I’m still in Peru

So, it’s been a long time since I’ve written… Sorry about that. I actually have a good reason for not writing as frequently but it’s a secret so you’ll have to email to figure out what it is… :)

Anyway, I’m not sure how or why but electricity seems to be a more consistent thing in San Marcos now and since the telephone pole in front of my house is all fixed, I am now working hard on the radio show. After some hang-ups, I think we have the times all worked out and people have told me that they are going to be listening.

Next Tuesday I will be stalking most anyone I know though to get them to listen…and then stalk the radio to make sure they transmit the show (‘cause both have been known not to happen, though most of my concern lies with the latter action not happening.)

Well, good things and bad things have happened since I last wrote. The school garden we started is now producing lots of vegetables and looks good. But the cool-yo meeting that I was supposed to have on Thursday to coordinate with all of the professors in the area is not going to happen…at all. Yesterday, (Thursday) I was up and going to Chavin at 6am but still managed to miss the professor to ask her if the meeting was still on. So, I figured out where “Quercos” was and even found a woman who was going there too so we could find a ride together (this entire process took two hours so don’t think it was a walk in the park). I finally get to this town…to the school…and no one knows what I’m talking about. Yes, there is often a meeting at the end of the month but no one has told them when and its certainly not going to happen today. Awesome.

So, I walk down the highway for a half an hour and find myself at the base of the “Tanin” hill when I realize that my week of unanswered phone calls, meetings that don’t exist, and trips that may or may not happen will all be resolved if I walk twenty minutes up this hill… So, I do.

Just as expected I’m greeted with a, “Hey Amanda! How are you doing?” [aka-oblivious to the fact that we might have had an important meeting scheduled for today whereupon they had told me I was to make a two hour presentation.] I ask about the meeting and they tell me that oh no, it was never scheduled for today, it was scheduled for Saturday.
Me: “Oh, so we’re going to have the meeting on Saturday, then?”
Them: “Oh no, we probably won’t have it until March.”
Me: “Right.”
And so it goes…

So, I walk down the hill, continue another fifteen minutes up the road to another town I’ve never been to and go to my Plan B meeting (because I kinda figured that Plan A might not work out). It was a nutrition “training” for health promoters by another NGO that has recently come to, well, Ancash, it appears. They are basically doing the same thing I am so I’ve been trying to meet with the coordinator ever since I’ve heard of them to work together….seeing as they are cooler than me anyways.

Therefore, at the end of my very not productive and very frustrating day, a ray of light came down and hopefully I can coordinate with ADRA because it appears there is mutually beneficial work to be done. Yay. Unfortunately, I was very tired at this point so they may think that they have agreed to work with a sort of zombie type being.

Anyway, I peaced out of the workshop early to run back to San Marcos, find my counterpart to run a document over to the elementary school (by the way, that didn’t work out either… in another famous conversation with the c.p. I said, “Hi Marleny!” and she said, “I’m going to lunch.”
“So, tomorrow then?”
“Uh.”)
Good and bad, productive and not, another day in the Cuerpo de Paz.

Then there was light…

Fun Spanish Fact: When the electricity goes out, the proper phrases is actually “Se fue la luz” which means “the light left.” When it’s working again, everyone says, “llegó la luz” or “the light arrived.”

Ok, anyway, when I got back to San Marcos after my little stint in the states, everything seemed perfectly normal. Sure, the light would go out when it was raining in the afternoon, but that was often just a preventative measure from the provincial capital of Huari to not have any serious problems. But after three days of a collective four hours of “luz,” it was seeming like something was wrong.

Now, to put this a little more into perspective, for the first time in my Peace Corps service, I actually do need electricity for my work. Just last week I officially started the “Las Chicas de Conchucos” radio show which transmits twice a week in the district of San Marcos (soon to reach the district of Chavin! What, what). Anyway, during a training from the Peace Corps, we were given a computer program which aids in editing for radio shows so basically, a much better is made if we record it on the computer, edit it with the program, and then burn a cd and put that on the radio. This processes is just a tad more difficult if I don’t have at least three hours of electricity to edit the half hour show. One, I don’t really know how to work this program (anyone know what “pan” means?) and two, well, I’m a perfectionist (you’d never know it from the finished product, though… J )

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Blog reader participation time!!
If you know how to upload sound files to the blog, tell me and I’ll try to upload some radio shows to the blog!
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Ok, so, if San Marcos doesn’t have light, well, less work for me! But, as I was walking around Thursday afternoon, I noticed that the radio was going, lights were on, it was party time. Whoa! Light! So I rushed back to the casa to find, nope, still no light.

