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!

Ooooh we’re half-way there!

Ancash hug

The time has arrived! Mid-Service medical check-ups and meetings. I really can’t believe it. When I swore in as a volunteer last November, I would never have imagined how quickly a year can go by. They say here that the days go by slow and the weeks go by fast and somehow it’s true. The daily frustrations of trying to build a bathroom seemed never ending, but once it was completed, 9 months had somehow flown by. And now here I am in Lima, reunited with the other Community Health volunteers from my training group, reminiscing about the last year, comparing notes on projects, sharing an endless amount of ridiculous stories and strange occurrences. It’s the last time we’ll all be together like this until we have our completion of service conference next September. And the second year is supposed to go by even faster! It makes me worried that I won’t accomplish everything I want to do. However, after a year out in the campo, I’ve got a good base for the coming year. It’s about time I update everyone on what I’ve been up to the last couple months!

To start, I finished my Cocinas Mejoradas project on November 8th. The whole process started last July when I applied to USAID for a grant to implement a “Healthy Homes” project in my community. I received the money and started the project in September. Forty families signed up for the project, which required the participants to make certain changes to their homes in order to receive a thick iron stove top and an aluminum chimney. Thirty-four families actually completed all the requirements, which were to make guinea pig cages, some kind of plate/utensil storage unit, a vegetable garden, and adobe bricks for the stove. I also required the attendance of 9 out of 10 educational sessions about nutrition, hygiene, etc. It turned out to be a much more challenging project than I imagined and there are many things I would do differently next time around, but after a lot of blood, sweat, and tears (literally), I was so impressed and touched by the women in my project that everything was worth it.

I learned a lot about what it takes to run a project, and that as the manager of such a project, you absolutely must have a thick skin. A few times I got yelled at by different people in the community for reasons that were not my fault- their wife got kicked out of the project because she didn’t show up to the meetings, I wouldn’t let one Senora participate because she already had a cocina mejorada, etc. Meetings almost always started with an argument of some sort, but I think this might be a cultural thing. It seems strange but in my community, when there is an important decision to be made, there is always a heated debate, but after 20 minutes or so, opposing parties always agree on the same thing. So the women in my project would argue about something like one Senora showing up late and then after 10 minutes of arguing they would be ready to pay attention to my charla. After a couple educational sessions like this, I realized I couldn’t take their comments to heart. It was hard to be strict about attendance because I didn’t want to kick anyone out, but I had to. The women learned to show up on time and often beat me to the meetings by half an hour saying “Senorita, estas tarde!” when I was still 5 or 10 minutes early. I think the Senoras are my favorite people to work with- they laugh at me and make me say dirty words in Quechua and make me dance huayno, and at the same time are generally interested in improving the health of their families. I know they appreciated the hard work I put into the project- putting together all the educational sessions, riding in a truck for 7 hours from Huaraz with all the stove tops and then unloading each 60 pound iron stove top by myself at 2 am, printing out photos and diplomas for each participant, finding chimneys that “got lost” on the bus route from Huaraz to San Marcos, and visiting each house several times leaving my house before sunrise to walk to all of them (once getting bit pretty badly by a dog). We had a fantastic party at the end, complete with cuy, potatoes, huayno music, and cake. I have some great photos of the party here.

The whole gang

I couldn’t have done the project without the help of many people, including a health promoter that works with the NGO ADRA-Peru. She translated all of my educational sessions into Quechua and helped me with my project, without any other motive than to help me as a friend. An engineer in my town let me load my stove tops on his truck without even charging me. I had a lot of support from other volunteers too, especially my friend Mike who had done similar projects and gave me good advice when I was really stuck. Throughout the project, I felt like for every obstacle that appeared, some other problem got resolved. Luck and coincidence somehow played on my side many times. All in all, it was a good project that I know could be improved if I do it again in a different community.

Now on to my other project! I’ve been working pretty hard on my school vegetable garden. Managing a garden with elementary school is a challenge. I think we made our garden too big for the little guys to handle and the two biggest problems we’ve had are weeds and irrigation. The kids are too small to pull out the weeds and the hoses don’t get enough water pressure to run the sprinklers. Now it’s rainy season so the watering isn’t an issue. Despite some problems, we did harvest our first crop- radishes! The other crops are coming up slowly but surely, and some just haven’t germinated at all for whatever reason. We’ve made three different types of organic fertilizer, but I mostly manage them which is defeating the purpose. The teachers are afraid that someone will rob the trash can we’re using for biol and the worm cage that I built. So the biol is in a friend’s garden and the worms are in a teacher’s house. I’m trying really hard to make this project a success, but it’s been really difficult.

