3 semanas

I’ve been in my site now for over 3 weeks. I am still getting adjusted; there is a lot to get used to! But my family and all of the Julacaneros are all very nice, and I am beginning to accept that this is my home for the next two years.

It is definitely pretty hard to come into a new community as an outsider and establish yourself. Right now everyone here thinks of me as the new “psicologa” in town (just because I have a BA in psychology, to them means I’m a true professional who can cure everything). I’m trying to establish myself as the new peace corps volunteer here who will be doing other things besides giving therapy to their teenage boys who like to drink. I will be planning educational sessions and other activities on health issues such as nutrition, development, maternal healthcare, self-esteem, communication, hygiene, domestic abuse, etc. I will start working in the schools (although for the next two months, the kids are out on summer vacation), work more in the health center, visit families, as well as get to know the other organizations in the community.

I’ve heard that the first 3 months of Peace Corps service are the hardest, and I definitely believe that. Right now, I am just the tall white girl who walks around Julcán. People are nice to me, but they are still not quite sure what I’m doing here. To tell you the truth, I’m still not quite sure what I’m doing here either. But hopefully after a couple of months, we’ll all have that figured out.

promoción

This past week, I attended 3 promociones in and around Julcán. Promociones are essentially a combination of prom and graduation. After completing elementary school and high school, the students get really dressed up (in their rented prom-sytle attire) and participate in a huge party with their families and teachers. These parties include a large meal (goat head included), lots of speeches, gifts, cake, and dancing, a lot of dancing. The most interesting aspect for me is the aspect of parejas and padrinos. For elementary school, each student has a padrino (godparent) who accompanies them and escorts them to the promocion. The high schoolers have parejas (kind of like a prom date?) to escort them to the promocion. I was asked by parents of both a high schooler and elementary schooler to be a pareja and madrina. Not really knowing what I was getting myself into, I accepted. I had to get dressed up (but not as dressed up as the Peruvian girls, who even got their hair styled for these events!), get a gift for my “godson” and “prom date” for the two events. Both of them were quite interesting, and didn’t end till about 4 in the morning. Needless to say, I was exhausted this week from my promocion parties. Here are some pictures from the promocion for high school, with my pareja, John.

chugurpampa

Chugurpampa is a small town about a 2 hour walk away from Julcán (there are no cars here, so walking or riding a donkey is how we get there). Jason, one of the other volunteers is living and working in Chugurpampa. This town is even more rural and isolated than mine. We accompanied Jason to visit his new community of Chugurpampa for the first time and we experienced one of the most incredible welcomes I think anyone could ever imagine. Let me preface this by explaining that Chugurpampa is a tiny little community with about 100 families, no electricity, and even less contact with the outside world than Julcán. Not much goes on there, people work on the farm, eat, sleep, and spend time with their families. With that said, three gringos showing up in their community is a pretty big deal.

As we approached, fireworks literally started shooting off. A marching band approached us, as well as a group of 10 men, who we found out were the town leaders. The all shook our hands and led us to the front of the band. We were then instructed to start dancing the traditional dance of the area, Huayno (although the three of us were clueless about how to do this). Then, we were led to the school, where a stage was set up with loud speakers. We sat on stage while the band continued to play. A man in a suit started praising us and explaining how wonderful it was to have us in their town. We were then instructed to start dancing on stage. Two women came up to dance with Chris and Jason and a man came to dance with me. While we awkwardly attempted to dance Huayno on stage, the entire town watched us in awe (or confusion). The band played on while the man with a microphone praised the dancing of the three awkward tall white people (“¡Eso Rebequita!” he would say). When the music finally stopped, the entire audience was given a little glass of Inca Cola and everyone made a toast to the arrival of the newcomers. Then, we were handed the microphone and each of us had to introduce ourselves (and show off our broken Spanish with our strong accents) and explain our goals. It was wonderfully uncomfortable, but at the same time, we all felt very welcome. And of course, after the toast, we were instructed to dance in front of everyone on stage again.

