January Adventures

Sitting on top of a lechera, or milk truck for my ride back to Paccha!



Dishes the mothers had prepared in Unigan.



Mothers with their crafts.



SuperCUY here he comes.



Tamales for breakfast with cafe de cana yum yum.



Me with my host cousin, they call him gordito but hes so cute. This was his one year birthday!



Girls in my English class..



Me with my cousins at gorditos birthday after dancing...



Hiking down from Huaychoc.


I arrived back to Paccha rejuvenated two Sundays ago after a nice weekend with my two partners in crime, Barbara and Annie, a huge box of hot chocolate and enough candy to feed the entire child population of Peru (twice..), and a new kettle (a surge killed my last one). During the weekend we decided to use our little Chota room to our advantage and actually control what we eat (which after 4 months felt amazing) and we spent Saturday morning scheming about banana pancakes in the market, got all the ingredients and headed back for a mini feast. I channeled my inner shrove Tuesday pancake flipping genius (thanks mom and pooks) and together we made some amazing pancakes and ate them with jam while watching the Little Mermaid. Fun! We also bought tons of vegetables to make stir fry…cilantro, avocado, tomatoes, onions (I can no longer live without onions…they are my flavor when there is none), green onions (these too) and other things and had a delicious stir fry SIN rice. Thank god. Then Barbara made some fabulous tortillas that actually resembled tortillas we eat in the states instead of spinachy omelets that they deceivingly call tortillas here. YUM. So Sunday came and we all headed our separate directions with me scheming on when I was going to open my late arriving Christmas box. After a treacherous rain filled ride back to site in which two huge trucks filled with milk tried to pass each other on our road which is no wider than a golf cart and has an abyss of about 1000 feet on one side causing a delay of 2 hours and much terrifying reversing, I decided to stare the box on and off for 3 days before I finally gave in…my favorite lotion, new Pjs and cozy socks perfect for rainy season, a special version of the Night Before Christmas, a beautiful scarf and lovely letters, and of course hot chocolate (I never saw this addiction coming, but it is now a staple). Definitely made me a very happy camper!
I found it wasn’t as hard to slip into Spanish this time getting back to site after 2 days with my English speaking Cajamarquinas, but it was hard to slip into work…as usual you could say. I went up to the health post two days in a row, it was totally dead…no one was sick apparently, and the rest was administrative work taking advantage of the (perpetual?) quiet time. Lame, so after offering to help to no avail I slipped back into my room and read an entire novel of 453 pages in a single day. Hey, one has to accomplish SOMETHING right? Thankfully though, after running out of novels and starting to feel myself go a little insane from solitude I decided to put proactive into high gear…I went up to the health post and asked for a rundown of what they might have going on in the next week or so…nothing….so I said, oh theres no nutrition charlas, or food being given out to the mothers, or health promotors stopping by? That seemed to ring a few bells, and it seemed like even though there was nothing going on for THEM, there was going to be health promotors stopping by to give out the monthly food rations on Thursday (or some day that week, Id just have to come up and check….every day), and that there was also an artisian fair going on in a community 2 hours away put on by the mothers who participate in a government aid program on Friday, and a nutrition session demonstrativa on Saturday in Simon Mayo…Umm ok….so that’s nothing to them but totally relevant to me. So after getting wind of these activities I made sure to track down the people who were putting them on so I could go…one was the nurse from the community Quiden which I walk to a lot, so I tagged along with her to give out the ‘papillas’ or rice and milk rations given out through the PRONAA program here in Peru to mothers in poverty, then I did 3 community diagnostics with those mothers I saw and learned about some communities nearby that I think will definitely be places I want to give charlas on nutrition. Then I arranged to get a ride with our gobernador to the community Unigan on Friday, he told me we were leaving at 5 am in the camioneta, so I was up and ready to go despite feeling horrendous…I figured I could feel horrendous in bed without a book or I could feel horrendous getting to go to the community I’d been looking forward to seeing all week…in the end curiosity won and I went….but not at 5, at 7:30 a la Peruvian time! I was so glad I did though, the drive was incredible, after going up and over the mountain on this side, the land turns into more forest like jungly trees and I loved it. I also got to see the feria