Sunday Sept. 25 7:00 p.m.
It has been way too long but the power just went out and I have an hour of battery on my computer so I should probably update this while I can! I don’t even really know where to start. I just got back from a paseo (little trip) with my youth group to a fun park area thing…I can’t really even remember what it’s called in English. There are areas to play soccer, volleyball nets, pools, slides, four wheelers, horses to ride, a zoo…a bunch of fun stuff in one place. The place is called the Mirador (which means a vantage point or overlook). It’s located in the site of another volunteer, Hallie, so I invited her and Nicole, the previous volunteer was able to come to and grace the chicos with her presence. So it was pretty cool to have a couple gringas there as well. I can feel in my face right now that I’m a little burnt even though the sun wasn’t strong today…I need to be more careful with that. There was a group of 12 youth that went. We played and had fun all day and even won in Volleyball at the end in which we put in 2 soles a person, thusly winning 10 soles from the other team.
This weekend is also the festival of the neighboring town, so yesterday I went to the church service in the morning with my community partner, Molly, and also partook in the official parade and the lunch. Peru is really big on events with authority figures. Every week there is a parade, lunch, fireworks and dance for some type of event. It’s usually an anniversary, inauguration or birthday of some type. So yesterday there was a lunch with the board members of the government as well as members of the municipalities of cities in the area. It ended up turning into a dance and beer fest of types. That is, after the project plans and all the serious talk had been had. I was out of gas yesterday and could barely make it to 8 at night. My family brought me back to the house and I apparently passed out with all my clothes on in my bed with all the lights on. My host mom, Elvira turned off the lights and closed my door for me when she got back.
Friday was another busy day where I was torn between events. Friday was youth day. In the morning I went to Amanda’s site in Mocupe that’s about a half hour away from my site. She and I sang and I played guitar in the festivities. It was also her official presentation to the community. They received her really warmly, which was nice to see. It was a fun event including some typical dances and skits put on by the students and professors of the high school. I got to Mocupe on bumpy dirt trails in a moto-taxi from Zaña in the morning. I think the trip did a number on the moto-taxista’s front tire because the tube broke. So when I was ready to go back to Zaña around noon we had to run to his house to change the tube. About one minute out from leaving his house the other tube broke. I had to take another moto-taxi to the bus stop to return to Zaña in a minibus. Luckily I got back just in time to eat lunch and run to the birthday event of the town mayor from like 10 minutes before going on a paseo with a different youth group. We went to Cayaltí, which is about 10 minutes away from Zaña. By the time I arrived to meet the kids half had already left in a mototaxi. I told them originally that I was going to arrive at 2 but called one of the group members to tell her to wait and tell everyone I was going to be there at 2:30. She forgot…so I frantically collected the rest of the kids and we went in another moto-taxi. Luckily the first group that went without me had an 18-year old group leader with them. I was still a bit worried. Once we all arrived we had a pretty good time. We took loads of photos like everyone with a camera does at these events. The kids all had to jump on a poor horse for pictures until he got pissed and about ran some of them over. The other thing that made me nervous was that the kids, being high-schoolers all had to pose up on the edge of big rocks for photos. But in the end nobody died and they behaved pretty well as well. In the evening my other group, The NATS, (the group that went on the trip today) visited my house to organize some stuff and I played them some songs on the guitar. They guilted me into it, being youth day and all. They enjoyed the music so it was pretty fun. I forgot to mention in there that before meeting again with the NATS group I also went back to the mayor’s birthday party and danced for a while. Due to my lack of words in any language with authority figures I usually tend to build trust and friendship with them by making an ass of myself dancing. They love the white boy dance moves. There’s a lot of embarrassment and fear of standing out in Peru, especially in smaller communities so they like it when I act goofy. It usually opens them up a bit too. Everyone wants to dance with the white boy.
That explains the weekend…now to retro to Thursday…I did a lot of writing and planning on Thursday as well as a trip to Cayaltí with my community partner, Molly. I accompanied her to the market and the hospital to pick up some prescriptions for her family. In the evening I went to the dance rehearsal for the dance group “Nicoll Dance.” The kids are learning a new type of dance called “Sayas” and also practicing music to “On the Floor” by Jlo. It’s cool to watch them progress and work on the moves. They always drag me out to dance in the rehearsals and the events as well. The leader of the group is named Deyci. I was going to live with her family but some details fell through so they were really sad to not have me in the house so I usually visit at least a few times a week. It’s cool, I basically have a few families and lots of friends here which really helps, but it’s also hard sometimes to think of my family and friends back home and how much I miss them (/you guys!) Even if it may not seem like it because I’m not on the internet much and not able to call much, I miss the hell out of you all!!! Anyways…back on track…
Wednesday…I’m not going to lie, I was pretty tired in the morning and early afternoon because of an event the night before. But in the afternoon I started to be productive with a the youth group that is going to helping form the library we will build (the group that went on the paseo on Friday). We planned out the paseo and also worked on maps of their communities and how they think we can improve them. The kids are sweet and never want to go home but I usually try to send these ones home before dark because there’s not a lot of light where they live and I’ve only met some of their parents. Later I met with the NATS youth group. This group is a bit rowdier so basically all we accomplished was planning the paseo. Now that the fun and games are out of the way for a while we gotta start mixing the work back in again with the groups.
