Mail and More Updates

I sent out an email awhile ago about my new address. I only have two weeks left here in training and packages take anywhere from 1-3 weeks on average to get here, so if you have something to send and you can't get it in the mail ASAP, I'd suggest waiting until I get my new address that I'll be using for the next two years. Just to give you all a heads up, the closest post office to me is 1.5 hours away so don't send anything that can't wait to be picked up. Also, our director made a very good suggestion when it comes to packages that I wanted to pass along to all of you. I know it's difficult to keep packages under 1 lb. and tempting to send more, but if it weighs too much, we have to stand in long lines in customs to get it and then pay money for it. Sometimes we have to pay more than the contents of the packages are even worth. Therefore, our director suggested that if you'd like to do something nice for me, you can always send a check to my parents and they can deposit it into my bank account so I can buy something for myself. We do have a lot of stuff here and can get a lot of things that I've requested from the home, however, they just cost about 5 times more than the other products here so I don't buy them for myself because I don't get very much money. With a little extra money in my account though, I wouldn't feel bad splurging once in a while to buy something nice for myself (like a bag of M&Ms or peanut butter). Of course there is NO PRESSURE to do this, I appreciate anything and EVERYTHING I get from home. I just wanted to "pasa la voz" as we say down here. To send something to my parents, the address is:

Kristen Cummings
c/o Bill and Judy Cummings
2125 Skycrest Drive #2
Walnut Creek, CA 94595

Speaking of packages though, when I got back from my recent 10-day trip (I'll be writing about it soon), I had 4 packages and 6 pieces of mail from home! I must have been the happiest girl in Peru that day and just wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to all of you who have been thinking of me and taken the time to send something. It means more than you could possibly know (especially since I had a rough week last week). Just in case anyone is wondering what is on my wish list, here are a few suggestions of some things I´d love to receive in a care package:

-peanut butter (I´ll be happy with any kind - I´m desperate)
-trail mix
-chocolate (m&ms, dark chocolate, chocolate chips, etc.)
-reese's pb cups (IMPOSSIBLE to find anywhere down here)
-cereal (fiber one, bran buds, go lean crunch, pretty much any kind)
-luna bars or power bars (especially those with extra protein - any kind except mint)
-granola bars (Nature Valley, Chewy, All Bran, or Kashi)
-dried fruit (raisins, dried cranberries, apricots, mangoes)
-fruit leather
-UNO (the card game)
-SET (another card game with a special deck that you´d probably have to buy at a toy store)
-oragami
-hair gel (can´t find it anywhere)
-facewash astringent (I think that´s what it´s called, used without water - I know Aveeno makes one and I think Cetaphil does too)

I did find a few of these things at big grocery stores in Lima, but they are really expensive. A bag of chocolate chips for instance costs $7 and a small jar of peanut butter is $5. I only get $2 a day so that doesn´t go very far. Really anything from home is much appreciated - even just a letter! And if you do want to send me anything for my birthday, I´d like to request that you wait and send it to my new address when I get it because otherwise there is a chance I won´t get it since I leave here on September 1st - less than two weeks!!.

In other news, before we left for our trip, we visited two different Hogares. They are homes where children who have disabilities, have been abandoned or abused, or are from very poor families live. The homes were very different, but both extremely inspiring. The first one we went to was on Tuesday afternoon, after we got our site assignments. It´s in a town called Chaclacayo, about 30 minutes from where we live. It was started by a doctor from Florida who came to Perú almost 25 years ago and started this foundation with his dad and brothers to help poor children in Perú with medical problems. They accept infants to 21 year olds (with a few exceptions) from very poor families and give them the proper medical care they need. They currently have 52 kids involved in the program, but their limit is normally only 40. After the kids have received this care and are better, they are returned to their families. The program is free to these families because the Hogar pays for all their medical expenses. They also have an outpatient program where kids can receive proper care from their families at home and employees from the center just come in to take them to the hospital for doctors visits and such when need be and they pay for the bill. The medical problems they have run the gamut - from cleft lips, spinal bifida, missing limbs, and heart problems, to cancer and other terminal illnesses. It was really sad to see these kids, but at the same time, so incredible that they have the opportunity to receive proper medical care. One of the little boys we met (about 6 years old) was born without any arms or legs. Dr. Tony (who runs the place) took the boy to the Shriner´s Hospital in Tampa last year where they fitted him with a prosthetic leg. He will return to the hospital every year where he will receive free medical care until he is 18. We found out that the home receives its funding mostly from the U.S. The foundation sends out a newsletter four times a year and people respond by sending donations. There is also a group of ex-pat Americans living in Lima who hold a fundraiser for it every year. Last year they raised $7,000 - enough to buy all of the equipment for a physical therapy room! Although it seemed like a very heavy afternoon after the excitement we had that morning of receiving our site assignments, it definitely hit home and reminded all of us why we´re really here. (Don´t worry though, Hana, Lindsay, and I celebrated that night by making Hana´s delicious banana bread. Oh man did it hit the spot!)

