Wawawasi!

This last week definitely flew by, we had our language classes up until Wednesday and then headed to a community near Lima, San Juan de Lurigancho on Thursday to work in Wawawasi’s (Quechua word, very close to a daycare for very poor kids from 1-4). It was nice to see a new part of Lima, though every new part I see gets a bit more poor and a bit more chaotic, and San Juan was no exception. We drove about a mile up this huge hill in a combi over unpaved roads ( I suppose I should get used to this if I’m going to the mountains but don’t know yet) and got to our little Wawawasi greeted by lots of toothy and toothless 1-4 year olds. It was honestly a pleasant surprise to see how organized it was, the ladies that work there get a small wage per month but are charged with keeping a lot of structure for the kids and making sure they get all their nutritional needs met. The parents in turn have to contribute 1 sol (33 cents) a day to ensure that their children get the meals. The children did little dances for us and we watched them color, then they all got in line to wash their hands and it was fruit time. Afterwards we went around to the kitchen where the cooks had prepared little bocadillos (snacks) for us, a pincharrone (fried donut with honey) and something that looked like chocolate peanut butter (nutella-ish) and a tiny bit of rice with some form of meat. Half way through snacking on the ‘mousse’ like peanut butter I asked what was in it to meet the nutritional needs of the kids…the ladies said it was made only of the blood of chickens and milk with some cinnamon…..YUM! Once the people eating their third serving of fried donuts overheard that (and saw my face) they got curious as to why everything was the same color and asked what was in the donuts-chicken blood, The mystery meat? Coagulated chicken blood. Since anemia is a huge issue in kids and mothers here, they use the chicken blood as essentially an iron supplement and put it into everything…once I put the image out of my mind I was able to be impressed by the variety of things they had mixed it into and I suppose I got more iron that day than I have during my entire time in Peru!
Friday we had a little health fair at one of the health posts closer to where I live around Chaclacayo, my table was all about washing hands and we used glitter to demonstrate the transfer of germs and parasites-one of my favorite topics-, the other tables covered breast feeding and making baby food for different ages, and one group did a puppet show on self esteem which was a big success. The nurse at the health post made us all rice with milk, it was really tasty and a welcome change from my latest dinner craze rice with ketchup!! Friday afternoon we had a health group session on working with peer educators and I think things got a bit intense as so many of us are really clamoring to stop talking about these issues and actually go and start seeing what we will have to work with…not too much longer though…things are going to pick up a bit next week.
Saturday as per usual went to La Agraria (only one more time left at the ‘farm’ ) and had a lecture on raising Cuyes (guinea pigs) to eat….they are one of the lowest animals in terms of fat, and high in protein…seems though they are always served fried here which sort of defeats the purpose, but regardless they are a big deal in the Peruvian diet especially in the Sierra and I need to get used to this idea, I also need to start seeing looking beyond everything being fried as the Satan of all foods but I can’t help it! After the loooong lecture we went to where they were keeping the guinea pigs and there were literally hundreds of them in little habitats inside this huge room….they all leap on top of one another making their noise (literally sounds like CUY!!! Which is how they got their names) and try crawl under one another and push the others on top to be taken away for dinner!!! We also got to see guinea pig purses, gloves, and mugs….how versatile :)After that we headed over and brought some amazing fresh yogurt from the dairy farm they have there…this yogurt doesn’t have the usual preservatives etc and so it only is good a few days, but unlike all the other yogurt I’ve tried here in Peru, this one had a thick US kind of consistency, so I got the Lucuma flavor and ate it with some baby bananas when I got home, fabulous!
Saturday night I made smores with my host brothers, it turned out really well and was lots of fun!! There were lots of parties in our community so I listened to the festivities all night trying to fall asleep!! In a way it was kind of cozy..
So a bit of whats coming up::

Week 7 (this week): Language classes, mock Peruvian presidential debates, intensive first aid, Wednesday bus travel to Huarez, Ancash (7 hours north) to stay with various health volunteers living there and shadow them…come back on an overnight bus on Halloween oooo…

Week 8: Continued language/technical training/ Find out my site!!! Hoping for: smaller, sierra (highlands), strong community partner (this seems to be tough to find)…. Maybe provinces of Tumbes, Alta Piura, Cajamarca, or Ancash. Really have no control over this so we will see.

Week 9: Gone all week to the provincial capital near my site, then visit my new host family and previous volunteer if there is one.

Week 10: Last week of training, swearing in and leave for site on November 21.

So, with some reflection on the last few weeks, here are some things I really love about Peru:

How happy my 7 year old host brother is when I come home early.
Watching my families favorite Telenovela with them.
How warm people are, kisses on the cheek all the time.
Dancing at every social occasion.
Seeing older women with their little outfits from the sierra, no teeth, and super smiles.
That people are really patient with my language issues.
That I now can gauge how much longer I have to sleep based on when the chickens start their morning screams ( 3 hours).

Have lots of pics to put up but this computer is SUPER slow so it will have to wait til next time!!
Con Carino!