A Peruvian Peacecordian

Metaphors

2011-11-03T10:20:00.000-07:00

Buenas!

Peace Corps... in colloquial terms... is one hell of a ride. Yes, I realize that I would be growing and changing and becoming more mature no matter where in the world I would have been or what type of trabajo I would have been doing, but there is something about living in this country, constantly fighting cultural battles, coming to terms with my own American-ness, the ups and downs of language acquisition, seeing poverty face on (and living there but still feeling separated from it somehow), and being violently ill frequently that when combined has made my mental health... well, go nuts. I know what lowest of the lows and highest of the highs means now. I had an idea before but now I've LIVED it. It's every moment: the "I've want to QUIT RIGHT NOW" times and the "I feel so connected to this community and everybody in my town loves me" times. The extremes are so extreme. This journey has turned every easy going stable even keeled peace corps volunteer I know into a bawling euphoric crazy person mess. En serio. Why, just this past week I was elated and excited about Halloween and newbies coming, felt awesome and competent at teaching geography/Mapamundi in INABIF, then felt like the worst teacher in the world as the kids in Antipayan chewed me up and spit me out for two hours and then two days later I cried my EYES out for no good reason for two hours. No joke. There was really no reason for it. I'm officially crazy. As I always so eloquently put it two hours before ending any hike or any endurance adventure: "I'm DONE!". Peace out. Completely checked out of the building. Done.

It doesn't matter if you've already been here for two and a half years. It doesn't make it any easier and you never know when feelings will strike.

With that said, I feel like, this year I have taken epic trips which serve as appropriate metaphors (NOT smilies... there's no "like" about it) for my time here in Peace Corps. The best metaphor? The climb to the summit of Ishinca Mountain. Let me explain:

Never in my life did I think I would even THINK about climbing a mountain. Ice? Snow? Pick axes? That's the stuff of The Weekly Reader, my friend. What I read back in 2nd grade from the safety of my desk on the coast of California in elementary school. But alas, when you date a mountain guide and you live in the Andes and everybody else is doing it... well... it all the sudden becomes feasible in your mind (I already explained I'm going crazy). So, Raul took Christie and I over Fiestas Patrias to climb the "easiest" of these montañas... Ishinca. The three hour only slight up hill walk to base camp wasn't so bad so I was feeling pretty good about the whole thing. We went to bed by 6 pm anyway, ready to wake up at 1 a.m. to start the trek.

Base Camp "I could walk on snow all day!"

After sometime you feel yourself get into a rhythm. I liked walking through the night, not being able to see anything ahead, only your current footstep mattered and once I started keeping a steady slow pace things were ok. Once we were close to the ice I have never felt that COLD. HOMBRE. It sliced right through the 3 pairs of pants I was wearing (SNOW pants mind you) and it was starting to get steeper. When we reached the ice, out came the crampons (the spikey things you attach to your shoes to be able to walk on snow). I was very nervous and did not believe those spike shoes would prevent me from falling. But, hey! Those things DO work, who'd of known? And when we got onto the ice I felt SO elated! I could walk on snow ALL DAY LONG! (I'm pretty sure I shouted that out loud). I felt secure and pretty strong and WOOT. The top didn't look all THAT far away!

Spike Shoes and Pretty Views

Cut to 3 1/2 hours later... Tired.... leg muscles shaking... confidence lacking.... nerves setting in... the summit was still a ways a way and it looked like we had to climb two ice walls in order to get there. That's when I sat on the ground and literally was ready to call it a day. I wouldn't have gone up there. Would have been just content enough with the beautiful view to say "DONE!" if it wasn't for the fact that Christie was also tied to my rope and really wanted to get to the top (we were very close after all). So. I just had to keep going. There was no where else to go but up (you getting the metaphor now?).

I call this one: I'm DONE!

Cut to the very last bit. Climbing (or scrambling and crying in my case) up the snow wall to the top. Halfway up my nerves were so gone that I just stood, shaking, tears pouring out of me, screaming like a small child, could not. would not. continue. Just leave me here. pitiful. I just apparently had to get it all out of me for a good 5 minutes and then I just kept going until we made it. It felt so rewarding (although I was still shaken) to be there and to have done it. 9 hours of uphill paid off- but it wasn't done yet. There's always still the bajada (going down) and Raul wanted to go down the other side of the mountain which meant we had to be lowered down with a rope, over a crevasse and then jump backwards. Oy. I was done. No mas. I was so ready to just live on the top of Ishinca for the rest of my life. But I was forced into moving and seriously.. there is nothing like the feeling of sweet sweet relief. So much so, that that feeling stayed with me for basically the rest of the way down the snow. SO happy to be alive! How beautiful is this earth! Etc. Etc. :)

The summit!

Then we reached the gravely rocks. Frustration sets in, I'm definitely not a mountain goat when it comes to going downhill. So I decided to get creative in order to solve the problem and get down faster. I literally slid on my butt for a good 15 minutes (those poor pants.. so many holes) but I did get down faster! It was effective! I don't care what Raul says. For the last hour or so we literally ran (it wasn't so steep). The end was in site, the weather good, the trail not too slippery... and we BOOKED it! The whole experience felt like a WONDERFUL way to cap off my two years in Shilla. It WAS my two years in Shilla.. just in... a 13 hours span instead of 27 months. I don't need to explain the comparisons, right? Some things, like the crying, can just be cut and pasted from the mountain to my room. :)

We have to do WHAT now? The End.

Peace Corps is like a marathon.... see? Similes just aren't as good! I guess what I'm trying to say is... if you want to know what my last two years have been like, go climb a mountain? Yeah. Go climb a mountain. Your own personal mountain.

Abrazos desde los Andes,

Estoy viva!

2011-10-18T18:15:00.001-07:00

Hola a todo el mundo!

Now before everyone starts to quejar (complain) that I haven't written in a while... please, just see the title of my last blog... times were a-changin! I left my site of Shilla after two years, I had a wonderful month in August back in Ventura, and now am finally settling in to my new trabajo and living in Huaraz! The big city, hombre. If New York is The Big Apple... I guess Huaraz would be... The Big Cuy? 100,000 people. Movin' on up.

Now. No voy a mentir. It's taking some adjusting. I miss my campo lifestyle much more than I thought. Don't get me wrong! I love my daily (if I want to) hot showers, gym membership (yay for latin dance classes!), opportunity to eat what I want (if only I knew how to cook!), wi-fi in my room (skype 24/7 = more Matwee time) and new apartment (teal and yellow walls = awesomeness)... but I miss my host familia like crazy as well as my host mom's usually awesome cooking, going to recoger the burro with Floricta, reading to Itzel, Shilla's lifestyle, the kids and just plain living in an adobe house like it was nobody's business. One of my favorite pastimes was ducking in and out of my little door to my house and seeing the surprised faces of passing vehicles of peruvians and gringo tourists to see a tall white girl living there. Sigh. The little things. Now I'm clean, my hair is more manageable, my socios (the professionals I work with) have RPM (which means we can communicate for free via phone) and hey! I'm actually doing work! Looky there. In the last month I have been more productive than the last two years put together :) No joke. It's only a slight exaggeration. Slight. I like what I'm doing and I'm busy. Busy. Busy. Just being here for a month and a half as PCVL in Huaraz has given me a whole new perspective and respect for what other peacecordians are doing in their little pueblos (and what I did). If volunteers are truly living in there site, are present and making friends... then, hats off to them! It's a whole different kind of hard out there in the little mountain towns that I didn't truly understand until I came out of it.

Anywho. I wanted to take this opportunity to relay the list of things that I've learned now from living the city life since September 1st.

1. Don't pack a powdery white substance (in my case... pancake mix) in your luggage in a plastic tupperware. That can look a little sketch.

2. Do learn how to cook. I can only eat so many quesadillas.

3. You will continue to get dangerously ill in the city. Don't let Huaraz fool you... you're still in Ancash.

4. Re-learn how to use the internet. There are so many other things you can do/look up/read besides Facebook! The news exists!

5. The teens in a city are slightly different. i.e. The girls don't cover their mouths out of embarrassment when they talk and they like to contribute ideas! And the boys can still be little jerks.

6. The mamas I work with still appreciate Quechua.

7. Have friends over all the time. They sometimes cook for you! Invest in a colchoneta (little mattress).

8. Ask yourself "Why am I doing the Great Amazon River Raft race again?" BEFORE you go.

9. Decorate.

10. Appreciate being close to the mail box. Packages and letters and fun things... candy corn, cards from 1998, etc.

11. All birthdays should be celebrated by eating cuy.

I made the cake on the left. She only turns 5 once right? :)

I spend my evenings skyping Matwee. :)

There you have it! Just some things I felt the need to mention. Stay classy, San Diego. Thanks for stopping by.

ABRAZOS,

Ch- ch- ch- ch- Changin'

2011-06-05T09:08:00.000-07:00

Hola a todos!

Apparently there is truth in the correlation between less blogs and the closer a peacecordian is to their two year mark. So, sorry about that. Here's an update!

First off, just recently I got the wonderful news that I get to stay one more year as PCVL (Peace Corps Volunteer Leader) here in Huaraz! I'm soooo excited and feel this is definitely where I need to be in the next coming year. I'll get to support my fellow Ancash volunteers and still work in youth development, but just now in the capitol city. Sigh. Best news. EVER :)

So I now have just two months left working and living in Shilla... I've got Amigos y Libros classes to wrap up, a presentation and report to do, some med checks, the town party at the end of this month, and many many despedidas to attend to. It'll be hard to move but it's a good step to be going to Huaraz.. I'll still get to see my host familia on occasion while changing up my work a bit. Change is good. I have to keep reminding myself of that.

Just last night Julie and Caitlin left back to the states after their two week Peruvian adventure (and it was DEFINITELY an adventure). Having them here in the Callejon de Huaylas this past week was soooo fun and refreshing. They even lived in Shilla for half the week! Brave souls. Two glacier lake hikes, 10 classes, one peruvian meeting, chifa and California Cafe meals later they are on their way back home. I've been so lucky that during these past two years I have had so many visitors who want to see what I'm doing here and be a part of it. Ahora, solo falta Bri! :) I'll see Julie, Caitlin and the rest of the six pack in August on my month leave.

Hokay! That is all for now! Cuidanse! I'll be back in Cali for a bit soon.

Chao!

An Ellipsis

2011-04-02T12:47:00.001-07:00

Hola to everyone!

Well... What to write about? It seems the number one thing on my mind these days is that Peru 13 Peacecordians have 5 months left and counting. And this week I kept thinking to myself... What did I do everyday, every minute, every second here in this little mountain town to get me to this point? How can you go one minute mentally prepared for a long haul and the next feel as if you'd like to reign it all in a little bit... slow things down. Even if I get to stay in this country longer than just August, this two year journey is still coming to an end and you can't help but reflect and wonder what has changed in you, what you've come to realize, what's matured.

Or at least you hope all those things have happened. :) I was different when I first stepped on the bus at 2:00 a.m. to go to my new home of Chosica, Lima. But those changes would have occurred no matter where I was in the world. Things happen in your 20s. You don't have to go to a developing country and live in a Quechua speaking town for two years to start coming into your own, for your frontal lobe to solidify, to hold fast to strong opinions, to love, to lose, to fight for injustices, realize what you're good at (and what you frankly suck at) and come to terms with hard realities that before once felt to be the stuff that adults played with.

Now what to do with all that. Is that the task of the 30s? To take it and run with it? No se. I guess with any luck I'll find out. I'm not done exploring, groping with new languages or living with new people. I hope that my older, more professional self will always keep these two years in mind and that my time as a peruvian peacecordian will affect what I do para siempre.

Abrazos,

A New School Year

2011-03-16T16:50:00.000-07:00

Hola a todos!

Sooooo.... it's March and that means it's the start of the school year once again in good ol' Shilla. And what that means is that the teachers take awhile to get their stuff together... meaning.. that after 2 weeks after the technical first dia of school all the teachers are still not showing up, class time is kind of a joke and I still haven't entered the aula yet (although I will next week.. whew!). So, March tends to be a time of "What am I doing here? Should I really be watching 5 hours of The Wire every day?" Some days in March are pretty depressing for me. After vacaciones when things were so go go go and productive it's sort of a let down to have poco to do and just be in the planning stages of things. I guess it's sort of like an accountant after April 17th.

But hoy was mejor. And it started out with a hummingbird no mas. A huge BLACK hummingbird. I took it as a good sign and went to being productive the whole dia. The best thing to happen was the trip to a caserio (tiny part of the district of Shilla that you walk uphill to) called Llipta to check out the elementary school there. There are only four teachers and about 60 students (including the preschool)... it is so quaint and beautiful and since no volunteer has ever worked there before they seem very interested and excited to work with me on some small projects to help out with mainly sex ed for the older students, some self esteem booster activities, etc. etc. I am purdy excited to start fresh a bit.

It's weird to think that Peru 13 only has 6 months left! What is happening?? That can't be right! We are still the newbies I swear. So far the realization is hitting a lot stronger than even when I graduated from college. What am I going to do with my life? Where to next? So many big scary questions. A ver. I wish Peace Corps lasted 10 years. :)

Anywho. I hope things back in the casa are all good. I hope to write in a couple weeks to give more updates on vida. Cuidense!

Abrazos fuertes,

Cuy

2011-02-13T13:06:00.001-08:00

Let it be known to all. I just witnessed a guinea pig birth. Welcome, Larry, Hairy and Mo.

abrazos
em

Cuy

2011-02-13T13:06:00.000-08:00

Let it be known to all. I just witnessed a guinea pig birth. Welcome, Larry, Hairy and Mo.

abrazos
em

Language Acquisition

2011-02-11T07:40:00.000-08:00

It's like, seeing the same sunlight come into my window every morning, but for the first time really looking at it. Or seeing numbers and symbols all jumbled together on a piece of paper one day, and the next being able to work with them, work answers out of them, master their meaning. I have heard Quechua every day for a year and a half now, and though it comes in leaps and bounds... this past week (after Quechua classes) I am now able to listen to my host mom while she's chatting away with Florcita on the phone and actually not hear a mumbling of vowels and deep throated German sounding k's... but understand what those sounds MEAN. It's a powerful knowledge, language. Makes you feel as if you can conquer something. Changes your perspective drastically. I still am at the "grasping" stage of this native language (I'm not fluent by any means... whatever fluent is anyways) and what I mean by grasping is, you know... you're in spanish class in ninth grade and the teacher tells you to put an 'o' at the end of the verb to make it first person present tense and you have to think about it really hard and look at the board.. "Crap. how do you say "have"? oh yeah. Tener.. Crap. I can't say Teno.. it's irregular.. what is it again? Oh right. Tengo." You know. That stage of the language learning. That's where I am when it comes to speaking Quechua. But listening... I can make out a majority of the conversations ahora. Which is exciting and.... well... Now I just need to pay attention. :)

Besos y Abrazos

Ya vengo

2011-02-04T05:23:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! Happy New Years 2011! Happy Sarah's and Courtney's Birthdays! Groundhog Day is in there too I believe. :)

Umm... so. With that said. When I started this blog back in the day and I wrote my little profile on the right hand side that says Youth Development Volunteer in Peru from 2009 til 2011. I didn't think that that number.. 2011.. would come up on me so soon. Too soon! Aack! So soon in fact that I will be keeping you posted on my continuing foreign plans. Cuz there will be.

Right now it's summer here (which means... just no school... the weather is rainy... yay!). So I'm teaching some vacaciones utiles classes for the kiddos (communication, p.e., art and wow. Who'd a thunk it? Math!). Ok ok. So I am not actually teaching math. I scouted and found some teen helpers who actually teach it. I'm just the facilitator man. This past week we did some paper mache.. oh yeah. Very messy. But what I'm currently really excited about is Club de Mujeres Poderosas (powerful women), in which 17 teen girls and I meet up 3 times a week and tackle different themes from sexual health to how to start a little successful business (Peace Corps gives me materials! soo.. although I know practically nothing about business.. I can still teach it :) to meeting professional women and talking about future goals. Last week we got to talk to girls from Oxnard City Corps on skype! It was pretty exciting from where I was standing. To get the two groups I've been working with the last 3 years together. No importa las fronteras. We have only 3 more weeks to go, but maybe they'll want to get together occasionally during the school year too. A ver.

There are exciting things on the horizon (Peace Corps 50th anniversary, Ancash Prom, starting up the school year, Rotary Club's participation in a project in Shilla... the whole familia's visit in April...) that I'm pretty thankful for. Right now I'm off to Quechua classes. Shumaq warmi to all of you. Let's see if that grammar finally stays in my cerebro this time around.

Recent peruvian fotos will be posted on my facebook later today... Chao for now!

Abrazos long lost but FUERTES,

It's like a Video Game!

2010-12-04T09:56:00.000-08:00

Jumping off the Dunes!

Anacapa Island. Whops. I mean Parracas.

Our Sand Buggie! And Colleen!

Alrighty then. It's so odd being a "senior". Peru 13 (my group) is on the downward slope of the Peacecordian two year experience. And yes. We have technically until August of next year... but suddenly that doesn't feel like enough time anymore! As if two years isn't nearly enough. It's nearing the end of the school year here ademas, meaning things are slowing down a bit (or will for sure in two weeks). And that means a trip back to Ventura is very near... So basically I have many feelings going on right now.

For Thanksgiving, us 13 Ancash chicas decided to head south for the three day vacation and go to Ica, Peru (the coastal department south of Lima) to explore the beaches and wine country. The trip started and ended on very awesome notes. The first being sandboarding. Yup. A lot like snow boarding but on sand dunes. The best part of the sand dunes would have to be the dune buggies of course. SO fun. As Christie so pointed it out "It's like a video game!! MARIO KART!!" I think that's definitely a fitting description. And I think I will always remember the hilarity that was Colleen and I being scared to sled down those sand hills (picture a lot of screaming and sand in the face and mucho profanity). The other highlight of the trip would have to be the last day where we visited a fellow Peru 13ers site, to check out the local wines, piscos and white water rafting. Chevere. The season for the river was low season so the rapids were only class 2 at most, but that didn't stop me from falling out once. And it was an absolutely beautiful river.. the contrast of the dusty rock hills jutting up in the background with the oasis of green around the river... bonito. Afterwards we happened upon a resort ish place that allowed us many a sampling of different kinds of piscos, a chance to swim in the river, chat, swim in the pool... we didn't want to get back on a bus. They were so friendly and it felt like we stumbled upon a little slice of heaven. Eventually we did get back on the bus. And on that bus we were accompanied by 35 teenage Lima boys who belong to a Soccer Club. We instantly became celebrities. Our seats happened to be in the very back and EVERY single one of the boys came and circled us. "Where are you from?" "Do you like Michael Jackson?" "You speak Quechua?" "Do you have a boyfriend?" etc. etc. We were very tired and Colleen had to hold up most of the conversation with them for a good two hours. The best part was when I got to sing Atrevete te te by Calle 13 with them. ahhhh.... knowing that song by heart finally paid off!

