Today I finished all of the requirements to be sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Last Friday, we had language interviews and I´m supposedly intermediate-medium. Somedays my Spanish is better than others. We also had to be signed off by our technical trainers, Lane and Monica. This included a small community diagnostic of our training community. I was incredibly nervious to give my presentation in Spanish, but it was fine in the end. It was such a relief to be done with it. In celebration, I went to the volunteer´s movie night in Yanacoto with my 12 year-old host sister. The volunteers in Yanacoto borrowed equipment from the office to setup an outdoor showing of Wall-E for the children and families in their community. I was surprised how many kids actually came. They had popcorn and soda for everyone. I freaking love that movie! And it´s a perfect pick, because so much of the movie has no dialogue.
Today in training, we had to do round robin activities to show our proficiency in areas of security, introducing ourselves to community members, nogotiating rent and amenities, a general understanding our Peru´s history, etc. The swearing in ceremony is Friday. Tommorow, we have a special goodbye event with the families. Our group was lucky to have that fall on Thanksgiving. We prepared for food, entertainment (a Thanksgiving skit, dances, a photo slideshow and a ¨funny things the your gringos have said¨game).
I´m excited to get to my site and start my service, but I´m sad about saying goodbye to all of the teachers, friends and family I have in Santa Eulalia. My host mom cried last night because she´s really sad to see me go. We´ve become like a real family. My host mom and I have connected over the past ten weeks. We´ve shared our cried together while sharing our sorrows and because we were laughing so hard at cultural and linguistic misunderstandings. She takes care of me as if I were one of her daughters, and I´ve been spoiled in that respect. I think I´ll be more independent in my next household, washing my own laundry by hand and doing a bit of my own shopping for vegetables and fruits that my family wouldn´t otherwise buy.
But I´m looking forward to starting projects and teaching during summer school (which is winter in the States). And the little things get me tickled, like getting to wear a professional vest! In Peru, wearing a vest is a sign of a professional. If you work for an official agency, you have one of the vests with all the pockets and your name on it. And I´m a huge fan of vests in general. This particular style would be incredibly dorky in the States, but I loooove it. How cool is it that I can wear a vest with slots for pencils and get respect? And it is the little pleasures like that that get me so excited.
The work I´m going to be doing is going to be answering specific needs in my community in terms of environmental education, reforestation and the problem of trash. That in itself will be challenging and rewarding. I´ll learn how to get along housing in roughness most of my time, but then I´ll also get to enjoy some comforts from home. Twice a month, I´ll get to go to my capital city and enjoy thngs like a oh so lovely cup of Starbucks coffee, a hot shower, and maybe even a movie in English (Spanish subtitles). Every little piece of home is shuch a treat. A cup of real (not instant) coffee is so much richer. Pizza is a delicacy. Praying with a friend is sacred, a moment to be cherised. A phone call or package from home is the highlight of my week.
And even though my description above makes it sound like life is more vivid herethan it was when I was in the States, I find myself struggling with depression and feelings of worthlessness. I worry I won´t be a good volunteer, that I´ll fail to take advantage of opportunities and leave with regret. I miss having people around me who know me really well and I can talk about anything. Not having a strong Christian community is a struggle. And just ten weeks in, there have been things that I have said and done that I wish I had done differently.
So I´m ready to serve, but afraid of the things I´ll screw up. I´m trying to find the balance between believing in myself and not taking myself too seriously, being aware that failures and successes will both come. And I want to swear in with that sense of honesty in the forefront of my mind. I don´t want to take my oath with a romantic idea of what service will be like. I want to swear in with a promise to do my best, and to move keeping going even when I fail.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
Saying things you shouldn´t say without knowing you´ve said them.
Funny story that I need to record:
This Monday, I was sitting at the breakfast table with my host mom, talking it up like usual. And I started talking about moving to Lambayeque. And so I told her that I would like to buy my mattress in Chiclayo (my capital city), because it would be cheaper there. Then, I could just take it back on the combi (bus) with me to my site. Simple conversation right? No, no, not for Terrace Awkward Hill. No, what I actually said was that I was going to buy pussy in Chiclayo and take it back on the combi with me. Because pussy would be cheaper to buy in my capital city rather than buying it in my site.
