The 20ers are here!

Its so strange, I arrived in Peru in the 18th group of volunteers since Peru was reopened in the 2000s. Now, the next batch of Environmental volunteers has arrived and is about to swear-in in the group 20. I can't believe that I am now the supposed experienced volunteer. I strongly remember idolizing the 16ers before me who seemed to have everything so together and to be so wise. Am I now that way to the 20ers? I by no means feel that I'm as wise as I felt the 16ers were way back when, last year. We're getting 3 new Environmental volunteers in Ancash, and one of them, Brian, will be pretty close to me. He'll be the only one anywhere near close to me actually, now that Willa has finished her service as my site-mate.

I guess I feel somewhat accomplished, with having my ECPA grant up and running. I have the two GLOBE weather monitoring boxes installed in my two high schools, and they're being used by the students. I finally managed to wrap up my classes and give them their test to determine who gets to go on the fieldtrip and who doesn't. The kids I hoped would do well, did. I talked to, and was introduced to the boss of the National park here in Huaraz, and he approved my plan to take the kids on Dec. 2nd into the park. Two of the park workers will give chats about the park and the melting of the tropical glaciers that they're experiencing because of Climate Change. It all seems to be going incredibly well, and I'm going to be super busy these next two months. With Thanksgiving, planning/coordinating the fieldtrip, mid-service med checks in Lima, Quechua classes, and my mom arriving to visit me, I'm going to be really busy until January. Hopefully, I'll manage to fit the time in to coordinate classes for next year before the school year ends and I leave with my mom.

Guess this will be a short blog entry, I can't think of anything more to say for now. Hope everyone is well, and has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Seeing with more experienced eyes

So I have been here in Peru for more than a year, and I am now seeing holidays and customs that I saw happening during training last year. Its going to be interesting seeing them again, with a better grasp on the overall culture and language. I was reflecting recently that before coming to Peru, I knew next to nothing about the country. Now, while I wouldn't say I'm an expert, I definitely know a bit more than the average Joe.

For instance, I know that the Quechua people in the mountains of Peru wear very colorful traditional clothing. Specifically, the women wear "polleras" that are pretty bright skirts, usually layered, paired with a traditional cowboy-ish hat. I know that most of them cook over an open flame, with meals featuring almost exclusively potatoes. Peru has a large expanse of rainforest untouched by people, vastly unpopulated and only becoming less populated as people all move to Lima, the capitol. They are listed on some sites as the #67 country for CO2 emissions; wiki says they produce 0.14% of the worldwide emissions. And yet, they will be one of the most impacted countries from climate change problems. Most of their water comes from the tropical glaciers they have in the Cordillera Blanca, as well as their electricity.

I was recently reading a spanish book called "Cholito y los Andes Magicos" which is written by a person from Ancash about the Quechua culture. Its a little more living in the mountains who meets the son of the devil (Quechua names that I don't remember, I believe ichic llapay or something like that). He gets trapped by the dad and has to perform feats to get out. Animals help him because he is generous, and he eventually escapes with the help of the devil's daughter. I haven't finished yet, but the interesting (or at least to me) part is that it is written exactly how a Quechua sierra dweller speaks. Which is to say, not exactly the most proper. I didn't realize how many mannerisms are in the language here, such as "no mas" being added to practically any sentence. It was a stark and interesting contrast from having read the Harry Potter series in spanish, written in formal Spanish.

I am getting more and more excited for my mom visiting me. I am looking forward to having her in my site, showing her my work, the people I live with. Santa, my host mom is such a sweet woman who has endured more than her fair share. She has had such an incredibly hard life; I want to help her in anyway I can. I'm hoping to buy some knitted apparel from her for people back home that my mom can take back for me. I also am planning on making a Facebook page to sell her products to anyone I know who is interested in something from Peru. I'm thinking of making an email and helping her sell some things. She can't make a ton very fast, but maybe selling a couple things every month would help her immensely. Right now she can't even afford getting glasses for her 14 year old son.

Anyways, I'm glad to be in Peru having this experience. Not many people get this chance, or get to have such an awesome work for two years. The freedom to do what interests you, and the network of amazing Volunteers you become immediately bonded to are two of the wonderful benefits of Peace Corps life.

GLOBE project and IRONMAN project

So in the last week, I've been working on getting the details of my GLOBE classes fleshed out. Today marked the very first class for the project which might have been more exciting if it hadn't been with 3rd grade of Huaripampa. Not to speak badly of my site's high school or science teacher, but it hasn't been fun trying to coordinate with her, Prof. Irma. She's not a bad person, or at least I don't think she is, but she seems utterly disinterested in working with me. She isn't enthusiastic or even mildly helpful. Also, I taught an English class to 3rd grade of Huaripampa already, and I realized they are that one class you hate. They're obnoxious. 11 students, with only 2 girls. They're too cool for school. Maybe they'll be different for this project, since the prize is they get to go on a fieldtrip to the local national park, Pastoruri. I explained how the point system is going to work in order to qualify for the fieldtrip, and they were attentive and even asked questions to clarify. That seemed like a good sign to me, so maybe they'll pay attention to the classes, and even do their mini-weather monitoring project.

I guess here would be a good place to explain more about what my project IS exactly. So, as I said, we started classes today. Every week of October, grades 2-4 in the two high schools of my site (ie 6 classrooms) receive a class for my project. We start with the carbon cycle, then move directly into Climate Change. From there, we'll talk about the Scientific Method, and they'll think of a hypothesis they can test using  thermometers in November. The 4th and last class of October will the practice using the thermometers, and we will form groups and a schedule for measuring in November. In November, I'll keep track of which kids actually measure the temperature like they signed up to, and then I will tally all the points and the 60 best students from the 6 classrooms get to go on the fieldtrip. Points come from participation in class, homework, a small test, and the measuring during November. I told them though, if they miss 2 of the 4 times they have to measure the temperature in November, they are disqualified for the fieldtrip. It would be nice if they measured more, but working with so many kids in such a short time means that they'll be in 5 groups within each classroom. Each group will get access to the weather box once a week.

