Training is over!

Training is over and my two years of work in the mountains begins... Instead of giving you a bunch of words about training – here are pictures to summarize:

There I am at the training center about to meet my host family. The first couple weeks of living with my host family was...umm, interesting. Imagine if someone from a different culture and background was suddenly dropped into your family, sharing all meals, the bathroom, etc. Add that I didn’t speak much Spanish other than “where is the bathroom” – things were a bit awkward at first. At meals, there was a lot of silence and looking at each other – followed by hand gestures…lots of hand gestures.

View from my room: yeah, it was nice. You can make out the cactuses a little bit – Lima is a dessert and therefore there are a lot of things desserts have, like cactuses.

Fiestas: During the religious ones, they like to have firework displays. This photo shows a guy with a papier-mâché bull on top of his head, dancing around while sparks are going every which way possible. A liability nightmare in the States.

There’s my “boss” – Alfredo. I don’t really have a boss though – which is one reason Peace Corps is probably a good fit for me. I make my schedule, I get things done the way I think they should get done. I submit quarterly reports about my progress. Once I’m done with Peace Corps, I think I’ll either have to start my own business or find a job that permits this much freedom. It’s certainly where I excel – since sometimes I might be a bit unorthodox.

At the training center, there is an informal group picture of all the groups (we are Peru 9). They receive a lot of attention, because as a soon-to-be-volunteer, you're interested in who has been there before you (and who might be cute). Sooo, we decided to grow out mustaches for the photo. Everyone loves a mustache right? They’re funny (unless you actually sport a stache, then I guess they’re normal). There are 3 older people in the photo, two are staff, the other is a volunteer.

Those are the jokers that will be living near me in the mountains. At this time, I should redefine “near me” – that now means within 2 to 4 hours of traveling time. These guys are going to be my wingmen, hiking buddies, and closest American friends for the next two years.

Learning the lingo – These are two of the ladies that made those conversations at the dinner table a little less awkward. The language professors here are great. I’ve never felt so cared about by my teachers before in my life. They really get you up to speed quickly. The background is a pool – that’s our training center (but we weren’t allowed to swim in it…)

Every Saturday during training we had this nuisance called “Agaria”. Since Peru has a multitude of climates – they pretty much grow everything and that's what we learned about. Usually I just zoned out during this time unless it was hands on. Did you know that asparagus takes a year or more to grow until it can be harvested? Bees are a popular here due to the flora – they are great for income generating activities. (all those dots on me are bees)

Don't just stand there, bust a move.

Straight up rocking out. Luckily, one of the volunteers was put with a host family that liked to party. The dad is nicknamed “loco chichi” – which means crazy tit. That's Ginnie and Steve grooving with me. Steve is one of the "retired" people that Peace Corps is marketing towards right now. His reason for joining, Peace Corps is always something he wanted to and he doesn't want to be one of those people who can only say that he wanted to do it.

The family! The family culture took a little while to get used to because it felt as if I were back in high school – always telling someone where I’m going, when I’ll be home, etc. After awhile you accept it and have a great time. I’ll definitely miss them – but luckily we come into Lima often and I’ll get to visit. Mama Lydia cried when I left and Papa Santiago told me to keep my key because it's my house too...

That's me on the right - slightly skinnier than my former USA-self. I've lost 8 lbs and I'm down one belt loop. Due to the food here and the heaping portions of rice and potatoes, guys usually lose weight and girls gain it. There really aren't too many gyms I can go maintain muscle either.

Motivational, right? That's where I'll be living (though it takes about an hour to get there). Those lakes and mountains decorate the entire area of where I'm living.

Now comes the interesting part for me. The Peace Corps experience is what you make it. Everyone has a different experience, but the themes remain the same. We are here to serve our communities and participate in cross-cultural exchange. One of my favorite quotes is by Shaw, “Life is not about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” To use this picture as a metaphor, all of events have led up to this and I’m getting in the boat and starting to row. Carpe diem, verdad?

Thanks for reading!

-Jake

The earthquake in Peru

I’ve received a lot of questions about the recent 8.0 earthquake that's been all over the news. How did it affect me? Will it affect what I’m doing in the Peace Corps? Am I doing relief work now? Et cetera.

The earthquake did a lot of damage about 90 miles south of Lima in an area called Pisco and Ica. The town of Pisco was hit by a tsunami that went about 10 blocks into the city – leaving 295 of the 310 boats somewhere within the city (so only 15 are operational right now). Aftershocks are felt daily, some strong enough that when the inhabitants feel them, they run to high ground. Over a quarter of the houses in Ica and Pisco were completely destroyed and about half are structurally unsafe now, especially with all the aftershocks. There is also a large prison in Ica and 600 convicts escaped (which might cause some of the looting - or it might just be the lack of food, etc). The town is reporting that most are captured, but no one down here believes them.

