My Life as a Peace Corps Volunteer

Visiting Trujillo

2007-10-11T19:02:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-11T18:25:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-10T20:22:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-10T19:46:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-07T19:29:00.000-07:00

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....

2007-10-07T19:26:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-07T19:23:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-06T16:06:00.000-07:00

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!

Visitors and More Fiestas!

2007-08-27T13:57:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-08-26T11:05:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2007-08-17T14:45:00.000-07:00

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.

Bambamarca's Fiesta!

2007-07-24T20:08:00.000-07:00

I haven't had time to write an entry yet about my town's fiesta (not that you have time to read it with everything else I've written lately), but I wanted to put up some pictures so you can get an idea of what it was like. I wasn't really looking forward to it, but it ended up being one of my most fun weeks in Peru! I LOVED it. Stay tuned for more details...

Emily blowing me a kiss at the parade to kick off the Fiesta de Virgen del Carmen!

The Virgen del Carmen - our patron saint who all of the festivites are for!

A castillo (firework tower) built by Rita's family.

A castillo going off up the street.

Watching Rita's castillo from inside her living room.

Another view of the castillo! Isn't it cool?

After a while this is all I could see off the balcony!

A picture of the Virgen passing by the castillo.

Emily and my host cousin Carol at the carnival!

The circus that we went too - pretty good, but a little ghetto (cement floors with no safety nets)!

Carol and Martin enjoying their s'mores!

No campfire so we had to improvise with the stove....

Martin playing with his marshmellow.

Grinding corn to make tamales.

Learning how to make tamales.

All of our ingredients and some tamales ready to be cooked - yum!

A fried cuy (guinea pig) ready to be served up at the fair (and you wonder why I don't like it - it's head is STARING at you while you eat)!

Me with Luz (part of the family who I stayed with during my site visit) showing off some of their huge tomatoes at the agricultural fair.

Some of the marinera dancers at a competition we went to. I LOVED it and want to learn!

A view of the crowd watching the dance competition at the high school (it started raining so we all ran under the overhangs).

Visiting a cuy farm with Rita's family.

We thought someone tried to rob the internet so someone had to sleep in there to be on guard. This is Karina and Johnny waking up my host brother around 1:30 am after we had been out!

Hahaha - he doesn't remember any of it.

Entering my first bull fight with Galvez, Emily, and Rosa!

Bull on the loose!

Killing the bull - AHHHH - luckily I stayed pretty calm since I knew it was going to happen.

A view of the bull ring - check out the setting! Not too shabby.

This guy was our favorite - he did the whole bull fight from the horse - including killing the bull!

The other horse he used during the fight.

Emily and my host dad enjoying the bull fight!

The guy in the red and black is from Bambamarca and is a famous matador (or helper)!

Karina and I at my first quinciñera.

Me with my friend (and dancing partner) Juan Pablo.

Karina and me at the last bull fight.

A KID bull fighter! He's only 9 years old (from Lima) and this was the first bull he killed!

This little boy was so brave - a definite FAVORITE of all 3 days of bull fights.

Getting ready to kill the bull. He received "dos orejas" (two ears) for the fight - a great honor!

Pictures from Del Rio

2007-07-16T14:13:00.000-07:00

This is the moment I arrived. Look how happy Giff is to see me!

So happy to see each other after six months!

Don't I look like a natural?

Wearing Giff's face mask - haha!

A ceremony honoring the graduates.

A fly over of the training planes.

Giff receiving his wings (with the KC-135 behind him - the plane he's going to fly).

John helping Giff put his wings on.

Giff and Kevin on the wing of the T-6.

The whole family!

This would have been a nice picture if Giff didn't open his eyes like a big dork!

Giff and his siblings.

Giff and his mom.

Giff and his proud parents.

Giff with a bunch of his friends!

Giff and me with our new best friends Audrey and Erik (they're moving to Japan with us)!

Giff and his DORKY Air Force-issued glasses.

All of the graduates at the banquet.

Carol was really excited to take this picture because they're all from Philadelphia!

Awwww look how happy we are!

Giff with Kevin and John.

Giff and me at a Mexican restaurant!

Our last night together at dinner.

Elizabeth and me hanging out at Giff's apartment.

Don't send me back to Peru....I want to stay!

A Fed-Ex Surprise!

2007-07-15T10:43:00.000-07:00

Normally I would have been incredibly depressed after my parents left, but in the middle of May, I decided to buy a plane ticket home to surprise Giff for his graduation from pilot training. So instead of being depressed, I was ecstatic, but trying to play it cool when I talked to Giff so he wouldn’t suspect anything!

The morning after my parents left, I headed back up to site for just a day and a half before I had to leave again. Luckily no one was really home at my house (because it was the fiesta in Chota) so I didn’t feel guilty hiding in my room the whole time. My plan was to rest since I was so exhausted from traveling with my parents, but I was way too excited for that. I was driving myself crazy because I couldn’t concentrate on anything so it’s a good thing I didn’t have any more time there.

Two of my friends were on the bus with me back to Cajamarca so they did a good job of keeping me distracted. Even though I’m usually a pretty responsible person, I guess all of that goes out the window when I’m excited because I realized on the bus ride that I had forgotten my ticket to Lima! I was smart and purchased it ahead of time, but then I proceeded to leave it in my room! I was worried they would make me buy the ticket all over again, but luckily I just had to pay S/.10 for them to print it again. The last time I took the bus to Lima, I slept like a log, but this time between my excitement and the guy next to me snoring all night, I probably slept a total of 3 hours on the 14 hour trip! I spent the whole next day at the Peace Corps office while I waited until it was time to go to the airport. There were a few other volunteers there who were actually trying to do work on a newsletter, but I kept talking to them anyway. I did try to help them a little bit, but I’m sure I was more of an annoyance than anything. We went to lunch at Pizza Hut and I also had Starbucks so that was a treat! I talked to Giff briefly, but I was so scared to say something and ruin the surprise that I cut our conversation short. He thought I was in Cajamarca meeting with my boss and that I’d be calling him the next day upon my return to Bambamarca. But little did he know, we would be together the next day!

I boarded the plane in Lima at 11:30 pm. Once again I didn’t sleep at all (an hour or two at most) because there were little kids behind me that woke up crying every 20-30 minutes and would kick my chair. That was pleasant. It’s a good thing we have adrenaline to keep us going in moments like this or I would have been really cranky. I went through customs in Houston and then waited about two hours to board my flight to Del Rio. I must have peed about 18 times during that layover because I was so excited! It was finally time to go, and even though I tried to sleep during the flight, I wasn’t able to rest at all. I landed about 10:30 am and was met by a woman named Erin who grew up with one of my friends in Peace Corps! Her husband happens to be stationed at Laughlin AFB right now too so Heidi put us in touch and they agreed to pick me up at the airport. Erin even offered her shower to me since I had been traveling for two days. I’m sure Giff wouldn’t have cared if I arrived dirty, but I felt so gross that I wanted to freshen up before seeing him – after six months, he deserves to see me clean.

In the car on the way to base I was so nervous. I couldn’t believe this was actually happening after I had been looking forward to it for the past six weeks! To make sure Giff would be home, his parents told him a very confidential Fed-Ex package was going to arrive for his dad from his work and Giff had to be home to sign for it. However, they told him it was going to arrive between 9:30 and 10:30 am so when I got there at noon, he was on the phone with Fed-Ex asking them where his package was! His bedroom faces the street so while he was talking to them, trying to figure out why the package hadn’t arrived yet because he had things to do that day, he saw a silver Honda pull into his driveway. None of his friends have a silver Honda so he was curious to see who it was. Then he saw me get out of the car and said to himself, that’s Kristen, and hung up with Fed-Ex!

I didn’t know he had already seen me, so I rang the doorbell and he answered right away. I said, “SURPRISE” and he just looked at me dumbfounded and said “What are you doing here???” I told him I came to surprise him for his graduation and then started laughing because I didn’t know what else to do – I was so excited and couldn’t believe I was standing at his front door! He helped me get my stuff into the apartment from Erin’s car and then told me how he was on the phone with Fed-Ex because he was so mad that the “package” hadn’t arrived yet. At first he didn’t even believe me that I was the package because he said his dad made such a big deal about him being home. Just as I was telling him, “I swear to you that no package is coming,” a Fed-Ex truck pulled up in front of his apartment and he said, “I told you so!” It turned out to be something for his roommate though – hahaha. It was AWESOME – just like I had imagined it. He was really surprised and so happy to have me there (not to mention how happy I was to finally be with him)!

He was busy with graduation stuff that day so as soon as I got there we went out to grab some lunch at Quizno’s, where I met the first of his friends – Mindy and Julie. I know you’re probably thinking that we should have gone somewhere nicer for lunch, but Del Rio doesn’t have many options and we didn’t have much time. I was actually really excited about it because we never get to eat deli sandwiches in Peru so it was a treat to me! After lunch we went to do a Sim (flight simulation) because he had reserved it for his family. They weren’t arriving until really late that night so we went alone. I had tried it in San Antonio and was really bad. Apparently being in Peru hasn’t improved my flying skills because I crashed and died! Hey, don’t judge, it’s really hard! It was really fun to watch Giff though because he makes it look so easy.

I went back to his apartment to try and rest a little bit while he had a meeting with his commander. I was still too excited to sleep so I was happy when he came home about 20 minutes later. We hung out at the apartment for awhile until he had to go meet everyone for a ceremony. I drove up there a little while later to watch the ceremony – it was really short – to recognize the graduates for completing pilot training, the most difficult training in the Air Force. There was a fly-over of all three planes used during training and then they played the National Anthem. It was really hot so we were glad the ceremony didn’t drag on. Before it started I was sitting by myself, but then one of the wives who I had met invited me to sit with them so I wouldn’t be alone. I thought that was really sweet.

After the ceremony we went to the Officer’s Club where they gave away some awards. The best part about that was that I got to meet most of Giff’s friends and some of the wives, including the ones who are going to Japan with us! Their names are Audrey and Eric and I really liked them both (thank God since Audrey is going to be my new best friend). I also met some of the other wives and they all had great things to say about Giff. They all told me how much they enjoyed having Giff around this past year because he’s such a great guy and so much fun to be with (no kidding, why do you think I miss him so much?). I was so happy to meet his friends since I had heard so much about them. They were all just as happy to meet me too because Giff always talks about me (and some of them thought I wasn’t real)!

When the awards were over we left to get some dinner and it was the first time all day we had really had time to sit down together – alone – and enjoy our time together! It’s really amazing how easy it is to fall back into the routine of being together. It felt so natural to be there. You have no idea how good it is to just be able to look into the other person’s eyes or watch them laugh after spending so much time apart. I was living on cloud nine for those four days.

That night we went to one of his friend’s house to hang out so I got to know some of his friends a little better. His family was driving in from Houston (about 7 hrs.) and had been delayed in landing there because of thunderstorms so we knew they wouldn’t be there forever. By that time I think everyone else’s family had arrived so I was glad to be there for Giff so he wasn’t alone. We left the party around 1 am and were just falling asleep when his family called us at 1:30 am to tell us they had finally arrived! Even though it was so late and I hadn’t sleep in essentially two days, I was so excited to see them! We dropped Chris, Alex, and Elizabeth off at Giff’s apartment and we headed back to the hotel with Giff’s parents to finally go to bed. What a GREAT day! I wish I could go back and do it all over again, but I guess it wouldn’t be as special the second time around.

Before the graduation ceremony, they had a breakfast for the graduates and their families. The breakfast was good – muffins, bagels, fruit salad, coffee, etc. – but I felt like an idiot because I was wearing jeans and everyone else was dressed up in cute little sundresses. Giff told me it was casual, but I don’t know why I ever listen to him when it comes to clothes. I only brought one dress though and I had to save it for the banquet that night so I didn’t really have a choice. I figured the day wasn’t about me anyway so it didn’t really matter. The graduation ceremony was really nice (and not too long!). There was a speaker who talked about call signs – it was a good speech and made us all laugh. Then they gave out some more awards and moved on to the most important part – the part when they finally got their wings! They called each person up individually and had their picture projected on a big screen. While they were still up there, they also showed the plane that the person will be flying – in Giff’s case, the KC-135. I felt so proud of Giff when he was up there because I know what a difficult year it was for him (not just academically) and how hard he had worked. It is such a huge accomplishment and I was so happy to be able to be there and share that with him since I feel like I’ve missed out on so many other things in the last year. When we were watching Giff pin on his wings after the ceremony (they don’t do it on stage because it would take way too long), I started to get choked up because I was so proud of him, but I made myself not cry because I knew he would make fun of me.

From the ceremony we headed out to the flight line where we took TONS of pictures and then Giff gave us a little tour of the building where he spent most of his time. I love seeing all that stuff because I like to be able to picture the places he talks about, but I’m sure his brothers and sister were bored. We got lunch after that and then went on another tour in the afternoon where they showed us the altitude chamber, how the plane ejects you in an emergency, what happens when you “G-lock” (we saw this on video – it’s when you pass out from too many G’s) and when you come to again, and this crazy chair that is used to cure air sickness (they spin you in it for 15 minutes or until you throw up! Giff never had to do it though because he doesn’t get air sickness). They also used the chair to demonstrate some things that can happen to you when you’re in the air like not knowing which direction you’re going in or not being able to focus in on anything. Giff’s dad demonstrated the second scenario and it was really weird because his eyes just keep moving back and forth really fast while he was trying to focus in on something. At the end of the tour they took us into an air traffic control tower so that was really cool to see too. Giff thought the tour was boring and way too long, but Carol and I loved it of course because we like to see that stuff.

We had some free time after the tour so we all took naps and then got ready for the banquet that night. There were cocktails in the Officer’s Club first and then we sat down to a nice meal. During the meal they showed a couple of slide shows – one of their baby pictures and another about the career of a pilot. They also had a speaker and gave out a few more awards. Most of it though was just to celebrate this big accomplishment. After dinner we hung around for a while talking with the other graduates and their families. We talked to this woman, Jill, for a while because her husband is in Giff’s class and he used to hang out at their house a lot. She is from Tennessee and very southern. In her thick southern accent she kept telling me, “Giff is just precious when he talks about you, just precious.” And she also told me, “I love Giff. I could just eat ‘em alive.” Then she kept calling Giff’s dad, “Guido” so we thought it was hilarious. She was a riot. I was glad to meet so many nice people and know he had been in good hands during the year, but I still wished so much that I had been there with him. We finally wrapped things up at the banquet, went home to change and drop off Elizabeth, and then continued the party at Jim and Jill’s house. There were a lot of people there so it was really fun.

Giff and I were exhausted the next morning from our late night so we skipped out on lunch with his family and tried to sleep a little more. In the afternoon we went to Lake Amistad, a big man made reservoir about 20 minutes away. Giff and his friends used to rent boats there and go water-skiing and wake-boarding (until Giff had his accident and split his head open!). We weren’t able to rent a boat that day so we just went and hung out on the “beach,” which was mostly rocks, but the weather was perfect and it felt so nice to have our feet in the water. One of our friends from San Antonio, Jared, is at Laughling right now too (a few classes behind Giff) and has a boat. The night before he told us he would take us out on it, but we were skeptical since we were all drinking. Sure enough though, he showed up and Giff, Chris, Alex and I swam out to his boat and he took us water-skiing. Chris tried it for the first time and did really well. Giff did it for the first time since his accident (almost a year) and was really good, but Alex was too tired and I was nervous my bathing suit would come off – apparently it has stretched out a lot and the bottom was coming off when we were just swimming out to the boat so I opted out for obvious reasons. It was awesome to be on the boat though because it reminded me of being on the boat at our lake house. Plus I love the water and the weather was perfect (not too much bathing suit weather in Bambamarca) so I was a happy camper! I did NOT want to leave the next day…

By the time we got home from the lake we were all hungry and ready for dinner so we went to this nice Mexican place. It’s a small restaurant with a nice view of the river. It was nestled among the trees with a lot of green surrounding it, which really surprised me because I expected everything to be dry and brown. We got Dairy Queen after dinner and then went back to Giff’s apartment so he and Elizabeth could open some presents (for graduation and birthday respectively). We were all exhausted from all of the festivities so we decided to call it a night. It was Jim and Jill’s last night in town so Giff and I went to their house long enough for Giff to say goodbye and then went back to the hotel. In my head I knew it was my last night with him, but I tried really hard not to be sad and let it ruin our last night. I know the ticket to see Giff was expensive and way out of my budget, but the three days we had together were some of the best days we’ve had together and I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world.

The next morning we said goodbye to his parents and then went to the airport. Giff waited with me until I absolutely had to go through security, and even watched while I boarded the plane and it took off. I didn’t even cry, which was HUGE for me, but he’s coming to visit in September so I knew I’d see him soon. I fell asleep almost immediately on the plane and woke up mid-flight to the captain saying, “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we’re on our way back to Del Rio.” Bad news? Yeah right, that was the best thing he could have said in my opinion! While everyone else was annoyed and getting worried they’d miss their connecting flights in Houston, I was ecstatic and praying we’d have to stay another day. We all had to get off the plane in Del Rio, and sure enough, they came in asking for volunteers to give up their seats because they needed to take more fuel, and therefore couldn’t take as much weight. They said they’d have to pull the last three people who checked in if no one volunteered and I didn’t think that was fair, so I took one for the team and volunteered – let me tell you, it was a really tough decision. Luckily they put me on the same flights the next day so I just had to email Peace Corps and let them know I had been delayed by a day. Not only did I get to stay another day, but I also got $175 voucher out of the deal. Oh man was I excited. I called Giff and asked if he’d like to spend another day with me because I gave up my seat and was waiting for him at the airport. Twenty minutes there he was back at the airport and there we were, together again. I’ve never been more grateful for thunderstorms in my life!

Even though we didn’t do much of anything that day, it was one of the best days we had. We were both exhausted from the weekend so we just spent the day hanging out around the apartment. It was such a tease because it reminded me so much of a lazy Sunday when we lived together – taking a nap together on our bed, eating peanut butter and jelly on our plates, watching TV, laughing and talking. It was so great to not have anything to do and just enjoy each other’s company. We talked to his parents who had finally made it to Houston and found out their flight was delayed because of storms so I was especially happy to have given up my seat because otherwise I would have just been sitting at the airport, when I could have been with Giff. We went out to dinner with his friends Dan and Kevin and then spent the rest of the night hanging out at the apartment and sharing a bottle of their class wine (a local winery designed a special label for them). I of course, fell asleep while we were watching TV, but that made it feel all the more normal since that was our typical routine.

The next morning it was back to the airport, and even though I was praying I’d “have to” stay another day, there weren’t any storms in Houston that day. The plane was delayed about an hour and a half though so after checking my bags, we left so Giff could get some breakfast and this greasy and delicious hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant, Ms. Gordita’s – I wish I hadn’t eaten already because the food was so good. It was nice to have a little extra time with him, but I wished I were staying forever. Back at the airport was a little harder this time, but I still didn’t cry. Luckily Giff stayed and watched me go through security because I had my toothpaste in my purse and they let me give it to him rather than throw it away (it’s special toothpaste that costs $5 a tube and that’s a lot on my budget). This time it was the real thing – the only announcement made by the captain was to tell us to prepare for landing in Houston.

