I just got the address for our training center in Chaclacayo...it seems that packages seem to be arriving faster if sent to this address than to the Lima office, so maybe you can try it out in future. (at least until Nov 15 or so when I´ll be going to my *mystery* site :))
Katie M. Lee, PCT
Cuerpo de Paz
Calle de los Cedros, 647, Chaclacayo
Lima 8
Peru, South America
xox
An attempt to share my experiences as a Health Volunteer in Campamento Tunel Conchano, Peru.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Lima ...
Soo, this past week went pretty fast for the most part, things were very busy. It started off with language classes in our communities, and then on tuesday night my host family asked if I would like to go to a celebration for the church in the neighboring community...it was really lovely. It was pitch black, and the priest and others carried little candelabras around to light up the pathway and we walked around the community while a band played the trumpet...it was nice. Then on thursday my language class went to the market and I had to buy the ingredients for the dish, "aji de gallina" which was very tasty...a lot of things I would never think to mix go into it though, and in the pic below you can seeing me cutting up the ahi trying to make myself useful in the kitchen:) Thursday afternooon we had to do our community diagnostic, and so one of the host moms took us around Chacrasana to talk with people about mapping their community from their own perspective....what they deem important. This is supposed to be a tool that will be helpful when we get out to site, learning what is important to different demographics. Regardless, it was a fun way to see the community with someone who knows it well, and I got to go up to the top of one of the cerros (huge rock hills) to take some pictures.
Friday we were all really excited to see Lima, and it was a crazy busride there, once we got to the main plaza we were given individual assignments to find certain churches, landmarks, etc. so mine was to find the iglesia of St. Francis de Assisi, which I managed to do after asking a few people for directions in spanish. Its pretty interesting though, the church is completely surrounded by pigeons, they are EVERYWHERE...and the story is in Lima that they are there because St. Francis was the patron Saint of animals...aw. Later in the day I got to try pollo a la brasa...which is essentially a chicken roasted over the fire with some really spicy sauces, it was tasty and you see it in almost every restaurant here it seems! Then the language instructors took us out to Miraflores, and at this point we were all sufficiently disoriented and exhausted, and our project was to find our way back to our homes without them or anyone else outside our group...so 3 hours later (thanks to insane traffic in Lima which is a city of 12 million), and needing to take a combi and taxi me and the 3 I traveled with made it back to our community of Chacrasana. Fun times! It was important though, as when we go out to our sites we will have to know the basics of getting around Lima and which taxis are legit and which arent, and it was a good lesson on how to figure out what we SHOULD be charged. I also had my first experience getting fake money back, we learned some good techniques for recognizing illegit coins and I got my first one, so I went back to the shop and asked for a different 'sole.' Counterfeit money is huge here, everybody checks and double checks when they get change. Then again on saturday I was back in Lima, but this time at La Agraria which is a university in the barrio of Molina, known for its degrees in agricultural studies. We got our own plots of land to garden, and prepped the ground for plants and put in lettuce seeds and radishes. We go back every saturday for the rest of training to learn more about planting here in Peru, especially with regards to what we can find locally that will also be nutritious.
Saturday night was a lot of fun, a lot of us all got together (which is quite the feat with 57 and no cell phones) and met up in Chosica, we went to a bar and then discoteca....sunday I spent mostly with my family which was pretty entertaining as my host mom got excited about making me an american lunch, and they literally took out their deep fat frier and fried chicken, fried potatoes, and served it with rice and hot sauces....it was probably enough calories to last an entire week!! When I had eaten enough to be sufficiently polite, they took what was left of my fried chicken and literally fed it to the chickens who had just watched us eat lunch!! It was pretty hilarious :) Last night we went to a babyshower for a friend of my host brother, which I have to say was really bizarre...my host sister had shown me a video of when she had her baby shower a year ago and so I knew that having a clown was normal, but what I didnt know is that they dress the father up in a nappy/diaper and make him drink pisco out of a baby bottle, then the clown dances around the room opening up the presents and dancing with the gift-giver...it was pretty crazy!
Today was the birthday of one of the trainees so in the middle of our medical diseases/stds in Peru session a mariachi band came in and randomly entertained us for half an hour....:)
Tomorrow I have a meeting with my APCD, essentially supervisor, for the health program to talk about my preferences etc. I don't think I want to really place a lot of restrictions on where I will be placed but I do know I;d prefer mountains to beach, cooler to insanely hot, and smaller community to larger city/town. I'll chat with her though and see what shes thinking are good options too.
