Peace Corps: Peru

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Location: Lalaquiz, Piura, Peru

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I must say that this has definitely been a strange holiday season for me…far different than any other. For the most part it didn’t really feel like Christmas, but rather more like summer since it’s been in the 80’s here. I did however listen to Christmas carols daily to remind me of the season and there were a number of holiday commercials on TV. In town here Christmas is by no means as big of a holiday as it is for us in the states. A few people put up a few decorations or a couple strings of lights, but for the most part you couldn’t really tell Christmas day from any other. In fact, absolutely nothing happens here on the 25th. The big day is the 24th. Generally the families get together for the day, some coming from as far as Lima. At 12am (technically the 25th, I know) they have their big Christmas dinner…not a minute before. I spent the day with my host family at the house of my host father’s father. He has 14 brothers and sisters, however only 5 were able to attend. They killed a pig in the morning which we ended up eating throughout the day. Other than eating I really didn’t do much except play hopscotch with my host sisters and their cousins(I won). In the evening I returned to town to eat dinner with the doctors. The food sat in front of us for a good 15 minutes until the clock struck 12am. After hugs and a toast with peach wine were ate our dish of oven baked chicken(a rarity!) and noodles. The big Christmas food item here is called panetón, which is somewhat like fruitcake but much tastier. I’ve had my fair share of panetón in the past few weeks!

It has actually been a fairy eventful few weeks. Besides Christmas, I also attended three graduation ceremonies, for the kindergarten, primary school and secondary school. As I had mentioned in previous entries, I was the godfather for the primary school graduation. This meant that I had to buy gifts, rent the sound equipment and buy/prepare cakes. The last time I was in the city, I spent nearly every waking hour running around buying various items for the ‘promoción’. Instead of buying cakes (which are not quite within the budget of a volunteer!) I baked them with the godmother… We had to bake four of them, or enough for 70 people. That took pretty much a full day in itself!

But anyway, I was a bit nervous for the actual event since I really didn’t have any idea what I was supposed to do. I only knew that I’d have to give a speech…nothing new for the gringo. (It’s been a joke with my dentist friend, Cesar…I always complain that I have to speak at every event, so whenever we’re at a formal event he yells ‘Que hable el gringo!’ or in so many words, ‘make the gringo speak’.) So it was to start at 7:00pm. At 9:00pm the MC started calling to the families through the sounds system to come to the school since half were still missing. Somewhere between 9:30 and 10:00 we finally kicked off the evening. Despite my anxiety I actually had a really good time… after my speech and having to dance the waltz in from of everyone. For the meal they gave me a whole backed chicken, a mountain of rice, and 6 pieces of yucca… I nearly finished the chicken, but didn’t touch the other two plates. After we ate, we danced, and danced, and danced… until 3am. I’ve danced more in the past two weeks than I have in my life.. and the crazy thing is that I’m actually growing to enjoy it. The highlight of the night, however came at the very end. I was just about to head out the gate to head back to my house when one of the mothers came walking up to me. I figured she’d say ‘hey thanks for buying the kids the gifts and such’ which would have been a fairly reasonable way of demonstrating one’s appreciation…. It wasn’t until she was about 5 feet away from me that I realized what she was carrying. She handed me the live rooster and left… I couldn’t say anything but…. ‘gracias’…. What else do ya say? I’d never really practiced my lines for such a situation. So I tried as hard as I could to pretend like it was no big deal… like receiving livestock is an everyday thing… and I walked to my house… wearing a suit and carrying a chicken.

The following night was the secondary schools graduation. That one lasted until 5:30am. Interestingly each graduating senior is awarded a case of beer for making it through 11 years of schooling. Between the graduations, baptism parties, and Christmas celebrations I haven’t had a whole lot of sleep…then again my daily afternoon siestas probably more than make up for it!

Picking back up on the Christmas theme, I was also responsible for buying 60 personal sized panetones for a ‘chocolatada’. It’s an event where all the kids in the town are invited to come eat panetón, as well as other treats, and drink hot chocolate. The hot chocolate here is the real stuff. The cocoa comes straight from the fields/trees. I’ve enjoyed playing with the kids. After they get over the scariness of the big white giant, they actually begin to enjoy playing games with me.

Monday, December 11, 2006

December

I’m updating this blog with two new entries. I had intended to post the first a couple weeks ago, however I mistakenly downloaded a virus on my laptop and was unable to connect to the internet. I’ll try to be a bit more consistent with the entries!

Here are a few random thoughts from the previous couple weeks:

The past couple weeks have actually been quite eventful. First, I had a meeting with the director of PROMEB which is the NGO that constructed the computer center in Tunal. They are primarily working with primary school education. They work is seven location in the District of Lalaquiz. I met with them to discuss ways in which we can work together in Tunal. As a result of the meeting as well as appointment by the district mayor I will be in charge of running the computer center for the months of January and February (summer vacation for the students). I’ll be teaching three courses three times a week…enough to keep me pretty busy. I’m not quite sure I’m ready for all of that… but I’m definitely ready to do something productive.

The ribbon cutting ceremony for the computer center was also this past week. Unfortunately the internet didn’t work that day, and actually hasn’t been working since then either. A bunch of community members, teachers, municipality workers, and reps from PROMEB came for the day. I though I might be able to get through the ceremony without having to speak…. But it seems that they always find a way to make the ‘gringo’ talk. You would think by now I’d have some generic speak made up that I could just slightly modify for each event… but I don’t. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve been put on the spot. By now, though, I really don’t even get embarrassed. I guess it’s because I’ve spent the past six months using bad grammar and asking people to repeat themselves time and time again…basically looking like a fool… it’s been a great lesson in humility!