But, what? San Marcos has electricity… And why is the telephone pole outside of the house at a forty-five degree angle? Hmm…A little asking around and I learn that a car ran into the telephone pole outside of our house and therefore we are not going to have electricity because they broke the cable. Oh, awesome. I wouldn’t normally mind but that fact that San Marcos has light means I should be putting out a radio show and I’m leaving for Thanksgiving vacation on Monday so I need to have two shows finished to give the radio station for the week that I’m not going to be here. So, aaaah!

Anyway, today is Sunday, and the light was fixed and in the mean time, I was able to go to the missionary’s houses to try and get light so I already have one show done. Yay!

Next show isn’t done at all so I have to go out and do some interviews… Hopefully the luz will hold. Tsutsu was going to come over this morning but it looks like that’s not going to happen so… anyone have ideas of how to put on an interesting and informative show about iron and anemia? Anyone?

“Everyday is a winding road..”

Ok, that was dumb to use song lyrics for a title but I won’t do it again, at least for a while…
Well, today was full of surprises at every turn (hence the title, ha). I went to visit my counterpart this morning because I finally had nothing better to do (and I was still two hours later than I had planned to arrive, merely because being around this woman is usually not a pleasant experience) and everything started out as status quo. It took about ten minutes to find her, she ignored me until I finally called out, “When would be a good time to talk to you?” and she barked back, “In a half an hour.” Awesome, I’ll just be here, in the hallway, sitting on the stretcher listening to the walkie-talkie system (“Huari-huari-huari-huari-huari” well, it sounds a lot funnier that it looks written down). But, in a strange turn of events, she came out about 15 minutes later and we went to the pharmacy, I gave her a photo album I had picked up in the states (thanks, Mom!) and we commenced to discuss the communication mix-up that had been going on the last three weeks. She had lost the paper that said when I was going on vacation and when I would be back and I hadn’t been text messaging to the correct number so we had both been responsible people in the situation but neither party knew what was going on. Anyway, I was back and we fixed the phone number in my phone so all is well, and we had a good laugh. . . WHAT? I dunno but I saw her smile perhaps ten times and maybe even a chuckle. I guess that healthcare strike is doing her some good. (That’s right folks, I said healthcare strike.)
Second, surprise of the day: I go to the radio station. The day before I left for the states I turned in a “promotional” CD of three different informational commercials to promote the new show that I’m starting. I go to the radio to find the guy in charge (I’ve forgotten his name again) so when I ask for him I just say, “the guy in charge” (el encargado for those of you wondering). Well, they say he’s in the back room so I walk back there to find three young men, so I say, “No he’s not.”
“Yes, he is.” (Well, this isn’t going anywhere)
The fiscal from the municipality comes out of the room and says, “I’m in charge”
Me: “No you’re not.”
Him: “Are you looking for Norbis?”
Me: “Um, yes?” (Remember, I forgot this guy’s name.)
Him: “That’s me.”
Me: “Oh, then no.”
Him: “Well, then who?”
Me: “Um, the old guy who was here?”
Him: “Oh yes, _______, he left.”
Me: “WHAT?!?!? But I was, we were, I, um, I was going to have a program on your radio station, did he mention anything about that?”
Him: “No.”
Me: “Do you have a CD that I dropped off for him or anyone?”
Him: “Nope, no idea what you’re talking about.”
Me: “Right, so I was wondering if I could start a show on your radio station…”

