I am a sober pirate grandma

Yesterday we had a Halloween party at a trainee`s house. I was a pirate, of course. First, I went with Borracha and Prima to a pre-party of pasta-making and spiked milkshake-making. It`s so strange to watch 8-year old kids taste alcoholic beverages and dance around with drunk 20-something year olds. In the U.S., that would make a mother faint and call the police. Despite an initial cultural shock, I had fun. After some crazy dancing for the love of fun and good music, we went to the actual party. Any sort of buzz I felt was ruined by my mom-like instincts trying to prevent Peruvian strangers from getting too cozy with my drunk gringa sisters dressed all cute and sexy with their bare legs and shoulders. Finally, we arrived at the party and there was a bonfire...and ingredients for s`mores. I had about 4 or 5! Yummmmm...I think I eat more sweets here than in the States just because I feel that they`re not readily available. I had a good time but felt really old even though I am one of the younger trainees here. But never fear, I had my share of dancing, taking pictures, good conversations...and gossiping, haha. Finally, we were able to herd the crowd into a taxi home and I went to bed the latest ever while here: 2:20AM. Yup, late for grandma!

To backtrack a little and touch on a topic a little more serious, on Thursday, the environment group went to barrios (small towns) outside of Chincha. Chincha is in the department of Ica, which is where I wanted my site to be (I`m not so sure now because my best friends here are going way north to Piura and Lambayeque). Chincha is famous for its relatively high concentration of Afro-Peruvians. They are the descendants of Africans who were brought over as -- what else -- slaves. I was hoping to see some of their traditional dance, but we didn`t have time for it, but did have some traditional food. The meal consisted of green noodles with a red (tomato?) sauce with potatoes and pork. I picked out the potatoes and thoroughly enjoyed my noodles. I drank the too-sweet purple chicha, which is a Peruvian drink made of corn. There are many types of chicha, and some are alcoholic and some are not.

Anyway, in the morning we were introduced to a succesful waste collection system that was started by a community NGO. They collect garbage, recyclables and organic waste on separate days. We helped them separate the recycling materials, create compost from the organic waste and learned about a used clothing store they established in the town to provide funds for the program. Thanks to this program, there is much less trash in the rivers and on the streets. There is much more community pride for a clean town. Plus, they are on their way to making a profit because they can make money by taking recyclables to Lima. The compost is used in townspeople`s gardens. It might actually turn out to be a site for one of us. In the afternoon, we went to ¨Campo de los Niños,¨ which I`m pretty sure is an actual site. Basically, an NGO is trying to get 1% of Peru`s children to be responsible for decision-making about a piece of land with the purpose of fostering strong moral values that will consequently ingrain them with an appreciation for the environment. This site used to be a piece of land with trash strewn all about. The children drew pictures of how they wanted the land to look, picked the best ideas, and went to work. Now there are fútbol (soccer) fields, a playground, a peaceful room made of bamboo for meetings, gardens of corn, flowers and alfalfa, an incipient mini-zoo for forest animals, and cages where they breed cuy (guinea pigs, which Peruvians eat) and rabbits. In the future, they may be able to provide more food for these children of poor farmers and fishers. After being guided around the ¨Campo¨ by our young guides, and with each group followed by 20-30 other animated children, we played games with all 150 or so of them in the adjacent schoolhouse. One little girl decided to attach herself to me, and she became my little companion who held my hand and dragged me everywhere. It was great to see the kids running around and doing whatever they wanted to do. They were so spirited and happy. By the time we left, 30 kids kissed each of us goodbye on the right cheek, the customary way of saying hello and goodbye. On our four-hour bus ride home, we passed through majestic desert dunes on our right and the beautiful Pacific Ocean on our left with the sun setting elegantly above. If I were assigned to be there, I think I would be content.

