3 Agosto 2010

Today was one of my biggest and most exciting days in Peru. After two months of proving ourselves we have been assigned where they deem us fit.

Their method of presentation was entertaining. 52 stool sample cups had a puzzle piece with our name on it floating in the pool at the center. We had to fish them out and put the puzzle together with the other people who's pieces matched to discover our region. This is a picture of me with my stool sample cup containing my site assignment

SITE ASSIGNMENT: MADRIGAL, , AREQUIPA!
Southern Peru.
I could not be more pleased

Madrigal is located in the Colca Canyon of Arequipa.

apparently it is just beautiful. cold by nigh, warm by day.

some links

http://www.traveljournals.net/explore/peru/map/m532326/madrigal.html

http://www.trazzler.com/trips/colca-canyon-in-madrigal-peru-pe

The Municipality requested the following from The Peace Corps:

-youth development

-english classes

-community leadership development

- life plan development

- summer vacation opportunity development

- health education

The Educational Director requested:

- English classes.

- computation

- after school program development and tutoring

- school for parents (we will see what that means)

- art education classes: music, dance, painting, and theatre

The Elementary school Director requested:

-art classes

- education on health and nutrition

- english classes, and after school programs

- computation

- reading, writing, and studying techniques

The Health Post has requested:

- drug use prevention

- nutritional education

- prevention of respritory diseases

- classes on public speaking and writing

- vocational orientation

My placement officer put me here because she thinks i can work towards these goals, and i think it is a fabulous fit. I would love working in these fields!!

I will be living with a family that works int eh fields and I will have a 13 year old house sister. I have been told it is a very rural situation and I CAN NOT WAIT TO SEE IT!!!!

filled with joy, I am off to grab a drink with friends to celebrate our assignments

1 Agusto 2010

Today we went to visit a governmental orphanage. This particular orphanage houses young teens that needed to be removed from their homes. Many of their mothers, siblings, and relatives visit them often, but living in their house is not safe, or their family cannot support them.
The orphanage is in a dangerous part of Lima, so I didn't want to carry my camera and do not have photos to show you. I don't know how to present the situation, the facility carried many positives and many negatives. Because I don't yet know how it could be any better I am just going to share the information I learned and allow you to carry any feelings that arise. If you have any questions feel free to e-mail me.
All the girls are in their teens and treat each other like sisters.
About 12 girls share 5 bedrooms 5 toilets, and 4 showers.
They have a medium sized sitting room for music and TV, and a dinningroom table large enough for them all to eat dinner together every evening.
They have running water, electricity, and a hot water heater.
They have a functioning stove and oven.
There is a room set up for piano lessons that is obviously never used.
This same room has a table and chairs for the psychologist that comes to see them once a week an hour a piece. The girls report to hate the psychologist. They say she is mean. I have been told that the psychologist has no degree and only comes so that she can write it on her resume.
They have a full computer lab and internet access.
The building is falling apart. It needs a paint job badly, probably some new support beams.
They one washingmachine, and hang their clothes out to dry on the roof.
Girls run away often.
One woman lives with the girls. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The girls only go to half-day public school because the government doesn't want to have to financially support them. They are encouraged to study on their own, and some of them really do. One girl is quadralingual. She moved into the center in Lima from a quechua speaking province, picked up spanish, and took a liking to studying language.

The center is funded by the government and one NGO had been sending girls there as well as finding donations.
It is said that a lot of the money donated to the center is skimmed off the top by government officials.
The government officials that represent the girls never go there. They would rather not have to think about these girls, generally ignore them, and do not allow any paperwork through that would change anything about the way it is presently run.

One anecdote. The volunteer that works there presently took time to paint a world map on one of the walls with the girls, when she came back one week it had been painted over because it wasn't the approved wall color. When she asked about receiving funding and painting all the walls with the girls because the paint is chipping and dirty, they said she couldn't, and gave no reason.

31 Julio 2010

What a lovely little change of events.
Today was empowering.

I woke up with my host sister in the kitchen preparing omelets (known here as 'tortillas'). Delicious! We were interrupted by 3 little ladies pounding on the door (10 minutes EARLY- unheard of in Peru culture). Our youth group had their trash bags and were ready to go pick up trash in the neighborhood before the 'basurero' - 'trashcollector' came. When they saw I was still eating they insisted I relax and finish my food, they would collect the other neighborhood girls for me. They returned promptly in 10 minutes with the rest of the crew. My counterparts and I announced the rules (no touching glass and such), and explained the competition: The girls had 15 minutes to fill their trash bag, and the person with the most full bag at the end won a prize. The girls could not contain their excitement. We had to hold them back and count down from three... they were off, literally running and laughing. I couldn't believe it. It reminded me of a youth group event I had with St. Marks a good 10 years ago. On a ski trip, we paid our lodging in a church by cleaning out expired cans of food for recycling. It was disgusting, and we laughed every minute. I know I will never forget that night. How long will these girls remember today? We encountered the trashcollector and he promised he wouldn't leave the neighborhood without collecting our bags (there is no where to put trash if you don't give it directly to the trashcollector or put it in the container in your kitchen), so this was a relief. The girls filled their bags quickly and emptied them into the dumptruck. The trash collector said he had 10 more minutes worth of pick-ups to do, and the girls were still so full of energy they wanted a second round. 3...2...1... they were off, and I have to say they collected twice as much the second time, and they all won a sweet little dessert in the end.

