Cake is not meant to be eaten

I give Christmas 2.7 out of 5 stars. Not great, not bad, interesting, yet I would have preferred to be home by far. I woke up the morning of the 24th hoping for lots of Christmas spirit and cheer. Turns out that Reina went into Piura for her college classes as usual, another one of my host sisters had to work, my host brother worked as well, and the rest of the family did other routine-type stuff. So I was left reading alone in my room. After reading about how Jeffrey Sachs ended Bolivia´s hyperinflation and brought Poland´s socialist economy back into the world market, I was feeling a bit nerdy and alone. So I decided to do two things that make me happy: download pictures onto my flickr photo blog to remind myself of the beauty I´ve seen, and then hike/run through a farmland-lined road to exercise, enjoy nature and meet new people. It worked like a charm. I hiked farther than I have in the past and discovered another bend of the river where it is wider and full of ducks, herons and fish. I met a woman who says she`s there every day selling alcoholic chicha to farmers, who I was happy to meet not because she probably contributes to the prevalence of alcoholism in my town, but because I´ll probably see her regularly throughout my next two years worth of hike/jogs.

Then I got home and started doing crunches on my nice straw mat in my room. Reina came in and said, "Are you ready because we´re leaving now." "Now now or like in half an hour now?" "Now now." So I was like, crap, and ran to the shower to rinse off really quickly, dashed back into my room to change and was ready in 15 minutes. More than 4 hours later, after eating a juicy delicious mango, getting frustrated because the phone card company was severely malfunctioning so I couldn´t call my family and a really long nap, we finally left the house. I thought we were going to midnight mass and that was still what my family was implying. We went to a nearby town to a party that celebrated the baptism of two kids. We were there until 1:30AM. Oh well, I guess I still haven`t had a religious Christmas. Instead, I spent the night denying extremely drunk men a dance, dancing with respectable men of the family I already knew, eyeing a cake that we never ate, unsuccessfully aiming my pee into this little drainage hole that was in the so-called bathroom, and eating not so tasty food. Although the turkey wing I ate, that had been ripped off the body with my host aunt´s bare hands, was pretty yummy. I hear in NY my family was eating the tri-colored cake cookies that are oh so tasty, so I´m jealous. All in all, I definitely did some bonding with the extended family, especially with the females because we´d laugh at each other each time one of the repulsive drunk men would ask us to dance.

Then I spent two Vacation Days in Piura with 5 other volunteers from my group. We did almost nothing but eat soft serve ice cream sundaes, drink fruit juices, check our mail and pick up packages, talk about Christmas and our sites, swat at swarms of mosquitoes, call other volunteers on our cell phones, watch King Kong in a really nice theatre, and just really enjoy each other´s company. I hated King Kong. I liked the middle part that was very Lord of the Rings-ish, and I love Jack Black. However, 1) It was extremely racist, 2) It makes me hate people, 3) King Kong dies and no one warned me.

So I´m back in my town, back to my counterpart asking me to do 5 non-logical things at once, including translating an article from the Economist about Chile, Peru and mining (how do you say foreign exchange in Spanish?). All in all, it´s kind of nice to be back. If anything, because I was getting out-of-site guilt, which I hear is inevitable. And especially because I´m totally dry on money.

Saying Bye to Childhood Memories

Well, yesterday was quite an interesting day. My 19-year old host sister is this year´s Queen of the municipality (you know, like she won the beauty pageant). For that, she gets a code name in this blog: "Reina". So as part of her charitable duties, Reina was in charge of hosting a chocolatada yesterday. A chocolatada is when all the kids in the neighborhood bring their own cup for a scoop of hot chocolate and receive a slice of panetón and a brand new toy. My host family has been buying little plastic toys for days now but they were still worried that they would run out. People around here have on average 5 kids per family, but it´s not too rare to have a family with 10 kids. In other words, there´s a LOT of kids who need toys.