The death of a duck

After a meeting at the local Health Center this morning, I decided to go visit the man who is my ¨Community Contact Experience.¨ The CCE is basically a project where I am supposed to befriend someone in the community and talk about the environment. So I chose this man who lives across the train tracks from me. I`ll call him Petey, which is a close English translation of his actual nickname. My host mom introduced us because I was initially looking for someone with a garden. She thought he had one, but it turns out that his garden consists of one coffee tree, one palm tree, one avocado tree, one mango tree, and one of other things. Beyond this ¨singular¨ garden live ducks, chicks, hens and fighting roosters he raises for sale. Retired from working the mines of Ica, Petey is short and very animated. When he tells stories, which he loves to do, he extends his short arms above his head as if he were making snow angels from his chair, and his potbelly juts out into his dirty t-shirt. I don`t think his legs reach the floor. His wife is taller and with a plump freckled face, plump arms and short, curly hair. They are extremely welcoming and friendly people.

After Petey`s wife sat me down this morning in the kitchen, she immediately insisted that I eat the fish sitting on the table. I told her I had just eaten breakfast, which was true. But she insisted, so I obliged, which is the polite thing to do. As I ate my cold fish and ignored the flies on Petey`s face and the thoughts of how those same flies were probably sucking at my fish earlier on, Petey told me all about Ica and how beautiful it is. He proceeded to tell me about his grandson who lives in the most beautiful house in Ica on the third floor. He said that there were two pumas who used to live on the second story. I think I missed an important part of this story but as I understand it, it was a zoo complete with these pumas, bears, jaguars, parrots, snakes and other wild creatures. Maybe he was talking about a zoo in Ica. But that`s what I understood. Then he told me about how someone is a doctor and that the doctor went to the library in Ica, which is even better than the National Library of Lima, and because he didn`t want to spend any money to borrow the books, read every single one of the books about medicine in 24 hours. After these stories, he showed me a Peruvian gourmet cookbook with recipes that use Pisco. Pisco is a grape-based ¨wine¨ that is recognized as a wonderful alcoholic beverage internationally. Peruvians are very proud of their pisco. He asked if I`d tried it, and I said I just tasted it a little. He disappeared and reappeared with a bottle of fancy-looking pisco that came in a wooden case, and a shot glass. Feeling bad that I`m drinking their expensive-looking pisco when they are not the most well-off folks, I took a sip and realized that it`s more like vodka. As Petey continued chatting about some amazing fact from that crazy cache of a brain of his, I thought that maybe the burning feeling in my throat and stomach would burn away all the bad germs that I probably ingested through the cold fish. Trying to maintain my poise and not make a face at the fire-like pisco, I told Petey and his wife that yesterday I tried some manjar blanco (which is similar to smooth caramel) that used pisco in it. ¨You like manjar blanco?¨ ¨Sí, it`s very rich and I like it a LOT.¨ Without a word, Petey disappeared again and reappeared with two chocolate candies with pecans and manjar blanco inside wrapped in festive paper. As I ate one of these yummy things, Petey again disappeared and reappeared this time with two little tubs of manjar blanco and two spoons. One was strawberry-flavored and the other used chirimoya, another fruit. I happily tasted each, realizing it makes a wonderful pisco chaser, and watched him diasappear and reappear with an even bigger tub of manjar blanco. They were from Cajamarca, a department in the Northern Sierra known for manjar blaco, apparently. For some reason, that prompted him to tell me that now he was going to show me how to kill a duck. After verifying that I didn`t misinterpret what I just heard, I followed Petey through his little garden and helped him bag two big ducks. I carried one in a rice bag. The duck was merciful and didn`t flap around, except once. Inside the kitchen, Petey ordered me to sit in this chair. He ran around his house looking for the death tools. I watched two little kittens stare at the rice bags. I looked at the cutting board and knife on the table next to me. I hoped my pisco wouldn`t reappear like Petey. I thought about how Peace Corps told me to embrace stepping out of my comfort zone and other crap. Finally, Petey reappeared a final time. He unbagged my duck and plopped it on the kitchen table, not next to me. The duck made little gasping noises. I thought ducks quack. His wife came and blocked my view of the neck. I decided I didn`t need to readjust my view. She held the duck down. With slow, patient movements back and forth, Petey slit its neck over the kitchen sink. The duck shuddered as it fought, died and relaxed into a final resting state. Petey`s wife left. I watched Petey drain the blood out of the headless duck`s neck. It`s big duck head laid on the table next to it. And that was my morning.

mobs of little girls!!! ah!

