My new host grandma, Blanca, has been a defining feature of my new life in my new house in Peru. Blanca grew up hear in Pacora and so did her parents and grandparents. She knows a huge amount of history about the Incans and the Pre-Incan cultures in Peru. She gained her knowledge by reading everything she could get her hands on while working at the post-office that used to exist in Pacora. Doña Blanca had to take learning into her own hands because back when she was a kid, school only went up to third grade. Blanca liked studying so much that once she had gone through her three grades once she started over at first grade and did it again. The other night over dinner Blanca demonstrated her incredible memory by reciting poems that had been in her reader during her two passes through elementary school. Blanca will be leaving for Lima soon to get cataract surgery and her stories will be greatly missed. Hopefully she will be back for Christmas for some stories over hot chocolate and paneton (Peruvian fruitcake that I am wierdly in love with).
My life has continued to improve drastically. After a year in the Peace Corps, it becomes disappointing to not be where you thought you would be. Professionally, I feel I have accomplished a good amount but personally, I was starting to feel like I hadn't developed the friendships that I expected to. Now, my new host mom, who I have always considered a friend, has started introducing me to all her friends. My recently started an exercise group with a few ladies and we tend to laugh and joke around more than we run. For the last two days we have first gone on a run/walk and then gone to one of the women's house to do aerobics. I have a couple of videos in Spanish but I also get to lead a little bit of pilates and yoga. There are more women who want to join our group and I am hoping to use this time to promote exercise and healthy eating but also to make new friends. One of the members of the group is the incoming mayor's wife who is quickly becoming one of my very good friends. I thought that I had met everyone in Pacora but there is a whole group of vivacious and hilarious women who I have missed out on getting to know over the first year. I am in the middle of a significant breakthrough in overcoming cultural barriers that I thought had defeated me a long time ago.
Success in the Peace Corps depends on intrinsic motivation. Our work is not monitored very closely which means that I could hang out and chat with grandma Blanca and eat candy all day if I wanted to (which describes my routine my first weekend in my new house). This week I had a visit from the directors of recruitment at Peace Corps headquarters in Washington D.C. The two men that visited had not had much contact with Peace Corps volunteers in action and I wanted to make a good impression for myself, Pacora, and Peace Corps Peru as a whole. I used this visit as a motivator for my municipality to hang three signs we had recently made calling attention to recycling and environmental issues in town. It is amazing how much can get done with the phrase "my bosses from the United States will be visiting and they want to see how much work we have done in Pacora." The combination of my personal happiness, my desire to make a good impression, and the desire of my local counterparts to look productive allowed me to get all kinds of cool stuff done.
Along with the banners I hung up, I got a beautiful mural painted and gave a powerpoint presentation on STDs for the high school teachers complete with gory pictures of sifilis, gonorrhea, and herpes. The shock factor of this presentation will make it difficult for them to forget. The best part of the day was when I busted out the condom and made them all touch it. They loved it and I again felt lucky to have been sent to a site filled with people enthusiastic about learning and open to talking about taboo subjects. As an outsider I can act as the catalyst for changes in attitudes because I have a free pass to say whatever I want. The respect for the United States as a developed country leads them to believe that if openness about sex in the U.S. has allowed us to get where we have gotten, they should welcome it. I am trying my best to take advantage of this idealized perception of the United States to set a good example.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Saturday, November 6, 2010
New Family and an Amazing Abuelita
Today, I moved to a new house. This had been a long time coming because my old housing situation had gotten a bit uncomfortable. My host mom who was my closest ally moved out and they needed the room I was living in for visitors. After a day in my new house I am really looking forward to being part of an amazing family for my second year. My friend Mariela happened to have an open room in a little house that her family uses during the day as a kitchen and dining room. I live with my friend, an amazing woman who works on the local archeological project, her 6 year-old daughter, 14 year-old son, and her grandmother.