That in a nutshell, is my idea for kicking off GLOBE. Obviously, these weather boxes with the thermometers will be staying in the schools, and this project covered the initial cost of startup. Next year, they'll continue using them without such an elaborate project being needed just for GLOBE. I am thinking of a yearlong project to do in both schools next year that will use GLOBE. Its called "Ironman" and Willa, my site mate, did it this year with 3rd grade of Olleros (the other school). Basically, throughout the year, kids work to qualify as "Ironmen" meaning they are exceptional students. You can customize the areas of work to suit your interests. For example, Willa in the sports section, instead of having them run a half-marathon, had them learn swimming, Ultimate Frisbee, and yoga.

I'm hoping to start this Ironman project in Huaripampa, as well as continue in Olleros. I would work with just 3rd grade of both, throughout the year. My areas would be: English, Reading/Writing, Science, Sports, and Volunteerism. I'm pretty excited for each of the areas to be honest. For English, it means I'd get to teach one class for a whole year on a set schedule. I could work with them to actually learn some useful English. With the reading/writing, I want to have them choose children's novels to read, and then complete a small test to demonstrate they understood. I think a lot of us had this in our elementary school or if not, know of kids nowadays that have this. Each book is worth a certain amount of points based on difficulty, and they would need to reach a certain amount of points by the end of the year to be an Ironman. In the Science section, this would include a GLOBE weather project, as well as more Climate change classes and perhaps some renewable energy classes. Sports I think I would continue the swimming classes as well as Ultimate Frisbee, both of which were incredibly fun for me. Instead of yoga, I'm thinking of making them do an obstacle course. It seems fun to me. I can just see the whole lot of them shrimping across the ground before fireman's carry-ing a dummy across the yard (shout out to my Hapkido family). Last but far from least is the Volunteerism section. What's awesome about this is that I get a free work force. I can make them do recycled art to sell for fundraising; I can make them work in the tree nursery, and maintain a compost. I can make them put on Environmental movie nights, and buy recycling from their peers. All of it would go to raising money for their fieldtrip at the end of the year, of course. But it would mean that I would be completing my work goals in every aspect with just this one project. Awesome, right? I think I might need to work out a small grant to get enough children's books, and maybe the obstacles for the obstacle course, but those would just be startup costs, meaning they could continue the program the next year without me. Ideally, they would, at least.

Anyway, wrapping up. If anyone has any ideas of how I could improve these projects, let me know! Especially with the IRONMAN project, there is tons of room to add things. It's the whole year, coordinated with multiple teachers such as the English teacher, Science teacher, Tutoring teacher, Communications teacher, Work Education teacher, and PE teacher of course. Even if I don't want to teach the class myself, I can program it with one of them to do it as part of the program!

More than One Year in Peru

Its truly incredible that I've been here more than a year now. So I guess this is a good time to do some reflection. Overall, I'd say that I'm glad that I'm here, and that I've been here. It wasn't what I thought it would be, but its been so much more. I've learned another language, integrated into a small town with an entirely different culture, participated in strange parties, sat through long, formal meetings in Spanish. I've meet incredible people, both from the country and my own. I'd say my motto for my time has definitely been "poco a poco", little by little. First, it was little by little to learn the language, adjust to the food, adjust to the bathroom situation, adjust to the climate, adjust to the pace of work, adjust to the system of government and teaching, adjust to their customs. Then, it was adjust to starting over, living with a new family, a new place, learning a third language, adjusting to the hiking up and down between my two distinct work areas. Everywhere I heard "poco a poco", and yet it seems like its been a mountain of things now that I write it all out. I did it all little by little, but somehow it's turned into a whole lot.

I'm sad that I still haven't seen as much of Peru as I would like to have. I want to go on more vacations with people. I'm super happy that my mom is coming to visit me in December, although I'm nervous for what she'll think and how it'll be for her. Will she eat the food? Will she be able to relate to the people who are my friends now, not just strangers in a foreign land with a foreign language? The host family that the other Volunteer, Willa, lives with are super awesome. They're a young couple with a store, the husband being a carpenter. The wife tends the store and her 2 sisters, mom, and dad live not far away, so they're always visiting. I spent both Saturday and Sunday at their place, and it was wonderful. They asked about when Willa's family was coming (Nov. 1st and 2nd after she has closed her service), and what to make them. They then asked me about my family. They wanted to know if my mom would eat picante de cuy (guinea pig). It made me realize I'm pretty nervous about making sure my mom enjoys her visit.

I should hear within a week whether my grant has been approved. If it is, I will be starting classes in October about Climate change and how to conduct a small science project. Actually, I'll do the classes anyway, but they won't be going on the fieldtrip I have planned for the end for those who participate the most. After the series of classes in October, they will have all of November to measure the temperature to collect data for their project. Then, the first week of December I'll help them analyze and write up their results, and they'll have to present them the second week, the week right before final exams for them. As long as the grant is approved, I think the first or second of December will be when the good students get to go see Pastoruri, a nearby glacier that's melting in the National Park. I've arranged free entrance for them, and the park guard will talk to them. Also, the Park Service has promised to help me make a tree nursery with the two schools. After that, I'll get to plan with the teachers about utilizing the weather monitoring boxes for the new year and planning classes for the whole next year.

I want to make sure to plan to teach one grade of high school English on a regular basis for the new year, but I'm sad realizing that it will only be one year. Which makes me think about extending. But...I don't know if I want to do a third year in my site. I'm also interested in the coordinator position in Lima, don't know if I could do that as a fourth year, or if that would be fair to the group 20ers who would be finishing their 2 years and applying for coordinator. Anyways, that's enough thinking ahead, and I think I've reflected enough. Time to wrap up and head to a hot shower (thank god for hot showers in Huaraz!)

My Second Month in Ancash

             I guess it’s time for me to write another blog. I don’t really feel like I’ve done too much, but the appropriate about of time has passed. What I have done in these last few weeks is bake. I introduced my host family to cakes, cookies, and bread that I made. I also made some scones, but I ate those myself. I guess I have done some work as well. I’m in the finally stages of writing a grant proposal for climate change education. Today I got the official document promising that the school of Huaripampa will help me with the project. Tomorrow I hope to gain the same for the school in Olleros. From there, I need the promise of SERNANP, the park service that they’ll give my school kids free admittance to the park, and I can submit the proposal. Assuming everything goes well, I’ll start classes in the first week of October with the weather monitoring boxes hopefully already built and placed. 

