To my surprise, and I think most other people in my life, I have actually met someone here in Peru and have been seeing him for about 3 months. I swore up and down that I would not date a Peruvian, there were just too many differences and I thought it would be really hard to communicate. Well, that changed!
His name is Edgar, he is a police officer in my town, and initially I met him when I got robbed and he was helping me with a police report. But at that point we didn’t really get to know each other, he was really serious. Then, about 2 weeks later we ended up as godparents at the early childhood stimulation center opening. There, he made a lot of effort to talk to me and we had to dance a lot together. So from then on, we would run into each other and sit and talk a lot and it just evolved.
I think the first thing I really liked was that I was able to actually have a deeper conversation with someone in my site. Usually my conversations with people are “going to do your laundry?”, “it is hot today”, “do you like the food”. That is usually as far as the conversations go. No one cares about my life before Peru, let alone my name….I am usually referred to as “gringa”. So when I met Edgar, it was nice to be able to sit down and really talk to someone. The exciting part was that it came easy, my Spanish didn’t seem like a huge mess and if it was, he has the most incredible patience with me.
So fortunately, he is from the city. That has about a million advantages, because the people in my site tend to be a little rough around the edges and very traditional. He is a little more open minded and we both can laugh at the ridiculousness of the people in my town at times. He works in my town 8 days on and 8 days off. So when he is off, I usually schedule my monthly visits into the city so we can spend normal time together.
What I mean by “normal time” is that, not a single person in the city cares about whether or not we are a couple. So we can hold hands, or go on dates, and no one is looking at us. However, in my town every single person cares about whether or not we are a couple and the news of it as well as rumors spreads instantly from house to house. I don’t really care about anyone knowing about us, but I do care that they tend to make up stories that aren’t true. Even my own host family tried to say that he has a wife that lives in my site. Incredibly false, another police officer who works here does, but not him. But that simply can make both of us can look like bad people. Literally, I will be walking around town minding my own business and people will stop me and ask about my relationship with him. He has the same problem, people come to the police station just to ask if I am his girlfriend. We both tell the truth, it is better if they here it from us then their crazy neighbor, just goes to show how simple people in my town.
Recently, I went and met his family in Piura. My host family had been bugging me about this because they wanted me to be sure he didn’t have another family (meaning a wife and kids in the city), this is how crazy and untrusting they are. The visit was really scary for me, not because I believed he had a wife. First, I get nervous about meeting new Peruvians because I am afraid I will not understand them. I get really comfortable in my circle here in my site, that when new people come in I tend to worry I won’t understand their dialect or accent. So I was really worried about being surrounded by his family. Secondly, Peruvians live with their parents until they get married. So it made me think they would be even more protective of their 27 year old son. He also has 3 sisters, and being a sister myself, I know how judgmental we can be of our brother‘s girlfriends. Also, I was the FIRST girlfriend he had ever brought home, so that left me under more scrutiny. Lastly, and most importantly, I am American. This tends to be incredibly intimidating. People think they need to set up their house differently to impress me, and cook an outrageous meal they normally would not. They get more nervous then me, and I don’t like that. Plus, I am an American dating their son, and my time here in Peru has an expiration date so I thought this would be something else that worried them too. People always tell him how lucky he is that I “picked” him. Like I am some queen sitting on my throne and have my choice of anyone I want and he should feel honored that he was the one I choose. Really annoying!!!
It turned out that his family was really nice, and I understood them easily. He also didn’t leave my side because he knew how scared I was. They did pull out their nicest of nice things that day for lunch. There were also a few questions as to whether or not I was going to marry him and if I was going to take him back to the United States with me. Just a little uncomfortable, but Edgar diffused that for me and the conversation moved on. Overall it was a good day. I liked hanging out with them.
Just recently, another volunteer told me that by dating a Peruvian, that I am going to have an experience different then other volunteers that I will probably find very valuable. I agree, I am learning so much and having a lot of fun. He has helped change my experience right here in my site, definitely has become more fun having someone to spend my time with. Plus, I really like this guy, he puts my ex-boyfriends to shame. He is just way more attentive and caring, and I do not believe he has a selfish bone in his body. We will see what happens!!!
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Family Visits- Part 2
We finally reached my house. This part I was most nervous about. Mostly because I knew it would be difficult for my family and my host family to communicate since neither of them knew the other's language. Also, I was nervous because I knew my host family would be nervous to have my family in the house, as well as there are so many cultural differences I was hoping no one would offend the other. So after the warm introductions and awkward pauses, I went straight for the ice breaker and brought out all of the toys and gifts my family brought. Starting with the stove top my parents bought for my host Mom while we were at the market in Piura. She was thrilled and had it hooked up in time to prepare dinner later that night. Next we got into the toys. The kids were thrilled. My Mom and I had gone through all the toys in advance while we were in the city and we had a bag prepared for each kid with their name on it. It seemed that the most popular toys were the babies. The little girls absolutely loved their baby dolls. There also was a really excited moment from my 6 year old host nephew about transformer shaped bubbles, he ran into the room holding it up like a prize and screaming for everyone to look. I think the kids were so overwhelmed with some of the toys they didn't even know what to do with themselves. My parents had brought babies and barbies, and trucks that made noises and drove, nerf guns, action figues, play doh, games. So much stuff these kids were in heaven. I would like to say it was like Christmas, except these kids don't even get gifts on christmas, and they barely get one on their birthdays. So more then likely it was like nothing they had ever experienced before. And they were all so excited to see what eachother got. Even Iker, who is only 11 months old got a brand new truck and he was on the floor playing with that.
Next, my Mom had brought a few more things for the girls, she brought a bunch of old navy flip flops in all kinds of colors. So all of my host sisters got those too. They seemed really excited, especially since they are always trying on my flip flops and saying how comfortable they are. Also, my Mom had brought lots of chocolate, so sitting by the pool the night before in Piura, my Mom, Dad and I put together over 50 bags of chocolate to be passed out in my town during their visit. My host family probably would have been happy with the chocolate and no more.
