i never know what´s going on. i´m sure i agree to things that i really had no intent to agree to. the language is killing me, but i actually really feel like i´m getting better. until someone else says something at lightning speed and i don´t catch it.
well, i´m finally here at site and i am happy to inform all of you that the past week has gone really smoothly. i´ve had all good days. bad moments, yes, but good days. and that´s really all you can ask for. (also, excuse the fact that i´m not typing with capital letters, for some reason the caps on this computer only works for some letters).
so this has been my daily schedule on weekdays so far. i wake up at around 7:30 when the loudspeaker in town starts to make announcements and the people come to work on the house. i actually get out of bed around 8 and go for a run, i come back and shower and am downstairs in the restaurant to eat by 10am. i go and get the paper and start to read/translate the words i don´t know while i eat breakfast. at around 11:30 i finally leave the restaurant and walk over to the municipality where i continue to read something. it´s either the newspaper or one of the millions of documents Brett left me for my diagnostic. i go back to the restaurant around 1 or 2 to eat lunch and then my days become different. last week on wednesday and thursday, i went with some of the artisans to a workshop in Catacaos (the artisan capital of the region) put on by the european union. it was interesting and i think i´ll be able to use some of the more basic stuff with them. the workshop was from 4 to 9 at night and each day we arrived at 5 and left at 7 haha. the truck from the municipality brought us and i definitely rode on the back of the truck on the way home one night. hace friiiiiiiiio. anyway, we were actually there on time on thursday but we decided to take an hour to walk around the town and arrived in proper peruvian fashion an hour late. this is called la hora peruana. and i was so glad to look around at some of the incredible artisan products there!
when i wake up in the morning, i never know what i´m going to get myself into that day. for example, on sunday when i went to my first actual soccer game here, i did not expect to be whistled at by literally the entire stadium when i left. probably about 200 people or more. i was the only non peruvian person there and people were definitely starting to feel the cerveza. awkward. today, when i woke up, i did not expect to be a distiguished guest at the inauguration of two new classrooms at the primary school. but there i was, helping the mayor crack open a bottle of champagne over the classroom door and sprinkling holy water on the walls. only an hour later a 70 year old man was giving me purple corn out in the farms to make a peruvian drink called chicha morada.
suffice it to say that it´s been interesting. in other news, i have already lost my debit card.
i´ll post pics soon. i have only 2 more minutes before my time runs out!
Saludos!
Monday, August 31, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Ahora o Nunca
Hey everyone! I'm sitting in the hostel here in Piura city taking advantage of the free wireless. So much has happened since my last post and there is no way that I can record all of it. For one, I'm now officially a volunteer! We swore in on Friday the 21st of August. I also now have a cell phone! And I'm moving to my site tomorrow, the reason I came here in the first place and I have to say I'm more than a little anxious about it. Here are some pictures of what I've been up to lately.
Evan, Paul, Justin and Keenan aka PC security met us on Monday morning after site visits. Needless to say Christie and I were late.
Taco Tuesday in Yanacoto. I think I speak for everyone when I say it was probably the best meal we've had in Peru. Thanks Kit!
Outside Keith's house.
The group with Keith's fam.
Tres de Octubre. Miss you guys already!
Resource fair in Lima at the Surco office. This day we went to the main office to learn about the different services it provides to volunteers.
Afterwords all of the business volunteers went to Alfredo's house to celebrate. Alfredo is our APCD, in charge of the business program. This is a group of some of us before a delicious meal of Papa John's pizza. Delivered.
Kim, Keith, me, Jessica, and Keenan in Yanacoto otra vez to celebrate Lisa's host mom's birthday.
Lisa and her mom singing Karaoke. So cute! Right before the Peruvian dance circle that I was a part of for a couple hours. At this point I was so glad that my family had prepared me for celebrations like birthdays. I knew exactly what to do and I didn't feel out of place at all! This was definitely one of my favorite nights.
Gabo y Raulito sporting my sunglasses and playing on my computer in my room. Completely normal. Cesar is putting the mask in the picture and Raul didn't realize it until he looked at the pic on my camera and started crying because he's deathly afraid of that mask.
