happenings

I haven't talked much about the training that I'm going through. Right now, I'm in classes from 8:30ish in the morning to 5 in the evening. A few days a week, I have tutoring of Spanish class. We also have other activities like a jogging group, a dance group that will start meeting soon and projects. Though this might seem overwhelming, it is easier to manage because I'm constantly surrounded by supportive staff and peers that keep me laughing all day. My fellow "aspirantes" love to play hacky sacky (or attacky sack), soccer, dance, drink some cervezas, and tease one another to keep it light. I can't say enough how big of a fan I am of these people.

The Santa Eulalia crew are the ones who live in my neighborhood. This includes the following: Ali, Roberto, Jefe, Alexander, Joshua (Gordito), Gabe, Carolina, Eliot, Dan and David (even though he technically lives in Vista Alegre, he's always up here hanging out). These guys are always laughing, always hanging out, and they play a significant role in keeping me entertained.

MAC is my program, Manejo Ambiental Comunitario, aka Medio Ambiente. I spend most of my time hanging out with people in MAC. We are in technical training with our teachers Monica and Lane. Lane is an ex-pat who followed his wife to Peru. While she is working here, he has a job with Peace Corps (Cuerpo de Paz). Monica is a Peruvian who is very white with light blue eyes. She looks like one of us until she talks, and then she has the cutest accent. Monica went to this amazing school in Lima, the Agrarian University. We go there on Saturdays to learn about organic gardening, extracting seeds and more.

Right now, MAC kids are working on diagnostic of their communities. We're spread out in several communities near Chosica. This is practice for what we'll be doing in our first three months in our sites. The point is to figure out what is going on, who is active in the community, and what needs to the community would be interested in having us help with. We start with interviews, cognitive mapping (or community mapping), and a personal assessment.

We also have the Wat-Saners (Water and Sanitation people, Wat-San). Together, we make up 79 volunteers mas o menos. I'm a big fan of Peru 16. Good people.

My favorite day so far happened last week. We had various stations to learn about different tactics of intergration and activities for us to use in our communities. We learned to do a couple of Peruvian dances. It was kinda like a Peruvian square dance. One activity was a series of tubes cut in half. There were about ten students to a group and we each held a piece of cut tube that was about 7 inches. We had to roll a marble all the way across the lawn in our tubes without making the marble stop. It took us about fifteen tries and people got frustrated. But by the end of it, everyone moved together in a relatively smooth motion.

That game is kind of a good image of how I'm adjusting to being in Cuerpo de Paz. I'm homesick sometimes and not moving in the most effective and fluid way, but it is a process. The words in Spanish come a little easier each week. I'm a little less terrified about trying to fulfill the goals of my service (for example: planting 1000 trees). On my walk home, I look at the mountains and remember how stunning my God really is. And I remember how small I am, so much smaller than the grand tasks that overwhelm me. But most importantly, I remember that it is this stunning God who will do the work within me, even when I am small and weak.