And I couldn´t figure out why my host mom was frozen in her seat as I described this plan. Then we laughed til we were teary-eyed. Lesson learned: colchon is mattress, and concha is, as my host mom puts it, ¨la parte de la mujer¨.
This Monday, I was sitting at the breakfast table with my host mom, talking it up like usual. And I started talking about moving to Lambayeque. And so I told her that I would like to buy my mattress in Chiclayo (my capital city), because it would be cheaper there. Then, I could just take it back on the combi (bus) with me to my site. Simple conversation right? No, no, not for Terrace Awkward Hill. No, what I actually said was that I was going to buy pussy in Chiclayo and take it back on the combi with me. Because pussy would be cheaper to buy in my capital city rather than buying it in my site.
And I couldn´t figure out why my host mom was frozen in her seat as I described this plan. Then we laughed til we were teary-eyed. Lesson learned: colchon is mattress, and concha is, as my host mom puts it, ¨la parte de la mujer¨.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Critters Innumerable
It is fitting that after my first visit to sight that I would run across Psalm 104: “You make darkness, and it is night, when all the animals of the forest come creeping out...creeping things innumerable are there, living things both small and great”. I can already tell that the abundant supply of creepy things in the dry forest of Corral de Arena will be one of the most difficult things for me to get used to. The chickens, goats, and turkeys make a mess everywhere but I'll get used to that. Cleanliness is a relative term I'm finding out. I had washed my clothes in site with a bit of Tide and the water we collect in barrels for the day. To me, they smelled really great, felt clean. But when I returned to Santa Eulalia, I realized they actually smelled like chicken poop. Showering is quite similar. We have a “shower area”, but it is really just an area in the backyard with a tarp to cover you. There are vines and sticks that run across the top and the chickens like to hang out up there. I've never had to shower and be afraid of a chicken pooping on my head at the same time. That's new.
Since living in my lovely, tidy house in Santa Eulalia, it hadn't occurred to me that living in the campo would put a new spin on the expression “night life”. All hours of the night, there are things creeping, clucking, hopping and giving me the all-around 'heebie geebies'. The first night, I talked to Lisa before going to bed. Lisa was the volunteer in my town before she had to move into Olmos for health reasons. Now she works with the animal refuge/zoo that is in desperate need for funding. I called Lisa after having gone to the latrine in the dark to find it literally covered in cockroaches. Needless to say, I didn't end up using it. I cut the top off a two liter plastic bottle and used it in my room instead. I called Lisa and she suggested that I buy a specific bucket people use to pee in at night. She also mentioned that she never got used to the critters at night, especially the mice that would run around her bedroom floor at night. That just freaked me out. I decided to sleep with the light on to discourage las cucarachas.
I laid there awake for two hours, keenly aware of every crawl and squeak behind and possibly in my walls. From the sounds, I imagined at least 10 mice. I kept sitting up to check for cockroaches. Two came in at one point. The first one hopped and flew around my room. I didn't realize they could jump so high! One jumped about five feet and even flew around. And ewwww, how fast it could crawl up the wall.
I covered my whole body with my covers and prayed for safety and the ability to fall asleep, a little embarrassed that I'm a grown person afraid of such tiny creatures. I tried reasoning with myself. What could they possibly do to me? Even if a mouse bit me and I got sick, I have doctors I can call. It'll be ok. But there is no such reasoning when it comes to be the insects or animals of any size.
Even worse than the bugs, I would have to say I am more afraid of the dogs. The dogs in my new town aren't your normal canines. These dogs are vicious and fight at all hours of the night, and during the day, in front of my house. The sounds are horrible! It sounds like they are actually tearing each other apart. And over breakfast my last day, I watched about five of them gang rape my little female dog. She was yelping and obviously trying to get away, but the male dogs kept biting her while they each took turns. I ran out and yelled at them with a broom, but they weren't scared of me. I felt sick to my stomach for a few hours after that. I told my program director about the situation. His advise was that I try to find out whose dogs they are and ask them to keep them locked up. If they have no owners, he suggested, in his comedic Peruvian English, that I kill them all over a period of time so that no one will know it's me. I paused for a moment before replying. “How would I go about doing that?” I think I am gonna talk to my host family about the problem, and then go to the mayor. If neither one works, I think I will kill them. After two days of their fighting in my patio at night, I found myself picturing shooting them all with a gun. I've never wanted to kill animals like that.
