…I left off in at lunch on Thursday right… well this is when one of my favorite things of the week happened. As I’m sitting there eating my entrada (salad or sopa) I had the tv on, and to my surprise Full House came on which was awesome, but to get even better right after the show finished I hear… “What would you do if I sang out of tune?” Yes, my friends Peru has the re-runs of the Wonder Years!!!!!!! Kevin Arnold + me= a well worth two years in the PC! I mean the US doesn’t even have the re-runs anymore, this is totally worth the time if only to watch the wonder years (every day at 12 on channel 13) After lunch I went back to the municipality to finish up with some meetings and make a work schedule with the regidores for September. Also, they brought up a lot about the AP (agua potable) they want a bigger bomba which is like an electrical machine thing that pumps the water to the houses, so that way they have water all day and not for only 1 hour per day. However, I had to explain to them I have A. No clue about water systems nor pipes to hook-up everyone with water and B. What is a bomba?? I am totally uneducated for that mission and told them to even look into it, I needed a year… I’m hoping they forget! Lol But you gotta love the fact that they tell me what they want fixed and look to me to be able to change it overnight… it feels good that people think you are really that intelligent. After another hard day I headed home to eat with the fam and this time, my cousin came over and aunt from their home in Catacaos to visit and eat with us. My cousin, she’s 21, has actually done a working abroad program with McD’s in Denver, Colorado. So she does speak a bit of English and also has all the great clothes that I left behind! …celosita. I should mention also that for an hour each night my sister has been instructed by the mayor to give me jerga (slang) lessons. This is really important and I’m so happy she took it seriously because you learn so much about the local people oh and of course what they are saying. Jerga is incorporated a lot in every-day and business talk. Each department has different jerga too. Though many times when I would be learning a word, my sister would explain it and then be like oh, well you can know this word but you can’t say it because its not appropriate for you, though people will say it to you! How fair!
Viernes was cool because we got to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics, though I missed the entrance of the US and Peru. Today I met with the youth group LIDEL, which my sister is in charge of. I met with a few of the youth who are involved in it as well. I’m going to focus on math tutoring/learning to save with the youth and also (of course) English tutoring. Though I explained about 300x that I can’t teach English, there’s no way I can explain pronunciation and writing, they still wanted me to teach to people who never had any English. I came up with a way to appease them and still be of some assistance. I would tutor on Saturday mornings for two hours. I figured you had to be pretty determined kid to give up your Saturday morning to do more school work. Also, I would review the theme of the week that they learned in class and help them with pronunciation through conversation. Tambien, I made sure that my class would consist of students with a basic level of English in school, who have studied for at least 2 years (7th and 8th graders). I thought this was a good compromise. We talked about the environment and how we can improve Pedregal’s trash problem as well as youth business classes in the school. I would really like to do the latter, vamos a ver.
In the afternoon, my sister took me to San Clemente to see Erin, the youth volunteer who is living there. She is from Peru 11 as well. I think the primary reason of the visit was to learn my way to her site and the subtle reason of hey, Elizabeth she’s a youth volunteer and we are the leaders of LIDEL a youth organization… she can come to our site and help us/now you can do business and youth w/o excuse lol. Which I’m really excited about the opportunity to do both but I did feel a bit bad for Erin because I bombarded her with… hey you can help me riiight?!? Que mas… Oh my sister and I took a trip to Catacaos to buy a phone card. I got to see the market and calle de las artesanas. And we got my favorite snack, Piccarrones. (Which actually today, Sunday the 17th, my mom is making to sell outside our house! Que suerte!) After, town I just came home ate some dinner went to bed then woke on Saturday to take a walk around my site to get to know it better. I saw the new school, the ruins of the Incas that’s about 10 min away and also all the 5 Caserillos (pueblos jovenes, small communities connected to my town). It’s amazing the difference between my town and a neighboring Caserillo… I really don’t want to say much about it, because its something you need to see but its just where my town has some brick houses, I do live in one of the few, others are just cariso or baro which is a straw like plant woven together or else a mud-like paste. I would of taken more pics esp of these types of houses, but I felt kinda bad walking around taking as many pics as I did.