Interesing Peruvian Fact Number 2: Quechua is a language believed to be the language of the Incans that is still spoken today in Perú and other Andean countries. This is only partially true. Quechua had evolved to be very different, and in some places as different as Italian and Spanish. Indigenous groups also spoke other distinct languages. The Spanish evangelists needed a common language with which to preach and proselytize, so they actually ended up TEACHING some indigenous groups Quechua. At least that`s what I think the Peruvian historian said today (in perfect English but really fast).

(Dad don`t read this part.) So is it really true that Karl Rove and Scooter might be going down??? If so I can`t believe I left the States when the newspaper might actually be an exciting thing to read! I am craving more American news. But I don`t want to be on the internet all the time. It`d be GREAT to get some American or British news magazines or journals once in a while no matter how old...The Economist, Newsweek, Mother Jones, whatever...HINT HINT. ,o)

Today the environment group split up into groups of 3 to make 30 min. presentations to various schools. We started with an ice breaker about self-esteem and had them write nice (hopefully) things about each other on a sheet of paper taped to their backs. Next we went into the environment game where everyone represents a different component of the environment (such as water, birds, butterflies, humans) and holds a piece of string from the ball of yarn that we throw to one another. Then we threw real trash in the middle of our ¨web of life,¨ and went through how everything is linked and how trash harms water and then all the way to humans. Finally, we promoted our environmental clean-up day on October 29th...

So my group got assigned to an all-girl´s school. The directors were really excited that we came so they stuffed a million girls in each session. OK, it was more like 40-70 girls, but if you have ever facilitated an interactive activity with little girls before in a language you`re not fluent in, you know that it was CRAZY. They were between the ages of 11-16 I would guess. Since there were 3 of us and one girl wasn`t comfortable with her Spanish, we split them up into 2 groups every time. Our second session went amazingly. That time I was by myself and the girls were so respectful, calm, supportive of each other and interested in all the activities. My Spanish rocked as did my facilitation skills. We finished early and they asked me all sorts of questions about where I`m from, the U.S., what Peruvian food I`ve eaten and if I could sing them an American song. No, I didn`t break out into song and dance, but at their request I taught them how to say ¨my heart will go on.¨ The first and especially the last session of about 35 girls in each group was so crazy and chaotic. I would go insane trying to facilitate projects like that each day. It reminded me why I don`t want to work with kids. Arghhhh I am never having kids. They are brats and wrote mean things on each other`s backs, which I couldn`t understand. In addition, they corrected my Spanish, which is something I want my host mom and teachers to do, but not in the middle of my session. Well, to end on a positive note, they were cute when I wasn`t trying to get them to do anything, and they kept on asking me about ¨El Gringo,¨ who is super tall (by Perú standards), skinny and blonde. That was funny. I told El Gringo that all those girls will be coming to our clean-up day just to see him, the new Peruvian Studmuffin. We also were inundated with requests for our e-mail addresses. So I might have about 100 new e-mail pen pals.

Good Times

Good Time Number 1: Sometimes I teach my host mom English words. So far, I have taught her how to say lentils, peanut butter, ginger, Hold on please, She is not here, please call back at...The other day she asked me if I had any nicknames. It is the cutest thing to teach a sweet little Peruvian lady how to say ¨Sea Monkey.¨ She laughs every time after she says it and so do I.

Good Time Number 2: Yesterday, Prima and her 10-year old brother were over. Her little brother is adorable and besides for being a computer bum, is very sweet and not intentionally bratty (to me). He puffed up his cheeks and I did the same. I went to go pop one of his cheeks. We laughed oh sooo hard at the ¨bfzfzfzfzt¨ sound. This continued until we came up with a game of trying to pop each other`s cheek as many times as possible before we have to laugh our brains out. It`s the cutest little game. I highly recommend it if you have a sweet little 10-year old and need to laugh.

ok, so maybe not

We had interviews again with the environment program director. His main message to all of us was don`t expect anything in terms of where you will be or what you will do because then you might get disappointed. So I`m trying to do just that although I was very upset at him and frustrated with the whole process yesterday. Our group still knows nothing although the health trainees have an idea of their climate, geography, project, urban or rural, if they`re replacing another volunteer (our group won`t be replacing anyone since we`re the first environment group!) and even if they`ll be near another person in the group. All the environment group knows now is: we will all be working with kids in some shape or form, we`ll all be working with a community garden somehow, many of us will be in urban environments, most of our counterpart (mentor) organizations will have fairly structured goals for us and most of us will be clustered together so we can work together. So until November 8th, I won`t have any updates.