I'll end this blog with a funny story related to getting used to animals in site. My friend Tina was going to the latrine during her site visit. She peed and then she was getting ready to leave when she heard something russling around in the latrine. She looked down, and there was a chicken who had laid an egg at the bottom of the latrine. Who knows how it got down there, and who knows how they got it out, but they did somehow. I died laughing when Tina told us that she peed on a chicken.
Since living in my lovely, tidy house in Santa Eulalia, it hadn't occurred to me that living in the campo would put a new spin on the expression “night life”. All hours of the night, there are things creeping, clucking, hopping and giving me the all-around 'heebie geebies'. The first night, I talked to Lisa before going to bed. Lisa was the volunteer in my town before she had to move into Olmos for health reasons. Now she works with the animal refuge/zoo that is in desperate need for funding. I called Lisa after having gone to the latrine in the dark to find it literally covered in cockroaches. Needless to say, I didn't end up using it. I cut the top off a two liter plastic bottle and used it in my room instead. I called Lisa and she suggested that I buy a specific bucket people use to pee in at night. She also mentioned that she never got used to the critters at night, especially the mice that would run around her bedroom floor at night. That just freaked me out. I decided to sleep with the light on to discourage las cucarachas.
I laid there awake for two hours, keenly aware of every crawl and squeak behind and possibly in my walls. From the sounds, I imagined at least 10 mice. I kept sitting up to check for cockroaches. Two came in at one point. The first one hopped and flew around my room. I didn't realize they could jump so high! One jumped about five feet and even flew around. And ewwww, how fast it could crawl up the wall.
I covered my whole body with my covers and prayed for safety and the ability to fall asleep, a little embarrassed that I'm a grown person afraid of such tiny creatures. I tried reasoning with myself. What could they possibly do to me? Even if a mouse bit me and I got sick, I have doctors I can call. It'll be ok. But there is no such reasoning when it comes to be the insects or animals of any size.
Even worse than the bugs, I would have to say I am more afraid of the dogs. The dogs in my new town aren't your normal canines. These dogs are vicious and fight at all hours of the night, and during the day, in front of my house. The sounds are horrible! It sounds like they are actually tearing each other apart. And over breakfast my last day, I watched about five of them gang rape my little female dog. She was yelping and obviously trying to get away, but the male dogs kept biting her while they each took turns. I ran out and yelled at them with a broom, but they weren't scared of me. I felt sick to my stomach for a few hours after that. I told my program director about the situation. His advise was that I try to find out whose dogs they are and ask them to keep them locked up. If they have no owners, he suggested, in his comedic Peruvian English, that I kill them all over a period of time so that no one will know it's me. I paused for a moment before replying. “How would I go about doing that?” I think I am gonna talk to my host family about the problem, and then go to the mayor. If neither one works, I think I will kill them. After two days of their fighting in my patio at night, I found myself picturing shooting them all with a gun. I've never wanted to kill animals like that.
I'll end this blog with a funny story related to getting used to animals in site. My friend Tina was going to the latrine during her site visit. She peed and then she was getting ready to leave when she heard something russling around in the latrine. She looked down, and there was a chicken who had laid an egg at the bottom of the latrine. Who knows how it got down there, and who knows how they got it out, but they did somehow. I died laughing when Tina told us that she peed on a chicken.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Field Based Training
Okay, so I´ve spent the last 5 days traveling through Lambayeque. The first night, we took a bus from Lima to Chiclayo. The buses are a vacation in themselves, with dinner and movies, and the most comfy reclining leather seats I´ve ever sat in. We watched ¨Marley and Me¨ and ¨The Devil Wears Prada¨in Spanish with English subtitles. The reclining chairs were arguably more comfortable than our beds at home, and it was nice to just sit back and enjoy a movie.
We arrived in Chiclayo and took a combi (a van) to Olmos, near where I will be living for the next two years. We went to a school near Carolyn´s site and taught a couple of grades. Because we were told kinda late about teaching classes, we prepared our lessons over the two hour car ride and lunch. Sara and I taught our class on the various routes of water contamination. In this particular community, there isn´t a trash pick-up program. Adults and children just throw their trash wherever they happen to be standing when they are done with it. The sides of the streets are littered with pastic bags and packaging materials. Seeing all the trash made me very grateful for the strict littering policies in the US.
