Settling In

Hello from Peru! I have officially completed two weeks of Peace Corps training and time seems to be speeding. This week went faster than the first one because we had many more activities and kept pretty busy. I have settled in pretty well and I now feel like a daughter in my host family. We usually spend about an hour sitting around the dinner table chatting and joking around. I can tell that I am getting more comfortable speaking Spanish all the time since I am able to make a lot of jokes. Humor and sarcasm require more finessed language skills than I had anticipated. We also spend time every night watching telenovelas, fear factor, and lots of dubbed American movies. It is quite an interesting experience to watch movies like Aladdin and Spider Man 3 with my abuelita who only speaks Quechua. At the moment I am watching Samuel L. Jackson beat the crap out of a bad guy with my host father and brother. At times I am in awe of the bizarre intersection of generations and cultures that I am a part of. I just hope that I have a host family that is as welcoming and accommodating as the one I have here during training.

One of the best bonding experiences that I have had so far was learning to do laundry with my host mother. She made sure that even my old stained socks were perfectly white and insisted on rewashing everything that I tried to wash myself. She prides herself on being able to get my clothes whiter than the washing machine ever has. While we washed she told me about her youth in the Sierra without shoes and using firewood to cook. She moved to Lima at 12 to work in a rich woman's house where she had to learn Castellano because up until then she only spoke Quechua. She often talks about the struggle that every mother goes through to provide for their children. She has achieved so much purely through hard work and sacrifice and is very proud to be able to provide her children with everything they need to live comfortably and receive excellent educations. She is a driven and inspiring woman and has taken me in as if I was her own daughter.

This week, training was a bit more exciting than last week mainly because we got to go on two different field trips for language class and one for environmental technical training. For language, we went to the nearby town of Chosica (Quechua for owl) on Tuesday to practice asking for directions from random people and learn about some of the typical fruits and vegetables at the local market. On Friday we ventured into Lima, a colonial city centered around a main square where the government palace and national cathedral are located. This area is rich with history because it was the center of the Spanish colony and the catacombs of the churches contain the remains of the tens of thousands of Incans murdered during Pizarro's inquisition. Pizarro himself is buried in the national cathedral.

Today we went to the Universidad Agraria to learn about Peruvian agriculture, plants, and nutrition as part of a six-week workshop. We will use this information to help our host communities build organic gardens filled with nutritious vegetables to supplement a diet based around rice and potatoes. I look forward to working on this type of small side project once I get to my site.

Talking to strangers is an integral part of the Peace Corps and most of our assignments are aimed at developing this skill. Within our first three months at site we will have to produce a diagnostic, which is essentially a detailed report on the status of solid waste management, infrastructure, health care, and other aspects of the community that will help us determine the focus of our projects. We are also supposed to spend this time integrating into our communities and developing a network of community resources so it is important for us to feel comfortable seeking out potential leaders in our communities by talking to everyone we possibly can. After this week, everyone in the community I live in has most likely been interviewed and annoyed by mobs of us "gringos" completing practice community diagnostics. Now, every time I walk out the door I run into a neighbor I have chatted with at some point and I am looking forward to using these same strategies to establish myself within my host community.

I have found my life here incredibly satisfying because even in just two weeks I have established strong bonds with my host family and my fellow volunteers. I am still acclimating to some of the minor discomforts like the roosters outside my window that like to get going at 3:30 every morning and the cold showers, but these factors only add character to the experience. Between cultural and language barriers, differences in food preferences, and hours a day spent talking about health, safety, and bodily functions, I have found myself with no shortage of things to laugh about. A sense of humor will definitely be my most important ally as I continue this experience.

P.S. I have uploaded some pictures to facebook so everyone should take a look. Let me know if you don't have access so I can send you a link.