My Mom's buddy Leo came by too. He is my 3 year old neighbor who doesn't have a mother. She was only 12 when she had him and left soon after. My Mom has heard the story and even talked to him on the phone, so she brought some special stuff for him. Part of it was a plastic rifle that came with a cowboy belt and bandana and a few pairs or clothes. At first he acted shy, but with time, and in Leo fashion he warmed up quickly. He showed up first thing the next morning while we were still in bed with his rifle in his hand ready to shoot at us. It was really cute. Then, when my Mom gave him his new clothes I put them on him immediatly and he walked around showing everyone his new stuff. Sadly, his new clothes look just like his old clothes only 2 weeks later....hopefully with a nice wash they will look good again.
After all the gift opening hype, my host Mom served us lunch. It was a lunch I had never seen before. The table was set really nice, with the folded cloth napkins and matching tablecloth I had given her when I first came to live there. And we got the good chicken I never get to eat served realy pretty with rice in the shape of a circle. After 10 months of living there, I have NEVER seen her put on a show like that. It was really nice of her to go out of her way to impress my family with all of that. Later on, I took my family to see the sites of Chipillico. We saw all the places I always talk about, and they got to see a little bit of life in Chipillico, where we wash our clothes, get water, the donkies, the pigs, the goats, everything! I loved seeing their reaction to all the parts of Chipillico that have become my life and normal to me.
Later on that night, we headed over to BJ's town so they could meet him, as well as see what a Peruvian party is like because BJ's town as celebrating it's anniversary. I was even surprised to see his town in party mode. There were all kinds of vendors from all over. We were there kind of early so not a whole lot of was going on, but there were a good amount of people out. We even ran into his host Mom who was carrying the prize winning rooster from the cock fight earlier that night. Alex was really excited to get his picture taken with the rooster. We ended the night there by showing my family a true peruvian drinking circle, but kept it between us since I didn't think anyone would be too excited about having to share the glass with random strangers. Afterwards, we rode back to my town in the dark in moto taxi's. My Dad said the bumpy ride was not as romantic as I had made it out to be!
When we got back to my site, we prepared my room for the night. I had bought air mattresses and we blew them up and Alex and I slept on those on the floor. My parents hopped in my double size bed, and in the end that left about 2 feet of walking room. I had told them that for the 2 night we were in my site that we might just have to become a little bit of a closer family and share the little potty they had sent me. No one was down for peeing in the same room, so at multiple times during the night everyone would get up to use the bathroom outside either alone, or sometimes we went in groups, because usually when one of us got up, we were all up. At another point during the night, I hear my Dad say "something is crawling one me", next thing I know he is up with a flashlight looking around. He claims it was a scorpion.....I am no so sure about that!!!
After a pretty sleepless night, we woke up the next morning to begin a full day in my site. It started off with everyone using my shower, my nice solar shower, they sent me filled with creek water. No one seemed really excited about that like I was. I think it was an adjustment for them to be outside with the turkeys and chickens taking a shower. I thought it was hilarious!!!
Next, my host mom made us a nice bread and fried egg and coffee breakfast, and we hit the town. First stop was the cementary, where we had a photo shoot with a preganant donkey on top of a gravesite. Next, we headed towards the center of town where my Mom and Dad snapped a few pictures of a dog eating a pig right there in the middle of town. Next we started running into my people and passing out candy. My Dad and Alex nailed the peruvian cheek kiss with all of the women. I was really proud of them. We then headed to the health post so they could see where I worked and meet my coworkers. Everyone again was excited to recieve chocolate. At the end of the street we stopped off at the school. I checked to make sure it was okay if we walked around a little, except I didn't expect what happened next. Little by little the kids and teachers started coming out of the classrooms and windows to take a look at the "gringos" walking around. Usually I get a little attention when I am there, but it was more so with my Mom and Dad and Alex. They got to see a few classrooms and take lots of pictures, I just kept handing out the candy to make sure the teacher's didn't mind the disruption too much. We went to one class and took pictures, and a few minutes later all the students came running out with their tests to take more pictures. It was so cute. They absolutely loved seeing my family, and even more they loved having their pictures taken.
Finally, my parents realized we needed to escape because they kids were coming at us from every direction. It's funny, even though they know my family can't speak spanish, they don't hesistate to talk to them constantly. My host family did the same thing, even when I wasn't around to translate they would just go talk to my family, and I would walk in and both parties would be looking at eachother confused. My Dad tried really hard to use hand signals to explain...i am not sure if it worked.
The rest of the day we saw a few more sites, took lots of pictures, and headed back to the house for a real peruvian lunch. I asked my host Mom to cook all my favorites and she did. They even killed a turkey to celebrate the occasion. My Mom had witnessed my host Dad sharpening his knife on a rock outside that morning, that same knife was probably used to kill our lunch. I think this was a first for my family.
The rest of the day we just hung out in front of the house, BJ came by, and many other kids and people, mostly just to look at us. We pulled out their new candy land to play, and even play doh. Turns out my host family is incredibly creative and came up with some pretty cool stuff for the play doh. It was just so great to see them enjoying all their new toys, and it was fun having my family spend time with them too.
Later that night when it got dark the frogs came out, and my host family is deathly afraid of frogs. So I had Alex pick up one of the frogs and taught him how to ask my host sister in spanish if she liked it. So he went into the house with the giant frog and held it to her face and asked in spanish if she liked it. All she did was scream. My whole family started running outside and made him put it down and wash his hands right away because they believe it causes warts. It was probably my favorite part of the visit to my house.
Overall, that part of the trip went way better then I expected. My two families not being able to communicate wasn't as big of a deal as I thought it was going to be. It was amazing how much they could both communicate without knowing their languages. My mom was telling at one point in the morning my host Dad waved her over while he was feeding the guinea pigs to show her. My Mom really liked it and took lots of pictures. Just everything, they each sensed how happy the other one was, and there was a sense of understanding and affection even though they couldn't speak to eachother. It was actually a really great experience for me to witness and it made me really happy that my family could be there to share this part of my life with me. I think it is a memory we will all have forever.
