed through from nearby chacras and calling out to the herd of sheep that was left stranded on an island by my cousin Ronny, who decided it was more important to play water tag than feed his pets (he got a spanking later for that). My family kept talking about how little fish were nibbling at them (which I didn’t believe) until something WITH TEETH latched on to my ring on my left hand. This induced heavy screaming on my part so after shaking JAWS off, I lost all street cred with my family as far as being cool with wildlife. Beware the Peruvian water, folks. I was soon laughing hysterically though when a mother who after crossing the river with her 7-9 year old son, started throwing rocks at her kid when he decided to stay in the river and play. Seriously, this mother was throwing rocks and cursing at him to get out and go home. Her son continued to keep swimming, dodging in and out of rocks until his mom gave up and proceeded to walk on home.
So today was a new day. My dad said he was going to the chacra (field) to go pick up some choclo (corn). I enthusiastically asked if I could go with and so this turned into a family adventure to the banana fields. It was more like a five minute trip to a scene from Jurassic Park. I really have to get a picture up here for you all of these platano (plantain) fields because the trees are just so exotic and the leafs so gianormous it really seems like a different world walking though a field of them. There were also a few mango trees here and there and we managed to find a massive one with hundreds of mangoes on the ground and still hanging. What does this mean in Peruvian terms? Free food. My brother scrambled up the tree and was shaking the branches while my mom, sister and I ran around, half taking cover form flying mangoes and half running around trying to pick them all up. After all was said and done, we had gotten at least 200 mangoes and piled them into the back of my dad’s car. Like I said, these were all free and the guy working in the chacra said we could take as many as we could because mangoes are so bountiful here at this time of year. RAD! I have eaten five so far today.
Let’s see, on the down side of things I’ve had some wardrobe malfunctions like I mentioned above. I wear skirts a lot and I don’t know why but here I always manage to tuck them into my underwear after using the ladies’ room. This has proved on two occasions, to be an awkward conversation for my family to initiate (aka tell me that my toosh is hanging out), and also on one occasion to be the most mortifying moment of my life when I was at the training center back in Lima and a boy who I thought was by far the cutest in our group (and may or may not have had a secret girl crush on), told me, yes, my skirt was tucked into my underwear. I almost feel like Josie Grossy from Never Been Kissed sometimes.
Also, I would just like to continue with telling you all that I plan on eliminating the pet parrot, Polly somehow while I’m here these next two years. This God forsaken creature will not stop molesting/ biting me and today when I came home and sat on the floor underneath his little perch…he proceeded to POOP on my just-showered hair. And a lot, too. While I laughed along with my family like a jolly Peace Corps volunteer would, I secretly was thinking about pawning him off in the market for a mere 5 soles. Thoughts?
Lastly, I know you all are probably wondering how the cock fighting tourney turned out. For me? Not good. There are still 10 roosters living next to me that wake up every morning at 2am. I must have done something in my past life to deserve this type of punishment. I need to find out the Spanish word for “earplugs.”
Okay, that’s all I’ve got for today folks. I’m going out for drinks and pizza in 20!
Yesterday I went to one of the primary schools to talk with the principal about teaching a culture or geography class during summer vacation which starts in January. After kind of getting shut down in favor of playing sports all day (which Im planning on doing also) I retreated home, hot and sweaty and ready for a nap. My family, sensing my overheatedness, suggested we all go the river Tumbes to cool off which I was definitely in favor of. The river comes into Tumbes from Ecuador and right now is pretty low since we haven’t had rain since last January. However, it still was awesome. Its only a three minute walk from my house and the water is perfect (clean, I’m not so sure, but it felt great). My mom, brother, sister, cousins and I all hung out, sitting and swimming along, making way when horses carrying tons of corn passed through from nearby chacras and calling out to the herd of sheep that was left stranded on an island by my cousin Ronny, who decided it was more important to play water tag than feed his pets (he got a spanking later for that). My family kept talking about how little fish were nibbling at them (which I didn’t believe) until something WITH TEETH latched on to my ring on my left hand. This induced heavy screaming on my part so after shaking JAWS off, I lost all street cred with my family as far as being cool with wildlife. Beware the Peruvian water, folks. I was soon laughing hysterically though when a mother who after crossing the river with her 7-9 year old son, started throwing rocks at her kid when he decided to stay in the river and play. Seriously, this mother was throwing rocks and cursing at him to get out and go home. Her son continued to keep swimming, dodging in and out of rocks until his mom gave up and proceeded to walk on home.
So today was a new day. My dad said he was going to the chacra (field) to go pick up some choclo (corn). I enthusiastically asked if I could go with and so this turned into a family adventure to the banana fields. It was more like a five minute trip to a scene from Jurassic Park. I really have to get a picture up here for you all of these platano (plantain) fields because the trees are just so exotic and the leafs so gianormous it really seems like a different world walking though a field of them. There were also a few mango trees here and there and we managed to find a massive one with hundreds of mangoes on the ground and still hanging. What does this mean in Peruvian terms? Free food. My brother scrambled up the tree and was shaking the branches while my mom, sister and I ran around, half taking cover form flying mangoes and half running around trying to pick them all up. After all was said and done, we had gotten at least 200 mangoes and piled them into the back of my dad’s car. Like I said, these were all free and the guy working in the chacra said we could take as many as we could because mangoes are so bountiful here at this time of year. RAD! I have eaten five so far today.
Let’s see, on the down side of things I’ve had some wardrobe malfunctions like I mentioned above. I wear skirts a lot and I don’t know why but here I always manage to tuck them into my underwear after using the ladies’ room. This has proved on two occasions, to be an awkward conversation for my family to initiate (aka tell me that my toosh is hanging out), and also on one occasion to be the most mortifying moment of my life when I was at the training center back in Lima and a boy who I thought was by far the cutest in our group (and may or may not have had a secret girl crush on), told me, yes, my skirt was tucked into my underwear. I almost feel like Josie Grossy from Never Been Kissed sometimes.
Also, I would just like to continue with telling you all that I plan on eliminating the pet parrot, Polly somehow while I’m here these next two years. This God forsaken creature will not stop molesting/ biting me and today when I came home and sat on the floor underneath his little perch…he proceeded to POOP on my just-showered hair. And a lot, too. While I laughed along with my family like a jolly Peace Corps volunteer would, I secretly was thinking about pawning him off in the market for a mere 5 soles. Thoughts?
Lastly, I know you all are probably wondering how the cock fighting tourney turned out. For me? Not good. There are still 10 roosters living next to me that wake up every morning at 2am. I must have done something in my past life to deserve this type of punishment. I need to find out the Spanish word for “earplugs.”
Okay, that’s all I’ve got for today folks. I’m going out for drinks and pizza in 20!
Monday, December 14, 2009
just breathe. (written 12.12)
So here were are, with thirteen days left until Christmas! How exciting. I know I keep referencing how hot it is here but today it’s actually pretty nice. I’d put it at about 80 degrees and there’s actually a nice little breeze going on. So, for the moment, I am very pleased with my surroundings. I finally went to the market yesterday and bought a dresser so I can stop living out of my suitcases and it kind of made me living here more permanent. I mean, it was permanent before, but now I actually spent a few hours and energy to get a piece of furniture for my room that there is no way in hell I can return. So yeah, my room looks a little more normal now.
Yesterday was also my first yoga class! Teaching yoga, that is. In Spanish. This was a joke. There is no way I can take myself seriously as a yoga teacher. Let alone, the language barrier still continues to be a problem so I ended up miming everything and hoping my “students” had enough patience to follow suit. I had about 10-15 kids and teens come with one mom and one of the community’s health promotors who’s about 30. Even though a lot of the kiddies were giggling and interpreted the command “breathe” as “snore”, they all said they wanted to do it again next week! But what really made me happy was one girl came up after class who looked about 16 and asked if the “older kids” could have a separate class form the younger kids so could concentrate and learn more!!! I labeled this as a giant leap for the “Lindsey’s progress in Peace Corps” category and this week Im actually going to sit down and learn how to say “downward facing dog” in Spanish as opposed to just “perro a reves.”
Other than yoga class, things are still moving pretty slowly in San Juan. After getting back from my regional meeting in Piura on Tuesday afternoon, I learned that my uncle was in the hospital in Tumbes with respiratory problems. He had woken up that morning having trouble breathing and so went to the hospital in the capital city (also called Tumbes). There he found out, one of his lungs was filled with fluid and mucous which was no doubt, causing his breathing problems. However, since there lacks any sort of specialist of any type (cardiologist, pulmonologist, surgeon, etc.), the primary care doctor there couldn’t do anything. But, with his condition worsening, the staff decided that my uncle needed to go to Piura city (5 hours away) where he could be seen by a specialist and put on a ventilator (because at this point there were only nurses assisting his breathing using a manual air pump).
So at six on Tuesday evening, Alberto was taken via ambulance to Piura where he arrived around midnight. However, when he got there they discovered one lung was completely filled with fluid and the other was 66% full. So he was operating on 1/6 of his lung capacity. Sadly to say, two hours after arriving, my uncle passed away when his heart stopped after being under so much pressure to circulate blood to his oxygen-depleted body. The part that sucks about this though is that a. he felt fine the day before and b. if we had adequate health care in Tumbes, he would have been able to care sooner and probably would not have died. But c’est la vie. So later that SAME DAY we had an open casket wake for him that lasted all night and included praying the rosary. A lot. The next day was the funeral (people in Peru sure move fast) and it seemed like the whole town came. What I learned from all of this is how resilient Peruvians are. The day after the funeral, I went and visited the family (I’m friends with his daughter) and everyone there was in pretty high spirits. I think Peruvians deal with deal in an entirely different way than other people (or at least from what I’ve experienced), but that’s a different and long conversation to get into, so all I will say is, RIP Tio Alberto!
(written 14.12)
This may be switching topics, but I feel a sense of duty to keep you all clued in on my going ons. I'm not sure if I informed you all or not that my cousins that live next door have a giant cock-fighting ring. Yesterday, blood was shed at the ring. It was the annual cock-fighting tournament where about 30 roosters come in from all over Tumbes (including San Juan, TUmbes and a bunch of neighboring caserios) to compete for 1000 soles (about $300). I'm not sure if you all are familiar with cock fighting but it basically is just a fight to the death between two roosters at once. These little guys go at it too. I never knew how sharp their talons were! Anyways, I've been looking forward to this day since I arrived at site because I am woken up every morning around 3 or 4am when the rooster party starts and I feel like I am living inside a chicken coop or something. My cousins have about 20 of their own roosters and upon asking my little cousin Ronny is we were going to fight any of them in the tournament, he told me about 10 or 15 were entered. If you do the math and only ONE of them can win (if any) the decibel level of noise and relentless cook a doodle dooing will decrease by at least half after the day was over. Unfortunately, I could only stay and watch the first two matches, but I did catch myself cheering a little bit (who would have thought that just a mere few months ago I was an avid believer in animal rights and would have cried at the sight of animal blood being shed for entertainment purposes. I guess an old dog can learn new tricks. I will let you all know the final stats and winner in my next post!
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
drunk driving is not fun when you´re sober
Okay so im still here in tumbes… its been a little over a week now and im still going strong. My family is finally starting to realize my sense of humor and now they laugh at my jokes. Im not saying im a funny person or anything, but sometimes I think my jokes are humorous and when I get little to no response from the Peruvian peanut gallery, its a little discouraging. But once again, I think that is due to the fact that I have the Spanish speaking capacity as the 3 year old girl with the speech impediment that lives down the street.