the mothers put on, their handcrafts were beautiful, and it was nice to see a community that is considered part of Paccha, even though its on the far reaches of our district. I spent all morning chatting with the mothers, trying chi-o-chi (a type of messy fruit they make with milk which was horrible on the first bite but grew on me), and totally owning my cousin in hangman (in Spanish). I was walking through the market when one very ancient looking woman stared at me and started to cry…I stopped to chat with her and she told me that she had little girls who had moved to Lima to work that she hadn’t seen but that they had hair like mine and my hair made her miss them…it was sad but we chatted, hugged Sierra style, and I said I might come back to Unigay again. When we wanted to leave there was no truck, so we decided to hop a lechera, or milk truck, and I got to sit front and center to take in the air and the view the whole way back down to Paccha.
Saturday one of the nurses daughters came by the house and we walked to Simon Mayo together. Its about a 45 minute walk up and it was muddy, misty, and rainy. We all had our boots on and the walk up to the communal house where we had the nutrition session was a mess but worthwhile. The nurse Claudina, the health promotor, Ruth, and I all waited and the mothers slowly started trickling up the hill at around 10. So many of the women walk barefoot in the mud and rocks here and leave the mud cake on their feet, but despite the obvious problems, it’s a logical way not to slip and they are the ones who have the final laugh as they watch us make out way down the hill slipping and sliding. The session was about 3 hours, we did the presentation on plates for children 6-8 months, 9-11, 12 plus, and the madre gestante. Then the mothers came forward and made their own plates and presented on them. I feel like I’m starting to get to know the moms in Simon Mayo fairly well as this is the third time I’ve been at one of their meetings, and I was really happy to meet the health promotor Ruth. Fortunately as well, there was a representative from the ministry of agriculture there who is working in developing biohuertos the mothers in different communities in Paccha. I told him I’d like to go with him to these communities and see what he has going on and he was enthusiastic and we have already set two days when I’m going to go with him and the girl from the Gov’t run JUNTOs program by foot to some more remote communities to see the biohuertos (small farms/community gardens) they have or want to have. Also, there was a representative from PRONAA, Esther, which is the group that distributes the ‘papilla’ food to mothers once a month and she is going to be doing nutrition sessions in lots of communities I have not yet visited so I plan to go with her in the coming weeks as well. We had lunch in one of the women’s houses, it was a surprise for me but seemed like they had it planned of course, and I listened quietly and neutrally to some of the local gossip…this is where it helps to fall back on being oblivious to what people are saying in Spanish! When we were finished eating, there was torrential rain, so we stayed in a tiny room watching a subtitled version of Cast-Away with Tom Hanks. I started laughing at the part where the volleyball “Wilson” floats away just as I did the first time I saw the film in the theatre…I remember feeling guilty for finding it slightly hilarious…remember that Laura?! I guess I should really laugh at Tom Hanks though, I have a faceless doll made of one sheet of fabric tied with string I leave on my bed…haven’t started talking to it yet though so its all good.
On the not so enthusiastic end, I did have a day planned with the representative of the contra-illiteracy program in our district to go to a town nearby with him. I ran into him on Sunday, we confirmed, then on Monday after my English class (an hour before we were to leave) I reconfirmed, he said he would come to my house and we would go….2 oclock rolled around…nothing. 3...nothing…he was an hour late at that point. 4, 5, 6. Nothing. It was quite odd because he had been very animated about me going with him, and he could have just told me if it wasn’t going to work out and I wouldn’t have wasted a few hours watching Project Runway (I hate the show, it was just that I ran out of the Office and save the Tudors for the evenings) waiting for him to show up any minute. Anyway, there was no explanation, still haven’t been able to track him down to ask, but I heard rumors that he went to Chota for the afternoon….uh, ok?!? Could have let me know. So stuff like that’s annoying, but all in all I’m happy with myself for arranging these last few things mostly by myself and not with the health post staffs help, I think I want to make it clear they are my main partner, but that if they aren’t going to keep me occupied, I’ll find another way to get out and work with the mothers.
