Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year

Greetings and Salutations!

So, today is the last day of classes in the high school, all the members of my family are in the house for Christmas, and I just got back from Ancash and Lima. So much change in so little time, but this is the life of the Peace Corps Volunteer.

All the kids are done with school for the year. Remember that it is summer here right now, and the temperature is climbing every day. The sun here is so different. It is so incredibly strong. I burn after just a cupla hours without sunscreen. This is unheard of in my life up to this point. So, yes, I wear sunscreen (and bug spray) every time I’m outdoors and have an inch of skin exposed. Anyway, I will join the teachers next week for a few days at the school. They will be there all week to be finalize grades and be available to talk to parents. I’ve got a photo-sharing date with one of the professors on Monday, and (I’m so stoked) they invited me to join in their secret gift exchange on Tuesday. I haven’t felt extremely welcomed by the teachers. They have all been nice, but I don’t feel like one of the team yet. They are probably just as confused as I am about what my role exactly is, so there is probably some threatened feelings going on, if I had to guess. I have been trying to get some one-on-one time with each of them, but this is sort of difficult since they are at work, but I can tell that I’m wearing ‘em down. By next year at this time, we will all be best buds. I am invited also to the high school graduation. There are 32 kiddos graduating. Such a complicated time. Probably less than 10% will go on to university. It is extremely complicated and difficult to get into college here unless your family has the funds to pay for a private education.

My sister-in-law, Miryam, came home about a month ago, but Christian’s (my brother) job was completely finished, so he just got home five days ago. Tito got home two days ago. They will get to stay until after the New Year. It is nice having everyone here for the first time since I got here. I must say that it does not at all feel like Christmas. The biggest contributor is the 85 ̊ weather, but also that my family has no decorationsL. I got the opportunity to decorate a tree at my host family’s house in Chaclacayo when I was there for training last week, so that was nice. I looked at buying a tree, but a teeny tiny tabletop tree is S/.30! Then plus decorations, I could not afford to buy it and presents for the family, so we will just not have a tree this year. My town has a big celebration for New Year, so my students have been asking me for over a month if I am going to spend the holidays in town. There are a lot of volunteers who have loved ones coming in and are going to vacation in tourist sites, but I JUST GOT HERE. Even if I had an uber-rich family that was chompin at the bit to come see me, I would have to insist that they not come. I am still integrating and what a better way to do that than to spend one of the most important holidays with the family and community. It is going to be different, but that’s every day, and ya know what? I kinda like it.

Since I’m talking about Christmas, I have to tell you guys about “paneton” (pronounced “pawn-e-tone”). It is an unbelievably popular tradition here. I explained in my last blog about how there is little variety here. Well, paneton is served at all holiday parties and meals. EVERYONE loves it. They actively look forward to it. There are 20 pods stacked 8-ft high in every store in the country. Ready for this? Paneton is…….fruitcake. Bleh! The smell of it turns my stomach and every bakery and every store in every town in Peru reeks of fruitcake right now. No one understands how I can’t like fruitcake. “It is so delicious, D.D.! It’s cake with real fruit.” No, it’s dry bread with artificially flavored fruit gummies and raisins. I like raisins, but if you consider raisins a candy, you are probably over the age of 85. Gag me! I’ve tried twice now to force a whole piece down, but I was unsuccessful in both attempts. I could get down a few bites, then I tasted it until the next available opportunity to brush my teeth. Don’t understand the obsession here. Gotta love those cultural differences!

My trip to Ancash was fabulous. My good friend, Rebecca, part of the 3DO neighborhood posse from training, lives there. Here is a map. It was about a 12 hour bus ride with a 4 hour layover in Trujillo which was perfect because I got to see five or six of my buddies from training that live close to that capital city for the first time since training. Caroline, the other 3DOer that lives in Lambayeque, went with me to Ancash. We met up with three other Volunteers, and spent three days together in Huaraz, the capital city. Ancash is a department in the sierra. We celebrated Thanksgiving with a big hen (my Uncle Tom would be so proud that we didn’t have turkey), some dressing made from ciabatti bread without sage, some weird cranberry concoction, and sweet potato pie-ish thingy that was yummy. Then we actually got the Cowboy game in Peru! It was in Spanish, but who cares?

View from the hostel

How bout them Cowboys?

The next day we took a hike all day, saw some gorgeous mountains, some ancient ruins, a waterfall, and a bunch of traditionally dressed ladies herding their sheep. That night we ate hamburgers that are more like American hamburgers than any other burger I have tried in this country up to this point. In other words that patty was thicker than paper and there were no fries ON the burger. 

View from one of the Ancash Volunteer's homes

The beginning of our trek

Just a random band out in the middle of the mountains

Pre-Incan ruins

View from the top

Seriously love the traditional dress. These aren't just
sheep-herding outfits!

Aaahhhhh! Breathe it in!

Waterfalls

Cant remember what was so funny, but I
like this picture.

See that tree on left in the above photo?
I climbed it to get this pic.

So we cheated and took a cab halfway back down to the village.

The last day we decided to take a one-hour combi ride to some thermal baths that were supposed to be pretty cool. They looked promising when we got there, so we splurged on the S/.5 private cave baths. As we are waiting for a cave to become available, we overhear a lady asking the attendant about the caves. He tells her that there is no water in the caves, but they are supposed to heal what ails ya. Ok, so we gather that we just paid for a sauna, not a bath, but it was still all good until the attendant opened the door and we smacked in the face and knocked on our butts with the overwhelming smell of years of boiling urine. Yup, that’s right…pee. No, it was not the smell of the natural heat or sulfur or whatever. Gag a friggin maggot, we took pics and ran outta there. It was awful! We proceeded to the warm water pool, but the water was green…and smelled of (you guessed it) urine. When a bunch of little boys kept splashing around and got the pee water on our faces, we decided to vacate the premises. Then we ate some pachamanca, a mixture of different meats, veggies, and bread wrapped in banana leaves and cooked underground. It was mediocre. After that experience, we deserved some chocolate, so we sought out a bakery and bought some borrachitos these awesome huge chocolate brownie rum balls. That day was not the best, but it turned out to be one of those days that I will never forget and always retell.

My reaction

The pee cave

The mediocre pachamanca

View #2

After Ancash, all the Volunteers in my Youth Development Group had to go to Lima for more training. I was not at all looking forward to the 8-5 classes, but I was excited to see my host family in Chaclacayo again. They are all doing fine. The parents of the little girl that passed away are living with Trinidad (the grandma). They bought me a new pair of sandals because my most favorite flip-flops in the whole world (my Nike ones that are about 15 years old) broke a few weeks ago. I just love that family. So sweet. Training was training. It was better than the original 10 weeks because our boss gave us two really great snack breaks every day and we learned tools/programs/resources that we will most likely use in our communities. On our way back home, my friends Caroline and Rebecca and I went to Miraflores, a ritzy part of Lima. You would think you were in an American beach town. There’s a really nice mall and a lot of surfers. We did lunch and a little shopping and just wondering around.

Don’t have much else to say. I wish everyone a super Merry Christmas! Send happy thoughts of Santa Claus (here he is called “Papa Noel”) and jingle bells (here they are called “jingle bells” Really everyone knows the song.) my way. Miss you all!