Square one. Nice, I love square one. The only square I see these days.
Anyway, square one might be pushed up to square five pretty soon because this guy has no problem with me starting on Tuesday. So since the Tsutsu is busy I’m basically doing the whole thing. I’m thinking Vitamin A day. Some interviews, a skit (the story of Anita and the Vitamin A fairy, you know, an old classic), and a vitamin A – packed recipe. Woohoo!
Turn number three: I’m walking home from my big day (ok, not that big) and I meet an engineer (who I kinda recognized). And he asks me (don’t we all get this question now and again), “Would you like to go to a gender equality workshop?”
“When?”
“Right now.”
“Oh, until when?”
“Two o’clock.”
“Um, OK.”
So, off we go! It was actually one of the best workshops I’ve ever attended in San Marcos. When I got there everyone was in a group and writing down examples of inequality in genders. Then, we did two fun activities to get everyone’s energy back, then we presented our papers we had made, then we had another activity, then we broke into groups to demonstrate what we had learned and then we reflected. Non-formal education at it’s best. I almost shed a tear.
One of the interesting things that was pointed out during the “inequality in gender” presentation was that each groups perspective on gender issues varied just a little bit. It seemed that the older the median age of a group was, the inequality between genders grew less extreme. For example, a group of men (perhaps 60s) started out their exposition with the fact that “the only difference between the genders is biological [ok, that’s my phrasing]” and went on to note that men and women both complete distinct but equally necessary roles in the family life. Sounds like everything is great, no? The girls (median age ~10) wrote on their paper “if the wife leaves the house without permission from her husband, it is OK for him to beat or mistreat her.” A bit of a different perspective..
It was interesting to see not only these two extremes but also how each group in the middle did gradually grow in their claims of inequality.
I thought it was a very productive workshop and I hope that this organization can continue following-up with their good work in this group of people. I’m hoping to do all that I can to aid them in this because it was such a good start and such a wonderfully discussion creating atmosphere that I don’t want it all to be forgotten.
Anyway, that was my day. Then I went home and made my family eat a salad of broccoli, radishes, and lettuce. (This was difficult. I thought they might have me committed when they discovered I wasn’t going to cook the broccoli, and then the radishes?!?!) But, success was made when everyone had a big serving with dinner! Yay! And I somehow avoided dinner and just got to eat my salad. Double yay! (My host-mom is an excellent cook but I just don’t like tallerín night…)

Back to Work

Well, I had an early start to my first day back in site. I had to be in a small town, about an hour and a half from my house, at 8am in the morning. Even though I went to bed on time, I vetoed the idea of showing up at 8 in the morning when I decided not to leave until 7:30am. I guess I knew, even then, that this really wasn’t going to happen. I got to Chavin and happened to find an engineer who is also working in Tanin and was headed up there so we took the Combi together and were about to embark on the hike when a mother (from Tanin’s school) ran up to tell me that there was no class today. Oh, great. Well, you know what I did? I went up anyways, at this point I was excited about the forty minute hike and even had a friend to accompany me AND he had a camera and is going to give me the photos of the garden that I wanted to document. So, I went.
As a birthday / early Christmas present from the folks, I also now own a watch that tells me what altitude that I am at! And I can’t figure out how to change it from meters into feet so the readings are still understandable to all you United States people… :) My town, according to my watch (which hasn’t been calibrated in a while) is 9,182 ft. and at the end of my hike to Tanin it was 10,770 ft. Not bad for my first day back, no?
Anyway, I had to get down in a hurry because I still had to turn in some letters to another community on the other side of San Marcos (as in two combi rides and an hour and a half hike away) before the rains came (they come anywhere from noon to five…). So I ran over to San Marcos, dropped off my stuff in a store (random, but it’s about thirty minutes for me to run down to my house and back to the plaza and in rainy season I just don’t have that kind of time!) and set off. The health post at Carhuayoc is at 10, 084 ft. (this watch is so much fun!) and I walked all the way up and down. Well, at the end of the day, I learned two things:
1) Check, double check, and triple check appointments to the campo (I did know this before hand, just a post-states brain fart, I guess)
2) Hiking in the most non-supportive shoes you can find is not appreciated by your feet. (In the states I finally got shoes that are comparable to the ones people where hear so I could fit in more and now I really don’t know how they walk up these mountains everyday. Still have yet to try the yanquis which are the even more campo sandal that is just made from cut up tires.)

