Being Sick is the Worst

It's been over a week since I last wrote so even though it doesn't feel like that much has happened, I'm sure I have a lot to say. The most noteworthy (for lack of a better word) thing that has happened is that I got really sick for the first time in my site. It was perhaps the sickest I've ever been in my life over a 24 hour period.

I started to feel sick on Tuesday night around 10 pm when I left the internet cafe. I noticed I was feeling really weak and achey as I was walking home, but didn't think much of it. When I got home, I was absolutely freezing and was laughing at myself for how many clothes I had put on to go to bed. I was wearing long johns (tops and bottoms), sweat pants, a tshirt, my hoodie, a hat and gloves for bed and I opened up my sleeping bag and put that over me! I've never worn two pairs of pants to bed, not to mention my hat and gloves, or used my sleeping bag since I got here. After I got into bed and started shivering uncontrolably, I didn't think it was so funny anymore that I couldn't warm up. I decided I must have had a fever, but didn't want to get out of bed to take my temperature, figuring I would just sleep it off. I went to bed around 11 pm and tossed and turned until 2 am. At that point I got up to use the bathroom and felt like I hadn't ever fallen asleep. I was exhausted and still freezing. When I got back to my room, I was finally able to fall asleep, but woke again at 4 am to use the bathroom. This part of the story isn't that clear to me, but I'll tell what I remember. In order to get to the bathroom, I have to walk outside, down some steep wooden stairs, and across the patio. I got out of bed and grabbed toilet paper (since bathrooms here never have them, or worse, toilet seats!). The next thing I remember is hearing this really loud banging noise. It turns out I passed out and the noise was my body falling against the door of my room as I tried to leave. I opened my eyes and I no idea where I was or what had happened to me. I don't remember leaving my room, but I somehow managed to do so and get to the bathroom where I proceeded to pass out again (thank God I didn't pass out as I was walking down the stairs). Again I opened my eyes and remember being really scared because I had no idea where I was. It was pitch black so I tried to feel around to figure out where I was. Honestly I didn't even know if I was in Peru or not. I finally realized I was in the bathroom and managed to get up and turn on the light. I looked at myself in the mirror and looked green - just like the cartoon characters when they're sick - and really sweaty. Because my fever was so high and making me delirious, I lost control of my body and didn't make it to the toilet in time. As if that weren't enough, I realized I didn't have any toilet paper with me, even though I remember grabbing it before I left the room. I had to go back to my room to get more and my towel and more clothes to change into. When I entered my room, I noticed the toilet paper on the floor so I must have dropped it when I passed out. So at 4:30 am I went back to the bathroom to clean up and take an ice cold shower. In the shower, I noticed I had a huge cut on my knee from hitting the door in my room. I was really scared and incredibly humiliated. I've never passed out before in my life and couldn't understand what was happening. I felt like I was drunk and had no control over myself. All I wanted to do was talk to someone at home, but I don't have any credit on my phone to make outgoing calls. When I finally got out of the shower and into clean clothes, I took my temperature. It read 100.4, but I'm guessing it was a lot higher earlier in the night. I called my Peace Corps doctor at 5:30 am and he told me I must have eaten something contaminated. I have a bacterial infection that is causing my high fever and diarrhea. So I'm now taking an antibiotic to wipe my system clean and get rid of this infection.

As you can imagine, all I wanted to do was talk to my parents, but of course we don't have a phone in our house. I had to go to the health center to tell them I was sick and couldn't visit Melany's (Rita's daughter's) class like I was supposed to and was hoping I'd be able to make a quick call on their phone. Rita was at Dr. Martin's house (behind the health center) so I asked to use their phone, but they hadn't paid the bill so you couldn't make any calls (even using a calling card). I was so upset that I must have prayed to God for about 20 minutes to please send a subliminal message to my parents to let them know I really needed to talk to them. Ironically enough, my phone rang right after that, but it was my friend Jessica instead. Anyway, it was nice to go to the doctor's house in the morning and talk to he and Rita because they were extremely worried about me. The doctor sent someone right away to buy me some gatorade and told me I needed to be taking Cipro (which I already was). They thought I should rest there so his wife could check up on me once and a while to make sure I was okay and didn't pass out anymore, but I just wanted to go back to my own bed. They insisted I come over for lunch (they just live right across the street from me) because his wife wanted to make me a chicken noodle soup. It was really sweet and I really appreciated it. It was nice to know that there were people there looking after me and concerned. Although Rita doesn't live near me, she checked on me three times yesterday and again this morning to make sure I was okay. She also told me I should call her the next time anything happens (I thought of calling her yesterday morning, but couldn't make any calls on my phone outside of the PC network). The doctor and his wife are really concerned about me now because they think I got sick from eating at my house. Honestly, that is the only thing I can think of because other than that, I cook all of my own meals and am very careful about how I prepare my food. On Sunday, I ate lunch with my family and we had a raw radish salad with lunch. I wasn't thinking about it at all, but I have to be really careful with raw foods because they are often just rinsed in tap water (which is very contaminated). My house also has an incredible number of flies everywhere. I can't understand why there are so many because Rita and the doctor's house only have one or two. On Tuesday, I counted approximately 30 flies on the dining room table where we're supposed to eat. I was really grossed out and took my lunch up to my room to eat. This morning I found a dead fly in one of my pitchers of water. Yuck.

