Visitors and More Fiestas!

Before Bambamarca’s fiesta was even over, I had to leave for Cajamarca to meet up with Jocelyn and Luke (my friends from college) who were visiting! They had been in Peru for about two weeks hiking the Inka Trail, seeing Lake Titicaca and visiting Hana in Piura. Since it was such a busy time for me, they were nice enough to go out of their way to visit me for a couple of days in Cajamarca. While they were here, we walked up to a lookout point of Cajamarca, visited some old Incan funeral caves called ventanillas (little windows), ate good food, and spent a lot of time catching up with each other, reminiscing and laughing. On Saturday night we had a despedida (going away party) for the Peru 5 volunteers who have finished their two years of service and are heading home so Jocelyn and Luke came with me to the party. I think they enjoyed meeting other volunteers and I know my friends had a great time talking with them. We all feel like a big family here since we’re each others’ support systems so it’s always fun to meet someone’s friends or family from home – from our “real lives.” Haha.

I was so glad to have them here and I really appreciated them making the time to come see me, especially after some of the hassles they had to deal with. They arrived in Cajamarca at 4 am and went to the hotel where I had made them a reservation only to have the guy tell them there was no such reservation and the hotel was full. I specifically told the guy they wouldn’t be arriving until 4 or 5 am and he assured me they would have a room, but of course that doesn’t mean anything here. Luckily Jocelyn speaks Spanish and was able to find them another hotel. I still felt horrible though and moved them to a nicer hotel as soon as we met up the next day. That same hotel owner gave us more trouble the day they left when the three of us tried to go to my room so Jocelyn could lie down because she was feeling really sick. They were traveling to Lima that night so I was going to stay in that hotel with a friend. He said only paying customers were allowed in the room. I explained to him that she was really sick (literally turning green, dizzy, and about to pass out) and just needed to lie down, but he wouldn’t back down. I told him I was going to pay for the room anyway and they didn’t need a room for the night because they’d be on the bus so please just let her in my room. He told me it would be like if I bought a bus ticket and he tried to ride with me on my same bus ticket. Ummm last time I checked buying a seat on the bus is a little different than renting a hotel room. I was so mad at him. We finally called our friends who were at another hotel and they said we could use their room. That hotel let us in no problem, but they didn’t have any electricity so the three of us sat in the pitch dark talking. You gotta love this country. Luckily Jocelyn did start feeling better though. What a disaster. All in all though, I think they enjoyed themselves. It’s funny how easily you adjust to being together again, as if we had all seen each other last week. It’s hard to believe that it’s been since January 2006 that we were last together – boy time flies!

After they left, I was only back in Bambamarca for three days before I left again for Fiestas Patrias (Peru’s independence days). My friend Amanda invited me to go to her site because it was her town’s fiesta. That’s right, I’ve turned into quite the fiestona (party girl). Our friends Molly and Laura were going too so I thought it would be a lot of fun. Plus, all three of those girls are in Peru 5 so I figured it would probably be my last time to hang out with them. Amanda lives in a town called Celendin. It’s roughly four hours (in the dry season) east of Cajamarca and has about 20,000 people. She has a sitemate, Evan, who is a business volunteer in my group. Molly, Laura, and I met in Cajamarca and took the 7 am bus to Celendin. Amanda met us when we arrived and we immediately went to the fair they were having in town. It was very similar to Bambamarca’s fair, only bigger. We saw Evan there because he was selling goods with the two artisan groups he works with. One of the groups makes chocolate so I bought some to take home to my host family. I also bought some jam made out of tomatoes – don’t turn your nose up at that, it was actually really good!

We ate lunch with her host family and then went to a despedida for her at the special needs school she worked at over the past two years. Amanda is also a youth development volunteer and came to our training to talk to us about working with special needs children in Peru because there are very few resources and most children and just locked in the house all day. It’s so sad to think about their lives because in the U.S., they would have so many more opportunities. There was one boy who is deaf, but so smart and adorable. If he lived in the U.S., he could get a job and live a “normal” life, but here he’ll never go anywhere. It’s wonderful that these children are in families that love them and want to help them by sending them to this school because Amanda is sure there are many more in town that are hidden by their families. One of the girls that attends the school is about 30 years old (but looks 18) and has been raped several times! She is such a sweetheart and appears so happy. It makes me sick to think that someone would do that to her. She even has a son from one of the cases who is now eight years old and completely normal. Laura told me she was walking to the mirador with him and he asked her if she could understand the kids when they talked. She said yes and he said, “Me too because my mom is like them.” God it just breaks your heart.