Currently back in Anca$h... this past week I got to help out at the Peru 15 IST (some in service training).... I even had to pretend I was a business volunteer for awhile. 8 gringos visited me in Shilla and got to see Amigos y Libros in action which was awesome. In site I have been teaching a lot about AIDS and sex ed in general (seeing as Dec. 1st was World AIDS day) as well as wrapping up my primaria school classes: English, Self Esteem and Leadership... Now I'll be planning for the vacation classes I'd love to do during January and February, touching up my world map, making a lot of bracelets and hopefully accomplishing some lake hikes when it's not too rainy.

I can't WAIT to see people (and Ben and Reggie) for the holidays.... two weeks and counting!

Abrazos,

AmURica

2010-11-17T12:52:00.000-08:00

So, I suppose I need to update this thing! I just got back from the U.S. of A.... Colorado to be exact. Pagosa Springs to be even MORE exact. For my dear amiga Jenna's wedding which was heart warming, fun, freezing (that true mountain air), amazing, dance- y, full of universidad friends and just a wonderful two days really. Yup. Two day trip to the states, no biggie. Actually. I'm pretty glad that it worked out that way (except for Mr. I'm going to give you air sickness so bad you'll wish you never came to Colorado prop plane from Pagosa to Denver) because it made me feel as if Peru is so close to home. It's only FOU (ugh) flights and a day bus away. But seriously, it's pretty chevere that one day I can be with people who speak my language in a place where everything just seems bigger (including airports, food, and beds) and the next I will be among colorful shorter women talking away in Quechua. I was probably annoying with all the references I made to this South American country though. In order to stop myself I started referencing Peru as the "P word" and if you didn't know this.. there are a lot of inappropriate words that could potentially start with P, so that was fun.

In the Lima airport about to embark the plane I must admit that I had a little panic attack. What will I do when I eventually have to leave this place? I can't just do that. Where am I supposed to be? I have to be with Itzel! With Gladys! With my host mom and Florcita! Can I really just stay and live down here in Peru? No. Well. Then. WHAT?! But then I just got on the plane and coming back so quickly was good. Now I'm ready to go back home for Christmas minus all that little panic attack stuff.

So. In short. It was awesome and I'm excited to go back to my actual casa in a month and I wish Jenna and Brian all the best!!!

Brought to you by the Letter P and the Number 4.

Abrazos Fuertes,

Cortando Pasto

2010-10-23T05:14:00.000-07:00

So. There are times when I am down (not at this exact moment... but there are times). Wondering what I'm doing in life... not so much right now but in a year or two or ten from now. Where I wonder if I'm making good decisions or doing the right things. Sometimes I even feel like I have a dissonance inside of me - a disconnect - and it makes me wonder who I really am. Peruvian Peacecordian, what's that, really?

Usually when I'm in this state in site all I want to do is ball up in my room but I usually end up forcing myself outside because that's where I slowly feel better (even if not a single one of my self directed questions is actually answered). I've taken up going to cut grass for the cuyes (guinea pigs) with my madre lately in the evenings.

It's a 10 minute walk through grass and chacras (fields), the trail made by many human feet who take the trail up the hill to do their farming and grazing of animales cada dia. We take our apaches with us (the colorful blankets women here use for warmth, for bags, as protection to sit on, to carry grass, etc.) and my host mom brings along the circular scythe and we go up to cortar the pasto. This little ritual, even though I am slow at actually cutting the grass and most of the time just end up helping carrying it back down the hill, more than anything else... calms me. I know that for my family it's just another day chore, but for me with the views and the tranquility - the soft steady sound of blade on grass, the bright blue pollera (skirt) of my mama, the gray clouds bursting into light with the sinking of the sun over the cordillera negra - it's a healing task. It's the best thing about where I live, the hills and the very nature around you just make everything that much better. It's way better than yoga. jeje

So there's an October reflection. Mas on the agenda would have to be the Feria de Universidades that we're putting on in Shilla on Wednesday for all the secundary kids.... Amigos y Libros is still goin' strong, Halloween is just around the rincon, and I'm a goin' to Colorado really soon! :) From mountains to mountains.

Abrazos y pasto para todos,

Emily

My Name is the Amazon River. And I'm BIG and AMAZING.

2010-09-28T07:57:00.001-07:00

Hola a todos!

I just got back from the selva (the jungle.... the Amazon to be exact) and racing 180 kilometers (don't ask me to convert that) for three days down the Amazon river in a raft that I built with three fellow peacecordian chicas from Ancash (ANCASH LADIES DO IT BETTER!) There are so many stories, funny moments, desperate moments, people met, that I don't even know where to begin. I guess I will start with what hit me first.

The HEAT. Calor to the extreme. I mean, I realized going into this that I would be dealing with a rain forest.. a jungle... and that means humidity and omnipresent sun... but I definitely didn't realize HOW much that would affect me until I got there. The heat consumes you and there is no escape. Your pores feel as if they are pouring out sweat like sap seeps from the bark of gum trees. Sweat takes the form of tears... I drink so much water and it all would come pouring out of me. Under the cover of the Amazonian rainforest and its myriad of trees and plants was where the heat licked your body the most. We went on a trek the day before the raft race which included hacking thru the Amazon with a machete and looking for monkeys, birds, weird bugs and spiders and that's where I felt I was being cooked the most. And unlike the cold, where you can put layers and layers of clothes, mittens, wool socks, find some good blankets, make a fire and drink cocoa... there is nothing you can do besides melt in the humidity in the jungle. It made me appreciate my mountains that much more.

On that day trek we got to take a 2 hour boat ride as well, which means we visited some local villages (how crazy and awesome would it be to be stationed out there where you commuted with a little boat?), held a baby sloth, and saw gray and PINK dolphins! Then we were off on the great (gret.. hehe Colleen) journey down the Amazon River for three days!

The first day is meeting the other 47 teams... getting on a bus and going from Iquitos to Nauta. Once in Nauta we procured much needed supplies (some machetes, rope, a hammer, two young boys who know how to make a raft...) and then crossed the river to start building our home for three days. :) Naturally, us peacecordians had no clue where to start. Every team was given 8 balsa logs and three smaller strips of wood and 30 meters of rope and some nails. We then had from 3 p.m. till the next day to construct the thing. With the help of the boys and a chainsaw we macheted and constructed a ghetto looking thing before sunset. We had no idea if it would hold up on us. But we were content with having finished before any other team did (actually I was worried that we hadn't spent enough time on the thing.. thinking it would surely come apart by day 3)... and it floated! That's a good sign.

The entire thing was a camping trip. The people who organize this Longest Raft Race in the World are VERY well organized, the food is good, the staff friendly.. they gave us little mattress things every night to sleep on (nobody needs a sleeping bag... it's too hot) and two of the three nights we slept in schools! :) There were bugs but not nearly as many as I though there would be and actually I came away pretty much unscathed except for 10 blisters from rowing (having done crew in college did come in handy!), some bad sun burns on the ankles, and ten cold sores on the lips (heat induced I'm sure). And you know what? We did it! Us four girls came about in the middle of the pack every day and our ghetto boat was the little raft that could! We even had the clunky heavy oars and the shoulders and back were definitely sore for a day.

For me, the best parts of the experience would have to be my team Ancash Ladies Do it Better (we were constantly singing on the top of our lungs... RESPECT... I'm on a BOAT.... build me up Buttercup... Bohemian Rhapsody... the Spice Girls.. as well as the "gotta along without you before I met you" harmonizing jingle... just to name a few of the tunes), getting into fast currents (and when I say fast currents I mean faster than when we were basically moving nowhere when we felt like we were sitting in a lake), and jumping into the river whenever we felt like it. Awww... that water felt so good. I mean. It was dirty. But it FELT so good. Other highlights would have to include the finishes each day (except for the LAST day when the last part we had to row UP current for fifteen minutes)... the first two days endings were happy because the local kids were swimming with us helping push our boats into shore, everybody cheers, and you just feel so STRONG for doing it and eating oreos and other goodies when we got tired. Also, the other rafters on the river with us were amazing and fun... we spent most of our river time with not our fellow peacecordian boats, but some men from France who were hilarious and some Limenos who pirated our ship. :)

The Amazon River is SO big... and wide... and we had to cross it a BILLION times. Well, it felt like it. :) It was amazing and I'll never feel as badass as I did when I was doing it... until next year of course!

So long Amazon! Hasta la proxima

Abrazos Fuertes,

Candela, Candado; Tomatoe, Tomahto

2010-09-15T10:48:00.000-07:00

Hola a todos!

As a whole, I feel pretty well integrated in Shilla. It has been over a year.. everybody knows me, the kids yell out my name, I understand more Quechua, and less and less Shillapinos think that I'm Italian and work in the church... there are days I forget that I'm too tall even (until I hit my head on a door whose frame comes up to my shoulders... have I mentioned I live in hobbit land? Ask my dad).

But recently, after a bout of feeling too self assured, my host mom and sister informed me that I'm telling too much to the neighbors. Now, I thought I was just being friendly. If I'm walking up the hill and they ask me where I'm coming from I'll freely say "From Huaraz! And this package I'm carrying? My parents sent it to me from the States!" or que ever. At first when my host familia told me that I just need to say hello and go on my way, I thought. huh. NO. I don't see any harm in it and I'm promoting friendship and connection between families. But then I realized if I just keep doing what I want that's not integration at all.... and then it dawned on me. I wash my clothes a lot longer than it takes my 14 year old sister. At meal times, I'm still served first and am encouraged to "descansar" (rest) frequently although my mom and sister are CONSTANTLY moving, cleaning, workin' in the biohuerto, taking the chanchos (pigs) and burro (his name is Ramon) to pasture... I have a completely different role. Since I have to make lesson plans, keep track of assistance, write oficios and solicitudes, etc. I use my computer a lot! And since my mom can't read, when she watches me on this thing, what does she see? What does she think? It probably looks like I'm busy doing a whole lot of nothing. And when I do help in the chacra on occasion, I'm so slow that I'm not even a help!

Just yesterday on the phone, a fellow Ancashina volunteer and amiga said "we're awkward all the time". And it's so true. Whether it's our gringo accents when we are trying to get the universities to come up and do a University Fair, to planting corn seeds double the time it takes our host moms, we will always be just slightly out of it. And what usually results from that is that we end up thinking that THEY'RE slightly out of it. Vicious circle.

But there is good that comes out of all the awkwardness/never truly fitting in: Funny stories. For instance, just recently I had a spanish language confusion problem (sheesh. You think after 10 years of this language I would be able to manejar it all). I told my host sis Florcita that I needed a key to unlock candela (which I thought meant padlock).

She was like "Really? There's a candela by that door?"

Me - "SI Florcita. De verdad!"

Florcita- looks at me confused

Later. I find out that in fact "candela" means fire. Then how the heck do you say padlock?

Florcita - Laughing uncontrollably

Mama - "Candado, Emy. Candado"

They still don't let that one go. And I guess it's the laughing and connecting to a joke and the silly things that we do that binds me to them more than anything else. No matter if I'm too tall for the doors.

Abrazos,

Lame-a

2010-09-05T07:03:00.000-07:00

Hola a Todos!

Just recently I came back from five days in Lima for medical checkups and meetings and the like. Our whole group comes back and we give little presentations about what we've done in our sites... and basically eat really good food and get to hang out between all of our random appointments around Lima. (or Lame - a as some people call it :) During my trip there I took advantage and went to go visit my Itzel (my little host niece who lived with me for a year and then just a month ago her mom and her left to live and work in Lima) because I miss her sooooo much. And though amazing to see her, to sing Happy Talk with her again, to read her books like No David No!, and head butt game :) Gladys and I (her mom) basically were just sad that the visit was so short and that I couldn't take them with me back to beautiful Shilla. It struck me hard when I saw them on a gray cold corner of Lima with their jeans and "modern clothes" when I was so used to running up to them after going to work at the colegio with a background of dirt roads and mountains and adobe houses with their polleras and skirts on, Itzel dirty from playing outdoors all day. And Itzel had never seen me in Lima. At first I think she thought I was a different person.

I know I know I know. I'm selfish for wanting them back. Gladys left to go earn some money (which is nearly impossible to find in Ancash because of her lack of education and her young 4 year old daughter to take care of... in Shilla my family lives off the meager selling of products like corn and potatoes... and the help of some NGOs... it doesn't bring in much and in Shilla, to just sustain and live, you don't need much) and she's looking for something more... her boyfriend's studying in Lima, etc. etc. She's making a better life for herself. I realize this in my rational head and support her. But they are not happy away from my host madre, away in a world so different than the mountains of Ancash. I imagine there is more of a shock between any campo place in Peru and Lima than for me to go from Peru to the U.S. It's Lima vs. the rest of Peru and Lima's winning. It's a city full of souls working, studying, waiting for their chance. Save money. Make a better life. Normally with the idea that they'll return to where they are originally from. But it usually doesn't happen. They stay in the gray ciudad. They continue working and studying and hardly sleeping for many many years and then become used to it. And I don't want that to happen to Gladys.. Especially not Itzel.

So, life can be hard for Peruvians when moving away from home. Moving away means going to the coast because the coast holds more opportunities. To make it that much harder, the families here are a lot more close knit as you can imagine. To leave your parents and siblings is not the same as in the States (although I'm not saying there's some difficulty there for us too, but). It's leaving your vida. It hurts my host madre on a whole new level. She told me she would cry when I leave too. It's going to be painful to leave here.

Yeah, so although on a cold note, those are my thoughts. I'm so grateful that I received the host familia that I have. That I had the chance to meet Raul. That I have such great Peacecordian friends who are always there to cheer and support you even after the hour and a half dentist appointment because you had 2 cavities and that was even after the nurse STABBED you (yes.. haha) while drawing blood. Boy I hate medical stuff. So there is always good in my Peruvian life which makes the hard stuff worth persevering through.

Abrazos,

Refleccion

2010-08-21T10:39:00.000-07:00

Hola a todos!

So. Today is Peru 13's official one year anniversary as PC volunteers! Yay. So it's automatically a day of reflection whether you want it or not. :) A year ago was a whirlwind. Leaving Yanacoto, nervous about starting the next two years, leaving friends who I met just three short months before but felt like I'd known them for much longer than that; confusion, excitement, twinge of sadness... gulp. And then now it's been a year. And so many volunteers told our group as we became official volunteers instead of just aspirantes.. the second year will be better and go by faster which means before I know it, it will be August 21, 2011.

For the occasion that is today I decided to just make a short list of the most memorable moments of this year for me as a Shillapina and Ancashina... the good and the bad... and probably the ugly:

Running from an avalanche and thinking I was going to die for a split second

Meeting Raul

Making it to Punto Union with Christie and Oso, after a local boy beat us in sandals to the top

Birthday in Lima with the Peru 11ers as their In Service Training complete with face in the cake

Itzel leaving permanently to Lima with her mom :(

Anca$h Prom

Learning to rock climb (this would be in the "ugly" category)

Hanging out with Rachel and Jenna in Maryknoll's Priest home in Puno, playing with a stuffed bear's glasses and not knowing to whom they belonged.... for awhile.

Making videos on the way up to Machu Picchu with the hermano :)

Seeing my dad try to get through the front door of my house... and in and and out of combis

My confusing "candela" for "candado" (my host mom find this infinitely funny)

Field Trip to Llanganuco with Environmental Club Kids; Yunior made sure I noticed every little plant and animal and insect on our little hike

The 3 Independent Nights of Illness. I do not need to elaborate. It's in the Ugly category

Being a ship for Halloween. (Where's my BOOTY, Lisette?)

A Yanacoto Birthday complete with Lion Cake

Eating just the cookie dough with Baja in Caraz. Memorable for sure.

My combi almost being rammed off the road

Same day as above comment: Hitting the water tube to the school bathroom.... all in order to try and make compost.

15 hour Epic Hike

Carnival!

My first Peruvian wedding

Hot shower after two weeks.. (yup. I still remember it)

And there are many more. Some that I can't or won't even include on such a public space. So I can only imagine the millions of goods, bads, and uglies that will occur over the next year.. which will include maybe even a trip or two back to the States... :)

Abrazos,

Un poco, no mas

2010-08-07T10:01:00.000-07:00

Hola a todos!

Currently, I'm very contenta because the padres' care package just arrived with clothes for Itzel, Raisin Bran Crunch, stickers galore, cheeze its, a book from Vivian, and more children's books! It just makes me feliz. :)

En otras noticias, the 15ers (new peacecordians) are coming this next week to visit their sites, projects continue to keep going during these vacaciones (the first two weeks of Agosto there are no classes aqui), and Wednesday's trip to Llanganuco Lakes with the kids from Club Huascaran went swimmingly! yay. Umm.. things are good, I have deseos to go up into the mountains again soon and see some more Ancash lakes before the rainy season starts again in late September. And besides all that things are just going well.

Almost a year in site! I bet this next year will go by just as quickly as the first one and before I know it Christmas and a trip home will be here!

Abrazos fuertes,

"Emily! Han chocado con el tubo!"

2010-07-31T08:07:00.000-07:00

Hola a todos!

So. Last Friday I feel sums up how things tend to go in the work side of my life as a Peacecordian. I had classes about self esteem which went well with the little guys in elementary school, had a successful Amigos y Libros meeting with the teens (they're the ones who will eventually read to the elementary and preschool kids) And everything seemed to be going swimmingly after meetings about our upcoming project against AIDS/HIV and meetings with teachers about finding professionals for a job shadowing project in September... and I was looking forward to digging a hole in the evening to make compost with the Club Huascaran (made of sixth and fifth graders from primaria who are learning about the environment with me). The parents of the kids even showed up early with their tools all ready to go! Yay! I felt. I'm doing things! :)

Amigos y Libros Club: (Notice the books that people have been sending me! :)

And then.. 50 minutes into digging the hole, Samuel comes up to me... "Emily! Han chocado el tubo!" Which means. CRAP. We broke the water tube to the school! Ugh. Here I was riding on this rush of volunteerism and happiness to be with the kids and parents in the school when the tube breaks. I immediately thought "I'm making Shilla regress instead of progress." So I got an impromtu lesson on how to pick out, buy and fix a broken water tube. Fun times.

The Day of the Tube: parents and kids from Club Huascaran

Trash Day with Club Huascaran! This is where Shilla botars their trash we found out after 4 hours of collecting all the trash of the district with Cesar, the municipality driver of the truck in the background. As the kids pointed out it smells a bit... but has great views!

I guess why this little story represents my work here is because.. it's all small steps. It's about getting people together and working towards a goal, however small. Although we broke the tube... there will be MANY setbacks. We fixed it and will continue. I will remember this hopefully this upcoming Wednesday when I embark on a day long journey with Club Huascaran to the Llanganuco Lake for a paseo (field trip). Who knows when I'll have to fix a tube again!

Peruvian Perros

2010-07-19T11:05:00.000-07:00

Hola a todos,

There are at least 6 dogs out to get me in the Shilla district. On my daily run anyways... because well, I have few options of routes and the one I have consistently stuck with is using the main dirt carreterra (road) up and then down (it's not too steep and flatter than most other "paths"). But along the way you go by the houses and then the dogs.. ugh the perros. I now have to keep a rock in my hand the entire way, which.. I'm definitely not out of the norm with fellow peacecordians... dogs are mean here.

