Category Archives: adventure

24/08/2012
Leave a comment
adventure, chiclayo, combi, home, lambayeque, túcume

i have arrived.

personally, i think the title says it all. but to elaborate a bit more, on sunday morning i arrived to lambayeque. we were greeted by other volunteers who kindly made an all-encompassing sign. then we went to breakfast and attended our first regional meeting. honestly, after a restless night on the bus, i spent my day and evening in my hostel room. it was great to finally have a moment of nothing for a bit.

monday morning, i finagled a cab to my parraderra and caught a combi to tucume. my ride to site felt like a moment out of a movie. cumbia blaring on the radio speakers, the cobrador hanging out the side door’s window trying to get more passengers and the numerous chirps of little chicks in the box on the man’s lab seated behind me.

i arrived to site by late morning, and carried my things across the park, while everyone stared wondering why the gringa had so much stuff. i walked inside my new house and it already immediately and gratefully started to feel like home. though, poco a poco i have plans to make my room home.

this is everything i own…for the next two years.

this is the essential layout of my room. i am currently in the process of furnishing and painting it.

after lunch, i convinced my really great host brother to join me on an adventure back to chiclayo (the capitol city) to help me buy a bed. little did he know what he signed up for. i brought him for help with pricing (as there are two prices: the actual price and the price they charge gringos) and transferring my bed back to the house.

we went to all the tiendas at the mercado with all only offering expensive, foam mattresses, which honestly did not fit within the budget that the peace corps gave me to furnish my room. we met up with steven, his host mom and aunt, in hopes that we could barter for better pricing since we could then buy together.

out of luck, we resorted to going to a big name store, which is usually very expensive, but we remarkably found great mattresses within our budget. now came the great adventure. moving our mattresses around town while we bought the rest of the items for our beds.

proudly posing with our new mattresses.

everyone squeezed in our small taxi.

we returned to the mercado with our mattresses, and then bought our bed frames. then had the bed frame store hold on to our mattresses and bed frames while we went and purchased sheets and pillows. then, david and i hailed another taxi, loaded up my bed, and then caught a combi back to tucume.

i have two very astute observations about peru thus far: they are the best, but craziest drivers in the world, and they are incredibly talented at tying knots. needless to say, 6 hours later made it home. david was kind enough to help me with putting together my bed. i still need to get a light blanket it for it. and the ladies at the tienda thought i was crazy for not wanting pink/fuschia sheets with flowers. apparently, that is what the ladies love here?

my new bed.

i returned to the market yesterday to buy a desk and two sets of shelves for storage in my room. my host mom was kind enough to join me, and it was incredible. i went to the market a couple of weeks ago to price out items, and when i returned with my host mom, on average the prices they told her were 20 soles less. needless to say i am incredibly grateful for her attendance. also, honestly, i was most worried about how to get the shelving units back to my house, but yet again the combi driver’s understanding of aerodynamics and knot-tying left me impressed. maybe i should take some lessons from them?

20/08/2012
1 Comment
adventure, happiness, lds temple, lima, miraflores, relax

a day of rest.

miraflores coast line.

saturday while everyone was recovering from the night before, michelle and i walked along the coast line in miraflores. followed by going to a bike training meeting, with only 2 other people. and then she and i ventured to la molina and i got to finally go to the temple. it was a much needed day of rest and recuperation from a n exciting week.

the coast.

coast.

the lima temple.

i went there saturday!

 

 

 

19/08/2012
Leave a comment
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
1 Comment
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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

26/07/2012
2 Comments
adventure, lambayeque, region, site placement, túcume

site placement.

this week, probably one of the most important events occurred during my training (with the exception of my swearing into the peace corps in august). i received my site placement. up until this point i only knew that i was going to be placed on the coast, though even that could have changed.

on monday, i went to the surco training center and met many staff members, as well as had interviews with the country director and the assistant director for my program. during my interview with the assistant director, we discussed my fbt, and i voiced that felt the least comfortable when we visited the smaller sites (around 1,000 people). she then told me that i should keep an open mind and that they were confident that i would be happy no matter where i was placed. i, of course, took this as “i suppose i should be prepared to go to a small site.” that night, i even had a dream that i received my site placement and i received a site that only had 58 people, which is not even a real possibility here. so really, i began tuesday thinking there was no way but up in regards to site placement.

kendra, meghan, me, carlhey and nydelis all anxiously awaiting the receipt of our assignments.

all morning, all the volunteers and i eagerly checked our watches until it was 1pm. at one, pretty much all of the peace corps staff arrived, and we were instructed to line up and when they counted down to “one.” we were all supposed to run where they had hung envelopes with our names on them.

how they hung the envelopes. our names were on the opposite side that was facing us and in no particular order.

everyone rushing towards their envelope.

everyone trying to find their department.

once we found our envelope with our name inside, we found a puzzle piece which was color coordinated by department. so the first step was to learn who in our training group is going to your department. then we all rushed to a table to anxiously figure out what department our puzzle created, so we could learn which department we were headed to.

working on our puzzle.

we then quickly and excitedly learned that we were headed to LAMBAYEQUE!!! lambayeque is just north of la libertad, and it’s capitol city, chiclayo, is only about a 12 hour bus ride from lima. lambayeque has a lot of biodiversity: the beach, the sierra, ancient ruins, and even includes an ecological reserve with indigenous species found nowhere else in the country or world (including the cutiepatootie spotted bear…google it, you won’t regret it).