This morning I went to Huayoringa Alta, a nearby community that is only about 17 years old. I went with 3 people, 2 fellow trainees and an environmental health promoter. The 2 trainees and I are working together on a joint project...I will call one, ¨Prima,¨ because our host moms are sisters, and ¨prima¨ is the Spanish word for cousin. The other I will call ¨Borracha¨ because her host family always pressures people to drink an ungodly amount of alcohol during parties, which she does, and ¨borracha¨ means¨drunk.¨ Anyway, so Prima, Borracha and I met with E.H. Promoter this morning at the Health Center near our houses. We wanted to do a health skit for mothers of a nearby community who are involved with soup kitchens and day care programs. I never realized how much I miss performing, but I am so excited to have the opportunity to act and be silly with the purpose of teaching about good health practices in a fun way. After we confirmed the general idea and the date, E.H. Promoter asked us if we wanted to go to the soup kitchens to meet the women and promote the event. We happily accepted and within minutes, we were on a bumpy bumpy combi bus ride up the mountain to Huayoringa Alta, which E.H. said had the neediest soup kitchens. Along the way, I saw that the entire community is comprised of makeshift walls with a piece of corrugated metal thrown on top to make a roof. Since not all the walls were the same height, cardboard boxes or potato sacks or whatever could be found were attached at the top of walls that didn`t reach the roof. Surprisingly, I felt comfortable here. I remember the first time I entered such a poor community in the Dominican Republic. I felt so alert, so upset at the conditions they live in. This time around I feel less sad and more like, ¨perfect, what can we do to help?¨ I was actually excited to be there rather than in my rich suburb. We went to four different soup kitchens (¨comedores populares¨) that receive certain goods such as rice from a government program, which also gives them a little bit of money with which to purchase whatever vegetables they may need. Unlike in the U.S., the mothers who volunteer there are members of the community and are as ¨needy¨ as the people who take advantage of the meals. The meals are not free but rather have a symbolic charge. As E.H. asked about the presidentas of the soup kitchens and other facts, we watched the women grind cilantro or prepare soup. Some of the women crowded around us, interested in the gringas that wanted to present a health talk and skit for them. Without warning us in advance, E.H. also proceeded to tell them about a ¨concurso,¨ which is as I understand it a cooking competition between the soup kitchens. The kitchen with the most nutritious meal will receive a prize. Somehow during his excitement, E.H. also said that we`d show movies and use the megaphone or microphone, which I didn`t know existed in a such a ramshackled community. Anyhow, this is turning out to be a lot bigger than we anticipated with probably an audience of over 50 women. The children from the day care centers might also attend. We met the woman who runs the day care centers and I will probably go back to visit them to fulfill a mini-project requirement.

Exciting update about my future home!

OK, OK, OK so I shouldn`t get too excited because I might not get placed here. On Tuesday, I heard through the grapevine that there`s going to be a ¨marine biology¨ site in Ica, which is a department (the equivalent of a US state but geographically large in comparison) south of Lima. According to the rumor, there are FIVE of us who will be placed there...I get excited but don`t know if I`d want to work with four other people. Also, I had been thinking that I would like to be placed in Tumbes, the department that is about a 16 hr bus ride away from Lima. But I wanted to go there because it`s the most tropical site and has a protected area of mangroves, although being placed there does not mean that I`d definitely be working to protect the mangroves. Plus, it`s just a rumor. Then yesterday, I heard that the rumor started from the country director, so it sounds a little more ligit. The director of the environment program tried to brush it off yesterday, so it`s still just a rumor. Now today, we had two guest speakers from USAID (US government`s international development aid agency). They talked about a marine reserve in Ica called Paracas National Marine Reserve, which is Perú`s only marine protected area. It`s also Peru`s third hottest tourist destination because of its great abundance and diversity of marine wildlife. There are seals, sea turtles and loveable birds including the Humboldt penguin!! There are islands off of this reserve called Islas Ballestas which are Perú`s version of the Galapagos Islands because it has so many special endemic species (not found anywhere else in the world). So this is cool but I`m still thinking, ¨well, Tumbes might be sweet as well.¨ Next, some man discussed a whole Pisco-Paracas case study. It turns out that there are artisanal fisheries near the coast and commercial fisheries further out in deeper waters. And then there is the fish meal, steel, mussel and shellfish farms and yes, GAS industry crowding the area and polluting this marine reserve. There is a whole slew of problems and conflicts and challenges with a lot at stake, which means that I REALLY want to go there. The other plus is that my mom says she won`t visit me if I`m 16 hours away from Lima by bus. Even if you come through Ecuador it`s that long because the road winds through the mountains. However, Ica is 3-4 hours away from Lima by bus. I can`t get my hopes up yet, but I don`t see how I can`t get placed here since I`m one of the few in my group who has an interest in the ocean and has experience with marine protected areas. There are some other people interested as well, but I think I stand a good chance. Anyway, I`ll obviously keep everyone updated! I hope my explanation was clear.

