¡visita de mi familia!

In mid-June my wonderful family came down to visit Peru and my site. It was so great to visit with them and to share with them the wonders (ups and downs) of Peru.

I met my parents first in Trujillo (my old capital city). We toured the ruins of Chan Chan, the capital of the Chimu culture from around 800 AD. It is a city completely built of adobe and the largest Pre-Colombian South American city. We then visited Huaca de Luna, ruins from the Moche culture that ruled during 100 AD to 800 AD. In Trujillo, my parents also got a chance to meet some of my fellow Peace Corps friends, Josh and Javi.

We then took a night bus (which was quite an experience for them) up to Piura (my new capital city). We got to spend Father's Day walking around the city and also do some shopping. My sister, Jessica, arrived in Piura and then we headed to my site, about 3.5 hours away from the city.

We spent the week exploring my village and meeting my host family and new friends. They got to do everything including share some North American books and toys with the children in my host family, attend some of my community meetings, see a traditional rural Peruvian parade, to eat homemade ceviche, experience the life on a farm with donkeys, guinea pigs, roosters, pigs, goats, etc., adapt to surviving without running water, and learn how to climb over the pigs in the latrine when you need to do your business.

After having some amenity-free days at my site in the “campo,” we treated ourselves to a few days at the beach of Mancora, which is a couple of hours from Ecuador. Besides enjoying hot showers and other wonderful amenities from the developed world, we soaked in the rays, ate some good seafood, and enjoyed each other's company.

I am so happy that my parents and sister were able to come down to visit and see what my Peruvian life is all about. My Peruvian host family took quite a liking to my North American family, and vice versa. It was hard to say goodbye to my family, but it was great that both of my families got to connect, for at least a week. Although I'm going to miss my sister and mom and dad, its great that they know that I have a loving family down here in Peru.

inaguración del CADI

One of the projects that I am most excited about here is the CADI, Centro de Aprendizaje de Desarollo Infantil, or the Center for Learning and Early Development. Sponsored by the two NGOs PLAN and PRISMA, the Center will focus on pregnant women and children under the age of 3. Our projects will include:
1. Prenatal Care (nutrition for pregnant women, preparing for childbirth, preparing for a baby, taking care of your body during pregnancy, etc);
2. Early childhood intervention (psychological development of infants, developing motor skills, social skills, nutrition, etc); and
3. Parenting school (how to discipline your children, understand the importance of regular medical care and vaccinations, how to have a safe home, parenting roles in the family, etc)

Families here unfortunately lack the knowledge and healthy practices relating to these three themes and hopefully this new center will help prepare the new generation of kids of Pampa Elera to succeed. Brains are developing rapidly starting from the fetus until age 3. It is a critical period for brain development, and if the brain is not stimulated or nourished properly before a child’s third birthday, it loses the opportunity to reach its full capacity.

I am very excited to be a part of this project because it really has the potential to make a difference in this new generation. 40% of children under the age of three in Pampa Elera are chronically malnourished. 80% are anemic. Additionally, these children aren’t developing social or motor skills as much as they should be. I think back to my preschool experience where we sang songs, learned how to play with others, ate healthy snacks, had a clean and safe place to run around. Then I look at my neighbor, Nelson, for example, who is 2 and a half and plays by himself in the dirt, eats rice for meals, and already has rotting teeth. I know that that may sound terrible to many of you, but I am not exaggerating. It is unfortunate, but hopefully these parenting practices and behaviors can change!

Mothers of under-stimulated, malnourished children aren’t to blame when they don’t have the proper knowledge or resources. But with this new center, we can hopefully teach mothers how important early childhood development is, starting from when they are pregnant.

We had the inauguration of the new center in our community this past week. I was asked to be the Madrina (“godmother”) of the ceremony, and was accompanied by the mayor of the district of Las Lomas, who served as Padrino (“godfather”). We had been working hard in the community the weeks leading up to the inauguration to fix and clean up an old building, as well as publicize about the new center. The inauguration was a great success, and I’m looking forward to continuing to work on this project.

