This is dedicated this to all Peace Corps volunteers in Peru. I wish you all a very Feliz Navidad!
Cuyes con papas and coffee in mugs;
Riding in combis and kids giving hugs;
Hiking up mountains like the Lord of the Rings;
These are a few of my favorite things.
When the pig bites
When the shower stings
When I'm feeling fat
I simply remember my favorite things
*So then I don't hit people with a bat…
Dancing the huayno and working in gardens;
Sipping hot milk and art from old cartons;
Playing volley no matter if it's spring,
These are a few of my favorite things.
When the pig bites
When the shower stings
When I'm feeling fat
I simply remember my favorite things
*So then I don't hit people with a bat…
Bright neon sweaters; canchita of corn;
Humitas con queso and babies being born;
Watching **Gossip Girl for all the joy that it brings;
These are a few of my favorite things.
When the pig bites
When the shower stings
When I'm feeling fat
I simply remember my favorite things
*So then I don't hit people with a bat…
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*Katie Lee has some rage issues and helped me with this last line.
**True Blood also works here, as does many other TV shows (i.e. The Wire, Glee, The Office…)
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Monday, December 13, 2010
Weapons of Mass Absorption
A fellow volunteer had a funny incident happen to her recently at the Serpost (post office), that I wanted to share. But instead of re-hashing it, I am pasting the version that Julie Fast wrote. I just can't do it justice. Thanks jfart!
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The only thing standing between me and my homemade American cookies was an evil impenetrable force called Peruvian Customs.
For a solid 23 months the Peruvian government kindly allowed my mother’s innocent care-packages to proceed unhindered to my anxious arms. For my last month of Peace Corps Service, however, customs decided to cease and desist all generosity. Arrrggghhhhhhhhh.
Three power of attorney letters later, they still wouldn’t release the package.
Then unfolded this scene, that solidified my negative impression of the evil maniacs who are most likely at this very moment licking oatmeal raisin cookie crumbs off of their chubby over paid under compassionate fingers!!
A fellow volunteer, Katie, was enmeshed in the same bothersome postal hang-up. Together we sat patiently by as the elderly worker in our local post office contacted a presumably equally aged worker in the coastal package-napping branch.
Katie’s package had already been violated and been found to contain…
“Fifty colorful glass vials that look slightly dangerous. We’re not able to release the package until the purpose of these vials is discerned.”
I arched an eyebrow in the direction of Katie. “Is your mother a chemist?”
A shake of the head…and then a wave of realization and a deep scarlet flush. “I think I know what those are…” she looked quizzically at the post office worker. “Does it say Tampax on the outside of the box?”
I doubled over laughing, forgetting momentarily my poor lonesome cookies molding from neglect.
We explained the purpose of the ‘colorful vials’ to the Chota worker on the phone with the coastal worker, between laughs and snorts. I encouraged the post office worker on the coast to try one out if he didn’t believe us, but the Chota worker refused to translate that.
The best part? They still don’t believe the story. So Katie has to travel 12 bumpy hours to the coast this weekend to personally demonstrate the innocence of tampons. I asked for a video recording.
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Read more of Julie Fast's blog at http://coldwetcement.wordpress.com/
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The only thing standing between me and my homemade American cookies was an evil impenetrable force called Peruvian Customs.
For a solid 23 months the Peruvian government kindly allowed my mother’s innocent care-packages to proceed unhindered to my anxious arms. For my last month of Peace Corps Service, however, customs decided to cease and desist all generosity. Arrrggghhhhhhhhh.
Three power of attorney letters later, they still wouldn’t release the package.
Then unfolded this scene, that solidified my negative impression of the evil maniacs who are most likely at this very moment licking oatmeal raisin cookie crumbs off of their chubby over paid under compassionate fingers!!
A fellow volunteer, Katie, was enmeshed in the same bothersome postal hang-up. Together we sat patiently by as the elderly worker in our local post office contacted a presumably equally aged worker in the coastal package-napping branch.
Katie’s package had already been violated and been found to contain…
“Fifty colorful glass vials that look slightly dangerous. We’re not able to release the package until the purpose of these vials is discerned.”
I arched an eyebrow in the direction of Katie. “Is your mother a chemist?”
A shake of the head…and then a wave of realization and a deep scarlet flush. “I think I know what those are…” she looked quizzically at the post office worker. “Does it say Tampax on the outside of the box?”
I doubled over laughing, forgetting momentarily my poor lonesome cookies molding from neglect.
We explained the purpose of the ‘colorful vials’ to the Chota worker on the phone with the coastal worker, between laughs and snorts. I encouraged the post office worker on the coast to try one out if he didn’t believe us, but the Chota worker refused to translate that.