Below are some pics of my host family, one of our chickens, and our kitchen..
xoxo
K
Friday we were all really excited to see Lima, and it was a crazy busride there, once we got to the main plaza we were given individual assignments to find certain churches, landmarks, etc. so mine was to find the iglesia of St. Francis de Assisi, which I managed to do after asking a few people for directions in spanish. Its pretty interesting though, the church is completely surrounded by pigeons, they are EVERYWHERE...and the story is in Lima that they are there because St. Francis was the patron Saint of animals...aw. Later in the day I got to try pollo a la brasa...which is essentially a chicken roasted over the fire with some really spicy sauces, it was tasty and you see it in almost every restaurant here it seems! Then the language instructors took us out to Miraflores, and at this point we were all sufficiently disoriented and exhausted, and our project was to find our way back to our homes without them or anyone else outside our group...so 3 hours later (thanks to insane traffic in Lima which is a city of 12 million), and needing to take a combi and taxi me and the 3 I traveled with made it back to our community of Chacrasana. Fun times! It was important though, as when we go out to our sites we will have to know the basics of getting around Lima and which taxis are legit and which arent, and it was a good lesson on how to figure out what we SHOULD be charged. I also had my first experience getting fake money back, we learned some good techniques for recognizing illegit coins and I got my first one, so I went back to the shop and asked for a different 'sole.' Counterfeit money is huge here, everybody checks and double checks when they get change. Then again on saturday I was back in Lima, but this time at La Agraria which is a university in the barrio of Molina, known for its degrees in agricultural studies. We got our own plots of land to garden, and prepped the ground for plants and put in lettuce seeds and radishes. We go back every saturday for the rest of training to learn more about planting here in Peru, especially with regards to what we can find locally that will also be nutritious.
Saturday night was a lot of fun, a lot of us all got together (which is quite the feat with 57 and no cell phones) and met up in Chosica, we went to a bar and then discoteca....sunday I spent mostly with my family which was pretty entertaining as my host mom got excited about making me an american lunch, and they literally took out their deep fat frier and fried chicken, fried potatoes, and served it with rice and hot sauces....it was probably enough calories to last an entire week!! When I had eaten enough to be sufficiently polite, they took what was left of my fried chicken and literally fed it to the chickens who had just watched us eat lunch!! It was pretty hilarious :) Last night we went to a babyshower for a friend of my host brother, which I have to say was really bizarre...my host sister had shown me a video of when she had her baby shower a year ago and so I knew that having a clown was normal, but what I didnt know is that they dress the father up in a nappy/diaper and make him drink pisco out of a baby bottle, then the clown dances around the room opening up the presents and dancing with the gift-giver...it was pretty crazy!
Today was the birthday of one of the trainees so in the middle of our medical diseases/stds in Peru session a mariachi band came in and randomly entertained us for half an hour....:)
Tomorrow I have a meeting with my APCD, essentially supervisor, for the health program to talk about my preferences etc. I don't think I want to really place a lot of restrictions on where I will be placed but I do know I;d prefer mountains to beach, cooler to insanely hot, and smaller community to larger city/town. I'll chat with her though and see what shes thinking are good options too.
Below are some pics of my host family, one of our chickens, and our kitchen..
xoxo
K
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Cumpleanos and other adventures
So this weekend turned out to be quite fun, saturday evening I went back to Chacrasana, and they were three different parties going on that night, first I went with my host mom to one around the corner at the house of a volunteer and we had a great time for what turned out to be 5 hours. There was lots of dancing and tiny little shot sized glasses of pisco and coke being passed around every 10 minutes or so. Then came community glasses of cerveza, but I just took my cue from the women I was sitting with as far as how much I drank (significantly less then the men of course..) I chatted in the corner with my host mom and 3 other women for most of the night but managed to escape when they started plotting to find me a man from the sierra (highlands...) They had a pinata and it was lots of fun. After that I went around the block with some other volunteers to another birthday party and stayed for quite some time as it was just down the hill from my house, it was a good time dancing to reggaetone and getting laughed at for being gringos, but the fact is that dancing is part of everything here...i love it! Last night, one of the language instructors started a little class for those of us interested in learning some peruvian moves, so we stayed for an hour after training (about 20 or so of us) it was way fun, and it almost made up for Zumba classes (though I miss you Ashley). Sunday was a sort of lazier day in my community, I did lots of spanish homework (yes its like im back at school)and then later in the day my host mom and brother took me to mass in Chosica,it felt like the longest homily of my life but I think thats because I was going in and out of understanding..Chosica was pretty busy even later in the evening and they have lots of stalls of games and its almost as if its a mini carnival or something. However, after walking around my host mom returned with a hamburger for the three of us which was bright pink, I managed to evade eating this rather successfully by eating the bun and simultaneously smushing the burger back in the bag (gross I know, but necessary) and was quite happy with myself since noone knew the difference :) I would have felt wasteful if it had been something nutritious but there was no way I was eating it! You would feel the same if you had seen it I promise.
