Monday, October 24, 2005

Clase de Español

INTERMEDIO - LO MÁXIMO...
(intermiate - the best!)

That´s what we call outselves. Joselyn, Jimmy, Erin and I lucked out when we got Edith as our Spanish teacher. We have so much fun together and are constantly goofing around, while learning Spanish, of course. :)

Some of my favorite classes involved making vegetarian pizza (qué rico), watching an amazing movie about the tragic times of terrorism in Peru (Palomas de Papel), bargaining in the market in Chosica, and learning more slang. We´ve also had a lot of chocolate and went on a couple cool field trips, one to Lima and one to ruins near Santa Eulalia. We went to the ruins with a history prof and learned an incredible amount about this place. I will write about the history in my next entry. First, I need to look up some dates. In the meantime, I will be enjoying my last week with my class. Next week, we will advance and get a new teacher. I hope I am as lucky that time as this. I will miss Edith and my classmates.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Your tax dollars

FYI - Here is a run-down of how much one Peace Corps Volunteer costs the U.S. government.

$4,000 / yr. allowance (We get about $300 / month here in Peru.)
$2,700 / yr. readjustment (We get this money at the end when we go back to the U.S.)
$20,000 for in-country Peace Corps staff
$10,000 for U.S. staff
________________
$41,000 for 1 volunteer per year

The Peace Corps has an annual budget of $317 million.

We have 3 objectives:

1. DEVELOPMENT
We are here to provide technical assistance for projects deemed important by our host country governments. We can only work in countries where we are invited. For example, Peace Corps did not work in Peru during the years that Fujimori was in office because he did not want them here. (It also wasn´t safe.) Toledo invited the Peace Corps to come back in 2002 (they had been here before ´75).

2. UNDERSTANDING of American culture on part of host country nationals
We are here to promote a better understanding of American culture by the people here. We represent the diversity of Americans and come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors, originate in different parts of the country, and, in theory, can be anywhere in a range of ages. (My group is mostly 22 and 24 year-olds however. There is also only one married couple, who are also young)

3. UNDERSTANDING of culture in host country
We are here to learn about this culture and help educate Americans about it when we return home. (Obviously, this is one of the toughest, most enriching parts of our job.)

La bicicleta

This entry, about getting sick, appropriately follows my entry about the food. :)

Yes, I´ve already gotten sick. It happened about a week after arriving in Peru and only lasted about a day, thank goodness. My symptoms were about 20x more violent than any othe 24 hr. bug I´ve ever had. My fever wasn´t very bad, but I had serious problems on both ends, if you know what I mean. At least they took turns. One day, I felt nauseous and suffered the consequences (at 5 and 8 am in my room... ick). The next, I had la bicicleta, which literally means "the bicycle" and refers to how you have to keep running around to get to the bathroom at fairly regular intervals. My family blamed this whole episode on la clima. They told me I need to avoid sleeping with my window open and walking around without a sweater in the evening if I want to stay healthy. I know my body was stressed out because of these, along with running at 6 am, walking around and getting sunburnt, and playing soccer the day before. I don´t think that was all that caused my sickness though. I have a feeling a virus gave me la bicicleta. Ironically enough, the day that I had it was the day that our Peace Corps doctor came from Lima to talk to us about diarrhea. Nice timing.

Other fun slang like, but not as gross, as la bicicleta:

plata - dinero
ñoba - baño
lonsa - salon
yapla - playa
profe - profesora
combo - comida
pata - amigo
brodir - hermano

La comida


Nora y yo hacemos la comida. Es rico para chuparse los dedos.

When my host sister and I made dinner last Sunday, we diverged slightly from our usual fare of papas (potatoes), arroz (rice), y pollo (chicken). We made a great dish that even included broccoli, a food that confuses most Peruvians because they just don´t eat it. They´re not used to eating green stuff in general. My host family is kind-of progressive though. We even ate a salad today!

Part of our training here is learning to make huertos organicos (organic gardens) so that the people in our communities (ourselves included) can have better nutrition. We´ve had training on subjects like companion planting and making compost using abono (poop) from cuy (guinea pigs) and lombri (worms). We are even starting to grow tree seedlings and work on our own gardens behind the training center and smaller versions at our houses. We´re going to grow veggies like radishes, lettuce, spinach, carrots, and herbs. Fun & tasty stuff, especially considering how our meals usually consist of carbs, carbs, & more carbs.

Monday, October 03, 2005

Mision Imposible

Special Change Agent, code name "Arido", writing here. I completed my mission last Wednesday with my partner, "Biomasa", a.k.a. Isaac. We had to travel by Combi (local buses) to the nearby town of Chosica and complete both a light-cover mission and a deep-cover mission. We had a competition with the other groups of environmental trainees. Isaac and I were one of the groups that won a prize at the end of the day. I think it´s because we had the most fun.

We were supposed to start off by investigating the campaigns advertised outside of the municipal building/town hall. No prob. Then we had to find out about sanitation and waste water. We got a reference of a water engineer for the city, who for some reason worked in the soccer stadium along with a lot of other town officials, and headed in that direction. We decided to do some "work" on the way. We decided to walk to the stadium because Isaac hadn´t been to Chosica yet.

Chosica is a really pleasant town with a nice park, lots of gardens, fountains, and a HUGE statue of Jesus with his arms outstetched modeled after one in Rio, Brazil. Very cool, especially at night when the fountains are going with lights of green, blue, and red, and the desert air loses all of it´s heat. An interesting place to investigate water issues...

and what a better place to start learning about sanitation than the Chosica version of porta-potties? Isaac and I decided to chat with the attendee of a rather luxurious metal toilet house found on the edge of the plaza. Keep in mind that any bathroom in Peru with toilet paper and running water is luxurious!! This one had a separate stall for men and women, t.p., a sink, and even a mirror. I was impressed. The best part though was the company outside. We talked to this guy in a wheel chair that had worked there for 5 years and his buddy that was just passing by. They told us that they had 3 steel drums full of water in the roof of the "servicios higienicos" structure, where the water went to in order to be treated, and how to say "brother" in Quechua. No se por que. :)

We proceeded to the soccer stadium, observing the not-so-well-treated river along the way. We fraternized with some other PCT´s (Peace Corps Trainees) and found out that their contacts at the stadium were not at their desks. Well... ours wasn´t either, and his secretary wasn´t helpful at all. We, being the resourcefull potential PCV´s we are, sought other methods of investigation.

Haha... there was a dude cleaning a swimming pool next to the stadium. Why not talk to him about water?

Actually, he was more than willing to talk to us and ended up doing so for what could have easily been an hour. He even lead us down a metal latter to where all the pool filters were. He offered to show us where the pool chemicals were stored, but we politely declined. This guy was awesome. When we asked his name, he said, "Technica Piscina" before his name. He takes his job seriously, eventhough he did let us distract him while he vacuumed the pool. He told us all about how the water for Chosica comes from the mountains and passes through/ is collected in 3 tanks. My favorite fact was that people use cacti during the rainy season to purify their water at home. They put the water in a bucket and stir with a slice of the cacti. Somehow all the bad stuff sinks to the bottom of a bucket, and you survive without too many prickles and have nice clean water fit for drinking!

Isaac and I are supposed to go back to the pool to swim sometime and bring a soda (Gaseosa) for our friend. :)

We came up with a survey to ask to people on our way back to the bus stop, but just ended up hanging out and chatting with a guy watering the grass in the park with a massive hose. We didn´t talk long because we were acutely aware of the fact that the water streamed out of the hose all over the grass where he let it lie while we were there.

BTW - In case you didn´t know. My code name means "arid". Signing out - Judith.