A Lot of Drama

This morning Karina asked if I was busy because she didn't to talk to me. Unfortunately I couldn't talk because I had to wait at the doctor's house for this woman to arrive who washes my clothes (I waited 3 hours for her), but of course I got myself all worked up in the mean time about what she wanted to talk to me about. I was really nervous I was in trouble or offended them in some way without knowing it. We finally got a chance to talk later this afternoon and thankfully it had nothing to do with me, but what she told me was shocking.

I'm sure I've mentioned before that we have this girl, Tally, that lives with us and does all of the cooking and cleaning. She is my host mom's neice, but I never hear about her mom and they frequently refer to her as "la chica" (the girl) or "la empleada" so I guessed they didn't have that great of a relationship. She is VERY shy so I haven't talked to her too much, but recently she's been opening up a little more with me. Anyway, I could tell that there has been more tension between her and the other members of the family recently, but had no idea why. Well it turns out, she is the reason why Karina wanted to talk to me. To make a long story short, she has a boyfriend and often doesn't come home at night (she's only 16) so the family has been worried about her because she's so young and also because she hasn't been doing her work (they pay her to do the housework). Apparently whenever they ask her to do something, she does it really quickly without caring about how well it gets done or she just doesn't do it at all. She has been giving them a lot of attitude lately and they're all getting really frustrated with her. On top of that, someone has knocked on the door the past two nights saying that Tally was down the street getting really drunk and doing drugs with her boyfriend! My host mom isn't home right now because she's working so Karina is in charge of everyone (and she's only 24!....so much responsibility). Karina was really worried, but didn't want to go down there to find her because it's so dangerous. I was shocked! Apparently her boyfriend is a drug addict. I only just recently found out she even had a boyfriend so this was all a really big surprise to me.

Karina said she came home at 7 am this morning (she usually gets up at 6 or 6:30 to start cooking breakfast and cleaning) and Karina was really upset with her because she hadn't slept all night (since she was so worried about Tally). She noticed Tally's eyes were all yellow and asked if she was just getting home and Tally said (with lots of attitude) well can't you see that for yourself? Of course Karina was really upset. Later she was looking for her and Tally wasn't answering (because she comes home and sleeps after being out all night). Karina opened the door to her room and say all of her stuff in suitcases. A little while later Tally told her she quits and will be back on Sunday to pick up all of her stuff with her mom (I've never heard her speak of her mom before). Tally said her husband (I don't get this part, apparently that's what she calls her boyfriend) doesn't want her to work here anymore. Karina told her that he obviously doesn't really love her if he's making her leave her family, but she doesn't care. So now she's gone. Karina told me this happened last year too and they took her back, but if she comes looking for a job again, they're not going to give it to her.

Like I said, it's a lot of drama. I feel so bad because she's so young and obviously is crying out for help. I wish I could help her, but now she's gone. I had no idea things were this bad. The only good thing that came out of this was that Karina wanted to talk to me because she was really upset about the whole thing and wanted to confide in me. I was happy because it makes me feel like we really are getting closer. She's been really sick in the past few days and I'm sure it's from all of the stress she's been dealing with. I'm really sad for Tally and hope things turn around for her, but think things will be better in the family now. There was a lot of tension and hopefully things will be calmer now.

In other news, I was in Cajamarca last weekend because I had to go to the dentist. One of my teeth has been hurting me since training, but I finally just got an appointment to get it checked out. Of course I was paranoid that it was a cavity (after reading one girl got 12 in her 2 years of service!) so I brushed it extra long and hard all the time. I must admit I was a little nervous to go to the dentist here after knowing what our health center looks like here, but it was SO NICE. I felt like I was in the States when I walked in (other than the fact that everyone was speaking in Spanish). Anyway, turns out that the reason my tooth was hurting is because I've been brushing it too hard! Haha. The gum is receeding and exposing the root which is very sensitive and painful. Luckily the only thing that she has to do to fix it is 3 flouride applications to help rebuild the root. It is quick and painless. I also had to buy a special ultra suave (soft) toothbrush, toothpaste, and mouthwash that Peace Corps does not reimburse me for! I spent 51 soles on it so I was kind of annoyed. They buy my chapstick, but won't buy me a toothbrush - what is that? It's okay though, at least it isn't anything more serious.

