Coffee, bugs, and Michael Jackson..

This afternoon we have a bit of a 'descanzo' or rest, so I decided to seize the moment and come update on whats been going on before I (hopefully) return to my house to crash for a white rice induced nap!! This last weekend was a lot of fun, saturday night there were parties in not one, two, but three different communities where volunteers are living and so I felt compelled to participate in all three festivities. The first was in Tres de Octubre where the kids put on a big dance show, some of them were dressed up as devils and others had the Michael Jackson look going on with the white socks...it was a good time, and I suppose its tradition in past years to have volunteers perform a song so some of the guys in our group got up and sang a few songs...as a side note, I've probably had conversations about Michael Jackson 15 times since arriving in Peru!! After Tres de Octubre, some of us headed over to Yanacoto, the only community with a hill bigger than mine in Chacrasana and had a great time there witnessing fireworks Peruvian style..which is essentially a huge wooden sculpture thing lit up from the bottom and just when you think its done, the flame keeps traveling and another firework goes off and gives you the fright of your life...they also literally run around the people dancing in a circle, no regulations as far as fireworks go here! After 3 hours of dancing there, we went back to Chacrasana, the other gringos headed for bed and I was exhausted but my family was still out at the party they were having to celebrate Chacrasanas anniversary so I couldn't be the lame gringo who goes home to bed...alas, 4 hours later (5 am now...) I was still dancing with my host mom and her friends when I gave in and said it was time for bed...they ended up staying out until 7 am and you could hear the music all through the community...then my host mom went to work!

I thought she would be exhausted when she got home but off we went to mass, and another round of staring at statues in Chosica...I think she might think Im fascinated by the statues or something because when we go for walks around after mass she and I stand there for like 20 minutes having very intermittent conversation and admiring the statues (like the huge white Jesus)...maybe I just need to learn to slow down a bit more :) We also had some tres leches cake which I enjoyed, outside of the church women set up tables to sell different types of cakes by the slice.
As far as training goes this week its been pretty language intensive as usual, but also we've had sessions on Peruvian history which I've really enjoyed. We had an extensive discussion pondering how in gods name Alan Garcia got re-elected in 2006 (his first term was 1985 when he left the country in shambles and fled to Paris with the dinero). Tomorrow I have my second interview for language, I'm hoping I can move up a level but I'm not betting my life on that happening as I feel like I'm going through every possible verb conjugation every time I open my mouth like some kind of disfunctional (and small)encylopedia.

After classes yesterday I decided to take my nutritional situation into my own hands and went to the market, I stocked up on bananas, apples, and oranges yum then I went to the shop next door, called Las Vegas by the way, and brought oatmeal (or kwa-kerr as its pronounced here) that I can eat without it being in liquidy drink form, popcorn, yogurt (all yogurt here is liquid, but oh well) and granola....I went home and made a fruit salad with the granola and yogurt and it tasted nothing really like what it would in the states but I didn't care, I just missed being able to put together something that isn't rice and papas! Tonight, however, my family has decided to make 'pincharrones' and 'hamburgers' for me and told me to invite the other Chacrasana volunteers, apparently Pincharrones (im spelling it wrong) are like fried donut sweet things so wish my arteries luck for handling that one...

Yesterday I went to Chosica, land of the Novia del Sol, and apparently home of the most painful bugbites in this particular 10 miles of Peru. I was devoured by the bugs but on a more interesting note got to venture into the local emergency hospital...theres nothing to put painful bug bites in perspective than seeing someone ready to go into triage surgery. It was a weird experience because the hospital is essentially outside with little rooms adjoining where the surgeries get done, and the patients are wheeled through a maze of people and the surgeons are in and out in their surgical garments and people go in and out of the surgery rooms no problem...its just nothing like the intense sanitization I've always associated with hospitals in the U.S. It was pretty chaotic, we found out that they usually have about 500 people in and out most days for various things from vaccinations to emergency surgery, and the doctor we spoke to once again reiterated that even here where we are closer to the coast, respiratory infections are still the primary reason they see children. This particular hospital doesnt have preventative or diagnostic tools like MRI's etc, so for all those things people must go to the larger specialty hospitals in Lima. They also have one ambulance that takes people to Lima if they cannot be seen at this hospital in Chosica. It was a good chance to learn about the local medical services people seek most when that can't be taken care of at their community health post, and I was glad to see that the doctors were familiar with Cuerpo de Paz as well.

On a tangential and very complainy note, I really miss being able to make my own cup of coffee...every morning I go to the breakfast table, open my little flask and pray for cafe con leche, but most mornings (except tuesdays, Im noticing a pattern..) its either liquidated brown oatmeal goo, or boiled water with mandarins sliced through and dashes of oatmeal (???), or super SUPER sweet cocoa or thick egglike mixtures or something...so I've resorted to taking coffee however I can get it, for example, I've starting taking my coffee just black because there never seems to be actual milk around, and sugar is in everything else...and the other day at La Agraria I had instant coffee in cold water (try it sometime :)) I guess I just have to admit that it would be nice to just have one cup that tasted like coffee as I used to know it!!!!!! I'll manage to keep it in perspective though, don't worry :)

Below are some pictures, one is of the cards I've gotten I hung up in my room and the little pic my host brother drew for me, the other with the mountains is the view from the top of the hospital, they look so high but I think are still relatively foothills to the Andes, and some pictures of the fun fireworks in Yanacoto and my neighborhood last weekend.

con carino xox