Temblores!

Buenas tardes from Peru! Yet another week of Peace Corps training has flown by. This week went especially quickly because it was packed with opportunities for practical experience and field trips. I also got to spend a significant amount of time bonding with my host family and getting used to daily life in Peru. For the most part this was fun but, as in any adventure, not everything was smooth sailing. On Sunday night while I was preparing for bed, I felt a slight shaking and heard a rattle. At first thought that it was a chicken on my tin roof or a truck going by but within seconds my heart started racing and I realized that I was experiencing my first tremor. I ran out into the hallway barefoot and by the time I got there it had already ended but my entire family was in the hall in time to make fun of me for coming out with no shoes on. Apparently the protocol is to run out into an open space but I was having flashbacks to climbing under desks during earthquake drills at Ainsworth Elementary. Now I know what to do which is good since apparently I will be experiencing at least one tremor if not an earthquake every time the seasons change. I don't know if this is something that I will get used to.
On Monday I went to the local library for my usually volunteering but this week was particularly exciting because we facilitated a self-esteem building exercise rather than just playing games. We asked all the kids, age 6-16, to draw what they want to be when they grow up and, of course, we did the same. Even though these kids come from difficult home situations, they overcame their initial hesitation and drew excellent pictures of themselves as singers, doctors, accountants, veterinarians, fishermen, and other ambitious professions. All of them were proud that their drawings were better than my stick figure of an environmental lawyer. This was a great activity that I will definitely be using at my site to get kids to think about their future and their dreams.
On Tuesday, I also got to work with local children as an activity for my environmental education training. My friend Peter and I designed a lesson about different types of pollution and delivered it to the 14 and 15 year olds in the community colegio (school). The lesson went very well because the kids were knowledgeable and engaged. At the end we wrote up a list of things that we would do to help stop pollution in our communities and we all signed it. It was an incredibly successful activity and I look forward to using it in my site.
On Thursday, we got to go on a field trip to Lomas de Lachay national protected area about 3.5 hours from the training center. This protected area is a pocket of vegetation on the otherwise arid coast. This phenomenon occurs because the hills capture the fog that rolls up off the Pacific Ocean. There is enough fog that these hills are completely green during the wet season while everything around them stays sandy and dry. After hiking the perimeter of the park, we helped in their reforestation efforts by planting about a hundred seedlings. This was excellent practice for our task of planting a thousand trees once we get to our permanent sites.
On Friday we went on another field trip to a protected area called Pantanos de Villa which is a wetland located on the outskirts of Lima. It is an interesting protected space because it is surrounded by young communities where poor people have recently invaded and built houses without any legal claim to the land. Any land that is not directly being used in Peru is at risk of being invaded due to property laws that are less than clear. This concept has been incredibly difficult for all of the trainees to wrap our heads around because we are so used to every inch of land being accounted for by a legal contract. Despite the problems that face this protected area, it is the home to many species of beautiful birds, some of which we got to see during our short visit. It was wonderful to get to see some of the wildlife and get a first hand look at the challenges that Peru faces in protecting the important ecosystems that exist here.
Overall, it has been a wonderful week. I got to go on adventures, meet new people, see a variety of ecosystems, work with children, and I even got mail from home (thanks to mom, dad, and grandma Betty). Next week I will be heading up into the Andes for field based training and I will even be staying at the site of a current volunteer! These experiences should be very eye opening as I look ahead from my very well supported life as a trainee into the more rugged lifestyle of an actual Peace Corps Volunteer. I hope all is well back in the states! Eat some extra pizza for me!

P.S. I am reading the most incredible book right now that I would recommend to all of you. It is called Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder and it is the true story of Paul Farmer, a doctor who worked extensively in Haiti and Peru