On a different subject, yesterday was a wonderful field day. First, we went to a school that serves communities that were created through ¨invasions.¨ This means that it`s a young community and that poor people coming from other parts of Perú migrated here to find a job. They just sort of ¨invaded¨ an empty plot of desert for their new home. And they`re still really poor. In fact, the government doesn`t even issue many of them a national identification card, which is necessary in order to get a formal job, start a banking account, take out a loan, vote and everything that comes with being a citizen. We worked with a group of youth there aged 13 - 17. They are being developed by an NGO to be leaders in their community and to take pride in their environment, essentially getting them to feel that they belong. It`s hard to care about your environment if you dont`feel like it`s your home. It`s interesting to work with kids whose only options in the future are illicit jobs. How the drug business couldn`t be tempting to them, I don`t know. Hopefully the program does the trick and they can advocate successfully for governmental recognition, or at least get a respectable job. When we were working with them, we did not know about these things, only that they were poor. They`re just normal kids, more respectful to us and each other than most American teenagers, in fact.

Then, we drove further out and did a 2.5 hr hike! It was through a mountainous area that looked like Ireland to me because it was really rocky but had greenery...short green stubs and a small yellow flower here or there. It`s a tourist destination for Limeños because Lima has zero amount of greenery. Furthermore, it`s also the only successful example in Perú of a community organizing itself to protect an area from environmental damage and manages the area itself. The community works together to train guides, farm snails that they sell to France and more. After finallly getting out into nature, we met in small groups with community members. My group talked about the micro-enterprises the community started and tried to come up with suggestions for how to improve its functioning. It was a really amazing and inspiring conversation. They were all women and so sweet. They got excited because one of us broke out the little knit cap she`s sewing for her host sister`s new baby. One of the women went back to her house so she could finish the little pom pom on top, although she never actually got around to doing it. Anyway, we got back 3.5 hrs after we were supposed to, but all was well as all is well right now...chao...

Woks, yuppies and over 5,000 plates served!

Lots and lots to tell, so little time to do it:

Going back a little bit, on Friday we had this eye-opening session on our own nutrition when we go to site in a few months. First, a current PC volunteer who has already done his two years told us of how he ate with his Andean host family for the first 3 months and ate exactly what they ate...potatoes and wheat soup for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He lost 26 pounds or something and was obviously severely malnourished and anemic. That was the worst case scenario. Then we heard from another volunteer from the same training class. He slowly incorporated vegetables into his diet, started his own little garden for a veggie source and introduced veggies into his community`s diet. Eventually he not only got almost every household in his town growing their own vegetable gardens and competing against each other for the largest vegetables, but he also got them all to adopt vegetarian diets and they wrote a cookbook with all these different healthy and well-balanced recipes using all ingredients that you can grow or find in markets in the sierra (mountains). So now I`m really determined to learn how to grow vegetables well. My own little ¨huerto urbano¨ I have growing in my house actually has all 6 plants sprouting!! I`m so excited and hopefully they don`t die thanks to the advice my parents gave me last night. My host mom is happy, too, because the previous volunteer`s mini-garden didn`t produce one bud.

