The End of My Peace Corps Service

At the end of 27 months in Peru, I would say my mood is melancholy. I know that I did good things during my service, and I know I can’t even begin to measure the impact I had on peoples’ lives, especially my students. But I also can’t avoid the feeling that I could have done more, that I should have done more. I would like to say that it wasn’t my fault; that the community I worked in wasn’t interested in participating in helping themselves. I could mention the numerous NGO’s in the area that give out free things with no expectation of change, and the recent culture of expectation that has developed. But I feel in my heart these last few months haven’t been as productive as they could have been, even given all of that. I tried my hardest to try my hardest, but it got tiring to try so hard and get nowhere so frequently. I still managed to do small things, like classes with elementary school kids about recycling, but my grand ideas, like having a youth club for promoting reading, environmental themes, and volunteerism didn’t get off the ground. No space, no help. Eventually, I just stopped trying. And while that’s probably a valuable lesson for me to have learned…it still hurts in my idealistic dreamer’s heart. I’ve come to realize that I want the power to make those projects happen, whether or not others want to give me 10 minutes of their time.

And looking back on it, that is why I came to Peru in the first place. Or rather, one of the reasons. I didn’t know what to do next. I’d been on the fast track my whole life, an A-student finishing high school and diving right into college. Graduating with honors, and expecting to be important, to make a difference. But I didn’t know how yet, and so I gave myself 2 years in Peace Corps to figure it out. I kept myself ‘on track’ by being occupied in a very wonderful position, but it also gave me a lot of time for self-reflection. And while reflecting, I figured out my next steps. I am applying to graduate schools for my Masters in Environmental Management. My interest is in sustainability. Life isn’t going to keep going on without a shift to more sustainable living, and I want to do whatever I can to make that happen. The sooner the better, so that more species in the wild can be saved from destructive forest razing, pollution, and plowing.

I would say I have gained a lot from Peace Corps. I have learned a language, most obviously. But also, I have learned patience and tolerance of cultural differences. I have learned to try new tactics when the ones you’re using don’t work out. I have learned what Peru is, and what it means to be a Peruvian. I have seen how America is viewed from the outside. But most importantly, I feel that I have learned about who I am. Sorry to be cheesy about it, and obviously everyone has to learn who they are as they grow up. That is the whole point of growing up, after all. But I feel that I have had the chance to grow up in a very different way than people who stay in the United States of America.  I have done things I never thought I would, tried things I never thought I would even want to try. It has changed me profoundly. And I have Peace Corps to thank for that. I now have to transition back into life in America, the next step of my journey, but Peace Corps has taught me that I can handle it. Maybe it won’t be smooth sailing. Undoubtedly, there will be bumps in the road. But, I’m no longer afraid to face it; I am excited to confront the next challenge.

Peace Corps' Third Goal

It’s interesting how fast I lost interest in writing my blog. I used to write one twice a month at least. In training, I wrote as frequently as I could. I guess it has to do with the fact that I was looking at Peru with fresh eyes, amazed by all the cultural differences. I used to be amazed by their fear of drinking cold water, or of cold at all. I thought it was interesting that Peruvians always, always check their bills of 50 soles or more for being false. Most check even the 20s and 10s. Now I don’t find that stimulating to write about. I don’t feel the need to document every moment of my life here because…well, it’s just that, my life. It’s nothing special anymore. But I still have the Peace Corps Goal 3 of sharing the Peruvian culture and life with the American people. How to do that, when my life here is just my life? I no longer notice things that are “interesting” to share, because all those surface differences I’m now used to.

