Visiting Trujillo

The ruins at Chan Chan.

Details of the "mud city".

Huaca del Sol (other ruins).

Juan Pablo and me at the ruins.

Standing in front of the Huaca del Sol.....

....and the Huaca de la Luna.

The church in the Plaza de Armas.

Juan Pablo, me and Jorge in the Plaza de Armas.

It's really colorful - I loved it!

In-Service Training in Chiclayo

Jessica and me hanging out with our girls (Cinthya and Katy) at the mall before we have to board the bus.

I'm such a great role model.

So is Jessica....haha....this is her PRETENDING to be pregnant (in case you didn't read the entry).

That's right...I'm leading one of the sessions (I know I look fat, it's the scarf I swear).

Cinthya presenting our project (talent show) to the group (I'm just there for moral support).

The whole gang.

Cinthya with Kitty and Tim (the facilitator). All of the participants received a certificate at the end of the workshop.

My Surprise Birthday Party

Look at how cute they decorated.

Standing with a few of the girls and holding my lovely cake.

Hanging out in the backyard - talking and eating sugar cane.

They made this and decorated it all by themselves!

Eating cake and enjoying my surprise party.

Pictures from Med-Checks in Lima

We went shopping for wedding dresses, but they were all hidious.

Yummmm cookie dough!!

One of the first donation stations for the earthquake victims.

Lots of rice, sugar and water to send to Ica.

A group of us out to dinner with Julia's family. It's always fun to meet each other's family!

The beginning of the night....

Much later in the night....I have NO idea what this face is for. Haha.

And the end of the night....this is why I love Hana!

Peruvian Culture

When I first got here I made some notes about the culture that I wanted to share with you. I recently found the list while I was cleaning my room and wanted to post it since I never did before. I’m sure most, if not all, of the things I’ve probably mentioned in previous entries, but I still think it’s interesting to look back at my initial observations. Let me preface this by saying that many of these things will appear to be negative statements, but they are not meant to be. They are simply observations and things I have grown, for better or for worse, of this culture.

