August 24, 2011

Wednesday August 24, 2011 2:22 p.m.

 

New experiences today. Pink eye plus earthquake equals an awesome Wednesday so far and it’s only 2:30 in the afternoon. I must say…it’s not a terrible pink eye…and it wasn’t a bad earthquake. It’s been a great day. All the connections made today have been positive ones. We first stopped at a couple schools. The first being an elementary and the second being a high school. We also stopped at an institute full of nice classrooms and decent technology but lacking students. I’m sure the excess of empty classrooms will come in handy pretty soon when the sessions and chats start. For now they are just mainly abandoned rooms; some filled with sewing machines, others with audio headsets and others with half torn apart computers that seemed to have been abandoned.

The earthquake happened when I was up on the fourth floor of the final school we visited this afternoon. I was actually kind of shadowing my community partner as she was part of the committee observing the classrooms as the children adorably presented the rooms to us. This consisted of the “magic words,” “classroom rules” and more. After cycling through the 10 or so classrooms we sat down and spoke with the director. The great part about this was that on Friday I’ll be judging some events at the school put on by the students. This cool little ditty will be going down on Friday so hopefully tomorrow I’ll figure out what it’s all about. My community partner and I were joking that my pink eye is good luck and I should have one every day. I don’t mind it so much now other than the nastiness of the nature of it but last night it was pretty strange when I woke up a few times with my eye glued shut. I also completed my mission of seeing all the ruins in Zaña today by stopping by la Merced which was located right by the Institute we visited. I think later today before dinner and my youth group at 8 I’ll visit the river once again…after this accidental nap I’m about to take her while listening to super chill Sigur Rós music.

Last night I was up chatting with the director of the musical group after their practice until about 1 a.m. He really wants to get me involved in one of the music group and wants me to get an electric guitar. I told him as much as I want to I’ll have to see how the decision pans out between dresser and desk versus electric guitar. The guitar very well may win…we shall see. I told him if I get involved I’ll have to do some teaching to the muchachos as well as far as putting a sombrero on their little mariachis goes and whatnot. He thought that was pretty funny…but seriously we can’t just be playing the whole time. J We did mill over the idea of doing 80s rock covers in the style of African/latino orchestra.

Other than that yesterday was pretty intense in the morning with meeting people and whatnot but more chill in the afternoon. I’m really hoping to get done with most of the introductory stuff this week. Tonight I have the youth group and tomorrow the previous volunteer, Nicole is coming over to help out the next couple days with “Parents’ School” sessions for this month. These consist of capacitating the parents with topics such as health, leadership and future careers for their children. So some of the actual work/progress is starting tonight and I plan on easing in. For now my main focus is (or will be) actually on the community diagnostic. I’m pretty sure I explained what this is and my eyes are falling shut so you may have to refer to the previous post to see.

My gringa sister Nicole is also going to stick around for the mega cultural event of Zaña that will take place this weekend. I’m glad I’ll be here. Sounds like a lot of dancing, eating and watching typical music and dance. I’ll be there. I’ll keep you all updated on this awesome adventure. Love!!!

August 22, 2011

Monday August 22^nd 9:04 p.m.

Hello all! I haven’t been doing an ideal job keeping updated on here. The last weeks have been the most hectic, amazing, stressful weeks since being in Peru. Today was my first official day in site. We’ll try to start where I left off in the blog and work our way up to today.

After babbling in my last blog about returning to Lima for a week I should fill you all in on the last week we spent in Lima for training. Monday was a whirlwind of final training, evaluations, y proficiency tests. Monday night was largely sleepless due to the necessity to wrap up the mini community diagnostic of the neighborhoods we lived in for training. This basically served as practice as to what we will be doing during our first three months at site. That is, evaluating the community as to the strengths and what could be improved on according to the community itself and an action plan as to how we will work together to achieve it. Tuesday was a busy one consisting of final medical and mental sessions in the center along with wrapping up loose ends of paper work and whatnot. Wednesday night consisted of spending time with the friends practicing for the music we would play for the host family celebration Thursday. It was another really fun night relaxing and playing goofy music. It wasn’t until the next morning during a session that Mateo and myself quietly assembled the best English/Spanish song mashup known to mankind to perform that afternoon in front of confused and amused Peruvians and gringos alike. It went something like this. Soft acoustic version of the first couple verses of “Baby Got Back.” This lead into a Spanish rap session stating the following: Uno, dos tres a la cuatro, Matt y Zacky D van a darse un enfarto. Con, con nuestras palabras, vamos a comerles como una chupacabra.” This loosely transates to: One, two, three to the four, Matt and Zacky D are gonna give you a heart attack, with, with, our words, we’re gonna eat you (all) like a mystical goat sucking creature thing. This lead into beat boxing the first verse of “Lean On Me.” Following this was the chorus sung in loosely translated Spanish and the bridge in clapping leading into the chorus in english. From here we blended into the prechorus and chorus to “I Believe I Can Fly.” Finally, the madness ended with the song “Equipo de Doble” or “Double Team,” which became a Perú group 17 favorite.