All in all things were great, but after 2 nights in my site, I was ready to move on and start the real part of the vacation. The next stop was the beach!!!!!!
Next, my Mom had brought a few more things for the girls, she brought a bunch of old navy flip flops in all kinds of colors. So all of my host sisters got those too. They seemed really excited, especially since they are always trying on my flip flops and saying how comfortable they are. Also, my Mom had brought lots of chocolate, so sitting by the pool the night before in Piura, my Mom, Dad and I put together over 50 bags of chocolate to be passed out in my town during their visit. My host family probably would have been happy with the chocolate and no more.
My Mom's buddy Leo came by too. He is my 3 year old neighbor who doesn't have a mother. She was only 12 when she had him and left soon after. My Mom has heard the story and even talked to him on the phone, so she brought some special stuff for him. Part of it was a plastic rifle that came with a cowboy belt and bandana and a few pairs or clothes. At first he acted shy, but with time, and in Leo fashion he warmed up quickly. He showed up first thing the next morning while we were still in bed with his rifle in his hand ready to shoot at us. It was really cute. Then, when my Mom gave him his new clothes I put them on him immediatly and he walked around showing everyone his new stuff. Sadly, his new clothes look just like his old clothes only 2 weeks later....hopefully with a nice wash they will look good again.
After all the gift opening hype, my host Mom served us lunch. It was a lunch I had never seen before. The table was set really nice, with the folded cloth napkins and matching tablecloth I had given her when I first came to live there. And we got the good chicken I never get to eat served realy pretty with rice in the shape of a circle. After 10 months of living there, I have NEVER seen her put on a show like that. It was really nice of her to go out of her way to impress my family with all of that. Later on, I took my family to see the sites of Chipillico. We saw all the places I always talk about, and they got to see a little bit of life in Chipillico, where we wash our clothes, get water, the donkies, the pigs, the goats, everything! I loved seeing their reaction to all the parts of Chipillico that have become my life and normal to me.
Later on that night, we headed over to BJ's town so they could meet him, as well as see what a Peruvian party is like because BJ's town as celebrating it's anniversary. I was even surprised to see his town in party mode. There were all kinds of vendors from all over. We were there kind of early so not a whole lot of was going on, but there were a good amount of people out. We even ran into his host Mom who was carrying the prize winning rooster from the cock fight earlier that night. Alex was really excited to get his picture taken with the rooster. We ended the night there by showing my family a true peruvian drinking circle, but kept it between us since I didn't think anyone would be too excited about having to share the glass with random strangers. Afterwards, we rode back to my town in the dark in moto taxi's. My Dad said the bumpy ride was not as romantic as I had made it out to be!
When we got back to my site, we prepared my room for the night. I had bought air mattresses and we blew them up and Alex and I slept on those on the floor. My parents hopped in my double size bed, and in the end that left about 2 feet of walking room. I had told them that for the 2 night we were in my site that we might just have to become a little bit of a closer family and share the little potty they had sent me. No one was down for peeing in the same room, so at multiple times during the night everyone would get up to use the bathroom outside either alone, or sometimes we went in groups, because usually when one of us got up, we were all up. At another point during the night, I hear my Dad say "something is crawling one me", next thing I know he is up with a flashlight looking around. He claims it was a scorpion.....I am no so sure about that!!!
After a pretty sleepless night, we woke up the next morning to begin a full day in my site. It started off with everyone using my shower, my nice solar shower, they sent me filled with creek water. No one seemed really excited about that like I was. I think it was an adjustment for them to be outside with the turkeys and chickens taking a shower. I thought it was hilarious!!!
Next, my host mom made us a nice bread and fried egg and coffee breakfast, and we hit the town. First stop was the cementary, where we had a photo shoot with a preganant donkey on top of a gravesite. Next, we headed towards the center of town where my Mom and Dad snapped a few pictures of a dog eating a pig right there in the middle of town. Next we started running into my people and passing out candy. My Dad and Alex nailed the peruvian cheek kiss with all of the women. I was really proud of them. We then headed to the health post so they could see where I worked and meet my coworkers. Everyone again was excited to recieve chocolate. At the end of the street we stopped off at the school. I checked to make sure it was okay if we walked around a little, except I didn't expect what happened next. Little by little the kids and teachers started coming out of the classrooms and windows to take a look at the "gringos" walking around. Usually I get a little attention when I am there, but it was more so with my Mom and Dad and Alex. They got to see a few classrooms and take lots of pictures, I just kept handing out the candy to make sure the teacher's didn't mind the disruption too much. We went to one class and took pictures, and a few minutes later all the students came running out with their tests to take more pictures. It was so cute. They absolutely loved seeing my family, and even more they loved having their pictures taken.
Finally, my parents realized we needed to escape because they kids were coming at us from every direction. It's funny, even though they know my family can't speak spanish, they don't hesistate to talk to them constantly. My host family did the same thing, even when I wasn't around to translate they would just go talk to my family, and I would walk in and both parties would be looking at eachother confused. My Dad tried really hard to use hand signals to explain...i am not sure if it worked.
The rest of the day we saw a few more sites, took lots of pictures, and headed back to the house for a real peruvian lunch. I asked my host Mom to cook all my favorites and she did. They even killed a turkey to celebrate the occasion. My Mom had witnessed my host Dad sharpening his knife on a rock outside that morning, that same knife was probably used to kill our lunch. I think this was a first for my family.
The rest of the day we just hung out in front of the house, BJ came by, and many other kids and people, mostly just to look at us. We pulled out their new candy land to play, and even play doh. Turns out my host family is incredibly creative and came up with some pretty cool stuff for the play doh. It was just so great to see them enjoying all their new toys, and it was fun having my family spend time with them too.