                I’ve also been helping the other Volunteer in my site with her project called Ironman. Basically, it focuses on 3^rd grade of high school in Olleros with different components of sports, volunteer work, reading and journaling, and science classes. I’ve specifically helped her with the sports area, helping her with swimming class. Basically, we take twenty 13 year olds to a freezing salt water pool and tell them to get in and practice kicking. It involves a lot of screaming, splashing and straight up refusal. Last class we had, which is supposed to be the last of the year, I worked more with the 3 kids who actually showed some progress. One of them actually swam, the second swam while holding onto a soccer ball, and the third, the only girl of the three, was brave enough to circle the pool including the deep end while holding on to the wall. May not seem like much, but the fact that these kids tried was more than the others. For my part, I made a point to swim underwater the width of the pool. They couldn’t believe it was possible, so I made sure they all saw at least once. Not to mention, I very much enjoyed the exercise. I also made sure to float around, tread water, and dive in a few times. I nearly fainted after finally getting out; I think the shock to my body took that long to set in. It was fine until I couldn’t handle a minute more, and then it was way too cold. 

                Speaking of cold, I set up an atomic clock with temperature sensor that I asked my mom to send me. It’s been liberating being able to see the temperature. Liberating and fascinating, it’s caused me to laugh at the people who every day tell me how cold it is. My site seems to vary between 40 degrees in the night and 75ish degrees at the hottest part of the day. My room only varies between 55 and 65 degrees. Basically, it’s not cold here at all. It’s perfect for having to wear pants all the time (being a woman), but only one pair of pants.

                I guess as a wrapping up for this blog; I’ll mention that a woman from my old site in Vicco called me today. She must have asked to borrow someone’s phone that had my number, because I didn’t know her. All she wanted to know was when I’d be returning to Vicco to buy more recycling. It was sad to me since that means the Municipality hasn’t picked up the program, but also great in that she cared enough to contact me. I changed some people; I made a difference. Now I have to hope I made enough of a difference with enough people that they pester the Municipality until they start buying recycling.

             Today marks my 10th day in Ancash. I posted my first thoughts and impressions of my new site that I wrote on day one, and while I still have internet access, I guess I should try to update a bit. Since then I've felt both worse and better. I went to GLOBE training with two professors from Olleros and Willa. That was fun, as was the going-away party for the Peru 15ers. Everyone of the volunteers I met was great. I have a whole new family of individuals to learn about and support. Shortly before leaving for that though I received some calls from people in Vicco or Cerro de Pasco, which really sent me for a mental spin. It was depressing, and I had to really work to get myself moving forward again. I'm trying not to dwell on the abandonment of them. This week, I taught several classes in the school of Olleros (which is both elementary and high school, there being no middle school in Peru). I taught two English classes to the second grade of Secondary (high school), and the kids of that grade are really sweet. It was fun being back in the teaching mode, spotting the kids who are more interested, and remember more. You learn so much about the individual kids even as you teach the class as a whole. It's fascinating to me, and keeps me busy.
        
              I also taught 6th grade of Primary (elementary school) a class about Climate Change. That felt really good, in that it was more directly related to our program goals, but I could tell the kids were still a bit young to be understanding or interested much in the science. I'm hoping to capture their interest when we start a small climate monitoring study. I want to start a mini-science project thing with them. First, to teach them, we'll have a basic question about the average temperature. Then I hope to provide them with individual thermometers so they can design and carry out their own mini-experiment. They can all present their findings at the end of it. After that, we might have them carry out a long term study study collecting data as a team. We'll see how that goes. Another really cool class I taught (assisted in really), was the swimming classes Willa started yesterday. Olleros has a Municipality-owned pool down near the river, and so we took 3rd grade of Secondary class down to teach swimming. The water was pretty cold, but it was so great to be swimming, especially when it so clearly fascinated the students. I think one of them was able to swim, but he was clearly an exception. It was also excellent exercise, including doing some yoga and other basic exercises to warm up after getting out. I would say that was one of my highest points in my new site so far. I also really enjoyed playing soccer in the dirt street with 3 young kids, and making boats out of the bottoms of plastic bottles littered around to race down the mini-stream running along the dirt road outside my house.

             As of right now, I think I'm really wondering about how my host family situation is going to work out. I really hope I don't have to deal with a dirt floor my whole service, so thinking of solutions. Carpeting, putting in concrete, or perhaps just a tarp are some of my ideas. The family is so sweet; I really am trying to walk on my tippytoes for right now. Santa, who I can't decide if I should call my host mom, or sister, has a sort of tourism thing where tourists visit her from Huaraz to learn about how she makes natural dyes and knitted products. I'm very excited to think about ways I could help her improve it. I think right now, getting the word out there is the biggest thing, so I'm thinking of ways I could get her connected to guided hikes or something similar. Any ideas from out there in internet land would be most welcome though!

My first Impression of Olleros, Ancash

July 10th, 2012

 

I’m going to miss my friends in Vicco. But I’m also going to love my new site. I may have only spent half a day here so far, but all the signs are great. It’s gorgeous for starters. There are rolling hills, snow-capped mountains in the distance, trees, fields, horses, and children running everywhere. We’re still decently high, at 3500m or so (11,500 feet or so), and they say it gets pretty cold. But I was outside at 8pm in one pair of pants, a single cotton t-shirt, and a cotton sweatshirt. I didn’t feel cold at all. I’m sure it will get colder, but this is nothing compared to Vicco.

                I met my host family, and they seem wonderful. My host mom is Santa, and she seems like a really sweet lady. Her one son is 13, and also pretty cool. He made an origami frog during lunch today, as well as a hat to put on his dog. The poor dog, Bobby, had tortured tolerance written all over his face. We also have a cat with a weird short face that I’m just going to call Micchi (cat in Quechua). Later in the afternoon I met Santa’s mom; her name is Rosa. I also met Santa’s brother who lives in Huaraz and visits occasionally; his name is Manuel. I’m trying to make sure I write their names so that I don’t forget.

