Author Archives: erinlc

09/09/2012
Leave a comment
home, trial and error, Uncategorized

renovations.

i wish i had better before pictures, but alas, i do have during the process pictures. the bottom-half of my cement walls were chipping away. literally, chipping away. i am not sure why, i am just assuming age, possible mold or rot. anyways, my host mom had the neighbor across the street come over and get it fixed. it was quite fascinating, honestly.

he chipped the wall in for about ¾”.

the remnants of my wall.

he then went away filling it all in. this is my room covered with cement.

we moved most of my furniture out of my room, except for my bed, which was also covered in cement dust and there are few spackles here and there on my bed. my mom is great and i came home from work and she had already cleaned my sheets for me and hung them to dry.

the final product. i didn’t know about the changes and had just finished painting my room, which i will now to redo the bottom-half next week. but i guess this is a sneak peek of the colors.

 

 

Tagged , , ,
08/09/2012
1 Comment
adventure, el señor de sipan, lambayeque, mummies, pyramids, zaña

el señor de sipan.

my friend/socio doris, invited me to her house on sunday. i made the voyage to chiclayo and then her family and i piled into their van and drove out to sipan for the day. now, mind you, that was my first time in a privately owned vehicle in more than 3 months. it was quite a different feeling to not be sharing my transport with 20 other people.

in sipan, we visited the ancient burial grounds of moche leaders. sipan is famous for it’s untouched tombs and mummies. it was awesome. and really, it was such a great day to spend with my socio and her family.

the museum.

 

everyone looking at the mummy of el señor de sipan.

doris (third from the left) and her family.

 

on our way to see the burial grounds.

the excavation site.

inside the excavation.

a tomb.

pottery in abundance was found in the tombs.

the view from sipan.

while traveling back, we drove through a lot of smaller sites in between. doris’ brother-in-law made an even extra point to drive through zaña for me. there they have a number of historic spanish colonial church ruins as well. the amazing part, is that they were normally on people’s land, and so now they just have crops planted around the ruins.

the citizens of the town built their own footbridge to cross the river, since this was not going to be provided by the government.

the entrance to the footbridge.

we then had a VERY late lunch at probably one of the nicest places i have been to since being in peru. it almost reminded me a bit of a country club. the seating was outside, there was a fancy/modern interior, a very appealing pool, and even a cute wombat!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the scenery.

TOO MUCH CUTENESS.

 

Tagged , , , ,
08/09/2012
Leave a comment
church, happiness, karaoke, musica

karaoke.

that’s it. i am fully and unequivocally convinced that karaoke builds culturally bridges that would not be there otherwise. for my branch’s friday night activity last week, we did karaoke. given that i am sole non-peruvian in my branch, and gringa to top that, they downloaded Justin beiber’s “baby, baby” for me to sing.

though, i have heard this song plenty of times in the past, it was the first time i ever sang it aloud, let along by myself at karaoke. the good news is that peruvians love the beib’s, so everyone sang along to the chorus with me…including the branch president. and even through i was far from getting the other parts of the song right, i figured, “who cares? i am the only one who knows what i am saying and that i am getting it all wrong anyways…”

this evening also included my favorite moment thus far in peru. my branch building is in a town called, mochumi, about 5.5k from my town to be exact. it ended at 10, which was a little too late for me to be taking the combi by myself and walking alone on the streets. a member offered to give me a ride home on his mototaxi. as we drove back with the stars clearly lit above us and the blue moon, and i was accompanied by the branch president, three new lady friends, and their kids. the owner of the moto and his wife riding next to him in the front. there was an overwhelming feeling of joy. of untainted, euphoric happiness. it left me in tears.

08/09/2012
Leave a comment
chiclayo, lambayeque, musica

grupo 5.

talk about boy band mania. these guys are a household name in lambayeque. they were filming a music video, and as a part of it, they were giving a free live show. myself and a group of other volunteers attended, since it was the same day as the federal holiday. it was great to meet new volunteers, as well as reconnect with my fellow 19’ers.

anyways, the music was terrific, and the men in the group were…well…ridiculous. there was so many swooshing hips and gyrating bodies, it was a little too much. however, there was one guy in the group that looked like the peruvian usher.

seriously. you can’t deny it.

the other thing i didn’t get was that the group is called “grupo 5,” but there are 7 guys in the group. anyways, just a mere observation, that will never be explained.

steven, kyle and ali enjoying some grupo 5.

 

Tagged
08/09/2012
Leave a comment
fiesta, musica, túcume

feliz aniversario.

my ability to really accomplish much last week was a bit thwarted by the anniversary of tucume. there was also a federal holiday was well. there were celebrations for the town throughout the entire week.

including a chess tournament for the kids!

the women’s group that i have been attending, set up free haircuts in the park for the kiddos and elderly.

this man’s face is priceless.

there was a cute procession from all the schools.

the night before the town’s actual anniversary, there was a talent performance the night before. it included cultural dances, local town members sharing their singing skills, and of course, a clown. seriously, peruvians love their clowns.

 

 

and of course, no event would be complete without fireworks. the thing i don’t get is that everyone goes to duck and cover and then peeks out to see the fireworks. why do they have to make them so dangerous here?

i was seriously, way too worried about this dog running after the fireworks. my family thought it was strange.

on friday, the actual day of the anniversary. there was a marching competition between all the schools. the army was in attendance to judge, and even performed as the live marching band soundtrack. there was also a mass to begin the anniversary that i attended as well. the unfortunate part is that i forgot my camera this morning. i had an unexpected visitor, which caused me to forget most of my items for the day. womwomwommmmm.