Anyway, because my house isn't as clean as it could be, Dr. Martin and his wife think I should move in with them so I don't get sick again and can live in a healthier environment. I really like my family, but they aren't as inclusive of me in their activities as I think the doctor's family might be. My family is really big (and more people keep moving in) so they usually hang out with each other. They are really nice to me when we're all together, but they don't necessarily invite me to hang out with them if they're doing something together. I really enjoy talking with them, but sometimes it's hard because there are so many of them and my host mom is really shy. I get along much better with her sister and her sister-in-law. They all felt really badly that I was so sick, but didn't know until I told them. They heard something in the middle of the night, but no one got up to see what it was. They asked why I didn't wake them up, but honestly I was thinking clearly. They told me they know it can be really hard to be alone when you're sick because it's really lonely so they told me that in the future I can wake them up at any time of the night. I'm definitely torn about the whole living situation. As much as I'm enjoying my family, if I live with the doctor I'll just be right across the street so I can easily go visit them. Sometimes I think you spend more time with people when you don't live with them because you visit more. I visit more with Rita and her family than my own so I think it would be easy to still maintain a relationship with my family. The doctor's house is definitely a lot cleaner so I would feel really comfortable there. His wife, Isabel (but everyone calls her Chabu), is really sweet and isn't from around here so doesn't have too many friends here. She said she's usually home all day and would love to have me there with her. She does a lot of arts and crafts projects and sews and knits. She also loves to cook and said she'd love to teach me how to do any of this stuff. I think it would be really fun to live there because I think I'd be more social with the family, though still have the opportunity to visit with my family and be friends with them. If I d move, it wouldn't be for a few months so we'll see how things go in the meantime.

It's really funny when you're sick to listen to the different explanations that they have for why you're sick. I didn't want to tell my family that it was probably their food so I just said I don't know why I'm sick and it's probably just all of the changes my body is going through right now. They insisted it was because I ate something from the street, though I haven't eaten any food from the street since I got to Peru for that very reason. The professor's wife, Alix, who lives in the room next to mine is really sweet and very worried about me. She thought it was from this seasoning she gave me to use because she thought I didn't cook it first even though she told me 20 times to cook it first when she gave it to me. I finally assured her it wasn't that so now she thinks it's either indigestion (she said people here have a lot of gas from the food here and that her husband walks around farting everywhere - haha), that I eat a diet high in fat, or that my stomach is too cold from the cold water I drink. Of course you have to just smile and say, yeah probably because they won't believe you if you offer another explanation. She made me this concoction last night that is excellent for indigestion she said (since that is apparently what I have). It was boiled water with some apple and cinnamon for flavor mixed with a little sugar and cornstarch! Who knows, but I ate it anyway because I know she was just trying to help. She is really sweet and as I was leaving her room last night, she told me it's a honor for her to be neighbors with someone from the United States because it's the first time she's ever met anyone from another country. I was really flattered.

I'm happy to report that I feel much better today. Maybe it was the cornstarch mixture, maybe my stomach is warmer today, or maybe it's because the medicine is doing it's job. I still don't have much of an appetite, but I know it'll come. Luckily I didn't have anything planned for today (tomorrow I'm visiting 4 classes at one of the schools) so I was able to take things easy again today. I'm going to take things slowly and be even more careful now about what I'm eating. It's so crazy how sensitive our stomachs are to things that our bodies aren't used to. It's funny how we don't really think twice about what we're eating in the States because we know that for the most part, everything is prepared in a sanitary environment and in a higenically sound way. Here you have to be so careful. Rita and Chabu told me they never eat anywhere other than their own houses (or at each other's) because they're so worried about getting sick! I really hope I don't ever get this sick again. That was one of the scariest nights of my life.

I have to run, but I'll write more later about what else has been going on in my life. I miss you all so much.

More Pictures!

My adorable host family on our roof in Santa Eulalia.













I know I look so dorky in this picture, but I thought you'd enjoy a picture of Bambamarca. I thought I took a lot more, but apparently not since none of them are on my camera now.










Doing my part in the delicious pancake breakfast Jessica and I treated ourselves to.













Me standing in front of the health promoter's house. Yeah, this is my life for the next two years....













If this doesn't say Peace Corps, I don't know what does. Here I am listening to Dr. Martin talk about the medical campaign we were doing at this school to sign people up for health insurance and give medical attention.










One of the many beautiful views on our walk to the community where we did the medical campaign.












Joy, me, and Amelia sporting our Cinderella birthday hats when we celebrated my birthday in Cajamarca.












So cute! I miss them so much!














The youth development group (minus one) at our swearing in ceremony with our country director (back row), program director (front center) and technical trainer (front right).










Hana and I with my host family the night of my surprise birthday party!













Rosemary and Me (she's my new Peruvian friend who was over the night I broke the family heirloom).










Hana, Lindsay, and I the day we made warrior hats for each other. We had to pick a name out of a hat and design them for someone else before we all left for our sites.

Two Weeks Down....LOTS to go!!

So I survived two weeks in my site and as a reward to myself I decided to make the trek down to Cajamarca city and have a gringo filled weekend! Haha...just kidding....we really had a meeting here so it was the perfect excuse to get away, eat some good food, speak English, have hot showers, and visit Lindsay! Is it bad that the weekends spent with all my fellow volunteers are always my best weekends here? I guess I haven't really given my site a chance yet on the weekends since I've been gone for the past two, but now that I'm back, I'm going to do something crazy and try to stay in my site until Oct. 21st when we have a going away party for the Peru 4 volunteers who are about to leave. That's 5 whole weeks! I hope I can survive. I figure though that after that things are going to start getting really busy with our leadership camp in early November, a possible visit from Hana (woo hoo), and a Peru 7 reunion over Thanksgiving break! And then it'll be less than month until I leave to go home and visit for Christmas (definitely my motivation to get through every day)! Wow so much excitement to look forward to. I owe it to my site to give them the next 5 weeks of my undivided attention since I'm such a star here. Haha. The doctor at the health center always calls me the "reina" (queen) of the health center - haha.