• They talk a lot about weight and appearances, but they don’t mean it to be offensive.
• Nose picking and breast feeding and not public taboos. They will pick their nose right in the middle of a conversation and they don’t just brush the surface – they really go up in there.
• Never smile in photos unless you tell them too. Instead of saying "cheese" like we do before a picture, they say "Whiskey!" - hahahaha.
• Very resourceful/resilient people – they have had to cope with a lot in their history and are very good at working with what they have.
• There are stray dogs everywhere and none of them are spayed or neutered so they are always humping each other (by the way, did you know two dogs can get stuck together while doing this? I’ve seen it numerous times, but I still don’t understand it.)
• Not only does the town have a two-week long fiesta, but so does every school. The kids miss a lot of classes practicing their marching for the parade and preparing for all of the festivities. There are sports tournaments, folkloric dance competitions, speech contests, and parades – both during the day and a night with these fancy things made out of colored transparent paper in the shape of birds, houses, people, etc. that are lit by candlelight.
• No lines anywhere. People walk into a store and expect to be waited on immediately. They interrupt whatever transaction is happening and the worst part is, the store owners will stop helping you and help them (this isn’t just because I’m a gringa, it happens to the Peruvians too). There aren’t even lines in the Municipality. I’ve seen people interrupt meetings to get their questions answered right then and there.
• Almost everyone has a cell phone – even the campesinos. They might not have food on the table, but they have cell phones and lots of people even have TVs and DVD players!
• People will answer their phones in the middle of anything (conversations, meals, meetings, classes, movies etc.) and they never put their phones on silent or vibrate.
• They are always interrupting each other when they talk and pretend to be listening a lot.
• Talk (loudly) amongst themselves during presentations and meetings without thinking anything of it.
• Already talking about when I leave and what it will be like.
• Very complimentary. They are always telling me how nice, beautiful, etc. I am.
• REALLY admire life in the United States and aspire to that. Everyone asks me how they can get a visa to go there and most people would give up everything in a heartbeat to go. [Side note: Something I’ve observed over the past year is that the lighter skinned and blonder you are, the prettier you are.]
• Skinned animals (pigs, goats, cows, guinea pig, etc.) hanging everywhere. There are tons of dead animals just hanging around at the market with flies all over it. The people who cut the meat don’t wear gloves either. [Side note: This has made me be more of a vegetarian in my site because I saw the woman I bought chicken from pick her nose and touch my money before she cut and touched my chicken with her bare hands – yuck!]
• Stuff as many people into moving vehicles as possible. They usually don’t overstuff the front because it’s “against the law” but they will have 15-20 people riding in the back of a truck – standing up no less. Go figure. However, if it is a private vehicle, they will stuff as many people as possible. I’ve been up to 10 people in the front of truck where there are only seatbelts for six.
• Everyone here uses hotmail because most of them chat on MSN Messenger. When I give them my gmail address, they tell me it doesn’t work. Since it doesn’t work on Messenger, they think my entire email account is invalid.
• Kids aren’t given the opportunity to be creative. They all copy each other’s ideas and work in art projects.
• Not sensitive to a lot of noise. It seems to me that there is only one level of volume here – MAXIMUM – and it will start as early as 6 am and go until all hours of the night.
• Take “saludar” (greeting people) and their personal appearance very seriously. Even if they don’t have a lot of money, their hair is always combed nicely (women and girls almost always have their hair braided in some fancy way) and their shoes are shined.
• They don’t dress that differently from us (this is more true on the coast where they have access to more modern clothing). In Bambamarca there is a wide range of clothes. Obviously this also has a lot to do with how much money the families have.
• People wear the same outfits for a week straight, especially kids who wear uniforms to school in the morning. [Example: Giff and I gave my host brother a soccer jersey for his birthday. He put it on the day I gave it to him and wore it everyday for two weeks. I saw him wash it two different afternoons so it would be dry by the next day when he got home from school.] By the way, many of my Peace Corps friends have adopted this habit. It makes laundry much easier, especially when you have to wash everything by hand.
• Public schools usually only go until 1 pm so they can go home and eat lunch with their families. They get a half hour recess around 10:30 am where they can buy snacks and in the elementary school, kids are provided with a big piece of bizcocho (sweet bread). [Side note: this changed with the new government. My host brother now starts school earlier and goes to school until 2 pm. Some schools go until 5 pm with a 2 hr. break for lunch.]
• One of the public schools in town has three sessions to accommodate all of the students. First and second grades (equivalent to freshmen) go in the morning until 12:45 pm and third – fifth grades (sophomores, juniors, and seniors) go in the afternoon from 1 until 6 pm. There is also a night session from 7-10 pm for kids who work during the day.
• Religion is very important to them. No one really goes to church, but it’s always one of the first questions they ask you. They really believe in fate and always say, “Dios sabe lo que hace” (God knows what he’s doing).
• Although they are an under-developed country, they do some things that we could learn from the in States. For instance they are very good at water conservation and reusing almost everything they have. We rarely have much garbage because they find a way to reuse everything (many of my Peace Corps friends have seen their things put to use after they threw them away because their families went through their garbage – haha). Almost everyone here uses florescent light bulbs because they use a lot less electricity.
• They call each other “gordita” (fatty), “indio” (Indian), “chinito” (Chinese) as terms of endearment with close friends and family.
• They say I’m “rubia” (blonde) because my hair and skin is lighter than theirs.
• They call anyone with lighter skin a “gringo” even if they are Peruvian.

Signing Off....

Because of everything that has happened in the past few months with Giff and me and this move to Japan, I have decided to leave Peace Corps early. Most of you have received this email, but for those of you who aren't on my mass emailing list, here is the email I sent home to everyone about it.

As some of you know, Giff recently came to Peru to visit me for ten days. We spent a few days in my site and then traveled to the coast to spend four days at the beach. It was wonderful to have him here and we had a great vacation together. We haven’t spent that much time alone in over a year and a half so it was long overdue. The night he arrived he proposed to me and of course I said yes immediately! My ring is gorgeous and I couldn’t be any happier.

Depending on when I last talked to you, you may or may not know that Giff graduated from pilot training at the end of June and will be spending the next few months in Oklahoma before leaving for Kadena AFB in Okinawa, Japan in late March. His assignment in Japan is for two years so it has really forced us to reevaluate things and make some big decisions about our future together.