This week our language classes have been in a neighboring community called tres de octubre...nobody seems to be able to give a good answer for why the town is named after that date, and none of the combi drivers knew where it was so it was quite a battle getting them to stop and let me off..but I have the hang of it now that its day 3 in that town. Unfortunately of my class of 4 two have been really sick the last few days, and so its a bit daunting seeing what I´m going to have to deal with eventually...not fun..we all got vaccinated (rabies and typhoid for me as i already had the others) on monday, but I think these sicknesses they have are more just the food and everything else making them sick. My language teacher was not to happy, but when your sick your sick I guess theres not much you can do.
The other day I had my first experience with ´security´in Peru, I was walking a few houses up to give a waterbottle back to one of the volunteers and these two men were walking to their car, they kept bothering me verbally but I kept walking as is of course recommended, and when i got back home i asked my host mom who the guy with the funny eye is (he had a weird eye) and she said hes a policeman...hahaha, yeah, if you need something in Peru and you are female, or a foreigner in general, they arent the best source of help :) They actually have special tourist police here to help because the regular police are fairly useless.
We went to the market in Chosica today and I had to collect the ingredients for ahi de gallina which we are cooking tomorrow...sounds simple only I had no idea what half the ingredients were as they are all native to Peru and the market was packed.I managed to get everything I needed though thankfully and even had time to buy a little gift for a baby shower Im going to sunday night. They dont know the sex of the baby yet so I just brought a really cute bib, and it was also a fabulous opportunity to practice my haggling/bartering skills on getting lower prices. Tomorrow we are going to be doing like a mock community diagnostic, asking the community (in my case Chacrasana) to map what they view as important places locally, and essentially getting an idea of how they view their area and whats important. Apparently this will be one of the techiques in addition to our community surveys that we will utilize when at site to get an idea of how different groups (ie women kids men) view their local areas...should be interesting tomorrow, as with most things I find myself wanting to know more about what we should be doing but we are left in the dark to figure it out for ourselves most of the time, we have a safety net being that we are in training but their is very vague guidance, so we will just see how it goes :) I think more than anything its just to put us in situations where we really have to interact about a variety of things with all sorts of people in the community.
The other day I was having a coffee in this little bakery with some people and across the table I heard Irish accents, when they were leaving I said hi and found that they are working at a youth shelter nearby, pretty cool! They invited us over to check it out anytime so I might do that next week...it just made it feel like a small world for a second :) Also, the other night my host bro called the volunteer who stayed with them before me and I got to talk to him for 20 mins or so about his projects in youth development in the department of Ancash...Ancash is probably number one in my choices of where I´d like to go right now, but beyond that Im open to anywhere really.
Below are some pics of Chacrasana, my host mom and jeremy one of my host brothers in Chosica the other night, and pictures with the flowers in tres de octubre, and the dance class at the training center! At the very bottom I put Al Fondo Hay Sitio, I watch this with my host family most nights as its like the local soap opera or something, its absolutely ridiculous and a hundred times worse than eastenders or whatever (not so classy) telenovela Ive ever seen...
This weekend I think I´ll be in Lima a lot which Im looking forward to, I haven´t had a chance to see Lima yet this time, so Im hoping I see some new places I didnt go last time as well...plus Ill have my first community gardening class..
xoox
K
This week our language classes have been in a neighboring community called tres de octubre...nobody seems to be able to give a good answer for why the town is named after that date, and none of the combi drivers knew where it was so it was quite a battle getting them to stop and let me off..but I have the hang of it now that its day 3 in that town. Unfortunately of my class of 4 two have been really sick the last few days, and so its a bit daunting seeing what I´m going to have to deal with eventually...not fun..we all got vaccinated (rabies and typhoid for me as i already had the others) on monday, but I think these sicknesses they have are more just the food and everything else making them sick. My language teacher was not to happy, but when your sick your sick I guess theres not much you can do.