Sorry if you didn’t need all the details on the breakdown of the mash up, but some day I’m gonna wanna look back, read that and smile. Jon Bibb, percussion genius, also joined us on cajon. I also performed with Faith, who is an amazing singer, along with Kyle on the other guitar and Jon on cajon again. This group performed an English and Spanish version of “El Condor Pasa.” If you don’t know the story behind it, look it up. It’s pretty cool how it’s originally an old Peruvian Incan song adopted by Simon and Garfunkel. Along with the music the host family party also included a skit lead by Richard, tap dancing by Kelly and other fun entertainment including a guac-off guacamole competition. Everyone really stepped up as far as contributing their gringo food to the party went too. It was delicious. I was really honored to have had host relatives from far away come to the celebration as well. Later in the evening I went out dancing with my host mom, her boyfriend and my two relatives from further away. This made another late night in a row.

Friday was the big day: swearing in. The past two mornings I had intentions to wake up really early and say goodbye to relatives but didn’t make it up either time. This day was also somewhat hectic between running back and forth between the training center and home to change and eat and whatnot. All in all it ended up being a beautiful day at the center. Faith, Jon and I were lucky enough to have the opportunity to play “El Condor Pasa” again, except this time for the U.S. Ambassador of Peru and the audience to conclude swearing in. It was awesome and as usual a million pictures were taken so you will see them one of these days. This evening we went out with a mixture of Peruvians and probably all but a few out of the 50-something youth development and small business volunteers that make up Peru 17. We ended up dancing the night away once again making for another late night that was completely worth it.

Saturday was of course a pretty hectic mixture of saying goodbye to families and finishing up packing and getting ready. I ate a couple different lunches I was invited to. Delicious lunches I should say. Saying goodbye later in the day was not an easy task. Imagine a super emotion-injected version of the Minnesotan Goodbye. I really made some deep connections with the families of my neighborhood in Buenos Aires, Perú. The hard part is knowing that I’ll never live with that group of both Peruvians and gringos in the same circumstances again. It was definitely a unique and amazing experience. I couldn’t say anything to my dear host grandma without tearing up. It was hard but I know there will be opportunities to visit them in Lima. I actually plan on visiting both the pueblo that my host grandma is from along with the city that my host cousins are from when I collect enough free days.

Since saying goodbye I’ve basically been on a bus and in the capital city, Chiclayo, before arriving in Zaña this morning. Chiclayo is a great city that I’m starting to get to know little by little. The Hostal that we stay at gives us a discount and lets us store our luggage their and use the internet even if we aren’t staying over. Coincidentally, it’s called “Hostal Amigos.” We did some shopping this morning for furniture for our rooms. I already have a bed frame and mattress in here that I’m lying on right now so I’m gonna get everything organized and see what I need. Pretty sure a clothing dresser and desk are in line along with a lamp and some other amenities. I’ll get nice and arranged and take photos. Luckily the past couple nights I’ve caught up on some sleep after a week of <4 hour of sleep nights every night.

Today was great. This afternoon the town of Zaña held a welcome for me in the municipality. I wrote up a little speech and the town leaders and government welcomed me. It’s pretty awesome since my host mom is also a big part of the women’s rights group in the town. It’s a pretty progressive little town, especially for the size. I think the previous volunteer, Nicole has something to do with that too, which is awesome. The community members are eager to get things started with me, as am I but I also have to focus on the community diagnostic report that I described above that’s done the first three months at site. Tomorrow I’m going to be running around town with one of my community partners. I’ll also attending the music practice of one of the music groups in town and planning out both my schedule and position to play with them and also how we can incorporate youth development into the music scene. It should be a good busy day. If I go to bed soon I can get another 8+ hour night of sleep!

