Catching Up

This weekend is Fiestas Patrias (Independence Day) in Perú as well as the change in government. I´m anticipating a big weekend so I thought I better post an update before I forget everything that has happened. My host family was going to take me up the coast to a city called Trujillo to visit one of their old volunteers, but now another one is coming to Lima for the weekend so they´re going to stay here. A friend of mine is going up to this town in the mountains where there are pre-Incan ruins and he invited a bunch of us from the group. I´ve heard it´s really beautiful and extremely cold, but I´m really excited to go.

For those of you who don´t know much about Peruvian politics (don´t worry, I didn´t know anything before I came), the new president who will take office on July 28th is Alan García. He was actually president of Perú from 1985-1990 and left the country in political and economic turmiol. However, from what I´ve learned from talking with other Peruvians, there is a lot of hope that things will be better this time. He was only 35 the last time he was president so many people think he is much wiser now and has more experience under his belt to be a better leader of their country. I have also heard that he was better than the other candidate, though that is up for debate. The first election was too close to call so they had a run off with only two candidates. Everyone knew that Garcia wouldn´t win by himself so many political alianzes formed to help him come out over Ollanta (the other candidate). I believe the other candidate used to be (or maybe still is) part of the military. Many people think he had some very good ideas, but he was also very aggressive in his messages (especially of Nationalism) to the point that many people found him to be too violent and were scared of electing him. On the other hand, I´ve heard that Garcia is very charismatic and that´s probably why he won. They say he has an incredible manner of speaking and that he can talk about any subject and sound like an expert. They said his speeches can move mountains. He also has much whiter skin than Ollanta, which unfortunately, plays a major role in the elections down here. So, from what I´ve heard (and understood) from my conversations with Peruvians, they all are just praying things are much better this time around. They say Peruvians have a bad memory and for that reason re-elect previously bad leaders. Anyway, this should be an interesting weekend and I´m curious to see how it all unfolds.

So, back to the bubble that I live in called Peace Corps training, things have been busy as always. We had our second round of Spanish interviews and I have moved up a level. I am now in the Advanced Low class so I was really happy about that. I hadn´t really felt like I had improved that much until I got into my interview and realized how much easier the conversation flowed compared to my first interview. We also had an interview with one of the training directors to talk about our progress thus far. I thought they were going to tell me I need to participate more in group settings or give me some other suggestions of things I need to work on, but they didn´t say anything negative or anything I need to work on so I was really happy. It was definitely reassuring since I often doubt myself and my abilities. It´s all just so overwhelming at times that it´s hard to keep a positive attitude all the time.

One of the best things about moving up in Spanish is that we get to go on more outings into the community to talk to people on the street. The other day we went into Chosica and had to ask people about how Peruvians celebrate Fiestas Patrias. Of course I chose the crazy lady to talk to. I kept trying to ask her about it and all she wanted to know was where I was from, what I´m doing here, and how long I´ll be here. In the beginning I didn´t mind because everyone is curious to know about the gringos and I expect that. However, she continued to ask me the same three questions for the next 10 minutes. Everytime I tried to turn the conversation to Fiestas Patrias, she just thought I was trying to tell her that I´m only going to be here in Perú for the holidays. So once again, I had to explain that I´d be living here for two years and the cycle of questions started again. She told me she wanted to talk to me some more and asked if I could come to her house. I told her no so she asked if I could give her my address so she could come to my house. I kept saying no because I´m really busy, but she would not let me go. I finally told her I would look for her another day when I come to Chosica because she´s in the main park everyday from 7 am to 2 pm. While I was meeting with my group, she came over and kept telling me she needed to talk to me and find out exactly what day and time I´d be back. I just told her I had to leave and went to the bus. Of course that didn´t work though and she followed me to the bus and kept telling the teachers that she needed to talk to me for a minute before we left. Oh boy.