Up to that point I was doing okay. I had a bagel with cream cheese for lunch so things couldn’t have been too bad. But as I was waiting for my plane in Houston, I started to get sad and wished I were still with Giff. There was another chance to give up my seat in Houston, but I didn’t volunteer because I figured if I couldn’t be with Giff, I might as well go back to Peru. However, I rethought that sentiment once I got on the plane and they announced they were offering $600 to give up your seat! Unfortunately, by the time I called my parents to let them know and got off the plane to volunteer, they didn’t need any more volunteers – turns out a Mexican-American was on our flight, but she hadn’t gotten her Visa to enter Peru so she had to give up her seat. I was ready to give her my passport just so I could get the voucher, but I didn’t think that would work.

On my flight back to Peru I started getting really depressed. I kept asking myself what in the heck I was doing going back to Peru. Sure I like it there and have made great friends – both Peruvian and American – but nothing is like being home. I thought going home this time would be a lot easier than it was at Christmas since it was a lot shorter and I don’t have any ties to Del Rio. But I was forgetting that to me, Giff is home, whether that’s in DC or Texas. It didn’t matter that I’d never lived in Del Rio because his apartment had all of our furniture in it and was set up essentially the same way so it made me feel so homesick. It made me feel like that is where I’m supposed to be – with Giff. I realized on the plane ride back that I was happier in those four days than I have been in a long time and it made me want to get right off the plane and go back. I know this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and that I’m learning and probably growing a lot (even though it doesn’t always feel like it), but for those of you who have never been away from the person you love for a long time, you have no idea how much it hurts. Forget the cultural differences, no water, and lack of sanitation, being away from Giff is by far my hardest challenge here. The other things you get used to and learn how to deal with, but you never get used to being away from the one person you want to be with. You just take things one day at a time until that day finally comes when you can be together again…forever.

Giff thank you so much for an amazing four days together. I know you weren’t expecting me at all and wished you had been able to plan for my visit, but I wouldn’t have changed a thing. When I’m with you I don’t care what we do, as long as we can be together. Thank you so much for being so supportive – I don’t know what I’d do without you. I love you so much. Now hurry up and get down here because I miss you like crazy!

The Last Pictures from My Parents Trip

2007-07-15T09:27:00.000-07:00

Some campesino construction women!

Looking back on Cajamarca on the way to Granja Porcon.

One of the many scripture signs on the way into Granja.

It was mesmerizing watching this woman weave.

Dad and me with Granja in the background.

Vicuñas up close and personal.

Checking out the pumas.

A monkey taking bread out of my hands!

Finally a jaguar!

A WEIRD looking bird that really freaked me out!

A good view of the pine forest.

Manuel and me standing on different sides of the water shed!

Bambamarca Photos

2007-07-14T16:01:00.000-07:00

The first few pictures are of Market Day in Bambamarca and then my parents visit. Enjoy!

Bras, underwear, bleach and cooking oil for sale - nice combination.

Yumm....FISH!!! You can't even imagine how BAD this smells!

This is how we buy our pots and pans...right off the street!

Lots of fresh produce.

My family weighing and wrapping cheese.

Playing UNO with Carol and Martin.

Dr. Katy, Chabu, and Consuelo making kabobs - yum!

So excited to see my hermanita.

Dr. Martin and Dad.

The doctor (saying "whiskey" instead of cheese) with Martin, mom and dad eating lunch.

Hanging out at Meche's store - I love them!

The church on the Plaza de Armas in Bambamarca.

My Peruvian host sister and me!

Dad, Karina, and mom on our "city tour".

This is the profile of Christ - what Bambamarca is famous for! Can you see it?

Hanging out in the internet!

Cuy anyone? Yes this is how they sell guinea pig in the market - ready to FRY!

And this is how they sell meat - do you like how sanitary it is?

Lots of grains for sale in the market.

Taking pictures in the plaza is a really big deal here.

Karina outside of the internet with the soccer courts in the background.

Dinner at Rita's house - pollo a la brasa - yum!

Rita and Melany were so happy I finally came back!

Miki dressed for school.

Our goodbye pictures with Marta and Karina (they were so sad to say goodbye).

Marta and Wilder with their new best friends.....they LOVED my parents, but can you blame them?

Karina and mom in my room with all of the luggage - Karina wanted to take this picture!

A view along the way to San Juan de Lacamaca.

Another beautiful view!

Dad LOVED picking corn - he jumped right in!

Picking corn and beans - I'm so Peruvian now.

Hanging out in the plaza with dad (behind the flowers).

They like to shape their plants here - I guess this is a dollar sign...go figure!

Dad and me with Freddy's family - they invited us on the family outing to pick corn.

Saying goodbye to Karina (and Bambamarca) before we got on the bus.

Parting Ways In Cajamarca

2007-07-13T12:02:00.000-07:00

After leaving Bambamarca, we only had a few more days to spend together. I wanted mom and dad to have some time in Cajamarca since 1. it’s my second home here in Peru and 2. it’s one of the most beautiful departments in Peru. The afternoon bus ride down into the city was actually quite pleasant and we made great time so I’m glad to know about it. We arrived around 8 pm, got some delicious soup for dinner, organized a tour for the next day, and headed back to the hotel so we could all take HOT showers before bed. There is nothing like getting into bed feeling all warm and clean – now there is something I will never take for granted again!

The next morning after breakfast we headed to the plaza to meet for our tour to Granja Porcón – a religious community that has eliminated poverty and become very business savvy – a model for all of Peru. While we were waiting to leave, I asked if there was time for me to run next door and buy a phone card. Even though they assured me we had plenty of time, they took off before I came back and my parents almost had a heart attack since they didn’t understand they were just moving the van further down the street! Mom jumped out of the car and came sprinting down the street to get me because she didn’t want her little girl to be left behind.

We requested an English tour guide (after my fiasco at Rita’s house the day before, I shouldn’t be allowed to translate anymore), but were a little skeptical at first because it didn’t seem like he spoke English very well. Boy, were we wrong because once again we had lucked out with our tour guide, Manuel. It turns out that he spoke English very well and was incredibly knowledgeable. He used to be an elementary school teacher and got fired about 10 (?) years ago. He decided that he wanted to become a tour guide and learn English. He told himself that he needed to start teaching himself English that night because tomorrow could be too late. So he set out to buy a dictionary and told himself he needed to learn 20 new words everyday – and now this self-taught man speaks beautiful English! He also bought lots of books about Peruvian history, economics, politics, etc. because he loves to learn. He buys big huge books in English because there isn’t a high demand for them and it helps him improve his English. You wouldn’t believe everything he knows. He was really fascinating, and if I wasn’t so tired, I could have listened to him all day (I fell asleep though on the way home – my energy was quickly drying up). One day a tourist suggested he write a book on Peru’s history since he is so knowledgeable. Well you guessed it – that night he started writing a book and now is nearly done! Once again, another gem of a person – these people are such an inspiration! I wish I could take them all home with me!

The ride to Granja Porcón takes about an hour. The beginning part of the trip goes up the road to Bambamarca, but then you turn off for Granja. On the way there, we crossed over the water shed (?) – to the east of the line the water flows into the Pacific and to the west of the line the water flows into the Atlantic. Before you know it, you’re driving into a thick pine forest, which was all planted by the members of the community in Granja. For many of you, this does not seem like a big deal, and even though I compare Cajamarca to Wisconsin, you rarely find yourself in a forest so this was a pretty exciting day for me. As I mentioned, Granja is a religious community, so while you’re driving through this beautiful forest past the entrance (that’s right, you have to pay an entrance fee to visit their community), you see numerous signs with bible verses on them. I used to have a friend that lived there and he said the religion was almost cult like – I could see what he meant immediately. However, there is something to be said for that because their unification has allowed them to outlaw drinking, smoking, spitting and public urination – now if that isn’t an accomplishment in this country, I don’t know what is. After driving through the forest for about 20 minutes, all of a sudden you emerge into this beautiful valley with a quite little town sitting at its center. It reminded me of a little mountain town in Switzerland and I loved it right away.

Manuel advised us to buy one sol of bread (10 pieces) to feed to the animals in the zoo they have there. We followed his advice even though we thought it would be way too much. Then we visited a couple of weaving workshops where they have many big looms and make gorgeous woven bags, hats, rugs, etc. We also visited the wood-working shop where they make beds, chairs, tables, shelves, etc. with all of the wood from their pine forest. The forest has brought a lot of money to the community and created jobs for so many people that they have eliminated poverty in their town! They have become so successful that many of their products are shipped to Lima to be sold!

After visiting the few workshops, we entered the zoo. I was pretty skeptical about this since I had seen a “zoo” in Chile and it was completely depressing – really mangy looking animals in these tiny cages – but this was actually a really nice zoo. The animals seem to be well taken care of and most have sufficient space. At first we just saw some trout and Manuel told us to throw bread into the lake for them. I thought that was a dumb idea (mostly since I thought the bread was delicious) so I ate my piece of bread instead. Then we fed some deer and vicuñas (they have actually “domesticated” vicuñas here – something Raúl told us is nearly impossible, at least in Arequipa) and had our picture taken with a llama. I thought that part was fine, but spent most of the time eating the bread we bought. But then the good part came and we saw pumas and jaguars! Of course I was SO excited to see the jaguar since that’s all I talked about in the jungle and kept bothering Gerson that he better find one for us. I took a picture to send to him, but I’m actually glad we didn’t see one out in the wild because they are pretty intimidating (this might be partly due to the fact that it was mating season – that male was aggressive – whoa!). We also saw lots of monkeys and macaws, but that wasn’t as exciting since we saw them in their natural habitat and they aren’t scary like jaguars. However, it was fun to feed the monkeys because they would take it out of your hand or hold your hand until you gave it to them. They were so cute and I was so mad at myself for eating so much bread earlier – who knew it was going to be so cool! Well eating all the bread wasn’t all my fault (ahem, DAD) because have you ever tried to feed ducks? If you haven’t, DON’T, because they are psycho – one almost bit my hand off by trying to get the bread from me. I’m not even kidding when I tell you I pulled my shoulder muscle because I whipped my arm back so fast when it tried to bite me!

Granja Porcón is known for its delicious cheese and yogurt (I mean Cajamarca is the dairy capital of Peru) so they gave us some time at the end of the tour to buy some. We got some cheese for mom and me and some yogurt for all three of us to share. All yogurt in Peru is drinkable yogurt so I wasn’t sure dad would like it since he’s not that big on yogurt, but he loved it! After we spent all of our money on dairy products, we got back in the car to head back to the city. I was enjoying listening to Manuel’s stories when next thing I knew we were already in Cajamarca – I was exhausted. None of us were that hungry since we ate enough food in Bambamarca to last us a month so we just got sandwiches before we had to meet for our afternoon tour.

Before we set off on our afternoon tour, my parents got a good taste of Kristen getting really frustrated when Peruvians don’t follow through with what they promise you. Now I know dad thinks I can be too negative about Peruvians, but after living here for a year, I guess you become jaded. I know he’s right and I apologize for my behavior at times. I’m glad he pointed it out because I find that I am more aware of what I say now and how I act in public arenas, but sometimes you can’t help but get frustrated. Here is a perfect example. When we organized this tour the night before (and when we returned from the morning tour) we made sure we would have an English guide for both tours – morning and afternoon. They assured us that it was no problem and we even paid more for it (well, by paying more I mean we paid the actual price – we would have gotten a “group” discount otherwise since there are three of us). Well sure enough we arrived for the afternoon tour and there was no English guide. They kept saying, we don’t have a guide for your tour, but we do have one for this other tour so why don’t you go there instead. I reminded him that we were assured there would be an English guide and we paid to have an English guide. He said he knew, but they didn’t have one so we should just go to the other place! I was too tired for this and had been too spoiled during the other part of our trip where everything ran so smoothly to deal with this. I was so frustrated because they kept saying that we should just go to the other place. I said we don’t want to go to the other place and we were told we’d have a guide so we’ll wait until you find one. After about 10 minutes, they finally found a guide. He barely spoke any English and I still had to do a lot of translating, but I give him credit for even trying. It’s really hard to speak when you’re first learning because you make so many mistakes, but he kept trying so I admire that. In addition to our guide and the three of us, there was another couple on our tour who happened to be from Chile, so I had fun talking to them and reminiscing about my time there!

The afternoon tour started at a place called Hacienda La Colpa. It used to be a huge farm, but after its first owner died, the government took over and significantly downsized it (in a land reform effort). It is now privately owned again by a single family and is kept up very nicely. The grounds are beautiful with gardens, a man-made lake, beautiful thoroughbred horses (that are unique to Peru – I don’t remember what type though), a little chapel, and stables. In addition to the beauty of the place, the attraction is that their cows supposedly know their names and you can watch them call the cows, by name, in from the pasture everyday. I thought we would see all of the cows in this big field, they would call “Aracely” and the cow named Aracely would come into the stable and find her place along the row of names. That would have been cool. Instead you just saw the leader snap his whip and yell something really loud (they all sounded exactly the same to me) and a cow came into the stable and filled the next open spot (every other one), which just happened to be the spot with the correct name above it. Dad and I thought it was such a hoax and that the cows had to be lined up in order behind the gate (where we couldn’t see them), but mom enjoyed it so that’s good. Whether or not it was a hoax, it was still fun to watch (especially because the Peruvians loved it!) and the place itself was beautiful. Luckily the hacienda redeemed itself in our eyes by having the BEST arroz con leche (rice pudding) – dad said it even ranks right up there with Michael’s for those of you who know his obsession with that place!

From the hacienda we drove to a little community called Llacanora where there is a pretty waterfall. I went to the waterfall with my friend Amanda back in February and it was much fuller then, but it was still pretty and I think mom and dad enjoyed it. The most amazing part to me was the evidence of a landslide that occurred! I didn’t even know about it, but the trail was completely destroyed in one place and our guide told us it happened in March or April because of all the rain we had!

The final stop on our afternoon tour was Baños del Inca, hot springs where the Spanish supposedly found Atahualpa, the leader of the Incas, when they arrived in Cajamarca. They say the water has curative powers and is very reasonably priced so many people go there to bathe. Lindsay doesn’t have a place to bathe at her house so going there is the only way her family can bathe! Raúl told us that in the Colca Canyon, the baths are free on Sundays so all of the campesinos go there to bathe and do their laundry because it’s right near the river, but I don’t know if that is true in Cajamarca. The tour returned to Cajamarca from there, but we chose to stay and bathe. We got an “imperial bath” that was HUGE – it would have fit 5 people comfortably – and we ended our long day by relaxing in thermal waters. ¡Ay qué rico! For dinner we went to the mall so my parents could see the only real grocery store we have in the entire department of Cajamarca and where I go to the movies. We had pollo a la brasa (rotisserie chicken), which is VERY popular here and also delicious! Then back to the hotel to finally SLEEP!

Although Cajamarca has many beautiful tourist destinations around the city, we were reaching our fill of tours so the next day we decided to opt out of a full-day tour again, and spend our time in the city instead. I had heard of a small “city tour” offered at the National Institute of Culture. We were told our ticket would get us into five different places and for a little more money, we could have a guide too (though not in English). The first place we saw was the Templo Belén (Bethlehem Temple) and was one of the most beautiful churches I’ve seen in Peru – ranking right up there with the one in Lampa. It was small, but very beautiful with a lot of gold leaf on the alter and beautiful paintings on the ceilings and walls. Cajamarca used to have separate hospitals for men and women so we also visited them, though they are both now used as museums. One of them had many paintings on display that depicted life in the Sierra, while the other has been converted into a cultural museum, displaying both modern day life and relics found from ancient civilizations around Cajamarca. It’s really interesting to think about how young the United States is as a country compared to a place like Peru. I guess if we didn’t choose to ignore the Native American civilizations, we might have a really deep and rich history too. We really enjoyed both of the museums and learned a lot. The tour ended at the Cuarto de Rescate (Ransom Room) where Atahualpa was held for 10 months (? it might have been 8) by the Spanish. The deal made between Pizarro and Atahualpa is that he would not be executed if they filled a room twice with silver and once with gold in exchange for his life. Therefore, the Incans spent 10 months filling the rooms with all of their best jewelry, vases, shields, etc. though in the end, Atahualpa was killed anyway, but not before being baptized into a Christian first! It’s hard to even fathom what Cajamarca was like 500 years ago when Atahualpa was in that room! It’s really neat to know that I live in a place with such history.

After the tour, dad headed back to the hotel while mom and I ran errands. By that point we had all hit the wall and proceeded to sleep all afternoon. We had to rest up because that night was “meet and greet” with Kristen’s parents. We do this when anyone’s family comes to visit because we (the volunteers) like to know where everyone comes from, plus we all feel in a small way, that it’s like having our own parents there! Mom, dad, and I were still STUFFED, not to mention exhausted, so mom and I just ordered tea for dinner and dad got a coke to try to wake himself up. The restaurant we went to only has five or six tables and we took up three of us once all twelve or so of my friends showed up! The environment wasn’t really that conducive to having a conversation with too many people, but I knew that most people were coming for the free meal (hey I’m not criticizing them, I do it too…we’re poor!) and were just as happy to talk with the other volunteers and just say hi to my parents. My parents were probably relieved by this, actually, because we were all so happy. Basically they just wanted to meet Lindsay and Jessica and since they had already spent some time with Lindsay, for them this dinner was to get to know Jessica, with the other volunteers just an added bonus. Luckily we strategically put Jessica at the end of the table next to them and the three of them spent the whole night talking. All three were so excited to finally meet each other since we know each other’s family and they feel like they already know each other anyway.

Although we were kind of dreading the night in the beginning since we wanted to just stay in bed (and because there was a special on TV about Rachael Ray!), it turned out to be a really nice time. My parents can now associate a face with the names I always talk about, and even had a chance to talk with a few of them as we were leaving. I know my parents found those they talked to fascinating and really appreciated the kind words my friends said to my parents about me. How sweet! We finished off the night with pisco sours (the national cocktail of Peru – free from the hotel) and dad had a limonada (limeaid, but way better) because it was our last night together….

I took mom and dad on our own little “city tour” the next morning so they could see the market. The “market” here is not just produce, but a whole section of stores that sell clothes, hardware, furniture, household appliances and accessories, etc. It’s always really busy, crazy, and pretty overwhelming, but I was glad they had a chance to see it. We also tried to see the San Francisco church because it’s beautiful on the outside, but we were told it has been turned into a museum and you have to pay now to enter it – they were probably trying to take advantage of us since we’re gringos, but we didn’t fall for it. We only entered the little chapel on the side because it was free. By the time we did all of that, we only had about two hours before it was time to leave for the airport! Dad slept while mom and I ran to the Peace Corps store (set up by previous business volunteers to sell their artisans’ goods) to do some last minute souvenir shopping and then we joined dad back at the hotel.

