May, Month of Making the Mothers Merry (Alliteration!)

I was really impressed with the way that Peruvians celebrate Mother’s Day. Like I have said before, with most holidays in general, Peruvians celebrate longer and harder than we Americans do, but Mother’s Day was a very special occasion. I celebrated for two days with the elementary school, the high school, the community, and the family. At the schools, the kiddos did traditional Peruvian dances and recited poems about mothers. There were also raffles with some pretty cool prizes, like dish sets. I made my now famous chocolates (Ritz peanut butter sandwiches dipped in chocolate and crushed up Oreo and cream cheese balls dipped in chocolate) for the moms of the PTA, the teachers that are mothers, and the moms in my neighborhood.

Some of the mamas of the high school kids

Just oneo fo the four tables of gifts

A little singing

The local obtetrician and mayor's wife
passing out the presents

A lively poetry reading

A little dancing

A little more dancing

And a little more dancing

The elementary school's celebration

The first graders' choreographed Mother's Day spectacular

The fourth grader's dance

My host mom receiving her gift

The sixth graders. They're a lively bunch.

Dancing and more dancing

My host cousin, Mauricio

A party is not a party here without a “merienda,” or snack. You should know though that we ain’t talking about a handful of trail mix here. A classic example of a snack in my community is a big hunk of goat, a heaping pile of rice, and some potatoes or yucca, followed by a decent-sized piece of cake. Later on that night, I attended another celebration in the community that had the same basic format, but with tubs full of nonperishable food items as raffle prizes and a lot of singing.

On Sunday, we woke up and immediately gave Reyna, my host mom, her presents. My brother and sister-in-law got her a set of juice glasses, and my sisters got her a set of bigger juice glasses. I’m thinking there was not a ton of collaboration going on beforehand. I got her a new nonstick skillet. She has one skillet that appears to be cast iron, but is not. It has just been well-used for probably 15 years or more, and it is definitely NOT nonstick. It hung on the wall for about three weeks before I asked to use it and made pancakes, showing her how you don’t have to use grease with EVERYTHING that you cook, and it changed her life. She still uses vegetable oil with EVERYTHING, but she is much happier when she washes the dishes. We then ate a special breakfast of chicharrones, fried pig fat. I had my usual fruit salad. Later the whole family went out to eat. This was the first time I ate in a restaurant with the entire family. Once or twice we have ate dinner in a local rotisserie chicken place and I have ate a couple of times in Chiclayo with individual family members, but never ALL together. Even my sister-in-law’s mother and aunt and uncle joined us. It was nice. My host brother paid for everyone’s meals. I tried really hard to help pay, but he made me promise to make hamburgers sometime soon.

The best part of all the Mother’s Day festivities was helping make my little host sister’s costume for her school choreography.

Yellow ballerina slippers, S/. 15, handmade
skirt and blouse, S/. 10, cardboard sun
headdress, S/. 1 . . .

One singing, dancing, smiling 6-year-old
Peruvian sun sister . . .priceless.

She was the sun. One of our neighbors made her bright yellow skirt and top, my host mom found bright yellow slippers, and I made her headdress out of cardboard, yellow poster board, and gold metallic paper. She was definitely the cutest out of all the students, but I am a little bit biased.

Whew! Other May things…It was “Semana de Maternidad,” Maternity Week, so I helped out the health post quite a bit. My good friend and one of my best colleagues, the obstetrician, Ketty, gave a few safe sex lectures in the high school. The most fun that I had was participating in a big parade in Chiclayo with many different leaders from health posts all over Lambayeque. We had a banner and four and a half (Mirian brought her son) of us from La Cria walked probably two kilometers carrying our banner and balloons. Afterwards there was a gathering in the mall with different booths, snacks (surprisingly only fruit, crackers, and juice), and a show starring youth groups. We brought four kids from the La Cria high school who put on a small skit about how to get family planning information from the health post. It was adorable. Later that week, the health post had a talent show/party for all the local pregnant ladies. They did dances, sang, painted, and recited poetry. I was a judge along with an obstetrician, a med tech, and the mayor from Patapo (my county seat). The mayor and I voted for the singer. She had a beautiful voice, and I found out later that she used to sing professionally before she settled down and had a family. However, we were overruled by the other judges who wanted one of the first-time mothers who was very poor to receive the grand prize. We really couldn’t argue with that. After the talent show, there was food, of course, and more prizes and dancing. I really enjoy working with the people from the health post. They are just a delightful, fun-loving group of folks. Still later in the week, I helped Ketty do some exercise classes with the pregnant ladies. It was really a stretching class, but I enjoyed it as well…except for the stirrups. Ha! Just kidding!

Medical Staff from all over the region participated in this parade

Staff from the Posta de Salud, Pampa La Victoria and me
...and our banderola... and Piero, Mirian's son

Phoebe and two of her pups

Another addition was made to the family. Phoebe, my sister-in-law’s dog, had her pups. She had five, but within two days, two had died. Originally, I was excited like the rest of the family. Newborn puppies are adorable, and I figured that we would sell them later once they got weaned and started making noise and pooping everywhere, like we did with Lassie’s puppies. However, my host mom came to me after about six weeks, saying that she was tired of having five dogs in the house. I told her that it was her house, and if it were me, I would make my sister-in-law sell the puppies. She did just that through my host brother, but it backfired in the worst possible way. I sat down at the breakfast table one day, and my host brother said, “I took Lassie to our aunt’s house to live.” I melted. “Why?” He said that Reyna said the she didn’t want five dogs in the house, and Miriam (sister-in-law) wanted at least one of the puppies, so they got rid of Lassie first, and two of the puppies were to follow shortly. I was so upset. Lassie was probably my best friend. She followed me everywhere. I had to shut the door to the house when I left for work each morning. Today, nearly two months later, it is still a touchy subject, and I still miss her.

Oh! My little host sister was inducted into the school police! It's a pretty big deal here.

 

Miriam, my sis-in-law, pinning on Dayhanna's cords

Awww, they grow up so fast

Mirian and I at the conference with our
completion certificate

I did one other thing in May of note. We had a training in Chiclayo to learn how to apply for a grant for our sex ed. classes that most of us teach. I have plans to start my sex ed. program with Ketty in August, so having the training in May seemed like perfect timing. I generally despise these Peace Corps trainings, but this one was not that bad. I was irked that the volunteers from Lambayeque and La Libertad had to attend a 3-day training with our socios when the volunteers from other departments only had to attend one day without their socios, but I tried to look at the bright side.

I was going to get to stay in a hostel for three nights, and eat American food a few times at the mall, etc. The teacher at this training was really interesting, and I do like passing time with my socia, Mirian. So, all in all, it was nice to get away for a few days too.

That’s about it for May. It is July 1^st as I am writing this, so right now, I’m only a month behind! By Peruvian standards, I might as well be early!