I think this was a pretty lackluster description of a super complex, stressful, and awesome week but I couldn’t really go into any more detail without writing a book. Now I’m missing my old Peruvian neighborhood and my United States. I sure do miss you all. As my time progresses more here in site I’m gonna feel it out and figure out a solid internet/phone setup so I can keep in solid contact with you all over these next two years.

Things are going really well here and I love my site. I’ll keep you updated more regularly as time goes on. From the pigs, goats, donkeys and fighting cocks of Zaña, we all send our love. –Z

August 13, 2011

Saturday August 13, 2011 10:52 a.m.

 

I have gnarly pics of the goat killing yesterday. My gringa sister Nicole and I didn’t have the easiest time with the actual killing part but we kind of grinned through it. The pics will pretty much describe it all when you see it. In addition to goat killing yesterday we also went to a concert/cultural dance display in the plaza in town. It was pretty cool as most of the music was the folklore music, which includes classical guitar(s), charango (a cool little instrument that is kind of a South American version of the Mandolin), pan flutes that are sometimes huge, and vocals. I’m starting to make pretty good friends already with the music crew. Last night I also helped out with the cutting out of letters for a sign for Nicole’s party tonight. All the while we joked around which was nice to break the ice a little more. That pretty much brings us up to now, Saturday.

My overall analysis is that I’m super happy with the community and my future in Zaña! It’s a strange thing being introduced to a community (anywhere) as the one volunteer gringo that will be there for two years. You kind of have to live it to know what it feels like. I guess I’ve never been presented to a community as an important/key member before they even really know me. I think I made an overall solid impression. My Spanish language was a little lackluster as opposed to the usual. I think this can be attributed to the stress of everything else going on. I know once I return on the 22^nd within the first week I’ll feel pretty comfortable. There’s always that slightly awkward settling in stage no matter who you are and where you are going when you are living in a new place with all new people. There is also a bitter sweet aspect as the community is sad that the current volunteer, Nicole, is leaving this week but they are happy that I’m coming to replace her so they’ll have another volunteer. Overall I feel really welcomed and am already starting to feel at home here in Zaña. Anyway, that’s enough rambling. On to packing and getting ready for the bus ride back to Lima tonight.

August 12, 2011

August 12, 2011 11:06 am

 

It’s my last full day in Zaña. It has been awesome to meet my host family, which is pretty laid back, funny, and very nice, the community, which is about the same, and the beautiful mixture of small town, country-side and ruins that make up Zaña. I’m making a photo montage that I’ll have to get online to show you guys. Here is a list of awesomeness that I have to look forward to here in Zaña:

-Fishing in the Zaña river in the rainy/hot season (Jan-Marchish)

-The music scene that is already accepting me and looking forward to jamming with me once I bring my guitar

-The interest in sports in the community, especially fútbol (soccer) and the youth’s enthusiasm for me to participate.

-The youth in the community that I’ve met thus far. Although many are rowdy and perhaps even crazier than you would expect out of teenagers, they are super cool and upbeat.

-The bike that the volunteer that I’m replacing is leaving for me.

-The Zaña river in all its beauty (even now when the water is low).

-The beautiful, historical ruins made because the Spaniards built too close to the river basin and washed up these plazas and convents.

-The beautiful and sunny climate, although it will get super hot in the summer months.

-The campo animals such as donkeys and bulls around town.

-The arts and artesenias in town.

-The unique Afro-Peruvian culture and its influence on the culture of the town.

-The warmth, tranquility, and friendliness of the people of Zaña.

-It’s close proximity to the capital city, Chiclayo.

-The radio station among other places in the closest city, Cayalti.

 

 

I’m sure there is more I can add to the list but I made this list as an easy way to sum up how awesomely this site fits me. Just to stick with the obviously unorganized format of my blog I will now describe what I’ve been doing the past couple days. The rest of Wednesday went well. I met the youth group that I may continue on with. They threw a little welcome party for me. They’re called the NATS, which is an acronym that basically translates to Hard-working youth. The group is heavily based around orientation and assistance with their future and career options for after high school. The kids were really cool but also crazy. We’ll see how it shakes down when I return.