After spending the past year and a half apart, we both agree that we do not want to be doing long distance for two more years. Giff and I are ready to move forward in our lives and move to Japan as husband and wife. Therefore, I have decided to leave Peace Corps and move home for a few months to plan our wedding and spend time with family and friends before moving abroad again.

The decision to leave Peace Corps has not been an easy one. I have dreamed of being a Peace Corps volunteer since I was in high school and did not come to Peru expecting to leave early. Giff and I knew this would be a challenge in our relationship, but I was determined to stay for my entire two years of service. However, as the saying goes, sometimes life throws us curveballs, and our lives have taken an unexpected turn. It is going to be really difficult to say goodbye to my community and the friends I’ve made among my fellow volunteers, but I know I’m doing the right thing.

My time in Peace Corps has been one of the most challenging yet enriching experiences of my life and I’m so glad I had the opportunity to live and work in Peru. I have learned a lot about myself while living here and I hope I’m leaving here a better person. I have certainly struggled with cultural differences, work challenges and frustrations with the language while living here, but more than anything I will leave this country with a deep appreciation for the kind-heartedness of the Peruvian people. Rather than being sad about leaving, I’m trying to just be grateful for the time I had here and the incredible opportunities that are waiting for me.

I plan to tell Peace Corps of my resignation early next week and if all goes well, I will be back in the States by the end of October or early November. Giff and I are really looking forward to our wedding and spending the rest of our lives together.

Thank you for all of your support.

Lots of love,
Kristen

Giff's Visit

Giff arrived the night of September 12th. I didn’t do much of anything that day because I was so excited to see him. Sometime mid-afternoon I realized I didn’t know his flight number, the airline, or where he was flying in from. Oopsie. I did know the time though so I assumed I would figure it out once I got to the airport. Luckily there was only one flight arriving at the time he was supposed to get in. His flight was delayed about 20 minutes so by the time he got through customs it was close to 11 pm before I saw him. As you can imagine, it was so good to see him. I couldn’t have been any happier in that moment.

We took a cab back to Miraflores where we were staying and went out to dinner at this good Italian restaurant I like. We each had lasagna and wine and at $30 it was our most expensive meal for the entire trip! Back at the hotel Giff was showing me all of the presents he brought for me. My mom had sent a big box of things to Giff to bring down to me so I was enjoying looking through all of that stuff. A little while later he got up to go to the bathroom and when he came out he told me he had another present for me. I thought it was going to be the jeans I asked him to buy me or a shirt from his mom or something. But he came over to me and said “I know things have been really crazy lately and this is coming a little late, but I still wanted to ask – will you marry me?” Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I was sooooooooo excited! I said of course I would and couldn’t stop smiling. It took me completely off guard; I was not expecting it at all. He told me he was going to wait to propose at the beach, but as soon as he saw me at the airport he wanted to ask me right away. He said he couldn’t wait to ask me to spend the rest of my life with him. It was adorable. I couldn’t stop smiling and staring at my beautiful ring. We have never talked about what I want for an engagement ring and he couldn’t have picked a better ring. I wouldn’t change a thing about it even if I could. I was so proud of him for doing all of the research on it and knowing what I would like. He is the best!

The next day we had sushi for lunch to celebrate our engagement and our move to Japan. We went to the Museo de la Nación in the afternoon and then boarded the bus for our 14-hour trip to Cajamarca. We took the Super VIP bus with seats that recline 180°. Giff was really impressed how nice it was and luckily was able to sleep most of the way. I was worried he would be uncomfortable because the seats are too short for him and he can’t straighten his legs when he lies down. We arrived in Cajamarca around 9:30 am, ate breakfast, ran a few errands, and got back on the bus at 11 am to go to Bambamarca. Giff slept most of the trip, but I made sure to wake him up to see Yanacocha Mine – the third largest gold mine in the world.