The celebration at the school was followed by a town soccer game, a huge meal, and, of course, more dancing. These welcome festivities literally lasted 12 hours until Jason, Chris, and I practically had to beg them to stop the music, as we were exhausted from hours of dancing. I will remember the day probably for the rest of my life, partly for the awkwardness, but mostly for how open and kind these Peruvians were towards us. I have never felt so welcome.

We’ve visited Chugurpampa several times since our initial visit, and are always greeted with a warm welcome. Jason will hopefully be very happy there.

mi nueva hogar

Here are some pictures of my new home in Julcán. I live in a little house behind my family’s main house. The living conditions are definitely something I will have to get used to. But my new family is very kind and welcoming; and hopefully before long, I will be comfortable in my new home.

gringuita

As I walk the streets of Julcán, I hear “¡hola gringita!” coming from little kids or grandmothers sitting on their doorsteps. Gringuita (or “little gringa,” or “little white girl”) is apparently my new nickname here. News spread fast that a new gringa is in town. As much of an adjustment it is for me to be in this new Andean community, I realize that having a new white girl in town is also a change for the people of Julcán.

julcán: mi comunidad nueva

I am finally an official Peace Corps Volunteer! I arrived in my new community, Julcán, La Libertad. At an altitude of 3500 meters (over 10,000 ft), Julcán is a beautiful site in the Andes Mountains. It is very rural: donkeys, pigs, chickens, and little children running around everywhere. (There is also no internet access, which means I have even more limited time to update this blog! So, I apologize for the short entries). Practically everyone in my community is a potato farmer. The people have been very welcoming, but also a little shy towards me. The population of Julcán itself is about 4,000 people. I will also be working in caserios (smaller communities) surrounding the town of Julcán.
There are two other Peace Corps Volunteers in Julcan with me. Jason and Chris will be working in the Water and Sanitation program, while I’m working in the Health Program. During my first three months here, I will be working on a community diagnostic to get to know the community and assess its needs.

enjuramiento

On Friday, we had our official Peace Corps swearing-in ceremony. All 48 of us made it through training and were sworn in as Peace Corps volunteers. The ceremony was very nice. Guests included members of the US Embassy, Michael Hirsh, the Peace Corps Country Director, Peace Corps Peru Staff, and our host families.
The day itself was agri-dulce (bitter-sweet) because while it was exciting to become an official volunteer, we also had to say goodbye to our host families. After the celebration, we were all bussed away to Lima.

despedidas

Last week, as training came to a close, I had to say goodbye to my host family and community. To show our gratitude for our families in Huascaran, all of the Huascaran volunteers planned a fiesta de helado (ice-cream social). Our families loved it!
In return, the host mothers of Huascaran planned a fiesta for the trainees. We had dinner, vino, cake, and dancing. It was a great way to celebrate all together as a community before the volunteers left for their sites.

¡yay obama!

fiesta de cumpleaños y halloween

On Sunday, after returning from Piura, my family hosted a birthday/Halloween party at hour house. Everyone dressed up for Halloween (we had a costume contest with a bottle of pisco as a prize). Some of the top costumes included Miss America, Barney, Bop-it/Twist-it man, Peruvian football players. My favorite costume was my sister Ana’s. She dressed up as me (check out the pics!). My madre made pisco sours for everyone and also got a birthday cake. We even had Halloween decorations with spider webs and Halloween balloons. It was great to celebrate with my family and friends here. Although it wasn’t the same as celebrating Halloween and my birthday at home, it was definitely very special.

mi cumpleaños en piura

This past Saturday was my 23rd birthday. I was a little ambivalent about spending my first birthday away from friends and family. And what was more; I would be spending it in a very isolated site in the farms of Piura.
On the 31st, my FBT group , Lizzy, and my trainer Jorge planned a surprise for my birthday. Jorge told us that we had to immediately leave Lizzy’s site because we had to have an emergency meeting with the Peace Corps Peru Director and our Associate Program Director back in Piura City. I got really nervous and confused (and more confused about why no one else was nervous about this emergency meeting). I wondered what could have happened that we had to immediately leave the Lizzy’s isolated site to go to the city. After 6 hours of exhausting and stressful travel back to the city, we went to a fancy restaurant to “meet the director.” When we sat down at our table and everyone raised their glasses and made a toast. They explained to me that there was no meeting with the director; we were simply in the city to celebrate and go out for my birthday! It was a wonderful surprise. After a very nice dinner (I finally got to have a real salad and not worry about getting sick), we went out to a discoteca and danced till 5 in the morning.