                After taking a short nap after lunch, I met back up with Willa, the volunteer who lives in this site. I’m sort of invading her site; she has 4 months of service left and then I’ll be her replacement. Until then, we get to work together on stuff. Anyway, met up with her and walked around with my host brother, Ronaldo. We eventually ended up playing soccer on their soccer field, taking penalty kicks at each other. A young boy joined us part way through, his name is Roberto or just Rober (with an o like in Row). It was really fun, and I’m excited that I’ll be more active here. I’ll definitely go hiking, walking, and playing soccer or volleyball. I didn’t feel too tired or cold to do things.

                I showed my host family some photos of my life and family from my laptop, and we ate bread with some tea. The tea was from cedron, which I should figure out what that is, because I liked the tea. The bread was actually really yummy, waaaaay better than bread in Vicco (sorry Vicco!). It will be perfect to make sandwiches. While we ate, I tried to learn some Quechua. Apparently, “are you well?” is something that sounds like Al-le ya-chu. You would answer that with OHmi, or something that sounds like that. That means yes. Manam is no, but there’s another word that you’re supposed to say with it if you want to answer negatively. Thus…I’ll just stick with OHmi.

                Tomorrow I’ll head down with Willa (Constansa in site, because willa in quechua means fat) to Olleros, which is our main center. I think she has meetings or something with the school. I’m super excited for the days to come, as I learn people’s names, more Quechua, and start work here.

Unexpected Loop

So I have some news that I'm still trying to grasp myself. I will be moving to a new site in the near future. I can't tell you where yet, or when, because I don't myself know. Until Peace Corps and I know, I'm stuck in Lima in limbo.

This is really hard for me; I'm struggling to wrap my head around the concept. Will I have to leave my group of friends from my area? I love our little group of people. Will I move to a place with trees? I'd love to have trees to work with. I'm still reeling a little bit.

I literally just accepted that I will be moving as I wrote my first sentence on here. Up until this morning I was still saying I'm going to try to fight to stay in Vicco. But based on the arguments for my safety, I've been convinced. I just...have to totally reset my mind and open up for another site? It's like getting wiped clean and starting over; I don't know what to expect.

Then again, I do know what to expect. I know who I need to talk to, and this time around I'll be ABLE to. I have my ideas, more experience, and more confidence. So, I'm doing my best to be flexible, and positive. I'll let you guys know more when I can.

Huanuco

So I had a pretty interesting Sunday. I got up early to be ready for my flag raising ceremony in the main plaza. I had written a little speech of what I would say, so after making sure that was in my pocket and I had my first daily layer of sunscreen on, I headed to the plaza. I there proceeded to wait on Peruvian time. Eventually, the governor, his tenant governor, the Municipality secretary, and two workers from the Municipality all congregated, and we carried the Peruvian flag out and around the Main Plaza's park area. I got to tie it up and raise it to their flag raising song, and then proceeded to stand there solemnly while they sang their national anthem. I've been in that position before, and I'm honestly still not sure how to act. It's uncomfortable. Do I put my hand over my heart like them? Do I look at the flag like I would if it were mine? Do I attempt to sing their anthem with them? It's interesting. I ended up putting my hand on my heart and staring forcefully at the ground, humming along. Interestingly, they don't look at the flag during the anthem, so I'm not sure staring at the ground is really much of a statement. Anyways, I said my little words about the flag being a symbol of the country and a promise to the future. I said we promised to leave a beautiful country to our children and that's why I was dedicating this flag raising to Migratory Birds day and Environment Day (June 5th), that we needed to remember and honor these important days. I think I would have felt prouder of my little speech if more than 5 other people had heard it.

During that, I received a surprising text from my Peruvian friend, Omar (the one who brought me Hersey bars and Pringles) about him having borrowed a car and wanting to take me to Huanuco. Understandably, I was a little uncomfortable with the idea. But he invited my host brother and his sister was going to, so I said I'd ask Jon if he wanted to go. Jon did...but Wilda was in a bad mood  so he backed out. Wilda was understandably very unhappy because my chef friend who had disappeared for awhile and then showed back up, had taken off in the middle of the night or early morning without a word. She was stuck cooking and short-handed. So anyways, Omar showed up with his sister in a nice Yaris (they're pretty popular here for some reason) and we set off. The road to Huanuco is past Cerro de Pasco to the north. Its another department, ie state, but the capital city is also named Huanuco and was where we were headed. We arrived around 1pm or so, and headed to get some food. We were supposed to meet up with Omar's sister's friend at a pro soccer game, but first we had to eat. So we ate at this place called Senor Limon. Apparently its pretty well-known to Peruvians, and I now know why. It has EXCELLENT food. The best ceviche I've had in Peru, the best calamari, the best fried fish sticks. I put money in for my part of our shared lunch, and we headed off to the soccer game. We were super late, so got in free, and watched the last 10 minutes. Peruvians are a little crazy about live soccer. As the game finished, police in full riot gear came out and formed a barricade so the referees could leave without being mobbed in thrown things. We filled out with the mob, and meet up with her friend. From there, we headed out of the city to Churubumbo (I think that's how it was spelled). There was supposed to be a resort/retreat type place we could hang out for awhile. But they said it was closed, so instead we went to the museum there. That was pretty awesome. They have pre-Incan mummies. You enter this small doorway that's supposed to be a replica of the civilization's homes and descend a rickety staircase into the semi-darkness. There, you see glass cases of dead people in fetal position screaming silently at you. It was a tad unnerving. Apparently, because the culture believe in an after-life, they put all their dead they mummified (important people only of course) into fetal positions. Basically, so that the dead were prepared to be born into the next life, like from the womb. Pretty cool huh? As I was moving through the museum, I saw some adult mummies, some children mummies, some stone mortal and pestles they used for medicine and then......A glass case with the placard "Piedras en la forma de huevos". Ie...stones in the shape of eggs. Yep, I am serious. There were 6 oblong rocks sitting in a glass case in a museum with Pre-Incan mummies. Not only that, but there were rocks in the form of hearts right beneath them. I took a video, just in case someone didn't believe me. I also have photos of the 400 year old bible they have. You know...400 year bibles definitely should be preserved alongside those rocks in the form of eggs. Omar's sister found a egg-shaped rock the museum must have misplaced right outside in the dirt as we left.

