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!