And we're off!

Dressed to the nines, we stood in front of the Ambassador of the United States, raised our rights hands, and swore in.  Finally, we are Peace Corps Volunteers.

It seems strange to think that ten weeks of training have gone by in the blink of an eye.  Yet while it seems like yesterday that we were on a plane to Perú, there are a few things that mark the passing of time.

To start, 10 weeks ago, we were all strangers.  The difficulty of saying bye to the other over the last few days is indicative of the relationships that we have forged and the friendships that I'm sure will last (even despite lack of internet, 27 hour bus rides, and whatever else gets thrown in the way).

Thanksgiving Lunch!

Getting ready to eat!

Some pictures from our post-Swearing In party...

And without a doubt, my relationship with my host family is one of the changes most indicative of the passing of time.  Unfortunately, I don't have a photo with all of us, but below is me and Rita at the Host Family Celebration the day before Swearing In.  I can hardly say how grateful I am to have had the opportunity to live with such a welcoming and wonderful family.  They opened their home to me and have thus far been the best part about Perú. 

So now I'm sitting in a hotel in Chincha with the other two Volunteers of Huancavelica, anxiously awaiting tomorrow when we move into our sites.  We were in our sites for a visit almost 2 weeks ago, so I already know that I have an amazing site waiting for my arrival tomorrow.  In the 3 days I spent in Tantará, I met incredibly friendly people who are as excited to work as I am.  My host family consists of Lola and her two daughters, and in the days I was there, I absolutely fell in love with them, and with Tantará.

Our garden in the morning

As we disperse throughout Perú, it is an incredibly exciting time for us all.

If this was a competition, I would be winning

Today marks the day that the Hamilton Swim Team jumps into the water for the first of many practices this season.  For the first time in four years, and really the first time since I was 8 years old, I am not gearing up to start a new swim season.  And while it was always easy to complain about practice, it makes me exceedingly sad to not have been in the water with my team this afternoon. 

Last year's Seniors!

My last swim meet :(

I’ve come to realize that I am incredibly competitive.  I knew this before, but the training staff constantly tries to make things more interesting by adding a bit of competition between groups, and I really (really, really) like winning these competitions.  And a few happened on Wednesday. 

While it wasn’t quite the same as in the US, Halloween was still used as an excuse to dress silly and eat copious amounts of candy.  At the training center, we had a costume contest, candy, and a movie after training ended.

Dora the Explorer! (this costume dedicated to Elijah Purdy)

Wednesday was also el Día de Canción Criolla, a day to celebrate the mix of cultures found in Peru, especially on the coast. 

My language class in a enthusiastic rendition of Saca los Manos

The language teachers put together a large celebration for us, complete with skits and, of course, a singing competition between the language classes. 

One of the winning groups

While I did not have the honor of actually winning either of these competitions, I thoroughly enjoyed a day of a little extra fun and dancing.

This morning, at 8 am, the training center was buzzing.  Peruvians had a holiday today for Día de los Muertos, but the Trainees had something different to celebrate.  Today, we got our site assignments. 

(Drum roll, please)

I’m going to Tantará!

It seems, however, that every time we get more information about our sites, it just creates more questions that have yet to be answered.  But I now know that I will be living with a mother and her two daughters (aged 12 and 15) in a district capital that has about 500 people in the community, with another 1000 spread in surrounding annexes.  I now have the names of my initial contacts in the community, and I know that my room already has a bed.  It isn’t much information, but it feels like Christmas came early. 

Next week, we head to another Field Based Training (this time in Ancash), and after we have our site visits and I’ll finally get to see my site, meet my new family, and start to picture what my new life will look like.

As I write this, the swim team should just be finishing practice.  I really hope it went well and that they’re all excited for the season, and I am still a little jealous that they are all heading to Commons for team dinner right now.  But I can’t help but feel that between Tantará, Huancavelica and Bristol Pool, Peru wins.

Huancavelica, here I come!

Yesterday marked the official half-way point of training, and also the much anticipated moment of getting our regional assignments.

But let me back up and talk about the last few weeks.

We've been working hard at the training center, but have also been going on trips into Lima for museums and other trips.  One was to the Agricultural University where we learned how to plant small vegetable gardens.

It was great to (quite literally) get our hands dirty and start learning by doing.  

Shortly after, we packed our bags and piled into mini buses to go to Huancavelica for our Field Based Training. 

Winding through the tall mountains, we climbed in altitude until we reached Huaytará, where we would spend the next 3 nights.  We had entered the land of llamas, alpacas, and potatoes. 