I came back an hour before showtime to help out. I found my host mom in the kitchen with this HUGE vat of water with cloves and cinnamon sticks in it. I helped her throw in 4 bags of powdered chocolate mix, 14 pints of milk and more than a bucket of sugar. Never again will I use a can opener. All you need is a big kitchen knife to pound two slits into the top of the can, and pour. We also used what I think was the stick end of a mop to stir it. I felt like a witch, aka very cool, stirring this big vat of chocolate with a huge old stick. Then I helped slice the panetón and stick it into individual baggies with my hands. So maybe I failed in making it a perfectly sanitary and environmentally friendly operation. Next year...

Free presents and food is something nobody can pass up. By the time we started, the whole street was full of kids with their moms or grandpas. During training, we hosted 2 buffets for our Peruvian host families. There we had witnessed the feeding frenzy of the Peruvians that made us all realize why in this culture the hosts serve their guests the portions rather than allow them to help themselves. And oh boy, I got to witness it again. Kids were crowding the door, pushing and shoving, reminding me of my younger days in the mosh pits at Warped Tour. A line was seriously out of the question. I swear one little girl was about to get shoved into the vat of hot chocolate. Eventually my host family had to admit to the kids that there are no more toys left. And then I remembered that I had brought a little baggie from home full of my cheap jewelery and trinkets from childhood. I ran upstairs to retrieve this, hoping at least some more of the niñas could get a Christmas present. I handed it to Reina and she took it, smiling. As I watched her give away my fake Mardi Gras beads, I felt a mad rush of people crowding me. The women of the extended family and my host sisters came up from behind and took the baggie away from Reina. They excitedly grabbed at the jewelery. I watched them try on my plastic rainbow rings that made me feel cool, my teddy bear ring with a heart carved into it that I never really liked anyhow, the first piece of jewelery I ever picked out for myself that my dad bought for me at a Chinese culture fair, a cheap silver necklace with fake white and blue gemstones that I ordered from my sister´s high school fundraiser, my silver butterfly-shaped bobby pins that reminded me of summer camp with Mary and Parijat, my clay necklace with a daisy painted onto it that I bought from Claire´s Accessories, a yellow My Little Pony charm that I used to play with, and more memories of my childhood. One by one, the ladies smiled their thanks at me, admiring their new prizes displayed on their fingers like diamond wedding rings. I finally sat down and drank some hot chocolate, feeling more surprised than annoyed. These were the jewelery pieces of my childhood. As in I wouldn´t wear them anymore. I brought them to Perú because otherwise I would have thrown them in the garbage during house cleaning. Rather than send more things to the landfill, I had figured I could reuse them to make little girls who lack money smile. Never would I have imagined that I would be seeing them on the grown-up fingers of my extended host family, to be reminded of these childhood memories day after day.

In the end, I´m happy that my jewelery was able to bring joy to others. Next year, maybe I´ll have mom send me more crap that we have in piles at home.

Christmas guilt

"I don't believe in charity. I believe in solidarity.
Charity is so vertical. It goes from the top to the bottom.
Solidarity is horizontal. It respects the other person.
I have a lot to learn from other people."
~ Eduardo Galeano

I read this quote at the bottom of a friend´s e-mail (sup marcia) and it made me think...of the conversation I had this morning with my host mom. "Do the volunteers from Cuerpo de Paz have a canasta?" Meaning, will you guys be giving away panetón, chocolate and presents to children in Piura. Nope, we´re not doing that. In fact, I think I have just enough money to get through the month before my next payday. I hope. I´m broke, I implied to my host mom. Nevertheless, it´s probably more than some people have in these communities. I feel a lot of pressure to give out presents. I feel that if I don´t, people will take me for an uncharitable, stingy Scrooge. Aren´t I here to help the community, after all? Hopefully, physically helping out with these events will be enough. But I´m still going to feel guilty. Maybe next year, I told my host mom, we´ll do a canasta.