Through the past week I have been doing some snooping. There are a lot of street dogs, but they are all male. I have not yet figured out why there are no female street dogs. Perhaps Peruvians are more likely to keep females as pets, or they just don't survive on the street due to the rapings.
Anyways, there is one family that decided they don't want a dog anymore. They put a sweet little 2-3 year old black spaniel looking mix on the street. Being so young and inexperienced she started losing weight immediately, and fighting the dogs that wanted to inseminate her, leaving here very wounded and more and more sick by the week. Every time I see her it breaks my heart. Sometimes so hungry she can't walk, other times bloody and dirty. What can I do? The house I live in is not mine to offer, nor do I have connections or funding enough here to take her to a vet. I saw the dog again today, her nose and eyes almost completely caked shut with snot and dirt, she recognized my voice and struggled to come to me. She wouldn't take water or food. Today was the day I had had enough. I started talking around. My house mom told me Marino's family dog is old and they might want a new dog. I went to their house and they said they can't afford a sick dog, but told me the daughter of one of the bodega owners is a veterinarian. I know the niece of this young woman is in my youth group. So I went over to her house and explained everything to my little Julisa. She got her aunt to come outside and talk to me. Sylvia is her name, and with her huge heart she explained to me that she had seen this dog in the street and had tended to her wounds a couple weeks ago, and last week saw that she was having trouble breathing and gave her antibiotics out of her own pocket. The dog had followed me to her house today, and one look at this dogs pitiful little face sent her into the house for supplies, no questions asked.
I took to washing the sweet dogs nose, eyes, and ears while Sylvia tended to 3 injections, an oral antibiotic, and flea/tick prevention application. This took us a good hour, so we chatted away. She is an AMAZING young woman. Probably the most educated person I have met in the neighborhood, and so kind. She explained to me what the dog needs in the week to come, and we split the duty. She cannot take the dog in as she has pets, nor can I, but we both are on the lookout. She would not accept money from me to pay for the medications, so I offered her a language exchange. The dog ate and drank after we cleaned her up, and the language exchange is scheduled for Monday night. How beautiful this happenstance!

When I got home my host parents had packed a picnic lunch! We put on our swimsuits and sun dresses and headed to a private club about 45 minutes outside town.
***club photo*** The club is owned by the government and is for military families. This relaxation I received was what the doctor prescribed. I put on my house mom's big floppy sun hat and stuck my nose in a book. It was such a nice day for everyone. Today, I consider myself integrated. When my house mom laid her head on my lap and asked me to put sunscreen on her face for her, I took that as a representation of our comfort level with each other. acculturation: check.


We have returned home for 'lonche' -'light dinner' and I think we are going over to the neighbors for dessert later.

feelings of refreshment and exuberation will roll me into tomorrow

30 Julio 2010

reality is sinking in.
the impossibility of leaving this coutry in two years and seeing change
the difficulty of the lifestyle I need to take on
and the general exhaustion of working with youth

