One More Update

So apparently I didn't have Giardia because I got sick again yesterday. Usually it only happens about once a month, but this is the second time in two weeks so you can imagine it's really frustrating, especially since I'm about to go on vacation with my parents. I called the doctor and she had me go in for another stool sample (my second in two days) to see if it's a parasite. The last two tests I've done have come back negative, but I wasn't having symptoms then so she asked me do it again. I don't have much faith this is going to give me any answers, but we'll see. The girl who works at the lab said it might be a bacterial infection that needs to be treated in a whole other way. The first time I gave a stool sample, they said it showed that I have a bacterial infection that doesn't seem to be going away, but didn't give me anything to treat it. I just let it go, but now that I've been sick 4 times in the past three months, I'm starting to get really annoyed (not to mention how worried my parents are that this is going to have long term effects on my health). They told me the name of another test I might have to do if this one comes back negative again. I mentioned it to my doctor and she told me not to worry - that she'd talk to the lab and get it figured out so we'll see. Keep your fingers crossed that I finally get an answer to this.

In other news, I had a great weekend with Hana and Lindsay. Today is Hana's birthday so the three of us celebrated it this weekend since we never get to see her. She was in town for a conference during the week so she just took a few days of vacation to stay on to visit us. We got massages, watched movies, had sleepovers, and bought our favorite cake - Princesa cake (chocolate peanut butter) - to celebrate! Believe it or not, we barely even ate any of the cake because we were too full from everything else we had that day! Everyone in the group knows us as the dessert queens, but we definitely did not live up to our standards that weekend - haha. It was so much fun to have Hana in Cajamarca and show her around because she's never been here before. There were actually a lot of visitors in town this weekend as it seems to be "visitor season". We met two friends' parents and siblings and another friend's daughter! His daughter is my age so we were talking about how cool it must be to visit your dad in the Peace Corps. It made me really excited to see how happy our friends were to be with their families since my parents will be here soon too!

On Friday night we got to Lindsay's house around 10 pm and tried to go downstairs about a half an hour later to brush our teeth, but when Lindsay opened the door to go outside, it sounded like someone was out there because we heard footsteps of someone running away. We asked who was there, but no one answered and we shined a headlamp, but didn't see anything. All three of us are sure we heard something, but Lindsay was the only one who saw anything when she first answered the door. She said she saw someone's feet and it looked like the ran to the left of her door. Her room is on the second floor and you access it from the outside, but the only way to get off the balcony is to turn right out her door so we were really scared that this person was just hiding somewhere, waiting for us to come out again.

Of course we were scared shitless and kept trying to figure out who it was and where they came from because in order to get back to her room, you have to walk through the house. We didn't see anyone when we came in, but we weren't exactly looking either. You have to go through two doors to get to Lindsay's room and the person was standing outside of the second door so we figured the person saw us go in and thought we were in for the night. There was no way we were about to go back outside so we just sat there discussing all of the possibilities for a good 30 minutes. We were all still really scared so we decided to wake up her host parents and tell them. Her host mom came up and looked all around with a flashlight, but after looking around for about 20 minutes, didn't find anything. She asked if we saw the person and Lindsay said yes (even though we didn't, but otherwise we were sure she wouldn't believe us). She said it was a man and he was short, which isn't so far off since most Peruvian men are about my height. She assured us there was nothing to be worried about, escorted us downstairs so we could brush our teeth, and told us it must have just been a ghost.

The next morning at breakfast they were talking about it again and her host mom (who is about 60) kept saying, "I really couldn't believe you guys because I didn't hear anything and no one was out there." The fact that she didn't hear anything doesn't matter because she often doesn't hear Lindsay come home. There is another girl, Dannie, who lives at Lindsay's house who was at breakfast too and was saying she was sure it was this guy down the road who is dying and came to "reclaim his steps". She said that before someone dies, they visit all of their favorite places, or places that have meaning to them so she was sure it was him. Her host mom said he already died though so that theory was thrown out. Then she told us that it couldn't have been his ghost either because he was tall and Lindsay said the guy was short, so that was out! Oh man. They still insisted it was a ghost and I'm sure her host mom thinks we're crazy, but the next night Dannie put up a huge wooden stick to bolt the door shut. Looks like someone believed us....

Finally, I want to congratulate my neice Monica who became a mom on May 26th. Yes, that means I am now the proud GREAT aunt (at the young age of 23) of Edward Franklin Miller! She was due on May 27th so when we woke up that morning, I announced to Hana and Lindsay that we should be getting a phone call sometime that day to tell me I've become a great aunt. I had made my parents and my sister promise that someone call me when the baby was born so I made sure to have my cell phone with me at all times over the weekend. Well wasn't it a surprise to me when we went to the internet that morning and found out by EMAIL that she had the baby - and worse yet, it wasn't even a personal email, it was just a forward that my mom sent to the rest of our family! I couldn't believe no one had called me! I asked mom and dad to bring me socks (along with TONS of other things) so she called me the other day to ask if I wanted no show or ankle socks, but she didn't call when I became a GREAT AUNT! This is a monumental occasion in my life and I didn't even get a phone call! (Mom you know I'm just teasing you about all of this because I know you were extremely busy running around buying all of the stuff I have requested.....it's just a joke!).

Mom called me a little later after she got my email and gave me all of the details of the birth. Let's just say that Monica and Edward were both troopers and it was a long, hard labor, but they are both healthy so that's what counts. Mom gave me the information to call the hospital so I was able to talk to Monica, Brittani, and Ann briefly. Monica sounded happy, but exhausted. Ann and Brittani promised to take good care of her and send me lots of pictures so I can't wait!

Well I think those are the only updates. Now it's just waiting around until Mom and Dad arrive! Woo hoo!