Each day here is a new adventure. so I could probably talk about what has been going on here for eons; however I neither have the patience nor, well, the patience to do that. I will let you know that a random parrot flew into our house a few days ago and has become a third pet (behind polly the terrible parrot and blanco the dog). This means there is twice as much noise coming from the devil-parrots every day and twice as much harrasment for me. I say devil parrots because I really do believe they are evil and refer to polly as “Diablo” or “Satan” in English. Blanco is pretty chill and I want to be friends with him. Yesterday I was patting him and asked my mom what all the red spots were on his fur. I THOUGHT she said it was from eating berries. What is REALLY was, was goat blood that had dripped all over him while he was licking the floor below the goat that had been skinned, cleaned, and cut in half, and was now hanging from my grandma’s doorway. With its brain hanging out mind you. I should have taken a picture of myself playing pogs (yes they play pogs here) next to the dead, hollowed out goat later that day.
This past Saturday I went to my first Peruvian baptism. I went to the market that day, bought the loosest fitting shirt I could find (all of the clothes here should be worn only by preteens if by anyone- they are small as hell, tight fitting, and made out of that terrible fabric that forever 21 sometimes sells where it makes you sweat and is really cheap feeling/looking) and headed out with my family to a neighboring town, Cerro Blanco. I can say without doubt this was the most painful night of my stay here in Peru (minus the health issues). The baptism itself was two and a half hours long, and the only thing that helped pass the time was laughing quietly to myself when stray dogs would wander in and walk around the church. Afterwards we went got dinner from a food tent. I was asked if I prefered goat or fried pig. Wanting neither, I chose goat because the pigs here are disgusting, eat poop, and have trichinosis and I didn’t feel like having worms crawl through my brain in a few weeks. However, I’m not sure if the goat was that much better or a choice. I would have rather eaten cat food than approach my cena (dinner). So I politely ate the rice and said I was full. Sorry, I eat ceviche, majao, and can ALMOST deal with a chicken foot in my soup but I also know when to draw the line.
So needless to say, I was in a pissy mood after not having eaten and not liking boring baptisms slash not understanding a damn thing the priest was saying into his almost non-functional microphone. So my mom, sister and I took a walk around the main plaza of Cerro Blanco since there was a big party going on for its anniversary. While watching people sing on stage, fireworks started going off. I say fireworks, but really I mean fireBOMBS. They must have had a blind person setting these things off because they were shooting them directly at the crowd of people in the plaza. At one point, a firework was set off, started going in an upward direction, but hit its vertical limit way too early and went off right into a group of people. This was fun (note sarcasm). No one was hurt or burned or anything but people were all crowding around this one couple who weren’t able to hear anything afterwards and who knows what else. I couldn’t really see what was going on.
Having enough of waiting around, I joined my father and the godparents of the baptized kiddo at the outdoor bar. Everyone had been there for a good two hours and after another hour and a half with me there, everyone (minus me and the 3 year old) were borracho (drunk off their asses). This included the mother of the baptisee who was throwing up in the middle of our drinking circle, where I got to see goat and rice for the second time. We just continued to drink around her/her bodily fluids. At 1:30 am, my family called it quits and my father (drunk), asked me (sober) if I knew how to drive stick shift aka the car he drove us over in. I bet you can see where this is going. Replying no, I only drove automatic cars slash was not allowed to drive around Peru in general, this left him as the designated drunk driver to get us back to San Juan- about 8 km away. Though that doesn’t seem far, it was the longest drive of my life. My father asked me to “avisale” (advise him) and tell if he was driving alright or not. The only time I said anything while gripping my seat in the car was when we managed to drive on the left hand side of the road while another car was coming in our direction. I thought of that as an appropriate move. So yeah, that was fun. Kind of.
In other Peruvian news, we celebrated World AIDS day yesterday and the day before. I participated in a march around my down with some students in secondaria (ages 14-16). My socio communitario (Peruvian health promoter counterpart) and I made posters of giant condoms that said “Use me” and made red ribbons to hand out to people. It was really fun! I’m pretty sure most of my work here will be HIV AIDS related which is pretty exciting.
Also notable: I had decent pizza the other night at a restaurant, I have more bugbites on my feet that are seriously so terrible its hard to sleep, I have an HIV AIDS workshop that two other volunteers have been working on all year on Thursday and Friday, and on Saturday I’m headed to Piura city to have my monthly regional meeting with other health volunteers from the departments of Piura and Tumbes. Also, even though it’s hot as an oven here, people are starting to decorate for Christmas! We put up our fake tree today!!!! My sister Prixi also put my name in a secret santa hat between her and her girlfriends so I’ve got to do some shopping for “Susan” in the next few days. I almost feel like I have friends aside from PC peeps.
Okay so yeah, that was long- hope you all didn’t fall asleep while reading this or just stop halfway through! Have a great day/ weekend everyone- talk to you later. P.S. Everyone wish Meghan well! Her procedure went well and I am happy about that- yay for no life-long colon problems.
Each day here is a new adventure. so I could probably talk about what has been going on here for eons; however I neither have the patience nor, well, the patience to do that. I will let you know that a random parrot flew into our house a few days ago and has become a third pet (behind polly the terrible parrot and blanco the dog). This means there is twice as much noise coming from the devil-parrots every day and twice as much harrasment for me. I say devil parrots because I really do believe they are evil and refer to polly as “Diablo” or “Satan” in English. Blanco is pretty chill and I want to be friends with him. Yesterday I was patting him and asked my mom what all the red spots were on his fur. I THOUGHT she said it was from eating berries. What is REALLY was, was goat blood that had dripped all over him while he was licking the floor below the goat that had been skinned, cleaned, and cut in half, and was now hanging from my grandma’s doorway. With its brain hanging out mind you. I should have taken a picture of myself playing pogs (yes they play pogs here) next to the dead, hollowed out goat later that day.
This past Saturday I went to my first Peruvian baptism. I went to the market that day, bought the loosest fitting shirt I could find (all of the clothes here should be worn only by preteens if by anyone- they are small as hell, tight fitting, and made out of that terrible fabric that forever 21 sometimes sells where it makes you sweat and is really cheap feeling/looking) and headed out with my family to a neighboring town, Cerro Blanco. I can say without doubt this was the most painful night of my stay here in Peru (minus the health issues). The baptism itself was two and a half hours long, and the only thing that helped pass the time was laughing quietly to myself when stray dogs would wander in and walk around the church. Afterwards we went got dinner from a food tent. I was asked if I prefered goat or fried pig. Wanting neither, I chose goat because the pigs here are disgusting, eat poop, and have trichinosis and I didn’t feel like having worms crawl through my brain in a few weeks. However, I’m not sure if the goat was that much better or a choice. I would have rather eaten cat food than approach my cena (dinner). So I politely ate the rice and said I was full. Sorry, I eat ceviche, majao, and can ALMOST deal with a chicken foot in my soup but I also know when to draw the line.
So needless to say, I was in a pissy mood after not having eaten and not liking boring baptisms slash not understanding a damn thing the priest was saying into his almost non-functional microphone. So my mom, sister and I took a walk around the main plaza of Cerro Blanco since there was a big party going on for its anniversary. While watching people sing on stage, fireworks started going off. I say fireworks, but really I mean fireBOMBS. They must have had a blind person setting these things off because they were shooting them directly at the crowd of people in the plaza. At one point, a firework was set off, started going in an upward direction, but hit its vertical limit way too early and went off right into a group of people. This was fun (note sarcasm). No one was hurt or burned or anything but people were all crowding around this one couple who weren’t able to hear anything afterwards and who knows what else. I couldn’t really see what was going on.
Having enough of waiting around, I joined my father and the godparents of the baptized kiddo at the outdoor bar. Everyone had been there for a good two hours and after another hour and a half with me there, everyone (minus me and the 3 year old) were borracho (drunk off their asses). This included the mother of the baptisee who was throwing up in the middle of our drinking circle, where I got to see goat and rice for the second time. We just continued to drink around her/her bodily fluids. At 1:30 am, my family called it quits and my father (drunk), asked me (sober) if I knew how to drive stick shift aka the car he drove us over in. I bet you can see where this is going. Replying no, I only drove automatic cars slash was not allowed to drive around Peru in general, this left him as the designated drunk driver to get us back to San Juan- about 8 km away. Though that doesn’t seem far, it was the longest drive of my life. My father asked me to “avisale” (advise him) and tell if he was driving alright or not. The only time I said anything while gripping my seat in the car was when we managed to drive on the left hand side of the road while another car was coming in our direction. I thought of that as an appropriate move. So yeah, that was fun. Kind of.
In other Peruvian news, we celebrated World AIDS day yesterday and the day before. I participated in a march around my down with some students in secondaria (ages 14-16). My socio communitario (Peruvian health promoter counterpart) and I made posters of giant condoms that said “Use me” and made red ribbons to hand out to people. It was really fun! I’m pretty sure most of my work here will be HIV AIDS related which is pretty exciting.
Also notable: I had decent pizza the other night at a restaurant, I have more bugbites on my feet that are seriously so terrible its hard to sleep, I have an HIV AIDS workshop that two other volunteers have been working on all year on Thursday and Friday, and on Saturday I’m headed to Piura city to have my monthly regional meeting with other health volunteers from the departments of Piura and Tumbes. Also, even though it’s hot as an oven here, people are starting to decorate for Christmas! We put up our fake tree today!!!! My sister Prixi also put my name in a secret santa hat between her and her girlfriends so I’ve got to do some shopping for “Susan” in the next few days. I almost feel like I have friends aside from PC peeps.
Okay so yeah, that was long- hope you all didn’t fall asleep while reading this or just stop halfway through! Have a great day/ weekend everyone- talk to you later. P.S. Everyone wish Meghan well! Her procedure went well and I am happy about that- yay for no life-long colon problems.
happy blck friday people (written last friday)
Well Guten morgen folks – happy black Friday and start of the Christmas season! I like many of you, gained at least a kilo between my consumption of state-sent buffalo flavored Pringles, camote and sangria and all other food actually related to Thanksgiving. How were all of yours? Now that I’m not a vegetarian any longer, I sincerely hope that your turkeys were as well seasoned as mine. I forgot how delicious those little guys are. But really, I hope you all had a great time and all the cooking went smoothly.
With regards to the hostal and what not, this place was pretty cool. Super isolated, quiet and exotic looking. Hammocks were the preferred form of lounging, and despite how the manager ran around in a leopard print speedo that hung a little too loosely in places, I think I could learn to really like visiting there for a day off or two every once in awhile. We paid the management to use the kitchen to cook our goods but I foolishly imagined that by “kitchen” we were actually going to be indoors in an electricity-powered facility. Nope. We were outside using a stove that was in desperate need of being “cocina-mejoradad.” When I say stove, I use this term liberally. We’re talking more about making a fire with sticks and newspaper and balancing pots and pans on top. Bear Grylls would have been proud. I sautéed some serious chicken, broccoli, potatoes and camote and felt like I was reenacting the original Thanksgiving. Although the Indians probably used a lot less profanity and actually knew how to cook. Anyways, after five hours of preparation, we all sat down, said a toast and saluded to our new lives here. While there was no cranberry sauce or pumpkin pie, I think we did the day justice and I left the table feeling a little tipsy and full to the brim.