Anyways, after that we headed back to Huanuco. On the way, we picked up and old Tio on his way into the city. He had pure cane-liquor with him that he was going to sell. He let us take a shot of it from the bottle. Incredibly potent let me tell you. I only had a sip and I definitely felt the heat spread as if I'd taken two shots of tequila. That was pretty much the end of the day; we headed back to Vicco after dropping off the Tio and the friend. It was a long dark ride, but Omar and I passed the time chatting. I still have my mind blown that I CAN chat with him, that we have conversations that vary and are interesting.

During the week, I taught classes of English in the High school. They were good, and I felt like a real teacher since I was teachin the same kids I'd taught the week before in actual class periods. Yesterday, I hitched a ride with the Municipality in their truck to Cerro de Pasco. There Omar helped me get prices for my solar project budget that I'm working on. We also encountered an elementary school's anniversary celebration. It was an incredibly large procession through the streets. They had kids dressed as animals, doctors, witches, their traditional "negritos" garb, and even robots. I managed to spot Bender amongst the robots, and Omar took a photo for me. He was so kind as to post the photo on Facebook so you can see what a great job the kid, or his parents, did.

As for today, I had my 5th recycling buy. I bought 280 kilos more of recycling. I got extra bags from the Municipality beforehand and filled them up. I officially have nowhere to put more recycling. If I can't get this stuff sold this month, I think I'm going to put off buying more. That'd be sad, but may be necessary anyways. June is going to be a month of parties in Vicco; I'm not sure who is going to come sell me recycling. We have Rally Vicco, the highest race in the world? or maybe just in South America I don't know. After that, we celebrate the town anniversary for a week and a half I believe. So anyway, June should be fun.

6 months in Vicco

I cannot believe its been six months that I've been working in my site. I don't know where the time has gone, and yet, 6 months means that I have 3 more of what I've already done. Anyways, this blog I was hoping to address some of the comments or suggestions from people who are reading my blog.

My mom told me that someone (sorry I don't remember who she said, a bunco friend  I believe) wanted to hear how the Municipality functioned. To start off, my Municipality is the district capital government, which means they're in charge of Vicco, but also Shelby and Cochamarca. Those are two of our little pueblos outside of Vicco in our area. There is an office of obras, which means works. They are in charge of coordinating the projects of the Muni. Recently I sat in a meeting with the mayor and her regidores (people in charge of certain areas of work) where they had an intense session about the boss of the office of works lacking documents. A guy who was monitoring his work said that there were numerous documents where the numbers didn't match up and it had been months since he'd asked for certain documents. My point is that there is a lot of corruption in the government. Also, there is an office where two women work coordinating documents, I think. In their office, I can sometimes ask to use the internet which is nice. Next door to them is Juan Matias, who I am in the process of moving into his home with his family. I've used his computer pretty frequently too. He is in charge of the Centro Comercial building (ie the building that my current host mom rents from the Muni to have her restaurant on the first floor). In the main office is the secretary who guards the door of the mayor. He receives documents from people who are asking  something of the Muni, and fills out birth certificates. Basically any official document will go through him. Also, there is the accountant, who handles paying people and such. There are a couple other people who I'm not quite sure what their job description is but they're around. Oh, and the regidores and mayor. They seem to only really handle important events and attend meetings. A typical day for me when I go to the Municipality will be to enter, greeting everyone I see with a kiss on the cheek. Generally, I need to talk with one of the people who lets me use the computer so I'll search them out. Or I'm presenting a document or asking about one so I go see the secretary. Don't bother asking him about who will be attending a meeting, or who will be giving me access to their projector. He has more than once told me that's not his responsibility. It's very frustrating in that regard. To get anything done in this bureaucracy you need to have a document, an official solicitud that you present to the secretary so he can stamp it and give you your copy. Then you wait till the next monday when the regidores and the mayor have their "Consejos" meeting where they talk about the documents and approve them or not. I try to make sure to attend that meeting with them if I have a document presented. Its usually incredibly boring, but they're funny people, and so it's pretty informal. If you think about it, its a little strange that I'm allowed to just sit in on their internal meetings to approve projects or not. But that's the privilege of being an extranjera.

I think another comment my mom received about my blog was that it needed more positive things. As she said to me, it's rather hard, since I already try to put a positive spin on things as it is. If what's there isn't positive enough, I'm not sure how I can change it without lying. However, in the last week or so, things have been pretty positive so I'll try to highlight some of those moments. I've made a friend who has a store in Cerro de Pasco. I think I wrote about him previously in that he ordered cork boards for me from Lima when I was looking  for one for my room. Whenever we hang out, we have real conversations. By which I mean, we talk about things like evolution, and if robots will ever take over the world. It's so nice to talk to someone more than just saying yes its cold, yes I'm accustomed to life here, and yes I'm single.  I'm pretty sure he's interested in more than just friendship, although so far things have been plutonic. He brought pringles, and Hershey bars for me one day from Cerro from a shop he knows of that has a lot of imported goods. It's a little unfortunate that eventually I'll probably have to stop talking with him because he's a guy. In Peru, women and men aren't friends. I know that's sort of a human thing, but it's more drastic here, ie impossible.

Another big positive for me is I started teaching again. The catalyst for that isn't a positive thing-the english teacher in the high school is recovering from a surgery to remove a cancerous tumor. So while she's away, I'm covering her classes. It felt great to be back in the class teaching something easy, like English. She is also the teacher of Family values, which I have no idea how they teach, so instead I started teaching Hapkido. That was incredible. The first class I taught was 4th grade of high school (14-15 year olds, they have 5 grades but no middle school). They were just mature enough to be intelligent and attentive, but still young enough that they weren't being insolent and rude. My attempt to teach one of the sections of 5th grade English, ie the seniors, didn't go so well. I ended up walking out of their class and teaching some other kids who were on break. Anyway, the Hapkido was really fun. They were impressed and eager for more. I taught some basic joint locks, rolling, and a couple set ups for throws. It felt incredible; I have no idea why I didn't force the issue to start when the school year started in March.