Yesterday we visited the high school at which I will be doing a lot of my work. We went classroom to classroom introducing me to the students. In the morning all the girls attend and in the afternoon the boys attend. So I was being introduced to the girl classrooms in the morning. The girls were pretty funny. They were squealing, laughing and chattering because they were all apparently falling in love with me. They even talked me into singing part of a Backstreet Boys song in one classroom, which caused them to about faint. I’m hoping when I start teaching they will be able to pull it together and focus but it sure was funny to see. I also met with a professor and director with whom I will be working so it’s been good to start making these connections this week. After lunch we returned to the high school for a chat on prevention of pregnancy to the latest three grades in the high school. My gringa sister, Nicole (volunteer I’m replacing) gives a pretty feisty session on sex education including dildos and condoms to teach the youth how it’s done. It’s pretty effective as it grabs their attention. After the session the high school held a goodbye party for Nicole. This included awesome dances, music from the band and from a folklore group as well as skits, poetry and speeches…including yet another one of my awkward speeches. I was pulled into many of the activities as well, including the dances which was cool because it made me feel welcomed. I showed them my gringo dance skillz that killz.

After dinner we went to another music rehearsal of the Despertar music group. Once again it was pretty awesome to have a front seat (in room) free concert of their practice. They are going to perform this Saturday at Nicole’s goodbye party. The room they practice in is cool because it contains banners from their events as well as big satan masks that are apparently a part of their performance. I guess the church doesn’t like them much for the big devil masks. You’ll see in the pictures…it’s a pretty rad set up. It think there are about 16 of them crammed in the small room playing percussion, keyboard, singing, horns and bass guitar. The guys in the group range by age but many of them are the students I’ll be working with and are nice kids. That’s last night.

This morning we went to talk to the mayor but he’s on an impromptu visit to Lima so we explored a little more and did a couple more errands to prepare for Nicole’s partay. That brings us up to pretty much right now. We are about to eat and then go kill a couple goats for food for the party tomorrow. I’m not exactly down with the whole goat-killing thing but I guess it’s kind of a rite of passage to watch the ritual so we’ll see. I’ll be updating you afterwards. Tomorrow I get on a bus to return to Lima for a week of training. I have been missing my Lima neighborhood and friends. It’ll be nice to see them for another week before moving into my new place in Zaña on the 22^nd! I’ll keep you all updated. Much love!

 

Summary:

Female youth are passing out at the site of my tall, strawberry-blonde gringoness.

Male youth are excited to do music and sports with me.

August 10, 2011

August 10, 2011 1:54 p.m.

 

So there’s a big gap in my blog. Sorry about that. I’m getting busier and busier by the day. I’m resting in my new room right now at my site for the next two years in Zaña in the department of Lambayeque. It is a super chill little town with Afro-Peruvian roots which is super cool because of the presence of music, art and dance in the town. I’m replacing a volunteer, Nicole Carter, who is having her last week in Zaña this week. She’s been doing a great job showing me around Zaña. On Monday we arrived in Chiclayo, the Capital city of Lambayeque. We explored the city and had dinner but didn’t stay up too late due to tiredness after restlessly trying to sleep on the bus the night before coming from Lima. Yesterday we had counterpart day where we met our counterparts and set out a plan of action to work together in the community. From there one of my new counterparts, Olyenka, accompanied me to my new home where my new host mom met me. We chatted and had dinner before going to the rehearsal for the local latin music group which was awesome to see. After chilling with them listening for a couple hours the power went out and pretty much put an end to last night. So far today has been a busy one and it’s only 2 in the afternoon. I feel like I’ve met at least 100 new people just today so far which is probably true. We started the day by going on the radio which was super cool despite my lack of radio worthy Spanish the community members that were listening said they understood everything. It was great to make the connection with Paul from the radio station since he is open to having me on more often. We also visited a couple schools, the market, the health center, a local sculptor friend, a cock fighting ring, some cool ruins of the convent among others, the municipality and a handful of houses of friends and family among more. My host family is pretty simple. My mom Elvira and brother Jeans (they wanted to name him Hans but the father didn’t know how to spell it when he registered the name) are the two main people in the household when Jeans isn’t at University. Right now my grandma and another relative are also visiting. The father visits sometimes on weekends since he was kicked out of the house for cheating on my host mom. I haven’t met him but he is apparently a really nice guy (other than cheating on my host mom). I’m getting tired and think I’ll nap but overall my impression of Zaña is that of a really awesome and I’ll update you as I go with pictures when possible. There hasn’t been a point when I’ve been alone for long enough with internet and without falling asleep.