The other day I had my first experience with ´security´in Peru, I was walking a few houses up to give a waterbottle back to one of the volunteers and these two men were walking to their car, they kept bothering me verbally but I kept walking as is of course recommended, and when i got back home i asked my host mom who the guy with the funny eye is (he had a weird eye) and she said hes a policeman...hahaha, yeah, if you need something in Peru and you are female, or a foreigner in general, they arent the best source of help :) They actually have special tourist police here to help because the regular police are fairly useless.
We went to the market in Chosica today and I had to collect the ingredients for ahi de gallina which we are cooking tomorrow...sounds simple only I had no idea what half the ingredients were as they are all native to Peru and the market was packed.I managed to get everything I needed though thankfully and even had time to buy a little gift for a baby shower Im going to sunday night. They dont know the sex of the baby yet so I just brought a really cute bib, and it was also a fabulous opportunity to practice my haggling/bartering skills on getting lower prices. Tomorrow we are going to be doing like a mock community diagnostic, asking the community (in my case Chacrasana) to map what they view as important places locally, and essentially getting an idea of how they view their area and whats important. Apparently this will be one of the techiques in addition to our community surveys that we will utilize when at site to get an idea of how different groups (ie women kids men) view their local areas...should be interesting tomorrow, as with most things I find myself wanting to know more about what we should be doing but we are left in the dark to figure it out for ourselves most of the time, we have a safety net being that we are in training but their is very vague guidance, so we will just see how it goes :) I think more than anything its just to put us in situations where we really have to interact about a variety of things with all sorts of people in the community.
The other day I was having a coffee in this little bakery with some people and across the table I heard Irish accents, when they were leaving I said hi and found that they are working at a youth shelter nearby, pretty cool! They invited us over to check it out anytime so I might do that next week...it just made it feel like a small world for a second :) Also, the other night my host bro called the volunteer who stayed with them before me and I got to talk to him for 20 mins or so about his projects in youth development in the department of Ancash...Ancash is probably number one in my choices of where I´d like to go right now, but beyond that Im open to anywhere really.
Below are some pics of Chacrasana, my host mom and jeremy one of my host brothers in Chosica the other night, and pictures with the flowers in tres de octubre, and the dance class at the training center! At the very bottom I put Al Fondo Hay Sitio, I watch this with my host family most nights as its like the local soap opera or something, its absolutely ridiculous and a hundred times worse than eastenders or whatever (not so classy) telenovela Ive ever seen...
This weekend I think I´ll be in Lima a lot which Im looking forward to, I haven´t had a chance to see Lima yet this time, so Im hoping I see some new places I didnt go last time as well...plus Ill have my first community gardening class..
xoox
K
Saturday, September 19, 2009
First week!
Hello!
So tomorrow will mark one week with my new host family, and I think (I´m never sure because I don´t ever feel completely confident that I totally understand!!) that we are going to the larger town nearby called Chosica for mass and to visit the market. I was in Chosica on monday night (and another night, but by accident because the combi driving lunatic wouldnt stop for me at chacrasana-that wont happen again :)), went with my host mom and she showed me around all the stalls and we bought some groceries for the week...its pretty chaotic, but I´ll hopefully get the hang of it. Both my host parents are cooks by trade, and they often go out there to get their supplies like blenders, etc. fixed. Speaking of cooking, I seem to have mistakenly made my family think I can cook and now have quite the list of dishes they want to have, pizza, cookies, and anything with chocolate. Pizza would not be so bad if I hadn´t seen pictures of the pizza the other volunteer had made them that I need to live up to :)That should be an adventure, I´m going to cook a little for them this week...
