oh hi! long time no see! what have i been up to lately? well, that is a great question, indeed!
let’s see…
my environmental arts group ended. this is everyone with all their projects they completed.
this is my part of my world map painting group waiting for my socio to show up with the needed projector, and who didn’t show up for the second day in a row…
third time is a charm. after waiting for 2 hours on the third day, he finally showed. we had a blast drawing the map.
between my day planner and the random plastic bag i found in my bag, it was a pretty sturdy setup….
i hiked all 15k through the bosque de pomac, and it was a nice break from the usual distractions. this is the million year tree and is sacred to the incans who originally inhabited the area. also, the government is working on the reforestation of the bosque, since many of the trees were cut down to use the wood for pollo a la brasa.
a group of volunteers went camping. this is part of our group enjoying the sunset.
i celebrated carnaval in illimo and joined banda verde. this was my favorite verde float.
though the red team went all out in the decorations. carnaval in illimo is a big celebration. the day before there was a giant water fight in the town square between the two teams.
originally for international women’s day, i wanted to give a charla to the women of vaso de leche about the importance of being a woman. though, big surprise, my muni said no and wanted to do a parade instead. so, i worked with vaso de leche to organize the muni workers for a parade. this is everyone after.
after giving a little speech on gender equality, the band decided to play more more tunes, which resulted in a mini dance party. i was partnered with a regidor (equivalent to a city council member/officer).
ysabel and i after the parade, with the sign i made.
i finally gave my community diagnostic presentation. it was….interesting to say the least…but it happened and some positive things came out of it.
my family and i went for a night out on the town in chiclayo and dined on the finest pollo a la brasa. seriously. it was DELISH.
the artisans had a number of new products, and so i spent an afternoon taking more pictures for them.
and of course. samia and i are still keeping it real. school has started, so sometimes i help with her homework. or sometimes we just hang out and pretend to dance marenara.
the number of mosquitos in my site has increased significantly i now know what it feels like to get eaten alive. i go through insect repellent like it’s my job, but it doesn’t seem to keep them away. also of note, as seen in the pictures above, there are a lot of ups and downs. and that is exactly it. there have been a number of challenges i have been facing work-wise in site. sudden changes with my socia at the health post…i had been working with her for 3-4 months on the preparations for one project, and now she is no longer working there, and other health post employees are overloaded already. my municipality has been more of a challenge to work with than anything else. the school i normally work with cancelled it’s first week of classes, then during the next week, i went to coordinate my program with them, there were zero teachers in the classrooms with kids, and they had yet to make the schedule for the new year, and the schools are just handing out textbooks/curriculum this week. in fact, the official school schedule will not be ready until next week…that is 4 weeks after the school year has started…and even though i am little astonished by this, i can’t say i am anymore surprised by it. in fact, all of it seems pretty par for the course, in regards to the experiences that one has not only living in a developing country, but also it’s just part of the peace corps experience.
the important part is concentrate on the positives and learn from the things that don’t work out. and with that, i am concentrating on the goals and things that i want to get done in site, and if i keep that perspective, i really think some positive changes will happen. and the winds are slowly starting to change in my favor!
this past few weeks i have been working on my vacciones útiles programs…literally meaning “useful vacation.” because most youth are either planting rice or traveling to lima in january, we waited to begin until the end of january and will continue them until the beginning of march. i have two official programs that i am working with people in my community with.
me with the different project examples.
the first, pictured above, is my environment group. there are 25 participants with ages ranging from 10 to 32. when originally conceived and gained approval from museum administration, i wanted to bring more environmental awareness to the community, and even have a few “clean the pyramids” days and a couple of art shows made from recyclable items with entry being paid with recyclable items…we would then sell the recyclables, and use the profits to pay for a beach day. however, as with most things in the peace corps, it changed and now it is namely a group that is learning how to reuse their recyclables into other objects, which still has a great message to it. and honestly, it is nice to be able to show up and craft with a group of eager youth. and it’s been fantastic getting to know some more youth in town.
for our first project we have been making bags from used catalogs. it should be noted that peruvians love catalogs. in fact, as i have gone around town collecting used catalogs, i have been corrected almost all occasions that they are not catalogs but magazines. but really, they read those things like magazines…needless to say it’s been a bit of a challenge to find them. the making of the bags is actually quite tedious, and i think i have spent over 15 hours on mine…and i am still probably at least 2 hours from being done…but i will post a finished product. we will start our second and final project next week, making traditional mochica art out of paper pulp!