Anyway, ever since hearing Amanda talk about this school, I really wanted to visit her to see what her work was like. I’m not sure how the school got started, but I think it’s wonderful they even have a school for these children. It was amazing to go there, meet the children and their parents, and see how much Amanda has affected their lives. Unfortunately, like anything, there were a lot of bad politics on the bureaucratic side of things and many of the teachers didn’t support Amanda (because she called them out when they would shut the door and knit all day while the kids did their own thing). There was one teacher though who is amazing with the kids and loves Amanda. She is the only teacher who came to the party, so Amanda was a little hurt, but it’s hard to stay upset when you see how much the kids faces light up to see her. They were all adorable and so loving. It also made me happy to see how much the parents love Amanda. They know how much she has touched all of their children’s lives and she will be greatly missed in that community.

We hung out at the school for a little while and then all walked up the hill to the mirador (look out). The kids took to Molly, Laura, and me immediately and we were all holding hands with the kids on the walk up. The mirador has a park with swings, climbing structures, teeter-totters, etc. Most of the kids had never been there before so they absolutely loved it. Some of the parents had never even been up there so it was special for everyone. It gave me such joy to watch how much the kids enjoyed themselves. At the same time though, I was so sad because I know they don’t understand that she is leaving. As Peace Corps volunteers, we travel to and from our communities a lot – for workshops, medical reasons, vacations, etc. so in the beginning it won’t be strange for them that she is gone, but when she doesn’t come back, that’s when it’ll get hard.

That night we went to dinner at a friend’s house. For a long time we just sat around watching music videos on TV. People love music videos here and they are usually really funny. My favorite ones are of a woman dressed really provocatively standing and singing in the middle of the campo or on a mountain top. Sometimes a band will be with her too, but they are so funny and people love them. They will watch them for hours. I don’t get it. The four of us just sat at this woman’s house though, watching videos, and then some old movie with Billy Blanks – haha. Afterwards we were laughing how accustom we’ve all become to being bored. In Peru you spend a lot of time just sitting around doing mindless things and while it used to drive us crazy in the beginning, it now feels natural.

We wanted to go to the plaza that night because they had a castillo they were going to light, but we stayed at the woman’s house so long that we missed most of it. We ended up meeting up with a bunch of Amanda’s friends though and hung out with them all night. I loved that she has so many friends that are our age. Karina is my only friend my age and after that my best friends in town are Chabu and Rita who are both in their forties. I love them, but sometimes I think it would be nice to have more friends around my age. We hung out in the plaza for a while and then went dancing at this bar. Molly, Laura, and I were joking how we all thought Celendin was like a big city. They have cool bars and a few clubs and it just was “happening”. One of Amanda’s friends had two cousins visiting from the States who are Peruvian, but grew up in the U.S. They are 18 year old twin girls and just recently moved to Iowa from L.A. They thought they were so cool and could not stop talking about L.A. We were laughing because they thought Celendin was so lame and we couldn’t stop talking about how great we thought it was! I think we’re more Peruvian than they are! Haha. The girls only lasted about 20 minutes at the bar before they left because they thought it was awful, but we stayed until 4 am! We loved it because there was a live band playing lots of good cover songs in English and Spanish! Amanda’s friends were also really fun and we all had a great time dancing together.

The next day we took things easy. We were going to go to a parade in town, but decided to stay home and relax after our late night. Amanda made us a delicious lunch of spicy peanut stir fry and Molly made some excellent guacamole and salsa. We spent the afternoon sleeping, reading magazines, and listening to music. We went to the same woman’s house for dinner and then to the plaza because they had six huge castillos that night. The castillos were awesome! We hung out in the plaza with Amanda’s friends for a little while, but were all tired so went home “early” around 1:30 am.

We all traveled to Cajamarca together the next morning. The girls had plans to spend one last night at Costa del Sol – the nicest hotel in town. They wanted to have one last night spoiling themselves before they left. They invited me to stay with them so I was really flattered. We all took HOT showers upon our arrival and watched some TV before going to lunch with our friend Steve who was in town from the coast. After lunch we went back to the hotel to hang out some more. The hotel has good cable, carpet, comfortable beds with clean sheets and big pillows so we wanted to milk it for all it was worth. In the afternoon we bought junk food and watched a scary movie in bed. Later that night we headed to Laguna Seca, this really fancy resort place where we go sometimes to spoil ourselves with massages. That night we invited Steve to join us for a light dinner and a swim in their pool. The pool is heated with natural hot springs water so it felt so nice against the nighttime air. We ordered milkshakes and were lucky enough to have them served to us at poolside. I felt like such a celebrity! After dinner we headed back to the hotel because we couldn’t wait to get back into those comfy beds. It felt like a big slumber party in high school and was so much fun!

When Amanda first invited me to hang out with them for the weekend I wasn’t sure if I would go because I didn’t have much money left (it was the end of the month). But I decided to go anyway and I’m so glad I did. From the first time I met those girls, I felt comfortable around them and every time I see them, it feels like we’ve known each other for years. It’s so nice to have friends like that and I was so happy to have that weekend with them since they are all done now (sob, sob).