On Wednesday I had an amazing hike up to Huaychoc with the Ministry of Agriculture engineer who is working in setting up biohuertos for the mothers up there. It is an hour or so walk up and 2 hours down…that steep! We were on the side of the Cerro (mountain), it was so steep but the view was absolutely fabulous. I’m going up again on Monday to a lunch that is rumored to be Cuy…wish me luck. The mothers there were quite lively, it was a fun meeting complete with mote (big corn bits) and ‘coffee de cana” …which is ‘coffee’ extracted from sugarcane. Super sweet. As we were in the meeting, the rain and clouds started to come closer and soon you could see the clouds literally enter into the little communal house through the windows and doors. One of the mothers also gave me two huge pineapples from her biohuerto…it was an adventure carrying them down but totally worth it, they were delicious!!!
I also got a ’solicitud’ or formal invite, to the municipality for a meeting Friday which I went to at 9 en punto thinking it was quite official…turns out it was quite official but that still doesn’t mean anyone shows up earlier than 9:45...pretty ridiculous. There was a German guy there, I guess he works in Cajamarca for one of the government aid programs we have here called EDAD…he wasn’t the most chatty but I think it could have been the setting, we will see. I guess he doesn’t really stay in Paccha but comes once in awhile to do…something? Not really sure. I have a meeting with EDAD next week that I hope they are actually there for and maybe I will learn more then.
So in between all these things, I’ve read a good bit, watched the Office (which I don‘t know why I never watched in the States!!) , spent some time with my family, gone for walks in the rain and mist and had lots of random little conversations along the way. Time is slow, but I’m developing a little pattern I think. One thing that does keep me busy in the mornings is that I teach English to 25 7-12 year olds Monday, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays for 2 hours each day. They are totally nuts, and its so hard to keep they boys in the class under control but all in all it is a lot of fun and they definitely seem to enjoy it. We might do a pen-pal thing with my friend Mateo’s class. He’s in the department of La Libertad and it might be fun for our classes to write to one another and talk about what they have been learning and a way to learn a little about a different department. I also am participating in the world wise schools program that Peace Corps does were they pair you up with a school in your home state to write to a class about Peru and your experience, part of the exchange. My class is from an alternative high school in Ogden and before Christmas I got a really enthusiastic letter from the teacher but after writing back a little about what I’m up to I haven’t heard from him since…hope they write me back! Otherwise I might ask for a different, younger class.
In other news, I’m counting down the days until January is finished and February comes with Carnaval. We’ve been looking forward to Carnaval since we found out we would be living in Cajamarca so I’m really looking forward to it and its right in the middle of February. At the end of January, one of the volunteer leaders who has been here for 3 years is coming to visit those of us who are all the way out here in the Chota area and she’s planning to visit my site and then Annie’s. Then we going to Chota for a lesson on doing radio spots…could be good, though I don’t think there’s much hope for a signal out my way though I’m going to ask around.
A few other random things:
-Literally two minutes after arriving back last Sunday night I was invited to a drinking and dancing circle in our restaurant…there’s no escaping!!! I hadn’t even opened my door to put my stuff down…
-The person next to me has thrown up 3 times on the ride to Paccha…different person each time…but I secretly pride myself on being able to handle it! My time might come though…ugh. And don’t worry when you visit I have sufficient doses of Dramamine, but the downside is you will miss the view which is worth it.
-I ate camote, zapaya, and chi-o-chi this week, all mixed with leche. Absolutely revolting site, but I’m learning to stomach them.
-I’m starting to get a little better at Volleyball, in the evenings people play in the street here and I’ve gotten into it too…I have the hand bruises to prove it!
-I’ve started eating mangoes
-We have a pet ‘penguino’ who is really cute and just meanders around the kitchen…as far as I can tell he is our one legitimate pet…he’s just here to be cute, not to be eaten!
-Apparently if the testicles don’t drop on the pig we have killed we can’t eat it because the meat is destroyed.
-Tomato bisque really freaks people out here…the thought of mixing tomato and milk…but I told them to
Eat it with some bread and it went over well!
-Don’t bring leftover Christmas chocolate to my English class…my students showed up later in the day
Asking to buy the rest from me!!!