For lunch my family came over again and we made home-made ceviche. It’s really sweet that as one of their goals for me is to learn how to prepare ceviche Piurano style because of course ceviche from Piura is the best... though they had a debate between Piura-style, Lima-style and Tumbes-style. I really liked their way of making it with the skin on and the bones inside… which I’m also glad about that fact… getting used to eating fish with a ton of bones inside as well as darker colored meat on fish. Which I happened to eat one of these types today for lunch, and it was extremely delish! I headed to the bus station/capital city about 3ish with my family. First we went to buy Natilla, a sweet toffee especially form Piura to bring back for my fam in Lima. This is also the point in my viaje where I have regrets of filling my water bottle with fresh juice with the thought that it would stay fresh and not be rancid in 90 degree heat. Yes, well unfortunately I did and I drank the juice even though I swear I knew it was a bad idea, thus proceeding to be sick the entire 14 hour bus ride back to Lima. I made it in one piece back to Lima and home at about 9:30ish on Sunday morning. I basically spent Sunday and Monday curled in a fetal position, when not at the center, though I did make a visit to the infirmary on Tuesday, after throwing up, yet again. I did a presentation to my business class on Monday about my week and the opportunities for business in my community. It was a mini community diagnostic/FODA presentation. We have to do a much larger report in 3 months and again in 6 months at site that needs a full and formal with an executive summary and all. That will be fun, so grass-roots lol.
The rest of the week went by in a buzz, everyone talking about site and showing their pictures, detailing their toilet/shower situation or lack of one! I must say I lucked out like no other. Jesus does love me or else my g-pops have an in on hooking me up! For whatever reason, I am extremely grateful and happy. And even better I know how lucky my housing situation is esp for being in the PC, so I have very little to truly complain about there. But as I was explaining, I think it will only help me work better because I will be living in such accommodating conditions as well as less time for adjustment. Pues, we’ll see. Oh! And speaking of luck, I don’t know if I mentioned that the volunteers in the department of Piura have the best “library” of all the other departments. I quote library because it’s a bookcase in the hostel for only the volunteers to use. I mean, me the person who can read 3 books a week and more if I had the time, sooo perfect! I’m trying not to speak to soon when I say the puzzle pieces are falling together quite nicely for me, and I could not be more thankful!
Oh I also wanted to mention that during my trip when I was at my socio-communitarios house with her daughters, they showed me their laptop for school with their music selection and guess what songs out of all the different artists they could here from the states… Nirvana and The Eagles. Crazy right?! I found it pretty funny.
Friday we ate Pacha-Mancha. Which is a Quechua tradition here. They cook the food in the ground (Papas, Camotes, Pollo, Manzanas, Piñas, Frijoles). The camotes (sweet potatoes) I ate were the sweetest I’ve ever tasted in my life! It’s really hard to explain, but good to eat and I def plan on trying to make when I head back to the states.
Yesterday, Saturday, we had our last entrevista before site. I wasn’t too nervous because I already was at the level I needed for site. I arrived early though to go to Starbucks inside Jockey Plaza (Basically their KOP) I had a delicious caramel macchiato!! Oh, I also need to email you mom because we start soliciting Starbucks to build a store in Piura city. We need to make that happen. What else… I bought dvds their all 1 dollar here, all burned, excellent quality. I bought two dvds, the departed and Invincible for Lucho’s Birthday which is today. I had to get the one because it’s about the Birds!! I also think it’s a bit ironic the states get so uptight about copyrighting when down here it’s basically legal to take copys of movies and sell them...gotta love the black market… yeh I prob shouldn’t have said that! I still haven’t found the place where there are the designer purses that “fell off the back of the truck” but don’t you worry, I will.
Last night it’s a traditional that a week before we swear in, the aspirantes sleep at the center. So, most of us got dinner then spent the night there, I made my casserole for the morning others made pancakes with Reese’s Pieces and Bananas, really good combo, you should try! Okay, well I’ll post this tomorrow because some idiot cut the telephone wire to our community again and so we’re without phone lines/internet connection until someone decides to come and fix it.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
Rest of my week!