After that great long weekend, I was ready to go back to Bambamarca. I feel like I’ve been gone so much lately and after bonding with my family so much when my parents were here and then during the fiesta, I actually missed them a lot and couldn’t wait to go back. I had about two weeks in town before it was time to leave again for our one year med-checks in Lima. I spent a lot of time talking and hanging out with Karina and Marta and playing with Emily. I love her so much and I miss babysitting a lot so it’s great to have her in the house to play with. Sometimes she is gone during the week with my host mom so we all get really excited when she comes home on the weekends because she’s so much fun and makes us all laugh.

One day I went to Hualgayoc (a town about an hour and a half away) with Karina to help her find new clients for the newspaper she just started working for. I had only ever driven through the town so it was fun to go there with her and spend the day together. The next day her friend Sara had invited us to a play (in the bull ring). Her friend is a Jehovah’s Witness (which from what I gather has different rules from the sect in the U.S.) and had been attending this three-day long conference in the bull ring. The play was the last day of the conference so we went. We even had to get dressed up for it! Of course it turned out to be a religious play and then about an hour of sermons, but that’s okay. I was laughing to myself that I was at this Jehovah’s Witness event, but I know it meant a lot to Sara that we went and it was a new experience for me. Sara said it’s an annual conference they hold for the region. There were even ministers who had come from Lima and two from the United States for it. The day we went, there were 2,011 people in attendance!

So the new group of volunteers (Peru 9) arrived in country at the beginning of June and just swore in as volunteers on Friday, August 24th. It’s hard to believe that was already us a year ago! I’m about to celebrate ONE YEAR in my site (I arrived on September 4th)! It’s really crazy how fast it goes by when you look back on it. Anyway, about two weeks before they swore in, they had Counterpart Day in their regional capitals (to explain to their counterparts what they’re doing here and how they’ll need support, etc.) and then went on to do their site visits for three days. I had heard there was a new volunteer coming to a town called Tacabamba, but it’s four hours from me so didn’t think much of it. All of a sudden one day I’m at the internet and my host brother tells me someone is here looking for me. In walks Freddy (Fredeline, but Freddy for Peruvians) and her counterpart! Surprise! I had no idea they were coming and felt bad that I hadn’t planned anything for them, but they explained they were just passing through and wanted to have lunch. It ended up being a really nice time. Freddy is really sweet and I was so happy to meet her.

The last thing that happened that week before leaving for Lima is that I had my first youth group meeting since March! It is with the same girls who I started working with in January and February, but once school started, they stopped coming. Just about all of them have come to my house at some point to ask if we can start the meetings again so now that things have calmed down, we have finally reunited! I made them invitations and hand delivered them to their houses so they knew how much I wanted them to come. I also told them they could invite a friend if they wanted. I was a little nervous that a) no one would show up, or b) it would be like starting over again. I told myself I’d be happy if just one girl came, but to my surprise, eight girls came (5 returnees and 3 new girls)! The meeting was fabulous. We were all genuinely excited to see one another and they weren’t shy at all. It felt like we picked up right were we left off so I was really happy.

I told the girls I’d like to do the World Map Project with them. It is a project that was started by a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic back in 1988 and was so successful that it has now been done in more than 40 countries around the world. It’s pretty self-explanatory – a huge world map painted on a wall in the community. It’s a great learning experience for the kids, not only to learn more about world geography, but also to learn about teamwork, organization, and leadership. It also is a huge boost to their self-esteem when they see that they’ve completed this project that will benefit the whole town! I showed them a picture of one another volunteer had done and they loved it so now they’re really excited about it. At Friday’s meeting I gave them all a blank map with about 20 things to identify. I told them it didn’t matter if they didn’t know any of the answers; it’s just a way for us to measure how much they know now because we’re going to do the same thing at the end of the project so they can see how much they learned. I tried to keep most of them pretty easy – Peru, Mexico, United States, India, China, Russia, South Africa, etc. The girls range in age from 11 to 21 and out of the nine girls who were at the meeting, I think or two or three correctly labeled Peru. Some people had the U.S. labeled as Peru, while others had Greenland labeled as Mexico, Brazil as the U.S., Mongolia as Paraguay, and the Pacific Ocean as South Africa to name a few. It was so sad. I don’t blame them at all because I’m sure they just don’t learn much about geography in school, but it made me realize even more how beneficial this project will be to them.

On that note I’m signing off. As most of you know from my entry about the earthquake, I was in Lima for about ten days, but I’ll save those stories for the next time.

Fiesta Time!