We were both exhausted when we finally arrived in Bambamarca since we had been traveling for close to 24 hours. Unfortunately I had some things I needed to do though and Giff was such a good sport about coming with me and meeting everyone. I had promised the girls in my youth group they could meet Giff so we hung out with them for about 30 minutes. I also had to go to the health center to talk with Rita and to the high school to make sure the teachers were still planning on having the training session with me on September 24th (the day I got back from my trip). Giff thought it was funny how many times I had to repeat myself and remind them about what we were going to do since in the States you don’t have to go back and remind the people every week that we have a meeting planned. In Peru you have to remind people everyday in the week leading up to the meeting or no one will come. After my errands were done we ate dinner at this good restaurant in town and went home to relax the rest of the night in my room.

I got up early the next morning to help with the party preparations while Giff slept in. Chabu got there early with Carol and Martin to start putting up the decorations and I ran all over town with Karina trying to find someone who had cake pans to lend us. Some of my family had met Giff the night before when we arrived, but the rest were dying to meet him. I knew Giff would understand most of what was said, but I didn’t think he’d speak to them because it’s more intimidating. However he completely surprised me. He spoke to them and was a really good sport about meeting so many people and answering all of their questions. My family couldn’t believe that he helped me bake all three of the cakes and played with the kids. They were really impressed at what a great guy he is – I’m one lucky girl!

We were able to escape for a little while in the afternoon to take a short hike so Giff could see Bambamarca. My house can be very overwhelming with so many people so it was nice to get away for a bit. When we got home Giff had his first experience with the freezing cold shower. I offered to boil him water, but he said he was fine. I felt really bad when we came back shivering – at least he was really getting an authentic experience. It was interesting to hear Giff’s perceptions of Peru since I don’t think twice about a lot of it anymore. He couldn’t believe all of the trash everywhere and though Bambamarca smelled everywhere we went – I didn’t notice it at all so I guess I’ve gotten used to those gross smells. His favorite part was how they water the ground. I still haven’t quite figured that up. They water the ground everyday, but keep in mind, the ground they are watering is either dirt or cement so it isn’t meant to help it grow. I hear the philosophy is that the water helps it be less dusty when they sweep a little later. Who knows, but I still find it hilarious.

So Rita arrived around 7:40 pm even though the party wasn’t supposed to start until 8 pm. I wasn’t even ready when she showed up because I figured no one would arrive until at least 8:30. I quickly visited with Rita and Melany and then hurried to get dressed (Karina, Miki and I had to dress up since we were the guests of honor – I also had to buy a new dress for this because the public has already seen me in my other dresses and since this was my party, it had to be something new – oh boy). It started drizzling as the guests were arriving and my family was freaking out. They were afraid everyone would leave because we didn’t have much protection from the rain (the party was outside in our patio). Karina was so stressed out about it that she almost started crying. I wasn’t too worried about the rain because I figured it would pass, but I was stressed out because after Giff and I had spent all afternoon baking the Funfetti Pillsbury cakes, they told me we weren’t going to use them. Karina told me cakes were usually more than one color and the frosting I had given them (that my mom sent with Giff) was only white and it looked bad. She had sent her friend Sara out to buy us a new cake and told me they would just keep my cake in the kitchen for us to eat later. I was so annoyed since Carol and my mom had been kind enough to send all of the ingredients and I lured my friends to the party by telling them we were going to have cake from the U.S. Luckily since it was so last minute, Sara couldn’t find a cake and we ended up just decorating it with flowers and a little doll figurine. Even after it was decorated though, we still weren’t sure we’d be able to put it out on display since it continued to drizzle.

By 9:30 pm we had around 40 guests and the rain had stopped for the most part so we decided to get the party under way. My host uncle, Anibal, gave a little welcome speech and Karina gave another speech. They asked me to give the toast and when I was finished they asked me to translate for Giff. Then they asked Giff to come up and say a few words that I could translate. I thought he would be so annoyed, but he was really good about it and they loved it. After all of the speeches were over, we started dancing and didn’t stop until 4 am!

