IT's OFFICIAL....

I’m a PCV! (and I cut my hair!)

We had our swearing-in ceremony this past Saturday and I am now officially not a trainee anymore, I’m a Peace Corps Volunteer! It’s a big deal to make it through training…especially since we’ve had 3 people go back to the US already. And good news….one of my friends was kind enough to let me use her old camera, so I have pictures, too! Thanks, Naomi!

Graduation day! Swearing-in . This is my site mate, Chris. We will be in the same town, working on health projects.

Graduating class of Peru 14 - these are all the health volunteers.

CAKES & MORE:

On Friday, we had a party for our host families at the training center. The girls in charge of party planning asked me to bake the cake! So I collaborated with another girl, Kate, and she baked and I decorated. We did a Thanksgiving theme, since ‘tis the season and we were thanking our host-families. It was perfect! I was so happy, too, to be in my element, doing my thing, making a fabulous cake! Applesauce spice cake (Kate’s creation) with cinnamon buttercream icing and a cake-turkey on top (my creation). Everyone loved it!!!! Baking is definitely one of the keys to my happiness and sanity–I also baked a pineapple pie with my host sister last week. I’m hoping to bake in my site, too.

SITE ASSIGNMENTS:

On Friday the 6^th we learned our permanent site assignments, then the next day we left to visit them!! No time to pack (b/c we didn’t know if we would be going north to the heat, or south to the cold), all the anticipation…it was pretty stressful. But I got the perfect site placement! It is in the north part of Peru in the department of Piura. Piura City is our capital city, and is 15 hrs north of Lima. We travel there on this gigantic bus that has reclining seats, meals, and movies. My actual town is in the Sierra (the mountains). However, unlike most of the mountain areas that are drier and colder, my site is this unusual mix of tropical and mountain. The Serranos (which are what mountain folks are called) are not as traditional as in the department Ancash, for example. They don’t wear the traditional skirts, hats, or speak Quechua. So, in that sense it is not as culturally rich as I was hoping, but the good thing is that they are more open and less shy than other Serranos. And, for all of you out there in Denver and Ned, there is a famous Cumbia band called Corazon Serrano (Heart of the Sierra), and I think of all of you every time I hear their songs…which is a lot, thanks to the musical preferences of every bus driver in Peru.

MY TOWN:

The name of my little town is Sicchez. It is small (about 500 people) with 10 surrounding casa rios (aka: villages) and very “tranquilo” which means safe and calm and tranquil. It is hot during the day but cool at night, with just enough humidity to keep your skin nice! We have mango, orange, banana, and cherimoya (a deliciously sweet fruit) trees in town and in the back yard and one of the last remaining cloud forests in the mountains! It is beautiful. It is 7 hours in bus from Piura city, which makes it close to the border of Ecuador. It’s amazing…I can see another country from my front door! My host family is all women ages 75 down to 9 years old. We have running water during the day, but not at night. I also have to put a concrete floor in my room, b/c right now it is dirt. It’s amazing how they pack the dirt down so well. It is livable, but not preferable, and PC requires a cement floor. And there are fleas I have to get rid of somehow. (If anyone wants to send some flea collars, I would be eternally grateful and bake you the best chocolate, or apple, or whatever cake you wanted, every week for a year!!) These are just a few of the challenges of adjusting to Peace Corps life. But I have a flushing toilet, which is awesome! and I am there with another guy from my training group, Chris. We are replacing a married couple who are done with their service, which is really nice b/c we can continue their work, and they were there to show us around.

FUNNY STORY:

I will be working at the health post, and the staff there are wonderful! So wonderful in fact, that on the day we were coming back from the site visit, I missed the one and only bus down from Sicchez to Piura b/c I didn’t hear the alarm and the bus left early (6:10 instead of 6:30am)!!! …Since when did anything ever happen early in Peru?!! Luckily, I ran into one of the nurses in the town plaza and she said “Don’t worry! I am going down too, and you can come with me in the ambulance!!” The ambulance also had to get a patient from another town that day! Thank you, God, is all I have to say! Otherwise, I would have had to stay another night and buy another bus ticket from Piura to Lima. On the way down, we took a different route, drove along the river which borders Ecuador (gorgeous!) and actually caught up to the bus that I missed!! We flagged them down, I jumped out of the ambulance and ran with my stuff to the bus, where I saw the 3 other volunteers staring at me in disbelief! It was so great, like a scene from a movie!