An Update Before My BIG TRIP!!!

So in case you don’t know what big trip I’m talking about, it’s my PARENTS’ VISIT! They arrive in a week and I’m soooooo excited! Woo hoo! We’ve been planning this trip for so long, it’s hard to believe it’s almost here! Since we’ll be together for three weeks, I’m sure I’ll have LOTS of stories to tell afterwards so I wanted to write an update before that.

I want to say that not too much has been going on, but I won’t say it’s going to be a short entry because we all know better than that. When I say not much has been going on, it’s because I can’t remember anything, but when I look back at my calendar, I usually realize that I have lots to say – haha!

First of all, about two weeks ago, on May 8th I had a site visit with our regional coordinator, the head of the business program, and another man who came to evaluate Peace Corps Peru. He is actually the current Country Director in Jamaica (and wasn’t quite sure why they picked him to do the evaluation), but has served as a volunteer and worked in the administrative side of Peace Corps for many years (including Country Director of two or three countries in Africa). All Peace Corps countries have to be evaluated/audited once in a while to make sure everything is going well and where the program could improve. Peace Corps has now been in Peru for five years and still hadn’t had an evaluation so that’s why he came (along with another guy from the main office in Washington, DC who traveled in other departments). I was told they’d be visiting Bambamarca and would want to see my house, meet my family, see where I work, and something of what I’ve done to this point in my site. It’s a good thing I was freaking out about it and making sure everything was organized since by “site visit” they actually meant spending five minutes in my town to pick me up and use the bathroom at my house on their way through to do some site development in La Paccha! I should know by now that whenever Peace Corps tells me they’re coming to visit, they will most likely be running behind schedule and it’ll be very low key, but I still always run around like a maniac trying to make sure everything will be perfect for their arrival. Oh man.

I think I’ve mentioned before that they’re developing a community called La Paccha, about two hours away from here, for a volunteer (or perhaps a married couple since it’s so isolated) so I got to accompany them to the community and attend a meeting in the Municipality with the authorities of the community. I always really enjoy doing site development because it really motivates me when you see how excited a community gets about having a volunteer, and it’s fun to see how they develop a community to get it ready for our arrival. The only site development I had done was with my boss for youth development so I enjoyed seeing how it’s different for a business volunteer. In this community, we met with some coffee and pineapple growers. They each have small associations, but would really benefit from a business volunteer who could help them with their organization and accounting, etc. From the one group we got a sample of some coffee liquor they make (actually pretty delicious) and the other group cut open a pineapple for us – which was out of this world. We also got a bag of ground coffee and a pineapple each to take home with us. It was very generous and really showed their enthusiasm. We have a lot of hope for that community and the only reason we’re there is by accident (confusion with another community called La Paccha that sent in a solicitud for a volunteer – haha).
I really enjoyed meeting the man who came to evaluate our program as he has a lot of international experience. He has not only worked with Peace Corps, but also the Department of Agriculture (in various countries), and was a professor of International Development for some years at Monterrey Institute in CA. We had a long talk about the career possibilities in International Development so it was really interesting and beneficial to me. He said he always tells his students that in order to be competitive in this field you need three things: 1) Two years of serving in the Peace Corps, 2) A foreign language, and 3) A graduate degree with a focus (such as community health or something, not just international development). So I felt encouraged by that since in another year I’ll be able to check off two thirds of those requirements. I definitely want to go to grad school in the future, but right now I have no idea what I’d want to focus on. I guess I still have some time to think about it, and god knows I sure have A LOT of extra time on my hands here just to think. Hana and I were talking about how sometimes we find ourselves just sitting in our rooms and staring into space – for long periods of time – do you think we’re losing our minds???

I’ve wanted to buy a table in Cajamarca for a while now so I took advantage of a free ride and went back with the three guys. The next morning I was sitting at one of our favorite restaurants eating breakfast before I got on my bus, and became very upset and embarrassed by some American tourists who were at the table next to me. Now I will admit that Peru isn’t always the best at customer service – especially at the standards that we’re used to, but at the same time, I think these people could have handled the situation differently. They wanted to order one of the breakfast combos, but wanted to switch the tea for coffee. The waitress told them they could do it, but it would cost a little more as coffee is more expensive. They got really upset with her and told her how ridiculous it was to charge more. By the way it’s at the most $1 extra! They decided not to get the breakfast because they were mad at the waitress so they just ordered a café cortado (whatever that means). The whole time the guy was making it (at the bar across from their table) the people were muttering stuff under their breaths of how ridiculous this place was to try to charge them extra. I could hear the lady saying “Did they just put evaporated milk in my coffee? That is NOT how you make a café cortado. Do they expect me to drink that? I’m NOT going to drink that. And now into the microwave? There is no way I’m drinking that coffee.” So the waitress comes back to serve her the coffee and she tells her I’m not drinking that because that is not how you make it. The poor waitress said, “I’m sorry, mam. This is how we make a café cortado in our country. Why don’t you tell me how you make it in your country and we could try to do it that way.” I thought she handled that so well, but of course the tourist starts going off about how in Spain they make it with a cappuccino machine, blah blah blah, and that she just wanted an espresso. [Sidenote: I’m not quite sure why she said in Spain because there is no way they were from Spain. They spoke Spanish worse that I do and were very pale skinned and spoke English perfectly with an American accent.] Now here is where Peru gets a little funny with their customer service, the waitress said they don’t have a cappuccino machine so they couldn’t make it the other way, plus they’ve already made that coffee so they can’t make her another one. So the people just got up and left!

