Thanksgiving- Jumping in Waterfalls and Stuff

As of November 19th, I have officially been a Peace Corps Volunteer for 3 months, which also means that my travel restrictions are lifted- perfect timing for Thanksgiving, since it is one of very few times during the year that we are granted 3 travel days in a row.  The rest of the year, we have to use vacation days even over the weeked- Peace Corps is a 24/7 job!  And it definitely feels like it sometimes, so I was very excited for this trip with some other Small Business and Youth 17 Volunteers.

We went to Chachapoyas, the capital of the region (state) of Amazonas.  Contrary to what the name suggests, Chachapoyas is considered the "eyebrow" of the jungle because it very much strandles the divide between sierra and selva.  It is mountainous and the town has a highland feel to it, but day trips can bring you into dense and humid somewhat-jungly areas.

We arrived at 6:30am on Thursday morning and at 8:30am started on our way to Kuelap, which involved a 3 hour bus ride and short hike.  Keulap is an ancient fortress-city from the Chachapoya people, which is an Inca word that means "Warriors of the Clouds."  This fortress was built pre-Inca domination, and was eventually taken over and abandoned by the Incas.  It was massive, containing a multi-tiered city inside, complete with water management, burial grounds, and defense mechanisms.  Our guide was great, and at one point removed an extra rock from a wall to reveal a mass grave, piles and piles of human bones!  Creepy and cool, that we could interact so directly with these ruins, without the barriers, plastic coverings, etc. that you find in other sites.

Click here to see my pictures from Chachapoyas (Kuelap and Gocta)

Friday we ventured off on a shorter bus trip, this time only 1 hour, to the small town of María to begin our hike to Gocta, the third highest waterfall in the world.  It was only discovered (by outsiders) in 2005, because the area is so off-the-beaten-track.  I didn't fully consider what we were getting ourselves into, so 2 hours into our intense hike I was beginning to regret my Chacho sandals choice over hiking boots, but luckily they held up.  The waterfall is actually made up of two separate falls, which you can see here in the photo, so we went to two "look-out points." (or whatever that phrase is in English? I'm losing it.)  This picture is from the second mirador, and as you can see, I am wet.  Why?  Because we got to JUMP IN THE WATERFALL at the first mirador.  Yeah, take that Niagara Falls.  Where you can see the break in the waterfall in the picture, we climbed across the slippery rocks to the other edge of the lagoonish thing where the waterfall fell, settled, and trickled down a small river to the second fall.  The water was REALLY dark and REALLY cold, and it was definitely a Top 10 Moment of my life.  For those of you that have been close to a big waterfall before, remember the raw power and energy you can feel around it... the mist everywhere, the roaring water... jumping into that was incredible.  Many of us (obviously including me) were screaming "I'm ALIVE!! I'M SO ALIVE!!"

So, if you can believe it, amidst all this amazingness, I had the most intense bout of homesickness yet during my almost 6 months away from the USA.  It definitely had a lot to do with Thanksgiving, especially since I made the stupid decision to leave my computer at site (I needed to ensure I wouldn't try to work on my diagnostic), and all my friends spent Thursday evening Skyping with family members gathered around computers and dining tables.  I got to talk to both my parents on Friday, but the homesickness wouldn't go away.  Then there was the UVA-VTech game on Saturday, always a fun rival game (although UVA usually leaves pretty depressed), and this was a first-time in history event, that if UVA won this game we would be playing in the ACC Championship for the first time ever.  Seemingly all my friends in DC and NYC traveled down for the game or were watching it together, and the thought of how much fun I could be having there (ridiculous, considering my surroundings) plus a bout of Facebook-stalking everybody's recent Charlottesville visits made the distance feel quite far.  I spent a good hour or two searching for the slight possibility of finding DirecTV somewhere in the city, and after being directed to 4 different bars, arrived at one that said he has the package at home.  He said he "might" bring the pack in, which in Peruvian means "no."  Turned out I didn't miss much of a game, UVA losing 38-0, so maybe it was a good thing I missed it.

