My Shadowing Trip

Week 3: Everyone is going to different parts of the country for 4 days to shadow real Volunteers to see what their routines are like. I am going with two pretty cool people, Chelsea and Andy. Andy is the dude that was going to be smiling on his way down the mountainside in the fiery combi of death. Chelsea plays the ukulele.

Andy and Chelsea, my "companeros" and "amigos"
(associates and friends)

We are going to Cajamarca, a province in Northern Peru, known for its huge Carnaval celebrations, cheese, and milk.

Cajamarca. San Pablo is kinda in the middle 

It is in the sierras, so lots of mountains and plenty of greenery. Also, this area is very traditional. Some people wear the big high-brimmed hats and a lot of women wear the knee-length skirts with the tall thick socks.

Couple of ladies in traditional Peruvian Sierra attire

San Pablo

The windy road that I travelled on to get to San Pablo

View from San Pablo

San Pablo

 Rumors are abundant that these trips either (a) are the same region (coast or sierra) that our final placements will be, or (b) the complete opposite of where we will be placed so that we can all experience the different geographies. I honestly don’t think that that much thought went into the selection of the shadowing trips. Our names were probably drawn out of a big high-brimmed hat.

Cajamarca is about 15 hours away from Lima. There are 11 trainees going to the province of Cajamarca, but once we get there, we are splitting up into 4 different groups and going to different sites. My Volunteer is Nick, and he lives in San Pablo, a little town of about 7,000 people.

We left on Tuesday around 2:30 from the training center. We got to the bus station in Lima about an hour before our bus left. We were all VIPs, so we got to chill in a lounge with Wifi (pronounced “Weefee” here. So adorable!) and free coffee and tea, hot of course. When I boarded the bus, I felt like such a backwoods country bumpkin. This is the nicest bus that I have ever seen. I am in the Peace Corps. I was expecting to ride for 20 hours on a Greyhound next to a random Peruvian that wants to talk to me in Spanish with a kid in front of me flicking his boogers in my general direction and 16 chickens in the front seat. Wow! Was I ever mistaken. I had my own seat, not next to anyone. My seat reclines to almost a complete 180 degree horizontal angle. There are two movies shown and free Weefee. We get a pretty decent meal of chicken, rice, dessert, and choice of beverage. There is even a BINGO game! The winner gets a free VIP trip to Cajamarca. There are only 7 of the 11 of us that ride 1^st class, so I pitied the other 4, but not enough to relinquish my seat!

I must mention that I had started feeling a bit under the weather last Saturday while in Lima. I was constantly sneezing, but I told myself that it was just allergies, even though I haven’t had allergies the whole time I have been in Peru and 3 of the 5 other trainees that live in my neighborhood had been sick the week before, I knew that it just had to have been something in the fog in Lima that was responsible for the sneezing. Yeah, right. By Tuesday, I was miserable. I didn’t have that achy flu feeling, just constantly annoyed with the runny nose. I took three different medications that are supposed to relieve cold-like symptoms, but nothing worked for more than an hour at a time. Terrible timing! The most awesome bus ride of my life and possibly my only time in Cajamarca plagued with watery eyes, itchy runny nose, and congestion. Where is that stupid animated allergy-pill-selling, Antonio-Banderas-sounding bee when you need him?

When we got to Cajamarca at 9:30 Wednesday morning, my group and another group were led by our Volunteers to a little restaurant for egg sandwiches and juice. Then my group headed to San Pablo in a taxi for 1½ hours, again, winding up a mountainside without guardrails. I am starting to get used to this. Well, I was able to get “the fiery combi of death going over a cliff” mental image out of my mind for at least half of the ride.

When we arrived, Nick’s mom treated us to a HUGE meal of soup, salad, some kind of “lomo” (stir-fry) with chicken and broccoli with rice, of course. Then we took a tour of the San Pablo. There was some holiday this week and the mayor extended the time off for everyone (government agencies, like schools and the municipality) by two days. The main purpose of this trip for us was to observe a few days in the life of a real volunteer, but since basically every organization the Nick works with was closed, we did touristy things.

Los matadores

Random crowd guy

Hard to see, but random crowd guy is now
trapped under the horns of the bull

The first night, we attended a mock bull fight. It was “mock” because the intention is to entertain the kids. The matadors were dressed in costumes, (Try not to faint when you see the blackface matador. Things are different here.) the bulls are not full-grown, and the intention is not to ultimately kill the bull. I really enjoyed it. My “companeros” (associates) were a little appalled by the treatment of the bull, but personally, I feel that unless you are a vegetarian, the treatment of these bulls (one got its horn knocked clean off, the matadors were pulling the bulls’ tails and riding them and pulling their ears) is pretty decent compared to the millions of bulls that make it to the slaughterhouse. I had more fun watching the reactions of the people (especially the children) than actually watching the bull fight. Everyone would get soooo excited, screaming and jumping up and down, when either the bull or a matador would get hurt. Towards the end, random men from the crowd started rushing the arena, fighting the bulls themselves! I could not believe it, but Nick said that that is a common occurrence. What guts! What ignorance!