So even though I don´t believe in charity in the US because of the impersonal, indirect and unsustainable nature of charity, maybe I´ll dabble in it here as I´m seeing the faces of these cute snot-nosed kids and their big eager eyes staring at all the toys. And then at me.

it´s christmas time, a desperate time of year

La Navidad is in 5 days. That means only 5 more days left to sell as many candies, street food, wallets, burned dvds, soda, gum, or ice cream as you can. 5 more days left until the deadline of your assignment: to buy panetón for your family to eat, chocolate and milk to drink, and presents for the children.

I´ve been to Piura, the City, way too often these days. The smell of desperation permeates the sun-baked air. It´s a stifling reminder of the poverty surrounding me. At a time when street kids should be excitedly writing letters to Santa, they are knocking on my taxi window with their little boxes of gum to sell. Every time I go, the choking sensation feels worse. More people tapping on my shoulder, more items shoved in the foreigner´s face, more and more desperation confronting me. How different it would feel if I were in the United States.

I´m scared to go back to Piura. In the newspapers, I read about the increase of robberies, shootings, threats, fires, and other sensationalist items that are tricking me into thinking the world is a lot crueller than it really is.

At 4:30PM on Saturday, I boarded a bus after asking the guy who hustles customers and collects money (the cobrador) whether it´s going to Sechura. He hustled me on board. As we left, I was engrossed in my first Newsweek magazine that I get for free from Peace Corps. I excitedly read about Evo Morales, Bolivia´s future president. I am excited -- Latin America´s first 100% indigenous president with a rational-sounding socialist slant. 45 minutes later, I look up and I´m in Sullana. Wrong way. "Te engañó," says my host family. "He deceived you." All for a measly S/.1.50. The friendly couple sitting in front of me hustle me onto a return bus right after I get off.

Waiting for the RIGHT bus at 6:15 in Piura, I met a girl who lives in my municipality. She told me she´s 14 but she seems more like 12. Tiny, probably malnourished. She asks me question after question, the standard questions everyone asks me when we first meet, but more. She seems smart. She is. On the crowded bus ride that we finally catch after waiting for 40 minutes, I hear the cobrador argue with the people in the back that the fare is S/.3.00, not 1. I look back, and realize he´s arguing with my new little friend, completely hidden behind the huge floral funeral wreath that belongs to the old woman next to her. The cobrador is unable to convince her to cough up 2 more soles. I feel embarrassed for her, and want to pay the remaining 2. It´s in my pocket. But I´m held back by the advice we received during training: once you start acting as a sugar daddy, people won´t stop. You´re not here to help people with your money. We get off the bus together, me and my smart little friend. The cobrador gets our stuff off the roof and still argues with her about the remaining 2/3 of her fare. I guess I could have paid then. That night, I debated this until I fell asleep. But it´s one of those split-second decisions you´re forced to make either because of how fast it happens or because of your deliberate stubborn decision to not intervene. Whichever you choose to believe. Whichever makes you feel less guilty.

i can see you...

I have been watching my dad and, sometimes, the side of my mom´s mouth for about an hour now. Webcams are a wonderful thing, even though they give me a twinge of homesickness. It´s really cute to just watch your dad blink for about an hour...and once in a while look really confused. We would be talking but the connection is staticky. I can hear their voices but can´t make out what they´re saying. I´m just really happy that they can still call me, so I can have a normal phone conversation with them. And still be able to verify that the mask and snorkel they´re sending me are the right ones.

"Alcohol is your enemy, God is your creator"

Today the Municipality marched through the streets along with hundreds of little schoolkids in uniform against alcoholism, and I ran along with them for more than an hour under the cruel desert sun. Along the way, we tried our best to avoid the horse or donkey poop in various stages of freshness or decay as farmers shooed their little flocks of sheep out of the way. Mototaxis drove by us with kids standing on the back holding up more signs that said "Avoid alcohol and drugs, remember God." This tells you two things:

1) Alcoholism is a problem in my town. My host family tells me that kids as young as 13 are alcoholics. They catch fish, sell their fish to a middle man and then use the money for Cristal (Peruvian beer), not for their family or for food.