I must admit that I've been remarkably busy at my site. Rita is fabulous and invites me to tag along on all of her outtings and introduces me to tons of people in the community. The other day I told her I wanted to start observing classes in the school because I think it will help me get to know a lot of the adolescents whom I'll be working with. The next morning she took me to the school and we met with the director who agreed to let me observe classes. That day I only got to "observe" one class, and by observing I mean the teacher presented me to the class, we each talked about my work here for about 2 minutes, and then the kids left to have a lab and I went back to the director's office who told me to wait until next week to observe more classes. Rita was annoyed that he didn't let me go into other classes so that night she took me to her friend's house who is also a teacher at the school. The teacher, Maria, was very nice and really excited about the work I'm going to do at the school. She says the kids desperately need some help in terms of self-esteem and values and offered to let me observe her class anytime. She and her daughter also just about begged me to live with them. Rita told them I can change houses after 3 months so after we visited with them for an hour and a half, they said, "see you in 3 months when you move in"! It was cute, but a little overwhelming since I don't even know them. I am really starting to enjoy my family and think I would like to stay there for the whole time if it weren't for the fact that I took my host mom's room. I just found out that her sister is also moving in with us. She used to live in Cajamarca and run an internet cafe, but they're moving it from the city into our house and the sister is going to live there to run it! I guess that's good for me that we'll have internet, but it's also one more person in the house. She seems really sweet though and she'll be around much more than my host mom is. I'm looking forward to getting to know her because I think we'll be good friends.

Last week I also had the opportunity to talk on a radio show! On Tuesday night I met with these two guys who are the leaders of a youth group in the area. They invited me to the radio station on Wednesday night to see how they do their weekly radio show. I didn't really want to go because it had been a long day, but I said I would be there so I thought I better. I took my 12 year old host brother with me to use an excuse to go home. (Sidenote: I think he might have a crush on me because he went to his room to change his clothes right before we left and came downstairs wearing cologne!) Anyway, before I knew it they were calling me into the room and interviewing me on air! I was completely taken off guard and sounded like a complete fool, but what are you going to do? Welcome to the Peace Corps. I guess it was good practice though for the next day when I was put on the spot two more times to speak at two different community meetings we attended! I've realized this is something I better get used to so I need to start rehearsing a little speech at home so I don't sound like such an idiot. Rita told me that she met someone the other day who was asking her when the gringa who spoke on the radio was going to visit their town. Haha.

Going out into the community with Rita has been so much fun. It's incredible to see the different areas around Bambamarca because they are all so different. We went to two different sites in the campo and they were very distinct from one another. One was very green and lush while the other had much more straw and wheat growing so it looked very different. It's really fun to go out into the community because it feels like an entirely different world even though we're only an hour or so from the bustling metropolis of Bambamarca. On the first outing to Alan, I had such a "Peace Corps" moment as I was sitting there in a plastic kids lawn chair listening to the doctor speak about getting people to sign up for health insurance, looking out at the community members sitting there in their traditional attire on the playground at the school with the incredible mountains as the backdrop. I kept thinking, "Is this for real? Is this really my life right now?" How lucky am I?

The next outing we took was to visit the house of one of the health promoters in the area. Each community that pertains to our health center has elected a health promoter to help their fellow community members in simple health issues when they can't come into the center. The promotors are trained by health center staff to assist these people and also teach them about issues such as higene (both personally and in their houses). Maybe people in the campo live in a house where chickens, guinea pigs, and what have you are running around the living room/bedrooms/kitchens. Many of them also cook over leña (firewood) right on the floor and keep all of their dishes on the floor. Handwashing is not a well practiced habit here so combine that with the other factors, and many people get sick. It's really sad because it's not laziness, it's just their lack of education. Many of them don't know how to live any other way. This is where the health center has come in with their program of health promoters to help change this reality. Rita and I have talked a lot about this program and the success they've had in helping people improve their living conditions. She told me it's a joint program with PRODIA (an NGO here from Spain) who plays a major role in teaching these people how to improve their houses. PRODIA doesn't give the people money to fix their houses because then it's not sustainable. However, they give them the knowledge and tell them that if they make all of these improvements, then they will pay for solar panels or something else to help them out. It's really an incredible program. Rita told me that when they first started the program, they had to drag people to the community meetings, but now the people ask the health center to come because they see the changes that are possible and want it for themselves.

Last week I had the opportunity to visit one of these houses and I couldn't believe what I saw. It was so clean and organized - really impressive! Each of the kids had their own room (sectioned off, but much better than the traditional everyone living in the same room) with their clothes organized and hanging on hooks. They also had different values pasted all over the walls so the kids could learn. The latrine had toilet paper in it (the bathroom in my house doesn't even have this) and a cover to go over the hole so the smell doesn't escape. They had built a sectioned off corner in the kitchen to keep the cuys and rabits and had all of their dishes on shelves so they weren't on the floor. Perhaps the most impressive thing was that they had built a system to collect and filter their own water. No one else in the community has water. I was so impressed with the house and the incredible resourcefulness they demonstrated. We were invited to visit the house that day because they were having a community meeting to show other people what their houses could look like if they are willing to put in the extra effort. It's sad to think that many of these people live in ways that we think are absolutely unacceptable, not because they want to, but because they don't know any better. It made me really happy to see that they really do want to change and how willing others are to help them improve their lives.

That day was really fun, but tiring because we had to walk an hour into the community and an hour out to where we had parked the car. The 1.5 hour car ride there and back felt like we were on a roller coaster so the trip took a lot out of me. As soon as we got back into town we ran to see Melany (Rita's daughter) in a parade for her school. The kids all carry confetti with them and then throw it at people for "fun". Well since I'm the gringa, of course I attract a lot of attention and just about every kid that passed me threw it in my face. Let me tell you, that was NOT fun. I was so annoyed because I coulnd't see anything and it was all down my shirt and pants. Luckily when I got back to Rita's house, she offered me a hot shower to get all of the dirt from the campo off of me and obviously, the pica pica (confetti) too. I just found some more of it today in my bag....remnants of last week! I ended up spending the night at Rita's house that night too because it started raining around 7:30 and she didn't think the storm would pass until at least 11 or 12 that night. She told me it would just be better to spend the night since her husband was out of town and I could sleep in her daughter's bed. So at 8 o'clock I got into Melany's Barbie bed with Rita's "sweet dreams" pajamas on (she insisted I wear them). Of course by 9 o'clock the storm was over, but what was I going to do? I left at 6 the next morning to run home and pack my stuff before our weekend in Cajamarca.

