Typical day in Pre-Service Training (PST)

So, I wake up at 6:30 every morning. I eat breakfast with my host mom. Rebecca and family live actually live up the mountain a ways. They have a small house on the property of the owners that Rebecca works for. Rebecca wakes up at 5:00am every morning to fix all of us breakfast and our lunches to go. Carlos, Yerlin, and Ganellia are out the door by 6:45. Rebecca eats her breakfast with me. We are both huge coffee fans. I must note that I am a little disappointed with the coffee here. I guess since we are so close to Columbia I was picturing Juan Valdez climbing down the mountain every morning to grind my coffee beans and prepare it over an open fire, but there is more instant coffee here than freshly ground. I then take a “combi” (the main source of public transportation here - a van-bus hybrid thingy) to the training center.

 

A combi

My first combi experience – My host mom escorted all the volunteers in my neighborhood to the traiing center on our first day. We have to cross the “caraterra” (the main 4-lane highway that runs through town) which is extremely busy at 7:30 in the morning. There are 7 of us. We hop on the first combi that stops that is already packed to the brim with people. I am the last to get on board, and no sooner than I had one foot on the entryway to the combi, the “cobradora” (the money taker) is screaming “Vamos, vamos, vamos!” (“Let’s go”) to the bus driver. I am barely hanging on to the above head railing, the combi doors are wide open, and a teeny Peruvian woman (the cobradora) is hanging completely out of the combi behind me pushing me in and up on the next step while we are going at least 20 miles an hour! I was absolutely horrified, but strangely exhilarated at the same time. LOL. It is only 50 “centimos” (cents) to ride the combi to the training center, but my trip there and back is 1/7 of my daily pay. I do have plenty of money though. All my lodging and food is paid for.

Once I am at the training center, I have language class for 4 hours. I love my class. Scotney, Caroline, Rebecca, and I are all “novatas” (novices). We have a lot of fun while learning a lot. We are going to have class in each one of our houses. I am excited for that because that means that I can sleep til 6:45! Also, we will take some fun cultural trips sponsored by the language people. Our instructor is Pablo. I like Pablo very much. He is funny and obviously extremely patient. Four hours is a long time, but Pablo makes it fly by.

 

PABLO!!

 

We have lunch at noon. Lunch is the main meal of the day here in Peru. Breakfast is substantial, dinner is basically nonexistent, but lunch is not lunch without a huge heaping pile of rice (or pasta) and a half dozen potatoes in some form. I may be exaggerating a bit, but I am writing this in retrospect, and I am crying starch right now.

At 1:00 we are back in class. The afternoon classes vary. Sometimes the topic is safety and security, sometimes we break up into our specialty groups (business or youth development), sometimes they are about health. We had an hour-long presentation about poop. Seriously. Check out the Bristol Stool Chart online sometime. If we call our doctor with digestive problems, we are supposed to identify our feces according to this chart. LOL! Sorry to those of your with weak stomachs, but I am just sharing my experience. Between the novel bacteria and the enormous mounds of rice in our intestines, bowel movements are a daily topic around here.

We are out of class for the day by 5:00. Most days we either have a Zumba class that my language instructor, Pablo, leads or some people brought Insanity. All the novice Spanish speakers have to have tutoring a couple of times a week. I think that my tutor, Isabel, is the best. Our sessions are very informal, but also extremely helpful. We usually walk down the street to a little café and drink coffee and split a piece of cake while chatting (totally in Spanish, of course). She wants to go back to school someday to get her degree in psychology, so we share our own opinions about different psychological theories and theorists and practices. She is amazing!

ISABEL!!

I get home around 6:30 or 7:00, I take a cold shower on some days, (Don’t judge me until you have taken a cold shower.) I have a little snack with Rebecca, I do my homework, and I go to bed. Usually I watch part of movie while playing a game on my tablet or I read some of a novel. (I have already read Frankenstein and over half of War of the Worlds, which is more novel reading that I have done than in the past three years. Thanks grad school!) I am usually fast asleep by 10:30 or 11:00. I have turned into an old lady…Really though, having to translate every word that comes out of every person’s mouth is extremely tiring. I know that with time I will not have to translate, but for now, I am mentally exhausted. There is so much information being thrown at us right now from such a variety of topics. I want to concentrate most on Spanish because this is my biggest weakness, but there is so much other stuff that I am supposed to be learning also. While I tried to have no expectations going into this, this is more challenging than I expected. Lol.

Thanks to everyone who commented on my last few blogs. I love and miss you all. I am truly enjoying my experience here, but I think I get the biggest smiles when I hear from those most familiar to me. Thanks for all the support. I have a little free time today (for a change). I will try to get another blog post up and more pics. I have been traveling around Peru! I'll be sure to post 3000 scenery pics just for you, Mom! LOL.