During the earthquake I was in a combi – the mode of public transportation down here. They are bigger than a van but smaller than a bus. Think of a short bus without the handicapped sign. We were stopped for the quake but our van was rocking back and forth that made me feel as if I were in a rap video in a pimped-out combi with hydraulics.

Unfortunately, the amount of help that I can give is about the same amount as others – even though I’m 90 miles away. Peace Corps is not relief work – they are a development organization. There are 7 volunteers placed in the Pisco-Ica area, and they are all planning on returning to the site to continue to work once the sites are deemed safe. Peace Corps takes many precautions regarding volunteer’s safety, so we are not able to take part in much of the clean-up work. Most volunteers are recently graduated college kids and if Peace Corps wants to keep volunteers coming in, they have to take a lot of precautions. Crisis Corps, which is the relief-hand of Peace Corps is looking into ways that they can help. I’ll still be going to the mountains (in one week).

The best thing that anyone can do is donate money to the relief agencies and right now our office is looking into which ones are reputable and committed to staying. After a big disaster like this you see a bunch of relief agencies and NGO’s putting their hands all over it hoping for some press time. Usually there is no shortage of help with the beginning process of relief work. The main question is which of those helping hands are going to stay longer than 6 months? Or longer than a year? Once the sexy part is over and the news agencies no longer care about the area, what agencies are going to continue helping rebuild infrastructure and get the area’s economy going again?

Earthquakes are pretty normal in this area. About every 30 years a big one hits. Most of the houses are built to withstand earthquakes but the poorer houses that are only adobe are easily destroyed. The area I'll be living for the next two years had a really bad earthquake in 1970 that killed about 100,000 people. One town of 18,000 was completely covered by a mudslide, which is about 15 miles from where I'll be living - but fear not, I think this was the big one for the next thirty years.

Feliz Cumpleanos

I recently turned 26 – almost entering those ‘late 20’s’. I figured I would write a quick summary of the festivities of the night and provide a few pictures.

Luckily, we were still in training, so I was able to celebrate with the other volunteers. However, we were in our last week of training, so not everyone was able to make it to the party. Coincidentally, my host brother happens to have the same birthday – all the more reason for my usually conservative host parents to want to throw down. During the day while I was at training, they moved all the furniture out of the living room, put balloons everywhere, completed with strobe lights and a disco ball.

Fiestas here have the Latin American tendency of starting late. Since we had a big party the night before (another birthday party) and we had a thousand other things to do with the last week of training, most of us wanted to have a good time about 4 hours before the Peruvians wanted to have a good time.

Around 10:30pm, my host mom asked me when I wanted to eat. I assumed she meant the 3 cakes she had made – then she said no and showed me all the food (chicken, potatoes, and some other stuff). Before the party, I told her there would be about 30 people there…and she made food for 50 – and I didn’t even know that there would be food. She told me I should have assumed there would be food because we’re in Peru…oops. Hence, my host family and I ate chicken for the next few days. (pic is my host family during training)

We ate, drank, and were merry. My host dad opened up a bottle of Pisco (Peruvian liquor made from grapes) that he had been saving for 3 years. The music was mixed with American music and Latin American music. We stayed up till about 2:30am singing and dancing. Up at 7am the next day. Can I start saying I'm too old for stuff like this?

My new home - the long voyage

Upon arriving in Peru, all the volunteers haven’t the slightest clue where we might be going for our two years of changing the world. I can write with confidence that we are all wide-eyed, excited, confused, scared, thrilled, and uncertain. The best comparison I can think of is the move-in day at college. The best assumption you can make about this group of people is that they are all risk-takers – which makes for a good group.

After arriving with a group of complete strangers, we undergo a fairly intense training schedule. The actual training isn’t that tough – but when you add the fact that you have just turned your life upside-down, things take on a different difficulty level. After 8 weeks into training, that group of strangers becomes a little less strange and the unique experience you are sharing creates a distinctive bond. The big event in week 8 though – we find where we’re going for two years. (pic: some of the business volunteers)

Most of us have an idea of where we’d like to go, but our idea is confined to coastal or mountains – hot or cold. In my case, I didn’t really care – I just wanted good scenery. The day before learning your site you remember what it was like to be a kid the night before Christmas – and what a refreshing feeling that is. One of my personal fears as I get older is that all those emotions that I enjoy are crowded out by experience as we get older – and this gave me a certain feeling I haven’t had in awhile.

The long voyage of where I’m living is not that it takes a long time to get to my site – it doesn’t. The long voyage is the road that has led me to receiving my site assignment. Peace Corps – once you wash away the stereotypes or your feelings of the American government, is a an amazing opportunity and experience. A tough question is who gets more out of the Peace Corps - the communities where we serve or the volunteers? Once deciding to join the Peace Corps, the voyage of getting to this point is long and arduous. The voyage to making the decision to join the Peace Corps is even longer and tougher – which will be for another blog entry.