While we were in Cajamarca, we had two ridiculous customer service experiences - surprise, surprise. First of all, at lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, Jessica and I ordered these sandwiches that had fresh cheese on them and the cheese had gone bad. Of course we weren't about to eat them because I don't want to get giardia so we sent them back. In the States, that would have been the end of it, but of course it wasn't here. First of all the waiter came and told us that the cheese was actually good and we were wrong so didn't we still want the sandwiches? Ummmm, no! Then the manager came and told us AGAIN that the cheese wasn't actually bad! I guess we had bad taste buds that day, but we still ordered something else. It was pretty shocking because after working in a restaurant, I know you would NEVER do that whether or not the cheese was bad. Then a few days later, we had another experience. Heidi and I were waiting for José to bring me my cell phone (we waited 2.5 hours and when he finally arrived he told me he forgot my phone!). Anyway, we wanted a little snack while we were waiting so we ordered a small cheese pizza. The lady told us they don't have plain cheese, they only have pepperoni, ham, or hawaiian! Hahaha. I guess they don't understand the concept of NO TOPPINGS.

Moving on to my next favorite topic - being called gordita. Yesterday I was at Chabu's house and washing the dishes after we ate dinner. At this time of year there are tons of promociones (school graduations) and Chabu is hired to do the decorating for a lot of them. As I was washing the dishes, two teachers came to talk to Chabu about decorating for them. I knew one of the teachers, but not the other. Chabu jokingly said, do you guys like the new help I've hired? I guess one of the teachers didn't realize it was a joke and whispered to Chabu, where did you find her? Hahahahahahaha. Chabu was laughing so hard and said she doesn't really work here, she is from the U.S. and studied International Relations. She is working here with an organization from the U.S. and was just helping out! Hahahaha. It was so funny. We all laughed and then we started talking a little more. I swear that within 5 minutes of meeting me, this same teacher asked Chabu and the other teacher (Meche who always gives me free bread and cookies from her store) if I was skinnier when I arrived! Are you serious? First of all, it really annoys me when people talk about me as if I'm not in the room, and second of all, you've known me for 5 minutes! Chabu didn't answer, but Meche said yeah I was skinnier and now I look so good that my boyfriend is going to pass out when he sees my body! Oh my lord. Later Carol (the doctor's daughter) said, "Kris they said you've gotten fatter since you got here, but I don't think you have. I think you look great!" I love that girl!

In my efforts to get closer with my host family, I said I wanted to make a cake for my host sister who turned one last Friday. I was in Cajamarca for her birthday, but they told me they weren't going to do anything for it since it's expensive and she wouldn't remember. I just planned on making banana bread - simple, but shows that I care. Micky, Jhunior, and Tally helped me make it on Tuesday afternoon, but we didn't end up eating it because no one was around when it was finally ready. It sat for about an hour before we baked it because we couldn't figure out how to turn on the new oven. Turns out the gas wasn't on! Hahaha. They get really confused here when we call it banana bread so instead I call it a torta de plátanos. Well since I called it a torta, I guess they felt the need to decorate it - with frosting - to make it a big deal for Emily's birthday. The whole time I was thinking, banana bread with frosting? Gross! I didn't want to interfere though so I let them do whatever they wanted. They made one of their neighbors go all over town searching for cake decorating material and then spent 2.5 hours decorating it! The "frosting" they made was luckily just whipped cream so it didn't taste as bad as I expected, but they went to town with it coloring it purple and pink to make the cake look pretty. We were supposed to eat it at 1 pm, but we didn't sit down to have it until 4:30. Before we ate it we took tons of pictures of Emily with her cake, of all of us with her, of her blowing out the candle and then holding the knife to cut it. Jessica was at my house for the day and she and I were laughing so hard at this huge ordeal for banana bread! It made me happy though because I think it meant a lot to my family since they hadn't done anything for her birthday. Yesterday was Carol's 9th birthday and she wanted to make a torta de plátano too, but instead we just made S'mores which were an equally big hit!