Evan, Paul, Justin and Keenan aka PC security met us on Monday morning after site visits. Needless to say Christie and I were late.
Taco Tuesday in Yanacoto. I think I speak for everyone when I say it was probably the best meal we've had in Peru. Thanks Kit!
Outside Keith's house.
The group with Keith's fam.
Tres de Octubre. Miss you guys already!
Resource fair in Lima at the Surco office. This day we went to the main office to learn about the different services it provides to volunteers.
Afterwords all of the business volunteers went to Alfredo's house to celebrate. Alfredo is our APCD, in charge of the business program. This is a group of some of us before a delicious meal of Papa John's pizza. Delivered.
Kim, Keith, me, Jessica, and Keenan in Yanacoto otra vez to celebrate Lisa's host mom's birthday.
Lisa and her mom singing Karaoke. So cute! Right before the Peruvian dance circle that I was a part of for a couple hours. At this point I was so glad that my family had prepared me for celebrations like birthdays. I knew exactly what to do and I didn't feel out of place at all! This was definitely one of my favorite nights.
Gabo y Raulito sporting my sunglasses and playing on my computer in my room. Completely normal. Cesar is putting the mask in the picture and Raul didn't realize it until he looked at the pic on my camera and started crying because he's deathly afraid of that mask.
Under Construction
Last week I went to a concert with my host family. The group is called Los Hermanos Yaipen and I'm probably obsessed with them now. I knew most of the songs from our other celebrations but I had so much fun seeing them live. The music they play is called Cumbia and it's really popular here in Peru. A lot of the trainees went and I said hi to all of them, but hung out mostly with the fam which was a good call. It was a great experience and we had a lot of fun. Yaipen is basically like a boy band here and it was hilarious to see how my aunts acted! Also, the group never took a break but had one of them basically DJ the breaks so there was never any down time and people were excited and dancing the entire concert.
Elena y Joana.
The fam. Sandi, Eli, Elvis, Susana, Elena, Joana. I miss them!
Tias with one of the Hermanos!
Elena y Joana.
The fam. Sandi, Eli, Elvis, Susana, Elena, Joana. I miss them!
Tias with one of the Hermanos!
The family at the party we had for our host families on Thursday. When Peruvians go to parties with food everyone piles as much as they can on their plates. We did not know this and were seriously unprepared. It was a lot of fun though and we performed Thriller for the families and they loved it. I'm going to try to put up a video on my blog but we'll see when I get around to it. I've heard it's going up on YouTube though so keep an eye out. It's pretty hilarious. It was actually really sad to leave my family and go to a new one. They had a despedida for me on Thursday and my little brother Mario and cousins Marcio, Raul and Andres danced to Michael Jackson for me since they loved the Thriller performance. They all went around and said some really nice things about how their doors will always be open and I gave a little speech on how much I appreciated them bringing me into their family. They gave me a sweater and stuffed animal (from cousin Raulito) and I made a picture album for the family and gave them all the pictures I have of them (which is a lot). The next day my mom also gave me some BLING that she made for me to wear at swearing in. Stay posted for the pics. The jewelry really made the outfit. Leaving was really sad and both my family and I cried (surprise I know). Then I was ready to go and we were on the bus driving to Lima and who pulls up aside the bus honking, but my family. Anyway though, we got to Lima and had quite a fun night out with lots of crazy funny things happening, none of which I'm going to post on here though. And now I'm in Piura, getting ready to move tomorrow morning. I will make another post soon with my new address and hopefully some pictures of swearing in. Hope everyone is doing well! Call me!