With regards to the hostal and what not, this place was pretty cool. Super isolated, quiet and exotic looking. Hammocks were the preferred form of lounging, and despite how the manager ran around in a leopard print speedo that hung a little too loosely in places, I think I could learn to really like visiting there for a day off or two every once in awhile. We paid the management to use the kitchen to cook our goods but I foolishly imagined that by “kitchen” we were actually going to be indoors in an electricity-powered facility. Nope. We were outside using a stove that was in desperate need of being “cocina-mejoradad.” When I say stove, I use this term liberally. We’re talking more about making a fire with sticks and newspaper and balancing pots and pans on top. Bear Grylls would have been proud. I sautéed some serious chicken, broccoli, potatoes and camote and felt like I was reenacting the original Thanksgiving. Although the Indians probably used a lot less profanity and actually knew how to cook. Anyways, after five hours of preparation, we all sat down, said a toast and saluded to our new lives here. While there was no cranberry sauce or pumpkin pie, I think we did the day justice and I left the table feeling a little tipsy and full to the brim.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Where the streets have no names
I’m here! After two and a half months of preparing, learning, and waiting, I’ve gotten to my site, and I’m not planning on going back to Lima until next March. It was a funny feeling, getting here with my suitcases in tow and preparing for the next stage of service. They say this is the hardest part and I have no qualms with that statement. While I am in relatively close proximity to other volunteers unlike in other departments, I’m still living in my community alone, trying to keep up with the accent people speak with here and focusing on taking baby steps as to not get overwhelmed (which is pretty easy to do). I got in on Monday afternoon after saying au revoir to Jeremy, Pilli, my grandparents, the rest of my family, neighbors and friends. It was really cute. My grandparents (Saturlina and Marcario) were precious and I heard the phrase “No te vayas” a lot more than once. It was def. bittersweet. I had arroz con leche as my going away dinner (it is my favorite food here- everyone google the recipe and make it- it’s like rice pudding but so much more). I really didn’t want to leave Tres! I think that even already, I’ve grown so much since getting here. I remember the first day when I got driven to my house in Tres and I remember thinking ( I hope no one from tres is reading this) that it kind of looked like a scene form slumdog millionare, not to mention I thought I was going to get aids from using the bathroom (politically incorrect, I know). But after two months, I felt as comfortable living there as I did in the states. I really hope that I am able to get that comfortable with my family here in San Juan de la Virgen.
So back to the present. I live in a town called San Juan de la Virgen, in the department of Tumbes, which is right on the Peru- Ecuadorian border. Yesterday I met up with the other volunteers to walk around Tumbes (the capital city) to get to know the post office, restaurants, the plaza de armas and such. I bought a portable oven which I am super pumped about because I am going to make beer bread in it today for my family and for thanksgiving tomorrow! Tumbes itself is pretty ugly, not to mention extremely muddy after it rains (which it did yesterday), but it offers a bit of a respite from living in the campo. Yesterday when I got home, my brother offered to play me in a game of chess (called ajedrez here). This sounded like an extraordinary idea because a. it required no interchange of language and b. I “knew” how to play. I say “knew” because I have never been more humiliated by a 17 year old in my life. I was put into checkmate in less than seven minutes. I had no idea what was happening until Pol, my brother called out “hockey” (which I think means checkmate) and I was cornered like a turkey at thanksgiving. I lost my dignity for the second time when I agreed to play again a little later. What have I learned form that cultural interchange? Peruvians= good at chess.
I think Pol is out to get me because he also is a wiz at using Google Earth. The first night I was here, I was understandably depressed and missing Chaclacayo, Pilli and the states in general. In perhaps an attempt to cheer me up, we Google- Earthed my house in Maryland. I was able to see the Fitpatrick’s car in their driveway (they’re my next door neighbors) and I showed my family where I slept. They were astonished by the pools in people’s backyards and the space that existed between houses. For me though, it was kind of like turning the knife around that was already stuck in my back. It made me feel like I was just SO CLOSE and I wanted to beam myself through the screen and back into my turquoise-painted room on High Meadow Way where I don’t have to sleep with an ugly mustard-yellow mosquito net that doesn’t work. What have I learned from this cultural interchage? Don’t use Google Earth the first night you are at your new site. It will make you depressed.
However, I definitely am counting my blessings! Since they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here ( I’m not sure if there ever was a positive interchange between the Spaniards and the natives here), people are starting to get ready for Christmas!!!!! It’s funny seeing fake Christmas trees in a town where cactuses and palm trees run rampant. My mom went out and bought a tree yesterday and we are going to put it up on December 1st. I can’t believe we’re that far into the year already! It feels like I have been permanently living in a state of summer.
I’m sure you all are getting ready for Thanksgiving and that’s so exciting! Like I said, they don’t celebrate that here, but I am! Tomorrow, all of us Tumbes volunteers are going to stay in a hostal in Zorritos and cook a Thanksgiving dinner! I bought a portable oven at the market yesterday and am going to make beer bread and no-bake cookies. I’ll put both of the recipes up later because they both are really good. A volunteer that has been here for a year bought a turkey from her mom and we’re going to cook it somehow at the hostal tomorrow. Not to mention, Zorritos is right on the beach so I will be getting some sun tanning in as well. (with spf 70 on of course, mom). So yeah, my first Thanksgiving in Peru will be interesting!
I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving with all of your family and friends and for all of you going shopping on Friday morning, Bueno Suerte! Love you all.
P.S.!!! The phone number I gave you all in my old blog is SO WRONG. MY NEW ONE IS 01151072972896466. Please call!!!! I would love love love more than anything in the world to talk to you. I also have a new postal address. It is:
Lindsey Kane, PCV
Apartado Postal No. 5
Cuerpo de Paz
Serporst, Tumbes
Tumbes, Peru
Love you all!!!!!
So back to the present. I live in a town called San Juan de la Virgen, in the department of Tumbes, which is right on the Peru- Ecuadorian border. Yesterday I met up with the other volunteers to walk around Tumbes (the capital city) to get to know the post office, restaurants, the plaza de armas and such. I bought a portable oven which I am super pumped about because I am going to make beer bread in it today for my family and for thanksgiving tomorrow! Tumbes itself is pretty ugly, not to mention extremely muddy after it rains (which it did yesterday), but it offers a bit of a respite from living in the campo. Yesterday when I got home, my brother offered to play me in a game of chess (called ajedrez here). This sounded like an extraordinary idea because a. it required no interchange of language and b. I “knew” how to play. I say “knew” because I have never been more humiliated by a 17 year old in my life. I was put into checkmate in less than seven minutes. I had no idea what was happening until Pol, my brother called out “hockey” (which I think means checkmate) and I was cornered like a turkey at thanksgiving. I lost my dignity for the second time when I agreed to play again a little later. What have I learned form that cultural interchange? Peruvians= good at chess.
I think Pol is out to get me because he also is a wiz at using Google Earth. The first night I was here, I was understandably depressed and missing Chaclacayo, Pilli and the states in general. In perhaps an attempt to cheer me up, we Google- Earthed my house in Maryland. I was able to see the Fitpatrick’s car in their driveway (they’re my next door neighbors) and I showed my family where I slept. They were astonished by the pools in people’s backyards and the space that existed between houses. For me though, it was kind of like turning the knife around that was already stuck in my back. It made me feel like I was just SO CLOSE and I wanted to beam myself through the screen and back into my turquoise-painted room on High Meadow Way where I don’t have to sleep with an ugly mustard-yellow mosquito net that doesn’t work. What have I learned from this cultural interchage? Don’t use Google Earth the first night you are at your new site. It will make you depressed.
However, I definitely am counting my blessings! Since they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here ( I’m not sure if there ever was a positive interchange between the Spaniards and the natives here), people are starting to get ready for Christmas!!!!! It’s funny seeing fake Christmas trees in a town where cactuses and palm trees run rampant. My mom went out and bought a tree yesterday and we are going to put it up on December 1st. I can’t believe we’re that far into the year already! It feels like I have been permanently living in a state of summer.
I’m sure you all are getting ready for Thanksgiving and that’s so exciting! Like I said, they don’t celebrate that here, but I am! Tomorrow, all of us Tumbes volunteers are going to stay in a hostal in Zorritos and cook a Thanksgiving dinner! I bought a portable oven at the market yesterday and am going to make beer bread and no-bake cookies. I’ll put both of the recipes up later because they both are really good. A volunteer that has been here for a year bought a turkey from her mom and we’re going to cook it somehow at the hostal tomorrow. Not to mention, Zorritos is right on the beach so I will be getting some sun tanning in as well. (with spf 70 on of course, mom). So yeah, my first Thanksgiving in Peru will be interesting!
I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving with all of your family and friends and for all of you going shopping on Friday morning, Bueno Suerte! Love you all.
P.S.!!! The phone number I gave you all in my old blog is SO WRONG. MY NEW ONE IS 01151072972896466. Please call!!!! I would love love love more than anything in the world to talk to you. I also have a new postal address. It is:
Lindsey Kane, PCV
Apartado Postal No. 5
Cuerpo de Paz
Serporst, Tumbes
Tumbes, Peru
Love you all!!!!!
Saturday, November 21, 2009
ticket to emotional-ville
After getting back from Regional and Site based training on late Tuesday afternoon, I was smacked in the face with possible the most wide-ranged spectrum of emotions. First off, I got back in Lima after a twenty-one hour bus ride to a phone call from my best friend here, Abby, saying she had a less-than ideal site visit and she would be leaving for the states the next morning. I don’t know if I’ve talked much about Abby specifically, or about my close friends in general here on my blog, but these are some of the coolest, down to earth people I have ever met, and Abby was no exception. This might be sappy and cliché (and Abby if you’re reading this, sorry if I embarrass you) but she was my rock here. She was really sick for a good bit of training but never once complained. And when I was sick, she was the first person to bring me a 3L bottle of water, soda crackers and a bowl for me to get sick in because I was having trouble having diarrhea and throwing up at the same time while in the bathroom. I also found the two of us pretty likeminded when it came to talking about people we liked/ didn’t like, Peru in general and clothes (we have the same J. crew zip up hoodie). So nevertheless, I loved her so much and was devastated when she told me she was leaving. I won’t get into the details and her reasons but I’ll just leave it that her new host family SUCKED and lacked the type of respect that everyone is entitled too. And her dad was a (pardon my francais), an asshole. So Tuesday was the first time I cried here on the other side of the world and I took on a pretty cynical attitude about Peace Corps and Peru in general.
After Abby left, Tres de Octubre was falta uno and all of Peru 14 (that’s my training group number) was getting ready for Saturday (today!) where we would be sworn in finally as a new regiment of Peace Corps volunteers. We definitely found some time to party, and this week I really realized how close I´ve gotten to some people here. If I didn´t mention this already, today was also the day where everyone split up and left for their site for the next two years.