Speaking of knifes, the other day I was trying to take a nap and it sounded like Micky was playing with one of the professors that lives at our house. They were yelling and making SO MUCH NOISE! I wasn't feeling well and was getting really annoyed with them because I couldn't sleep. I decided to go downstairs to get some water and saw that they were "pretending" to sword fight, but Micky was using a pair of scissors and the professor a pocket knife! I was shocked because the professor should know how dangerous that is and not allow it. Plus he is a professor of religion! Of all people! He is really weird though and never looks you in the eye when you're talking. Whenever I try to talk to him, he looks at the floor or all around the room. What a weirdo! The best part was when I was about to go back upstairs and Micky ran in front of me because he was chasing the professor who had just run up the stairs. Since he knew he wouldn't be able to catch him, he just threw the scissors instead!

If you're wondering why I haven't written about doing any work lately it's because I haven't been doing any, but believe it or not, this is not out of choice. I was traveling all of November and then did the stuff about AIDS when I got back, but that was the last thing I did. I haven't been visiting the schools because they are all in final exams right now (even the elementary schools) and some have even finished school. Since my 3 months of observing my community are up, I'm really eager to get working. I've really been feeling useless lately like I have no purpose here and I think what I'm missing is working with the kids. After all, that is why I cam and I think it'll be really fun once I start doing some stuff with them. I will meet a lot more families and be busier. As fun as it sounds sitting around reading, doing yoga, visiting people, and going to the internet all day, it gets really boring. With that in mind, I've been trying to form a youth group for the past 2 months to meet over the school vacation months (Jan. and Feb.). In a town of 16,000 people, you'd think that wouldn't be such a challenging task, but it has proven to be very difficult.

I originally made application forms to get kids that are interested, responsable, and leaders in their classes. The health center wants me to do a youth health promoters program with my youth group so I wanted kids that wanted to be there and would be good at teaching their families and peers about what we talk about. We dropped off these forms at the schools and asked the directors and teachers to help us pick some students. Well everytime we have gone back since then, either the directors aren't there or they haven't done anything. Now we've found out that the reason they haven't picked anyone is that the majority of the kids we are looking for travel during the vacation months. Their parents enroll them in what is called academia and they have classes all summer in mostly extracurricular courses (arts, sports, etc.) that they don't get during the school year. Because of this, we decided to postpone the health promoters program to March when the new school year starts and work with whatever kids are available in January and February. Still I've had no luck. We've been to the schools and even got so desparate the other day that we just started asking any kids we passed on the streets what they are doing, but 99% of them said they are traveling. We know of about 3 kids that aren't and have asked them to particpate, but we'll see since this I haven't yet talked to any of them. I wanted to make the invitations to participate (because Rita said they are way more likely to participate if I do so) and have a preliminary meeting with them and their parents before I leave, but I don't even have one name right now so who knows if that will happen.

Of course this is all very frustrating, but what worries me the most is that my APCD is coming to visit me in mid-January and wants to see me in action with the kids. I emailed her and said I want her to see me in action too, but I don't know if that's a reality right now for me. I'll keep pushing forward, but it sure takes a lot of energy and motivation. I hope she understands if I don't have anyone!

Well my friends, I guess I better wrap this up as it's gotten really long as usual. Just in case you're wondering, I'll be on a plane 1 week from right now! Woo hoo!

A Streak of Bad Luck

Before I get into my recent adventures, I forgot to mention two other really awkward things that happened during the press conference. First of all, they were writing down all of our names and Rita told him I'm Kristen Cummings from Cuerpo de Paz. The journalist looked at me and said and she has "un Cuerpo de Paz"(a really nice body)......GROSS! Also, one of the doctor's was talking about the importance of always using protection during sex and he said, "A lot of people say wearing a condom is like eating soup with a bag on your tongue, how do you respond to that?" We were all really shocked and she was left speechless....wow!