Monday, August 10, 2009
Site Visit: Piura
I just got back from site and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by my visit. I had such a mix of emotions going into it – I’m just starting to get comfortable in Chaclacayo and now I have to start all over again – this time for real. I have learned a lot from my experience with my first host family and I have corrected a lot of my mistakes, but if I make a mistake with this new family, I don’t get a do-over. It’s a lot of pressure considering I’ll be living in the same small town for two years! So far, training has been a lot like summer camp or study abroad. There is a set schedule for you and all of your time is blocked out. There are activities and classes every day and sometimes we even go on field trips! All of the host families during training are briefed before we arrive and most of them have hosted volunteers in the past. In my case, my family has had 4 before me. They definitely know what they’re getting themselves into. What I noticed on my site visit is that there will be a shift in the roles we play as volunteers compared to trainees. During training, we are looked after and cared for. Our families know not to give us water, that we don’t have the swine flu, and that our Spanish might not be perfect. They give us advice on where to go, how to get there, and tell us how it was done before us. We take little steps during training. At site, we are suddenly professionals who are there to save the community. There is no more babying and people can lose patience when we can’t communicate. They don’t understand that in our culture people need personal space and alone time. These are only the beginning challenges. It was a wake up call to be suddenly put in a situation where people take my experience seriously and don’t just think I’m a silly American. But it was a refreshing wake up call and I actually am very excited to start the transition to my new life.
We arrived to Piura city on Monday morning after a 14 hour bus ride and had some time to explore. Piura, the city (the department is the American equivalent of state and Piura is also the name of its capital city), has a population of over 500,000 people so it’s very busy with pretty much all the comforts of home. We met some of the current volunteers who wasted no time in showing us around and introducing us to all of their friends. It seems like the group in Piura is really close and laid back which is nice. I like Piura better than Lima because it’s cleaner and less congested, plus I can get around so much easier. There are some cute places to eat and a few parks/plazas to hang out in. The hotel all the volunteers stay at when they come in is nice (with hot water, wireless, and a huge collection of books and movies of previous volunteers for us to enjoy). On Tuesday we had a counterpart day and our Peruvian socio-comunitarios came into the city to have a day of introductions to Peace Corps. My socio-comunitario intimidated me so much at first, he was all business and asked me right off the bat what I could do for him. His name is Manuel Lazo and I would guess that he’s about 60 years old? That could be way off though. He works for the municipalidad in my town and he also brought the president of one of the artisan groups that I’ll be working with. Throughout the week I came to realize how great and dedicated to his work he is. Working with him is one of the things I’m most excited about.
After the training day, I went to my site (about 40 minutes from the city) with this president (who is 8 months pregnant) to meet my host family. We got there at about 6 in the afternoon and the restaurant that my family owns was empty. I sat down with my new host mom, Rosaura Bolo and her 18 year old son Dixon and we got to know each other a little bit. She also has a daughter who is 22 but lives a couple hours from Lima and is never home. The house is really nice and new and is located on top of the restaurant. My host mom seemed so nervous that I wouldn’t like something so I tried to put her mind at ease. My room wasn’t finished yet so they’ll be putting a window and door in it by the time I return. Both would have been helpful the next morning when grandma and cousin walked past my room while I was changing and topless, but whatever. Like my family here in Lima, the extended family is huge at my site. I have already met a ton of them but have no idea how they are related or even what their names are. My site is about 70% fisherman and 20% farmers. There are rice fields nearby and chacras surrounding the community in the desert. During summer months, December-March, it can reach 120 degrees and the mosquitoes just chill on the sitting water of the rice fields before attacking at night. Want to come visit?
The next morning I had my meeting with the municipality where I addressed the mayor, governor, regidores, and todos presente. There is a hierarchy that you have to go through and acknowledge before you begin speaking. I was really nervous about this too considering I can’t speak, but luckily my site mate (Brett, an environment volunteer who has been there for 21 months so far) helped me write down the speech beforehand. It went really well and I continued to meet even more people who work in the municipality. I definitely got an overload of information over the next few days and I have no idea if I’m going to be able to get it all straight in the next two years. Brett knows everyone in the town and who they are and how they’re related. He’s been a great resource and a huge help and I’m really happy he’s going to be there for the first couple months while I’m trying to figure things out. He’s already pointed out so many things I need to be aware of that I never would have thought about.