I've been really busy lately which has been nice. I have meetings to attend, and classes to teach. I've been working hard on coordinating with the Recycling guy to come buy my recycling. I've been writing a Solar energy project for a grant proposal, in Spanish. Who ever thought I'd end up writing a 12 page formal grant proposal in Spanish. I've been trying to coordinate moving homes, and attending Anniversary parties and Brigada swearing-ins. Tomorrow I get to raise the Peruvian flag in the Plaza de Armas. I'm supposed to say something for that, in front of whichever authorities show up, so tonight I need to write what I should say.

That is a bit of what I've been up to. Hopefully that's positive enough. I'll write another blog soon; there is a lot I didn't mention here. I'll try to make that one a little more organized.

ECPA conference in Ancash

I guess its past time that I updated this blog. Things have been a little hectic since last posting. I celebrated Cruzes de Mayo, the Crosses of May, in my site. That was a lot of drinking and dancing; I've posted pictures. Things between our chef and my host mom sort of blew up in that time period, and unfortunately he left us. That's incredibly sad for me, because he was an awesome guy, one of two people I considered friends in Vicco. Even during that, I was helping my host-mom's restaurant, serving food like crazy when my own situation took a dive for the worse too. My host-grandma borrowed my keys to get into the house with my host-sister while I was busy helping the chef get food to the impatient mine workers. She came back about 20 minutes later, and gave my keys back. I continued working, and because I was so busy, asked my host-sister to put some utensils on a plate for one of the tables. I wasn't asking her to go put them on the table, just put the utensils on a plate I provided her. She ignored me, and begged for my keys so she could go back to the house. 5 minutes later, I realized I still needed utensils and asked again. She put the plate down and walked away, so I sought her out after serving some soup and asked about it. She shrugged insolently and turned away, and then she had the gall to ask me for my keys to go back to the house again. I told her no. That would be when my host-grandma flipped out and, long story short, asked me to leave her house. I think the worst part of that was, she is so small, and she refused to look me in the eye, so I felt like this giant staring down at her while she tried to evict me.

Anyways, fast-forwarding a bit, I located a suitable new home family. I asked around in the Municipality with more urgency than before, and visited the families of two Muni. workers. The first one, who is a woman working at the Muni, I would have loved to live with her. Unfortunately, she has so many siblings, her mom didn't have an empty room to rent me. The second guy turned out to be perfect. His home is very very close to the main plaza; he has a large empty room and an actual toilet. He even has a sink, and a washing machine that I think is hooked into the water supply. I might be able to wash clothes without either hauling tons of buckets or hand-scrubbing for hours! It's a miracle. I need to talk to his wife, just to be sure things are good with her, but I don't foresee any problems. Well, other than having to haul all my stuff (including my mini-kitchen) to the new place. I was worried about losing my one other friend in Vicco, since that is my current host-brother, but I don't see that being a problem either. We talked and he completely sympathizes, even to the point of telling me he can't wait till he himself can leave the home situation. In these last weeks, I have definitely come to regard Jon as the younger brother I never had.

On another note, work has been keeping me busy lately, and will keep me busy for the next month and a half. I realized that I'm now a member of 3 different important committees. I'm part of the high school's environmental committee, and I formed an Environmental Committee for all of Vicco, with representatives of all the important groups of Vicco. Also, I'm the Peace Corps representative for the Committee for the development of the National Reserve Junin (our lake/national park). Aside from that, I meet and helped a couple of guys who are planning a tourism project for Vicco, so I have some meetings coming up for that. Also, I am starting on May 24th a mini-Environmental Movie Night. That day is our day to celebrate Migratory Birds Day, so I thought it would make a great night to start movies, and show "Rio".

On top of that, I need and want to start planning a Renewable Energy project. I am currently returning from a 3 day conference in the gorgeous Huaraz, Ancash about Climate Change and Renewable Energy Education. ECPA is the Peace Corps group that hosted the event. I'm very excited to do a solar project and start some education using models and demonstrations. I guess once I have that planned out; I'll explain it more fully. I'll just say that I hope to start a solar bake sale as part of it.

Anyways, hope you are all well. I'm keeping busy, and that is the name of happiness in PC Peru.

Earth Day

Well, life has been pretty decent since vacation. I formed an official committee to manage long-term environmental projects, and our first order of business is to organize putting recycling bins in all the institutions in Vicco. I also held my 4th Recycling buy, once again alone. BUT I bought a good amount, and am now requiring that all cans and bottles are crushed or else I´ll pay less. I also got all my recycling put into my costales that I retreived from the Recycling guy in Cerro. Didn´t get to talk to him directly, since he was in Lima, but I´m hoping I´ll get around to having him come soon. I´m just so bad about calling people; I hate talking on the phone. Even more so when I know its going to be in Spanish and I can hardly hear the guy. So I´m hoping to see him here in Cerro again. I also have started teaching the chef and my host brother English at the restaurant while I sit around waiting for my food (or am serving the food, which I did a lot of this week). It´s nice teaching them in a more informal setting, 1 because theyre smart and interested, and 2 because its just plain fun without any stress for me.

On the personal life side of things, that´s been looking up too. For Earth Day (April 22nd) I went to the nearby Huayllay hot springs with my host brother (Jhonatan) and the restaurant chef (Efrain). We were mostly celebrating/relaxing Jon´s birthday which was the next day. The hot springs are pretty developed, being more a heated pool place. But it was so awesome swimming, being warm, and having a good time. We laughed a lot while Jon tried to swim (you have to remember that pools don´t exist in Vicco), and I demonstrated some Hapkido moves. They´re both really interested in learning some martial arts, so I think maybe I´ve finally found some people I´d be comfortable practicing with. Now if only I had a kicking or punching bag, need to get around to trying to make one. After that, we walked the 3 kilometers to the actual Bosque de Piedras of Huayllay (ie the massive protected area of cool rock formations). We wandered around in there for awhile, eating my chocolate chip cookies (thanks for the chocolate chips and walnuts, Mom) and bouldering. Bouldering is rock climbing, generally done without any gear and only very low to the ground. I managed to forget my sunscreen so now my face is incredibly burned. For the last two days, I´ve been trying to good naturedly laugh while my host mom while she laughs at me for how red my face is.

