Oh, the States.....

I feel like I've been going about this blogging nonsense the wrong way, and I hope this blog will change that. Anyway...what have I been doing....

For the past couple of months, I've been at site, finishing up my diagnostic and getting prepared to actually start DOING something. I've putzed around in site for far too long, it's high time to start making a name for myself. Well, a name other than Gringa, or The One That Runs A Lot. I've been doing little things, like summer school, hanging out with the kids a few afternoons a week, I dug a micro relleno (which the director of the school refuses to use) and I've been talking to a lot of pobladores about what they want to see change in their town. But, why haven't I done anything? I'm not really sure. Part of it is laziness, I think, because it takes a lot of energy to organize things. Part of it, I think, is also a little bit of fear. I don't want to start with something that sucks, because then they won't think that I can do anything good at all. I've been doing a lot of thinking about the type of volunteer that I want to be, too. I talked to a lot of the other volunteers at an In Service Training that we recently had in my lovely department of Lambayeque, and a lot of them are out teaching. I don't think I want to do the teaching, at least not to the kids. I want to be involved in it, but I don't want to be the main teacher. That kind of cuts down on the things that i can do, but it is way more sustainable. I can teach the teachers, I think, who, in turn, can teach for a long long time after I leave. I suppose what I really need to do is get out of my house more. The heat tends to detract me from wanting to leave the hammock in my front yard, but now that it's getting cooler, I think I should be out and about more. I'm a role model in town, and I should act like it.

That, however, will have to wait until I actually get back to site. As my title suggests, I am in the United States of America, living it up with long sleeves, non scratchy sheets, CARPET, toilets and a varied diet. PIZZA. All the English I can speak. ZERO GRUPO CINCO! I love it here. I have thought about not going bavk, but I have no idea what else I would do. I came back on emergency leave, because Greg relapsed about a week into April. I waited until what should have been the end of his chemo, but as I was boarding the plane in Lima, he was puking his guts out and went back into the hospital. I've been home for 2 weeks now (and have 2 more weeks to go) and he's still there. However, the doctors, to their very own surprise, got him into remission and now the plans have started to change. they didn't expect that that was possible, but Greg has proven them wrong countless times in the plast 5.5 years, that no one is surprised. The docs are scrmabling to put a plan together to keep him on the road to recovery. Who knows how long it will last, but we are carefully keeping our fingers crossed. It made for a nice return home, though, I must say.

This experience, the whole last 5.5 years, have been a huge lesson and test of faith, positivity and optimism. And laughing. And a whole lot of other things. But honestly, it is so incredible what can happen when there are tons of people thinking the same happy thoughts. Peter Pan had it right. Well, I guess it was Tinker Bell who taught him that lesson. In any case, when someone like Greg has hundreds of motivated people pulling for him, anything can happen. It is so obvious, too. Mom has been saying that she has sat in the hospital, watching Greg suffer in pain and whatever ailment is on the docket for the day, written an email to his supports telling them about what's going on, and in a matter of hours, he's feeling at least a little better. It's something we can see. So keep that in mind, Readers, whoever you are: positive thinking is one of the most powerful forces that we have, and we have complete control over it. Complete control. We can choose to be negative or we can choose to be positive. And I know that sometimes it takes way more energy to positive than negative, but as soon as your mind can make that switch, the just seems to get brighter. It just feels so much better. It's something that I need to keep in mind in site, and in life in general.

This trip home hasn't been a picture of wonderfulness, though. As the doctors were diagnosing Greg's relapse, his best friend went missing, in some very dangerous water in Hawaii; his body was found a few days later. The memorial service happened while I was at home, which I was glad about. It was really good to see some people who I hadn't seen for several years, and to see everyone celebrating Ryan's life with smiles and laughs. This guy was the picture of positivity, really. Everyone was his friend, he had a joke for anything, and hearing his laugh would make everyone else around him laugh, too. He was pretty darned inspirational, and a super motivating force for Greg. It was sad to see him go, though he never REALLY left us. Everyone agrees that his energy is still here and acting on us.

I hope that this trip home can re-energize me for the next year and a half of projects. I've been thinking a lot about what to do after PC, as I always need a goal to work toward. It's helped me a lot to look at the grad schools that the PC Fellows program supports, and for the next year and half I will be thinking of those opportunities as I am struggling to get people to come to meetings, reminding people that it is unhealthy to burn garbage, and all the other frustrations that come with trying to incite behavior change. I just hope that it's all worthwhile change, but that's a problem for another blog. I hope everyone is well, and if you made it all the way to the end of the blog, well, thanks a lot for sticking with it!