2) The Municipality and the community as a whole are very organized and will confront problems with dynamic solutions. I´m always impressed at how many activities the Municipality is responsible for and how well they understand the problems they face. The question is whether their solutions are effective. That´s where I hope to come in, as far as environmental conservation is concerned.

Now I know that my sunscreen rocks. It was also a good time to hang out with the other people at the municipality in a casual setting. I also met some more employees, so that made my week much better. Then afterwards, I had a cold one (Inca Kola, not beer!) at the local restaraunt with a few of them...and they invited me to try ceviche for the first time! Ceviche is raw fish, which is awesome because it´s like I´m eating sushi but not. My stomach feels fine right now, so I think it was clean. It´s a hit or miss dish. Today, it was a hit!

Then during lunch, a woman who works in the community with the local branch of an international development NGO, CARE, walked in and had lunch with me by chance. They have been working on water projects as well as trainings on hygiene and conservation. Their goals reflect my own, so it was very lucky for me that she popped in. She told me that the caseríos (see 2 entries ago) have water 2 hours a day, but that in reality, the quantity of water is sufficient. The problem is that there is a lot of water wasted through people washing their patios, leaving the faucet running, or not fixing leaks. Their solution has been to first make sure every house has a water meter so everyone knows how much water they´re using. Then, the municipality is going to privatize the water system so that people will have to pay for their water. In various communities worldwide, privatization has been hurtful to the water users in the past, cutting off their access to water completely or making them pay a good chunk of their salary for water use. However, if the charges and methodology of payment are fair, in this case, the results might be positive. It´ll be really interesting to see what happens. Another happy thing about my conversation with her: I understood the majority of what she said and was able to sound somewhat intelligent as I spoke.

Anyway, I give this day 4 out of 5 stars.

What I have been learning about myself

- My body can adapt so that not only am I eating beef and chicken multiple times every day, sometimes enjoying it, and not getting sick, but I am also drinking a full glass of canned milk every morning. Despite some gas, it´s not that bad. I guess I´m not lactose intolerant after all.

- I will drink my glass of mango juice even though I already found 2 sugar ants in it and there are surely more on the bottom.

- I cannot work as someone´s secretary. My counterpart is always focused on what HE needs to get done so I end up getting commanded to make copies, capitalize that, go print it out, etc. and I´m getting pretty fed up with being bossed around like that. Especially since I´m confused about the commands either because I don´t know why I´m doing something or because I don´t understand what he´s saying. I have never been in a work environment where I was doing something without understanding why I´m doing it. It´s mindless and I´ve been trained my whole life to think and question everything. It goes against who I am as a person. I´m not used to this ¨right hand man¨ crap and it´s not what I expected nor what I should be doing as a PCV. Anyhow, that has just been during the creation of the program pamphlet. When that´s done, hopefully things will change.

- I miss dancing. I included a play in the program called "Las Aventuras de la Flamenquita," or "The Adventures of the Little Flamingo" and I have to write it still. It´s going to be a play about mangroves and why kids shouldn´t throw trash in the street. I have visions of myself dancing around in a flamingo costume, leaping and doing arabesques for this play. But no, I´m not writing a dance sequence into it. Sorry to disappoint you.

- I can´t be around people with high blood pressure too often. I just can´t deal with my counterpart´s ¨rush rush rush¨ attitude. It stems from the fact that he is very determined to do his job well but he´s always seeming rushed and it stresses me out. I like to be laid back, especially if there´s absolutely NO reason to rush. What´s worse is that his attitude makes him speak really fast so I often have no idea what he´s saying. Isn´t the American the one who´s supposed to be rushing people!?

Today for the first time in my life, I washed my jeans by hand. I wonder if they´ll feel soapy afterwards.

Church-going China

OK, I am writing completely distracted because I have a little crowd of onlookers watching me type. So excuse any incoherence.