I was so embarrassed by these peoples’ behavior and how they handled the situation. Now we all know that in the States they’d make you a new coffee immediately, no matter who was “right” in the situation because the customer is always right. But when you’re traveling in a third world country, you have to expect that some things are going to go wrong and everything isn’t going to be up to your expectations. I know that I complain about these things too, but I live here, and usually just end up laughing about it in the end. I know I shouldn’t judge because I don’t know what was going on with them. Maybe they were having a bad day, maybe they had been robbed, who knows, but unfortunately, I think this type of behavior happens more than we’d like to admit among American tourists. I was so embarrassed because I didn’t want to be associated with them and that behavior. After that the waitress asked me about my friends and I immediately yelled, “NO NO, I don’t know them!” Clearly I was just being paranoid and not really listening because she said, “I know, I asked how are your friends.” Haha. All of the staff knows us there because we go there all the time for breakfast and more importantly, their amazing hot chocolate and Princessa cake (chocolate-peanut butter)! I was relieved to hear her say that, but I still felt really uncomfortable by their behavior.

Mother’s Day was another fiasco for me. It’s a really big holiday here in Peru – most things were closed the Friday before in preparation of course. It reminds me of a really tacky Valentine’s Day. The sell lots of chocolate roses, plastic roses, and big balloons. Anyway my host mom was making a really big deal out of how I was going to be here on Mother’s Day to celebrate with my Peruvian mom. I was planning on making them cookies, but decided to ask them if there was something they wanted instead. She said we should make a cake. I told her I could make the banana “cake” (aka banana bread which they LOVE) or an apple cake. She said, “Eww I don’t want either of those, don’t you know how to make a chocolate cake?” I told her I didn’t think I had a recipe for one, but I could look one up online. So I spent 45 minutes on Saturday afternoon looking up recipes that were easy and didn’t require any exotic ingredients (since we’d have to find them all in Bambamarca – sour cream is considered “exotic” in Peru). I finally settled on using my mom’s brownie recipe as they are very similar to chocolate cake and much easier. Plus my family complains if I use the oven too much because it uses a lot of gas. Anyway, no one said anything to me all afternoon about the cake even though we were supposed to make it then. Finally on my way out that evening I mentioned the brownie idea and my host mom turned her nose up at it. She doesn’t know what brownies even are or how delicious they are so I told her it’s just like chocolate cake, just thinner. She was with about four family members and they were all like, “Tomorrow, Kris, tomorrow” like this was such a burden on them. I wanted to say, I’m doing this for YOU so don’t feel like you’re doing me any favors by “letting” me do this.

The next day no one talked to me other than to say good morning. We were supposed to eat lunch together, but at 2:30 pm I got a phone call from the doctor inviting me to a restaurant in town because they were there celebrating Chabu’s birthday. My family was just about to sit down to eat, but since they hadn’t invited me to eat with them or said anything to me, I decided to go. I usually love my time with the doctor’s family, but they annoyed me too. When I got there, the doctor, Chabu, and Honsler (their 35-year-old nephew who always tries to flirt with me) were all drunk and immediately started talking about what a great body I have and what nice, big legs I have. Oh boy. Luckily they stopped talking about it for a little bit, but then they were talking about inviting this other girl, Silvia, and Honsler said (excuse the language), “Who do you think has a bigger ass, Kristen or Silvia?” I was so annoyed and he knew it. That is completely inappropriate – especially since his ex-girlfriend and mother of his one-year-old son was there! Gross! Then they started talking about love and telling me love isn’t worth it and they don’t know why I keep holding out for my boyfriend because sure enough he’s cheating on me by now! By now I almost expect to hear this stuff from other Peruvians, but NOT the doctor’s family. They know me really well and usually don’t say stuff like this to me. The doctor said, “That’s what they do in the U.S. – they cheat.” And I told him that no, it was here that they cheat. Then they got all excited because they thought I was saying I’m the one cheating on Giff and wanted to know who the lucky guy is! I said, “No Peruvians, not me, are the ones who cheat!” and they all stopped. Carol, their 9-year-old daughter, was the only one who stuck up for me. Luckily they left the restaurant shortly after to take the party back to their house so I used the opportunity to escape. I told them I had to call my mom for Mother’s Day and that I’d go back later. Needless to say I never went back, but when I saw Chabu the next day, she said she was mad at me. I made her cookies the next day though so I think I was forgiven.

I was back to my house by 4 pm and thought maybe my family and I would do something together for dinner. They all saw me come home and knew I was home, but when they had their little celebration around 7 pm, no one invited me or said anything to me. My room is above the kitchen so I could hear them downstairs eating, giving gifts, laughing, and talking. So even though I’ve been away from my mom on Mother’s Day many times, and even though it’s not that big of a deal, I was really homesick that day.

Well this is turning out to be quite long, as usual, and quite depressing. To continue on this trend, I got sick AGAIN last week. It was all of the same symptoms that I had the last two times I’ve been sick and I felt terrible. My dad has been really worried about me since this is now the third time in three months I’ve been sick and the doctor doesn’t seem to be concerned. My dad is worried this will have long term effects on my health – both physically and psychologically if it doesn’t get taken care of. Peace Corps has two doctors and I had only talked with one of them about this so I decided to call the other doctor. I explained my symptoms and she said it sounds like I have Giardia – a PARASITE – even though the stool sample came back negative. She said that it often goes undetected because the parasite isn’t always laying eggs, but it sounds to her like the parasite keeps laying eggs every month and each time I’m getting reinfected! GROSS! So she had me buy the medicine and I took it on Saturday afternoon. I was out of commission that whole afternoon as the medicine made me feel like crap, but hopefully that means it was killing whatever has been living inside of me for the past three (or more?) months and I won’t keep getting sick.