On Saturday my host mom took me to Lima. She owns a complex there that she rents out. Most of the time I was just sitting around watching her do her business or buying glass. However, we ate lunch in ¨el barrio de los chinos,¨ Peru`s own Chinatown. Whoa, let me tell you, it was a strange experience. There was classical Chinese music blasting down the street (not the pop, thank goodness), Chinese people every once in a while who spoke Spanish, restaraunts serving a Peruvian version of dim sum, dang ta (egg custards)!...and then there were the supermarkets that sold woks, chopsticks, expensive mooncakes and statues of Buddha. I bought a Lee Kum Kee soy sauce/sesame oil (at least, I think it`s sesame oil...I can`t recognize the Chinese or the Spanish word for sesame), fen ce (the clear green bean noodles) and Vietnamese noodles. It`s so exciting! There is apparently a few million Chinese in Peru. They came over as indentured servants and just celebrated their 150 year anniversary in Peru. Well, I think it was 150 years.

Speaking of Chinese people, today we had a discussion about diversity in Peru. I learned that there is a commercial here where a little Peruvian boy is pulling back his eyes to make ¨Chinese eyes.¨ A current Asian volunteer was explaining that it`s just an accepted part of the culture and that it doesn`t have mean intentions. I`m not offended when people refer to me as ¨China¨ or ¨Chinita¨ because they call anyone by a physical description here. For example, if you`re fat they`ll call you ¨gorda,¨ and that`s just the way it is. That`s cool with me. However, I`m not sure how I`ll feel if little kids run up to me to make ¨Chinese eyes.¨ When I was little, the kids in the neighborhood would do that and I still remember how confused I was about why they were doing that. It infuriates me in retrospect and it will take a lot of patience and understanding to get through that kind of attention. I do believe that the intention isn`t harmful but it will be hard because it is so connected to my memories of the racist brats on my block that wouldn`t let me play with them.

Back to what I did on Saturday, after shopping in Lima for boring stuff, we went to Jockey Plaza. Think of a mall that belongs in a super rich suberb of the USA. That`s Jockey Plaza. There were all these expensive name brand stores like Armani and Tommy Hilfiger. Obviously, this doesn`t cater to the average Peruvian. I went with my host mother and a guy who works for her. As we sat down to eat some delicious and creamy ice cream, they joked about how they are dreaming of belonging in the mall. And that when we finished our ice creams, we would have to return to reality. What struck me most about the mall was how everyone with shopping bags in their hands were white or were super pale. The economic disparity between the rich and the poor here is extreme. To some, economic status also corresponds to the color of your skin. This type of discrimination is blatant. I learned during that same ice cream conversation that there is a discoteca (club) in a rich suburb of Lima that only lets light-skinned people in. The guy told me, ¨you can get in. I cannot. I`m too dark.¨ While I know this type of racism exists in the world, and maybe even in the US, it`s hard to stomach it now that I am the priveliged one and that it is so blatant.

OK, Pachamanca will have to wait. I have a birthday party to go to!

On my way to legs of steel

My community lies at the foot of the mountains. To get to the PC training center from here I have to climb up about 8 sets of stairs and walk uphill. It takes me about 20 minutes. I have one of the farthest walks of anyone else in my training group. Especially in the mornings and when I arrive at the training center, I feel like I got delt a bad deal. Many of you probably don`t know this, but I bought a new pair of black plastic frame glasses before I came, and I have worn them every day but once. When I arrive at the center, they are foggy and slide down my nose. I feel like a big dork and think, ¨I hate my walk!¨ (I`m not thinking in Spanish yet, apparently.) However, I will have legs of steel. Considering the fact that it is the only exercise I get besides for the 10 minutes of pushups and side bends I did yesterday, I should consider myself lucky. Plus, my host mom gives me just the right amount of food. Even though I usually buy some chocolate cookies to supplement my diet, I think I`m keeping thin and am super fit right now.