So this entry is LONG overdue considering our fiestas already finished a month ago! I had intentions of writing about it right away, but time got away from me and here we are. I will start off by saying that I was NOT looking forward to this fiesta. I had been hearing all about it since I arrived last September and I thought it would just be two weeks of drunks wandering around the streets. Boy was I proven wrong. I ended up having a BLAST! It was some of the most fun I’ve had here in Peru and made me so proud to be a bambamarquina! Here’s my best attempt at recalling all of the fun details of those crazy two weeks. Just a warning, these weeks were packed with events so it’ll be a long one. At some point during the year, every town in Peru has a week (or more) of celebrations for their fiestas patronales in honor of the town’s patron saint. In our case, the patron saint for Bambamarca is the Virgen del Carmen so the fiesta is organized around her day, July 16th, a holiday that is recognized nationwide. However, since Peruvians love an excuse to party, the fiesta kicked off on Thursday, July 5th with a big parade. I love parades in Bambamarca because school children practice their marching for weeks in advance, only to march 50 yards on the actual day. They walk from one corner of the street to the other. You’d think this wouldn’t be a big deal, but it is. People line up in rows three to four people deep just to get a view. The parade started with this year’s organizing committee (elected every year) and continued with lots of school children in traditional clothing, a few traditional dance routines, and even a couple of bands. The Virgen, carried on a pedestal by a few community members, was the last part of the parade. I thought it was over once she passed, but instead the entire crowd waited while she was walked around town for the next half hour or so because they wanted to see the Virgen return to to the Plaza and then to her place in the church. Another tradition that gets people excited for the central week of the fiesta is something called the novena, where every night for a week the Virgen is carried down different streets in town and honored with castillos (huge bamboo towers with fireworks) and a mass exodus of people. Each of the major streets in town is assigned a different night and the people on that street decorate the street and build castillos in preparation for the Virgen’s passing. Rita invited me to her house on Saturday night to watch the primera novena because hers is the first street. I had no idea what to expect so when I got there around 8 pm, I was really confused as to why they were blowing up balloons and attaching them to a huge streamer. I thought they were decorating the inside of the house, but when they were finished they put it outside and tied to the neighbor’s house across the street. Rita explained to me that it was done to honor the Virgen and the balloon in the middle was filled with confetti that they would pop right when the Virgen passed under it. Like most things here, we spent a long time sitting around and waiting for it to begin. There is a band that accompanies the Virgen for the entire night. The tradition is that the Virgen waits at the top of the street for the band to arrive and once it gets there, the novena begins. TONS of people also walk to the top of the street to accompany the Virgen on her novena. Although it was supposed to start at 9 pm, the band didn’t even pass Rita’s house (on its way to get the Virgen) until 9:30. Freddy’s family was building a HUGE castillo though so that kept us entertained. Rita told me there is always a competition between Freddy’s family and the neighbors up the street to see who has the biggest and best castillo. They were both over two stories high so I was really impressed! We watched the novena from Rita’s balcony so we had a great view. It was so fun to see this mass of people walking down the street and stopping to watch these huge firework towers go off. Once the Virgen got to Rita’s house we had to go inside and watch what we could from there because the ashes from their Castillo were flying everywhere. Of course the kids on the street think it’s a fun game to run under the castillo when it’s going off and ashes are flying everywhere. Haha. I stayed at Rita’s house watching the rest of the street until we couldn’t see anything anymore. I left around 11 pm, but it was still going strong! It was so much more fun than I thought it would be and made me excited for all of the other upcoming events. The next night my family invited me to go to the circus with them. I was really tired and didn’t feel like it, but decided I should go because it would be a nice opportunity to hang out with my family. We thought it started at 9:30, but we got there and found out it wouldn’t start until 10. There was a little carnival in town for the fiesta right next to the circus ring so we hung out there while we waited for the circus. Most of the rides and games were for little kids except for a Ferris Wheel that looked like it was from about 1982 – there was no way I was about to go on that. Instead we watched Emily (my two year old host sister) go on a few rides and she loved them so that was fun. We went into the circus (that cost 1 sol – about 30 cents) at 10 to get the “good” seats in the front row. It turns out the good seats were plastic lawn chairs, but they sure beat the old rickety bleachers. Of course the circus didn’t actually start until about 10:40 pm. It was pretty good, but my family was making fun of me for screaming so much. There were absolutely no safety nets and the “floor” was this thin carpet over the cobblestone ground so everytime someone did a stunt I would jump and let out a little yelp because I was sure I was about to see someone fall to their death. One guy was riding a bike on the tight rope – tell me that’s not scary! The circus was actually better than I expected, but it was no Ringling Brothers. My family couldn’t even fathom the idea of a 3-ring circus when I told them about it. My favorite part was definitely the clowns. They were really funny and made me laugh really hard. I was so glad I went – it was great bonding time with my family and helped take me out of my funk (since I had just returned from seeing Giff). Not too much was going on the following week besides for the novena each night. The teachers were on a national strike so kids weren’t in school, but other than that, everyone else was working. I started spending more and more time with my host family though and it was wonderful. We ate meals together, walked around town, and talked a lot so that made me really happy and SO GRATEFUL to think about how far we’ve come in the past year. One day I made Peruvian style s’mores (over the stove with choco soda crackers – chocolate covered saltines) with Carol and Martin so that was fun too. It was my mom’s birthday too so I called her on Skype and Karina and Marta sang to her. It was so cute and they were SO EXCITED to see my parents – they were screaming and kept telling my parents they loved them. Things started to pick up again on Friday, July 13th. Karina and Marta taught me how to make tamales and then we went to a dance contest of marinera (a typical dance from the coast). There were 29 couples in 5 different age groups from all over this region (including some couples from the coast). It is a beautiful dance and now I really want to learn it. It seems really complicated, but I love it. The girls wear these beautiful dresses with huge skirts that they hold and use in the dance with them. It is a very flirtatious and romantic dance. The contest lasted almost 3 hours that afternoon, but it was so much fun. The whole time I kept thinking, we don’t have anything like this in the States, this is so cool! I told Marta that we don’t have fiestas patronales and she said, “So everyday is just the same?” Haha – compared to this country and all of the rich fietas and traditions they have – yes! After the dance contest, my family and I ate our tamales, which were delicious, and then we made balloon chains because it was the novena on our street. Nobody wanted to walk down the street with the Virgen so Karina and I went by ourselves. We even got to carry the Virgen for a little while which is a really big deal. They were all so excited I did it and told me that it means I’m catholic now. Oh geez. My family all watched us from the balcony and took our picture walking with the Virgen. We didn’t finish with that until 11 pm or so. I was invited to a birthday party that night so I went for a little while, but only stayed about an hour because everyone was already drunk when I got there and I was bored. On Saturday I went to an agricultural fair with Karina and her friend Sara. It had been