Overall, that part of the trip went way better then I expected. My two families not being able to communicate wasn't as big of a deal as I thought it was going to be. It was amazing how much they could both communicate without knowing their languages. My mom was telling at one point in the morning my host Dad waved her over while he was feeding the guinea pigs to show her. My Mom really liked it and took lots of pictures. Just everything, they each sensed how happy the other one was, and there was a sense of understanding and affection even though they couldn't speak to eachother. It was actually a really great experience for me to witness and it made me really happy that my family could be there to share this part of my life with me. I think it is a memory we will all have forever.
All in all things were great, but after 2 nights in my site, I was ready to move on and start the real part of the vacation. The next stop was the beach!!!!!!
"Iraq has got it going on compared to here"...Family visits-PART 1
I was almost surreal when I hoped on the plane heading for Lima to go meet them. It had been 10 months since I had seen them. Although we get to talk all the time, I have never been seperated from my family for that long. At first when I got to Peru all I wanted was for them to be with me. However, after 10 months I have established a life here, and it just felt really strange that in a short amount of time they were about to see it and be apart of it.
I got to Lima much earlier then them, so I checked into the hotel and enjoyed a nice hot shower and some pizza hut while I waited to go back to the airport to pick them up. Once at the airport I realized it would probably take them awhile to get off the plan and out of customs, it just ended up being much more time then I anticipated. I was so anxious, and there were so many crowds in the airport waiting for their loved ones too. Finally after getting pushed further and further away from the ropes, I went to the second floor so I would get a better look when they came through. The first person I saw was Alex, he had anticipated I would be up there looking down, so I ran to give him a huge hug. Then my parents came out a few minutes later. That was a moment I had long awaited for. Very emotional, but happy emotional. We had talked about that moment for a really long time. Then, I noticed the ridiculous amount of luggage they brought. My Dad had been telling me for weeks how they were planning on packing light. From what I saw, it was just the opposite!!!! I knew they brought some things for me, and some things for my host family. But WOW!
After so much preparing and planning it all seemed to go really well. I tried to take it easy on them, because I knew there would be point that it became a little more difficult (my site!). So we spent the first few days at a really nice hotel sitting on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Lima has become a place I look forward to going too because it's like being back in a little mini-america. There we are in a city that resembles any other city I have ever visited, with American restaurants, stylish people and all the other small things I sometimes miss about home. We did lots of shopping in the artesians market, and Mom bought everyone she knows a gift. But I realized, once I was sitting in Chilis with my family eating a hamburger that they didn't come to Peru to do everything they did in America, so after a few days there seeing the sites, I and them were ready to move on. Plus, Lima is really ugly and cold this time of year, like London, and they didn't come on vacation to wear jackets.
The next part of our big adventure was going to be the overnight bus trip to Piura, this trip can usually be anywhere from 14-16 hours. I don't have to do it often, but I have become acustomed to traveling this way. I was really worried about my family doing it, just because I knew they probably wouldn't like it. So I bought the best seats the bus line had to offer in hopes I could make them as comfortable as possible. Fortunately, it worked! They all absolutely loved the bus ride, they thought it was really cool and much nicer then they expected. Even more so, my Dad liked that it meant no paying for a hotel or meals for the night because we also got dinner and breakfast on the bus.
The other part, that I knew would happen was in that overnight bus ride we would quickly leave my little America part of Peru and head out to a place that looked drastically different then they were used to, this part I was most excited for. In the morning when we woke up, there were no more city buildings, instead we were in Chiclayo, a town in Northern Peru, about 6 hours south of where I live. The first thing Alex said was how it reminded him of Ramadi, one of the places he visited during his deployments to Iraq. He said the buildings and the sandy dirty town was identical.
Once we arrived in Piura after the 16 hour trip, everyone was excited to get off the bus, mostly because after a night of traveling the bathrooms had become really disgusting and my Mom and Dad were grossed out and ready to move on. The bus station is located on a strip in Piura where there is nothing but bus stations and the market, it is not the safest part of town, and it is definitely farthest from the prettiest part of town. They said how it reminded them of something they would see on a travel show. Just pure craziness. My Mom took lots of pictures while we piled into two tiny taxis headed or our hotel. All of this was making me nervous. I am so used to doing all of these exact same things alone. I have gotten accostumed to making sure I keep a close eye on my things and I know the language and feel comfortable enought to get around. But doing it with people who don't know a word of Spanish and weren't taking me seriously enough on some of the safey issues made me a little nervous. Same with splitting up in taxi's...I just hoped my Dad and Alex ended up at the same place. They did, however, they said they believed their taxi driver was yelling about the constuction or something the whole time.
Our stay in Piura city was only for the night, we went and got laundry done, relaxed by the pool, went to one of my favorite spots for dinner. I even took them to the market, which I think was the most stressful part of the trip for me. The market is a disgusting dirty place filled with tons and tons of vendors. At the market you can buy almost anything you could ever even think of. However the market is dangerous. I have witnessed a friend get robbed a foot away from me and have had more friends get robbed there, one even had her earrings stolen right out of her ears. For those reasons, as well as the crowds I just hate being there. On the other hand, my family loved it! They loved seeing how it all works and just the craziness of it. I was able to get them out of there after I took them to the meat section and they saw the many many animals that were gutted and hung all over the place, the smells the flies and all of that made them ready to leave.
The next morning I knew the "real adventure" was about to begin. I was going to be taking my family to my site. Every part of the visiting my site experience is truely an experience. We first headed over to the bus station. Normally I might pass on one of the really really nasty buses, especially in the summer when it's really hot, because normally the seats are really small and it's hard to get comfortable when you are crammed into the seat with someone else, and it is kind of a long ride. But on this particular day, with all of our luggage, there wasn't room to be picky, we took the bus that was waiting. It was kind of fun, it added more to the experience. We sat in the back. My parents were actually in the seat behind Alex and I that fits 5 people because it goes across the entire back of the bus. My Mom unfortunately was on the end that meant she had to sit next to someone else, and with her luck it was a smelly person. Alex and I were smooshed into the seat in front of them. Depending on the day, it can be a 3 hour ride. However, my family saw how quickly the city of Piura faded into rural towns that all look exactly alike. Once we reached Las Lomas, we switched all of our luggage into a taxi. I found a taxi driver who agreed to take the 4 of us an no one else because normally that means one of us would have to share the front seat with someone else, and I don't think anyone was willing to do that.