On a positive note, I did some more site development this past Thursday in two other communities – both about 30 minutes outside of Bambamarca. Even though I had set up these meetings about two weeks in advance, no one was ready for our arrival. By not being ready, I mean they had no idea we were coming at all….so much for trying to plan ahead! I felt really bad since our regional coordinator had come up from Cajamarca for the meetings, but he didn’t seem to be annoyed – I guess he’s used to this by now! In the first community, they were moving the health center from one location to another so it was very informal and we just met with them on the road outside of the building. They advised the mayor that we were there so he came to our “meeting” too. Despite the impromptu meeting, we were both really impressed by the community and think it has a lot of potential for a volunteer. The mayor and the health center staff are really involved in the community and very enthusiastic about this opportunity. The other community on the other hand, didn’t do as well. The people were nice, but they were incredibly shy and didn’t seem very interested. Plus there is a new doctor there who is young and from Lima. He struck both of us as very pretentious so we’re not positive yet about that community. We’ve heard that the community is really organized and would be a great place for a volunteer so we’re not giving up hope. Apparently it’s normal for the people to be shy at first because they’ve never lived with an extranjero (foreigner) in their town and don’t know how to respond, but over time, they usually warm up to the idea so we’re keeping our fingers crossed about them.

Running has been TERRIBLE lately so that’s pretty frustrating. I feel like I’m back at the beginning where I have no endurance and it’s hard to breathe. I have no motivation and then when I do go running, I don’t enjoy it. With that said, I ran six miles on Sunday without any problems and it felt great so I’m hoping this is just a phase and it’s only because I have so much on my mind. My “official” marathon training starts on Monday the 28th so I’m hoping it will go well. I don’t want to quit after I’ve come this far, but if things continue the way they’ve been going, I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it….

So that’s the news from Bambamarca. Right now I’m just trying to keep myself from going crazy. I’m SO EXCITED about my parents coming that I can’t concentrate on anything – including sleeping. Thanks to my FRIENDS DVDs, music, and magazines, I’m hanging in there.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

So I guess I need to learn that I should never get too comfortable in my relationship with my host mom because just when I think things are going well and we’ve made some progress, BAM she throws it back in my face. I’ve gotten over the taking my food and breaking my kitchenware (water pitchers, spatulas, etc.). I figure that’s a small price to pay for living here because I really love my room and enjoy the rest of the family. I’m becoming really close with the rest of the family and I think that kills her. Anyway, the most recent “episode” started a few weeks ago when she told me she needs her dresser back. She loaned it to me when I first came (mostly because it’s too big to get out of the room), but now she needs it back because the one she was using was her brother’s and he took it back (are you noticing a trend here?). I asked her how she was going to get it out of the room and she said she wasn’t sure because it was nearly impossible to get in and they had to take the entire balcony apart just to get it up to the second floor. I suggested I just buy a new one that she can use in her room since I’d have to buy a new one anyway if she were able to get hers out of my room. She agreed that would be the easiest way to handle the situation so we left it at that (because I didn’t have the money at the time to buy a new one).

I actually haven’t seen much of her since then because she’s not home during the week and then I went to Lima for a workshop (see other posting). She was home all last week because Monday and Tuesday were holidays so she didn’t have to go to work at all (don’t ask, I don’t understand why). [Side note: only Tuesday was the actual holiday – Labor Day – but you can’t just have one holiday in Peru so everyone got Monday off too.] So last week we were all eating lunch together and somehow we started talking about my dad’s work and Cummings Studios. Her brother, Wilder, was really interested in it so I showed him these three postcards I have of my dad’s work. I was explaining that they usually didn’t make windows, but restored them and many of them were from the 14th and 15th centuries. So my host mom said, “So they must be really expensive, right?” I told her they were and that some projects lasted a couple of years. So of course she has to say, “So your dad is a millionaire then.” Hahaha – that’s funny. I explained that we’re not even close to being millionaires since owning your own business involves a lot of costs and risks. I told her that in the end, you often end up with less than if you were just an employee of the business. Luckily her brother and sister-in-law, Marta, were sticking up for me and saying it’s just like owning your own business in Peru – it’s really expensive and often times not very profitable. Of course though, she’ll believe what she wants to believe and so in her mind, my parents are millionaires.

So that takes us back to the dresser. On Friday afternoon we went shopping for dressers and of course she wants me to buy her the most expensive one because she thinks my dad is a millionaire. I was getting really annoyed because I can see right through her. She wants me to buy one that is almost 500 soles when she can get one just as nice (and big) for 350. Marta was with us and told me not to let her convince me to get an expensive one when I’m only going to be here for another year. There is no reason for me to buy a really expensive one when she’ll get hers back when I leave. So after going to various stores, my host mom asked me which one I wanted to buy, making it very clear she didn’t like the one that was 350 soles. She said it’s for a man (because it’s natural wood and not stained like the other one – give me a break). I told her I wouldn’t pay more than 350 because I can’t afford to pay any more. She was really disappointed, but decided that she’d talk to her husband about it to see if they could pay the difference to buy the more expensive one.

Yesterday morning Marta pulled me aside in the kitchen and told me she needed to talk to me. She said she talked to Wilder about it and he said that Rosa is trying to take advantage of me and get me to buy her the nicest dresser out there. He said I shouldn’t pay any more than 300 soles and if she doesn’t want to accept that, he’ll help me take apart the entire dresser to get it out of my room and then I can buy a cheaper one to put in my room. I was really relieved to hear that because it’s nice to know that some people in this family like me and aren’t trying to take advantage of me. Oh and by the way, I forgot to mention that Karina told me she walked in on them the other day talking about who is going to get what of my stuff when I leave. Karina told me that she said, “Shame on every single one of you. Kristen still has over a year here and you’re already talking about her leaving so you can get her stuff. None of you even deserve any of it because you’re not even her friend.” I was really touched that she stuck up for me like that, and she’s right – why am I going to leave my stuff for them if they just look at me as someone to profit from? So when my host mom “innocently” asked me on Friday what I’m going to do with my dresser when I leave, I told her that it’s very likely I’ll ask for a replacement volunteer, and if so, I’ll sell all of my furniture to them.

