Peace Corps: Peru

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Location: Lalaquiz, Piura, Peru

Sunday, October 07, 2007

The last couple months have been quite eventful. I really should have written a few more entries to cover everything, but i guess I´ve been a bit lazy in that regard. To make up for it, I´ll try to write a quick review of each month.

As I wrote before, my sister-in-law´s cousin, rachel came to live here in Tunal for a few weeks. The time went by really quickly, but we had a lot of fun. For me, it was great having an english speaking friend here. At the beginning of the month i also changed my living quarters. I moved one house down where i know rent a second floor room which opens to a nice balcony, with a great view of the town. I moved mostly have a bit more privacy and independence. (I also was becoming a little sick of eating rice an eggs!) I bought a small gas stove and all the necessary cooking supplies and have since been enjoying all of the dishes that i had been missing so much!! Rachel and i spent a significant amount of time in the kitchen(mostly because i was so excited about the availability of american food).

At the end of the month i went to lima for mid-service med checks. I enjoyed spending a week with the other volunteers from my group. Being in Lima is also a good opportunity to buy all of the things that aren’t sold here in Piura. As far as how the checkups went... medically all was well... but my streak of 23 years cavity free ended... with an unheard-of 4 fillings. To this day i still think that the dentists used me to make a few extra bucks... what are the odds of having so many cavities after such a clean record...plus i´ve taken better care of my teeth here in Peru that i ever did in the states!! Well, anyway, it wasn´t a fun day, but i´ve since recovered.:)

September was Tunal´s big anniversary, which means that all of the extended families came to visit from all over the country more than doubling the normal population. The fiesta officially lasts for two days, the 14th and 15th, however pretty much the whole week is filled with festivities including a Miss Tunal beauty pageant(i was a judge :)), a cultural dance presentation, the passing of the bull through the streets, a donkey race, bicycle race, a fair and 2 dances. By the end, I was about ready for everyone to leave and to get back to normal life.

Workwise things are really picking up. I continue to work with the group of women weavers. At this point we have organized the association, electing the executive board and have raised funds to begin a series of workshops. There are 27 women in the association 19 or which are from my town and the other 8 from a village about a two hour walk away. I´ve been visiting the village quite frequently by bicycle which cuts travel time down a bit. The women are going to be focusing on crocheting shawls. I have organized with an NGO a series of workshops which will enable the women to produce quality products. The plan is to begin in November, although it is contingent upon the financing from the municipality. I recently went took one of the women to a Peace Corps sponsored artisan fair in the US embassy in Lima where we were able to get a good look at some of the other groups that have been working for years.

One my most enjoyable activities of late is baking cakes with a group of 5 little boys. Since early September i´ve been teaching them how to bake cakes which they then sell throughout the community. The first time we bake was for the fair during the fiesta in September. They ended up selling 10 cakes and 10 dozen cookies in 2 days. Since then they´ve perfected the banana, chocolate, and vanilla cakes and oatmeal cookies. I´m trying to use it as an opportunity to teach them about starting a business and how to manage money. Since there are no other cake-bakers in town, they are having a lot of success. In one month(8 days of baking/selling) they´ve sold over 25 cakes and have made a profit of 112 soles. They´ve decided to invest half of the profit in the business so we´ve recently purchased a very nice gas oven/stove which they will pay off in 6 months.

I've recently been looking into a number of other possibilities for project, one dealing with bees and the other with guinea pigs which I´ll hopefully be able to work on in the coming months. I´ve also added another second english class which gives me something to do three nights a week. We now meet in my room where I have a marker board and the ability to show videos.

Well, this is really a pretty poor recap of the last couple months, but it´s time that I stop putting it off. I´ll try to throw a few more quick update on the good ol blog in the next few weeks.