going on for a few days and we’d been meaning to go, but didn’t have time. There are tons of stands set up with the best agricultural products, artisan goods, cooked food (LOTS of cuy), etc. There was one stand with a model of the future of Bambamarca with a mall and movie theater! Who knows if it will really happen, or when, but I could never picture Bambamarca like that. We got there just in time to watch the finals of a huayno (traditional music/dance of the sierra) dance competition. It was fun to watch because this type of dance is so different from the marinera we had watched the day before. There were only three couples in the finals and the man in one couple was albino or something. I thought that people would tease him, but instead everyone was cheering for the “gringo” (they say that about anyone who has lighter skin or hair)! He and his partner ended up winning so they got a huge standing ovation. It made me so happy to see how supportive everyone was. The fiesta really seemed to bring out the best in everyone. We were going to stay to watch a cow-milking contest, but it started raining so we went home. In the afternoon we went to the finals for the marinera contest, which turned out to be a fiasco. It started raining there too and the ground got really slippery. One girl fell during her dance and really hurt her leg, but got back up and toughed it out enough to finish her dance. She and her partner were excellent dancers and got a perfect score. Combined with their score from the day before, the perfect score put them in first place and they won the gold medal for their age group. Well as you can imagine, some of the other moms were NOT happy about this and were yelling at the judges. Oh boy. They ended up moving the competition from the patio of the high school to the canchitas (soccer courts) because they are covered. I stayed for a little while, but started feeling really sick so decided to go home. I decided to stay in that night and rest. Thank God I did because it ended up being the last good night of sleep I had for a week! On Sunday my doctor from Peace Corps, Dr. Jorge, came to visit. He likes to visit as many of our sites as possible to see what our realities are like because he has lived in Lima his whole life. He is so much fun so I was really excited to have him in town. We walked all around Bambamarca and visited Chabu and the kids. That night was the vispera in the Plaza de Armas. The vispera is the kickoff for the central week of the fiesta. They had three HUGE castillos in the plaza that Rita said cost 5,000 soles each! Dr. Jorge loves castillos and had never seen any that big so he was really excited. One of them was in the shape of the church and had a little marinera dancer on it that spun around when it was lit. I wish I could have video taped the whole thing because it’s hard to describe what a cool experience it was. Rita called me to meet up with her family in the plaza. It was nearly impossible to find them because the plaza was PACKED with people. I have never seen so many people concentrated in one area in Bambamarca the whole time I’ve lived here. There had to be at least 5,000 people. While we waited for the castillos to start, we were drinking and dancing with Rita’s family. There were two bands (one from Chiclayo!), but they weren’t playing very good music. When they took a break though, I would dance with Freddy and huge circles of people would form around us and watch, saying, “look at the gringa dance!” Haha. Surprisingly, I wasn’t embarrassed at all, it just made me laugh – probably because they kept serving me so much beer. I kept having Dr. Jorge pour out my cup of beer on the ground when Rita’s family wasn’t looking because I had already had plenty and they insisted on serving me a full glass every time – oh man. Before the castillos started, they were also sending these huge paper balls into the sky by lighting the inside on fire. It was so dangerous and would definitely be illegal in the States. A few even landed on people’s rooftops! The castillos finally started around 11:00 pm so we watched them and headed home. Dr. Jorge didn’t know it was Bambamarca’s fiesta when he planned his trip so he really lucked out. He loved it and I was so happy to have him there. He even took videos of me dancing huayno (and attempting marinera) in the plaza! What a great night! I was up early the next day to eat breakfast with Dr. Jorge and send him on his way to Chota to visit more volunteers. Rita’s family had invited me to go on a paseo (outing) with them so they picked me up right after breakfast and we were on our way. We went to a place called Maraypampa where we visited a Vivienda Saludable (healthy household). These are households the health center has chosen to work with to set a model for the rest of the community in how they can live healthier. Most houses in the campo are just one big room where everyone sleeps and eats with lots of chickens and guinea pigs running around. The viviendas saludables are different in that everything is separated – they have their sleeping quarters in one part and the kitchen in another part (with the animals penned off). Most families in this area use leña (firewood) to cook because it is a lot cheaper, however, in many houses, the smoke does not have a way to escape so another aspect of these healthy households is that they have cocinas mejoradas (a better designed kitchen with a chimney for the smoke to escape). The family who owns the house we visited is incredible. They have taken the initiative to build an entirely new house (using their own resources) just in the past eight months, with separate bedrooms for the children, a cocina mejorada, and even a HOT shower (they designed a system to heat the water using the smoke from the kitchen). They have turned their old house into a cuy farm where they will be raising guinea pigs to sell for additional income. The house was beautiful and the family members were so kind-hearted. We returned to Bambamarca in time for lunch and then I headed home to nap a little bit. There were more castillos in the plaza that night as it was the official holiday of the Virgen del Carmen. That night there were four castillos so I went to the plaza with Karina and Sara to meet up with Freddy and Rita’s cousins to watch them. Each castillo has a name on it that lights up at the end to recognize the person that sponsored it so I kept joking that the next one would say “Miss Massachusetts” – haha yeah right, like I have that kind of money! On Tuesday morning there was a huge parade. My host mom had to march in it with all of the health center staff that work in the entire region. All of the different schools also marched in it so it was a really big deal. We went for a while, but I got so annoyed with people pushing that I went home. I started out in the front row, but by the time I left, I was about five people deep into the crowd. There were guards there to “control” the crowd, but they didn’t do much. Most of the time they would just stand there allowing people to push and shove, but once in a while, they would use all of their weight and shove against the person in the front row to push everyone back – sometimes is was these tiny little campo women and I found it completely barbaric and abusive. When they did this, nothing was accomplished though because everyone in the back would just push forward. Honestly, I’m surprised no one got trampled because it was horrible. I stayed for about 20 minutes, long enough to watch my host mom, but then I left with her when she finished because I couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t see anything anyway and I was being pushed around like an animal. The parade went on for at least another hour. When everyone got home we all ate lunch together and then headed to the bull ring where I would witness my first bull fight! The bull ring is on the outskirts of town up this huge hill so everyone got a ride to the top and walked home at the end. Since I knew the bulls would be killed, I had mentally prepared myself for it so I wouldn’t freak out too much. I didn’t think I would really like it, but I wanted to go for the experience. Well surprisingly enough, I really enjoyed myself. It’s just as much a social and cultural event as anything else. It’s like going to a baseball game – there is so much to look at that you don’t actually have to watch the main event the whole time. It was fun for me to look around and see if I could pick out any familiar faces, but it was PACKED so I wasn’t too successful at that. There were two different bands that kept playing Bambamarca’s song, lots of vendors and activity, and a fight that broke out between two women so of course that got everyone’s attention. It was fun to watch how into the bull