I loved this morning because we were given an mini project in class yesterday to go and assess different things in Chaclacayo, another neighboring larger town where the training center is...so I paired up with one of the girls and we went to the market and asked about basic stuff like when it opens, closes, what types of herbs they sell, where they get the fruit from (apparently the selva, then imported to Lima, and brought out here) we had to hold our breath going through the meat section of course where I got way to close to a skinned cows head eyes and all, but I´m just going to have to block that out at dinnertime. Anyway, it was pretty cool to see the market and know that I CAN get some veggies and fruit around here. I have literally not seen a vegetable on my plate since I arrived...its been a piece of delicious bread for breakfast with varying types of tea (still havent convinced madre about the cafe con leche!) one of which is like oatmeal cinnamon in h20, interesting! I´m getting to like the taste though, then for lunch it is rice with chicken or lentils but no sauce, then dinner is the same as lunch....I´m going to have to find some ways to jazz it up. Last night, I was pretty quesy so just asked for a plate of plain rice only to find that ´plain´is of course flavored with butter!!!! Thank god for my hill :)
My days are mostly 5 hours language classes in the morning in the community (like mine or the other one tres de octubre) then go to the training center in Chaclacayo via combi, stay there in health program until 5...then head back home via combi usually with homework, spend time with my family until 8, have dinner, and by 9 pretty much collapse. I did get to find out more about the health program, we will be working in various posts for the ministry of health, or MINSA...which has posts throughout the smaller municipalities in Peru. ¨posts¨are places with one doctor, very limited hours, and which can help with very basic needs. Its about 3 soles in my community to get in to see the doctor, about a dollar I think. If its more serious, they have larger health centers with a few more doctors, and then beyond that are the specialty hospitals. Of course, this is a very elementry description, but from I understand I´ll be helping more at the posts with the one doctor or so. The main focuses the health program centers its work around is educating women with young children 1-5 about nutrition, teaching and working with mothers about the importance of exclusive breastfeeding, and also helping to create cocinas mejoradas..using simple tubing etc to make improved kitchens so that the smoke from the cooking is not circulating in the house and is instead channeled outside..there are quite a few other major focuses, but those were 3 I found pretty interesting from this week. I think that starting next weekend we will be going to one of the universities in Lima to learn how to create community gardens because as far as nutrition goes that will be pretty important...so im looking forward to that next weekend.
This is getting long so I better head out, I think (again with the different language never being sure) that I´m going to a birthday party this evening somewhere in Chacrasana...fun fun!
I also was really confused as to where I was this morning when I woke up because I woke to the sound of like bollywood music videos...very bizzarre especially when they are singing in one language, its being translated into spanish, and all the while Im still not understanding, fabulous! :)
Underneath you can see me with Chanti and Mathias in the adidas hat, and our 2 dogs with their little outfits on because its cold at night and my language group my teacher, Sara is on the right side....
So tomorrow will mark one week with my new host family, and I think (I´m never sure because I don´t ever feel completely confident that I totally understand!!) that we are going to the larger town nearby called Chosica for mass and to visit the market. I was in Chosica on monday night (and another night, but by accident because the combi driving lunatic wouldnt stop for me at chacrasana-that wont happen again :)), went with my host mom and she showed me around all the stalls and we bought some groceries for the week...its pretty chaotic, but I´ll hopefully get the hang of it. Both my host parents are cooks by trade, and they often go out there to get their supplies like blenders, etc. fixed. Speaking of cooking, I seem to have mistakenly made my family think I can cook and now have quite the list of dishes they want to have, pizza, cookies, and anything with chocolate. Pizza would not be so bad if I hadn´t seen pictures of the pizza the other volunteer had made them that I need to live up to :)That should be an adventure, I´m going to cook a little for them this week...
I loved this morning because we were given an mini project in class yesterday to go and assess different things in Chaclacayo, another neighboring larger town where the training center is...so I paired up with one of the girls and we went to the market and asked about basic stuff like when it opens, closes, what types of herbs they sell, where they get the fruit from (apparently the selva, then imported to Lima, and brought out here) we had to hold our breath going through the meat section of course where I got way to close to a skinned cows head eyes and all, but I´m just going to have to block that out at dinnertime. Anyway, it was pretty cool to see the market and know that I CAN get some veggies and fruit around here. I have literally not seen a vegetable on my plate since I arrived...its been a piece of delicious bread for breakfast with varying types of tea (still havent convinced madre about the cafe con leche!) one of which is like oatmeal cinnamon in h20, interesting! I´m getting to like the taste though, then for lunch it is rice with chicken or lentils but no sauce, then dinner is the same as lunch....I´m going to have to find some ways to jazz it up. Last night, I was pretty quesy so just asked for a plate of plain rice only to find that ´plain´is of course flavored with butter!!!! Thank god for my hill :)
My days are mostly 5 hours language classes in the morning in the community (like mine or the other one tres de octubre) then go to the training center in Chaclacayo via combi, stay there in health program until 5...then head back home via combi usually with homework, spend time with my family until 8, have dinner, and by 9 pretty much collapse. I did get to find out more about the health program, we will be working in various posts for the ministry of health, or MINSA...which has posts throughout the smaller municipalities in Peru. ¨posts¨are places with one doctor, very limited hours, and which can help with very basic needs. Its about 3 soles in my community to get in to see the doctor, about a dollar I think. If its more serious, they have larger health centers with a few more doctors, and then beyond that are the specialty hospitals. Of course, this is a very elementry description, but from I understand I´ll be helping more at the posts with the one doctor or so. The main focuses the health program centers its work around is educating women with young children 1-5 about nutrition, teaching and working with mothers about the importance of exclusive breastfeeding, and also helping to create cocinas mejoradas..using simple tubing etc to make improved kitchens so that the smoke from the cooking is not circulating in the house and is instead channeled outside..there are quite a few other major focuses, but those were 3 I found pretty interesting from this week. I think that starting next weekend we will be going to one of the universities in Lima to learn how to create community gardens because as far as nutrition goes that will be pretty important...so im looking forward to that next weekend.
