The Last One

It’s obvious from the date of my last post that I am not the most dedicated blogger, but as my Peace Corps serves comes to a close, I felt I owed it to my few loyal followers (Mom and Dad) to write one last blog post. I hope you all have enjoyed the stories and photos I’ve shared over the last 2 years; it’s been an incredible journey that is hard to see come to an end.

So what have I been up to since June 4? I don’t even know where to begin. In June, I started working full swing on my two main projects- a second cocinas mejoradas project and teaching a group of adolescents to be health promoters. I spent June, July, and August teaching lots of classes on nutrition and hygiene, self-esteem, water and sanitation, sexual health, and leadership. What other job lets you spend your day making fruit and veggie cut outs or bingo cards with sexual health vocabulary on them? I had no plans to try to teach sexual health, or even teach adolescents for that matter (teenagers scare me), but working with my youth health promoters has turned out to be one of my favorite activities and I look forward to our class every week. They never cease to make me laugh. One of them even asked for my phone number a couple of weeks ago. The Quechua women in my cocinas project are also pretty funny. None of them speak Spanish which has been more of a challenge than my last project. They always seem to have a good time playing my learning games though and laugh when I try to talk, unsuccessfully, in Quechua. This year I’ve managed to pick out better professionals to work with, too- the nurse at the Chichucancha health post is one of the most dedicated and enthusiastic people I’ve met here, and same for the teacher who helps me with the health promoters. It’s been hard to find people who will really carry through on their word, but both of them have been more than supportive of my ideas.

I’m currently tying these projects up with house visits to see if the cocinas are installed correctly and testing the health promoters on what they’ve learned this year. With only 3 weeks left, it’s hard to come to terms that this won’t be my routine any more. I’ve gotten used to the 2 hour walk to Chichucancha and the hour walk to teach my health promoters. I have certainly learned an incredible amount in the last 2 years and have become more resilient, confident, and persistent. I have also built a lot of relationships that are going to be hard to let go when I leave in a couple of weeks. At the same time, it will be really great to finally see my friends and family again.

Other than work things, I have traveled a bit and had a few adventures since June. I hiked from Chavin to my cocinas community and then kept going to Huaraz, all in one day. It’s typically a 3 day trek for tourists. I guess I walk pretty fast. And run pretty fast. I ran the Pacasmayo half marathon again this year and took home another pretty lighthouse trophy. It’s been great supporting other volunteers in their activities, from running in their road races to buying products from their artisan groups. A couple weeks after the half marathon, I went on a trip to the Amazon jungle. This was my last trip outside of Ancash, and to be honest, Ancash is my absolute favorite place in all of Peru. I’ll take snow-capped mountains over mosquitoes any day. To use up my last vacation days, I climbed Pisco, a 18,000 ft nevado. It might be the most amazing thing I have ever done. It was absolutely breathtaking. I might be addicted to hiking, trekking, and climbing now and I am certainly going to miss the accessibility and affordability of these sports here.

My parents also came to visit in September. They made the long trek all the way out to San Marcos and even to Chichucancha. It was quite a whirlwind tour of my site, but at least they got the full experience. The first night they got no sleep because a concert was going on in the plaza until 4 am. The next day I took them on the treacherous road to Chichucancha. They also survived a guinea pig lunch with my host family and got a welcome song in Quechua from the kids at the Huarimayo elementary school. Having them visit gave me a new perspective on my site, too. I’ve grown so used to everything that I forget what isn’t normal- a herd of sheep holding up traffic, live dynamite on the road, guinea pig in Tupperware. It was a good trip for all of us and I’m glad they got to see where I live and work.

I never could have imagined how my Peace Corps service would turn out to be. Peru has been a fantastic Peace Corps country- from different work opportunities to diverse travel options. Not everything has been perfect or easy, but if I had to give one piece of advice to future Peace Corps volunteers, it would be that Peace Corps is supposed to be difficult, but we are here to work, not to suffer. If you need to make a change, maybe move to a different house because you don’t have a bathroom or stop working with your assigned counterpart because he or she has no interest in your projects, then do it. I know I originally thought that I was supposed to not bathe for weeks at a time, or walk in to town every day because I didn’t want to spend the money on a public car, but that’s not how it should be. We should do whatever we need to so that we are efficient workers, and if that means making ourselves more comfortable, then we should do it.

Even though I have so little time left, I’m still working down to the last minute. A group of 37 trainees will be coming to my site to learn how to build cocinas, latrines, and work with health promoters at the end of October. After that, I have to say all my goodbyes, pack up and sell my things, and do all of my Close of Service formalities in Lima. On Nov. 5, I will officially be a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, traveling through Ecuador and Colombia. Once these last adventures are over, I will be home for Christmas J. Peru will always have a special place in my heart, and I’m certain that I am going to miss it terribly once I’m home. But someday I’ll be back.