Harvesting our radishes

We aren’t going to build the latrine because apparently they are building a new school next year with a latrine. However, we did install the sink which was a huge break through! I handed out the toothbrushes and soap to each student and did some handwashing and toothbrushing charlas, and now it’s up to the kids to brush their teeth and wash their hands every day for a month in order to take their toiletries home as a prize. The teachers are supposed to be keeping track on the charts I made with each student’s name, so hopefully they’re helping me out with that. I plan on painting the mural during the rainy season when the kids are on vacation and can help me out with it. I plan on maintaining the garden and composting through the rainy season, and the educational sessions on hygiene and nutrition until school ends around Christmas. This project has been more frustrating than the cocinas mejoradas project and probably more work. It’s also really hard to convince people to work on something that doesn’t get immediate results or to convince someone to incorporate a new thing into the daily routine, such as handwashing. I want to thank everyone for their donations to the project and I would love for you to check out my pictures. Know that I am working hard and putting all the money to good use! The money not used on the latrine will go to something else to improve the school. I haven’t figured it out yet, but it might be new white boards or books or school supplies. It will depend on what the school wants and needs. Here are some photos

Recycled soap holders

I’ve also been busy with my radio show, La Gringa Saludable. It keeps me busy every other week and introduces me to new people in town. I also helped out with two different field-based trainings that took place in Ancash. All the trainees in the health program came to Ancash to get some hands-on experience in the field. I helped out my friend Mike at his site with some latrine building. The following week, the one trainee who will be working in Ancash came to my site to shadow me for a couple days and help me work on some of my projects. I’m still teaching English and helping out with random things in San Marcos, such as a hygiene training for food handlers (restaurant and hotel owners). My youth group kind of collapsed after the swine flu outbreak in July and the students were out of school for a month. I got busy with projects and my youth group kind of dissipated. I’m going to try to teach summer school again this year and pick up my youth group again as kind of an art/cooking club. I got an oven from a returning volunteer in August and it has been keeping my entertained. Baking at 10,000 ft is a new concept, and making creative dishes from the ingredients I can find in San Marcos is pretty fun. I’ve also learned to knit and crochet and I watch all the TV at night that Uncle Steve and Aunt Sandy send me (Thanks!). So I’ve been a busy girl the last couple months!

In the midst of all these projects, I’ve done a little bit of traveling and site seeing. I had the opportunity to go to Tumbes up near Ecuador for an HIV/AIDS training. On the way up their and back, I spent a lot of time on buses and had some time to kill at ruins and museums. I stopped in Trujillo on the way up and got to see the ruins of Chan Chan and Huaca de la Luna y del Sol. On the way back, I went to the Museo de Sipan and had some Pizza Hut at the mall in Chiclayo. I’ve done some hiking around Ancash too- I went to the Laguna Churup and the Laguna Purhuay. My town’s festival was in October and a bunch of the Ancash volunteers came out to my side of the mountains for the party. September, October, and November have just flown by and it’s hard to believe that I am at my mid-service point.

Sandboarding in Huacachina

At that half-way mark, Peace Corps sends us to the doctor and the dentist and we have individual program meetings. My mid-service meetings and doctors appointments fell conveniently right before Thanksgiving. We had two days of program meetings then a couple of the Health volunteers and I went down south to see penguins and seals at the Islas Ballestas, drink Pisco in Pisco, and sandboarding at an oasis called Huacachina outside of Ica. Then we returned to Lima for doctors appointments, and then to Arequipa for Thanksgiving. I’m writing this blog from Arequipa, because I’m on the last legs of my vacation. A group of maybe 20 volunteers or so from different programs, departments, and training groups celebrated Thanksgiving by making a ton of side dishes (thanks for all the stuffing, bread mixes, thin mints, and cranberry sauce Mom and Dad!) and grilling or buying rotisserie chicken. It was a really good way to load up for my hike the next day.