With regards to the ceremony, it was really pretty. Everyone that spoke did a great job and I had a new appreciation for singing the star spangled banner which I think is due to the fact that I miss home so much. All 54 of us remaining swore in, took about a million pictures, and said goodbye to people that many of us wont see for another two years after spending everyday of the past two months together. Depo (depressing), I know. Alas, the show must go on, and for all of us now, it goes on solo. I realize I have been super sketchy getting back to all of you, but that is all going to change because the amount of free time I am going to have is going to skyrocket. I also have my own cell phone with a numero that you can all call if you so choose by buying an international phone card or using skype. Im pretty sure (aka I will double check with my mom) but the area code for Peru is 51 and then my specific number is 072972896. That zero at the beginning I think is optional and I don’t think you need it but just in case. I LOVE PHONE CALLS. And now, I can put the ball in all of your courts to learn how to use skype (it’s way cheaper for you all) and, as we say in Spanish, llamame (call me).
In other news, Jeremy helped me pack my bags last night. And my pack my bags I mean he helped fold my clothes and set them aside in piles. And when I say fold my clothes I mean it was hilarious watching a three year old boy talk about how he loved folding clothes. He also told me his favorite color is pink. I don’t know about you all, but I’m sensing some definite femininity. I took a six minute video of the entire process and have proceeded to show it off to the other inhabitants of Tres de Octubre (gringos of course).
Mañana I am peacing out of Chaclacayo for good and going to good ole Tumbes. I don´t really knw how to feel. I mean, I´m excited because this is really what I came here to do, but I´m also about to pee myself because I will no longer be surrounded by people that speak English and I will be on my own figuring stuff out. It´s un poco overwhelming. I hope stuff will start to make sense once I get there. I will write another blog soon letting you know how everything is going. Wish me luck!!!
Much love.
After Abby left, Tres de Octubre was falta uno and all of Peru 14 (that’s my training group number) was getting ready for Saturday (today!) where we would be sworn in finally as a new regiment of Peace Corps volunteers. We definitely found some time to party, and this week I really realized how close I´ve gotten to some people here. If I didn´t mention this already, today was also the day where everyone split up and left for their site for the next two years.
With regards to the ceremony, it was really pretty. Everyone that spoke did a great job and I had a new appreciation for singing the star spangled banner which I think is due to the fact that I miss home so much. All 54 of us remaining swore in, took about a million pictures, and said goodbye to people that many of us wont see for another two years after spending everyday of the past two months together. Depo (depressing), I know. Alas, the show must go on, and for all of us now, it goes on solo. I realize I have been super sketchy getting back to all of you, but that is all going to change because the amount of free time I am going to have is going to skyrocket. I also have my own cell phone with a numero that you can all call if you so choose by buying an international phone card or using skype. Im pretty sure (aka I will double check with my mom) but the area code for Peru is 51 and then my specific number is 072972896. That zero at the beginning I think is optional and I don’t think you need it but just in case. I LOVE PHONE CALLS. And now, I can put the ball in all of your courts to learn how to use skype (it’s way cheaper for you all) and, as we say in Spanish, llamame (call me).
In other news, Jeremy helped me pack my bags last night. And my pack my bags I mean he helped fold my clothes and set them aside in piles. And when I say fold my clothes I mean it was hilarious watching a three year old boy talk about how he loved folding clothes. He also told me his favorite color is pink. I don’t know about you all, but I’m sensing some definite femininity. I took a six minute video of the entire process and have proceeded to show it off to the other inhabitants of Tres de Octubre (gringos of course).
Mañana I am peacing out of Chaclacayo for good and going to good ole Tumbes. I don´t really knw how to feel. I mean, I´m excited because this is really what I came here to do, but I´m also about to pee myself because I will no longer be surrounded by people that speak English and I will be on my own figuring stuff out. It´s un poco overwhelming. I hope stuff will start to make sense once I get there. I will write another blog soon letting you know how everything is going. Wish me luck!!!
Much love.
a first glimpse of tumbes
Yello fellow Americans, I am finally spending my last three days here in Chaclacayo, Peru. Training is winding down, people are getting antsy, and I now cut more classes than I did microbiology 365. I got in from Tumbes on Tuesday afternoon, after traveling in a bus for a cool 21 hours. These bus trips will now be referred to as “penance” for mankind’s world sins. Seriously, the seats were cloth, smelly and I had a nice plastic covered leg rest which made a weird sticky sound every time I moved my legs. But alas, I will not dwell on the negativo. I will instead, detail for you all, my 10 day trip to the departments of Piura and Tumbes.
So as you all know, I have been assigned to work in a little town of about 4000 in the department of Tumbes. Tumbes is the smallest department in Peru, and is right on the border with Ecuador (which also means three degrees from the equator). While it may be detailed as a little more dangerous than the rest of the departments volunteers are headed to, it definitely makes up for its faults with its beaches and mangroves. I say it’s dangerous because it is a border region and a lot of drug trafficking passes through but whatevs. I’m told that as long as you’re smart about your surroundings and keep alert, you dramatically reduce your risk. So I’ll just plan on that. But ANYWAYS…
The past ten days I spent in both the departments of Piura and Tumbes doing regional and site based training with other volunteers, and later, by myself. This included giving educational sessions of charlas in the elementary schools about handwashing and HIV- AIDS. We played with babies during an early stimulation session and put on a show about brushing your teeth where I ran around with a broom and was called ¨Super Cepillo.¨I got to wear a neon hat and a towel as a cape so that was cool.
During these ten days, we were put in some rather weird living slash sleeping situations. For example, the first night, ten of us slept in the child stimulation center on those gymnastic pads things. While having the worst night sleep of all of our lives, I woke up to hear my friends Caleb and Allyse discussing the animal that they just felt. Too tired to care, I tried to forget it and went back to bed. It was only until later that morning when I found out it had been amouse that ran across Caleb´s face and Allyse´s neck before scurrying somewhere else. I was one person away from Allyse. Call me high maitenance, tell me I´m a bad volunteer, but after clogging a toilet earlier that day, dealing with digestive issues and not sleeping, I was being worn down to I think the last straw. Needless to say we slept in a hostal the next night and it felt GLORIOUS.
After spending four or five days in Piura, we all headed north to Tumbes by bus. I am replacing another Peace Corps volunteer who just finished her two year stint in the same town. She did a lot of work with HIV/AIDS and that’s where I’ll be picking up. I’m super stoked to be doing AIDS prevention because for a country whose people don’t really practice smart slash safe sex, Tumbes and it’s people are pretty liberal and don’t find it too taboo to talk about.
I am living in a house WITH RUNNING WATER BOOYA, electricity, and wait for it……INTERNET. This definitely did not sound like the campo to me, but as I walked around the town and took a drive to neighboring casarios, it became clear there is still a lot of work that can be done. I have a cool mom and dad, my pops a mechanic, a brother aged 17 (it’s debatable if he is as cool as Jeremy), and a sister ranking in at 13 years old. There is also a cursed parrot named Polly, which I do not get along with. After attacking me and pulling my hair, I have decided that Polly’s days are numbered. I can’t really say more about my family except that they seem pretty cool, a little less loud, but are well-respected throughout their community for being pretty good people. And when I say community, I mean their extended family because I swear to God my family is related to everyone else somehow (my dad is one of 11 I think and my mom is one of 13 and they all live in the same vicinity).
With regards to my room, I have few complaints. It’s high up, with two windows that let air in, lime green and it has a mango tree right outside that I can pick my breakfast from. After listening to my friend’s sites and their room situations, I feel a little spoiled, but I’m not complaining. The only thing I can complain about is the loudspeaker that is located next door. It goes on at about five in the morning for about an hour and a half preaching religious stuff or something rather and then plays intermittently for the remainder of the day that I still have trouble translating. The decibel level is insane. I can’t hear anyone while I’m talking on the phone. It’s very possible that one day the village people will emerge from their houses to find the loudspeaker cables cut and destroyed.
In Tumbes there are six other PC Peru 14 volunteers with me. Since Tumbes is so small, we’re all located pretty close to each other, which is SWEEEEET. That also means that we are all also located fairly close, if not on, the beach. Last Saturday I spent my morning lying out on the beach and swimming, eating a freshly picked mango, and tanning. Despite the fact that I suffered some serious burns (even though sun block was applied), it did not feel very Peace Corps-esque at all. It felt like vacay. But while you all reading this might be silently cursing me for having such a lovely time here, I can assure you, Tumbes and my site definitely have its hardships, such as:
-extreme, intense, sun (I feel like I am living on Mercury)
- the smell from everything rotting in the sun
-EXTREME MOSQUITOS
-malaria and dengue (resulting from the insane amount of mosquitos)
-machismo (the male-dominant attitude that is pretty significant here)
-not looking like a site straight out of middle earth or the sound of music (like places in alta piura, Cajamarca, ancash, junin, or arrequipa)
But, positives and negatives included, this is my home for the next two years so I better get pretty comfortable. The last night I was in Tumbes actually I went out to a concert for a town’s anniversary with three other PC volunteers that lived nearby. While dancing to the beat of the cumbia music and sharing Cusquena (type of beer) with about a million other people in my dancing circle, I kind of had a “moment.” I thought about how far I had come and how a year ago, there was no way I would have thought that I would be dancing at a concert in the middle of nowhere, Peru, and think that it was normal. It still amazes me everyday that I’m here and that I have become so comfortable in a place so foreign from anything I had known before two and a half months ago. I hope things keep going that way!
So as you all know, I have been assigned to work in a little town of about 4000 in the department of Tumbes. Tumbes is the smallest department in Peru, and is right on the border with Ecuador (which also means three degrees from the equator). While it may be detailed as a little more dangerous than the rest of the departments volunteers are headed to, it definitely makes up for its faults with its beaches and mangroves. I say it’s dangerous because it is a border region and a lot of drug trafficking passes through but whatevs. I’m told that as long as you’re smart about your surroundings and keep alert, you dramatically reduce your risk. So I’ll just plan on that. But ANYWAYS…
The past ten days I spent in both the departments of Piura and Tumbes doing regional and site based training with other volunteers, and later, by myself. This included giving educational sessions of charlas in the elementary schools about handwashing and HIV- AIDS. We played with babies during an early stimulation session and put on a show about brushing your teeth where I ran around with a broom and was called ¨Super Cepillo.¨I got to wear a neon hat and a towel as a cape so that was cool.
During these ten days, we were put in some rather weird living slash sleeping situations. For example, the first night, ten of us slept in the child stimulation center on those gymnastic pads things. While having the worst night sleep of all of our lives, I woke up to hear my friends Caleb and Allyse discussing the animal that they just felt. Too tired to care, I tried to forget it and went back to bed. It was only until later that morning when I found out it had been amouse that ran across Caleb´s face and Allyse´s neck before scurrying somewhere else. I was one person away from Allyse. Call me high maitenance, tell me I´m a bad volunteer, but after clogging a toilet earlier that day, dealing with digestive issues and not sleeping, I was being worn down to I think the last straw. Needless to say we slept in a hostal the next night and it felt GLORIOUS.
After spending four or five days in Piura, we all headed north to Tumbes by bus. I am replacing another Peace Corps volunteer who just finished her two year stint in the same town. She did a lot of work with HIV/AIDS and that’s where I’ll be picking up. I’m super stoked to be doing AIDS prevention because for a country whose people don’t really practice smart slash safe sex, Tumbes and it’s people are pretty liberal and don’t find it too taboo to talk about.
