एंड सो आईटी बेगिंस...

Hello to everyone from San Pablo!

*Note--for those of you who want to skip all of the writing, I've uploaded a lot of photos, including my host family in Lima and my new hometown! Check them out at: http://s431.photobucket.com/albums/qq34/sjkerr08/

I am proud to say that I´ve completed my first official week as a true and blue Peace Corps Volunteer. After my site visit two weeks ago I certainly had some trepidations, but I´m happy to report that things have improved significantly since then. Now, I can definitely envision myself living and working here for two years, which is an incredible feeling. Two years doesn´t make a whole lot of sense to my mind right now, but the good thing about being in the Peace Corps is that you are often living in the moment, whether you want to or not. A walk down the street can turn into a project, or result in a life-long friend. It´s about losing all of your fears and inhibitions (or most of them anyway) and looking for the ways in which you can leave your mark on the world, fun times!

Backtracking a bit, the last week of training was a whirlwind of emotions and events. Last Friday we had our swearing-in ceremony, which was a beautiful event. We all showered and dressed nicely, hardly looking like Peace Corps volunteers at all. All of the important people gave a few words, but all were overshadowed by one of our own, Doug, who gave an incredibly inspiring speech about the journey we are beginning. Afterwards, we hugged, we took a million photos, we ate a delicious catered lunch, and we danced with our host families. My host dad danced for the first time in twenty years, showing me all of his classic moves. Everyone was having a wonderful time until about 7, when the buses arrived. Then, all of the families lined up as we proceeded to walk the longest walk to the buses. I gave my host family that one last hug, and they began sobbing, which naturally, caused me to do the same. It´s incredible the bond we´ve built in just three months. The bus ride to Lima was very sobering, all of us were feeling sad at leaving the families we had become a part of, and more than a little scared at beginning our new lives in the middle of nowhere, away from people who understand our version of Spanish. However, we made the most of our last night together and celebrated until 6 in the morning. I´ll leave the details to your imagination.

I arrived in San Pablo Sunday evening after a very smooth bus ride, no throwing up this time! My family greeted me with open arms and delicious food. After about 10 trips up and down the stairs, I managed to get all of my luggage in my room, and am now settled in quite nicely. However, I was definitely still nervous about how the week would go. While our training was great, it´s rare that a volunteer arrives in site with projects ready to go. Rather, the first three months are a time for integrating, doing our diagnostic, and searching for the needs of the community. While this is all well and good, it also leaves us with a disproportionate amount of free time, which for me, is a difficult thing. Thus, I woke up Monday morning with a little bit of panic. What would I do with myself all day? However, as I mentioned before, going for a walk is one of the best things you can do as a volunteer. I´ll give you an example...

Last Wednesday I was walking with my coworker to visit a group of elderly persons who meet once a month to do various things in the community. While we were there, she introduced me to someone who worked at the church doing a variety of social programs. He mentioned that he was doing a charla on AIDS the next day in a rural community about an hour away. I told him that we´d received a lot of training on AIDS education, and before I knew what happened, I had agreed to do the charla (lecture) the next day. The next morning, we met at the bus stop at 6:30AM, waiting for the one car that sometimes takes people to the place we wanted to go. At last, around 7:30, we were on our way. Somehow, I had managed to prepare a few activities the night before. I was a little nervous, especially about my shaky Spanish, but also excited for my first real volunteer experience. Amazingly, it went very well, and the kids seemed to understand most of the major points. Afterwards, it just so happened that it was the day to celebrate the graduation of the seniors. Because it was also a celebration of Christmas vacation beginning, they invited me to participate in something called a chocolatada.