Its been a little while!

The pictures above are of my first English class in Quiden a community nearby, it was lots of fun! I'm starting my English classes more officially this coming week to kids ages 7-10.
Also, pictures of the dolls burning, we made them from old clothes on New Years.
My favorite fruit...Maracuya..looks gross, tastes wonderful!
The "monster moth" I let chill out in my room for a week or so...he was sort of becoming a pet!



So Christmas in Paccha…..some thoughts (and a long time coming update of all things in general!):

Tortillas and honey…hard to describe but see the pictures below, these are the only time of year people eat them so that’s a big part of the diet for 2 days!

Christmas Eve was a really quiet day, I made some collages (haven‘t been desperate enough to move on to scrap booking yet) , stayed in the house, meandered around trying to find something to do, but eventually just settled in with my book.

At mass during Noche Buena I was firmly planted in the front row with the kids and an old lady and asked if I wanted to confess to the Priest before mass in front of everyone up on the altar…in the spirit of confession I told a lie ( I know Im terrible) and said I had confessed recently, but there was no way! The kids were all dressed up in their nativity costumes and had on the campo hats to give it a good Paccha type twist. Half way through mass the Priest called up a couple…to get married?! It took about 3 minutes and that part of the ceremony was finished, then it was time for 2 baptisms…talk about random. It made me think of the Christmas and Easter Catholics coming to mass on Christmas eve, I‘m sure they would love express Church day…get baptized, married, go to confession, and Christmas mass all at once J None of the songs were familiar, I was hoping for at least one, but it was funny because they substituted the name of our town for where I would expect to hear ‘Bethlehem.’specifically about Paccha..

After mass we came back to the house, and I’d been hearing about this “big dinner” from people in town and among us volunteers we were speculating what it would be, but as midnight rolled around, the tortillas and honey came out, along with paneton and hot milk with some chocolate through it, and a lone chicken wing…pretty funny mix. I gave my family the little gift I had gotten them, but could tell that definitely wasn’t their tradition, which was fine, I just wanted to give them a little something anyway.

The next morning I woke up to flashbacks of a cozy Christmas morning in my house and came back to reality with a nice cold shower, I heard a scream while I was in the shower and found that our cute dog King Kong had been hit by a car in the road…he was bleeding everywhere and we tried to comfort him…we thought that was probably going to be it as he was making really weird noises and didn’t move all day…but later he came back to life…and though he didn’t eat at all last week he is back to his crazy self now…though he’s taking advantage of being thinner by crawling through the cracks in the doors even when they are closed to him! The morning was mellow after that until about 2 in the afternoon. We went down to my host grandmothers house and they were making chicken with rice and yuka (has a texture like a potatoe, just more dry and soft and a different taste that kind of absorbs what its cooked with). The pepsis on the table are always a sign that it’s a bit of a treat, and they also passed around the semi seco wine (its crazy sweet, like dessert wine) and of course the communal glass with beer. We had a nice meal, people came in and out, and then had more tortillas. My favorite part of the conversation was them trying to teach me Paccha’s own form of Spanish, they have pretty heavy accents here that even I can pick up on having come from Lima. I like the sound of it though.

New Years there seemed to be more going on. People were excited about making dolls out of old clothes to burn in the street to say goodbye to 2009...and it was the day of the football match which happens twice a year. I headed down in the afternoon with my host family to our canchita (pitch) which has an amazing view that makes you just want to stare and it and not the game, and the village teams were playing. There was plenty of communal glass passing, chincharrones, and tiny little icecream cones. It was a fun afternoon outside with everyone, and the health post staff was there too. When we got back to the house we all relaxed for awhile, then my sister brought me some risqué yellow underwear which is a necessity for good luck during the new year, then I sat outside with my host cousin whose in town visiting, and we were passing phrases back and forth in English and Spanish, he’s interesting to talk with. It was time to go to the dance around 10 down at the primary school, and that’s where I stayed until 5 the next morning. The whole town was there dancing so it was a lot of fun, and at midnight I snuck out to the plaza to try call home, and saw all the dolls burning in the street…pretty different from what I’m used to! I think the thing I missed the most was the countdown…I thought they would do one, but instead it was just Happy New Year, its 2010!!!