I am living in a house WITH RUNNING WATER BOOYA, electricity, and wait for it……INTERNET. This definitely did not sound like the campo to me, but as I walked around the town and took a drive to neighboring casarios, it became clear there is still a lot of work that can be done. I have a cool mom and dad, my pops a mechanic, a brother aged 17 (it’s debatable if he is as cool as Jeremy), and a sister ranking in at 13 years old. There is also a cursed parrot named Polly, which I do not get along with. After attacking me and pulling my hair, I have decided that Polly’s days are numbered. I can’t really say more about my family except that they seem pretty cool, a little less loud, but are well-respected throughout their community for being pretty good people. And when I say community, I mean their extended family because I swear to God my family is related to everyone else somehow (my dad is one of 11 I think and my mom is one of 13 and they all live in the same vicinity).
With regards to my room, I have few complaints. It’s high up, with two windows that let air in, lime green and it has a mango tree right outside that I can pick my breakfast from. After listening to my friend’s sites and their room situations, I feel a little spoiled, but I’m not complaining. The only thing I can complain about is the loudspeaker that is located next door. It goes on at about five in the morning for about an hour and a half preaching religious stuff or something rather and then plays intermittently for the remainder of the day that I still have trouble translating. The decibel level is insane. I can’t hear anyone while I’m talking on the phone. It’s very possible that one day the village people will emerge from their houses to find the loudspeaker cables cut and destroyed.
In Tumbes there are six other PC Peru 14 volunteers with me. Since Tumbes is so small, we’re all located pretty close to each other, which is SWEEEEET. That also means that we are all also located fairly close, if not on, the beach. Last Saturday I spent my morning lying out on the beach and swimming, eating a freshly picked mango, and tanning. Despite the fact that I suffered some serious burns (even though sun block was applied), it did not feel very Peace Corps-esque at all. It felt like vacay. But while you all reading this might be silently cursing me for having such a lovely time here, I can assure you, Tumbes and my site definitely have its hardships, such as:
-extreme, intense, sun (I feel like I am living on Mercury)
- the smell from everything rotting in the sun
-EXTREME MOSQUITOS
-malaria and dengue (resulting from the insane amount of mosquitos)
-machismo (the male-dominant attitude that is pretty significant here)
-not looking like a site straight out of middle earth or the sound of music (like places in alta piura, Cajamarca, ancash, junin, or arrequipa)
But, positives and negatives included, this is my home for the next two years so I better get pretty comfortable. The last night I was in Tumbes actually I went out to a concert for a town’s anniversary with three other PC volunteers that lived nearby. While dancing to the beat of the cumbia music and sharing Cusquena (type of beer) with about a million other people in my dancing circle, I kind of had a “moment.” I thought about how far I had come and how a year ago, there was no way I would have thought that I would be dancing at a concert in the middle of nowhere, Peru, and think that it was normal. It still amazes me everyday that I’m here and that I have become so comfortable in a place so foreign from anything I had known before two and a half months ago. I hope things keep going that way!
Saturday, November 7, 2009
TUMBES
I am going to Tumbes! Everyone start booking your tickets now, because this is the place to be. I can´t write a blog now because I need to pack for the next week and a half because I will be at my regional and site based training (up around and in Tumbes) but I wanted to give you all a heads up! Check out pics of Zorritos beach-- this place is only an hour away. So exciting! Only problem is, is that it´s a twenty hour bus ride from Lima. I guess that´s what they call a tradeoff. I will be back next Tuesday! Ciao ciao
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
It´s a Wonderful Life
Hi Everyone! I promise this blog will be more upbeat than my other one!!! I made it to and from Ancash, Peru, safe, sound and sans diarrhea, though I’m not sure if I can say the same for everyone else I went with! Let me give you the low down on Ancash. It is another department (or province, whatever you want to call it) directly north or Lima. It took about 8 hours to get to the capital, Huaraz but thanks to your taxpayer’s dollars, we rode in style. For around $20, we got seats on a double- decker bus with “camas” (bed- seats). These things were so comfy and folded down SO FAR. Therefore, it was optimal for sleeping and on the way home, while we were traveling back home on Saturday night, I was able to sleep like a baby (I think the “ party drinks” we had while on the bus probably helped a little bit too).
SO yeah , back to Ancash. The first night we stayed in a hostal (my first one mind all of you) which was baller ( I am ignoring the fact that there was suspicious blood on my bedspread). I got lukewarm water for the first time and was exstatic. I actually did a full body immersion while showering. We got up the next morning and headed up the mountains to a little town called Mato, situated in the middle of the Andes. We worked there for a day, doing house visits and making piñatas with youth from around the community. That night, we (my friend Chris, Anne and I) were sitting in the town plaza when some little chicos wanted their pictures taken. This was hilarious. I took over fifteen glamour shots. No matter that I had no way of giving these kids the pictures, they were just so pumped to be able to see what they looked like on a camera screen. I put a few up on facebook if you want to check them out.
The next day was the best. We got up (after a night of sharing a twin sized top bunk named “Fleaville” and getting one to two hours of sleep at most) and traveled to another town called Musho, about another two hours away. We visisted a current volunteer names Mike and built latrines all day long. I discovered I am a natural with a pick ax and also learned three different ways to build latrines and bathrooms.
I can’t even tell you how gorgeous this place was. I felt like I was in Middle Earth and Frodo and Gandalf were about to pop their heads around the corner. I may or may not have made over 3498170 references to Middle Earth and while it was filmed in New Zealand, this part of the Andes would have done just a fine job as the backdrop. We stayed at the base of a mountain called Huascaran, which is the tallest mountain in Peru, and the second tallest in South America coming in at a little over 22,000 feet. This is also the mountain where a huge chunk of glacier came off during a massive earthquake in 1970 and flew down the mountain, annihilating the town on Yungay below and killing around 30,000 inhabitants in a matter of minutes (you can read more about that story on Wiki or Google or something, it’s truly terrifying (type in Yungay or Huaraz earthquake 1970)). But this mountain (and the ones surrounding it) were beautiful. The clouds circling the mountain finally dissipated towards the end of the day and we could see the snow line and almost to the top. It’s a big hotspot for climbers and I can see why. It made me want to live in the sierra.
So anyways, we spent the day and night there, I got my own bed and the next day we built an improved cooking stove for a family out of adobe and mud. Afterwards (this day is Halloween that I’m talking about), we took rides back down to Huaraz and got dinner and a drink or two. I went with a few people to a British-owned restaurant that served REAL BRITISH BEER and awesome fajitas. We took another bus back to Lima during the night and got home early Sunday morning. So no, I didn’t really get to celebrate Halloween but I guess I have two more to look forward to while I’m here. Not to mention, Halloween isn’t really a big thing here, it’s the next day “Dia de los Muertos” where everyone heads to the cemetery to bring gifts, food and flowers to the gravesites to their loved ones.
So that was Ancash. Beautiful, awesome, and breath-taking. If any of you all are looking to visit Peru on vacation or something, I would highly recommend checking this province out.
But for me, back to reality. On Friday (yes this Friday) I find out where I will be placed and live for the next two years. It’s a little terrifying. Then on Saturday I will peace out for a week again and travel to my specific province and site, getting to know the peeps there. The options are basically coast and sierra (the jungle is off limits which is a huge bummer). They’re like night and day. One is hot, sandy and sunny 24/7 and the other is up in the mountains where the temperatures fluctuate more than the US Stock Market. I’ll let you all know the hand I’m dealt the minute I find out.
SO yeah , back to Ancash. The first night we stayed in a hostal (my first one mind all of you) which was baller ( I am ignoring the fact that there was suspicious blood on my bedspread). I got lukewarm water for the first time and was exstatic. I actually did a full body immersion while showering. We got up the next morning and headed up the mountains to a little town called Mato, situated in the middle of the Andes. We worked there for a day, doing house visits and making piñatas with youth from around the community. That night, we (my friend Chris, Anne and I) were sitting in the town plaza when some little chicos wanted their pictures taken. This was hilarious. I took over fifteen glamour shots. No matter that I had no way of giving these kids the pictures, they were just so pumped to be able to see what they looked like on a camera screen. I put a few up on facebook if you want to check them out.
The next day was the best. We got up (after a night of sharing a twin sized top bunk named “Fleaville” and getting one to two hours of sleep at most) and traveled to another town called Musho, about another two hours away. We visisted a current volunteer names Mike and built latrines all day long. I discovered I am a natural with a pick ax and also learned three different ways to build latrines and bathrooms.
I can’t even tell you how gorgeous this place was. I felt like I was in Middle Earth and Frodo and Gandalf were about to pop their heads around the corner. I may or may not have made over 3498170 references to Middle Earth and while it was filmed in New Zealand, this part of the Andes would have done just a fine job as the backdrop. We stayed at the base of a mountain called Huascaran, which is the tallest mountain in Peru, and the second tallest in South America coming in at a little over 22,000 feet. This is also the mountain where a huge chunk of glacier came off during a massive earthquake in 1970 and flew down the mountain, annihilating the town on Yungay below and killing around 30,000 inhabitants in a matter of minutes (you can read more about that story on Wiki or Google or something, it’s truly terrifying (type in Yungay or Huaraz earthquake 1970)). But this mountain (and the ones surrounding it) were beautiful. The clouds circling the mountain finally dissipated towards the end of the day and we could see the snow line and almost to the top. It’s a big hotspot for climbers and I can see why. It made me want to live in the sierra.
So anyways, we spent the day and night there, I got my own bed and the next day we built an improved cooking stove for a family out of adobe and mud. Afterwards (this day is Halloween that I’m talking about), we took rides back down to Huaraz and got dinner and a drink or two. I went with a few people to a British-owned restaurant that served REAL BRITISH BEER and awesome fajitas. We took another bus back to Lima during the night and got home early Sunday morning. So no, I didn’t really get to celebrate Halloween but I guess I have two more to look forward to while I’m here. Not to mention, Halloween isn’t really a big thing here, it’s the next day “Dia de los Muertos” where everyone heads to the cemetery to bring gifts, food and flowers to the gravesites to their loved ones.
So that was Ancash. Beautiful, awesome, and breath-taking. If any of you all are looking to visit Peru on vacation or something, I would highly recommend checking this province out.
But for me, back to reality. On Friday (yes this Friday) I find out where I will be placed and live for the next two years. It’s a little terrifying. Then on Saturday I will peace out for a week again and travel to my specific province and site, getting to know the peeps there. The options are basically coast and sierra (the jungle is off limits which is a huge bummer). They’re like night and day. One is hot, sandy and sunny 24/7 and the other is up in the mountains where the temperatures fluctuate more than the US Stock Market. I’ll let you all know the hand I’m dealt the minute I find out.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
don´t drink the water.
Alright, sup bizzos. i know it´s been awhile, i´m sure you´re all dying of boredom with nothing else to read. just kidding. there´s been a lot happening on this side of the equator (including my first peruvian wedding, the carrot party, a highway robbery, and getting cellphones) but their updates will have to wait. why do you ask? Because I would rather fill you in on my first bacterial infection. Yes. You may not like it, but I have to get the word out there how lucky you all are that have never come across a little microbe that can wreck such intense havoc on your body. So Saturday morning was fine. I went the Universidad, played with guinea pigs and felt fine. Saturday night/ Sunday morning was still cool while I experienced my first Peruvian nuptials (which included a lot of Huayno (traditional whiney sounding mucis) and passing a bottle of beer with a grandma with a baby strapped to her back). Even at the carrot party on Sunday night I was fine. It was Monday morning when I woke up that things started to feel iffy. What may have tipped me off was when my kidney made some weird growling noise that I had never heard before. I ate my breakfast apprehensively. I told my host sister I felt like going into class an hour late and thank the Good Lord I did. Around nine o´clock, disaster STRUCK.