Four of my friends from Peace Corps came to the party and we all had so much fun together. I was relieved to have them there because then I could dance and visit with other people without having to worry about Giff. We all really had a great time. I thought it was great that Giff was experiencing his first Peruvian party where we drank beer by sharing one glass and passing it among our group. Haha. He got really annoyed that by 11:30 pm we still hadn’t been served dinner, but we told him we wouldn’t eat until midnight. Don’t ask me why but at big parties they never serve the food until midnight. After the food there was more dancing and drinking until everyone sang Happy Birthday to us around 2 am. They had Giff come up and say something then too, but we’re not really sure why. Then Honsler (the doctor’s 35 year old nephew) came up and shoved our faces in the cake because apparently that is the tradition here. I had cake all over my face and it my hair, it was really funny. We didn’t cut the cake though because they never do that at parties. This is another tradition I haven’t quite figured out because they spend all of this money on the cake, but it’s mostly there for decoration. They normally don’t cut the cake until the next day. It is shared among family members and hand delivered to close friends. My friends and I were really craving it though since we never get delicious cake like that here. We decided it would be a good idea to start breaking off pieces with our hands when we thought no one was looking. Haha. It was a disaster. At 4 am when we were tired of dancing, we took the smallest of the three cakes into the kitchen and ate the entire thing! Haha. Chabu told me that the next morning when she and the doctor went to the house to take down the decorations, they asked for some cake, but my family said it was all gone. She told me she really wanted some because she tried some with her fingers the night before at the party after she saw us doing it and thought it was excellent – oopsie!

We didn’t go to bed until about 5 am and were on the bus to Cajamarca the next morning at 11 am. Of course some of my family was still up drinking when Giff and I got up at 8:30 am to use the bathroom. They made me drink some beer with them while I was waiting to go pee. Gross. Don’t judge – it’s much easier to just do it than to say no because they will harass you until you give in. Gotta love this country! Even though it was a short visit with my family, I think we all had a great time. I know my family really enjoyed meeting Giff and they thought he was so much fun at the party. He danced with Karina, Marta and my host mom so they were thrilled. They kept saying he doesn’t know how to dance “in Spanish” (because he doesn’t dance salsa or cumbia like they do here), only “in English”. I thought that was a funny way of saying it. I’m really glad we came up to my site though because it was really important to me that he see where I’ve been living for the past year and meet my family and the friends I’ve made here.

There was a power outage in Cajamarca so we couldn’t really do much. We went to Baños del Inca and took baths with thermal water. It felt wonderful after staying up all night, not to mention after the bathing experience Giff had at my house. I had wanted to take Giff to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in Cajamarca, but just about everything was closed from the power outage so we ended up just getting Pollo a la Brasa (very traditional rotisserie chicken) with four of my friends. My friends were so excited to meet Giff since they have been hearing about him for the past year and a half. After dinner we went out for dessert and hot chocolate and then hung around until our bus left for the coast at 11 pm.

We finally arrived in Piura city at 8 am the next day. After a whirlwind beginning of the trip – two overnight bus rides, staying up all night partying and meeting tons of people – it was nice to have a day just to relax. We went out to breakfast and then to the market so Giff could see what a typical Peruvian market is like. Markets here seem so much more practical and we both wondered why we don’t have more of them in the States. You can buy pretty much everything you could dream of at the market. We had a gourmet lunch of ham and cheese sandwiches, which was quite a treat for me since we never eat anything like that, and then slept all afternoon. We got carry out at this really good restaurant in town and then headed back to the hotel to watch Monday Night Football because they Eagles were on! I was really excited to watch them, but they played horribly and lost. Lots of my friends arrived at night because they had spent the weekend at the beach. Giff got to see an old friend (it was an illegal vacation so I can’t mention names) and meet lots of other volunteers. After the game we hung out with my friends and watched a movie. It was really chill though because we were all exhausted. (I did make sure to show all of them my ring though. Giff and I agreed that I couldn’t wear it outside so the rules were I was only allowed to take it out if the doors were closed and locked. Haha.).

We finally headed to the beach the next morning and the rest of the trip was just the two of us. Giff met something like 20 volunteers in four days (not to mention all of the Peruvians I introduced him to) so I was happy we had the rest of the time to ourselves. He was such a great sport about meeting everyone and the unusual travel schedules. I really appreciated it.

