Mid-Service Reflections

It’s hard to comprehend how over half a year has passed since my last entry, but Peace Corps time seems to work that way. The days can be long, but overall the time moves unbelievably fast. Now, so much has transpired that it’s kind of daunting to even figure out where to begin but, for my own peace of mind (and my few faithful readers), I need to attempt to get some of these experiences and thoughts out. I now have less than one year left in Peru which makes for some very mixed emotions- part of me can’t wait to get home and be back with my loved ones, living in the much more predictable and on-time US of A; the other part of me realizes that I’ve come to feel at home in Chavín and I don’t even want to think about how hard it will be to leave my friends and colleagues here. For those of you that have lived in a small town, you can probably understand how you get used to seeing the same faces, going to the same lunch spot, and chatting with the same store owners almost every day.

One of my favorite community members...Elvis...aka Pigpen

While I’m very much a city girl, there’s a wonderful sense of security and community that comes with such a routine. It’s funny how 27 months seems like a long time at the beginning, but now with less than 12 to go it doesn’t seem long enough (I know that one will make my mom cringe as she keeps threatening me that coming home after November 27, 2012 is not an option in my life). So, I’m going to break it down like this…

Work

Work is hard…enough said? It’s everything all the volunteers and tech trainers said it would be during our training in Lima, and more. We were told to expect challenges- lack of commitment, people showing up late or not at all to trainings, and trying to change lives on a very limited (or non-existent) budget. All of these things have proven to be true, but I’ve also been blessed with some stellar community counterparts so I’ve never felt completely at a loss. More so lately (probably because I’ve been in my site for over a year and I don’t think it should still be this way), I’ve been frustrated with the lack of tangible products from my work. I’m a perfectionist and I have an idea of how I want things to go; not so feasible in a rural zone of a developing country. The upside is that when you have a really good training, or some good feedback from the community, it is the most wonderful feeling.

We have 3 target groups with which we work- mothers, youth and community health promoters. I’ve been advancing with all three groups. I continue to do regular cooking classes with a group of moms from the community of Virgen del Carmen. We’ve made everything from banana bread to potato latkes to lentil sloppy joes! I try to come to them with meals that are nutritionally balanced, tasty, and that use ingredients that are easy to come by here but prepared in a new way. I hope to have a nice little cook book to give to them at the end of our classes.

Potato latke and salad

He approves of the finished product

Last month I began a healthy homes project in Chichucancha which I hope will be the masterpiece of my service. There is so much work to be done in this very isolated and impoverished community of Chavín. I’ve begun working with a group of 24 moms in a project that includes 5 sessions on a variety of health-related topics, infrastructural changes (like a family garden and improved practices in breeding of small animals), and the installation of improved cook stoves to eliminate smoke in the home. During our last round of house visits, I was struck by how difficult behavior change can be. I plan to work with these families for the duration of my service in the hopes that I make a tiny impact on their health behaviors. We’re trying to change practices that have existed for generations in a matter of months. I was moved to tears when I watched a little girl brush her teeth for possibly the first time ever and her mouth turned red from her bleeding gums. I felt overwhelmed and discouraged, but at the same time hopeful that the next time I visit her home she’ll be brushing her teeth regularly, along with her 3 siblings. The phrase “planting seeds” has been on my mind a lot lately. That’s what I’m doing, and I hope to see them grow in my time here; realistically, it will probably be many years down the road that the real fruits are seen.

Moms and kids during a nutrition session in Chichucancha

One of the senoras in a healthy home, showing off her homemade pantry

I’ve got some awesome adolescents that I’m working with in the secondary school of Machac. It’s taken a few months to get to know them and to identify the ones that want to learn and not just make jokes about our sessions and my accent, but I have a great time with them. We recently recorded a radio spot for World AIDs days which aired on the municipality’s radio station. Unfortunately, many of them will be headed to Huaraz or Lima to work during their school break, but I’ve got plans to train some youth health promoters when they return in March. I really had to think back to when I was a teenager to understand how to work with these guys. It's an age when the opinions of your peers matter more than anything so it was just a matter of spending time with them so they started to care about what I was bringing to the table- health may not be cool, but I think they're starting to think more about their futures and how health is a major part of that.

Together with the health center of Chavín I began a series of trainings with the community health promoters on themes like leadership, effective communication and teamwork. These promoters have had a lot of technical training, but many are lacking the interpersonal skills they need to be leaders in their communities. That’s what we’re focusing on and the feedback from the promoters themselves has been very positive.

Busting a very concentrated move with some of our health promoters during a training session

Chavín has proven to be a great place to complete my Peace Corps service. It’s kind of a unique and daunting site because it’s so large: a district with over 30 communities. But, this has allowed me the opportunity to work in multiple communities at once, and just like at home, see how great disparities in income, education and health can exist in one small area.