I´m not talking about accidentally having a little milk without taking my lactaid pills. It was like I had personally pissed off the God of toilets and therefore he had it out that I would spend my entire Monday morning paying homage to him. We´ll put it this way, I ran my family out of water. That wasn´t even the worst part. The worst was the abdominal pain. It felt like someone was taking a spoon and trying to carve out my stomach/intestines. Holy hell. I called the Peace Corps around lunch and was put on an antibotic called Ciprofalxin (not sure on spelling, Latta this is where you could correct me with your Pharmacy school knowledge). The bathroom party continued all day and I didn´t realize until that night how dehydrated I had become. It was a little freaky. HOWEVER, 30 hours later I am feeling much better. I am still having my bouts, but I actually managed to haul myself out of bed and go to the training center. Not for learning though. I heard I got a package and that was the only thing I was focused on getting today. When I finally got to the post office, I tore open my package and it was from Maggie!!! (For all of you who aren´t familiar with my friends from school, Maggie is a great one. Other friends include Jules, Col, Latta, Pfeff, Zog and Kendall plus many others). She ha d sent me an US Weekly, People Style Watch, Lucky, the new catalogs from Free People, J. Crew, Anthro, a cd, and a hilarious card. This made my day. While nursing a Gatorade, I read about John and Kate Plus 8, and everything else that I could totally live without down here but choose not to. So Mags, thanks a ton.
I really hope I am on the road to recovery though because tomorrow we (the Health program) are leaving for our field-based training tomorrow up in Ancash. It´s about 8 hours away up in the sierra where we will be building latrines and doing other cool stuff. However, it´s pretty cold, out in the wilderness and I would just like to be at an optimal health level before we get there. I´ll be out of touch until Sunday afternoon, so sorry for not responding to any of my emails (Uncle Penn, Mags, Rae, Dad, and Pfeff) in a timely fashion. I literally only had time to write this guy. I hope it all goes well!!!
I´m not talking about accidentally having a little milk without taking my lactaid pills. It was like I had personally pissed off the God of toilets and therefore he had it out that I would spend my entire Monday morning paying homage to him. We´ll put it this way, I ran my family out of water. That wasn´t even the worst part. The worst was the abdominal pain. It felt like someone was taking a spoon and trying to carve out my stomach/intestines. Holy hell. I called the Peace Corps around lunch and was put on an antibotic called Ciprofalxin (not sure on spelling, Latta this is where you could correct me with your Pharmacy school knowledge). The bathroom party continued all day and I didn´t realize until that night how dehydrated I had become. It was a little freaky. HOWEVER, 30 hours later I am feeling much better. I am still having my bouts, but I actually managed to haul myself out of bed and go to the training center. Not for learning though. I heard I got a package and that was the only thing I was focused on getting today. When I finally got to the post office, I tore open my package and it was from Maggie!!! (For all of you who aren´t familiar with my friends from school, Maggie is a great one. Other friends include Jules, Col, Latta, Pfeff, Zog and Kendall plus many others). She ha d sent me an US Weekly, People Style Watch, Lucky, the new catalogs from Free People, J. Crew, Anthro, a cd, and a hilarious card. This made my day. While nursing a Gatorade, I read about John and Kate Plus 8, and everything else that I could totally live without down here but choose not to. So Mags, thanks a ton.
I really hope I am on the road to recovery though because tomorrow we (the Health program) are leaving for our field-based training tomorrow up in Ancash. It´s about 8 hours away up in the sierra where we will be building latrines and doing other cool stuff. However, it´s pretty cold, out in the wilderness and I would just like to be at an optimal health level before we get there. I´ll be out of touch until Sunday afternoon, so sorry for not responding to any of my emails (Uncle Penn, Mags, Rae, Dad, and Pfeff) in a timely fashion. I literally only had time to write this guy. I hope it all goes well!!!
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
a carrot party
So Sunday night I was reading in my room after a long day´s work of making foor with my family all day, when my grandfather told me someone was at the door. Naturally, I thought it was one of my friends coming to hang out but when I opened the door, it was instead my friend Krista´s little nine year old host brother Mario. This kid is hilarious and his sun rises and sets with Michael Jackson. He handed me a piece of paper and it proceeded to say (translation): ¨You are invited to a carrot party at my house this Sunday. ¨ He actually used the words ¨fiesta de zanahorias¨which is hilarious. All I have to do is bring one carrot and a lime with me. Which I have no problem doing and I can´t wait to find out what a ¨carrot party¨ is all about.
Also today while walking to the carreterra to catch a combi, I saw a monkey. A legit, real monkey. There was a van selling olives outside my house and riding shotgun and sitting on the window was a real, live monkey. It was ugly. But nevertheless I loved it. Speaking of animals, two weeks ago during the ¨roof party¨, I was hanging out with my nextdoor neighbors and their month old brand new puppy. It is the cutest thing I have ever seen. It´s furry, black, cuddly, and with white spots and paws. While playing with him, I asked the family if he had a name. They replied that they hadn´t thought of one yet so on reflex, I called him Charlie. Today I saw my little neighbor carrying the puppy around (the girl is like four) and she told me that the dog´s name is officially Charlie. How cool is that? I was so stoked I ran home, called my real mom (Emmy Lou) and told her.
Lastly, I would just like to take a moment to tell you all how much I love Kevin Costner. My friend from Peace Corps heard that I had never seen it and lent it to me to watch yesterday. For all of you crazies that say it´s slow and boring, I totally disagree. I can´t wait to get a dog here and name him ¨Two Socks.¨ I was so into the beauty of the movie (and of Kevin Costner´s face) that I forced my language professor to watch twenty minutes of it during language class (with Spanish subtitles, of course). But in all seriousness, it is a really powerful movie and it defintely stuck a chord with me with being in the Peace Corps and everything. Especially about the whole ¨trying to understand and live a different culture while dealing with a language barrier¨sort of thing. I recommend it to all.
This post really had nothing to do with anything, but I figured I should keep you all updated on my life, whether it seems exciting or not.
Also today while walking to the carreterra to catch a combi, I saw a monkey. A legit, real monkey. There was a van selling olives outside my house and riding shotgun and sitting on the window was a real, live monkey. It was ugly. But nevertheless I loved it. Speaking of animals, two weeks ago during the ¨roof party¨, I was hanging out with my nextdoor neighbors and their month old brand new puppy. It is the cutest thing I have ever seen. It´s furry, black, cuddly, and with white spots and paws. While playing with him, I asked the family if he had a name. They replied that they hadn´t thought of one yet so on reflex, I called him Charlie. Today I saw my little neighbor carrying the puppy around (the girl is like four) and she told me that the dog´s name is officially Charlie. How cool is that? I was so stoked I ran home, called my real mom (Emmy Lou) and told her.
Lastly, I would just like to take a moment to tell you all how much I love Kevin Costner. My friend from Peace Corps heard that I had never seen it and lent it to me to watch yesterday. For all of you crazies that say it´s slow and boring, I totally disagree. I can´t wait to get a dog here and name him ¨Two Socks.¨ I was so into the beauty of the movie (and of Kevin Costner´s face) that I forced my language professor to watch twenty minutes of it during language class (with Spanish subtitles, of course). But in all seriousness, it is a really powerful movie and it defintely stuck a chord with me with being in the Peace Corps and everything. Especially about the whole ¨trying to understand and live a different culture while dealing with a language barrier¨sort of thing. I recommend it to all.
This post really had nothing to do with anything, but I figured I should keep you all updated on my life, whether it seems exciting or not.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
things are heating up-
So it finally seems like leaving Chaclcayo and going out into the wild (on my own) is becoming a reality. I have about four and a half weeks left of training which includes spending an entire week visiting my province and site (known here as regional and site based training): I have absolutely no idea where I am going to go but I told my program director that I am more productive in warmer climates. Still, I could end up on the top of Mount Everest and I wouldn´t be surprised.
With the end of training coming up on the horizon, myhealth program has kicked it into fifth gear and we are busy every day. I would probably feel pretty behind if I was sick and skipped one because we´re getting much more technical training than we did before. For instance, Thursday and Friday were spent at both a ¨posta de salud¨and ¨centro de salud.¨ Since the majority of Peru is living where it could take an hour or a day to get to a hospital, MINSA ( or the ministerio de salud) has created satellite health posts for the public. Thgese include centros de salud (bigger and usually including a doctor= and postas de salud (smaller and usually include a nurse or health technician of some sort).
On Friday I visited the centro de salud for a few hours. We were able to talk with both an obstetric technician )I could be wrong on her title, don´t wuote me on that) and a pediatrician. Let me just get this out here first, I LOVE PERUVIAN BABIES. I mean I love babies in general but these guys are so fricking cute I want to seal them and take them home (yes, I realize that is a tad creepy). We watched a bunch of baby checkups which included checking for malnutrition (which is a really big problem here and cognitive development, along with watching the babies get these necessary vaccines!
Next week we are going back to the posta de salud to give mini ¨charlas¨or informative talks, about different topics. I have been assigned to exclusive breastfeeding. Whoop whoop! I hardly knew anything about breastfeeding before I got here ( which is normal because I have never given birth) and now I feel like an expert. Seriously, it´s so cool. For all of my female followers, did you know that you can actually breastfeed, without EVER giving birth?!?! Yes, it´s true and it´s just a matter of getting some hormones to activate and poof! You are a natural baby-food maker.
Yesterday (Saturday) was our friend alex´s birthday. All the girls in Tres decided that cooking was the theme for the celebration. We all went to the agraria for our routine saturday morning lecture and afterwards, Krista, Abby and I took a combi a combi over to a ¨Plaza Vea¨(Peruvian grocery store) down in Lima. We stocked up on supplies to make pizza and bought some Argentinian wine. Afterwards, we picked up a delicious apple pie from our favorite bakery and got to work. We made a fruit salad consisting of the most delicious fruit ever. There were papayas, avocados, star fruits, granadillas, strawberries, mandarins, tuna (the fruit not the fish) and mangos. Talk about a Vitamin C intake.
the best part however was making the pizza. The sauce was dripping with garlic, black pepper and oregano that Krista decided was needed and we cut up onions, tomatoes, asparagus, mushrooms, red peppers and layered mozarella on top. Take that Papa John. However, we realized afterwards that most people in our neighborhood do not have ovens or choose not to use them because they use too much energy. This posed a problem. But have no fear! Krista´s mom went ot Lima and bought a portable plug-in oven! It looked like a little mini Weber grill. The pizza dough was a little too big so we had to cut it down so the pizza could fir and we were able to cook one ata time. Krita´s family was fascinated by all of this. Pizza really doesn´t exist here and most people have never tried it. I have some pictures that I took of the process so I will try to figure out how to get them up on this blog ( if anyone knows how, please enlighten me).
Afterwards, we set up all of our creations at Alex´s house with the help of his mom and we were able to completely surprise him!!!! It was SOOOOO fun (and funny). We all sat down and gorged to the point where my pant buttons were working hard to stay shut. Later, more Peace Corps volunteers came in and we had a party for Alex up on his roof. Like I said, pictures are hopefully to follow.
