Santa Eulalia

I´ve arrived at my new home...at least for the next 10 weeks. I am living with a very nice family. They speak no English, so it´s a challenge everyday to communicate!! There are super patient! I´m becoming spoiled by their service. I have 9 hrs of training each day which is going to be very intense. We´ve already received a number of assignments which require us to interview various business owners and community members. There are a few volunteers who are quite fluent in Spanish, but many, like me, are far from it!! I am learning a lot, though. Today I had six hours of Spanish class.

The food is wonderful. My ¨mom¨ and ¨sister¨ cook some very tasty meals. Each meal i can expect rice potatoes and chicken, but the sauses vary. Also, every morning i enjoy a fresh(about as fresh as it gets) glass of papaya juice. Avacados are also quite popular here(i love it).

This is my host father. He´s quite the character. He enjoys telling me jokes...that i don´t understand...and then laughing at me. I generally laugh with him...and pretend like i know what´s going on.

My host brother, Christian and family friend/cook, Elisa

6.24.06
I have survived my first day in Peru. We arrived in Lima around 10:30pm and finally left the airport at 12:15. After a 45minute drive we arrived at a conference center where we have spent the day meeting the Peace Corps directors and sitting through information sessions. Because we arrived at night and have been in this complex all day I have not really been able to get a good feel for what the Lima area is like. Tomorrow, however we leave here in the morning and head to the training center. There we will meet our host families. That will be the first true test of my Spanish. We did have language interviews/examéns today… it was a bit rough. I did manage to construct a few coherent sentences…so that’s a start.

As a whole, the first day has been great. I´m crazy excited about what the next few months has in store. I´ll be sure to be a little more informative soon. For now, i´ve got some relaxing to do.. we´re all pretty tired from the traveling and long hours of orientation.

From the Plane

6.23.06
Arriving in Washington D.C. I was admittedly a bit nervous as to how my personality/skills/language ability would match up to those of other volunteers. It didn’t take long, however to realize how incredible this group of individuals is. The volunteers are from all over the country with a wide variety of backgrounds. Most are in their early 20’s though there are a few older men. The orientation itself was somewhat informative, though rather dry at times, but the two days allowed us to get to know each other. If nothing else, it reaffirmed desire to serve in the Peace Corps.

I am currently writing this from my window seat on Delta flight 335. We’re less than four hours from Lima on a journey that began at 8:00 this morning. We flew out of Regan National airport and connected at Atlanta. The total time in the air is approximately eight hours. It’s such a strange feeling as the past six months of planning is coming to a head. I’m ridiculously excited to get acquainted with the culture and people of Peru. I’m also ready to begin finally learning to speak Spanish. Hopefully my years of class work will pay off!

Preparation

6.20.06
Though my journey to Peru doesn't officially begin until tomorrow, I am already facing my first challenge: How do I pack two years of my life into one suitcase??? It's a bit more difficult than I had thought as it can weigh no more than 50 lbs. But in any case, I'm just about ready to begin the adventure.

24 hours from now I will be in Washinton D.C. for a short orienation before flying to Lima, Peru on Friday(6/23). I'm trying to take advantage of the last few days here at home, saying a lot of good bye's and making final preps. I still have yet to wrap my mind around the fact that I'll be away for over two years (although I know it will pass by ridiculously quickly), but I'm ready to get rolling! Here is a bit of info... which answers about 90% of the questions that people ask:

Location: I'll spend the first ten weeks in Santa Eulalia which is a 45 minute drive north east of Lima. I will then be placed in community-yet to be determined-for the following two years.

Job Title: Small Business Promoter In short, I'll be working as a consultant with small business owners and artisan groups.

Mail: For the first ten weeks I will most likely have access to e-mail. My mailing address for that time is:
PCT Ryan Nelson
Cuerpo de Paz
Calle Vía Láctea 132
Urb. Los Granados, Surco
Lima 33, Perú
(word is that mail takes a good while to make it to and from Peru)


Basic Peru Facts:
Population: 28,302,603
Land Boundaries: Bolivia 900 km, Brazil 1,560 km, Chile 160 km, Colombia 1,496 km (est.), Ecuador 1,420 km
Capital: Lima
Religions: Roman Catholic 81%, Seventh Day Adventist 1.4%, other Christian 0.7%, other 0.6%, unspecified or none 16.3% (2003 est.)
Unemployment: 8.7% in metropolitan Lima
Population below poverty line: 52%
(see http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/pe.html for more info)

Also check out http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=learn.wherepc.LatinAmerica.Peru to see what the Peace Corps is doing in Peru.

My plan is to update this at least once each week as the adventure unfolds. As I stated earlier, I should have e-mail access frequently thoughout the next 10 weeks... so don't hesitate to shoot me a message!