Here is a video of my speech at the inauguration as the madrina for those of you who speak Spanish.

nueva cultura

For those of you who are devout readers of my blog, you might remember the video of my host grandmother in Julcán dancing. (if you want to see it again, you can look under the December archive of the blog). My grandmother dancing huayno in her poncho was a pretty accurate representation of the culture of the highland life in the Andes. Now I’m living in the tropical lowlands. And the culture is quite different. I almost feel like I am in a different country. The dance and music here, just like in Julcán, represent part of this new culture of tropical Northern Perú. I am posting this video of some of the little girls in my host family dancing in my room as a comparison to abuelita dancing Huanyo. They are dancing cumbia, which is kind of like Salsa, but with less technique. It’s the dance and the music of coastal Perú. I’ll let Mayra, Gloria, and Patricia show you all for themselves:

familia nueva

The García family is huge! I literally have drawn up several family trees to figure out all of the relatives in my new host family. Gloría, my “host mom” (who is 6 years older than me) is the youngest of 9 children. She is married to Daniel and they have a 6 year old daughter Gloria Marina and 1 year old son, Anderson. Gloria’s father Señor Andrés is one of my neighbors, along with two of Gloria’s brothers and their families and Gloria’s sister and her family. So, there are five houses, including mine clustered together in front of the family’s rice chakra (farm). In addition to a beautiful rice field, we are surrounded by mango trees, grapefruit trees, orange trees, lemon trees… just to name a few. Its great! Five of Gloria’s other brothers and sisters live in Pampa Elera, within 10 minutes. This means that there are ALWAYS cousins, aunts, uncles, second cousins, great grand children, etc coming to visit (I’m constantly referring to my family tree to get everyone straight). Even though I’m living in my house alone, I never feel lonely because there are always visitors. I’ve even had a few sleepovers with some of the little girls. The teenage cousins like to come over to hang out and listen to music, look at pictures, etc. The little cousins like to come over to play, draw, dance, sing, etc. And the aunts and uncles come over to see pictures, learn about life in the US, share about their life. I’ve only spent about 3 weeks in my new home with my new family, but I already feel like I am part of this family. Here are some pictures of us!

mi casita

When I arrived in Pampa Elera, I had to develop my site on my own. I didn’t have anywhere to live nor did I know anyone with whom I could work. Rather than being frustrated by this, I allowed my experience at my previous site in Julcán help me decide exactly what I wanted and needed for my living arrangement, as well as work. Lindsey, who lives 5K away from me in the town of Chipillico, helped me look for a place to live. Lindsey has been very helpful and supportive through my transition process and adjusting to my new life in the valley of Chipillico. We essentially went around door to door asking people if they knew of a family that had a room available where I could live for the next year and a half. Even though I visited a half a dozen homes, the first home we visited ended up being my new home. Gloria García, a 29 year old store owner and mother offered me her house. She lives in her store with her family and had her old empty house to offer me. If any of you living in the States saw this house, you probably would have been surprised that I decided to live there. By any average developed world standards, this house would be considered uninhabitable. No running water, no bathroom, no lights, dirt floor, limited windows. But I saw potential. And with a few investments, I made this house my own. With the help of Lindsey, Gloria, and one of the local construction workers, I put in cement, a window, painted the walls, installed lights. I still lack a real bathroom and water, but so do all of the other families around. I figured if they survive without it, so can I. I wish I had some before and after shots, but here are some pictures of the “after.” It was quite a long week of fixing up the house. But I’m quite pleased with it, and am looking forward to calling it home for the next year and a half.

aprender sin miedo

Plan International is one of the development NGO’s with which I will be working closely in the valley. Last week, they had a campaign with the regional government of Las Lomas (my district capital) to eliminate abuse in the school systems. I attended the kick-off event and here are some pics:

Here is Plan’s webpage if you want to check it out: http://plan-international.org/ I’m sure I’ll be continuing to write about my involvement with the work Plan is doing in my community.

adios julcan

I had to make a trip back to Julcan last week to pack up all of my stuff and say goodbye to my wonderful family. It was pretty hard, but unfortunately it had to be done. Hopefully I will still be able to meet up with my host family occasionally in Trujillo. Josh, Melissa, and Chris, 3 of the La Libertad volunteers helped me with the move.