I'm back at site now, attempting to hole myself up in my room and get my diagnostic done (big research/informative document about my site, to present to the community and to Peace Corps).  I am going to present it on December 13th, before Christmas activities get too intense, so that I can have it off my mind for the rest of the holidays.  While the alone time in my room is nice (wearing SHORTS! don't get to do that in public in my site!), it does make me feel pretty lethargic and guilty for neglecting some to-do's in town with other people, and I think I'm just getting more anxious about everything.  Tomorrow and this weekend I'll hopefully get some other things done off my to-do list, including making plans for summer classes.

On separate note, Peru is going through some pretty intense mining strikes currently, which affected the travel of two of my compañeros with us in Chachapoyas- one left a day early only to have his bus unloaded in a random small town tense with protest, but he is now safely back at site.  The other friend's site is very close to the center of the strikes (strikes meaning boulders block all roads and some people getting violent in the streets), so he traveled to Chiclayo instead of Cajamarca, and is now stuck on the coast for the time being.  You can read about the strikes here.  They are a big deal in a number of ways, politically (testing who Humala really is), environmentally (destruction of water resources), economically (Cajamarca is losing approximately $1 million a day in tourism due to the strikes, and mining is the biggest part of the Peruvian economy), and socially (is the relationship between poor serranos and the mining companies finally reaching a point where something might change?).

Crazy Week, Normal Day

This has been a super interesting, weird, and overall BUSY week.  The first big factor was that I MOVED ROOMS!! I finally, finally, truly have my own room, on the unfinished second floor of my family's house.  My mom helped me contract a carpenter who made me a great desk/library, and my family is loaning me a bed and sofa.  I also bought a small stove to keep just outside my room, so I can have some independence in my eating and not always have to endure hunger pains until everyone is ready for almuerzo or lonche.  I feel like I have suddenly regained my adulthood.  Video/picture tour coming soon.

The second big factor was my SITE VISIT.  Yesterday, Alfredo (the Director of Peru's Small Business program) and a third-year Volunteer Katie came to visit in the first of two official visits I will have in my two years of service.  As another volunteer put it, the visits are basically just to make sure you doing okay, meaning you aren't suicidal and are doing something productive.  They want to meet your family and counterparts, so our schedule was to have breakfast with my family, visit a school that teaches work skills to kids and adults, meet with the mayor and other PC Volunteer in my district, meet with an organization that I want to work with on community banks, and finally meet the artisans as they prepared for a big event happening at noon.  The big event was a National Tourism Congress coming through Monsefú for an hour, as part of a 3-day Conference on tourism in our region.  I was really excited to have Alfredo and Katie visit on this day, because I felt like I had really directly contributed to making this event turn out well (and I rarely feel that way at this stage in my service).  First, I secured the mayor's permission for the associations that don't have stands in the Artisan Park to set up tables, which was really important because the Park has become overrun with commercial stuff and its hard to find the true artisanry.  I also held the reins on designing a tri-fold brochure of tourist info on Monsefú, which was LONG overdue- the tourism office has literally zero physical or digital resources on tourism info (except some copy-and-pasted junk on their website), and university students from Chiclayo come every week looking for info in their research.  So that was a huge win in my book, especially since the tri-folds promote some websites that give good information too. (www.gastronomiacallanca.com about the restaurant corridor and www.visitamonsefu.blogspot.com which is a blog I am developing to put all the info about Monsefú in one place).

The almost-final version of the tri-fold that I developed in collaboration with the graphic designer (from another town) and the rest of the tourism office.  

So yesterday was a lot of fun, introducing Alfredo and Katie to everyone in town and having a great lunch with them and Charles, the Volunteer who lives on the other side of my district, near the restaurant corridor.

Today was back to regular Peace Corps life, with the high's and low's that all Peace Corps Volunteers describe.  To give you an idea of what I mean, here's a brief summary of my day, which was pretty ordinary (but busy), with my emotions marked in bold:

7 AM: Wake up, go to brush my teeth in the shared family bathroom.  My host mom runs into the bathroom in a rush to work, and says that I should move all my things into the half-bathroom outside.  I try to explain why I would like to keep a few things in the full bathroom, and she snaps, "Ay, Kim, you're supposed to accustom to our style of life, and you just do whatever you want, don't you?"  (Nice way to start the day, eh?) Unlike my first two months, this doesn't set me in tears, I just say "if it really matters to you that much then I'll move everything."  I fume internally upstairs, debating whether to say something about it to my dad (who I am much closer with), and decide against it (He won't understand and will probably support or add to her criticisms).  (LOW)  My dad serves me breakfasts and makes a comment about how Rosa (my host mom) lets the stress at work really get to her, and that before he retired he never let other people get to him like that.  Don't know if it's directly meant to address her treatment of me, but I feel better.  (MEDIUM-LOW)

