Watch Out for Water Balloons!

As many of you know, Brazil has a huge celebration in February called Carnival that happens right before Lent begins. Well it turns out that Peru also has Carnival and Cajamarca happens to have the biggest celebration. Of course that means that there will be lots of drinking, partying, and parades, but apparently there is also a day where everyone goes out and throws balloons at each other, but they could be filled with anything from water to paint, oil, or even urine (so I’ve heard)! Even though it sounds gross, it is supposed to be a lot of fun and I’m really looking forward to going. Even though that big party day isn’t until Feb. 17th this year, the “playing” (as they call it) has already begun. I had only been back in site a few days when I saw these kids drenched from head to toe in the Plaza. I couldn’t imagine they were so wet just from the rain since it was only drizzling and then I noticed they were holding a bucket and one of the little girls said, “get her WET!” Luckily they weren’t talked about me, but I quickly realized what was going on. Another volunteer warned us that anytime after Jan. 1st is free game in Cajamarca to throw water balloons (the paint, oil, etc. is only the one Saturday thank God) in preparation for Carnival. So I got out of there really quickly and now walk everywhere paranoid. A few days later Jessica and I were walking home to my house and we were both carrying a lot of things. We walked by this huge truck, praying that they didn’t have anything to throw at us (as the gringas, we are prime targets). We walked by without anything happening and thought we were safe. Haha, yeah right. About two blocks later they drove by and threw a big bucket of dirty water at us. Jessica was so pissed because it got all in her eye and was burning. I didn’t get as wet as she did, but was still really annoyed. I can see it being fun if you want to play too, but if you’re not playing, it can be really frustrating. At the next corner, we saw a group of little boys with water balloons and a super soaker water gun waiting to peg us. We ran into a store and asked if they sold water balloons. They didn’t, but the lady gave us a big bowl full of water instead. Jessica stepped out the door, yelled “CUIDADO” (be careful) and threw the water at them. Of course then we really got them riled up, but we were stuck in the store so we dashed out and started booking it down the street (in our boots and carrying all of our stuff). I was ready to kill Jessica. I started screaming, “I didn’t want to get involved in this and now look at us!” We both ran for cover in the first place we found – she went into a store and I went into some random house! When I thought the coast was clear, I went out into the street shouting her name and found her in a store where she was buying ammunition for us. We left the store each carrying three water balloons in hand. Turns out it works really well to scare the kids because they were no longer interested in us when we had our own balloons. We found another little boy at the next corner and he asked us if we wanted to play with him. Since we were already wet, we thought, why not and started throwing our balloons. None of us got hit since we were able to dodge all of the balloons, but it was still fun! What is NOT fun is just getting randomly hit when you’re on your way somewhere. On Sunday I was walking through the Plaza and had 5 balloons thrown at me, but none of them hit me. I know it’s coming soon though so I try not to go anywhere in the afternoon because I don’t want to get drenched by a huge bucket. I’ve only been hit by a few, and not too bad, but I’ve heard that when they really get you, it hurts a lot. I had my first youth group meeting on Monday and 3 of the 5 girls arrived soaking wet – poor things! What is worse is that if people see that you got hit, everyone will try to get you so sometimes you’ll have 8-10 balloons in a row thrown at you! Yesterday I decided I wasn’t going to deal with it so I bought my own balloon and filled it up to carry with me as I walked and scare all of the little kids away. I didn’t even fill it up enough so it wouldn’t have done anything, plus as Giff says, I probably wouldn’t be able to hit the kid anyway since I have such bad aim, but it scared them and I didn’t get wet so that is all I care. Rita thinks I’m so funny for walking around with my balloon, but I don’t care, I’m not getting wet. Yesterday a woman from the health center, Katy, invited me to her house. We walked up there at 5 pm when it’s the worst. Before we went to her house, I went home and changed into my rain coat and then we walked pegged against the walls because people dump big buckets of water out their windows or balconies! Oh man I can’t wait for Feb. 17th to get here! In other news, my first youth group meeting went pretty well. I invited 19 girls ages 12-23 with the idea that I’d split them into two groups (the younger girls in one, older girls in another). The meeting was supposed to start at 3 pm and by 3:45 I only had 5 girls so I decided to start anyway. There were two 12 year olds, one 13, one 17, and one 20 year old, but we had a great time. I decided to start with just girls because I thought it would be easier to form a