not pictured…and honestly…not happening anymore (again, normal peace corps experience) is my pasos adelante group. honestly, the fact that this first try failed was a little bit of a disappointment, as i had been preparing for this for months, and hope to make this my primary project in site. however, it was just my first try, so there will be other ones. it is a health promoters leadership group…and one day there will be hopefully numerous ones in tucume. anyways, it started with a really strong showing. when i went to the classes to promote the group, i had 55 sign up, and having to wait almost a month the start the group, i still had about 20 show up for the first meeting. then my town’s fair happened, and it quickly dropped to 3 and then to 1 and then it just stayed at 1. and you know, that’s okay. at least one person was excited about the group, and i am reworking the work plan to present to the school with the health post this week, so that we can incorporate it into the school year.
also, thanks to the awesome feria…not complaining too much…because it really was awesome…but it’s even more awesome that it’s over…my cultural group that i was working on with a few other people has completely fallen by the wayside, but one thing that my community is starting to learn is that i am pretty persistent…so next week we will start discussing this cultural group again. woo! anyways, life has been busy. and it continues to be so with work being aplenty…even with the trials and errors, but that is the name of the game!
but really, who’s the boss? thank you community for answering this question for all of us. (i refuse to spoil the show for you).
anyways, the feria has started here in tucume. this month it is of the “purisma concepción.” my town has been talking to me about since i arrived in site in august. hundreds upon hundreds, if not more, are piling themselves in my small town. many are traveling from lima. family that has long moved away returns for this week.
the parque is bustling!
to get the week (more like 2 weeks) started, i attended a danza de los diablicos competition. the history of this form of dance is quite interesting. it’s a traditional dance dating back to the 17th century conveying how the spaniards would try to trick the natives into joining the catholic religion by hiding in the pyramids and coming out at night dressed as the devil. now with the dance, it’s a tucumano folklore to express their world under colonialism, and how the colonists used fear instead of love for conversion.
the promenade of the contestants.
i just love how they replaced the “2” with the “3.”
stayed tuned…a number of other cultural events will be happening over the next couple of weeks that have to do with this feria!
despite the altitude sickness we still had a blast traveling around peru, and trying all sorts of new and delicious food and seeing incredible sites throughout the country. it was such a treat to be able to share my life, my site, my community, my family with mp, and now there is someone else back home who knows what i am talking about when i talk about the ants in my bed, the pig outside my window and how much samia has grown.
for our last night together, we had a grand finale of some sorts. we dined at the world-renowned astrid y gaston, listed as one of the top 50 restaurants in the world…and goodness it was worth all the hype. it has been almost 4 days since we have eaten there and i am still full. the flavors there were incredible and they really did take peruvian cuisine up a number of levels…which i, honestly, didn’t think was possible. plus, it was just fun to spend a nice quiet evening together before we said goodbyes at the airport.
today marks my first day back to work in site…which really means that i will be going from socio to socio to let them know i am here…that i didn’t move away…and to just talk and see what i can do to get myself back into the swing of things. site is still site. there are still a number of ants in my bed and they have moved back into my computer as well. the pig in my backyard has gotten a little bigger…samia has gotten a little taller as well…and the weather only seems to be getting hotter. i guess it’s summertime here…now i just need to see if the mangoes are getting sweeter…
also. just a short 3.5 months until i make my way back to the states for a quick visit to mp. considering that it had been 6.5 months previously, this should go faster than lightening…i hope!
tucume held it’s anniversary a couple of weeks ago. not to be confused with the anniversary of famed scientist federico villarreal…like i was when we had a celebration back in august. anyways, there were all sorts of events going on throughout the week including a robotics competition, chess competition, career fair, massive marriage ceremony, and, of course, a serrenata that included fireworks. saturday also included the traditional marches, in which i got to join in on my first march. i guess that makes me a real tucamana now?
the massive marriage ceremony. this is quite popular in peru, as it allows the opportunity for people to get married that would not have been able to afford to otherwise.
we had one of the finalists from the second season of “yo soy” perform.
bryhen, jennifer and samia accompanied me to the serranata.
fanny packs with those outfits make complete sense. these guys also made me go out to the middle and dance with them and the mayor…not embarrassing. everyone spent the next few days talking about my dancing….
lately at night i have been hearing these squeaky noises outside of my window and all throughout tucume. up until last night, i had assumed that it was either rats/mice or bats, and i was hopping for the latter. tonight i finally saw what was creating all the noise. apparently, at night, owls take tucume by storm.
you guys. i know. i know. it’s been a while. i’m sorry. i wish i could say it was all because i was busy, which is probably about ¾ true, however it is also finding the time and patience to upload photos.