Peruuuuuuuu

oh perú. what more is there to say about it. So far, things are going well. I´m learning how to deal with being a celebrity, which is absolutely awkward. it´s absolutely impossible, or at least it seems like it, to befriends with anyone but girls, because everyone thinks that when any dude hangs out with a girl and vice versa, they are a couple. it´s rather annoying.

in other news, i am slowly starting to think more in spanish and getting used to the rest of the culture. it´s a slow process, but going steady. i´m getting a trash program started in site and it is also a slow process. i wish someone had put a warning label on plastics so that it was obvious to everyone that tossing that crap in the streets so that the animals that you yourself are going to eat is a pretty bad idea. like everything in the peace corps, it´s just a slow process to get going.

even though it´s early on in service, i´ve been thinking about what i want to do afterwards. i think it depends on how peace corps goes, but i´m thinking about taking advantage of grad school opportunities through peacecorps, as long as the programs are hands on and interactive. i want to actually be doing something and not sitting around discussing theories. while i think that´sanimportant thing, i think i would go crazy if i wasn´t being productive.

tomorrow is international women´s day here, and i am very excited that peruvians recognize it. they don´t seem to do much for it, but it´s a start that they even organize anything for it. i think that will be one of my objectives for my projects.

i really didn´t have a reason to writethisblog, but since it is written, there it is. by the way, cumbis is REALLLLLLY getting on my nerves....

helllllllllloooooooooooooooooo

Well, here I am, about 2.5 months into the Peace Corps. I really don´t have anything planned to say in this here blog, so i´m just going to spill my brains out.

Let´s see........Spanish is going well. I´ve finally stopped trying to be/think/live like a Peruvian. I decided that it´s just not possible. During training, they went on and on about how we need to try to look through purple lenses, not blue (like peruvians) and not red (like americans), and it really is true. I´m a lot happier, now that I have given myelf the opportunity to have, well, intelligent thoughts, and not force myself to hang out with them and do nothing like they do allll the time. They really absolutely do NOT understand my reading. I will be sitting in a hammock for an hour or so, quite obvisouly rocking back and forth with a book, and when I get up, someone will unvariably ask if I slept well. The next time I´m in Chiclayo, the cdapital, I might try to hunt down some books for them. They ALWAYS ask if I brought them anything when I go, and this time I can say that I did. We´ll see if they appreciate them. I hope they do.

It´s the rainy season now, which is pretty awesome, but only when it actually rains. When it doesn´t rain, it´s about 300 degrees and incredibly humid. the ground is all dirt and sand, but the roads and yards are really compact, so the water doesn´t absorb well, it just evaporates, and hangs in the air.

I´m advancing in my work, though! I made a micro relleno, a giant hole in the ground so that the kids in the school can bury garbage instead of tossing it on the ground. My next project is going to be organizing something for the whole town, and getting some sort of recycling going, too. It´s to be a long road, but I hope I can make it go fast. It´s heart breaking to see everyone burning heaps and heaps (litterally, they burn it in heaps) of plastic and compostables. I try to offer alternatives to them, but so far, no dice. I guess that´s why we´re here for 2 years, though, right?

As usual, this will be a short one we´ll see if I can get in another one soon!

things I appreciate about the States

Annonymity
Christmas Lights and the ability to plug them in
Sanitation Standards
building codes (wow THAT feels weird to say)
cutting boards
eletricity
running water
varied music tastes
People not asking how much everything I have costs (they do this peruvians, too, not just gringos)
proper sidewalks
proper city buses
driving
being able to fix cell phones quickly, instead of traveling for 2 hours to do it
kids not wanting to touch your white face all the time
personal space
thumbtacks
lockable doors
proper dicipline for children
recycling bins
open mindedness
communication
vegetables
peanut butter
proper cuts of meat
house marinated skirt steak
grated cheese
OVENS
cookies

my new alarm clock

¨Bahhhhhhhhhhh¨

¨Hee HAW! Hee HAW!¨

¨Cockadoodledooooooooooooooooooooo!¨



Such is the morning here in Coral de Arena. Noisy and already getting warm at about 6am. Thankfully, I finally mejorar-ed (made better) my sleeping situation (it used to be just sleeping on a straw mattress) so it´s not QUITE a rude an awakening. Peruvians here do all their work realllly early because it gets about 100 degrees during the afternoon, so I tend to feel REALLY lazy as they are sweeping the front yard (just a bare dirt area....it makes me cringe everyday), the house, mopping, going out to collect firewood, (the kitchen gets OVER 100 degrees when they are cooking...I don´t know how they do it) already cooking, taking the animals out to pasture, and trying to keep the almost-3-year-old out of trouble. It´s a hard act to follow, and so far I´ve been following it up with a lot of reading in room. Where it´s only 90 degrees. So far I´ve plowed through 4 books in 4 weeks, and been to 3 different continents. Maybe I should get some real work done. But who wants to do that when you can read about African safaris, Indian spiritualism and Haitian unrest? I sure don´t. (If any of the Cuerpo de Paz higher ups, or people in general are reading this: I really AM working on working).



In general, though, living life here is a lot different in every single way. Just about every day I´m asked if I´m married, how old I am, and where I´m from. Sometimes the marriage question is followed by, ¨come dance with me!¨(if I´m at one of the plethora of Peruana parties), ¨do you have a boyfriend in the States?¨ ¨what! why not! you´re 23!¨ and the most recent one is "can you accept marriage proposals while you´re here?" If you´re wondering, Mom, my answer to the last one was a firm "No, but at least you were polite enough to ask." One guy has gone so far as to bring me mangos and coconuts. Too bad the mangos were green and moldy. It´s rather comical. My mayor says that it´s just the Peruvian way of joking and accepting me, and they are just joking. I find it many things, but "just joking!" isn´t one of them.



