Monthly Archives: August 2012

19/08/2012
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adventure, family, home, lambayeque, túcume

túcume.

welcome to my site.

i spent about 3 days at my site. i met my socios, who are fantastic. they were really supportive of me and of the peace corps, and were really proactive about incorporating me into meetings and introducing me to a lot of key people in the community. i even found myself in a surprise all-day meeting on local economic development. needless to say it was a very busy week, and it has left me feeling even more motivated and excited about returning to my community and getting to work.

my host family seems like a pretty great fit thus far. i have a host mom, two sisters and a brother and a little niece. all of my siblings are 15 to 22, so they are all independent and extremely helpful. my host brother, david, took me around the town as well and introduced me to all of his friends. they all gave me a tour of the town. it was nice to already start building confianza with some of the local youth.

the local municipality and church on the plaza.

a small cancha where the boys play soccer every evening with a stage with a pyramid painted with the same pyramid in the background.

as i mentioned before, my town is also known as “the valley of the pyramids,” and there are 26 pyramids in my site. there was one in particular (see above) that is really close to the center of town. my first night, david took me around town and we turned the corner and there was this pyramid with the sky filled with stars and the milky way. it was one of the most beautiful sites i have ever seen in my lifetime. we then returned the next day to hike to the top of it.

a pyramid.

another cancha next to the pyramid.

david at the top of the pyramid.

the point of the pyramid (or where it used to be).

our shadows.

directly in my town there are about 15,000 people, and i have a number of caserios in my site with about 6,000 more people. the caserios are very campo and there is a lot of agriculture. i feel like i get the best of all the sites, as i am only about an hour away from the beach, but i have mountains in the distance, i have ancient ruins (with an impressive museum to boot) and green too!

some of my site in the distance.

the large cancha and the rest of my town.

we have in my town peru’s (in)famous hairless dogs…well they only have a small patch of hair on their heads. i find them ugly…yet i still like them…go figure…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

19/08/2012
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adventure, chiclayo, food, lambayeque

site visit.

the lambayeque crew ready to explore chiclayo!

a couple of weeks ago, the new lambayeque crew and i headed to lambayeque for the week to learn about our capitol city and also visit our sites, where we will be living for the next two years. we took an overnight bus to chiclayo, our capitol city, and we were a little surprised to have no one meet us at the bus station. but we had the address to our hotel, so we just all got cabs to our hotel. they swindled us, as really we just needed to go around the corner. then when we showed up to our hotel, and they did not have reservations for us until the next day. (as it turns out, all the volunteers/our regional coordinator thought we were not to arrive the next day, and had planned a greeting party for us…ha). after we dropped our bags in a room, we then went and explored the city. as it turns out it was chiclayo’s anniversary and there was a huge promenade in the plaza.

the promenade.

keeping guard.

i liked the mayor’s shades.

marching to their own beat.

we then explored the rest of the plaza, including the municipality.

the plaza.

the muni.

so many vultures here.

we also explored the mercado and priced out furniture. i found the best pizza since being here in peru…though it is still not great. we also found a great burger place, with bananas and pineapple on them. it’s pretty awesome. and to stay on this food train, we found a place with chicken empanadas that taste like chicken pot pies. yum! also, chiclayo had a lot of other great things to offer, but for whatever reason food is what sticks out in my memory…ha. typical.

 

 

 

 

 

 

19/08/2012
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family, fiesta, food

feliz dia de claudia.

chocolate tres leches.

my family and i had the pleasure of celebrating claudia’s 18th birthday. it was a delight. all of it was great. however, the party did not start until 9:30 or so. this resulted in a very tired erin. all the family was over. we conversed. we ate some delicious orange chicken and then ate the best cake i have had since being in peru: chocolate tres leches. seriously. heaven on earth in your mouth. happy birthday claudia!!!!