potrerillo

After Jilili, we traveled on very bumpy roads to visit another volunteer, Lizzy. Lizzy’s site. Potrerillo, was also amazing. She’s finishing up her service at the end of November, and one of us will actually be replacing her. It was very inspiring to see how much work Lizzy has accomplished in two years. During our visit, we did an HIV/Aids talk in her local high school, did an educational session about clean water and trash management for the members of a nearby community, watched the construction of a “cocina mejorada” (improved kitchen), and observed and learned all about the latrine project that Lizzy facilitated during her service.

Overall, I learned a lot during field based training and it made me even more excited about getting out into the field and starting my own projects. Hearing about and actually seeing the projects of other Peace Corps volunteers was definitely encouraging.

jilili

Last week, we had field based training. It was great finally got to get out of Lima and experience Peace Corps sites. I went to the department Piura (northern Peru, next to Ecuador) with four other volunteers and our trainer, Jorge. First, we visited a PC volunteer, Brian, working in the small town of Jilili. Jilili is a beautiful site in the mountains of Piura, about six hours (a VERY bumpy ride) away from Piura City. At Brian’s site, we visited the local health post, did some educational sessions in the local high school, hiked to other communities to work on a latrine project, visited some community gardens, as well as learned a lot about what its really like to be a volunteer, especially in such an isolated site. It made all of us very excited to get out into the field.

ferria de culturas

This week at the training center, we put on a culture fair. All of the language classes were assigned a department (region) in Peru to research. My group researched La Libertad, (a department famous for La Marinera Norteña (a dance), and winning Peru’s liberty). The fair was an opportunity for all of the trainees to learn about the country, as well as practice planning ways to teach about a theme with non-formal education.

A group of us were also asked to participate in a dance. Those of you who know me know I was all about that! After many hours of practice last week, we performed an Afro-Peruvian dance from the department of Ica. We had a drummer and a guitarist accompany us. It was a lot of fun! Definitely one of my favorite parts of training so far.

picnic

This past Sunday, all of the host families and trainees in our community got together for a picnic. It was organized by our madres. There was parilla (bbq), swimming, games, etc. It was really nice to have the families all come together. Our families, especially our mothers, don’t often get a chance to get out of the house and have some fun. So, it was a big to-do. All of the host mothers had a 3 hour meeting last week to plan the menu, the games (like tug-of-war Gringos vs. Peruvians), it was really cute! All of the gringos and families have really bonded with each other. It´s definitely going to be hard to leave these families when we go off to our sites.

aniversario en vitarte

I am beginning to realize that Peruvians love to celebrate. The first fiesta I went to was a big deal for me, but now I understand that I am going to get the opportunity to go to a lot of these parties (After only a month, I’ve been to five anniversary parties with music and traditional dance)! After a long night celebrating and watching musical performances in Chosica, my family and I went to Vitarte (another neighboring town where my family has more family) to celebrate another anniversary. Diosabel’s brother’s family lives in Vitarte and his son’s school was putting on an anniversary show. There were dozens of little kids dressed up in traditional clothes doing folkloric dances from all over Peru. It was amazing. I’ll let the pictures and video express it for themselves....

¡un mes!

I can’t believe that I’ve been in Perú for a whole month! Part of me feels like the time has flown by and I just got here… while another part of me feels like I’ve been here forever. I certainly miss friends and family from home. But I’m enjoying myself and looking forward to getting to know the country and its people and culture even more.

I’m getting more and more comfortable living in my community of Huascaran. Our training group is also getting pretty close. We are all getting used to being called Gringos everywhere we go, as well as standing out as the whitest and tallest people in our communities. Even though we will all disperse to our various sites in Perú, I think we will all stay in touch and serve as a support system for each other. Once we get to our individual sites in the provinces, we could be 1 hour to 5 hours away from the closest volunteer. Here are some random pictures of my community and the other volunteers.