overall life is good. and busy. but good. i have been spending most of my free time working on my community diagnostic, which will ultimately be a very lengthy document about my community, which i will have written in spanish. needless to say, it takes up most of my energy and time. especially processing and analyzing all of my surveys. translation: a lot of tedious paperwork.
but here are some pictures and anecdotes about what filled my time when i wasn’t working on my diagnostic:
despedida!
i attended peru 16’s despedida (a goodbye party for peru 16…to put into context i am peru 19). it was a lot of fun. we all learned the gangnam style dance and went around chiclayo and performed the dance.
practicing for our big debut.
dancing in the parque principal in the center of town in font of a crowd of people.
we went all around town and ended up getting a huge crowd and following. after, we went to ICPNA (the english school that is partnered with the us embassy) and there was a break dancing group that performed for us. after, we all got pizza, hung out at the hostel and then went out to a club and just danced the night away and into the morning. i have never been a going out person, but i have since found it to be quite a release of mounted up energy from being in site all the time.
hanging out at the hostel.
artesanos de tucume.
my friend, cinthia, asked me to help her take pictures of her and the other artisan’s products at the museum in lambayeque. their products are quite impressive and all made by hand and out of organic material. the materials are dyed using local, natural, organic resources and the women turn the organic cotton into the thread that is used to make the products. they are an incredible group of women who take their craft very seriously and i am so excited to be working with them and to learn more about all that they hope to achieve while i am here and help them realize their potential. i also helped them set up a facebook page, check it out here!!!!! (also, don’t forget to like it!) i am also grateful for the friendship of cinthia.
just an example of their style/color palette of their products.
an example of the silver working as well. also all made by hand.
getting around town.
i finally got it. i have my own cruiser…a mountain bike that is. and to that end i am grateful. it has cut my travel time to the museum in half, and it is nice to get out and about and see more of the rural parts of tucume. i had my site visit today with my supervisors and people repeatedly made commentary about me and my bike…i guess they now know that i make good use of it…
my family got a kick out of me, my bike, my helmet and my camelback. samia seriously took an entire photo shoot of me on my bike.
speaking of samia and bicycles…in true bff form, as soon as i started speeding around town on my bike, samia decided that she wanted to start using her bike as well. i carried her bike all the way across town and to the outskirts to the grifo to use their air machine to fill her bike’s tires. then i carried it all the way home. we then spent the afternoon at the park, where i taught her to ride the bike. there is still training wheels, as i am teaching her how to pedal (she likes to pedal forward once and then pedal backwards a lot).
watch out tucume!
bike mongers.
halloweeenie.
fact, my second favorite holiday is halloween. luckily, my friend, casey, had a halloween parade and party planned with the youth leadership group in his site, patapo. i dressed as cat, and made ears out of my hair and drew a nose and whiskers on my face. little did i realize that this would ultimately result in me drawing cat nose and whiskers on 30+ teenage girls’ faces as well. needless to say, i am professional cat whisker drawer….don’t worry, i will be adding that to my resume.
all of the volunteers with the mayor of patapo.
stephen and i on the back of mototaxi. riding through town shouting happy halloween to everyone.
michelle and i at the halloween party. i was so exhausted that i am pretty sure i was passed out shortly after this photo was taken.
all of the volunteers at the party!
the day after.
the day following halloween was dio de los muertos for peru, which meant a federal holiday here. this meant that most of our families ventured to the cemeteries to pay homage to their lost loved ones. this also meant that none of us had anything really going on in our sites. so we decided to go up to changoyape and visit stephen and tina.
changoyape is right on the border of cajamarca and kind of where the sierra region begins. stephen gave us the grand tour and it was just breathtakingly beautiful there.
the volunteers visiting changoyape.
while we were getting the grand tour, i found an odd spiky looking fruit growing. so i did what any normal person would do, which was to break it open. i still couldn’t decide if it was edible or not, so i did the next most sensible thing: i walked over to the old man pulling guava from his tree and asked him if i could eat the fruit in my hands. while he was explaining that i should not eat the new found fruit, i realized that he was pulling guava for his pet monkey. let me repeat that for you: his pet MONKEY. needless to say i won the award for best find of the day.
dreams coming true!
oh you know. best friends just hanging out and being natural, you know.
before we left, the old man was super kind and took a long reed pole and pulled down some guava for us to take on the road with us.
starting to enjoy the fruits of our labor
for those of you who have never actually seen real guava. it looks like a giant pea pod, and you stick the giant seeds in your mouth, but you only eat the white part. then you spit the seeds, which are a little bigger than the size of a quarter.
tippy taps.