Travels

One of the best things about serving in Peru is the opportunity to travel and see such diverse landscapes within one country. I’ve already made it clear that the mountains of Peru are where I feel most at home and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. However, in these past months I’ve had the opportunity to visit some very awesome places:

•         In July, I celebrated our Independence Day by running a 5K race with several other volunteers. This was on the coast of Peru in Pacasmayo. It was a short trip, but a memorable one complete with fireworks on the beach. I hope to return next year for the 10K…or maybe the half marathon?...we’ll see!

Post run...we all got medals; no 1st place here!

•         In August I was overjoyed to welcome my mom to Peru! This was by the far the longest we’ve gone without seeing each other and I was so excited for her to see my reality here. We spent the first week of her visit in Cuzco, where we spent not one, but two days at Machu Picchu. I had visited this wonder before when I studied in Chile (almost 10 years ago!), but it was just as awe-inspiring the second time around. The natural beauty of this place is unlike any other, but there is also an energy there that is palpable. We were accompanied by the best tour guide ever, who was from Cuzco and able to explain the significance of many of the structures in Machu Picchu. From there, I took mom out to my site where we just hung out and enjoyed each other’s company. We had lunch with my host mom and my main community partner, where we were served the classic Peruvian dish, pachamanca. It was funny to see my mom’s face whenever she was given a plate of food; it made me remember how I used to be freaked out by the size of the portions here…not anymore! We hung out with the kids in my community who could barely get out a “hello” when they saw my mom, clearly taken aback by her light skin and grey hair. I had to serve as translator for my mom while she was in Chavín which made me realize how grateful I am for my translators in the communities where Quechua is the predominant language- it’s hard work! One of the funniest things was how people would practically yell at my mom in really slow Spanish thinking she would be able to understand them that way. Apparently people do that in all cultures. What really struck me though is how welcoming people were to my mom and what an effort they made to make her feel comfortable. I felt like I was bringing together my two families, and it was a beautiful union!

Daybreak in Machu Picchu

With our tour guide, Miguel

 

Mom and the kids

•   In October, I made a trip to Iquitos, in the jungle of Peru, where I participated with a bunch of volunteers in the Great Amazon River Raft Race. I knew going into it that this wasn’t going to be one of those comfortable vacations, but my expectations were surpassed in every way. Iquitos itself was an awesome city with all sorts of new sights and sounds. The majority of our time there though was spent rafting down the Amazon River in a raft constructed by locals (with a little bit of assistance from us) in some pretty rough conditions; I’d never done any sort of rowing before either so that was a new experience in itself. Honestly, I’m not going to get into all the details because it could be a whole entry in itself and there are people reading who don’t need to know how “exciting” things got, but suffice to say that it was epic, and the “Brown Team”- my raft mates and I- have become the stuff of Peace Corps legend. I returned from the jungle sunburnt and eaten by mosquitos, with a seriously injured knee, and minus my ipod and camera, but I wouldn’t take it back for anything.

Brown Team on the Amazon...yours truly is in the back right of this photo

Randoms & Funnies…

It seems that many of my most memorable moments at site happen while I’m in Chichucancha. One day I was returning to Chavín from the health post there with the doctor. We had made arrangements for a car to pick us up from the health post, but it hadn’t showed so we decided to start walking. On our way down we encountered a campesino walking his many animals including a pair of bulls which seemed calm enough. However, at that moment our car came roaring around the corner of the very narrow mountain road which totally freaked out the bulls, which then came charging in our direction. I’m not going to lie- there have been a few times where I’ve thought “this could be it” on that road, but at that moment I found myself wondering whether I would die being speared by a bull or jumping off the side of the mountain. In the end, the bulls ran right past us, but the doctor and I were huddled together on the edge of the road; I was saying, “Oh my God, Oh my God!” while she was saying, “Ay Dios Mio, Ay Dios Mio!” In moments like those, you can’t help but revert to your native tongue. Once our heart rates went down, we had a good laugh in the end. Occupational hazard I guess! I love my job!

Speaking of bulls, I saw my first (and last) bull fight in Chavin during their annual fiestas. It was a little bloody for my tastes, but still an impressive event. The stadium in Chavin is huge!...the closest thing I'll get to Fenway Park for a while.

Holding a chicken while he gets a vaccine; you should have seen me trying to catch the thing!

Beyond reading, watching movies on my laptop, and trying to teach myself how to play the guitar, cooking and baking are my favorite hobbies in site. I've gained quite the reputation as a baker in site. Below is one of my masterpieces...pie de limon. It's similar to lemon meringue pie, but so much better.

Pie de Limon!