A chocolatada is a traditional event here in December where they make a giant pot of hot chocolate. (though usually they have to use something that resembles a chocolate powder called Cocoa, which isn't cocoa at all but rather a chocolate substitute...I haven't actually figured out what's really in it, but it's good.) They also serve slices of cheese (which are amazing since the department of Cajamarca is a big exporter of dairy products) and an awful thing called Pandeton, which is like a dry fruitcake that everyone loves. I've learned to graciously choke it down, but it isn't easy! After the chocolatada, they put on a great mix of Peruvian music played through an awesome sound system, which every rural school seems to have despite a lack of desks and books. (Another mystery...) However, despite the many encouragements of the professors, the kids were too shy to dance. So, an idea struck them. "Why don't we have the gringa (affectionate term for foreigners) dance? That will surely motivate the others!"

Now, you have to understand that while others may havce nightmares about being naked in front of a class, I have nightmares about having to dance in front of people. Thus, I was faced with a dilemma. However, this dilemma was short lived, because really the Peace Corps is all about overcoming inhibitions and being in uncomfortable situations. It could be worse--other volunteers have to hike a quarter mile to use their latrines, and some don't have electricity. So, I apologize for poorly representing the dancing abilities of the people of my country, but dance I did. Slowly but surely the others joined in, and we had a great time. At the end of the day we packed the ususual seven people in the taxi and drove home, tired, but happy.

And so, the journey continues! During another walk through the town, I met a woman named Margarita who hosted a Peace Corps Volunteer from Peru 8 (I'm Peru 12). She invited me to go hiking, and we climed over 500 meters to the top of the valley and took some amazing photos. She told me that a lot of people think she's crazy because she likes to go running and hiking, but I told her that they'll have to call me crazy too. She introduced me to several friends of hers, an archeologist and engineer who are working on the new highway that will save us two hours of transit to the capital city. We had a great conversation about the history of Cajamarca and the influence of mining. (I won't bore you with the details, look it up on Wikipedia if interested, haha.) More importantly, we shared an amazing dessert of spiced peaches, an absolute delight.

Today, as I am finishing this email a week after beginning it (in true Peruvian fashion) we celebrated the anniversary of San Pablo. There was a huge parade, with all of the schools, institutes, and organizations represented. Afterwards, I took my host sisters out for ice cream, and we met up with my host parents for a delicious lunch of chicken and rice. Later, I'm meeting up with the volunteer who I replaced, as she is in town for a visit. I'm eager to compare stories.

While there are a hundred other moments I would love to write down, unfortunately, I don't have the memory or the time to do so. However, I'll try to update my blog whenever I think of something that's not big enough to send out on the group email list, so check there for small updates. As for contact info, I do have a cell phone but it is ridiculously expensive to call it. Also, sadly, my post office box is in the capital about 4 hours away, so I won't be able to check it more than once or twice a month. Thus, please continue emailing me, I've so enjoyed all of the emails you've been sending! Feel free to send any questions or thoughts, also, I always love to see pictures from home. Love you all, hope you are enjoying the holiday season.

Until next time!

Love,
Sam

Instantes (Instants)

This is a poem we read in Spanish class called Instantes by Nadine Stair that really resonated with me. I´ve included the Spanish version with my own rough translation.

Si pudiera vivir nuevamente mi vida, en la próxima trataría de cometer más errores. No intentaría ser tan perfecto, me relajaría más.
Sería más tonto de lo que he sido, de hecho tomaría muy pocas cosas con seriedad.
Sería menos higiénico.
Correría más riesgosd, haría más viajes, contemplaría más atardeceres, subiría más montañas, nadaría más ríos.
Iría a más lugares adonde nunca he ido, comería más helados y menos habas, tendría más problemas reales y menos imaginarios.
Por si no lo saben, de eso está hecha la vida, sólo de momentos, no te pierdas el ahora.
Yo era de esos que nunca iban a ninguna parte sin un termómetro, una bolsa de agua caliente, un paraguas y un paracaídasñ si pudiera volver a vivier, viviría mñas liviano.
Si pudiera vovler a vivir comenzaría a andar descalzo a principios de la primavera y seguiría hasta concluir el otoño.
Daría más vueltas en calestia, contemplaría más amaneceres y jugaría con más niños, si tuviera otra vez la vida por delante.
Pero ya ven, tengo 85 años y sé que me estoy muriendo.