And then that dreaded hour finally came when it was time to leave for the airport. After checking and weighing their bags (and themselves – they do it to know how much weight the plane will be carrying – but how humiliating!) and paying the airport taxes, we just sat around talking, laughing, and reminiscing about the incredible time we had together. It really was a dream vacation and I don’t think any of us have any complaints. We were all doing well on not crying until mom started to thank me for having them and got choked up. That was the end of it for all of us and we all started crying. I begged them not to leave and they wished they didn’t have to, except that they had nearly spent their entire life savings on the trip, and they were done with cold showers, no toilet seats, and dirty underwear! Those few weeks I spent with my parents will forever be some of my BEST weeks during my entire service. We cried on and off for the next 20 minutes until my parents had to go through security, where despite my begging, I was not allowed. It was SO hard to say goodbye to them, but I watched through blurry eyes as they passed through “security” (a table with two guards who go through your stuff – no conveyor belt, no metal detector). We stood there for a few minutes, on opposite sides of the barrier, trying to say our final goodbyes, but mostly crying. I wanted to stay in there to watch them take-off, but I couldn’t stand to be in the airport if I couldn’t be in there with them so I went out to the van (provided by the hotel) to wait until it was time to leave (the driver was waiting for guests to arrive). While I waited I cried and cried – not just out of sadness, but also out of happiness for this incredible, once-in-a-lifetime trip I had just had. I kept thinking how easier Peace Corps would be if mom and dad could just stay with me until the end!

No guests arrived on the incoming flight so the driver and I rode back to the hotel with the soundtrack of my tears accompanying us the whole way. I had been looking forward to this trip since we started planning it in January, and just like that, it’s over. I know we all have fabulous memories that we will carry with us forever, but I couldn’t believe that that was it – mom and dad were gone and I wouldn’t see them again until the U.S.! I tried not to be so sad though because it was our ONE YEAR anniversary in Peru that day and something I should be happy about. Mom and dad treated me to an extra night at the hotel so I could celebrate and enjoy my night. The hotel wouldn’t let me stay in our room though because it was a triple and they said I had to move to a single room. Well it was a pretty rough “downgrade” because I ended up in a room with two double beds, a glass enclosed corner shower AND a Jacuzzi bath! Not too shabby. I went out and got carry-out soup at my favorite restaurant for dinner and took a lovely bubble bath. It was wonderful! I was still feeling really sad though, but luckily Giff called and talked to me for two hours to cheer me up! He’s the best!

Well mom and dad, I just want to say “mil gracias” to you guys, not only for this incredible trip, but for everything you have done for me over the years, and more than anything for all of your support. You now understand better than ever before the struggle of living here, and though I enjoy it, there are some days when I couldn’t do it without your love and support. Not only was it wonderful to have you here, but this trip really rejuvenated me and gave me a huge sense of pride to live here where I get to know and meet so many inspiring people. Thank you for being who you are. I love you both so much.

Pictures from Lima

2007-07-11T11:19:00.001-07:00

These pictures are from the beginning of our trip when we visited my old host family outside of Lima. I forgot to put them up earlier! My family is SO CUTE....it was great to see them!

Carmen, me, and Naomi in my old room.

My abuelita with our lunch - Arroz con Pollo - YUM!!

How can you not LOVE that face? She is adorable!

Naomi and me.

Playing UNO with Naomi and Fernando.

Mom trying to teach Carmen how to use Naomi's present!

Dad attempting to eat his first chirimoya.

Mom (showing off her necklace Naomi made) and Naomi.

The family and me with their new placemats of San Francisco. They are the best!

Fernando (modeling his new tshirt) and me.

My favorite host sister and me!

Dad and Fernando.

I want to move back! Look how happy we all are to be together again!

Next Stop: Bambamarca

2007-07-11T11:16:00.000-07:00

Important: I understand if you’re sick of reading these entries about our trip and have resorted to just skimming since I’ve written a novel about each leg. However, if nothing else, I would suggest you jump ahead to paragraph five to find out very important information about my future!!!

We arrived exhausted in Lima and decided just to do peanut butter and jelly for dinner. We stayed at the same hotel we had stayed at when mom and dad first arrived two weeks earlier (and incidentally the one I stayed at the day we all swore in as volunteers) and although mom and dad thought it was just average the first time, it now seemed to rank right up there with the Ritz Carlton – HOT water, clean sheets, real spring mattresses, electricity, and carpet! All three of us took about a 45-minute long shower to clean off all of the dirt that had caked up since the last shower five days ago and snuggled into our warm covers. Now this is the life!

The next morning we walked to Parque Kennedy (yes, named after our president) and visited the black market for computer programs. It was extremely overwhelming, but a great experience for mom and dad – not to mention a great benefit for them since dad acquired about $1,000 worth of computer programs for around $40! After using all of our energy to pray for our lives as we weaved in and out of Lima traffic, we finally made it back to the hotel and headed for the airport. The most exciting part about the airport was lunch. Mom wasn’t hungry, but dad and I wanted something. I told dad he could get Peruvian food, but I was definitely getting Pappa John’s. He said, “yeah right, I’ve been eating Peruvian food for two weeks – I want pizza!” Hahaha. I was laughing so hard because in the beginning they were so gung ho about eating authentically – as you can see, that gets old after a while.

The flight to Cajamarca was beautiful, but unfortunately I didn’t think ahead and mom and dad were sitting on the wrong side of the plane (seeing mostly desert until about 30 minutes outside of Cajamarca). We were picked up at the airport by our hotel, which was really living the high life. Dad made it clear that he wanted to stay in a hotel with guaranteed hot water and comfort so we stayed at the nicest hotel in town. It’s owned by the Ramada so it’s nothing to write home about, but since I’m practically Peruvian now, I felt like royalty staying there. Dad has never been one to care so much about luxuries, but it’s amazing how quickly our opinions change after being in a third world country for a few weeks!

We had invited Lindsay to stay the night with us at the hotel so mom and dad could have some time to visit with her. We had an excellent dinner at Don Paco’s and talked poor Lindsay’s ear off about our trip. She was the first English-speaking person we had seen since we got back and opened a can of worms when she asked about our trip. I was pretty sure she’d never want to spend time with the three of us again since we attacked her with our stories, but she was a really good sport and seemed to really enjoy them. She deserved a night at Costa del Sol after that! After dinner we headed to Cascanuez – the best dessert place in town – to meet Reannon and Joseph and treat mom and dad to the best Cajamarca has to offer. I had been ranting and raving about the hot chocolate there so I was dying for them to try it. Of course dad pretended to think it was just okay, but I know the truth! It was a really nice night, but needless to say, we were happy to finally get back to the hotel and go to bed. (And by bed I mean talk to Lindsay until 5 am – at least mom and dad got a good night sleep!)

Before I continue, I must fill you all in on some news I heard between dinner and dessert. The day we arrived in Cajamarca was incidentally the same day Giff had his drop, where they find out what planes they will be flying and where. I was so excited/nervous all day because I felt like my fate was being decided – wherever he goes is where I’ll be moving when I’m done with Peace Corps. I called him after dinner while mom, dad, and Lindsay waited and was shocked to hear we were moving to JAPAN!!! I thought he was joking at first because I thought I heard him tell someone in the background he was going to Dover AFB in Delaware. So when he asked how I’d like to move to Japan, I said I wouldn’t! He said, “well if you want to be with me, that’s where we’re going – Okinawa, Japan!” What a HORRIBLE girlfriend I am. I felt sooooo bad, but was so shocked I didn’t know what to say! Luckily I came to my senses and started to realize what a great opportunity it would be for us. I told him that we’re in this together and that if he’s going to Japan, then that’s where I’ll go too. I think he was relieved to hear that – especially after my initial reaction, what a jerk I am! At first I was really scared and couldn’t believe I was about to embark on two more years outside of the U.S., but the more I think about it, the more excited I get. I think it’s an incredible opportunity and when else in our lives will we be able to do something like this? I think it’ll be hard at times, but at least we’ll be together – and from what I’ve learned, that’s half the battle. We’ve been doing a lot of research and it looks like an amazing place. It’s at the same latitude as Hawaii and the Bahamas so it’s not such a bad assignment! Plus, our foreign exchange student, Chiharu, is from Okinawa so we already know a local family. Although I’m a little sad to be gone from home for so long, I’m really excited about the next part of our life! From Peru to Japan – who would have ever guessed???

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel and were on our way to Bambamarca. I really got a kick out of this part of the trip because this was mom and dads’ real “Peace Corps experience” and it was fun to watch their reactions. I will preface all of this by saying they were GREAT SPORTS and I am so impressed how well they handled all of the challenges. I am so lucky to have had such a great trip with them and as you can imagine, my community LOVED them.

Mom and dad were pretty surprised by all of the vendors that come on the bus trying to sell you jello (a staple here in Peru), bread, cakes, etc. I forgot how bad some of the food smells – and the bus too – so it was funny to watch their reactions. Then the bus starts moving and an “infomercial” starts. Usually the infomercial is some guy lecturing for 30 minutes (in a VERY loud voice) about nutrition and then tries to sell us all of these supplements – Jessica actually bought something from him one time, I could have died laughing. That day the infomercial was a guy with a disability – he has all of these rods going through his legs that looks incredibly painful and asked us to buy some chocolate from him to help pay for his surgeries because he can’t work. We actually did buy some chocolates from him and after his spiel, he got off the bus. And that’s when the music began. Hahahaha. On bus companies here in Peru, they like to BLARE the music so you can’t even hear yourself think. I guess Peruvians are used to it because only once in a great while do you hear someone complain about it, but this gringa cannot handle it and I always ask them to turn it down. They always look really annoyed with me, but eventually turn it “down” to the point where you only have to talk in a loud voice, rather than shout, to communicate with your neighbor. Well when they turned on the music that day, I thought mom and dad were going to have a heart attack! I guess you do get used to it after a while – or maybe I’m going slightly deaf – because I didn’t even think it was that loud that day, but mom was dying (dad doesn’t hear as well, which in this case, was a benefit to him). They would turn it down, but poco a poco the volume seemed to creep back up and we gave up on the idea of talking. I ended up falling asleep since I had barely slept the night before, but mom and dad enjoyed the scenery. The ride takes about four and a half hours and passes by the third largest goldmine in the world, Yanacocha; goes over a pass of 12,000+ feet; and passes another goldmine, Goldfields (or “Golfis” according to the Peruvian pronounciation) before starting the decent into the valley where Bambamarca is located. Although the landscape is spectacular along the way, I think the bus itself and the drivers were the most impressive to dad as they maneuver around those narrow, steep, dirt roads like it’s nothing. He told me if he ever becomes in charge of Greyhound bus companies, he is going to fire all of the drivers and come down here to hire all Peruvian drivers!

By 4 pm, we had finally made it to Bambamarca. Dad wasn’t sure they were going to give us all of our bags (I think we had 8 bags checked underneath) so he took the liberty of climbing into the underneath compartment of the bus to retrieve them and came out looking like he had just emerged from a dust storm. Oh boy. We hired a tricycle-wagon to get the bags to my house where this little 5’0” man carried them all my steep stairs – Peruvians are so tiny, but man are they strong! My family didn’t seem to be around when we arrived, but after the first one emerged and met my parents, they all seemed to appear within two minutes because they were so excited to meet mom and dad. Unfortunately Karina (my best friend here) wasn’t home because she had to go help her parents (my host grandparents) on the farm, but we were planning to go and visit her there because she’s been counting down the days of my parents arrival since they got their tickets back in February.

Mom wanted to make them dinner as a sign their appreciation to my family so we made chili and cornbread (from Trader Joe’s – we don’t mess around). I was just as excited as my family since I never get to eat so well and that is one of my favorite meals. I was worried they wouldn’t like it since it’s so different from what they eat, but it was a huge hit and they even finished the leftovers for breakfast the next morning! Chili for breakfast – that’s a new one. My family was all on their best behavior and gave my parents such a warm welcoming. They seemed so honored to have them in the house and couldn’t stop talking about how much they loved having me as part of the family. Mom did her best to practice her Spanish with them, which she is actually pretty good at – understanding more than speaking – but my family loved it! After dinner we gave them all of their presents my parents had brought and they were so touched. One of the presents was UNO so six of us played that until about 10:30 when we finally had to call it quits because we were about to fall asleep at the table. I was so happy how well the night went and how well everyone got along. It was by far one of my best nights with them because I actually felt like part of the family that night, and not just an outsider. Although I really missed having Karina there, I think it was probably better because it put the spotlight on my host mom and that is exactly what she needed.

We had a lazy morning the next day, organizing our stuff and separating our laundry to be done. Dad washed every single thing he brought with him except the clothes he had on because he felt so dirty and thought he smelled really bad (he didn’t though). My family invited us to have lunch with them (even though we had just finished eating breakfast) so of course we graciously accepted. While they were preparing lunch, my parents and I walked around town to get a feel for market day. I wanted them to see the huge difference between market day and a “regular day”. Considering Bambamarca is about the same size as North Adams (where I grew up), my parents were shocked to see how much commerce happens there. It is quite a bustling metropolis since we are so isolated from anything else. It was really fun to walk around since everything from hardware to lingerie, and livestock to fresh produce is found in Bambamarca on market day. While we were lost amongst the commotion, my family called to let us know lunch was ready and it was time to come home. I thought my parents’ eyes were going to pop out of their heads when they saw the portion sizes we were given (even though I had warned them) especially since we weren’t hungry at all. The norm here is to serve soup and then the main course. I’m pretty sure mom and dad were full after the soup so they almost fell out of their chairs when they were each served a plate of rice, with a little chicken, large enough for four people! It was a really nice gesture of my family to invite us though so we all put on a happy face and did our best to stuff our faces as to not offend them.

In the afternoon we headed over to the doctor’s house. It was father’s day so they had a few people over (Consuelo and her baby, Honsler, and the new doctor at the health center). They were all drinking so the doctor insisted on making a cocktail in honor of my parents. I told them dad doesn’t drink, but I told mom she’d probably have to suck it up and drink one drink. She was very good about it even though the drink was pretty strong and not very good (Pisco – a liquor made of grapes – with carob syrup….). The doctor had also made a cake (which I was shocked about – since when does he bake??) so they gave us some of that too. Remember we had just eaten a huge lunch at my host family’s house so I have no idea how we managed to get that food down. Then we gave presents and talked for a while. Chabu really wanted us to stay for brochetas de pollo (chicken kabobs) and even though I told them were were STUFFED, they obviously wouldn’t take no for an answer. So while we should have been laps around town to burn off some calories and make room for more food, dad and I played UNO with Martin, Carol, and Honsler, while mom worked on putting Carol’s present together (a loom to make beaded bracelets, etc.). Shortly after the kabobs were ready and even though we weren’t hungry AT ALL we ate every last bit because Chabu is such a great cook. We visited a little longer and then headed back to my house for a quiet evening.

The next morning we got up early because we were going to go to La Paccha (where my host grandparents have their farm) to visit Karina. Even though it’s a four hour round trip, I was looking forward to going because the drive is absolutely beautiful. It’s on the east side of the Andes and if you were to continue on past La Paccha you would reach the jungle so the vegetation is much more tropical and it’s really beautiful. However, Rosa told me to call Karina before we left to coordinate with her and she told me she wouldn’t be able to meet with us that day. We decided to go the next day instead when she had more time. [Sidenote: This is exactly why I didn’t plan anything for our time in Bambamarca because no matter how much you plan ahead, it never goes according to plan. I had lots of places in mind I wanted to go with mom and dad, but by the time you introduce them to everyone and go to all of the lunches and dinners you are invited to, there is no time for anything else.] We were supposed to go to lunch at the doctor’s house the next day, so I called Chabu to ask if we could go that day instead. Of course she said yes and made us an excellent lunch – what does she make that isn’t delicious? We had a nice visit with them and spent the afternoon visiting the health center, walking around Bambamarca, and meeting more of my friends. Believe it or not, meeting everyone and doing all of that translating was exhausting and we were all ready for bed by about 8 pm every night. Before bed we used the internet, which mom and dad loved because it’s practically my second home here, and Karina’s business, so they were happy to check it out.

Our plans to go to La Paccha the next day fell through because Karina surprised us by coming home late the night before. Her parents agreed it wasn’t fair to make my parents travel so far to see her so they let her go back. She was so excited to have my parents there that she made sure to be free all day so we could spend as much time together as possible. We were going to go to Naranjo (on the way to La Paccha) where there are some thermal baths, but of course by the time everyone was ready to go, there weren’t any cars and we missed that opportunity. Instead, Karina took us on a little city tour of Bambamarca. She was so cute and really excited. At the end of it we treated her to lunch at our favorite restaurant in town (that is actually really good) and then headed home to REST – we were starting to hit the wall from all of our travels. At night we visited Rita and her family. We had SO much fun at their house and laughed a lot. They loved when mom practiced her Spanish and thought dad knew a lot more than I gave him credit for as he had really learned his colors from playing UNO so much! We all felt so comfortable and Rita kept saying she felt like she has known them forever. She said she had been for that day since I arrived in September and she couldn’t believe they were actually there in her house. She also told us that it made her really excited that one day she and Freddy might be able to go visit Mélany living in another country like I am. It was so cute how excited she was. They were so loving towards my parents and gave them lots of gifts. After dinner Freddy took us on a little night tour of the city in his new combi. I know Freddy was really happy to do it for us and my parents were incredibly grateful and really touched.

We had such a nice time with Rita and her family that they begged us to stay a little longer. They really wanted to make us lunch the next day and take us on a paseo (outing). Dad said he’d stay as long as we didn’t have to spend another night because he was dying for a hot shower! Luckily there is an afternoon bus so we were able to stay and get the best of both worlds. Freddy picked us up around 8:30 the next morning and after filling up the combi with his family – sisters, parents, nieces, nephews, and cousins – we headed to San Juan de Lacamaca (a small town about 30 minutes outside of Bambamarca) where we harvested corn and beans from his family’s small plot of land. Dad LOVED it and jumped right in to help. After picking corn for a while, we walked down to the plaza and enjoyed the day while we waited for them to finish up. I was really glad we had that opportunity because San Juan is a beautiful community and gave mom and dad a taste for what a small town is like (population is about 1,000 compared to Bambamarca’s 10,000). We arrived back in Bambamarca in time for lunch where Rita made us cuy (guinea pig). Luckily it was cuy in some sauce (made from a fruit called berenjena – also the word for eggplant, but it’s not eggplant) so we were only served a piece of the cuy rather than the whole body like they serve to you when it’s fried. We all thought it was just mediocre, but mom and dad were great sports about it and ate as much as they could. We thanked them about a million times because it’s a really big honor to be served cuy and we wanted them to know how grateful we were – even if we didn’t finish it.