The days between Christmas and New Years I spent going up to the health post to see if I could help out, there wasn’t much going on as it’s a quiet time of year (which is saying something when its already always quiet!) so I read my book up there and chilled out with them. I was getting ready to get to a Quinciniera one night when I got a knock on the door that there was a birth going on in the health post. I had asked them to tell me no matter what time it is so I can come and learn, so I stayed in the health post all night with the doctor (not Stalin, Dr. Wilson who is completing his obligatory ‘rural year‘)…we kept thinking it would be time, but it was her first baby and 14 hours later it finally came. The way you say give birth in Spanish is ‘dar la luz” which literally means to give light…pretty J The birth itself wasn’t quite as pretty to say the least, it was messy, and the doctor was lucky he had on his plastic bag shoes, but it was fascinating. Anesthesia here is not commonplace for births, the only time they give anesthesia is for C-Sections (uh yeah I’d hope so!) , even if we were to go to Chota it would have been a natural birth. I just kept trying to keep it out of my mind that the nearest basic hospital is 3 hours away and watch the doctor work his magic (and the poor girl push). When it appeared that it was almost time for the head to come out I stopped massaging her belly and the nurse and I put our hands in a type of fist above the part of the belly where the baby is and pushed down with all our weight to help make the pushes harder. This seemed like it would be a crazy ton of pressure, but it seemed to help, the baby was almost completely out 2 minutes later. Anyway the moms name is Gladys and she named her little girl Nicole, and she was pretty curious as to when I‘m planning to have babies of my own, it was entertaining trying to explain my rationale on that…We waited another hour and half for the placenta to drop, and when it did Gladys asked if they could keep it. The reason was because she worried that if the placenta was just thrown away somewhere cold or exposed this would have ramifications for the babies health, Nicole might feel cold or be sick a lot. So we put it in a plastic bag and left it by her things…wild huh?

Other days I’ve been helping a tiny bit with miscellaneous things at the health post, like today I folded Gauze pads for a hour and sterilized them, then did the same with cotton. The other day I talked the nurse into training me on the database they use (since we are a “Centro de Salud” we have an administrative function of gathering data from the health posts (there are 21 in our district). The girl in charge of this is having a baby at the end of this month, and in my need to feel needed, I told her I’d be happy to help with keeping the information up to date while she is gone…its very easy to use, and since I’m sometimes just sitting in the health post waiting to be needed anyway I figure this will be a good way to be useful and still be around seeing what’s going on. I feel like this week I’ve taken things into my own hands more with starting to get my diagnostic rolling, and I’m starting to feel quite excited about the probability for projects which is a good feeling.

A little about the diagnostic….during a PCV’s first three months at site they are supposed to conduct what is called a ‘community diagnostic’ to help gauge the needs of the community in which they are living and will be working. Since Paccha is already quite on top of things in terms of rural health being a ‘zona urbana’ ( even though we only have 900 people) I’m focusing on the surrounding annexes that are part of our district. We have 21 of these, and I want to conduct my diagnostic with the ones who are close by in walking distance but who also did not have the opportunity to work with Justin the previous volunteer. I’m going to conduct house visits to the different houses in the annexes and after building some confianza with the family of course I will be asking questions about all sorts of basic health things…for example:

How many children do you have?
Up to what point did you breastfeed them?
Can you tell me what your diet consists of (ex. What did your family eat yesterday)?
Can you identify a balanced meal (have photos of balanced/unbalanced)?
Do you boil your water? For at least 3 minutes? Do you understand why its important?
Do you have a latrine?
Why wash your hands? How often do you do this?
Have you heard of cocinas mejoradas for cooking inside your home?
Can you identify foods that help babies grow?
What foods are especially important to eat if you are pregnant?
Do you have a biohuerto? Do you consume the food you grow or sell it?
How do you prevent diarrhea, and how do you treat diarrhea when your baby or child has it? ---this one is especially important, often mothers are afraid to give more water to the baby---
Do you understand what vaccinations are and the ones your baby needs?
Has someone in your family been sick in the last 15 days? What kind of sicknesses?
How do you eliminate your trash?
How often do you brush your teeth? With water or with paste?
Are you willing to use the Centro de Salud for your health needs? When was the last time you visited the doctor?
Do you have SIS (the overarching health coverage here in Peru)? If not, do you know the process for getting coverage?
Do you raise your own animals to eat or to sell? What types of animals do you have (common are ducks, chickens, guinea pigs, regular pigs)
What kinds of natural medicines do you use and for what needs?