Other reasons why I really like my walk is that our twists and turns on the way to the center take me through very different neighborhoods. Some are nice and some are full of trash and rubble. We cross two bridges, and when we do, we can smell the algae, trash and polluted water below. The amount of trash in the low-volume rivers and along the steep river banks is astounding. Rivers are sometimes seen as an asset to a community for its aesthetic and spiritual purposes. However, these rivers are at the same time a garbage dump and a place to wash clothes for the people who live along the mountains. This happens despite the fact that there are garbage trucks that collect trash throughout the entire community, even up the mountains. There are even government employees who pick up trash along the streets, but not along the river, which would be difficult because of the rocks.

Today, we spent the day learning about various community analysis tools. One included walking around our communities to make observations. My group took this opportunity to see the rest of our community. First, we walked along the streets that we live on. There are very cute houses painted in different bright colors: blues, yellows (like the church), whites, pinks, oranges, greens. My house is a bit darker than lime green. There are sidewalks lined with greenery such as cacti, sparse desert trees and grass. The street outside my house is right next to the train tracks. The train is LOUD. Sometimes I feel like it is going to run over my house. Word has it that there is one conductor who likes to honk the damn horn before, during and after arriving here, non-stop. I can confirm that. He deserves to get fired. The wonderful thing about my street, though, is that along the train tracks the government tends to a little bit of grass, flowers and random trees that gets cut into the shapes of different animals. Some look like alpaca (a very important Peruvian animal like a llama), pigs and an anteater. There are pretty benches everywhere along this nice cement road for people to sit. It`s tranquil until the damn train comes.

So that`s where we live. But of course, there is a WHOLE lot more to our community. I didn`t realize how much more there was until we did our little analysis walk. We went with one girl`s host brother. We caught him playing pool in the middle of the day even though he is in his mid-twenties and is responsible for a child`s existence somewhere out there. Up the mountain we went, up through a narrow pathway lined by high brick walls, up alongside a flock of schoolchildren in their navy blue and white uniforms (skirts for girls, pants for boys, of course), up past a big hole of rubble where there was supposed to be a big supermarket but due to money issues, it`s now a big hole of rubble. And then we realized that this is a bustling town in itself, complete with lots of streets, stores, restaraunts, very nice houses, nice houses, poor houses, half-missing houses, scrap metal shacks, a school, a makeshift church, factories for beds, auto body shops and even a small plaza and a sports rink where they play fùtbol, of course. I used to look up the mountain and see maybe 5 rows of poor houses and no people. What a new world I found right outside my doorstep! As we climbed the loose, unpaved roads, the children stared eagerly, completely confused about who were were and why we were in their little community. Some kept staring shyly at us after we said our ¨Hola,¨ others squealed a little response back, and one courageous boy even stepped in front of me to ask me my name. If I were mayor of that town, the first thing I would work on was to pave the roads. There were many times I thought I was going to slip and then I would fall all the way down the mountain. I`m sure it gets more easy to maneuveur the longer you live there, but if you`re sick or you need to run, forget about it. Also, there are dangerous floods here when it rains called, ¨huaycos,¨ which are like a torrent of lava running down a volcano. The huaycos are a huge stream of viscous muddy water, rocks, big rocks, litter, roofs, kitchens, houses, cars, dogs, and sometimes even people. It has not rained here in 3 years. I guess that is both a blessing and a curse (since their underground water supply is drying up).

In summary, I had a completely exhausting day today. We walked to and from the center 3 times and also walked along a good chunk of my hidden community. I even started off the day doing a skit with a fellow trainee and a discussion with our group. We are the first two to have facilitated anything among the trainees, and I think it went relatively well.

Oh, and I got this insect bite on Thursday 5 inches above my ankle which turned out to be really odd. On Sunday, it looked like Lyme`s disease with the red rings and then yesterday, my ankle swelled up pretty badly. The nurse who was here to give us vaccinations told me it was infected and I should apply topical antibiotics. I called the doctor to confirm because I don´t like taking antibiotics. He told me to wait one day and if it got worse, it was an infection and I should go to Lima to get oral antibiotics. It looked awful before dinner as I was talking to my (real) mom on the phone about how I forgot to bring multi-vitamins, my ankle, gardening, my dog, my family and how I should write a book. After dinner, I took a garlic pill and I wondered if it looked better. After my shower, my host mom came from her sister`s yard with some plants she said would be good for my insect bite. She boiled it into a tea and poured it over my bite. Then she started to wrap the leaves around my bite and my ankle. Then, she broke out the gauze and masking tape and wrapped it around the leaves. That`s when I realized she expected me to sleep with leaves around my ankle. So I did, and it was cool. Either because of time, garlic pills or leaves, I am pretty much all better now. Once again, I am healthy. As a current volunteer told us, when you are in Peace Corps, that is a good definition for success.