8 AM: Visit the high school Diego Ferré for my regular program with the English classes.  The teacher and I bring them to the computer lab to write emails to a high school Spanish class in the United States (taught by my old Spanish teacher!)  We have the usual problems of failing machines and not all the students finish, but some of them are clearly really into it.  They describe themselves in Spanish and then write questions to the students in English.  After class, I ask the teacher how she feels about how the exchange program is going- is it taking too much time from her regular classes?  She affirms that it's not "wasting" time at all, it's so valuable for the students to hear a native speaker and the exchange program is really opening up their world view.  (MEDIUM-HIGH)

9:15 AM:  I stop into the Municipality to make some coordinations, then head over to a locutorio (phone-both cafe) to make some calls.  I know the morning and afternoon staff well, but the girl manning the desk is someone I haven't seen before.  When I finish my calls, she doesn't give me correct change.  I argue with her that my screen clearly said 40 cents (not 60 cents) and ask her to check on her machine, she says it's already been erased.  I tell her there must be some kind of history she can check, she says no it's been erased.  I walk out without saying goodbye to anyone, annoyed at the fact that the over-charging for the gringa never seems to end. (MEDIUM-LOW)

10 AM:  While I am walking through the Central Park of Monsefú, a young woman comes running up to inform me that my skirt is tucked into my underwear in the back!!  Ohhh yeah- I can't put this on the high-low scale, its just very funny.  Now everyone has seen the gringa's underwear, great.  I get a comment about it from a man on a motorcycle.

Head over to the other high school, San Carlos, with permission from the Director to apply my youth entrepreneurship surveys.  The secretary seems to have forgotten the multiple explanations I have given of Peace Corps and my work in Monsefú.  She makes some weird comment asking me if I am speaking English to her (what? no... I'm speaking in Spanish).  I sit down and try to re-adjust my attitude towards her.  By appearance I guess that she is fairly poor and uneducated, so maybe she was trying to express her surprise that I was speaking Spanish.  She asks me again where I am from and why I am visiting Peru (for the millionth time, I am from the United States and I am living and working here in Monsefú).  She then says "oh, so you must be carrying a lot of dollars?"  My eyes flash and I curtly tell her no, I am a volunteer, I don't have a salary, I don't have any dollars.  This conversation is over, and so is my gift of the benefit of the doubt.  I quietly fume, telling myself that it shouldn't be okay in any culture to talk to someone that way. I'm SO sick of being looked at as a walking dollar-sign.  (LOW)

The Director finally attends to me after 30 minutes, and expresses surprise that the secretary didn't tell him I was waiting.  He escorts me to the upper-school rooms and finds a room for me.  He personally introduces me to the class (although he can't really remember my name or program, which always happens in these introductions), I explain a little bit more, and we go to work.  He and the teacher leave the classroom so when I finish with the surveys, I take advantage of the personal time with the students to ask if they have any questions for me, about my work or the United States.  This quickly devolves into side conversations that are clearly about me but I can't hear or understand, but there's a lot of giggling and laughing.  Oh well, at least they are interested.  (MEDIUM).

11:00 AM:  On my way out, I get a call from Charles, who says that he had dinner with the mayor last night and he explained my idea of a artisan workshop/museum in the old Municipality building.  She said she wants to put a museum in there too, but only after the sewage pipes in that area are replaced.  Tentatively very good news!  I arrive at the "technical" high school and watch the students present various projects in science and physical fitness.  Really entertaining, and I got to meet one of the Canadian nuns that used to work in Monsefú and is visiting.  I also get to see the new computer lab that I've been dying to tour, and it is just as good as I had heard- brand new flat screen Samsung screens and good CPUs, donated by a Korean group.  I end up becoming the "godmother" of a flat-screen TV that has been donated- yes, in Peru not only people but also any kind of technology or machine also has godparents.  Luckily, being the godmother of the TV didn't mean more than pulling the ribbon off of it, because sometimes it involves financial obligations.  I get invited to eat lunch with the teachers and the Canadian nun, which is very enjoyable, and allows me some more time to ask some questions hinting at my hope to use the computer lab during the summer to teach computing classes to the artisans.  No direct conversation about it (gotta build this relationship more) but looks promising.  (MEDIUM-HIGH)

