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

Peruvian Snow Day, a "Hearty" Breakfast, and Musical Sampling

So training was cancelled today due to a "paro," or strike, by the combi drivers.  I've described the combis a bit before, but they are basically "micro-buses" (they are called micros in Chile and elsewhere) that travel up and down the main roads in Lima and to the suburbs.  They are privately owned and poorly regulated- the cobradores (money-collectors) can be super pushy and sometimes take advantage of customers, some chofers drive really dangerously, and many combis are really rundown.  I don't know all the details about what the proposed new law from the Municipality of Lima says, but from what I gather it adds a lot of new regulations that are going to be very costly to combi companies (there's about 400 companies) if the law is passed.  Regulations include combi size, safety standards, and pollution/exhaust limits.

In training yesterday, while discussing our "emergency" plan for today, we got to hear a bit of the history of the combi system.  The transport system started under Fujimori, who was a strong advocate of privatization.  The system provides really cheap and somewhat reliable transportation (I've never waited more than 3 minutes for one, but they often get pulled over by police to check for appropriate documentation).  However, many Peruvians think there are too many combis and that the loosely regulated system has resulted in a lot of mechanical failures, fatal accidents, and mistreated customers.  It's amusing to me to contrast this system to DC's Metro, since I was always complaining about how terribly run our public transportation was... for example, waiting 30 minutes for a train on a Saturday night, and the annoyance of switch lines to get where you want to go.  And DC Metro had it's fair share of safety hazards and accidents too.  So clearly both kinds of systems (public and private) can cause problems.

Apparently strikes like this, for one cause or another, happen about every 2-3 months, and school/work/everything shuts down.  Snow Day!

A couple food updates:

-Our Tech Trainer, a former Volunteer, directed us to a closeby market that sells NATURAL PEANUT BUTTER, for cheaper than Peter Pan.  Major win.

-My family liked my veggie-chicken-pineapple stirfry, although it didn't turn out exactly how I wanted without a wok.  I was told that I'm allowed to marry now, since I know how to cook.  Woohoo!

-Watching how everyone at the table scraped their plates clean when I cooked reemphasized to me how important it is to them to show respect by appreciating/eating all the food given to you.  I knew this before, but watching them show respect to me that way made me feel really bad about my inability to finish the chicken and rice plates I always get.  Of course, it is quite different when I am served an amount of food that I couldn't eat in three sitting let alone one, but I decided to try harder to eat everything on my plate.  For example, not leaving any chicken on the bones.

-The next morning, right after I had made that promise to myself, the family sat down to eat a very strange looking soup for breakfast.  It was called patasca, and I was able to gather that it was made from choclo (big corn) and patas (feet/hooves) of some animal.  They said it was a really traditional dish and is great for hangovers (the whole family had gone out the night before).  Then they used the word "vísceras" as another ingrediente, which I didn't know, but I figured it out after they said they "make sure they are washed very well."  Yup.  Intestines.  That's definitely what it looked like too, but I decided to leave the identity of the soup as a mystery in my mind until I finished it.  It wasn't as bad as I would have imagined, but the texture of the intestines definitely wasn't my favorite.  I finished it though, except for about 2 small strands that I just couldn't handle.

-For lunch on Monday, I was floored to find BROCCOLI with my chicken.  My host mother had made a comment during my stir-fry dinner, asking if I was an "almost-vegetarian."  She already knew that I don't really eat red meat, but I said yes, I prefer a lot of vegetarian dishes.  I don't know how many times I have talked to her before about how much I love vegetables and that my doctor said I need to eat more vegetables to help my digestive problems, but it finally seemed to click for her with the stir-fry.  She's sending me to training with loads of vegetables in my lunch bag now, and it is such an awesome change to my day.

That's all I've got for now, back to preparing session plans for Field-Based Training next week- I'll leave you with some more music-  you know Jennifer Lopez's "On the Floor" recent pop hit?

If not (parents, parents' friends), here it is:


...then check out this old Bolivian song, Llorando se fue, from 1981:


...and then this Brazilian hit song, La Lambada, from 1989:


...and then this other current hit on Latin Billboards (which I gather from the video was featured in Fast 5):


That tune is generally known as La Lambada and apparently is really popular in Latin songs of all genres, from traditional folklore to reggaeton.  Pretty cool!

I Can't Stop

Have a good weekend!

I love Daddy Yankee a little too much... almost as much as I love Pitbull

Short updates:

-I am definitely no longer in the honeymoon phase of adjustment to life in Peru/training.  No worries, I still love it here, but I'm just getting to a stage of extreme restlessness in training.

-PC/Peru Staff is totally aware of how this adjustment cycle goes, so we had a really good session about cultural/life adjustment yesterday.  And a week from today, we will be leaving for CAJAMARCA, a beautiful department of Peru, for Field Based Training!  They call this the "moment of truth," because we're basically let loose to teach entrepreneurship topics for 4 days in an "Institute" (sort of like a community college), followed by a simulation where our students will write up business plans, apply for a loan, execute the business for a day, and repay the loan.  Really pumped.  But not for the 17 hour bus ride.