Tagged ,
07/09/2012
Leave a comment
adventure, caserios

caserios.

my friend, doris, who happens to be one of my socios at the health post, took me out to a couple of the caserios in tucume: tucume viejo and las rayas. the district of tucume has a little less than 21,000 people living in it, with about 17,000 in tucume proper, and the other 4,000 in the caserios, which are the more campo (rural) parts of town.

we first went to tucume viejo to visit the health post there.

 

 

walking through the chakra.

the chakra.

while the obstetrician showed us around her post, we happened upon one of the first spanish colonial churches. it amazes me how much history is in peru, and yet it is just left to the wilderness.

 

 

we then traveled to las rayas. there we visited the health post, and visited the primeria school there. they were lucky enough to have a computer lab, with laptops provided by the an ngo “laptop for every kid.” the school was quite proud of this receipt, which they should be.

this caserio is nestled right behind the museum.

Tagged , , ,
07/09/2012
Leave a comment
túcume, trial and error

(mis)understanding(s).

it’s no secret. spanish is incredibly new to me. luckily, my community and friends here have so much patience with my language level and don’t let it discount my ability to work. i have received so much support, but unfortunately, there have still been a couple of cases where my lack in language has left me out of the loop.

for instance, though the colegio is quite supportive and welcoming, i am constantly preparing for charlas and presentations only to have the plans changed. in fact, while discussing my program goals and diagnostic plans with the director of the school, i found myself being committed to give a presentation to the entire school and their parents (almost 600 students and their parents). i quickly corrected this, and as an agreement that i get to do my diagnostic in all the classes, but i will have to give one nutrition charla to all the grade levels (there is about 120 in each grade level plus their parents). though, 120 is much better than 600 in one setting, it is still more than i would prefer to work with. luckily, i have a great health post who is eager to help me with it.

another point of miscommunication came with a group of women in my community. they have a group much like the junior league in the states. where their purpose is to provide service and support to the community. i happened upon them through one of the members who owns a tienda in town that i frequent. i guess they had invited me to march with them in the parade last week for tucume’s anniversary, but unfortunately since i didn’t understand, i didn’t show. luckily, these women were able to laugh it off with me, and understand that if i don’t repeat back a follow-up detail with them, then it means that i didn’t understand it and that it won’t get done.

another more cultural point of miscommunication, was that the director asked me to return this morning to do more diagnostic charlas, but when i arrived, i was told that he wasn’t there and won’t be until monday…there is a national huelga (strike) with the teachers. the way that i see it, i am stubborn enough, i will get into all 28 classes eventually…just hopefully sooner rather than later.

Tagged
07/09/2012
Leave a comment
church, religion

church.

my church building.

when i was taking my first combi to site, my combi drove by the building i would be attending church in. actually, when it drove by they were putting up the church sign that day, which explains why i couldn’t find it during my site visit. anyways, the following week i ran into the missionaries who were tracting in tucume that day, and asked them what time church was at…3 pm…needless to say, i was less than enthralled about the time.

that following sunday, i came to realize the time was perfect for me, because after all, what do i have going on that i need to be done with church so early in the day? that and i was able to get a lot small house chores done, as i try to give space to my family on saturdays to complete their chores without getting in their way.

i then boarded my combi to arrive to my new branch for the next two years. i entered into the chapel through a door about half my size in height. it is a brand new branch, only 7 months old. i believe that there are a total of 25 people on record, but there was only 16-17 people at church, including the missionaries and the kids. it is the complete opposite of any ward i have ever known, but i think it will be the perfect fit for me.

due to the size, there’s only 2 hours of church services, and due to the fact that most people at church are either very new members within the last 2 years or visitors, the second hour is solely a gospel principles class. the sacrament meeting was the exact same structure, which will leave me to wonder how long until i have to give my first talk or even how many talks am i going to have to give? i say that, only because i am positive that it is a quick rotation.

though the ward might be small in number, just during that one sunday, there was so much love filling the chapel. it truly is a little family that really looks out for one another, and the love that the members have for the gospel is so strong and unwavering. to be frank, a branch this size and new is a perfect for me, because it is such a nice breath of fresh air. i get to concentrate and reaffirm my testimony in the gospel essentials and not have it be convoluted with so many outside/inside politics by members and the church. i consider myself lucky with this. and hopefully, i don’t take it for granted.

Tagged ,
26/08/2012
Leave a comment
happenings

thoughts.

while painting my room yesterday (this will be a poco a poco process, yesterday was my base coat day…!!!), my brother watched soccer game after soccer game. i took it as a good spanish lesson time for me, and also decided that in order for a soccer broadcaster to get their job, i think they need to be able to shout “goooooooooooaaaaaaallllllllllllll” for at least 60 seconds. i am not even exaggerating this one.

in other news. i received a great surprise yesterday. my host family has purchased a washing machine, which made my doing laundry so much easier. i still do my delicates by hand, but everything else is in the machine…though truthfully, it is way more complicated for me to figure out on my own. sad but real truth. it also took me about 2 minutes before i could remember that the device is called a washing machine in english. i guess that is some kind of progress, right?

24/08/2012
Leave a comment
family, home

discovery.

as i prepped my room for painting and was jamming out to some cumbia, my host sobrinita, samia, came in my room and discovered my photo booth app. needless to say only cuteness was then ensued.

← Older posts
Newer posts →