July 31, 2011

July 31, 2011 6:57 a.m.

 

It’s 7 in the morning and I just lied down for bed.. Needless to say the wedding was great. I’ll tell you more later. I can barely keep m eyes open right now. love

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A Peruvian Wedding (civil matrimony)

Saturday July 31, 2011 Willy and Marcela

 

Pre-wedding:

I was lucky enough to be a part of some of the wedding preparation. My host sister Nora and I arrived around noon with intentions of helping put balloons up. I was nominated to help out since I am a “human ladder” compared to the generally shorter build of your typical Peruvian. I was honored to be asked to help because it made me feel even more like a member of the family than I already had felt like.

When Nora and I arrived we were greeted by the wedding couple’s son and daughter, one of their friends, and a small dog. No one else was around at the moment which equated to us waiting around for about an hour or so. There is a lot of time spent waiting around in Peru. The positive side of this is the lifestyle as a whole is more relaxed and much time is spent talking and just hanging out. The downside is that it is obviously harder to be productive and organized.

After passing this hour playing with the children and puppy we started moving forward. Large banners where already mostly in place which negated the need for balloons. I quickly found myself helping carry in large, heavy sacks of food and materials for the wedding. Shortly after the kitchen was brought to life and I was stripping kernels off of purple corn for the making of the enormous vat of chicha. Chicha is an alcoholic or non-alcoholic drink found at any and every Peruvian occasion or celebration. The main ingredient is the purple corn that is stripped from the cob. The cob is also thrown into the mix with a variety of other spice sticks and sweetners. With purple-stained hands I proceeded to wash potatoes and peppers followed by shelling peas and peeling carrots. Before leaving I used my “muscles” as deemed by the Peruvian ladies to help lift the enormous vat of chicha off the burner.

I left the wedding venue with intentions of coming back later to help again before the wedding but no more help was needed in the afternoon since the decorations were all set and no tall-person or “muscle” skills were required.

We headed back to the wedding venue around 6 to help move some tables around and prepare a little before the wedding. If I remember right the wedding started around 8. I believe it was originally slotted to start at 5 so it was definitely a prime example of what is called the Peruvian Hour “la hora peruana.” This is not to be confused with “la hora loca” which will be described later. Once the wedding actually started it wasn’t too long before they got down to business. The vows were exchanged first. This was pretty similar to your typical North American wedding. Following vows were speeches from family and friends of the bride and groom. After each speech the band blasted out keyboard-based snippets that often sounded like something that would be heard on a children’s television show except at an extreme decibel level.

Following the speeches was dances with the bride and groom. This took a while as every single person at the wedding was called up to dance with the bride and groom. All the while, the band played the same song that resembled something that would be played on a marry-go-round. As many events, occasions, or celebrations in Peru everything was well documented by several different cameras from several different angles.  In fact, this section seemed to be done for the sake of photo documentation more than anything. I suppose this isn’t too much different than any event with my family back home as far as photos go J

The next section of the wedding was the actual photo section. Again, just about everyone in the wedding hall found their way over to take photos with what seemed like a couple hundred different variations and combinations of people. I was part of the picture taking committee. This was similar to a press event whereas every “photographer” was shuffling around to get the best angle while also cycling in and out to be a part of some of the photos. During the photo-taking session the band was playing an instrumental version of “The Sound of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel. I enjoyed this thoroughly.

It was 11 o’clock when the formalities and official photo taking time was over. What better way to get the party started than “la hora loca.” As you can probably figure out this translates to the crazy hour and it is nothing less. It’s probably the closest one can get to being in a crazy dream or what would seem to be some type of hallucination. Verbal description doesn’t give it justice. For that I have photos. In words I’ll give a brief summary. There is always at least one clown involved. This hora loca had three clowns and a man on stilts. I failed to mention that rice was tossed on the bride and groom before which resulted in a rather interesting dance floor. I don’t know if it was luck or skill that kept that young man on stilts from crashing but I’m willing to bet it was a combination. I should also mention one of the three clown is the same one that was at a birthday party I attended that had an hora loca. This clown is a little too sexual for his own good but I’m sure it’s what gets him hired time and time again. His awkward humping and lap dance sessions seem to be fueled by cocaine but make for some great (and interesting) memories. The clowns facilitate the energy in the party. They start by handing out noise makers, whistles and balloons. The dance generally ends up forming into a large circle with choice victims in the middle. As mentioned before, this goes as far as a chair in the middle of the floor and a male-to-male lapdance. This time was obviously performed on the groom, Willy. Again this is awkward but worth it for sake of the story.