The best part? They still don’t believe the story. So Katie has to travel 12 bumpy hours to the coast this weekend to personally demonstrate the innocence of tampons. I asked for a video recording.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read more of Julie Fast's blog at http://coldwetcement.wordpress.com/
Monday, December 06, 2010
The Diamond in the Rough
There came a time when Lima was nothing but a smog-infested rat trap, but I have finally seen the light. That or I've finally come to the realization that I really DO want Starbucks on a daily basis. And let me tell you....I do, I really, really do.
This week I am in Lima for med checks and health programming. This is the last time all of us volunteers will officially see each other until we COS (Close of Service) next September, so it's another one of those milestones that I have reached. It also means that I'm no longer a newbie.
Most recently, Peru 16 has arrived to Peru and I know have 4 new neighboroonies nearby: a married couple in the community next to mine, and two other volunteers out near Paccha. You know you've watched too much "vampire" TV when you start to refer to the newbs as "new blood."
But I digress...back to Lima. From the outside, Lima doesn't seem like it has a lot to offer, but that is just becuase you have to look deeper. For instance, most recently I have discovered the following a lap swimming pool, Subway Sandwich shop (there is supposedly an elusive Taco Bell somewhere...), movie theatre, and most importantly, Polvos Azules.
Polvos Azules is this market full of everything imaginable and most importantly for us volunteers, pirated movies and tv shows. While in the states, it's very hard to come upon pirated movies, let alone have them be in good condition. But in Peru, the movies cost the equivalent of $1.00 and if you know your vendor well enough, is as good as the "original." You can even get movies that are still in the theatres, although they are a hit or miss.
What is difficult, however, is trying to figure out the titles in Spanish. You'd think some names would be the same, but somehow in Spanish they are completely different. For instance, I tried finding "The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo," which translated into Spanish would be "La chica con el tatuaje de un dragon." Simple enough right?! Wrong. The lady had no idea what I was talking about and it was later, when I found the translated title online: Men who don't like women. Huh. Go figure.
Here's a funny article I found talking about the same thing: http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2010/08/translating_film_titles
In short, if you come to Lima, I'll show you the places that really count.
And if I ever find that Taco Bell....
This week I am in Lima for med checks and health programming. This is the last time all of us volunteers will officially see each other until we COS (Close of Service) next September, so it's another one of those milestones that I have reached. It also means that I'm no longer a newbie.
Most recently, Peru 16 has arrived to Peru and I know have 4 new neighboroonies nearby: a married couple in the community next to mine, and two other volunteers out near Paccha. You know you've watched too much "vampire" TV when you start to refer to the newbs as "new blood."
But I digress...back to Lima. From the outside, Lima doesn't seem like it has a lot to offer, but that is just becuase you have to look deeper. For instance, most recently I have discovered the following a lap swimming pool, Subway Sandwich shop (there is supposedly an elusive Taco Bell somewhere...), movie theatre, and most importantly, Polvos Azules.
Polvos Azules is this market full of everything imaginable and most importantly for us volunteers, pirated movies and tv shows. While in the states, it's very hard to come upon pirated movies, let alone have them be in good condition. But in Peru, the movies cost the equivalent of $1.00 and if you know your vendor well enough, is as good as the "original." You can even get movies that are still in the theatres, although they are a hit or miss.
What is difficult, however, is trying to figure out the titles in Spanish. You'd think some names would be the same, but somehow in Spanish they are completely different. For instance, I tried finding "The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo," which translated into Spanish would be "La chica con el tatuaje de un dragon." Simple enough right?! Wrong. The lady had no idea what I was talking about and it was later, when I found the translated title online: Men who don't like women. Huh. Go figure.
Here's a funny article I found talking about the same thing: http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2010/08/translating_film_titles
In short, if you come to Lima, I'll show you the places that really count.
And if I ever find that Taco Bell....
Sunday, December 05, 2010
Thanksgiving in the Montañas
I know this post is a tad bit late, as we have now past Thanksgiving and have entered into the “official” Christmas season, but I just wanted to tell a little bit about my Thanksgiving this year.
So we get a few “free” days off each year in which we, volunteers, can go wherever we like. Last year I chose the German jungle, and for this trip, I chose Ancash, where snow and good food meet.
So…2 Cajamarquinas, 2 Tumbesinas, and one lonely Piuriano took off to the Cordillera Blanca, the Peruvian Andes. Here are some highlights…
Highlight #1: Café Andino. One of the first things you need to know about Huaraz, the capital of Ancash, is that it is very touristy…aka great food! This is one of the many things us volunteers treasure. Huaraz offers tastes of Thailand, Italy, and best of all…Mexico! Café Andino is known for their great Mexican food and French pressed coffee. A key to my own heart! Needless to say, we hit it up more than once.