So today my Spanish class went to Chosica again. We split up into groups again to talk to people, but I was constantly on the lookout for her so I could avoid her. After our first little 20 minute assignment, we were back at the bus talking and there she is, about 10 feet away. My friend Josh blocked me while we ran away to go talk to more people. I honestly felt like I was running away from the Paparazzi. I turned back after we ran away to see if she was following us and noticed that she wasn´t, but she was standing at the bus by now, talking to the driver, Jimmy (he´s Peruvian). When I got back to the bus about 20 minutes later, Jimmy told me I needed to get in the bus right away because we had to drive around the block and park on a side street to talk because this lady won´t leave without talking to me. I got right in the bus, but before we could drive away, she had come around to the other side (where I was sitting), reached in the window, and tapped me on my shoulder to ask me when I was going to go to her house and when I´d be back to talk! I´m sure she´s innocent and just lonely because she´s older, but I know if I go to her house, that will not be the end of it and it´ll just keep getting worse. How do I always meet people like this? By the way, she is also known as the "relationship police" in our group because she walks around the park with a whistle and goes up to any couple sitting on a bench and blows her whistle at them (if they´re kissing or even just cuddling) about 3 feet from their faces until they stop!

Another funny experience from Spanish class is that we tried to make pizza the other day. We were learning about things in the kitchen so we decided to make pizza. We couldn´t find mozzerella cheese anywhere in Chosica so we finally went into a pizzeria and asked where we could buy some. After much debate, they decided to sell us some of theirs and we got two big balls of cheese. Haha. The next day we had class at my friend Erin´s house and we tried to make Hawaiian pizza. However, Erin´s host mom didn´t know how to use her oven (they rarely use their ovens for anything here - Hana has never seen her mom use it in the month that we´ve been here) so it took us at least an hour and a half to cook the pizza. We would turn it on and think that it was baking, but then we´d open the oven to check on it and realize there was no hot air inside and the oven had shut off somehow. This continued for 1.5 hours so we finally just ate it even though it was still kind of raw in the middle. It wasn´t very good at all because we had tried to make our own pizza dough, but only used flour and water. It was actually pretty gross, but really funny at the same time. It was my last day of class with my Spanish teacher, Isabel, so I was really sad because I love her and don´t want to have a new teacher. After we ate our pizza we watched a Peruvian movie. It was good, but really sad (hard to understand since it was all in Spanish, but I got the gist of it).

I better have a successful cooking experience soon or I´m going to loose all of the faith I had in myself of being a good cook. Tomorrow Hana and I are making soft tacos for my family. I learned how to make fresh tortillas from scratch from my friend Brent on Saturday and they were delicious. I´m not going to lie, they definitely ranked right up there with Cactus Cantina and some of the best places in San Antonio! I also made delicious guacamole to go along with them and brought them to this BBQ we had on Saturday. Between the tortillas and guacamole that Lindsay and I brought, and the huge bag of animal crackers that Hana brought, we were the life of the party I think! Hana also brought her frisbee which was a big hit. I attempted to toss the disc with her and some other people and it was hillarious. I got pretty good at catching it, but throwing was a whole other story. Giff would have been embarassed because I was pretty horrible. It was really funny though. What was even funnier was when Hana tried to throw it really long and it landed on some lady´s balcony! Haha. Hana is really good though so don´t get the wrong idea. The BBQ was really fun and delicious. I call one of the girls in our group Betty Crocker because she is always making something amazing from scratch. She made 4 homemade pies for our 4th of July celebration and has been making crazy stir frys, curry dishes, and chocolate chip cookies at home. She was sort of in charge of the food for the BBQ and made plum salsa along with all of these great marinades for chicken. The food was all really good, but a lot of people ended up getting sick this weekend and the doctor thinks it was something at the BBQ. Mind you, our "BBQ" was the tiniest little raised fire pit that we put a big pan over. Interesting, but we adapted.

Oh my gosh the dogs outside are barking up a storm. There are stray dogs everywhere that all look like they are dying and they all bark for hours on end. One of the guys in our group actually got bit by a dog the other day! Apparently the dog bit 3 people in one day, but they´re still not going to put it to sleep. I figured it was a stray dog, but he told me that it has an owner and the guy is just really stubborn. Someone tried to poison the dog, but the wrong dog (another volunteer´s dog) drank the poison and almost died!