After the hora loca dance party fun time came the meal around midnight. The meal consisted of meat, rice, potatoes and veggies. It was delicious. By this time many children including those of the wedding couple were struggling to stay awake. The beers are flowing freely by this time and the main format of the party after dinner was to dance and converse. Shortly after dinner was the throwing of the bouquet. In place of the little leg holster thing thrown in North American weddings was the handkerchief. After fumbling through the hands of another guy I stealthily plucked it out of the air. This resulted in me giving my second speech of the night. The first speech was in the name of the honorary white guy in the family. After I did my best giving the speech in Spanish I continued onto give the same speech in English by request. It went something like this – “I’m really happy for you two and honored to have been invited and hope you guys have a good life…and I’m glad most of you can’t understand this because it sounds worse than the speech I gave in Spanish.” Once I stopped talking the applause started and I winked at Keren, my invited guest and other aspiring volunteer. The lady who caught the bouquet and myself shared a dance after the speeches per tradition.

From here on it was dancing and live music. Each type of music has it’s own dance but it pretty much all blended in by the end of the night. Each dance was also probably at least 8 or 10 minutes long. Before I knew it I had danced, chatted, and participated in drinking circles until about 6:30 in the morning. I had brought Keren home around 1:30 because she was falling asleep along with a handful of other people at the wedding.

It was a great experience and as usual this little summary doesn’t really do it justice but that’s the jist of it.

July 30, 2011

July 30, 2011 2:29 p.m.

 

It’s afternoon break time to write. I just got done eating a quite yummy rice, potato, sweet potato and tuna mix. My host grandma was a little upset because she intended on serving me fish that the fish-guy hadn’t delivered yet. I also showered and shaved just so you know. I’m feeling fresh. This morning I headed to the center where the wedding of my host uncle will be held today. I helped peel and wash vegetables for a couple hours. It was neat to see what goes into preparing for the wedding as far as bulk food preparation goes. It was especially fun stripping the kernels off of the purple corn for the preparation of Chicha Morada, a staple drink in any celebration or occasion in Peru. After stripping the kernels the cobb is left in and a variety of other spices such as cinnamon are added in a large vat of water and boiled for a while. Afterwards the cobbs, cinnamon sticks, and other ingredients are strained out and there you have it. There is also an alcoholic version called Chicha de Jora.

Any minute my host sister Nora (or Nedi) will return from Chosica and we’ll head back to help out with decorations and whatnot. My host Grandma thought it was hilarious that I was helping out in the kitchen at the wedding center. I’m excited that I’m able to see the ins and outs of the wedding. I’ll let you know how the actual wedding goes.

I must also tell you the funny story of Alexsandra that happened last night. I got home from camping last night and right away I started hanging out with little Alexsandra. She’s my host cousin – actually the daughter of my uncle that’s getting married today. First we drew for a while. She drew a cute and pretty funny portrait of me as well as a picture of the sun and a little mini-self portrait of herself. Next we played guitar and made up about 15 different songs. She’s a pretty good little singer for being 4 years old. I have video and photo coverage of this. The funny part is when she brought in a little cup with two little tiny baby fish. There was no water in the cup but they were twitching. I suggested we put a little water in the cup. She agreed. We played around with the fish for a while that she supposedly got from her mom. Apparently this was not the case. When my host mom and grandma came in we chatted for a while to eventually figure out that the naughty little one had scooped these baby fish out of fish tank of my uncle Jorge. It was a funny realization and Jorge still doesn’t know. Well that’s about all for now. I’ll let you know how the wedding goes. Take care and I hope to start getting some phone calls out to you guys soon. Much love!

 

 

**Side note – while I’m writing this blog I’m listening to Simon and Garfunkel. In specific if you listen to the song El Condor Pasa it has Incan flutes in it. I’ve heard the flute melodies in videos of Peru. I’m pretty sure there was some lawsuit or something. Just thought that was kind of interesting.