By the way, by this point I was exhausted from translating and started to make a lot of mistakes in Spanish. At one point I translated for my parents from Spanish to Spanish without even realizing it. When they looked at me with a blank face and everyone started laughing, I realized that I had just repeated what was said in Spanish, rather than translated into English. The worst, though, occurred during our conversation at lunch. We were talking about the difference between foods in the U.S. and Peruvian food. Dad wanted me to tell them that a lot of foods that are sold in the States have a lot of preservatives. I was so tired by that point that, without thinking, I said, “La comida en los Estados Unidos tiene muchos preservativos.” As soon as Rita came back with “preservantes” I remembered that preservativos means condoms! That’s right, I told Rita and her family (including her in-laws) that our food has a lot of condoms in it! Oopsie! I decided that on that note, it was time to wrap things up and go. Who knows what I would say next!

Back at the house we used the bathroom one last time and walked to the bus station. I think mom and dad were so excited to be leaving, knowing that they’d never have to use that bathroom again. It’s actually pretty luxurious compared to what many of my friends have – at least we have a toilet (no toilet seat or paper though) – but luxury doesn’t matter when the water is constantly being turned off. We have about 10 people sharing that bathroom and unfortunately, nature still calls even when there is no water. I’ll leave it up to your imagine to picture what it looks like in there when everyone just has to do their business on top of what the previous person left behind….Ewww! Anyway, we had said goodbye to everyone in the morning. Marta and Wilder gave my parents a wheel of cheese and some pictures of them that they wrote really nice notes on. It was really sweet. They really became attached to my parents in that short time and seemed genuinely sad to see them go. Of course mom and dad cried! Karina really wanted to walk us to the bus, but wasn’t home when it was time to leave so I was sad we were going to miss her. She met us at the bus though with a present (a hand-woven purse that says Bambamarca)! She is so cute! It was sad saying goodbye to her because my parents and she really enjoyed each others’ company. After a few pictures and lots of hugs, we boarded the bus and were shortly on our way back to Cajamarca.

I hope my parents enjoyed their time in Bambamarca as much as I enjoyed having them here. It means so much to be able to introduce them to my friends and family, show them the schools and health center I work at, where I buy my bread, and where I take my laundry to be washed. I know I’ll be talking about my experiences here and the people I’ve befriended for the rest of my life so it’s nice that they will be able to share in those memories. I know my town LOVED my parents and will be talking about them until the day I leave. Rita has already told me she wishes my parents could come back and stay in Bambamarca for a month because she could never get tired of them! She said mom was just how she imagined her, but she thought dad was going to be very serious. She said, he was actually really jovial – even more so than your mom!

Thanks, mom and dad for being such good sports. I know you were really tired and stuffed to the brim most of the time, but you continued to put on a happy face and eat what was put in front of you and that meant the world to my community. I am so grateful that you wanted to come and share in my experience. It means so much to me and is something I, nor my fellow Bambamarquinos, will ever forget. I love you guys!

Fiestas, Kayaking, and More!

2007-07-09T19:07:00.000-07:00

I apologize now for the length of all of these entries, but they are essentially the only journal I have from our trip (aside from a little notebook where I jotted things down) so this is just as much for me as you. There are lots of details in here that I found really interesting, but that’s probably because I was there. Hopefully reading it won’t be too painful, but I won’t be offended if you just skim!

After our goodbyes in Lampa, we took off with our new guide, Felix, and headed to the community of Llachón on the Capachica Peninsula of Lake Titicaca. We drove along the altiplano (high plateau) to arrive in Llachón. I was really surprised how many people lived there since it is such a high altitude. Felix said only about 30-40% of kids go to school there because there are no roads; the ones that do go have to walk 4-10 km/day to get there! Along the way we also passed through the city of Juliaca. It was a pretty typical big Peruvian city with lots of industry, unstable looking infrastructure, unfinished buildings, LOTS of mototaxis (40,000 in the city! It’s a bike with a seat for two or three people – like a tricycle, but in most places it’s a motorcycle), dirt, and trash lining the streets. Felix said Juliaca actually has a lot of money (even though it doesn’t appear that way) because there are lots of factories that produce imitation goods (like Nike products). However, we did see something I have never seen before. It was their market day the day we drove through and we drove along a good mile of second-hand cars for sale. It is really rare in Peru to have your own transportation so I was really surprised to see so many cars. Some of them were really nice and in great shape. Felix told us that people come from all over the country and even Chile and Bolivia to buy cars there!

After leaving the city and driving for a while longer, we finally came upon the lake and boy did it take my breath away. It was spectacular! The lake is HUGE and looks like an ocean – it made Lake Tahoe look like a puddle. We drove on this really windy, narrow, dirt road high above the lake. It reminded me a little of the Pacific Coast Highway in California, but much more rustic. The views of the lake and some glaciers in Bolivia (because the lake is on the border of the two countries) were breath-taking. After driving for a few hours, we finally arrived in Llachón, just in time for lunch.

In Llachón we were staying with Valentin Quispe – another pioneer in promoting rural tourism. His house was much more rustic than Oscar and Mily’s – reed mats and straw mattresses, no hot water (or any water at times) and spotty electricity – but each room had an incredible view of the lake which made up for everything else. Valentin’s story is really quite incredible. He only has a high school graduation and never studied tourism, but he recognized the potential his community has for tourism. He tells his neighbors, with the views that we have no one can complain that they are not rich. So nine years ago he started out on this journey to promote tourism with very little money (his own) and no previous knowledge. He started having guests stay at his house five years ago and has had to expand the “restaurant” (dining room and kitchen that is its own building) three times in order to accommodate the number of tourists that are arriving to his house! His goal is to use tourism to create jobs for everyone in the community. To date their organization consists of 15 groups – 8 host families, 3 transportation companies (boats, cars, etc.), 2 artisan groups, and 2 others I don’t remember. He has self-financed everything along the way and has become so successful that the Director of the Ministry of Tourism (I think that’s what it’s called) has personally visited him and sent him to Cusco to give training sessions to people there so that they might develop a similar type of thing in their communities! He is also personally responsible for getting water, electricity, and telephone on the peninsula from a meeting he had with President Fujimori when he visited their community during his time in office! His next project is trying to get internet because he thinks they suffer a lot without it.

The community of Llachón has already seen many benefits from promoting tourism so they are working hard to expand the industry. Many families are currently fixing up their houses to have guests and they are also trying to get the road paved. One of the biggest benefits has been the construction of a Centro de Autoeducación (Self-Education Center) with a few computers, library and games. It is like an after-school recreation center for kids, where they can study and play, and is completely run by the youth of the community! I would LOVE to develop something like that in Bambamarca. Talk about an inspiration!

The first day we were there, Valentin served us a typical dish for lunch in honor of their town’s fiesta that began that day. It was fried cheese (that even Dad ate – what a good sport!), a variety of potatoes (about 4 different kinds) and haba (fava?) beans (in a pod like peas and then another shell). In the afternoon we headed to the Plaza de Armas with Felix to check out the fiesta. We stayed for about two hours watching different groups perform many traditional dances of the region. It was beautiful and made me so proud to live here! Their dress and dances are gorgeous and each one tells a different story. We all loved watching it because we have nothing like that in the States and we felt so special to be able to partake in the festivities. I was especially happy that mom and dad got to witness this because if anything explains Peruvian culture – this is it! I was laughing though because when we got home, mom and dad were commenting on how loud the music was – welcome to Peru! I told them it would probably go on all night and sure enough, it didn’t stop until about 5 am! Unfortunately for us, that is about the time we had been waking up because we’re so exhausted at the end of the day that we usually go to bed right after dinner – around 8:30 pm!

We woke up the next morning to a delicious breakfast of these little fried dough things and a thin pancake. The fried dough was extremely addicting and I could have easily gained about 10 lbs. on those alone, but I tried to exercise a little self-control. After breakfast we got ready to go kayaking. We thought it would be really cold on the water so we bundled up – dad was wearing 3 pairs of pants (haha) – but they told us we would get hot kayaking and that we should wear shorts and only one shirt! We thought they were crazy, but figured they knew better than we did. Plus they gave us a thermal top to wear with a life vest and a “skirt” that attaches on to the kayak so you stay dry. We also got gloves and little booties that smelled DISGUSTING. I hate wearing communal things and it really grossed me out – my hands REEKED for the rest of the day…..ewwww! We looked hilarious, but we stayed dry and even got HOT (thank god we took off all of our layers or we probably would have passed on right there on the lake). I went in a double kayak with mom and dad went with Felix. It was SO COOL! I couldn’t believe we were actually kayaking on Lake Titicaca – who does that?!?!

In the morning we were a little skeptical about going since none of us are very experienced kayakers, but we are so glad we did it. It was definitely a highlight of the trip. The water was really calm and still as glass. It was also really clean – we could see to the bottom even when it was 10-15 meters deep! Sometimes we would stop to rest and just enjoy the moment. There we were on Lake Titicaca with a view of a reed island in front of us and a Bolivian glacier to our left! It was so surreal. It took us about an hour and a half to arrive at our destination that was 9 km (almost 6 miles!) away. We were proud at how well we did. Mom and I had a little trouble because I was in control of the rudder (controlled by a foot pedal) – not a good idea for someone who has trouble with right and left – we were always off course while Dad and Felix went in a straight line the whole time. Plus I wasn’t exactly coordinated enough to paddle and control the rudder. I would get really good at paddling – pushing rather than pulling (as we learned in our little lesson before we left) – and all of a sudden I would notice we were really off course so I would focus on the rudder, but then poor mom was doing all the work because I would forget to paddle. Hahaha. At least we had a great time laughing about it.

Our destination was one of the Uros floating reed islands. The Uros people are Aymaran and their total population is only 1,000. They are only found in the Lake Titicaca area. The island we visited is one of the islands with less tourist impact. There are about 30 floating islands on the lake, including one for a primary school and one for a health clinic. Since the islands are only made of reed, they float very easily and the people used to wake up in a different spot than where they went to bed. In 1985, however, El Niño was really strong and caused the lake to grow 2.5 meters. As a result some islands broke in half, so since then, they have started anchoring their islands down. Reed is very flexible so the people living on the island can easily expand or downsize their island. They make reed boats that only last about seven months so when they can no longer use them, they attach the boat to the side of the island and it eventually becomes part of the island. Felix also told us that because reed is so easy to cut, sometimes a family will cut themselves off the island if they don’t like living there and start their own island!

The particular island we visited is called Uros Titino (meaning Native Uros) and there are only seven families living there. They all speak Aymara with each other, but some also know Spanish. The “leader” of the island is the grandfather and everyone living there is related somehow. It is very much communal living, though everyone has a reed hut that they sleep in along the outer rim of the island. The center of the island is the common area where everyone spends their days. Fishing is their livelihood and the only way they can live on the islands. They also have rifles to shoot birds for their meat and raise some birds for their eggs. They only go into town a couple of times a month to buy rice, sugar, potatoes, etc. Often times they will exchange their fish and reed (which they also eat – tastes really bland) for these staples. They cook everything on these homemade “stoves” they have and sometimes heat flat stones for baking. The base of the island can be up to 3-4 meters deep, but the dry reed on top is only 20 cm deep and constantly has to be replaced. When constructing their reed huts for sleeping, they have to build them on top of reed bases as to not get wet inside! They use reed for everything, including their roofs, which have to be replaced every 7-9 months so they are constantly rebuilding.

When we arrived in our kayaks, everyone on the island got together while the leader introduced himself and the community and welcomed us in both Aymara and Spanish so we could hear what Aymara sounds like. They were very friendly and a little shy because they have only been having tourists for the past two years. You can imagine how scary it is for these people who live on a tiny reed island their whole lives without electricity or running water to open up their lives to these blond-haired, blue-eyed people. Felix told us they were extremely shy in the beginning, but we thought they were very welcoming and sweet. Through my translating, Dad expressed his gratitude to these people for being so courageous to allow us to visit them and get a glimpse of their life. He explained that by doing so, they are promoting a global understanding that is very important for world peace. They were really responsive to his words and all had big smiles on their faces. I thought it was really sweet of him to say that because these people need all of the encouragement they can get and they need to know that we have a tremendous amount of respect for them and their lifestyle. I could NEVER imagine living my whole life on this tiny little island with only 20 other people. Their lives seem so hard in many ways because they are so isolated without many resources, but on the other hand, it was so simple. I have a hard enough time in Bambamarca, I could never last there. It reminded me of this exhibit we saw on the Mall in Washington, D.C. when I was in high school about different living situations around the world – except this was real life.

Felix told us that they built a primary school a few years back to promote education among the Uros people. Kids have to leave around 6 am to row to another floating island for school and don’t return until 4 or 5 pm. Although they speak Aymaran on the island, the leader speaks Spanish because he has to be able to speak to authorities, and it is now being taught in school to the kids. Because the Uros population is so small, there are many cases of inbreeding, but they are starting to invite doctors and nurses to their islands to give talks about the risks of such behavior.

Before we left, we took a ride on their reed boat and even got a turn to “row” (it is HARD – way harder than it looks). We paid them for the boat ride which supports the entire island. We also bought some crafts from them. I bought this reed mobile for 20 soles ($7) that took the girl one month to make! Mom and dad bought a night wall hanging (that took 3 months to make!) so we felt like we helped the island and the families in a small way.

As much as we enjoyed kayaking, we rode back to land on a boat (owned by a local community member of Llachón). When we got back to the house, we saw Valentin’s wife and her friend weaving – by hand and with a loom. Their work is so fascinating and tedious. Felix told us that it takes them 2-3 months to make a 3x3 cloth! They had some of their work on display for us too so mom and dad bought hats because it was so cold there at night. Valentin’s wife asked mom and me if we’d like to try on their native dress so we got to do that after lunch! It was so much fun and we were really happy that she allowed us to do that – recognizing we want to do it out of respect rather than mockery. I had the traditional dress for a young, single woman and mom had the dress for a married woman on market day (because she was wearing the black veil that they only wear for special occasions). We were laughing at ourselves because we didn’t look too authentic in our sneakers and white socks (or digital cameras!), but we REALLY enjoyed it. Where else would we ever have had an opportunity to do that? We were so LUCKY to have the travel agent we did who looked for rural tourism opportunities like this, rather than just putting us up in a hotel – this was way better, even if there wasn’t always water or electricity!

After playing dress-up, we headed back to the Plaza to take in more of the fiesta. There was more dancing that afternoon, but different from the day before. This time each group had its own band and about 60 dancers with very fancy costumes. Each group did the same dance, called the Rey Moreno, and at the end a winner was announced. Every group also had a madrina and padrino (godparents) because what big occasion in Peru doesn’t have a madrina and padrino. They were identified by sashes and were the ones in charge of organizing everything (rehearsals, food, transportation, costumes, etc.) for the whole group of the fiesta that year. Every year the group picks a different madrina and padrino and although it costs a lot of money, it’s a big honor. We really enjoyed watching the different variations on the dance and listening to the bands – although dad said they kept playing the same four bars of music over and over again and sometimes three bands were playing at once – it was great!

That afternoon we were invited to watch the festivities from the platform in front of the Municipality with all of the town authorities! It was a huge honor because Valentin told us the “common people” (we aren’t considered “common” since we’re gringos) aren’t even allowed to approach that area – it’s considered sacred. We had so much fun watching the dances from there. The cultural heritage in this country is absolutely amazing and it is inspiring how much they embrace it. What an impressive spirit these people have!

In the middle of one of the dances, 17 men came riding through the Plaza on horseback. They rode through various times and it turns out it was a horse race. One little campesino was declared the winner of the race and they recognized him in front of the whole community. He was so cute and humble. He gave a speech that I couldn’t understand over the microphone, but you could tell he was so prideful! He kept saying thank you and bowing. He tried to get his horse to stand up on his hind legs, but he wouldn’t move. Felix told us it’s a big honor to win the race and represent the community. In his speech he said that even though they all have their problems, they all still come together every year to celebrate their town and their roots. It was so cute.

One of the funniest parts of the nights was this huge tour bus that approached the plaza and wanted to pass through. The dancing was still going on and the people were not about to let it pass so it just sat there waiting for about an hour. Finally when the official dancing was over and people we dancing to the three different bands playing at the same time (one playing cumbia, one huayno, and the other moreno so no one would get bored – haha), the bus attempted to get through the plaza. Instead of letting it pass though, the people formed a blockade while they were dancing and wouldn’t let it pass! The driver was mad, but it was really funny for us to watch! The best part about the fiesta though was that it didn’t matter if you were playing the right notes or doing the right moves – as long as you were out there and enjoying yourself, then nothing else mattered!

The next day we headed to Taquile Island. It is home to about 2200 people and is only about 12 miles long and 3 miles wide. Although they are only about a one hour boat ride from the peninsula where we stayed, they have a very unique culture. They dress in only black, white, and red (although the younger people are starting to use more colors) and are known for their high-quality tightly-woven products (the hats are so tightly woven that you can carry water in them). There products are only found on Taquile island at a cooperative market they have in the plaza. Nothing is shipped off the island to be sold in other places. Every product is marked with a number to identify the artisan and a fixed price because the artisan who made the good most likely will not be there when the item is sold and therefore you cannot negotiate the prices. All of the artisans take turns working at the co-op for 10 days and are paid by the commission left by other artisans (2%) when their goods are sold.

Taquile is a very autonomous society. The people on the island live very much like communists, sharing in the collective goods and taking turns with jobs such as construction of locales and working in the market. The people decided they did not want any donkeys, horses, llamas, or dogs on their island so the only animals are sheep, cows, and a few pigs and guinea pigs. I guess this is what Lenin intended, but it really seems to work for them. It’s really incredible. I could never imagine something like this working in the States since everyone is always in it for himself and trying to out-do his neighbor.

The government tried to “intervene” in the island only two times when they attempted to put a prison there. The first time was in 1931 and the second time in 1981. Both times the islanders were very upset and protested so much that the prison did not last and the government has not bothered them since. President Fujimori is the only president to ever have visited the island and it is because of him that there are schools, health clinics, and solar panels.

Tourism began on Taquile Island about 35 years ago, but it was not well received in the beginning. The people were scared of tourists in the beginning and hated them. They blamed the tourists for bringing bad spirits (because a few animals were struck by lightening) so they tried to reject them from arriving on the island. In one case, they held a boat of tourists captive for 2-3 hours! However, one community member, Pedro Wily (only 19 years old at the time) helped the islanders see the benefit of tourism. He explained to the community that tourists come to learn about their island, to meet the people, and to see beautiful views of the lake. They do not come to mock them or their lifestyle. For the past 20 years, the islanders have been more open to tourism. There are now 23 restaurants on the island and 200 beds (that are used on a rotating basis to be fair) for tourists to stay at in a home-stay situation. Today tourism is the leading industry on the island!

Another unique characteristic about the island is that the men often are the ones that knit here and the women work the fields! When we first arrived, we saw women helping out with construction on the port because they are expanding it. In this way it seems really advanced, but at the same time, the island is still deeply rooted in tradition. Marriages are still arranged on the island. The couple lives together for 2-3 months and then gets married in 99% of the cases; however, sometimes it does not work out, though this is a huge embarrassment for both the families. They are not allowed to divorce.

