From 2008 to 2009

Dearest friends and family,

It is hard to believe, but I've been in site one month now. They say that the first month is the hardest, and especially with my first month including Christmas and New Year's, this certainly has been true for me. However, my first month as a PCV has also been one of the most exciting of my life, filled to the brim each day with new experiences, both terrifying and exhilarating. Some days I wake up with my heart racing, terrified that I don't have a plan for the day and filled with worry over how to fill the hours. However, in my first weeks I have learned quickly how to convert this fear into productivity and enjoyment. For me, these days are now days of possibilities, days where I have the opportunity to form new relationships, discover new projects, and to build a life for myself here.

Along those lines, my first Christmas away from home wasn't too bad. Certainly, I felt homesick. I had always known that the true meaning of Christmas was to be with family, but that message resonated especially loud and clear this year. I tried to share a few of my traditions--I baked Christmas cookies with my host sisters and played my favorite Christmas songs. However, I had to stop when the song "I'll be home for Christmas" came on, and the Christmas feeling just wasn't there. In fact, Christmas is a very marginalized holiday in the highlands of Peru, and rightly so. Well over a majority of the families can't afford even one toy for the kids, let alone the decorations and holiday foods. One thing I've really come to enjoy and appreciate about Peru is the collective identity they share here, quite different from the largely individualistic atmosphere of the States (though don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of this too). However, here, it is as if everyone decided as a whole that if everyone couldn't celebrate Christmas on a grand scale, no one would. Imagine that.

As a result, everyone focuses on the "Nacimiento," or the birth of Christ. Each family creates a nativity scene in a corner of the room, though some of them take up an entire room. Now, these are not your typical nativity scenes. Nativity scenes may include but are not limited to: waterfalls, GI Joe's, tea parties, weddings, ceramic figures of African animals, airplanes, barbie dolls, wedding reenactments, living aloe vera plants, candy dishes, race cars, (insert the strangest thing you can think of here.) Truly they are a sight to behold. At midnight on Christmas eve, each family places the baby Jesus in the manger. My family sang a few songs, danced, and said a blessing to the new holy family member. (It creeped me out a little bit to talk to the plastic baby Jesus in my hands, but I did it!) Afterwards, the children receive no more than one or two small gifts, and the family all shares a meal together. My host Dad gave a particularly touching toast, welcoming me at the celebration, and truly making me feel like a member of the family. It was really quite beautiful. I felt honored that they so willingly shared this special day with me, and while I missed my American Christmas, it was a great bonding experience and an important part of becoming integrated in the community.

Meanwhile, on the work front, I had the opportunity to travel with the staff from the health center to some of the outlying communities, known here as *caserios*. The first one we visited is called Succhabomba. The health staff only visit once a month because it is an hour by car on a treacherous road, and then another hour and a half walking down into the valley. We made our way to the small school that sits at the bottom of the rolling Andes hills, a little blue building without running water or electricity. All of the kids are taught by two professors, and I'm not exactly sure how they divided the age groups. They were very shy at first, both because of the vaccinations we had brought and the fact that for most of them, I was the first person from the States they had ever met. Little did they know I was in awe of them too! It just so happened that the day we arrived was also the last day of school, where they celebrate the graduation of the sixth grade students who will be moving up to secondary school. The mothers had all gathered to prepare a huge feast of tomales, cuy (guinea pig), pato (duck), soup, potatoes, and mazamorra morada (kind of like purple jello). I offered to help and eventually was permited to assit with the tomales. (I had a sneaking suspician that they didn't think *gringas *could cook and I was eager to prove myself.) After four hours of preparing everything to perfection, at last we sat down to eat. It was an incredible meal to say the least, However, it was a bit sad to see that most of the kids only took a few bites, preferring instead to save the rest for their families waiting at home.

The other community we visited is called Lloque. This is where I'll be doing my diagnositc and focusing my efforts these next few months. It a two hour walk, made a bit difficult by the steep hills but still doable. It too is nestled in a gorgeous green valley--I'll post pictures soon. While not quite as poverty stricken as La Succha, Lloque is plagued by chronic malnutrition and high maternal mortality. I have grandiose ideas of building a community greenhouse filled with nutritious native plants, but we'll see how that goes. I'm quickly learning to balance idealism with reality.

Meanwhile, I began my first new year outside of the country! I met up with a few of the other Peru 12 volunteers in the capital city of Cajamarca. The night before I left, I had almost decided not to go because I was having such fun just being with my host family. We were discussing everything from the Bermuda Triangle to life on the moon. Later that night, I dreamt that my site had been changed to northern Alaska. Apart from being upset that one couldn't possibly have a real Peace Corps experience without leaving the U.S, I insisted that San Pablo needed me and that I wanted to stay. I woke up feeling really happy, because that dream meant to me that for the first time I felt a real connection to this place and this family. When I came downstairs for breakfast, my host mom pointed to a cardboard box on the kitchen table and insisted that I take it with me. Inside was the most delicious handmade chocolate cake I've ever seen. I had told her that I was probably the only volunteer who got to eat cake on a regular basis, and feeling sorry for the other volunteers, she had made it for me to bring along and share with the others. If that isn't love, I don't know what is.

After arriving in the capital city and washing out the chocolate icing that had melted onto my only pair of pants, we all exchanged stories from our sites and enjoyed hours of conversation in rapid English. We had a delicious pizza dinner (though pizza is never the same in Peru as in the States), and afterwards, blueberry cheesecake iceream. We sat in the plaza for a bit and after we tired of saying "no gracias" to the kids trying to sell us candy, toured the end of mass at the beautiful Catholic church. A few hours before midnight we quickly devoured most of the cake and got ready to go out. We ended up going to an amazing discoteca (club) reccommended by our Peruvian friend Jose, and our two new German friends we'd met early that day accompanied us. There, hudled in our very multi-cultural group, we counted down to midnight. Afterwards we danced to some great Peruvian and American songs (why Peruvians have better taste in American music
than Americans I have yet to figure out) until 5 in the morning, and were still among the first ones to leave. What a great way to bring in the New Year!

So, now here I am in month number two, invigorated with a new drive to inspire positive changes in my community. For me this month will be one of listening and investigating, of finding the root of the health problems here and the most cost-effective solutions. Undoubtedly it will be one of mistakes and challenges as well, but I think I'm becoming less afraid of failure. Maybe I welcome it in a way, because for a Peace Corps volunteer, it's like the process of elimination. "So that didn't work, great! Now I can try the next thing..."

Thanks for your continued words of support, wisdom, advice, and encouragement, I read each and every one with a smile and an open heart. Oh, almost forgot! Here's how you can get ahold of me now:

My phone number for my cell phone is (calling from the US): 011 51 76 976401193
To call the land line at my house from the US: 011 51 76 782713

My mailing address is a little sketchy, but I think it works:

PCV Samantha Kerr
Centro de Correo San Pablo
San Pablo
Cajamarca, Peru

Our post office is actually just a lady who happens to accept mail
from Serpost, so we'll see how this goes.

Love always,

--Sam