We split up into groups and visited different volunteers, each about 2 hours from Huaytatá.  We helped with house visits, facilitating classes with youths, kids, and mothers, and built a cocina mejorada, an improved cook stove. 

Returning to Lima, I felt refreshed to have been in crisp mountain air again.  After a day off, everyone was back at the training center, with a hum of excitement over our pending regional assignments.  Before I knew it, I found my photo tacked to a page with Huancavelica in bold letters, and realized that I get to go back! 

We have yet to get our site assignments, but I know that I'll be the first Volunteer at my site (as opposed to replacing someone), and that 3 of us from Peru 20 (Health) will be in Huancavelica, but in a different valley than the one we just visited.  I also know that there's a good chance I'll have to learn Quechua, but luckily Mamá Rita has volunteered to be my tutor in the few weeks I have left here in Lima.

Having had a sneak peak of my new home, I couldn't be more excited.  We have two weeks here in Lima, then we will travel to our regions for more training, and a visit to site.  Then one more week in Lima, and we're off!  So I'm holding onto my seat, as I'm sure the second half of training will be over in the blink of an eye, and then I head to the mountains!

Same scene, different language

After breakfast this morning, Rita, Lily and I climbed onto a combi and went into Lima.  We packed into a car full of family members, and drove to Rita’s brother’s house.  The occasion was my “uncle’s” birthday party.  I met countless sisters, brothers, cousins, nieces, and nephews, and we all sat down for a meal.  Half way through, I realized that I had been transported to my real aunt’s house in DC.  The faces looked different, and they spoke a different language, but the setting was shockingly similar.  Various family members filtered in and out of the house, coming hungry and leaving full.  Children ran around while their grandmothers and great aunts chased them with spoonfuls of rice, in an endless quest to feed them.  They spoke of family members who are missing, how big the latest batch of kids is getting, and how they don’t get to see each other enough.  And although I understand much more Spanish than Korean,  the occasional switch into Quechua gave me a familiar feeling of knowing the conversation topic, but missing the details.  As the wine came out and the celebration began in earnest, I took a few moments to sit back and appreciate the comfort of being very far from home, but in an environment that is incredibly familiar.

I was dragged back to Peru when something happened that almost never happens in my real family.  Suddenly, all the couches and tables were pushed back to make space for a large dance party.  Music blasting and feet stomping, everyone (young and old) spent hours dancing in circles around the small living room.

Some things have happened

I just wanted to post some pictures of what I've been up to of late.  

We went and visited a Comedor Municipal, which is a cool program where kids in need can come eat a good meal a few times a day.

Waiting for the combi in the morning to go to the training center.

We took a trip to Lima, went to a few museums, and generally explored a bit.

The Catedral and the Plaza de Armas in Central Lima

A pretty view from inside the Church and Convent of San Miguel

Hiking up to the top of the bell tower 

From the top of the bell tower, overlooking Lima

I've posted this picture in a few places already, but I'm obsessed with it.  I tried to name the puppy Zorro, but apparently that's not the easiest name for Peruvians to say, so his name switches between Soro and Pipo (a puppy with an identity crisis, but at least he has a baby chicken for a best friend)

I'm also attempting to take pictures of all the things Rita teaches me to cook.  I keep forgetting my camera, but here are 2 things:

Soy milk: from scratch, flavored with orange, anis, and cinnamon

Arroz Chifa (Peru's version of Chinese food, but they've adapted it and made it their own)

There's a large celebration this weekend in one of the host communities, and apparently it is tradition for the trainees to do a performance.  Sadly, I don't think I'll be able to go, but here we are learning the Thriller dance together.

In the health program, we have broken into small groups and are working specifically with a family on Early Childhood Stimulation to practice our skills.  Our family has a 3 year old girl, and they've been working with her on Early Childhood Stimulation her whole life, so the training wheels are definitely on, but the practice is good nonetheless.  Here is my group debriefing our first session in the neighborhood playground.

Poco a poco

The most frustrating part of my Spanish right now is that while I can hold a conversation and understand what is going on, I can’t fully express myself like an adult.  I tried to explain to Rita and Pilar that it’s like having the mind of an adult, but only being able to express yourself with the eloquence of a very small child.  They smiled and nodded, but also gave me the universal I’m-not-sure-what-you’re-saying face.

Every time I have a frustration about not knowing how to say what I want, Rita smiles at me and says, poco a poco.   Little by little.  Sometimes when I’m really frustrated, she extends the syllables so that it’s more like po-o-o-o-oco a poco, as though the longer you say the word, the more reassuring it will be. 