But now I know my route well, which means I know the dogs well. I was bit a couple days ago (not badly mind you.. ) but my guard is always up and I know which ones to walk next to instead of run by, which ones to CHARGE at and pretend to throw the rock at, which ones to just out run, and which ones to yell at the owner to get control of. Sometimes the dogs are a no show and they even have an horario (schedule). If I want to miss the great dane (boy is he huge.. but if you just say "puppy!" in a cute little voice and walk by him he is nicer and starts wagging his tail) then I run in the afternoon/early evening. If I want to miss the horrible puppy from hell with his snarling teeth (he will bite me one day.. I just know it) then I run at 6:00 a.m. It's kinda sad that my running is scheduled by flea ridden creatures.

It's almost Fiestas Patrias time here... Peru's Independence Day... we shall see how Ancash parties. I'll probably just go home early. :)

abrazos,

Llevame mis zanahorizas, mamay

2010-07-11T08:55:00.001-07:00

Hola a todos! I am currently in Carhuaz after waking up at 4: 30 a.m. to go with my host madre to sell corn and carrots at the bi- weekly huge mercado here. We didn't sell all the carrots. But we did sell all the corn. (and by corn I mean the dried cornels of corn). For all those interested in money and numbers out there. We sold a monton of carrots (like.. 15 decent sized carrots) for 50 centimos (roughly 20 cents yo). And for a whole heavy bag of the cornels... 25 soles mas o menos. Which is what? 8 bucks. For awhile I got to sell the carrots which was fun! (more so because everyone is confused.. what? a gringa sells produce?) and I got to say things like "Llevame mis zanahorias, mamay, porfa." in a whiney voice. hehe.

I love market days. LOVE them. Although I usually don't buy anything anyway... and the ropes that hold up the tarps for shade for the vendors come up to my shoulders so therefore I must duck constantly, there's something about the hustle and bustle of it all... and the really cheap veggies that makes my day. If I could add on to my list of Favorite Things in Peru from the other blog a while ago I would add market days and when donkeys in Shilla run down the hills he-hawing and bucking and playing.

One thing of the things I do not like, you ask? The drunkeness. The way women must put up with it when their son or father or grandpa come home completely gone (although to be fair.. I have to say that women get drunk here too.. just definitely NOT as often). And how the little three year olds already know how to pretend to be drunk to be funny. Itzel, mi sobrina (my niece.. the love of my life!), has many a time come up to me in a playful mood "Tia Emily! Mira.. estoy borracha!" (Aunt Emily! Look.. I'm drunk!) while pretending to not be stable on her feet and running into the walls. I am lucky to live in a house of all women because whenever I have an encounter with a drunk Peruvian male who is completely out of bounds I get very angry Muy enojada. Not to mention sad. My madre tells me I just need to acostombrarme (get used to it) but we have discussions where I tell her I don't think it's something you should get used to. It's the worst thing, in my opinion, when I have to be around many many drunks at a peruvian party. Parties should be fun. After a year living in this country I think their drinking comes out of a deep sadness. They are drinking to forget... but it only makes them remember. They cry, they grab at people, they ramble on and on about the travesties that have happened. It's their outlet... but there's gotta be a better one, no? Their lives are hard but I think alcohol just makes them harder.

Those are my pensamientos del dia. I've been writing a lot lately which has been very helpful for me at this one year mark. I'm excited to go to Lima in a couple of days to see new volunteers and to continue my project Amigos y Libros on Friday (yay!) where high schoolers read to elementary and kindergarten students. (by the way.. I need more books for kids.. low reading level.. in spanish!)

If I were in the States right now I'd say Happy Birthday to Aaron Smith and go get a free slurpee at 7/11. :)

Abrazos y besos,

Lil' update, no mas

2010-07-08T13:39:00.000-07:00

Hola a todos!

Soo... Happy Birthday United States.. I am giving classes in America's honor to the secondaria kids these next two weeks... talking about what we eat, how we celebrate, and country/western music line dancing lessons... haha. American culture. Maybe I'm not even the one who should be giving this class. Lately I've been feeling that I've been away for so long that I don't even remember!

Next week I go to Lima for a couple days to help train the new Peru 15ers! yay! Locura I tell you. I sort of pictured myself last year as a trainER instead of a trainEE but not that it's actually here it just feels odd. Really? A year? Ya? Ok.

So this is just a little blog to say I'm alive and well and kicking... literally kicking dogs away from me lately... and work is definitely underway although classes always get canceled left and right.. for sports, for holidays, for teachers just wanting days off. :)

I'll write soon. Mas. Te lo juro.

abrazos fuertisimos,

Sheep Intestine for Breakfast

2010-06-25T15:03:00.000-07:00

Hola a todos!

Somewhere between the drunken debauchery that is Shilla during the biggest party of the year (the 24th of June.. but don't let that fool you.. it's basically an entire week of fiesta as all peacecordians can tell you... Shilla is not unique in that way) and the sheep intestine I was given for breakfast the next morning, I got my first real bout of homesickness. Just pure wanna- live- in- my- own- country- where- I -know- how- things- work and I won't have to eat this or get trapped by extremely drunk men who think it's totally fine to make disgusting gestures and remarks about the "gringa". As Christie and I would say... I was DONE! :)

That and I've been having dream after dream about the United States of A lately. Maybe it's because it seems all peacecordians lately are going home for a visit. Or I miss Snapper Jack's. Or Reggie. Or familia. No se. Portland. I had a dream about Portland last night. So anywho. I'm going to be heading off to the annual Peace Corps marathon next weekend for the fourth of July. Some good solid peacecordian time. And try to keep the work going in site (which is going by the way! yay!)

That is the update. Todo esta bien! I heard the one year mark sometimes makes you think about home demasiado. Hasta la proxima

Abrazos,

These are a few of my favorite things

2010-06-20T09:12:00.000-07:00

What doesn't belong? Teachin' the primaria kids Mi ropa.... drying

Itzel - my sobrina.

Hola a todos! A list of my peruvian faves.

- Cifrut (the Peruvian version of sunny D)

- combi rides with my i pod

- reading/playing with/teaching English to/general living with Itzel

- my dirt road to Shilla (and sometimes riding on top of trucks to get there)

- the sound of the rain fall on my tin roof

- hanging my laundry to dry

- learning to play volei (volleyball)

- when riding in combis or other vehicles and then looking out the window and randomly catching eyes with strangers for a split second

- the hikes and lakes in Ancash!

- dancing huayno (but with breaks!)

To be continued!

Abrazos,

Musica a mis oidos

2010-06-16T15:46:00.000-07:00

Dear Regina Spektor,

I just wanted to say thank you. You will probably never read this but I just thought it would be good to let you know that it is your music that gets me through the combi rides and hard times in Peace Corps Peru. I melt in your songs. I hear the same lyrics over and over again and every time they take on new meaning and I have never felt so connected to words from an artist before. As if I was there and wrote them myself because that is how I'm feeling but I needed you to put it out there eloquently, in a different way with a different rhythm and sound. Man of a Thousand Faces is all that there needs to be in the world. And good is better than perfect.

Abrazos,

Emily

Como Vuele el Tiempo

2010-06-12T04:57:00.001-07:00

Hola a todos!

It's June. It's June? It's June! Which means a whole year has passed since arriving confused and sleepy at 2 in the morning to a dark and misty Peru. And I'm still alive... and loving it! I just decided I need to write a blog yesterday while washing my laundry. There's a lot of time to think while washing laundry by hand and your thoughts tend to be spastic and have no order so I think that's how this blog is going to go.

First of all... this is true for me (and for probably many other Peru and other peacecordian volunteers, though not all) I'm finding the 2 hardest things to manejar (that means to drive.. literally.. I guess figuratively you would say handle?) would be moving my way around this new country's bureaucracy (i.e. talking to the mayor/other important people I need funding from or to get projects going with) and bathing. The bureaucracy part includes the fact that.. hey!... I speak campesino spanish all day long people! That's right. My current spanish, although understandable, is like if I learned English in the South. Or worse. And it's now mixed with Quechua. Which isn't a problem until I am in the mayor's office trying to talk about a comprehensive project we can do to prevent AIDS and why that's important. Ugh. It's just a shock for the language system in me. Also (and I think I can speak this on behalf of ALL Peru peacecordians) I am so enferma (sick) of all this stupid paperwork that Peru makes you do for EVERY little thing. So DONE with that. Aye! You didn't get an official invitation??? We have to fix that right now even though we have to go thru great hoops to do that. The world is ending if we don't write an official looking officio for every little request that mostly is just fluffy words and probably one line of content. Blah. And bathing. It is just such a process in my campo site. And there are plenty of other volunteers who have it worse (and better). We do have a shower but the problem is the water comes from Huascaran. Ice water. Yaku de rahu. No gracias. Can't do it. It literally hurts. So I've probably taken a total of 7 bucket baths since moving to Shilla the end of August last year. I get firewood, light it, boil the water for an hour but it in a bucket... etc etc. Whew. The work for such a simple thing! :) Plus when you're done you don't feel all that must cleaner anyway. So I mostly just...don't do it. Huaraz is only 2 hours away anyway. I once came to Huaraz just to take a shower and then go back to Shilla. I was desperate that time.

Anyways. Washing my laundry yesterday I did reflect on the fact about the 1 year mark.. that I'm almost one year in site too and how the concept of time has really changed for me. In the beginning... I swear that first week (although a great week) upon arrival to training in Peru.. felt like a MONTH. And training, although only 11 weeks, felt like a good chunk of time and because training was centered on a breakdown of the weeks that's kinda how I lived. Oh. Week 5 is done. Oh. Week 11. Time to go to site. Then the first months in site is broken down to 3 months because after that you meet up with your group again for a training. And things are slow as you try to put together a diagnostic. Slooowwww.. And then it picks up. Slowly I haven't been counting days or months or weeks. I now think in terms of projects.. or what I need to get done for Tuesday for my class or who I need to talk to to get a mural painted on the hospital. Or when my dad or my friend is coming to visit. My concept of time in Shilla has also changed. First it was. How long can I spend in Shilla? How many days in a row? Like a contest. And that included not even leaving for day trips to Carhuaz for internet. Now I lead a normal life.. feel very independent. I can go down to Carhuaz for a couple hours or go get my friend's dog from a neighboring town and bring the puppy up to Shilla for the day. It's liberating because now life is normal. I am free and feel I have a balanced life between work, play, escape time, travel, coordinating, time with the Peruvian chico, and family time with the host familia. Things are busy right now for work and I think that helps a LOT. The busier I am, the more time I am forced to venture out of the room and NOT watch South Pacific for the 5th time this week, the better for my emotional health. And as my friend Laurie pointed out last week (she is visiting!!! yay!) it's a BIG self esteem booster to go into the primary and the secondary school everyday. All you hear is your name being screamed happily by small children with their arms stretched out to greet you! :) That makes it all worth it. Vale la pena. No matter how successful my Environmental Club is or how how many kids I "reached" in such and such project... I made a connection with kids I never knew existed in a town so beautiful under Huascaran that I can't believe I would have never known it if I hadn't become a peacecordian.

Abrazos fuertes,

Happy Birthday Madre! :)

Nombres

2010-05-08T13:44:00.000-07:00

Hello todos!

A quick thought/reflection or two. One of the things that sticks out about Peruvian culture is all about names. In general (I hate to generalize but here it goes) individuality, creativity and standing out is not celebrated here like it is in the U.S. This is reflected in many ways, one being when it comes to naming children.

I have been asked 6 times so far in my 11 months here to give "American" names so as to name their children after famous people. So.. you have your John Kennedys (the a 3 year old boy down the street), your Juniors (but that's their name. Not for kids who have the same name as their dad. And it's pronounced "yunor"), and a myriad of typical American names (there are three other Emilys.. NOT a single Emilia... here in Shilla with me). But of course they're going to pronounce these names in the Peruvain Spanish accent, no? I mean, that's fine.. it's only natural. But when asking me for names they want the "correct" pronunciation... which they will never get because.. hey.. we're from different countries! And that's ok! So in the end I try and explain this to them and then just give them a list of names I happen to like... Just last Thursday I included "Yukiko" on the list. The girls seemed to like it... and the fact that I told them the names is japonesa... maybe there will soon be a little Yukiko in Shilla? :)

Another thing that's gracioso (funny) is the spelling.. and the many ways to spell the names. There are many teenage boys named Roosebelt for example. Here are the many variations of spelling: Rusbel, Roosbel, Roosbelth, Roosebelt, Roosevel... etc, etc. And that's just from one classroom. And each time they spell their own name, they spell it differently. In a way, the spelling doesn't even matter. Maybe it's just a teenage thing.

An important thing to note is that it's not just American names that Peruvians choose for their ninos... they'll take any country in Europe or Russia or Asia too. I know several Estalins (Stalin) and little Hitlers running around. Yesterday, on my way to Huaraz for a meeting I saw a political mural painted on the wall that reads in big bold letters: VOTA PARA HITLER. PARA UN CAMBIO (Vote for Hitler. For a change.) I mean, personally I would never vote for him.. doesn't matter how nice of a guy he might be... that's just me though. Most people here don't know what the Holocaust was (unless they're a professional.. and even then maybe not).

I mean, the anecdotes go on and on about names... but I have to say my funniest experience was when one morning a young man came to my house, looking specifically for me (I did not know him) because his first born child (a son) was just born and he needed a name and quick (something about a birth certificate and if you don't get it on time you have to pay... which is why it's not uncommon to find many people whose birthdays are actually a couple weeks before their birth certificate declares). I gave him a list of boys names that I happen to like.. and are pretty common in the U.S.... hoping maybe he'd name his boy James or Oliver or something like that. I gave him the list.. happily pronouncing the names. I didn't seem him for a few months. Then one day he shows up again and asks "Escoge un nombre... pero no recuerdo como pronunciarlo. Puedes ayudarme?" (I picked a name... but I don't remember how to pronounce it. Could you help me?) I was excited to see which one he decided on! Would it be Brian? Or maybe Lukas? Nope. Yeltsin Heidigger... that's right. Yeltsin Heidigger. Needless to say, I did not give him that name as a suggestion. I mean.. I remember Heidigger from Philosophy 304 in college... something about ontological thought or whatever... but.. what?!? Of course I said.. I cannot help you. I am not Russian. He says "I know. But I need help pronouncing it." Apparently he found the names looking for famous people. Yeltsin was a famous scientist. Heidigger - the philosopher. Both from countries that are NOT the U.S. And that's fine. (I mean, I feel a little bad for that poor boy Yeltsin, but.. que ever). But I said I CANNOT help you pronounce this name. I am NOT from that country. I tried the best I could and he went on his way. It's a unique name alright. Maybe I'll run into to Yeltsin in a couple years when he goes to Jardin (pre school).

That is todo for now. Hasta la proxima... If you have any good name suggestions, keep 'em coming.. I will need 'em!

Abrazos,

Pitsqay

2010-05-01T12:15:00.000-07:00

The other night I woke up at 5 in the morning to the sound of haunting singing and the dim light of many candles.... and my clothes sewn to the blankets I was sleeping with. It was Pitsqay (pronounced Peets-kay). The second night after you bury someone (my host mom's very old mother just died last Sunday) their spirit is said to come back to their house, so all family members sleep there. The idea is if you succumb to your sleepiness than the rest of the family plays tricks on you by drawing on your face or sewing random clothes to you or your blankets. In the early morning hours they sing as a way to say goodbye and then burn all clothes and personal items that were owned by the deceased. Peruvians and their funerals are at least a week event which means little sleep, a lot of alcohol, a lot of family time and many customs. Needless to say, this past week I got to know the Shillapino culture, Quechua, and my host familia a little bit more.

Finalmente: Pics from Semana Santa!

2010-04-23T12:41:00.000-07:00

Ok. So here are some fotos (in reverse order) from the Santa Cruz trek that Christie, Oso and I embarked on the first four days of abril. :) Enjoy.

I feel this is good one to show what Oso did most of the time: bark at cows and donkeys and people. :)

I always get stuck in the mud with Baja. Oh. By the way Patagonia. I need more shoes!

We made it to the top. Doesn't matter that it took us 3 hours from camp and it only took the Peruvian boy 1 hora.. nope. Doesn't matter at all.

Almost to the top. The valley behind us is what we went in to get to this point. Shumaq, no?

Crossroads.

Peacecordians at work.

So this in reverse order.. but.. anyways.
Successful fording of river!

Oregon Trail anyone?

Actually thinking about fording the river instead of having to bushwhack our way to the trail.

"haha. We should ford the river."

Jatuncocha (in Quechua that means... Big Lake.)

This is Ichikcocha (which means? Yup. Little Lake.)

Just one of the many stunning views Anca$h has to offer.

Campsite Number 1. Getting lista for the dia.

First day. Good spirits, all of the stuff on the back.. actually that make us feel pretty good about ourselves considering every other person on this 4 day, 3 night trail hired donkeys and men to carry their gear. Peacecordians do it right. :)

It was divertido and I can't wait to explore mas!

Abrazos,

Semana Santa

2010-04-09T06:06:00.000-07:00

Hola a todos!

So, as I mentioned last blog, I went on a four day backpacking trip on the Santa Cruz trek with Baja... and it was amazing! As expected... even though it did not include making and eating pita....( I saw the pics.. the pita this year looked delicious). Anywho. We saw so many glaciers and mountains that it's impossible to know all their names, got to sleep in a tent, ate good camping food, walked uphill and downhill with Oso (Christie's perro), met some new amigos from Lima, hiked in the rain (only one day), saw lots of cows, donkeys and horses in the meadow, climbed up to 4,760 meters on Punto Union, got passed up by a 18 year old peruvian boy while going uphill on our third day (it took us 3 hours to get to the top.. it took him 1.. yeah! Seriously. He was a mountain goat!), practiced Quechua with the "donkey" man, and generally just enjoyed the splendor that is Ancash! Very shumaq (bonita.. beautiful). It was a good way to pass Semana Santa for sure.

Now it's back to site for more workness until ... (I'm not counting anything, but) 41 days with my padre and hermano get here!! (And Lowie tambien!!) I can't wait!

Hasta la proxima!

abrazos,

Happy Easter!

2010-03-31T13:50:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all! Just a little nota to say Happy Pascuas and Easter Egg hunting and pita/lamb eating... I will miss being there. In the meantime.. I'm backpacking for four days on my vacation. Santa Cruz trail to be exact. Should be fun.. and a different way to celebrate Easter. :)

Hasta pronto!

I will post pics.

Abrazos,

Riverside: The original Peace Corps

2010-03-25T08:06:00.000-07:00

Hola a todos! So it's time for a blog with words instead of just pictures... the lazy way to do it, and as I have been doing it for most of March :).

First of all, Happy 20th Birthday to mi hermano James! :) I remember I turned 20 in Spain and really felt like it was a big deal. I don't know. Something about finally changing that 1 to a 2 or something. But anyways, I hope you had a good one and you probably went to Disneyland again or something because that's what you guys do now that I'm gone. hehe.