The trip to my site is about a 30-45 minute ride, and it's a really really bumpy rocky road. It was so hilarious having them make the trip with me. I have gotten so used to it, at points I even fall asleep. But seeing their expressions reminded me of the first times I had made that trip. There are parts where the car goes through water and sometimes it even gets into the car, and they worried about it the same way I did my first time around. Fortunately in all the parts that are the most interesting people were out putting on their usual show. At the part where the water gets in the car, there was a guy cleaning out his truck engine in his underwear, it was a beautiful day so when we got to the lake it looked amazing, and the taxi drivers always drive like maniacs so they got to experience that too.
At one point, when we were getting closer into my town, my brother said "Jillian...Iraq has got it going on compared to here", I think that was the most surprising statement of the entire trip. His deployments in Iraq sounded absolutely horrible. But he said they had it more together over there. He said my town looked like it was poorly built and people just throw things together. He said it looked really really rough. I was shocked!
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Back to where it all began.
About a week ago I had the opportunity to go back to Lima for a training. I had missed a previous one because my community partner didn't show up, so my boss insisted I attend the same training but with the environment program, and their training was being hosted in Lima. So I was able to convince my host sister, without little persuasion to go with me so we headed off to Lima on our 16 hour bus ride. The first day was a free day and we stayed in miraflores, the really trendy and rich part of Lima. It was so nice to be amongst all the things that made me feel like I was in the US. As soon as we arrived I packed my computer and raced for starbucks for a few hours. Then, I just spent the rest of the day walking around the city enjoying it.
Early the next morning, we all had to meet at the peace corps office to head to the location of the training. Turned out it was in Chaclacayo. If you remember, Chaclacayo was the area in Lima where I spent my first 10 weeks in country with my first host family. So the trip out there was a little nostalgic. Then, along the way, I discovered not only were we going back to that town, we were going back to the same place they took us when we arrived in Peru. It was a sort of resort kind of, and we called it our retreat because they kept us there for a day or two to get acclimated. Being back there was a crazy experience.
I remember that night back in September when we arrived in Lima and they drove us out there. I remember being incredibly scared, my stomach was hurting, and I was with 70 something other people I didn't know. It was really funny to be doing it all over again, however 9 months into my service at this point. We ended up staying in the exact same room that I stayed in the first time. And all I remember from that stay was getting absolutely no sleep because I stayed up all night wondering what I got myself into! Since we arrived at night, I really had no clue what Peru really looked like, and I remember that first morning walking out the door of our room and looking at the dirt mountains and little shanty towns of houses built all over them and being in awe. And now, after 9 months, I look at those houses and think...wow...those are actually really nice houses compared to where to I live. And the food, I remember sitting down for our meals there and thinking if this is how they eat in Peru I am in big trouble, because it was a lot of food I never tried or wasn't used too. Then, this time at the training we had pretty much the same menu and I was so excited, it was all my favorites now, which is still shocking to me!
It just takes me back to those first weeks here in Peru. I just can't believe how far I have come. I went from being so scared all the time, unable to communicate, and really questioning the decision I made for coming into the peace corps. And now I feel like a completely different person, it's amazing what 9 months can do in a place like this and how much it is possible to grow as a person. I am always thankful.
Early the next morning, we all had to meet at the peace corps office to head to the location of the training. Turned out it was in Chaclacayo. If you remember, Chaclacayo was the area in Lima where I spent my first 10 weeks in country with my first host family. So the trip out there was a little nostalgic. Then, along the way, I discovered not only were we going back to that town, we were going back to the same place they took us when we arrived in Peru. It was a sort of resort kind of, and we called it our retreat because they kept us there for a day or two to get acclimated. Being back there was a crazy experience.
I remember that night back in September when we arrived in Lima and they drove us out there. I remember being incredibly scared, my stomach was hurting, and I was with 70 something other people I didn't know. It was really funny to be doing it all over again, however 9 months into my service at this point. We ended up staying in the exact same room that I stayed in the first time. And all I remember from that stay was getting absolutely no sleep because I stayed up all night wondering what I got myself into! Since we arrived at night, I really had no clue what Peru really looked like, and I remember that first morning walking out the door of our room and looking at the dirt mountains and little shanty towns of houses built all over them and being in awe. And now, after 9 months, I look at those houses and think...wow...those are actually really nice houses compared to where to I live. And the food, I remember sitting down for our meals there and thinking if this is how they eat in Peru I am in big trouble, because it was a lot of food I never tried or wasn't used too. Then, this time at the training we had pretty much the same menu and I was so excited, it was all my favorites now, which is still shocking to me!
It just takes me back to those first weeks here in Peru. I just can't believe how far I have come. I went from being so scared all the time, unable to communicate, and really questioning the decision I made for coming into the peace corps. And now I feel like a completely different person, it's amazing what 9 months can do in a place like this and how much it is possible to grow as a person. I am always thankful.
Friday, May 27, 2011
No more shots
So the vaccination campaign is over…however, it did not go out with a bang. The last day of the vaccinations the nurse decided that we should go out to these much smaller towns that are connected with Chipillico, they are just much further out then the central part. I was excited because I had only heard about these places and hadn’t gotten a chance to go visit them yet. So a we headed out around 8 one morning to go hunt down these kids. The first town we went to is called Pariamarca, and really what it is the name someone gave an area, because the houses are drastically spread out, and each house is on the top of it’s own, very steep very high hill. So when we reached the top of the first hill for the first kid and I walked into a lady cutting into this giant bird, I knew it was going to be an interesting day!
