There´s No Place Like Olmos

I wouldn´t say that I necessarily see Corral de Arena or Olmos as home, but I´ve got a good group of friends and community here. I don´t know that I´ve explained this, but I live in the district of Olmos (approximately 10,000 people), in the town or caserio called Corral de Arena (pop. around 700). There is hardly anything in my town, except for a restaurant that no one really goes to. So Olmos is where I go for pretty much anything we need. For anything more, I have to go to the capital of Lambayeque, which is Chiclayo. We currently have 7 volunteers living in Olmos, 5 girls and 2 guys. All but one of the guys are environment volunteers. So, as you may imagine, the girls have bonded really well, and we end up doing a lot of work together. We´ve got something special in Olmos that is different from most Peace Corps experiences, because we are such a tight cluster. It gives us an opportunity to tackle more than we might have time for alone, and using everyone´s creativity and ideas makes our projects more sucessful. Our big project together is our Environmental radio shows which we are now doing twice a week, once on AM and once on FM. The FM one is more formal, while the AM station gives us a chance to relax and be more conversational. For example, on AM this week, I´m gonna talk about rap and raggeton music.

Let me introduce the Olmos crew. For the boys, we have Speare and John. Speare lives in Olmos. We don´t see him very often, but we like to tease him for working out so much. John lives in Ñuape and is doing good work. John is very outdoorsy, a very knowledgeable bird enthusiast with a quirky list of interest including writing poetry in Spanish about food. There is Carolyn who lives in Sincape. Carolyn is always upbeat, happy, ready to take on new projects. She´s also my go-to girl for having a beer, singing and dancing around. Next we have Sara Lev. in La Estancia which is within an hour´s walk from my site. We´re from the same group and trained together. Sara Lev. is who we called the most beautiful girl in Perú (think sexy librarian). For some reason, there is no one more beautiful than ¨the Sarita¨ to Peruvian men. When she visits our sites, men will ask about her from then on. It´s kinda ridiculous. Sara is the analytical one in the group. On the Chachapoyas trip, she earned the name ¨Ball-buster Sara¨, shortened later to just ¨Busty¨, because she doesn´t take shit and is often the one to speak up and get tough. Sara was the Queen of Recycling yesterday in the parade, sporting a dress made of paper. We also have Miss Lisa, who used to live in my site but is now living and working in Olmos. She´s working with an animal refuge, mostly for animals sold on the black market and also the Pava Aliblanca, a native bird that is close to extinction. Lisa coordinates our radio shows and the funding. She´s gotten me into Glee, which has inspired many a dance/sing party at the house of the Bulla (pronounced Buya).

Ok, so Bulla has to have her own paragraph. A very special person in my life, Bulla got her name when she first entered Peace Corps nearly 2 1/2 years ago. She was in her Spanish class, being very loud as she always is, cackling and having a good time, and another Spanish teacher who could hear her from far away muttered ¨bulla¨ under his breath, which means ¨ruckus¨. Ever since Sarah has been Sarah Bulla. After 2 years living in the Andes mountains of Yauyos, Lima, she was offered the third year position in Olmos to manage 20 schools that are a part of the Environmental Education Network of Olmos, started by another volunteer whose name was also Sara. Bulla´s house in where all the other volunteers go for internet, good food prepared in a nice kitchen, and a break from the stresses of site. Bulla is loud and funny, always dancing around and keeping us laughing. I´m not sure I´ve met anyone so happy. When the rest of us are done for the day, she´ll stop and talk to every Peruvian who tries to get her attention in the street. Bulla is helping me to love the Environment more. I have a love for the Earth in the sense that I want to do work to protect it: environemental education, trash campagns. But Bulla loves hiking, camping, kayaking, bird watching, rolling around in the grass (accidentally with dog poop once or twice). Naturally, she was the Queen of the Environment in the parade yesterday. We rode on a cart covered in palm branches and banana leaves, pulled by a donkey and a lovely old man.


This past week was the Festival del Limón, the Festival of the Lime. Olmos is known for growing those tiny limes you might buy for your ¨cold ber¨. We had two floats in the parade, one for the environment and one for recycling, covered in things made of recycled materials like plastic bottles turned into flowers. The announcer made a mistake in announcing us: ¨and here we have the Queen of the Environment with her gringo...correction, with her gringa¨. A funny way to put it, hope that doesn´t get us into trouble later. I think it was fine. I was supposed to be her chofer, but the donkey was spooked by all the crowds, so I just rode on the float anyway. For the festival, we also did the puppet show with Don Cochinon - a trash-loving, sing-happy character who wants to dirty the whole planet. The kids always love that show, and it carries a good message about not littering and the importance of recycling. During the 2 week festival, we also put on games, kiosks, and an environmental quiz for students to win prizes. We also participated in a Guinness World Record, eating the largest plate of goat ever! Really, it was more like 15,000 plates and 500 goats. Yum yum. The cast of the Peruvian tv show/telenovela ¨Hay Fondo Al Sitio¨ came out and performed a concert, really only Joel sang while the rest danced around. I was so happy for the people, that show is something they own as a country and makes them proud. Seeing them in person was huge. And Nicolas is so much better looking in person. That´s one good looking man.

I´m stoked to be living here with this group of volunteers, sad that Carolyn will be leaving us for sure and hoping we can keep Bulla and Lisa around for one more year. We´ve got something incredible going on here.