So far, getting to know the grandma has been a great time. She doesn't hear very well so talking to her is a big strain on the voice but she talks a lot so I don't have to do that much yelling. She has told me all about her childhood here in Pacora and her adventures on riverboats and mudslide prone highways. She even got as personal as to tell me about eloping or "being robbed" as she explained it. All her stories are like something out of a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel. I used to think Latin American literature is far fetched with all of the magical touches but after a couple hours of conversation with my new Peruvian grandma I start to realize that the magical twists on reality are not considered so outlandish. Even my good friend who is very modern told me about her experiences with a witch doctor. My favorite of her stories is about having the cuy (guinea pig) passed. This is when the cuy is rubbed over the entire body to absorb all the negative energy. According to my friend, after the cuy passing was completed, the animal died in her hands signaling that it had absorbed all the negatives. I am thinking of having this done just for the experience but I must admit that I am interested in starting off my second year as free from negativity as possible. I was excited to hear that my new host family recently had a ritual performed on the house involving soaking corn and rose petals to fill the space with happiness. Even if I don't really think anything is physically changed by these rituals, I believe in their potential to change attitudes, which is many times more valuable than physical changes.
Another bonus of my new house is that we have a little dog, poopy. This is actually his name. I am tempted to tell them what the name means in English but I don't want them to feel like they should change the name. I like the fact that I get to chuckle every time I call him over. He looks kinda like a rat and he is losing hair on his back but he is so sweet that I can't help but pet him. I will probably end up diseased from playing with poopy.
The danger of moving to a new house in Peru is that Peruvians tend to show their love through food, incredible food. My new host "mother" (more of a good friend) is particularly inclined to demonstrate her excitement about hosting me through less than healthy food. In order to show my appreciation, I have been eating everything she gives me from candy to large breakfasts of chicken and bread to doughnut type deserts covered in honey. We cooked Sunday family lunch yesterday and since I was involved in the purchase and preparation, Mariela made sure I got my share of the leftovers for breakfast. I got a huge plate of spaghetti for breakfast instead of my usual fruit salad. For now I am enjoying the excuse to eat all the sweets and carbs I can handle but soon I will have to make some sort of effort to get back to healthy eating without offending my new family. Overall, my renewed love for the people of Pacora will dramatically increase my motivation to help the community thus increasing my effectiveness as a volunteer.
So far, getting to know the grandma has been a great time. She doesn't hear very well so talking to her is a big strain on the voice but she talks a lot so I don't have to do that much yelling. She has told me all about her childhood here in Pacora and her adventures on riverboats and mudslide prone highways. She even got as personal as to tell me about eloping or "being robbed" as she explained it. All her stories are like something out of a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel. I used to think Latin American literature is far fetched with all of the magical touches but after a couple hours of conversation with my new Peruvian grandma I start to realize that the magical twists on reality are not considered so outlandish. Even my good friend who is very modern told me about her experiences with a witch doctor. My favorite of her stories is about having the cuy (guinea pig) passed. This is when the cuy is rubbed over the entire body to absorb all the negative energy. According to my friend, after the cuy passing was completed, the animal died in her hands signaling that it had absorbed all the negatives. I am thinking of having this done just for the experience but I must admit that I am interested in starting off my second year as free from negativity as possible. I was excited to hear that my new host family recently had a ritual performed on the house involving soaking corn and rose petals to fill the space with happiness. Even if I don't really think anything is physically changed by these rituals, I believe in their potential to change attitudes, which is many times more valuable than physical changes.
Another bonus of my new house is that we have a little dog, poopy. This is actually his name. I am tempted to tell them what the name means in English but I don't want them to feel like they should change the name. I like the fact that I get to chuckle every time I call him over. He looks kinda like a rat and he is losing hair on his back but he is so sweet that I can't help but pet him. I will probably end up diseased from playing with poopy.
The danger of moving to a new house in Peru is that Peruvians tend to show their love through food, incredible food. My new host "mother" (more of a good friend) is particularly inclined to demonstrate her excitement about hosting me through less than healthy food. In order to show my appreciation, I have been eating everything she gives me from candy to large breakfasts of chicken and bread to doughnut type deserts covered in honey. We cooked Sunday family lunch yesterday and since I was involved in the purchase and preparation, Mariela made sure I got my share of the leftovers for breakfast. I got a huge plate of spaghetti for breakfast instead of my usual fruit salad. For now I am enjoying the excuse to eat all the sweets and carbs I can handle but soon I will have to make some sort of effort to get back to healthy eating without offending my new family. Overall, my renewed love for the people of Pacora will dramatically increase my motivation to help the community thus increasing my effectiveness as a volunteer.
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