July 29, 2011

July 29, 2011 9:35 p.m.

 

Hello all! It’s nice to be lying in a bed again. This being said it was awesome camping last night with Sue, Ryan and their host families. We stayed up until about 5:30 in the morning talking and then fell asleep outside next to the campfire. It was crazy how fast the time passed just sitting around the fire talking and telling stories. I think my favorite part was teaching that a rooster says cock-a-doodle-doo in English as opposed to kik-ik-iree (don’t know the spelling) in Spanish. It was super funny and adorable to hear our Peruvian friends saying (or trying to say) Cock-a-doodle-doo. It was funny that a couple other people and myself woke up around 6:30 after falling asleep for an hour. It felt like longer but I decided to pop into the tent to sleep in until around 10 a.m. We spent today playing volleyball, soccer, Frisbee and eating a truckload of meat and potatoes that the family grilled.

Yesterday was other aspiring volunteer Keren’s birthday. It was an awesome time. Other aspiring volunteer Kat (Gato) prepared some killer fruit salads and there was also a super yummy cake. The Peruvian custom is that the birthday girl (or boy) has to take a bite out of the cake while someone else is holding it. As you can imagine, this usually ends up being a cake-in-the-face situation. Not the whole cake, just enough to get the face a little messy. After half of the party left an impromptu music session started between the eight of us that remained at the party. Other aspiring volunteer Matt and I wrote some pretty crazy tunage including hit songs “Double Team” and “Animales.” Let’s not forget of the acoustic cover of “I like Big Butts.”

Thursday (yesterday) was also Peruvian independence day. This consisted of me waking up at noon to recover much lost sleep. Shortly after waking up and eating breakfast/lunch mixture of deliciousness I headed to the local church to celebrate. Sue and Ryan’s family as well as part of my family was at the celebration. We played BINGO and enjoyed a variety of cultural dances as well as some live music. The BINGO was fun and energetic. Apparently I won a mirror. Peruvian chica Michelle was playing with one of my BINGO cards and elected Sue to go receive the mirror when she won. I had no idea until later that it was one of my BINGO cards. Other rewards included items such as large sacks of rice and sugar. I appreciated the practicality in the gifts. As always, the dances were great. The last group to play music was Peter’s (my host brother) group of rock/heavy metal friends. It was cool to see them rock out. They even covered “Boy’s Don’t Cry.” The other musical groups were more traditional to Peru including one group of two consisting of an older guy on the charango (this is like a latin version of a mandolin) and an 8-year-old boy playing guitar. They were great. When the little guy’s fingers grow big enough to physically reach all the notes he’ll be a rockstar (super estrella de rock!) – more than he already is. All in all it was a super fun day and was great to be a part of Peruvian Independence.

Wednesday was also a fun day. Our youth development group went to visit the other training center where the small business group trains in Chaclacayo. It was a pretty relaxed day with the main focus being the business people teaching us ways we can incorporate business in with youth development and visa-versa. There were more dances typical to all three regions of Peru – Coast, Sierra and Jungle. It’s really interesting to see the different music and customs of these three different regions. In many ways the three regions of Peru are almost like different countries. Peace Corps Peru is only stationed in coast and sierra sites. The funniest part of the day was the large Cuy mascot outfit bounding through the dance party. Cuy is hampster, which is commonly eaten, especially in the Sierra, in Peru. After the celebration at the training center in Chaclacayo we jammed into Combi with barely enough space to stand to head back to Chosica. A combi is a smaller bus that has a driver and apart from the driver a “cobrador” who yells outside the bus, advising the public as to where it’s going as well as collecting payments on the bus. After eating some street meat we headed back to our houses in Santa Eulalia. From there on I helped Peter restring his guitar and we jammed for a while. I’m having trouble remembering what I did after that. There are so many things every day they all mix together! I hope this was a good update and wasn’t too mixed up. Goodnight world!

