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