I have come to appreciate many strange things about the states in the last 3 months. Carpet and floor rugs are one of them. less rice and more vegetables is another. they eat no less than 3 pounds of rice a day, per person. i may have said this already. but I´m reminding everyone (all 2 of you that read this). cleanliness is another. water pressure. tv shows with at least half-substantial content. annonymity. open mindedness. no machismo. being able to communucate.
being able to talk with those of the male species without others thinking that I am dating them. and without the males thinking that i want to date them. oh man. there´s a lot more things. but so far, so good. recycling. that´s actually been the hardest one. I´m here to implement recycling programs, but it´s hard to live without it as well. call me a dirty hippy (you´d be right, it´s hard to shower with only a few liters of water) but it´s true.

well, i´m off to the land of the sand. until next time!

Que Paso con mi English??

Apparently, the mark of a gringo who´s been in Peru too long, is that they just can´t decide what language they want to speak. Lamentablemente, I think that´s happening to me. I´ve acustombrar-ed here, (readjust? what does THAT mean?) and am slowly getting the hang of the language. Very very slowly. I have no idea what I will sound like when I regressar (regress? I think I mean ´return´) to the Good Ole Estados.

There´s more than just verbal language to get used to here, it´s kind of like learning to break a secret code. You have to wait a certain amount of time before deciding that the person you´re talking to just didn´t understand you, there´s a little song and dance when entering a room (tehre´s actually not, you just have to greet absolutely everyone in the room with a cheek kiss or a handshake), among various other things.

I´ve only been here in site about 3 weeks, but so far, I think i´m adjusting really well. except to the time management thing. i think i acabarred my cabina tiempo. :(

Summer tiiiiiimes, and the livin´s easyyyyyy

Summer in the district of Olmos (which really never ends, as it´s in the desert) is proving to be pretty amazing. Apparently, the summer not only brings hot hot heat, but torrential rainstorms, as well. Good ole tropics. We have yet to see the rain (which some volunteers have told me is not actually that bad) but it´s been HOT ever since I got to site almost 2 weeks ago. It reminds me of the two weeks I spent in Bahía de Los Angeles, on a field study-we take 2-4 hour naps in the middle of the day. Or at least sit inside and read or talk or just melt a little for that time. For some reason, though, they enjoy serving soup for lunch, right in the middle of the hotness. I don´t understand, but they don´t seem to mind it, so I´ll just get used to it.

To describe my town a little: It´s a casarillo (a small town) in the district (county) of Olmos. The main part of the town has about 1500 people, and there are 7 anexos (think, umm.......just a really small town), each with anywhere from 50-300 people. There are no paved roads, though the roads near the river Cascajal (the river coming off the highway, on the way to my town) are mostly graveled. My host family grows mangos, papayas, lentils, tamarindos (kind of like big beans covered in Fruit Roll Up), and sweet potato, and has 2 donkeys, 15ish sheep, 10ish goats, 10ish Criloe chickens, 6 ducks, a few pigs, a several guniea pigs. They ae busy bees (I think they have some bee boxes too, but I haven´t found them yet). They wake up at dawn, more or less, to start their days work. There are two daughters that live in the house, Janet and Maria Angelica, though they go by Pocha and Keke (pronouced Cake-a, it always makes me want dessert). They keep the house together, though Pocha works at the municipality 5 hours a day. Keke keeps her nearly three year old son, Fabricio, in line, while doing laundry, and general house stuff. I mostly just feel useless. I have a community diagnostic that I have to do in my first 3 months, and I try to look busy doing that. Fabricio has adopted me, and I spend a lot of time keeping him out of trouble, too.

Mostly, I sit back in the hammock and think about what great luck these people have to live here, and they don´t even realise it. The skyscapes are gorgeous, and remind me of what I think that Africa would look like, if I ever were to see it. The mountains are inviting, though they can´t understand why I would think about spending energy to go there (we´re very close to some small peaks, and I plan to explore them quite soon), and while it´s super hot, at least it´s not super cold and snowing. I used to think that super hot was worse, but I think that I can stand it now. The one problems is the water, of course, as there is a river quite close and it floods. But, there are people (supossedly) working on that.

The last almost 3 months here have left me missing things in the good ole USofA-
Carpet. Floors are either dirt or cement in these parts.
Plentiful vegetables
Cereal (we eat a combo of rice, potatoes, fried meat, fried potatos and fried eggs. oi).
english.
rock climbing.
constant interent.
constant electricity.
constant water (I´ve learned to take a bath from 1.5 gallons of water every other day. sometimes even every day).
mexican food.
toilet seats. (my training house had a toilet but no seat. this house actually has a seat, but it´s a latrine and I regularly see cockroaches in it. I don´t sit.)

it´s time to head to a meeting with the municipality and the local schools, so I gotta run! I explain more about it later.