This morning I woke up and went to Catholic church with my host mom and little sister (well, she has 19 years). Two observations: 1) There was a doberman hanging out in church, lying around, walking back and forth, strolling in and out. Nobody shooed it away, even when it was blocking their way. Dogs in church. Ah, only in Perú. 2) There were no Bibles. I´m pretty sure everyone has a Bible at home, but it was neither provided by the Church nor did they bring it. I don´t know if this is normal in the States, but I´m pretty sure every single church I´ve ever been in has had Bibles behind the benches. I don´t know why this surprised me so much. Anyway, I think I am going to go to church every once in a while just because it´s a huge gathering of people and I want to be seen and meet the community however I can. I´m definitely going to Christmas service, which starts at midnight, by the way. And then they visit family, drink hot chocolate milk and eat ¨panetón,¨ which is this strange-tasting bread with dried fruit in it. However, I´m just praying they don´t try to convert me or baptize me or something. I kind of feel like a fraud in there, but it is interesting to witness. And I think I was only there for an hour.

Yesterday I was in the city of Piura shopping for more stuff for my room and debriefing the week with Prima and the environment volunteer near me who we will call ¨Cactus¨ because she is in the desert desert. Cactus said the following on the subject of regional accents, that I would like to share: ¨I feel like we were learning English from Australians and now we´re living in the Deep South.¨ hahaha. Actually, I would liken Limeña Spanish more to the Brits and Piuran Spanish to the Irish. Peruvians say that Piurans sing when they speak. It just struck me today that yes, they really do ¨sing¨ and it´s just like the Irish. Like the sailor on the Simpsons.

Culture Nudge: we were watching Woody Woodpecker today on TV. Dubbed in Spanish, of course. I told my host dad and 19-year old sister that I used to watch this when I was a kid. My host dad sort of defended adults watching cartoons. He said it´s for destressing. And that sick people should watch this because you feel more like a child. That´s a pretty medically philosophical view of cartoons, huh?

Speaking of host families, my host parents call me ¨China¨ (pronounced ¨CHEE-nah¨). I´m positive they know my real name but they still call me that. It´s pretty funny. So for example, 40 minutes after I´ve been lying in bed the other night, my host mom pops her head into my door-less room and shouts unabashedly, ¨China, here, you need a blanket!¨ And then she throws me a thin fleece blanket despite the 80 degrees in my room. On the other hand, my host sisters call me ¨Ca-roh-leen-eh¨ and I was thinking this was really cute and funny until the other day when I realized they were pronouncing Caroline in Spanish. So I guess I´m getting Caroline even in the other hemisphere.

I went on a two hour walk the other day. I started going down this road, wondering where it would take me. A girl holding her sweater over her head to protect her from the sun told me it was to a caserío, which is a rural population center. As far as I can tell, caseríos are impoverished areas where people work on farms and do other countryside-type economic activities. By living in a caserío, you can take advantage of the opportunities and advantages that come with living near a richer urban area, such as medical posts and customers. It took me about 40 minutes to reach this caserío, which is a part of my municipality. In the future, I might work with those people who stared at me in intimidating crowds. As I strolled peacefully along, I was passed by baffled farmers in donkey carts with corn husks in tow, and by the ubiquitous ¨mototaxis¨ which are motorcycles with a tricycle-like attachment where passengers sit. Besides great exercise, it was spiritually uplifting. I thought I was in a drab city. But the drab city part is a lot smaller than I thought and is surrounded by vast landscapes of farms and desert. Even though the living conditions are poor, my site is beautiful in its simplicity and proximity to nature. I even saw herons patiently waiting in the rice fields. I´m pretty content right now...

(I WROTE THIS ON DECEMBER 7 BUT THEN HAD COMP PROBLEMS)