-I'm cooking for my family tonight... I'm making chicken-veggie-pineapple stir-fry with rice, since it's pretty much all the same ingredients they eat daily, just prepared a little differently.  This will definitely be another moment of truth! So much importance on food/cooking here.

Enjoy the songs above!  I love them.  To give you an idea of what some traditional Peruvian music/dance sounds and looks like, see below.  The dance is kind of entertaining, or at least I entertain my family when I try to imitate it.  However, the traveling band that played huayno (that style) for almost 48 straight hours on Father's Day has made me quite tired of it.  Peruvians love them some huayno... all. the. time.

Some Popular Songs Here

Family and co-workers, I apologize in advance for any weird video moments.

also, thank you Becca Almond for the super thoughtful and DELICIOUS care package!

Still a Gringa

Over the last 2 1/2 weeks I've felt pretty much on top of the world here in Peru.  My Spanish was sufficient  for most conversation topics and I got compliments on my speaking ability, I love my group of fellow trainees, and I live with an awesome family.  I also haven't gotten significantly sick yet (while a number of my compañeros have), have loved most of the food I have tried, and almost everyone I've interacted with has been super helpful, nice, and respectful.  I knew the day had to come when reality set in, and today was that day!

As I've mentioned, I take a "combi" to pretty much everything (the Center, home, errands, going out)- it's a public transport that is somewhere between a van and a bus in size.  It's pretty hectic on board, especially when it's busy.  You have to know your way around to use the combis, because its up to you to know how much your trip costs (which can be bargained in bigger groups) and where your stop is.  At some point during your ride you give the "cobrador" (money-taker/door operator/announcer) your money, which is usually between 50 cents and 2 soles depending on the length of the trip and tell him where you are going, by pretty weird landmark names.  For example, we get off at "Lavandería" for the Center, which means the (clothing) cleaners, even though I assume there are plenty of other cleaners in the area besides that cross-street.  If the cobrador is busy/inattentive (90% of the time), he won't remember your stop so you have to squish your way to the front and yell "Lavandería baja!" as a reminder before the combi passes your stop.

Today I got on the combi with a compañera named Lindsey, heading towards home after Training.  I gave the cobrador 1 sol and asked him for my change because I was getting off at Portada del Sol (which is 50 cents).  He acted confused and told me that the trip from Chaclacayo to Chacrasana was 1 sol.  I've encountered this a number of times before, since they think we're American tourists that don't know any better.  I told him no, I live here and it is 50 cents.  Usually at this point they shrug their shoulders and give me my change.

I protested a bit more, telling him I know how much this costs and its 50 cents, and the Señora sitting closest to the door started supporting me, saying "No joven (youngin'), you know perfectly well that it's 50 cents from here to Chacrasana.  Give her the change."  I told her thank you and continued protesting with him as he ignored me.  At this point Lindsey had to get off at her stop, so I was on my own.  I and this lady (but mostly this wonderful lady) continued to argue with him for the next 10 minutes, the whole ride to Chacrasana.  He pretended to be on the phone, walked through out the bus, continued to say it was 1 sol, did everything but just give me the freaking 50 cents.  The lady got continually more fiesty, with a constant stream of words coming out of her mouth for the whole ride that was something like this:

"Give her the change.  Listen to her, she lives here, she knows just as well as you do that its 50 cents.  You are what is wrong with Peru.  You, joven, trying to take advantage of others.  You are an example to the entire world right now.  Don't be bad (sounds better in Spanish), just give her the change.  You are the reason why foreigners feel taken advantage of in Peru.  Look at yourself joven, look at what you are showing her about Peru."

She was so, so awesome.  I tried a couple other tactics too, telling him I'm being patient and just want my change, blocking the door that he needed to operate, asking him why he has to be that way, why does 50 cents matter to you that much, but I think at some point there was no turning back for him, he just wouldn't make eye contact with me.  I got pretty loud in my protests and about the half the combi started supporting me and the woman too.  Eventually I had to get off at my stop, and it took all of my self control not to punch him in the back of the head as I stepped off.  I thanked the Senõra for her help, told her I know that he's not an example of all Peruvians and that there's just a few bad ones, and that's all I could do.

I definitely started to tear up on the combi when I realized I was completely powerless in this situation.  Combis are not exactly the safest places in Peru, it wasn't really an option for me to physically attempt to get the 50 cents out of his pocket, and there was no authority I could report him to.  I couldn't protest by staying on the bus, because then I would eventually owe him the full 1 sol.  However, the most frustrating part was that I don't believe that anybody is bad to the core, so I just really wanted him to give it up and be a decent person!!!  He probably thought I had plenty of money anyways (as a gringa), but the reality is that I am living on 8 soles a day (less that $3), so YAH, that 50 cents means plenty to me!

It was a horrible feeling to have to just give in and get off that bus, letting him win with that full sol.  I was taken advantage of simply because of the fact that I am white and a foreigner, no matter how much I reminded him that I live here and am going to live here for two years (which Peruvians usually find pretty surprising and which changes attitudes towards us).

