It has been a great week in Peru! I don´t have a whole lot of interesting stories to write about, but I do want to share some milestones I have achieved this week.
1) In recent memory (aka the past 4 days) there have been no incidents with the combi and I´ve even traveled by myself.
2) I enjoyed my first cold shower.
3) I shaved both legs entirely for the first time.
4) I received my first package (thanks Mom and Dad).
5) I brushed my hair with a real brush (not a comb) and it was amazing.
6) I got palta (avocado) with my bread at breakfast 4 out of the past 5 days. Luxury.
7) I rode in a taxi with 10 other people.
On Tuesday my family picked me up in a taxi (all 10 of them) and we went to Jockey Plaza which is about 30 minutes towards Lima. We were going to see Transformers there at the cine, but they didn´t have it in Spanish and some of the little boys can´t read subtitles quick enough so we just went into the mall. The mall is wayyyy nicer than any mall in Columbia (that´s a given) and maybe better even than Kenwood. Inside we went to ¨Happyland¨where the boys played games and rode the bumper cars. I felt like I was back in the States! Afterwards we went to get dinner and had chicken, salad and french fries! I couldn´t believe it!
We´ve had some interesting business training this week which has been a nice change of pace. We went to a colegio nearby called Estenos a couple days ago to get a feel for it since we´re going to be facilitating an activity there on July 1st. There were about 20 of us and I have never felt more stared at in my entire life. The students had their noses pressed to classroom windows and were hanging over railings to see us. Then we started playing volleyball against some of them and we probably had 100 people just staring at us. It was so bizarre! Today we went to an instituto for a charla that Kevin and Kathrin (our business trainers) were giving to the students there so we actually got to see a little of what we´ll be doing. We just went over some basic business skills with them and came up business ideas. All of them chose to work with food and I couldn´t believe how long it took for them to answer simple questions like ¨Why do you want to start this business?¨and ¨What need in the community does it fufill?¨ I think we´ll all have to get used to working at a much slower pace here.
Also, I cannot believe that Michael Jackson died! I felt really far away when I found out because I know that most of you probably found out within an hour of it happening. If I hadn´t come to the internet cafe tonight I wouldn´t have figured it out for days. My hermano Cesar loves MJ and I gave him the Michael Jackson songs I have on my iTunes for his MP3 player so I´ll have to let him know when I get home.
I´m heading to Lima on Saturday again for some agricultural training and also hopefully to see a bit more of the city. Monday is a Feriada (national holiday) so we´re not going to be having classes. Hopefully I´ll be able to post some pictures then.
Thank you for the emails and snailmail!
Buenas Noches,
Steph
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Papas for Papás
It’s Saturday, June 20th around 7:30 at night and I’ve been in Peru for two weeks now. So much has gone on in the past week that I need to update you on, but I’m going to start with what is going on right now as I sit in my room.
The Laundry Debacle
I just got back from Lima and Miraflores. All of the PCTs went into the city today for activities and just to hang out. I am exhausted and have just ridden a combi for an hour and a half. On my way up Los Laureles (the street leading into 3 de Octubre) I ran into mi mama, Mario, and mi papa. I was introduced to my host dad – he just got in town today and he works in another department (like states in Peru) 8 hours away – and my host mom told me she straightened my room and did my laundry. After many thanks and mucho gustos, I continued to the house and they continued to Chosica where I’m assuming they are having dinner. A little background information: Susana has done my laundry once before and only the laundry I’ve given her. In training they told us that we were to wash our own socks and underwear so I haven’t been giving those things to her. Instead, I’ve been putting them in my bottom drawer and have been planning to do them on my own. However, this week some of the girls had a great idea and actually got all of their panties and socks dry cleaned/washed at the lavanderia and it only cost them 5 soles so I decided that this would be my plan too (rough life, I know) and I would drop my things off on Monday. Not only would it save me the time of washing 2 weeks worth of underwear/socks, but it would also allow me to NOT have to hang up these things on the line to dry, which is key considering I’m living with 2 teenage boys. I bet you can see where this is going… I get home and ALL of my clothes in my bottom drawer are gone. So basically, right now all of my panties (and there are a lot trust me) are hanging outside on the roof.