Jon´s birthday was very relaxed, but I did work. At the high school, we celebrated belatedly Earth Day. We did a clean-up with the whole school after they watched a really great video about Mother Earth. I even gave a charla about recycling and how to separate from trash, although most failed to actually do it during the trash pick-up. Efrain started feeling bad after our Huayllay trip, and I still don´t know whats wrong. He´s been sleeping a lot; I really hope he feels better soon. Especially with my host mom saying he has bronchitis, the silent, lethal kind. She insists that it sneaks up out of nowhere and is very dangerous. Cross your fingers my new closest friend in site doesn´t have bronchitis.

Anyways, that´s life in Peru. Excited to be doing stuff, and getting to travel again soon for more training events in May. I´ll post again when I have more to share.

Central Selva Vacation for Easter Week (Semana Santa)

I was so ready to have my first vacation in Peru. I returned from a long, exhausting trip to the desert of Lambayeque for a training event, emptied my bag of dirty clothes, and packed the last of my clean clothes to head off for vacation in the Central rain foreset. I was exhausted, but also ready to have fun on my own schedule. I met up with two fellow Environmental volunteers in Junin and from there we traveled together to Tarma. Tarma is the first hint of the rain forest to come, down the east side of the Andes. After a bit of a scare that we might not find a hotel room (from all the other people traveling for Semana Santa as well), we got a nice hotel and met up with two more Volunteers. I think at that point is when it set in I was on vacation, and we were winging it. It was awesome to be truthful. I think there is a mentality in the US of needing to have things planned. We like making to do lists and having our plans ready. But here in Peru, with a little bit of knowledge, you can do things much more off the radar. The next morning, we decided it was time to head further into the rain forest, and thought perhaps we'd take a car. So we went to the Stadium where vehicles left for La Merced, and as we arrived, a guy asked if we were heading to Merced. We said yes, and he beckoned us to the bus about to leave. We had thought we'd take a car, but here was a bus convienently about to leave for cheaper, so we said sure and got on. In La Merced, we got a car to Oxapampa, and enjoyed the scenic roads curving further and further away from civilization. Arriving to Oxapampa was a strange event. To understand why, you first need to know that Oxapampa was a German settlement in the 1860s. Peru gave the Germans some land, and the colonists spent two years hiking from Lima to their eventual settling place. "Everyone" knows that Oxapampa, and Pozuzo further up the road, still have people that speak German, have German dances, and look white. I've had many a people tell me you can find blonde, blue-eyed Peruvians in Oxapampa. So we rode into Oxapampa anxiously searching the faces of the people in the streets for a remnant of European ancestry. We were disappointed. Nobody jumped out at us and said guten tag. We asked around for a hotel room, finally settling on a place that charged us S/. 40 per person, which was more than we'd expected to have to pay. We settled in and started exploring, and finally saw the occasional white person. It was disconcerting. There weren't many, and so I would stare for long periods trying to figure out if they were really Peruvian or a tourist. Also, we saw our first wooden houses, and german shepards. It was then that it started to feel to me like we were somewhere other than Peru. Houses on the coast and in the mountains are typically made of concrete, mud bricks (adobe), or metal. Entire houses with wooden walls was not something I'd encountered in Peru. We ended up staying a day and a half in Oxapampa, during which we did a 14 kilometer hike into the nearby National Park. That was wonderful. I saw butterflies all over the place, and got to experience being in a rain forest again for the first time since Costa Rica. After meeting up with another Volunteer from my own year-group, we headed to Pozuzo. The woman at the terminal insisted she'd have the driver stop at the waterfalls along the way for us to take pictures free of charge. We weren't sure how that would turn out, since we were taking a van with other people. However, there ended up only being 3 others; two of which I talked to almost the entire 4 hour journey. The younger of the two had the lighter eyes showing his German ancestry which was cool, and he even counted in German for me. The other guy was a little too interested in me, although very nice. He invited us to the only discoteca in Pozuzo that night, and said if we couldn't find a hostal with empty rooms, he had space for us all (6 females...of course he had room). We did find a gorgeous hostal set back from the main street in Pozuzo, although the caretaker turned out to be a little crazy. We thought he might just not understand us well, but other people in Pozuzo told us he's just strange. Pozuzo turned out to be what we'd been waiting for. It was a quaint little town with two streets. The two streets run parellel to the river set between two mountains. There are wooden houses galor, and their main plaza has a ship in it along with a small grotto with water wheel. While walking around Pozuzo, we found a woman who still spoke German and made tourist goods, and a bar that actually made beer. To see those vat things of beer and have beer on tap was a strange experience. I tried a little, but I've never found a beer I like. The others told me it was really good, although not all that strong alcoholically. We did end up going to the discoteca that night, and I had the best time I've yet experienced at a club or bar in my life. That may sound dramatic, but then again, I have hardly any previous experience. When I realized the others were leaving, I extricated myself from dancing with the DJ and promised the bouncer we'd be in town tomorrow night. He ended up insisting the owner of the bar give us a ride home which was really nice since it was raining. Our last full day of vacation saw us just outside of Pozuzo swimming in natural pools in the river, and then hiking to see Cock on the Rocks. We had to pay an entrance fee for the private reserve, and a guide walked us in to see their lekking area. It was incredibly; I counted 8 that I could see at one time, and I would guess there was more like 13 or so by the calls. The Cock on the Rock male is bright orange with black and gray wings. We got to watch them calling out their dominance for at least half an hour not 10 meters away from us. We also saw traditional German dances and garb as part of their festivities for Semana Santa before going to swim. I ate sausages for the first time in Peru at dinner, and almost cried. I miss having access to good cuts of meat and sausages. Needless to say, Pozuzo is a wonderful place, and I hope to return. Perhaps for Octuberfest. I'll post the pictures on Facebook as soon as I can.