Con mucho carino,

Shannon

Ancash has ALMA

Camp A.L.M.A. PCVs and Participants

I’ve gotten a lot of requests (and about a million emails from my dad) to update my out-of-date blog. I have been meaning to write about the completion of Ancash’s Camp A.L.M.A. which probably has been the best part of my service to date. At the beginning of May, the Ancash volunteers held a leadership camp for adolescent women in Yungay and each volunteer brought two young women from their sites. We had 3 jam-packed days of activities ranging from self-defense class to condom races to a play on gender equality. It was an incredible experience, which I have written about in detail below (maybe too much detail). Feel free to read as much or as little as you like!

Day 1- Friday
My girls and I left Huarimayo around 6:30 a.m. for our long journey to the campsite, which meant 3 hours to Huaraz and then another hour and a half to Yungay. To my amazement, the girls were there before me and told me I was late (I was at the meeting place at 6:22)! We hopped in our taxi and made it to Huaraz where we ate a quick tamal, coffee, juice breakfast. We ran to our PC hostal to pick up the supplies I had left there. The girls wanted to get shower sandals so we carried everything to the market in order to buy flip flops. Then we piled into a jam-packed combi and rode to Yungay.

We made it to the campsite about 30 minutes before the registration time, but a few volunteers were already there with their girls playing volleyball and awaiting the arrival of the other girls. Callie numbered and posted schedules on the cabins and then we sent everyone to their designated cabins. I ran to set up the registration table before the rest of the girls got there. At the registration table, all the girls got nametags, notebooks, pens and pencils, and a schedule.
At 1 p.m., most of the volunteers and the girls had arrived and we sat down to lunch. You could tell all the girls, and the volunteers, were nervous and feeling a little awkward. We had shakwi, a typical potato soup, with rice and lentils and salad. We then jumped into the introduction and a few dinamicas to get things started. We played human bingo and then divided up into our communities and made a poster about our communities. Each volunteer and their girls presented their community. It was really nice to hear the stories about where the communities’ names come from. One of Claudia’s girls even sang a huayno song about Huantar that she wrote. After the presentations, we took a group photo with all the volunteers and their girls.

Christie leads a teamwork exercise

Then we proceeded to Christie and Jason’s activities. They did a bunch of interesting activities, such as trust falls and blind-fold walks. Jason even designed a low ropes course. The girls definitely enjoyed being outside in the sun and the teamwork activities. We had a quick snack of bananas and soda crackers, then proceeded with Callie and Kaitlyn’s feminism charla. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to site on their charla but I did read the posters the girls made about the amazing characteristics women have. Afterwards, we divided the girls up by birthdays to mix things up and sat down to dinner. We had a vegetable tortilla with rice and two different kinds of mashed potatoes. Unfortunately, it wasn’t super filling and some of the girls were still hungry and the owner of the site didn’t make as much food as he was supposed to. We survived though, and moved on to Jess’ recycled art activities. The girls made awesome wallets out of milk, wine, and juice boxes. They also made picture frames with recycled magazines. We thought the girls looked exhausted, but the majority of them worked on their projects until 11 or so. We ended up not showing the movie, Planet Earth, because we thought everyone would fall asleep, including ourselves. We finally sent all the girls to bathe and go to bed but I think they would have preferred to stay up chatting all night. The awkwardness and shyness wore off really fast.

Tie-dying with the girls

Day 2- Saturday
Saturday started off with yoga with Callie and James. The girls loved it! We thought they wouldn’t want to get up so early for class, but my girls actually woke me up around 5:30. It was really awesome to see all the girls in the work room doing the different yoga positions which I’m sure were completely foreign to them until that morning. After they were sent to their rooms to bathe and get ready for the day we had a typical breakfast of bread with jam and butter, Quaker, and a hardboiled egg. We only really ate for about 20 minutes, but the other 40 we had put in the schedule for breakfast was good time for the girls to do their own personal things. It turned out that my room had flooded during breakfast so we didn’t have water at the camp most of the day while they fixed it. We also did not have hot water from that point on. Fortunately, I did get one shower, a hot shower, over the weekend.

