I guess now is a time to reflect my time spent here in Perú so far. It´s amazing that 10 weeks have already passed. I swore the oath to the US Constitution yesterday, and officially became a member of the Peace Corps Volunteers. Either tonight or tomorrow I will be leaving for my site, although I won´t get in until Monday due to the way public transport works (there are no cars into my site at night). So Monday will begin my next two years of life in Vicco, Pasco. Honestly, I´m a little scared of being all alone working in my site. I don´t know where I´ll start; it seems daunting. But I keep telling myself to take it one day at a time and soon I´ll be integrated and making a difference. I´ve made myself a little list of things I can accomplish in my first week in site, in case I get despondent. I will definitely be establishing my mailing address in that first week. I´ll be sharing it when I get it, in case anyone wants to write me letters.
I suppose I should feel pretty proud of myself, since I made it through training successfully. Not everyone in our entire group did. We lost two (to going home) from the Health program. I also wrote a 1500 word document in Spanish and presented it with the aid of a Powerpoint presentation. The presentation was about 10 minutes in Spanish as well. It was a big relief to get that accomplished, and it really was good practice for the real Diagnostic I will do in my site. That will be one of my focuses in these coming three months. I´ll be doing surveys, interviews, meetings, and informal chats to learn and gather information about Vicco so I know what my future projects should be. These will also establish me in the community, and help me integrate. Hopefully, I´ll also become more proficient in Spanish in that time, so that I can start the school year in March with more confidence.
I honestly don´t know what to write here right now. I feel like I´ve accomplished a lot, and I have a lot ahead of me. Right now I´m tired, mostly because I couldn´t sleep well the last night with my nose being clogged. I´m pretty sure my little host sister got me sick. She coughs over everything. However, I´m really really going to miss everyone here in Santa Eulalia, and all my fellow new Volunteers. I sincerely hope I´ll visit them and see them again very soon. I´m so bad about calling people by phone to stay in touch, but with the phone plan we have here, calls are free between PCVs so this is the most common form of communication. I hope I get better about calling people when I feel bummed or just want to chat. I have a feeling this will be important for my continued sanity.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Two Months in Peru- Nov. 13th
I've been here a few days short of two months, and I've gone through a roller coaster of emotions, thoughts, and homesickness. Life here is at once much easier and much more difficult than life in the States. I am constantly working to be able to communicate, and yet the daily routine is so much simpler. I've felt incredibly excited, ready and prepared, and the next day felt lost, useless, and co-dependent. I'm not sure how much training has really helped me prepare for what life will be like in my site, but I know I've needed the transition time to learn the language a little more, and build a network of support in the other Trainees. I'm going to really really miss a lot of the people here in Training that are being sent to other parts of Peru. Our Junin/Pasco group is going to be very isolated, I fear.
My site is very cold. While there, I was constantly wearing two pairs of socks, leggings under jeans, a long sleeve under a t-shirt. I always had my sweatshirt, beanie, and gloves with me to put on when not in the direct sunlight. Also, my site is at very high altitude. I was easily exhausted most of the time there, and couldn't muster much energy to be spontaneous. However, the people in Vicco are very nice. They all love Briana, and don't want her to leave. It was hard being there with her because of it, but it was also nice to see the end of a great two years of service. It was also very hard for me to understand the Campo accent. The campo being the country; they speak very differently. I think its because of the Quechuan mixing with the Spanish. I learned a handful of words in Quechuan my first night there and was able to pull them out and impress all the people I met after that. They got a kick out of the fact that I did know a couple words in Quechuan when I couldn't even fully speak Spanish.
Because of that, I very much look forward to learning more of the language, as well as picking up knitting and weaving. These are all very Sierran cultural things, and I want to learn and participate in it as much as I can. Plus...its not like theres a whole lot to do in my site after dinner. I do have an adorable puppy that I've posted a picture of. My family is pretty interesting, the mom and daughter are very much characters. Also, while I was walking around on my own, I met a very sweet older lady who invited me in to get to know me. While showing me her rudimentary garden in the backyard, she invited me to live with her or come over whenever I wanted. That felt really encouraging and touching,
Overall, I'd say that I'm very much excited to start working on projects in my site. I have tons of great ideas for future work, and I can't wait to start. I don't want to have these last two weeks of training that feel so useless and draining. On the other hand, I love being back here in Santa Eulalia's warmth with other Trainees. I'm very much not looking forward to LIVING in my site. Hopefully, that outlook will change when I start getting closer with the people, and develop my routine with a comfortable living space. I definitely need more warm clothes like thermal layers in order to achieve this and better appreciate my site.