As I mentioned earlier, Cajamarca was a blast. The best part of the weekend were the massages Lindsay and I got at this resort called Laguna Seca at these hot thermal springs right outside of the city. It was amazing, but we were both feeling slightly guilty since it's a far cry from your stereotypical Peace Corps experience, but hey, who doesn't like a little pampering every once and a while? Lindsay treated me to it for my birthday so how could I possibly turn her down? We realized we were way out of our league as soon as we stepped on the property, but decided to go for it anyway. They gave us white bathrobes and little slippers to wear and then brought us to another room. They asked us if we like it fuerte (strong) or suave (soft) and Lindsay said, "oh definitely fuerte, bien fuerte". Turns out they weren't talking about the massage, they were talking about the sauna that you sit in for 10 minutes before the massage. We walked in and immediately turned as red as a lobster. The lady started laughing at us and said, "suave?". YES PLEASE!!! Although I sweated more than I ever have in my life, it actually felt really nice. We were positive she had forgotten about us though so we left early - turns out 8 minutes in the sauna really feels like an hour and a half! The massages were incredible after that and I can't wait to go back. We made a promise to only go for each other's birthdays though. We'll see how long that lasts. I'm sure Lindsay will be keeping them in business over the next two years since she lives so close. Lucky for me (or not), I live 4 hours away. (By the way, the whole thing cost $16 each!)

On top of that, the highlights of the weekend were finding a fabulous Italian restaurant, eating at our favorite ice cream place twice, and definitely picking up my 6 packages at the post office (thank you for the AWESOME birthday presents everyone - it meant so much to me that so many of you were thinking of me)! I also went out to visit Lindsay at her site and somehow got roped into working at a restaurant in her town with her starting at 6:30 am. Let me tell you, that is way to early to see dead cuy (organs, teeth and all) stacked on a counter ready to be fried up for lunch! Some things I don't think I'll ever get used to. Finding a big grocery store with lots of foods I miss was also a huge highlight of the trip. Who knew it was so interesting to everyone to see what the gringas like to buy. Everyone who walked by our cart would look to see what we had and would often touch the stuff inside. My friend Heidi was getting so annoyed and kept asking people what was so interesting about our food. Hahaha. That definitely scared them away. They definitely have no shame though. Later that night we went to see The Break-Up in English with popcorn and all! It was so exciting and felt so natural that I honestly tricked myself into thinking that I was back in the States. It was quite the culture shock to walk out of the theater and realize I'm still in Peru. As much fun as I had, it was definitely time to get back to my site. Too much spoiling of myself in one weekend isn't good for me.

So here I am, back in good old Bambamarca. I must admit that it was nice to get back. Walking into the health center the afternoon I arrived and having the doctor say, "la reina! we missed you!" was just the thing I needed to hear.

More to come soon. I promise that I'm going to try to start updating more often so the entries aren't as long. I miss you all very much. Pictures coming soon!

Welcome to Bamba

So it's almost been a week in my new site and things are going pretty well so far. Well to be honest I definitely feel a roller coaster of emotions on any given day, but for the most part, I think I'm okay. It's funny how different my life is here from my life back in Santa Eulalia. I live in a "city" here, but it's definitely a city in the campo. This weekend Jessica and I went to Chota (a city a little bigger than Bambamarca about 1.5 hours away) to meet up with our friends Heidi and Rory there to celebrate Heidi's birthday. As we were leaving the city this morning to come back to Bamba, the only transportation we could find to come back was in this jeep/truck that had about 8 people riding in the back (mind you the bed of the truck is only about 5 feet long). There were three people sitting in the back seat of the truck and Jessica and I crammed in the front with the driver. Because it's Sunday today, it's market day and everyone comes out of the woodwork to sell their goods. We saw tons of women walking around town (barefoot wearing their wool skirts and straw hats) with their pigs and cows on leashes to sell! I really wanted to take a picture, but that wasn't an option when we were packed into the truck like sardines, but it was quite an experience and all I could think was, this is so Peru. It was pretty funny. The only other option to go home is in a combi which looks like one of those old VW vans that they also cram as many people as possible into. We took a combi to get to Chota and about halfway into the trip there is a hand slapping the window from the roof! We were like, what the heck is going on? Apparently there were two people riding on the roof of the combi and we had reached their house so they slap the window so the driver knows to stop! Don't worry mom and dad, I'll never ride on the roof. Other than the crazy transportation, Chota was really fun. Rory's family invited us over for lunch for Heidi's birthday where we ate ceviche (raw fish), that's right, I ate RAW fish for lunch, but it was way better than cuy. It mostly just tasted like lemon juice - gracias a Dios! We visited with his family for a while and then went out for pizza and drinks later that night. It was definitely nice to see some friendly faces and speak lots of English! This morning we had a delicious "American" breakfast with scrambled eggs (I've only seen them one other time since I've been here), but don't worry they had ham in them because everything here has ham in it whether it is advertised that way or not - including vegetarian pizza!

Anyway, enough about Chota. You'll all be relieved to hear that I have a new family here. They are really nice and will definitely work out for now, though I'm not sure I'll stay with them for the whole two years so let me explain. The mom, Rosa, is 27 and is a nurse that works at one of the health posts outside of the city. Her husband, whose name I don't remember because I've only met him for about 10 minutes, is 25 and is a teacher close to Chota. Because they both work outside of the city, they are gone most of the week and only come home for the weekends. Rosa told me that it's rare for her to be gone all week, but that she is usually gone for part of the week because she is the only person that works at that health post. She has a 12 year old son, Ricky, that stays in Bambamarca to go to school while they are gone, and together they have a 9 month old daughter, Emily, that goes with the mom when she goes away. Ricky's cousins also live there, Junior who is 14 and Rosio who is 16. Rosio is in charge of the boys and of cooking and cleaning all the time (she also takes care of the baby when she's home) and goes to high school from 7-9:30 at night. There is also a professor and his wife and their 10 month old baby that live in the room next to mine, another professor that lives there, and apparently a sister-in-law too though I haven't met her yet.