But this last Saturday, I thought it would be interesting to share my experiences with the reality of Peruvians. Not how they act, but what they do; what they have to do to survive. Saturday, I got up at 7:30am to walk to the family land with my host uncles as soon as they arrived from Huaraz. It was time to harvest the potatoes. Saturday, at daybreak, my host grandma and her grandson went to borrow 4 donkeys to take to the fields. As soon as my host uncles arrived, the rest of us left to meet them. We spent all morning harvesting on a steep hill. Potatoes, if you don’t know, are planted in rows, zigzagging on the side of their hill. Because the rows are mounds raised up, when you harvest (by hand at least), it’s easy to take a pickax-like tool and dig up the whole mounded row. This allows you to get the potatoes without cutting them up as you dig them up. It is rather tough work; especially, when you have the sun beating down and are on such a steep hill. My job ended up being picking the potatoes from the upturned earth after my host “uncle”, who is my age. A surprising amount of them were bad, either putrefying or having insect damage. But still, we harvested 5 large sacks of potatoes in 5 or so hours. At 2pm, we took a break for lunch. Lunch was pretty awesome, honestly. My host grandma built a pyramid/oven using blocks of dirt and then built a fire in it. Once the dirt was sufficiently hot and charred black, she stuffed in 50 or so potatoes that we’d just harvested, and went to their next field over to harvest broad bean pods to put in as well. After a sufficient amount of time covered with loose dirt, they dug it up, and we ate. My host mom had brought aji which is their spicy blended bell-pepper sauce they use with practically everything. Right as we were finishing lunch, a hailstorm rolled in. It is May, which is supposed to be the start of the dry season, but unfortunately, things are changing here in Peru. Thankfully, we had brought along a blue plastic tarp and managed to scramble under that with the sacks of potatoes. It was a tight fit, and the hail was amazingly loud as we all hunched over sitting under the tarp.

Anyway, my point is that here in the mountains of Peru, families still work together every harvest season, harvesting by hand their food and small income. Even though both of my host uncles live in the city, they came in for the weekend to harvest together. It is interesting, and hard to imagine for most of us. 

Family from France

Wow so 2 blogs already in the month of April and its only the 18th? Whats going on!? Craziness, thats what. Yesterday, my host mom had tourists come to see her wool spinning/natural tint dying/knitted items. They arrived in what many women of my town thought was an ambulance, causing a bit of a stir. They had a French license plate, and tucked inside their work-van was an entire home. They invited me to dinner in their modest home-on-wheels, and I got to see how they fit 2 adults, an 8-year-old girl, and a 6-year-old boy into the space of a van. They have a kitchen, bathroom with shower, table, and a bedroom in that tiny space. It was incredible, and whats even more incredible is that I ate international cuisine in my little, modest pueblo that doesn't even have internet.

While we sat at their table space, they brought out guacamole on crackers and fish liver in a can. I believe it was cod liver, with its accompanying cod liver oil, but I can't be entirely sure since they didn't know the English translation. You may have heard old-timer tales of kids being forced to drink fish liver oil? Well, that's exactly what this was. Except it wasn't disgusting. I enjoyed it, especially with a bit of lemon, pepper and guacamole on a cracker. After trying that bit of interesting French cuisine, I was then introduced to Mint syrup. Apparently, this is a big thing in France. Kids are served water with a dollop of different flavored syrups. My visiting family's favorite was Mint. It was really, really delicious, although that might also be attributed to my first drink of cold water in months. I cannot stress enough how much I enjoyed my time in their company. It was exciting, different, and fun. I mimicked a few words of French, and attempted to learn to read a few words. I listened to good international music, and was inspired to want to travel Europe in one of these van-homes.

Other than that, I've been continuing work in my site. I taught my first class of a series in Environmental Ethics. It went really well. I've planned out an event for Earth day this coming Monday. I have a GLOBE meeting to attend Wednesday. Things are going well, or as well as can be when I'm wanting to go home, or travel. I hope everyone out there is well. Even people in my site are talking about the Boston Marathon bombing and North Korea's nuclear bombs. Stay safe people.

