- Peru is playing Chile in a World Cup qualifier, coming off a huge win in their first qualifying game against Paraguay. If Peru qualifies this year (by being one of the top 5 teams in South America, excluding Brazil) it will be Peru's first time in the World Cup in THIRTY years, and they have a real chance at it!
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| My brother and I using Mac Photobooth to pretend that we're in Santiago at the game |
- I retrieved TWO care packages from the post office today! Thank you Mom and Becca!!
- My Dad and I made an awesome lunch together today. He loved my pesto, so he had bought more basil and we decided to "experiment" with combining my pesto recipe with his spinach sauce recipe. IT. WAS. AMAZING. Basil, spinach, olive oil, parmesan, garlic, shallot-type things, aji (spicy pepper), water, and salt. Cross-cultural WIN.
- Things with my family are back to normal, which means they are constantly cracking jokes at my expense... for example, yesterday I was washing my clothes with the washing machine (Yes, I have a washing machine in the Peace Corps, go figure). The water has to be added bucket-by-bucket to the machine at the beginning and mid-cycle, so my dad yells to my room "Kim, quiere agua"... to which I responded "No, gracias" thinking that he asked if I wanted water... so he diessssss laughing and then repeats the joke at least 20 times yesterday and today. Jokes never get old here in Perú.
- I'm making simultaneous progress on my surveys and a small project- all this week I am visiting the English classes of one high school to introduce the email exchange we are going to do with my high school Spanish teacher's classes in the US. I'm also taking this time to give them a little talking to about the "HELLO HELLO" shouts I have gotten sick of hearing across town. I told them that since they all know my name now (they actually knew it before I came today, which made me happy) I expect to be greeted with my name, and not by shouts across the park. I said I would love to talk to you too but I will only respond when I am greeted in a respectful way.
- SPRING is coming. I love me some Vitamin D.
- Other projects are still stumbling along slowly (essentially not moving), but I am less upset about it when my home life is good. Also, I'm starting to develop good relationships with some previous contacts, so hopefully those translate into actual helpful counterparts at some point.
- A group of volunteers bought access to watch NFL Sunday games, so I am joining them this Sunday at a great beach, to watch the Redskins v. Eagles game!
Update: the party has been dampered slightly by the fact that 18 minutes into the game, Chile is now winning 2-0... at least I have American candy to help our pain...
In honor of the Peru v. Chile game, here's a little South American fun fact for you:
- I learned recently that Ecuadorians hate Peruvians. This goes back to various wars and territorial disputes, which left Ecuadorians feeling pretty bitter. It also seems that they don't like that the Amazon, Incas, Andes, etc. are all associated with Peru when they are part of Ecuador too.
- Peruvians don't particularly care about Ecuador because...
- Peruvians hate Chileans. Haaaaaaate. Probably comes up on a weekly basis here, about some coastal plate, drink, dance, or other Peruvian tradition that the Chileans are trying to pass off as theirs (popular examples include chicha and ceviche). "The war" is often brought up as if it was yesterday, even though it was 130 years ago- I thought this was a little ridiculous until a historian in Lima told us "it's just like the Civil War in the United States... feels like yesterday to the losing side." It is exactly like the Civil War! (At least to my Southern friends)
- From what I have gathered, Chileans don't particularly care about Peru, in fact it's well acknowledged that Peruvian food is better than Chilean food. Chile doesn't care about Peru because...
- ....I don't know. Who does Chile hate? Argentina?
Even in the bad times, I can't imagine ever quitting the Peace Corps. I came into this experience knowing (vaguely) what I was getting myself into, and I consider the experience, with all of its frustrations, a very important part of my career training. If I gave up on Peace Corps, I would be giving up on the whole idea of global development...then what would I do?
A friend from college wrote to me recently asking some questions about my Peace Corps experience, since she is in the application process but having second thoughts about if the experience is worth it. Here's what I said:
it is definitely extremely frustrating some days, but at least right now i find it more rewarding than frustrating. if you had asked me two days ago i might have said differently! but even though on-the-ground experience can feel more frustrating than rewarding, i'm telling myself that that's a really important to experience. PC is really unique in the way that we work, supporting projects until they are completed, vs. other NGOs that do great work in trainings, grants, etc but don't provide the support to make really sustainable change (forgive the cliche). the hardest, most frustrating part is working with people who have never finished a long-term project unless it was something un-complicated like cementing a road. PC volunteers push them and support them step by step until an artisan association is organized and formalized, or a grant is written to get funds for a water well. in a lots of towns, i feel like what the developing world lacks is project management experience, and that's what causes the dependence on outside assistance.
So, I will try to keep fighting through the frustrations with the following mantra:
"I don't want to get to the end of my life and find I have lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well." -Diane Ackerman
Sorry this post was kind of disjointed, but that's where my highly-caffeinated thoughts are today. By the way, I think instant coffee is more addictive than regular coffee.