I know it sounds very overwhelming and hectic, but the house is sort of set up like apartments so you enter everything from outside so there is actually a lot of privacy. From the door off the street, you walk down a little entryway and then it opens up to a little central patio where you enter the kitchen/living room and also the bathroom. Everyone's bedrooms are upstairs. My room is a pretty good size and comfortable. It would be great other than the fact that I'm pretty sure it was my host mom's room that she gave to me. She told my director that it was her son's room, but all of her clothes were in the dresser that she had to empty out because it's too big to fit through the door to get it out and right now I'm sleeping on her bed because she needs her husband's help to get it out. I feel really badly about that, but I had no idea. Because of this, I'm not sure I'll stay with the family for the whole 2 years. She also seemed really overwhelmed when she heard that and seemed to be much happier that it might only be three months until I find another family. It's also kind of weird that they aren't there a lot, though I feel really bad for her son that he's home alone a lot and I'm glad to have him there. He is really cute and very curiuos about the U.S. so he asks me a lot of questions (everything from the climate, how much things cost, if we have hot showers, to what wonders of the world we have)! He's a really good kid and seems to be very polite and excited to have me there. Rosa said she was happy to have me live there so I could help take care of the boys, but luckily my director told her that's not what I'm here for. The professors that live there are both really nice guys (and the one guy's wife too) and seem to really care for Ricky and give him a lot of attention when the parents are away. The other afternoon, I played chess with one of them while we talked with Ricky and the other guy's wife. They were really friendly and very willing to help me with anything I needed.

Even though it's kind of a weird situation, I have a lot of privacy and I feel much more comfortable there than in my first house. The bathroom is also much cleaner so that makes me feel a lot better. We definitely only have cold water for a shower though so I might purchase a hot water thing for the shower. I've heard it's only about $15 and it would be well worth it to everyone. One morning I tried to do a bucket bath with boiled water but it took a good 45 minutes because there is definitely a technique to it that I haven't yet mastered. The next time I didn't have time to do that so I thought I would just rough it since I was sweaty anyway from exercising. I was so cold that the water was literally taking my breath away and without knowing it, I realized I was singing "Take My Breath Away" in my head! That's definitely not going to fly with me. There are some things that I'll just have to get used to, but I don't know if I can get used to that, especially since the bathroom has this big opening to the outside so lots of cold air comes in! By the way, since you have to access the bathroom from the outside, when it's rainy season and I have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, I'll definitely be soaking wet by the time I get to the bathroom. Hope I don't have diarrhea a lot! Another good thing about this family is that I have already established that I'll cook breakfast and lunch for myself so the 16 year old girl doesn't have to and I'm already so much happier cooking my own food. I eat dinner with them when I'm home for it, but it only consists of warm milk or quaker with bread and avocado and/or cheese. It's not much, but I love it because I don't like going to bed on a full stomach.

Before we got to our sites everyone warned us that the first 3 months are the hardest because you're still not comfortable there and very unsure of your role in the community as a volunteer. I can definitely understand that now. In the past week I've questioned many times what I'm doing here and what exactly I'm supposed to be doing here. Also, without all of my friends from training, life here is a lot more lonely and I've been thinking about home a lot. However, as frustrating as it is sometimes, I know I'm not going to leave. I know that I'll get through it and everyday I've made little advances that make me feel good. I've made some friends at different stores, in the market, and in the internet cafe who all recognize me (not that it's that hard, I stick out like a sore thumb here) and call me by name when I see them in the streets. One store owner even let me pick out a gift from one of his display cases when he found out it was my birthday the other day. The stores here are hillarious in the range of things they sell so it was pretty interesting picking something. This was a stationary store, but they also sell canned milk, toilet paper, liquor, watches, cologne, etc. (you get the idea) and most of the stuff looks like it was from the early 90s. I didn't want to pick out anything that was too expensive so I picked this blue and pick clock that is an anchor and says "profound wishes" on it in English with lots of sparkles. I needed a clock, what can I say? It's pretty hillarious. It's also fun when you go to stores and they bust out there huge rag to dust something off before you purchase it.

If it weren't for Rita and her family I would be having a really hard time here. They are incredible and very welcoming. I've been to their house just about everyday so far and the one night I didn't go, her 7 year old daughter, Melany, kept asking where I was. I eat dinner with them a lot and just talk a lot about our lives, the Peace Corps, Peru and its people, and life in the U.S. I feel so comfortable with them and love being at their house. Rita tells me everyday how she wanted me to live with her, but my director told her I can't because she's my counterpart and I'll be spending a lot of time with her. I definitely feel more comfortable at her house than at my own, but at the same time, it's nice to have my own space and be able to go home at night and have some time to myself. I've never had so much time to myself and such an unstructured life, but I love it. It's sort of nice not having any schedule what so ever. I get up and do yoga and some other type of exercise in the mornings and then make myself breakfast and try to bathe (that's always a process). By the time I get out of the house in the morning, it's usually about 2-3 hours after I woke up, but it's great because it's okay. No one cares. Life is so much more tranquilo here and slow. I spend the days exploring the city and just trying to meet people. Some days I have more patience for it than others. One day these 3 boys (about 11-13 years old) came up to me when I was sitting in the plaza and wanted to shine my shoes, I said no, but they kept talking to me, which was fine. Then they started joking that they were going to steal my clothes, but I didn't think it was very funny. It'll be nice when people start seeing me as Kristen and not just the rich gringa living in their town. Next week I'm going to try to go to the schools and observe classes so I can get to know more people - especially the ones I'll be working with. Rita introduced me to some really cool people on Friday from PRODIA an NGO from Spain that runs many development projects in Peru. The people who work for the NGO are Peruvian and it was really fun to meet people with the same goals for their country as I have. They told me about some of their projects and they all sound really exciting and successful. They are really excited to work with me and so am I!