So I finally know more about my job and what I’ll actually be working on for the next couple years! This has been a long time coming, so for those of you who continue to ask what I’m going to do, this paragraph is for you. I’m going to be working with four artisan groups to transform my site into the artisan capital of the province. Well, that’s the ultimate goal, but vamos a ver. One of the groups is located in my site, the district capital, while the others are in casarillos about 5 minutes away on a bike (I’m getting the bike of the volunteer I’m replacing). I met with all four groups over the course of my stay (and ate a different plate of food every time) and learned a little bit about their products. For the most part, they do weavings like table runners, belts for fishermen, backpacks, hair wraps, and embroidery for purses, etc. Some of the groups also work with sea shells and create sculptures with them. The first step in the process is going to be to think about who is actually going to buy the product. The groups are anywhere from 5-30 members, all women, and they vary in skill and organization. They sell their products mainly in local fairs and they all “need a market”. The women all see the advantage the extra income could bring to their families and my first impression was that the majority are ready and willing to get to know me and work. We all had a great time laughing at my attempts to make the “rr” sound and at my demonstration of the 3 slang words that I know in Spanish. I’m very lucky in that the ground floor has been laid for my work, but I get to do the rest and hopefully see results. I’ll be giving charlas and working with them on product selection and quality control. I hope to get all the groups going to more fairs and maybe even start a monthly fair at my site. Marketing will also be huge once we get a better idea of the products and customers and also a permanent venue for selling their products. I also know I’ll be teaching some English classes, playing volleyball with kids and women (giving lessons?), working on a project called PromoLibro where you can get books donated to the local library, and organizing at least one ALMA and VALOR (camps put on regionally by PCVs for young people). Besides that, I’ll be reading and exercising a lot, visiting the beach, studying Spanish, and travelling. At least that’s how I see my life. We all know that I’m going to be completely wrong.
On Friday we went to Sechura, the provincial capital, to take a look around since it’s only 30 minutes or so away. We went into the church there and got a tour. It was built in 1760 by the Spanish and actually has an underground tunnel that leads to the sea. The Spaniards would “donate gold to the church” and slip it through the passageway to the boats that were waiting to ship it to Spain. We also got to spend about an hour of the beautiful day on the roof of the building with great views of the desert, town, and ocean. Afterwards we went to a great little restaurant where I tried ceviche for the second time and loved it. Ceviche is a Peruvian specialty of raw fish that is actually cooked in lime juice. It tastes a lot better than it sounds trust me. There’s going to be a lot of seafood at my site which I’m really excited about – but I seriously have to acostumbrar to avoiding the bones… yikes.
Our site visits ended on Saturday in Piura. After I successfully got back to the city myself without looking stupid, we had meetings and shared stories. The Peru 9 group is on its way out so I bought a comforter and pillow from one of the girls who is leaving. It was definitely surreal to see them all getting their preparations in order after two years in Peru. They had definitely formed bonds and friendships with each other and the Peruvians they worked and lived with. They had a lot of advice to pass on and I know we were all grateful for it. We learned about the best karaoke and dessert places, the dating cycle all the girls go through, how to stay cool when it’s impossible, how much to pay for cabs, and who to go to when we need a haircut or dance lessons. Two years just seems so far away. I don’t think I’ll ever know as much as they do.
I was so excited to get back to Chaclacayo where I am now a combi pro and can get wherever I want relatively easily. I walked into my house to find my little brothers playing the card games “Spit” and “Spoons” that I taught them. I really wanted to teach them Euchre but that’s basically impossible to do in English and takes a lot of practice, let alone in Spanish. I gave my host mom the Natillas (like chocolate/caramel dip from Piura) that I brought back for them and we looked at pictures and talked about my trip. We ended the night practicing tongue twisters in both English and Spanish. Here’s my favorite Spanish one that I’m trying to memorize to take to site with me:
Paco peco
Chico rico
Le gritaba
Como loco
A su tio
Federico
Y este dije
Poco a poco
Paco peco
Poco pico
I tried to get them to say “How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood” and cried laughing at their attempts. Basically none of those sounds exist in Spanish. It felt so good to turn the tables!