The Plaza de Armas on Taquile is located at the top of the mountain so we walked up this stone path for an hour and a half to get there (we stopped a lot for pictures though). The walk was so peaceful with breath-taking views of the lake. The lake is absolutely incredible – impossible to capture its beauty and expanse in photos. [Sidenote: We saw more tourists on the path than we’d probably seen our entire trip so we felt bombarded by them even though there were probably only 200 total!] Along the way, Felix told us about many interesting plants they have – such as one that is a natural chewing gum and another that is ground up and used for laundry detergent! We finally arrived at the plaza and after visiting the market and taking pictures of the view, we headed back down the other side of the island where we were to have a weaving “exhibition” and eat lunch.

I thought we were just going to have a little lecture about their work and leave, but boy was I wrong. It was 1,000 times better than anything I had imagined and probably one of my favorite memories of our trip! Our exhibition was on a little family compound with about 10 families. They have only started hosting tourists in the past 8 months so they are still a little shy, but extremely gracious hosts. The women were all beautiful, the men handsome, and the children absolutely adorable – I wanted to take them home with me!

Our visit started with an explanation of the symbolism in their weavings. One of the most interesting was a calendar belt that all men make for their wives. The belt has 12 different sections and each represents something special during the year. For example, January is a hexagon that represents the six different sections of the island. In three of the sections there are dots to identify where they have chosen to plant seeds for the harvest season. August is a fish because it is the beginning of a new planting season and they go out on boats to look for fish – if they see trout and kingfish in the shallow waters, they know it is going to be a good harvest. It was really fascinating because we look at the belts and think they are just little pictures, but then you find out that they really are full of meaning and symbolism for these people.

The women also make a belt for their husbands that they give them when they get married. The belt is a symbol of their marriage and very sacred. Men wear these belts for their entire lives, instead of a ring. The belt also has symbols representing their daily lives, but the more important belt is a thicker one, attached to the first, that is worn underneath. The thicker belt is black and white stripped and made of natural wool and alpaca (no dyes). It is very heavy – weighing up to one pound – and 80% of it is made of the woman’s hair, which her mom has saved throughout her life (in a little box or bag) from whenever it was brushed!

During our visit, we got to see the men knit – they hang it around their neck and even do it when they are standing up! It looks so hard, but they knit such intricate designs that they must have all memorized because it looks as if they are making patterns without even thinking. We also watched the women weaving – I was in such awe of their handiwork because you expect it to be done by these delicate little hands, but they all have big, strong hands. Then they invited us to watch a few traditional dances that they prepared for us. It was amazing – our own private concert. This little three-year-old girl who we were in love with came up to mom during the second dance and asked her to dance – I could have died it was so cute! Then the little girl wanted to do a dance for us so they changed into different costumes and did a dance about sowing seeds. At the end they asked all three of us to join so we finished the dance with them. I felt like I was dreaming the whole time because it was all so incredible. We felt so honored to be treated to such a warm welcoming by these loving people.

While we were getting ready to eat lunch, they insisted I try on some of the clothes so they dressed me up and we took lots of pictures. On Taquile, single women are identified by a black veil that they wear everyday to cover their face a little bit. They also talk in a very quiet voice, but all of that changes when they get married – their face is more exposed and they use their full voice. I was about to take the clothes off as lunch was being served, but they told me I had to eat in them because my white skin looked so beautiful next to the black veil! It was really fun, but hard to keep the veil on. The food was excellent – quinoa soup (one of my favorites) to start with and then fresh kingfish from the lake for mom and dad and an omelet for me. Believe it or not, I loved their fish and wished I had that instead of my omelet
After lunch they brought out tons of their goods for us to buy. I was laughing so hard because I was still wearing their clothes and they were throwing all of these things in my face for me to buy. We ended up getting a calendar belt and a few regular belts. While I was using the bathroom before we left, every member of the family shook mom and dads’ hands and kissed their cheeks to show their appreciation (because we had also left a tip for their hospitality). The grandfather (and leader) of the community was so grateful he kissed dad right on the lips! When I came out they all hugged and kissed me too. It was so cute – we didn’t want to leave! Apparently the little girl didn’t want us to leave either because she kept telling us to regresa (come back). We said “chau” to her and the whole way down the path you could hear her little sing-songy voice saying chau, chau, chau…you just wanted to eat her up she was so cute! All in all, it was an incredible day – one that we will not soon forget!

On the boat ride back to Llachón, I was thinking about how sad I was that our trip was coming to an end. We had the most incredible time. I’m so lucky to get along so well with my parents and even more lucky that they took me on such an amazing trip. It was definitely the trip of a lifetime and one I know I will be talking about forever. It made me sad though that Peruvians have so many beautiful vacation destinations at their fingertips and can’t even afford to visit them. Mom, Dad, and I know much more of this country that at least 95% of the people in my community. Hopefully some day that will change.

That night – our “last supper” – was just the three of us because Felix had gone back to the plaza for the fiesta (I don’t know how Peruvians have so much ENGERY to party for a week straight – mom calls Felix a “mountain goat” for all of his energy running around at this altitude – haha). We had a great time reminiscing about the past two weeks and laughing at dad’s stories about his sleeping fiascos. I’ll have to have him do a guest entry about that because he tells it so funny! He gets really tangled up in the sheets and blankets so one night he wore his rain pants to bed to try to help the situation, but apparently it didn’t work! Hahaha.

The next morning dad and I sat outside reading, enjoying our last few hours with our feet at Lake Titicaca. We were reading right near Valentin’s pet alpaca, Pepe, who apparently had a thing for dad and HUMPED him everytime dad walked by – but did nothing when mom or I walked by. It was hilarious! We also talked with Valentin for a while before we left. He is such an inspiration – I wish I could take him to Bambamarca with me to talk to my community. We were telling him how grateful we are to him for all the work he is doing for his country and what a pleasure it has been to stay at their house. He was happy to hear that, but told us that unfortunately, many big companies are trying to kick them off their land to build huge hotels. Luckily, the locals are fighting against them (“throwing rocks” as Valentin said) and have so far been successful in keeping them out. What a shame that would be!

On the way to the airport we visited Sillustani – a place of ancient pre-Incan and Incan funeral towers where the most important Incans are buried. You do not find anything like this in Cusco and it is a mystery how they found this place and why they chose it as the burial grounds for their royals. It is believed that they may have built there because it’s a volcanic crater and close to the sky – a very important aspect of the Incan religion. The largest funeral tower took 3,000 men to construct it because they carried huge volcanic rocks (sillar) from Arequipa, 80-90 km away, plus quarried rock from 100 meters away. All of the towers were built with the entrance facing to the east and with the door open so bad spirits could not get captured inside.

The pre-Incan towers were much more primitive compared to the ones later built by the Incans. They improved upon what was already there by polishing the stones and constructing bigger and better towers. In addition to all of the towers, there was also a sun dial and a moon dial that were places of ritual and sacrifice. The entrance to the sun dial had a three-tiered stone to represent the three worlds the Incans worshipped – the condor (or sky), puma (earth), and the snake (underworld and water). It’s significant that it is only one stone with three tiers, rather than three different stones because it is only one concept.

The ruins were really fascinating so we were all happy to have stopped there. However, by the time we finally got to the airport we were ready to relax – it had been two weeks of non-stop action. Whew! After checking our bags, we said our goodbyes to Felix. He really was a good guide, even though we were unsure of him in the beginning. His English wasn’t that great, but he had a great spirit and such passion and enthusiasm that it was hard not to get excited about everything right along with him. He thanked me for what I’m doing for his country (so sweet) and thanked the three of us for such a great time. This was his first four-day tour and he was really happy to have been blessed with such a nice family to lead around. We really were lucky to have such great guides with so much knowledge all along the way.

At the end we all asked ourselves if there was something we would have changed or took out, what would it be? Our unanimous decision was…NOTHING! Now on to Cajamarca where the fun really begins…haha.

Visiting a Hidden Treasure

2007-07-09T12:38:00.000-07:00

After spending a few days in Arequipa and the Colca Valley, we headed south towards the department of Puno, home to Lake Titicaca – the highest navigable lake in the world at 12,500 ft. The drive took about five hours and was absolutely beautiful. We even got to travel on some PAVED road for some of it so that was really exciting for us. We noticed a big difference in terrain as we left Arequipa and got further into Puno. The landscape turned from terraced agriculture hills and valleys to vast plains. It was mostly brown, but not so much a desert as high-plateau so there was a lot of brush and many meadows. We passed a lot of lakes along the way, one of which had flamingoes (at 14,000 ft.)! My favorite lake we passed was called Lagunillas, not just because it was the most beautiful – dramatically nestled among the mountains – or because it had the cleanest latrine I have ever seen in Peru, but because I bought a lovely wall-hanging from a local artisan there attempting to win over the vulnerable tourists (like us, we are such suckers for their work) with her impressive handiwork. It turns out my purchase was her first sale and she almost started crying out of happiness! She genuflected about three times and kept thanking me – that made my new purchase even more special.

We finally arrived in Lampa around 3 pm. I had never heard of Lampa and was a little confused on why we were spending the night in this little town of 8,000 people. But boy was I in for a surprise – it ended up being one of the best nights of our whole trip! We found out that from here on out, we would be doing something called “rural tourism” which means we stay with families and eat all of our meals with them to get more of an authentic experience. I had never heard of such a thing in Peru so I was excited to what it was all about. Upon arrival we met our host, Oscar, who owns the 300 year old house we were to stay in for the night. He looked like he came straight out of Texas with a big cowboy hat, boots, and sunglasses. He is also about six feet tall, which is practically unheard of around here (remember, I am tall in my community). It turns out that he is in fact, 100% Peruvian, with a heart the size of Texas. We immediately fell in love with him and his warm spirit.

Shortly after we arrived, we met Oscar’s wife, Mily, who had just come in from Arequipa. Like many Peruvian women, she is gorgeous and has a very warm and caring spirit. She looked to be about half of his age and we thought they were newlyweds because they were very affectionate with one another. Later we found out that they have actually been married for about 25 years and have two sons who are 22 and 19 years old and study at a university in Arequipa! They were such a sweet couple and we knew we were in good hands for the night.

Oscar spent the first few years of his life living in this house with his family – including aunts, uncles, cousins, grandmother, etc. – but they later moved to Lima for better opportunities and the house was essentially abandoned. After he and Mily got married, they started going back to the house twice a year to clean up and do repairs. About five years ago, they brought one of their friends with them who works in tourism and he suggested they fix up the house and turn it into a bed and breakfast of sorts. They took his advice and spent about a year fixing it up (you can imagine it was in pretty bad shape after having been abandoned for so many years). Three years ago they had their first guests and have loved every minute of it since. The house is very charming, dating back to the Spanish occupation. Walking through the doors, I felt like I was stepping back in time. You walked through an entry wall into an inner courtyard where all of the bedrooms are located. Each bedroom has its own bathroom (with hot water!), wood floors, and a few beds with TONS of alpaca blankets because it is freezing at night. They currently have six rooms they rent out, but they are fixing up another six for a total of twelve rooms at “La Casona” (the name they have given the house). They run the house with little help so they do not want it any bigger than twelve rooms. Mily was telling us that she only employs women because they have a lot less opportunities. All of the women who work for her have domestic problems so she is happy to be able to help them in the little way she can. Elena, who helps with meal preparation, has six kids (all who help at the house) and her husband is an alcoholic. He left the family so Elena is left to raise all of the children on her own. Mily said she hired her to help improve her life and makes sure to eat and talk with them so they feel like they are in a loving and supportive environment and not just looked at as the employees. What a kind spirit Mily is – this world could use more people like her.

After settling in at the house, we visited the town church with Oscar and Mily. Over the past year, I have seen many churches in small towns all over Peru, but none compare to the one we saw in Lampa. Lampa was the head of the Spanish empire for Cusco, Arequipa, and Puno because of the many natural riches in the area (mostly gold and silver) so many important Spaniards lived there. As the Spanish began to settle in Lampa, they wanted to build a big, ornate church where they could exercise their strong religious spirit. The church was built entirely of stone by the Jesuits because of their strong power and wealth. They began construction in 1601, but did not finish until 1648. The church is very elaborate and was really expensive to build because of the many custom built adornments, including an organ that came from Belguim.

Like many old churches in Peru, the Iglesia Santiago Apostle (the name of the church) has catacombs where they remains of many important Spaniards were found. Oscar told us a story of Tupac Amaru (head of the Incans?) going to Lampa to declare a revolution on the Spanish and explain his motivations for war. Apparently word of his arrival had spread among town so the most important Spaniards were placed in hiding in the catacombs. Unfortunately their strategy did not work. Upon arrival in Lampa, Amaru entered the church during mass, beheaded the priest, and immediately went down the catacombs where he found all of the Spaniards. He began negotiations by holding a knife up to them, but while he was negotiating, he heard word that things had escalated out of control in Cusco and he must return immediately. By the time he arrived in Cusco though, it was too late. The Spanish captured him and quartered his body with horses. His leg was sent to Lampa to be hung in the Plaza de Armas to scare off any other revolutionaries! [Sidenote: the details might be a little off as this was all told to us in Spanish – it’s likely I’m confusing something or getting it completely wrong, but it sounds good to me, even if it’s not quite accurate!]

Obviously Lampa has a very rich cultural history, but it is little known because in 1900, the railroad was built through Juliaca instead of Lampa, and the town lost its importance. However, people like Oscar are trying to promote the town as a “must see” when visiting Lake Titicaca because of its rich cultural and historical roots. Oscar is a lawyer by profession, but recently has been focusing his efforts on improving tourism to the area. He is an incredible host and a fountain of knowledge. He is extremely kind and warm-hearted, but more than anything, he LOVES his town and his passion is contagious.

It is people like he and Mily, Raúl, and Gerson that have really helped renew my faith in Peruvians. It is so nice to see people so passionate and proud of their country and it makes me proud to be living here and sharing in their enthusiasm. It is wonderful to meet such loving people who love where they live and are eager to help others discover its beauty. So often I hear people talk about how they would give anything to move to the United States and would leave everything here behind at the drop of a hat. It always makes me sad to hear this because this country is so rich in history, natural beauty, and cultural traditions. Sure the U.S. is advanced and we have many luxuries, but there are so many things that Peru has that we will never have. How many places in the U.S. do you see men and women still wearing traditional dress (other than colonial Williamsburg and tourists attractions)? How many places can you go where the entire town parties for a week to honor their cultural heritage? Where would you ever go in the U.S. and find people talking about a civilization that dates back to 1000 B.C. and earlier? There are so many wonderful things about this country, but unfortunately, when you are living in extreme poverty without water, electricity, or even food for your family, it is very easy to overlook. The worst part is that there is a lot of wealth in this country and a lot of potential for economic development and improvement, but like many countries – including our own – the wealth is concentrated among the top 1%, or something, of the population, leaving many without anything. Hopefully someday in the near future, this country can figure out how to distribute its resources more evenly and as a result, raise the standard of living for all Peruvians – not just the extremely wealthy – so they can begin to recognize and appreciate the incredible riches they possess as a culture.

Well now that I’ve drifted off on that tangent, I’ll get back on task and return to Lampa. In addition to the church, Lampa has another claim to fame with a very impressive story behind it. The President of the Senate in the 1960s, Enrique Torres Belen, was from Lampa and wanted to help his native community so from 1960-1968, he funded a restoration project for the church. As a culmination of the project, he wanted something really grand to place in the church so he traveled to Rome to ask Pope John XXIII (who was a personal friend of his) if they could make a replica of Michelangelo’s La Pieta (Mary holding an adult Jesus on her lap). The Pope agreed, but only under the condition that it was constructed by Italian architects in Rome and then transferred to Peru. When it arrived in Lima, they immediately realized it was too big and heavy to be supported by the dome it was to be placed upon in the church. Torres Belen asked the Pope if they could make yet another copy and the Pope agreed as long as the first replica was destroyed. Torres agreed, but when the second replica was finished, he could not bear to get rid of the first one so he traveled to Rome again to beg the Pope to let him keep both – and the Pope, surprisingly, agreed! So the first replica is on display in the Municipality and the second one is in the church where it was originally intended.

In 1972, a crazy guy entered the Vatican with a hammer proclaiming, “I am Jesus Christ” and set out to destroy La Pieta. He broke Jesus’ nose, knee and Mary’s hands. In order to repair the original, the architects traveled from Italy to Lampa to get dimensions off the replica! The sculpture itself was incredible. I had no idea what to expect, but it left me speechless!

Torres Belen also wanted something elaborate for the patron saint of Lampa, the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, to parade around town atop of during the town’s fiesta. Therefore, he had a HUGE carriage, made of sterling silver designed that is on display in a glass case all year round except for the week of the fiesta. There is only one other carriage like it in the entire world and it is located in Madrid!

Needless to say, we all LOVED Lampa. The town and church were charming and our hosts were even better. They are a very sweet and welcoming couple. We felt comfortable with them immediately and wished we could have stayed more than one night. It was so nice to be in a home with a family. Before dinner that night, we sat around the fire with Oscar talking about Peruvian history and politics and then moved into the dining room for a delicious dinner that Mily prepared with Elena – a woman who helps prepare the meals. We had cream of corn soup, veggie tortillas (little omelets), potatoes, and baked apples in cinnamon for dessert. We sat around the table in our long johns, pants, hats, scarves, and mittens because it was freezing, but it was so cozy to be with a family with wonderful food and conversation. It felt like we had been friends for years and I’m sure we could have stayed up for hours talking with them, but mom was falling asleep at the table so we decided to turn in for the night. Dad was so cold after dinner that he just took off his belt, shoes, and wallet and went to bed in ALL of his clothes – haha!

Although we had about four huge, heavy wool blankets on our beds, they gave each of us a big water bottle filled with hot water and placed in a cloth sleeve to warm our beds. ¡Que rico! It was lovely having it at my feet all night and kept the bed warm until morning – it’s a good thing because they told us at breakfast it was -6º F the night before! As I was lying in bed that night, I could not stop thinking about how GRATEFUL I was to mom and dad for taking me on this amazing trip. I never would have had this opportunity otherwise and it has been such a wonderful way to travel. We were essentially on a private tour the whole time and it has given us such a good feel for Peruvians and their culture. The trip has made me feel so proud of this culture and has given me the opportunity to meet some really incredible people that I hope to stay in touch with in the future. It has also helped me to realize that no matter how different we all are on the surface, deep down we are pretty much the same – we all want the best for ourselves, our loved ones, and our country. I hope tourism like this continues to flourish because it really helps contribute to a better global understanding and helps the local economy at the same time.

Before leaving in the morning, we visited the Municipality to see the first replica of La Pieta and visit Torres Belen’s library. We also saw this plant that is growing at the Municipality that grows for 100 years and can get to be about 14 meters tall. It only blossoms once – at the end of the 100 years – and then drops its seeds and burns itself. The trunk turns black and the tree never blossoms again, but the seeds still propagate. Oscar told us there is a forest of these plants near Lampa that is 600 hectares! These plants only grow in two places in the world, the forest near Lampa and in Bolivia!