Highlight #2: Camping. It’s been more than a year and a half since I’ve last camped, so we all thought it would be fun to pitch a tent for a few nights. We had heard that it would cost a lot to camp in the National Park (which later we found out that it’s free for Peace Corps volunteers), so a friend lead us to this lodge a little outside the park owned by a British fellow named Charlie. Charlie was very accommodating and even let us take shelter our last night there as we were cold and wet and our camping stove broke. But all and all, we had a fun time. Thankfully, I had a nice, warm sleeping bag unlike some people (Should of brought a warmer one Katie!) so I slept straight through the nights. Cooking camp-style was also a bit interesting. We definitely overestimated how much food we were going to need (and drink!), so going hungry wasn’t a problem. However, we had quite the trouble getting our camping stove to light and stay lit. Thanksgiving dinner consisted of over cooked noodles with too little sauce. And it took us so long to get the stove lit and cook the darn noodles, by the time everything was ready, none of us were hungry. In addition, as I mentioned before, the last night the stove finally gave out, so Charlie let us cook our chili on his stove.
Highlight #3: Hiking amongst mountains. Nothing makes me miss Oregon more than seeing snow capped mountains and breathing in that fresh, wilderness air. Since we were a little outside the park, we had to hike in to begin with. Our plan was to hike to Lake 69 (no joke), which was going to be about a 3-4 hour hike. The tricky thing about this national park is that transportation is hard to come by. You either hire a taxi or try to hitchhike in. We had left late in the morning, so finding a ride in was going to be tough, but the mountain angels were smiling upon us that day and we found a ride in. The road into the park takes you by razor sharp cliffs, two turquoise-blue glacier lakes with ominous mountains behind them. Huascaran is the highest mountain in Peru and it towers over the park. We hiked along beautiful mountain streams with cows grazing nearby. But because of the late start and the unlikelihood of catching a ride back out of the park, the mother and eagle-scout brother in me convinced us to turn around before we even made it to our destination. And it was good we did because on the hike back, it started pouring down rain and luckily, a service car came to our rescue. Nothing like some coca tea and fried cuy to warm us up afterwards.
And that was how I spent my thanksgiving this year. And if you get a chance, send me some leftovers, especially those canned cranberries I like so much :-)
So we get a few “free” days off each year in which we, volunteers, can go wherever we like. Last year I chose the German jungle, and for this trip, I chose Ancash, where snow and good food meet.
So…2 Cajamarquinas, 2 Tumbesinas, and one lonely Piuriano took off to the Cordillera Blanca, the Peruvian Andes. Here are some highlights…
Highlight #1: Café Andino. One of the first things you need to know about Huaraz, the capital of Ancash, is that it is very touristy…aka great food! This is one of the many things us volunteers treasure. Huaraz offers tastes of Thailand, Italy, and best of all…Mexico! Café Andino is known for their great Mexican food and French pressed coffee. A key to my own heart! Needless to say, we hit it up more than once.
Highlight #2: Camping. It’s been more than a year and a half since I’ve last camped, so we all thought it would be fun to pitch a tent for a few nights. We had heard that it would cost a lot to camp in the National Park (which later we found out that it’s free for Peace Corps volunteers), so a friend lead us to this lodge a little outside the park owned by a British fellow named Charlie. Charlie was very accommodating and even let us take shelter our last night there as we were cold and wet and our camping stove broke. But all and all, we had a fun time. Thankfully, I had a nice, warm sleeping bag unlike some people (Should of brought a warmer one Katie!) so I slept straight through the nights. Cooking camp-style was also a bit interesting. We definitely overestimated how much food we were going to need (and drink!), so going hungry wasn’t a problem. However, we had quite the trouble getting our camping stove to light and stay lit. Thanksgiving dinner consisted of over cooked noodles with too little sauce. And it took us so long to get the stove lit and cook the darn noodles, by the time everything was ready, none of us were hungry. In addition, as I mentioned before, the last night the stove finally gave out, so Charlie let us cook our chili on his stove.
Highlight #3: Hiking amongst mountains. Nothing makes me miss Oregon more than seeing snow capped mountains and breathing in that fresh, wilderness air. Since we were a little outside the park, we had to hike in to begin with. Our plan was to hike to Lake 69 (no joke), which was going to be about a 3-4 hour hike. The tricky thing about this national park is that transportation is hard to come by. You either hire a taxi or try to hitchhike in. We had left late in the morning, so finding a ride in was going to be tough, but the mountain angels were smiling upon us that day and we found a ride in. The road into the park takes you by razor sharp cliffs, two turquoise-blue glacier lakes with ominous mountains behind them. Huascaran is the highest mountain in Peru and it towers over the park. We hiked along beautiful mountain streams with cows grazing nearby. But because of the late start and the unlikelihood of catching a ride back out of the park, the mother and eagle-scout brother in me convinced us to turn around before we even made it to our destination. And it was good we did because on the hike back, it started pouring down rain and luckily, a service car came to our rescue. Nothing like some coca tea and fried cuy to warm us up afterwards.