The Combis
Okay so I’ve mentioned the combis several times now and they play an important role in my life in Peru so I thought I’d dedicate a whole section to them today. Every day we ride the combi (like a mini-bus) for about 10 to 15 minutes to get to the training center and back. Every day it is an adventure. Most days it is the worst part of my day. Peru does not have any “public” transportation, so to speak. The government privatized the industry so all transport is done through private companies. There are buses, taxis, mototaxis, and combis. I have never seen crazier driving in my life. The first week I was here I didn’t notice it because I was too busy making sure no one was stealing my stuff, but now that I’ve had a chance to actually sit down on one of these things and look out the window, I just don’t understand how I have not seen a car accident. No one pays attention to the lines on the road – even if they are double yellow lines. The drivers get as close as possible to the other cars, like 3 inches away, lay on their horns, hit the windows and tops of taxis to get people to move, and cut everyone off. In between all of this, people walk around on the road trying to sell fruit and chocolate. I hold my breath almost the entire ride. On top of this, there is a conductor type person who works the door and controls when people get on or off. Every time the combi stops he jumps out and starts shouting on the street for people to get on. We’re usually traveling during peak hours with about a million other people on the bus, going to and from class, and we usually have backpacks that we need to keep an eye on because we’re gringos and everyone is wondering what kind of expensive things we have. Add to that that it’s usually dark in the morning and night when we’re traveling so it’s hard to see the almost non-existent land marks we’ve gotten to know at our stop (Los Laureles). The name is difficult to say and not all of the conductors know about it. There have been several times that we’ve gotten off at the wrong place or gone too far and it is seriously frustrating. It was extra annoying on Monday when Christie and I missed the stop even though we told the conductor exactly where we wanted to go, then walked in the opposite direction of where we were supposed to because we didn’t know we missed it, then had to walk all the way back. I will learn many things during training in these 11 weeks. Unfortunately, I don’t think that mastering the combi will be one of them.
Voley
Short update on volleyball… we played Sunday and my team lost which sucked but it was a lot of fun. They play all the time (the women are actually playing right now as we speak) so I’ll definitely play again. I watched a couple times this week and hung out with the little girls who were watching too. They absolutely love talking to us and we played all kinds of games with them in English and Spanish because a lot of them have an interest in learning English. It’s so cute because whenever I’m walking through the town or on the playground they all say hello to me and come up and give me a hug and a kiss… I love the kids here!
Interviewing Random People
So PC language training is great! Immersion really helps and I understand a lot more and am increasing my vocabulary. With time, I know I’ll be able to speak pretty well. However, there is a joke among the PCTs about some of the activities we have to do to learn and I’ll share some of our experiences with you. The usual set up is we have class and learn about certain topics: false money, transportation, greetings, shopping, careers, etc. Then, inevitably, we go out in the community to put these skills to practice. Great, right!?! Every time we go anywhere in class we all know what’s coming. We’re going to have to go up to random people and talk to them about whatever we learned in class that day. So far I’ve had to go up to people enjoying an afternoon walk and ask them about where they’re from, what they do, and how old they are. I’ve asked policemen what the safe places of certain areas are and how to avoid becoming a victim to crime. I’ve talked to store owners about how long they’ve owned their shops and other volunteers have had to bargain with shoe salesmen knowing full well they weren’t going to buy anything. We’ve interviewed the owner of a hair shop and had to explain that no, we did not want any haircuts, but we are here at 10am to ask about your life. For one project, we had to find people to write out their entire daily schedule for us and to draw maps of our communities in order to see different perspectives people have of where they live. Try to explain to someone that no, I don’t need an official map of Yanacoto even though you are willing to give it to me. I need you to actually draw a map. FODA (SWOT analysis in Spanish) has been drilled into our heads and there have been countless victims who have had to bear our questioning about their communities’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. There are so many more examples of this! The problem is, when a group of gringos goes up to people here, they think we have something important to do even though we’re just trying to learn Spanish. Examples of this: we went to Chosica to practice bargaining with the people there at the market. Afterwards, we had time to kill so they sent us on a mission to talk to three people in Chosica about themselves, basic information like age, job, home town, etc. My group went up to what looked like an office building to see if anyone was there. Outside, there was a guy meandering around so we tried to talk to him and he told us to wait. He went into the church next door and got the priest of the parish to talk to us, give us a tour of the church (full history included) and the high school. We probably understood about half of what he said and I felt so awkward because we just wanted to know how long he had lived there! We went to the medical post in 3 de Octubre and got a tour of the whole center and had an hour long talk with the doctor who wanted to talk to us even though patients were waiting. All of these things are great opportunities and exactly what all of us hope to see at our sites, but it’s difficult when people don’t understand what we’re doing. I don’t know if I’ve been able to convey in this section though how hilarious we find it though. We have sat at meals literally crying laughing over the things we’ve talked to people about and what they must think about us.