Mi Familia Neuva - My New Family

We left the retreat soon after breakfast and headed to the training center in Chaclacayo. My initial impressions of the town were good. The streets are relatively clean, the town park is very pretty and the training center is very nice. You can tell that the training center used to be a house that has been converted, but it was obviously a very large house. It is gated with a beautiful yard (Espanol – “jardin,” pronounced “har-deen”) with huge palm trees and all different types of foliage, a back deck with comfortable chairs and couches, a pool (that we cannot swim in for insurance reasons), and a white Lab-looking dog named Lulu.


Back jardin of the training center

Back patio

First we had a brief session about some administrative stuff. Don’t send me packages! While I would very much like to receive stuff from the states, the cost is outrageous and hundreds of different items that are ordinary (several clothing items in one package, different foods) will alert customs. Anything over 1 kilo will automatically be put through customs and can cost me S/.50-70 to pick up. That is my entire week’s pay! Plus, I probably won’t have time to pick it up. Sending letters or cards is great, but they recommend not sending anything while I am in training because it can take nearly the whole time I am here (10 weeks) to reach Chaclacayo. I will have a PO Box when I get my site location. 

I thought I should explain what “S/.” is in the previous paragraph. The currency here is called “soles” (pronounced “soul-is”). Right now the exchange rate is about S/.2.75 = $1. During training, I receive S/.70 per week, so about $200 a week American. Since I have no bills and my family feeds me every day, right now I feel that this amount is pretty appropriate, but we shall see… 

I also learned that it will probably be about 4 or 5 weeks before I receive my cell phone. I can’t call the states on it anyway. Well, I can but a really brief convo would cost me three day’s pay, so it ain’t happening. Most everyone gets a phone card. They are really cheap. 

We then had an hour Q&A with current Volunteers with a focus on host families. At this point we were going to meet our host families in about an hour, and I think everyone was a little nervous. Some of the Volunteers’ stories were funny, but also somewhat anxiety provoking. Some of them have very little privacy and no one has hot water, but all agreed that their host families were great people whom they grew to love and provided the most support. Some of the families showed up 15 minutes early, so we ended our discussion. Each person received the same piece of paper with the neighborhood in which we were going to be living (5 total neighborhoods for all 35 of us), the name of our new mamas, and a phone number for each household. Then we also got a small slip of paper with our exact address, phone number(s), and a teeny description of each member of the host family household. We then organized ourselves by household and proceeded to the jardin to wait on our families to pick us up. 

I live in “Tres de Octubre” (The Third of October). Yes, this is the name of my neighborhood which is cool because it is something that I can actually pronounce. Other neighborhoods are much more difficult to say – Huascaran, Yanacoto, Chacrasan, etc. My mom’s name is Rebecca and my father’s name is Carlos. They have two daughters, an 18-year-old named Yerlin and a 12-year-old named Ganellia. When I looked at the paper I noticed that I have the same address as another trainee, Dylan. I had no idea what that meant, so my feelings were pretty neutral. Also, my roommate from the staging event in D.C. and my roommate from the retreat live in my neighborhood, so I was excited about that. They are both really great girls. 

So, there are six of us who will be living in Tres de Octubre sitting at a table outside by the exit. The families are supposed to arrive at one, but I can already tell that arrival times are a mere suggestion in this country (Note to Mom – you would totally love it! lol), so nobody was panicking when 1:15 rolled around and nobody from Tres de Octubre had been picked up yet. However, when it was 1:35 and only one of was gone and there were no other trainees from other neighborhoods, we were starting to feel a little unloved. The PC staff called our mamas and for some reason the Tres de Octubre mamas thought that we were getting picked up at 11:00, had already been to the center once to get us, and now they were having problems getting enough cabs for us, them, and all our luggage. LOL! So it turns out that our mamas were so excited to receive us that they showed up two hours early. It is because we are the most amazing group. I can tell already. Lol.  

Funny story. When our mamas arrived, each one stepped up and said their names. Then the appropriate trainee would move to greet her and give her a little kiss on the cheek (traditional Peruvian greeting for people who are close). My mom’s name is Rebecca, but there is a trainee named Rebecca in the Tres de Octubre group, so when my mom Rebecca said her name, trainee Rebecca stepped up and greeted her. My Spanish is so bad, so I was having a very difficult time explaining the situation, but everyone figured it out when trainee Rebecca’s mom said her name. It was really funny. It turns out that Peruvians have a word for people who have the same namesake – “tocayo/a.” So my new neighbor and my new mom are “tocayas.” 