We continued on climbing hills searching for kids. The entire time we were carrying a cooler with the vaccination in it, as well as sticks because the people who like to live out in the middle of no where often have vicious dogs. Which we encountered a few times, fortunately they are easily deterred with a large stick. At one of the next stops we end up at a house of a man who didn’t have any kids and we stopped to take a break. As I was sitting there I noticed these 3 bundles hanging from the porch. I kept trying to figure out what they were so I went for a closer look. I discovered that they were snake skins all rolled up. And we aren’t talking some little garden snake…we are talking anaconda sized snakes…gigantic. And the guy just casually tells me that he caught and killed the 3 of them just this year. I swear if I ever seen anything that size around my house, I will be on the first plane back to the US. I can’t do snakes, especially not of that size.
The rest of the day was traveling house to house. It is interesting to visit the different places. These people are poorer then most, many of their homes are made of sticks rather then adobe. It’s crazy, their houses remind me of forts I would have made as a kid, but they live in them with their families and don’t know any better. But the locations of the houses sometimes have it’s advantages. There was one area were all the houses were located along a creek, great for getting water and washing clothes, even made me a little jealous and I wished my house here was that close.
It was a really long day, but we accomplished a lot. We even found kids that weren’t on our lists, and were visiting from other places. My nurse would argue with the mother’s until they would give in and let her vaccinate the kids. She is relentless and determined that every kid will get their vaccination!
So without wasting any time we moved onto other things. The CADI ( center for early childhood stimulation) was finally opening. This is exciting because the health promoters have been working on this for a long time and finally their trainings are coming to and end and they are going to be working there. I have been working on getting the lists together so that each promoter will have her own class and age group. It is exciting. But as with anything here, an event like this does not go without having a party to start it. So I met with the promoters the other day to make the arrangements. Turns out, they hadn’t done the work they were supposed too, so we were trying to throw a party together the night before. Because of that, the mayor was unwilling to donate money to get it started, he needed more concrete documentation. So based on the 33 soles (approximately 10 dollars) and donated rice, we planned to put together the party. Fortunately they are really good at working off of nothing like that and put together a pretty good program and menu.
So the next day we had a really small party for the opening of the CADI. It was held in the school where the center is located. All parties have godparents, and the godparents basically christen the party. I was asked to be the godmother. This meant that I had to sit at a specially decorated table with the godfather, get served a ridiculous amount of food, dance with the godfather, and break a bottle in the entryway of the CADI. And because it was so last minute thrown together, one of the police officers was the godfather. He has absolutely nothing to do with the CADI. The way we were treated you feel more like you are the bride and groom of the wedding, literally we had a first dance. It was akward to dance in front of everyone, but it is their tradition. Now I have to go buy a gift for the CADI as well, that is tradition too. But it’s open now, which is great, and another place for me to do some work with the Moms.
Then, this week I was supposed to go to a training in Chiclayo, a large capital city about 3 hours south of Piura. This was a training for project planning and we were supposed to bring a community partner to attend the training. I decided on the lead health promoter. However, with the Peruvian tendency to be extremely late to everything I decided to buy our bus tickets ahead of time to give her more of a deadline. I also was too nervous to stand around and wait for her to get herself together. So I went earlier in the day thinking that if she knew I was waiting for her at the bus station it would also be more incentive for her to get there. Do you think that worked??? Nope…I was literally on the bus and head to get off and get my things because she didn’t show. I waited another hour in the bus terminal and she never showed. I called me boss and couldn’t attend the training without her. So I had to stay the night in Piura alone. Finally the next morning she started calling me. I was too angry to talk to her, so we ended up texting. She told me she spent the night in Chiclayo. But I knew she was lying because whoever was texting for her, because she can’t, said their bus would be arriving there in the next 30 minutes, so she had left that morning, not the night before like she tried to tell me. I went back to my site and ignored her. Much later I talked to her and she tried to tell me she got on a bus at 5:20 (buses leave on the hour), and I must have missed her carrying her red bag (the bus station was empty). So I was left very frustrated. But I also see it as a sign of disrespect, so therefore I will probably not end up working with her.
On another subject, I found out today my host Dad has another child by a women who isn’t my host Mom, and the girl is about the same age as my youngest host sister (12). I just can’t believe the infidelity here. My host brother in law also cheated on my sister and has a 1 year old little girl by another woman. The interesting thing is that I live in a town of 1600 people. It’s impossible not to know everyone, and yet all this is still happening right under their noses. It’s really horrible. But everyone stays together and they just ignore the incidence. What is interesting is how much my host mom trashes my brother in law….but she fails to tell me that her own husband did the exact same thing! The women are so dependent on their husbands that they do nothing about it, and just keep living their lives. It’s really sad.
Well that is all I have. I am sure there will be a new story to post soon!
Monday, May 16, 2011
Shots and Thieves!
So I was reminded by a friend recently that I have fallen behind on my blog posts. I apologize for that. It has been an incredibly busy few weeks. I have been helping out with the vaccination campaigns going on in my community, which means I go door to door, or in the school with the nurse vaccinating kids. Right now, the campaign is for polio, rubeola, and somethnig else I can´t remember and it´s for kids between the ages of 1 and 4.
Honestly, it was been a very entertaining couple of weeks. The first day of my experience was going into the preschool for the vaccinations. The kids are usually generally excited to see us, and this particular day wasn´t any different. They just didn´t know what was coming to them. Since I am where I am, having a parents consent isn´t always necessary for vaccinations. For example, if the kids had a neighbor picking them up to take them home that day and the neighbor said the Mom wouldn´t mind, then we did it anyway. The poor little guys were crying and calling for their moms that weren´t there...it was really really sad and chaotic. In fact, when the nurse´s son turn came up, she looked up for him, and we all watched as he had taken a hard start running across the field. He was determined his Mom was not going to vaccinate him, but she took off running and caught him.
Later that same night we decided to go give more vaccinations ( I do not vaccinate kids, I register them and talk to the moms about the vaccination) and we were walking around neighborhoods when we came across a party (it was right before mother´s day weekend). And the Mom´s were celebrating and cooking with their kids. So there were tons of kids, and my nurse was super excited. I felt bad, we were basically going in to ruin a party, which is what we did. When we left, all the kids were crying and the Mom´s were rocking them in chairs saying how the nurse was a bad woman. It was funny actually, and we got a large number of our quota down that day because of the party.