Chosica, Lima, Miraflores
I’ve gotten a few chances to travel to places outside of Chaclacayo in the 2 weeks that I’ve been here. Chosica is a suburb of Lima just like Chaclacayo about 20 minutes from my house. It’s much bigger than Chaclacayo with a huge market on the weekends with fruit, vegetables, meat, spices, jewelry, rice, etc. Last Sunday when we went we got beads to make earrings because my hermanos and host mom know how to make them. Mario has made me a couple pairs and I’m going to be wearing the bright blue ones tomorrow. Like I said earlier, everyone went to Lima on this weekend and it was a lot of fun! We had to do the various activities that we always have to do when we’re practicing language, but we got to see a new city while we were doing it. We saw the city center, Chinatown (there’s one in every big city) and black market pet markets, among other things. The center is really pretty with beautiful Spanish architecture but it gets shabby in parts. It also, perhaps most notably, had a Dunkin Donuts which we took full advantage of. After a morning in Lima, we headed to Miraflores, a beautiful town on the coast for lunch and shopping. I saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time! It looks just like the Atlantic Ocean but was still pretty even though it was cloudy out. We ate at a Mexican restaurant and spent our entire week’s pay on one meal. No regrets.
Feliz Cumpleanos
I want to end this post with my favorite story of the week because I feel like I’ve been pretty critical today. I’m really enjoying myself here and moments like the one I’m about to tell you about make the combi rides and random awkward interviews worth it. Friday night was my host mom’s dad’s (aka grandpa to the boys/abuelo) birthday. His name is Charlie and he turned 67 and all of the family came over to celebrate. Birthdays here are really similar to what we do at home. There is cake, dancing, presents, and of course, drinks. There is one part of the night, however, that I think they do better than us. After we sang happy birthday (they sing the first verse in English and the second in Spanish) and before we cut the cake, every person there, including the youngest grandchildren, went around and said something special about their grandfather, wishing him a happy birthday. It went from oldest to youngest so Susana started (she’s the oldest of 6 kids). She actually started to tear up while she was talking and what she said was very heartfelt. They all thanked him for everything he’s done for the family, for his advice, for teaching them about themselves and the world, for his dedication to them. They expressed that they were thankful that they could all come together as a family to be with him on his birthday. They wished him a feliz cumpleanos and many more happy years. I was not exempt from speaking so I did my best to also say something meaningful (in broken Spanish) and I think I got the point across. I told him that even though I hadn’t been there for very long, I had really gotten to know his family. They are wonderful and caring people who have gone out of their way to make me feel welcome. I said they are living tributes to the way he raised his children and the way he lives his life. The point is that I really felt a part of the family and it was a great way to start off a night that would end up lasting until 3am even though we all had early mornings on Saturday.
I am continually surprised by these people’s acceptance of a stranger into their homes and lives. Picures will be coming soon, I only have a few more minutes left on the internet since I spent all of my money on Saturday, but get excited because they´re going to be good!