Things are starting to roll now on the work front even though some vacation time is coming up pretty soon. Today I'll have my second (and hopefully a lot more productive) Medio Ambiente (Environmental) Club meeting with the kids from the primary school. I'll be learning to compost and do fun stuff right along with them... hopefully I'll teach them how to start little projects on their own and to work as a team as well as how to take care of Mother Nature.

In the realm of normal Shilla life I have been routinely sweeping (yay! too much dust) and cleaning every morning right along side my host familia and it recently dawned on me. The best thing, or what most prepared me in my life before becoming a Peace Cordian, was all the time spent in my grandparents' house in Riverside. :) De verdad though. Really really. Because now I'm living in an adobe house (like theirs), with lots of chickens, homeless dogs, allapa (Quechua for a lot of) dirt, no showers (although I guess that was my fault for never wanting to take a shower at grandma's.. I mean.. I would just get dirty again, what was the point?), eating delicious red grapes with seeds in the middle, cactus... the list just goes on. And Riverside was the best training. Ever. The end. :) I don't feel like I had to acostombrar so much because I was already used to it!

Speaking of Riverside, I'm getting a little sad about the fact that I will be missing Easter this year. :( Aye. No pita. I'm afraid it just wouldn't come out the same. Maybe next year I will intentar to make it if this year turns out to be really depressing. Maybe I'll just throw my very own Easter Egg hunt or something. Or dye some runtu (Quechua for eggs) at the very least. Luckily Lisa (Peru 13 peacecordian... all the way from Chota area, Cajamarca!!!!) is coming to go climbing with us here... it'll be fun and hopefully take my mind off the delicious lamb roasting slowly over an open flame somewhere far away... well. Maybe in Shilla instead of lamb it would be chancho (pig).. not too diferente, eh? I'll update about the traditions of Pascuas (Easter) here... if there are any!

Ok. Hasta la proxima! Abrazos!

Escalaring Pics

2010-03-20T13:26:00.000-07:00

You show that rock, Baja!

Raul... helping me get down the rock wall...

See the girl in the blue and white on the top? That's me!

They know what they're doing!

Viviana, "Burro", me and Raul. :)

Some pics to go with March Madness

2010-03-19T11:53:00.000-07:00

climbing.....

baby chanchos

It's corn dryin' season!

My lil' awesome sobrina showin off some mad skills.

What's up, March?

2010-03-13T05:50:00.000-08:00

Hola a todos!

Marzo is here... wait? what? Marzo is half-way through? Alright. :)

March for Peru means school starts again! But here, as I found out as a youth volunteer, there is no such thing as a first day of school... or a first day as we know it. With the nervous jitters and the new crayons in the box and the first day of school activities... finding your nametag on your desk, playing get to know you games. Nope. Here the students come to school, not knowing what's up.. there's no horario (schedule) planned yet and the teachers are just getting their stuff together and the kids then usually just stand around outside or go home.. or not show up until the following week when things are a little more organized. So I have spent my first weeks of March not teaching yet.. instead planning, and hopefully things will start to get underway in April! If I'm lucky. :)

So. I'm planning a recycling program... actually, recently I spent a dia at the dump with one of the elementary school teacher and three kids to go see where the people of the city of Carhuaz (down the hill from Shilla) put their trash. They actually have a recycling and compost system and that is our goal for Shilla in the next couple of years. In conjunction with this we are planning to make a Medio Ambiente Club (Environmental club) at the primary school and then we can teach them fun things like compost and recycling art projects, etc. :) It should be fun. I think we'll be having a contest in May: make a person out of recycled things! Most creative gets a prize.

Umm.. let's see.. also I will hope to start the library and book project soon.. first step: find the Rotary Club in Huaraz. And, apart from that some autoestima classes here... some vocational orientation classes there... and we'll see what unfolds! More bracelet teaching probably... (kids seem to love that!)

In other noticias: My pig had little chanchitos! I went on a hike by myself this week without meaning to and found another volunteer's site :), I'm learning how to rock climb and boulder, and my Quechua is comin' along. Allim, no?

Abrazos Fuertisimos!

Sheep Update

2010-02-20T05:48:00.000-08:00

So I just bajared (came down) my dirt road to Carhuaz and one of the passengers of our little car put his three sheep in the back. They were all tied up and such in order to stay calm and not move around. They hardly made any noise either. Just thought I'd share that with the world. :)

We have more Quechua classes coming up next week so I will post more picture then! For now... chao!

Abrazos,

Shilla Perspectives

2010-02-14T06:45:00.000-08:00

So here is the "epic" ish blog post I promised... earlier than promised!

A couple weeks ago I wrote an epic email to my mom in the states. The reason why it was epic was because I wrote it while in site (in Shilla) which allowed me to just come back to it whenever I was able and write about the things that were happening as they were happening. Sometimes when I go into Huaraz I’m distracted by time with other peacecordians and other chores and the overwhelming beautiful thing that is the internet. Therefore, emails I write there tend to be shorter and don’t cover how I actually feel most of the time in Shilla. So I’m going to give this stream of consciousness writing style from Shilla a try for my blog. Here goes.

10 de febrero
It is 3: 10 p.m. here in Shilla. Warm, sunny with big thunder head looking nubes (clouds) above which is pretty typical lately. It’s supposed to be rainy season, and I was all excited coming from Portand and all, but alas… the rain is letting me down some… not enough of it :). Anywho, today is a calm day. I woke up a little later than my usual time of 7:00, prepared my stuff for class, ate a typical bowl of noodle soup for desayuno (breakfast), and went across the street (literally 20 steps) to the school to teach my English class by 10:00 a.m. The attendance has been lacking for a couple weeks but today I had more alumnus (17 students) because I had promised it would be the day to celebrate Carnaval. At this point I should describe a bit of what Carnaval is:

Basically the best holiday ever! So, you know how we celebrate Mardi Gras? Or how at least New Orleans celebrates Mardi Gras? (my fav memoria must be in sixth grade when we celebrated in Mrs. Martin’s class… we got to make masks!!) Well, here they celebrate by soaking everyone and anyone with water… and paint in the department of Cajamarca. Mostly the kids celebrate… I mean, boys started soaking passerbys in cars and combis in the beginning of the month! But apparently it’s a big thing this weekend and to celebrate I am going to Cajamarca mañana in order to experience the real deal of paint throwing and chaos all over the city. No puedo esperar!

Anyways, I promised my kids that we could throw water balloons and such at each other if they promised not to spray water on each other during class when I ask them not to. So. Today was the day and it was fun! We started out with me teaching them the classic water balloon pair toss and then it turned basically into a war. I was soaked, that’s for sure. The boys are little resourceful geniuses. They cut little tubes, put a bottle cap on the top, find a stick that’s the same length, and put a plastic bag over the top of the stick and basically make homemade Super Soakers. Who needs to buy a Nerf one in the stores? Afterwards we cleaned up the bits of balloons (hopefully we got all of them) and called it a day, but I think they really enjoyed themselves. Who doesn’t like soaking others? Today has basically been a day of yaku (water in Quechua) for me; I also just took a warm bucket bath shower thing (which must be my 5th one since arriving here in August… before you shout “ewwwww!!” I ALSO take showers when in Huaraz.. sheesh people) and washed all my clothes. My fingers are prunes but I smell good.

Yesterday I got my estantes (bookshelves) finally! Yay! In total they cost 110 soles for two big ones. And they make a world of difference in my room. Now I can use the walls instead of the floors as storage devices! And now my room is actually all clean and organized. Those who know (or have lived with me) don’t believe me but it’s la verdad. Now I just need to save up for a ropero (ummm… how do you say that in English? Uhhh… crap. Oh yeah. Dresser. ) I’m still living out of my suitcase.

Yesterday morning was an interesting experience. I went to a nearby caserio called Catay with a friend who knows a lot about agriculture and farm animals. About 35 minutes up, up, up, up hill. Once we arrived at the family’s house, my friend Alex proceeded to castrate a pig. Poor chancho. It looked painful. Then we gave some shots to two huge toros (bulls). I got to fill the shots… apparently I’m going to learn some random skills here. My other friend Raul, who is a rock climber/mountain guide, speaks French so my francais is getting better too… random, no?

It’s raining hard now. Yay! Gotas de agua are dripping into my room though… oh well. At least they’re not over my bed… yet. I just got back from playing with the “ovalo kids” as I call them. There’s a little plaza (ovalo they call it) area next to the Health Center a little down the hill from my casa where the kids from around this part play in the evenings. Since it was raining we gathered in the gazebo and played “nudo” or “knot”… meaning everyone makes a human knot by taking the hands of someone else in the group and untangling the knot you’ve created. Our record for the day is 14 people! Adult Shillapinos always look on with amused expressions on their rostros (faces)… hopefully in a few months it will seem normal and they’ll just glance at us no mas when I play with the kids.

I noticed that I am really starting to integrate because the people of Shilla don’t look at me strangely when I’m just walking down the street to my next destination. Kids and adults alike know my name. It just has become second nature to not be looked at twice by my fellow Shillapinos. I noticed this because when going to a different pueblo (like I did yesterday with my Ancash coordinator boss person, Nelly, to look at a potential site for a new volunteer in August) it starts all over again, with the stares and the puzzled amused looks and me feeling… very (there’s no other way to put this)… white. It makes me feel good to go back to Shilla. That would be the really difficult thing if you had to change locations like some volunteers do. You’d get past all the awkward looks in one place and then you’d have to start it up all over again in another town. I don’t blame people. I must look so strange at first. I’m truly a giant her. Probably twice the size of my frail grandma who has been camped in our house for a month because of her ailing health. They say she is 91 years old. No se la verdad.

To be continued in site...

Abrazos fuertes,
Em

There will be an epic blog soon...

2010-02-11T16:23:00.000-08:00

Hola a todos!
There will be an epic written in site blog coming this blog´s way soon. In a couple weeks... as of now I do not have my computadora with me and as such cannot post said blog. But.. just a shout out to the fact that the Oregonian quoted me! Chevere!

Ok. Off to Cajamarca tonight.. hasta dos semanas aproximadamente!

Chao
Abrazos,
Em

February Happenings

2010-02-06T05:10:00.000-08:00

Hola a todos! It is officially February. I don't even remember what I did last February. :) huh. This one though is looking to be a good one. Next weekend is Carnaval which means I'm going to Cajamarca (the party central of Carnaval for Peru). It involves throwing water and paint on ANYone who passes you by for a full weekend. Words can't describe my excitement. Yay culture! That means I'm for sure going to Cajamarca with no valuables and wearing shirts I don't mind getting paint on. No puedo esperar!

Since the Quechua classes I have been able to pick out more words at the dinner table this past week which is encouraging! The stages of learning a language are so interesting. It's like putting together a puzzle... blind. Mouth and ears groping for words that are just out of reach as they're swarming around you. I wonder if there will be any Quechua professor job openings by the time I get back.

Classes are going well (I'm a fan of vacaciones utiles!), peacecordian friends keep me sane when the goin' gets tough (I miss my "site mate" Lisette!), my host family makes me feel part of their own (for instance, I've been helping making a wool blanket and I help in some way with every meal usually by making cucumber salads or pancakes, my niece can sing the entire Happy Talk song, and my host sis has been styling my hair everyday for the past week... maybe I'll actually learn how to braid!), and now I have a plethora of peruvian friends to take me on great hikes! Poco a poco, no? Oh! And I heard the great news about the newbie John Paul! Yay! :) Congrats Amy and Dean! By the time I will see him he will be a big guy!

Espero que todo este bien en los E.E.U.U. :) Hasta pronto!

Abrazos,

Of Mountains and Freedom

2010-01-30T20:12:00.000-08:00

Up until living here in Ancash, Peru I liked hiking, I liked the outdoors and liked outdoor activities but it wasn’t something I thought about a lot. Or thought I needed. Now, I really can’t get enough of it. It would not be an exaggeration to say that my backyard is basically hill upon hill upon mountain upon lake of naturaleza of Huascaran National Park. When I go on my morning hike, I can walk up only 30 minutes are get rewarded with views that make me want to fly. Where before I was really proud to climb Half Dome, now I’m setting my sights higher, want to test my abilities, want to climb and explore more. When teen girls in my site describe a hike up in the mountains as just a “day hike” I yearn to be like them, to be like a mountain goat and just go!

I can really say that Shilla, Ancash is the most beautiful place I have ever been in my life and I take every chance I get to point that out to my host familia (who have seen it everyday their whole lives as well as the rest of the inhabitants of Shilla and thus have no idea that they are actually living in a gem). My little 3-year-old niece Itzl now points it out to me “Tia Emily! Mira! Shumaq nubes!” (Look, Aunt Emily! Beautiful clouds!) These are the moments that it so easy to feel a part of this town, so easy to feel myself becoming not just a passerby, but someone who is intricately connected to the nature and the people here.

Last week some fellow Peacecordians hiked over to Shilla from the other side of the hill where their pueblos are to visit and to get some delicious menu in the nearby Carhuaz. When I returned back up my dirt road to Shilla (a 30 minute trip no mas) I got to ride back in the back of a small truck! (finally!) Which just basically means standing up holding on to the bars and absorbing the shock of the bumps in your bent knees so as not to get jolted out. It was slightly raining and I was the only gringa in the back (so of course there were lots of stares and smiles) and I felt the most free I have ever felt in my life. I realized I didn’t know what freedom was before. Sure, I am part of a government program and therefore have certain goals and meetings to uphold to, however I am pretty much left to my own creations and ideas when it comes to projects and what I want to do on a daily basis. When I need to put a bookshelf in my room, I get to measure it; when I want to start projects, I make the contacts; when I want to explore, I just go! This experience is simply the most liberating one I have ever had. Maybe it’s just my age or the first time not having to answer or tell someone where I am or what I’m doing… but it tastes good.

This weekend we have Quechua classes in Huaraz, which I’m very excited about. One of my goals (besides hiking everyday J) is to be able to speak this language that I never even knew existed before last April (when I found out I was going to Peru). I now even get text messages in this language!

Hasta pronto, (can you believe January has already passed with lightning speed?) cuidate!

Abrazos Fuertes,

Peacecordian Duties

2010-01-22T07:08:00.000-08:00

Hola a todos! Just writing a little note to let everyone know I'm still alive, well, and kickin' it in Shila. :) January and February are the summer vacation months here so I've been teaching summer school! (vacaciones utiles they call it) I teach bracelet making and "English" (I embed other things in my "English" class.. it's mostly named that just to get kids to come) and now everyday I have about 30 students (who are mostly around the age of 10). I also have been teaching a Vocational Orientation class in which I have five alumnas (female students).. to focus on how to get a job, how to get into the universities/institutes around here in Ancash. Manana I'm going to take a field trip with them and go to the neighboring town to interview some professionals. I hope it goes well! Other than that, I've been hiking, playing cards with my familia, learning more Quechua and thinking of projects to do when the school year starts up again in March. Here are some fotos of recent happenings:

Playin' Spoons! My Mountain (or so I feel when I look at it :)

The pulseras (bracelet) estudiantes On a hike with the host bro!

Helping out the Fish Farm... in short, Peacecordian duties are never what you expect!

Feliz New Year!

2010-01-02T15:13:00.000-08:00

For New Years in Peru the thing to do is wear yellow underwear. Apparently it brings good luck if you wear some especially while the clock is ticking down to midnight. Everything is yellow, not just underwear.. there were yellow balloons, yellow stuffed animals, yellow food, (this is where the Peruvian Inca Kola... the soda pop of Peru... is handy because of it's trademark bright yellow shade) yellow TODO. :) Another Peruvian tradition is to eat 12 grapes at midnight.. thinking of a wish as you eat each one.. that's 12 wishes people. I couldn't even think of that many so I just basically said the same couple of wishes over and over again. For our Peruvian Peacecordian New Years we had the company of some of our fellow 13ers who live in different departments.. and it was simply amazing, spectacular and fun! We had some hiking adventuras, made some delicious dinners, saw some beautiful Ancash lakes and even got to go.. horseback riding! That's right! :) That must have been the highlight of our couple of days ringin' in 2010.. for me anyways. It reminded me of Riverside.. except with greenery and stunning views of huge snowcapped mountains... pretty much the same, no? :)

It's recently the start of vacaciones for the jovenes (youth) here in Peru. (They get January and February off for their summer vacation)... we'll be doing an art class and some jewelry making and I'm planning on planning for the library projects I'd love to do, some Vocational orientation classes for the high school kids and planning an Environment Club with one of the primary school profesoras. Since things are flexible in terms of my time now and the craziness of December has come to a close I'll have more time to go hiking around my town and explore mas as well... we Ancashinos voluntarios also get to have some Quechua classes during these months which will be.. EXTREMELY helpful in my learning of this idioma that I never even knew existed 8 months ago... we shall see if I even get to become at least to a conversational level knowledge. That's my goal anyway.

In other noticias, I'd just like to say that I can't believe it's already been 7 months in Peru and every day I'm learning something new about this country, Spanish, Americans, how to cook, culture... the list keeps going. I look forward to this new year knowing that by the end of 2010 I will have learned so many more things that I can't even fathom right now even if I tried. So, happy new years to todos! I hope it's going to be a great one.

abrazos fuertes,

2009-12-24T06:47:00.000-08:00

Lake Titikaka was amazing! Thank you to Richard (hehe) and Jenna for the splendid vacation in Peru!!! I will update tomorrow on the adventuras...

Taquile woman (one of the islands we visited on the Lago)

Spectacular views from Amantani island

Yeah. We wore the traditional garb. And then went to a party. :)

Amantani Island. Looking very patriotic with the Peruvian flag.

Uros. The Floating Islands. Very chevere.

You really couldn't take a bad picture, you know?

Roomies reunited!

More traditional clothing.... the hat surprisingly stays on.

awwww....

Right before seeing the "Fertility clinic" or Fertility Temple as some people call it. :)

You feel like you're a Peacecordian when...

2009-12-11T16:25:00.000-08:00

So. I need to share a quintessential Peace Corps moment that I had this week. And yes, I did need to bold Peace Corps in that sentence because even if I wasn't in Peace Corps when this following little cuento (story) happened I would think "huh. This is a very Peace Corps moment." Here goes:

This semana, Shilla is celebrating their 75th Bodas de Diamante Anniversary which is on the 14th by the way.. but in Peru you take a day holiday and turn it into a weeklong (or sometimes much longer) party. Everyday this week Shilla had somethin' else goin' on from a cooking contest (which I was a judge to by the way :) to parades to theater and dance contests.

On Wednesday there was a medical day where the Health Post when down to the Plaza and gave free consultations (from a checkup to a dental visit to a gynecological appointment.. yup. You heard me. And that last check up in a test mind you. Outside. In the plaza.) Anywho. They also were giving out free medicine. The health post workers asked me to help out with set up and facilitation, etc. Which is really nice because basically it was a way for me to get out there and have the people see me some more doing something for the community. The health post also asked me to dress up as Santa Clause too.. but luckily I got out of that one (it's so hot in those costumes!). So, I was ayudando without much direction (the thought came to me that it felt very much like City Corps and that I should probably get a teen Shilla City Corps group together to do stuff like this next year) and it didn't feel like the health workers really wanted me around all that much (I mean they're the experts.. I'm just tall so I can hang banners up high where normal Peruvians can't reach)... I felt a little bad because I really wasn't all that much of a help. But then... a moment happened.

