Cajamarca Here I Come

We FINALLY got our site assignments yesterday so now we all know where we´ll be spending the next two years of our life!! They did it first thing in the morning, probably knowing full well we wouldn´t be able to concentrate on anything all day if they didn´t tell us right away, but it turns out that we weren´t even able to concentrate even after finding out because all we wanted to do was talk to each other about our sites and what it would be like.

The two APCDs (program directors) stood in the front and took turns calling out sites. They would read a little bit about where the site is located and what we would be doing there and then say, "and this site goes to....." Hana, Lindsay, and I were so nervous. Lindsay pretty much knew where´d she be, but Hana and I had no clue. We were hoping we´d be near each other, but knew it would be okay if not. Hana was called first to a town in the northern highlands of Perú. She´ll be living in Pamparamba (?), Piura at about 10,000 ft. above sea level. Her town only has 247 families and no cell phone or internet service.

I got called next and I´ll be going to Cajamarca. My site sounds awesome and I´m really excited about it, but I must admit that I was very disappointed not to be in the same department as Hana. From what we can gather, we´re probably about 8 hours apart so it´s not impossible. We´re just looking at it as an opportunity to get to know another region of Perú. The hardest part is that Lindsay is also in Cajamarca. She and I are about 4 hours away from one another and can easily meet in the regional capital. I feel bad for Hana because I know I would be jealous if she and Lindsay were together and I was by myself, but we know that it´ll be fine and she has some really cool people in her department, including this girl Cheridyn that she´s become pretty good friends with.

Anyway, on to the details of my site. The town I´m going to be living in is called Bambamarca. It is 4 hours from Cajamarca city (the regional capital), but I pretty much have everything I need in my site so I won´t really have to leave much (besides to visit Lindsay and meet up with two other good friends I´ve made who will be living in Cajamarca too). My town has 12,000 people and is almost 7,000 ft. above sea level. I will have internet, cell phone service, a fixed phone line, water, electricity, a post office, hospital, and bank all in my town so I definitely lucked out! I was talking to the regional coordinator, José, about my site and he said it´s a great little town because it has a lot going on, but it still has the feel of the sierra (the mountains). He said there is a lot of agriculture in the surrounding areas and on Sundays there is a huge market in the main plaza where all of the local farmers come and sell their products. People also come in from the coast to sell their goods so there should be an excellent selection of fresh produce every week! I´m hoping to do a lot of my own cooking so it´ll be so nice to have fresh food to work with. On top of that, my host dad is a bee keeper and supposedly produces some excellent honey! Yum! I´ve also been told that Cajamarca is a lot like Wisconsin in that they have a lot of cows and dairy products. My Spanish teacher told me they have the best cheese in all of Perú and they also produce manjar blanco (like carmel) so I´m very excited about this!

I have two main counterparts (Peruvians who act like my mentor) who I´ll be working with - the health center, the high school (ages 12 - 16) - and another potential counterpart, which is the church. Apparently they have a pretty good social outreach program and one of their projects is tutoring street kids. José told me the doctor at the health center is really excited for me to come so that was good news to hear because we´ve heard some horror stories about bad counterparts who don´t do anything to help the volunteers. I was told that the health center in my site is associated with many smaller ones on the outskirts of town where I´ll also be doing some work. One of them is in this little town only 15 minutes away where my friend Jessica will be. Her community is very rural so she´ll have to come to my site often. We´re both happy to know there is a friendly face close by. I got some pictures of my site and the town looks so charming. The view on the way there is really incredible. I just can´t wait to get there and see what it´s actually like. It´s such a relief to have a site, but brings up so many more questions. I´m so curious now to know what it´s like.

José told me that the health center originally recommended four different families where I might be able to live, but none of them met Peace Corps qualifications for host families. José worked in Bambamarca for four years and was talking to his friend one day about the Peace Corps volunteer that was coming to their town and a little bit about what type of work we´ll be doing (self esteem, values, job skills, etc.). His friend asked where the volunteer would be living and José told him that was their dilemma - they were still searching for a good home. José said his friend lit up at that moment and said, "I have kids that are just out of school and entering the workforce and they need to learn all of that stuff. I would love for the volunteer to live with us!" So that´s where I´ll be. The man´s wife doesn´t work and they have a 21 year old son and twin girls that are 19. I´m so excited to meet them because it sounds like they really want to have me. As much as I love Fernando and Naomi, it´ll be nice to have siblings closer in age to me. I´m hoping they´ll help my Spanish improve a lot and really help me integrate into the town. Of course I´m also a little nervous, but excited more than anything!

I think that´s about it for now. I don´t think I left anything out about my site, but feel free to email me if you have any questions. I´m really curious to see what the weather will be like. It´s supposedly really cold in the winter and rains almost everyday from November to April, but is very lush because of that. I don´t think they get any snow, but I´m not positive. One volunteer we met from Cajamarca said she often sleeps in her hat and scarf! She´s at a higher elevation though so we´ll see. I might need to request some more long underwear in my packages.