July 26, 2011

July 26, 2011 11:18

 

Tonight has to be the night that I catch up on this blog thing…and eventually I might even update the last handful of blogs onto the internet! On Sunday we got back from Field Based Training. It was awesome, inspirational, informative and eye-opening as far as the whole Peace Corps Volunteer role goes. My group (Keren, Jon, Amanda S, Amanda M, Kat, Chris, Ryan, Brittany G, Kim, Tina, and our fearless leader Ash) went to Piura in the North of Peru. We visited a variety of sites ranging from smallish to largish (just to be vague). We swam in the ocean, packed 7 people onto a moto-taxi made to fit 4, ate food ranging from pollo to Chinese to goat to ceviche, went shopping through the ceramics and artenesias, slept in 5 different hostels in 6 nights, toured through fruit and vegetable farms, saw many donkeys, pigs, goats, sheep, cows and other farm animals roaming free at times, met new friends every day that were hard to leave, slept 10 hours out of the 15 hour bus ride either way on the awesome bed buses and more. Most importantly I felt more like a volunteer as opposed to an aspiring volunteer. We led more sessions as well as learned from watching. The sessions I was a part of included teaching tooth brushing to special needs children, reading accompanied by art and mini-theater pertaining to the readings, self esteem sessions, career/future orientation and more. It was really rewarding and encouraging to both lead and observe sessions as well as learn more about the communities and Peace Corps experience and mission in action. I wish I had journaled every day to give you more details on the daily activities of the trip.

Upon returning home on Sunday my host family was waiting for me outside the house just hanging out. My three host cousins from a city called mala (which is funny because that means “bad” in Spanish) were visiting so we spent the whole afternoon visiting different places around the neighborhood. This largely consisted of my photo-obsessed host mom taking about 200 photos (literally) throughout the day. It was a great afternoon that consisted of us eating pachamanca which is food (generally meat and potatoes) cooked under ground by heated rocks. It was spectacular. We also went to a little park area where we rode horses, danced, and hung out by the river eating ice cream and wine testing. We also saw the most amazing dance that I’ve ever seen. La danza de las Tijeras (scissor dance) consisted of the dancers doing break dance-like moves while swinging around pieces of metal that resembled large scissors. I wish I had my camera to take a video because it was very impressive the moves they had. Perhaps the dance is on the youtube machine if you type it in. I’ll have to check.

This week is already flying by. We have one more day of classes tomorrow and then we have Thursday and Friday off for national festivities. The 28^th is Peru’s independence day. I will surely have more to report on during these festivities. I’m expecting more exploding firework bulls as well as a variety of other madness. Peru won third place in the copa America fútbol championship so that’s been pretty exciting as well as the 190^th anniversary of our neighborhood Santa Eulalia and of course independence week.

But I must now leave you for my sleep time as I’m losing focus. I feel this blog post did about %10 justice as to how awesome my Field Based Training week was but that’s as good as the blog is going to get for now. I’m having an amazing time here in Peru but it is also necessary to let you know that I am at times nostalgically missing Minnesota summer, my family and my friends. On August 3^rd I will know where my site will be for the next two years here in Peru! I’ll keep you all updated. Buenas noches!

July 16, 2011

July 16 1:48 am

 

It’s been too long since I’ve posted on here. It’s been a tiring but good week. Here are some highlights:

-Rocking out to Dashboard Confessional in the cab with the volume cranked. Thanks awesome taxi driver guy!

-Having Wednesday off because of a potentially dangerous transportation strike. Training is awesome but it’s cool to have a day off in the middle of the week to play soccer, volleyball and go swimming as well as make some progress on youth group stuff.

-Seeing world-class Special Olympics artistic dancers perform at the center.

-Getting our cell phones today. I was doing fine without but it’s nice to have the ability to call other aspiring volunteers for free. It makes planning both work and play much easier

 

So, everything is kind of a blur, but an awesome blur. Today, as I mentioned before, we ended off training with getting our cell phones. My group had it’s second group meeting. This time it took place in the neighborhood soccer field. That was quite the trip. These kids were bursting with energy (unlike me right now as I continuously fall asleep typing this). This youth group meeting wasn’t as successful as the first mainly because of the setting and the attention aspect. It still came out pretty well and everything is a learning experience.

After the youth group meeting we went to eat our respective dinners with out respective host families. Later is when the real fun began. Another street festival was taking place this evening. We managed to accumulate a handful of 10ish year old Peruvian admirers. We had a lot of fun watching paper machet bulls shooting fireworks every which way only feet (or meters now) away from our heads. It was literally amazing and one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. I think my cohort Keren got some potentially rockin’ photos of the event.