As a last thought, during the vacation, I tried to think of how I'd feel returning to site. I assumed I'd be depressed. But after this first full day of working back in site, I'm still feeling super psyched. Even while returning to Vicco from Cerro de Pasco yesterday, I was happy and chatting amiably with the people I shared transport with. I went around town today with my socia I took to training and we informed people of the meeting we want to hold to coordinate future projects. Everyone was willing, and people in the streets all greeted me by name. I guess that is something I missed during vacation, having people who knew me. Instead, everyone stared and talked which is the norm for tourists. The thing is...I don't consider myself a REAL tourist. I was during that vacation, but I kept wanting to tell everyone who stared that, no I was living and working in Peru, not just passing through.

Early In-Service Training

So this month has actually been pretty busy. I had a handful of official invitations to tallers and reuniones (aka workshops and meetings). Most of them were incredibly boring, but I was happy that I was invited. I talked with a lot of officials from my regional government during the month, and I feel like I developed a couple of really good connections. Other than that, this Friday I had my third Recycling Buy. This time I was able to advertise in the high school, going class to class with the science teacher to remind all the students earlier in the week. Then Friday mismo, I went around to each class myself and reminded them again. I also walked all around Vicco in the morning reminding people in the stores and Municipalidad. I did the entire Buy myself, which is a little sucky...BUT I managed to buy 400 kilos of recycling. A big chunk of that was used notebooks. The bag of white paper is only half full, but impossible to move. I'm pretty psyched that I doubled my total in one buy, and I feel that it confirms my hopes. Now that the high school is back in session; I'll have more people selling to me.

On another note, the closest Volunteer to me, and the only other one in my department of Pasco (aka state) is leaving to return to the US with his girlfriend who is a fellow Volunteer. This is more than a bit sad; he's an awesome guy and Volunteer. Now I feel like I'm even more hanging off the end of our little chain of Volunteers. The upside of it is that he sold me at a discount a lot of his stuff. I picked up a tank of gas to use with my new stove/oven, a pressure cooker, wooden boards to build shelves for all my cooking stuff, a potted plant, some school supplies, etc. I spent Thursday rearranging my room and building that shelving unit. After I sat down, exhausted from the long day, I had an incredible surge of sheer glee at having my own organized cooking area. I made myself tortellinis, and macaroni and cheese. I can't wait to use the oven; I didn't have time before heading here to Lambayeque for my training event. I shall be making a big batch of walnut chocolate chip cookies, courtesy of my mom for the chocolate chips and walnuts.

As a last note for this update, I had a very strange moment on the way to this training event. We had to bring a Peruvian with us to help spread the knowledge sustainably. So I was sitting on the bus chatting with her about potential work ideas when we pulled through Junin, in Spanish obviously. There, two other Volunteers from my group boarded the bus to head down with us to Lima. I went down to the lower level and chatted with them in English for awhile about our travel plans for a bus north once we reached Lima. Then a Peruvian down there told me, in Spanish, that I should just sit down there with them. I responded, back in Spanish after a 10 minute chat in English, that I had a seat upstairs, and then went back to my socio (counterpart). As I sat back in my seat, I had the moment. I realized I had just communicated in two languages easily. "I'm bilingual." I don't know why that thought awed me so much, but its not how I identified myself before. It's weird changing your own self-perception.

Anyways, with that parting personal mental struggle, I shall finish this. Here's hoping to an awesome week of training and vacation for Easter week (Semana Santa)!

The Beginning of March

I find it difficult to grasp that I´ve been in Peru for 5 and a half months...almost half a year already! I´m happy that I successfully concluded teaching English during Summer School. It perhaps could have been better, but it definitely wasn´t bad in my opinion! I hope to start playing classes now that the real school year is starting, perhaps once every other week I´ll give a class in both schools. I´m also hoping to set up a movie night featuring films that make you appreciate nature and/or animals. Not necessarily limiting myself to Environmental documentaries, I´m thinking things like Rango, and Avatar. Movies that people actually will be interested in seeing, but will still show an environmental mind-set. I.e. I´m hoping to start the brainwashing process hehe. Other than that, I´m trying to wrap up work on my Community Diagnostic before the end of this month.

At the end of the month, we have a week long training event in the desert of Lambayque. There, I´m supposed to present a Spanish document of my investigation into the situation of Vicco. Of course, I´m presenting in Spanish too. Thank heaven, Briana, the previous Volunteer, already had in her document most of the background info all typed up. A little judicious cutting and pasting, giving credit of course, helped me get about half of it all done. But the second half is the meat of the document, where I present the techniques I used (such as interviews) to glean information about the status of Env. Education, Management of Natural resources, and Solid waste in Vicco (those being my 3 goals/work areas). I have finally got about 10 interview/surveys done which for me is very exciting. They aren´t exactly randomly selected, but I figure the information will still be useful. Today, I´m really really hoping Alex, Reilly and I can convince the Recycling guy here in Cerro de Pasco to come to our sites and buy our recycling from us. It would be another major victory in my opinion.

As for the rest of this month, I´ve managed to wiggle my way into playing Volleyball for Woman´s Day on the 8th, a meeting with the Committee for the Lake on the 15th, a meeting with the Park Service, SERNANP, about Dry Latrines (ecologically much better than normal ones) on the 22nd, and then my Compra is on the 23rd. On the 24th, a Peruvian co-worker (yet to be picked by the Mayor) will be travelling with me to my training event. Busy month!! I also need to find time to finish that document, and start the paper trail to working in the schools during the year. Exciting no? I´m really happy when I have work to do here, makes me feel much more satisfied with my time here.

A last side note: I´m welcoming suggestions on what to do for vacation time after the training event. Its Holy Week, so we get some free vacation days. Lots of the other volunteers are going to a very popular (ie more touristy expensive) beach. I was contemplating setting off on my own to Lake Titicaca; I have the whole week´s trip set up in my mind. I just would rather do it with a friend or a couple friends. Perhaps I should save that trip for a later date? What do you guys think??