So on to my stories. Jessica slept over on Friday and Saturday night and I decided to go up to her house on Sunday. I know, I know, we're such slackers, but we were actually be really social on Friday at the birthday and Saturday at the BBQ so we didn't feel so bad. On Sunday we were at the bus stop trying to find transportation up to her house and not having much luck. We decided I would stay with all of the stuff while she looked for a car. She had bought a lot of stuff since she doesn't live in the city and we also had 6 2-liter bottles of water because there hadn't been water at her house for 6 days and she needed to stock up in case there still wasn't any (luckily there was). I had a bag over my shoulder, but the bag itself was behind my body. Since it was a Sunday and market day, there were TONS of people in town and I thought it wasn't very smart to have the bag behind my back. Unfortunately when I moved it to the front, I noticed the zipper was undone and I knew I left it closed. Sure enough, my wallet was gone! Luckily I only had 35 soles on me (about $10), but I was still really mad. I was more upset that I had lost this really nice wallet that I bought from one of my friends (her artisans made it). As they say here, ¡Que cholera! I was talking to a woman on Monday who told me that I'm actually really lucky because she's talked to some people who've had 1,000 or 1,500 soles stolen from them on market days right after they'd sold their livestock that they'd raised for the past however many years! Of course I'm still really annoyed, but really thankful I didn't have more money with me.

I only have a really old twin bed in my room so whenever Jessica sleeps over, it's really cramped. Also, I'm always afraid we're going to fall through the roof and wake up in the kitchen (especially since 4 of the bed boards fell during the night on Saturday)! Anyway, on Monday I decided I needed to take care of that and finally get a new bed. When I thought I could move into the doctor's house, I had bought a new dresser, but now that I can't move, I can't use it because it doesn't fit in my current room. I was really upset because I thought I had lost all of that money ($100), but the woman who sold it to me said she'd trade my dresser for a new bed and mattress. Of course when I went by on Monday, she told me she had changed her mind because she didn't think it was an even trade. I explained that I can't use the dresser and I desperately need a new bed so I'd be happy to pay the difference. Her husband convinced her to let me do it so we went to find a guy to help me move everything.

The foot of my bed has a big drawer and two cabinets so it's kind of big. The guy (who's about my age) was carrying it out by himself and he hit a huge TV with it on his way out of the store and it went crashing to the ground! It was a pretty big TV and they had displayed on top of a stove so it wasn't on a very stable surface. As soon as it happened the woman yelled at her husband for displaying it there since it obviously wasn't very smart. We were all sure the screen would be in 1,000 pieces all over the floor, but to our surprise, it was still in one place. The front of the TV had a few scratches on it, but other than that, you wouldn't know anything happened. However, when we turned it on, it didn't work at all (I wasn't surprised since I heard a sizzling noise like something burning when it hit the floor). I felt horrible, but didn't feel like I was at fault since I was way inside the store. I told Rita about it that night and asked her if she thought I would have to pay for it, but she said no because it wasn't my fault.

Later that night, Karina and I spent 3 hours putting my bed together. Well more like, Karina did everything and I just watched. The bed looked really nice in its separate parts in the store, but it was a pain in the ass to assemble because it was made really poorly and none of the holes matched up for the bolts to go through. On top of that, the 7 boards they gave us that spread from one side of the bed to the other were all too long so Karina spent 2 hours sawing them all by hand! I insisted she just leave it and I'd go back to the store in the morning, but she insisted on doing it. It was such a headache and she was sweating up a storm, but now it looks beautiful and is really comfortable. Plus, now I can sleep in peace without having to worry that I'm going to fall through the floor.

