Week 3

The first PC Trainee Birthday!! I need to learn how to make these cakes!

Aji de Gallina. My favorite dish! Chicken in yellow aji sauce , served on rice and potatoes (of course)!Yellow Aji peppers...the seeds are spicy, but the rest is not!My Oregano Plant!

This week and a half was really interesting.

ACTIVITIES:

We went to Lima on Friday (an hour ride on the “combi” bus through crazy traffic). Luckily the Peace Corps rented a whole combi just for us, then we took taxi’s home. We went to China Town to eat chinese food, called “Chifa”, which is very popular here, for some reason. I will tell you that it is no different than in the US. Then we took taxi’s to Miraflores which is the “nice” district, asking people random questions about the city. We walked to the mall on the beach, but it wasn’t as exciting as I hoped, because Lima is super cloudy and COLD right now. Also, I went to the bathroom in the nicest KFC I have ever seen in my life!!

Saturday we went (again on the rented combi) to the Agraria which is a university for agriculture. We learned about trees, planted some beets, and got to take a plant home. I chose Oregano because it can be used, obviously, in sauces (I’m thinking of making Lasagna for my host family) and it can be made into tea for stomach discomfort and to help the ladies with their PMS pains…!

FOOD:

So, I’m definitely not lacking for food here. I’m always pretty full and I usually kind of wonder if I’ll acutually be able to eat at the next meal. Like today, I ate lunch at a friends house and her mom served me a huge piece of cake before lunch, a huge serving of rice and this hot veggie salad she made with lime mayonnaise (all the mayo has Lime in it and is delicious) …then more salad to “help me finish off the rice”…I thought I would explode!!!! A blessing, indeed! I’ve had some other really great food this week. The first is like a chili relleno, with ground beef, egg and raisins. So good!! Then my mama taught me how to make my favorite Peruvian dish…Aji de Gallina!!! Pronounced a-HEE de Guy-EE-na. Aji is a yellow pepper that is not spicy, it is made into a sauce with milk, water, cumin and the Gallina is shredded chicken breast. I was so excited! It was my favorite at Sabor Latino restaurant in Birmingham, and now I know how to make it myself! (Photo above)

I’ve had some delicious sweets, too. Alfajores are my new favorite cookies. I tried to make them in the US, but the real thing is incredible here! Like a sugar cookie sandwich, with dulce de leche in the middle. I also bought a chocolate covered donut. With real, melt in your mouth chocolate…like a chocolate bar was melted, poured just right over the top then hardened back into a chocolate bar, on a soft donut with a subtle cinnamon flavor….oooohh yeah!!

I also bought peanuts to make peanut butter- I found a recipe in a PC Volunteer cookbook. PBJ is not a common phenomenon here, at all, and I kind of miss it already!

FUN STUFF:

The first birthday of our group was celebrated on Monday. It was pretty cool, b/c we chipped in and bought a cake (see photo) and other of us arranged for Mariachi’s to come serenade the birthday-boy! Picture this: we are all sitting in the main room listening to a depressing talk about HIV/AIDS from our medical officer. After about an hour, it's the end of the day, just when we are starting to squirm in our seats with restlessness, in comes a trumpet blasting Rancheros de Mexico and 4 Mariachis, completely decked out in their flashy traditional Mexican Mariachi suits! It was awesome, and a much needed reprieve! (photos above)

Update 2 - One Week in Peru

These are photos of my town and house: We have guniea pigs (cuy - pronounced coo-wee) and is a delicacy, chickens, roosters, ducks and have a great vegetable garden.

We also have a paypaya tree! How awesome!

The next pic is the new house my padres are building, with their bare hands.

The next is the yellow stairs that I climb up to my house. Everything is steep.

Next is a view of the town, the dirt road, part of the school (on the right) from my window.

Then a pic of my house (it is white and green with a flat roof). We have 2 dogs. There are alot of stray dogs around though, which can be a little scary if they look mangy and unkempt.

