Getting Dirty

After a year in Peru, My Spanish flows pretty well most days and I even find myself thinking to myself in Spanish but one area that is definitely lacking is my slang. I often don't get the jokes people tell because the punch line is a play on words or a double entendre. Recently I got an excellent lesson in dirty jokes and dirty words from the group of women that I work with planting trees in the Pomac Forest. While we reforest, make compost, and talk about how to save this forest, the women also chat in a version of Spanish that I have never heard before. They also often talk about topics that I can't particularly relate to like livestock and crops. I love to listen but I do find that every other word is slang unique to the rural villages. Slang is much more prevalent here than even in the small urban center where I live. The women I work with have recently taken it upon themselves to help me out with my language shortcomings. Our recent conversation began with a few PG potty jokes but quickly devolved into an exchange I wasn't quite comfortable having with this group of women I think of as surrogate grandmothers. The examples that stick out in my mind include a joke where a child asks his teacher if hearts have legs after overhearing his father say to his mother "open your legs my heart." Once I realized what they were saying I started cracking up because I couldn't believe these grandmotherly ladies would say such things. They also started talking about something that directly translates to "the bearded cat." I thought about this for a few seconds and again devolved into a fit of laughter as I explained that in English we also have a word that refers to both a cat and a part of the female anatomy. I think I will put this little cultural exchange session on my next progress report that gets sent to congress in order to secure funding…

In other cultural exchange news, I recently took up a new strategy for combating machismo. Originally I just ignored the whistling and catcalls but that was letting to much frustration build up so eventually I started giving a mini-lecture on respect etc. but the other day I was so repulsed by a particular commentator that a new technique just sort of happened. As I was returning from a run I passed by the local bar and a man barely capable of standing upright was urinating on the side of the building. I heard the whistle and the comments following me down the street and the next thing I knew the rocks I was holding were flying towards the side of the building close to the offender (but intentionally not hitting him). The rocks had been meant for warning miss-behaving dogs not to bug me and I think this guy qualified. I have become a much more tolerant person here in Peru but everyone has a breaking point.

While I've been using dirty jocks and flying rocks to promote cultural exchange, I have also been making progress in my actual Peace Corps primary goal work. I recently began a new improved kitchens project where community members in the poorest section of town will collect mud, ash, and a few other cheaply accessible materials to construct stoves that use less firewood (the environmental justification) and send the smoke out of the house via chimneys. This is a simple and easy way to drastically improve health and quality of life and I am really looking forward to constructing my first kitchen. We often debate tangible change versus behavioral change in the Peace Corps and I have found that tangible changes such as the installation of improved kitchens motivate community members but, also allow me as the volunteer to see something on the ground, which is the key to keeping myself working and motivated.