2 PM - 3 PM: Nap-time and second lunch with the family.

4 PM: Meet up with the Beneficencia Pública (a local charity) who invited me this morning to accompany them to a caserío (outlying community) to hand-out gifts of sugar and charcoal to the really really poor families.  I've been wanting to spend more time meeting people in the caseríos, so I'm happy to accompany them even if I don't particularly want to put my face on gifts like that.  The Director gives me some time to introduce myself and talk about my work, so I talk about community banks and the room is pretty attentive and seems interested.  After the handouts, we stay for a lunch (yes, my third of the day) in the house of the gobernador (a weird non-paying national political appointment), a young guy who is one of my favorite people in Monsefú- he is so humble and so hard-working.  Lunch is fun, joking around with Beneficencia staff and the local police officers, although I have a few moments of wondering if they still don't get that I'm not going to donate lots of money to their projects (we discuss the idea of savings and they somewhat-jokingly ask me if I'm going to use my savings to donate lunches).  The day before, Alfredo spent lots of time clarifying my role with the Beneficencia, and I think that I really trust them, but I still need to keep an eye out for uncomfortable situations with them.  (HIGH AND LOW??)

6 PM: Get an awesome email from Katie, congratulating me on how well I'm doing in Monsefú (based on the site visit).  She particularly points out how the size of Monsefú could be overwhelming for a volunteer, that I seem really comfortable and confident, and that she is proud of the way that I look past my family's toughness to see their good hearts.  Everything she said I really needed to hear.  (HIGH)

8 PM: Church choir practice- I'm exhausted, but I got pulled into this activity by my other favorite person in Monsefú, Evelyn- she's my age, with a fantastic sense of humor and a beautiful voice. And the singing is therapeutic, brings me back to the music of my church in Charlottesville.  (MEDIUM-HIGH).

So you can see that nothing extreme happened during my day, but little things set me off- things that I deal with constantly, that I just can't stand sometimes- having a misunderstanding with my family, being taken advantage of being I'm foreign, and being looked at like a walking dollar-sign are the ones I encountered today, and they are some of the most common issues.  Just like anywhere in the world, there are people that treat me well and people that treat me badly.  The hard part is figuring out people's motivations for how they treat me- if they think they are going to get some financial benefit from befriending me or if they are sincerely interested in supporting my work.  It's hard and tiring for me to constantly be distrusting and evaluating people's motivations, but in the end it's necessary for my work.

Oh, and just in case you missed this early, I WALKED THROUGH THE CENTER OF TOWN WITH MY SKIRT TUCKED INTO MY UNDERWEAR.  Guess it wasn't such a normal day after all!

Meet the Family

I'd like to properly introduce you all to some of the most important people in my life here in Peru, my host family:

A picture we took for my "real" Dad's birthday

Rosa (mother, on the right):  Rosa is about 57 I think, and works in the Regional Ministry of Education.  I'm not sure exactly what she does, but it involves a lot of management and supervision, and from the sounds of it the political appointees below her are pretty incompetent and get paid more than her.  She leaves the house at about 7am Mon-Fri and comes home on average around 8pm (sometimes 6pm, sometimes 10 or 11pm).  New legislation may take away many of her benefits, so she's been on strike with her co-workers every other day (so that they don't lose their jobs) for the last 2-3 weeks.  When she finally comes home at night, she always has stories from the office/streets to tell, as she bleaches and scrubs every corner of the kitchen.  Most of Saturday she spends in front of the computer doing even more work for her job, after she runs around the house re-cleaning everything that's been cleaned by her husband, commenting that only women know how properly keep a house.  She is brutal about cleaning, especially the appliances, everything must shine perfectly without streaks.  Basically, she's a very Type A, independent person and a very hard-working mom.  Back in the day, she didn't want to get married, but she did later in life (she had kids very late, over 40 years old).  Part of the reason she didn't want to get married was because she didn't want to leave her work, so she certainly found the right modern-thinking man (as I'll explain).  After her son, she wanted to have more kids, but wasn't able to. She has a lot of brothers and sisters, and her family has many generations in Monsefú (the mayor is her cousin).  A lot of her brothers and sisters now live in Lima.  She is very passionate about the importance of education, and has been involved in the opening of numerous elementary schools in Monsefú.