So a week has flown by! It actually feels like more, but because I feel comfortable here. It's great! My host family really makes a difference in that. It doesn't feel like I'm that far from home. I guess because I've lived on my own for several years and already have 3 homes (CO, AL, GA) so this is just my 4th new home (for the next 2 years, at least). I miss you all, wish you could see all this in person, but am not feeling homesick or anything. It helps to remember that this is my choice and I expect that it will not be easy, but I expect that I will get through the tough and enjoy the rest.

My Assistant Peace Corps Director said something interesting the other day. Something like:

"We are adults, so if you need to vent...vent. If you need to cry...cry. I have 2 ears and 2 shoulders for you. And then...let's get back to work". She is pretty cool. She will be helping decide where my permanent site will be.

LANGUAGE CLASSES:

We are busy all day at the training center. I am in the advanced spanish class...which is pretty cool, because we get to do activities, go out in to the community and talk to random Peruvians about the area (which is kinda weird sometimes), but at least we aren't doing language drills all day. However, sometimes I wonder how I got placed advanced b/c half the time I don't understand what my teacher is saying. I got really frustrated about it the other day, but my teacher is great and said she is super confident in my spanish ability and will work with me extra.

Because we are in advanced spanish, we are supposed to do a mini-project in our community. I imagine to prepare us for doing more at our permanent sites. I live really close to an elementary school. One of my neighbors is a teacher and they suggested doing something on nutrition, b/c all the kids want to be professional futbol (soccer) and volley ball players, but don't know how to eat well. So, I'm thinking of doing something like that at the school.

HEALTH CLASSES:

My work area is health. We are learning about how to use Non formal education techniques.

Our medical officer (PCMO) also came last week and gave us the Poop talk. Yes, we are very comfortable talking about things like that here. There are even seven classifications of it. Luckily the PCMO has a great sense of humor and said to call him anytime we have any problems.

NEW FRIENDS:

Walking home the other day, past the elementary, I was suddenly surrounded by a big bunch of adorable, curious 10 year olds. They were very interested in my backpack, jacket, everything. 3 Little girls decided they needed to escort me home. So we arrived at my house, played a little volley and counted in English. They are really precious. Now everytime they see me the run up, "May-GAAAHN" (is how they how they say my name) and give me a huge hug! It's super cute!

OTHER FUN:

Last night 10 of us PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) went out, in the town next to us. We jumped on the combi ,which is a little bus (I take one to the training center every day) and is ALWAYS crammed with people -even at midnight. On it is a man called the Cobrador -which means the Charger- who is not the driver, he just opens the door of the bus and yells "Baja, baja, baja!!! (get down, get down, get down) and Sube, sube, sube!!!!" (get up, get up, get up) to the passengers getting on and off and collects the money. Sometimes you can negotiate your bus fare with him.

We found a bar/dance club and had a great time, just dancing as a bunch of gringos! It was hilarious to see the locals watching us, wondering what the heck we were doing there. Luckily there are a couple of guys in our group how know how to salsa, merengue, etc. I'm definitely getting my salsa fix down here. There is always salsa playing in the street.

That's it for now...we are still in winter here, going to be spring soon. Lots of temp changes. It's interestingly dry and dusty, yet humid enough to not need lotion all the time, but not wet like Alabama...all at the same time! And thankfully with plenty of sun.

Hope all is well in the northern hemisphere!

Mucho amor!

Details about the photos on the previos blog

Yay, internet! It's actually nice not to use it everyday. And I haven't used a phone in a week either!! Amazing, how much busy-ness we deal with day to day just communicating. I don't know if I would be able to handle it here, because they keep us prett busy in training. But it is reassuring and refreshing to be able to have it available. It would be difficult without any access.

Okay, a few details about the pics on the previous blog that I didn't put:

-The picture of the orange house is of the retreat we stayed at.