My site is very cold. While there, I was constantly wearing two pairs of socks, leggings under jeans, a long sleeve under a t-shirt. I always had my sweatshirt, beanie, and gloves with me to put on when not in the direct sunlight. Also, my site is at very high altitude. I was easily exhausted most of the time there, and couldn't muster much energy to be spontaneous. However, the people in Vicco are very nice. They all love Briana, and don't want her to leave. It was hard being there with her because of it, but it was also nice to see the end of a great two years of service. It was also very hard for me to understand the Campo accent. The campo being the country; they speak very differently. I think its because of the Quechuan mixing with the Spanish. I learned a handful of words in Quechuan my first night there and was able to pull them out and impress all the people I met after that. They got a kick out of the fact that I did know a couple words in Quechuan when I couldn't even fully speak Spanish.
Because of that, I very much look forward to learning more of the language, as well as picking up knitting and weaving. These are all very Sierran cultural things, and I want to learn and participate in it as much as I can. Plus...its not like theres a whole lot to do in my site after dinner. I do have an adorable puppy that I've posted a picture of. My family is pretty interesting, the mom and daughter are very much characters. Also, while I was walking around on my own, I met a very sweet older lady who invited me in to get to know me. While showing me her rudimentary garden in the backyard, she invited me to live with her or come over whenever I wanted. That felt really encouraging and touching,
Overall, I'd say that I'm very much excited to start working on projects in my site. I have tons of great ideas for future work, and I can't wait to start. I don't want to have these last two weeks of training that feel so useless and draining. On the other hand, I love being back here in Santa Eulalia's warmth with other Trainees. I'm very much not looking forward to LIVING in my site. Hopefully, that outlook will change when I start getting closer with the people, and develop my routine with a comfortable living space. I definitely need more warm clothes like thermal layers in order to achieve this and better appreciate my site.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Pre-Site Visit Expectations- Nov. 2nd, 2011
So I now know officially that my site is Vicco, Pasco. I know that I'm replacing a female volunteer named Briana, and I believe she is still in site. I'm going to be living in the house she lived in, with a mother who is 40, and a sister who is 9. The mom is a restaurant owner apparently, which I'm pretty excited about. The family is pretty small, which I'm not sure is a good thing or a bad thing. I have a grandma and brother who stay "temporarily" whatever that means. Apparently, that they don't LIVE in the house though. My room apparently is accessed through another bedroom, which I'm really iffy about. Briana has lived there so I guess it must work out.
My site apparently has about 1,200 people in the pueblo, with an approximate total of 2,000 in my area. So it's not as big as I feared which I'm happy about. We do have a paved road, and all communication types, including internet. I have mixed feelings about having internet access in my own site. I definitely wanted it in my regional capital that I will visit twice a month, but to have it in my own site is a little weird. I didn't come here to spend a ton of time online. But then again, it is internet at a cafe meaning I'd have to pay and it's likely very slow. So it's doubtful I'd spend significant amounts of time on it. Speaking of which, I would want to keep somewhat updated on current events. Maybe I should ask someone to send me emails like once a month about the major news events of the month. Someone want to volunteer for that position?
Since I'm replacing Briana in the same house, I'm still curious if I can leave some books and manuals there. I'm going to bring them, and may have to bring them back with me if it doesn't seem safe to leave. I'm hoping since she is going to be leaving very soon, that I can buy her stuff off her. She has to have plenty of great things that are perfect for my new site. I don't know when she COS's (Close of Service), but I'm relatively sure she hasn't done it yet. If she has I'm going to be really bummed. I'd really like to meet her so I can get all the juicy info about our site and her work there for the last two years that I will be continuing.
