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. 

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!

The bird, I am not quite sure what kind of bird it was, it was HUGE with a gigantic wing span , but it had the face and beak of a puffin bird, even colorful like that.  Apparently the bird was killed by bow and arrow of the 7 year old little boy who lived in the house.  I was just thinking how a mother would react in the US if her son came trotting home with a GIGANTIC bird.  The lady was cutting into the bird in order to remove it’s heart.  The heart is often sold and used a remedy.  As I was watching her do this, covered in blood, I got to thinking about biology class and the endless amount of animals we dissected.  However, we would study for weeks in advance in order to know the anatomy.  This lady just knew it, and was cutting into it knowing exactly what she wanted.  Kind of interesting.  Of course I asked a million questions from which I found out that there REALLY are lions that live in the mountains that surround the valley, and I officially have proof from the skin that was hanging on a wall in her house.  The aren’t huge, just small mountain lions, but a mountain lion is a lion in my book.

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!

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! 

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. 

Bring on the BEACH!

I have earned my vacation!!!  Yep…it’s FINALLY here, I am going on my first official vacation in Peru, and I am doing it in the beautiful beach town of Mancora with a bunch of other volunteers.  It is Semana Santa, which is 4 days leading up to Easter, and it is our “free vacation days” so I am really looking forward to it. 

However, the past few weeks have definitely been really busy  and exhausting so I am excited to get away.  I have been working on a number of things lately, but first let me give you the break down.  I technically work with 3 organizations.  The first one is the health post, that is where I spend the majority of my time, the second one is with the organization PLAN international, and the third is with the group of health promoters (women who live in the town).  However, projects I am working with in each group also overlap within the other groups.  For example, what should be our biggest project right now is the CADI, this is a center for early childhood stimulation.  My community has been given funds, toys, uniforms, and a place to hold these sessions from PLAN International, and it is run by the health promoters in the community, and my nurse in the health post helps to train the promoters. 

So basically since I am involved in all 3 organizations, this means 3 times the amount of work for me to do.  Early in the month I was in meetings with PLAN getting materials to help train the promoters and other advice, then in the health post I have been putting together presentations to give to the promoters in the following weeks on early childhood stimulation, and then I am also considered one of the health promoters so I was recently assigned a group of 8 mothers to be working with.  And the CADI is just ONE of the projects I am involved in!

This month has also been busy for other work in the health post, we have been working on a vaccination campaign for HPV, which has meant making lots of posters and banners for the community, and going into the school to give information sessions.  Also, we have been putting together information boards for the waiting room that give health statistics on the community.  This I really like, because the people typically have no clue what is going on. 

Then, with the health promoters, they are eager to start up where the previous volunteer left off with a cocinas mejoradas project (improved cooking stoves).  I appreciate their enthusiasm, but the frustrating part of this project for me is that I don’t think it is something my community needs.  From the homes I have visited where people have these stoves, they also have gas stoves to cook on.  I feel like the cocina is more of a novelty and less of a necessity.  Plus, cocinas require wood, which there is a lack of around here.  The big issue to me is latrines, we HAVE to get people from using the bathroom wherever they choose and direct it to a sanitary place (whoever thought latrines and sanitary could be used in the same sentence). 

So this past week I went with the health promoters to visit some houses and see what is going on, what the previous volunteer did and what improvements we have left to make.  Since most of these projects require a substantial amount of money, I don’t think they are feasible right now, I need more time before I can start approaching mayors and asking for loads of money.  So I have suggested dong a “health neighborhoods” project and we do small presentations on small ways to improve their homes, and the families that make the most improvements win some sort of prize, and when we do finally do a latrines or cocinas project they can be first considered.  However, my health promoters are stubborn women and want to do do do without the organization.  So convincing them is difficult. 

On another side note, I recently went to visit the library a previous volunteer had built in a neighboring town.  She had finished this up right before her close of service and never got to see some things implemented so she emailed me asking if I could check on a few things.  I was happy to do so, her library is beautiful, it was built from the ground up.  It is a one room building with a cement floor, tables and chairs and shelves of donated books.   From what I understand, some of the money donated to this project was from a family who lost their son in the United States and wanted to donate money towards something in his name.  It’s really a beautiful place, and I think it will be an excellent place for kids to spend their time.  Right now, it’s only open 2 days a week and there is a women who just sits and keeps and eye on things and the kids come and go.  My hope is to start a reading project there, and get the kids more involved, as well as other projects.
When it rains it pours!  I spent a lot of time in the beginning trying to figure out my place here, but then it all just happened and I am more busy then I ever expected to be.  I am thankful and overwhelmed, but I know it will all work out

Babies

Last week was pretty dull, but this week has been incredibly busy and it´s only Wednesday. I have been to a few meetings and it just seems like there is a lot happening in my little town, and a lot for me to get involved in.  It´s great, I´m glad!  But it means the next couple months will be very busy.