´ello puppet one of my perritos
the other ... i sweart i never liked dogs before but these are so well behaved its hard not to
This is the view if you walk outside my bedroom door and look to the right
this is the view looking to the left
this is 1 of the multiple shrines in my house ... hello our lady of Carmen
the view looking down that door against the back wall is the kitchen and the door to the left is to my dining room/tv room/tienda
just another town shot... its weird bc being there this looses its beauty but seeing these pics reminds me how lucky i am to be surrounded by this... makes bucket baths not so bad
if you call me or I call you... heres my phone and seat ... just so you had the visual!! Also, this is the community phone too so I get to see my whole community when they want to call someone and hear their convo... lucky for me the phone is in my house
Wednesday woke up at 6:30 had an amazing breakfast of fresh fruit salad with honey on top... I know rough life right!?! After breakfast I had meetings from 8-12 with artisans. Well mostly it was talking to my counterpart Martha in her house and seeing their products and how to make their product... which I´m totally learning how to do that!! In the morning at about 9ish a NGO from lima called and wanted 600 sombreritos by Thurs to ship to the states!! Can you image what I felt!! I was like omg here is my test, my trying moment... When I tried to help her at first make this order a possibility to fill, I realized I could help her that much. It then occured to me that I shouldn’t comment or give suggestions to people/cultures/ways of working until I can at least understand/grasp a piece of it. SO I just sat back and watched her run aroudn trying to find a way using her methods, needless to say the group was not able to complete the order and called later in the afternoon to say they would not be able to fill the order. In the beginnning I def had major anxiety and I did feel that dennis my tech trainer was playing a cruel cruel joke on me to test me. Happening that first day helped me a lot with getting an understanding of where the group was and where they need to go and be. I went back home to have a great lunch of chicken rice and steamed veggies then returned in the afternoon to meet other women in the association as well as my socio communitario’s twin daughters. They were really nice and so excited to talk to me but when they were talking, would finish each other’s sentences so its really hard to understand and most of the time i was nodding my head say Si Si!.. At the end of the day I was so exhausted from meeting people and my mind was exhausted of thinking in Spanish. However, I talked a bit to my host fam has some dinner and tea then heading to bed! Also, during the whole day I felt like MArtha just kept mentioning liek ohh yeh you cna help my daughters go to the US and show them around when you leave! or like ohhh you have 3 brothers so naturally my daughters will be marrying them lol... I was just like ummm I don´t think they would liek their wife not speaking the same langauge as them!!! Also this is the same woman who said her goal for Sept was to begin exportation directly to the US via my connections... I dont know who she knows that I dont!! lol bc i def dont have any exportation connections and plus she doesnt have an accounting book yet ... we got some work to do before that!
Thursday was the same morning with my excellent breakfast of fruit salad topped with some honey and a huge mug of coffee!! That day I met with the municipality. I not only sat with the mayor but the regidores which are basically the people in charge of various things throughout the whole town. (Culture, youth, business, environent) We got a lot done and I felt liek it was really successful as far as planning realistic and sustainable projects. There is really some great potential for Pedregal and with their motivation I´m sure so much we can accomplish.
...okay im actually really tired right now and don´t feel like finishing because I have an interview tomorrow for y final spanish level before I head to site!! So say a prayer and wish me luck!!
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
yehh we have a medicine man!!! hes my neighbor looking forward to getting some interesting remedies .. haha jk... or am i
donkey carrying some cotton home from the fields
yeh I found another cart to jump on... this one had rice bags in the back
and then i mounted one!!! prob the most unattractive pic of me ever but i mean how can i look good when this donkey was the size of me.. i was just hoping he didn´t collapse
A little bit about last week...
So this will be a pretty lengthy blog if not, followed by even a longer one! So, I hope you all enjoy a bit of it! Again, apologies in advance for grammar, spelling, and abv! Saturday the 2nd of Agosto was our 3rd and last visit to the Agraria. It was a lot of fun because we got to see their cuy breading farm and learn about the process. For all of you who do not know which will be all but 1, cuyes are guinea pigs. Yes, my second grade pet in Mrs. Whitte’s class is what’s for dinner! Haha! Know but seriously it is a plato tipico del Perú. I have not tried it yet and I really haven’t planned too. Not because I refuse to, but I’ve heard stories about their texture and that they are really hairy when you eat it… por eso, I think I’m going to pass. But hey, I do have 2 years here, aun que vamos a ver no? After some great times with the soon to be on the kitchen table cuyes we headed to the bee boxes. This was actually really interesting, because we got to see and to learn about my tech trainer’s, Dennis, primary project while he was a volunteer. After tasting the honey we headed over to the ceremony they prepared for us. We all received certificates for participating and completing the course at the Agraria as well as a book about what times of AG can grow, when to plant, how to plant… tons of info… (FYI Though, I don’t feel I did or learned enough to receive a certificate, it is very important in Peruvian Society that after taking a course receiving a certificate. This is because when you go to apply for a job, employers like to see your resume as well as all the certificates you have accumulated throughout your education. Basically any course that you may have completed outside your college or during that you didn’t receive credit for you are given a certificate, even if it was a one day 4 hour seminar, here you would receive a certificate… this is very important in Peruvian society to show how educated you are. Therefore, many times people go into interviews with a whole stack of certificates.) Also, they prepared an amazing lunch for us, all the things there were grown in the University. And as an American who is used to seeing salads very often and eating them almost daily… they had prepared 2 massive salads for us to dig into as well as chips and guacamole!!! Despues, I decided to forego the whole heading to the mall scene even though I wanted to see Batman and headed home to nap a bit. After my nap, a couple volunteers from my neighborhood came over to make some mac and cheese… blue box kraft!! (Yes they have it here) and watch Good Will Hunting!! Which was a great time… movie finished at about 10:30ish which they I prepared the famous breakfast casserole for my family to eat on Sunday morning before I left. It was def weird bc this is a dish that needs to be prepared the night before and although it was before 12 when I was preparing it, because it was night it made me feel like it was the night before Easter or Christmas where mommy usually stays up till 4ish preparing everything for the next day! It was really special too because I got to spend this night preparing it with my mom here. It was a bit funny too because when I was making it my mom was like oh are you sure this is enough, mind you I was making a 9 x13 pan for 4 people and I told her yes. She didn’t believe me till the next day that it is a very rich and heavy breakfast… we didn’t even finish half of it!!