We arrived to Piura city on Monday morning after a 14 hour bus ride and had some time to explore. Piura, the city (the department is the American equivalent of state and Piura is also the name of its capital city), has a population of over 500,000 people so it’s very busy with pretty much all the comforts of home. We met some of the current volunteers who wasted no time in showing us around and introducing us to all of their friends. It seems like the group in Piura is really close and laid back which is nice. I like Piura better than Lima because it’s cleaner and less congested, plus I can get around so much easier. There are some cute places to eat and a few parks/plazas to hang out in. The hotel all the volunteers stay at when they come in is nice (with hot water, wireless, and a huge collection of books and movies of previous volunteers for us to enjoy). On Tuesday we had a counterpart day and our Peruvian socio-comunitarios came into the city to have a day of introductions to Peace Corps. My socio-comunitario intimidated me so much at first, he was all business and asked me right off the bat what I could do for him. His name is Manuel Lazo and I would guess that he’s about 60 years old? That could be way off though. He works for the municipalidad in my town and he also brought the president of one of the artisan groups that I’ll be working with. Throughout the week I came to realize how great and dedicated to his work he is. Working with him is one of the things I’m most excited about.
After the training day, I went to my site (about 40 minutes from the city) with this president (who is 8 months pregnant) to meet my host family. We got there at about 6 in the afternoon and the restaurant that my family owns was empty. I sat down with my new host mom, Rosaura Bolo and her 18 year old son Dixon and we got to know each other a little bit. She also has a daughter who is 22 but lives a couple hours from Lima and is never home. The house is really nice and new and is located on top of the restaurant. My host mom seemed so nervous that I wouldn’t like something so I tried to put her mind at ease. My room wasn’t finished yet so they’ll be putting a window and door in it by the time I return. Both would have been helpful the next morning when grandma and cousin walked past my room while I was changing and topless, but whatever. Like my family here in Lima, the extended family is huge at my site. I have already met a ton of them but have no idea how they are related or even what their names are. My site is about 70% fisherman and 20% farmers. There are rice fields nearby and chacras surrounding the community in the desert. During summer months, December-March, it can reach 120 degrees and the mosquitoes just chill on the sitting water of the rice fields before attacking at night. Want to come visit?
The next morning I had my meeting with the municipality where I addressed the mayor, governor, regidores, and todos presente. There is a hierarchy that you have to go through and acknowledge before you begin speaking. I was really nervous about this too considering I can’t speak, but luckily my site mate (Brett, an environment volunteer who has been there for 21 months so far) helped me write down the speech beforehand. It went really well and I continued to meet even more people who work in the municipality. I definitely got an overload of information over the next few days and I have no idea if I’m going to be able to get it all straight in the next two years. Brett knows everyone in the town and who they are and how they’re related. He’s been a great resource and a huge help and I’m really happy he’s going to be there for the first couple months while I’m trying to figure things out. He’s already pointed out so many things I need to be aware of that I never would have thought about.
So I finally know more about my job and what I’ll actually be working on for the next couple years! This has been a long time coming, so for those of you who continue to ask what I’m going to do, this paragraph is for you. I’m going to be working with four artisan groups to transform my site into the artisan capital of the province. Well, that’s the ultimate goal, but vamos a ver. One of the groups is located in my site, the district capital, while the others are in casarillos about 5 minutes away on a bike (I’m getting the bike of the volunteer I’m replacing). I met with all four groups over the course of my stay (and ate a different plate of food every time) and learned a little bit about their products. For the most part, they do weavings like table runners, belts for fishermen, backpacks, hair wraps, and embroidery for purses, etc. Some of the groups also work with sea shells and create sculptures with them. The first step in the process is going to be to think about who is actually going to buy the product. The groups are anywhere from 5-30 members, all women, and they vary in skill and organization. They sell their products mainly in local fairs and they all “need a market”. The women all see the advantage the extra income could bring to their families and my first impression was that the majority are ready and willing to get to know me and work. We all had a great time laughing at my attempts to make the “rr” sound and at my demonstration of the 3 slang words that I know in Spanish. I’m very lucky in that the ground floor has been laid for my work, but I get to do the rest and hopefully see results. I’ll be giving charlas and working with them on product selection and quality control. I hope to get all the groups going to more fairs and maybe even start a monthly fair at my site. Marketing will also be huge once we get a better idea of the products and customers and also a permanent venue for selling their products. I also know I’ll be teaching some English classes, playing volleyball with kids and women (giving lessons?), working on a project called PromoLibro where you can get books donated to the local library, and organizing at least one ALMA and VALOR (camps put on regionally by PCVs for young people). Besides that, I’ll be reading and exercising a lot, visiting the beach, studying Spanish, and travelling. At least that’s how I see my life. We all know that I’m going to be completely wrong.