Other days of vaccinations, we would continue till after dark, and since a lot of people in my community do not have electricity, this interesting. Fortunately I have a small flashlight on my cell phone and it could illuminate things just well enough for the nurse to get the needle in the skin. At times she demanded the moms get their kids out of bed for us to vaccinate them. That is right...we vaccinated sleeping babies! The reason we have to do this, is because the Mom´s are even scared of the shots, and they claim they will bring the children the following day and we never see them. From experience, my nurse knows this and has to be so demanding.
Then, there are really persistant Mom´s. The other day my nurse and I were standing outside a home arguing with a Mom for at least 20 minutes, she was really convincing us that her kid had recieved the vaccination later that week. She was doing a good job until my nurse asked what color card was left behind for her with the date of the vaccination, she said yellow, unfortunately for her it was blue. So we then vaccinated her screaming 4 year old.
Later in the week we went back to visit the preschool to hand out the vaccination cards to the kids to take home to their Mom´s. This time, when we entered, it was nothing but kids crying. They were scared that we were there again. Poor little guys!
So this campaign has been interesting, and it´s almost done. The best part of it was that I got to meet more people in my community. I even noticed over the past week or so more people know my name and greet me in the streets. It will be great for my work!
Now for the not so great news....as if giving shots were good news. I was on my way home the other day from the city, and some jerk went into my bag and robbed my charging cables for my computer, ipod and phones....and stole my hard drive which practically has my life one it, photos, letters, presentations, all my movies and itunes stuff. I was devastated. Because some of my valuable workw as stolen, and now I can´t use my computer or ipod. Fortunately little by little I am replacing it all. However, that day was crazy. I thought I knew the guys that did it. They rode in the back of the station wagon taxi where my hiking bookbag was on the way into my town. So I went to the police station in tears and the police road me around searching for the guys. Once we found them they searched their things and bodies, and recovered nothing. The police weren´t convinced they didn´t do it, but at that moment they had nothing. I was able to file a police report and hopefully my insurance will take care of things. There were a few other suspicious people I came across that trip, so really my things could have been stolen anywhere. It has just been really frustrating and I have had to change the dates of meeting until I can recover my work. So because of all this, I am so late on my blogs. I will try better next time!
Honestly, it was been a very entertaining couple of weeks. The first day of my experience was going into the preschool for the vaccinations. The kids are usually generally excited to see us, and this particular day wasn´t any different. They just didn´t know what was coming to them. Since I am where I am, having a parents consent isn´t always necessary for vaccinations. For example, if the kids had a neighbor picking them up to take them home that day and the neighbor said the Mom wouldn´t mind, then we did it anyway. The poor little guys were crying and calling for their moms that weren´t there...it was really really sad and chaotic. In fact, when the nurse´s son turn came up, she looked up for him, and we all watched as he had taken a hard start running across the field. He was determined his Mom was not going to vaccinate him, but she took off running and caught him.
Later that same night we decided to go give more vaccinations ( I do not vaccinate kids, I register them and talk to the moms about the vaccination) and we were walking around neighborhoods when we came across a party (it was right before mother´s day weekend). And the Mom´s were celebrating and cooking with their kids. So there were tons of kids, and my nurse was super excited. I felt bad, we were basically going in to ruin a party, which is what we did. When we left, all the kids were crying and the Mom´s were rocking them in chairs saying how the nurse was a bad woman. It was funny actually, and we got a large number of our quota down that day because of the party.
Other days of vaccinations, we would continue till after dark, and since a lot of people in my community do not have electricity, this interesting. Fortunately I have a small flashlight on my cell phone and it could illuminate things just well enough for the nurse to get the needle in the skin. At times she demanded the moms get their kids out of bed for us to vaccinate them. That is right...we vaccinated sleeping babies! The reason we have to do this, is because the Mom´s are even scared of the shots, and they claim they will bring the children the following day and we never see them. From experience, my nurse knows this and has to be so demanding.
Then, there are really persistant Mom´s. The other day my nurse and I were standing outside a home arguing with a Mom for at least 20 minutes, she was really convincing us that her kid had recieved the vaccination later that week. She was doing a good job until my nurse asked what color card was left behind for her with the date of the vaccination, she said yellow, unfortunately for her it was blue. So we then vaccinated her screaming 4 year old.
Later in the week we went back to visit the preschool to hand out the vaccination cards to the kids to take home to their Mom´s. This time, when we entered, it was nothing but kids crying. They were scared that we were there again. Poor little guys!
So this campaign has been interesting, and it´s almost done. The best part of it was that I got to meet more people in my community. I even noticed over the past week or so more people know my name and greet me in the streets. It will be great for my work!
Now for the not so great news....as if giving shots were good news. I was on my way home the other day from the city, and some jerk went into my bag and robbed my charging cables for my computer, ipod and phones....and stole my hard drive which practically has my life one it, photos, letters, presentations, all my movies and itunes stuff. I was devastated. Because some of my valuable workw as stolen, and now I can´t use my computer or ipod. Fortunately little by little I am replacing it all. However, that day was crazy. I thought I knew the guys that did it. They rode in the back of the station wagon taxi where my hiking bookbag was on the way into my town. So I went to the police station in tears and the police road me around searching for the guys. Once we found them they searched their things and bodies, and recovered nothing. The police weren´t convinced they didn´t do it, but at that moment they had nothing. I was able to file a police report and hopefully my insurance will take care of things. There were a few other suspicious people I came across that trip, so really my things could have been stolen anywhere. It has just been really frustrating and I have had to change the dates of meeting until I can recover my work. So because of all this, I am so late on my blogs. I will try better next time!
Mancora
So my beach vacation has come and gone and I am a little slow to update the blog about it. It was a really great trip. But it is really interesting how Mancora, is in the same department (state) as where I live, but it feels like a completely different world. It was kind of an eerie trip because for most of it we drove through the desert, nothing but desert everywhere you look and canyons and everything. For most of the trip, I just couldn't imagine that there was going to be this town at the end.