Today is my day of rest and I love these days. I have a ton of Spanish homework that I have successfully put off for a few days and laundry because I am absolutely, postively 100% without clean underwear. I´m not joking. I´ve worn every pair inside out, outside in and now I am partying in my baithing suit. I might also indulge myself and watch The Sound of Music or a Lord of the Rings movie (oh yes, I found them last week at a market and bought them for cheaaaaap). You have to be careful and try to figure out the languages the movie is in though, because a lot of the time, it´s in Russian. I have been lucky thus far and have avoided the movies that are only in Russian (why Russian is so popular in Peru, I don´t know- Billy you would have a heyda). However, I still encourage non-bootleg movies from anyone that´s willing to send them!!!!
Okay that´s all I have from down here, I hear the weather is getting pretty gross (rainy and cold) up in the States, so good luck everyone with the onset of fall/winter! Love you.
With the end of training coming up on the horizon, myhealth program has kicked it into fifth gear and we are busy every day. I would probably feel pretty behind if I was sick and skipped one because we´re getting much more technical training than we did before. For instance, Thursday and Friday were spent at both a ¨posta de salud¨and ¨centro de salud.¨ Since the majority of Peru is living where it could take an hour or a day to get to a hospital, MINSA ( or the ministerio de salud) has created satellite health posts for the public. Thgese include centros de salud (bigger and usually including a doctor= and postas de salud (smaller and usually include a nurse or health technician of some sort).
On Friday I visited the centro de salud for a few hours. We were able to talk with both an obstetric technician )I could be wrong on her title, don´t wuote me on that) and a pediatrician. Let me just get this out here first, I LOVE PERUVIAN BABIES. I mean I love babies in general but these guys are so fricking cute I want to seal them and take them home (yes, I realize that is a tad creepy). We watched a bunch of baby checkups which included checking for malnutrition (which is a really big problem here and cognitive development, along with watching the babies get these necessary vaccines!
Next week we are going back to the posta de salud to give mini ¨charlas¨or informative talks, about different topics. I have been assigned to exclusive breastfeeding. Whoop whoop! I hardly knew anything about breastfeeding before I got here ( which is normal because I have never given birth) and now I feel like an expert. Seriously, it´s so cool. For all of my female followers, did you know that you can actually breastfeed, without EVER giving birth?!?! Yes, it´s true and it´s just a matter of getting some hormones to activate and poof! You are a natural baby-food maker.
Yesterday (Saturday) was our friend alex´s birthday. All the girls in Tres decided that cooking was the theme for the celebration. We all went to the agraria for our routine saturday morning lecture and afterwards, Krista, Abby and I took a combi a combi over to a ¨Plaza Vea¨(Peruvian grocery store) down in Lima. We stocked up on supplies to make pizza and bought some Argentinian wine. Afterwards, we picked up a delicious apple pie from our favorite bakery and got to work. We made a fruit salad consisting of the most delicious fruit ever. There were papayas, avocados, star fruits, granadillas, strawberries, mandarins, tuna (the fruit not the fish) and mangos. Talk about a Vitamin C intake.
the best part however was making the pizza. The sauce was dripping with garlic, black pepper and oregano that Krista decided was needed and we cut up onions, tomatoes, asparagus, mushrooms, red peppers and layered mozarella on top. Take that Papa John. However, we realized afterwards that most people in our neighborhood do not have ovens or choose not to use them because they use too much energy. This posed a problem. But have no fear! Krista´s mom went ot Lima and bought a portable plug-in oven! It looked like a little mini Weber grill. The pizza dough was a little too big so we had to cut it down so the pizza could fir and we were able to cook one ata time. Krita´s family was fascinated by all of this. Pizza really doesn´t exist here and most people have never tried it. I have some pictures that I took of the process so I will try to figure out how to get them up on this blog ( if anyone knows how, please enlighten me).
Afterwards, we set up all of our creations at Alex´s house with the help of his mom and we were able to completely surprise him!!!! It was SOOOOO fun (and funny). We all sat down and gorged to the point where my pant buttons were working hard to stay shut. Later, more Peace Corps volunteers came in and we had a party for Alex up on his roof. Like I said, pictures are hopefully to follow.
Today is my day of rest and I love these days. I have a ton of Spanish homework that I have successfully put off for a few days and laundry because I am absolutely, postively 100% without clean underwear. I´m not joking. I´ve worn every pair inside out, outside in and now I am partying in my baithing suit. I might also indulge myself and watch The Sound of Music or a Lord of the Rings movie (oh yes, I found them last week at a market and bought them for cheaaaaap). You have to be careful and try to figure out the languages the movie is in though, because a lot of the time, it´s in Russian. I have been lucky thus far and have avoided the movies that are only in Russian (why Russian is so popular in Peru, I don´t know- Billy you would have a heyda). However, I still encourage non-bootleg movies from anyone that´s willing to send them!!!!
Okay that´s all I have from down here, I hear the weather is getting pretty gross (rainy and cold) up in the States, so good luck everyone with the onset of fall/winter! Love you.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
roof building means business.
Here in Peru (or at least in most of the middle to lower class neighborhoods) all of the houses are built on top of and next to each other so that it resembles a game of tetris. For the past two weeks, my uncle and his family have been building their new house on top of mine. Today was the day that they built the roof. Now this is the most important and most celebrated part of building a new house because it commences the end of the building the framework. So naturally, there was a party. I went out last night to my first “house party” (hosted by another volunteer) and fell in love with Chilean wine. That stuff is great. I came home around 12:30 and at 4:30 in the morning I woke up having to pee like the Dickens. I walked out of my room and to my surprise there was a fire burning in my “washroom/outdoor hallway.” At first I thought there was some Incan sorcery going on but it actually was my grandma cooking my favorite lamb head-stewed corn soup (known here as mote or patasca). This was going on at four in the morning because there were about twenty men mixing concrete and building the roof at seven this morning. Sleeping in was not an option. The soup that my grandma had been making was their breakfast, lunch and afternoon snack (and mine as well). I cannot even begin to tell you how hard these guys were working. They looked like hornigitas (little ants). They had to carry buckets full of concrete up a makeshift ladder to the second story of the house. This went on allllll day. At four thirty in the afternoon, the work was completed. To “baptize” or “initiate” the house (not really sure what was exactly going on), my father hung a bottle of wine from the roof and proceeded to hit it with a pole until it fell down, crashed, and spilled out on the street. My mom bought candy to throw out to the crowd of kids out of the street and beer was brought in by the case.
I sat around with my entire family which was pushing about fifteen people and ate food and drank the beer for a few hours. My uncle enlightened me on the nutrient content of drinking beer and Coke together (apparently there’s a lot) so that has become my new drink of choice (although I’m still working on finding out the health benefits). We talked in Spanish, I learned some more Quechua (native language spoken in the sierra here) and hung out with an array of men, women and children neighbors. To play a trick on one of the guys that had been working, his friend filled up an empty beer bottle with the gross ass cement water that had been sitting in a bucket and put the cap back on. Un fortunately I had to run inside for dinner, so I didn’t get to see the results of the broma but I was laughing pretty hard thinking about it. I loved every minute. I really feel like I’m part of the group!
Poor little Jeremy came into my room this morning (at eight in the morning mind you) scratching his belly and whining about something. After shoving him out of my room I got up and asked my sister Ili (Jeremey’s mom) what was wrong. She said that last night an ant had gotten into his pants and bitten him all over. I pulled up Jeremy’s shirt and shrieked at the shingles-ish rash that little J was sporting. There must have been thirty bug bites circling his stomach and back with more on his feet and legs. Feeling badly, I whipped out my handy dandy government-funded medical kit and hydocortisoned the heck out of his body. I wish I could convey to you all how bad the bug bites are here. They’re U.S. bug bites on steroids. And the problem is that no matter how hard you scratch they NEVER stop itching and they only get worse. Back home I would just scratch the suckers until they hurt but here it’s just a lose- lose situation. They don’t stop itching and get so much worse. After being outside all day, I am covered in them and all I want to do is take a shower. Too bad we ran out of water and won’t have any until Tuesday. So much for showering every other day- it’s now every three days.
Yesterday we (the health and environment programs) went back to the Universidad de Molina to learn about raising chickens and compost making. While I really enjoyed the compost making part (I got to cut down stalks of plants with a machete), learning about chicken raising for two hours, on a Saturday morning, in Spanish, was not the best thing in the world.
Afterwards a few of us decided to go to the Museo de la Nacion in Lima. However, upon arriving we discovered to our dismay, that the museum was closed for a viewing of a really famous Peruvian singer that had just died (can’t remember his name). I was SOOOOO bummed. But being easy to please, I was very content with going to one of the humongo supermarkets nearby. It resembled Walmart. And it had American food. However, I saved all of my money so I could purchase one thing; a hairdryer. Now I know I told you all that I had brought mine with me from the states, but what I forgot to tell you was that my luggage weighed too much so the hairdryer got left at my hotel back in Washington at the very last minute. So for the first time, I got to blow dry my hair last night. Despite the fact that I was in the dark (didn’t want to blow a fuse) with no mirror, and the hairdryer was on its lowest setting, I felt like a princess. I can’t wait to do it again.
In other news, I got to play with two little newborn puppies today that were precious and only three weeks old, watch Jeremy and Kayla try to weigh their heads on a scale, and talk with my parents for a solid half hour. I have concluded that today was a great day. I also loved the email updates I have gotten this week from Mags, Col, and Rae- you guys are great and I love you so much!! I had to sneak out of my house bc my grandparents (who I live with) are asleep and I had to leave the door unlocked to get back in- so I will write you all back in the coming week. And to all of my friends in the states- my friends here are cool and I really am getting along with a f ew of them- but no one can replace you all. I would kill for labodega (which actually translates into ¨the store¨in spanish) or to just sit around and talk about absolutely nothing. But alas, I think I have to wait a little longer for that to happen.Thursday, October 8, 2009
still don´t like eating meat.
I´m sure you all have gotten pretty sick of my gross animal encounter stories, but alas I have another. Last night, my friends Nils, Alex, Jess and I decided it was a beautiful night and we were going to have a beer. While waiting for Alex to finish dinner and for Jess to change into pants, I was sitting along one of the canals in our neighborhood that transports waste water from up the mountain to the dirty river below. Anyways, so there I was sitting and just hanging out with Nils and picking apart some leaves from the ground. I found a really smooth rock to play with, however upon closer examination I realized this ¨rock¨was nothing of the sort. Having taken enough anatomy classes and dissected enough specimens, I soon deduced that this rock was too light, too smooth, and too much like an animal vertebrae. A cow vertebrae to be exact. Naturally, I screamed, threw the bone into the canal and ran into my friend Alex´house (who was eating dinner) straight to the bathroom to wash my hands. Sick. I mean, at that point in time, I just wasn´t mentally prepared to be juggling with cow bones while enjoying a beer. Soon after that, we moved our location to a more bone-free site.
(Side note) I also found out yesterday that the ¨mote¨soup that I have eaten on a regular basis is made by boiling a giant goat head in water to give it flavor. I was wondering what those pieces of cartilage were from. Blah.
Tomorrow I have a spanish interview that I´m a little apprehensive about. It decides what language level we are put into for the next six weeks of my life. Wish me luck.
I went to Chosica again today ( I love that city) and bought knock off pumas for $15 and the new Arctic Monkeys album that works perfectly and I am super pumped about.