Ten of us decided to do a 2-day trek up the volcano Misti. The summit is at 5,825 m or about 19,000 ft. We left at 9:30am from the base at 3,400 m and then hiked until about 3 pm. We made our camp at about 4,000 m, ate a late lunch, and went to bed by about 6pm. I was exhausted and was already feeling the effects of high altitude. I live at 3,100m but I still was nauseous and had a pounding headache. I tried to sleep it off until 1 am when they woke us up to start hiking again. We hiked up rocks and volcanic sand all night. We were all basically zombies just walking on autopilot. Fortunately, it wasn’t windy or super cold like it typically is. I hiked up in ski pants, a fleece, hat and gloves. We finally made it to 5,400 m at about 7am. We hiked up to the summit about 45 minutes later, where there was a giant iron cross. It was snowing a little bit and cold, but for a few minutes the adrenaline took over the nausea and altitude sickness. All 10 of us made it up, which is impressive considering the guide told us only 7 out of 10 people make it up. The way back down only took about an hour and a half because you run down volcanic sand. It was possibly the most physically challenging feat I’ve ever accomplished. It might even be harder than running a marathon. The hiking part wasn’t super difficult; it was the altitude that hit us hard. When we got back to the hostel we all passed out asleep. I was exhausted! Arequipa is a beautiful city and I wish I had a few more vacation days to just relax, eat at all the amazing restaurants, hike through the Colca Canyon and just get to know the city. Instead, it’s back to the grind and back to the rainy season in Ancash. Here are photos from my trips.

Rocoto Relleno (Stuffed spicy red pepper)- A typical Arequipean dish

I won’t be coming home for Christmas, sadly, but I will be traveling to Buenos Aires in January! I’m really looking forward to some beach time and some time away from the rain and cold, and of course some time with my parents. Until then, I’ll just be wrapping up my projects and planning the next half of my service. If anyone wants to come visit me, please let me know! Hiking season in Ancash is June-August and I’m planning on going to the jungle up to Colombia/Brazil next November when I finish my service. Now I’m off to site! Hasta la proxima.

Soy chambeadora!

So much has been going on since my last post! I should probably share the best news first- I now have a bathroom! It’s completely installed and has a toilet, sink, and shower. We had an inauguration party of sorts, with a delicious Pachmanaca a la olla lunch, my homemade banana bread, and some toilet paper decorations. I bought a little trash can, a shower curtain, and a mirror to make the whole thing complete. I’ve only taken a couple “showers” in the bathroom because the water is so cold it actually hurts. My host family thinks I’m nuts for using the shower but sometimes it’s just easier than heating up water for a bucket bath. I’m also not sure that my family uses the bathroom. They’re just not used to it. They actually told me they were going to put a lock on the door and give me a key so only I could use it. But that just defeats the point. The little ones are getting better about washing their hands too. They had a ball painting the bathroom door with me.

My bathroom door

In other news, I’ve gotten two grants to do two different projects in Huarimayo. One of them, my “Healthy Schools” project, was funded thanks to you all. The vegetable garden is well on its way but it’s been a very slow, painfully slow, process. But I’m learning so much along the way that I know if I had to do some of this stuff again, I could do it better. I won’t bore you with all the road blocks we’ve encountered, but I’ll tell a couple quick anecdotes. The first official day of the project, a couple men in my town were supposed to water the land so that the following day the parent association could till the land. I’m not sure quite what happened, but the men never showed up, probably because I didn’t go to their house that day to remind them. I’ve definitely learned that personal reminders/personal house visits are necessary here. So the following day, I had to call an agro-engineer friend of mine to tell him not to come because our land wasn’t ready. And sadly, he was going to Lima the following week and wouldn’t be able to help us the next weekend. Fortunately, the next week I got myself and the Committee of the Parent Association on the same page and on Saturday we watered and tilled the land, and the next day removed rocks, organized the land into parcels, and formed the beds. I got out there with my pick axe along with the rest of the parents and hauled rocks off the land. They kept telling me, “Gringa, tu no trabajas!” (“Gringa, you shouldn’t work!”) but there was no way I was just going to stand there. That would be boring!

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My little guys

For the next couple days, the different grades took turns planting seeds in their parcels. On the second day, the 5^th/6^th grade teacher stole my carrot seeds. He had asked me earlier to “regalar” him some seeds (which is one of the few phrases I cannot stand here in Peru, it’s kind of a way of saying “give/gift me” something; in some contexts it’s ok, but in this situation the professor wanted me to give him seeds because he thinks I’m rich and can afford to buy more). I told him no, that the seeds were property of the school and the students, and I think that made him mad. As I went to gather up my things, I noticed my carrot seeds were gone, which were the ones he had asked me for. I knew he had stolen them and I didn’t know what to do because the last thing I wanted was to be in bad graces with the people crucial to the success of the project. Fortunately, Mike, our new third year Peace Corps Volunteer Coordinator, was coming out to Chavin to do some site development. We ended up going to the professor’s house (with the auspice of we were just in the neighborhood and wanted to introduce Mike) and talked to him about the seeds. Mike explained to him that if I didn’t find the seeds I was going to be in trouble and have to pay for new ones and the professor started to get all nervous and fidgety. He said he’d look for the seeds and talk to his students and let me know the next day. And miraculously, the seeds appeared the following day. So it all worked out in the end!