So I expected that Mancora was going to be the peruvian equivalent to Cancun. However, once I got there I was quickly reminded that I still live in a developing country, so even their popular vacation spot would be developing too. Turns out, after all the hype I have heard about Mancora that it is really a small place. Just a small strip of hotels, stores and restaurants. But it all had a very authentic vibe just the way they looked and the materials they were built out of.
Our hotel looked like something out of Mexico, it was really nice.
It had a pool And when I walked up to the desk to check in the room, I started talking in Spanish, but the guy quickly started responding with in english with a heavy british accent. Turned out this would be the way the rest of the weekend went, almost everyone we met spoke in english. The hostel was filled with tourists and backpackers from all over the world, and they all spoke english. That made for an even better vacation knowing I wouldn't have to stumble through my Spanish the entire time.
Now since it was a hostal, you kind of just get thrown in everywhere, so even though there were tons of peace corps volunteers there we still got broken up into rooms all over the hostal. In my room I was with my two peace corps friends, but also with 3 other guys, 2 from england and one from California. Turns out they were good guys and we didn't have to stress about them stealing our stuff.
So the rest of the week was nice and relaxing, we spent our days laying by the pool or on the beach enjoying the sun. One night one of the volunteers had arranged for us to go on a little sunset cruise. So we all walked to the pier, again expecting more then we should. And when we showed up there was a rickety looking row boat and a guy waiting to meet us. Apparently my friend just convinced one of the fishermen to take us out, so that is exactly what we did. There were no seats in the boat, so we all leaned against the side. It actually was really beautiful, just a little scary at times when the boat started rocking like crazy.
At night we would search out nice restaurants to eat. Fortunately Mancora had a great variety of food that we haven't had in awhile. We went for delicious Mexican food twice. I loved it! One morning we went to a place called "Green Eggs and Ham", and I was actually able to get a waffle! Turns out the lady who owns it also owns a store and she is from the United States, and her son manufactures and sells clothes in Peru. I bought one of the shirts, actually really nice quality which is hard to find here.
So the night life was what everybody lived for. I only went out once, the hotel was pretty popular and had good drinks and music so everyone hung out there for the most part, but when that ended everyone moved to the beach party. When everyone kept telling me about the beach I was expecting some club that was on the beach. It turns out the beach party is just people dancing and drinking on a sidewalk in front of a bunch of restaurants blaring music. It was kind of crazy. I didn't last very long down there, it was mostly peruvians. Drunk Peruvians. So they stare or try and dance when they are really sloppy. So I danced for a little bit there and called it a night.
The saddest part of the whole trip was when we had to leave and got back to site. A few days after my boss was coming to visit and that meant I had a lot of work to do to prepare my meeting.
I was really nervous about the meeting, because relying on some of the people in my town can be scary at times. However, it turned out that a lot of them showed up and pulled through, there were 17 to be exact. Almost all of my wonderful health promoters were there, a few teachers, and the nurse and technician from the health post (who is also a lt. for the mayor). It turned out to be successful and my boss was very pleased.
So I expected that Mancora was going to be the peruvian equivalent to Cancun. However, once I got there I was quickly reminded that I still live in a developing country, so even their popular vacation spot would be developing too. Turns out, after all the hype I have heard about Mancora that it is really a small place. Just a small strip of hotels, stores and restaurants. But it all had a very authentic vibe just the way they looked and the materials they were built out of.
Our hotel looked like something out of Mexico, it was really nice.
It had a pool And when I walked up to the desk to check in the room, I started talking in Spanish, but the guy quickly started responding with in english with a heavy british accent. Turned out this would be the way the rest of the weekend went, almost everyone we met spoke in english. The hostel was filled with tourists and backpackers from all over the world, and they all spoke english. That made for an even better vacation knowing I wouldn't have to stumble through my Spanish the entire time.
Now since it was a hostal, you kind of just get thrown in everywhere, so even though there were tons of peace corps volunteers there we still got broken up into rooms all over the hostal. In my room I was with my two peace corps friends, but also with 3 other guys, 2 from england and one from California. Turns out they were good guys and we didn't have to stress about them stealing our stuff.
So the rest of the week was nice and relaxing, we spent our days laying by the pool or on the beach enjoying the sun. One night one of the volunteers had arranged for us to go on a little sunset cruise. So we all walked to the pier, again expecting more then we should. And when we showed up there was a rickety looking row boat and a guy waiting to meet us. Apparently my friend just convinced one of the fishermen to take us out, so that is exactly what we did. There were no seats in the boat, so we all leaned against the side. It actually was really beautiful, just a little scary at times when the boat started rocking like crazy.
At night we would search out nice restaurants to eat. Fortunately Mancora had a great variety of food that we haven't had in awhile. We went for delicious Mexican food twice. I loved it! One morning we went to a place called "Green Eggs and Ham", and I was actually able to get a waffle! Turns out the lady who owns it also owns a store and she is from the United States, and her son manufactures and sells clothes in Peru. I bought one of the shirts, actually really nice quality which is hard to find here.
So the night life was what everybody lived for. I only went out once, the hotel was pretty popular and had good drinks and music so everyone hung out there for the most part, but when that ended everyone moved to the beach party. When everyone kept telling me about the beach I was expecting some club that was on the beach. It turns out the beach party is just people dancing and drinking on a sidewalk in front of a bunch of restaurants blaring music. It was kind of crazy. I didn't last very long down there, it was mostly peruvians. Drunk Peruvians. So they stare or try and dance when they are really sloppy. So I danced for a little bit there and called it a night.
The saddest part of the whole trip was when we had to leave and got back to site. A few days after my boss was coming to visit and that meant I had a lot of work to do to prepare my meeting.
I was really nervous about the meeting, because relying on some of the people in my town can be scary at times. However, it turned out that a lot of them showed up and pulled through, there were 17 to be exact. Almost all of my wonderful health promoters were there, a few teachers, and the nurse and technician from the health post (who is also a lt. for the mayor). It turned out to be successful and my boss was very pleased.
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