I was talking with my padje (abuelo en Quechua) who is this really sweet old man by the way. He calls me nina (little girl! how cute is that?) Anyways, we were sitting on the curb chatting when someone starts passing out little candies to ALL the people waiting in line to see the doctors (and there a lot of people by the way). The candies are these little lemon tasting/shaped hard candies and each come in their own handy dandy wrapper. The problem with that is everyone, without a second thought, will just throw that wrapper on the ground.. and this goes for any kind of trash any size..... anything (they don't have the "oh my gosh, my napkin just flew out the window do you think we'll get fined?" kind of guilt that I would say most Americans have). So, naturally my abuelo let his wrapper fall to the ground. I then, nicely, picked up the trash off the ground and said "I'll throw this in the tacho (trashcan) for you". A second later I looked up, and every single one of the traditional pollera, yankee wearing women who probably don't speak much Spanish, saw me and with a smile were picking up their wrappers that just a second ago they had dropped! Yeah. I was awe struck. Ok. I know it's something tiny. But after feeling like no help and seeing that just by picking up a wrapper the size of my thumb nail for my grandpa made all the rest of the Shillapinos pick up their trash... it made my heart warm. I felt like maybe.. maybe I am a help. That maybe I will have an impact. No matter how small.

So. That's my Peace Corps story. I am heading to Lake Titicaca in a week with Raquel and Jenna (words can't express my excitement) after next week's Peru 13 Youth Development reunion meeting (yay for seeing amigos!). I hope everyone is having a good Christmas season with many candy canes and good smelling trees (I told some of my guy students that I like the smell of pine trees, so they brought me some leaves by the way). Hasta pronto!

Abrazos

La Lucha Contra El SIDA (World AIDS Day)

2009-12-06T17:43:00.000-08:00

"Jovenes Contra el SIDA" (Youth against AIDS)

They let me speak on the loud voice in the ambulance!

We had a little charla (class) in the plaza about STDs and AIDS with the doctors...

That's right. We had a marcha!

Some of my high school girls in the quinto grado

And some high school boys in cuarto grado!

I think it went well!

3 Months in Site!

2009-11-29T08:10:00.000-08:00

Some Shilla youth! In our awesome new coliseo...

I will hopefully start to work more with the primaria (elementary) kids mas starting next school year. The Peuvian summer vacation starts the end of December until March... maybe some art summer school classes? We shall see....

Fellow chevere Ancash volunteers on a hike to Lake Churup.

The fellow volunteers are amazing.. and the new 4 Peru 14ers just got here this past week. Quechua classes in January will be very fun and hopefully more hike filled.

Baja and I on the hike!

Oso (Christie's dog) came on the hike too! There is an Ancash volunteer tradition of jumping into the glacier lakes.. we shall see if I actually do it...

Sun rain view from my casa.

The rainy season has started officially. I remember, literally, the first day of October it poured and basically there was lluvia (rain) the entire rest of the month.. and then.. it stopped. Until recently. I love the sound it makes on my tin roof and I can't wait til it is raining all day long... just how I like it. Plus todo is all verde (green) now. It's gorgeous. Oh. Also, there are frequently rainbows in sun showers like this one depicted above. My host sister Gladis informed me that rainbows kill people. So I told her that we think there is a pot of gold at the end of them.... which is a sillier explanation? You tell me.

The little plaza close to my house.

Dad. Here is our portion of a paved road. I believe this plaza is relatively new and I enjoy sitting in the little gazebo things when it rains and playing/chatting with the kids on the steps.

Me and some Shilla madres.... after teaching about AIDS.

World Aids Day is December 1st.. so we're going to have Shilla's first ever March against AIDS on Tuesday. In order to prepare, my health post counterpart (the awesome dentista) and I taught some charlas to the secundaria kids and some moms about what AIDS and HIV are and then we'll have the marcha.

My PANDA trash can! Too cute to not buy.... should I send you one Bri?

I still falta some things for my room like a dresser/wardrobe.. and hopefully I'll paint a mural. We shall see...

Mi cozy cuarto... with a wall and all... and this is after I cleaned it.

Fun with the sisters.

I swear I work on my Community Diagnostic too.. cough.

World Map Progress.. I'll be posting just world mapness from start to finish soon when it's all done. Falta poco. The jovenes are good painters!

Peruvian Pasttimes

2009-11-27T07:53:00.000-08:00

- Combi rides! (the best ones are on the way to or from Shilla from/to Carhuaz)

- Eating soup for breakfast (usually accompanied by a second dish... I miss cereal)

- Sleepovers in Jangas

- Listening/Dancing to Huayno (lyrics I sing a lot: Se va.. se va.. con el coche de su madre!!!)

- Listening/Dancing to Cumbia (lyrics I sing a lot: dejame entrar.. en tu vida y tu corazon!)

- Paint things

- Read..... a lot... and I mean... a lot.

- Swatting flies off my host abuela (grandma).... and then learning important lessons about hygene

- Disfrutaring (enjoying) the rain (it oftentimes works as a shower)

- Yelling at various animals (mostly chickens and our cat)

- Hang out with the host family (playing Go Fish, Bingo, generally laughing/eating meals)

- Recording cute Itzel (my niece) moments

- Teaching English in and out of school

- World Map-ness

- Trying to obtain Quechua superpowers

- Wearing yankees (the typical tire shoes)

- Sleeping (I get about 8 hours every night :)

- Chatting with Shillapinos

- Teaching children the "up high, down low, too slow" game

- Recently, spreading the word about AIDS (world AIDS day is December 1st)

- Huaraz time a couple times a month... meaning delicious American food with fellow volunteers

- Walking up and down my hill

- Eating papas like nobody's business

- Spending time with the jovenes (youth)!

Happy Turkey Day a day late! Today we (Ancash voluntarios) are making a delicious huge Thanksgiving Cena (dinner). Yay!

Abrazos,

Anca$h Updates

2009-11-15T07:10:00.000-08:00

Reporting live from Carhuaz in my Internet café favorito. I have a fever and sore throat among other enfermedades but it´s all bueno. ¡Tis the season for the flu! My family always takes great care of me... Anywho.

So. Don´t read the next little paragraph if you don´t like bugs, eggs in your skin or blood... skim down about halfway to where I talk about communicacion instead :) I now know that I must wash my feet more often. ¿Why you ask? Because apparently there are these little bugs called pikis (pronounced peekees) that can burrow into your skin and lay their eggs. I saw it first hand in my abuelita´s feet (grandma). It mostly just looked painful and hard to get the little eggs and critters out with an aguja (needle) shoveling into her flesh. My job was to swish the flies away from her feet. Man. I feel bad for her. I can´t communicate to her because she only speaks Quechua.. just some phrases like "nanan?" Does it hurt? or "Yameiyakukekanki?" which roughly translates to How are you? But I did notice yesterday that I was understanding a lot more Quechua than I did when I first arrived. yay! Mostly because I know some words and gestures and the interjected spanish words help a montón.

A ver. Más noticias (more news). The new Peru 14ers will be arriving to their sites next weekend which is pretty awesome. I´m no longer a newbie! hehe. Lisette (fellow volunteer and friend en Anca$h) just got a puppy!!! Now two Peru 13ers in Ancash have puppies.. Baja too... she named him Juneau (because he´s a husky) and Baja has Oso (which means Bear). They are adorable. Colleen and I think it would be kicker if we both got puppies. And then brought them to Early IST in December (our first meeting up with everybody since training). However. Puppies are a lot of work... sooo.. don´t worry madre. I don´t think I´m getting a puppy. More likely a horse :)

Thanksgiving is coming up ya.. we will have a pilgrim/indian theme. ¡¡¡¡ANCA$H is BETTER!!! I will be makin´the mashed papas. Although I am SICK of potatoes mashed ones will be a good change from the regular boiled ones I get. In one day I must be served at LEAST 8 to 10 potatoes... probably more. And they´re the thing that usually stays on my plate. That´s including beakfast lunch and dinner though.

I hope all is well in the U.S. of A. Extraño a todos and I can´t wait for Raquelita´s, Jenna´s and my trip in one month!!!

Abrazos,
Em

Daily Life in Ancash: pics and video

2009-11-12T17:14:00.000-08:00

World Map Progress!

My Front Door

Chocolate Torta for breakfast?? At 5:40 a.m.? :)

My hermana Gladis' Birthday! 21!

Baby guinea pigs (cuys) on the fridge!

A Niece and a Baby Chicken :)

Piano, anyone?

2009-11-05T07:29:00.000-08:00

Just a quick nota to say that I think I may have found a piano I can use twice a month! We shall see... I had to fill out a solicitud (Peruvian's official document to do anything) and everything. I will keep the masses updated. There have been several Shilla teens who have asked if I could teach them... this could be promising! :)

Pirates and Perspective

2009-11-01T12:04:00.000-08:00

Happy Día de los Muertos!
I just wanted to write a quick nota letting todos know that Ancash is Better. :) That is our (the volunteers who live in Ancash) theme or motto. Because it is true. Last night for Halloween we all dressed up.. and we went all out. The theme was pirates (one of the volunteers had even been growing out a beard since April to get ready for last night!) so most were some sort of pirate and then the rest of us pretty much adhered to the theme by being something related. Lisette, for example, was the treasure chest, Baja was Tiger Lily... there was a mermaid, parrot and even a narwal (¿spelling?). I was a ship (as I think I noted in the last posting).. because every crew of pirates needs a ship right? Complete with cannos, a sterring wheel and an anchor. It was pretty awesome and fun to get into the spirit of Halloween. Candy was consumed, fun was had.. and even the new Peru 14ers were there for their Field Based Training.

In other noticias, I can´t believe it´s already Noviembre. Locura I tell you. Getting to know the community, doing the diagnostic and starting small projects does make the time fly! There are so many little stories I have now and it´s been amazing to learn about this culture and my own. Yesterday, I was thinking how I had never REALLY looked closely at American culture like I am now.. here in Peru. When we (all the voluntarios) get together in Huaraz it´s like a little other mundo (world) where we just immediately understand each other without having to explain anything. Even if I meet an American Peace Corps volunteer who I´m not BEST friends with, we still have that commonality which facilitates ease. Jokes are más or menos caught, our actions aren´t weird, what we eat is normal and delicious... and I´m starting to see what it must look like to see an American from the outsider´s view... from a Peruvian´s perspectiva. Just like it´s really very easy to generalize the Peruvian culture and say... they´re always late, meetings are just talk and no action, they are hard workers, they like to drink alcohol, they dance a lot etc. etc. so too must it be so easy for them to think like this about us. That is why, with this in mind, I still haven´t tired over explaining the same things over and over again... like.. "Sí, hay lluvia en algunas partes de los Estados Unidos, pero tienes que tener en cuenta que los EEUU son grande y hay muchos terrenos y climas diferentes, como en el Perú. En Oregon, llueve un montón como acá en Shilla.. en el sur de California, casi nunca!¨ (yes it does rain in the United States but you have to remember that the U.S. is huge and there are lots of different climates and terrains like in Peru. In Oregon it rains a lot like here in Shilla and in Southern California, almost never). It´s only been two months, so maybe I will tire explaining the same things over and over again.. but I´ll just need to keep that perspective in mind.

The real joy is when you start to get to really know some of those people who before were ¨Peruvians¨in your mind. That perspective has melted away for me in regards to my host family. I don´t see my madre as that ¨cuy (guinea pig) killing machine who works in the chacras¨ so much as I now know that she loves to crack a joke and to laugh... that she gets nervous by other people she sees as authority easily.. and when she gets nervous her eyes somehow look smaller and her voice is quieter, that there is a tender sadness underneath everything she does and she´s content to live in Shilla but it considerate to think of even a crazy California girl´s needs without even having imagined ever leaving her country. The herbs they use in tea and the many illnesses they prevent don´t seem outlandish or weird to me anymore.. even the other day when my madre told me that she heard bread causes cancer I caught myself... wait. Maybe bread does cause cancer. Who´s to say that all those thing I learned in the U.S. weren´t just fabled myths too? Peruvians could be right! This is all apart of asimilating I guess... and it will continue... I´ll be Peruvian before you know it! (just kidding Laurie.. I´m coming home.. no te preocupes). I can´t wait to get to know my familia and other people in my community más, and for their own label as ¨tall blonde gringa Americana¨to wash away when they look at me in return.

¡Hasta la próxima!
Abrazos desde Carhuaz,
Em

This should have been posted awhile ago... :)

2009-10-30T11:00:00.000-07:00

Spring Update (it's reverse here in the Southern Hemisphere)

2009-10-30T10:07:00.000-07:00

More World Map - ness. Notice our resourcefulness with the chairs. Also note that in Peru, there are no liability laws.

My sister Gladys (on the right) with Itlz (my niece) on our donkey, Ramon. Returning home from work in the chacras.

Fun with PhotoBooth at home during a rainy evening.

Me. Drawing some countries. On a ladder I do not trust. :)

Hola a todos! I'm reporting from Huaraz, Ancash (the capitol of this department!) from one of our amazing cafes which is complete with brightly painted walls, hundreds of libros (books), delicious veggie sandwiches and even a mural of Where the Wild Things Are. (I believe that movie is coming out or came out this month... right? Look, I'm not SO out of American happenings :)

So. What I've been up to lately. Mostly the Community Diagnostic actually. Which (hey!) is what we're actually supposed to be dedicated to our first three months in site. Basically it consists of gathering facts, conducting formal and (mostly) informal interviews with community leaders and people who live in your pueblo, attending meetings, making and giving surveys... basically finding out TODO about your town. How many births, what are the common illnesses, are there teen pregnancies? what do the youth like to do? are there youth groups? how many teachers are there and how often do they just not show up (often)? do people wash their hands? how many donkeys is too many? what does the alcalde (mayor) do? etc. etc. etc. Sooo... I've made some surveys for the segundaria kids, gotten to know the municipality folks by attending meetings (they tried to get me to buy the huge castillo firework thing that costs like S/2,000) and I now know all the problems and disputes my fellow townsfolk have had this past year, how many births there have been (61!) and the ages of their padres, and the average age to get married based on the last two years. I had some young kids draw me some maps of their town too, which was an especially cute part of doing this epic project. It's a good way to do productive things and learn a lot about what Shilla needs and wants from me for the next two years! Also, I'm learning a lot about Excel.... because when you have time, and a huge paper/project due in a month... there' s no better time to do it! I'll come back from my little adobe town with mad computer skillz (courtesy of fellow volunteer Lisette's patient.. or not so patient... teaching as well).

Besides that.. the world map is coming along. We finished drawing all the countries this week. Whew. All those little islands up norte are difficult! So we'll be painting these coming up weeks which should be the fun part. Ademas, I spent some time at the jardin (basically preschool) reading Mis Amigos (the kids book I brought with me), and getting to know the very chevere principal and teacher Erika. She is as tall as me.. and a peruvian! It IS possible. :) She has a lot of insight I feel to what Shilla students need and lack.

On the Host Familia front, I feel mas and mas part of the fam. Last night we (my madre, 13 year old sis and I) all cuddled in the same bed in the basement and watched the popular soap opera Luz Maria. It was raining and it was just... a comfy moment. Also, my little sobrina (niece) Itzl now is like my mini magnet. I'm exposing her to the many wonders of American and world music. I've been reading the wonderful book that Vivian sent me for my birthday (thank you so much for the package by the way!) about music and how it has shaped human culture (titled The World in Six Songs) and one part talks about how if a young kid is exposed to a range of music at an early age they'll be more open to different genres later on. So. That is my new little side project. Get Itzl to like artists such as: Steve Miller, soundtracks to musicals (like Happy Talk from South Pacific), Jack Johnson, M.I.A, Lily Allen, Ok Go, Manu Chao and yes.. even Flight of the Conchords, They Might be Giants and Red Elvises. Also, the C is for Cookie song (from Sesame Street) has come to be a favorite. Needless to say, it's been very entertaining and fun... even if we have to stay inside during the afternoons because it rains every day now. :) yay!

Living in Portland prepped me for Peace Corps!

I'd just like to point out that the music playing in the cafe is Cat Stevens. That is why Huaraz is awesome.

Happy Halloween (and Dia de los Muertos!) to everyone! I will be dressing up as a boat. Yup. A boat. Or better named.. a ship. Because our (the volunteers) theme is pirates. Although I doubt that it will be better than my bull two years ago with Rachel, it will rival with my mountain that I dressed up as in Spain back in '06. :) Eat Brachs candy corn for me.. or better yet.. you can send me some! :)

Abrazos y Besos

Some pics of Recent Shilla Vida

2009-10-25T10:45:00.000-07:00

World Map Drawing

Making puppets from plastic bottles!

The Little Library in Llipta

I love her jewelry.

Seriously. The most beautiful sunsets ever.

Some Epic Hike Fotos!

2009-10-25T10:35:00.000-07:00

Glaciers!

Pristine Lakes!

With the Peruvian neighbors....

Contemplating beauty. :

My First Peruvian Boda (wedding)

2009-10-18T14:48:00.001-07:00

So. I was invited to attend the wedding of one of my Peruvian cousins (who is the host sister of the previous volunteer here in Shilla). She and her husband are super amable and have the most adorable little boy. At the wedding, it turns out, he also got baptized (two for one!) and had this cute little tux on. But that´s besides the point. Anywho. So the mass part (since they are Catholic) was pretty much the same (except the priest asked the public if they wanted to receive communion and nobody went up to receive it) and then comes the after party. Peruvian parties (it does not matter if it´s for a wedding, funeral, birthday or a saint´s día) last a long time.. and by long time I do not mean 6 hours. I mean from 11:00 a.m. until 12 midnight. Yup. That is not an exaggeration. For everyone in the Peruvian Peace Corps right now, they would just nod and think that was normal. ¡So this post is just for you guys at home!

I had prepared for this and made sure to get my shut eye the night before.. since it was my first Peruvian wedding after all... and my familia was all going (including my two bros who live in Lima and hardly ever come to visit) and I knew that I would have to partake in the rampant drinking of alcoholic beverages and I would have to ¨bailar duro¨ (literally: dance hard). Their reception happened to take place in our newly opened coliseo which is this big indoor sports arena where you can play volleyball, basketball, soccer... and hopefully tennis (I bought a couple of cheap rackets and tennis balls recently.. I plan on lowering the volleyball net and teaching some kids a new sport! We´ll see how it goes). Needless to say, the coliseo is really nice and it was a good place to have a peruvian wedding reception.. lots of room, places to sit, the band had bueno accustics. (I´m sure the entire town, and towns surrouding Shilla, could hear the music all night long). The beginning of any Peruvain party is a little awkward. Everyone just sits next to their family and sort of talks a little... it gets better once the Pisco comes out. I ate, I did tomar (drink some alcohol) because literally they force it on you, and danced. I realized I really do like dancing Huayno (the two step.. it´s actually a very easy skipping kind of dance.. I can see why they do it and why they girls wear skirts while dancing) and being with the familia was really fun! After some time, all the party attendees got a little... borracho (drunk) and the fun starts. The band plays for about 20 minute sessions and then rests for about 15 minutes... and it continues like that. You dance, you rest and drink, you dance again. I think they do it this way because it really releases their feelings. My family, and the Peruvians I´ve met so far, work really hard and then they party hard in order to just feel. I think they drink during the parties to release their sentimientos and really feel the loss and joys of vida. They dance to just release.