After a long silence...Year and a half Update

I realize I haven't really been posting recently. Sorry about that! So much and yet so little has happened, I'm not exactly sure how to update here. Vacaciones Utiles (Summer school) was a rough time for me this year. It was hard last year too, but this time, I think I hit my all time low of my service. Or at least...I hope its the lowest I'll get! I still have 6 or 7 months left of service, depending on when I decide to Close. We get to Close of Service (COS) anytime a month before or after our swearing-in date which was Nov. 27th. Anyways, back to this January and February. It was rough for me, and I'm not too sure why. I guess I started feeling unnecessary and alone. In my old region, I met so many amazing fellow volunteers that on a personal level I just really connected with. Here in Ancash, we have wonderful volunteers, don't get me wrong. I guess I'm just having trouble connecting with them, or finding my place. We've had some great times, but its very sporadic I guess. Also, in my  site with my work, I was being thwarted at every turn. I wanted to do some environmental themed classes, but in Huaripampa, the science teacher is completely unwelcoming. Last year I decided I wouldn't work with her, but I thought I could still enter their tutoring class which is an hour every week. But they told me they had all their Tutoria classes scheduled for the year and basically told me I couldn't do anything. Even in English, the teacher didn't want my help. She doesn't speak English hardly at all, hasn't studied the language, and yet wouldn't let me teach because the school board already approved her plans and she "can't" change them. It basically seems like I'm not going to work with Huaripampa this year, despite my best intentions. I understand how Willa felt when she gave up working with them in HER second year. The one redeeming factor in Huaripampa is that their teacher of Work education was motivated/forced by me to start a composting corner, as well as a tree nursery. This Friday, I delivered 500 tree clippings of a native tree, Quenual, to be planted in that bed. They'll grow through the year, and then be transplanted as I'm leaving. So that's my work in Huaripampa.

In Olleros, my work is going way better, although recently the town suffered a natural disaster. Thursday, April 4th, we had a solid hour of hail and thunder. It rained the rest of the evening, and on the radio we learned that Olleros, just 10 minutes hike downhill from me, over 20 houses had either collapsed or suffered damage. The Olleros high school also suffered some damage, although not to buildings. Their alfalfa that was very recently planted was completely wiped away by the nearby canal being blocked in the landslide. That means sewage water is pouring down the center walkway of the school. Their soccer/basketball/blacktop area was also covered in mud. Friday, I watched as 2nd and 3rd grade kids tried their best to push the mud off their precious play area. Also, Friday, I saw a solid 50 people in the main square, currently homeless, cooking a community food pot and receiving aid from the various government programs. It was shocking that this happened where I'm living, but at the same time it could have been worse. Nobody died, although a few guinea pigs got swept away. Huaraz, and Recuay, the two big cities nearby have both sent aid in cleaning and for the displaced families.

So to move away from the sad news about Olleros, the good news is that I'm working extensively with Olleros. I'm teaching English to 3rd, 5th and 6th grade of Elementary school. They are wonderful and super enthusiastic. Also, their teacher stays in the room, and I feel like in that way I'm helping them learn as well which makes my efforts a little more sustainable. I'm also teaching 2nd grade of Secondary which for us would be 8th graders. I've written up a plan to work in several areas with them throughout the year. I'm teaching them English, and have started a series of 5 Hapkido/Self-Defense classes with them. Friday I taught them the second class of that, practicing kicks. It was fun, and I snapped a photo. I hope to get it uploaded to my Facebook soon (we'll see if the internet cooperates). After we finish with self-defense, we'll move into the Ultimate Frisbee unit, and then lastly the Swimming unit. Also, this week I'll start a set of 6 classes with them about Ethics, specifically Environmental ethics. I hope they'll think and hopefully even debate a little in that class. Honestly though, they're the classes I'm most nervous to teach. The language will be hard to communicate, and the subject might be a little too advanced for them yet. So wish me luck with that! Other than that, I've also coordinated to do GLOBE weather monitoring again with them, and climate change education. And lastly, with the entire school, I've arranged to celebrate Earth Day in the main square with the mayor providing refreshments. Each grade has a theme that they'll elaborate and present on. They also started a tree nursery bed of 500 Quenuals. I planted them Friday amidst the chaos of the landslide with the "juniors" of the high school. It felt incredible to realize that I've now worked extensively in all three of my goal areas. I've done a large education program, taking 60 kids on a science fieldtrip which falls in Goal 1 of Environmental Education. I've now had 1000 trees planted in nursery beds which is Goal 2 of Natural Resources, and of course last year I worked extensively in recycling which is Goal 3, Trash Management.