Even though we only stayed with them a night, it was sad saying goodbye to Oscar and Mily. They are such a wonderful couple and a delight to be around. They really enjoyed us too and kept saying we are “de buena calidad” (good quality). Oscar wants Dad to return to Lampa to restore the stained glass windows in the church so hopefully this is just the beginning of our friendship!

Even more pictures from Lampa and Lake Titicaca!

2007-07-04T18:41:00.000-07:00

One of the many street designs in Arequipa.

Mom and me on Taquile Island with a view of a glacier in Bolivia behind us!

Standing in front of the amazing church in Lampa.

Entering our rooms at the awesome house in Lampa.

At dinner with our gracious hosts in Lampa.

Another view of Bolivia!

Our house in Llachon - right on the water!

One of the many dancers at the town festival we attended!

Another dancer!

The leader of one of the groups (always wears a whistle to call out the moves).

An adorable little girl.

The sunrise from my room the first morning!

Ready for kayaking in our skirts and booties!

A view of Bolivia from our kayak!

Mom and me in the kayak - we're professionals!

Look how calm the water is!

Mom and me again.

Pulling up to our reed island.

Mission accomplished!

Judith with some of her reed crafts.

A native of the reed island showing off her work.

The newest member of the reed island.

Relaxing on the reed boat (I also tried rowing, but that was HARD).

A view of the reed island we visited from our kayak.

Look how clear the water is!

Our hostess doing some weaving. Isn't she adorable?

Mom and Dad looking GREAT in their new hats!

Mom and me in our native dress.

Dad enjoying being between his native girls (looking really authentic in our sneakers).

More fiesta!

Look closely - the three of us standing in the VIP section in front of the municipality with all of the town authorities!

Walking up the trail at Taquile island to reach the main square.

Mom and me at the entry way to Taquile.

LOTS of hats for sale (they only sell these on the island).

How adorable are they? (Our hosts for lunch)

This little girl asked mom to dance with her! How cute?

Our hosts did a dance just for us!

This little boy is trying to learn from his grandpa!

They insisted I put on their clothes and take lots of pictures!

And then they made me eat in it. They said I looked so beautiful with my white skin against the black veil.

Standing in front of an ancient Incan funeral tower.

We were invited to this house to eat our boxed lunch.

Arequipa and the Colca Valley

2007-06-27T18:43:00.001-07:00

After leaving the jungle, we were all exhausted and couldn’t imagine the rest of the trip living up to what we had just experienced. We flew from the jungle (Puerto Maldonado) to Cusco, where we had a layover before going on to Arequipa. Some of our friends from the jungle – a couple we met from England – was on our plane to Cusco and sat right near us so as we were getting off the plane, we were talking to them, rather than paying attention to our own belongings. About a half an hour after landing in Cusco, I was sitting with all of our stuff while my parents were window shopping. All of a sudden I see them run out of the store to a ticket counter for Lan Peru. I immediately looked at all of our stuff and realized what had happened – dad’s camera was still on the plane and on its way to Lima! The people who work for the airline radioed the plane to let them know what happened, but couldn’t confirm that the camera was still on the plane until it landed in Lima. Of course we were all nervous that someone had seen us walk off without it and was going to take it, but God must have been watching over us that day because it was still there! Dad was able to describe exactly where it was and what the bag it was in looked like and they agreed to fly it to Arequipa the next day! Thank God because what a disaster that would have been!

The plane we took to Arequipa passed through Juliaca (the airport at Lake Titicaca) and more passengers got on because after Arequipa, it went on to Lima. As we were getting off the plane in Arequipa, Dad says, “hey I know that guy!” – turns out it was some of their friends from California – Coby and Denise! My parents knew they were in Peru and visiting the jungle and Lake Titicaca as well, but we were still very surprised to see them! They were on their way home and got on in Juliaca to travel to Lima. What a small world!

It was beautiful flying into Arequipa because the sun was setting as we arrived – it was very dramatic with all of the mountains enveloping the city. Arequipa is the same elevation as Bambamarca (7500 ft.), but VERY different from what I expected. It is really dry and arid there so everything is brown, but it is surrounded by snow-capped mountains and a few active volcanoes - we saw a few from the plane and one was even smoking! Arequipa has one million people so it’s much more like Lima than Cajamarca, but more quaint than Lima (and the drivers aren’t nearly as crazy!). We met our new guide shortly after we landed and headed to our hotel. Our new guide was Raúl. He was very nice and extremely knowledgeable, but he was no Gerson. He’s been a tour guide for 18 years so to me it was more obvious that he saw this as a “job” not necessarily a passion like it was for Gerson since he’s still young and so fresh. We still had a great time with Raúl and learned a lot – he was like a walking encyclopedia of the region, as well as Peruvian politics, history, economics, etc. so dad loved it!

Arequipa is the link between the coast (1 ¾ hrs. away) and the highlands (1 ½ hrs. away). It is known as the intellectual capital of Peru with three universities – one public and two private – and it is also the alpaca capital. Arequipa does very well economically because of the alpaca and also from the copper mines. There are three copper mines near Arequipa (45 mins, 6 hrs and 8 hrs outside of the city) that bring a lot of people and money to the city. On top of that, even though the city is very arid and does not receive much rainfall, they have a very intricate irrigation system with terraced farming that allows the farmers in Arequipa city to have three harvests a YEAR of onions and garlic – not bad for such a dry place! Raúl also told us that most of Peru’s asparagus (their number one export) is grown only about an hour outside of the city!

The two Raúls (the driver’s name is also Raúl) dropped us off at the hotel to have a quiet night and catch up on some rest. The hotel is REALLY nice with internet so I was excited to finally look at my email. I felt so deprived for a whole week without it – I can’t imagine my friends, like Hana, who only get to check their email every 2-3 weeks! As soon as we got into our room, Dad ran to the bathroom to make sure there were two faucets in the shower – one for hot water of course. He was thrilled and I’m pretty sure was in the shower within two minutes of arriving! Hahahaha – good thing he doesn’t have to do this for two years (he told me at the end of their trip, “Kristen, there is a reason most Peace Corps volunteers are in their twenties!”). After dad had his shower, we went down the street to have some dinner. Dad ordered alpaca meat and absolutely loved it (he had lots more alpaca meat over the next few days and none of it tasted as good as that first night at the restaurant so he’s pretty convinced they served him beef at the restaurant and just called it alpaca – gotta love this country!). Mom and I both had some asparagus soup because we weren’t that hungry and it was absolutely delicious! I could have eaten about four bowls of it. For dessert we ordered this dessert called “queso helado” because it’s typical of the region. Queso helado literally means cheese ice cream or cold cheese so we were a little skeptical, but it turned out to be pretty good. It’s actually these little frozen tres leches (3 milks – condensed, evaporated, and regular) balls that were flavored with cinnamon and coconut.

After finally getting to talk to Giff (for the first time in a week!) and checking my email, I went to bed. I was hoping to sleep in a little the next morning since we’d been getting up at 4:30 everyday, but apparently dad had other plans for us. He woke up at 7 so I guess he thought we should all get up and opened the curtains to let in the bright sunlight – thanks, dad! Luckily I had a HOT shower to wake me up so it wasn’t so bad. After eating breakfast and dropping off 9 kilos of laundry (to actually be washed in a machine!) we were picked up by the two Raúls for a half day city tour. We were looking forward to resting in the afternoon, but we didn’t get home until 10 pm!

We started our city tour on the outskirts where we could see nice views of the three mountains (all over 18,000 ft.) surrounding the city – Chachani, Misti (volcano) and Pichu Pichu – and the terraced farming Raúl had told us about the night before. It was absolutely beautiful and really impressive! (I must admit, we had perfect weather our whole trip and a private tour the whole time that stopped whenever we wanted them to and really wonderful, knowledgeable guides, so we were really spoiled.) Raúl told us that in August there is a “crazy marathon” in Arequipa. It’s not really a marathon because it’s only 18 km, rather than 42, but the people RUN from the Plaza de Armas to the top of Misti! It takes place over two days – the first day they run to 16,000 ft. and camp out; the next day they summit and come back down! Good lord!

The rest of the tour was spent exploring the downtown area. We visited a couple of churches – La Companía de Jesus and the main Cathedral on the Plaza. Apparently there was a huge earthquake in 1970 that destroyed many buildings in the city so there has been a huge restoration project going on since then. Raúl said they are doing a nice job for the most part trying to restore everything to its original state, but the Cathedral is much more modern than it used to be and is very stuffy inside. La Companía church, on the other hand, was beautiful. It has a very Spanish feeling to it because of the architecture and a very impressive fresco we saw inside. The fresco has lots of flora and fauna painted in it, but it’s not flora and fauna you would find in Arequipa, but what you would find in the jungle because that is where the Spanish came from before arriving in Arequipa. The church also has many Incan influences – as they tied their traditions in the Catholic ones. We saw this trend all over the region both in architecture and local customs.

The Plaza de Armas in Arequipa is beautiful. It was bustling that day because they were celebrating Corpus Christi and setting up for a big party that night. There were also tons of students from local high schools in the streets making these huge “carpets” out of sawdust and flowers. We heard there is a contest of who can make the best carpet to recognize the day. They were so impressive – I had never seen anything like that before. Another thing that struck me about the Plaza in Arequipa was that there were tons of men sitting on benches surrounding the Plaza with typewriters. Raúl said they are there to type up oficios (official documents) for people who need to present them to the Municipality. It only costs one sol (30 cents) too – what a great idea!

One of the most famous landmarks in Arequipa is the Santa Catalina convent so that was the next stop on our tour. I didn’t think I would like it that much, but it turned out to be really interesting. It is HUGE – they call it the city within a city because it is 20,000 sq. meters! The convent dates back to the 16th century and is still being used today, but only a small part of it, the rest was opened to the public as a museum. Currently there are only 24 nuns living there and their life is not nearly as strict as it was in the past. Their vow of silence is only for three hours a day and they are allowed to leave more often.

When the convent first opened, it was a law that the second daughter in every family had to go live at the convent and become a nun. Their families had to pay a dowry and build them apartments or houses to live in. They could even have up to four servants! It is a cloister convent so the nuns had to take a vow of silence and could never leave. They weren’t allowed to look in mirrors or even see their own body naked because it was considered vain to look at yourself so they even had to wear tunics to bath (sponge bath only)! At the height of the convent there were 81 houses at Santa Catalina – all with beautiful furniture and china because they were from wealthy families. In 1871, the Pope made a new law that the nuns all had to start living together so houses were eliminated and common eating and sleeping areas were established. It was a huge change for the convent after more than 200 years of living separately. The servants were given the choice to leave, but some decided to stay and become nuns because their life was comfortable there and they were safe.

The convent used to have a boarding school as well where parents sent their daughters as early as age three to live there until they were 14 or 15 and ready for marriage. The nuns educated the girls as well as taught them how to cook, sew, and be a good wife. There was only one nun who chose to stay and become a nun, rather than leave and get married. Her family did not support her, but her brother understood so he paid her dowry and she stayed at the convent until she died at age 87. Her name is Sor Ana and she is beatified. They want to make her a saint, but they are waiting for one more miracle.

Arequipa has another very famous museum – the museum of the ice girl. I don’t know if you remember, but 12 years ago, a scientist named Johan, led an expedition up Ampato, one of the mountains outside of Arequipa city, and found an Incan girl from the 15th century buried in the ice! They call her “Juanita” after the scientist who found her.

At the museum we watched this really interesting video about the expedition and how they found her. During the Incan times, people really believed in the power of the mountains and worshipped them. Today we understand weather phenomenon like “El Niño,” but back then, people thought receiving a lot of rain or having a drought was a result of the mountains reacting to the people’s behaviors and punishing them. Therefore, the Incas would make treks up these 18,000 ft. mountains (in sandles!) to offer sacrifices to the Gods. The ultimate sacrifice was offering your child and some children, like Juanita, were raised in order to be sacrificed by their families (the children knew this). Since these weather patterns are cyclical, people usually saw changes in things after they sacrificed something, and therefore believed what they were doing worked.

All of it seemed a strange mix between Catholicism and Pagan religion. At the top of the mountain, the people who have elaborate ceremonies with potatoes, corn, and chica (an alcoholic drink made from fermented corn). The chica would help intoxicate the child to be offered and then they would kill the child with a spear-like tool. After they had killed the child, they would bury him or her with many ornamental things – dolls, fabrics, pottery, llama figurines, etc. – as more sacrifices to the Gods.

I found the tour really interesting, but at the end, we actually saw Juanita who is kept in a freezer at -20º C and that freaked me out a little bit. Here was this 12 year old girl from 500 years ago just sitting there – you could see her hair, flesh, and clothes – it was too much for me. They are able to keep her on display because her body was preserved really well from being buried on top of a glacier. The only reason they found her 12 years ago is because a nearby volcano was erupting and the ash from the volcano landed on the mountain where Juanita was buried. The ash melted the ice and caused her to roll down into a crater. The scientists happened to be on their expedition at the time and found her shortly thereafter. If they had come much later, they would not have been able to use her for research because she was exposed to the sun and starting to thaw. As it is, one side of her is better preserved because it was away from the sun. The museum was very interesting, but kind of weird and eerie in a way.

Our city tour ended after seeing Juanita and we had the rest of the afternoon free. Mom and I went and grabbed lunch while Dad went with Raúl to pick up his camera – what a relief to have it back in one piece! When he got it, it was completely wrapped in plastic (like saran warp) to protect it, but dad was really worried because he could see lots of water trapped between the plastic and his backpack inside. It turns out we forgot to empty his Camelbak (or turn the valve to “off”) before boarding the plane so when they wrapped it in plastic, the pressure caused all of the water to leak out, but it had nowhere to go. Well dad must have a magic backpack because the camera and all of his lenses inside were dry as a bone!

We spent the afternoon shopping for alpaca goods and chocolate because those are the two things Arequipa is known for. Raúl told us 87% of the alpaca products in Peru come from Arequipa even though they have the third largest population of alpacas. The big factories are located in Arequipa so the people in Cusco and Puno (with larger populations of alpacas) send their wool to Arequipa. I’m happy to report we were successful in both departments. We found the best dark chocolate any of us have ever had – I know that’s a bold statement, but it’s true. Unfortunately that particular chocolate was harder to find than we expected so we only had it twice – dad thinks a trip down there for chocolate should be tax deductible (hahaha – at least vacation day deductible in my opinion)!

We headed back to the hotel around 7:15 that evening (after mom and dad had their first experience of the inefficiency of Peruvian pharmacies) to meet Patricia, the travel agent who put our whole trip together. We felt like we owed her our lives for the amazing trip she planned for us. We were so happy to meet her and ranted and raved about the part in the jungle. She gave us a run down of the second half of the trip and promised us it would be just as great as the first half. We thought that was a pretty bold statement, but she was right!

We picked up our 9 kilos of CLEAN clothes from the laundry ladies and headed out for a bite to eat. Patricia suggested this placed called La Creperíe (run by a Swiss man who owns another very popular restaurant in town called Zig Zag). We had a little trouble finding it – and by trouble I mean we were standing outside of the door and asked a passerby where it was – hahahaha – but it turned out to be amazing! It was really small with a great atmosphere. All of the tables had a chess/checkers board painted on them and then had tons of games and magazines in the front that you could use at your table. There were only about 10 tables and a few couches and coffee tables upstairs in the loft. We sat in the loft, but at a regular table and shared two delicious crepes – curry chicken and apple cinnamon for dessert! Plus we all had a hot chocolate to wash it down since Peru has great hot chocolate. It was the perfect ending to a GREAT day with mom and dad! I wish they could stay for my last year….

I LOVED Arequipa and was ready to move there, but when I got back to Cajamarca, I realized it’s the place for me. I wouldn’t leave Cajamarca because I’d miss my friends too much – plus we have better hot chocolate there!

After our quick visit in Arequipa, we left the next morning at 9 am to drive to the Colca Valley. The valley is a huge agricultural area with over 20,000 hectares of terraced land for farming! The farming there dates back to the 7th century and I think Raúl told us is the biggest agricultural area in Peru (but I could be making that up). The Colca Valley is 600 years older than the Sacred Valley in Cusco, but the Sacred Valley is much more commonly known and visited. Also within the valley is the Colca Canyon – our reason for going and one of the deepest canyons in the world (deeper than the Grand Canyon)! The drive there was about 5 hours and absolutely beautiful. The landscape is really dry, but not desert. I was surprised, actually, at how much vegetation there is, and the best part is that you can always see snow-capped mountains in the distance. It was breath-taking!

The ride took us over a pass that was 16,000 ft. at the tallest point – the highest elevation any of the three of us have ever been! We also drove through the Reserva Nacional Salinas y Aguada Blanca (the second largest national reserve in Peru) that was created to protect the straw used for thatched roofs and the population of Vicuñas and Guanacos. These animals, along with the Alpaca and Llama, are all relatives of camels and were originally found in the Rocky Mountains over 40 million years ago! Apparently the reserve is doing its job because Raúl told us the population of vicuñas has grown from 100 to 3,000 over the past 20 years! However, on the other hand, there are only about 150 guanacos.

People use the wool of these animals (mostly Alpacas) to make scarves, sweaters, etc. and sell them commercially. The vicuña wool is much finer than that of Alpacas, and therefore, much more expensive. In order to sheer the vicuñas, they have to catch them by hand and only cut the short hair because their long hair protects their organs. Because this wool is in such high demand, you must have a certificate in order to sell goods made out of vicuña wool. There are two big markets for these products right now – in Japan and Italy – but lots of people try to sell them on the black market in Cusco. On the black market, you can get a scarf for $150 (dollars not soles) rather than $600, but it’s illegal because they don’t have a certificate!

It was really nice taking this long drive because we learned a lot about Peruvian history and politics from Raúl. He was telling us a lot about Fujimori and how much he did for the Peruvian “campo” (countryside). He built many schools and hospitals in the rural areas of Peru, which has considerably helped their standard of living. He also connected the Pan American highway in Peru with the rest of the continent. Right now they are building a highway from Brazil that will run through northern Bolivia and southern Peru (the jungle, Arequipa, etc.) in order to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. There are obviously many advantages to this, but at the same time, many locals are very concerned how much it is going to change their lives and disrupt the habitats of all of the animals in the rainforest. I sympathize with the locals because as we were driving throughout the valley and admiring the beautiful landscape, it made me sad to think how much a 4-lane highway is going to tear up that place and take so much away from its intimate setting.

I think the same goes for tourism. Right now the Colca Valley is virtually unknown to the outside world, but little by little it is growing. There are currently five star hotels being built and I think it’s such a shame because that too will take away from, rather than compliment, the richness of the Colca valley and its peopel. What makes it so special today is how traditional life is there – you drive on dirt roads to get there and see locals walking their livestock down the road without any shoes on. There are both Quechua and Aymara people there who both dress in a distinct style, not for “show” for the tourists, but because that is their heritage. In some ways you want tourism to grow because it certainly contributes to their economic development, but in other ways, you want to preserve everything just the way it is because, unless it is done delicately and with the input of the local people, it will completely change their lives – they cannot walk their livestock down paved roads because it will burn their feet and the tourist vans will be whipping around every corner; nor will the people be dressing in their traditional clothes except for show for the tourists. It is definitely a delicate balance and I don’t have the answer as to the best way to do it, other than to keep the local people involved and listen to what they want.