Really that´s all I have to say about today- we went and celebrated one of our fellow volunteers birthdays at the ¨Peace Corps bar¨that I have frequented on multiple occasions which was a treat. As always, I miss you all more than you know and I am loving the emails I get on a regular basis (shout out to mags- you have been great about that). Love you all
(Side note) I also found out yesterday that the ¨mote¨soup that I have eaten on a regular basis is made by boiling a giant goat head in water to give it flavor. I was wondering what those pieces of cartilage were from. Blah.
Tomorrow I have a spanish interview that I´m a little apprehensive about. It decides what language level we are put into for the next six weeks of my life. Wish me luck.
I went to Chosica again today ( I love that city) and bought knock off pumas for $15 and the new Arctic Monkeys album that works perfectly and I am super pumped about.
Really that´s all I have to say about today- we went and celebrated one of our fellow volunteers birthdays at the ¨Peace Corps bar¨that I have frequented on multiple occasions which was a treat. As always, I miss you all more than you know and I am loving the emails I get on a regular basis (shout out to mags- you have been great about that). Love you all
Sunday, October 4, 2009
i love a good garbage fire in the morning
Okay, this may be a long one. A lot has happened this week-both things I enjoyed, and things that I definitely didn´t. For instance, I really liked going to the agraria again this weekend and learning how to construct a really simple greenhouse, but I didn´t like watching a chicken get its head chopped off at the market today. Once I feel like I have gotten pretty accustomed here, something happens and I´m thrown off my high horse. Today I went to the city of Choscia with my friends Jess and Alex. I got the biggest palmier I have ever seen (and more delicious than the ones at Vie de France). It was bigger than my head. And I managed to eat the whole thing. I also bought an illegal DVD that shows Ice ages 1-3 and Madagascars 1 and 2. I watched part of Ice Age 3 but it is seriously so jank that I stopped halfway in. For a second, I half expected Ray Romano´s voice to be pumping out some spanish but that was sooooo not the case. It seemed like the people who did the voices of the characters were all in someone´s kitchen together with a baby (because there´s a baby crying in the background). I only paid 2 soles for it (which amounts to less than a dollar), so I guess I got what I paid for.
In Chosica there are two megamarkets- one food related and the other toys, shoes, clothes, and other non essential stuff related. I am in love with the latter. I was in a third world outdoor mall. I relished in it. During my period of prowling, I was approached by four cute little girls that had been looking at pointing at my friends and I for about a minute before they got the guts to come up to us. I´m putting them at ages 4-6. After asking me my name, they then of course, wanted to know if I had any children. Now I realize I have been lax about putting on the anti-wrinkle cream, but come on!!! I replied no, I only had sisters, so naturally asked me if I was married. I realize the people in Peru are an inquisitive folk, but this was within the first 15 seconds of our friendship. Explaining I was single, the girls giggled and ran away. So much for forming long lasting friendships.
I then proceeded to the food market which was cool, has some not so great sights. My favorite part is the fruit area but to get there you have to pass through the meat section. Oh my mother of God. There was a lovely goat head on a table to greet me and the whole place smelled like rotting blood. That´s not even the worst part. While walking towards the exit, I unfortunately looked to my left just in time to see a LIVE chicken get its head hacked off in front of his friends. Gagging and about to vomit, I ran the rest of the way out. I proceeded to have a chicken leg for lunch while my grandfather munched on a chicken foot in his soup. Needless to say, there was no appetite and I hope I´m not getting leftovers for dinner.
Earlier this week the ambassador from the US to Peru came to our training center and had lunch with us. He was a pretty cool guy (name Michael McKinley). Afterwards, we had a Q and A session about everything dealing with Peru and his life as an ambassador, but sadly it was pretty politically correct, so we didn´t get to find out the craziest thing he had done here while being protected by diplomatic immunity. Cést la vie.
If any of you are perusing my facebook pictures and see the ones of a guy in a Barney costume, that´s one of my friends. Birthdays are a big thing here and it was one of the volunteer´s birthdays on Thursday. So, the Barney costume was on loan from the library for my friend to dress up in as a surprise for the birthday boy. I cannot convey to you how disgusting it was. I´m thinking it was about twenty years old. On Friday morning, my friend came in with some suspicious looking bug bites and I don´t even want to consider what was in that costume that could have caused those.
I´m sure you´re all wondering how Tres de Octubre went. It was great! To the dissappointment of you all, there was no rendition of Grease ( I know, I am a failure at life). Truth be told, a two of the girls (out of four) here have been sick with either a parasite or strep throat so our practicing conditions weren´t ideal. Some boys from Cuerpo de Paz (Peace Corps) did a cover of Creedence Cleerwater´s Bad Moon and Proud Mary on the guitar and ukelele. While NO ONE in our coomunity had heard of either of those songs, they still got pretty into it. And more importantly, I loved it. The celebration was more for the little kids of the neighborhood who had all dressed up in costumes and crazy Michael Jackson outfits. It was kind of like an elementary school- styled talent show. And what better way is there to illustrate one´s talent than a Michael Jackson dance? There isn´t one. So there were SIX MJ dances slash tributes. Kids wore the white gloves and all. Don´t worry I took videos and will try to post them on youtube this week.
After things started to slow down at Tres, a bunch of other volunteers and I headed over to a town called Yanacoto arround midnight which is about three miles down the carreterra central from tres de octubre. They were having a virgin festival similar to the one we had here about two weeks ago. This time I got to see the wooden structures get lit on fire and shoot off fireworks!!! It. was. awesome. However when the first one went off, I happened to be using an outdoor ladies room (that I invented myself behind a building a little ways off). I seriously thought I was being attacked by an air raid. There were flashed of light, insanely loud crashes that closely resembled gunshots and the ground was shaking. I screamed, stopped what I was doing immediately and ran back to the group.
In other news, I went to a huge American-styled mall yesterday in Lima and ate Burger King chicken nuggests for the first time in like five years. They don´t sell honey so I made
do with some sweet and sour sauce from the Chinese place. It was delicious. I´ve also discovered that garbage fires on the sides of streets are one of the ways that people here manage their trash situation. It smells horrible and I wish there was a better trash collecting system here but that´s just how a lot of people have been conditioned to take care of their trash I guess. Also in urgent news, abc.com DOES NOT WORK OUTSIDE OF THE US! I am thus deprived of all lost and flash forward watching abilities. BIRTHDAY IDEA: I reallllllly like tv shows, especially when I can watch them without commercials and in a DVD format :).
Tomorrow I am going to the local Chaclacayo library to volunteer with a few other volunteers and play with some kids after they are done with school. I´m really excited! Hopefully they like frisbee, because that´s what I´m bringing.
Okay dinner´s being served soon so I am going to sign off here. I hope everyone is doing well and I like being updated on current events! Peace out.
In Chosica there are two megamarkets- one food related and the other toys, shoes, clothes, and other non essential stuff related. I am in love with the latter. I was in a third world outdoor mall. I relished in it. During my period of prowling, I was approached by four cute little girls that had been looking at pointing at my friends and I for about a minute before they got the guts to come up to us. I´m putting them at ages 4-6. After asking me my name, they then of course, wanted to know if I had any children. Now I realize I have been lax about putting on the anti-wrinkle cream, but come on!!! I replied no, I only had sisters, so naturally asked me if I was married. I realize the people in Peru are an inquisitive folk, but this was within the first 15 seconds of our friendship. Explaining I was single, the girls giggled and ran away. So much for forming long lasting friendships.
I then proceeded to the food market which was cool, has some not so great sights. My favorite part is the fruit area but to get there you have to pass through the meat section. Oh my mother of God. There was a lovely goat head on a table to greet me and the whole place smelled like rotting blood. That´s not even the worst part. While walking towards the exit, I unfortunately looked to my left just in time to see a LIVE chicken get its head hacked off in front of his friends. Gagging and about to vomit, I ran the rest of the way out. I proceeded to have a chicken leg for lunch while my grandfather munched on a chicken foot in his soup. Needless to say, there was no appetite and I hope I´m not getting leftovers for dinner.
Earlier this week the ambassador from the US to Peru came to our training center and had lunch with us. He was a pretty cool guy (name Michael McKinley). Afterwards, we had a Q and A session about everything dealing with Peru and his life as an ambassador, but sadly it was pretty politically correct, so we didn´t get to find out the craziest thing he had done here while being protected by diplomatic immunity. Cést la vie.
If any of you are perusing my facebook pictures and see the ones of a guy in a Barney costume, that´s one of my friends. Birthdays are a big thing here and it was one of the volunteer´s birthdays on Thursday. So, the Barney costume was on loan from the library for my friend to dress up in as a surprise for the birthday boy. I cannot convey to you how disgusting it was. I´m thinking it was about twenty years old. On Friday morning, my friend came in with some suspicious looking bug bites and I don´t even want to consider what was in that costume that could have caused those.
I´m sure you´re all wondering how Tres de Octubre went. It was great! To the dissappointment of you all, there was no rendition of Grease ( I know, I am a failure at life). Truth be told, a two of the girls (out of four) here have been sick with either a parasite or strep throat so our practicing conditions weren´t ideal. Some boys from Cuerpo de Paz (Peace Corps) did a cover of Creedence Cleerwater´s Bad Moon and Proud Mary on the guitar and ukelele. While NO ONE in our coomunity had heard of either of those songs, they still got pretty into it. And more importantly, I loved it. The celebration was more for the little kids of the neighborhood who had all dressed up in costumes and crazy Michael Jackson outfits. It was kind of like an elementary school- styled talent show. And what better way is there to illustrate one´s talent than a Michael Jackson dance? There isn´t one. So there were SIX MJ dances slash tributes. Kids wore the white gloves and all. Don´t worry I took videos and will try to post them on youtube this week.
After things started to slow down at Tres, a bunch of other volunteers and I headed over to a town called Yanacoto arround midnight which is about three miles down the carreterra central from tres de octubre. They were having a virgin festival similar to the one we had here about two weeks ago. This time I got to see the wooden structures get lit on fire and shoot off fireworks!!! It. was. awesome. However when the first one went off, I happened to be using an outdoor ladies room (that I invented myself behind a building a little ways off). I seriously thought I was being attacked by an air raid. There were flashed of light, insanely loud crashes that closely resembled gunshots and the ground was shaking. I screamed, stopped what I was doing immediately and ran back to the group.
In other news, I went to a huge American-styled mall yesterday in Lima and ate Burger King chicken nuggests for the first time in like five years. They don´t sell honey so I made
do with some sweet and sour sauce from the Chinese place. It was delicious. I´ve also discovered that garbage fires on the sides of streets are one of the ways that people here manage their trash situation. It smells horrible and I wish there was a better trash collecting system here but that´s just how a lot of people have been conditioned to take care of their trash I guess. Also in urgent news, abc.com DOES NOT WORK OUTSIDE OF THE US! I am thus deprived of all lost and flash forward watching abilities. BIRTHDAY IDEA: I reallllllly like tv shows, especially when I can watch them without commercials and in a DVD format :).
Tomorrow I am going to the local Chaclacayo library to volunteer with a few other volunteers and play with some kids after they are done with school. I´m really excited! Hopefully they like frisbee, because that´s what I´m bringing.
Okay dinner´s being served soon so I am going to sign off here. I hope everyone is doing well and I like being updated on current events! Peace out.
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