Hasta luego,
Steph
The Laundry Debacle
I just got back from Lima and Miraflores. All of the PCTs went into the city today for activities and just to hang out. I am exhausted and have just ridden a combi for an hour and a half. On my way up Los Laureles (the street leading into 3 de Octubre) I ran into mi mama, Mario, and mi papa. I was introduced to my host dad – he just got in town today and he works in another department (like states in Peru) 8 hours away – and my host mom told me she straightened my room and did my laundry. After many thanks and mucho gustos, I continued to the house and they continued to Chosica where I’m assuming they are having dinner. A little background information: Susana has done my laundry once before and only the laundry I’ve given her. In training they told us that we were to wash our own socks and underwear so I haven’t been giving those things to her. Instead, I’ve been putting them in my bottom drawer and have been planning to do them on my own. However, this week some of the girls had a great idea and actually got all of their panties and socks dry cleaned/washed at the lavanderia and it only cost them 5 soles so I decided that this would be my plan too (rough life, I know) and I would drop my things off on Monday. Not only would it save me the time of washing 2 weeks worth of underwear/socks, but it would also allow me to NOT have to hang up these things on the line to dry, which is key considering I’m living with 2 teenage boys. I bet you can see where this is going… I get home and ALL of my clothes in my bottom drawer are gone. So basically, right now all of my panties (and there are a lot trust me) are hanging outside on the roof.
The Combis
Okay so I’ve mentioned the combis several times now and they play an important role in my life in Peru so I thought I’d dedicate a whole section to them today. Every day we ride the combi (like a mini-bus) for about 10 to 15 minutes to get to the training center and back. Every day it is an adventure. Most days it is the worst part of my day. Peru does not have any “public” transportation, so to speak. The government privatized the industry so all transport is done through private companies. There are buses, taxis, mototaxis, and combis. I have never seen crazier driving in my life. The first week I was here I didn’t notice it because I was too busy making sure no one was stealing my stuff, but now that I’ve had a chance to actually sit down on one of these things and look out the window, I just don’t understand how I have not seen a car accident. No one pays attention to the lines on the road – even if they are double yellow lines. The drivers get as close as possible to the other cars, like 3 inches away, lay on their horns, hit the windows and tops of taxis to get people to move, and cut everyone off. In between all of this, people walk around on the road trying to sell fruit and chocolate. I hold my breath almost the entire ride. On top of this, there is a conductor type person who works the door and controls when people get on or off. Every time the combi stops he jumps out and starts shouting on the street for people to get on. We’re usually traveling during peak hours with about a million other people on the bus, going to and from class, and we usually have backpacks that we need to keep an eye on because we’re gringos and everyone is wondering what kind of expensive things we have. Add to that that it’s usually dark in the morning and night when we’re traveling so it’s hard to see the almost non-existent land marks we’ve gotten to know at our stop (Los Laureles). The name is difficult to say and not all of the conductors know about it. There have been several times that we’ve gotten off at the wrong place or gone too far and it is seriously frustrating. It was extra annoying on Monday when Christie and I missed the stop even though we told the conductor exactly where we wanted to go, then walked in the opposite direction of where we were supposed to because we didn’t know we missed it, then had to walk all the way back. I will learn many things during training in these 11 weeks. Unfortunately, I don’t think that mastering the combi will be one of them.
Voley
Short update on volleyball… we played Sunday and my team lost which sucked but it was a lot of fun. They play all the time (the women are actually playing right now as we speak) so I’ll definitely play again. I watched a couple times this week and hung out with the little girls who were watching too. They absolutely love talking to us and we played all kinds of games with them in English and Spanish because a lot of them have an interest in learning English. It’s so cute because whenever I’m walking through the town or on the playground they all say hello to me and come up and give me a hug and a kiss… I love the kids here!