I’ve been spending a lot of time with the kids in Town. We’ve been playing a game called QUIWI which, without going into depth, is similar to dodge ball. I’ve also learned how to play Jacks, which is crazy popular with the little girls. Mom and Dad sent me a couple footballs a few months ago which have also been a hit. The kids are always asking me when we’re going to play futbol Americano. Not that we really play the game… but they like to see me throw it as far as I can. They then fight for the ball until one of them successfully returns it to me… maybe more like a variation of smear the queer than football.

Last night I went to a fiesta in a nearby pueblo with a couple friends from the medical center. The town is an hour’s walk down the mountain and two hours returning. We left in the evening at 7ish arriving around 8. We had dinner there and then spent hours conversing and dancing. We ended up leaving at 3am. The climb back up the mountain is ridiculously steep, thus taking so long. We climbed for an hour until we were pretty exausted, and decided to take a quick nap. We slept on the side of the trail for a couple hrs until 6am. I remember a couple times waking up to see a donkey pass beside us... We finally arrive in Tunal at 7am. It was really a crazy 12 hrs. A lot of fun, but pretty tiring!


In other news, I’ve finally moved in with the family. I had high hopes….until I tried to sleep the first night… my room doesn’t have a door, but rather a sheet separates it from the adjacent room…where a 1.5 yr old baby sleeps/doesn’t sleep. That plus the neighborhood gang of dogs and the donkeys has really put my sleeping ability to the test. I’m half glad to be with the family because I’m able to practice my Spanish a lot more, and it’s fun to be around more people, but on the other hand, the house is crazy. Right now there are 10 people living in this house… and it’s not big. I’ve tried to make myself not really care about having no privacy… but I haven’t been so successful!!

Overall things are going really well. The longer I’m here, the more people I meet, and the more comfortable I feel. It’s a bit tough right now being that it’s Christmas season, but what can ya do? I’ve been avoiding listening to Christmas song because they make me miss sharing this time of the year with friends and family. It looks like I’ll be spending Christmas in site and possibly new years in Piura city.

The next major event here is the graduations from primary and secondary schools. I was every so kindly asked to be the godfather of the graduating class in the primary school which means that I have to buy each kid a present, provide cake for 60 people, and rent sound equipment. For the gift I’ve taken photos of each kid on which I wrote their name and graduating year. Mom put the pics in frames and sent them here. We’ll see how the rest goes!!

Thanksgiving

11.28.26

It’s been a good while since I posted my last update. The past 3 or 4 weeks have not been overly exciting work-wise, but were actually fairly filled with holidays and meetings. Of the past five weeks I’ve probably been in site for two and a half.

This past Sunday I returned to Piura from a 3 day vacation in Trujillo. Thirty two of thirty five volunteers from my group met at a beach hostel/resort in the department of La Libertad to celebrate Thanksgiving. This was my first Thanksgiving away from family and friends, so it was somewhat difficult. At the same time, it really doesn’t feel like the holiday season as the temperature is reaching the upper 80’s plus the fact that I’m really just living in another world. But anyway, we all had a wonderful time at the beach spending a lot of time relaxing beachside playing spades. I went fishing from a pier with a couple other volunteers using makeshift ‘pole’ made up of fishing line wrapped around a small square-shaped piece of wood. We actually caught close to 20 fish, 9 of which we took back to the hostel with intentions to cook them….as far as I know they’re still sitting in the refrigerator. Probably the most anticipated event of the holiday was the first annual Peace Corp Turkey Day Bowl. Volunteers from the north took on those from the south in a game of beach football. We northerners (the underdogs) won by a touchdown.

Probably the most notable event in my site in the past while is my adventure to Choco, a distant casario(small town in the mountains). I went with the two dentists from Tunal who were on an tooth extraction campaign. We were planning on traveling by truck which would have taken 3 hours or so, however the truck was not running that day, so we were forced to walk. The first day we hiked about 3-4 hours until it was dark. Most of the time it was raining, making the rocky, dirt paths very difficult to maneuver. We spent the night in a small school in another caserio through which we passed. The next day we finished hiked another 3 hours, finally arriving in Choco.

Choco is somewhere around 11,000-12,000 feet above sea level and is all but cut off from the rest of the world. It’s really about as rural as it gets. We were told that the supply truck(also used for transportation) comes from Lalaquiz only once a week. There is, however a mine somewhere nearby owned by an English company. The people have very strong feeling against the mines and all those involved in the mining industry as they tend to destroy a lot of land and extract the minerals for their own wealth. This said, they generally associate all ‘gringos’ with the mines. I, however, went disguised as a doctor, so I had no problems. Of course I didn’t carry out any medical procedures, but rather just enjoyed the amazing view of the country side. At that elevation the clouds are actually below. It’s somewhat equivalent to the view from an airplane.

In other news, an NGO has just installed internet in Tunal!! This means that I’ll soon have regular access to e-mail. So, feel free to e-mail me at ryanenelson@gmail.com. I’ll also most likely be teaching computer classes to various groups starting in january.
I must say that there is a lot more to this experience than I am able to write. Selecting themes about which to write is pretty difficult… so if there is anything in particular that you’d are curious about, please let me know.