The first night, we stayed at a animal refuge/zoo outside of Olmos. The refuge mainly houses birds and different monkeys, some the size of chimpanzees and others that were itty bitty. We cleaned out animal cages, did some painting and planted vines that will hopefully shade a patio area. I´m starting to realize how afraid of animals I am. While attempting to clean out a cage, one black bird less than a foot tall ¨cornered¨ me. I was frantically yelling at it to go away, but it just towered over me from a meter away, clucking and staring me down. I was stuck for probably 3 or 4 minutes before a ran by it screaming, making a b-line for the door. And that was the end of that project for me. I went on to painting cages, which was messier but less of a threat to my life. I still have black paint stuck to my arm and fingernails, but the switch was a good move. Then me and Lisa (who used to live in my site) painted the kid´s slide and talked a bit about Jesus and a desire for community. I´m looking forward to getting to know her better.
The next night, we camped out in the Bosque of Pomac (a dry, sandy forest). I pooped outside for the first time! I´m learning that we talked more in the Peace Corps about poop than any other subject. We make a lot of jokes around poop. ¨Tengo bicicleta¨ literally means ¨I have a bicycle¨, but it is an expression that means you have diarrea. We´re often singing ¨beee-cicleta, beee beee-cicleta¨. We all share this experience. Some of us might be better at Spanish, some of us might be adjusting differently to the daily stresses, but we all have ridden the bicicleta at some point.
After spending the night in the bosque, we climbed some huacas. These are pre-Incan, man-made hills that housed treasures and were the center of the communities. The leader would live atop them. These sites are full of archeologically valuable material that has yet to be studied. Unfortunately, there also hasn´t been enough protection from raiding and much has been lost. Nevertheless, it was fun to climb these ancient adobe hills andf look at the seashells and pottery pieces all along the ground.
That night, we had pollo a la braza (chicken and french fries) and I got super sick the next day. Never, never ever eat chicken that it kinda pink. It is not worth it and I don´t care how hungry you are. To be honest, I´m not sure if that is what did me in. I´m the only one that got super sick. But I was vomiting and had diarrea at the same time. The pain in the stomach was unbareable 10 minutes before each time I got sick. It started at 5 in the morning and I stopped throwing up around noon. The rest of the day was pretty bad, but nothing in comparison to the first half. I got to the hotel in Chiclayo around 3 and got to sleep and watch tv the rest of the day. All of the volunteers took turns helping me. Some carried my bags, others brought me snacks,the third year volunteers made sure to check up on me and got me a front seat in the combi ride to Chiclayo. Tina even gave me a pad in case I accidentally pooped my pants (which I´m told happens to every volunteer at some point, but thankfully didn´t happen to me yesterday).
Today was America Day, the day we have all been excited about. The third year volunteers showed us all around our capital city of Chiclayo. There is a shopping mall, Real Plaza, with many of the comforts of home including RadioShack, Pizza Hut, KFC, Starbucks, and a movie theater. I didn´t get to see a movie, but hear that they actually play the English audio with Spanish subtitles. I´m looking forward to enjoying that one of these days when I need some American time.
Then we went to a technology market where you can buy all sorts of electronics, clothing or inexpensive entertainment. And then we headed down to the beach and ate some fried rice with fresh fish. Peru has really incredible Chinese food, and good seafood on the coast. It is a perfect combination if you ask me.
Tomorrow, I meet my counterparts that I hope to work with over the next two years. We´ll spend the day getting to know one another in formal sessions and then they´ll take me to my first visit to my site in Corral de Arena. I´ll spend three days getting to know my new host family and the community. I´m nervous about the latrine and even more about the dirt floor in my room. I heard stories about parasites through the feet (and I think I´ve already extracted tick larva from one of my toes). I want to lay cement in my room, but am not sure how much that would cost. Some volunteers recommend laying cement, and others say it will just make my hot room even more unbearable when summer rolls around. Prayers would be great for all of the above. I love you all. Thanks for keeping up with how things are going here in Peru.