...

If I could live my life again, the next time I would try to make more mistakes. I wouldn´t try to be so perfect, I would relax more.
I would be more stupid than I have been, I would take few things seriously.
I would be less hygenic.
I would take more risks, travel more, contemplate more sunsets, climb more mountains, swim more rivers.
I would go to more places I´ve never been, eat more ice cream y fewer vegetables, I would have more real problems and fewer imagined.
And if you don´t know it, this is how life is made, only moments, don´t lose time.
I was one of those that never went anywhere without a thermometer, a hot waterbottle, an umbrella and a parachute; if I could live again I would live more lightly.
If I could do it all again I would walk barefoot in the beginning of spring until the end of autumn.
I would take more turns on the merry-go-round, contemplate more dawns and play with more kids, if I had a chance to do it all again.
But already I am 85, and I know that I am dying.

Spider Stories

I have been at war with spiders for the entirety of my life. For reasons unknown, their very existence condradicts everything I believe in. At the mere sight of the tiniest arachnid, my ¨flight or fight response¨ is activated. My heart pounds, my blood runs cold, and my mind tells me that I am in mortal danger. Yet, in contrast to my every instinct and sense of self preservation, here I am in Peru, their designated battleground.

Initially, naively, I believed myself and the spiders to be in a state of neutral coexistence. I saw them every now and then, I knew they were there, but we maintained our respective boundaries. However, I am now certain that the aroma of my fear became irresistable. As with most of Earth´s creatures, they too sense a weak prey. Slowly, I began to see more of them. First, two with small bodies and long legs emerged in the bathroom. Although I thought I had made it clear to them that they were permited to survive only as long as they didn´t interfere with my daily activities, they blatently displayed themselves on the sink. I acted quickly, asking my host brother to take care of the matter. He did so, all the while looking at me like I was crazy. I felt a little bad, they hadn´t been particularly vicious spiders, but they had broken the rules first and I was unwilling to compromise.

The next week, I learned that Peruvian spiders play dirty. It was four in the morning, and I was returning from a quinciñera. Despite the metal doors and cement floors, I had managed to make it to my room without producing a sound loud enough to wake my family. Eager to rest after a tiring day, I put on my pajamas and walked across the room to turn out the light. Half way to my destination, I encountered a spider the size of my hand, perched for the attack in the middle of the far wall. One month before I might have had a nervous breakdown, but I was Peruvian now. Determined to win this battle too, I made my way to the kitchen and grabbed both a broom and a plastic bag. As I expected, the spider lay in wait, unmoving from its previous position. With a deep breath and a decisive move, I slammed the bristles into it´s body. To my utter horror, the spider lept off the wall directly towards my face, as if it had anticipated my move. The battle lost, I screamed in terror, swiping madly at the air. My host sister ran into the room, curious as to what could be so terrifying at four in the morning. I explained in my broken Spanish, as she examined the remnants of the enemy on the floor. ¨It´s not that big,¨she said. ¨Sleep well.¨ My thought: ¨They get bigger?¨

Later, during field based training, my group was assigned to give a lesson in front of one hundred fourth and fifth graders at a school in Cajamarca. When we walked into the room, there was a great deal of excitement, and we thought they were especially thrilled to see us. However, it turned out that the real sensation was a large poisonous black spider that had to be removed with a set of pliers by one of the professors. Yes, they get bigger.

Now, in my eighth week in the land of the spiders, the war continues. For the last week I had been waking up with more bug bites than when I had went to bed, including some which had formed unique red welts on my right arm. I had searched for the source without any luck. However, as I pulled back the covers last night to perform my rutine inspection, a squirming black body dashed across my Casper comforter, making a beeline for my hand. Holding in a scream, a yanked off my shoe and brought down my judgement upon it. However, while my mattress is very firm, it didn´t provide enough force to squish the intruder. Again, with a red face, I enlisted my host brother to take it down. He did so, whisking it quickly to the floor and raking it´s body across the cement until nothing remained but a damp stain.

