Who's Cold?

My pictures from our weekend trip to Marcahausi are uploaded!

Pictures definitely don’t do the trip justice, but hopefully you can get a sense of how awesome the views were.  We were at about 13, 500 feet, and the altitude definitely took its toll on some of us.  I took medication for altitude sickness but still my feet started falling asleep as we ascended.  Besides some mild dehydration I felt fine for the rest of the night.  We had a grand time eating dinner around the campfire, making s’mores, playing all kinds of American and Latino music on portable speakers, and playing our special version of “Would you rather.”

The temperature was probably around freezing, so the problems came when it was time to get some sleep.  Some seasoned campers had brought their own sleeping bags, so they promptly passed out and had a wonderful night’s sleep.  The rest of us were left with rented sleeping bags, which were basically glorified windbreakers.  Even with my four layers + sleeping bag, my toes were numb and I couldn’t get anywhere close to sleep.  Around 2:30am Lucas (from a tent or two over) yelled “Alright, who’s cold?” and a resounded “ME” was heard from about 10 of us.  He then auctioned off the extra sleeping bag in his tent to whoever could guess the number he was thinking of, which unfortunately wasn’t me.  Without a sleeping pad or sufficient insulation, I got a couple snoozes but probably not more than an hour of sleep, and most of my compañeros had similar nights.  The worst was that I was having significant nausea and trouble breathing for part of the night, depending on the position I was in.  Anyway, I lived through it to see the day!

Since we were all still awake anyways we all got up between 5:30 and 6:30am, and once the sun came over the rocks it promptly became HOT.  Crazy mountains.   In the morning I learned that Sheridan, a Volunteer who finished her 2-year service in Peru and is back visiting with her husband, vomited from altitude sickness during the night and again in the morning.  As we all warmed up and got some caffeine (I had an awesome tea made from a local plant that looks a lot like a dandelion) we started to explore over the other sides of the large rocks surrounding the campsite.  We’d get super winded after climbing up a few rocks at a time (more altitude issues) but once we got to the edge of the rocks, the views were INCREDIBLE. 

Cecily and Me

It looked like we were on the edge of a lake or ocean, but actually it was the CLOUDS we were seeing, that we were above, with the mountains peaking over top! Really felt like we were on top of the world.  I’m really starting to think that Peru is the coolest country of all time.

Later our facilitadora (language teacher) and friend, Jeni, showed us around the ruins that Marcahausi is famous for.  There are remains of some pre-Inca houses and many strange animal shapes in the rocks, some of which looked natural and others which appeared to have been cut.

We descended on horseback, which is how we ascended too, except this time I got a wicked sunburn.  While waiting for our bus back to Chaclacayo, I RAN INTO Ruthie, who had just arrived to ascend!  Small world, huh?  We’re still planning on seeing each other next weekend when we go on an “excursion urbana” to Lima, but the unexpected run-in was a great surprise.

On the way out we toured a cheese “factory” which was basically a room in someone’s house, and many of us bought some awesomely good Swiss cheese- supposedly one of the first European settlers in the area taught the townspeople how to make it and they’ve been producing Swiss cheese since.  We also briefly checked out a trout farm, that was composed of a bunch of trenches with temperature-regulated water running through them.  Earlier that day we had trout from that farm for lunch, and it was DELICIOUS.  I have yet to try a food/drink in Peru that I didn’t like!  Well, except a “salad” that was made of peas, potatoes, carrots, apples, and mayonnaise.  Yeahhhh, I’ve had better.

1/5 Done with Training

Tomorrow we leave for the mountains of Marcahuasi, after taking a bus ride to San Pedro de Castas from where we ride 2 hours on horseback.  I’m told it is 14,000 ft there, which I am also told (by my friends from Utah and Colorado) will definitely be the highest altitude I’ve ever experienced.  There are no skiing resorts in the US at that altitude, from what I'm told.  Our medical officers have given us altitude pills to take just in case we react badly to it.  At Marcahuasi we will do some sessions in the evening and relax with a bonfire, then do some consulting practice on Saturday with the eco-tourism company there. 

Today I bought one of the classic Peruvian hats called a chullo (choo-yoh) that looks like this:

The cost of living here is absurdly low- my hat was 7 soles (a little more than $2 I think) and to get to the bigger town, I pay between 50 centimos to 1 sol depending on the time of day, approximately 15-30 US cents.

Talking about my “chullo,” you have to be really careful about pronunciation here, because there are so many slang words that are muy parecidos (sound very similar), at least to an American ear:

Choro (chore-roh): pick-pocket

Cholo (choh-loh): Indian, mestizo (can be either affectionate or insulting depending on context)

Cojo (koh-hoe): a person missing one leg

Chullo (choo-yoh): the Peruvian style hat I bought


Churro (choor-roh): good-looking, guapo

Culo (koo-low): ass (I assume this slang is used in Peru too)

Cuyo (koo-yoh): whose

Choclo (choh-cloh)- maize

Choco (choh-koh): I hit (like a car accident)

Chacra: field (agriculture)

Chamba: job

Chompa: pullover jacket

By the way friends, please send me your Skype name if I don’t have it! (Fran, Haley, Jessie, Katie Neal…)

Angeline, my host-niece

yes, that is a TV you seen in the background.  As I mentioned, our training homestays are quite cushy.

I can’t believe it’s only been a week and few days since I was in the States!  Our days of class are super long (8am-5pm) which may contribute to the feeling that I’ve been here for like a month.  My Spanish gets better every day but definitely still have moments where I have no idea what is going on at the dinner table.  I´m in a language group with 4 others, and all of us live in the same barrio together.  Chris and I have been deemed Intermedio-Alto and Hallie and Lucas are Intermedio-Medio so the four of us plus a kid named Alex (who might switch groups) make up my language group.  We take a “combi” to class which is basically a bus that is like Orange Line rush hour except blasting dance hits (Lucas and I are bringing the fist pump to Peru) and lots more chances to be robbed.