The whole point of the prying questions is to get a better feel for what kind of projects I’ll be working on and get me brainstorming about who in the community I can work WITH…in Peace Corp development mantra whatever I do must be sustainable of course…meaning the local authorities and people have to be willing to commit something to it too. If I find that half of mothers can’t identify a balanced meal, then clearly I need to do some ‘charlas’ (little meetings, demonstrative sessions) on nutrition with the health post nurses, or if they still don’t have latrines and cocinas they after 6 months here I might write a solicitud to the municipality to see if funding is possible for a project to create cocinas in this community and a Peace Corps grant to meet it 30 % of the way. Or if they have fear about coming to the health center and prefer to go to the local naturalist ‘bruja/witch’ as they call it here, then maybe having conversations with them little by little about the importance of the health post. Once I learn more about the community on this basic level theres more details I’d like to learn like do the women know they can get iron supplements free throughout their pregnancy, do they know foods that are a source of iron (of course, this is better if we are talking sustainable right), do they know the importance of early childhood stimulation, do they know about birth control methods, about STI’s? The reason this is important is that infidelity is huge here with men traveling so much to the coast for work…but I don’t even want to touch these topics with a ten foot pole until I know the families and women well…I’m in the Sierra ands its VERY SLOW PACED….you can’t just go in and start talking about sex etc. it will freak them out understandably.
Anyway, for my first visits I will probably have a nurse from my health post come with me, though most of the people seem to have an idea of who I am and that I’m here to work in health. In the meantime, I’m trying to learn about the way things get done here in Paccha, the different organizations that exist that I might be able to work with in addition to the health post and trying to learn about the nature of things here in general, so it’s a lot of observation and taking things in more than it is doing things yet. Plus theres the little hang up called language, which while I think is improving every day, has a way to go!!!




In other random news from the past few weeks...
Things I will probably never quite get used to:

-Math books for toilet paper…this would be taking my dislike for mathematics to the next level.
-The site of chopped up pig parts absolutely everywhere in my house, and smell that comes with that.
-Explaining my marriage status every time I dance with someone new.
-The constant noise…I fall asleep to cumbia, I wake up to cumbia, I eat lunch to cumbia…J
-The huge chicken outside we are saving for a chicken fight…
-That the women who wash clothes are all mute, I met my fourth one today
-The staggering age gap in some relationships is just creepy…


Good things:
-I’ve started looking forward to my cold showers, though this might come from necessity from how infrequently I take them.
-When it’s a full moon you can see all the stars, its beautiful!
-When I leave site, my favorite thing is café con leche with soft bread…at site my bread often has a funny hint of mold and can be rock hard…I still eat it and have been fine but it has that taste…except on Sundays when its fresh. I still love that things don’t have preservatives though.
-Dancing…after making my Gringa dancing debut at the high school graduation until 4 am before Christmas and again at the New Years Eve dance for 6 hours I feel I have proved myself capable of movement especially with cumbia, my favorite naturally. Salsa is a completely different story, as is Huayno, the typical dance of Cajamarca which could best be described as skipping and hopping in circles. Its one of those type dances that make it impossible not to smile its so much fun, but its ridiculous to watch. Thankfully I feel I will be well prepared to own it at Cajamarca’s famous “Carnival” in February when the Huayno will be obligatory!
-The kids around my house have discovered that I brought coloring books with me and all this week stopped by in the mornings to say hello and ask for a page to color its really cute.
-My neighbor has Encarta, which is a nice substitute for the internet when one is very bored, and I got to show them pictures of SLC on it.
-Watching 80’s videos with my cousins
-My walks up to the campo seeing the women making their blankets from a mile away because the colors are so bright.
-Camioneta rides…while I can never leave the window down because when we get into towns kids are armed with water balloons to throw at the truck, its always a good way to meet people and talk…I’ve met engineers, nurses, teachers, farmers, students, writers…and it’s a good way to force me to talk for a long time. Just today on my ride to Chota I taught a little girl the colors of the rainbow and we argued about my hair being orange/naranja or red/roja!

Also, riding quite high right now having finally received the two long awaited packages from my parents!!! Though next time maybe don't send the smaller jeans and hershey kisses together...dangerous (but delicious!) mix :) THANK YOU!!!!!