This is getting long so I better head out, I think (again with the different language never being sure) that I´m going to a birthday party this evening somewhere in Chacrasana...fun fun!
I also was really confused as to where I was this morning when I woke up because I woke to the sound of like bollywood music videos...very bizzarre especially when they are singing in one language, its being translated into spanish, and all the while Im still not understanding, fabulous! :)
Underneath you can see me with Chanti and Mathias in the adidas hat, and our 2 dogs with their little outfits on because its cold at night and my language group my teacher, Sara is on the right side....
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Pictures
Pictures of one of my host brothers...jeremy who is six with his own version of Mr Gorilla :) Pic of my room...they love stickers...and a picture of one of my dogs, mani. Will write more soon, found out more about my program today!
xox
K
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Estoy en Peru
So this is two blogs in one, sorry for the spelling have to get home before dark...cant upload pics yet, will work on that :)
Well, after a very long day yesterday traveling, the 57 of us (one girl got to staging but decided against coming)comprising PC 14 arrived at the airport in Lima to lots of smiling faces and Peace Corps staff...it was about an hour ride out to dusty Chaclacayo and we definitely passed through areas of Lima that I did NOT see last time...it was pretty mysterious at night arriving to our retreat site, and today we met all of the PC Peru staff and have already began being completely immersed in espanol...for example, I spent half an hour in an interview today having an intensive conversation in Spanish that was recorded...I{m excited to see what they will deem my starting level as it will be good to gauge things...tomorrow morning we meet our host families and take a combi with them out to where we will be living for the next 10 weeks...I think theres quite a bit of nerves going around, but at the same time we are all eager to have some time outside our group so we can let it sink in that we have really arrived in Peru...
2 DAYS LATER....
so things are really busy, on sunday i got my host family assignment after hours of hoping and waiting to meet them, we got my two huge bags and hopped in a taxi (all 8 of us) up a huge dusty hill called chacrasana, my new home...we are at the very top :) I live with 4 brothers....mathias is 1, jeremy is 7, kevin is 13, and ronnie is 21...i have a sister who is 20, 3 chickens, 2 cute dogs, a bird, and cats...this morning was my first attempt to shower....what an adventure...I went to the outhouse where our shower is and turned the ´tap´only to find absolutely FREEZING water, but i braved hopping in only to find that it spurts...its not a constant stream, it stops completely, then starts again like an explosion, so i said screw that and started to use the bucket...just filled it with the water and poured in in my hair...i could see the frost in my breath, but the hair had to be washed...:) gonna wait a few days to do that again, go ahead..judge!!!! I also have a handy alarm clock at exactly 4 am when the chickens start screaming, love it!!!
I´ve eaten enough white rice already to last a lifetime, but its all good, i talked with my host mom last night about ´gordita´and keeping the carbs to a minimumk, i also tried to get my host mom enthused about coffee in the morning, but that hasnt happened yet...
