PIURA PIURA PIURA

So I got my site assignment today after months of anticipation, excitement and nerves, and I am going to the department of Peru, this is one of the most northern departments of Peru, it's a coastal department and much of it borders Equador. I will be living in the district of Las Lomas in a small rural town of only about 500 people called Pampa Elera Alta. I actually got a little profile on my new host family today. Weirdest part is that I am older then my new host Mom, she is only 24, the husband is 33 and there are two sons one is 6 and the other is 2, so that is going to be so much fun. Now here is where I have suddenly gotten nervous, we don't have running water, we will be using the water from a nearby canal for cooking, bathing, and washing clothes. Fortunately I've been trained on how to treat the water so it's safe for drinking, but it makes me realize how lucky I am in my current host family situation. Also, no bathroom, I will be using a Latrine and continuing to take bucket baths. Great news.....I live within a few mile radius of 3 other volunteers, so I'm really excited about that too, I was worried about being isolated in a rural area. Also, great news, there is an international airport only 2 1/2 hours away...so start planning trips, the beaches in my region are amazing!!!!

So tomorrow I leave for the next 10 days to train in my new site, I'm a replacement volunteer, so there has already been a volunteer in my town working, so I'm excited about that too to see what she has done and get her advice.

We just got back from a trip to Ancash, which is a region in the Andes mountains. That was a really interesting trip. It was about an 8 hour bus ride to the capital city Huaraz, and we didn't spend much time there at first, we traveled about another 3 hours to a small town in the mountains called Chavin. Now transportation in Peru is a scary situation as I've mentioned before. Just imagine those crazy buses now traveling on dirt/rock/gravel roads at high altitudes on the edges of mountains. I was gripping my seat the entire time, I never once felt comfortable during out travel time, it was horrible! I felt many times that my life was going to end in a Peruvian bus that drove off the cliff...it was scary and I have a tremendous fear of heights on top of it.

Once we got to Chavin, we stayed in a hostal with HOT showers and TV....with one english channel. It was great! Another thing I need to mention is that altitude sickness is no joke, we were given pills ahead of time to take and I did. But once we got into the mountains I started having this weird tingling in my feet and hands that came and went the entire trip, and for the first few days I just had general malaise, but once I ran out of pills it got worse. I missed two days of activities due to some of the symtoms related to altitude sickness that I won't mention here.

The point of this trip was to do field based training, which is learning some of the stuff we will need to do in our new sites. So the first day we went and learned about health promotes and forming a youth group. So we went to a school and worked with kids and painted a mural. The following day, we went to build latrines for families who needed them...I missed this day because I was really sick. Then saturday we went to a town and interviewd women who had recieved these improved cooking stoves called "cocinas mejoradas"...they are an adobe brick built raised cooking stove that has a chimney that moves the smoke outdoors, because before the women would cook over an open flame on the floor of their kitchens. The smoke was hurting their lungs as well as their backs, and the same for the rest of the families. So after attending 8-10 information sessions put on by the volunteer these households were provided with materials from a peace corp grant to build these improved cooking stoves. So we went to interview these mothers about information pertaining to health as well as see if they were using their new stoves.

Now to preface how these interviews went, I have to tell you about the people who live in the mountains. They are very very traditional and conservative, their way of life as well as their clothing is different then other parts of Peru. Many of them do not speak spanish, they speak another language known as Quechua. So the women we interviewed were very timid. Unfortunately the women couldn't tell us much information in regards to health, for example they were unsure about balanced diets and hygiene. I actually felt uncomfortable asking them many of the questions because they were so shy, I felt like I was intruding and that it must be very intimidating for them. However, this was all apart of their agreement for recieving the "cocina mejorada".

After the interviews, we went and actually built a cocina mejorada. The family is usually required to build the first part, and then we come in and build the level where the stove is going to be. To do this, we use adobe bricks and this weird mud mix that contains: horse and donkey feces, salt, sugar, cactus water and broken glass. So after we put all that together we finished it up with the stove top, and after a fews days of drying the family can add the chimney and use it. The mother of the house came and saw it when we were finished and seemed really excited which was great!!

After we left Chavin, we returned to Huarez for our last night in Ancash, we all ended up finding this little pizza place. It was a really cute hole in the wall kinda place that was decorated with international flags and played american 80's music and classic rock. It was so much fun. There was a guy in there who asked me to take a picture of his table, so once I did he realized I was American and he was as well, he was from Lousiana, so that was kinda cool!

For our very last day in Ancash we traveled up another mountain to go to a team-building retreat scariest mountain of them all was so freaked out the entire time. It just doesn't seems safe or natural to be driving around on those cliffs. Unfortunately I ended up really sick the night before and was so dizzy and lethargic I couldn't participate and slept through the entire thing. I heard it was fun, they did some treking through mud and some interesting stuff. The location was beautiful so I was sad I didn't get to really be a part of it. However, after it was all over, one of the tech trainers pointed out the giant trantula that was hanging out on the bed I was sleeping in all day. I didn't realize there were trantulas here roaming around like that!!!

So that is the short version of everything....I am in week 7, so I have only 3 weeks left of training and the weekend after thanksgiving I'll be moving to my new site for the next 2 years. Its a very crazy and busy time right now, and I find myself getting emotional now that I am leaving the comforts of my current home and host family, whom I love and will cry when it's time for me to go. I'm excited and nervous to start the real part of this adventure.