Well now that I’ve put in my two cents about developing tourism in the valley, I will continue to describe what we did while we were there. One of the main reasons people go there (besides to hike in the canyon) is to watch the condors flying out of the canyon early in the morning. So the first morning we were there, we got up early to drive to the “Cruz del Condor” (Condor Cross) and watch for the condors. As you can imagine, I was not very excited about this given my feeling towards birds, but it ended up being really cool. They warned us that we might not see any since they are birds and we cannot predict their behavior, but going along with the great luck we’d had thus far on the trip, we lucked out again and saw at least 50 condors that morning! At the most, we saw 13 flying around at one time – even our guide was impressed by that! I’m not quite sure why I wasn’t scared since their wingspan is about 10 ft. and they were flying right over our heads, but I ended up getting just as excited about it as everyone else. It was really hard to take pictures because the sun was really strong and all I could see when I looked at my camera was my own reflection, but I guess when you take about 50 pictures, you’re bound to get a couple of good ones!

Besides seeing the condors, we also spent some time driving around the valley and learning about the local communities and terraced farming. At its height in the 16th century, the Colca Valley had 66,000 people and was the largest center in the West Andes. Today though, there are only about 32,000 people spread among 14 different communities. One of the towns we visited, Chivay (where Raúl lives), is about the size of Bambamarca, but seems to be doing much better than Bambamarca because it is the entrance to the canyon and therefore receives a lot of tourism. It was nice to see such a small town “thriving” in its own way. Bambamarca has a lot of great potential tourist destinations around it (ruins, caves, etc.), but unfortunately tourism is not valued by the people right now and therefore they do not see the need to develop it. Hopefully someday soon!

Another thing that really struck me was how much farming goes on for such a dry area. Raúl told us the water for the valley comes down from the glaciers on Mismi – a nearby mountain – but it did not look like it had much snow on it at all. Raúl was telling us that when he was a kid, all of the mountains in that area were covered in snow all year long, and now, very few even have snow! It is so scary to see global warming “in action” like that because it really makes you think about what a pressing issue it is for the entire world and how much it will change all of our lives if we don’t do something about it now.

Besides for all of the beautiful landscape and interesting information we heard, one of my favorite parts of the Colca Valley was the lodge we stayed at. We heard it was “rustic” but it was definitely luxury rustic! The rooms were really nice with big down comforters and a loft where I got to sleep. They also had HOT water so that right there takes it out of the “rustic” category. The best part though was that they had thermal baths in this beautiful location! Dad didn’t want to go the first day because he thought it was too cold, but I wasn’t about to miss out on that opportunity so mom and I went it and he just came to take our pictures. Man was it NICE! They are nestled in the valley amongst the mountains and the hot water just feels so great next to the cold air outside. That was definitely the best part of the valley in my opinion – sure the condors and terracing were impressive, but I’ll take the baths, thank you! Just kidding, it was all amazing!

Stay tuned for more about the trip!!!

And Now Some Pictures of the Rest of the Trip!

2007-06-27T15:29:00.000-07:00

These are pictures from the drive to Colca Valley and the Colca Canyon. I already posted a few pictures from our day in Arequipa so I didn't post any here. I'm almost finished with the entry about that part of our trip so stay tuned!

A view from the car on the way to the Colca Canyon.

One of the MANY vicunas we saw in the National Reserve.

Some more glaciers we saw on our ride.

Mom and me just outside of Arequipa.

Dad and me with Chanchani in the background!

The three of us at 16,000 ft!

A beautiful view of the canyon.

Mom and me in the thermal baths at our lodge!

Looking good in our robes after the thermal bath.....it was wonderful!

A view of our lodge....it was luxury....if this is what Peace Corps would like I could easily make it two years!

Another incredible view!

Some typical landscape of the Colca Valley.

One of the many condors we saw at the Cruz del Condor.

Some more condors....

And another! Surprisingly, I wasn't even scared!

Mom and me (with a condor in the background) taking a break from picture taking. Do you know how hard it is to take a picture of FLYING birds???

Some of the MANY terraces (used for farming) that date back to the 7th century!

Awwww so cute!

What a setting! It doesn't get much better than this!

The gate leading into the town of Chivay (all of the towns in the Valley have these gates).

Having some tea in front of the Misti Volcano.

A picnic lunch on the way to Lampa.

Back to the Jungle

2007-06-27T09:21:00.000-07:00

Well now that my trip with mom and dad is over, it’s time for me to attempt to recap it all and fill you in on the trip of a lifetime. For those of you who don’t want to read the details, I’ll just say that the trip was 1,000 times better than any of us could have imagined. At the end of it all we tried to think what we would have cut out, but we all agreed on nothing because everything was so incredible and special. We have no complaints – just wonderful memories and funny stories to walk away with – oh and about 3,000 pictures – we are the Cummings after all! (Hopefully we’ll be able to delete at least a third of them!)

I will split up the entries according to different legs of our trip as we all know I tend to get carried away and write novels about everything. I figure this way, you can read about the trip as you have time (or desire). I’m going to write the entries in the order we visited each place and post them as I get them done (with pictures too!). I hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed living it!

Now, back to the jungle. It already seems so long ago that we were there. It’s pretty amazing how quickly time flies by. My friends are all making fun of me for taking a month off of Peace Corps, which is essentially what I’ve done since I’ve borrowed vacation days through next year! One of my friends was joking with me that some volunteers are getting together to auction off vacation days because they’ve heard I could use some! Hahaha – I wish they could, but unfortunately that’s not allowed – I certainly have no complaints though! Oh and speaking of time flying, on Saturday, June 23rd my friends of Peru 7 and I celebrated ONE YEAR in Peru! Can you believe it? On a daily basis it sure doesn’t feel like time is flying back, but looking back on it, you wonder where all the time went. My parents treated me to a night at Costa del Sol (the nicest hotel in Cajamarca) to celebrate – I had a Jacuzzi bath before bed and a hot shower in the morning – now that might not seem that exciting to you, but ask my parents, bathing in hot water is pretty much heaven on earth! Thanks, mom and dad! You guys are the BEST!! I miss them so much already….

Well now that I’ve rambled on for three paragraphs, I will get back on task to writing about our trip. As I said in the last entry I wrote about the jungle, we had a BLAST there. It was absolutely beautiful and more fun than I ever imagined. Some parts of the jungle were very much how I expected it to be, swampy, wet, and muddy – on some trails we walked through mud up to our calves! (and therefore wore these knee high rubber boots every time we went on a hike). However, there were other parts that were much drier and not as muddy, it looked just like a forest you’d see anywhere (well, sort of). Over the week that we were there, we walked on a lot of different trails that took us all over the forest surrounding the lodge. Some trails were about 60 meters higher (in altitude) than others and we were surprised to see what a difference just 60 meters made in the vegetation we saw. Another thing that surprised me was how shady it seemed in the forest because of the canopy. Most of the time, I just thought it was a cool and cloudy day, but then we would emerge into a part without canopy covering and it was so HOT because the sun was beating down on us without protection.

Like I said earlier, Gerson really knew a lot about the animals and vegetation in the jungle and was always teaching us new things. There is this one type of tree in the jungle called a walking palm tree because its roots are exposed and supposedly they “walk” 10-15 cm a year to find the best sunlight! Gerson told us this story about a farmer who placed a machete in the middle of the roots to see if this was really true and over five years it had moved half a meter (1.5 feet)! We saw lots of different types of trees while we were there, but I’d say this is the most unique. I think Gerson told us most of the trees there are really young compared to the trees we see in North America (I could be making that up though). There are some trees that have tons of tiny little thorns on them so Gerson warned us that we shouldn’t touch or grab on to anything without looking at it first. One day we were walking and Gerson said, “don’t touch this tree.” Next thing we hear is mom saying “OWWWW” – hahahaha – apparently she didn’t hear him! Mom was always making us laugh. The first day we were there Gerson pointed out some cicada nests to us (those bugs that make TONS of noise). The nests stay in the ground for one year then emerge as these tall and skinny pink nests that the cicadas come out of – in North America, however, they stay in the ground for 17 years which is why we had an invasion of cicadas in DC a few years ago. Anyway, before Gerson told us what they were, mom kicked one over and then asked what it was – he told her she’s not supposed to kick them over – oopsie! She felt so bad that she kept asking him if she could go back and pick it up, but he told her it was okay. Hahaha, oh mom.

We also saw tons of different ants, who knew that there were so many. The most interesting ones were the leaf-carrying ants that travel up to 2 km away from their holes to get little pieces of leaves that they carry back to use as food. Before they can eat it though, they pee and spit on it to form the leaves into a fungus and then they eat the fungus – ewww. We kept joking that I could help them in their process since every time we went on a hike I had to pop a squat on the side of the trail (almost got poked by a lot of sticks!). These particular ants have a queen ant, like bees, that designates which tree they are going to climb to get their leaves – it’s really fascinating to watch. Gerson kept telling us not to step on them and mom thought that was hilarious because it was so hard to avoid them.

Another time we saw some termites climbing on this one tree and Gerson told us we had to eat them! He said farmers use the termites to feed their chickens and everyone has to try them so of course we listened to them and did. Later we found out that we were the only ones who ate them – apparently we’ll do anything the guide tells us! They were really small though and just tasted like dirt. It’s still pretty disgusting. After that we became more skeptical of what he told us! Another type of ant we saw was an army ant that travels in a long line (like soldiers marching) and has pinchers that local people use to heal their wounds. Gerson picked one up so we could see the pinchers and of course mom wanted a picture – it took her so long to take it though that the ant dug its pinchers into Gerson’s finger and he started bleeding! The last type of ant we saw were fire ants that live in this one type of tree. They have a symbiotic relationship with the tree and larvae that live inside the tree (and create tunnels for the ants). The ants protect the tree so that nothing grows around its base or up its trunk. If you knock on the tree, all of the ants come out because it means there is danger – crazy, huh?

When Gerson wasn’t explaining something to us, he and I usually spoke in Spanish and mom always tried to guess what we were talking about. The day we saw the fire ant tree (and before he explained anything to us), Gerson told me to touch the tree to “probar como pican” (see how the ants bite). Well mom heard his say “pican” and asked, “Oh is this a pecan tree?” Hahahahaha – we were laughing so hard since “pican” in Spanish means bite not pecan. You can always count on mom to keep things entertaining. It was equally entertaining when she tried to impersonate the calls Gerson made for monkeys or birds because of course she sounded nothing like him – not that I could do much better, but that’s why I didn’t try!

Some of the most exciting things we saw on our hikes were the monkeys. We saw five different types of monkeys while we were there – Spider, Saddleback Tamarin, Dusky Titi, Squirrel, and Howler! My favorite type was the spider monkey because they are so active and acrobatic. They swing through the trees like its nothing so they’re really fun to watch. The first time we saw them, Dad wasn’t with us because we had had a really strenuous walk in the morning and he wanted to rest in the afternoon. Gerson spotted them so far away, as usual, so we ran off the trail to get closer to them. [Sidenote: you wouldn’t believe how far away he can spot these animals – especially since I can’t even see them when we’re practically on top of them – or how he can identify the birds by the call they make! They all sound the same to me, especially when they’re flying!] We watched them for about 15 minutes and looked at them through his binoculars to get a better look. Mom couldn’t use the binoculars for too long though because her glasses kept fogging up because she was so hot! (Even though it wasn’t that hot in the jungle, we had to wear long sleeves and pants everywhere we went and most of what we had on was long-john material so it made us really hot.) After watching the monkeys for a while, we decided to keep going, but Gerson was lost since we were off the trail – luckily mom and I have a good sense of direction and we knew which way to go! Haha. The next day we saw spider monkeys again with dad so I was happy because I didn’t want him to miss out on seeing them. Sometimes it’s startling how far they can jump and you want to gasp, but you have to try to hold it in because it’s important to stay quiet while watching them. Dad got so excited though that he yelled, “WHOA – that one just fell 20 feet!” It was so funny because we were all whispering and then dad yells this out. Gerson thinks it just jumped, not fell, so after that we kept teasing dad that we saw monkeys fall about 100 feet!

The Saddleback Tamarin (the smallest monkey in the jungle) and the Dusky Titi monkeys were cute, but not as active as the spider monkeys, so we didn’t watch them for as long, but it’s still so cool to see them in their natural habitat. The first day at TRC we saw about five Howler monkeys in one tree. They are one of the biggest types of monkey in the jungle (along with the Spider money – fatter, but shorter) and are a reddish-brown color. They aren’t very active either, but what makes them interesting is the loud noise they make – it sounds like howling wind (hence their name) and is so LOUD – you can hear it up to 2 km away! They do it as a defense mechanism. It was fun to see them that first day because we had heard them earlier that morning at the clay lick, but dad didn’t get a good look at them so we kept hoping we’d get a better look at them. One day Gerson saw them after lunch, really close to the lodge, but didn’t come get us because he thought we were resting so we kept teasing him that we were really mad about it. Luckily we got a really good look at them after the clay lick on of our last mornings so he was off the hook!

Although we loved everything about the jungle – the clay lick, the hikes, the people we met – our favorite activity was probably kayaking. That’s right, kayaking. I’ve only been kayaking about four times – and I was the most experienced out of all of us so we were a little nervous, to say the least. Not to mention the fact that Gerson kept telling us what to do if we capsized so we were paranoid, but we all managed to do really well and LOVED it! We took the boat about 30 minutes up river to the border of the National Reserve and the National Park (where you need to have a permit to enter). Gerson wanted to take us further up river, but there was a big group of rafters arriving that day and if they saw us, they would have told on us so we couldn’t go further. It was absolutely beautiful where we got off because to the south you could see the snow-capped mountains of Puno off in the distance! Although we were nervous at the beginning – especially because of the strong current – we all did really well (mom called herself a “windmill” because of her good paddling skills). It was so fun and a lot easier than I expected it to be. It was so peaceful and relaxing. I wish we could have stayed out there all day. We paddled about 2 hours down river and then onto this small creek because Gerson had seen a whole family of river otters there the day before. We didn’t see the otters, but we did see a huge cayman on shore that we were able to get really close to and at least 50 squirrel monkeys playing and swinging through the trees right off shore. It was awesome. It all felt so surreal! I kept telling myself, I’m in the jungle in Peru! How cool is this?!?

Oh yeah, when the boat dropped us off to start kayaking, mom asked that they drop us off on a sandy strip instead of the rocky part of the beach because she and dad don’t have “Peruvian feet” (they think I’m Peruvian since I’ve lived here for a year now). Well they honored her wish, but little did she know what a terrible idea that would turn out to be. They called it the “playa” where we got dropped off, but it was really just six inches or so of silt on top of rocks so when you walked on it; you just sank right down to the rocks underneath. Mom and dad waited there in the sand while Gerson got the kayaks ready for us (I was on the river bank trying to pee of course before we left). Next thing mom knows, she looks down and her legs are COVERED in little green bugs. She said something and dad realized he was covered too. We didn’t really think anything of it, but later that day, we saw that they had been eaten alive! Of course mom made us count her bug bites – between her knee and her ankle she had approximately 85 bug bites on one leg and 80 on the other! Whereas mom had more bites (about 165 compared to dad’s 130ish), her bites didn’t bother her, but dad’s legs swelled up and were incredibly itchy! I felt so bad for him because on top of the bites, his legs were also sunburned so he was really uncomfortable. Luckily the next day was low activity. We went to the clay lick in the morning (the BEST morning we had with at least 5 types of parrots eating clay – felt like we were in a Natoinal Geographic show) and then just took the boat upriver to Refugio Amazonas to spend one last night before leaving for the airport the next day. Gerson offered to take us on an afternoon hike, but we opted out of it because we were all tired and dad’s legs and feet were really bothering him. He realized the next morning that one reason his feet hurt so badly was because he had been wearing MOM’S hiking boots! They both have a size 9, but mom’s are a women’s size 9 – oopsie! You can’t blame him though since we had been getting up at 4:30 everyday. It was still really funny though – Gerson laughed so hard that I think he started crying!

After kayaking all morning, Gerson gave us the afternoon off to rest and instead, we went on a night hike to see the jungle at night. It was sort of hard to “rest” though because a group of 11 rafters arrived that day after spending about a week on the river, rafting up to TRC from Puno! After their long trip they all wanted to celebrate so they started drinking around 2 pm. They made so much NOISE. We felt like they came in and invaded the place and acted like they were the only ones there. Mom was SO annoyed with them and called them the “loud mouths”. She even wants to write a letter to their leader to say how inconsiderate she thought they were of the other guests. I understand they wanted to celebrate, but they were really obnoxious. Here we were in this tree-house type lodge in the middle of the jungle and they’re smoking, drinking, and yelling. It completely changed the atmosphere of the place, but luckily we only had one night there with them so it could have been much worse. We thought the party would be going on until 5 am – Peruvian style – but by the time we got back from our walk around 10 pm, it had pretty much died down. I guess that’s what happens when you start drinking at 2 pm. Two people got so drunk they biffed it and passed out! Oh boy.

Since we couldn’t do much resting, we decided to use the time to do some more laundry and take showers – both of which we had perfected over the past few days. Laundry was done by hand of course since there is no electricity out there. We were told not to bring any cotton into the jungle because it would mold, so we only had a few articles of clothing each for the whole week (mom only had one pair of pants because she forgot her rain pants – in Walnut Creek we think. She reminded us at least eight times a day that she was wearing the only pair of pants she had – haha). Because of a lack of clothes, we did laundry just about every afternoon. Dad and I were quite the team at washing, but the problem was drying. Even though the clotheslines were in direct sunlight, it was so humid there that it took FOREVER for anything to dry. Even the pages of our books and notebooks wrinkled from the weather. We learned really fast that “quick-drying” does not apply to the climate in the jungle! We often had to put on wet clothes if we wanted to wear something clean.

Putting on wet clothes was always fun after a COLD shower. Even though I boil water at my site (because it’s so cold outside), I’ve taken cold showers on the coast so I knew what to expect, but mom and dad were a different story. I laughed so hard every time they showered because you could hear them gasping for air! It was always a big effort to take a shower and we would only do it immediately after we got back from a hike and were still hot, otherwise, you can forget about getting in that cold water. Believe it or not, it actually felt refreshing afterwards, even if you were covered in goose bumps! I got to the point where I didn’t mind it so much and even took a shower the last day without having gone for a hike first, but Dad couldn’t bring himself to do it knowing he would have a hot shower the next night! Haha.