Apparently, Cerro de Pasco, which is a large city very near my site, is ugly and relatively dangerous. Diego, our APCD (boss), said he didn't recommend me going there monthly to get stuff. However, Junin which is a large city close to the center of our cluster of volunteers apparently doesn't have a Banco Continental? We had to withdraw all our money for the trip today because we weren't going to have access to free withdrawal ATMs there. If this is true, while in my site, I'd definitely want to visit Cerro. Either that or I'd have to travel all the way down to our technical regional capital which is a 5 hour bus ride. Cerro is supposedly about a 30 minute ride from my site. I'm looking forward to being able to answer these sorts of questions.
Lastly, I got to read the Community Diagnostic that Briana did at the beginning of her service about Vicco. It had a lot of great info about the types of problems Vicco had back then. Apparently, she foresaw trash being a big area to work in, and also a tree nursery. I'm very curious to hear how things went and what the situation is like now. I will definitely be working in education though. Diego has told us that he very strongly encourages us to do a summer school class because it starts in our second month at site and lasts 2 months or so. This will help us build confianza in the community and in ourselves. I've been thinking a lot about what summer school class I'd want to give, and Diego helped me reach a decision. He took me aside Monday and asked about if I studied a martial art. He said he'd heard rumors, and was really excited when I said that I had. He strongly encouraged me to teach a class at my site, and said he'd support me in anyway I needed to do it. So I think that shall be my summer class. I'll start off small and once the normal year starts, hopefully I'll have a good routine down. Shout out to my Hapkido family, please email me ideas for Hapkido classes to give to kids of various ages. Every suggestion is welcome, from everyone in fact. Ideas for a sort of lesson plan would be nice. I think I'll combine the class to being an exercise class. Mix Hapkido, yoga, and perhaps some hiking field trips (yay for including Environmental themes)? I'm not sure, which is why all suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Email me at aleichele@gmail.com or just post comments!
My site apparently has about 1,200 people in the pueblo, with an approximate total of 2,000 in my area. So it's not as big as I feared which I'm happy about. We do have a paved road, and all communication types, including internet. I have mixed feelings about having internet access in my own site. I definitely wanted it in my regional capital that I will visit twice a month, but to have it in my own site is a little weird. I didn't come here to spend a ton of time online. But then again, it is internet at a cafe meaning I'd have to pay and it's likely very slow. So it's doubtful I'd spend significant amounts of time on it. Speaking of which, I would want to keep somewhat updated on current events. Maybe I should ask someone to send me emails like once a month about the major news events of the month. Someone want to volunteer for that position?
Since I'm replacing Briana in the same house, I'm still curious if I can leave some books and manuals there. I'm going to bring them, and may have to bring them back with me if it doesn't seem safe to leave. I'm hoping since she is going to be leaving very soon, that I can buy her stuff off her. She has to have plenty of great things that are perfect for my new site. I don't know when she COS's (Close of Service), but I'm relatively sure she hasn't done it yet. If she has I'm going to be really bummed. I'd really like to meet her so I can get all the juicy info about our site and her work there for the last two years that I will be continuing.
Apparently, Cerro de Pasco, which is a large city very near my site, is ugly and relatively dangerous. Diego, our APCD (boss), said he didn't recommend me going there monthly to get stuff. However, Junin which is a large city close to the center of our cluster of volunteers apparently doesn't have a Banco Continental? We had to withdraw all our money for the trip today because we weren't going to have access to free withdrawal ATMs there. If this is true, while in my site, I'd definitely want to visit Cerro. Either that or I'd have to travel all the way down to our technical regional capital which is a 5 hour bus ride. Cerro is supposedly about a 30 minute ride from my site. I'm looking forward to being able to answer these sorts of questions.