Interviewing Random People
So PC language training is great! Immersion really helps and I understand a lot more and am increasing my vocabulary. With time, I know I’ll be able to speak pretty well. However, there is a joke among the PCTs about some of the activities we have to do to learn and I’ll share some of our experiences with you. The usual set up is we have class and learn about certain topics: false money, transportation, greetings, shopping, careers, etc. Then, inevitably, we go out in the community to put these skills to practice. Great, right!?! Every time we go anywhere in class we all know what’s coming. We’re going to have to go up to random people and talk to them about whatever we learned in class that day. So far I’ve had to go up to people enjoying an afternoon walk and ask them about where they’re from, what they do, and how old they are. I’ve asked policemen what the safe places of certain areas are and how to avoid becoming a victim to crime. I’ve talked to store owners about how long they’ve owned their shops and other volunteers have had to bargain with shoe salesmen knowing full well they weren’t going to buy anything. We’ve interviewed the owner of a hair shop and had to explain that no, we did not want any haircuts, but we are here at 10am to ask about your life. For one project, we had to find people to write out their entire daily schedule for us and to draw maps of our communities in order to see different perspectives people have of where they live. Try to explain to someone that no, I don’t need an official map of Yanacoto even though you are willing to give it to me. I need you to actually draw a map. FODA (SWOT analysis in Spanish) has been drilled into our heads and there have been countless victims who have had to bear our questioning about their communities’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. There are so many more examples of this! The problem is, when a group of gringos goes up to people here, they think we have something important to do even though we’re just trying to learn Spanish. Examples of this: we went to Chosica to practice bargaining with the people there at the market. Afterwards, we had time to kill so they sent us on a mission to talk to three people in Chosica about themselves, basic information like age, job, home town, etc. My group went up to what looked like an office building to see if anyone was there. Outside, there was a guy meandering around so we tried to talk to him and he told us to wait. He went into the church next door and got the priest of the parish to talk to us, give us a tour of the church (full history included) and the high school. We probably understood about half of what he said and I felt so awkward because we just wanted to know how long he had lived there! We went to the medical post in 3 de Octubre and got a tour of the whole center and had an hour long talk with the doctor who wanted to talk to us even though patients were waiting. All of these things are great opportunities and exactly what all of us hope to see at our sites, but it’s difficult when people don’t understand what we’re doing. I don’t know if I’ve been able to convey in this section though how hilarious we find it though. We have sat at meals literally crying laughing over the things we’ve talked to people about and what they must think about us.
Chosica, Lima, Miraflores
I’ve gotten a few chances to travel to places outside of Chaclacayo in the 2 weeks that I’ve been here. Chosica is a suburb of Lima just like Chaclacayo about 20 minutes from my house. It’s much bigger than Chaclacayo with a huge market on the weekends with fruit, vegetables, meat, spices, jewelry, rice, etc. Last Sunday when we went we got beads to make earrings because my hermanos and host mom know how to make them. Mario has made me a couple pairs and I’m going to be wearing the bright blue ones tomorrow. Like I said earlier, everyone went to Lima on this weekend and it was a lot of fun! We had to do the various activities that we always have to do when we’re practicing language, but we got to see a new city while we were doing it. We saw the city center, Chinatown (there’s one in every big city) and black market pet markets, among other things. The center is really pretty with beautiful Spanish architecture but it gets shabby in parts. It also, perhaps most notably, had a Dunkin Donuts which we took full advantage of. After a morning in Lima, we headed to Miraflores, a beautiful town on the coast for lunch and shopping. I saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time! It looks just like the Atlantic Ocean but was still pretty even though it was cloudy out. We ate at a Mexican restaurant and spent our entire week’s pay on one meal. No regrets.
Feliz Cumpleanos
I want to end this post with my favorite story of the week because I feel like I’ve been pretty critical today. I’m really enjoying myself here and moments like the one I’m about to tell you about make the combi rides and random awkward interviews worth it. Friday night was my host mom’s dad’s (aka grandpa to the boys/abuelo) birthday. His name is Charlie and he turned 67 and all of the family came over to celebrate. Birthdays here are really similar to what we do at home. There is cake, dancing, presents, and of course, drinks. There is one part of the night, however, that I think they do better than us. After we sang happy birthday (they sing the first verse in English and the second in Spanish) and before we cut the cake, every person there, including the youngest grandchildren, went around and said something special about their grandfather, wishing him a happy birthday. It went from oldest to youngest so Susana started (she’s the oldest of 6 kids). She actually started to tear up while she was talking and what she said was very heartfelt. They all thanked him for everything he’s done for the family, for his advice, for teaching them about themselves and the world, for his dedication to them. They expressed that they were thankful that they could all come together as a family to be with him on his birthday. They wished him a feliz cumpleanos and many more happy years. I was not exempt from speaking so I did my best to also say something meaningful (in broken Spanish) and I think I got the point across. I told him that even though I hadn’t been there for very long, I had really gotten to know his family. They are wonderful and caring people who have gone out of their way to make me feel welcome. I said they are living tributes to the way he raised his children and the way he lives his life. The point is that I really felt a part of the family and it was a great way to start off a night that would end up lasting until 3am even though we all had early mornings on Saturday.