Our time at the beach was perfect. Our hotel was about a mile and a half from the main strip so it was really quiet. Our room was right on the ocean and had a balcony with two chairs and a hammock. I loved going to bed and waking up every day to the sound of the ocean. The hotel had a pool and a restaurant so we spent a lot of time just hanging out there and relaxing. We also walked into town everyday for lunch and sometimes dinner. We had a nice mixture of Peruvian and American food while we were there. I was thrilled because we got to eat waffles, brownie sundaes, crepes, good pizza and wine – treats I never get here. But we also made sure to eat some seafood since we were at the beach (yes even I ate seafood). The first day we headed to a mud bath nearby that we had heard about with thermal water. It was kind of cool, but also a little weird. It was way out of town in this campesino “gated community” that we had to pay to get into. When we arrived there was one other couple there. We ended up talking to them and their taxi driver a lot. They were really nice and told us Johnny Depp had just finished filming a movie there called “Máncora” – have any of you heard anything about this? Giff and I weren’t sure if it was true. We stayed in the “bath” for a little while and I even spread mud on my arms since they say it has curative powers, but I was a little grossed out because the mud felt like it had clumps of women’s hair in it and I did not like that. It was a fun experience, but I definitely don’t ever need to go back. Like I said, our time at the beach was wonderful though. The beach was beautiful and the sunsets were gorgeous. The best part though was just being alone with Giff. We haven’t spent that much time alone in over a year and a half so I was so happy just to have that time together.

Of course I was really sad when the trip finally came to an end. We took yet another overnight bus ride from the beach to Lima and arrived the day Giff was going to fly out. His flight wasn’t until 10:50 pm so we took the opportunity to spend the day exploring Lima. We went to lunch at this cool soccer bar Giff read about in my guidebook and also went to the Plaza de Armas and did a little souvenir shopping. Of course the day came to an end faster than we would have liked and before we knew it we were headed to the airport.

As I was standing in line with Giff at the airport, I wished I was just leaving with him. My time here has been an incredible opportunity, but at that moment I realized that I’ve gotten out of it what I wanted to and now I’m ready to move on with my life. I was planning to stay until December, but after Giff left I realized that my heart really isn’t in it anymore. It’s hard to stay here knowing that I have an engagement ring and a fiancé at home waiting for me, let alone a wedding to plan and another move abroad.
I didn’t cry when I said goodbye to Giff at the airport because I knew I’d be seeing him again soon. Plus we just had a wonderful vacation together and there is way too much to be happy about so crying wasn’t necessary.

Catching Up

Well to say that this blog entry is long overdue would be the understatement of the year. I guess I’ve been really busy lately since I haven’t written in almost two months! Jessica and I were joking the other day about what it means to be “busy” here. She was saying she was “Peruvian stressed out” because she had two things to do in the next five days. This makes me laugh because unfortunately, it’s so true. I think we’re all going to have mental breakdowns when we get back to the real world and have to work 40 hours a week again and have real things to worry about.

I’ll do the best I can to recap the last two months without making it extremely long (no promises though). My last entry brought you up to med-checks in Lima so let me pick up there. After being in Peace Corps for one year, we have to go to Lima for medical check-ups and meetings with our boss. The youth development volunteers go for one week and the business group goes the next week, but Peace Corps allowed us to stay for the weekend without being charged vacation days. It was so much fun to see everyone and hang out. I haven’t seen some of my friends since Thanksgiving last year so it felt like a big family reunion to have everyone together again. It was interesting to see how some people have changed since training. Training was such an intense environment because of our busy schedule and the pressure of adjusting to a new culture and learning a new language. I didn’t realize it at the time, but after spending that week together in Lima, I noticed that everyone was so much more laid-back. We’re all becoming more and more Peruvian by the minute – not stressing out about things like we used to and never being in a rush. It was really refreshing.

Luckily our med-checks were pretty uneventful. The best part about them was all of the free time it gave us to hang out in Lima together – if you didn’t have a doctor’s appointment, you were free to do whatever you wanted. As usual when we’re in Lima, we scheduled our days around eating; trying to fit in all of the delicious food we could before it was time to head back to rice and potatoes in site.