Tuesday was also a writing and planning type of day until the evening. I got back from a trip to Chiclayo around noon for lunch. The music group played at an event for the political party that opposes the current mayor. I went and shared beverages and danced the night away. The fact that I went to this event made it doubly important that I at least made it to parts of the current mayor’s party before and after the paseo with the group on Friday. It would look pretty bad if I only partied with the political group that opposes the current mayor, especially since he has already donated 80 lunches for an event we had and is willing to help. My excuse for the political event this evening though was to support the music group.
On Monday I went to Chiclayo, the capital city, for the night to hang out with Suzy, my community partner Molly’s sister. I also had a bunch of shopping to do and now have the correct bulbs in my lamp, which makes things much nicer in my room. It’s a huge upgrade from the prison light. Suzy and I went to this yummy Chinese-Peruvian fusion place, which made sense being that she is half Chinese and half Peruvian ;).
Sunday was another scramble of a day (nothing like Saturday but we’ll get to that). In the morning I went to the flag raising and right after to Chiclayo for the regional meeting with the other Peace Corps volunteers. Our supervisor was at the meeting. I showed up 15 minutes late because I got stuck in Molly’s house the flag raising to have a second breakfast. (I just smashed a nasty cricket that jumped onto my keyboard…hahah) I tend to get stuck at houses eating multiple meals. I’m plumping up again for sure. Anyways…after the regional meeting I got home to eat lunch quick before going to a meeting with the library youth group. It was my first day running this youth group. The daughter of the lady that arranged the youth group dropped the notebook off at my house in the morning and said I would be running the group. Obviously that gave me no time to plan the group since I also had the regional meeting in Chiclayo but I’m getting pretty good at winging it and planning on the fly. We ended up having about a four-hour meeting mostly playing games but also focusing on the importance of children’s rights. It’s important that they know because a lot of youth are verbally and physically abused in Peru and don’t know their rights.
On to Saturday…this was a hell of a day. A group of about 50 people from Ferreñafe, a town nearby, visited Zaña and we showed them a good time. The group is called viviendo en positivo. They are all either carries or family members of carriers of HIV. I had been working hard planning out the day for the visitors. We went on a tour of Zaña in the morning and everything went well up until about lunchtime. Lunch came (no exaggeration) two hours late. This of course threw off the whole schedule. The other thing that happened is once everyone had eaten the leader of the group that came decided to do her workshops and games with her group. She and I had planned that she would do them before lunch. But she thought it was more important that the group rested for two hours. So the band, the ambulance, Nicoll Dance group, a women’s group and some other groups were waiting in the park for over two hours for the parade to start which was the next scheduled event. Everyone except the band stuck around for the about 2 and a half hours they had to wait and we did the parade. We had our little signs and banners and everything…it turned out to be pretty cool. Afterwards Nicoll Dance and her group put on a children’s show that included the crazy dancing of “la hora loca” which you guys should be familiar with if you have read the past posts. Everything got pushed so far back that we ended up not being able to do the presentation on HIV/AIDS…at least I have it planned out for when we reschedule it. I also want to give the presentation in as many schools and communities that I can in my district. There are so many misconceptions on how HIV is transmitted and such a lack of knowledge on prevention. People think you can pass HIV by shaking hands or swimming in the same pool and the condom tends to not be a very well used implement around these parts. What happens with the machismo (basically male-power and ability to do whatever they want and get away with it) many men have multiple partners and it then spreads to their wives and so on…Obviously it’s HIV/AIDS and sexual education is important here…and everywhere for that matter.
Saturday evening was the inauguration of Nicoll Dance, the dance academy of Deyci, one of my good friends here. Due to the illness of the godfather of the group I helped break the champagne. I had never done it before and didn’t know how, which was a little embarrassing but no shame is the name of the game. We grabbed the hammer together and smashed the bottle. The event was fun and obviously included dancing. I helped clean up after the even and when it was all said and done I was passing out in my bed around 2 in the morning, which is pretty early for an evening of an event.
Friday. I was on the radio in Cayaltí with the obstetrician in the morning. We talked about the event on Saturday and the importance of education on HIV/AIDS. Afterwards I scrambled to a celebration at the main high school in Zaña. I played guitar and sang at the event. This was only after a little dude performed his music and gave his message about planning the future and not getting preggers. He’s sponsored by a young pregnancy prevention company. So it was good to have him spreading the message and I tried to enforce his message with my stellar Spanish skills when I performed. The event was great in all. The students and professors performed dances, skits and poetry. In the afternoon I went to an event with Deyci for her five-year-old daughter at her little kindergarten.
In the evening of Thursday I went to the tourism meeting for a little bit before being one of the judges for the high school queens event. It’s kind of awkward judging 15-year-old girls sexily walking in various (and often times revealing) outfits. I guess that it can’t top the awkwardness scale of another male volunteer from my group who judged a breast-feeding competition at his site. I can’t even imagine the awkwardness he felt on that one. Anywho…I think on that note I’ll leave you…your eyes and/or brains probably hurt after reading this long post. I have some more planning and writing to do for the evening. I’ll try to keep you more updated (I know I always say that). Bybye.
Zack In Peru 