NEW CHAPTER:

Our schedules have been so crazy….I’m looking forward to chilling in site for a bit. Only 4 hours after the swearing in ceremony Saturday, I was off to the bus station to head back up to Piura. They really give us no time. Right now we are in the capital city, hanging out at a hostel, resting and getting stuff we need before going to site. Soon, it will be like a new life…again. Lots of new adjustments, which is kind of scary, but I’m really looking forward to starting this new chapter…!

I’m also looking forward to starting to finally do some productive work, as well as some unproductive work. There are certainly a lot of projects we will be busy with at site, however I hear that not a lot happens during the rainy season (it gets REALLY rainy here) which means a lot of time to catch up on any good books, some movies, and perhaps….learn to play guitar! We will see, but I think that would be so cool.

I also have a new PO BOX! Yay! I will be sending it in an email, with my phone #, too.

Megan Dicken, PCV

Apartado # 823

Serpost Piura

Piura, Peru

America del Sur

I will be coming to the city to check it about once a month. If anyone feels compelled to send a care package I won’t object. I would in fact love it sooooo much. It really means a lot to get your mail. It is hard to mail stuff from here (it costs $3.00 (7.20 soles) just to send a postcard!) and we are “volunteers” after all. So while we do get paid, postage is a luxury – sorry L Plus, now I’m 7 hrs from the post office. But I will have some phone and occasional internet. So please continue to write emails and facebook (b/c it’s free) and call and send mail if you can. I also have a new cell #.

Your support means so much to me, you have no idea. It can be really tough when you’re sick (which I was during the site visit), frustrated, missing home, attempting to not eat something bad, hoping to vary your potatoes and rice every day, and trying to work to do a good thing, all at the same time.

Things that would be great to send (under 1 lb):

Flea collars

Sugar free gum (Extra or Trident)

Cookies

Snickers or Twix

Gummy Bears

Magazines

Good books

Photos of you

A phone call is always nice

An email

Lots of Love!

-thanks, love you all!

Week 8...almost done with training!

The line up of moto-taxis at the bottom of my hill. Sometimes it's nice to take one after a long day.
You'd be surprised how many people you can fit in this thing.
Ohh, delicious, flaky, caramel-y Alfajor (al-fa-HOR). Sooooo good!

Hey everyone! Thanks so much for keeping in touch! I haven’t posted anything in a while, but all is well. We’ve been traveling and busy with training. I am feeling good, got over the cold, no stomach issues lately, doing well in training. I do have to report that, regrettably, there will be no photos after this posted for a while. Unfortunately, my camera was stolen and a few other volunteers were pick-pocketed in a big crowd. Over the past few weeks, I have been reminded that, while Peru is a great country, with lots of new developments, it is still exactly that…a developing country.

With that said, I’m seeing that living life in a state of change and growth can also mean living in a state of minor chaos. A situation in which a person who may see hope in the future of the country, thanks to things like the controversial yet inspiring male and female presidential candidates and a possible legalization of abortion (in a conservative and traditionally very Catholic society), is the same person who is unavoidably more concerned with the hope of having enough Nuevo Soles (the local currency) to buy bread and bus fare the next day.

Basically, what I’m saying is that, when there is not enough to go around, crime happens and it is something to be prepared for. Although, in my opinion, you can never be fully prepared for the feelings of intrusion and violation you feel when any kind of offense or transgression happens to you, no matter what country you are in. But I am not discouraged, because I know that the Peruvian people are overall kind, helpful, and strong. In our training we’ve learned the country’s history and how the people have overcome the terrorism of the 1980’s-90’s, the poverty that reigned after the rise and fall of Alberto Fujimori’s presidency, natural disasters, and the way they continue to fight to make things better. That’s why we’re here, the Peace Corps, and I definitely believe that I’m here for a reason and will do plenty of good works.

On a lighter note:

FUN THINGS:

Bees!!! My host family has bees in a hive/box in the garden and the other day I got to eat light, sweet, fresh honey straight from the honeycomb!! Delicious! The best honey ever! The other day, my padre opened the beehive, with me at a distance, and showed me how the bees make the honey. Amazing! I am inspired to have bees at my site. What’s even more inspiring is that I just started reading “The Secret Life of Bees” by Sue Monk Kidd. Very good by the way. Its’ a sign. And if anyone has some other good books to suggest…please do. Feel free to send one, too ;)

Baking and Food:

I baked a cheesecake last week! I’ve really been missing baking and decorating cakes, so one of my host sisters and I decided to make a cheesecake. We searched all over town to find the cream cheese, and finally, to my great delight, we found real, fresh, authentic Philadelphia Cream Cheese in the last stand of the market!!! It came out delicious! It’s funny how excited we get about little luxuries. It can be hard to find things you would think are “common”. We are back to popping corn in a pot, due to lack of microwaveable popcorn, and the un-abundance of microwaves here. And you wouldn’t believe how proud we are of ourselves! Cereal and milk are not eaten for breakfast like in the US. Wheat bread is rarely eaten. It’s available, but the culture just doesn’t eat it much. Most breakfasts consist of something like liquidy oatmeal, or evaporated milk from a can (heated up), or maybe an egg accompanied by white “French bread” rolls that you can eat with jam or avocado if you’re lucky. White rolls every day. White rolls. Every day. Pan de Francais. Every…single…day. It’s not too friendly on the tummy, especially with all the white rice and white potatoes we have, too. I usually buy some multigrain wheat bread at this bakery close to the training center, some raisins, peanuts (and make PB) too. Luckily we eat a lot of fruit and veggies, which is a lifesaver.

Traveling:

We went to the department of Ancash this weekend to do field work. We traveled 8 hours north, luckily it was on a huge comfy bus. This is the typical Sierra/Mountains and it was really beautiful!! It actually reminded me of parts of Colorado and I felt at home. The towns were small, the people were so nice and we had good weather. The volunteer we visited lives at the base of a snow capped mountain! I’ve never seen anything like it! Called Mount Huascaran (was-ka-RAhN), famous for hiking and trekking, it is over 22,000 feet. This week we will learn where our permanent sites will be! I’m so excited. I want to be somewhere warm, like the beach, but the coast here is like a desert. I have a hunch that I might be close to Cajamarca, which is also the Sierra Mountains. I think I would like it there.

REALLY FUNNY THINGS:

I literally went on a wild goose chase the other afternoon. It was actually a rooster chase, but same thing, right? One of the roosters got out of the coop and was in the garden, at the edge of the cliff, looking absolutely frightened out of his little mind. My sister and I tried to grab it, but since I have never even touched a chicken, I was afraid it would peck me or I would hurt it if I grabbed it too hard. Needless to say we ended up running around like 2 chickens with our heads cut off trying to catch the darn thing! At one point it was so scared, it flew off the little cliff (like 30 feet) to the street below, and I thought it was a gonner, because chickens don’t really fly. It was ridiculous! We ran down the stairs, chased it around and around until my sister finally grabbed its tail, then its wings, and told me to grab the neck …gently! (oops). Poor guy. He’s fine now. I think.

THINGS I MISS:

I miss all of you back home!! I’ve gotten some amazing care packages so far. My first was from Jamie all the way in Fiji! Cards, candy, essentials like facewash, my yoga journal, and letters. Thanks Carol, Linda, Mom, Amalia, Coco! It’s such a good feeling to get stuff!

I definitely miss salsa dancing at Pablo’s (or the latest spot), with all my friends. Even though salsa is played here on every bus, in every house, everywhere all day, there is definitely no spontaneous dancing in the street. And the dancing in the disco tecs is not as lively either, as far as I’ve seen. I’m going to have to go to Argentina or something while I’m here. To get some tango in and see it just happen in the streets.

I also miss:

cereal and milk

PBJ sandwiches on wheat (Fortunately, I learned to make my own PB)

Just driving to Walmart or Target for whatever

Variety of clothing (and I thought I had “nothing to wear” back home!)

Cooking for myself

THINGS I HAVE GOTTEN USED TO…almost:

Cold showers (I know, right?!)

Dirt and dust everywhere. Always. Even after you sweep and mop – which I do every week.

Washing everything by hand (even the sheets) –but then I give myself a little manicure after. It’s perfect.

Carrying my own TP around. The bathrooms never have TP.

Roosters crowing at 5 am

Slower pace of life… This has it’s ups and downs

Having a short to-do list. LOVE IT!!

OTHER THINGS I LOVE HERE:

the white cheese (queso fresco)

Fruit

Delicious desserts

The mountains

Finding humor in the most random things (like moto-taxis that look like clown cars, being called gringa (affectionately, of course) by little kids, loud speaker announcements at 6 am on Saturday morning)

3 weeks left of training….I can’t believe it. I’m looking forwarding to settling in at my site, but will really miss my host family. They are amazing people and I really love them. Please pray for the best with the new transition coming up.

Hope all is well with you back home! Abrazos (hugs) to all!