Sorry for the ranting about her, but she DRIVES ME CRAZY – in case you couldn’t tell! In addition to the dresser stuff, we met this teacher who works in the same community as her and he said to me, “Wow you speak Spanish pretty well, huh?” and of course she had to laugh and say, “Not really, but I guess she does speak it a little better than when she came.” Thanks Rosa – you always make me feel great about myself. I will mention that my other family members have told me my Spanish has improved a lot since I arrived so I try not to let what she says bother me. After we got back from shopping, they were talking about who is going to be Emily’s godmother. Marta said she should have me be the godmother and kept talking about how great that would be (most Peruvians jump at this opportunity mind you and many Peace Corps volunteers are asked to be a godparent at least 5 times during the two years). However, Rosa said in her snotty voice, “Why would I make Kristen the godmother when she’s just going to leave soon and I’ll never see her again!” I know that I won’t see them very often, but it’s just the way she says it that hurts. I realized this past week that I spent with her home that she really makes me feel on edge and I like it so much better when she’s gone. I hate saying that because I’m really grateful they opened their house to me, but I just feel so much more comfortable and relaxed when she’s not home. When she’s not home it’s so much better because there isn’t any tension – I get along really well with everyone else, it’s just her that’s the problem. Oh boy.

Believe it or not, even though I just ranted on and on about my host mom, I do have other news to report. The first thing is sad news. Luz, the girl we had working in our house for a couple of weeks, who I LOVED because she was so damn cute, doesn’t work here anymore. Apparently while I was in Lima her dad came and took her away. My host mom said she was crying because she didn’t want to leave, but they think her parents are going to send her to Lima to work for her aunt. If that’s the case, I’m really happy for her because that’s a great opportunity, but I really miss her. She was always so happy and smiling. She brought good energy into our house. I’m sad that I never got to say goodbye to her. I realized that I don’t even have a picture of her and I’ll probably never see her again.

Well I have been quite the little partier in Bambamarca lately. The Friday before I left for Lima, I was invited to a birthday party for one of the doctors, Margarit, at the health center. She is from Lima, but has been in Bambamarca for a year doing her serum (like an internship or residency I think). They told me it started at 5:30 so I showed up at 6 to find Katy (the host) and Margarit shredding chicken in their sweatpants. I stayed for about a half an hour until I found out that everyone else was coming around 8 pm. I thought I’d go crazy if I just sat there so I went home and took a little nap. I went back around 8:30 and was still one of the first ones there, but everyone else showed up in the next hour. We had a little toast with this DISGUSTING strawberry cocktail they made – I thought it tasted like Pepto Bismol even though everyone else kept saying how delicious it was. At birthday parties here, you go around a circle and everyone gives a little toast to the guest of honor so of course I had to do that too. Then we had Ají de Gallina (this delicious Peruvian dish of shredded chicken in a yellow sauce) and started drinking and dancing. We did the typical thing of passing one beer and one cup among everyone so it was no surprise when I got a really bad sore throat and cold starting the next day (what do you expect when you share germs with 15 people?). Everyone here thinks I don’t drink so they all get really excited when I start drinking and dancing with them. Sometimes I get annoyed at Peruvian parties because gross drunk guys want to talk and dance with me, but I ended up having a blast that night because I knew everyone there (except one guy who showed up around 11:30 to play Happy Birthday on his guitar at midnight). I stayed there dancing until 3 am! They cut the cake just as I was leaving so I took some for the road and the doctor walked me home. It was really fun and I was the talk of the health center the next morning because they couldn’t believe that I dance and drink! Haha.

On Saturday night I went to another party. Bambamarca frequently has bands come to give concerts in the canchitas (soccer courts). I’ve been invited to a few, but have never really had the ganas (energy) to go. They usually start around 11 pm – just as I’m getting into bed (haha) and I can hear them loud and clear as I live right next to the canchitas. However, on Saturday night, this group that I really like came so I told Chabu I’d go with her. The group I really like is called Grupo Cinco, but it was only half of the group who came. Apparently when only half of the group comes, it’s called Hermanos Yaipen so when I first saw the signs for it, I didn’t care about going, but Chabu explained to me that it was really Grupo Cinco so I was excited. The signs for the concert said it was supposed to start at 8, but of course it didn’t really start until 10 or 10:30. I went over to the doctor’s house around 8 anyway because sometimes we’ll have a drink or something before it starts to help pass the time. That night we didn’t do anything though except sit around waiting for Consuelo (a nurse at the health center) until 11:15 pm! Chabu and I were falling asleep at the table. I was about ready to go home to bed if she didn’t come, but she finally showed up.