-The picture of us with the drinks is (from right to left) my host madre, me, another volunteer, one of my sisters, another vol and a grandma (my madre's madre) who came down to visit from the Sierra mountains. The mother of my host dad came the other day and she ONLY speaks Quechua!!

-We are drinking a chi-cha which is a juice made from purple corn. Some chi-chas are fermented, but this wasn't. Very tasty!

-The last pic is the view of a country club in tthe valley from a high point of my little town. You can see how hazy it is....I think it's a mix of dust, clouds and pollution.

Finally, an update!

Okay, so it's been a while since an update. First of all, I had the most incredible going away parties ever!!!! Thanks so much to everyone for coming, for sending well wishes and for your contributions of food, gifts and money! I was able to buy a small computer that I'm now able to use here in Peru!!! yay!!

It seems to take a while to add photos, so we will see what I can do.

What has happened so far:

STAGING:

We had staging in Washington DC where I got to see my brother Eric, Courtney and their babies and my friend Aba! We were in a hotel conference room all day and got an overview of Peace Corps and Grandpa Kevin came! They interviewed him on video for the PC archives (as he is a former PC director) and then they videoed me, as a 3rd generation PCV. Very exciting! I was extremely honored!

We flew to Lima on 9/11 and everything went great! All the volunteers have been really cool and interesting!! Very diverse group of 57!!

LIMA:

We arrived late at night, PC had buses waiting at the airport. We drove 45 min outside Lima to a retreat to start with. 6 girls to a room. Hot running water; don't drink the water. We did a lot of "getting to know you activities".

HOST FAMILIES/HOUSING:

Saturday we went to the Training Center where we spend most of our time. In the afternoon our host families came to get us! and my host family is AWESOME! They are so fun and loving! I have my own room, they feed me really well, and we have electricity, running water and internet. There are about 18 other PCV's in my town and are in a tiny town 10 min on bus from the Training Center. It is very safe. Probably b/c we have to walk up this incredible steep hill to get from the bus stop to the house! Good exercise! We take the bus to the TC every day, and have language and skills training from 8-5. It's awesome b/c my mama packs my lunch, helped us catch the bus the first 2 days and says we are back in Kinder! They take care of me a lot. I brought some of the other PCV's to my house to meet my family and my mama prepared chicha, a purple corn drink for us. She is awesome. The best part is they love to dance SALSA!!!!!!!!!!

CLASSES and LANGUAGE/CULTURE:

I am in the advanced spanish class (wow!) so we do a lot of interactive activities and will do a small project in the community instead of language drills. We are still doing getting to know you activities in our skills training (health training) but it will advance. I may learn Quechua....I don't know yet. But my family is from the Sierra (mountains) and they speak Quechua. I met the grandmas and they wear the traditional skirts and hats! Pretty cool! We are busy all day, and it's hard to get to the internet cafe's or do anything after the day b/c we are pretty tired. I have also not asked my family until now, to spend time getting to know them.

CLIMATE:

It is spring here, and very cool in the mornings and evenings. But very dusty. My roads are paved to a point then just dirt. It is very hazy in the area, and sometime can't see the mountains. I don't know if it's because polliution or dust.

HEATH/FOOD:

So far, doing well. Have a bit of a sore throat b/c of the climate I think. But otherwise, it's very pretty here! The mountains are impressive. My tummy hurt yesterday but is better today. I think it might be b/c the food is different. Starchy...potatoes, rice, meat, yuca, some veggies and fruits. But rice a lot, which is delicious!!! but maybe hard on the tummy??? I can't wait to try more fruits. But the cafe con leche we had in the retreat was amazing!! A tiny bit of cafe and a ton of thick milk!

SO........

I will be in this site for 10 weeks. Then I will move to my permanent site, which is to be determined.

I hope you all are doing well! Please email me or leave comments. Send mail, too! Much love- from Lima (sort of) :)