fights some people got. One of the guys (not the matador, but one of the assistants) is from Bambamarca – or married a bambamarquina – so he was very popular and amusing. There were six bulls that day and one of the matadors did the whole thing on horseback. It was so cool! I actually really enjoyed that one. At the end he walks around the ring and people throw things at him, it reminded me of ice skaters – hahahaha. Some people threw stuffed animals or roses, but others threw shirts for him to wipe his sweat on and throw it back! A little while into each fight, a picador comes out on horseback to stab the bull a few times and lower his stamina. Apparently they just started doing this about five years ago and the people do NOT like it – they boo at the guy and throw oranges and plastic bottles at him. I thought it was really funny to see how riled up they got. By the end, it seemed he wasn’t stabbing them as hard or as long. There was so much excitement that before I knew it, it was over. There are three days of bull fights and we ended up going back every day. Karina said her family hasn’t gone to all three days in a very long time and was so happy how united we all were this year. I had so much fun going with them and felt like we really bonded. By the last day, I was a little bored with it, but there was a 9 year old matador so that spiced things up. He is from Lima and this was his first bull he ever killed. He was a little spit fire. A few times the crowd would gasp because the bull had knocked him over and he got up and looked at the crowd with this look on his face that said, “WHAT?” He was so funny and entertaining, not to mention talented. He got two ears and a tail (that they cut off from the bull) for his fight – the highest honor! Chota is supposed to have the best bull fights outside of Lima and everyone from Bambamarca goes to their fights, but this year the word on the street was that our fights were way better than Chota’s! That night I attended my first quinciñera with Karina. Chabu was decorating for it and told me the girl’s mom (a single mom) spent 20,000 soles on the party! That is the equivalent to about two years’ salary so I have no idea where she got all that money. The party was on the patio at one of the high schools, but they brought in these huge tents so it looked like an elegant affair. The mom hired a really famous band called Don Guillermo’s from Cajamarca to come and play and bought 100 cases of beer! It was my first quinciñera, but I knew it was very extravagant compared to most. I had no idea what to expect from the little coming of age ceremony before the party started, but it reminded me very much of a wedding. The girl wore this really fancy pink dress and had 15 damas y caballeros (like bridesmaids and groomsmen) who were also dressed really fancy. The ceremony started with the girl handing off this doll to her little sister to symbolize her passing on her childhood. The girl also had a boy who sat up in the front with her and danced with her for her first song. At one point she gave a speech and so did her mom. She also had a bouquet which she threw to all of the damas, but I didn’t get what that symbolized – the one who catches it will be the next to turn 15? Haha just kidding. There was another dance where any guy could go up and dance with her and there was also a time for everyone to congratulate her and give her presents. The most amusing part to me was when she and some of her friends did a choreographed dance to Britney Spears’ Toxic. After all of the formalities and pictures with her in front of the huge cake, dinner was served (this was about midnight) and the dancing began. At first no one was asking Karina or me to dance so we were getting annoyed. We decided we would wait another half an hour and if we weren’t having a good time, we’d go to Rita’s house because she was having a party (and they’d already called me about 8 times to come). Once the first guy was brave enough to ask me, I didn’t stop dancing until the music stopped at 5 am. I must admit that it’s really entertaining the things guys will say to you when you’re dancing. One guy told me he’d give me free surfing lessons if I went to Chiclayo, another told me I’m the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen, blah blah blah. I’m not being conceited, but when you’re the gringa, you have celebrity status and it’s so funny the things people say to you. Karina and I both really wanted this one guy to ask us to dance because he was by far the best dancer in the place (and there were 500 people so that says a lot). We didn’t know his name so we kept calling him amarillo because he had a yellow shirt on. Every time a new song came on, Karina would say “Amarillo come ask my friend to dance!” We were laughing so hard, but of course he couldn’t hear us. The doctor and Chabu were there so we ended up hanging out and dancing with them. While we were over there amarillo came over and asked me to dance. Karina and I looked at each other and started laughing because we were so excited. Haha. I ended up dancing with him the rest of the night and had a blast. I was happy because he was such a great dancer and not gross like the other guys. Karina and I left at 5 am, but only because the music stopped – otherwise we would have gone on until the sun came up! I tried to sleep in the next morning, but my host brother woke me up at 9:30 to see if I wanted a ticket for the bull fight that day. The bull fight was fun, but what I was really looking forward to was the dance that night in the canchitas. Grupo 5 – my favorite Peruvian band – was coming and I couldn’t wait. Everyone had been asking me if I was going for weeks because they all know how much I love Grupo 5. I went with Karina and some of her friends. We left the house at 11 pm and even though we live about 100 ft. from the canchitas, we didn’t get into the dance until 12:15 am. They love to do vueltas around the block a million times to check out the crowd before getting in line. We finally bought our tickets and got in line and right when we were at the door, Karina told us to get out of line because another friend was on his way. I was SO annoyed and freezing. I just wanted to get inside to start dancing! We finally made it inside and shortly after arriving I ran into Juan Pablo (amarillo). I was so happy to see him because Karina’s friends don’t know me and were already hitting on me and being gross. I ended up dancing with Juan Pablo and his friends all night. At one point when he went to the bathroom, some lady came up to me and asked if she could videotape me because she thought I was so cute – haha. She wanted me to go up on stage, but I wasn’t ready to do that. [Sidenote: the bathrooms were SO GROSS. There is a whole in the ceiling and when I was standing in line some guy was up there watching all of the girls pee. He was gone by the time my turn came, but the toilet in the stall was so gross that we just had to pee on the floor! Eww!] The music stopped around 5 am so we had to leave. Juan Pablo and his friend were hungry so we went to eat caldo (like chicken noodle soup – that’s what they eat here after a night out – not exactly Jumbo Slice in Adams Morgan). I think it was caldo de cuy so I did not like it. I sat with them while they ate it and then we got in the car to go home. Next thing I knew it was 7:15 in the morning – we had all fallen asleep! Hahaha. I went home to get in my own bed for a few hours before my security director came. He was supposed to pick me up at 9 am to do some site development in a nearby town. I got into bed at 7:33 and he called at 7:38 to tell me he was outside of my house! Ahhhh! We got back around 11 and I tried to sleep a little bit, but my family is so loud that even with my earplugs, I didn’t get much sleep. I got up, shoveled some rice and potatoes in my mouth and was off to the last of the bull fights. By that time, I had just about had my fill of bull fights, but it was still fun to go with my family. That was the day of the little boy so it was a good ending to the three days. There was free music in the plaza that night so Karina and I met up with Juan Pablo and some friends. We hung out in the plaza talking and laughing until the middle of the night again. I think that was my “earliest” night to bed – around 4 am! The next morning I was up by 7 to catch the bus to Cajamarca to meet Luke and Jocelyn! I’ll save those stories for the next entry since this is already plenty long. As you can see (if you even made it this far) I had a blast during our fiesta! I spent so much time with my family and really bonded with them. I really felt pride for Bambamarca and enjoyed every bit of the fiestas! Whenever I come back to visit in the future, I’ll definitely be coming during fiesta!