After breakfast I began packing for my site visit!! Packing consisted of ironing all my clothes and then folding them just right to make sure there weren’t any creases and then taking the clothes out and repacking, as to remove all the unnecessary things I packed originally, while sticking to my list I made of things to bring. (People here do make fun of me for being too organized…I just can’t help that… I say its just good upbringing J) Speaking of which, I was supposed to take a cab with the other people in my town heading to Piura at about 3:30ish, as I told the kid to call and ask for the cab at that time. He told the cab 4:30 which inevitably means the cab didn’t arrive till 5. 5 is fine if we didn’t have to get to Lima by 5 for security check in and it takes an hour to get there and our bus was at 6. Yeh… I was having a heart attack and being a nervous wreck… thank you bozzarello genes. Though we made it, I’m making sure next time I am in charge of our transportation plans… or group plans in general! The bus ride up to Piura was 14 hours (during the night)... arriving Monday morning at 8:50 in Piura. (We played guess the time we will arrive… price is right rules…I won... of course!...winning 6 candy bars…which I divided up with the other 5 who played and paid for them)
Monday when we arrived we met our regional coordinator, who gave us a quick run-down about our sites and the prices we will being paying for food/lodging according to Bajo or Alto Piura (FYI I’m in bajo)… After Erin, Marian and I took a much needed shower then went with the group for some Ceviche and site seeing/ getting to know the best spots for the volunteers to go! Piura city is so beautiful it really is very tranquilo because there aren’t many tourists and people, so it was definitely a more welcomed pace than Lima or like I previously saw in Cajamarca. When we got back to the hostel in the early afternoon we met some other volunteers who were stopping through due to various reasons… I met the volunteers who are the closest in proximity to me, they are really nice and seem like they will be a lot of fun to hang out with. At night we heading to this amazing restaurant that all the volunteers talk about, which had actual salads like massive salads you can get in the states, only 2 blocks from where we stay also they had amazing apps and desserts… After which we headed back to the room to get some rest after catching up with more volunteers who live in Piura that were passing through the hostel. PS, I should mention that the hostel has free internet and great prices to stay at. As well as an extensive PCV library they keep for us!! We are one of the only departments that have this and ours is the best!
Tuesday we woke up at about 6:30ish and headed out to meet our socio communitarios at about 9ish… mine were late arriving at a crisp 11o’clock… I felt a little like an orphan or like when mom forgot me at the soccer fields in Crow’s Woods after practice… We spent the day getting to know each other and about our sites. We headed back at about 5ish becuase I had a fully packed schedule and an event that night in town. They were a bit nervous during the day about this because they thought the PC event ended at 3 and my ceremony started at 4, so they had to push everything back!! When we pulled up in a taxi to the main street (1 of the 3 that are in my site) there were chairs outside in front of the municipality to have a welcoming party. They had some serious music blasting from 5 ft.speakers…pretty sure the whole town, of 3 streets, heard every lyric… After we began, all my socio communitarios gave a speech about who they were and how excited they were to have me then I gave my dreaded speech… and surprisingly enough I did well, I guess all those years of lecturing at Christmas mass paid off J …I got about 500 pictures taken of me, which made me feel self-conscious at first but after a little bit of time, really good lol. (go figure) Then after pics with all the socio communitarios all the people/ the majority of the town walked me to my house. My house is only 6 houses down from the municipality, so that was interesting lol. Some people only walked 4 feet! Haha! I met my family and then put my things in my room and went back downstairs to talk and answer questions. I got asked about 100 questions which were totally fine, they were really interested in my life, my job there, and my family/customs in the states. It was also a little easier talking to them because in Piura they talk slower then people in Lima and they tend to drag out the end of their sentences. By about 8ish I was fully exhausted from the whole day so I headed up to bed. My bed is ruff but def nothing I can complain about… but my pillow that was another story… thank God I brought my sleeping bag (FYI, interesting fact here they call a sleeping bag: sleeping)
okay I think this and the pics I´ll put up will be enough to hold you till tomorrow!
