Whats been going on recently---

6 de Octubre 2008

Well, I guess it’s been a while since I wrote so I owe a lot. Therefore, I’ll start last week when I returned from Lima, in a 14 hour bus ride that I slept two hours. I got a phone call upon arriving from one of the professors at the colegio in my town to come to a ceremony. She didn’t specify which, so I explained I needed to shower then I would come, so I went at about 10:30 and there I realized I would be the 2nd judge in the Spring Talent Show. They do this every spring to welcome the new season. There were two competition, 1 in dancing and one in singing. I have put up videos so you can see some of the better acts. That lasted to about 1:30 then I was invited to eat with the English class… then at about 2:30 I dragged myself home to pass out. Because my sister told me I needed to rest before the ceremony at 8 for Senorita Pedregal. It’s a beauty pageant they have every year during the town’s anniversary. My sister, me and our friends headed over to watch and there we saw the candidates pose, dance tradition dances, and then answer really hard questions like… “If someone from another country, that has more technology and advanced systems, came to Pedregal what would you say about the differences they would experience?” or “If you can help with the development of Pedregal what would you do?” …I’m not sure but these questions seem vaguely geared toward something or someone… And the respective answers being… Pedregal has a culture you could never obtain through technology. And yes your country may be more advanced but we have more pride in our customs and culture… well played… second repuesta: If I would help the development I would help the artisan’s of Pedregal enter the global market through exportation and help the municipalidad with desarollo of our town as well as work with organizations here, like Grupo Lidel. Was it me or did this biddy read my job description and just recite it? Yeh whatever… what else oh yeh well like most Latin American communities they always have a couple American classics playing on the turn table …like Cher’s Love after Love lol. Well of course I know this song thanks to a summer of cleaning when I was 12 with Jan in Sea Isle for the new house. So I’m tapping my foot and singing it within 5 seconds one of the regidores that was on stage who knows me calls me out and calls me up to sing. So yes, I sang. If you can call it singing… not to worry my sister filmed it and I actually have a copy of my awful performance and I didn’t leave out the awful Spanish I spoke before I sang to introduce myself and thank the community. No really I was awful I don’t even think I spoke Spanish I was so terrible/incredibly embarrassed. So after I sang they crowned in my mind the wrong girl, but no worries the girl I wanted to win received 2nd place, thus receiving Miss Sympathetic award. No one goes home a loser =)

Okay so then Saturday passed fairly well, Karrie from the other site came over after my English classes then we headed into Piura because there was an IST going on and volunteers from all over came into Piura including Sophie. So I got to see her for a bit and then use the internet and just chill. Of course before I left I ask if I needed to stay for anything and since I wasn’t formally invited to anything, I didn’t have any obligations so I left… however the second I got into Piura my town was texting me like there is a dance tonight you should come. And I explained that I asked before I left and you should have known there was one and since you informed me so late that Iwasn’t going to come back and I have plans now with my friend. Well of course 20minutes later I get a call that I was formally invited to a service in the morning a desfile (parade). Well of course they guilt tripped me, just like every time I go into the city… curse me for giving them my cell number! But I just told them that they knew this desfile was going on and they should have informed me in advance not an hour before…I can’t just run back every second for them I need sometime to myself. You might think this is insensitive of me; however you must understand that this happens frequently when I leave for anywhere I get texted about where I am and what I am doing, even when I go to the internet for 1 hour in the town over! It gets to be a bit overbearing and only adds to my stress and anxiety. Also understand that a lot of times they just like to inform you about these events and it doesn’t really disappoint them when you don’t go. But they love the catholic guilt trip… and that can’t fool me I know it too well, but doesn’t mean I still don’t get affected by it. So I got back about Sunday afternoon.


Monday I had a meeting with Padre Jose and Hernan from Cite. Padre Jose, is actually Fr. Joseph from Oklahoma. He has a parish here in Piura and he does a lot of work from the people here as far as money, donations and other areas. I was excited to at least meet him, to see if we can work together in the future. He was incredibly nice and I told him I would do business charlas in his sites if I could utilize his services for my club de madres. He has several psychologists that work for him and they would come to speak in Pedregal for free. Then I went to serpost and got a great package from my mom with more summer clothes lol because sometimes its too hot to wear a polo you just want a tank-top! Then I headed to Catacaos to meet with Hernan. He works for the ONG that works with my artisan group. I wanted to talk with him about my artisan group and what he thinks their potential is and what he think s I can do to better them. Also, I snuck in another reason I came which was to see if he knew anyone in the municipality of Catacaos (the elites here) so I could meet them. He was more than happy to oblige and we set up an appointment for Thursday with the Alcalde! Then the usual soccer game on Monday night with a bunch of the boys from the neighborhood.