On Thursday, we visited the other Hogar (in Lima), for our Día de Práctica. This Hogar is owned by the municipality of Lima and has only boys from ages 13 - 17. We weren´t briefed about the details of the home before we left so I´m not entirely sure about how the system works there, but I do know that the boys that live there have either been abandoned by their parents, come from domestic violence, or are extremely poor. I know that many of the boys lived in other children´s homes before this one so I´m assuming that´s how they got to this house, but I´m not sure for the other kids. From talking to the boys, it seems like they have been at the house anywhere from 1 month to 1 year. They all live together at the home in dorm style housing, but they attend school outside of the home. Most importantly though, they also participate in this program run by an international NGO (non-governmental organization) called ADRA (Adventist Development and Relief Agency). The NGO has its own cirriculum about self-esteem, values, having responsibilities, etc. However, the most important aspect of the program is vocational training where they learn what jobs match well with their personalities. They attend different career fairs, etc. to help them follow a career path and at the end of the program, if they received good grades and evaluations from the staff, they automatically get a zero percent interest loan to start their own business or enter into another. What an incredible opportunity for them! We spent all day at the Hogar so we got to know some of the boys. We were all really impressed at how well behaved they were (for the most part), especially for teenage boys. We played some dinámicas (games/icebreakers) with them in the morning and then went and observed them in class. Our class was about personal responsiblity and was very interesting. I really liked the teacher (an employee of ADRA) and thought he did a nice job of including us "gringos" in the conversation after class. That afternoon, we did charlas (workshops) for the kids about healthy lifestyle choices. Hana, Sarah, and I did ours on nutrition and it went surprisingly really well. We were afraid the boys wouldn´t participate and would just stare at us or be bouncing off the walls, but it wasn´t like that at all. They really seemed to be listening and paying attention and participated a lot so we had a great time. At the end of the day, we all played a bunch of dinámicas to wrap things up. It was really funny when we were leaving and they all attacked us to get our email addresses. I honestly felt like a celebrity among the paparrazzi. It was really funny. I guess that´s the cool new thing to do these days - haha.

That night I had made plans to make pizza with my new Peruvian friend, Rosemary (whom I´m doing a project with). We decided to make two pizzas since my family eats a lot, although since I had never made pizza dough from scratch before, there were no guarantees it would be any good. The pizza was supposed to take 20-25 minutes to cook so I figured we´d eat one while the second one was baking. Yeah right. It´s almost impossible to set an oven here to 450 degrees when all you have to look at is the flame and guess whether or not you think it´s high enough. The first pizza took over an hour to cook and we were all starving! The second pizza hadn´t been in the oven for more than 5 minutes when I heard this really loud noise. My worst nightmare had come true. The glass serving dish we were using to cook the pizza on had broken into about 10 pieces in the oven. I had envisions of this happening before we even started, but I asked my host mom if she was sure it could go in the oven and she said yes. Knowing what little I do from my dad, I was very skeptical because it looked like something she took out of the china cabinet, but she assured me they had used it before.

And then it broke. I told my host sister to run upstairs and get her mom. She kept dilly dallying around until I told her it was an emergency because the plate in the oven had broken. My host mom came down with a look of panic on her face and I was so scared. She was really calm about it and didn´t get mad at me (thank goodness), but proceeded to tell me that we needed to clean it up quickly before my host grandma woke up and saw what happened because it was the ONLY heirloom they had left from her great-grandmother! Are you kidding me? I almost died when she told me that. I wanted to crawl up into a ball and hide. I felt so horrible and apologized about a million times. You can imagine what a mess it was to try and clean up and transfer this raw pizza (covered with ham and pineapple) to another pan. After the chaos had died down a little, she gave me a big hug and told me it really wasn´t my fault and that I shouldn´t blame myself because she told me I could use it. I thought I was going to start crying when she was hugging me because I couldn´t believe this had happened - even if it wasn´t my fault, I still felt horrible about it (especially since she told me my host grandma used to sleep with it under her bed so no one would steal it). I´m still not sure if my host grandma knows about it because she hasn´t said anything and she usually likes to talk about things over and over. I´m sure she wouldn´t do it to make me feel bad, that´s just how she is. She hasn´t been acting any different around me though so I kind of think she doesn´t know yet. I thought they might tell her while I was away on my trip, but she was so happy to see me (practically jumping up and down - she's so adorable) that I don't think she knows yet.

At the end of the week we had a talent show that was absolutely hillarious. I thought it would be horrible because we didn't have any time to prepare. We had to do it by Spanish classes and my class prepared our whole skit in the hour before the show. We did a skit on all of the different ways, or ways Peruvians think, you can get diarrhea. It was a big hit and we had a great time doing it. There were some really creative acts - one group wrote a song, Hana's group did a hillarious parody of the staff, and Lindsay's class did a very funny rendition of "Los Pollitos Dicen" (The chicks say) - a traditional children's song.

I've been pretty busy cooking things. After the pizza, I made granola and peanut butter with my friend Amelia. It was delicious! Hana and I also splurged and had a little party eating the cookies I made and peanut butter and bananas! So delicious! Hana and I also made Kaiserschmarn with homemade "applesauce" (it was more apple chunks than anything) for ourselves that was riquísimo (very yummy). It was pretty funny because we had been planning on making it all along for a big brunch for ourselves after a big night out on the town the night before. However, after dinner with my host family the night before, we were both feeling exhausted so lied down on my bed for a quick nap before we went out. We didn't wake up until 1 am!! I guess we were tired and needed the sleep, but we felt like such losers! Who does that? Haha. While we were cooking breakfast, my abuelita asked if we'd try making our first dinner again (remember, the one that was a DISASTER), but without aji (the really spicy pepper) this time. She had already bought the eggplant and everything so we agreed. It was a big hit this time and everyone LOVED it. I think now they finally believe me that I'm usually a good cook. They were joking that I was going to cook all of their dinners from now on because they love the food I make for them! Funny side note, when we were washing the dishes, Hana discovered my abuelita's dentures! Ewwww!

That´s about it to catch you up to my trip. I didn't get to finish this entry before I left so some of it might not make sense since I'm back now, but you'll get the idea. We took a trip to the North of Peru for 10 days to visit current volunteers in their sites and then to visit our own. I have lots of stories about that so it'll get it's own entry pretty soon.

Thanks again for all of the emails, letters, post cards, and packages! You guys are all the best! Thank you all for being so interested in my life and making it all the way to the end of my blog entries - I know they're long, but I hope to keep you entertained.