We´ve also had some technical training exercises, like finding informal business (like fruit vendors) to interview them about how the history, marketing, operation, and accounting of their businesses.  Starting next week and until the end of training we will actually be consulting with the entrepreneurs that expressed interest to receiving advice for improving their businesses.  We´ve also had to do language practices with asking random people questions about their lives and recommendations for security on the streets.  These exercises can be pretty intimidating at first since some people understandbly aren´t too keen on random gringos asking them questions about their lives, but it´s been great practice in gaining trust and confidence.  Overall I´m really impressed with how training in run, although the 9 hour days are really tiring.

Tomorrow my neighborhood is having a block party for Fathers´ Day.  Happy Fathers´ Day, Dad!  Sorry I won´t be there with you.

Love,

Kim

Saludos!

Today is my third full day at our training site, Chaclacayo, a town outside of Lima.  Here’s some points of interest of my life here:

-my host family is AWESOME, an older mother + her daughter and son-in-law, + the most adorable 4 year old girl that was ever born (hope to be upload a video soon of her singing)

-I live in a barrio named Chacrasana, which is basically an enormous dirt hill with bigger mountains around it.  There are 4 other volunteers in my barrio, and we describe where we live by “almost at the top” or “where the pavement ends.”  We climbed a small mountain yesterday, accompanied by 3 boys about 6 years old, each of which kicked our asses arriving to the top and returning to the bottom.

-the chickens (about 12 of them) in the coop near my room are very well-behaved compared to those I experienced in Nicaragua.  They don’t make any noise until about 6:20, and I wake up at 6:30.  Que suerte!

-an entire afternoon of our training was dedicated to diarrhea, and it is 100% guaranteed that each of us will get it at least once during our 2 years.  The advice sent to us from current volunteers was “never trust a fart.” Oh yeah.  Also, did you know there are 7 different kinds of diarrhea?

-my life at training is WAY more comfortable than it will be at site.  My family has internet, a kinda-flat screen TV, a flush toilet, and hot (warm) water.  My host brother is a civil engineer.  Only a few of us have hot water here, so again I am very lucky!  Although I don’t want to get too used to this before leaving for site…


-we often watch music videos during dinner, including Enrique and Justin Bieber.

-my language training group is focusing a lot on jerga (slang) like panza (pot belly), chata/chatita (small bottle of rum), choro/ratero (pick-pocket), mancha (group of friends), and bobo (heart)

-a girl named Hallie in my group made the great observation that everyone in our group is “so different while being so similar.”  This is incredibly true- we all come from totally different areas of the states, different life experiences, we have different personalities, but we are all very positive, humorous, and open people which makes for a really fun training experience.  Definitely a really fun group, and we are all already a little anxious about what it´s going to be like to move from this group to complete solitarity in the campo.

-our APCD (Program Director) wants to give us a lot of say in our sites.  We start talking about options with him soon, and final decisions are given Aug 3 I think.  4 will be in the South, in Arequipa, and the others will be in the northern regions.  There are 17 of us in total

that´s all for now!

Hola de Peru!!

I've just finished my first full day in Chaclacayo, Peru!  We arrived at this "retreat" center last night at midnight after an 1 1/2 bus ride from the Lima airport.  We're staying in small twin rooms with 2 beds each, plus a bathroom with full shower, flush toilet, and electricity.  A few people have gotten warm water but I haven't been that lucky.  Overall this place is pretty plush compared to what we will get used to.  We spent today doing get-to-know you games, learning how to recognize false money, and learning medical and safety basics.  Tomorrow I will be moving a little closer to Lima with the other 16 small business volunteers, and we may not see the youth volunteers again until the 4th of July :(


My group of 51 people is an AWESOME collection of characters.  We have a very young group, all in between 22 and 33.  People are from all over the country, from California to Puerto Rico to New Jersey to Minnesota.  There's at least 5 people including myself from Northern Virginia, plus two more from Maryland.  Also, one of my business mentors/3rd year Volunteers graduated from UVA in 2008 and was part of the group that started the Nicaragua microfinance project I worked on!  Everyone is incredibly energetic, good humored, and from all kinds of academic and professional backgrounds.


I meet my host family tomorrow and move in with them!  The staff keeps emphasizing that it is completely fine if we are any degree of vegetarian, my lunch was a delicious avocado and omelette today.  I think the non-vegetarians are considering converting, because the lunch meat today was the consistency of beef jerky.


I don't know when my next update will be, but wanted to let you all know that I am having a great time so far!  If you want to get my blog updates by email, check out the right-hand column and submit your email address.


Love you all!

Election Results

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/06/06/general-lt-peru-election_8501741.html

We can only wait to see what the effects are on US-Peruvian relations, the Peruvian economy, distribution of wealth, and the Peace Corps.  Hopefully Humala is sincere in the role models he sites and his respect for democracy.

Things I Have to Look Forward To

gchat from my friend currently teaching in Chile:

we went camping in the mountains

where i got tricked into a five hr mountain bike ride

was openly wishing to be kidnapped so i could ride in a car

and then had to fight a goat who tried to steal my food

Had a dream about training last night, so I guess that means I'm finally coming out of denial.  I wish my packing was more representative of that fact.  I have, however, spent much of my procrastination/denial with friends, and this weekend was a great one.  I also got to see some more beloveds in NYC Wednesday-Friday, which was very necessary too.  Extended family will be having dinner together tonight, so more goodbyes will be in order.  Three days...