Tuesday and Wednesday were focused on the colegio to start my mapa mundial (World Map) for the primeria. After the presentation of my solicitud and plan de trabajo, I received the go ahead from the sub director then I returned on Wed to get the go-ahead from the director. Also, I got a yes from the municipality to start a volleyball team for the girls in my town, since it’s like forbidden for them to play soccer. Also, the muni said yesto finance the purchase of the net and ball. Also I had a meeting with Julian who is the Regidore I am working with in the campaign de zapatillos for the youth. We determined the prize and brought the tickets to the kids to sell on Wednesday at our night game. The kids seem really excited but I’m nervous that they aren’t taking it seriously to sell it. Also, it’s horrible but I know I could sell the tickets well, but can’t. Since my position in the community still holds some uncertainties, I didn’t want chisme (rumors) starting that the gringa is walking around asking for money from the community. Also the prize is a canasta (basket) of viveres. Which is like living food, the basket will have things like rice, sugar, oil, flour, soup, detergent, pasta and get this soda! No seriously! I wanted to put in a 3 lt. thing of water but they were like and what would we do with that? The culture here puts such an emphasis on drinking soda almost no one, except my family, drinks water. So I caved, but was firm in saying no when they wanted to put in beer or chicha. (the local moonshine)
As Thursday rolled around I was feeling pretty productive. I went to Cite at about 11 then headed to the meeting with Hernan. There I got to meet the alcalde and the regidores of Catacaos and was introduced to Keelman. Keelman is in charge of the limpieza de Catacaos. Since Pedregal wants to better their system, I wanted to learn about the system Catacaos has in place and how much it costs. I had a very successful meeting with him. I also found out that he is charge of several other ONGs here in piura like chaste, emaus and cielo. All three of these organizations having different focuses could really help the people in my site. So I ended up setting up a few things with him to begin their involvement where they can in my site. Also since my town is trying to start a biblioteca(library), I was able to ask him about furniture and book options and he told me that he could help me once we got a local (place). I was probably on cloud nine after this meeting. Got home about 2ish, ate lunch, then had my English class (changed from Saturday). It was awesome because I did a mission where I wrote directions on pieces of paper and they had to follow the directions to 3 different points in town. I had people stationed at the 3 places to give them the next clues on their journey. At the third and final check point the ones who made it got a prize. I’m sad to say that only 2 made it and they cheated a bit by only translating the last point and went directly there. But it was pretty cool to see English in practice because I want to teach them practical things like directions and places of importance, since there are tourists here and the people who they’ll encounter here that will speak English are probably looking for something/place. I’ve really been on their case about practicing more and really trying, or I will end the class. After I played soccer then headed to bed early.
Friday I woke up early because we had our regional meeting in Piura with Wilfredo at 9. There I got to meet some of the other Piura volunteers as well as the volunteers in Tumbes. We are normally grouped together since Tumbes has only 6 volunteers. Not lying, I spent all day Friday on the internet between meetings with Wilfredo! It was crazy the amount of time you can loose being on the internet! I DL skype so all of you who want to talk freely to me DL it and get a screen name! What else, oh I wrote a bunch of emails out to people I met that week to thank them for their time and to keep Pedregal in mind for the future and hopefully we can work together. Then of course, I got a moton of mensajes from my sister about where I was, though I said I wouldn’t be home till 6 at night. That just put me in a bad mood, because they just love to stalk me and its f-ing annoying. Then Saturday I headed back into town because one oftheother volunteers has a group of artisan’s that needs help but he doesn’t know if they have a good product. I headed to serpost before I up with him and discovered that I had a wonderful package waiting for me from Meg and Brent!! THANK YOU!! …Then I headed to the market to look/determine the quality of the material they use then headed into Catacaos to the artisan market there. Since, Catacaos is the best artisan market in the north of Peru. Also, I introduced him to Hernan, to see if he could help him with contacts. I went back to site for math classes. No one showed up which is good because I really didn’t want to teach anyway. =)

Okay this is enough for now I’ll write about the last three days in abit…

ekh