19/08/2012
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chosica, fiestas patrias, happiness

fiestas patrias.

july 28 is independence day here in peru. students here get a two week break from school to celebrate, as it would be the equivalent to winter break in the states. my training center hosted a celebration where all the trainers performed traditional dances from all the variou regions. on saturday, i made french toast with my family, and victor and i watched “where the wild things are” together. later on in the evening he began building forts, which he has never done before, so i am going to go ahead and give credit to us watching and reading all about max as his inspiration for his forts.

my family and i went and celebrated fiestas patrias by going out to pollo a la brasa. we went to a different restaurant in chosica this time, but being the pollo a la brasa connoisseur i have now become, i can confidently say that my favorite a la brasa is at norkey’s with their delicious fresh garlic concoction. anyways, after we had a fun and yummy lunch, we then went to the dress shop for norma to try on her dress for her upcoming birthday party.

dress shopping.

norma in her dress for her quince.

after dress time, i went to my friend’s host mom’s birthday celebration. i love this family. i spent a lot of time with them, mainly using the internet, but also just practicing my conversation skills with them. also, they have really, really cute puppies.

too cute to be true.

cutiepatootie!

the party was a blast. it included more eating for me, and in peru you can never say no to peru, as this is how they show their love. and of course, DANCING!

the birthday girl with her wonderful family.

after this birthday celebration, i then attended another birthday celebration in my neighborhood. it was a surprise party for another friend’s grandpa. it was great. it included more food and A LOT more dancing. i left this celebration around 11, but i was told that it lasted until 5am. that is pretty early by peruvian standards…they sure know how to have a party down here.

SURPRISE!

the band.

i would say that the top thing i took away from both parties was the love that existed in all of the families. there was an apparent love that each family member had for the others, and it was so tangible. it is something that is not seen at many us parties i have been too. if anything, peruvians have so much love to share that i cannot wait to share more of that with them.

10/08/2012
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family, homesick

a brief interruption.

honestly. i have so much that i want to post and share about. in fact. i am a bit behind, by about a couple of weeks. sorry. i am going to get there this weekend. by golly. anyways, i am interrupting the natural flow of posts, as i wanted to take a moment to remember an important man in my life. i was hesitant to post about this, but part of this blog is to share the ups and downs of my peace corps experience.

today is the first day where i truly long for home. today i found out that one of my closest confidants and friends and family members and the best partner in crime a person could ever ask for passed away.

grandpa and gran.

growing up i spent a number of summers with my grandparents, and while my gran would send me to quilting day camp, my grandpa would let me help in his pigeon barns. he would sit down and play gin rummy with him in the night time, and because of the one time i tried to switch the cards when i was 5, i have forever been taunted with the idea that i like to “cheat” when i play games. anytime there has been a family affair, he has been my neighbor, my partner in crime. he patiently tried to teach me the texas two-step time and time again, but i have two left feet. he helped instill my love for bingo and my love for adventure. he had a kind and open heart. and his love story with my gran is not one to ever forget.

the pair above is part of the reason why i had the audacity to ever even think about the peace corps. their love for adventure is contagious, and their hard work to ensure that they reach their goals is inspirational. both born and raised in texas, they made a point in the past 20 years to travel the world, and my grandpa was hiking on mountains in alaska just 4 short years ago. they are half the reason i returned to texas this past year before leaving for peru. they are half he reason why i am who i am today. they helped create a world for me where anything is possible. and while right now, i am really sad. and all i really want to do is curl up in my own bed in the united states right now, i know my grandpa would not have it. but a girl can still wish, right?

anyways. i am mourning the lost of loved one that has held a strong place and influence in my life. all i can do is hope that i can fully continue to share his love with others. grandpa. i miss you. gran. i love you.

09/08/2012
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family, food, happiness, hauscaran

french toast.

french toast with churimoya syrup.

a couple of weeks ago, i decided that i would try to make an american dish for my family. understanding that we have two very different tastes, i opted for a sweet one, as peruvians love sweets. i made cinnamon french toast. they do not sell syrup here, so i was going to make a banana one, but my family does not like bananas. so i was going to try to make a strawberry one, but all the markets were out of strawberries, so i decided to just go local (as this should have been my first choice…oh well…). i made it with churimoya, which is a very, very sweet fruit. honestly, i can only usually take a couple of bites it’s that sweet, but it went nicely with the food.

however, i am also not used to the cooking style here, and the lack of utensils made it quite a challenge for me, so much so that my host mom came to save the day. so much for making breakfast for them…but the bright side, is that now she knows how to make it for the family in the future!

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