So my living arrangement is unique. Dylan’s mom is my mom’s mother-in-law. We live in the same house, but my family lives upstairs and Dylan and his mama live downstairs. Peruvians build up to conserve space. I have my own room with a “cama grande” (big bed; it is a full size bed, but most I gather that most trainees only have a twin size bed), desk, chest of drawers, two shelves, and a window. I also have my own bathroom! Of course, I do not have hot water, but I have a toilet with running water, toilet paper, and a toilet seat! Super exciting. I am spoiled already. <Just a side note - you cannot flush your T.P. here cuz the plumbing pipes are teeny. This takes some serious getting used to. Throwing your paper in the toilet is not something that you consciously think about doing.> So, Dylan is fluent in Spanish. He is part Bolivian, and he used to visit his grandparents there every summer. This is absolutely fantastic because lunch would have been really awkward without him. My family was sure to make clear that Dylan cannot translate hardly any after today because obviously I cannot rely on him (or other fluent speakers) for the remainder of my service, or even training for that matter. 

My room with my cama grande

Another view of my room

 

It was after 2:00 by the time that we reached the casa. Everyone was really hungry and the ladies of the house were preparing a very special meal for me and Dylan’s first lunch in our new home. “Papas reinas” (Idk if I spelled that right) is a dish where you boil, peel, and mash potatoes and then form the mashed potatoes into a sort of a shallow bowl shape about the size of the palm of your hand. Then you put this mixture of cooked chicken, egg, onion, and olives into the potato bowl. (There may have been other stuff in this mixture. I missed that part.) Then you put another potato bowl on top and mush the edges together so that now you have a big egg-looking thingy. You coat the egg-shaped stuffed mashed potato with flour and then fry it. They were really good. I am not a big fan of olives, but I liked them. We also had potato salad, rice, and Inca Kola. Tons of carbs and lots of sugar! Inca Kola is this bright yellow soda that tastes like liquid cotton candy. I get diabetes just looking at it, but I like it.  

Street to Tres de Octubre

 

See, Ma? It is safe.



Our casa. I live upstairs.

I really struggled today with communication. I managed to squeeze out the phrases, “I’m hungry,” and “Can I help?” Honestly, I probably even said those things wrong. I was able to tell them a little bit about me, like my age, occupation, area of study, and where I live and where my family lives in the states. It was really difficult watching Dylan assimilate so quickly while I had to have everything either translated or repeated 17 times. I know I will learn, but for now things are a little awkward. 

Other info about my new family: My parents are in their early 40s, so they are only about 10 years my seniors. They are both “independientes.” I am pretty sure that this means that they do not have 9-5 jobs. Idk yet what Carlos does exactly, but Rebecca is the caregiver of a huge house up the hill from our neighborhood. Her boss’s family comes in on some weekends to get away from the hustle and bustle of Lima. My elder younger sister… (does that even make sense?)…Yerlin travels back and forth to Lima Monday through Friday (about an hour trip) to go to school. She is studying to me an architect. She really likes the drawing and creating aspect, but struggles a little with the math stuff. She also speaks some English. Her English is waaaayyy better than my Spanish. Ganellia is pretty quiet so far. To break the ice, I gave her a little LED light that straps to your finger and a teeny water shooter that looks like a ring but has a bulb that holds water that you hide in the palm of your hand. She loved the water shooter thingy. I know we will be friends eventually. La Senora Trinidad, Dylan’s mom, has a little bodega in her house. She sells snacks and small amenities. 

There are several bodegas in our neighborhood. Scotney, a trainee from Boston and all-round cool chica, lives about three blocks up the hill from me. Her family also runs a bodega, but theirs is bigger. Next to Scotney is Jojo, my roommate in D.C. Jojo’s family has a “cabina,” an Internet café. Rebecca lives one block over and about three blocks up from me. Her family does not have a bodega, but we like her anyway. And Caroline from South Carolina and my roommate from the retreat lives basically directly behind me. Her mom is my mom’s aunt, so we are now cousins. Caroline and Rebecca have WiFi. I do not, but I do have a cama grande. Lol.

Rebecca (trainee Rebecca, not my mom Rebecca), Scotney, Caroline, and D.D. -The novice Spanish speakers of Tres de Octubre!

 

 

I keep forgetting to take pics of my family, but I have nearly 9 weeks left here. More to come later! Miss everyone!

The Retreat

So since it was pitch dark when we got to the retreat last night, I had no idea how unbelievably gorgeous it is here. It was like a whole new world when I walked out of my room this morning. Also the climate here is amazing. It is winter in Peru right now, but it is definitely comfortable in a light jacket – about 65 degrees.