We got to the canchitas around 11:30 and ended up having a blast! The music was great and it was so fun to dance to a live band. Karina showed up too with two friends, Marta and Wilder so we had a great time dancing together. You should have seen how I was dressed – it was hilarious. Most girls wear nice dress boots and their best outfits because these dances are a big deal here in Bambamarca, but not this girl. I had a headband in my hair (to cover up the grease because I hadn’t showered that day), a fleece, and sneakers because the last time I danced all night in my boots, my legs and feet were killing me the next day. Since I have no one to impress here, I figured I’d go for comfort rather than fashion. Haha. I stayed until 3:30 am, but then decided to leave with Karina because by then most of the men were really drunk and annoying. I like dancing when I can dance with the doctor, his nephew (Honsler who is 35), Wilder or someone else I know (it’s really rare for girls to dance with each other – it’s really traditional here in that after every song, you have to wait for a guy to ask you to dance). But when drunk Peruvian guys (or 18 year old boys) want to dance with me and try to hold my hands and touch me a lot I just get annoyed and bored. I make sure not to make eye contact and try to look really bored if they’re annoying me, but they never get the hint. I love how we’ll be dancing and they’re trying to ask me about my work and what I’m doing here. Are you kidding me? You’re drunk, the music is blaring, and I have to shout all of my answers to you, and you’re trying to carry on a conversation? Oh man. The straw that always breaks the camel’s back is when they start telling me they’re sure my boyfriend is cheating on me, that I’m too young to be engaged (I tell them I’m engaged so they’ll leave me alone – it usually only works if they’re sober though) and that they’re not going to let me leave Bambamarca because they’re going to marry me – yeah right, buddy, in your dreams! I listened to it for about two songs, but then I’d had enough and left with Karina. Overall, the night was surprisingly fun. I didn’t think I’d really like the dances in the canchitas, but I had a great time and would definitely go again!

I finally found out that they are going to have a marathon in Lima in September so I don’t need to feel like I’m training for nothing. I was starting to get really discouraged about running and bored with the same path everyday. Running in Lima was really rejuvenating because it was something different and made me feel like I can do this. I’m still not feeling as motivated about it as I was a couple of months ago, but I think it’ll get better now that I know I actually have something to work for. My official 16-week training starts the week of May 28th so before I know it, I’ll be on my way to running my first marathon!

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you another funny story about running in Lima. Don’t worry, this one isn’t about going to the bathroom. As I was running the first morning, this vigilante (neighborhood security guy) rode past me on his moped. Next thing I know, he had turned around and was riding right beside me. Even though I have my headphones on, and clearly don’t want to be bothered, he starts talking to me. “You’re not from here, right?” I’m thinking, “What gave it away,” but instead I just say no and keep looking ahead. He proceeds to ask me what I’m doing here, where I live, where I’m staying, why I’m here, etc. etc. I thought if I asked a few questions, he’d leave me alone, but I guess that’s just crazy talk because he kept on going. After about two minutes of his questions, I finally say, “Excuse me, I’m trying to run here.” He tells me it’s okay, I can keep running and he’ll just ride beside me and talk. Then I have to tell him I don’t want to talk to him, and he says, “Why you can’t run and talk at the same time? The Peruvian girls like to talk to us while they run.” So I tell him that I’m not Peruvian and I don’t want to talk to him. He tried for another 30 seconds, but when I kept ignoring him, he realized I was serious. A while into the run I turn around and run past the place we were staying, and who do I see, but this same guy again on his moped. I made sure not to make eye contact with him and kept running. Right after I see him is when I had my little bathroom emergency. I considered running back to him and asking him for a bathroom, but I didn’t really want to talk to him, nor did I have that much time. So as I was running back to the retreat center, after the cornfield incident, he rides up to me and tries to start talking to me again! Are you serious, buddy? Oh man I was annoyed. So this time I just look at him and say, “Didn’t I tell you I don’t want to talk to you?” and he got the hint right away.

The next morning I also went for a run and saw the vigilante again. When he didn’t ride up next to me, I thought he had finally figured it out, but about two minutes later there’s someone next to me again on his bike – this time it’s his friend! Are you kidding me? These guys kill me. Don’t you get it? Just leave me alone!

Work Is Finally Picking Up!

Every once in a while during our two years of service, Peace Corps offers IST (In-service Training) workshops to help our work in site. So about two weeks ago I went to one of these talleres (workshops) in Lima. It was called Project Design and Management (PDM) and we learned how to design a community project from start to finish. We were supposed to bring someone from our community who is interested in working with us on a community project. It didn’t necessarily have to be our counterpart, but when I mentioned it to Rita back in February; she was really excited about it and jumped on board right away. I was a little skeptical about it because she always talks about how she doesn’t like to travel, etc. but she kept talking about it as if she was really excited. I started to get doubtful though when she was saying they’d make a family vacation out of it and take Mélany out of school for the week because she’s never been away from her for a day, let alone a week, and couldn’t just leave her at home with her dad (even though she’s eight years old). I told Rita we were staying outside of Lima and that they couldn’t stay with us, but she assured me that everything would be okay. Well I’m sure you won’t be surprised to know that she backed out on me six days before we were supposed to leave. I was really annoyed, but not surprised at all since I’d sort of been expecting this all along. There was some big meeting at the health center the following week so we really had to search for someone who could go with me. On Thursday evening around 5 pm (we were leaving at 9 am on Sunday morning), I finally got confirmation that this woman Gladys could go with me. I had only meet her twice before, for about 5 minutes each time, but she’s an obstetrician at the hospital and Rita had told me I’m going to start working with her a lot in the future. I was a little nervous that she’d stand me up on Sunday morning, but she came and it ended up being a great trip.