I am continually surprised by these people’s acceptance of a stranger into their homes and lives. Picures will be coming soon, I only have a few more minutes left on the internet since I spent all of my money on Saturday, but get excited because they´re going to be good!
Hasta luego,
Steph
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Pictures as Promised
I´m sure there is a better way to do this, but until I figure it out, this is how I´m going to post pictures. These are just a few of all the ones I have - I´ll continue to post when I have time. Enjoy!
The soccer field and volleyball court in 3 de Octubre.
Playground of 3 de Octubre, our house in the background to the left.
A little dark, but my room.
Mis hermanos, Gabo y Cesar.
Our casa in 3 de Octubre. My window is the one right behind the bug.
Keenan, Christie, and me (all living in 3 de Octubre) in Huascaran.
The staff at the training center welcomed us when we arrived in Peru.
The soccer field and volleyball court in 3 de Octubre.
Playground of 3 de Octubre, our house in the background to the left.
A little dark, but my room.
Mis hermanos, Gabo y Cesar.
Our casa in 3 de Octubre. My window is the one right behind the bug.
Keenan, Christie, and me (all living in 3 de Octubre) in Huascaran.
The staff at the training center welcomed us when we arrived in Peru.
Vamos a Ver
I can’t believe that I’ve only been in Peru for a week! It seems like I’ve been here for at least a month. We’ve done so much and covered so much ground so far that it’s hard to find a good place to start. The past few days I’ve been going to classes from 8-5 then hanging out in my community. I’ve played several games of soccer with the kids and I absolutely suck but they still want me to play – I usually just end up chillin by the goal. I have also watched the women play a game of volleyball. They play 3 times a week and are actually really good! Their average height is probably 5’2” but they’re scrappy and I’m excited to play with them! One woman who plays is around 60 years old and is less than 5 feet tall. She wears sweaters with windbreakers with a knitted winter hat, and has a serious underhand serve - it is a sight to see. I also watched the Peruvian women’s national volleyball team play Cuba on TV (and lose), but it’s great to see so many volleyball fans around here! If there’s one way to connect with people, it’s sports. It’s so easy to play a game of something or to root for the same team and it’s really helped me get closer with the people here.
Wednesday we went with our language and culture groups to Huascata, another community where trainees are living and we had to go up to someone and start talking to them and asking them basic questions. I was so nervous about this because I thought it would be awkward, but it ended up being the highlight of the day. The guy we talked to was Renzo, a pharmaceutical salesman who had just as many questions for us as we did for him! I was so surprised by how nice open he was. If some random foreigner tried to stop me on the street in the U.S. and ask me questions about myself I would run in the other direction. People here are just different.
On Thursday we did not have training sessions because there were protests going on in Lima. There is a conflict going on in the north of Peru between the government and the indigenous people who live in the selva (Amazon). We weren’t supposed to use public transportation or anything all day so Keenan and Christie (the two other trainees living in my community) decided to walk to Huascaran, another town where PCTs (PC trainees) are living to hike. After about an hour long walk we hiked up one of the mountains/hills there to a shrine and took some awesome pictures. On one side of the hill was Huascaran, it doesn’t have paved roads and some of the houses definitely look like they are falling apart. On the other side there were houses with gated yards and pools, it was interesting to see these two different lifestyles in such close proximity.
My hermanos are doing really well, they are so much fun to hang out with. They love my camera and my computer (and the Swedish Fish that I brought) and are kind of like my translators when we go outside and talk to other people. They know what I can understand and how to explain things to me if I’m not getting something. Mario drew a picture for me that had two people on it holding hands (one of them with curly hair, the other one much smaller) and labeled it “tu eres estefani” and “yo soy Mario” – “you are estefani” and “I am Mario” with a heart – haha, so cute. They are helping my Spanish so much, and even if I can’t speak much better, I can understand so much more.
General Information:
My average shower time is 2 minutes. The water is freezing cold.
We are allotted 8 soles per day for spending money and our family is given 20 soles per day to cover expenses for us. That means about 28 soles per day is our living allowance during training. I’m living on less than $10 per day – impressive, I know.