My friends and I have started taking these Afro-Peruvian dance classes on Tuesday and Thursday nights. They are only an hour long and cost 1 sol (about $0.30), but they are so much fun. I probably burn more calories laughing at myself than actually dancing, but that´s okay. Our teacher is this guy in his mid-40s with a huge belly, but he was way more rhythm than all of us combined and he loves teaching us. It´s a lot of fun and if I keep going, I´ll probably be an expert by the time I leave here - yeah right! Oh yeah, the classes are held on the roof of one of the schools nearby. Part of the roof has clothes lines hanging across it so you have to be careful not to cut your head off because it gets dark half way through class and it´s impossible to see them.

On Monday night I went to a "gym" with my friend Sarah to go to these two exercise classes. The gym was pretty old with really old school equipment. There were hard wood floors throughout the whole place and tons of body builder pictures from the 80s and early 90s hanging on the walls. It made me realize how much I take gyms for granted back home. Even the crappiest gym I´ve been to at home would be state of the art compared to this one. The ways the floors creeked and the small little rooms with only a few machines in each room sort of reminded me of an old library in a wierd way. Anyway, the first class we took was dance. There was no instruction whatsoever in the moves. There was a teacher and everyone did what the teacher was doing, but Sarah and were the only ones who had no clue how to do the dances. Luckily it was crowded enough in there that I couldn´t see myself in the mirror most of the time, but when I did, it was hideous. The teacher was really nice though and tried to come over to us for the really complicated steps so we could watch her more easily. I don´t know that it worked, but it was nice. We were clearly the gringas with NO rhythm at all. I did recognize a few of the moves from my dance classes with Daniel, but we did them about 100 times faster in this class. By the end of the class, my brain hurt from trying to figure out how they moved their bodies in ways I can´t even imagine. I didn´t even know your body could move in so many different directions at one time. It was mentally and physically exhausting, but fun.

The next class was supposed to be Step so I was really excited in the beginning because I know how to do Step. However, about two minutes into the class, she started throwing in these crazy dance moves, but didn´t break any of them down. I tried so hard to figure out what they were doing, but I couldn´t get any of the combinations and neither could Sarah. It was really frustrating because we´ve both taken a lot of Step classes before and are both good at picking up the combinations, but this was impossible. The teacher also completely ignored us the whole time until the very end when we finally gave up and started doing our own thing. She came over to tell us to be careful not to hurt our knees. Thanks for the advice, but it´s a little overdue since I just killed myself trying to figure out how to do all of your routines. Sarah told me that when I looked over at her and just saw her standing on top of her step, it was because she was paralized with laugher watching me trying my hardest to figure out what we were doing and still not even coming close to getting it. It was really frustrating and not very much fun at all. It didn´t help our knees that it was a hard wood floor and the steps were just big huge blocks of wood also. Oh well. It was quite the experience (but not one I´d like to repeat). I´ll stick to my at home workouts and dance classes with Daniel.

Oh boy I´ve already said so much and there is so much more to report. I had an awesome experience last week with this girl Rosemary that I´m doing a project with. She is 19 and Peruvian (another volunteer´s host sister) and we meet once a week just to hang out so we can learn something from one another about our cultures and form a friendship. Our first meeting was pretty awkward because she felt like it was an interview and it seemed really formal even though it´s not supposed to be. She also brought this guy along whom she didn´t introduce to me and he just sat there the whole time without saying a word, which made me feel uncomfortable. So this time I told her that it´s not supposed to be an interview, just friends hanging out. We ended up going to her best friend´s house and we had so much fun! For the first time, I really felt like I was among friends in Perú. The three of us just sat and talked about relationships, friends, going to college, and many differences between our two cultures. They told me lots of stories and I told them a few too. I felt really comfortable around them and was really happy that they felt like they could open up with me. I learned way more about Rosemary than I did in the first meeting. They were also really encouraging of my Spanish and kept telling me I was really good (because they both live with volunteers that are in a lower level than I). It was so much fun and I think we would have stayed there for 3 more hours talking if I didn´t have to go home for dinner. It was an awesome feeling and made me realize that I really will be okay here.