I don´t know what I want

I am supposed to be in Lima now with my host mom. However, the director of the environment program didn't have time to interview me on Thursday so he had to do it today after lunch. Unfortunately, my host mom had been planning on our leaving right after lunch and had a bunch of errands to run and couldn´t wait for me. She felt worried about leaving me alone and I think I´m supposed to be at her sister´s house now, but I´m enjoying the independence. I am even going to be warming up leftovers myself, woohoo! So here I am, still in my town, and consoled by the fact that I get to take naps today, got chocolate and peanut butter candies from the environment program director, and can feel refreshed when I meet everyone else at 9:30, half an hour before bedtime, for a night out in a discoteca in Chosica.

So my interview was interesting and damn, I always forget to say things during interviews that are so important. The interview was supposed to let him know what I want to get out of my 2 year PC experience, where I will function well and other things to help him place me in a certain site. I told him about how I´m interested in international development in general and that I hate the cold. I think I threw in a ¨I´d really love to be near the ocean¨ in there but I don´t think I stressed it enough. The problem is that I think I´m pretty easygoing and can adapt well to anything. So he asked if I´d be ok in a city or a mid-sized town and I said yes, although I should have qualified that with a ¨as long as it´s next to the ocean¨. I wish I also specified that I don´t want to teach in classrooms and I really want to work to make a protected area successful or to work on a project related to income generation. Well, I get one more interview before he reveals his fate to us. What worries me the most is that he asked me if I want to be near other volunteers or by myself. I started on this long explanation about how I want to have little contact with other volunteers so I don´t have to hear them complain or watch them be culturally insensitive (so insensitive of me!)...then he interrupted me saying, ¨uh, but how will you do working as a team?¨ ¨Huh?¨ ¨If you have to work as a team with another volunteer, how will that make you feel?¨ ¨I can work as a team. Well, I´d rather not. Oh, it depends on the person.¨ So now I´m worried that he´ll pair me with someone else in my group that I don´t want to spend 2 years with, which is honestly most people. Not that I hate them all, but I just want to focus on the community and do things myself. He told me to keep who I would want to work with in mind for our next interview. Ahhh, what does that mean!? Last question he asked me was ¨Is there anything I should know in advance that might become a problem within the next two years, anything emotional, physical or the like?¨ I couldn´t really think of anything so I just said that if I really believe in something, I can be really stubborn. So he probably wrote ¨stubborn¨ down on his sheet of paper. Yup, I will admit I can be stubborn. And, well, if I turn out not to be so stubborn then he will be pleasantly surprised.

Today we only had training in the morning. We learned all about organic gardening! Since my dad comes from many generations of farmers, I am excited to learn the art. I wouldn´t say I will love gardening...I´m not exactly the most patient person... but I do want to know how to do it successfully. Some methods we learned to make natural pesticides were to lay out bowls of beer, put out empty bottles with water and sugar in it, spread ash on the leaves once a week, and to grind up ¨recoto¨ which is some really hot chili pepper here and use the juice to spray (I think) it on. We got a whole packet on organic gardening. There is a competition between small groups to grow the best gardens behind the training center. I´m not sure what we´re going to grow but our choices are spinach (yay), beets, carrots, cabbage and some Peruvian herbs. We will also be making our own organic fertilizer using organic compost, which we learned how to make today. If you use the crap from rabbit or guinea pig (which is a delicacy in Peru) you don´t even have to add any organic materials. That is the best crap to use in the countryside, since people there feed their leftover waste to animals. We also started ¨huertos urbanos,¨ or ¨urban gardens,¨ which is basically growing seeds in an old plastic bottle. I forget what I´m planting in mine. It might be radish or beet and some Peruvian herb. All I know is that I painted red fish and a blue swirl on it. It felt like I was in kindergarten again, but hopefully it will grow and I can eat it. I feel so hippie-ish now, but that´s ok, haha.