We already have a couple baby plants sprouting up! It makes me feel so proud after all the work getting the project going, and keeping it going. Watering the garden has been a nightmare. I’ve gotten in a couple little squabbles with some of the farmers who said it was their turn to use the stream system (you have to redirect the water toward your land when you want it) when it was my turn. The problem would be solved if my hoses and sprinklers worked, but their isn’t enough water pressure to get the sprinklers going. We’re going to install some kind of reservoir/tank thing, but that requires setting up a meeting with the parent association, pulling a few teeth to get the parents to help me, and then setting a date when everyone will show up. So that’s for the future.

And what’s going on in the school at this moment while I am in Huaraz buying supplies? Hopefully they are installing the sink! I bought a pre-made cement sink with the Peace Corps Partnership grant money so that the kids would have a place to wash their hands. I also bought toothpaste, soap, and toothbrushes for all the students and soon I’ll be teaching some personal hygiene classes. The rule for the hygiene campaign is that the students have to leave their personal items at the school, and after 3 weeks, if they’ve brushed their teeth and washed their hands every day, they can take their things home. I want them to get in the habit of taking care of themselves every day. This should be starting as soon as the sink is in!

And what’s left? Installing a latrine, painting a health mural, and maintaining the garden. The garden is something I’m hoping to keep up for the next year of my service. I just bought worms in Lima to do worm composting and I plan on doing a couple of other types of composting. There’s a long way to go, but really you have to go poco a poco. The teachers and parents are getting more supportive I think.

I am also working on a “Health Homes” Project and just received my SPA Grant money from USAID yesterday. We’ve already had 6 educational sessions, which have absolutely not been as easy as I thought they would be. Every week there is a new complaint/issue/problem- one Senora yelled at me because I wouldn’t let her participate in the project since she already had a cocina mejorada, another Senora yelled at me because I wouldn’t let her send a replacement to the meetings (the practice of sending replacement to meetings is really common, but the problem is they often send their children), and a couple Senoras got angry when I canceled a meeting so they could attend the funeral of a little old lady who died in the town. This project has not come without it’s complications, and I have to admit, I have run to my room and cried after several of the meetings. It’s hard being an authority figure when you are half the age of the participants. It’s also hard when you don’t speak their language. I realized after trying to do the first 2 educational sessions in Spanish, that the women just didn’t capture any of the information. So I got smart, and now I make sure I have a health promoter come to every meeting to translate and help me. The latest problem is that people have missed more than 2 meetings (which means you lose the opportunity to receive the cocina mejorada) and are telling me they were sick or had to work or whatever. I’m going to have to be strict and tell them they can no longer participate because they signed a contract saying they wouldn’t miss more than 2. There really is no excuse for them to be missing meetings at 5 pm on Saturday and Sunday, especially since they picked those times (and I’ve sacrificed going into Huaraz on the weekends for more than a month to accommodate their schedules). It’s going to be really difficult to tell them no, since I really want everyone to receive the cocina mejorada. However, it’s not fair to the ones who have come to every meeting.

Despite all the bumps in the road, it’s been exciting to see the plans I’ve been working on for months being put into action. It definitely gets frustrating but the little kids and Senoras make it worth it all. I would never have imagined I’d be doing worm composting or building adobe cooking stoves or broadcasting a health talk show, but that’s the job I was given, that’s what the community needs, and that’s what I’m enjoying doing right now. I thought the months of September/October/November were going to be really low key months, but there is a lot going on besides the two projects I’m working on. I’m being sent to an HIV/AIDS training in October, which is followed by two different field training sessions here in Ancash for the volunteers in training. And in November, we have our one year medical checks right before Thanksgiving. I’m planning on spending Thanksgiving hiking volcanoes in Arequipa. I guess Peru is kinda cool. :)

It’s hard to believe I’ve been out of the US for a little bit more than a year now. Time really does fly by. So all of you who have promised to visit me better get here soon- I’ve only got a little more than a year left!