On Friday we went to Sechura, the provincial capital, to take a look around since it’s only 30 minutes or so away. We went into the church there and got a tour. It was built in 1760 by the Spanish and actually has an underground tunnel that leads to the sea. The Spaniards would “donate gold to the church” and slip it through the passageway to the boats that were waiting to ship it to Spain. We also got to spend about an hour of the beautiful day on the roof of the building with great views of the desert, town, and ocean. Afterwards we went to a great little restaurant where I tried ceviche for the second time and loved it. Ceviche is a Peruvian specialty of raw fish that is actually cooked in lime juice. It tastes a lot better than it sounds trust me. There’s going to be a lot of seafood at my site which I’m really excited about – but I seriously have to acostumbrar to avoiding the bones… yikes.
Our site visits ended on Saturday in Piura. After I successfully got back to the city myself without looking stupid, we had meetings and shared stories. The Peru 9 group is on its way out so I bought a comforter and pillow from one of the girls who is leaving. It was definitely surreal to see them all getting their preparations in order after two years in Peru. They had definitely formed bonds and friendships with each other and the Peruvians they worked and lived with. They had a lot of advice to pass on and I know we were all grateful for it. We learned about the best karaoke and dessert places, the dating cycle all the girls go through, how to stay cool when it’s impossible, how much to pay for cabs, and who to go to when we need a haircut or dance lessons. Two years just seems so far away. I don’t think I’ll ever know as much as they do.
I was so excited to get back to Chaclacayo where I am now a combi pro and can get wherever I want relatively easily. I walked into my house to find my little brothers playing the card games “Spit” and “Spoons” that I taught them. I really wanted to teach them Euchre but that’s basically impossible to do in English and takes a lot of practice, let alone in Spanish. I gave my host mom the Natillas (like chocolate/caramel dip from Piura) that I brought back for them and we looked at pictures and talked about my trip. We ended the night practicing tongue twisters in both English and Spanish. Here’s my favorite Spanish one that I’m trying to memorize to take to site with me:
Paco peco
Chico rico
Le gritaba
Como loco
A su tio
Federico
Y este dije
Poco a poco
Paco peco
Poco pico
I tried to get them to say “How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood” and cried laughing at their attempts. Basically none of those sounds exist in Spanish. It felt so good to turn the tables!
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Post with Pictures
Just a quick update with some pictures...
Business Development Trainees on our way to visit a fish farm in Santa Eulalia (about an hour or so from the training center). We talked about business and tourism strategies with the owners and some people caught their own fish for dinner that night.
Siobhan, me, Kim and Jessica before learning our site assignments.
We had to fish the paper boats out of the pool and unroll a piece of paper under our names that had the name of our department on it.
The moment I found out I was going to Piura!
The map that shows where all of Peru 13 will be. I´m going to have lots of places to visit!
A group of us out celebrating our assignments: Keenan, Kim, Jessica, Keith, me, Christie, Susan, Siobhan.
Katie and Siobhan demonstrate just another challenge of being a tall person in Peru.
We sang some karaoke at dinner really loud and terribly. After a particularly intense song (most likely ¨Hey Jude¨) Kim announced on the microphone, ¨That was really good yall just don´t know because it was in English.¨ No one in the restaurant turned around in response to her comment and this remains my favorite quote of training so far. Afterwards, we went to Franny´s house before heading back out to Chosica.
A few of us outside of the Artesan Fair we went to in Barranco in Lima.