The view from my window

The retreat is very nice. The rooms are satisfactory. I volunteered to take a room with two beds, so I had a roommate again which was great because I am trying to get to know as many people as possible. Ha! It was the girl from South Carolina. She is super nice and seems really fun. 

We are in classes all day, getting to know each other better and doing quick overviews about topics like safety and security, health, and our specific programs (youth development and business). We are also wrapping up some last minute administrative stuff – taking photos for our ID cards, signing banking info, verifying health status. We also had a quick course in Survival Spanish which was my first mini-freak-out moment. I realized how far behind I am. It has been about 4 years since I have been in a Spanish class and we don’t know each other’s levels yet, so I had the thought that I will be the only person really, really bad at Spanish. I had to get over that quickly though because we were on to the next class, but it still dampened my mood. 

 

 

The food here at the retreat is really good. Breakfast was rather small – an egg, some bread and jam, and some fruit, but my breakfast in the U.S. is usually a granola bar, so this was more than I generally have. Lunch was really good – fish, rice, a small salad, and these potatoes in this amazing yellow hot sauce. Yum Yum!

Lunch

Where's D.D.?

 

So I found out this morning that the retreat has hot water. Apparently I just didn’t wait long enough for the hot water to reach my room. Fantastic! Glad I took that freezing cold shower at midnight last night. It totally helped put me right to sleep…Challenge to any American reading this. Just try one cold shower for me. Just one, but an entire one. No turning on the hot water half way through rinsing your hair! This is my life for the next two years! Let’s see some empathy folks! 

We were done with classes around 4:30 and had a couple of hours to kill before dinner, so most of us attempted contacting friends and family in America via the teeny weeny WiFi connection. Then some people played cards. I took an hour nap J I was seriously nodding off during the last class. After dinner about 20 of us attempted to go explore the town, but the retreat is right on the main highway, so our director did not feel comfortable with so many of us walking down the highway after dark with no sidewalk. Several of us that were not going to buy anything anyway opted out and we either explored the retreat location or listened to music. One girl had the soundtrack to Pitch Perfect. Some girls exclaimed that they rock the Ace of Base song. Mini-freak-out moment #2. I rocked that song 17 years ago when it originally came out. So I definitely was reminded of my age which gave me doubts. Also, for the past two days I have been hearing about how many different languages and how many different countries these 20-somethings have experienced, and I felt like an outsider. I had to walk away and go play my antiquated Bejeweled game by myself like the old lady that I am. I also wrapped myself up in a sweater, knitted some booties, and drank some Metamucil just for good measure. LOL. JK. However, I reminded myself that my purpose for being here is not to make friends and feel like the cool kid in class for the first 10 weeks of my Peruvian experience. I am here to establish relationships, integrate, and make a difference at my community site, not at the retreat. Also, my age will have some advantages later. I was good after a talk with myself. 

I later went in the tv room to watch the big Peru-Ecuador futbol (soccer) game. This was a huge event here. Several of my Peruvian instructors were either wearing their soccer jerseys or powered through their lectures so that they could get home in time for the game.  Peru won! They are on to play Columbia in a few days.  

I went straight to sleep even though I took a nap earlier. I was soo exhausted. When I got up the next morning, I was still half asleep and I just yanked my charger out of the socket. Well, I grabbed the cord by the adapter and shocked myself…really bad. Like screaming, cussing, gyrating shocked myself. I scared my roommate a little. I had two small little burn marks on my fingers. I later found out that I don’t even need to use the adapter! Rookie mistake! 

More pics from the retreat:

 

My room at the retreat



The auditorium where we spent most of our time.



An activity we did. This my silhouette drawn by another trainee.

Waiting for breakfast

 

Friggin gorgeous...

 

Airplane Ride

 

We were supposed to leave at 7:30 a.m. this morning from the hotel to the airport, but by the time that everyone’s luggage was loaded, it was after 8:00. I was so worried that I packed too much (2 large suitcases, one carry-on, and my laptop case crammed full), but there were several people with bags exceeding the 50lb limit. All females, of course. Several guys only had a carry-on and one suitcase. The PC people gave one guy in the group our passports and said good-bye at the hotel. A little frightening, but we are all big boys and girls. 

