Poco a Poco (Little by Little)

I’m back! This past week I was traveling in Peru for Field-Based Training.  All of SBD 17 (Small Business Development, Group 17) traveled to Cajamarca, a department (state) of Peru to the North… by way of a 17-hour bus!  It was actually way better than it sounds.  There are pretty affordable options for comfortable overnight seats, which are kind of like business class airplanes- the seats go back really far, a footrest comes up, and you get served multiple meals.  We were able to afford those seats on the way there but not the way back.  With my awesome Brookstone eye cover, I got sufficient sleep both ways.

10 of us went to a town called Tembladera, somewhat close to the coast so it was pretty warm.  It was surrounded on one side by a lake (man-made, a dam released overtop of a town that used to exist there) and on the other side by a mine of some sort, for an ingredient in cement.  It was about 7,000 people in the town with 3,000 in the caseríos (outlying villages), and I loved the size- I’d like a site about that big, maybe slightly larger, and that would qualify as a “medium”-sized site for Peru Small Business.  I figure at that size I can have the benefits of gaining confianza (trust) with the community while also having enough economic activity to be productive as a Small Business Volunteer.  I’ll be finding out my site in a week and a half!

For the week, I worked in a pair with my friend Chris, teaching 18 students (17 female and 1 male) who were ages 16-30 and in school to be secretaries.  For three days we taught them basic business themes, like market/feasibility studies, accounting/finances, marketing, and business plans, and at the end of the 3^rd day they presented their ideas of a 1-day business to the “Banco de Paz,” with a business plan and loan application.  After an grilling interview with the "bank" (our program staff), each group (Chris and I had 4) received a loan, varying from 15 to 100 soles, to execute their business on the 4^th day.

With some of my students, Manuel and Claudia on Business Simulation day

Chris and I with all our students right before graduation.  Do I blend in??

One of our groups won, because they had the highest margin of utility out of all 12 groups!  As much as we tried to convince them otherwise, almost all the teams made food, and our winning team made tallarín con pollo (chicken and noodles, a standard Peruvian dish) and papa a la huancaína (another traditional and DELICIOUS dish).    But in the end it seems that they knew best, because in one day they had a margin of utility somewhere around 250%!

It was a great and useful week, as we were forced to teach in Spanish for about 5 hours a day.  Chris and I were a great team because our levels of Spanish were pretty equal, and we were both able to speak off the cuff and help clarify what each other was saying.  Too bad we have to manage classes by ourselves at site!

During Field Based Training I also had some time to reflect on the last 6 weeks and how I have been acostumbrando (becoming accustomed) to Peru:

Some Things I Have Gotten Better At

·      Remembering to throw toilet paper in the trashcan, not the toilet

·      Spanish!  At the end of Week 4, I tested into Advanced/Fluent, which I am very happy about :) Still have plenty of room for improvement though, since I still blank on important words.  Example from last week: Regrets… it’s  Lamentos, in case you were wondering.

·      Thinking in two languages or switching back and forth between English and Spanish.  Although I definitely blank on English words for things every once in a while.

·      Ignoring the smell of burning trash… ugh.

·      Sleeping through chicken screetches, mototaxi horns, and bus-rides

·      Drinking yogurt and oatmeal… and I actually like it.

·      Being hungrier at lunch and less hungry at dinner

·      Running with a rock in my hand, for the dogs.  I thought I was a dog person until I came to Peru.  With a few exceptions, I now hate dogs.

·      Hand-washing clothes.  Today when I got back, my host mother helped me do my first full load of hand-washed laundry, and good Lord my back and neck hurt.  According to my host mother I’m still pretty bad at this, although I “have advanced a lot.”

·      Using diminutives as often as Peruvians do (adding –ito to the end of nouns to make them sound smaller or cuter, like cerquita instead of cerca to mean really close).  This is really important because diminutives are often accompanied by a distinct persuasive/slightly whiny voice when you are trying to convince someone of something, like telling a taxi driver that you’re not going very far so it shouldn’t cost very much.

·      Eating chicken (alllllll of the chicken) off the bone- In my first few weeks, my host mother said I eat like a gatita (kitten), which I thought was ridiculous since I have never considered myself a very delicate eater.  However, compared to most people here who eat a full quarter of a chicken with only a fork, fingers, and teeth, it does appear that I was delicate.  Little by little, I’m getting there!

·      Eating lots and lots of potatoes and rice. I think my stomach is stretching.

Just as I’m starting to get comfortable here, it’s almost time for site assignment (August 3).  I’ve been assured that I will be in for a whole new round of culture shock when I depart for site in 4 weeks… but for now, I’m quite contenta.

If you want to see more photos of my adventures so far, here are my albums!

Weeks 0-5

Week 6, Field Based Training

Peruvian Snow Day, a "Hearty" Breakfast, and Musical Sampling

So training was cancelled today due to a "paro," or strike, by the combi drivers.  I've described the combis a bit before, but they are basically "micro-buses" (they are called micros in Chile and elsewhere) that travel up and down the main roads in Lima and to the suburbs.  They are privately owned and poorly regulated- the cobradores (money-collectors) can be super pushy and sometimes take advantage of customers, some chofers drive really dangerously, and many combis are really rundown.  I don't know all the details about what the proposed new law from the Municipality of Lima says, but from what I gather it adds a lot of new regulations that are going to be very costly to combi companies (there's about 400 companies) if the law is passed.  Regulations include combi size, safety standards, and pollution/exhaust limits.