I have to go in a minute because I haven't been home since yesterday morning, but I wanted to say I had my first experience with washing my clothes by hand the other day. To be honest it was kind of relaxing and meditative, but boy was I exhausted afterwards! It took me 1.5 hours to wash 4 pairs of pants, 3 shirts, 9 pairs of underwear, and 7 pairs of socks. Hopefully I'll get better at it. I was also pretty annoyed when I hung up one of my shirts and it feel right onto the dirty cement ground! It wasn't so relaxing to wash the shirt the second time around and man did my hands hurt afterwards!

Poco a poco I'll get used to being here. It's been nice to go to Rita's and I also went to Carol's house one day (she works at the health center too). She rents a room here with her 4 year old son because her husband works in Chota. She is really nice too and it was fun hanging out with her and Anthony. We read Aladdin and The Three Little Pigs in Spanish. He's a crazy little kid, but really cute and sweet. We went to the bakery to buy empanadas for dinner and he gave us each a flower when we got back that he had picked somewhere along the way!

That about sums up my first week here. I think I'm doing well for my first week here, but definitely miss my friends and all of you at home. I've never had to make friends in another culture before (besides exchange students, but they were living in my culture) so it's kind of intimidating. I know I can do it though - I always figure it out somehow!

Thanks to all of you who called and wrote to me on my birthday! It meant so much to me. A friend called and told me I have lots of packages waiting for me in Cajamarca so I can't wait to go get them all next weekend! I miss you all so much. Keep in touch, I love to hear from you!

Catching Up

I finally have some time to myself so I can update all of you on what has been going on in my life. It has been a crazy few weeks since I came back from my site visit so bare with me. I'll try to keep it interesting!

Hana and I were determined to spend as much time as possible together in our last few weeks as we could because who knows when we'll be able to see each other next. Right now our whole group is planning on meeting up for Thanksgiving because we get Wednesday-Sunday off so that should be lots of fun, but if there is any possibility of seeing each other before then, we're on it! We had so much fun together in the last few weeks. We basically turned into little Betty Crockers because we baked up a storm. We made banana bread for her family and they loved it so we ended up making it about two more times for them. We also made apple cake for my friend Rosemary's birthday (she's the one I made pizza with the night I broke the family heirloom), chocolate chip oatmeal cookies for Hana's family (who only gave us two and then hid them from us because they liked them so much), magic bars for the party for our family, kaiserschmarn, homemade granola and peanut butter, latkes, and3 loaves of Challah (I've become quite the little Jew with Hana)! It was the best Challah I've ever tasted and so much fun to make! We were laughing at ourselves because on top of all that baking, we would cook dinner together a lot too. When we first got to Peru we had all these plans to make some of our favorite things for our families, but then we got really busy and all of a sudden we only had 2 weeks left and tons of things we wanted to make so we basically cooked non-stop. We were joking that we had turned into an old married couple cooking and eating dinner together all the time, but we were having a great time doing it so who cares. As my dad says, Hana is one heck of a replacement for Giff! (Don't worry though Giff, no one could ever really replace you).

Funny story about our cooking (no we didn't blow up the kitchen or break anything valuable), is that my family has grown to love the food I make - thank goodness after the disaster that became of the first dinner we tried to make. We made eggplant parm when we got back from our trip and then spinach lasagna another night (for dinner, not breakfast like they usually have it). The kids always INHALE the food I make, you wouldn't believe how much an 8 and 10 year old girl could eat. They are so cute and get really excited when I'm going to cook. One night I was in the kitchen with abuelita learning how to make sopa de leche, this soup she makes that I really like, and Fernando's eyes lit up and asked me what I was making them for dinner (he was praying I was going to say tortillas because he always used to ask when I was going to make them again). I told him I wasn't making anything, just learning how to make soup. He said "OH MAN" and sulked back to his room because not only was I not making dinner, but he hates soup. I felt bad, but it was really cute.

Enough about food (for now at least, you know that's my favorite subject). During training we had this project we had to do called a Community Development Activity (CDA). We formed groups based on our neighborhoods and then identified a need and created an activity based on that need. Our group decided to do a community meeting on security in the neighborhood since Lindsay's house was robbed while we were living there and every house on our street has been robbed at some point in the past, but no one ever talks about it with each other so it continues to happen. Our neighborhood is really close to the central "highway" and is the entrance to Santa Eulalia so it's a really easy target. A lot of people expressed an interest in coming, but of course we only had 5 people actually come and two of them were under the age of 4 years old! It was only people that we lived with that came, but they seemed really grateful for the meeting and the opportunity to brainstorm ideas so make the neighborhood more secure. Even though there weren't very many people, we felt like it was pretty successful based on their feedback. However, about an hour or so after the meeting ended, Napo (short for Napoleon), our dog was missing and they were sure he had been stolen because apparently this happens a lot (don't ask me why when there are millions of stray dogs wondering the streets). How ironic that our dog was stolen right after our meeting on security! Luckily he came back at 2:20 am and my abuelita was up all night waiting for him (I saw her sitting on the sidewalk for a good 2 hours) because she was so nervous she couldn't sleep. She's so cute.