my group and i jumped up and down in excitement and then went to meet our regional coordinator (the person who oversees our region, in particularly helps set up sites, housing and socios) and learn more about our actual site placement.

the peru 19 lambayeque crew with our regional coordinator (me, ali, steven, sam, Kimberly, betty, michelle, kyle and casey).

a map of lambayque and where all of the volunteers are located.

we then received folders with our name and our actual site placement.

my folder.

i am headed to túcume, which has a population of 20,600 people (this is on the larger site end of the spectrum). túcume is nicknamed as the “valley of the pyramids” as there are more than 26 precolonial pyramids. i get the best of both worlds, as i am only a 45 minute combi ride from chiclayo and probably about an hour from the beach but i am in a valley near the mountains/foothills. i am ecstatic.

i am a nerd and took a picture of the powerpoint slide of my site. but seriously, look at how rad those pyramids are. my new (future) home.

my name is on the map! there is a small business volunteer in a neighboring site from peru 17, which arrived one year ago. it is rumored that he is only 15-20 minutes from me.

i am really excited about the group of from training class that is headed to lambayeque. especially that my good friend, casey, will be just about 30 minutes or so from me.

my site has had two previous volunteers, but both have been with small business. i am the first youth development volunteer to arrive, and their last volunteer left a year ago. it will be interesting to see what programs are still continuing and what additional work there is to do. the advantage of coming in as a replacement, yet new for my program volunteer, is that many of the leaders in the community are used to working with a peace corps volunteer, and you have programs that you can already start to work with. this can help in integrating into the community as well as keep me busy during my first three months while i work on my community diagnostic.

 

me with my site placement. (npp, check out those nails).

i have received limited information on my host family, but i am so excited to meet them in just a couple of weeks. honestly, this just makes me all the more excited about the next two years. everything is becoming more real and more tangible everyday. túcume, lambayeque here i come!!!!!

 

30/06/2012
1 Comment
adventure, combi

today.

today. i am sick. actually, i have had a sinus infection for the past 3 days. awesome. the funny part is that my mom has required me to wear a scarf everywhere i go…because that makes a lot of sense. proof of my sickness:

this is where i use the internet. in a cave. with a peruvian man singing in the background.

while all the other volunteers headed back to lima for another adventure, i opted to stay home where i could readily blow my nose without embarrassment. however, i could only stay in my house for so many hours. so i went on a solo excursion to the plaza vea in santa clara (read: mediocre outdoor mall with a movie theatre). one of comforts from the states was going to the movies when i was sick…so this was my feeble attempt, however i did not receive the memo that movies don’t start until 3pm…womwomwom. however, i did enjoy independently riding the combi and taking in the sites. i have decided that riding in those makeshift vehicles, are the times when i feel most in peru and a part of their culture and daily lives.

inside the combi.

the view from the combi.

here is a quick video of the combi ride…i am sorry that you can’t here their clown horns…but the delightful music is brought to you by my combi chofer:

 

 

30/06/2012
1 Comment
adventure, happiness, lima

heaven on earth.

the usual.

thank you wilson phillips. and thank you lima. while in miraflores, i happened upon a pinkberry, and it made me the happiest girl in the whole, wide world. see???

pure. joy.

30/06/2012
1 Comment
adventure, lima

freaky deaky.

while in lima, zach and i decided to attend the inquisition museum. this proved to be quite fascinating.

where the original congress met in the 17th century.

i loved the original wood work on the ceiling.

i found the displays to be more disturbing than the history itself…almost…

zach heading down into the chambers to see where the prisoners were kept.

an even deeper and creepier chamber.

a typical chamber where people were kept.

historically interesting, but freaky deaky.

28/06/2012
2 Comments
adventure, lima

lima.

 

this past saturday, my language class traveled to lima for the day…in particular, we explored miraflores and the centre del lima. i only got to experience just a microcosm of lima…i guess i will have to go back…oh darn.

cat, i found a church that housed stray cats aplenty.

la iglesia de miraflores.

rebel skaters…hell yeah.

el parque kennedy in miraflores.

i found a popeye’s in lima…who knew…

language learners.

la plaza del arms.

kg y yo.

i just really liked the old man.

changing of the guard at the palace.

the sun finally decided to come out.

inside the peruvian museum of literature.

this statue apparent was not important enough to include in the mercado.

see you again soon, lima.

22/06/2012
Leave a comment
adventure, chaclacayo, hauscaran

a morning jaunt.

last saturday, a couple of others from the hauscaran crew decided to hike up the neighboring “hill” (read: mountain for this texan) to go check out the view and to see the giant cross.

my fellow adventurers. with the destination up above. and a nice view of my barrio.

given that we are in a small barrio, it was a given that there probably wasn’t going to be a trail equivalent to one that would be found in the states, but we are an adventurous and resourceful group and found a dirt road leading to somewhere up the hill.

the dirt road.

after a very steep incline, the road ended and we were essentially left with a steep rock incline that bascially involved being on all fours as we climbed our way up.

the grand ascent.

michael working his way up.

the view from above.

success.

finding our own religion.

the group.

the hike was worth it, and especially welcomed by me. the view was great, as one side of the hill was a view of a typical barrio and the other of the extremely large, nice houses of chaclacayo. it made for a great first week story. when i got home and told my mom, she thought i was a bit strange for being so adventurous, but i think at this point my mom finds most things i do strange.

 

 

← Older posts
Newer posts →