Rest of the day:
· Went home and cut up the broccoli that I didn’t use in my nutritional session today and almost escaped what was really for lunch: potatoes, rice, and tuna. We compromised as I ate a broccoli, potato, and tuna concoction (all three food groups!) That’s right, there are only three food groups in Peru.
· Took a nap, sorry, still recovering from all those night buses and airplane rides that got me here.
· Practiced knitting a cable-knit thing that my mom gave me directions for.
· Learned various philosophy ideas such as Cogito ergo sum, and the veil of perception (book I just bought at Borders, yay!)
· Gave family presents from the states.
· Played soccer with a tiny Disney princess ball with my host-sister and some how knocked over a soup bowl about five times (no matter where we put it). Might have had something to do with the fact that we were playing in the kitchen.
· Watched part of Harry Potter 5, oh so dubbed in Spanish.
· Electricity went out approx. four times during the day.
· We currently have no water.
Not your average Friday?

Sitting in… Starbucks?

I’m all for boosting the local economy but as long as Starbucks is all for free wireless, well, I’m in.

So, yes that’s right, I’m in Peru and yet in one of the great American wonders, complete with coffee of the day and cream-cheese brownie. My Peace Corps experience is definitely varied from other volunteers I know.

Lima is one of the anomalies of this country, a New York like city of 8 million (almost a third of Peru’s entire population of 27 million) in a country with the second largest city populated by a mere 850,000 so, although Lima has a plethora of sophisticated options for well, life, much of the population continues to live in levels of poverty or extreme poverty. (The World Bank defines moderate poverty as living on less than US$2 per day and extreme poverty as living on less than US$1 per day.) Extreme poverty is also defined as the most severe state of poverty, where people cannot meet basic needs for survival, such as food, water, clothing, shelter, sanitation, education and health care. Anyway, Peru has a unique situation.

I’m leaving for Huaraz tonight at 10:40pm and apparently have to buy the tickets by 4pm. This is an inconvenience of Peru, especially in Lima. It will cost approximately 20 soles (probably more) to go over to the bus station (p.s. in a shady part of town) buy a ticket, and then go back. I think this is silly and I’m currently working on a plan to get around it. Right now I’m going with calling them about 3:30pm and feigning a missed bus to say that I will be in Lima and at their station at 8pm. Hopefully this is OK.

In the middle of all this, my computer is acting like an idiot which is not fun.

Just another day in the Peace Corps…



October 23, 2007

In the Atlanta airport…

Well, I’m in the EEUU. I’m still not excited. I think something is wrong with me. Well, I get excited over unexpected little things, like standing in line for a cinnamon latte and a scone, and taking out some dollars that I had stashed in my med kit for the past year and I got to use it. And then I got change back in dollars too. Yeah, I was way too excited about the whole thing. I was also excited that I knew how to get where I needed to go in the Hartsfield-Jackson airport, which is not hard but for the first time in a long time I knew where I was going and no one assumed that I didn’t. Those two do NOT happen for me in Peru.
When I first arrived to my site, almost a year ago, I was surprised at how in the face of a completely new environment, new language, new job responsibilities, new culture, new location, that I was the same person. I reacted to situations in the same manner, had the same faults, the same strengths. This is obvious as I write it out, but I feel like we all hope for a fresh start when so much around us changes. It was interesting to note how much I remained the same.
Now, a year later, coming back to the familiar, with rules of society that I understand, a language I can speak, understand, and even insinuate in, I can feel that I’ve changed. Maybe it hasn’t hit me still because, well, I’m by myself still and hence have no one to talk to, but I feel more reserved here. It’s probably a result of all the constant unwanted attention. I also expect an unspoken comradary with other Americans, which, quite frankly, is definitely not a given when you are in the country.
Let’s see what other changes I encounter. By the way, in the airport you can have wireless, but it is going to cost you $8.00! That’s 25 soles! No way….

Back to Peru...

Hey!

For anyone checking the blog... I´m back in Lima and safely arrived to my hotel! I continue to recommend to anyone who will listen to me that 11:49PM is not an optimal time to arrive to this slightly dangerous destination but I made it so no more worrying! :)

More pictures from the visit to the EEUU

Sabino Canyon, Tucson, Arizona













Homecoming at the U of A!













My cute cousin Winnie!














Dancing Huayno with my high school Spanish teacher!