At 9, Claudia gave a really useful vocational training charla. I got to watch the girls fill out pretend resumes and one of my girls even asked me if she could have my phone number for one of her references. After the charla, we did tie-dye! The girls went crazy for the tie-dying. Erica and I led the activity, even though neither one of us had done it since high school. Thank goodness the directions worked out and the shirts came out amazing. Erica did a great job of designing the shirts with our very own ALMA logo. While the tie-dying was going on, the guests for the career panel showed up. Since this was my activity, I had done all the arrangements with the guest speakers. Two of them ended up not showing up at all even though they said they were coming, but it ended up working out great with the 5 that did come. Our regional coordinator Nelly, a psychologist from Caraz, a social worker from Marcara, an agronomist from Sihuas, and a teacher from Mancos came. We had the girls pretend they were newspaper reporters and in 5 different groups, the girls interviewed one of the professionals. Then the girls had to present the professional and the professional filled in any missing information. As I walked around during the interviews, there was a lot of great discussion going on. This is what I wanted as opposed to the girls falling asleep during powerpoint presentations. This activity lasted about an hour and a half and then we moved on to lunch. At lunch, the professionals sat at each of the 5 big tables and the girls had to go to one of those tables. Then the volunteers filled in. We ate vegetable soup, quinoa, rice and salad.

Condom Race

For an hour after lunch, Emily worked with the girls on friendship bracelets. They loved it so much they didn’t want to stop when it was time for Suni’s famous sex talk. Dr. Suni, our Peace Corps doctor, did an incredible sexual education talk with the girls. In an area where sex is hardly discussed in a health/educational manner, it is hard to even broach the subject. We were all a little afraid about what the girls were going to think- if they were going to be embarrassed, frightened, shocked, etc. It ended up being one of the biggest successes of the weekend. We had made a secret question box during lunch so the girls could privately ask questions which turned out to be a fantastic idea. The girls got a lot of discussion going with their questions and Suni answered all of them in a professional, delicate, easy-to-understand manner. She even got the girls up and going with a condom race. All but one girl participated in the race, which consisted of two teams of 16 girls and each girl had to run across the yard to a dildo, put a condom on it, take the condom off, and run back. It was absolutely amazing. The girls were grossed out by the lubricant, but at least they got to see and touch a condom for the first time. At the end of Suni’s talk and powerpoint presentation (complete with graphic photos of all the common STDs), she gave away a pin she got from her travels in South Africa, a key chain from Panama, and Eat, Pray, Love written in English. She encouraged the girls to go and study and become the engineers, doctors, English teachers they want to be. It brought us all to the verge of tears. Suni is such a great doctor and motivator and there is no one else who could have done that sexual education talk. It was such a great opportunity for the girls to open up and ask the questions that no one asks in their communities and perhaps no one knows the answers. Suni clarified a lot of myths for the girls, which is definitely going to be a really positive thing that the girls take away from the camp.

After the talk, the girls had dance class with Claudia. I watched from outside as Claudia and Brian taught the girls salsa, meringue, cumbia, and danced huayno. It was adorable to watch. The girls took a quick break to wash up then went to dinner. Kaitlyn had written adjectives on each table and filled a box with tiny papers with the adjectives. Each girl took an adjective and sat at that table where the dinner discussion was centered around that adjective. For example, I picked creative, and at my table we talked about how the girls are creative at school and how we as volunteers are creative at our jobs. It was interesting to hear what the girls are already doing in their schools to be creative- marches, dances, writing songs. It was an excellent idea to have a guideline for dinner discussion. Dinner was spaghetti with red sauce, garlic bread, and fruit salad. Again, the quantity was not quite enough for the girls and many wanted more (including myself). The quantity of food would need to be upped for the next camp.

Cast of Gringos Saludables

After dinner, Colleen and Kaitlyn led a talk on gender equality. Then, another major highlight of the camp took place- the Gringos Saludables play. We used a script based on a Midsummer Night’s Dream. Brian was the director and he and the entire cast did such an amazing job. It was hysterical! The girls laughed the entire time, and so did I. I think it was my favorite part of the weekend. After the play, we had a discussion around the bonfire that Callie and Jason built about gender equality. We introduced the girls to smores and they thoroughly enjoyed them. There was lots of singing too- the girls sang huaynos, Brian did an Elton John solo, and the volunteers did a rendition of My Heart Will Go On, the Peruvian National Anthem, and the U.S. National Anthem. It was a good time by all. We then retired for the night.

Day 3- Sunday
The final day of ALMA started with an awesome personal defense class led by Colleen and assisted by Brian. The girls were amazed by Colleen’s martial arts skills, as was I. Later a lot of them asked her about the moves. We let the girls change for breakfast, then we all ate together in the comedor. We ended up changing the schedule at the last minute because one of the guest speakers, Elsa, a psychologist from Caraz, gave a diversity talk with Christie. They presented one of the girls that Christie brought, Yessenia, a girl with special needs, and talked about what it means to have special needs. It started a really great discussion with the girls and was one of the most interesting talks I was able to sit in on. I’m really glad we ended up changing the theater games we had planned for this talk.

