Peruvian Perros

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,

Em

Llevame mis zanahorizas, mamay

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,

Em

Lil' update, no mas

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,

em

Sheep Intestine for Breakfast

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,

Em

These are a few of my favorite things

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,

Em

Musica a mis oidos

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

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,

Em

Happy Birthday Madre! :)