We got back home about 11 p.m... I could still hear the music as I was drifting off to sleep... literally. The party was still going on. It was fun and I´m sure I will be seeing many more holidays and parties very similar to that one. Also, it was a great way to get closer to my familia. My host mom now calls me her hija and was hugging me a lot anoche. I feel so comfortable with them, they´re always looking out for me!

Next weekend, I´m heading to Huaraz for our monthly meeting with all of us Ancashinos. So, if you have skype you should get on sometime Fri evening or Saturday anytime if you can! I always want to give a shout out of congratulations to Amy and Dean! Just heard about the baby noticias! ¡Yay! Baby´s first trip.. ¿to Perú? hehe.

¡Hasta pronto!

Abrazos fuertes,
Em

A Paseo (HIke) for the Ages

2009-10-13T08:42:00.000-07:00

¡Hola a todos!
So. The title of this blog seems like it could be metaphorical. But it isn´t. Not even close! Last Thursday I embarked on an epic journey with my 3 vecinos (neighbors) and their two cousins and the family dog Peter up into the mountains. We didn´t go to Huascaran (the highest mountain in Perú, which I have a beautiful view of from my casa by the way), but we did go up to a very large point and saw 5 lagunas (turquoise, pristine glacial water lakes!) and we didn´t go back down the way we came up... we essentially were walking for 14 hours and it snowed where we ate lunch. (Take THAT Half Dome!) It was dangerous, very difficult, and amazing. So WORTH it. I definitely had difficulty with the air and the being tired.. but I persevered. And let me just say that Peruvians (especially those who live in the mountain pueblos of Ancash) NEVER tire. I aspire to be like them after two years. Oh. And I saw 5 avalanches. :)
In other noticias, the world map is definitely underway.. we have all the squares drawn up there and will commence the drawing tomorrow mañana. We played another riveting game of Ultimate Frisbee Peruvian Teen style this morning and on Thursday my sisters and I are putting on a Washing Your Hands puppet show for the kiddies in primaria. (complete with a little song on the pianica! now we just have to practice... :) Today is jam packed full of English classes (like every martes) and I think I will be going on a hike Sunday with the familia. (probably not as epic as last Thursday´s hehe... I mean... my right big toe nail is completely black! that´s just to give you a visual... )
Halloween is coming up and I believe that all us Ancashinos are going to be dressing up as pirates. I´d better get on that and see what I can rummage up for a costume. Although.. nada could compare to the bull and matador that Rachel and I were a couple years back. I will post pics up in a couple weeks from the hike to the clouds and back.
¡Hasta pronto!

Abrazos,
Em

Livin' the Vida Shilla pics

2009-10-03T15:22:00.000-07:00

Some cute children I teach.
The sisters and the nice

Rachel... next Halloween?
My Dirt Road
Celebrating Carhuaz's Saint Day

World Map!

Market Day

World Map: some of the students painting the ocean

Mi familia

Ode to My Dirt Road

2009-09-27T10:06:00.000-07:00

So. I´m a fan of the 8 mile dirt road that one needs to take from Carhuaz to my pueblo of Shilla. You need to go to the place where combis and colectivos wait until they are jam packed full of people (usually 23 people in a small van thing or 7 or 8 in a small 5 seater car). The fact that I am tall does not help me in my combi rides, but I am getting better. In fact, just today I sat in a combi that had 25 people in it and I sat on a little stool in the small aisel way! :)

It takes about 35 minutes to make the small journey once the car has the motor running. Bascially you go into the valley, switchbacking your way up into the mountains. The views are amazing. You have these rolling golden and green hills with chacras and eucalyptis trees dotting them and in the background massive white capped mountains. The little pueblos you pass down below seem cute and quaint and at some points even the water follows the road with a couple of little waterfalls. Granted the water is sucio (dirty) but it´s still water! Every time I take this road I notice something new, another crevace, another little casa, another melocoton chacra full of trees. In short it makes me happy. Sometimes, being a person who can sleep anywhere, I do fall asleep on the short trek... but so do the other Peruvians with me! So that must mean I´m acclimating ¿ right? Also, besides the usual Huayno music on the radio, people are speaking purely Quechua. I only have an inkling what they´re talking about when they say... "blah blah blah blah gringa... blah blah blah grina" and laugh. I just smile. poco a poco I´m learning this language!

Luckily I get to take this road quite often. If I want to go down to more civilization, it´s a must! I´m planning on walking it sometime soon... and I can´t wait for visitors (for all of you who are coming sometime in the next two years) to see it!

Abrazos desde Huaraz,
Em

A Little Older, A Little Wiser

2009-09-25T16:32:00.001-07:00

I´m now writing to you all from a 23 year old perspective. :) A feliz, volunteer in Peru 23 year old perspective. My cumpleaños was spent in Lima for the theater training with Peru 11 youth development volunteers... and I have to say, it was an amazing day! I even received 3 different cakes! That´s how delicious it was. I got to meet all the Peru 11ers (who are amazing) and even play ping pong and this awesome new game that I´m now addicted to called Mafia (which you play with cards... not firearms). I even had a short visit in Yanacoto where I visited the original amazing host familia and got to meet (and reconnect! :) with some newbies from Peru 14! yay! I´m not a newbie anymore! Needless to say, it was a great weekend and I´m so glad that´s how I got to spend my birthday. Plus, I received a package from the padres hand delivered again.. which was great because I got to meet another Peruvian familia who insists I must come to their house in Huaraz everytime I´m there. No problema!

This week has been fulfilling in Shilla. That is the perfect palabra for it. Fulfilling. Yup! The World Map project is underway (there are 21 students who want to help! Plus the librarian who also paints really well is on board). We will start painting Monday morning. I´m putting together lessons about the different countries and hopefully we´ll be cooking up some grub from around the mundo pretty soon.. and listening to all my world musica I´ve been collecting over these years. We´ll for sure be highlighting Croatia at some point. :) And Belgium. And Spain.

Also, today the English Profesor y yo planned all next week´s English lessons which I´m psyched about! I now have about 30 primary school kids go to my twice weekly Stadium Field Days and I´m not underway on the whole Community Diagnostic thing. Plus, my room now has a splendid and sturdy wall and I have the most comfortable bed! Yay! One of my host bros who lives in Lima (and doesn´t visit often) is in town for a few days... we joke that we´re twins because his birthday is October 1st and he will also be turning 23. I feel like my Spanish is falting when I talk to him because he is so outgoing, always has something to hablar about and talks about 1000 miles a minuto. Florcita, Rey (the bro) and I watched The Incredibles last night on the laptop which I thoroughly enjoy in Spanish. Today is my little sobrina´s (niece´s) birthday.. she is turning 3 and we will make rice pudding with the ingredients I buy here in Carhuaz on this little outing.

¿What más? ¿What más? Kids are starting to know my name around town which is exciting. People still ask me all the time about the volunteer who lived here before me (they LOVED him which I can totally understand.. he´s really chévere!) and sometimes I get a little tired of explaining that I will be here for the next two years, and no he is not coming back, and no, I don´t know if another volunteer will replace me, and yes, I know he was your best friend but now I´m here and let´s be amigos! But, it will all come in time. Part of the whole development work thing is how people come and go, and how strong bonds are formed and then have to be broken and made again with new people who have the same strong aspirations and ideas. It´s actually kind of interesting. What would happen if I just stayed? :) People joke in my town that I need to marry a Shillapino and buy some chacras and just call it a día. hehe.

Oh! This past Wednesday I went on a paseo with all the secundary students to a place called Honcapampa.. which is located in Huascaran National Park. It was BEAUTIFUL! Too bad I forgot my camera.. but we saw ancient ruins and went on a short trek up to some small, but bonita waterfalls. It was a great way to get to know all the professors and those teens. Plus I even rented a horse for a half an hour... by the way.. I´m seriously considering buying a horse. Like.. my familia thinks it´s a great idea and there´s lots of places I could go riding here. hmm.... soooo tempted. I would be known around here as that gringa who has a horse, wears yankees and plays a weird instrument called a pianica. Huh. Hopefully they´d remember that I worked in the colegio a bit too.. but I wouldn´t be so offended if they remembered me for the horse thing. :)

Books Read Count: 4
Growing Fondness for the music called Huayno on a scale of 10: 8
Number of Cuyes eaten: 6
Visits to Huaraz: 4

Hope all is well in the States and beyond!

Abrazos fuertes,
Em

More Happy Talk

2009-09-16T12:34:00.000-07:00

My host mom's laugh is my favorite sound. The more I can make her laugh, the better. Last night, when I woke to the sound of rats on the tarp above my head again I dreamt that I talked the rats into letting me sleep and to going outside... I told my host madre this and it cracked her up! She says I'm chistosa and alegre.. and if that's what I'm known for in my home I am very content.

Today I am off to Lima for a little theater training workshop with Peru 11. I am very lucky to get this opportunity (there was one more spot open!) and it means I'll get to learn how to incorporate theater into developing the jovenes. :) The colegio (school) next to me is building a theater in one of the aulas (classrooms) so that could be a prime spot.. Maybe my first project will be teaching the kids how to do the Thriller Michael Jackson dance... or Happy Talk from South Pacific. I will take the night bus and catch some (hopefully) shut eye and arrive in the early morn.

Let's see: this past semana was a short one... 4 high schoolers and I made the delicious chocotejas to sell so they can earn some dinero for their promocion (graduation) trip. Oh! I made french toast for the familia yesterday morning.. it was my first time making french toast if you'd believe it.. and it actually turned out delicious. Put syrup on anything and you can't go wrong really. And it was the first time that anyone in my host family had tasted syrup! Their happy faces and exclamations that it was rico was the best start to any day. So far, two breakfasts made! Maybe I CAN cook! When padre comes, he'll have to make pancakes.

Another random thing: practically everyday I read the book "Mis Amigos" (a book Aunt Debbie gave me!) to my little host niece Itzl. It's a picture children's book and is written in both Spanish and English and she absolutely LOVES it.. I think (besides the pianica) this book might be the best thing I brought with me to Peru. She is even remembering the English words! Tri-lingual at 4!

Room Update: it is painted celestial blue and cemented. Now just for the wall and door and furniture! I think it should be up and running by next week or so which is good because A) My sister had to move downstairs to share her room with me for the meantime which I feel bad about B) There won't be rats crawling above my face at night anymore and C) I won't have to worry about holes in the floor.

Until next time! (Maybe even from Lima again!)

Abrazos,

La Vida Shilla

2009-09-12T16:49:00.000-07:00

The Construction of my Room!

Making some bread... I felt old fashioned :)

Yay for hammocks and mountains!

My little host niece eating good old fashioned American Red Vines.

Vida en Setiembre fotos

2009-09-12T15:26:00.000-07:00

My host niece singing the "South Pacific" song... Happy Talk.

I like to think that teaching kids these things is actually developing them. :)

2009-09-11T16:03:00.000-07:00

So, it is bad that I actually like fried guinea pig intestines? Or that... it really doesn't matter if I haven't taken a shower for 6 days? When I'm living in Shilla these things don't bother me.. it's the going to Huaraz and actually seeing a mirror and then I pause for a second... then I decide, naaa.. it's all good. :) For some reason we haven't had water at my house for the last week, so really.. I have an excuse about the shower thing anyway!

The last week has been another good one. I can't believe how fast time is already flying by... today the new group of peacecordians are flying into Peru. I cannot believe that! I thought I was still the freshman.. But no. And get this! Two more people, who graduated from University of Portland in 2008 (just like me and this other awesome volunteer Colleen who is already here with me :) are coming! And, because UP is so small, I know both of them (granted, one much better than the other). This is definitely a time to start breaking out the "It's a Small World After All" song.

A small recap of this week would look like: Celine Dion singing, playing duck duck goose with Peruvian kids, making breakfast for my host family this morning (scrambled eggs, toast, fruit salad.. I don't think my host grandma liked it... :), watching the TV show Bones on my computer at night, waking up to a rat crawling right above my bed on the tarp hanging from the roof at 5 a.m... then going back to sleep, getting a wall approved for my World Map project (yay!), getting the gripe (a cold), getting a little business group of 5th year secundaria jovenes started (equivalent to seniors in high school), and spending every puesto del sol (sunset) outside, marveling at how BEAUTIFUL it is. My favorite time of the dia is definitely the evening and night. At night the stars are AMAZING. Seeing the milky way is as easy as spotting a donkey here.

I think I'm off to Lima for a few days this coming week for a theater training. So that is last minute and cool. I have a lot of ideas of what I'd like to do in Shilla... a theater health group, music lessons, a youth radio show in the neighboring bigger town of Carhuaz, etc. etc. Also, I'd love to have my kids here start some conversations up with classes or people from City Corps in the U.S. Any biters? Any teachers or City Corps biters specifically?

In other news, I look forward to the candy corn madre... in another hand delivered package.. hehe.. my family only knows how to send things in an awesomely different way. I hope everyone is doing well and thank you for the comments on the blog! Keep sending them. I love to read 'em!

Abrazos fuertisimos,

Soup for Desayuno Tracey Chapman and Other Tales

2009-09-02T09:36:00.000-07:00

¡Hola a todos!
I´m writing from an internet cafe in Carhuaz (just down the road) where I get to use an actual Spanish keyboard! yay! :) So expect plenty of ñ´s and accentos.

So this week.. back to mi sitio ... after a great weekend welcoming Colleen in Huaraz... and I´m starting some projects! I have been working with a professor in the secundaria (high school) who teaches English. Yesterday we had a great class teaching Tracey Chapman´s ¿Baby Can I Hold You Tonight? At one point I almost broke out laughing I was so happy that there I was... teaching a Tracey Chapman song in a small high school in a rural town in Perú. :) Amazing! Also, yesterday and today I played my pianica with the high school band in the morning. (they practice literally right outside of my house). The band consists of mostly boys and it´s proved to be a good way to get to know them. I wish I had brought music with me to Peru! I´m going to be starting up my Community Diagnostic soon so I will have to make some surveys and such, I´ll probably start my World Map project within a month, next week I will help a group of girls raise money for their graduation party/viaje (trip) making chocolates and jewelry, I played soccer during PE class yesterday and I hope to start doing something during the tutoria hours for primaria (elementary school).

Also.. noticias about mi cuarto (my room): I bought cement and a celestial blue paint for the walls. We are going to cement it up on Sunday and paint it on Monday and then I´ll buy the bed the previous volunteer had (he said he slept like a baby so I´m pretty excited! It also means my feet won´t be dangling off the edge.. yay!). I think I´m going to paint a little mural... originally I wanted to paint my room yellow but my sis thought that was boring.. so, seeing as she will probably get the room after me, I think light blue is also a good choice. I´ll paint a flower for her (her name is florcita) :)

So, alrighty. I just bought some yankees (the local campo shoes EVERYONE wears here to work in the chacras.. they are made out of tires), I´ve got the Peruvian plastic bag and some bread for the fam... I ate a hearty soup for breakfast (the rest of the familia had TWO soups!) and now will return up to Shilla for the día. Mañana I get to go see my sis play in a soccer game in Huaraz! woo hoo! This weekend I´ll stay in site which should be exciting. Hasta pronto!

Abrazos,
Em

Hermie!

2009-08-30T01:11:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to write a little note giving a shout out to my host familia from Yanacoto in Lima... they just sent a package to me full of goodies including cereal, condensed milk, yogurt, scissors and a bright green stuffed caterpillar animal. Randol wrote (in his nota to me) that his name is Hermie. It's these little things and the connecting with people I would have never known before that make me the most happy!

"The Peace Corps Way"

2009-08-29T08:31:00.000-07:00

So, our Peru 13 group has a saying (ever since our Field Based Training week). The idea is that there is a "Peace Corps way", which basically means not taking a shower for an extended amount of time, fixing random small problems with whatever you happen to have, not caring about where that "chancho" meat came from and just eating it, being ok if your hair starts to dread, shaving? what's that?... etc, etc. :) And based on where your site is, some live more in the peace corps way than others. Some don't have electricity, some have to use a latrine... you get more points for all the things you don't have basically. Before joining Peace Corps, and for the people at home, these basic necessity things are what seem most shocking and frankly, scary.

At first glance, you might think I'm pretty high up on the "Peace Corps Way" list... I live in an adobe house, don't have a room yet, no cell phone service, eat with my Quechua speaking family using a cocina mejorada, we have a burro and plenty of chacras (farming fields), we get water sometimes, have electricity sometimes, I took a kind of trickle shower with snow melt water, etc. (important side nota: Other Peacecordians in Ancash definitely have even more rural sites.) I have been in site since Tuesday (and am back in Huaraz for today for the welcoming of my fellow friend and Peacecordian Colleen into Ancash) and can now say that these things anyone can get used to and actually maybe start to like. The real "Peace Corps experience" include all the random interactions you have with people and the culture. These interactions are funny, frustrating, cute, life changing, calm, shocking, confusing and above all, amazing. Here are some examples :)

I'm sure everyone has seen one of those pictures where you see the typical nice white American Peacecordian in a rural town with maybe some mud huts or adobe houses in the background, and that said American is surrounded by TONS of kids from the town.. and the kids are staring a them as if they were an alien, some kids are holding hands with the gringo, some have surrounded the peacecordian's house, crowding around to peer inside windows and doors. This totally happened to me on my first dia. My house is literally the next door neighbor to the colegio (school) where all the kids in the primaria y secundaria (elementary and high school) go. There are about 520 students in total which is pretty big for a rural town. I went to the school on the first day in order to introduce myself to the director and some of the teachers and all the kids just started at me. I hear the word "gringa" whispered around... lots of looks and then shy giggles, some seemed afraid, others were overly excited.. and when I exited the school to return to my casa, a herd of small children followed me to my front door. I knew two of them (Estalin y Elizabeth.. SO adorable) from the previous day so I initiated a Mother May I (Madre, permitame) game with them and all the others (there must have been about 70 of them) circled us to watch. I then had to go inside for a sec to grab my purse and when I came back about 20 of them where crowded around my small front door, looking in at me. That was definitely a Peace Corps moment if I've ever seen one. Those pictures are true.