Afterwards, Kaitlyn led a volunteerism charla and got the girls brainstorming what they can do in their communities when they get back after ALMA. We had a popcorn and orange snack break which was delicious but messy. We then gave the girls about 45 minutes to fill out an evaluation, pack, get their tie-dye t-shirts, finish art projects, and exchange emails. The volunteers did some clean up during this time, which was easy because nothing was really dirty. We ate a final lunch together with our own girls, lentil soup and locro de zapallo, and then did a clausura ceremony. We gave each girl a certificate and the group photo we took at the beginning of camp. It was really cute to see everyone in their tie-dye awarding their girls their certificates. I think I butchered the pronunciation of their names, but it makes up for all the times I get called Sharon in site. We then ate cake together and got ready to leave. We probably should have left some time for yearbook-type signing because at the last minute the girls were asking us to sign their notebooks and write them advice. It was super sweet and made me feel really proud of what we had put together. Then my girls and I made the long trek back to Huarimayo and San Marcos. We left at 2 and got home around 7:30.

Christie and Yessenia

Everything turned out great and better than we had even planned. Thanks to the creativity and ingenuity of the volunteers, any problem that arose was resolved and new ideas were thrown in at the last minute to improve what was already planned. I couldn’t have asked for a better Camp ALMA and I love my Ancash PCVs for that. It was the first time any of us has participated in Camp ALMA and the first one that Ancash has had since 2006. We had a really good post-camp discussion and what could be improved for next time. Future ALMA Ancash camps are definitely going to be great. Thanks to all who donated to our project and for making our Camp ALMA a huge success.

The Camp Counselors

The Land of the 33 Churches

Flower murals in the plaza of Ayacucho

For Easter vacations, I opted out of getting a tan and eating endless plates of fresh fish on the coast. Crazy right? Instead of heading to the beach, I decided to go to the department of Ayacucho, where the largest and most traditional Easter celebration in Peru takes place. Ayacucho is also the name of the capital city where the festivities take place. It’s about 8 hours southeast of Lima, so I had to take overnight and day buses from Ancash. Like Ancash, Ayacucho is largely sierra (mountain ranges) and has a significant population that continues to speak Quechua (Ayacucho Quechua) and wear traditional dress. Ayacucho doesn’t get nearly as much rain as Ancash, however. It was hot and sunny the entire weekend. Besides the Easter celebration, the city is known for its seemingly endless number of churches, delicious bread and cheese, and for the violent acts of terrorism that were inflicted by the Sendero Luminoso in the 1980s. It’s a beautiful, traditional mountain city, and definitely worth a visit during Semana Santa. A Senora making peanut ice cream

My trip to Ayacucho was enhanced by my own personal tour guide- my best friend from site was born in Ayachucho and the majority of his family still lives there. He brought me and a couple of the volunteers to his aunt’s house to eat a typical cabbage/potato/meat dish called puchero. The Peruvian cuisine in Ayacucho definitely one-ups Ancash. I usually cook for myself, so it was strange eating so much Peruvian food over a 4 day span. We tried puca picante (spicy potatoes with chicharron), lullu (spinach and potatoes), chorizo, qapchi (potatoes with a cheesy cream sauce), pachamanca (meat, potatoes, and tamales cooked in the ground), muyuchi (peanut ice cream whipped up right in front of you), arroz sambito (a better version of arroz con leche), and a lot more. After a year and a half in Peru, I typical avoid potatoes like the plague, not because I don’t like them but because they are everywhere. I couldn’t help but dig into some of these delectable dishes though. Peruvians definitely know how to prepare potatoes. Ceramics in Quinoa

Other than eating, we visited some of the tourist destinations. The first day in Ayachucho, we went to see some Wari ruins, bought some fantastic ceramics in Quinoa, and visited the field where the Battle of Ayacucho took place in 1824 (supposedly the most important battle in Peruvian independence from Spain). Since I live 15 minutes from the Chavin ruins, I wasn’t that impressed by the Wari ruins. However, the ceramics and the food in Quinoa, as well as the battle field, were definitely worth the ride out of Ayacucho. The battle field offers an incredible view of Ayaucho and the landscape around it. It’s also only 5 minutes up the road from Quinoa, where we all bought little ceramic castles as souvenirs, which many people put on top of a newly constructed house for good luck. We were starving by this point, so we went to an outdoor lunch market and ordered different plates in order to try them all. When we got back to the city, we rested and strolled around the plaza. We tried to visit 7 churches, because on Holy Thursday it is tradition to visit at least 7 of the million churches in Ayacucho. We stumbled upon some traditional dancing as well, and stayed there until we couldn’t keep our eyes open anymore and went to bed. Live Stations of the Cross

The next day, we went to check out a live version of the Stations of the Cross. The procession started at one church, made its way to the main plaza, and then back to the same church. It was actually really impressive, complete with 300-esque costumes and cursing at Jesus. We followed the procession almost to the end, but the Stations of the Cross are pretty long so we ducked out at the plaza. After a quick bite to eat, we headed up to the lookout point above Ayacucho. It was gorgeous, so of course we took lots of photos. We walked back to the plaza with peanut ice cream in hand, exhausted but content. We checked out some of the murals that different organizations were painting with flowers in the main square, which were absolutely amazing. At this point napping was a must, so we slept until it was time to check out the next procession. Around 8 or so, the crucified Jesus came out of one of the churches in a glass case. As he was carried over the flower murals, people lit candles. The plaza was packed with people, which made it difficult to follow the procession. However, it was still a very solemn and respectful event, despite the large crowd. The next day, Saturday, was the big party day.