I brought body lotion, face moisturizer, face cream, nail polish, body wash, 4 types of hair gels and sprays, and conditioner. I did not bring a water bottle.
The PC Training Center has a pool that we are not allowed to swim in. It’s for decoration only.
Toilet paper here does not go in the toilet, but in the trash can next to the toilet.
I’ve had two shots so far: typhoid fever and rabies. There are tons of stray dogs that wander around here, some of them are so cute! But I never touch them don’t worry!
What I wish I had brought:
An extra towel
Hair brush (I forgot it)
Water bottle
Map of the world to hang on my wall and also to show my family where Ohio and South Carolina are
Today (Saturday) all of the PCTs had to go out in Chaclacayo and interview people. We had to go to a hair salon and ask questions about the business and also find and observe an informal business. It was meant to get us out in the community like we´ll have to be for our sights, but it was kind of awkward haha. Nevertheless, we got it done and I´ve had the chance to be on the internet for a while catching up with emails and other people´s blogs and whatnot! I´m going to be playing in my first volleyball game tonight so I´m really excited about that and looking forward to the exercise. Thanks to everyone who has been sending emails! I love to hear about what´s going on at home!
Hasta luego,
Steph
Wednesday we went with our language and culture groups to Huascata, another community where trainees are living and we had to go up to someone and start talking to them and asking them basic questions. I was so nervous about this because I thought it would be awkward, but it ended up being the highlight of the day. The guy we talked to was Renzo, a pharmaceutical salesman who had just as many questions for us as we did for him! I was so surprised by how nice open he was. If some random foreigner tried to stop me on the street in the U.S. and ask me questions about myself I would run in the other direction. People here are just different.
On Thursday we did not have training sessions because there were protests going on in Lima. There is a conflict going on in the north of Peru between the government and the indigenous people who live in the selva (Amazon). We weren’t supposed to use public transportation or anything all day so Keenan and Christie (the two other trainees living in my community) decided to walk to Huascaran, another town where PCTs (PC trainees) are living to hike. After about an hour long walk we hiked up one of the mountains/hills there to a shrine and took some awesome pictures. On one side of the hill was Huascaran, it doesn’t have paved roads and some of the houses definitely look like they are falling apart. On the other side there were houses with gated yards and pools, it was interesting to see these two different lifestyles in such close proximity.
My hermanos are doing really well, they are so much fun to hang out with. They love my camera and my computer (and the Swedish Fish that I brought) and are kind of like my translators when we go outside and talk to other people. They know what I can understand and how to explain things to me if I’m not getting something. Mario drew a picture for me that had two people on it holding hands (one of them with curly hair, the other one much smaller) and labeled it “tu eres estefani” and “yo soy Mario” – “you are estefani” and “I am Mario” with a heart – haha, so cute. They are helping my Spanish so much, and even if I can’t speak much better, I can understand so much more.
General Information:
My average shower time is 2 minutes. The water is freezing cold.
We are allotted 8 soles per day for spending money and our family is given 20 soles per day to cover expenses for us. That means about 28 soles per day is our living allowance during training. I’m living on less than $10 per day – impressive, I know.
I brought body lotion, face moisturizer, face cream, nail polish, body wash, 4 types of hair gels and sprays, and conditioner. I did not bring a water bottle.
The PC Training Center has a pool that we are not allowed to swim in. It’s for decoration only.
Toilet paper here does not go in the toilet, but in the trash can next to the toilet.
I’ve had two shots so far: typhoid fever and rabies. There are tons of stray dogs that wander around here, some of them are so cute! But I never touch them don’t worry!
What I wish I had brought:
An extra towel
Hair brush (I forgot it)
Water bottle
Map of the world to hang on my wall and also to show my family where Ohio and South Carolina are
Today (Saturday) all of the PCTs had to go out in Chaclacayo and interview people. We had to go to a hair salon and ask questions about the business and also find and observe an informal business. It was meant to get us out in the community like we´ll have to be for our sights, but it was kind of awkward haha. Nevertheless, we got it done and I´ve had the chance to be on the internet for a while catching up with emails and other people´s blogs and whatnot! I´m going to be playing in my first volleyball game tonight so I´m really excited about that and looking forward to the exercise. Thanks to everyone who has been sending emails! I love to hear about what´s going on at home!
