Close Encounters and my Birthday

I have been in site for two months and in Peru for over four months! Before I know it my two years will be over. I am pretty sure that having completed the Peace Corps will be one of the most satisfying feelings possible but time moves so quickly that I am already nervous I won't be able to accomplish as much as I thought I could. This week I got the ball rolling on a couple of projects including the door to door hand washing campaign in the poorest section of town and a workshop for street vendors. After researching food handling guidelines on the USDA website, I realize that I violate most of them daily. This makes me nervous but I have gotten used to it. I will need to get creative to convince the women who sell meat on the street that they should invest in bleach for cleaning work areas and even coolers for refrigerating meat. After my relatively healthy four months in Peru, I am convinced that refrigeration is les important than I once thought. This is just one of the many attitudes that have been influenced since my arrival in Peru.
This past week I have had particularly interesting encounters with animals, both dead and alive. Although I live in an urban area, I am in much closer contact with critters than I was before. One inevitable result of daily contact with livestock is a closer look at where our food comes from. I no longer perceive meat as the tidy substance that comes from a package in the supermarket. After walking past so many jaw bones and even full heads in the supermarket, it is hard to ignore that what we eat comes from those cute, furry animals we see every day. One of my more graphic experiences with this was the other day when I was eating a tamale and got to the center where there is usually a nice piece of pork or chicken. What I found instead was a little piece of skin covered in hair. After nearly vomiting on my host, I pulled myself together and asked what it was. They proceeded to explain that one of the neighbor's piglets had died so the put its ears in the tamale. They insisted that I eat it so I discreetly scraped off the hair, chewed once or twice, and swallowed. Even thinking back on it now my stomach starts to turn. In every decision that I make, my first priority is not offending anyone, even if this means I have to eat pig's ears or, in a more pleasant example, down 3 popsicles.
Every day I find myself in situations that I would never have at home. For example, the other day after my run, I was chatting outside the house with my host cousin at the precise moment when the neighbor was bringing his livestock in from the field. I live on a paved city street but there are constantly herds of livestock roaming about nonetheless. On this particular evening, the bull was feeling a bit frisky so it started challenging the other young bull in the street. Immediately a panic broke out and my particularly vocal neighbor started yelling at the owner while everyone scurried into their houses to watch from the windows. Once safely behind my door, I started laughing as I watched my host cousin challenge the bull with his mototaxi as the neighbors yelled at each other. It was all quite comical and much less scary than when I am the first one to wake up in the morning only to find myself facing off with the giant rats that come out when no one is in the room. Due to our proximity to corn farmers, I think I am going to have to get over my rat phobia if I don't want to live in a panic.
This week was punctuated by my first Peruvian birthday celebration. I happen to have the same birthday as one of my Peruvian cousins, only she was turning ten to my 23. The age difference didn't matter as the entire family celebrates together regardless. I offered to help with the shopping and contribute the cake, little did I know this meant I would be buying the materials for putting on a party for 20 ten year olds and their entire families. I invited about four friends because I guess I did not understand what my Peruvian aunts had in mind. The evening mainly consisted of lots of candy, cake, and dancing followed by dinner and then more cake, some booze, and more dancing. Overall it was a nice birthday and I really appreciate the effort that my friends and family here put into making me feel important and welcome. The next festivities will come at the end of January and I look forward to another opportunity to practice my cumbia and raggaeton dancing skills.