So the next night, my host brother came to my room and told me someone was looking for me. It was the people from the store coming to ask me to give them some money for the TV! I was so annoyed. I told them I feel really badly for what happened, but it wasn't my fault and I don't think I should have to pay. They said if it were something that only cost 50 or 100 soles, they would just let it go, but the TV costs 700 soles and they had a technician look at it and he said it's not worth anything because the machine inside the TV had broken. It would cost more to fix it than it is worth. I continued to say that I was sorry, but that I don't have any money because I don't get a salary here. They tried to tell me that they never agree to make trades in the store and they made an exception for me and now look what happened. They said if they hadn't had done that for me then it never would have happened. They were totally laying the guilt trip on me saying that they are in debts with the bank and live in a poor country where there aren't a lot of jobs and they're just trying to make a living. I said I understood, but I really don't have the money to pay for it. They said they couldn't get any money from the guy who broke it because he's poor, but could I please just give them 50 or 100 soles. I'm poor too, but they don't believe it because they look at me and see a rich gringa no matter what I tell them. I told Rita I wanted to paint my face because I'm sick of being a gringa. I told them I'd have to think about it and after about 20 minutes of whining to me, they finally left.

After talking with my parents and Rita about this, I decided I'd give them 50 soles. If I were in the States I wouldn't pay any money because it wasn't my fault and I shouldn't have to pay, but that's not how things work here. After getting my wallet stolen and paying extra for the bed, I really didn't want to pay any more money, but felt that I should to avoid problems in the future. I have to live here for the next 2 years and I don't need to have a bad reputation (because the people here gossip A LOT). Rita said we should go to the police to have them decide who is at fault, but I said I didn't want that. The last thing I need is gossip about me bringing the police into this. I told her that I kept telling them I didn't have money, but they kept asking (even though they said they're not demanding money from me or forcing me to pay). She said I should go to their store, repeat all of my points, and say my parents had to send me money from the States to give to them because I don't have any. Otherwise, everyone in town will think I have all of this money to throw around. Even though I hate to lie, I agreed that this was the best solution.

Well would you believe that when I went to the store to give them the money they asked me for more? They said, can't you just give us 50 more? What ever happened to just being grateful that I'm giving you any money at all? I told them that I couldn't and reinforced that I'm a VOLUNTEER and don't make any money, that I was robbed on Sunday, and that I just paid for the bed so I don't have any money. They tried to give me the guilt trip again, but I wouldn't take it this time. I said that we really can't say the TV never would have broken if they hadn't changed the dresser for me because we can't predict the future. I told them that I understand they did this favor for me and I really appreciate it, but I can't give them any more than 50 soles. They kept telling me they are losing all of this money and that I don't understand. I was getting really annoyed and everytime they asked made me less and less likely to give any more money. I told them I understood, but they need to understand that I'm a volunteer and that I don't earn any money. I said I'm not going to ask my parents for more money because it's definitely not their fault and we shouldn't have to pay at all. I think they were really embarassed I told my parents, but of course they asked me about 3 more times to give more money. They also told me that anywhere else in Bambamarca the people would have made me take the broken TV with me and pay for the entire thing because the people here are really ignorant. Oh boy. After about 20 minutes, they realized I wasn't going to give them more money and told me not to worry about it. And here's the kicker, as I was leaving, they asked me to please remember them and their broken TV when I return to the States and send them a new one! Are you kidding me?

Oh boy. It's been a rough few days. Of course things were much better when I went to the doctor's house this afternoon. They invited me over for lunch and then we set up and decorated the Christmas tree! Their house was all decorated, but Carol wouldn't let them set up the tree until I was there. It was really sweet and really fun for me. I love the Christmas spirit and I hadn't felt it until today. Of course it wasn't the same as being home, but it was still really special. All I could think about was going home and getting to be with all of my favorite people for the holiday! I'm one lucky girl (despite a little bad luck recently)!

World AIDS Day

Yesterday (Friday, December 1st) was World AIDS Day and I had wanted to plan something for it to recognize the day and help raise awareness of this illness in my town because a lot of people don't know what it is. Sex education is unfortunately sort of taboo here so there are A LOT of teen pregnancies and I'm guessing STDs going around. Since I was traveling almost the entire month, it was a little difficult to get anything planned, but in the end, we did pull something together.