The wonderful thing about Shilla is its size. When I go outside I always see someone I've met before and who already knows my name. I love going down to this one chacra because it belongs to the judge of my town who is always SO nice and calls me "senorita" every other word basically. I make sure to greet everyone all the time.. no matter if I'm walking on my way somewhere or jogging in the morning and people have called me several things besides "senorita". Sometimes I get "senora" (do I look that old? :), and my personal favorite was "mamacita linda" from this overly enthusiastic older woman I passed by in the plaza. You never know if a little greeting will mean that you now know the P.E. teacher and are invited to a secundaria teacher meeting, or if you'll now go on a guided tour of the lower river to see the water system they're building, or that you just met a 16 year old girl who dropped out of school and doesn't know how to read, if by saying "buenas dias" you will be invited to a mothers club meeting on monday, or be asked to help plant maiz the next day. I know that whenever I feel sad or lonely or frustrated that once again the teacher didn't show up to class and just expected you to teach on your own without any preparation, or I'm sick again because the neighbors forced fed me an interesting soup with chicken feet in it... all I'll need to do is take my journal and go outside for a little paseo down the hill and just greet people and I'll feel feliz again.

My projects for the month I'm thinking of doing include: starting English classes with the English teachers (who don't know English) and the students, my world map project, a running club, starting my community diagnostic and attending as many community meetings as humanly possible. Here goes nada!

Abrazos,

p.s. Feel free to snail mail me... my address is on this blog!

Arrival in Ancash

2009-08-23T07:07:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Huaraz, Ancash!

I just arrived this morning to the glorious Ancash! :) I literally slept the SECOND the bus started moving at 11 pm until we arrived at 6:45 a.m. From gray to blue skies... beach to snowcapped mountains! YAY!

Currently I am using the wifi that our hostel has here.... I just took a nap... am excited to explore this capital city and am generally very happy. I think I had to have the storm of emotions right before coming to truly be excited now. The last couple of days were certainly difficult (in terms of the range of emotions felt)... definitely a roller coaster. On Friday we had some despedidas (goodbyes). With our language professors, our trainers and our host familias. We also had our graduation ceremony where speeches were said, we all stood in front, had our names called, tears were spilt... all in this huge red, white and blue tent. We had a little party after that and then we got our track suits! They are awesome and we all wore them on the huge bus to Miraflores in Lima. The getting on the bus part was difficult because basically everything is all chaotic with EVERYONE's stuff and everyone trying to get on the bus and then everyone's families are waiting right next to the bus (crying) and the language facilitators are waving and then you get on and shout out the windows "Voy a extranarte MUCHO! Te quiero!" or something along those lines and then the bus takes off.

I will admit. Ok. Fine. I cried. But you have to believe me, it's emotional! I think maybe even some of the guys shed a little tear. :) We got to our hostel in Lima and then we all went out as a group... fun times. Yesterday was all about spending time with our Peru 13 group one last time and then saying goodbyes kind of all day long. I was the last group to leave at 11 pm... so while it was hard saying goodbye all day, it was also nice to get the chance to say goodbye to literally todos (everyone).

I think today we will explore (other Peacecordians who live in Ancash are here to lead us around! yay! they met us at the bus stop and then took us to the hostel which made that transition with ALL our things so much easier). I'll find out what my mail box number is, find out where all the good places to go for menu are, and just get acclimated in general (yay for altitude! it's actually not so bad).

So I'm off now, but know I got to Ancash safely, I'm excited and I think I'll be heading off to my site tomorrow to start the next two years of my vida! Hopefully they started the construction of the wall to my room. We shall see. :)

Abrazos,

Training Memorias!

2009-08-19T15:59:00.000-07:00

Hand washing my clothes with my host dad

Playing "Caballo Viejo" on the pianica

Volleyball with the neighborhood girls/Michael Jackson dancing

My host brother's delight at Silly Putty

My dog (Tobey) taking Patch (the stuffed animal) in his mouth

Driving to Ancash for site visit

Movie Nights in Yanacoto! (Flight of the Conchords)

Combi rides

Getting a peruvian flag pin from the owner of the peace corps store

The Fourth of July party!

The puppet show that the spanish facilitators put on for us! (tranquilo tranquilo)

Lucuma flavor anything

Making soup with my host sis

Card nights with Lisa, Kerry and peruvian host familias

Buying pirated movies at Polvos Azules :) (each movie is 2 soles each!)

Y Mas!

Training has been awesome! I'm excited for site and the adventure is just beginning! On Friday we will be sworn in and have a graduation ceremony. :) The next time I write I will be have living in site for awhile! Wish me luck!

Abrazos fuertes,

Winding Down... Starting Up!

2009-08-15T13:11:00.000-07:00

So. A week from today (viernes… Friday… as I’m writing this) I depart from what I’ve come to call home these past 10 weeks, Yanacoto, to start the adventura in my site. There is no other way to describe this process except bittersweet. And I don’t know how to translate that in espanol! I feel so torn because, as seen from my last post, my site is pretty awesome and I’m excited to start work and live in the place I will be for two years, but I also really love the host familia I have now, the friends I have made here during Cuerpo de Paz Training, the staff and teachers who have supported (and will continue to support) me, the familiarity of this part of Peru, the delicious cheesecake that this wonderful little place makes just down the road from the center J etc, etc. So I will try not to think about it this coming week and just disfrutar la vida instead. I originally thought I was going to stay an extra week to learn some basic Quechua, but as Dario (the Quechua speaking professor here) is from Arequipa and knows that dialect, it doesn’t make sense for me to stay. Side Nota: Great Aunt Ellen sent me an awesome email telling me that the Star Wars made up language was based mostly off of Quechua! Awesome, no? It WILL be useful upon my return to the states! J But now I’m not staying and so I will have to say goodbye to the family here. (Belgian Emilie: how did you switch three families during your stay in California??? It’s sooo difficult!) Another Side nota: Randol (my host bro) now owns a Snapper Jack’s Taco Shack Sweatshirt and likes it! Yay! I will soon have all of Peru decked out in Ventura gear… J

I’ll probably be making one of my epic “To Do” lists that I never actually finish but I feel better when I make them tomorrow of all the things that should or I want to get done before the trek to site and commencement of work. Also manana, I have my final Spanish entrevista (interview) to see what level I’m in, I still would like to learn how to hand wash clothes, I want to print some pics for my host familia as a present, and go to Lisa’s host mom’s Birthday fiesta. So, it will be a packed dia for sure.

I am making a Treasure Hunt for some girls in Yanacoto on Sunday (yay for all the treasure hunts we made for cousins!) so that will be fun. I hope to skype with people this week! I will try and see if I can get on the internet most days (seeing as after this week internet visits will be few and far between). Onward and Upward!

Abrazos,

Randol, sporting the Snapps Sweatshirt!

Soy una Shillapina!

2009-08-09T16:43:00.000-07:00

Hola a todos! So I just got back to Lima from Shilla, Ancash for my site visit… and wow. I have a lot of stories for just one short week! To sum it up: I think my site is AMAZING, I have to learn Quechua, I had a tarantula crawl on my foot, my host familia is really sweet, I planted corn, my family owns a burro, several chickens, one pig, a dog, a cat and about 70 cuyes (guinea pigs), AND I already sported the pollera (the traditional skirt that the traditional women of Peru wear) when I went to a baptism yesterday morning…. I also partook in the drinking of beer with all the baptism attendees at 10 a.m. directly after the mass. There was also a parade and a band involved in this baptism celebration.

My site Shilla is a little pueblo of about 1,500 people but also has surrounding caserios (other little surrounding towns) nearby. It’s located in a valley in-between two mountain ranges (the cordillera Blanca… where the mountain Huascaran is… and the cordillera Negra… named as such because the Blanca side has snow and the negra side does not). There are no paved roads, but the plaza is pretty, there is this huge Italian church, they are building a coliseum to play sports in, the chacras (fields where they plant) are numerous, there are SO many sheep and burros, and there is a nice Municipality (I still haven’t met the mayor but I will when I go back to live there on August 22^nd), a Health Center and I live RIGHT next door to the school. From my first four days there it seems there are a lot of motivated people with ideas and everyone seems receptive to me (I am the third volunteer at this site). All the women are traditional (only some younger ones wear jeans and more modern clothing) and EVERYONE speaks Quechua. If they’re not talking directly to me in Spanish they are speaking Quechua and I’ve already learned words and phrases! Yoosoolpaki (thank you) AaOcuya (adios), ashnu (burro), waca (cow), missi (gato)… oumi is yes and malan is no. They love it when I try to speak Quechua (especially the older women)… everyone laughs all the time and likes to crack jokes although when I take pictures they look very serious. My madre Marguerita wants to teach me more Quechua upon my return. She is 44 and is a HARD worker. Her husband died about a decade ago and she was left with her four kids and her farm to work on her own... her perseverance and positive attitude are things to be admired. I also will live with a 21 year old sister, Gladys who has a little girl who is 3 and is named Itzl (she is adorable) and I will also live with Marguerita’s other daughter who is 12 (Florcita) but I haven’t met her yet. Apparently they have two brothers too but they live in Lima right now (Studying and working) and Gladys has a marido (husband). I am excited that I get to live with them.

It takes about 15 minutes (if you take your time) to walk around and see everything in the town. J I won’t have a phone in my house or internet in my town.. but we do have electricity and running water (although sometimes the water leaves for no apparent reason) Everyone says Buenas Dias back at you and I have already made friends with some local kids. I taught them the “up high, down low, too slow” game with the high fives. They seem to get a kick out of that! There are Italians who live here (as I mentioned) so I’m not the only foreigner.. but I still feel like a novelty and when I was wearing their traditional skirt yesterday for the baptism they all made it a point to comment on it. I don’t mind being the “gringa”! Everyone is friendly and eager to talk to me… some ask me questions in Quechua all the time even though they know I don’t have a clue as to what they’re saying. J The weather is good…. During the day there is sun but it’s not too hot and it’s only chilly at night and in the mornings. The view of the mountain is breathtaking and I can’t wait to go hiking and see the national park.

In terms of projects I have some ideas that coincide with what I’ve heard so far that the town would like to do… start an Environmental Club in the schools, work with the health post to teach kids basic hygiene as well as other health topics, start some sports clubs, work with the Healthy Families Program and also I’d like to teach music and English on the side. We shall see! Vamos a ver!

Shilla has some of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen and wonderful views. Now that I had the site visit I feel excited to live there and also feel lucky to be in Ancash. I know there will be bad days and good days, I have to admit I’m nervous (as well as pumped) to start taking initiative on work projects (my experiences with City Corps are going to help me soo much!). We have two more weeks of training here in Lima and then we’re off! Ya! Hombre! I will miss my familia here in Yanacoto a lot for sure and the security of having other American friends around to talk to and share with… but I think we’re all excited to go on to the next step and actually start working!

I hope I will get many visitors in the next two years in Shilla! We can go hiking and exploring and speak Quechua all the time. J Let me know if you have mas preguntas (questions) for me about my site visit! Hasta pronto!

Abrazos Fuertisimos,

Me Voy a Ancash

2009-08-02T12:42:00.000-07:00

Hola a todos!

It has been a little while since the last update! So first things first... I should announce officially (some already know) I am going to be living in Shilla, Ancash!!! Ancash is one of the 25 departments in Peru. I will be a replacement volunteer (meaning this volunteer named Vishal from Peru 9 has been living there for the last two years), Shilla has roughly 1,500 people, has 2 schools, is a Quechua speaking community (meaning... they all speak Quechua and SOME speak Spanish... hehe.. oh man) and is also really really extremely cerca to the biggest montana in Peru se llama Huascaran... which MEANS folks. Best hiking trails for miles are accessible from my site!! Yessssss. I'm pretty stoked and nervous and all that. I leave tomorrow for my site visit. Along with me, three other volunteers will also be living in Ancash pretty close to me. Colleen (from UP to Ancash!), Lisette (who was the first volunteer I met in the airport in LA on the way to Washington D.C.) and Christy (Christy Baja as we like to call her :). I will not have internet or cell phone service in my site.. so my posts will probably be less frequent but I look forward to where I will be. I'm a fan of the size and the place... and I get to learn a dying language! After this week I will make sure to let everyone know about how the site visit went and all that jazz. Here is a pic of us new Ancashians:

I celebrated the Fiestas Patrias (Independence Day of Peru) the 28th and 29th with my host familia... we went out to the nearby town of Chosica and it was pretty emocionante because my madre hadn't left the house since I got here. We ate good comida and it felt like I was at the Ventura Fair which was nice. It's been kind of chilly and foggy lately, so the sun during the afternoon felt good. This is me, the madre, the perro and my hermana at the fountain in Chosica:

Today, Colleen and I made no bake cookies for our new host familias for when we arrive on Tuesday... plus we also made homemade peanut butter which was DELICIOUS. :) We ate lunch at the casa (some cauliflower bathed in eggs... with arroz of course and peas and carrots). Colleen cut my host brother's hair with success I might add. I know he would never tell us if he hated it but I think he likes it.

I can't believe that I only have 3 weeks left of training!! The real thing is about to start. I hope I'm ready! Apparently my new host family has their own fields where they work all day and their own guinea pig farm! Which means I'll probably be eating lots of cuy! Wish me luck. I will update in a week!

Abrazos!!

2009-07-23T20:39:00.000-07:00

FBT y otros fotos

2009-07-23T20:15:00.000-07:00

   I LOVE Cajamarca. (And La Grama!)
   Angelica is in the middle (one of our wonderful tech trainers !)
   Beautiful, no?
  Yay! Sky and sun!
  The cuy I ate... look! I got the head!
  A Bonfire at FBT in La Grama, Cajarmarca with Patty from Peru 11
  Colleen y yo making Lentil Burgers! yum! (seriously yum)
  Hermana Dennis y yo!!
   Randol y yo keeping it real.
   The Familia

The One About FBT in Cajamarca

2009-07-23T20:13:00.000-07:00

So, something all Peace Cordians in Training get to do is go on this week long thing called Field Based Training – where you basically get to go visit actual real live volunteers in the flesh and they plan activities and jobs for you to do based on your program. They split up the Desarrollo Juvenil (Youth Development) group into two and my group of 10 got to go to the district of Cajamarca to meet 5 current volunteers and see their sites and their work. We left Saturday the 11^th and came back Sunday the 19^th (my host dad’s birthday!). I guess it all really starts with the bus ride:

So the Linea bus ride to Cajamarca from Lima takes a total of 18 hours. Yup. You heard me. 18 hours. PERO…. Seriously the nicest seats EVER. Much better than planes, trains, cars… etc. You can basically make your seat go all the way down to sleep through the night. Plus, we traveled from 7 pm until noon ish the next day both times. Needless to say to all who know me well and have seen my epic ability to sleep on moving machines… I slept well. J On the way back mi amiga Katie baja y yo had a competition… because, well.. the bathrooms on the bus are the only things that really need some upgrading. Or cleaning. We decided to have a competencia who could avoid going to the bathroom the entire trip. The winner got cookies. What a horrible bet. Worst (but funniest) bet I ever made… I lost.. but made it 17 hours!! Woot.

We traveled to the following ciudades (cities) wth our tech trainer Angelica and one Spanish Instructor Betty: Cajamaraca (the capital), San Marcos, Ichocan, Chancay, Aguas Calientes, y La Grama. All the volunteers who showed us around and set up activities and classes for us to teach to the youngsters were awesome and chevere. I loved the smaller towns and the scenery was absolutely STUNNING. The clouds and the sky were bonito beyond reason. I forgot what it’s like to actually see the sky! And stars! (Here in Lima it’s foggy ALL the tiempo… or there’s a haze… not to say that I don’t like Lima, it’s just how it is). I also had the chance to see Lightning bugs for the first time and they are AMAZING. I love them and I felt like a little kid pointing and excitingly shouting “there’s one! There’s one”. Asi.

I got to teach some sesiones educativas to some jovenes (youth) in some classrooms with a group of my fellow trainees (yay Same and Jenn!) and I felt like it was awesome. I feel like I’m ready and excited to start doing these same things. My Spanish can always get better (I feel like it definitely needs some improving), but I am confident enough to lead a class of kids and I love just playing games with them and learning from them. We had this epic 2-hour game of Capture the Flag one day, which was definitely a highlight. I hope to play many more games asi in the next two years.

The city of Cajamarca is beautiful as well. We got to spend our last day just wandering and exploring. I bought a couple of cute belts and… all the food we ate during the trip was wonderful. Menu anyone? Yeah. Menu is basically a really cheap (and delicious) big meal during lunch. Usually between 4 to 8 soles you get a big soup and then the main course of usually some sort of meat with rice and then possibly a dessert and drink. Que chevere, no?

Now I’m in this weird week because on FRIDAY we will find out where we will be living for two years! No puedo esperar!! Seriously. I might die from waiting. J And I believe everyone feels the same way.. we were so inquietos in class today.. whoops! Yesterday I had my second interview with my APCD (the directora of my program) where they asked me about my preferences, etc. I don’t know anything for sure yet, but I requested to go to the sierra, live in a small town, possibly learn the indigenous language of Quechua and be somewhere where it rains and is not hot… preferably near some sort of internet source. We shall see. Maybe the department of Ancash? Cajamarca? I will definitely make sure to post where I’m going as soon as I know. In two weeks we will go on site visits to visit our site for the first time for a week. That will be a nerve wracking, but exciting trip for sure!

In other noticias: My familia y yo are getting along just splendidly, my host brother and I talk about horror films almost daily, I watch my sister cook and help out so I can learn how (so far.. I still have much to learn!)… we’ve been eating this delicious cheese called mancora the last two breakfasts that I brought back from Cajamarca… we will have Spanish classes in my house tomorrow here (which I like cuz that means I don’t have to take my lunch box with me and feel like a 5 year old again J ) I’ve gotten to know and like my fellow trainees even more since FBT and oh! I made friends with a cobrador (the guy who works on the busses who we have to pay and they also tell the people riding to get on the bus and get off) today. I’ve just gotten into this one telenovela called Luz Maria…. Umm… que mas? I still need to learn how to hand wash my clothes because my family still does it for me when I’m out of the house…. Everybody is still hung up about Michael Jackson’s death here…. I had my second youth group yesterday, which was awesome. Kids (including boys) seem to love the game Mother May I. Which is good for me, because it takes little skill on my part J.

I hope all is well in the USA.. Please email me when you have the chance. I love getting emails (Even small ones) or feel free to send a postcard to my address si quieren. Miss you all! Sending you lots of Peruvian love.

Abrazos Fuertisimos!

A Little Mas...

2009-07-07T19:09:00.000-07:00

Sooo... the food here so far is still delicious to me. I mean, I´m a little tired of rice but.. man. Potatoes. I´m really into potatoes... I think potatoes and I are in a steady relationship... for the next two years for sure! (hehehe... Julie! :) I had this soup tonight that was pretty delicioso.
So I have more Field Based Training News. I will definitely be going to Cajamarca for the week next week and will be leaving on sabado (saturday). I will get to conduct my own youth classes, go camping, go hiking, go to some natural hot baths, work with current volunteers, and generally learn a bunch. It will be an great experience for sure. The bus ride is about 11 hours (comparative to a certain bus ride I took in Spain to Barcelona, no?) but apparently the busses are comfy and you can actually sleep! I will travel during the night.
I might not be able to write again until after the training but trust me I will post more pics soon!

Abrazos,
Em

Hola Gringa y mas adventuras

2009-07-06T18:14:00.001-07:00

Hello todos!

So I am sitting next to my little friend Nicole again today :) She is adorable and she loves taking pictures on photobooth. hehe.