So to sum it all up, I'm doing a lot better than I was even a month ago. Hopefully, things stay positive for me.

PS: I also just today received the best two packages in my service, or at least, most appreciated. Willa sent me Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and gifts to give to some of her close friends in our site. I can't wait to pass them out; I will get to see their faces receiving something from Willa whom they always ask me about. Also, my mom sent me a package that had a yoyo (awesome right? I get to teach my host brother how to walk the dog), apple cider packets, sunflower seeds, and Reeses. I guess this far into my time here, I appreciate so much more the thoughtful quirky things from my life at home that I can't have here.

My first American Visitor

Well, here is the promised update. Life has been good. Before my mom came to visit me, I had med checks in Lima. I had no cavities, and no parasitic infections. Clean all around which was nice to know. I was a little surprising I didn't have giardia, honestly. After that, I repacked my stuff back in site and got ready to meet my mom at the airport. The wait was really hard. Even when I knew she wouldn't be landing for an hour, I couldn't stop watching the people coming out and being anxious. Our ride back to the hostal was funny, because it wasn't noteworthy to me, but my mom was shocked by his driving. The thing was the lights weren't working, they were flashing red. So, he was ignoring them, and since it was 3 am, its not like there was a lot of traffic.

We had a little bit of difficulty getting transport to Paracas, which was our first destination. We ended up taking a 3:45am bus the 2nd morning and taking the tour of the beautiful wildlife islands shortly after arrival. Directly from there we got to head to the sand dunes of Huacachina, a wonderful little oasis in the desert of Ica. The sand buggy right was incredibly exhilarating and fun. We took an afternoon bus from Ica the day after our arrival in Huacachina, down to Nazca. Nazca was the only place I was disappointed with the tourism that I'd paid for. I guess it's not the fault of the tour company, Alegria tours, which was very nice and their hotel is wonderful. But the flight was a waste of our money in my opinion. The plane is a small, hot, sticky 6 seater. You go in circles over each Nazca line figure, both directions. I've never felt motion sickness before, but I was starting to feel a little queasy towards the end, and had to focus on the distance as we did the circles. The lines look exactly like the photos show, and while its nice to say I've seen the mystery, it would have been enough to know of it and know I was passing them.

After that we headed to Arequipa, and explored all the amazing colonial architecture. We went from there to the Colca canyon, Condor outlook to see the condors soaring. When we arrived there were 4 or 5 birds perched on the rocks and we waited to see them soar. Just as we ran out of time, the birds decided to grace us with their flight. Even more appeared, and it was incredible to see them overhead. I counted 8 in sight at once, but I'm positive there were more, since I'd lost sight of at least 2 juveniles that weren't with the 8 soaring adults. Directly from Chivay, we took a bus to Puno, which was nice although expensive. In Puno, we spent a lovely time relaxing in Colon Inn, passing Christmas in our room with a colored paper Christmas tree. We visited the floating islands and the burial towers along the coast, and both were interesting. Our next destination was my site for my birthday, which was lovely for me. I was preoccupied with my mom having troubles with the altitude, and stomach issues, but the lunch and Christmas presents given were wonderful. I felt very happy to share my host mom and my real mom with each other. We didn't really do much after that. In Lima, we saw the main plaza and the President's house. We watched his formal changing of the guard at noon, with a marching band and high precision marching.

I'm actually thinking about visiting home now; I really missed everyone once I saw my mom and realized how much more was missing still. But hopefully, my brother will come visit me this year, so I can see Machu Picchu and the rain forest. Those are practically the only places left on my must-see-during-my-time-here list.  Now I'm taking Quechua classes with the new group of Volunteers who swore in at the end of November (like I did last year). I'm surprised that I feel I'm actually learning a bit, since its so complicated and intimidating. But I'm excited to learn. These classes were definitely a good idea to transition from my long vacation back into work. It makes me excited to learn and looking forward to the future in the company of bright new eyes, rather than adrift and at a lost in site alone.