Earthquake!!!

I don't have much time to write right now, but I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm okay and survived the earthquake. I'm actually in Lima right now for my mid-service medical exams and meetings so we felt it really strong. We were in our hostal watching a movie and started to feel some shaking. We thought someone was messing around with us and just shaking the couch we were on, but then it didn't stop. We realized it was an earthquake and all got in the doorway. Six of my friends and I were huddled under a doorway when a huge window in the skylight crashed to the floor right at our feet. That's when I started to get really scared. Our hostal is really old and has rickety old wooden floors. We looked up to the ceiling and could see the walls starting to separate. At the point I wondered if I might die in the earthquake. It just kept going and going and felt like it would never end. I wanted to run outside, but I thought the stairwell might collapse if we tried so we just stayed in the doorway praying no more windows would fall and that it would end soon. They say it lasted two minutes, but it felt more like 45. It was one of the scariest things I've ever experienced and I still feel shaky.

After the quake ended, we were obviously really shaken up and wanted to find the rest of our friends. No cell phones were working, but we knew our friends were at this one bar so we decided to walk down there. There was such energy in the streets, everyone was buzzing. We didn't see much damage where we were, but we're staying in the nicest section of Lima so I would imagine it's a lot worse in other places. We saw a few broken windows, but not much more. We were happy to find our friends at the bar, but still didn't know where two of our friends were (there are 16 of us here now for our meetings). At first we weren't even sure if it would make international news, but there was a computer with internet at the bar and just 45 minutes after it happened, it was the #2 news story on yahoo.com. That's when we got really nervous because we knew our parents were going to hear about it and get really worried when they couldn't get through.