i am still going on caserio visits with vaso de leche, but now i am trying to work with the ladies on making tippy taps for their homes. water is not readily accessible and with tippy taps it will help them save and have accessible clean water to wash their hands. these are made by using household items that they already have lying around. a HUGE challenge with this is getting the ladies to bring their plastic bottles. but the good news is that plenty of cute kids still come!
mujeres jovenes.
i just love my mujeres jovenes. thursday nights we have our activity nights. every month has a value theme and the first week of every month we work on a personal progress experience within that value, and the other weeks we do fun activities. i only have 3 young women, but i hope that it slowly expands. right now the three that i do have are so incredible and have such amazing testimonies.
for the month of november, we are concentrating on knowledge. for last week’s activity, i brought a bag full of ingredients for a dessert. i turned it into an object lesson for the importance of directions and following those directions and seeking out knowledge and direction as well. then we made homemade whipped cream with strawberries. it was their first time to try whipped cream. it was an obvious success.
enjoying the fruits of their labor (budunching!)…
loving it!
as soon as their mom’s heard i was teaching them a dessert to make, they were quick to join as well. it’s true, food really is the way to the heart here.
honorable mentions.
not mentioned above but of note, is that i have been working on getting my world map realized for the past 6 weeks. it has been an exhausting going to the muni daily to follow-up in order to get things done. last monday ended with a frustrated erin in the park crying (a normal peace corps response…honest), and an equally frustrating one that i am currently addressing.
i have been working on the iñikuk pageant that is going on tonight. this has included multiple meetings and rehearsals for the girls.
i had my site visit today, and overall it was just fine. i just need to keep on trucking on with my diagnostic. guhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
i have started to work with the museum, and i am working on an environment club for this summer.
i am busy in the colegio doing charlas. i have done a number on self-esteem, including a fun activity with balloons. apparently it was a hit with the kids, as i was asked to come back to do the sex ed charlas. (read the sex ed charla to learn more on the outcome of this).
i voted. and then watched election night with all of the volunteers. it was a lot of fun and involved a lot chips and guacamole.
i think this more or less brings us up to date. hopefully i can keep up with this. whew. glad we made it through that one.
well. i couldn’t think of a more fitting title. one thing about peace corps is that you have amazing weeks, and other weeks you don’t. some weeks you feel like you making a lot of forward-moving steps in your community…and other weeks, it’s the opposite. and perhaps, this week was not the best week, but the good news is that there will be better weeks.
my diagnostic was practically halted this week, and a new strategy will be employed next week. for the past 2 ½ weeks there has been a teacher strike in peru…indefinitely. i have been told that the last one lasted 2 months, and commentary on the news has revealed that there have been high tensions in lima about the strike and is thought that this one could potentially last until december (when school is let out for summer). also this week, a medical strike began as well…also indefinitely. this means all doctors, nurses, etc. are on strike. this also means my health post is on strike.
i was greeted to a meeting with a locked door. tis the story of my life this week.
today i was supposed to have my first event that i was planning, which had to be canceled due to the aforementioned strikes. i suppose it was just a disappointment, due to the fact that it was my first planned event in my town with my help, and it didn’t come to fruition. however, the good news, is that i have two years to have more events in my town.
so this weekend/first half of this week is going to be spent re-strategizing on how to find the youth, and start projects that can draw the kids to do something while they have some extra time on their hands…
there are lot of low hanging tarps there, even i have to duck while walking through.
during my walks to the carraterra to catch a combi on sunday, i walk through the market, which is exponentially large on sundays, with much more people. this must be the day that everyone comes in from the caserios as well. additionally there is another two story building on top of the 3 blocks of the outdoor part of the market.
that’s it. i am convinced that tucume loves a party…but really where in peru (or better yet, the world) does not? anyways, my town acquired two new dump trucks and motorcycles, and we celebrated it.
a very riveting presentation.
after the presentation, they had a procession of all the vehicles owned by the municipality, which proved to be quite an impressive collection.
the procession headed down my street. the yellow building on the left is my house. and you can see my host sister looking out the window.
can tucume build it? you better believe it.
the crowd exponentially increased with the procession, and they were eager to see the new dump trucks.
along with the increase in crowd, came a number of traditional dance performances and clowns…including mickey and pooh! and later on in the day there was a live band with, of course, TONS of dancing.
samia loves mickey and pooh. so did what any good auntie would do, i went home to fetch her to come meet them. it was too cute. she got all dressed in her sunday dress and shoes, and we excitedly walked to the park. however, she reacted the way most 4-year-olds would react when meeting you favorite cartoon characters…with tears full of fears. fail on my part. it’s like when you take a small child to see santa…some things are best left to their imagination. but can’t the same thing be said about adults as well?
perusing peru... 