Saturday started off with a real bang- a bull run! We all bought red T-shirts that people were selling on the streets and ran with some bulls! The bulls are let loose a couple blocks from the plaza, and then people run ahead of/with/behind the bull. I didn’t really manage to outrun the bull and only made it half a block before it passed me. Some people kept up with the bull for a few blocks, but the only one who stayed with it the whole time was the man on horseback that held the leash on the bull. It really wasn’t dangerous at all, but you still get an adrenaline rush when you are being chased down by a bull! We watched two more go by before we headed up to the big fair at the lookout point. We walked around to check out all the carnival games and food stations. We might have been the only foreigners there, but not the only tourists. Peruvians also come from other departments to Ayacucho to see the Easter processions. And Saturday is when all the drinking and partying starts, so by late afternoon when we returned to the plaza, the atmosphere was radically different than the night before. Groups of people were dancing around the plaza to the music of traditional bands. Beers were being shared amongst friends and family in typical beer circle fashion. Technicians were setting up the 20-some-odd firework castles. People from the rural areas outside of Ayacucho sat around the plaza with blankets, children, and food, camping out until the morning. Most people keep partying until dawn, when a massive, candle-covered platform with Jesus on top exits the cathedral. We decided some type of napping was necessary it we were going to see Jesus’ grand exit at 4 a.m.
Unfortunately in many cases in Peru, you just never seem to know when events are going to start, and neither do Peruvians. So we ended up napping through the lighting of most of the firework castles. We got up at 1 am thinking we’d catch a few of them, but they apparently lit them all off at midnight (very strange). Bummed out, we went back to bed until 4 am at which point Jesus was supposed to come out of the cathedral. An hour and a half later, just before dawn, the mammoth candle platform exits the cathedral. It was worth not really sleeping to see this event. I can’t emphasize the enormity of this platform- probably 20 people were needed to carry the candle-covered chariot. As it made its way around the plaza, it stopped at each corner, prayers were said, and more fireworks were lit off. Everyone was in awe of this crazy contraption. As soon as it returned home to the cathedral, there was definitely a collective sigh of relief as everyone made their way home to bed.

Huge candle-covered Jesus statue

Easter Sunday actually end up being the quietest day of our entire trip to Ayacucho. After some sleep and showers, we went to the market and bought tons of bread and cheese to take home (so much I had to buy a box to put it in). We had a great lunch with my friend’s family, visited some artisan markets, and took some last minute photos. It wasn’t your typical relaxing beach vacation, but it was an experience I will never forget. Seeing Ayacucho with someone from Ayacucho also gave me a different perspective that I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. It’s hard for me to imagine what the city looked and felt like during the Sendero Luminoso era, since it is such a peaceful and quiet place.
Now it’s back to the grind again. Like I always say, time just seems to be flying and I’m trying to make every second of this experience count. There are definitely down days, when I am just plain tired of men making sexual comments at me when I walk by or when something personal of mine gets stolen, but those days are outnumbered by all of the amazing days I have here. The remaining months are going to be super busy, but I’m looking forward to it.

Rainy Season... The Second Time Around

Ancash reunited!

Supposedly this rainy season is supposed to be significantly worse than last year’s due to the return of El Nino. Up to this point in mid-February, El Nino has been just a baby (bad pun intended). I remember last year getting stuck at landslides for 5, 6, 7 hours, waiting for some heavy machinery to make its way out to the middle of nowhere to clean the road to Huaraz. So far, the worst landslide actually happened in San Marcos. Last week, Mike, Claudia, Callie, Tyler and I got stuck in a taxi for 2 hours about 100 meters from the exit of San Marcos. We watched, stupefied, as a few of my fellow San Marquinos attempted their version of a landslide clean up. Instead of simply clearing the rocks and boulders that were already in the road, ten men or so went up to the top of the landslide and kicked more rocks down. For 2 hours. The reason? So that more rocks wouldn’t fall down later.

