Huntley-Rueter's Peace Corps Vacation

I spent the last couple of weeks with my parents and my grandmother, which allowed me to take a little vacation from my work and share my life here with people from home. I met my parents in Lima where we spent a nice first day exploring Lima and catching up. The highlights included eating typical foods overlooking the ocean and watching part of a world cup game on a giant screen in the main square. That first night we began the mini-Peace Corps experience that I had planned for my family before heading off on our Galapagos dream vacation. The adventure began with an overnight bus ride to my site, a very typical Peace Corps experience. Although this sounds rugged, the bus actually turned out to be more comfortable than the mattresses at the hotel that I had set my parents up in. We traveled bus-cama (bus-bed), which, in my opinion, is the only way to go. The seats are like super comfy recliners that lean back to 180 degrees.

Once we got to Chiclayo we rented a room at the hostal where volunteers always stay and took our last hot showers for the week before heading off into the countryside (campo). I also showed my parents around the usual Peace Corps hangouts in Chiclayo and took them to the grocery store to stock up on necessities like peanut butter just in case we were only served intestines or chicken foot soup at any point.

After saying goodbye to the big city we jumped in a combi (15 passenger van generally used to move 20+ people) and made our way up to Pacora. I had set up a very full 5 days in Pacora since everyone that I know and work with was dying to meet my parents. On our first evening we explored, met my host family, and then headed to dinner at one of my friends' houses. I figured out pretty quickly that facilitating this visit was going to be exhausting because I had to repeat every conversation in two languages. I also found myself extra popular with the Pacorans due to their curiosity about the other tall white people who were with me all the time. I had to be extra careful to greet and introduce everyone I ran into to my parents. Although it was exhausting, it was amazingly rewarding to finally share the life I am living with my family from home.

Over the course of the five days, we rode horses in the forest, climbed pre-Incan ruins, got a private tour of an archeological dig, attended various lunches with my friends, went to a local museum, threw a party, and planted a community garden. The last two activities that I have mentioned were definitely my favorites. It was so great to see my biological family interact with my new family and friends. My parents went to work on the community garden and my mom even found some very animated ways of communicating with the little kids. At the party, we invited a few of my closest friends and family members to the typical Peruvian party food, goat. It was delicious although my American family was a little hesitant to dig into the bony meat with their hands (the only effective strategy for tackling cuts of meat here). My parents and my grandma even danced to the Peruvian folk music provided by a local band! I have only seen my dad dance one time at his brother's wedding about 10 years ago and he claims that before that the last time was at his own wedding. When my mom got tired of dancing she put her competitive edge to work deflating machismo. She beat every guy in the house at arm wrestling with her right and left hands and then finally after about 6 rounds she lost to my host brother in law (who hadn't wrestled yet and, therefore had quite an advantage). Everyone was very impressed. I was amazed by how quickly my families integrated even without speaking the same language.

Overall, the visit was an incredible opportunity for my family from home to relate to my new life a little better and my family here to get a little better idea where I come from. I really hope that more people will come visit me while I am down here because it is so special for me to share this amazing new life that I have fallen into.