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!