Will write soon when have more time,
K
Well, after a very long day yesterday traveling, the 57 of us (one girl got to staging but decided against coming)comprising PC 14 arrived at the airport in Lima to lots of smiling faces and Peace Corps staff...it was about an hour ride out to dusty Chaclacayo and we definitely passed through areas of Lima that I did NOT see last time...it was pretty mysterious at night arriving to our retreat site, and today we met all of the PC Peru staff and have already began being completely immersed in espanol...for example, I spent half an hour in an interview today having an intensive conversation in Spanish that was recorded...I{m excited to see what they will deem my starting level as it will be good to gauge things...tomorrow morning we meet our host families and take a combi with them out to where we will be living for the next 10 weeks...I think theres quite a bit of nerves going around, but at the same time we are all eager to have some time outside our group so we can let it sink in that we have really arrived in Peru...
2 DAYS LATER....
so things are really busy, on sunday i got my host family assignment after hours of hoping and waiting to meet them, we got my two huge bags and hopped in a taxi (all 8 of us) up a huge dusty hill called chacrasana, my new home...we are at the very top :) I live with 4 brothers....mathias is 1, jeremy is 7, kevin is 13, and ronnie is 21...i have a sister who is 20, 3 chickens, 2 cute dogs, a bird, and cats...this morning was my first attempt to shower....what an adventure...I went to the outhouse where our shower is and turned the ´tap´only to find absolutely FREEZING water, but i braved hopping in only to find that it spurts...its not a constant stream, it stops completely, then starts again like an explosion, so i said screw that and started to use the bucket...just filled it with the water and poured in in my hair...i could see the frost in my breath, but the hair had to be washed...:) gonna wait a few days to do that again, go ahead..judge!!!! I also have a handy alarm clock at exactly 4 am when the chickens start screaming, love it!!!
I´ve eaten enough white rice already to last a lifetime, but its all good, i talked with my host mom last night about ´gordita´and keeping the carbs to a minimumk, i also tried to get my host mom enthused about coffee in the morning, but that hasnt happened yet...
Will write soon when have more time,
K
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
My Address-September 9-November 30, 2009
This will be my address near my training post for the next three months or so, I'll have a new one in December when I go out to my site. Write if you can <3
Katie M. Lee, PCT
Cuerpo de Paz
Calle Vía Láctea 132
Urb. Los Granados, Surcos
Lima 33, Peru
It's here!
Well, tomorrow is my last day before I leave for Staging in D.C...I'll be there until Friday morning when my group (Peace Corps 14, it seems) will fly down to Lima via Miami...the last week has been a blur but I have had some great times. First, I had a three day trip out to see Joe and loved Pennsylvania, seeing where the med school will be, and enjoyed the cooler weather. Then Laura came in from San Diego and we had a great time catching up, going to 80's night, and hiking. Friday night my family threw a nice goodbye party for me, and it was really wonderful, I was so happy to see people I hadn't seen in awhile and share this moment with good friends who had some good advice for me as I head off...There have been some tough goodbyes over the course of the last week, but I haven't really been able to get very worked up about it...I feel like I'm just going full steam ahead into this adventure and I feel at ease with my decision to go. Doesn't mean I'm not going to miss some people like mad though, but maybe two years won't be such a long time in hindsight...
I've thought a lot about how in Utah, people sometimes make the assumption that I can't be contacted for the next two years because thats what its like for the LDS missionaries on their church missions...as I've been preparing and packing I've been thinking of what it would be like to know I was facing something that isolating...wow. I'm glad I will be able to keep in touch, complain, share elation, send love, skype (don't want to push my luck :-)) over the next two years...and still hopefully come away with fluency and a renewed passion for religion...my recent stunt as a Christmas and Easter (Italian hahah) Catholic will probably be left behind if I start going back to mass every week with my Peruvian family which is likely!
Another fun thing from the last week was having Laura burn me copies of old CD's we used to listen to the summer before we started college....we had a road trip down to Panama City Beach, Florida and for the last few days I've been renewing my love for Fall Out Boys original album, Something Corporates 'Leaving Through the Window,' and I've been listening to Plain White Tee's song 'A lonely September' on repeat so thanks Laura for the blast from the past!
I've also been remembering my short time in Peru back in 2006....just the part about how I met these volunteers who were down there for a month working in youth development, we had a great chat and I remember wishing I was actually doing something useful while there instead of just sightseeing....and I do remember clearly wishing I could come back again...so here we go!!!
Some facts from my health program introduction:
45% of the population lives under the poverty level (under $58 per month), and 14% lives in extreme poverty (under $32 per month).
There is a chronic malnourishment rate for children of 24%, an under-5 mortality rate of 28/1,000, and limited access to basic health services.
Less than 50% of the rural population has access to latrines or other sanitary facilities.
Love, K.
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