Hana, Lindsay, and I had also gone to Lima for the day one weekend to go to the movies and go bowling at this place called Jockey Plaza that feels like you're back in the States when you're there. Well it turns out that there weren't any movies we wanted to see and bowling was way too expensive so we just ate good food and went shopping at the gigantic grocery store there. We first had sushi - which is one of my new favorite foods! Who would have ever guessed that I would love sushi?! Anyway, the place gave us something as a courtesy while we were waiting for our sushi to be made. It was served in a shell and the part that you eat looked like a black blob with a toothpick sticking out of it. There was no way I was about to come close to that thing as I could just imagine it slithering down my throat - gross! Lindsay and Hana ate it though and said it wasn't that bad. Hana isn't a big fan of fish either so I started considering eating it, but then snapped back to reality. However, in the back of my mind, I couldn't help but think how proud Giff and my parents would be if they knew I tried this weird creature from the sea. Hana and Lindsay kept telling me it only tasted like soy sauce and was really delicate. After smelling it about 25 times (I always smell new food) and asking them a million times if they were sure it wasn't really chewy or would slither down my throat, I took the plunge and ate it - the whole thing! Ahhhhhhh! It actually wasn't that bad at all. I'm still not quite sure what it was nor do I ever want to know, but I'm proud of myself for eating it. After that, our sushi arrived and was delicious. We were still hungry so we followed it up with mozzerlla sticks and milkshakes at Tony Roma's. I know, sushi and milkshakes aren't exactly complementary foods, but everything tasted great! Probably one of the best things that came out of that trip to Lima was a discovery we made at the grocery store. We had pretty much sworn off the possibility of ever finding Reece's Peanut Butter Cups in Peru because we hadn't been able to find them anywhere, even in places that sell Milky Way, Snickers, M&Ms, Twix, etc. However, there we were, standing in line at Plaza Vea (the grocery store) and I spotted them! Lindsay is even crazier about them than I am so she screamed out of excitement. I think she gave the people in front of us a heart attack. It was soooo funny! Hana and I each bought one pack and Lindsay bought the rest of them! Hahaha. Since then we've found them in two other stores, but it's still exciting every time!

Oh man, so much for not talking about food a lot because I'm about to again! Haha. You would think I weigh about 500 lbs. by the way I talk about food so much! Anyway, in my Spanish class one day we learned how to make Chocotejas, these chocolates that are native to the Lima region of Peru and are filled with manjar blanco (like caramel) and a pecan. They are so delicious and I learned how to make them! I can't wait to make them for all of you when I get back home. I could start a little side business to supplement the huge "bonus" I get from the Peace Corps when I get back. Haha. As if that wasn't enough, we had an Income Generating Activity that afternoon in training where we learned how to make jam, yogurt, recycled paper, and beehives because they are possible things we could teach our community members to help them earn a little more money! I didn't think I'd care about the beehives as much as everything else, but it was probably my favorite thing. It was really fun to build and fascinating to learn how they make honey inside of it! Watch out, I'm going to be quite the entrepreneur when I get back! When Hana, Lindsay, and I made granola we had the brilliant idea to put our homemade peanut butter on top of it so there were clumps of peanut butter with granola. It was so delicious that we convinced ourselves we should sell it so there we go, my first business is already well on its way!

Sometimes when I'm here, I have those "Peru moments" where it hits me that I'm a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru! They don't happen that often (especially when I was in training surrounded by tons of gringos), but when they do it's really exciting. The night I made apple cake for Rosemary I had one with her. We were just hanging out at her house, talking with her mom and then we left to go talk outside because she wanted to talk to me about stuff she didn't want to say in front of her mom (so cute). While we were talking we walked to the park where her friend, Luis, teaches dance classes to some girls in the neighborhood a few nights a week. He brings a stereo from his house that is plugged in there and then the extension cords go all the way across the street and up to the park so they can have music to dance to! We were sitting and watching them at first, but then he aksed us to join them. Of course I had no clue what I was doing, but I followed the other girls as best I could and just laughed a lot. It was really fun and felt so Peruvian!

Towards the end of training we had a bunch of little parties and celebrations. One Friday they did a session on Shamanism - some strong beliefs people in the sierra have about using nature and the gods to cure them (really interesting) and then we had a Pachamanca. I had one of these at my host uncle's house for a birthday, but this was the most authentic one I've had. This one they actually dug a hole in the ground and got it really got with the coals and then cooked all of our food inside - potatoes, sweet potatoes, chicken, apples, pineapple, fava beans. It is so hot inside that it only takes about an hour to cook everything! It is such a cool process! I took tons of pictures so I can try to replicate it back home because it's a really fun tradition and it also tastes amazing! It was by far the best Peruvian meal I've had since I've been here! Yum! The day before swearing in we had a party for all of our host families to thank them for being so generous with us. All of us gringos made something for the party so there were a lot of desserts, guacamole, fruit salad, and some other pasta salads. Oh man I could not believe how fast the desserts disappeared. I thought we were bad about desserts, no way. They love our desserts, but don't make them so they are crazy about them whenever they get the chance to eat them. There was no line or anything near the table of desserts, just mad chaos with everyone pushing each other and hoarding as much as they could. I tried to go up and get some stuff for my family, but it was all gone in less than 10 minutes! Hana told me people in her family got plates and plates of it and then put it in bags to take home with them! Of course the only thing that we had plenty of was fruit and pasta salad. Haha.

Before training was over we got a chance to go to Lima for the day and tour the Peace Corps office and meet with our country director and program director one last time before we left for our sites. The PC office is so nice! We had seen pictures of it, but it was way nicer than I had imagined. It was really comfortable there and the staff was great. It'll be a nice place to visit when we have to go to Lima for training or medical check ups. I was really looking forward to going to Lima to eat some good food before we left too, but I was pretty sick all day from the flu shot we had received the day before. I spent most of the day laying down on a bed in the doctor's office. I was supposed to go to the dentist that afternoon too, but luckily they were able to change that since I was not up to getting my teeth drilled when I was feeling feverish. Luckily I recovered that evening just in time to go to my director's house for a pizza party with the other youth development volunteers! First of all, her house was absolutely gorgeous! I couldn't believe the government pays for something so nice for her and it's way cheaper than any comparable apartment in the States. I told Giff he should quit the Air Force and I'll just work for Peace Corps! Anyway, the dinner at her house was amazing. She had a big green salad and fruit salad, chips and salsa, pickles, and Pizza Hut pizza, not to mention 3 great desserts! There is nothing better to cure a fever than good old American food! We all felt like we had died and gone to heaven. It was also really nice to get a chance to all be together one last time before we left for training. It was really comfortable and fun. As we were sitting there at dinner I had a feeling that we had all become so close in the past 10 weeks and I really felt like we had formed a family - with all of our drama and all! I knew it would be really hard to say goodbye to everyone, but it'll be great to reunite at Thanksgiving.

