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.