And so the war continues. Me versus them. I´m outnumbered, but my spirit won´t be broken.

Abejas, Fuegos, y Fotos

My dearest friends and family,

A side note first--some of your emails weren´t working before (because I entered them incorrectly) and some I just added. For those of you who are interested, I´ll be posting the old emails and the new ones on my blog: http://saminperu.blogspot.com/

I always worry that I won´t have enough to write to you, and then the strangest and most interesting things happen. Such is the life of a Peace Corps trainee! This week was especially lovely, since we had a ¨feriado¨(holiday) on Wednesday. The night before, we celebrated the birthday of another PCV with the community. His host family decorated a ¨house in progress¨ just down the hill. We decided to have a ¨graffiti party¨ so that we would all have a souvenir from training, so everyone bought white T-Shirts and Sharpies. By the end of the night, we had all learned quite a few new phrases in both English and Spanish...very educational. :-) The Peruvians made fun of us bcause we only lasted until 1 or 2 in the morning, and their parties NEVER end before dawn. However, they aren´t in PC training!

Wednesday, I slept the latest I ever have here, until 8AM! I had my mid-point Spanish interview, and am happy to report that I moved up two levels to intermediate-advanced. I am now where I need to be to begin service, and will be spending the rest of language training fine-tuning my accuracy and pronunciation. It´s so exciting to be able to have real conversations with my host family, or even to understand the small talk on the street. Learning a new language is so empowering, and even though it is also one of the most frustrating things I´ve ever done, it is also one of the most fun. For those of you unfamiliar with PC training, we have four hours of language and culture nearly every day. The afternoon is spent getting vacinated, working in our technical groups, and listening to medical sessions on safety and health. Not all of our time is spent at the training center--some of our language sessions take place in our communities, and we are frequently asked to conduct interviews with the locals. For health, we have begun to work at the health posts, learning about government efforts and how to work with limited resources. I´ll wirte more about the health posts next week.

It´s been especially fascinating to learn about health in Peru. (For those of you who disagree, you can skip to the next paragraph.) For example, it´s a common joke here for Peruvians to ask Americans, ¨What do they feed you over there to make you so tall?¨ While I´m considered short-average in the states at 5ft 4in, I´m actually quite tall here. This has been great for concerts and large crowds, however, as the health volunteers have come to understand, very little if any of the height difference can be contributed to genetics. In some departments (states) malnutrition is responsible for the stunting of over 60% of the population. One village reported stunting in every 8 out of 10 children. The malnutrition is not due ot a lack of food, but rather a lack of nutrient rich food. Rice and potatoes are served LITERALLY at every meal. They are served to curb appetite rather than for nutritional value. Peru exports nearly all of its quality produce, leaving very little for the people. Peru may be famous for its fruit and potatoes, but the fruit we eat from Peru is not what the people are eating here. This is definitely an area I hope to address in my permanent site.

Continuing on (how could I have been worried about not having enough to write?!) this weekend was full of uniquely Peruvian experiences. Saturday, we traveled once again to La Agraria, where we learned how to salvage seeds from vegetables, farm cuy, and create bee colonies. (Yes, ¨cuy¨ are guinea pigs, and they are commonly eaten here. They are even included in the fod pyramid. I have so far evaded having to try one.) For the bee session, we were up close and personal with the bee colony. They gave us the special netted hats, and then proceeded to open the colmena (structure/hive) of 8,000 bees. We tasted honey straight from the comb and learned how lucrative and beneficial the bee farming industry can be. It was both fascinating and delicious!