In addition to having med-checks, our time is Lima is also an opportunity to talk about our first year in site and to share ideas, challenges, frustrations, successes, etc. with each other. All of us had to prepare a PowerPoint presentation to show the group of what we’ve been up to in the past year. Normally the presentations are only shown among volunteers, but this year they decided to have us do them for the new trainees so they could get an idea of projects to do in site. I thought it was really interesting and I was so impressed by the projects some of my friends have accomplished in site. One of the best presentations was Hana’s so for those of you who know her, you should be proud of all the things she has done in her site. She has done so much for her community and they are really going to miss her when she leaves. I felt bad for her though because she had to go last and after watching presentations for four hours, no one was really in the mood anymore. All but two of the trainees had left to eat lunch so she had a tough audience. It was a very long morning and probably really overwhelming for the trainees, but I really enjoyed it. I presented first and it didn’t go so well. I did a really bad job of managing my time and ran out of time about three quarters of the way through my presentation. I got really flustered when they told me I was out of time so rushed through the end – it was a disaster. Oh well.

As you know from a previous entry the earthquake hit Peru the week we were in Lima. We felt numerous aftershocks throughout the week so we never quite felt relaxed. On top of that, I was robbed at the ATM within the first hour of arriving in Lima (only stole my card and no money was taken) and there was a robbery at our hostel. It wasn’t a Peace Corps volunteer who got robbed, but we still didn’t feel comfortable staying there. We tried to switch to another place, but no one had space for 16 people at the last minute so we had to stay in our hostel with bunkbeds with co-ed bathrooms. Needless to say, after everything that happened that week, we were all sort of on edge and couldn’t wait to get back to site.

A few days after I got back in site I got sick. I think the lack of sleep and all of the traveling was finally catching up with me. It was good for me though because it forced me to just take it easy and hang out at home. I spent a lot of time just reading, hanging out with my host family and playing with Emily (my host sister). After I got better, I worked with Rita to write up a work-plan for the World Map Project, which I presented to the Municipality, and met with the director of the high school to organize a training session with the teachers on a Social Skills program designed for adolescents.

Karina invited me to this graduation party on a random Thursday night. We stayed there drinking and dancing until 3 am. I really didn’t want to go, but it turned out to be really fun. That weekend I went to Chota for a meeting with Jose (our regional coordinator) and all of the volunteers in the area. It was the first time all seven us have gotten together in the past year! The meeting went a little longer than I would have liked, but it was interesting to hear about everyone’s projects. My friend Annie lives in the campo and someone had given her two guinea pigs and a rabbit for her family. In Peru they carry most animals in big rice sacks so Annie just left them on the floor while we were meeting. Two hours later when the meeting was over, she picked up the bag and threw it over her back. I was standing behind her and saw something yellow flying through the air and land on my sleeve. I screamed, “Ewwww Annie, your cuyes PEED on me!” Jessica told me it must have just been my water bottle that leaked on me, but I knew it wasn’t. I said, “But it’s HOT and YELLOW.” Jessica smelled my arm and confirmed that it was indeed, pee. Yummy!

The following week was my birthday. Karina and Miki’s birthday were also that week (we are the 3rd, 4th and 5th of September), but we didn’t really do anything to celebrate because we wanted to wait until Giff came to celebrate. However, it turned out to be a great birthday! Karina practically gave me a heart attack in the morning when she screamed in the middle of aerobics. I thought something happened to her so I screamed too, but she had just remembered it was my birthday and wanted to wish me a happy day. Haha. I got lots of calls in the morning (both from Peruvians and Peace Corps friends) and a visit from Rita and Consuelo (another nurse at the health center) who came to wish me a happy birthday and give me presents.