March and April have seemed like the month for babies.  We have had many mothers bringing in their new few day old babies.  Yesterday I had the opportunity to witness two brand new babies, born that morning being brought into the health post.  Both babies were brought in by people other then the parents, because the mothers had spent the night or morning birthing the baby and were in no shape to make it to the health post.  It´s so different here!  In the U.S. a baby is never born in the home unless they just come too fast!!  Most people want their baby born in a hospital with medical staff and all the fancy machines and medicines just incase anything were to happen.  But not here, the babies are born in the homes, usually by a community midwife or family. 

Since there isn´t a doctor that lives in the community, there is no other option.  I think at times, when avaliable the obstetrician get involved, but most of the time she isn´t near by either.  Then afterwards, the family brings the baby to the health post to make sure they are okay, and then they go back to their business. 

Another thing, was when a new baby comes into the health post the family must go buy the manila folder and fastners which will be the child´s medical chart in the health post.  I thought this was so strange.  The health post does not have materials to make charts, the family has to bring it.  What a crazy system!!

But it all makes me think how crazy we are in the United States.  Everyday these babies are born, and of course there are ones with complications, but many are just fine.  And they bring them in the world without all the fancy machines and stuff and they are okay.  Really, when a baby wants to come, it´s coming, we just usually try and make it to the hospital.  This is not to say that when I have kids I want to just have them on a dirt floor or straw mattress bed in my house, and let my neighbor handle all the birthing stuff.  I am going to want to be in a hospital...just in case.  But WOW!  we spend a lot of money on unnecessary stuff sometimes!

SAY WHAT?!?!!?!?

My Dad thought this would be a good topic to blog about so here I go.  I get asked the question a lot about how my Spanish is coming along.  This is a very frustrating topic sometimes, because some days I feel like it’s not coming along at all.  Which I wish wasn’t the case but I live and work in a community that is entirely Spanish speaking…so it should be coming along great…right?!?!....WRONG!

Recently I had the opportunity to think about it more.  I went to my training and virtually all of the staff running the training is Peruvians.  However, when they speak Spanish I understand them so well.  It has a lot to do with them being highly educated and speaking in proper Spanish, and living in Lima.  It is all the same Spanish I was taught.  So why don’t I understand when people talk in my community.  Well let me explain this in a way you will better understand. 

Those of you from Maryland who are familiar with Smith Island will understand the best.  You know when those people come off the island and talk many of us question ourselves “Where the hell are they from”, because even though they are from the same state, they sound crazy.  After years and years of living on that island they have developed a very distinguishable dialect. 

Well I live on Smith Island, but instead of it being an island it’s a valley, and instead of everyone having the same last name of Evans, its Cordova.  And instead of speaking crazy English, they are speaking crazy Spanish.   And unfortunately there aren’t any of those delicious cakes here either. 

I’ve come to realize that everyone here speaks with their very own dialect and it’s very difficult to understand sometimes.  They speak in a lot of jerga (slang) too.  Sometimes when I am really listening I realize they are not even finishing their sentences, sometimes, not even their words.  But they understand this within each other.  However, I, as an outsider trying to learn the language am not getting it at all. 

So not only am I just trying to learn the dialect of the community I am trying to understand the accents as well.  For example, my host family is from the jungle; almost all of them were born and raised there.  And they have lived between my town and the jungle for the last 12 years.  So the people from the jungle have their own way of speaking.  My family tells me they have picked up most of the accent from here and they don’t talk like jungle people anymore, but I don’t think that explains why I can’t understand what my host Dad is saying.  I feel like everything he speaks, even when he is just making noises  contains the rolling r.  So pretty much whenever he opens his mouth I am lost!  And when my parents come my host sisters want me to translate him and my real dad when they talk…I don’t think that will be a very productive conversation. 

Now BJ’s Dad…whoa!  I don ‘t know what the heck that guy is saying most of the time.  And from having the opportunity to visit his family that live in the middle of nowhere I understand he developed his speech from simply being in the middle of nowhere and talking to people who spoke exactly the same as him. 

So not only am I learning the language I am learning why and where they speak the way they do.  I have accepted the fact that I am going to leave Peru in 20 months and be speaking crazy Spanish.