After that most of my time was spent packing and running errands to Chosica to get last minute things and try to print some digital pictures for my family. It took 3 or 4 trips there to finally get them printed, but those are the kinds of things we've come to expect here (not that it isn't really frustrating at the time). On one of our trips to the market, Hana found Will Ferrell's new movie, Talladega Nights so she bought it and we watched it at home over a dinner of peanut butter and jelly, bananas, milk and brownies (that Amanda had sent me from home)! What a great night! It was exactly what we needed after we'd been running around like maniacs preparing to leave.

My last night in Santa Eulalia was the night of my surprise birthday party. It was such a nice night and a great way to end my time with my family. I had written a letter to my host family and also printed some pictures for them so I gave those to them at dinner. My host mom cried when she read the letter so I was really glad I wrote it. I just told her how much I admired her for building such a nice life for her and her family after coming from such a humble background of living in pretty extreme poverty. She's an incredible woman and I'm so lucky to have had the opportunity to live with them. I miss them all so much already!

The next day was swearing in so now I'm officially a Peace Corps volunteer! The ceremony itself wasn't anything spectacular. Our country director spoke, as well as the director of USAID (on behalf of the Ambassador who couldn't make it), one of our host moms, and one of my fellow trainees. Then we took the oath and it was official! It was really fun to have our families there to witness it, but for them it's probably not that big of a deal since they've sat through 7 consecutive ceremonies. After the ceremony we had some time to visit with them and then they walked to the center with us to get all of our stuff and we got on a bus to go to Lima for the night before we left for our sites. I wish they would do that in a different way because the goodbye felt very rushed and impersonal. I gave Naomi and my host mom a hug (abuelita and Fernando didn't want to walk all the way back to the training center) and that was it. They both cried so it was hard to say goodbye, but I know I'll be back to visit them and I hope they can come visit me too sometime in the next two years.

We stayed in a really nice part of Lima for our last night. It was nice to have hot showers and nice accomodations, but it felt like we were back in the States again so it made the transition to our sites (at least for me) that much harder. Don't get me wrong, it was great to be in that nice area, but it made me really homesick (more than I've been in a long time) and made me get more and more nervous about leaving all of my friends and going to my site alone. We went to an American bar to watch college football and I was so excited because that is something Giff and I used to always do together, but it made me miss him so much that I had to leave the bar because I couldn't stop thinking about going home. It was also hard to see so many Americans there, going to eat at Tony Roma's and Hooters and getting coffee at Starbucks because they aren't getting the Peruvian experience at all. I hope that is not the only experience they have of Peru because that isn't Peru at all. It all just made me really sad and then shortly after that I had to say goodbye to everyone because my group (to Cajamarca) was the first to go. I had told Hana before not to feel bad if I didn't cry when I said goodbye to her because I'm not much of a crier (most of the time) and she said the same thing, but when we hugged goodbye, we both started crying like little babies. It was so hard to leave her, I couldn't even look at her because I'd start crying again. It was so hard after we've all become so close and really grown to care for one another. Jessica and I cried in the taxi the whole way to the bus station. All I could think was what in the heck am I doing here? It was really scary and intimidating, but I know it'll all work out in the end, it always does.

Two other quick things before I end this incredibly long entry (sorry, I told you there was a lot to say). Hana and I were eating breakfast at the hotel on Saturday morning and these guys next to us were speaking English (turns out they work for the WWF) and one of them was eating a bagel! Of course I felt the need to interrupt and ask where he got it from. He said he brought it from the States, but offered us one to share. Of course I was thrilled and thought he was the nicest man in the world. After we got to talking and he found out we were in the Peace Corps and would be here for two years, he gave us another one because he said we each deserved our own! That definitely made my day. We had found this Whole Foods type grocery store (soooo nice, even for the States) and bought cream cheese and sushi to have for lunch! We were living in luxury that day! The last thing is that we went to this market in Lima that sells tons of pirated DVDs and computer software. I got 4 complete seasons of Friends and Rainman for less than $20 and they are really good quality- just like at home! I don't even have a DVD player here yet, but I couldn't pass that up. I'll figure some way to watch them!

Okay that's it for now. I know I haven't even written anything about my new site yet, but I thought I better end this since I've already gone pretty out of control. I'll write about my new site soon. I miss you all so much and thanks to all of you who sent me birthday wishes - it meant so much to me!

New Address (again) and Surprise Party!

I finally got my new address for the next two years so hopefully I won't be asking you to update your address book again for awhile. The post office I will have to go to is in the regional capital which is 4 hours away from my site so I'll probably only be checking it once or twice a month. This doesn't mean you shouldn't send me mail, just don't send anything that can't sit in the post office for a few weeks. I still love getting packages, letters and post cards so keep them coming! Don't worry if you sent something to my old address and I still haven't received it because they'll be forwarding that mail on to us, but please start using this one ASAP.

Kristen Cummings/Cuerpo de Paz
Casilla Postal No. 490
Serpost Cajamarca
Cajamarca, Peru

On another note, as many of you know, it's my 23rd birthday on Tuesday so my host mom had a little surprise party for me last night. She invited Hana and Lindsay over for dinner and cake. I had no idea she was planning this so I was really surprised. They sang happy birthday to me and before I ate cake she said a little toast for me and started crying. It was really sweet because I've never seen her cry the whole time I've lived here. She thanked me for all of the happy memories we've shared together and my positive attitude and energy I brought to the house. She said she loves having us, but the hard part is when we have to leave. I was really touched by it. She is so adorable!

I have so much more to say, but I need to leave now to get sworn in as an official volunteer! I don't know when I'll be updating again since I leave for my site tomorrow so I'll post this entry and write more when I can.