When we got to the airport, we spent over an hour trying to get checked in, and it was another 30 minutes going through security. So, by the time that we ate some breakfast, we were boarding in 20 minutes. Now I understand why we had to leave the hotel 4 hours before our flight left. We got to board the plane as “Military,” so we were the first folks on the plane. I tried to sleep the 3-hour ride to Houston, but people were talking. It was all good because I know how excited we all are, but at this point, my body was exhausted. As soon as we got off the plane in Houston our next gate was immediately to our left, so that was super easy. Some people ate, but I didn’t because I knew we were getting fed on the 6-hour plane ride we were fixing to endure. We had an hour in Houston, but by the time I called Mom, it was time to board again. This plane was extremely comfortable. We were seated by last name, so I sat next to the same girl as the flight to Houston. She was able to sleep during the entire flight to Houston. Her eyes were shut while we were on the runway. LOL. I was so jealous. There were little screens on the back of the seat in front of us with all kinds of movies and TV shows. I watched Hitch, a bad movie where Al Pacino played Spector, and The Big Bang Theory for basically 6 hours cuz my flight mate slept AGAIN! Lol. I wanted to, but I just could not get comfortable. 

When we arrived in Lima, the world seemed so surreal. I could not quite believe that I had actually made it! There were so many emotions going on inside – excitement, fear, eagerness, doubt, surprise, derealization, depersonalization (that’s right psych folks, I said derealization and depersonalization, but I was not suffering from DID), astonishment. It was too weird of an experience to try to describe. As soon as we stepped in the airport, a PC staff member exuberantly hugged each of us. The country PC director, a U.S. embassy official, and several others greeted us and helped us navigate security and customs. It was a breeze. We felt really special. We then boarded a very nice bus and rode for over an hour to our weekend retreat. 

When we got to our final destination, we had to tote our own bags up a huge hill (huge for a Texas girl) to a storage room. We had been spoiled everywhere else with either luggage handlers or carts, but after 4 nights with little sleep, carrying about 100 lbs up a ½ mile hill was a struggle. Since I sweat so much toting bags, I decided to take a shower. First cold shower of my next two years! It was one of the worst experiences of my life! Lol. I usually come out of the shower beat red because I like them so hot, so this was a shock. Many more changes to come, I’m sure. 

Here are some pics from the trip today:

 

At the D.C. hotel...

leaving for the airport.

Waiting to board the plane to Houston

The plane to Lima

My ticket from Houston to Lima

My little personal airplane TV screen showing our arrival

At the Lima airport, awaiting security

Gathering our 70something suitcases

I just realized that I have not being taking very many pics of myself. I will try to do better. Another post soon!

Staging Event

My flight to D.C. was excellent and switching flights in Chicago was no problem. When I arrived at the hotel, my roommate for the night had already arrived, but was not in the room, so I went down to the staging event area to get signed. I immediately met two female fellow Peace Corps (PC) trainees, both from the Northwest. They were super cool. We waited in line and chitchatted a bit. I was glad that I read the fine print on my student loan deferment papers because most of the other volunteers had the wrong paper. (I had to call and email twice to get the right one before leaving home.)

So after registration we began the introduction at 2:00, which felt like 6:00. All of us were exhausted because basically no one slept the night/days before and, of course, everyone seemed nervous yet excited. We played games to get to know each other and reviewed really vague information that was sent to us already via email. Most of the questions that everybody asked were answered with the stock response, “You will go over that in training.” While it was nice to meet the staff and all the other the other trainees that I will spend the next 10 weeks with, I did not find the information helpful, and I just kept thinking, “I flew to D.C. only to fly back to Texas (layover in Houston) to get to Peru.” 

Meeting all the other volunteers was a fulfilling experience. It was so nice to be in a room with 34 other people that understand why I am serving in the PC and what I have been through to get to where I am. There were no questions why and no confusing looks. Everyone had a common thread. However, there are a lot of differences also. Most people are from the north…to be expected. There is actually another volunteer who grew up in Texas, but she has been living in Maryland for about 3 years now. There is also a guy from TN, a chick from GA, and one from SC. We are composed of youth development workers and business workers. There are several psychologists among the youth development workers and several people with Master’s Degrees. Most people seem to be fluent in Spanish, but I know there must be someone else at my beginner level. I am not the only person in my 30s! There is at least two others. 

After the staging event, I was really tired, but wanted to get to know my fellow volunteers better (plus the Peace Corps gave us money to eat a good final meal in the U.S.), so I joined a group of about 20 and we headed out to Georgetown to go eat. We quickly realized that nowhere was going to seat 20 people, so we divided up in half between Mexican food or burgers. Of course, I chose Mexican. A little ironic that my last American dinner was Mexican, but it was yummy. I wanted to go see the monuments since I had not been in D.C. since I was eleven, but it was almost 11:00 by the time we got done eating and we had to get up by 6:00 the next morning.

 

Sorry that I completely forgot my camera while in D.C., but more to come of more distant places!