And that was how I spent my thanksgiving this year. And if you get a chance, send me some leftovers, especially those canned cranberries I like so much :-)
Small Wins
This week has been one of the most fulfilling weeks as a Peace Corps volunteer, so I’d like to share it with you all, and to me as well…before I forget.
First off, I celebrated World’s Aids Day (December 1) in my town by putting together a radio program with my obstetrician and a small radio spot with my youth group, and also by giving talks in the high school. Now, HIV/AIDS is not something that is a big problem in Cajamarca like it is on the coast. My volunteer friends on the coast work on HIV/AIDS work all year round, but here, I’m lucky if people have even heard of it. There’s also this stereotype that people in the sierra don’t want to talk about sexual education, so the thought of doing the oh-so-famous condom races of the coast would not fly here in my town. But I am glad to say, that I was proven wrong. During our HIV/AIDS talk in the high school, my obstetrician whipped out condoms to show the kids, and honest to god, it was probably the first time they have even seen them. And not only did she teach them about them, she even handed them out. Can’t wait to tackle sex ed in the schools next year!
The very next day my youth group (C.A.I.D.), which I helped form with my health post and primary school, had our first official “paseo,” as the Peruvians call it, as a group to Bambamarca. We, along with the four other CAIDS in the area, were invited to participate in a theatre competition with the theme of adolescent pregnancies. To be honest, when first given this task, I wasn’t sure if we were going to be able organize ourselves, but the kids pulled it off. And while we did not win anything, the kids got up there in front of a big audience and most importantly, learned a very important lesson to take home with them: Use a condom. So overall, it was a big success. To top it all off, we all “pasear-ed” to “Los Tres Churros”, which is this big capturing system of water where they raise trout. Peruvians are so funny about paseos, but that is another story all together…Overall, it was a fun day and I have lots of pictures to prove it.
Another great thing happened, for the first time in over a year being here, I actually had an intellectual conversation with a Peruvian, which trust me, doesn’t come around very often. It was so refreshing to talk about something other than the rain or corn. Our converstaion ranged from beliefs, religion, marriage, politics, and our goals in life. It left me so optimistic and ready for more, but also wondering where to find more intellectuals in Peru!
And to top off everything else that happened, I’m glad to say that I’m a grand-bunny-mother five times over! That is to say that my bunnies finally made more bunnies (five) and actually my Mrs. Bunny is preggers again! So the saying “mating like rabbits” actually does make sense.
So there you have it folks, that was my wonderful week. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but you have to go on “small wins” in the Peace Corps, since at times, that’s all you get.
First off, I celebrated World’s Aids Day (December 1) in my town by putting together a radio program with my obstetrician and a small radio spot with my youth group, and also by giving talks in the high school. Now, HIV/AIDS is not something that is a big problem in Cajamarca like it is on the coast. My volunteer friends on the coast work on HIV/AIDS work all year round, but here, I’m lucky if people have even heard of it. There’s also this stereotype that people in the sierra don’t want to talk about sexual education, so the thought of doing the oh-so-famous condom races of the coast would not fly here in my town. But I am glad to say, that I was proven wrong. During our HIV/AIDS talk in the high school, my obstetrician whipped out condoms to show the kids, and honest to god, it was probably the first time they have even seen them. And not only did she teach them about them, she even handed them out. Can’t wait to tackle sex ed in the schools next year!
The very next day my youth group (C.A.I.D.), which I helped form with my health post and primary school, had our first official “paseo,” as the Peruvians call it, as a group to Bambamarca. We, along with the four other CAIDS in the area, were invited to participate in a theatre competition with the theme of adolescent pregnancies. To be honest, when first given this task, I wasn’t sure if we were going to be able organize ourselves, but the kids pulled it off. And while we did not win anything, the kids got up there in front of a big audience and most importantly, learned a very important lesson to take home with them: Use a condom. So overall, it was a big success. To top it all off, we all “pasear-ed” to “Los Tres Churros”, which is this big capturing system of water where they raise trout. Peruvians are so funny about paseos, but that is another story all together…Overall, it was a fun day and I have lots of pictures to prove it.
Another great thing happened, for the first time in over a year being here, I actually had an intellectual conversation with a Peruvian, which trust me, doesn’t come around very often. It was so refreshing to talk about something other than the rain or corn. Our converstaion ranged from beliefs, religion, marriage, politics, and our goals in life. It left me so optimistic and ready for more, but also wondering where to find more intellectuals in Peru!
And to top off everything else that happened, I’m glad to say that I’m a grand-bunny-mother five times over! That is to say that my bunnies finally made more bunnies (five) and actually my Mrs. Bunny is preggers again! So the saying “mating like rabbits” actually does make sense.
So there you have it folks, that was my wonderful week. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but you have to go on “small wins” in the Peace Corps, since at times, that’s all you get.
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