Moving Right Along...February and March

Workwise, my English classes continued. I taught the kids Red Rover, Heads Up 7 Up, Twister, and Blind Man’s Bluff, in all of which I somehow managed to include some sort of English lesson. We also drew a bunch and painted and screamed and laughed. I really like this age group (10-14), but university kids are still the best! The exercise classes with the mamas were still going strong at this point as well. I think we upped the number of dances to five, but at my insistence, the Fit Test was still the main staple.

I also helped out the local Health Post in their campaign against dengue. This was really interesting for me for a couple of reasons. First, free t-shirt. ‘Nuf said. But seriously, it allowed me to make some new friends with the other regular folks that volunteered to help because we had to attend a 2-hour training session and then we walked around town all morning knocking on doors, inspecting the home’s water storage facilities (really looking for mosquitoes and their eggs), taking samples of suspected infested waters, and giving out little bags of chemical repellent to put in their water. I worked with a different team every day for three days. In all honesty, I didn’t do much work.

Nice guy that invited me to some fruit

Adding some repellent to a family's water containers with Sofia

My Spanish is too sucky to do the talking, plus who is gonna let some weird random gringa in their house to look at their water? I couldn’t really do the record keeping because their last names are so foreign to me…and I’m from Texas. There are not that many Rodriguezes or Lopezes here. There are Tapias and Saavedras and Chungas and Ubilluses and Remarachines and Yarlaques here en ol’ Peru. When a Peruvian rattled off the household name, I really didn’t want to bother every other person with a “Could you spell that please?” So I walked around and talked with the two other people who were the real workers. Usually I was the pack mule, carrying our waters and papers and snacks in my backpack. Another reason I enjoyed this was because I got to go inside about 50% of the houses in my town. A person’s house says soooo much about them – rich, poor, clean, dirty, organized, disorganized, downright freaky, conservative, pet lover, hobbies, strict, laissez faire, open, closed, down to earth, decorations from Christmas, etc. I got to see how other people live, and while there were no great surprises (most Peruvian houses have the same type of decorations, same style furniture, usually some type of business), I got a feel for some people’s personalities that I did have figured out yet. Also, we found mosquito larvae in five different homes around the park in La Cria, and we got to collect samples! With eyedroppers and vials! I felt like some kind of scientist! It was super cool! I really didn’t think about the sort of danger I put myself in. That would be a classic story for our PC docs to tell future trainees – “One time a volunteer got dengue on an anti-dengue campaign.” Just for the simple irony, it would’ve almost been worth it, but it didn’t happen, so good for me! P.S. – although we found several cases of larvae, we killed them, and only one suspected case of dengue was found, but it turned out to be the flu.

I washed Lassie with my sister one day. She is such a good puppy. Takes her baths like a champ, even though she obviously doesn’t like them.

February done; now March:

I wrapped the English classes to the dismay of the students. Also, after two weeks of exercise classes with 2-0 students, I called that quits as well. It was time. Everyone told me that once school started back, the mamas would have less free time.

Yes, school started back! The week before, all the teachers had in-service, so I attended as well. I was put on three different committees and elected “Director of the Tutoria Hour.” (The once a week class about psych topics, like self-esteem, communication, social skills, etc.) At first I was really honored, but after a little reflection, I had to tell my principal that I couldn’t accept because I’m not here to be a leader, I’m here to inspire others to lead, to motivate, to be a helper. So, while I do not officially have the title, I still am the most actively involved planner in tutoria. This year, I made clear that I am not teaching alone, so I have teachers in all classes (except one, but this is the teacher’s regular day off, so that’s understandable.). Some are more involved than others, but if I can make a few influential changes in their teaching styles at least during tutoria, that’s a success as far as I’m concerned. I was also on the welcoming committee. I made a huge sign to welcome the kiddies back. It took me a good 15, 16 hours to finish.  All were very appreciative. I also got to help pass out chicken sandwiches and soda to all the students from the PTA. Then I was on a committee to help utilize the equipment the school has – a new projector, musical instruments, a copier, etc. I feel like this is a committee that doesn’t really do a whole lot. I intend to use the projector numerous times this year and one teacher is using it in most of her classes. We got four new teachers this year, one new math teacher, a new history teacher, computer teacher, and P.E. teacher. The last three are brand new, as in there have never been actual teachers who studied in this field in these classes before in the high school. Last year, the religion teacher was teaching P.E. and there was a lab room with 21 brand new computers, but no teacher. The math teacher is a little strange, but aren’t they all? (Math teachers, that is.) It was awesome to make these additions this year.

She didn't get a lot of presents; the basket was just small

It was my littlest sister’s birthday. Well, it was all three of my host sibling’s birthdays, but apparently, the littlest one’s is the main event, the eldest and male child's birthday mattered somewhat, and, as always, the middle child’s birthday was pretty much like any other day except, yet again, there was a circus in town, so that was her treat (???). After all the money that the host padres sunk into Dayhanna’s birthday, I can understand why the other two’s birthdays were mere dust in the wind. There was a decorator, a piñata, about a refrigerator-sized box full of candy, three cakes, a meal of chicken and rice, tons of soda, and, of course, dancing and games with over 30 young ones in the living room. The party lasted about four hours. I played photographer, taking over 200 pics and videos to commemorate the occasion. Good times were had by all.