My site assignment is Tarica, Ancash (pic to the left is Huaraz - the main city, I'm 30 minutes north). What does that mean? That means the second highest mountain range in the world. It means living at 11,000 feet with breathtaking snow-capped mountains surrounding me. It also means working with very poor individuals who do not welcome change – though they want better lives for themselves and their children. While I’m learning Spanish, I’ll also begin learning another language, Quechua –the native language of the Andes and the Incas. My primary work will be with an association of potters (ceramtistas). My secondary work will be whatever I decide to get into – though it’ll probably deal with the school in the town and other small businesses in the area. I will have electricity and running water - but that's about it.

What does this mean for people who want to visit? Tarica (Huaraz) is an 8 hour bus-ride from Lima. I am quite lucky, most other volunteers are twice that. It also means that if you happen to be in Lima, it might be possible for me to come and meet you there. As I already mentioned, I’m in the mountains. This area is arguably the best trekking spot on the continent – if you like huge snow-capped mountains that razor their way through lush green valleys decorated with crystal glacial lakes.

Ancash is a difficult spot for volunteers due to the conservative mindset of the people who live here. Superstitions abound and getting a good education is like catching a butterfly. The Peruvian hour lives strongly here (think island time) and things happen very slowly. My mom has always told me I need more patience - so this will be a great opportunity for me.

I have two weeks of training in Lima – then I move up to the mountains to begin my two years of service at the end of August. That's a picture of Peru - the shaded is the department of Ancash.

Things I'm getting accustomed to:

Things I’m getting accustomed to:

- Throwing toilet paper in the trash can next to the toilet. Only things that have at one time been put into your mouth go into the toilet. It is okay if the entered item decides to come back out of you mouth after wreaking havoc in your stomach.

- Roosters: The roosters next door no longer wake me up at 4 or 5 in the morning.

- Animals on rooftops: Here, many people keep their pets on their roof – otherwise they wander around in the street and try to bite me when I jog by. Popular animals on roofs are of course, dogs, but also roosters, turkeys, guinea pigs, rabbits, and a caged bird or ten. (for example, my neighbor and host cousin feeding dogs and roosters)

- Misunderstandings – cultural and language barriers. If a woman offers you food and you turn it down, you are not communicating that you are not hungry, instead you are implying that you do no like her. If a man offers you beer or some other alcohol and you turn it down, because it’s 10 a.m. or you are going to teach a class, it’s not that you want to wait to have a beer later that night, it’s that you don’t like him. (luckily I haven’t had to deal with the booze at 10am yet…only at parties or nighttime events)
o There should actually be about 20 or 30 devoted to misunderstandings…

- Dogs in the street – this is something I will never understand (two months or two years). People think its okay to let their pets wander around the streets as if they were all their own individual country house with 20 acres for their animals. Due to this, you see dogs, hear dogs, and smell dogs all the time. Watch your step!
o Some municipalities have resorted to putting poison in the street for the dogs…similar to how you might leave rat poison around the basement/attic.

- Kisses on the cheek. This we all know about (I think). This culture, when a man greets a woman, or a woman greets a woman, you kiss on the cheek. Except in the mountains, people are more reserved there and they look at you funny when you do that (yes, personal experience speaking). People don’t really hug that much – which I don’t like, since I like to hug-it-out. Hugs are good on holidays though. I use my fellow volunteers to meet my hug quota.

- Pirated entertainment: Finding the original cd or dvd is very difficult – but don’t worry, you can find a copy on most street corners. I spent 30 sols ($10) on 3 dvd’s and 7 cd’s the other day. Haven’t bought porn yet, but there is plenty out there.

- Open conversations about bowel movements – I don’t think we have it nearly as bad as a lot of Peace Corps Volunteers on the food front. Peru has amazing food and on the list of countries – we’re pretty high on the health aspect. That said, Peru is still considered a “third-world country” and everyone here has had some sorta explosion, so we all enjoy sharing our experiences.

- PDA… I’ve never really had a problem with PDA and don’t care much if I see people making out. However, there are a lot of people that do care and you don’t see much other than hand holding, snuggling, or a peck here or there on the streets in the USA. That’s because you have privacy and can touch all you want in your own room/house/apt. Here, everyone lives with their family until married and you’re not allowed to have the opposite sex in your room. Hence; make-out bandits everywhere.

- Privacy, or lack thereof – see above statement. My room has a window facing into the house where everyone can see into it if they wish.

- Picking nose in public. This isn’t a surprise either. If you’ve been to Europe, it’s no big deal. In the dusty environment of Lima and its surroundings, Peruvians keep their nails short except for that pinky finger. Take a guess at what that’s devoted to?

I could write plenty more, but that’s enough for now. Here are some pics:

ummm....waterfall

This is cuy (cu-ee) - or in English, Guniea Pig. It's actually pretty damn good.

- 4th of July, we had games (like dodgeball) all day. That's the victory team right there.

There is the highest tropical mountain in the world.