Water

I'm baaaaaack!  As always seems to be the case recently, a lot has happened since my last post.  I am happily moved in with my new host family, and most noteworthy I JUST GOT BACK FROM VISITING THE UNITED STATES.  It was a glorious, incredibly wonderful and comfortable week.  I want to get immediately to talk about my trip home and my return, but first I'd like to cover a topic I've been meaning to blog about for the last month.

I assume most of my readers are in cities or towns in the United States.  Next time it rains in whatever city you are in, take note of where all that water goes.  Notice that the streets are paved with a slight bump in the middle, so that the water flows to the sides, downhill, into a gutter, drain, or some other system.  Maybe you live in a suburban area where houses are built on hills, and storm water collects in pre-planned  retention ponds or other environmental solutions.  Also, take note of the fact that when it rains, it only rains outside your house.

Now imagine you are in a place where roads have no angle to manage the water, and there are no gutters or drains.  The water goes wherever the lowest point is.  Also imagine that your house doesn't have a cement roof, only sheets of metal and plastic, if you are lucky.  Your neighbors have no roof in some parts, and in others have only tree stalks meant to give shade.  If you're lucky, you live on a paved road, and your doorway is above a sidewalk.  If you're not lucky, a lot of rain will turn your dirt road into a mudpit that feels a lot like quicksand, and your house (made of dried mud bricks) may flood.  Also imagine that your livelihood is agriculture, and your land happens to be the closest to the riverbank.  With a sudden, unexpected rain, all of your crops are now underwater.

Yes, this is what it's like when it rains in Monsefú.  You may remember me complaining about living in the desert and how it only rains 4 days a year, but it turns out that might not be exactly true.  Truth is a very relative thing here.  Some tell me the amount of rain we've had recently qualifies this as an El Niño year, and others tell me this is completely normal.  Whatever the case is, the entire city infrastructure operates on the assumption that it is never going to rain.  When it does rain, EVERYTHING is cancelled.  As if it was a snowstorm.  And I'm not talking about, like, hurricane rain, I mean a completely normal shower at most.  Everyone in my town is terrified of rain, and so far have been given the following reasons: 1) you will fall and slip  2) you will get sick  3) you won't be able to cross any of the roads, and 4) since the streets are more deserted, the thieves are more active.

So, now that you have a basic idea of what the attitude towards rain is here, imagine you are in a 3-Day Girls Camp.  You are a 14 year-old Peruvian girl, spending your first night ever away from your family.  You are at a recreation center with 50 other Peruvian girls and 20 American volunteers, and you are sleeping in a tent outside.  It begins to rain, and rain hard- you wake up to find yourself and all of your belongings soaked, and you look up to find a gaping hole in the top of the tent where a rain cover should have been.

Yes, this was our ALMA Camp, a leadership and health-focused camp that we held February 8, 9, 10, and some of you donated to (thank you!!!).  In the middle of our first night sleeping in tents out on the lawn of a recreation center, it began to rain, and really rain this time.  Those who didn't have rain covers on their tents (almost everyone) evacuated inside, and slept on the cement floor or on a few couches.  I was lucky (and lazy) enough to be sleeping in the middle of a tent that did have a rain cover, so once we got that cover correctly attached, I was able to more-or-less sleep for a few hours.  I could go into way more detail with this ridiculous story, but basically the girls were initially scared but eventually looked back on it and a crazy, fun, bonding experience.

Me with Nataly, Fátima, and Leidy, three amazing ALMA girls

Lastly, on the topic of water, Carnavales has just ended in Peru.  Basically during the entire month of February, in most cities in Peru (and other Latin countries including Brazil), you have to be on the lookout for water balloons, water buckets, and other worse things (paint, wine, etc.) that kids (and adults) will try to attack you with.  Most people in my town are normally conscious enough to avoid calling me "gringa" (white girl) to my face, but all bets have been off this month.  Girls are the usual target in my town, and being white makes me that much more fun to attack.  Fortunately/unfortunately I have been traveling a lot recently so have only been attacked a few times- the first time my former host-brother and I were riding our newly fixed bikes when we got attacked with water balloons from behind.  I ducked and he got hit, which he found incredibly unfair, since he is neither American nor white (as if I deserve it more??).  The second time was with my youth entrepreneurship summer camp, a group of about 12 of us girls (2 volunteers and 10 girls) got ambushed by a group of chivolos ("boys," literally means little goats) with water balloons, buckets, and bottles.  A mom was helping them fill the balloons back up while my girls were screaming at the top of their lungs and hiding inside stores, when I decided to see what happens if I reversed the power on them and sprinted directly at one of the boys filling a balloon.  What ensued was one of my favorite moments so far in site, as all the girls started cheering me on, the boy's expression totally changed as he started running away, and then he eventually realized what had happened and turned back around to squirt me with what was left in the balloon.

Zach getting some revenge at ALMA

We also had some Carnavales fun at Camp ALMA, which I mostly avoided, but you can see above.  I wish I had more time to describe the awesomeness of Camp ALMA, but these blogs are getting a little unmanageable as it is!  If you want to read and see pictures from the real Carnavales in Peru, check out my friend Amanda's blog: http://amandagoespc.blogspot.com/  She along with seemingly all of Peace Corps Peru went to an area called Cajamarca while I was in the States, and there they enjoyed the biggest Carnaval celebration in the country.

That's all for now, next update coming very soon regarding my visit to the USA!