You all probably know a lot more than I do because I haven't been able to see much news, but I heard this morning that they are now categorizing the earthquake as an 8.0. It happened about 90 miles south-southeast of Lima and they say in Lima it registered around 7.5. I can't even imagine what it must have been like at the epicenter. Some of our friends live in the department of Ica right where it happened. Luckily none of them were in town when the earthquake struck. They've all say though that their families are okay and their houses are still standing so that's a relief, but most people weren't as fortunate. My friend Rachel said when she talked to her host mom that she kept saying "and this neighbor's house fell and this person died". It's just so incredibly devastating. We had a meeting with one of our directors this morning who had come from a meeting at the Embassy and he said there is no running water or electricity and 50% of the sewage system was destroyed. He said there are still dead bodies all over the streets and a lack of organization in distributing food, clothes, blankets and other donated goods. Apparently what food they do have is really expensive. Rachel heard chicken is 15 soles a kilo (regularly 6 soles) and you only get 3 breads for one sol as apposed to 10.

Giff finally got through to me around 11:30 pm. I was so happy to hear his voice because I was sure he and my parents were really concerned. I knew my parents had probably been calling him frantically and sure enough he said they had. At the time we talked, he told me CNN was reporting 17 deaths and two aftershocks - one of 5.8 and another of 5.9. I only felt one of the two aftershocks, but we're still feeling tremors. There was one yesterday morning (which I didn't feel) and another one this morning, which I did feel. Here we are just a few days later and the death toll is close to 500 people. The worst part is that I'm sure it will just keep growing as more relief agencies start cleaning up.

I'm sure there is so much more I'm not telling you, but I wanted to send an update while I had a few minutes because I know you're all worried and I haven't had time to respond to all of your emails.

I love you all and I appreciate all of your prayers, calls, emails, etc.

It still feels kind of surreal that we lived through all of that. The weirdest thing is that I had a dream the night before it happened that there was a huge earthquake. I've never felt an earthquake in my life so it's really random that I dreamt that. Last night I had another dream that there was another major earthquake so I'm still feeling really uneasy.