In order to be at the workshop on time, we had to go to Lima a day early (something we never complain about). Peace Corps gave us a little stipend for the day to buy food for ourselves and our counterparts so we decided we wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to treat them to lots of good food that they can’t get in Cajamarca (and probably have never had before). The first stop on our eating extravaganza was sushi. This was a selfish choice on my and Reannon’s part because we were craving it, but we thought it’d be fun for our counterparts to try. Sushi is pretty expensive so we told them we were just going there for appetizers and we’d eat lunch somewhere else. I know this is awful, but we were secretly hoping they wouldn’t like it that much so we could fill up on it and get them something else for lunch. Of course they LOVED it though! We were really surprised and proud of them for being so adventurous. They served us marinated tofu as a complimentary appetizer and they even liked that! They even did pretty well mastering the chopsticks. We shared three different rolls to give them a sampling and there were two pieces left. We really wanted them, but thought we should offer it to them since we were treating them to know. Usually Peruvians will first refuse and insist you eat it and then they’ll accept, but not this time – they jumped at the opportunity to finish it so I guess they really liked it! Lunch was at Pizza Hut so of course that was a big hit. We finished off our three course meal with Starbucks because we had been talking about coffee and how popular it is in the U.S. Reannon’s counterpart, Elí, got a cappuccino and my counterpart got a Cinnamon Latte. They both complained that it was too bitter, which was not surprising at all since they are used to powered Nescafé with 3-5 tablespoons of sugar in a small mug (I’m not exaggerating). Elí chose not to put sugar in his because he wanted to be “authentic” but Gladys added a few tablespoons of sugar to hers and liked it a lot better. Haha! We just relaxed in the afternoon since we had spent the entire night on the bus. For dinner a group of 9 of us went to dinner at this really good Mexican restaurant owned by a Mexican woman. Mind you the capacity of this restaurant is only 12 so it was a little tight, but the food is delicious. We shared nachos with pico de gallo and guacamole and burritos. They had never tried that type of food before and loved it all! Even though we all went way over the food budget for the day, we thought it was worth it because it was really special and exciting for our counterparts.

If you get grossed out by bathroom stories (a.k.a. emergencies) please skip to the next paragraph. While I was in Lima, I wanted to be sure I ran a couple of times to keep up with my training (especially since I have been really discouraged and unmotivated lately). I wasn’t able to run the first two mornings we were in town so I made sure to get up really early on Wednesday morning to go running before everything started for the day. On top of feeling antsy that I hadn’t run in a few days, I was also constipated from traveling and thought running would help. I set out to run 6 miles, but about 20 minutes into the run, I felt the urge to go to the bathroom (number two). I asked God to please help me hold it until the end of my run because the run was feeling really good and I really needed it. The feeling went away, but kept coming back in waves. The fourth time it happened though, I couldn’t will it away. It was starting to come out and I was about a mile away from the place where we were staying. Well as you all know, when you gotta go, you gotta go so I was franticly searching for a bush or a little privacy. In the heat of the moment I had to settle on a cornfield – and by cornfield I mean a small patch of land located between two main roads where corn was growing at one time, but no longer. There was a little bush that offered me protection from one road, but I was in broad view of the other road – luckily no one came and it was a clean sweep. Needless to say, I had to cut my run short and immediately returned to the retreat center. I don’t know what it is about this country, but my body can’t handle it. That has NEVER happened to me before, and now it’s happened twice in two weeks (again when I got back)! Eww! (Sorry if that really grossed you out, but I thought it was funny.)

We all met at the Peace Corps office the next day to go the workshop (it was located about 45 minutes south of the city). The taller was three days 8:30-5 pm so as you can imagine, I was exhausted by the end since that’s normally the amount of “work” I do in a month, but it was really beneficial. The project that Gladys and I designed is the formation of a Casa de la Juventud (like an after school rec center). There is a lot of teen drinking, drug use, and pregnancy in Bambamarca so our idea is to create a place where youth can go as an alternative to the streets. Ideally, they would be able to hang out there, play music, get extra help for school, and participate in cooking, carpentry, music, computer, etc. workshops. We would like the youth to be able to run the center, for the most part, so before forming the house, we’d train some youth as Youth Health Promoters. They would be the leaders of the center and they’d also give informative sessions to their peers about important health topics for adolescents (such as sex education, goal setting, drug/alcohol abuse, self-esteem, etc.).

After going through the steps to develop this plan, we were both really excited because it seemed really feasible. We agreed that this taller was really important for both of us because we were both feeling discouraged and unmotivated, work wise, in Bambamarca so this really helped to motivate us and get us excited to start the program as soon as we got back. She returned to Bambamarca a few days after me because she had some days off that she spent in Cajamarca visiting her family. She came to visit me yesterday to tell me she doesn’t think she’ll be able to help me on this project because she’s really busy and doesn’t have time. I was obviously really frustrated and annoyed, but not really surprised. This is exactly what I get upset about all the time because I feel like we have so many good ideas and lots of potential, but no one, besides me, is willing to put in the time and commit to these projects, and it’s not sustainable if I do it alone.

Luckily I had had a really productive meeting the day before with this guy Tomy who is the new person in charge of EVA (Etapa de Vida Adolescente) – everything that has to do with working with adolescents. He is really enthusiastic about working with me and wants to start immediately. He also has the idea of forming Youth Health Promoters and instead of a Casa de la Juventud, he wants to form a CAIA (Centro de Atención Integral de la Adolescente), which is the same sort of idea, only on a smaller scale. He’s not sure we’d be able to get a house or a big building right now, so he wants to start out by asking the different colegios if they’ll give us a classroom or somewhere to start out in. As people see the success of the program, they’ll be more willing to invest the time and money into a more permanent and bigger place. I was so happy to hear him talk about this because he’s really dedicated to the cause and really wants me to help out with it – I feel like something might actually come to fruition for us. I don’t care if it takes the rest of my time here, it’ll feel so good to know I left having accomplished something. Our first step in this process is to train a team of people from the health center and hospital. These people will become the facilitators who work with and train the youth who will eventually become our health promoters. However, they will not work exclusively with the promoters, but on a more general scale, visiting many different classes of the colegios to educate more youth. I won’t be here when they capacitate the facilitators so my job right now is to prepare everything for the training sessions. Our first theme is called Habilidades Sociales (Social Skills) so I’m creating the work plan – including the topics we’ll cover and what activities we’ll do for each topic. On top of that, I’m also putting together something about the theory behind all of this and the methodology we’ll use so all of the facilitators understand why we’ve selected these topics and how we’re going to present them to the youth. So as you can imagine, I’ve actually been really busy lately! Finally!