So.. I am a greeter. I greet everyone in my town all the time.. normally I just say "Buenas" instead of completing the entire phrase of "Buenas dias" or tardes or noches because it's just easier to say Buenas. Yesterday as I was walking up my mountain of a hill (that's becoming easier and easier to climb.. yay!) I said my regular "Buenas" and the woman responded "Hola Gringa". This is the first time that I have been called that as a name. I've been referred to as a gringo but never to my face really as direct... and.. I decided.... that I'm ok with it. Peruvians in general refer to others by their physical aspects... "flaco" "gordito" "grande" "cholo"... asi es. It's just another thing to get acostombrado to.

Today my youth group was a success!! yay! I have a group with 4 other volunteers every Monday that we set up to teach English and other fun things. Today was so much fun. We had about 8 kids. :) Yay. It makes me energized to play with kids and I'm starting to get excited about going to site! I know the first 6 months will be the most duro (difficult)... but I'm ready I think.

This Saturday I'm off to Field Based Training in Cajamarca, Peru. I don't know which town yet but I'm super stoked. It's a chance for us to go see an actual volunteer in their site doing work. We will get to do a project and just live like a volunteer. Our first real taste if you will. No puedo esperar!

This week there are supposed to be more transportation strikes (meaning I won't be able to get to school) on Wednesday and Thursday so we shall see how this week pans out. When there's a paro (a strike) everything pretty much shuts down. Especially if it's a transportation strike.

By the way Nicole is now on my lap and wants to take a picture... so I should go :) Ask me preguntas (questions). Let me know how you all are! I love getting little messages! :)

Abrazos MUY fuertes,

Mas Fotos!

2009-07-05T08:35:00.000-07:00

  Fourth of July Celebracion!
   Colleen y yo
  Katie y Kerry

  Playin' some volleyball on the 4th.
   The padre y mi hermana!
  The first round of the famous Bradvica cookies.. in Peru
   Fourth of July party! (note the cake)
  My host bro, host sis and I using Photobooth. hehe

The hermano (Randol) He doesn't like taking videos.. or pictures!

¿3 Semanas Ya? Really?

2009-06-27T17:50:00.000-07:00

So it has been three weeks of Peace Corps training so far and I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone (especially these past two weeks!). Training definitely keeps you busy! I know my vida will be different once I move to my site in late August and I´m glad for this stepping stone that is training. The support system is amazing. Not only do I have my fellow American friends all going through the same things as me at the same time, but the tech trainers for the Youth Development program are amazing, warm, supportive women (Angelica y Isabel), the doctor Jorge is hilarious and knows how to give shots without hurting me!, the safety guy Enrique is AWESOME and I feel very protected by him and all the staff (not in the sense that nothing is going to happen to me.. but in the sense that if something should go wrong, the best of the best have my back), and my current language teacher (Darío) is great and i play music with him/ chat in English/ talk about U.S. and Peruvian differences most days after classes. I can confidently take the combi by myself (yay) and have been to Lima twice so far.
Today we went to a University in Lime called La Molina where they have a huge department in Agricultural work and we will be going there every Saturday from now on to learn how to plant, make gardens, learn the names of different kinds of fruit/veggies/herbs, bee keeping (yup, you heard me), how to raise cuyes (guinea pigs... they eat them here... and no I have not tried one yet.. my familia´s cuyes are still growing in the backyard), etc etc. It was fun today... Dad: we got to use mulch and plant lettuce and eat weird fruits! My fav. fruit of the day is Chilimoya. I highly suggest everyone try one once in their life time... delicioso!!!
¿Qué más? I´m teaching my host siblings to type fast on the compter... the tootsie roll lolly pops are almost gone... oh! My friend Lisa´s family´s dog bit me yesterday.. pretty hard I might add. Luckily I already had my rabies shots and the dog has vaccines. So, that was a first! mostly it was just funny.
Here´s just a lil section to get a glimpse of Peruvian culture: There is so much i love about Peru so far: one being that they really understand my sense of humor and two when you offer food/a treat or to share something you brought with you in your lunch.. they will accept and take some! :) Its the simple things. I am surprisingly getting used to cold showers.. although I don´t look forward to showers like I used to and they make AMAZING teas and warm drinks here mornings and nights. The combi (bus) rides involve a guy yelling at you to SUBE SUBE (get up get up) or BAJO BAJO (get off get off).
I will find out what site I´m headed to 4 weeks from now I believe. Meanwhile we have another spanish interview next week to see if we advance levels.. annddd.. there´s another strike on Tuesday (this time the public transportation will not be running so we hae to walk an hour and a half to the center that day).
If anyone has good ideas for group dinámicas (fun ice breaker ish games) for kids/teens please send them my way. I hope everyone is having a great start to their summer! (winter for me!) I am on skype during the week in the evenings (about 7pm your time) sometimes and on Sundays in the mornings! (FYI).

Abrazos,
Em

More Fotos of Peruvian Life...

2009-06-24T18:47:00.000-07:00

Este is my room! :)

This is a view of Yanacoto from the 5th zona!

This is the delicious lunch I had today. Note the mountain of popcorn. That is not normal... but I thought it was hilarious so I took a picture. I love getting cucumbers almost everyday!

¡Desde Perú!

2009-06-22T18:58:00.000-07:00

¡Hola a todos! Just wanted to write a quick update with the work that I´m doing in training... Currently for training (besides getting vaccinated like crazy) we have project to do based on what language level we´re in/ our program. I, with my group of 4 other peacecordians in the youth development field, need to get together about 15 youth in our towns together for an afterschool weekly club of sorts. We need to create games/create a fun atmosphere and teach. We plan on using the pianica for sure!
Next I have to create an hour long lesson for some 30 kids in the local school.... about ANYTHING I want. Sooo.. I thought of the idea to do a Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego type of thing. To teach geography/play games at the same time. Plus who doesn´t need to learn more about geography? :) We shall see how that goes.
Finally I need to come up with another project to do for the entire town of Yanacoto as a way to thank them for hosting us peacecordians. Maybe a trash clean up? It can include adults and kids. As you can see, creativity seems to be essential for work in the Peace Corps. I´m pretty excited about the groups. I´ve learned so much from my job at City Corps in Ventura... things don´t seem as daunting as they would have before City Corps.
Besides projects I have the normal español tarea and such, I watch pokemon or dragon ballz reguarly with my host bro, I play music with my spanish professor Darío after class most days, hang out, play cards with the familia, oh! And today I played basketball with some locals and peacecordians and it really pays to be tall!! Or at least a lot taller than basicaly the entire population of Peru.
¡Hasta pronto! More pics to be posted soon.

Abrazos Fuertes,
Em

Fotos!

2009-06-21T08:16:00.000-07:00

Sorry about not explaining the pics guys... I downloaded the pictures when I didn´t have mucho tiempo and I just decided to post `em without having to write anything. So the first is dos of my amigas Lisa on the left y Colleen on the right. (Colleen went to UP with me! Crazy, no?). Lisa is from Ohio and is awesome. I am at her casa right now here in Yanacoto cuz she lives in an internet café. There´s also a pic of my house here (the blue and yellow one) I live on the yellow floor. Theres a pic of the training center when they first greeted us on the first Sunday and then there are llamas that were at the Huampaní. (The resort place we went to during the first weekend.) Wow. I use a lot of parenthesis! I will write more laters! I´m in the process of training to download skype to talk to the familia! Hope everything is swell in the states (and in Belgium too Emilie and Guillaume!) !

abrazos,
em

2009-06-18T15:20:00.000-07:00

2009-06-18T15:09:00.000-07:00

This is... well.. me.. with my town Yanacoto in the background.

:) Taken from my casa.

A Dia en the Life of a Peruvian Peacecordian in Training!

2009-06-16T18:01:00.000-07:00

Alrighty everyone... This is the entry where I tell you what the daily routine is for me and the rest of the 36 of us here in Peru for Cuerpo de Paz. Just to give you an idea:

I live in a little town called Yanacoto which is Quechua (the most commonly spoken indigenous language in this country) for Black One/Thing. Our training center is in Chaclacayo which is about 30 minutes by walking, then bus (combi), then walking again. Other volunteers live in (I believe) 4 other nearby towns. Yanacoto has the most volunteers living in it at the moment (14 or us!) and is (in the best way to describe it) a sprawling mass of houses with dirt roads built up a hill. It´s as if someone decided to build a house and then it grew and in order to expand people had to just keep building houses up into the hills. There are churches, a couple cement places to play soccer/basketball and of course.. and my favorite.. a swing set!! In order to organize the town, it´s sectioned off into 5 zonas. I live in the 2nd zona. Every day I go down the hill to the main street to take a combi and everyday after school I subir (climb up) the hill. And when I say hill... I mean... BASTANTE hill. Yeah. It´s a killer. But I like having it because I have all this excess energy after sitting for 9 hours a day in clases and it´s definitely a good way to get exercise without having to be that "weird gringo" who runs. psshh.. ¿who does that?

side nota: I LOVE having ñ keys and ¿s on the keyboard!!!!

Sooooooo.. my dia es asi:
I wake up about 6:30 or so to dogs fighting/chickens crowing/my alarm (which I still hit about a zillion times before I get up Raquel hehe). By that time my whole family is already up. I dont know how they do it because they go to bed after me.. and then wake up a good 30 minutes before me... including my 18 year old brother! sheesh. Anywho. I have learned to NOT take a shower in the morning anymore... demasiado frio (too cold) so I just get ready and then have breaky with usually my sister and padre. So far it´s always been two medium sized fresh bread rolls with something in it... like... this morning some type of meat (my bro told me it was chicken. I highly doubt that.), or jam and butter... or one time is was guacomole/slices of avocado. They always give me two drinks in the morning. One is hot and is some type of Quaker or soya or... usually vanilla tasting thing. The other is a cold fruit juice. Then I go to school! With the lunch box and everything... awwww.. lately I´ve been brining my pianica. More on that later.

So classes start at 8 in the morning, lunch at 12, and resume at 1 until 5 in a nutshell. Half the day is dedicated to language. My profesor is Dario. He is awesome and there are only 5 people in my clase. Sometimes our classes are conducted in our host familia´s houses. After lunch we normally break into our program groups (mine is Youth Development), or have a charla (little class) on health or safety or food.... algo asi. After classes I have been staying after to play music with Dario. He plays guitar and is teaching me some awesome peruvian songs to play. He LOVES the pianica!! Theres this one song I learned today called Caballo Viejo. Its a haunting tune you can dance to. All the volunteers seem to like the pianica too. Everyone knows I have it and no one knew what it was before. (Yukiko. The pianica is a HIT). I had my host familia play it and I have some video footage of that to share. They love when I play. When I get to my site in August I think kids will love it too.

I get back home about 6 45 or so (if I play musica) and have dinner at about 7. By the way. Peruvians DO eat a bunch of rice and potatoes. Those two things are the staple of my diet and boy do they serve a lot. I do like the food so far (exception: chunky sweet soupish dish) but I´m not going to lie... it might become old. We shall see. :) I´ve helped make a number of meals (mostly soups). Tonight I helped my padre peel pea pods for an hour. Normally I chat with the padres about what not and my sister gets back about 8 30, my bro about 9 (they go to school/work/hang out with friends) and then we play cards (Bri.. I taught reyes en el rincon to my host bro and vete a pescar!) and watch TV and chat. I feel very comfortable with them. My bro and I are pretty good friends, I feel like they all have the same sense of humor as me and understand me pretty well. I usually go to sleep about 11 ish after spending that time with them.

After all that.. in short. I have a great support system with the peace corps and all my fellow volunteers, I love speaking spanish with the familia, I get to tocar the piano often and its nice to have structure right now. Ya!

With that said I have a funny story about me going to an Evangelical church with my padre and hermana if anyone is interested. Email me :) Thank you for reading and I hope to hear from you all! Keep leaving comments. They make me even more happy. Hasta!

abrazos,
em

Perros, Peruvians, y Paras... Oh my!

2009-06-11T15:11:00.000-07:00

Hola a todos!
It has officially been a week of Peacecordian Life. Que chevere! (how cool). Let me take a little time to describe my Familia!
Mi Papa is named Paul. He is in his early sixties and is so... cute.. there´s really not other word to describe him. He is jubliado (or retired as we say in the States) but stays active taking care of the house since my madre here is paralyzed from the waist down after a bus accident 14 years ago. He cooks, washes clothes, and actually... (I did NOT ask him to do this.. but he does it anyway) organizes my room each day after I leave... even though I do not think it is messy.. I dont have much to be messy with! He is protective and tells me continuously that this is my house and he is my dad and to tener confianza y dice a el todo (tell him everything).

Side Note: theres this little girl sitting next to me who has become my friend. Nicole (who is 6) and I met two days ago in this internet cafe and she hugged me today when she saw me and remembered my name and everything. She is adorable and tells me all the English words she knows. She is currently playing Barbie games.

Then there is my madre: Teofila. She is a beautiful person, inside and out. Like I said she cannot move and stays in the house constantly. Either in bed or on the couch with us in the main room. She exudes an essense of tranquility... makes me feel very content and at home and always has something to ask me about my day and classes. She made me take a nap today. :) I fell asleep watching a movie with her. (we watched A Walk to Remember in espanol the other day).

My sister is Dennis. Before I met her I thought I had two brothers!! I soon found out you pronounce it like Denise. She is one year older than me (her birthday is in September too!) and understands everything I say and I love to spend time with her. On my very first day I went with her and my brother to buy him some clothes and she would ask my opinion and it was awesome! Anywho. She cooks a lot in the house (her food is awesome) one of my favorite things so far that she makes is a warm drink for breakfast called Soya.. is delicioso. She is studying to become a laboratory worker for hospitals (like... examining blood and other human liquids as she put it).

Mi hermano se llama Randol. He is 18 and is hilarious. I joke aroudn with him a lot (with the whole familia actually). He is the hardest for me to understand because his voice is low and he talks fast.. but he is very calm and considerate too. I think I´m going to go play soccer with him on Saturday if I can. He loves Dragonball, action movies, and is studying in a University in Lima too... studying Computers.

So. That is my family in a nutshell. Theres also a little dog named Tobey. He is cute and loves to play. I haven´t taken that many pictures at all! But I did take some of my casa today so I will try and post them soon. Anywho, lots of funny things have happened, I´ve made American friends and Peruvian friends... seen a protest (against the things that are happening in the rainforests here right now), wake up to dogs fighting and roosters crowing... I have taken 2 cold showers so far... and.... have not gotten used to them yet. I think I´ve advanced levels of Spanish already.. (maybe.. keep your fingers crossed for me). I tested into Intermediate Medium... and they say I should move up to Intermediate High. We shall see. I LOVE riding in the combis (the busses here) and speaking spanish CONSTANTLY. It´s like.. my dream! The spanish major finally paid off!People are still confused here when they ask me what I studied and I say Spanish.. and then they say.. but what career? hehe. I´ll put my pics up soon and I hope everyone is doing well! Write me and ask questions! Lets set up skype dates everyone!

Abrazos Fuertes,
Em

Estoy en Peru!

2009-06-06T15:47:00.000-07:00

So here I am... a little out side of Lima, Peru, sitting in a little tienda that is in this resort (that is the best way to describe it) where all 36 of us Peace Corps Trainees (both Business Development and Youth Development volunteers) are staying for two nights before we meet our first host familias tomorrow. I literally have no words for how happy I am! Our plane had some weather issues coming into Miami yesterday so we were delayed... needless to say.... A LOT. and got into Peru at about 2 in the morning... I went to bed at 4 a.m. We are all sleep deprived, tired, drained.. and psyched about everything! This place we are staying is basically made for retreats and families to come during the day to get away from the city. There are tons of jungle gyms, llamas, horses just wakling around with the llamas, swing sets, go karts, sports fields, ping pong tables, pool, and even paddle boats (that I for sure already tried out!). Whew. Theres so much to talk about! We were greeted at the aeropuerto by the peace corps staff.. who are all so exceptionally warm, caring people. It was so nice not to have to worry about a thing last nice once we arrived. We had some training today.. oh.. did I mention how AWESOME all these people whoa re doing this with me are? I am already fast friends with many of them and feel like I have known them for much longer than just two days! I am almost teary with joy.
Some things I have done ya (already):
taken a picture of llamas
gotten to know some peruvians (theyre sooooo friendly) one guy video taped me for his nieces in California
had a spanish test
not gotten sick yet
paddle boated in a very small area
eaten delicious arroz con pollo
made many friends!
played on a swing set
played with peruvian kids in a (not so safe.. but awesome) tree house
slept only 3 hours a night... for the past 3 nights!
met a woman from Colombia (she said shes Shakiras twin.. hehe)
gotten my spanish back!!!!

There are more things.. but that is what I can think of now. Please email me with questions or queever at emily@bradvica.com.
I feel good, we are safe, peruvians are friendly, the staff are amazing and I am unbelieveably excited and know this is the what I need to be doing right now. Tomorrow I move in with a family and I start official classes on Monday. Wish me luck... so far so good.

Con abrazos fuertes,
em

Una Semana Mas....

2009-05-27T21:00:00.000-07:00

Ok. So this is reality now. I am leaving a week from today for Arlington, VA and then on to Peru!!! ADM (aye dios mio). It is actually happening. Maybe I'm just fully realizing it now because I have this daunting list of things to accomplish, or because I've already had the "Adios Emily Party" and have said goodbye already to a lot of people, have stopped working at both City Corps and even Snapper Jack's Taco Shack. For whatever reason I have a heightened sense of appreciation for what is in front of me right now. I'm very excited for training, have been reading other blogs from current volunteers, and measured some suitcases. :) Creo que estoy lista... vamos a ver!

Two Weeks and Counting...

2009-05-27T09:01:00.000-07:00

5/20/09

So here I am. Two more weeks to go. No puedo esperar! :) Mi amiga Laurie is the only one who can get me to pack and start to get things ready to go! For me, it takes a friend since 3rd grade, who knows me soooo well, to get me to throw out and give away things. I hate packing. Really. As in I’d rather.... get sick... while being forced to watch a scary movie... while trying to figure out a really complicated math problem (with my dad teaching me)... and eat those dried gross banana chip things. That’s how much I hate packing. Plus I’m no good at it. Laurie’s an expert and I’d probably end up going to Peru without any clothing if it wasn’t for her. My sister would like to add the fact that she also played an important role in getting me to clean the room. Thank you Sarah!

Right now I feel like I just want to get on that plane and go. I’m feeling all those “normal” feelings I guess... I’m nervous, excited, anxious, excited... pretty much basically excited. This is the right thing for me to do right now. It’s almost as if I was MEANT to do it really. I’ll miss mi familia y amigos of course here in the good ol’ Estados Unidos and of COURSE Ben and Reggie (maybe I’ll just bring Ben with me...I hear there are a lot of dogs in Peru... Ben could make some friends) but for the most part I’m more than ready to meet new people, be surrounded by my language of choice of espanol, live with a host family again, and just explore!

Another reason I’m ready to go now: I want all those TO DO lists I’ve created to finish themselves.