After breakfast I began packing for my site visit!! Packing consisted of ironing all my clothes and then folding them just right to make sure there weren’t any creases and then taking the clothes out and repacking, as to remove all the unnecessary things I packed originally, while sticking to my list I made of things to bring. (People here do make fun of me for being too organized…I just can’t help that… I say its just good upbringing J) Speaking of which, I was supposed to take a cab with the other people in my town heading to Piura at about 3:30ish, as I told the kid to call and ask for the cab at that time. He told the cab 4:30 which inevitably means the cab didn’t arrive till 5. 5 is fine if we didn’t have to get to Lima by 5 for security check in and it takes an hour to get there and our bus was at 6. Yeh… I was having a heart attack and being a nervous wreck… thank you bozzarello genes. Though we made it, I’m making sure next time I am in charge of our transportation plans… or group plans in general! The bus ride up to Piura was 14 hours (during the night)... arriving Monday morning at 8:50 in Piura. (We played guess the time we will arrive… price is right rules…I won... of course!...winning 6 candy bars…which I divided up with the other 5 who played and paid for them)
Monday when we arrived we met our regional coordinator, who gave us a quick run-down about our sites and the prices we will being paying for food/lodging according to Bajo or Alto Piura (FYI I’m in bajo)… After Erin, Marian and I took a much needed shower then went with the group for some Ceviche and site seeing/ getting to know the best spots for the volunteers to go! Piura city is so beautiful it really is very tranquilo because there aren’t many tourists and people, so it was definitely a more welcomed pace than Lima or like I previously saw in Cajamarca. When we got back to the hostel in the early afternoon we met some other volunteers who were stopping through due to various reasons… I met the volunteers who are the closest in proximity to me, they are really nice and seem like they will be a lot of fun to hang out with. At night we heading to this amazing restaurant that all the volunteers talk about, which had actual salads like massive salads you can get in the states, only 2 blocks from where we stay also they had amazing apps and desserts… After which we headed back to the room to get some rest after catching up with more volunteers who live in Piura that were passing through the hostel. PS, I should mention that the hostel has free internet and great prices to stay at. As well as an extensive PCV library they keep for us!! We are one of the only departments that have this and ours is the best!
Tuesday we woke up at about 6:30ish and headed out to meet our socio communitarios at about 9ish… mine were late arriving at a crisp 11o’clock… I felt a little like an orphan or like when mom forgot me at the soccer fields in Crow’s Woods after practice… We spent the day getting to know each other and about our sites. We headed back at about 5ish becuase I had a fully packed schedule and an event that night in town. They were a bit nervous during the day about this because they thought the PC event ended at 3 and my ceremony started at 4, so they had to push everything back!! When we pulled up in a taxi to the main street (1 of the 3 that are in my site) there were chairs outside in front of the municipality to have a welcoming party. They had some serious music blasting from 5 ft.speakers…pretty sure the whole town, of 3 streets, heard every lyric… After we began, all my socio communitarios gave a speech about who they were and how excited they were to have me then I gave my dreaded speech… and surprisingly enough I did well, I guess all those years of lecturing at Christmas mass paid off J …I got about 500 pictures taken of me, which made me feel self-conscious at first but after a little bit of time, really good lol. (go figure) Then after pics with all the socio communitarios all the people/ the majority of the town walked me to my house. My house is only 6 houses down from the municipality, so that was interesting lol. Some people only walked 4 feet! Haha! I met my family and then put my things in my room and went back downstairs to talk and answer questions. I got asked about 100 questions which were totally fine, they were really interested in my life, my job there, and my family/customs in the states. It was also a little easier talking to them because in Piura they talk slower then people in Lima and they tend to drag out the end of their sentences. By about 8ish I was fully exhausted from the whole day so I headed up to bed. My bed is ruff but def nothing I can complain about… but my pillow that was another story… thank God I brought my sleeping bag (FYI, interesting fact here they call a sleeping bag: sleeping)
okay I think this and the pics I´ll put up will be enough to hold you till tomorrow!
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