Today was a pretty good day for me. My counterpart and I stayed in the Municipality organizing the program for the 7th Annual Mangrove Festival. Using old programs as a guide, we arranged a schedule of events. To my surprise, all the educational events were geared towards the academic and professional crowd. For the general public there were fútbol (soccer) tournaments, volleyball, traditional dance demonstrations, and other cultural things. I easily convinced my counterpart that after the bicycle race to the mangroves, since everyone was going to be at the mangroves, we should provide nature walks to the general public. So I might be giving a guided tour. I´m also going to try to grab other PC volunteers to my site so we can do more kid-oriented, FUN educational activities like plays, environmental relay races, art contests and more. January is their school vacation time, so they have nothing to do besides come to our events. Plus, he wants Prima to come to help give a health talk and I definitely have some in mind that are geared towards mothers and that are related to our environment. He was also really into the idea of offering an organic agriculture or lombricultura (farming using fertilizers from worms) demonstration for the many farmers in the area. So we´ll see which other volunteers I can get to come so we can do a lot of different, more practical activities that target a much more diverse audience than in the past. Today was a great example of how thinking ¨outside the box¨ is just something Peruvians don´t do very often. My counterpart even wanted me to type up the program exactly as they had done it in the past. I, the incorrigible rebel that I am, probably won´t listen to him, and have already made minor changes that make the program easier to read. Ah, the little rebellious changes one can make here. There were a lot of culture shocks for me today...such as the fact that my counterpart wants to set off firecrackers at 6AM on the first day to announce the beginning of the Festival. And that he wants to do a trash clean-up that starts at 8:30AM.

If all goes well, it should be a really great introduction of Cuerpo de Paz volunteers to the general public! It should also be fun reuniting everyone to work on activities. I guess I have a lot of work to do...and a ton of laundry waiting for me at home. Seeya!

Finally, The Journey Begins

Well, this is the moment that I have been waiting for...getting out of training and into my site! I am feeling pretty tranquil despite all the changes that just happened. It was very sad leaving the crew. Even though we didn´t all grow to become the best of buddies, we all got used to seeing each other every day and having 31 other people to vent to or squeal to or just talk to in a comfortable tongue.

We ¨swore-in¨ on Friday, December 2nd. The second-in-command from the US Embassy office was present and had us repeat the oath after her. Maybe we should´ve read over the oath beforehand because she said the really long sentences without pause. I´m pretty positive I didn´t say half the oath just because I had no idea what it was, and I wasn´t the only one confused. We sounded pretty terrible. Anyway, that made it all seem anti-climatic.

After taking more pictures than I did on my graduation from Michigan, we parted from our host families with much fewer tears than expected, and then got our drink on. We arrived in Lima after getting mooned at least 3 times by fellow volunteers in other buses. We wreaked havoc in the hostel, especially after we started to get our CELL PHONES. Yes, you enter Peace Corps with romantic thoughts of not wanting internet or cell phone, but after 10 weeks of training, you leave all that idealism behind. BTW, incoming international calls are free for me on my cute little Nokia phone that can double as a flashlight. I can also call any Volunteer or any staff member for free since we´re all on the Peruvian equivalent of the Verizon ¨In Plan¨. We´ve already used it for those silly ridiculous reasons, like finding each other in Piura´s gigantic market even though we would´ve found each other after 2 minutes of searching, and calling each other from different departments to tell someone we found yogurt lollipops in the supermarket.

Our last night together, we of course went out to have some fun. Everyone else´s enthusiasm died down pretty quickly however, because everyone had been up packing really late, and drinking early means getting tired early. Well, I was a trooper and was one of the last to leave. That meant I got to experience the most bizarre bar sighting ever. On my way to the restroom around 3AM, this white American woman gets in my face. She is about 45-years old, all smiles, short and fat, wearing a feathery faux-fur overcoat despite being in a hot bar, makeup neatly arranged on her sweaty dark face, circular wire-rimmed glasses, short and crazy hair. ¨Do you speak Spanish?!¨ she yells to me, gripping my arm tightly. ¨Great, I´d like you to meet Armando.¨ Then I see Armando. He is wearing a black velvet costume with red velvet trimmings more appropriate on the stage of a Shakespearean play. Looking down, I see bubble shorts that end in black leggings. What the hell is this, I´m thinking. ¨Armando just became a lawyer. He is very, very smart and he is a very nice boy. He is also (she bend in closer to tell me this juicy secret)...very, very rich. His father is the head of the police of Perú. He needs someone to accompany him. Talk to him!¨ Then I get thrust closer to my real life Bill and Ted´s Excellent Adventure experience. I can´t get the thought out of my head that went like ¨oh, this is what the Incas must have felt when the Spanish conquistadores arrived to their tropical climate in full body armor.¨ Anyhow, I was way to scared of Armando and the rest of his newly minted lawyer buddies/Shakespeare cavalry to entertain him beyond a few sentences. Me and another Piura friend left pretty soon after, hauling back two incredibly drunk girls with us and one incredibly drunk guy. A classic ending to training.