Hasta luego,
Steph
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Estoy Aqui!
Hey everyone!
Sorry it´s taken me so long to write, I haven´t had much time to get to the internet for more than a few minutes at a time. Today is Tuesday, our second day of training, and it´s around 5:30pm here in Chaclacayo, the region we´re staying in about an hour outside of Lima. Thursday we met in DC and went over basic information about Peace Corps and travelled all day on Friday. We flew first to Miami where there was some bad weather and we had to wait on our plane on the ground for about 4 hours before we could get off to catch our connecting flight to Lima. After a long ordeal, we arrived at our retreat center at around 3am on Saturday morning and started the retreat bright and early at 7:30. We basically did a lot of ice breakers and learned a lot about each other and Peace Corps. I´m not really going to go into much detail about this because the interesting things are what happen after the retreat. We went out to a nearby restaurant that night to celebrate the birthday of one of the other volunteers and got up early again to head to PC´s training center. The training center is awesome, it´s so nice, it´s like a resort here. We´re surrounded by hills (that look like mountains to me but apparently they´re not) and the weather during the day is beautiful even though it gets cold at night.
After lunch on Sunday I met my host family which was sooo nerve wrecking considering my Spanish is not so good. My host mom (Susana) came to pick me up with her youngest son Mario who is 8 years old. The grandfather had driven his car down to pick me up and when he was putting my things in the trunk said to Susana, ¨Un otro gringo¨ basically commenting that, like the 4 volunteers they hosted before me, I brought a ton of stuff. I also have 2 other hermanos (brothers) who are 15 (Gabo) and 14 (Cesar) and they´re adorable. Everyone gives kissed on the cheek whenever they greet each other and the boys are really outgoing and like to talk to me and ask me questions (even though I can´t really answer and they have to talk realllllly slow). I live in a town called Tres de Octubre, which means 3rd of October, with two other Trainees. I tried to ask why the town was named after a date, but they didn´t understand the question. The town is tiny and surrounds a park, it´s about twenty minutes from the training center. On Sunday afternoon we walked around the town and I talked with the family and unpacked. We´ve had several meals so far, most of them consisting of rice, chicken, and potatoes, but all of them good!
On Monday we had to be at the training center at 8am to start the week and in order to get there we had to take a combi which is basically like a small bus and a typical form of transportation here. This was extremely interesting haha - it´s so crowded and you have to jump on as soon as it slows down (they barely stop) and tell the person at the door where you´re going. He tried to charge us more (because we obviously didn´t know what we´re doing), but one of the Trainee´s host sister was with us and she told him that we weren´t going to pay any more. I went to training where we broke into technical groups (there are two of them: Small Business Development and Youth Development) to learn about what we´d be working on. It sounds really excitíng, I can´t wait for the field based training! After that we seriously had a two hour talk on diarhhea. Enough said.
We tried to catch the combi home, missed our stop, and had to go back the other way. We probably paid double what it actually cost, but we didn´t have anyone else there to help us! No worries though, we got home! In 3 de Octubre I watched the boys play soccer and tried to use the internet cafe which was apperently closed and hung out in the park before going inside. I got in at about 7:30 and the entire family (aunts, cousins, grandpa, and all) sat around talking for hours while eating dinner. They asked all about the U.S. and I told lots and lots of stories, probably about some of you haha, especially comparing my brothers at home to my hermanos here haha - don´t worry Andrew and Craig, all good things! Went to bed at around 10:30 for another early morning.
Today we successfully used the combi for the first time and it was AWESOME!! My Spanish is getting better and I´m definitely understanding a lot more. Or maybe the people who are talking to me are just making it easier by speaking slower with more basic vocabulary, I don´t know! I´m not missing home yet, but I wish I had more time to talk to you all about what it´s like here! Hopefully I´ll be able to get into more of the culture that I´ve witnessed the next time I post, I just wanted to give you all an update about what´s been going on. Don´t forget to email, I´ll post pictures soon, and maybe even videos since Cesar taught me how to take videos with my camera haha.
Peace,
Steph
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