The next day we took two unbelievable hikes.

Kuntar Wasi - Main Gaming Field

Monolith

Stairs leading down to a different sports field

The first was to some ancient ruins high up a mountain side. These ruins predate the Incas. The tribe was called Kuntar Wasi. The site was not discovered until the 1980’s by a Japanese mining company. Many of the excavated objects are now in Japan, which is a source of contempt for the Peruvians. I got all this info from a museum located at the bottom of the mountain. (Grad school taught me the importance of siting my sources J) I should note that I was unable to breathe clearly during this hike and have never felt my heart race as fast as it did this day. I was scared I was going to have a heart attack 10 miles up a mountain side, far away from any medical facility. I thought it was probably because I was a little sick. By this day, I was hacking up some of the most bright green, thick foulness that I have ever seen. (You must excuse me. Daily conversations with my fellow volunteers and Peruvian family about the inner workings of my digestive system have made me immune to the repugnance of conversating about bodily functions.) Later, my host mom and grandma said that I probably had a touch of the altitude sickness. Later, we travelled back to Nick’s house for a big lunch and a short nap. The following excursion was my favorite of the day. As much as I love museums and ancient ruins, the beauty of the second site was indescribable.

Complete with mountain goats

Locals call this "El Montana del Perro! because
it sort of looks like a dog´s head

If you look real close, you can see Nick and Andy at the top

Behind Nick’s dad’s sister’s house, there is a river with huge rocks going down a mountain side. WOW! I felt like I was channeling my mother for a minute because I couldn’t stop taking pictures. These pics do no justice for the actual beauty of the place. Nick and Andy took off up the mountain, while Chelsea, Nick’s dad, and I stayed at the bottom. We couldn’t climb up this one section of rock that 6’ Andy and Nick were able to. When we passed by Nick´s aunt´s house, some of his little cousins were playing on a "swing" that overlooks a cliffside. Total lack of fear!

The following day, we travelled back to Cajamarca city to meet up with other Volunteers and trainees and tour the city. We were the first to arrive, so Nick took us to some ancient Incan tombs. This is the site where a great Incan king was killed by Francisco Pizarro, a Spanish conquistador. It’s a great story, but this blog would be another 5 pages if I recounted it, so here is a Wiki link, if you are interested:

Later, we visited the Incan Baths, a natural hot water spring. First hot bath in weeks! You pay S/. 6 for 30minutes for a private bath, but TOTALLY worth it!

We all headed back home midafternoon on the same bus line. This time however, there were only 4 of us that got to ride first-class, and I was not one of them. Don’t get me wrong, there were not booger-flipping kids or 16 chickens in the front seat, but the seats did not recline as far, I barely slept, and I did sit next to a random Peruvian who did not say more than 2 words to me the entire 16 hours, but it could have been faaaaaar worse. I am just spoiled now.

Nick provided us with a lot of valuable information during the trip despite not seeing him work. I am so much more excited to get to site than ever. I think I will actually get some free time now and then. Nick said that his Spanish-speaking ability really took off after he got to site, and he has some truly meaningful relationships with his hosts and fellow volunteers. I really enjoyed seeing the sierra. It is breathtaking…buuuuut I hope I don’t get this region for my own site. The breathing thing really scared me for a few minutes. Besides just that one time, I was ALWAYS the last one to climb the hills, ALWAYS the only one struggling. And trust me, there was no flat land. Everywhere, even in the town, was straight up and down, up and down, up and down. It would be really great exercise, but I think I would prefer the flat land of the coast. Also, it was pretty darn cold at night. I had 5 blankets on my bed and I was still chilly at first. I know I like the heat of the coast better. If I get the sierra, I know I can adjust, but I have my fingers crossed for the coast.

Sorry it has been so long since I made a post on here. I have been super busy during Weeks 5, 6, and 7. This weekend is the first free weekend that any of us have had! It is Fiestas Patrias here. This is the equivalent of our 4^th of July, but Peruvians sure know how to celebrate! The kids get a 2-week holiday and a lot of people are off work for at least a week. We do not have training on Monday, so hopefully I can get some more posts up. Miss you all, but I’m having a great time!