Lastly, I got to read the Community Diagnostic that Briana did at the beginning of her service about Vicco. It had a lot of great info about the types of problems Vicco had back then. Apparently, she foresaw trash being a big area to work in, and also a tree nursery. I'm very curious to hear how things went and what the situation is like now. I will definitely be working in education though. Diego has told us that he very strongly encourages us to do a summer school class because it starts in our second month at site and lasts 2 months or so. This will help us build confianza in the community and in ourselves. I've been thinking a lot about what summer school class I'd want to give, and Diego helped me reach a decision. He took me aside Monday and asked about if I studied a martial art. He said he'd heard rumors, and was really excited when I said that I had. He strongly encouraged me to teach a class at my site, and said he'd support me in anyway I needed to do it. So I think that shall be my summer class. I'll start off small and once the normal year starts, hopefully I'll have a good routine down. Shout out to my Hapkido family, please email me ideas for Hapkido classes to give to kids of various ages. Every suggestion is welcome, from everyone in fact. Ideas for a sort of lesson plan would be nice. I think I'll combine the class to being an exercise class. Mix Hapkido, yoga, and perhaps some hiking field trips (yay for including Environmental themes)? I'm not sure, which is why all suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Email me at aleichele@gmail.com or just post comments!
Expectations of my Site, pre-official knowledge- Oct. 30th, 2011
Despite my determined will to not form expectations of my site, since learning tidbits about it, I have been unable to stop myself from imagining what it is like. Tomorrow, I will learn a lot of good facts about my site, which may or may not dispel some of these expectations. Wednesday I travel with the Junin group to our Regional Field-based Training, and the following week I will spend in my actual site with my future family. Suffice to say that by the end of these next two weeks, I should know a fair amount about my future life of the next two years. This is very exciting news. But I want to take this moment in time to chronicle my expectations so I can see how dead-wrong I was, or conversely, how spot-on.
Things I think I know about my site:
I believe my site is in Vicco, Pasco. I know that this place is very high in altitude, a bit more than 4000 meters which is approximately 13,000 feet. It has a big rig race that is apparently pretty popular, this is practically the only information that can be found about Vicco online. My site will be very very cold. I think my site is relatively large, with more amenities than I thought I'd have. I think I very likely have electricity, and perhaps even a toilet or at least an outhouse with seat. I think I will be pretty close to my regional capital, so I might have access to more fruits and vegetables for myself than others. However, the food I get from my family will likely be pretty traditional Andean Peruvian cuisine with lots of potatoes and rice. My site has a very large mining influence. Silver was a very large industry, but now it is more lead and zinc. I'm replacing another volunteer, and I can't decide if I like this fact or not. I will be compared a lot to the former volunteer, but I also won't have to constantly explain what I'm doing there and what Peace Corps is.
Things I wonder or am anxious to learn about my site:
Is the volunteer I'm replacing a female? If so, that will make the comparisons that much worse. Who are my family? How many of them are there? Will I get a pet with them? Do they have animals already? How big is my site really? Do I have internet access? Will it be worth while to buy the USB internet? Can I leave some things with my family next week when I visit? Will my room be ready for me? What types of things will I need to buy for my room with my settling-in allowance?What issues will I have to deal with at my site?
Tomorrow, I will attempt to write down my thoughts about my site with the new information I gather.
Things I think I know about my site:
I believe my site is in Vicco, Pasco. I know that this place is very high in altitude, a bit more than 4000 meters which is approximately 13,000 feet. It has a big rig race that is apparently pretty popular, this is practically the only information that can be found about Vicco online. My site will be very very cold. I think my site is relatively large, with more amenities than I thought I'd have. I think I very likely have electricity, and perhaps even a toilet or at least an outhouse with seat. I think I will be pretty close to my regional capital, so I might have access to more fruits and vegetables for myself than others. However, the food I get from my family will likely be pretty traditional Andean Peruvian cuisine with lots of potatoes and rice. My site has a very large mining influence. Silver was a very large industry, but now it is more lead and zinc. I'm replacing another volunteer, and I can't decide if I like this fact or not. I will be compared a lot to the former volunteer, but I also won't have to constantly explain what I'm doing there and what Peace Corps is.
Things I wonder or am anxious to learn about my site:
Is the volunteer I'm replacing a female? If so, that will make the comparisons that much worse. Who are my family? How many of them are there? Will I get a pet with them? Do they have animals already? How big is my site really? Do I have internet access? Will it be worth while to buy the USB internet? Can I leave some things with my family next week when I visit? Will my room be ready for me? What types of things will I need to buy for my room with my settling-in allowance?What issues will I have to deal with at my site?
Tomorrow, I will attempt to write down my thoughts about my site with the new information I gather.
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