After the fair, we decided to walk around a little bit in the area and get some lunch. We went to a Pollo a la Braza restaurant, but before that, we stopped at the grocery store to buy the ingredients for mamosas. We then proceeded to make our own mamosas at the restaurant with our own champagne and orange juice. We were, however, charged an opening fee for the bottles of champagne.
Cesar (standing in the middle) turned 14 and the family came over to celebrate. We´re singing happy birthday in this picture. This is after the older boys taught their two year old cousin Andres how to say a reallllly bad word in Spanish and he was yelling it at the top of his lungs. He was definitely their entertainment for tonight. Andres also has a dance to ¨Beat it¨and whenever anyone starts to sing it he gets up on his tip toes in his best Michael Jackson impression.
My mom and during one night of the holiday. We were outside on the roof making some kind of soup that takes 3 hours to cook over an open fire.
Me with Abuelo Charlie, Tia Elena, and Primo Marcio.
Some of us at Russ and Jean´s house celebrating Katie Alta´s birthday (she´s in the middle making a ridiculous face). We have a short Katie trainee who we call Katie Baja (short in Spanish) and we have a tall Katie, hence, Katie Alta.
Jessica looked beautiful and clean on Friday night.
Frank, me, and the birthday girl before karaoke and dancing began.
Peruvians can dance better. But we did try (unsuccessfully).
Then we went farming the next day and made some compost at La Agraria. We received certificates so now I am a certified agricultural specialist.
Business Development Trainees on our way to visit a fish farm in Santa Eulalia (about an hour or so from the training center). We talked about business and tourism strategies with the owners and some people caught their own fish for dinner that night.
Siobhan, me, Kim and Jessica before learning our site assignments.
We had to fish the paper boats out of the pool and unroll a piece of paper under our names that had the name of our department on it.
The moment I found out I was going to Piura!
The map that shows where all of Peru 13 will be. I´m going to have lots of places to visit!
A group of us out celebrating our assignments: Keenan, Kim, Jessica, Keith, me, Christie, Susan, Siobhan.
Katie and Siobhan demonstrate just another challenge of being a tall person in Peru.
We sang some karaoke at dinner really loud and terribly. After a particularly intense song (most likely ¨Hey Jude¨) Kim announced on the microphone, ¨That was really good yall just don´t know because it was in English.¨ No one in the restaurant turned around in response to her comment and this remains my favorite quote of training so far. Afterwards, we went to Franny´s house before heading back out to Chosica.
Katie, me, Franny, Kim, Jessica, Siobhan, Alayna.
A few of us outside of the Artesan Fair we went to in Barranco in Lima.
After the fair, we decided to walk around a little bit in the area and get some lunch. We went to a Pollo a la Braza restaurant, but before that, we stopped at the grocery store to buy the ingredients for mamosas. We then proceeded to make our own mamosas at the restaurant with our own champagne and orange juice. We were, however, charged an opening fee for the bottles of champagne.
Cesar (standing in the middle) turned 14 and the family came over to celebrate. We´re singing happy birthday in this picture. This is after the older boys taught their two year old cousin Andres how to say a reallllly bad word in Spanish and he was yelling it at the top of his lungs. He was definitely their entertainment for tonight. Andres also has a dance to ¨Beat it¨and whenever anyone starts to sing it he gets up on his tip toes in his best Michael Jackson impression.
My mom and during one night of the holiday. We were outside on the roof making some kind of soup that takes 3 hours to cook over an open fire.
Me with Abuelo Charlie, Tia Elena, and Primo Marcio.
Some of us at Russ and Jean´s house celebrating Katie Alta´s birthday (she´s in the middle making a ridiculous face). We have a short Katie trainee who we call Katie Baja (short in Spanish) and we have a tall Katie, hence, Katie Alta.
Jessica looked beautiful and clean on Friday night.
Frank, me, and the birthday girl before karaoke and dancing began.
Peruvians can dance better. But we did try (unsuccessfully).
Then we went farming the next day and made some compost at La Agraria. We received certificates so now I am a certified agricultural specialist.
That´s all for now, I hope you enjoyed the pictures! I´m off to Piura this afternoon for site visit and will post more when I get back. Chau!
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