The People / La gente

Meet my family! Oscar, Loida, Deysi, Soledad and Jon Paol.

  • Oscar is a mecanico in Lima. The hours are long — he works Monday through Saturday from 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. and picks up odd jobs on Sundays — but he's energetic and loves a good conversation. He's also, apparently, a fantastic dancer and has promised me that he'll teach me how to Cumbia and Salsa for my birthday.
  • Loida is an ama de casa (house wife) full-time, but she also is an entrepreneur, selling household items and clothes from catalogs on the side. She's very active in the community and serves as the secretary on the neighborhood Junta (more a less the board of directors). But best of all, she is super sweet and doesn't over-feed me!
  • Deysi is a nurse who just finished a year-long practical work program in the Selva (jungle). She arrived in Lima the same day I did and has just been settling back in with her family and friends. While in the Selva, she met and fell completely in love with Manuel, an engineering student in Iquitos. I don't know what I would have done without her my first few days here. She always is happy to come along with me if I need to find something I didn't bring (like a towel--eek) or talk to me about my technical training for PC's health program or just life in general.
  • Soledad is 16 and finishing up her last year in high school. She'll graduate right after I leave in December and wants to go to the University of Lima next year. It's a really important dream to her. She's very studious and focused. But, at the same time, she's 16 and loves music and dancing and regatón. She also fills me in on what's going on during the dramatic, fast-talking points of the Dáme Chocolate, the greatest Latin American soap opera ever.
  • Jon Paol (aka JP) is 9 and ADORABLE. He and I get along really well and is probably the best Peruvian friend I've made so far. Every night we read a few pages of Harry Potter y La Cámara Secreta out loud. It's good pronunciation practice for me, and he seems to get a lot of pleasure out of correcting me. :) With the exception that he lives in Peru, he is nearly exactly like every 9-year-old in America: he loves Cartoon Network, Spiderman, Power Rangers and running around like a madman. On my second day in the house, he fell and hurt himself pretty severely. He was in the hospital for a few days and now can't run around. He's going a little stir-crazy. I feel terrible for him, but he's handling it really well.






The Places / Los sitios

Here are some photos of Huascaran, my neighborhood in Chaclacayo. It's one of the lower class parts of the city, but everyone is really friendly and open. I infinitely prefer it to the crowded streets of Lima.











Here are some photos of my training site, which is technically a mansion for Chaclacayo.



The (small) Things / Las cositas

There are some differences between Peru and the US that I think are kind of cool.

  • The dish soap.

  • The door locks.

  • The potato chips (sweet potato chips are AMAZING).

  • The bucket bath. We boil water on the stove and mix it with the cold water from the tap. The result: a lukewarm bucket bath.

  • Giant fried corn kernels, with the popcorn fluff in the middle, essentially inside-out popcorn.
















Hola desde el Perú

Hey everyone! So... I´m in Peru, which is awesome. In case anyone was curious, I thought I´d let y´all know what I´ve been up to.

I just settled in with my host family in Chaclacayo, a small city outside of Lima. I live in an area called Huascaran (WA-ska-RON) with a father, mother, 2 sisters (23 and 16) and a brother (9--so cute!). So far, it has been pretty interesting, and they´ve had a lot of laughs at my expense. My Spanish has a long way to go, but thankfully, I understand almost everything. It´s just when I have to talk back that I run into problems ... (Teaser: "Sure! I´m open!" does NOT translate well.)

The Peace Corps training center is literally a mansion for this area. It´s huge, with a high wall all the way around the grounds. There´s even a pool (that we can´t use). Many of the houses near the center are equally as beautiful and just as guarded. The neighborhood I live in is a stark contrast to where we train. None of the roads are paved, and there is dust and rocks everywhere since we´re in the desert. It´s on the poorer side of town, but inside the houses, they have a lot of the same comforts. I have 27 TV channels (!) and running water. To avoid taking freezing showers, though, mi mamá boils some hot water for me to mix with some cold water, and it´s more of a bucket shower, if you will. After the cold and hot are mixed together, I can scoop the water out and pour it over my head. It was awkward at first, but I think I´m getting the hang of it.

One crazy thing about here are the buses called combis. There is a larger town down the road from here where you can buy more nonessential things like towels and purses, and to get there you have to take the combis. They slow down (rarely do they stop) to pick people up along the side of the road, and everyone crams in. It´s like the bumpiest, jerkiest roller coaster you´ve ever been on, except you´re standing and only have a bar above your head to hold on to when the bus slows down quite suddenly or jerks forward.

For all my foodie friends out there (Tobye), come visit!!! Seriously, the food is absolutely amazing. I´m bewildered at the magical combinations that can be made from rice, potatoes and chicken. Not to mention the fruit. They have at least 12 different kinds of bananas and I think as many mangos. It´s heavenly. I´ve never tasted fruit with so much flavor. I know getting sick is an inevitability, but in the meantime, I´m really, really enjoying myself.

As for my fellow volunteers, I couldn´t have asked for better. There are 47 of us, and everyone is awesome. Most have studied abroad or traveled, and it´s fun to hear everyone´s stories. We´re divided into 3 projects: Health, Environment and Water Sanitation. Most of the health and environment volunteers will be taking over for other volunteers who have started in communities. Water and san folks, however, will be piloting their programs in Perú. Our paths cross a lot, though, since a lot of enviro and health stuff overlap.

I promise, I will have pictures up soon. There are some internet cafes near the center, but training is intense, and there isn´t a lot of time to get to one.

I love you all!! And believe me when I say I miss you terribly. ¡Pienso mucho en ustedes!

Arrival

I made it!

...more later. :-)

The Prologue

In six days, I'll be heading off to Peru for new adventures with the Peace Corps. I'm excited, anxious, preemptively missing people, hopeful, curious, and a tad ... listless? I'm packing my life into two lumpy bags, buying duct tape and batteries, and downloading e-books like they were Death Cab for Cutie. I spent nearly $200 at Target, and am now a one-woman pharmacy of multi-vitamins, Airborne chewables and hand sanitizer.

I guess you could say, right now, my life is broken down into a series of post-its that look a little something like this ...

Things to do before I go:
  • renew my driver's license
  • buy personal property insurance
  • establish a power of attorney
  • defer my student loans
  • take pictures of family, friends and home-sweet-home
  • go to a Twins game
Things to pack:
  • duct tape
  • hiking boots, running shoes, ballet flats, high heels and flip flops
  • nifty pocket knife (with the nifty fold-out nail clippers)
  • photo album
  • 27 months worth of *cough* female items
  • address book
  • all five Harry Potter movies
Things I want to see when I'm in South America:
  • Machu Picchu
  • Angel Falls
  • an Andean village
  • Buenas Aires
  • the Amazon River
  • an animal I've never seen
Things to eat as often as possible before I go:
  • hamburgers
  • Vietnamese food
  • mac 'n' cheese
  • French fries
  • club sandwiches (extra bacon)
My brain is going a million directions, and I'm not quite sure I'm ready for this. But I will take solace in one thing: whatever happens, it will be an adventure.