Independence Days

Again, another long hiatus since my last blog update. I just wanted to accumulate enough stories to keep you entertained! July happened to be the month of American and Peruvian Independence Days. To celebrate July 4^th, I ran in a half marathon that another Peace Corps volunteer started last year in a coastal town called Pacasmayo. I signed up in January thinking that would give me plenty of time to train, but living at 3000 m above sea level (a little over 10,000 ft) proved to be too big of a challenge for me. I ran maybe 10 times at my site, and each time I thought my heart was going to burst out of my chest and my lungs were going to spontaneously combust. But I guess those 10 times were enough to give me a slight advantage over the other entrants- I ended up winning the race for the girls. It was a really hard course! I think about half of it was on sand. At least I didn’t do the full marathon. Tyler and Erica completely amazed me and finished the marathon in about 5 hours without much training at all. I ran the last 3 miles or so in with them which was really fun. The whole weekend was a blast and Steve, the volunteer in Pacasmayo, did such an incredible job of organizing the race. Trying to organize a road race in the U.S. is a big enough headache, I can’t even imagine attempting to do one here!

After the marathon weekend, I had to say goodbye to my best friend in Peace Corps. After almost year of a lot of ups and downs, Tyler decided to return to the U.S. I know he’s going to be a million times happier back home; I think being here made him realize what he’s passionate about and what he really wants to do. I know that I’m going to be a lot lonelier without him, but I’m glad I had the opportunity to be site mates with him and that he’ll be in DC when I get back home!

Life at site has involved a lot of planning and getting the groundwork set for my projects. My healthy schools project was funded in a week thanks to your help! After I get back from a week of training on vegetable gardens, latrines, and cocinas mejoradas, I’ll be starting up two of the 3 at my school. I will definitely post pictures! I also just wrote a grant proposal for a 40 family cocinas mejoradas project. However, it’s a grant hopefully to be funded by USAID. So don’t worry, I won’t be hitting you all up for money!

In other news, the 4 or 5 students who show up to my English class on a consistent basis are actually getting really good. They say “Good morning Miss Shannon!” to me when I’m walking down the street or will knock on my door, yell “GUINEA PIG!” and run away. I told them that was my favorite word. They’re pretty cute. I’m still doing a pen pal exchange with Feehan, but the students here are on vacation until mid August due to the swine flu outbreak. I was also recently in a fashion show. The artisan groups around San Marcos had an artisan fair in Chavin, complete with a fashion show. I was announced as an “international model.” I did my best catwalk, but there is certainly no future in modeling for me post Peace Corps. The knit products that the artisan groups make are beautiful. Here’s a link to some of the photos I’ve taken of their products: Artisans Unfortunately, there are no pictures of the fashion show because the power went out that day and my camera battery wasn’t charged. I think they were saving the power to light up the ruins of Chavin that night- they had the first ever night visits to the ruins and completely lit them up and had fireworks and traditional dances. It was freeeeezing! But beautiful.

The day after the fashion show, a bunch of volunteers from other departments came out to visit my site. We got 5 days of vacation for Peruvian Independence Day so most people traveled. I stayed in Ancash since it is the perfect time of year to see all the different types of natural formations around the department. We went to see the Pastoruri glacier which was only open for Fiestas Patrias, I went on an adventure with Brad to see the Canon del Pato (and also to pick up an oven that the volunteer in Caraz sold me), and I did a solo trip to Campo Santo while everyone else went to see Lake Llanganuco. There were 16 volunteers from Peru 12 in Ancash! It was awesome to have volunteers come see my department, and 5 of them came all the way out to my house. Having them here gave me an excuse to go see things I never have time to see when I come in to shower and use the internet and an excuse to go eat good food. I also don’t get to see most of them very often since they live so far away and are in other programs. I might not see many of them until November! I’m glad I stayed in Ancash for Fiestas Patrias, and I’ll probably do it again next year.

Campo Santo in Yungay with Huascaran in the background

Pastoruri Glacier in the background (way cooler than it looks in this photo)

Brad and I at the Canon del Pato

The last and most crucial part of my blog entry- bathroom update! So the walls are build, the pipes are in, the toilet, sink, and shower are installed…all I need now is a door and the pipes to be connected to the water system. SO CLOSE! I’m hoping that we have an inauguration party for it this week. If that is the case, there will be a special blog update just on my bathroom. Hasta luego!

My first official Peace Corps Project!

Hi loyal readers :)
A lot has been going on since vacation with my family. Things are finally getting put into motion! I wrote a proposal for a Peace Corps Partnership grant about a month ago and it is finally on the PC website so that people can donate to it. The elementary school in my town doesn't have bathrooms or latrines for the students (kind of like my house) or a sink. I'm asking for donations for the materials to build 2 latrines, a sink, a wall mural, and a vegetable garden, and my community is contributing the labor for the project. The donations will also go to a toothbrush, toothpaste, and a bar of soap for each student. As soon as my project is funded, I can start making things happen. If you'd like to make a contribution, here's the link. My healthy school project
Muchos besos! An updated blog to come in a few weeks.
Shannon