We arrived in Chiclayo and took a combi (a van) to Olmos, near where I will be living for the next two years. We went to a school near Carolyn´s site and taught a couple of grades. Because we were told kinda late about teaching classes, we prepared our lessons over the two hour car ride and lunch. Sara and I taught our class on the various routes of water contamination. In this particular community, there isn´t a trash pick-up program. Adults and children just throw their trash wherever they happen to be standing when they are done with it. The sides of the streets are littered with pastic bags and packaging materials. Seeing all the trash made me very grateful for the strict littering policies in the US.
The first night, we stayed at a animal refuge/zoo outside of Olmos. The refuge mainly houses birds and different monkeys, some the size of chimpanzees and others that were itty bitty. We cleaned out animal cages, did some painting and planted vines that will hopefully shade a patio area. I´m starting to realize how afraid of animals I am. While attempting to clean out a cage, one black bird less than a foot tall ¨cornered¨ me. I was frantically yelling at it to go away, but it just towered over me from a meter away, clucking and staring me down. I was stuck for probably 3 or 4 minutes before a ran by it screaming, making a b-line for the door. And that was the end of that project for me. I went on to painting cages, which was messier but less of a threat to my life. I still have black paint stuck to my arm and fingernails, but the switch was a good move. Then me and Lisa (who used to live in my site) painted the kid´s slide and talked a bit about Jesus and a desire for community. I´m looking forward to getting to know her better.
The next night, we camped out in the Bosque of Pomac (a dry, sandy forest). I pooped outside for the first time! I´m learning that we talked more in the Peace Corps about poop than any other subject. We make a lot of jokes around poop. ¨Tengo bicicleta¨ literally means ¨I have a bicycle¨, but it is an expression that means you have diarrea. We´re often singing ¨beee-cicleta, beee beee-cicleta¨. We all share this experience. Some of us might be better at Spanish, some of us might be adjusting differently to the daily stresses, but we all have ridden the bicicleta at some point.
After spending the night in the bosque, we climbed some huacas. These are pre-Incan, man-made hills that housed treasures and were the center of the communities. The leader would live atop them. These sites are full of archeologically valuable material that has yet to be studied. Unfortunately, there also hasn´t been enough protection from raiding and much has been lost. Nevertheless, it was fun to climb these ancient adobe hills andf look at the seashells and pottery pieces all along the ground.
That night, we had pollo a la braza (chicken and french fries) and I got super sick the next day. Never, never ever eat chicken that it kinda pink. It is not worth it and I don´t care how hungry you are. To be honest, I´m not sure if that is what did me in. I´m the only one that got super sick. But I was vomiting and had diarrea at the same time. The pain in the stomach was unbareable 10 minutes before each time I got sick. It started at 5 in the morning and I stopped throwing up around noon. The rest of the day was pretty bad, but nothing in comparison to the first half. I got to the hotel in Chiclayo around 3 and got to sleep and watch tv the rest of the day. All of the volunteers took turns helping me. Some carried my bags, others brought me snacks,the third year volunteers made sure to check up on me and got me a front seat in the combi ride to Chiclayo. Tina even gave me a pad in case I accidentally pooped my pants (which I´m told happens to every volunteer at some point, but thankfully didn´t happen to me yesterday).
Today was America Day, the day we have all been excited about. The third year volunteers showed us all around our capital city of Chiclayo. There is a shopping mall, Real Plaza, with many of the comforts of home including RadioShack, Pizza Hut, KFC, Starbucks, and a movie theater. I didn´t get to see a movie, but hear that they actually play the English audio with Spanish subtitles. I´m looking forward to enjoying that one of these days when I need some American time.
Then we went to a technology market where you can buy all sorts of electronics, clothing or inexpensive entertainment. And then we headed down to the beach and ate some fried rice with fresh fish. Peru has really incredible Chinese food, and good seafood on the coast. It is a perfect combination if you ask me.
Tomorrow, I meet my counterparts that I hope to work with over the next two years. We´ll spend the day getting to know one another in formal sessions and then they´ll take me to my first visit to my site in Corral de Arena. I´ll spend three days getting to know my new host family and the community. I´m nervous about the latrine and even more about the dirt floor in my room. I heard stories about parasites through the feet (and I think I´ve already extracted tick larva from one of my toes). I want to lay cement in my room, but am not sure how much that would cost. Some volunteers recommend laying cement, and others say it will just make my hot room even more unbearable when summer rolls around. Prayers would be great for all of the above. I love you all. Thanks for keeping up with how things are going here in Peru.
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