Afterwards, a small group of us went to a deli for lunch, where I had my first turkey sandwich in a month. It was so good I don´t think I can even describe it in words. After our first meal in a while without rice or potatoes and a brief 2 mile walk, we arrived at El Museo de la Nación. While their exhibit was limited due to construction, it was also free! The art was incredible, some of it dating as far back as 1170 B.C. The gallery upstairs featured a photo timeline of the terrorist era in Peru. Keep in mind, this was barely 20 years ago. The images continu to haunt me, the atrocity is hard to describe but the photos truly say it all. Women and children in small rural communities were brutally masacred by terorists and police forces alike, all the while having no idea why the fighting was taking place. I encourage anyone unfamiliar with the reign of the Shining Path in Peru to read up on the matter, it explains so much about the political and economical problems here today.

One last story for you in this email, and then I´ll save the rest for next time. This Saturday was the anniversary of the large city, of which my community is a subdivision. There was a huge fiesta/concert to commemorate the 114th birthday of Chosica, so naturally all of us decided to go. It was a little strange being the only Americans in a crowd of 5,000 Peruvians, but the music was fantastic. One of the groups was definitely the Peruvian incarnation of the backstreet boys, complete with matching outfits and choreography. We ended up leaving around 1AM, again, very early by Peruvian standards.

As we were climbing up the hill, we noticed a small fire burning. This isn´t particularly unusual, since a lot of people burn their trash, but it was 1 in the morning, the brush was very dry, and it was in an odd location. We decided to throw a little dirt on it, just to be safe. For good measure, one of the other volunteers decided to, shall we say, relieve himself on the fire as well. However, for whatever reason, the flame got bigger. At this point, I decided we needed help, so I ran to the nearest house. When no one answered, I grabbed a few buckets from the courtyard and we began filling them from a nearby stream. Some of the moto taxi drivers noticed our efforts and joined in. At last, the fire was out and we were able to go home. PC volunteers, saving the world one small fire at a time!

Finally, I am happy to report that at last, I was able to upload a few pictures! It was a very involved process to find a flash drive, a computer with a USB port, and a locutorio with internet fast enough to upload them, but at last I can share a bit of my life here with you in a visual sense. I have more, but kep in mind that it took 2 hours just to upload these :-S

To view the photos, visit: http://s431.photobucket.com/albums/qq34/sjkerr08/

I don´t think you have to subscribe to photobucket, but let me know if you have any problems.

Again, thanks so much for the love and support. I miss you all terribly, but I´m having the time of my life here and can´t wait to share more with you. Feel free to email any time!

Love Always,
-Sam

To Lima and Back

Dear family and friends,

First of all, I just want to thank you all for all of your lovely letters, packages, emails, and kinds words. It´s been so much fun to hear from everyone and I´m so grateful for your continued support! I was thinking the other day, about the differences between Peru and the States. Strangely enough, my first thought was that there weren´t many differences. However, when I gave the matter a little more thought, it became apparent that nearly everything is different here, but that I´m just becoming accustomed to it all. For example, the other day one of the other volunteers was talking about playing with his dog on the roof. When he wrote home about it, his family was alarmed that the dog was kept on the roof! However, the roofs here are very much like a room of the house. Our roof in particular is very nice, with a great view of the city and a little garden on the side. This is just one of the many subtleties I´m learning to appreciate.

While I´m constantly finding new things to enjoy about my host village, I´m also excited to report that I finally had the opportunity to explore Lima! Two weekends ago, our language groups were assigned to research safety and the prices of transportation in Lima by interviewing store owners and officials. We also had to find our own way home, which was a little scary for me in particular, since I don´t have any experience with taxis or public transportation. However, we also had time to explore. First, we visited La Plaza de Armas, which is the plaza that appears in tourist ads and postcards. The architecture was incredible, and there were people gathering there from all over the world. We made it just in time to watch the military parade and marching band, which I thoroughly enjoyed. After, we had our first opportunity to eat out at a Pervian Restaurant. Unfortunately, this is where I had my first encounter with an attempted robbery. While we were standing in line at a semi-outdoor restaurant, a man came up to me, grabbed me by the waist, and tried to kiss me, while going for the change in my pocket. However, having recently been trained in safety techniques and holding my backpack firmly, I yelled "No me molesta!" (which translates to ¨don´t bother me, or leave me alone,") and pushed him away. Luckily, the group rallied around me and he left, no harm done. I was excited to put the safety training to test, and the rest of the day was wonderful.