Agustín (Aguxo) (son, on the left): My host brother is almost the exact same age as me, 23 (in August).  He attended the regional Air Force Academy for high school, and now studies in USAT which is one of the best universities in the regional capital Chiclayo.  He has finished his studies for a Systems Engineering degree, but in Peru you have to write a thesis and pay a lot of money in order to get your title, so he is still untitled.  Meanwhile, he has started a second course of study and a small business.  He is taking Business Administration classes and is running a small distribution of computer parts throughout Peru, by buying them online and handling the shipping.  He once told me that he doesn't really feel like he's found his purpose in life, but he seems to be very dedicated to his computer parts business, and his business is doing well.  He spends most of the day sleeping in until noon, reading international (mostly tech-relevant) news online, watching funny videos, and researching computer parts until he goes to class and the library (and probably some diversions) until somewhere between 10pm and 2am.  He is a great friend, a very very patient and kind person, and very curious about the United States.  In Peru, sons and daughters live in their parents house until they are married so it's not unusual at all that he lives at home.  The second floor of the house that is in-construction will probably eventually be used for his family.

Agustín (father, in the middle left): Oh, Agustín, where to begin.  This man, about 67 years old, is one of a kind.  He has a fantastic smile and laugh, as you'll see below.  He also has quite the booming voice when he is frustrated with how forgetful or illogical I am being, or if I am doing something he finds rude.  For example, I am always forgetting to "sit correctly" on the couch, since it is much more comfortable for me to sit Indian-style or with one foot under my leg, but this is very dirty and rude to him.  He is also very insistent on the rules of eating, which first and foremost means no eating alone- he always waits to eat breakfast and lunch until me and/or Aguxo are ready to eat.  The reverse side of this is that he often calls me out for eating snacks in my room or for making an egg for myself when I'm in a hurry.  Below, you'll see a little bit more of our relationship about food!  Here's what I've gathered from his life story so far:  He was one of 24 children, only about half of which lived past infancy, in the district of Olmos a few hours north from Chiclayo.  After finishing elementary school, there was no high school in his town (only in Chiclayo, and his family couldn't afford the commute costs).  So, he joined some sort of "project" group of students that went into the rainforest to study a water management system.  He was gone for about 4 years, so his family assumed he was dead, until he was able to send a letter to the Olmos post office telling his family not to worry.  By the time he got back, Olmos had built a high school and he was part of the first graduating class.  He then went to university, but I'm not sure where.  He became a professor of the Arts at USAT- the Arts being traditional dances, music, painting, and folklore (something like that).  He's retired now, and since his wife works all day, he does almost all of the market trips, cooking, and cleaning (which involves sweeping the whole house twice a day, because of the amount of dust that comes in).  He also makes banderolas which are beautiful embroidered banners that schools and other institutions use in parades.  He is quite a curious person, undeniably conservative in his manners of the house, but also very independent-thinking on a lot of topics, including religion and gender roles.  He is very well-known and respected in Monsefú.

And here is a wonderful video that does a good job of capturing my favorite kind of moment with Agustín father and Agustín son... After lunch, Agustín father went into his routine of making fun of my eating habits, and I happened to have a camera.  As I said, he is accustomed to food always being eaten together and at the kitchen table, so he find my snacking habits throughout the day to be very weird.  He calls me a cuy (guinea pig) because of the way I'm always nibbling on something!  Oh, I love this man dearly.


If you are viewing this blogpost from email, you may have to click on the blue link at the top of the email to see the video on the actual website.