Ordinarily, most people would get pretty irritated at this situation. What do Peace Corps volunteers do? Run to the nearest tienda for some beverages, crank up the tunes in the taxi driver’s car and have some Huayno sing-a-longs, and film the crazy, inpatient people running across the landslide dodging flying boulders. At this point in my service, things like landslides or permanent flea bites that line my waste don’t seem to faze me. I don’t particularly enjoy sitting at landslides for half a day, but now I just make sure to pack extra snacks for the trip and make sure the batteries on my camera are charged for fantastic filming opportunities.

I failed to emphasize that TYLER BROWN was here in San Marcos. He made his triumphant return to Peru at the beginning of February, right on time to partake in the Carnaval festivities. But before traveling to Cajamarca, Tyler came to visit his Ancashino family for a week. It felt like he never left- we went to our favorite restaurants, had a ridiculous High School Prom theme party, and did a lake jump out here in Conchucos. He even made the trek to my site to help me move (I now live in San Marcos, a topic I’ll get to in just a bit). Despite being thousands of miles away now, Tyler is still one of my absolute best friends and his visit has been one of the highlights of my year.

The aftermath of the paint war

Last year, we were still newbies and weren’t allowed to travel to Cajamarca for Carnaval. This year, I used up a good chunk of my remaining vacation days to go see what these festivities were all about. Cajamarca is known for its Carnaval celebration, which starts the Saturday before Ash Wednesday with a massive, city-wide water and paint fight. A group of maybe 40 Peace Corps volunteers traveled to Cajamarca for Carnaval, so we had a solid gang of gringos participating in the fight. We had water balloons, squirt guns, buckets, and paint for our ammo, and went after anyone who looked like a good target. The Cajarmarquinos get really into the festival- they march around the city with drums and horns, singing different songs specific to Carnaval, and they dance in the streets until the sun comes up the next day. I participated in the fight until my lips turned blue from the cold and was forced to retire to my hostel. Fortunately, the paint used in the fight is water-soluble (at least most of it) so one shower took care of most of the damage. I have never participated in a water/paint fight so large, and never imagined that one existed. It was definitely an unforgettable experience.

The next day, Sunday, was calmer, but the water balloon fighting continued even during the parade. Gringos make good targets so you have to have a good sense of humor to participate in Carnaval. Rules do exist- like don’t hit pregnant ladies with water balloons- but aren’t necessarily followed, so you have to be prepared to get wet. The announcer kept telling people to stop throwing balloons during the parade but no one listened. The parade itself was interesting- all the different neighborhoods marched in their costumes, which ranged from lions, to jesters with fireworks on their hats. In order to escape some of the water-throwing, I went to the Banos del Inca with Claudia and my friend Sarah. These thermal baths were supposedly used by the Inca Athualpa. Some of the baths have temperatures of over 72 degrees Celsius. Apparently, people bring eggs and drop them in the baths to see if they’ll cook. We didn’t end up going in any of the public pools or showers, but it was worth seeing. We also did some other touristy things while in Cajamarca city. We went to the Ventanillas de Otuzco, which are window-shaped tombs that the ancient Cajamarquinos used to encapsulate people’s bones; we visited the Cuarto del Rescate where the Incan Athualpa was held for ransom and later killed; and we climbed to the mirador Santa Apolonia. We tried to go the big parade on Monday, but we got soaked with water on the way there and then couldn’t see over the bleachers that they had set up or the herds of people along the route. We flew back to Lima on Monday, exhausted, full of cheese and yogurt (Cajamarca is known for their milk products and unfortunately Ancash is not), and completely content.

At the Ventanillas de Otuzco

All in all, it was an amazing trip. It wouldn’t have been nearly as fun if I didn’t have such a great group of people to spend it with. I had had a rough couple of weeks leading up to Tyler’s visit, so it was nice to go on such a crazy adventure with such good company. Since Christmas, I have been trying to get some projects off the ground. Unfortunately, my summer school “Learning Health through Art” classes got canceled because “there isn’t enough money in the budget.” Ojo: I live in one of the richest areas of Peru, due to the mining company Antamina, and yet there is still a 42.5% poverty rate. To tell me there is no money for a couple of teachers to offer classes to kids who are behind in their work is a complete lie. I wasn’t even going to get paid, so it wasn’t like I was going to be a cost. I got a little frustrated with my municipality, since I planned on spending January and February teaching in the elementary school. Maybe they should spend less money on things like two brand new trucks for the municipality and invest in things like the two dilapidated school buildings. Just my opinion.

On top of my classes getting canceled, I lost or had stolen two cell phones, my wallet, my radio (which I lent to my neighbor who claims it was stolen), and my head lamp (which I lent to my host family who also claims it was stolen). It’s strange because I didn’t lose a single personal item in my first year in Peru. They say bad things come in threes but I surpassed three. However, none of these things were that detrimental to my daily life- you get over material things pretty fast.