On Thursday, I was interviewed on one of the local radio stations about AIDS and the importance of recognizing the day. Incidentally, the TV station filmed my interview so I was also on TV that night. I had wanted to involved the youth a lot in what I was doing, but like I said, it's been really difficult. I was able to talk about how important it is, especially for youth, to understand what AIDS is and how they can protect themselves because the World Health Organization estimates that half the people with AIDS are less than 25 years old. Even though I always get embarassed to talk on the radio or TV, I felt that this was really important and was glad I was able to be interviewed. On the radio, I asked everyone to wear red clothes to show their support for the fight against AIDS. So that afternoon at the health center, we asked the entire health center staff to wear red the next day and we also made red ribbons to hand out to people that came in the next day.

On Friday morning I walked into the health center to find everyone wearing red! I was so excited because I know they wouldn't have done it otherwise, but they were really happy I was helping organize something with them. Also, Consuelo (a nurse at the health center) and I decorated a display case at the health center to commerate the day. The day before I had researched a lot about AIDS and found 8 frequently asked questions that we printed out and put in our display. Later in the morning we had a press conference about AIDS and it was held in front of our display so we were really excited.

Now before you read on, erase any idea you have in your mind of a press conference. First of all it was supposed to be held at 10 am, but no one was there (not the panelists nor the journalists). Around 10:20 Rita called the journalists to find out where they were and they had forgotten about it (even though I was with her the day before when we reminded them). By the time the journalists and panelists all showed up, it was probably 11 am. Then just when I thought we were going to start (oh by the way, I was a panelist too since I'm an "expert" - you sure get a lot of credit when you're a gringo), we started discussing what a press conference is and how it is supposed to be run. Apparently the last time they had one, no one asked any questions so the doctor had to be the interviewer and was really annoyed about it. So we spent about 10 minutes arguing about the organization of the press conference and who was going to talk about what. Haha. When we finally got started, I think it went really well. I talked about my work here and that I'm in the process of forming a youth group. I said that along with the health center, we're going to design a youth health promoters program and sex education and AIDS are going to be major topics. I said that we hope to teach the students so they can then teach their families and fellow peers. We all talked about the risks of unprotected sex and how to avoid being infected by this illness. I was really impressed by what everyone said (there were 7 panelists andI was the only one that wasn't a doctor)! Of course there were a few shocking moments though. First of all the reporter asked me if in the U.S. we spend more money on weapons or our health program - awkward! I said I didn't know, but I would hope we spend more on health. Then he asked why we still allow people with AIDS to work because they could infect other people - oh boy! The doctor told them that this isn't a fight against people with AIDS, it's against the illness itself so more people don't get infected. Anyway, all in all it well really well and I hope it had an impact on some people. I also tried to record this skit about AIDS with two kids from the high school, but the first day we went they told us the guy who knows how to do the recording had to leave so we'd have to come back the next day. I waited for the kids for an hour yesterday afternoon, but they never showed up. I don't really blame them since we got turned down the first day, plus it was a Friday afternoon. Hopefully we can do it next week because we want to give the tape to a few different radio stations to play throughout the month.

In addition to it being World AIDS Day, it was also Edith (the obstatrition)'s birthday so we made a huge lunch for her and then started celebrating with her at 1 pm. Apparently since it was her birthday and we were having our big lunch, no one had to go back to work that day (or go at all since we did nothing in the morning besides the press conference and run errands). I guess it was too bad for you if you were sick because all of the health center staff was getting drunk at the doctor's house! Oh man. I love this country! The lunch was delicious (arroz con pato - rice with duck) and we had a great time drinking and dancing together. Jessica came down and we danced the night away. We were the stars of the night! Since we had been there all afternoon though, we were exhausted by 11 pm and left to go to bed!

Today the drinking and dancing started all over again at 1 pm. There was a BBQ at the health center to raise money to build a garage for this new vehicle we got. It was fun, but we didn't stay too long. We were both worn out from the day before and disgusted with how closely some of the men (doctors and other professionals) were dancing with us. We stayed for a few hours to be polite, but then went back to my house, put our pj's back on, and read magazines until 7 pm. Haha. Lazy girls!

And just for the record.....3 weeks from today I'll be with Giff!!! I'm SOOOOOOO excited in case you can't tell. I miss you all and hope you're doing well.