The better part of the experience, of course, was the support I got from that fiesty Señora and the other combi-riders.  It's not the first time that a Peruvian has stuck up for me or a fellow trainee when a cobrador tries to play stupid with us.  There are so many well-intentioned, helpful, and smart people here.

The big lesson today was that good language skills does not remove that fact that I am white.  I've heard from a number of Volunteers that people will always try to take advantage of you because they assume you have a lot of money.  Peace Corps (Cuerpo de Paz) is actually fairly well known in some areas and well-respected, but people don't usually realize that we are subsistence living for two years.  In retrospect, I wish I had covered that in my argument with the cobrador.  I wish I had said something more along the lines of:

"...I live here.  I'm living here as a VOLUNTEER with Cuerpo de Paz.  I don't have any money, I'm making 8 soles a day to be a VOLUNTEER to help young men like YOU get better jobs and open your own businesses.  Can I have my change now?" (and if that was ineffective) "Maybe one day you'll realize that cheating a gringa of 50 cents isn't going to get you any further in life.  I hope that one day you have enough pride in yourself to realize you're better than that."

Of course I think my 50 cents was a lost cause no matter what I said, but I hope that he felt enough shame from the scene and the fiesty lady to think twice about doing that again.  Probably not.

Well, at least I have my speech ready for the next time a ratero like him tries to engañarme!

Sírvete!

In the last post, I mentioned that I have liked almost everything that I have eaten in Peru.  To give you all some idea of what I’m eating here at training…

-Like many other countries, lunch is the biggest meal of the day, and big by Peruvian standards is HUGE.  If I eat lunch at home it usually involves two plates.  For example, my lunch today was spaghetti with sauce, a piece of chicken about the size of my fist, and a separate (full) plate of lentils with rice.  Overeating is definitely socially encouraged.  Every Monday in my family and for many families across Peru is lentils day.

-My family eats chicken about 4-5 days out of the week, which is awesome for me.  Fish about once a week, and (red) meat about once a week.  Peruvians only consider red meat to be meat, so when I asked my madre if meat was in the lentils, she said “No, its only lentils, carrots, ham…” so I laughed and said that ham counts as meat to me.  She responded back “Well then it’s chicken.  You love chicken, right? It’s chicken.”  She’s quite the jokester.

Things I’ve tried:

-Chicha morada: a dark “juice” made from corn… I think it’s technically fermented but it’s not alcoholic? I dunno, I don’t understand these things.  The one I tried had fig in it too, and it was really good- tasted kind of like sweet black licourice (sp?).

-Pachamanga: a tradition from the selva (rainforest), a hole is made in the ground and rocks are heated until they are red hot.  Then various meats, chicken, potatoes, and other vegetables are covered with leaves, spices, and buried, and cooked for an hour.  The result is an AWESOME smokey taste, that I got to try when a family member brought some home from a birthday party.  The yucca was to die for.

-“Quaker”: many Peruvians serve oatmeal as a drink, so they mix oatmeal (get it? Quaker?) with more water or milk than we are used to.  It’s pretty good, and is pronounced with a Latin accent as “kwah-ker.”

-Mazamorra: A great winter drink that I just tried for the first time tonight, made of corn, peanuts, milk, and cinnamon.  Yummmm so good.

-Lots of weird fruits: I’m forgetting the names of them, but there two kinds of “booger fruit,” as we call it- they looks a bit like oranges from the outside but when you peel back the skin it is all gelatinous juice and seeds inside.  It looks somewhere in between boogers and alien eggs, but it tastes really good! One version tastes like a plum and the other tastes like Tang.

-Plátanos, fried yucca: YUM YUM YUM

-Inca Kola: the preferred drink of Peruvians in pretty much all settings that don’t involve alcohol.  Is ridiculously sweet, tastes like bubblegum.

Which reminds me, check out this video featuring Inca Kola, pachamanga, ceviche (which I haven't tried in Peru yet) and other great Peruvian things.  The video is part of a big Peruvian tourism promotion, in which Peruvians go to a tiny town called Peru, Nebraska to teach them about Peruvian customs. (sorry it's in Spanish, but you'll get the general gist)

The bad parts of food here:

-Even though a lot of coffee is grown in Peru, drip coffee from ground beans is hard to find.  Everyone drinks instant coffee.

-Everything has about 4 more scoops of sugar in it than I would prefer, but I am quickly getting accustomed to the sweetness, especially with Inca Kola.

-All the packaged snack foods I’ve tried, like chips and cheese puffs, are stale.

-Similar to the above bullet, most chocolate bars leave something to be desired, they sometimes kind of tasteless and stale.

-So. Much. Rice.

This is just my experience so far in Chaclacayo at training, and most likely I will be eating a lot more potatoes and a lot less chicken at site.  As you can tell, overall I am really enjoying the food here.  Everything homemade is awesome.  People (the women) spend all day preparing lunch and dinner, and as my madre says, a lot of “cariño” goes into cooking.  I’m definitely going to be a gordita in no time!