My new room

On the bright side, I’m getting a fresh start in a new house! I finally made the leap and moved to San Marcos. I’ve been thinking about it basically since I moved into a bathroom/latrine-less house last December of 2008. I absolutely loved my host family, and it was painful to tell them I was moving out, but I needed the change. I moved for a lot of reasons, primarily security. The door to my bedroom was right on the main road, the only road, that goes through my valley. Everyone knew where I lived, and someone attempted to break into my room last October. Second, I started to realize how lonely it was to not be able to converse with anyone past 5 pm. There isn’t reliable transportation from San Marcos to Huarimayo at night and I accidentally got rides home from drunk drivers on two separate occasions. So now by living in San Marcos, I am much more secure and much less lonely. I live with the family of one of the nurses from my health post and I have the ability to work with people in my town all day long, even 8 at night. I still feel like Huarimyo is my home town and I moved to the big city, so I plan to keep on working there. I know I’m going to miss my little host siblings, but I will definitely go back to visit often.

Now on to work stuff! Our girls leadership camp, Camp ALMA, is off and running. I’m helping to coordinate it with Sophie, but it’s going to be the work of all of the Ancash volunteers that make it successful. There is so much talent among our 17 Ancash volunteers that I know our Camp ALMA is going to be amazing. We’re going to have a ropes course, a career fair, recycled art projects, self-defense classes, and so much more. I am so excited to be working on this project! We will need help with funding, so when our Peace Corps Partnership grant gets posted on the website, I’ll let you all know.

I’m also working with a friend of mine on a communal library for Chavin. We’re trying to get the municipality of Chavin to give us a locale so that the government program PROMOLIBRO will send us books. All the municipality has to do is provide us with a small space, a couple of chairs and desks and shelves, and a person to be in charge of the library, and the Peruvian government will send us books. Working on this project is reminding me how slow things move here and how much paperwork is involved. The municipality is working with us, thankfully, to make this library happen, but it’s moving at a snail’s pace. Every week, some type of paper work gets submitted for approval, then we wait two more weeks. We make a meeting, and the person doesn’t show up. Asi es. So as much as I want to get this library off the ground, it really comes down to the community and their enthusiasm behind the project. Most people tell me, “But why do you want to make a library? We don’t have the custom of reading.” (a rough translation). And then I tell them how wonderful books are and how just because it isn’t the custom now, doesn’t mean it can’t become a custom. I really hope that this library becomes a reality, because reading really isn’t part of the culture here. Maybe if books were actually available, the community would take advantage of them.

I was hoping to do two more cocinas mejoradas projects in my last year, but things really don’t move fast enough to make this happen. Instead, I’m going to do one project in two or three communities with the NGO ADRA. I’m going to use my funding to help them cover the population that they can’t cover with their funding. Right now, we’re identifying the families. I’m going to present to them the prerequisites for the project, and if they agree with them, they can sign up to participate. Then comes the SPA grant writing and the charlas and the building of the improved stoves. This time around, I feel like I really know what I’m doing. The first project worked out great in the end, but there are definitely things I will do better.

My other activities continue as normal. I’ll be at site for awhile since I have no more vacation days to take. I might even get stuck here if El Nino decides to make some landslides on the road to Huaraz. Time is absolutely flying by and it scares me to think I only have 9 months left. I’m trying to aprovechar every moment because I know that before I know it, it’s going to be all over. Time to get off my computer and get on out to the real world. Hasta la proxima.

Merry Christmas and a Very Happy New Year

My neighbor and host siblings with our paper snowflakes

Happy New Year to all! Since I last wrote, Papa Noel made a visit to Huarimayo, I celebrated turning a year older as well as the beginning of a brand new year, did a little exploring close to home and later made a trek a bit farther away, took a hard look at my last year in Peace Corps and evaluated what I will do differently in the coming year, and gave myself some new, more realistic, goals. I’ve learned so much in the last year about managing projects and working with people that I could never have learned at home. Through all the ups and downs, I’ve had my family and friends to support me- whether it was through encouraging emails, care packages, or phone calls- and for that I can’t say thank you enough. It’s been a wonderful year and I’m looking forward to my last 10 months in the Peace Corps.