they all smacked me in the face today

i need to feel loved
i ask for love to fuel my work



-youth group last night was rough. Due to the holiday weekend every 'carpenteria' and 'ferroteria' was closed. I could not find a window screen for the life of me in Chaclacayo after class. I needed a screen because we had planned to teach the girls paper making at 5:30; 4:45 rolls around and I still have no screen. So I hopped on a 'comvi' -'over-crowded bus' to go to the nearest superstore in Chosica. There was no screen to be found. I took too the streets and asked every kind eye I saw about an open 'carpenteria' or 'ferroteria' in Chosia. Keep in mind that everything here is locally owned. Every shop is connected to a house, and there is no such thing as posting hours of operation. Everyone I met was convinced I was not going to find anything open. At 5:15 I stumbled around the open market and was brainstorming alternate activities when I was lucky enough to find one! The owner of the shop was a sweet older woman fluent in quecha and spanish, and a younger man she was trying to sell to me more than her products. Ronald (the young man) was AMAZINGLY helpful and actually built me a wood frame with screen to fit my needs exactly. His determination to be precise was not something I could take for granted at the moment; I didn't rush him and watched the clock tick while the sweet owner taught me quechua.
I returned (through holiday traffic and another comvi ride) 45 minutes late to youth group with very excited adolescents. My awesome counterparts had taught them some 'dinamicas' on the spot that kept the girls occupied until I arrived. It was a huge challenge to get my exhausted body up to their level, but the girls had fun and loved the paper project. Half way through, my house mom came outside with a worried eye that the blender shouldn't be used for the paper anymore. With utter exasperation and every ounce of politeness that has ever been instilled in me I cut the project in half. But, I have to say, the girls went home happy, and I went to bed at 9pm.
This is a perfect example of what I anticipate is coming. Things working out very differently than expected, but turning out alright in the end.
The best part of this story was while wripping paper and chatting the girls were flowing with ideas of what we could do the next week. Then the decided they wanted to meet more than once so they could do more than one project. Then they decided they wanted to meet three times so they could go to the pool too. I am proud to say that I actually had to tell them we couldn't meet as many times as they wanted. I am so blessed to have such an excited and motivated group of kids. My counterparts and I agreed that we could meet Saturday as well as Thursday. The girls want to pick up trash in the neighborhood. Who can say, "no" to that?!

29 Julio 2010

I have a tan line from my vaccination Band-Aid

28 Julio 2010

Happy Independence Day Peru!
We had the day off of classes to celebrate.

I was so excited to see this plate:

**** cuy y camote****

I have been told that guinea pig is a dark fatty meat being promoted by the Peruvian Health Department due to its high iron content and easy accessibility.
I like dark meat, that is always my favorite part of the chicken, and steak close to fat is always the richest. I was stoked.

I don't know if it was the smell of the raw cuy soaking in the herbs the night before, seeing the cuy guts all over the house (and when I say "all over" I mean a liver on the kitchen counter, skins on the edge of the sink where we wash laundry, etc), the unappetizing presentation, or a combination of all of the above; But, half way through the meal I discovered that I don't like cuy. In fact, I dislike it very much.
With all my heart I wanted to love it, but when I realized that I was holding my breath with each bite and looking forward to the potatoes I have been avoiding for the past month I allowed admittance of displeasure. It took all of my strength to keep my nose from wrinkling up with each bite. I took to my childhood mastery of making food appear to be eaten. Hiding the meat that has even the slightest bit of fat on it under skin, stuffing some unidentifiables in the ribcage, and the like. I ate it as quickly as possible, and must have drunk 4 glasses of water to wash it down, but was still quite hungry. I took to the potatoes, and couldn't handle the smell of the cuy dressing so I decided to eat them adjunctless. Let me tell you, a potato with no salt, butter, or anything has ever tasted so good. Then, when I cut into the 'camote' I discovered that means 'sweet potato'!!! I have NEVER been so excited for a toppingless sweet potato in my life. I must have inhaled it.

Then, I focused on getting rid of the evidence. I helped wash the dishes and get all the cuy guts and bones out to the trash in the road as quickly as possible. This morning they had cleaned the cuy bodies in the sink outside. When I went to hand wash my clothes for the week I gave all the random scraps of cuy to the dogs and went to town with a scrub brush on the sink. I could not fathom the idea of my clothes smelling like the mess I had just stuffed into my belly. Her outdoor sink has never sparkled so brilliantly. My family thought it such a nice gesture that I was helping so much with the cleaning so they could relax a bit and enjoy the holiday. I finished in record time and decided a shower was required. When I stepped into the house feeling a sense of accomplishment in having arrived to the last step of ridding my nose of the cuy scent, a waft from the kitchen reached my nostril. Tomorrow we will mop and then have at cleaning the tablecloth.

27 Julio 2010
If anyone can guess what this is a picture of you get a brownie point from me




Tonight my house mother's parents showed up to surprise my host sister for her birthday. They are pretty much the cutest little Peruvian Sierra couple I have met yet, and they pulled a classic and brought CUY (guinea pig)!
Sorry the video is crooked.






transcript:

Me: Yeah? Great!
Rosa (my house mom) in the background: Mom raised these cuy.
Me: Yeah? And how many cuys do you have?
Grandma Santa Maria: One little one more now.
Me: Oh. And you killed the cuy to celebrate Sheyla's birthday?
Grandma Santa Maria: Yes.... of course.


I am sure you will hear more details about cuy as I experience them. Yes, Peruvians often raise them in their house, but they never eat them until they are big enough. I have to say, I haven't seen many cuy, but these were the biggest ones I had seen thus far.
They are stewing now with basil and some other spices who's names I don't think there is a translation for.
Lunch tomorrow.