This past weekend, I had the pleasure of experiencing two really fascinating cultural events. After class Saturday morning, I went with two other volunteers to Baranco, which is a subdivision of Lima. We toured the art museum there, which was full of Spanish colonial art from the 1700s. The museum itself was an old colonial mansion, which was incredibly beautiful. Most of the art centered on Catholocism, and everything was so intricately detailed. I could have studied each painting or sculpture for thirty minutes and still have missed things. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed.

After the museum, we went to our first fiesta in a neighboring community, which had invited all of the Peace Corps to celebrate the anniversary of their neighborhood. The fiesta took place in a huge soccor field, with a big stage in the middle. There were two huge groups of dancers, and I wish I had the words to describe the intensity of the dances. The first group wore canary yellow outfits, adorned in gold ropes, magenta scarves, and hundreds of buttons. The women wore top hats as tall as themselves, with hundreds of feathers in a myriad of colors. The music was a combination of traditional Andean music and modern. The dance was more like a story, depicting an intense history riddled with conflict and achievement. Unfortunately, it was too dark to take a decent picture, so do your best to imagine! Afterwards, the Peace Corps was formally welcomed into the community, and they had a big dance. Sadly, my dancing is about as good as my Spanish right now. :-)

In other news, I thought some of you might be interested in a few observations about daily life. I´ve made a brief list of the things I´ve found unique to Peru so far:

1. The Noises
The gallos (roosters) cannot tell time here. They start singing at 1AM, 3AM, and from 4AM onward. After three weeks, I´m finally adjusting to it. Also, all cars, combis, and taxis honk at every interesection to warn pedestrians, since there are no crosswalks, few traffic lights, and no observable speed limits. As a pedestrian, I have come to appreciate this. Our village, Yanacoto, has a megaphone that the alcaldes (mayors) use to make announcements. However, as we have learned, they are also used for political arguments, which are not always very friendly. These begin at 7AM. Finally, I´ve learned that in a house with concrete floors, every sound is amplified. Peru is not for light sleepers!


2.) El Mercado (The Market)
The market is one of my favorite experiences! There are so many colors and new flavors. Also, every single price is negotiable! Too bad it doesn´t work that way in the U.S, I´m starting to get pretty good at bargaining. The only downside is that there are no sanitary regulations. Thus, all food is "buy at your own risk."

3.) Rules for Women
Going into my PC experience, I knew that I would experience less freedoms than I enjoyed in the U.S. However, there are lots of things I never thought about that have come up during training. For example, we have to be careful how much time we spend with male volunteers or co-workers. In the U.S. it´s very common for women to have male friends, but no so much in Peru. Rumors start incredibly easily, and volunteers have even been removed from their sites because of them. Also, cat-calling, whistling, and marriage proposals are completely acceptable. However, it´s particularly frustrating that police officers do this as well. Here in Peru, the bomberos (firefighters) are much more trusted, since they are a voluntary organization.

4.) The Bathroom and Such
In Peru, you cannot throw toilet paper in the toilet, and if you do by accident, it is not fun trying to figure out how to fix the mistake. Also, my family believes that if you get your hair wet when you are sick, it will make you sicker. (With the water as cold as it is, I´m starting to think so too!) You also have to wear sandals, since there are microbes on the tile.

5.) The Food
Yes, it is very true that rice and potatoes are served with every meal, except for breakfast. Also, I´ve found that a lot of Peruvians believe that Americans eat WAY more than we actually do, so most plates include at least three servings. It is so delicious that I wish I COULD eat three servings, but I´m currently in the process of learning how to convince my family that I don´t need quite so much.


Okay, my internet time is up! I know I said I would send pictures this week, but I forgot to bring my cord, so I will have to post them at a later date. Again, thanks to everyone for all of your support, I love you and miss you! Feel free to write if you have any questions, I´ll do my best to respond within two weeks.