Oh yeah, our night hike was awesome! Even though I kept joking that I wanted to camp out in the jungle, I thought it might be a little scary, but I wasn’t scared at all. I’m sure that was because Gerson was so calm and made us feel really relaxed. If I were alone, I probably would have peed my pants. We walked around for two hours looking for snakes, frogs, spiders, and whatever else we could find. Gerson really wanted us to see a spider, but dad is scared of snakes, so lucky for him we didn’t see any. We only had our headlamps and flashlights to see so I was amazed Gerson spoted anything at all – especially because so many of the insects are camouflaged. He asked me to help him spot a snake – yeah right that’s funny – I can’t even see anything in broad daylight! Even though we didn’t see a snake, we saw a lot of cool insects, spiders, and frogs. We also saw a pink-backed tarantula! It was really pretty, believe it or not. It was just sitting on this bamboo shoot and stayed there while we took pictures, but then crawled back inside. Gerson tried to provoke it to come out with a stick, but I guess it was done modeling for us because it didn’t return. I was really amazed how quiet the jungle is at night. During the day, as mom says, “there sure is a lot of raucous in the rainforest,” but at night it is remarkably quiet – besides for some owls and these big rats that make a lot of noise (thank god we didn’t see one of those)!

I think I mentioned in the last entry that our rooms were open to the jungle on one side. Well the first morning we woke up at TRC I saw something strange on one of our shelves in our room where I had a Ziploc bag of snacks and a plastic bag with two granadillas (a fruit with a hard shell that you peel off and eat the juice and seeds inside). As I approached I realized some rodent must have come in our room in the middle of the night because the bag had a hole in it and the shell of one of the granadillas was punctured. Apparently the rodent didn’t like the fruit too much though because it didn’t even finish the fruit and only ate the juice part – the seeds were spit all over the shelf and the other bag of snacks! Needless to say, I threw that stuff away. Luckily that was our only encounter with rodents entering our room (as far as we know), but I’m pretty sure there was a BAT flying around our room the last night when we were at Refugio. I was thrilled about that as you can imagine….of course my parents slept right through it!

Just to give you an idea of all of the flora and fauna in the jungle, here are a few facts Gerson told us:
-20 types of bananas in the area
-645 species of birds in the Tambopata region – approximately the same amount we have in ALL of North America!
-170+ species of mammals and over 60 of those are just bats!

By the way, in case I didn’t mention earlier, the food was AMAZING. It was so nice not to have to worry about food – every meal was provided and they certainly didn’t allow you to go hungry. It was all Peruvian food, but geared towards tourists so there was always meat and a salad. They also were really good about making me a vegetarian option whenever they served red meat. The guides sat with us at all of our meals and we sat with other people who were there on vacation too so we always had really interesting conversations. One of the macaw researchers usually sat with us too. There are two paid researchers who are more permanents and three volunteers who spend four months there. One of them from Mexico City told me I have a Peruvian accent when I speak Spanish so I was really flattered – better than a gringo accent! Their work is really fascinating and they are all around my age so I really enjoyed talking with them. Gerson asked me why I don’t apply to be a researcher, but I reminded him that I’m afraid of birds and would probably have a heart attack before the four months were over!

As you can see by this EXTREMELY long entry I’ve written, we had a WONDERFUL time in the jungle and we were all really sad to leave. One of our last nights, the three of us had a really nice talk with Gerson about how much we enjoyed having him as a guide and how special he made our trip for us. We’re sure it wouldn’t have been nearly as great with another guide. He expressed that he really enjoyed being our guide as well because we were open to anything – mom and dad were such TROOPERS – and we all had a great time. We clicked immediately with him and all just got along so well. We were so grateful to have been placed with him!

Speaking of mom and dad being troopers, we met this brother and sister from Lima whose mom didn’t go with them because she thought she couldn’t do it. Their mom is even a dancer and in pretty good shape and she still didn’t go! The kids asked to take a picture with mom and dad to show their mom that if my parents could do it, so could she!

I loved the jungle so much that I kept joking that I was going to become a guide there. I tried to practice spotting things for my job there and one time I spotted this bird called a Trumpeter. Gerson said they are the most sought after bird for bird watchers and very rare to see – obviously I’m a natural at this! We only saw one (it was walking), but he said they usually travel in groups. Since I thought I was so good at this, one afternoon when just mom and me went out walking, I told them I’d be on the lookout for wildlife while they were checking something out with mom’s camera or something. I told them I saw a Chestnut-bellied parrot, but apparently that doesn’t exist! There is a Chestnut-fronted parrot and a Red-bellied parrot, but no such thing as the hybrid that I invented, the Chestnut-bellied! Haha. We continued to joke about this the entire time though because we like to burry jokes into the ground. Another joke we liked was the white macaw because one morning at the clay lick we saw an egret fly by and Gerson told mom it was a white macaw. She got so excited and tried to take a picture, while Gerson almost fell over laughing because mom is so gullible (not that I’m much better) – white macaws don’t exist either. At least we were entertaining for Gerson, if nothing else. We might not have been the most in shape group of tourists he’s had, but we were always laughing together and having a great time! After all, that’s what counts the most, right?

One last thing, the stars in the jungle were incredible! Since we were 80 km away from civilization (about 10 hours downriver) it was really clear and it felt like you could reach out a touch the stars. We spotted the cruz del sur (the southern cross) the last night so every night after that we made it a point to look for it!

Our last day was spent taking the boat upriver – back to civilization so we could catch our plane to Arequipa. It felt so much hotter when we got back to the main office to claim the rest of our luggage (we had to leave whatever we weren’t going to use) because we were no longer protected from the sun by the canopy. From the office we went straight to the airport and said our goodbyes to Gerson. It was really sad for all of us – including Gerson, but we exchanged contact information, so maybe we’ll see each other again someday….

More Pictures from the Jungle!

2007-06-25T18:15:00.000-07:00

Obviously I'm obsessed with the jungle since I can't stop posting pictures from our trip there! These are a few pictures that my dad took.

Taking a nap before we get on the boat (where I proceeded to fall asleep again)!

Lots of blue and gold macaws, with a few red and yellow and mealy parrots the first day at the Clay Lick (when Gerson snuck us closer!).

A few tayras (part of the wolf family) that came close to the lodge one afternoon.

Some of the chicos hanging out at the lodge - probably looking to steal some food!

Awww look how cute my mom is!

About four howler monkeys hanging out in the tree!

A huge spider we saw on the night walk.

Don't ask me how Gerson spotted this in the dark!

The pink-backed tarantula we saw hanging out on a bamboo shoot on our night hike.

A stick insect - I wonder how it got that name??

The last morning at the Clay Lick with TONS of parrots and a few macaws!

Another shot of the parrots as they started to fly away. Send these shots into National Geographic!

Send Me to the Jungle!

2007-06-08T06:52:00.001-07:00

Well Mom and Dad finally arrived after I've been anticipating their trip for so many months and we've already had an amazing time together. We spent a night in Lima when they first arrived so we were able to visit my old host family in Santa Eulalia. They were as adorable as ever of course. I was SO happy to see them. My parents cried (surprise, surprise) because they just felt so grateful of how much Carmen and her family had welcomed me into their home and included me as part of their family (big change from what things are like now). My Abuelita made arroz con pollo for lunch – one of my favorites – and my parents loved it since she's such a great cook. Then we all sat around talking with them for about 3 hours. I played UNO with Fernando and Naomi while Mom tried to teach Carmen how to use this jewelry making thing we gave to Naomi. Turns out it's really complicated, but Carmen was really into it and is excited about using it! It was hilarious to watch Mom try to explain to Carmen how to use it since they don't speak the same language, but I have to give my mom credit, she does very well for herself with all her crazy hand motions and facial expressions!

Anyway, on to the good stuff. We flew from Lima to spend about a week in the jungle on the Tambopata river. Let me just say that is was absolutely INCREDIBLE!!! It far exceeded my expectations and I can't wait to go back (not that I can afford it, but it's nice to dream). I'm not really sure what I expected actually, but I never thought it would be as much fun as it was.

We were a little worried at first how the trip would pan out because when we arrived at the airport in Puerto Maldonado, no one was there to meet us. There were lots of other people from the company we were using, but no one was holding a sign with our name on it. They were very nice though and took us back to their office to figure out what happened – turns out they weren't expecting us until the next day so when we were arriving at the airport, our guide was at a restaurant eating lunch! We were originally supposed to arrive the next day so there was just some miscommunication somewhere along the way. Our guide showed up about 20 minutes after we got to the office and he was very apologetic. He seemed really nice and told us from the beginning that he promised to give us the best trip he could so we felt like we were in good hands. Plus mom had a crush on him right away. On the 45 minute bus ride to the port (on the river where we caught the boat to the lodge), she kept waving at him and telling me how cute he was! Hahaha.

I'll try to spare you all of the details of the trip since it's already 12:30 am and I need to get up early. I wanted to try and get some stuff written before we get into the next leg of our trip and I forget all of the funny stories I wanted to tell you. The first day we got there we took a 4 hour boat ride down river to the Refugio Amazonas lodge where we spent the night. It was a beautiful boat ride and reminded me of documentaries you see on National Geographic about the jungle. Along the way we saw lots of birds and even a cayman (crocodile)! It was really fun and made me excited for what was to come. When we finally arrived it was already dark so our guides lead us along the path to our lodge. When we emerged from the forest and saw this big beautiful lodge in front of us, I felt like I was in a movie! There is no electricity in the lodge so everything was illuminated by candlelight when we arrived, making it look even more dramatic. They really want you to feel like you're in the jungle so the rooms you stay in are really simple and only have three walls – the other is open to the forest so you don't miss a beat. The rooms are really cute though and all the beds have mosquito nets so you can sleep comfortably without worrying about being eaten alive. They also had a private bath with biodegradable soap and shampoo (I was really impressed). It was sort of like luxury camping!

Our first morning in the jungle, we got up at 5:00 am to go to the Canopy Tower and look for birds. (Little did we know, we actually were "sleeping in" that morning because every other morning we got up at 4:30 to do the same thing!) The tower is about 30 meters high (I think) with 156 stairs (of course mom counted them) and from the top you're about even with the canopy of the rainforest so you can watch for birds. It was really misty when we first arrived, but it cleared up and we actually saw lots of birds – even tucans and macaws (the really colorful parrots that a lot of people have for pets). I thought I wouldn't like it since I'm not really into birds, but it was actually really cool. Our guide brought a telescope so we could look at things closer and he also has a really nice pair of binoculars that he always let us use so we really felt like we saw the birds up close and personal.

We had a private guide for the three of us whose name was Gerson. He is 23 years old and from Puerto Maldonado. He has been working for this company for three and a half years and, in our opinion, is the best guide they have. He was AMAZING! He speaks English beautifully and he has a great sense of humor. We were always joking around and laughing with him, which made the trip that much better. On top of that, he was really knowledgeable of the area and was always telling us interesting facts about the flora and fauna. You would think we were just walking along and he wasn’t paying attention and all of a sudden he’d point out a little frog. I have no idea how he could even spot something like that as it usually took us about 5 minutes to find it even after he had pointed it out! One time when we saw a frog, Mom thought he was pointing out dew drops because she couldn’t see it! Hahahaha.

We were all really impressed by how many things he spotted and were so happy he was our guide. It was really nice for me to have him along too since he’s my age. We had a lot of fun talking and joking around together, plus I got to practice my Spanish because we spoke in Spanish most of the time when we were just talking together. He was also really patient with my parents and all of their picture taking. He even would help us get better shots and at the end of our trip burned a CD for us of all the pictures he had taken. He never made us feel like we were in a rush and had such a confidence in his work that we never felt unsafe for a minute – even while kayaking down the river and walking through the jungle at night! He told us the first day he met us that he would make the trip the best he could for us and he wasn’t kidding. It was better than any of us could have imagined and it was because of him. We liked a few of the other guides (Mom had a crush on one of them, William, and was sad when he left the lodge), but a lot of the other guides we met didn’t seem as fun or dynamic. Gerson had so much energy and enthusiasm and made us really excited about everything we did. I wish I had the money to go back because I would go back in a heartbeat. The chef at the lodge told me he’d pay for my ticket to come back….maybe I should take him up on it!

Anyway, back to the trip. After seeing the canopy tower, we got in a boat again to head further down river to the Tambopata Research Center (TRC). It’s the lodge furthest up river (about 80 km away from civilization) and is the best place to see wildlife. We weren’t supposed to go until the following day, but Gerson suggested we go as soon as possible since it’s a better forest than Refugio. The lodge there was quainter and more intimate, very comfortable. The first night there were only 5 guests there – us and one other couple from San Diego so it was very relaxing. There has been research going on at TRC since 1989 about macaws (the big colorful parrots that lots of people have as pets) and how to protect them because they are often stolen from their natural environment to be sold on the illegal pet market. We watched a video about them and they are incredibly smart birds. The researchers are hoping they can find a way to teach these birds to protect themselves, and in turn, they’ll be able to help lots of the wildlife in the rainforest. I was surprised at how interested I was in their work since I don’t even like birds. It was actually really fascinating though.

As part of their research, they go to this place called the Clay Lick every morning to observe the macaw activity. They have found that macaws go there to eat clay because they believe it supplements their diet. There are many factors that play into whether or not the birds will land – including the weather, potential predators, the time of year (which has to do with the mating season I think), etc. so in order to observe them, we have to arrive before sunrise as to not disrupt their decision to land or not. Therefore, we got up at 4:30 every morning so we could be on the boat by 5 and all set up at the clay lick by 5:15. As you can imagine I was not very excited about this the first day. First of all, I don’t even like birds, second, it was 5 am, and third, I had no idea what to expect. When you first get there, you just sit around on these little camping stools for about an hour, waiting for something to happen. Little by little, some macaws and parrots start arriving in the area to land on the trees nearby and scope out the area. After at least 30 minutes of this, if they have decided the conditions are okay to land, they will fly around doing what the researchers call a “dance” and then they’ll land on the clay lick and start eating the clay.

The first morning we were there, there were a lot of birds, but they kept making the alarm call, which the guides said was unusual. We waited for a while though and they finally decided to land on the right side of the clay lick. We sit facing the center of the lick so we couldn’t see them that well, but our guides broke the rules and took us much closer so we could see them. They set up their telescope and let us use the binoculars to get a good look. It was AWESOME! There were these beautiful blue and gold macaws just sitting there eating clay! We could only stay that close for about 10 minutes because if the researchers saw us, the guides would get in trouble. (Another example of how great Gerson was….other guides would not have brought us closer like that….he was always going out of his way to get us a better look.) They said it was really good activity that day for this time of year so we really lucked out because we weren’t even originally supposed to be there that morning!

As part of the research at TRC, they hand raised about 30 macaws in 1993, which they call the “chicos”. Each one has a tag around it’s foot so they’re easier to identify. Since they were raised by people, these birds are extremely friendly and often come to the lodge (to steal food!) and visit. The first morning we were at the clay lick one of them came and Gerson had it land on my shoulder! Since I’m SCARED of birds, I almost had a heart attack, but I tried to stay calm and just kept laughing! Haha.

The next mornings weren’t very exciting. I don’t even think they landed either of the days, but the last morning was INCREDIBLE! It was like out of a National Geographic special. There were tons of birds everywhere – mostly parrots that day (not many macaws) and it was out of this world. It was a really clear day so we were able to see their colors really well. We tried to get pictures and I even tried to take some video of it with my camera, but nothing comes close to seeing it in real life.

Well I have to leave in about 10 minutes for the rest of our trip and I haven’t even had breakfast yet so I have to stop writing. I’ll write more when I can, but I hope this gives you a good introduction.

Gerson's Pictures from Our Trip

2007-06-08T05:35:00.001-07:00

These photos are one's that Gerson (our guide in case you haven't read the entry yet) took of our trip.

A cayman we saw from the boat on the first day.

Bananas ready to send to the city!

Some tucans we saw from the canopy tower.

Eating termites....GROSS!

A nice view of the river.

One of the chicos that kept following us...he probably wanted some food!

One of the many butterflies we saw.

Sitting at the clay lick, waiting for the birds to arrive (mom and I are laughing about something as usual).

Gerson, Aldo, and William - our three favorite guides (Mom had a crush on William)!

About to take a bite out of a mushroom....just kidding!

A spider monkey flying through the trees.

Another spider monkey.

And still some more....

Howler Monkeys....huge and make a REALLY loud noise!

Dad trying to get a shot of the howler monkeys...hahaha.

Ready to go kayaking!

And now in our boats praying we don't capsize.

Yeah, I'm a professional.

Mom being a "windmill" in her kayak....hahaha.

In action on a little creek.

Dad and me in our kayak.

Another cayman we saw while we were kayaking....look how close we got!

Lots of parrots on the clay lick the last day!

Mealy parrots (light green) and Red and Green Macaws (or Scarlet)....awesome, huh?

The butt of a Capybara (largest rodent) that we saw on the boat ride back to civilization.

Lots and Lots of Photos!

2007-06-07T22:23:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from our trip to the rainforest and a few from Arequipa. Mom and Dad both have a lot more so when I get them I'll post more, but for now, I wanted to get some up here. Enjoy!

Ready for the jungle in the COOL mosquito hat my parents bought for me (luckily I never had to wear it because my Dad lost his and had to use mine....oh darn).

A view of the Tambopata River from the airplane (we went about 80 km up river).

Mom and me enjoying our first lunch on the river....arroz chaufa in banana leaves (because they're biodegradable and you can throw them in the water when you're done).

The sunset as we were arriving at the lodge.

Our room - open to the rainforest (I'm pretty sure a bat was flying around our room the last night....I was excited).

The lodge at Refugio Amazonas.

The sunrise the first morning at the Clay Lick (waiting for the macaws to arrive).

One of the "chicos" (hand-raised macaws) landed on my shoulder.....I almost had a heart attack!

Mom eating termites because Gerson made us. He told us everyone has to do it, but asking around we found out were were the only ones who did....thanks Gerson!

An upclose shot of a macaw, another one of the chicos, who followed us on our hike for a little while.

Jaguar prints - this is as close as we got to one, although I like to pretend that I saw one.

Looking HOT in my jungle clothes while walking through about six inches of mud....thank god for the rubber boots!

Dad trying to manuever his way through the mud without dropping his paparazzi camera.

Awwww look how cute my parents are!

Two macaws and TONS of parrots - mostly chesnut bellied ones ;) - on the clay lick our last morning.

Gerson holding the frog he scared me with on our last morning. (This is right before it almost peed all over me!)

A view of Lake Titicaca from the airplane (we landed there before going to Arequipa, but we're not visiting it for a few more days).

Another beautiful shot from the airplane.

Landing in Arequipa - look at the mountains in the background!

Mom, me, and Dad with the terraces and Misti volcano (Arequipa) in the background.

Visiting the Santa Catalina convent.

Posing with our new tour guide....hahaha....we miss Gerson!

Out for hot chocolate and crepes...yum! And yes, I'm sporting my new baby alpaca scarf.

One More Update

2007-05-29T15:26:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

An Update Before My BIG TRIP!!!

2007-05-22T18:10:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

2007-05-07T18:21:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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