Me and the host sibs

Pinata time!

Typical B-day games

Riding on her Tia Ruth's shoulders for the "Hora Loca"

Hora Loca - Crazy Hour

Mount Huascaran in Ancash, the tallest mountion in Peru.

I had a third training event in Huaraz (where I went 

So by the 5th day, "silly" was an understatement.

Your tax dollars at work, folks.

Me and my socia, Mirian, in front of Mt. Huascaran.

This is my "I pooped 8 times before breakfast at
yet another crappy training event" face

for Thanksgiving, where Rebecca lives). This was by far the worst. Most volunteers will agree, but I think for a different reason. We have to bring a Peruvian work colleague, a “socio.” This in itself was enough to drive some Volunteers bonkers, but I genuinely like my socio, Mirian, but the first three days of this training was 100% for the socios’ benefits. True, I feel like my socio and I grew a little closer on this trip, but for three days, I had to listen to a complete repeat of things I “learned” (heard, more like it) in the original training in Lima. I could launch into my tale of woe about how I cried twice the first day because everything I said or did was wrong when in reality I was three steps ahead of the trainer, but since we weren’t going to learn how to set a goal until after lunch, it wasn’t right to set a goal correctly before lunch or how all three trainers changed our goal, but I’m so tired of complaining about Peace Corps. It is not constructive. To make matters worse, I ate a ham sandwich supplied by the resort we were staying at for a snack on the first day, and by the next morning I went to bathroom 8 times before breakfast. I was told that I could sit out the day in my room, but I didn’t want to leave my poor socio for the wolves, so I just excused myself about six more times until the antidiarrheal medication kicked in. I was over it by the next day and the socios went home as well. The fourth day was much better. I felt normal again, and we were actually trained in something new - how to teach teenagers basic financial planning. I enjoyed this much more. We only had one afternoon to hang out in Huaraz which was also disappointing, but I ate the best chocolate cake in Peru (in a restaurant owned by English people), a whole slice all by myself, and bought a few things in the local artisan market. My friend, Valerie (the only other Peru 21 “youthie” left in Lambayeque), and I decided to stay at the hostel in Chiclayo (my cap city) to recuperate before returning to our sites. Our bus got into Chiclayo at around 7a.m., we ate a quick breakfast, got a room, and didn’t wake up until 3:00 in the afternoon. I got up, got us dinner around five, and fell back asleep by 9:00. I probably could’ve slept til noon the next day, but there was construction around 7a.m. Ugh!

So, we may have packed 7 Volunteers in one taxi.
Don't judge! We're poor!

So I said that Val is the only Peru 21 youthie left in Lambayeque. As you may recall, my friend, Caroline, (from training, part of the 3dO novice Spanish-speaker group) was also sent to the island of misfit toys, otherwise known as Lambayeque, after our pre-service training. Well, I think it was back in late December, she was given the awesome opportunity to change sites to the department directly south of us (La Libertad). It was awesome because La Libertad is better than Lambayeque (cooler people, better beach, huge touristy capital city), our best bud Scotney is in La Lib, and because she was going to be working with children with disabilities, her specialty. After about a week’s worth of thought, Caroline accepted, and surprisingly, she was moved within three weeks. Right off the bat, she had problems with her host family. It was obvious that they really didn’t want her. Her host mom was trying to pawn her off on the neighbors, and then her host mom told her a day ahead of time that she would have to stay somewhere else for the weekend because she (host mom) was going to Lima and didn’t trust Caroline alone in the house with her husband. Caroline had lived there for less than one week. She had nowhere to go! To top it off, it was Caroline’s birthday! She came back to Lambayeque for the weekend. When she got back to her new site, it just continued to go downhill. She had problems with the municipality, and she was overwhelmed by the enormous, unrealistic amount of work her schools and organizations expected her to do. So, out of the clear blue sky, she called me twice one day in March. I couldn’t talk either time, but swore to call her back. Eventually, I got a minute, and she dropped the bomb. She was going to E.T. – early terminate. Everyone has their reasons. Peru has one of the highest E.T. rates in the region (weirdly it also has one of the greatest service extension rates in the region), but Caroline going home early really surprised me. There are a host of details that I am omitting, but her E.T. was well-thought out and needed to happen for her health’s (mental and physical) sake.

Caroline's first pic after getting home

Although I absolutely wish her the best, selfishly, I am really sad. I took her move from Lambayeque back in February harder than I did her move back home, mostly because of the dark, dank place of sorrow I was at back then, but just knowing that she is not going to be at those future trainings or vacations makes me sad even though she is probably eating a huge steak and watching something good on American television right now. Anywho, she will be missed. BTWs, we have lost four people from our group since June, the Peru 21ers, three of the four are Southerners, and there were only four Southerners in the original group, so that leaves me. Yea, representin!!!

Whoa, March – check! I am almost caught up! What the hey?!?!