I had another interview with Kitty, my supervisor about my site. The last one I had didn´t go very well, but this one was much better. She said she had a few sites picked out for me that she thinks I´ll really like and she´s envisioning me working with adolescent girls. I envision the same thing so I was happy to hear that. She is looking for a place in the Sierra because I said I´d like to be in the mountains so I was happy about that too. She said she´s heard a lot of great things about me from the trainers and that she loves my positive attitude! I found out afterwards that she told a lot of the other people where they´d most likely be so I´m kind of jealous that I have to wait and find out, but oh well. We get our site assignments on Tuesday and I can´t wait to know where I´ll be living for the next two years. I really hope it´s in the same department as Hana and Lindsay so we won´t be 12 hours away from each other. This country is so big!

We´ve also been having a lot of sessions with current volunteers who come and share their experience and youth development projects with us. They have all been really informative and by far my favorite part. It´s really nice to meet actual volunteers who are out in the field doing stuff because it gives us good ideas of some things we can do. It also allows us to ask them tons of questions and get reassurance from them that they all felt as nervous as we did before they started. One of the girls had her sister visiting so we met her too. It was her sister´s second time visiting and she´s going to come one other time too! So lucky! So start looking for plane tickets everyone.....

I was going to stop, but I just remembered that I forgot to write two important things. First off, I had lasagna the other day! I was so excited because my family kept talking about it on Thursday night. I told Hana the next morning on our walk that I thought I was going to have it for lunch that day because they kept talking about it, but then I got back from my walk and there it was on the table, for BREAKFAST! What??? They served me a big piece and I thought it was really strange, but it tasted so good that I didn´t even care. They also must have told me 18 times during breakfast that another gringa taught them how to make it, but she usually makes it with spinach, basil, tomatoes, and onions - they just didn´t have time in the morning to do that. I better make something good for them fast so they can brag about me to the next people! Haha. Mom, I need some recipes....please.

Lastly, (and I promise I´ll leave it on this note) Hana and I went to Lima on Saturday with my host mom and siblings. She was the cutest little tour guide and brought us all over the city. We couldn´t go inside at a lot of places because it was Sunday and they were closed, but we did go to a museum about the Inquisition and also visited some Catacombs. The first was a little boring, but the Catacombs were really interesting. We actually tried to go there with my group when I was studying abroad, but they were closed. She brought us to the main plaza (where the presidential palace is), to see the Congress building, to some important churches, the supreme court, and many other points of interest. We also found this festival to celebrate Pisco (grape brandy I think) - the most popular liquor made here. My host mom bought us each a little sample and then some of the vendors gave us a sample since we´re gringas. It was really fun to see. They also had a little craft fair there and sold many of the traditional dishes made in Perú so it was fun to see those. After that we took this little tour to the top of one of the hills to get a good view of the city. It´s usually pretty overcast in Lima and it was that day too, but we were still able to see a lot. This is a huge city! At the end of the night, we went to the grocery store to look for a few things (including chocolate chips that are $7 for a bag!) and then to see a movie! My host siblings really wanted to see a movie and there aren´t any movie theaters closer to our house so we went. We saw Cars, but it was dubbed. Hana and I were both really tired from the weekend and walking around all day so we both took a little nap during part of the movie, but I saw most of it and it was pretty cute. Luckily you can get a lot of it just by watching. We never got any dinner that night and were both starving. We didn´t get home until 11:15 that night, but it was so much fun!

Alright I´ll stop now. I´m sure I could go on and on, but I need to go to bed. We have two days less of classes this week because of the holiday! Woo Hoo!

Keep sending me email and mail. I LOVE hearing from all of you because I miss everyone and think about you all often.