Hope you all had a wonderful New Year, cuidate bien!

Mom's visit to Peru

I know its been awhile since I've posted. Sorry about that, but it has been due to the fact that I've been incredibly busy carrying out my Climate change education grant, and then traveling Peru with my mom. This blog, I'm dedicating to her, and her thoughts of Peru. The next one, when I have a bit of time, I'll update you guys on my life and my own thoughts of my first American visitor to see my work here in Peru. Without further ado...

Sunday, Jan 6^th, 2013    Adventure in Peru

Peru was quite thrilling, but it was also very thought-provoking.  I headed out excited to see my daughter, but with lots of worries and insecurities.    I tried not to have many preconceived notions on what I would find there.    I knew I was heading to a country that wasn’t like home, but I was surprised at some of the differences.

 

I was initiated immediately upon arriving in Peru to their unique transit system.   The taxi driver taking us back to the hostel at 3 am used all lanes as his own and traffic lights were suggestions not always followed.  Driving in Peru is not something I’d ever want to do, but all the drivers seem to understand the rules.  Of which there seems to be times when the rules are used and times when it’s a free-for-all. There is every kind of public transportation you can imagine.  A taxi or cab can be a bicycle with extra seats or a Mercedes with AC.   Each type of vehicle seems to have a level of what it can and can’t do too.    It’s not size in all cases that determine right-a-way.   The interesting thing is that they all can take you where you want to go with just a bit of bargaining on cost.     There are lots of private vehicles in the bigger places, but the main way to get around seems to be by bus.    Buses can take you from one end of town to the other like RT does here but they can also take you from Lima to Huaraz overnight.   The big busses run with military precision and set times, while the combi buses only leave when full.

 

In the beginning of my trip, I hadn't tried a lot of the different foods, but the Alpaca stew and filet (Alpaca) were pretty good. I tried a bit of the guinea pig at one place, but didn’t get enough to know flavor and taste.    I got to try it again later at Allison’s host Mom’s and it was very good.   I had seconds.   You can find every kind of food place in the big cities from Mediterranean to Sushi (which I didn’t try).   The smaller areas had more basic fare but all I tried was good and filling.   Portions are big and several places we split a meal.    The bread is more biscuit or bun than sliced bread, but all the types I tried were good.    Something hard to get past was not having water everywhere I go.    Allison made sure we carried bottled water with us, but not having a glass of ice water at a meal was strange.

 

The crafts have been wonderful and varied. I found myself wanting a lot of them, but then I try to figure what I'd do with some of it.  These little old ladies sit and weave, crochet, or knit all the time.   Their weavings can take months to create and they’re getting 50-60 solas for them (around $25).   They create some amazing things.   In Paracas, we watched a man carving with what looked like a machete.   On the floating islands, we saw ladies stitching murals.    They also made crafts from the reeds that kept the island floating.   Reed boats, wind-chimes, baby mobiles, were all for sale.  Many towns had the same crafts for sale and it appeared some were manufactured and not hand-created.    I really liked the little carved chess sets of Spanish conquistadors vs. Incan natives.   The window boxes were pretty too and contained mostly nativity scenes.   Most everywhere had Alpaca sweaters, scarfs, shawls for sale and little stuffed Alpaca animals with real coats.   These were so soft.

 

I was surprised to see similar architecture to places at home. The Spanish flavor of buildings here look so much like ones in San Francisco.    However, here in the middle of all these old style buildings you’d find one very modern and renovated.   Styles change not just block by block but many times sometimes on one block.  We were in one 15^th century building that had been converted into a bank.   Each of the rooms had different offices and the main center was where all the tellers were set.     On this same block there was a fallen down shell of a building.    There seemed to be a huge range of construction materials too.   Many places had folks working on some part of a building or another, but while some had wood to use, others were using mostly bricks or rocks and mortar.   

 

We visited so many places and saw so many things that reflecting back on now bring out a couple of really strong points.    The country may be poor and under-developed, but the people are strong and hard-working.    Their lifestyle is so much different from ours, but they make it work.