relationship with them and discuss some of the sensitive and controversial issues we’ll be addressing. I’ll start something with boys later, but for my first group, I felt more comfortable starting with just girls – plus with all of the machismo, I thought they could use it. The girls were really shy at first (except the 12 year old girl, Nayla, I took to camp ALMA with me back in November), but by the end they had opened up a little. They all seemed to really enjoy themselves and said they would come to the next meeting (which is this afternoon with my APCD from Lima!). We already talked about things we could do in the future and they seemed motivated and excited. I say seem about all of their actions because they are hard to read and might promise to come back, but it’s possible I’ll never see them again. I hope they keep coming because I had fun with them and am looking forward to working with them. Nayla sent me about 6 text messages that night to say she had so much fun and wanted to help me with whatever she could because she really likes me. So cute! The running/training for the marathon is going pretty well. So far the most I’ve run is only 4 miles (or so – I have no way of measuring a mile so I just do it based on 10 minutes of running), but I go running every other day so I feel good about it right now. I have to start somewhere. I’m getting a little nervous because I can’t find the race listed on the website that my friend who ran it last year told me about. They still only have the 2006 races listed so I’m praying they’re having it again. The last race was the 5th annual so I’m hoping they’ll continue onto the 6th annual, but we’ll see. If not, I told Giff I’ll just run 26.2 miles by myself one day and call it my marathon because I don’t want to just give up now that I’ve decided to do it. Plus it’s nice to have something to work for – I need that to help me get through the tough times. The other day it was a lot warmer in the morning than it normally is so I was dying by the end of the 45 minutes. When I got home all I wanted to do was jump in the shower, but I didn’t feel like waiting for the water to boil so I decided to go for it anyway. BAD IDEA that water is freaking cold no matter how sweaty you are. I guess it was kind of refreshing in a way, but judging by the fact that I had to step out of the water to catch my breath makes me think I probably won’t do that again. So you know how I’ve told you how blunt Peruvians are (they haven’t told me I’m fat in a while though so that’s nice – now they think I’m actually getting skinnier), well the other day I was at Rita’s house and Melany said, “Kristen look, you have a big pimple on your forehead just like my mom does!” Thanks Melany. Last but not least, I realized that I never told you what Christmas is like here. I was way too excited about going home to think about Christmas in Peru. Hana was saying that in her site no one really does anything for it and if they had a tree, it was just green paper on a stick that they put in an empty can. In my site, they did a little more, but not much. I think I told you that I helped the doctor and his family decorate for Christmas so that was really fun. They have a 6 ft. tall fake tree so it resembled Christmas in the States more than anywhere else here. Rita’s family also has a fake tree and they do their nacimiento (nativity scene). Having a nacimiento in the house is much more common than having a Christmas tree. One woman who works at the health center, Consuelo, has one so big in her house that people come to see it. It takes up an entire room from floor to ceiling. They are really cool looking and have everything from antique dolls, baby Jesus, etc. to Barbie furniture. I guess you could compare some of them to the Christmas villages people do in the States, but they are not exactly the same. They celebrate Christmas on the 24th. They go to church and then have a huge turkey dinner with paneton (fruit cake) and hot chocolate at midnight. The 25th isn’t really a big deal here, nor are presents. Hana was saying that people from her town that have moved to Lima send presents to the kids in her town, but I don’t think they do that here. It’s hard to say since I wasn’t here, but I haven’t heard anything like that before. Rita told me they basically only give presents to the kids. Each aunt and uncle buys a present for all of the kids and the adults don’t really do anything for each other (though Rita always gets a present from her mom). It sounds like it is more of a celebration in my site than it was for Hana, but that is only based on a few families. For me it never really felt like Christmas even though some businesses decorated and some houses too. In the States, you can feel that Christmas is in the air, but I never got that here. I’ve already written so much so I better stop now. My boss is coming this afternoon to visit and observe me. I’ll let you know how that goes when I can. Tomorrow she invited me to do site development for her for a new volunteer from Peru 9. Then I will hopefully be traveling to the coast with my host family to go to a wedding (as long as we can get my boss to say yes) so I don’t know when I’ll be able to write again. I hope you’re all doing well. I miss you all like crazy!