The girls in my youth group had told me I had to be home in the afternoon because they were going to come get me and take me somewhere. I thought we were going to go eat cake somewhere, but it turned out they had planned a surprise party for me! They messed up a little bit by sending two different groups of girls to get me so when they second group got there, they got really nervous that I wasn’t home – haha so cute. One of the girl’s families owns a house on the outside of town that they don’t use so they decorated the living room with streamers and balloons and brought me to the house for the party. They had made popcorn and jello (typical staples at any Peruvian birthday party) and a cake that said my name! We hung out in the backyard talking for a while and then we went inside where they sang to me and we took lots of pictures. They said they even planned a game for us to play, but it ended up getting too late and we didn’t have time. We all walked back to town together and then parted ways. I saw the girl’s mom where they had made the cake the day before and she apologized for the cake looking a little “messy”. She said the girls had never made or decorated a cake before and she offered to help, but they said, “No mom, Kristen likes it when we’re creative and do things by ourselves.” That made my day. I was so proud of them for recognizing that and for organizing this party. They are so adorable. It all meant so much to me and I will never forget it. Chabu had invited me over for a birthday dinner so that evening I went to the doctor’s house for pizza and sangria. It was the best birthday I’ve spent away from home!

Believe it or not, even though I had just got back from Lima, I was already preparing for my next trip. Kitty planned an IST (In-Service Training) workshop for us in Chiclayo for early September. We had to bring a youth leader from our town with whom we’d design a community project. I invited a girl named, Cinthya, who is in 5th grade (the equivalent to a senior in high school). She is very involved at school and in the community and isn’t afraid to speak up and express her opinion so I was excited for her to come with me. We traveled to the workshop with Jessica and Katy, the girl she brought from Chota. The girls really seemed to enjoy the workshop and designed cool projects. Our project is a talent show for the kids at Cinthya’s high school. She said many of her peers have a lot of potential in music and dance, but if they don’t have something to work towards, they don’t practice and spend their time drinking and doing drugs instead. She thought a talent show would be a good outlet for them because they really enjoy participating in such activities.

We had a lot of fun with our girls. One night we went out to dinner and there was a live band playing. The girls put in a request for them to wish me a happy birthday and to congratulate Jessica on her pregnancy – she thought it would be fun to pretend she was pregnant. We stuffed her shirt with scarves and a shirt and it really looked like she was pregnant. We told the girls to just go along with it as a joke and they did. In the grocery store some random lady came up to Jessica to congratulate her and ask her how far along she was! It was so funny and we thought they understood it was a joke, but apparently a couple of the girls were really confused and thought Jessica really was pregnant – oopsie!

Although we had fun with the girls, they turned out to be little rebels. They are both really boy crazy and every time we turned around they were gone. They were planning to go out dancing one night, but we asked Kitty to make an announcement that they weren’t allowed to leave the hotel after 8 pm. That didn’t solve the problem during the day though. Jessica’s girl really wanted to go shopping for knee-high black socks because she likes to dress “gothic” and can’t find that stuff in Cajamarca. My girl wasn’t interested in that stuff, but was influenced by Jessica’s girl and would go off with her. One afternoon we gave them 30 minutes to go shopping before we had to leave to catch the bus. We told them they could walk around the area of the Plaza and meet us at the ice cream shop (we were stressed out from “babysitting” them all weekend). When they didn’t come on time, I called my girl and she said they had gone to the mall without our permission! We were so mad at them. The mall is about ten minutes away so they had to take a taxi to get there. I have never seen Jessica go into her “teacher mode” so when she called her girl to tell her that it was not acceptable that they had gone to the mall without permission, I couldn’t stop laughing. Jessica said to me, “Kristen can you at least pretend to be mad when the girls get here.” I told her I really was mad at them, but I had never seen that side of her and it made me laugh. Between the two of us, we called them about eight times before they finally came back 30 minutes after they were originally supposed to meet us! Luckily we still made it to the bus on time and everyone got back safely.

I ended up staying on the coast (ssshhhh) because I was headed down to pick up Giff in Lima! It didn’t make sense for me to go all the way back to Bambamarca just to turn around for Lima so I visited Chabu’s mother and sisters in Ferreñafe and then Rita’s family in Trujillo. While I was in Trujillo I also met up with a friend of mine from Cajamarca who studies at the university in Trujillo. The guy he rents a room from has his own car so they drove me all around Trujillo. We visited two different ruins – Chan Chan (the oldest “mud city” in the world) and Huaca de la Luna y Sol – and downtown so I could get an idea of what Trujillo is like. It was a great city tour and I was really grateful to them for taking the time to show me all around. That night I boarded the bus for Lima knowing that in less than 24 hours Giff would be with me!