Before all of this stuff happened, I had emailed my boss in Lima telling her that I was really frustrated with my work because I’ve now been in site for eight months and I feel like I have nothing to show for it. I told her that my girls stopped showing up for youth group meetings now that classes have started and that I frequently talk with Rita about my ideas and projects I want to do, but it seems like they just all stop at that and we never actually act upon them. I hadn’t heard back from her about it so I was getting a little worried, especially since Lindsay told me I must be losing my mind for actually admitting to my boss that I’m not doing anything. Lindsay and I thought she must be getting ready to kick me out since I hadn’t heard from her. At first I thought that might not be so bad….going home and all….just kidding! I finally talked to her the other day though and she told me that I have nothing to worry about, she thinks I’m doing “fabulous” and that it’s completely normal to get frustrated and have people stop showing up for things. She reminded me that I need to keep in mind that I’m not in the United States and I’m not going to be able to do things as quickly as I’d like, nor will I have kids commit to working with me for a whole year. She said that if I can get them to commit to eight weeks at a time and then give them a break and start something up again, it’ll be a lot more successful. She also encouraged me to look in other areas for projects if things are going well with youth groups. She reiterated numerous times that she thinks I’m doing really, really well and she loves how good I am at communicating with her so I don’t need to worry. She even nominated me to participate (as one of the two youth development representatives) on a new committee they’re forming called the Youth Initiative Committee. It’s about how we can get youth more involved in cross-sector work so there will be volunteers representing each program area (I think). Unfortunately I can’t make the first meeting because my parents will be in town, but I was really flattered she nominated me for it and I’m really looking forward to seeing what it’s all about.

So on top of all of that stuff, Peace Corps is doing a lot of work right now developing sites for Peru 9. The new group of volunteers arrives in early June and will be going to their sites in early September (just like we did). My boss is developing a site about two hours away from Bambamarca called La Paccha. Jessica and I actually went there with her in January to talk about the goals of Peace Corps and the youth development program. Tomorrow I’ll be going back their with our regional coordinator, the APCD for small business, and a man from Peace Corps’ main office in Washington, D.C. who is visiting Peru right now to do an evaluation of our program. He will be traveling around Cajamarca for about five days to visit volunteers and check everything out. I was flattered that I was selected as one of the volunteers they would visit. They were only supposed to be in town for about an hour and a half because they are visiting La Paccha in the morning. When I talked to my boss though, she told me she wants to be sure I go to La Paccha with them because she was really impressed with what I said the last time we went there and she wants me to participate in the meetings they’re going to have. The health center in Bambamarca also requested two more volunteers for two of the caseríos and my boss told me she wants me to set up meetings with those towns and go with our coordinator to meet with them. She wants me to go as her spokesperson because she loves what I have to say and thinks it’s really important for the townspeople to meet a “real live volunteer”. So if I won’t be busy enough with my other work, I now have this too. I’m really excited about it though because it’s really fun to see how they develop sites for us and know that I’ll be helping to get sites ready for new volunteers!

I also participated in a radio show about two weeks ago called “Decisiones”. The doctor at the health center told me on Friday evening that some people from the radio came by because they’d like to talk to me about my work in the community. She told me I had an interview the next morning at 11 am. So I show up the next day and notice that there were other people invited to talk at the same time and each of them had an oficio (official document inviting them to participate) with them. I started to get nervous and wonder what this was really all about. Then we go into the recording room and the host says, “Welcome to the weekly program called Decisions. This week’s topic is ‘The inclusion of women and youth in public institutions.’” Oh great – now I really felt unprepared. What was I supposed to say? The host introduced me and the two other men who were there – one works at the Ministry of Culture and the other is an economist in the Municipality. They told us not to be nervous because the idea of the show was just to brainstorm and discuss our ideas, but of course that didn’t make me feel much better – especially when they’d put the microphone right in your face and ask your opinion about something. I felt so unprepared and put right on the spot. I must admit that the show was really interesting though and whether or not I actually said anything of value, I learned a lot from it. I thought there were a lot of good ideas shared, but I’m worried that just like my work, things will end there. After the show we all sat around talking about how this is only the beginning and we can’t just leave and never think about this topic again, but we’ll see. I would love for that to be the case, but I’m skeptical. One thing I thought was really ironic is that it was about the inclusion of women and youth, but the only thing they had with youth was a couple of short interviews they had done on the street the day before, and as far as women go, I was the only woman who participated and I’m not even from the community! Here’s a thought, maybe you should start by including women in your show! I know that’s really judgmental, but it’s true. All in all though, if nothing else, it was a beneficial experience for all of us (two other men showed up after the program started, making a total of five participants).

Finally, a fun activity I’ve started is working in 6th grade of the elementary school in Profesora Meche’s class. I am really good friends with her and she invited me to come work in her class so every Friday morning I visit her class from 11:30-1 pm and do sessions about self-esteem. The kids are 10 and 11 years old and so cute. They LOVE it and really animate me. Of course they can be a little out of control at times, but it’s just because they are so excited. She stays in the class with me though and helps keep them in line. The doctor’s son, Martín, is in the class, so I was a little worried how that would be. I didn’t know if he’d try to act too cool since he knows me and is an 11 year old boy, but I think he really enjoys it because he asked me if I could bring something to his house so he could re-do it. It’s a lot of fun and a nice break from everything else.