A day in the life...

Hi again! I actually went to the cafe today to do some research but the website is down... Urgh. Anyway, I have gotten an email or two asking questions about what I do on a day-to-day basis so I'm going to describe the last 24 hours.........
OK, 4pm yesterday.. I was in class! We have class from 8-5 everyday from Monday to Friday and 8-12 on Saturday. Yesterday we learned about our CDA activity which requires that we chat it up with various members of the community (people that we meet in the plaza, the street, the grocery store, etc.) and talk to them about religion, economics, organizations in the area, health, you know, normal small talk. From this, we are going to come up with an idea of what to do in the community and in groups of 2-5 we are going to design, organize, and execute a public service type event. So, that was overwhelming.
So, then I came here for an hour with some friends that live in my neighboorhood so that I could find my way home, and yes, I did. I got there and Brian and Tsutsuy were heading out of the barrio to go to our friend Lauren's birthday party. We decided to go but check in with the host families first. Mine wasn't expecting me to be out so late but it turned out that she had left and the daughter was hanging out waiting for me.
That's one thing that's pretty different that we have all had to get used to. We don't have cell phones or really access to regular phones so if we don't tell our family where we are going, we can't go until we tell them. I live 20 minutes walking away from the training center and there are others that live 20 minutes walking in the other direction so this gets to be a logistical problem. Also, no one really wants to walk by themselves that distance because of the stray dogs that come at you and the scary men (if you're a woman) we usually carry rocks to throw at the dogs or walking sticks to keep them back with.
OK, so then I went to the par-tay, which was moving out of the house and in to the calle. We decided to find a bar and ended up at a place that had space for maybe 25 tables of four but had four. There was a small counter selling sodas and beer and a bunch of men playing cards, ten motorcycles outside, and maybe 15 women lined up outside chillin'. We decided this would be a fine place to purchase beverages and sit at the other two tables in the place.
Then, we went to a restaurant! Asking the lady that worked there, she said the only place was Chosica but the guy at the pay phone said there was one down the road by the cruces. Don't know what that means so I asked him to estimate the meters and he said 200. Two blocks of aimlessly wandering later, we found the restaurant and for four soles each, we got about a quarter of a chicken, a large mound of fries, and a nice looking salad. Everyone was afraid to eat the salad for fear of dysentary but I decided to eat the whole thing. (And I'm fine. And it was really good) That was all for the night and we went home to the familias.
At the casa my host mom was asleep which was annoying because I needed to ask her questions for my homework. Luckily, a host sister who I've rarely talked to was up watching TV so I asked the perfect just before bed question. What do you think about the current political and social situation of Peru? What can you tell me about terrorism in Peru? Yep, that was definitely the first homework assignment I got for my spanish language class! Anyway, it wasn't to bad, if a little awkward. And I ended up talking with her and the other sister who I haven't talked to that much. So, all in all, a good experience. Except for the terrorism.
In the 80's there was a lot of terrorism from the Sendero Luminoso group and then Alan Garcia became president and decided to fight fire with fire and send all the military forces to get the terrorists. You should look it up but it was a lot of violence, starting in the country towns and progressing to Lima and the larger cities. FYI: the areas where volunteers are placed suffered no or very little terrorist activity. And, again, this has ended, else we wouldn't be here.
OK, bed time after that. Then at 6am I met Casey for a nice run in the neighborhood. We ran for about 40 minutes and only got chased by about six dogs so that was good. Don't worry, I have my rabies shot. Although that's just because I happen to already have gotten it before I left. I got back and took my shower in a bucket (at least it was hot water! Exciting times!) And ate a breakfast of a roll and honey, instant coffee, and evaporated milk. Then to meet the friends for class and walk twenty minutes to the training center (by ourselves for the first day!)
At 8am was the classes of language and culture. We discussed terrorism and politics and then played a game which really just checked if we had read about the mini-project. We hadn't. But, I was the last one to play and this meant that I got a chocolate. Very exciting. I like that game.
Then we watched a movie on terrorism and the Sendero Luminoso in Peru. Very sad and stressful emotionally. Immediately after that we had to join the rest of the group and think of a game to play for a field day of sorts that we are having on Friday. This was a bit of a difficult transition by the way.
I'm on the red team and we made a cheer, "Rojo! Rojo! Mejor que todos!" Yep, pretty good, I know. Then, lunch time.
Because of some reason or another, I got two lunches. I brought one, which I though was going to be my boxed lunch. But, then she brought another one. So, I don't know. I had an enormous amount of food. Two ham on roll sandwhiches, two bananas, a cup of salad (lettuce, tomato, limon), rice, potato, beef or something, and pineapple juice with extra water and sugar. My goodness.
Then we had technical training time. This is when we talked to the community health person about tomorrow. We are going to the Ministry of Health in different places in groups of four. There we are to do something. It sounds complicated. I know part of it entails finding a point of contact in the community and setting up a health activity of some sort so we can write a lot about it. And then we broke up into groups to work on our presentations that are due next week. One on holistic health (yoga for me!) and development organizations (pan american health and education foundation for me!)
Ok, one hour up... I'm out.