One of the moms cutting up paneton

We’ll start with Christmas. For some reason, this Christmas was harder than last year. A lot of volunteers went home but I decided I wanted to take a trip later in January with my parents. So I stayed in my site for Christmas. I tried to be festive and made a bunch of paper snowflakes and hung up some Christmas lights in my room. We also had a Christmas party at the primary school where I am doing my healthy schools project. The teachers and I decided that the money we were going to use for prizes should go towards a Christmas celebration. A couple of moms prepared the hot chocolate and cut up the paneton while the kids sang Christmas songs. Then I handed out little toys for all the students. It turned out to be a great celebration and put me in more of a Christmas spirit. The people who live in my area of the Andes don’t really have big Christmas celebrations. In other parts of Peru, Christmas is a big deal- families stay up until midnight on Christmas Eve, everyone hugs, and then there is a big turkey dinner with hot chocolate and paneton. In the campo, we go to bed at 8 pm on Christmas Eve. I believe this year I made myself some honey mustard chicken, watched half a season of How I Met Your Mother, and went to bed. On Christmas morning, I had my host family hang up socks and Papa Noel (me) filled them with little presents. My host siblings, who are 8 and 4, get a real kick out of this and had been asking me for months when we were going to hang up socks like last year. The opening of socks was followed by a feast of hot chocolate and paneton (a sort of fruitcake-esque thing). I then went back to my room and made phone calls to volunteers still in the country, wishing them Merry Christmas. Later, I helped my host mom cook some chicken for lunch. We had a really fun Christmas breakfast and lunch, but then my family went out to pasture the animals all afternoon, leaving me by myself. I made some brownies, talked to friends and family from home, and watched movies. Let’s just say I’m happy I’ll be home for Christmas next year.

Emerson taking down his stocking

The week following Christmas was tough. I was anxiously waiting for my birthday and New Year’s Eve to arrive. All of the people I work with at my site had left to be with their families for Christmas, either in Huaraz, or Lima, or elsewhere. Everything was pretty much shut down, from the schools to the health post. So I had no work to do and was a bit bored, and for me, there is nothing worse than boredom. However, I ended up traveling away from my site for New Year’s Eve to be with some friends and had a blast. Thanks to Sophie, I had mimosas at breakfast, which went with the cake the hostel bought me for my birthday. It turned out to be a really great day and a much better birthday than I had expected after a rather dull Christmas.

After New Year’s, I went back to site, counting down the days (or maybe the hours) until my vacation to Argentina. I asked for 10 vacation days to travel to Buenos Aires with my parents and it was exactly the breath of fresh air I needed. Buenos Aires is a truly incredible city and unlike any other city I’ve seen in Latin America. I was not expecting it to be as modern and European as it is, even down to the Italian-influenced accent that Argentines have. It’s clean and organized and intriguing. We spent about a week just walking around the different neighborhoods, admiring the architecture, ranking the various ice cream places, making fun of the mullet my dad got at a Argentine salon, and making the taxi drivers do extra loops around the city. I think it was the first time we’ve ever done a trip without planning every second down to the detail.

My parents and I at the Iguazu Falls

We woke up each day to beautiful, sunny, warm weather and then decided where to go from there. Somehow everything always worked out timing wise and we got to see and do everything on our list of possible Buenos Aires activities. I absolutely loved being able to run around the parks in Palermo. It was so refreshing to be outside jogging in shorts with other people and not being stared or whistled or honked at. The rose garden and the Japanese garden in Palermo are beautiful and definitely worth visiting. We stayed in another neighborhood called Retiro, but we could walk or take a short cab ride to the other neighborhoods. With the weather so wonderful, we mostly opted to walk.

Where to begin! I could basically copy and paste the travel journal I kept during the vacation, but there’s just so much talk about steak, and pastries, and hot stone massages that I don’t want to bore you. However, if you go through my pictures here and here, they tell the story of our favorite places. My mom and dad might have other opinions, but my blue ribbons go to the following:

Best place to jog: Palermo

Best place to take a romantic walk: the docks in Puerto Madero

Best museum: MALBA (it gets bonus points because it had an Andy Warhol exhibit)

Best steak sandwich: La Rambla

Best ice cream: Volta

Best history lesson: Recoleta Cemetery

Best market: San Telmo

Best monument: Florelis Generica

Best alfajores: La Puerto Rico

Best architecture: Colonia (in Uruguay, a side day trip we did)

Best natural beauty: Iguazu Falls

Best haircut: my Dad’s new Argentine do- the rat tail

Best trick: The taxi driver swiping out my dad’s real bill for a fake one and telling us ours was fake

Best steak: The tenderloin at Las Lilas

Best souvenir: The 5 pounds of Argentine food that is still on my waist line and worth every bite

My trip really was amazing, but the best part, by far, was seeing my parents. It was the part I was looking forward to the most. We could have been in any setting, but being in Buenos Aires in summertime certainly didn’t hurt. I will definitely go back to Argentina. I almost have to in order to make the $131 traveler fee they charge now, worth it. So now I’m back at site, writing this blog update, refreshed and recharged and ready for another year. A second cocinas mejoradas project is in the works, along with a girls’ leadership camp, and a school library. The radio show and pen pal program continue, although my English classes might be over (if I have my way) due to the fact it is not fun at all to teach English. I have to go to Quechua class next week, which is probably good because I still haven’t managed to learn much of this unwritten language. I’m off to chambear, but I’ll keep on keeping you posted!