Love always,
-Sam

Prelude

Hola todos!

At last, a brief moment to sit down and write to you. It is the Peace Corps philosophy that trainees be busy every second of the day, and while I like to stay busy, it is nice to have a moment to communicate with everyone back home! Right now, I am staying in a place called Yanacoto, about ten minutes by combi to the training center in Chaclacayo. The combi is truly an experience unique to Peru. It is like a 15 passenger van, but with a minimum of thirty people crammed inside. It races down the street at speeds around 75 to 90 miles per hour, and if you aren´t very quick, its easy to miss your stop. (This has already happened several times, haha). However, its cheap and gets you where you need to go, and I´ve come to enjoy it.

During my stay in Yanacoto, Im living with a host family, who I already love and never want to leave. I have a mom, dad, brother, and sister. My brother is 17 and goes to school to study computing, and my sister is 23 and works in a laboratory. She also knows a little English, and has been enormously helpfuly in helping me with my fairly large gaps in Spanish. Unfortunately, she and her mom were in a terrible car accident about 13 years ago, and my host mom suffered spinal damage. As a result, she is forced to lay in bed most of the time, and has lost mobility in her legs and hands. However, it has been amazing to see the strength and love of my family, how they have survived their difficult times together. There is a tangible love in their home, and I feel so lucky that they have welcomed me so genuinely into their lives.

My house is a bright turquoise building at the top of a very steep hill. (Great exercise after eating so many carbs here!) As required by the Peace Corps, I have my own room, though I only use it to sleep. We have running water and electricity, in fact my family actually has a TV and DVD player! However, we use these things sparingly, and the water is VERY cold. Its a great way to get past the morning groggyness! Every morning I wake up to a montage of sounds, including roosters, packs of dogs, and car horns. Alarms are hardly necessary. Though I have never considered myself a morning person, Ive really come to enjoy them. We have a great view from the top of the hill of the surrounding area, and everything looks beautiful in the light pink mist of the early hours.


So, for the next 10 weeks, I´ll be training to become a volunteer in community health promotion! A lot of the information is very repetitive, since I have already received much of the same training from the College of Public Heatlh, but I´ve really enjoyed the language classes and culture sessions. Also, despite having electricity and running water, there is a great deal of poverty here, we definitely have our work cut out for us. Today, we had to go to a large town called Choisica in a small group, and complete a ´mission.´ Our mission was to interview a street vendor and to find and interview a health promoter. Fortunately, my Spanish has already improved somewhat, and we were able to communicate well enough to complete the mission. Its a little exhausting to constantly think in a new language, but amazing at the same time. My family gets so excited when they can understand what I say and I in turn understand them! It´s such an incredible experience to be thrown into an environment where nothing is familiar, safe, or comfortable, but quickly, this place is feeling more like home. While I miss many people and aspects of life in the US, I feel so lucky to be having the experience of living in and becoming part of a new culture. I think Peruvians must be among the most friendly people in the world because everyone I meet welcomes me profusely with hugs and kisses and offers to help with my Spanish. Also, they ALWAYS give you twice as much food as you can eat, and while it´s all incredibly good, there is no way to eat it all. I´m still learning how to refuse politely!

Anyway, Im running out of time, since Im writing this from a little internet cafe near the training center and I dont have many soles. (Soles are the currency of Peru.) Please feel free to ask any questions or send emails, Ill try to check my email about every 10 days or so. I wont have a phone until the end of training and phone cards are a little expensive, so email will be the best way to get ahold of me if you need to. I love you and miss you all, thanks so much for all of the love and support! Cant wait to hear from you.


Love always,
Sam

P.S Sorry for the bad grammar and spelling, Im using a Spanish keyboard and I haven´t quite figured out all of the keys!

Welcome to the Blog!

Thanks for stopping by! This is where I'll be posting most of my general updates for my Peace Corps service in Peru.