Provincianos Visit the Big City

Got back yesterday from a 4-day trip in Lima.  It was weird being back there after spending the last two months purely in the "provinces," what Peruvians call everything outside of Lima.  I was not a fan of the dreary, congested, chaotic and dangerous city during training, but I'm starting to gain some new appreciation for Lima.  The weather has turned so that some sun is breaking through the clouds and smog, and I got to see the city in a different way than I did during training.

I stayed in the center of Miraflores the first night, at a hostel directly next to Starbucks (yeah, that wasn't a coincidence) so spent the whole day in the coffee shop attempting to pound out my Community Diagnostic.  It was shocking how much English was going around, and good English at that since the English I hear spoken at site usually doesn't go far past "goo-more-neen" (translation: good morning).  That combined with the American indie music and plentitude of well-dressed young people and professionals working on their laptops, I was almost convinced that I was in DC. 

That same day I stumbled across a store called La Quinta that pulled me in with its enormous bins of stylish clothes for S/.15-20 (approximately $5-7).  Turned out these were the rejects from factories of namebrands like Banana Republic and Theory, so I left happily with a few badly needed new additions to my wardrobe, especially two cotton knee-length skirts... Summer is starting in Monsefú and it's not really appropriate for women to wear shorts outside of the house.

The second day I got to see a lot of people who put a smile on my face.  First were the training centers, where I got to see my language teacher Jeni who gave me lots of squeals and hugs, and my friend Sam who is a member of the newest class of volunteers- he'll be stationed about 6 hours north of me, so we should get to see each other occasionally during service.  After those visits, I got to see my training host family and catch up with them, with my host-niece Angeline on my lap.  That 4 year-old has completely stolen my heart.  After returning to Lima, I headed to another nice area called San Isidro to stay with my old boss and team from DC, because by some amazing coincidence they were visiting Lima for a work trip the same time I was going to be there.  So I caught up with them over a late dinner, and was gifted 3 bags of candy corn from my co-worker Evan who stayed back at the office- thank you Evan!!

The two final days were spent at the US Embassy for the main purpose of my trip, Peace Corps' Artisan Fair.  HOLY. GUACAMOLE.  The embassy was absolutely ridiculous.  As you drive down an avenue with low, residential houses, suddenly this appears:

I'm not sure the picture really captures how enormous and fortress-like the complex is, especially since there are a few other separate buildings behind the main one.  Now I understand why limeños joke that if a big earthquake hit Lima, everything would fall except for the US embassy.  I guess the high security is necessary since an attack is/was very possible... as recently as 2002, a car bomb killed nine people in the outdoor shopping plaza across from the embassy- this happened right before President Bush was going to visit.  Anyway, I realized right before entering that I had only brought a paper copy of my passport, since everywhere else in Peru doesn't demand anything more official- our coordinator looked at me like I was an idiot, but luckily she was able to get my entrance approved.  At the first security check we had to leave all of our electronics (no phones, cameras, laptops, USBs, anything).  At the second security check they found a safety pin in my purse and a needle in Paulina's (for her embroidery), both of which had to be chucked.  All of the artisan products had to be sent ahead the day before the fair, to be checked for bombs and such.  Yeesh, we're back in the States now, Toto!

Once we made it through the labyrinth of fortress walls to the conference room, the first day of workshops and the second day of fair were pretty fun.  It was interesting to meet all the people that my friends are working with in their communities- Paulina stuck out pretty prominently, as she wore a business jacket and wanted to stand to answer almost every question... she's not exactly a shy serrana (mountain woman).  We had a good time at the fair, although she only made a moderate profit.  We talked about more ideas to improve her display: a babydoll model for the baby clothes, pictures of products that aren't present, a visitor's log, etc.  We're also going to work on developing new products, because there are some things that just aren't moving (a fuzzy, strangely-shaped bright orange scarf, for example).  I'm sad I don't have any pictures to show you all of our stand or the others, since we couldn't bring cameras into the embassy, but some of the other stands (especially those that have worked with a Volunteer for a year or more) were really impressive in their presentation and products.

Of course the best part was seeing all my training friends, and we got to enjoy some dinner and drinks together after the workshops on Thursday night.  Although everyone is going through high's and low's, no one seems to have changed at all, they are still the highly entertaining and eclectic group of Peru 17ers that I have come to love.  And I can't wait to spend Thanksgiving with this crazy family!