Anyhow, from our group, Perú 6, the new volunteers who will live in Piura include 5 girls, 0 boys...3 in health, 2 of us in environment. Yesterday and the day before, we went on the most grown-up shopping trip of my life...we bought mattresses and bed sheets and tupperware. I still need to buy a bed frame and a nice pillow.

Prima (health) lives very close to me and my counterpart gave her a ride home yesterday when he picked me up in the Municipality truck, even though it was out of the way. She is living in very impoverished conditions, although she does have a toilet rather than a latrine or nothing at all. As we entered her town, we were enveloped in smoke that came from the trash burning in the ditches. Prima told me that was also the community ¨toilet.¨ There are no paved roads and donkeys everywhere. My counterpart commented to me as we left her, ¨she has a lot of work to do. That´s a very poor area.¨ I responded by pointing out the eager crowd of smiling kids that gathered around us as we dropped her off and the warmth of her host mother as she welcomed me to return. ¨That warmth makes living in harsh conditions worth more than living in luxury,¨ I responded. He agreed.

Today I accompanied my counterpart to three different meetings in which I was pretty much useless and just sat there, listening. I guess I don´t so much mind but I do wish I understood more of what was going on. I´m sure it´ll get better...we´re coordinating a 2-day workshop on Valuing International Environmental Goods and Services of Protected Areas and Ecosystems. We have someone from the Economics Department of the University of Piura coming as well as someone from the governmental branch in charge of protected areas. That´s all fine but I can´t wait to get my hands dirty with something less academic that targets community members rather than the professional community of Piura. I´ll just have to be patient...well, I better go. I have a lot of people to meet!!

My New Contact Info

Carolyn Hwang
Cuerpo de Paz
Casilla Postal No. 132
Serpost Piura
Piura, Perú

- Please do not send packages over 1.1 lbs or else I have to pay lots of money. Books are delivered without problems, however.
- For packages, on the customs form only write ¨gifts¨ that are valued under ¨$100¨...and never ¨used clothes¨ since there are a lot of people selling used clothes from the US as a business here. They´ll make me pay lots of money.
- If you send me expensive technology or electronics they´ll make me pay lots of money. So don´t do that please.
- The slowest month for the post office is Dec 1 - Dec 31st.
- Sometimes packages get lost. :o(

And that´s everything I learned about mail the other day. Today is ¨swearing-in day¨ which means I get to swear that I will protect my country against all enemies, both domestic and foreign so help me God. This is the part of service that almost prevented me from signing up for Peace Corps...that language makes me very uncomfortable. However, I´m not going to say ¨so help me God¨ today and I crossed out that line on the pledge I had to sign, and it seems to be ok with the Man.

We have to sing the national anthem. I realized the other week that I don´t actually know all the lyrics to it. Nor do I know what ¨ramparts¨ mean and neither did the other handful of volunteers I asked. Anyone got a clue?

Well today we spend the night in Lima, tomorrow night we start traveling to Piura and then I have half a day to find a bed so I can move in on Monday. I´m excited and nervous but most of all, just open minded and eager for what lies ahead....my number one goal is to begin developing ¨confianza¨ with my family. ¨Confianza¨ means trust, and it´s an important concept in Perú. Without confianza, nobody will open up to you, which makes it essential if you want to get anything done. But I really hope to develop a trusting, positive environment in my house where I am seen as part of the family. It´s more important than anything else. I think it will take work since I´m going to the coast and not to the Sierra. We´ll see!