The new question around the house this week seems to be ¿Estás acostumbrada…? Are you accustomed…? Whether it’s the food, my bed, or the house in general, everyone wants to make sure that I’m getting used to living here.

It’s been less than two weeks, but the things I’ve already learned to do are :

•  Ride a combi (small mini-buses, packed with people, that move with such urgency that you barely step on and it is already driving away)
• Wash my clothes a mano
• Buy food at the market
• Cook arroz con leche (among many other soups and sauces that Rita is teaching me)
• Say “I’m full” in Quechua (sac-sarunya: probably one of the most useful phrases ever)
• Correctly pick through lentils, quinioa, and barley for small rocks
• Play 2 songs on the guitar (Jorge is teaching me, and although I play slowly and quite poorly, he smiles at me as though I’m a guitar genius)

Some interesting things that have happened along the way:

1.       We got a puppy!  He still doesn’t have a name, but he is incredibly playful, and spent much of Saturday afternoon attacking my feet as I walked around washing clothes and hanging it on the clothesline.
2.       On Saturday, a large group of trainees went to Laureles for the Festival de la Virgen.  Some of us arrived just in time to not only witness the procession of the Virgin (an alter with a figure of the Virgin, adorned with flowers), but when a group of young, eager gringos was spotted, we were recruited to help carry the Virgin up the hill.  We spent the rest of the night dancing to folk music.

The procession up the hill

La Virgen

Poco a poco, I am becoming acostumbrada.  Some things are harder than others, but my optimism has not yet dwindled.  And at the very least, there is now a very small puppy on the roof, who does not care if I can’t remember how to conjugate a verb.

Home, Sweet Home

I made it!

After a day in DC, all 57 of us Peru 20 Trainees flooded into the airport and found our way onto a plane to Peru.  We arrived late, gathered our things, and walked out into the Peruvian night with eyes wide.  We had made it.  We were piled onto buses and carted to a retreat center outside of Lima where we spent 2 nights.  During these days I have met and gotten to talk to so many like-minded people and it is wonderful being in such a welcoming and interesting group of individuals.  I was, however, anxious to meet my host family and settle in. 

Waking up to beautiful mountains at the retreat center

Exploring!

Finally, my prayers were answered, and I met Rita.  My new family consists of Rita, her husband Jorge, her 29 year old son Richard and his wife Pilar, and Rita’s daughter Lily who is my age. We came back to Yanacoto, one of the many small communities outside of Lima, and she showed me my new home.  My room is large, with its own door and there is a small sink and toilet right outside in the hall (privacy added with a curtain).  On this floor there is also a large sitting room and Pilar and Richard’s room.  Lily has a room upstairs.  Also upstairs is the kitchen which is attached to the small store that Rita and her husband, Jorge, run.  Through the store is Rita and Jorge’s room, along with a bathroom that has the shower.  Up another level is a patio with long clothes lines, a bird cage with three small yellow birds, and a small enclosure with a very young chicken.

Rita and I ate lunch, and then I unpacked.  Then, enormously relieved, I went upstairs where Rita was beginning to prepare dinner.  It took a bit of convincing, but eventually she let me help cook and we made soup with squash and potatoes and chicken.  While the soup was simmering, Rita showed me her garden.  She has papaya, banana, fig, and lime trees, and countless other plants.  She brought me through all of them, letting me smell leaves, and explaining the medicinal or culinary value of everything.  While some smells I recognized (chive, parsley, oregano), others were foreign and the translations were completely lost on me.  Rita’s garden is complete with 6 guinea pigs (which she is very excited to eat) and 2 chickens.  Apparently there used to be more chickens, but she also used to have a dog who killed them all.  Despite the loss of her chickens, she seemed very sad that her dog had recently died.  Rita then grabbed some long leaves from a plant and we went inside where she used them made tea that tasted slightly of lemongrass. 

My room!

Rita's garden

Our excursion for the night was to a large grocery store where we bought my Tupper so that Rita could pack me lunch.  We chose two: one for lunch and another for fruit.  After a delicious dinner with Jorge, we relaxed for a bit, and then went to bed. 

It has been a hectic few days, but it is very relieving to have a home.  Rita is very motherly, holding my hand when we cross streets and patiently helping me with my Spanish.  She has promised to teach me to sew, cook Peruvian food, and speak Quechua.  The rest of the family is equally welcoming I am feeling very good about living here for the next 10 weeks.