In training yesterday, while discussing our "emergency" plan for today, we got to hear a bit of the history of the combi system.  The transport system started under Fujimori, who was a strong advocate of privatization.  The system provides really cheap and somewhat reliable transportation (I've never waited more than 3 minutes for one, but they often get pulled over by police to check for appropriate documentation).  However, many Peruvians think there are too many combis and that the loosely regulated system has resulted in a lot of mechanical failures, fatal accidents, and mistreated customers.  It's amusing to me to contrast this system to DC's Metro, since I was always complaining about how terribly run our public transportation was... for example, waiting 30 minutes for a train on a Saturday night, and the annoyance of switch lines to get where you want to go.  And DC Metro had it's fair share of safety hazards and accidents too.  So clearly both kinds of systems (public and private) can cause problems.

Apparently strikes like this, for one cause or another, happen about every 2-3 months, and school/work/everything shuts down.  Snow Day!

A couple food updates:

-Our Tech Trainer, a former Volunteer, directed us to a closeby market that sells NATURAL PEANUT BUTTER, for cheaper than Peter Pan.  Major win.

-My family liked my veggie-chicken-pineapple stirfry, although it didn't turn out exactly how I wanted without a wok.  I was told that I'm allowed to marry now, since I know how to cook.  Woohoo!

-Watching how everyone at the table scraped their plates clean when I cooked reemphasized to me how important it is to them to show respect by appreciating/eating all the food given to you.  I knew this before, but watching them show respect to me that way made me feel really bad about my inability to finish the chicken and rice plates I always get.  Of course, it is quite different when I am served an amount of food that I couldn't eat in three sitting let alone one, but I decided to try harder to eat everything on my plate.  For example, not leaving any chicken on the bones.

-The next morning, right after I had made that promise to myself, the family sat down to eat a very strange looking soup for breakfast.  It was called patasca, and I was able to gather that it was made from choclo (big corn) and patas (feet/hooves) of some animal.  They said it was a really traditional dish and is great for hangovers (the whole family had gone out the night before).  Then they used the word "vísceras" as another ingrediente, which I didn't know, but I figured it out after they said they "make sure they are washed very well."  Yup.  Intestines.  That's definitely what it looked like too, but I decided to leave the identity of the soup as a mystery in my mind until I finished it.  It wasn't as bad as I would have imagined, but the texture of the intestines definitely wasn't my favorite.  I finished it though, except for about 2 small strands that I just couldn't handle.

-For lunch on Monday, I was floored to find BROCCOLI with my chicken.  My host mother had made a comment during my stir-fry dinner, asking if I was an "almost-vegetarian."  She already knew that I don't really eat red meat, but I said yes, I prefer a lot of vegetarian dishes.  I don't know how many times I have talked to her before about how much I love vegetables and that my doctor said I need to eat more vegetables to help my digestive problems, but it finally seemed to click for her with the stir-fry.  She's sending me to training with loads of vegetables in my lunch bag now, and it is such an awesome change to my day.

That's all I've got for now, back to preparing session plans for Field-Based Training next week- I'll leave you with some more music-  you know Jennifer Lopez's "On the Floor" recent pop hit?

If not (parents, parents' friends), here it is:


...then check out this old Bolivian song, Llorando se fue, from 1981:


...and then this Brazilian hit song, La Lambada, from 1989:


...and then this other current hit on Latin Billboards (which I gather from the video was featured in Fast 5):


That tune is generally known as La Lambada and apparently is really popular in Latin songs of all genres, from traditional folklore to reggaeton.  Pretty cool!

I Can't Stop

Have a good weekend!

I love Daddy Yankee a little too much... almost as much as I love Pitbull

Short updates:

-I am definitely no longer in the honeymoon phase of adjustment to life in Peru/training.  No worries, I still love it here, but I'm just getting to a stage of extreme restlessness in training.

-PC/Peru Staff is totally aware of how this adjustment cycle goes, so we had a really good session about cultural/life adjustment yesterday.  And a week from today, we will be leaving for CAJAMARCA, a beautiful department of Peru, for Field Based Training!  They call this the "moment of truth," because we're basically let loose to teach entrepreneurship topics for 4 days in an "Institute" (sort of like a community college), followed by a simulation where our students will write up business plans, apply for a loan, execute the business for a day, and repay the loan.  Really pumped.  But not for the 17 hour bus ride.

-I'm cooking for my family tonight... I'm making chicken-veggie-pineapple stir-fry with rice, since it's pretty much all the same ingredients they eat daily, just prepared a little differently.  This will definitely be another moment of truth! So much importance on food/cooking here.

Enjoy the songs above!  I love them.  To give you an idea of what some traditional Peruvian music/dance sounds and looks like, see below.  The dance is kind of entertaining, or at least I entertain my family when I try to imitate it.  However, the traveling band that played huayno (that style) for almost 48 straight hours on Father's Day has made me quite tired of it.  Peruvians love them some huayno... all. the. time.

Some Popular Songs Here

Family and co-workers, I apologize in advance for any weird video moments.

also, thank you Becca Almond for the super thoughtful and DELICIOUS care package!