Hey folks,

A few main updates from here on my life from the last month or so.

1. Early IST training in Lima – as I mentioned in my last blog, I went to Lima from Piura on the 17th of August to teach some basic theatre principles with the co-leader of the iniciative Sophie Dila. It was a good experience though to be true, it seemed like it could be a little repetitive seeing as we will be expected to teach something of that nature again for the IST in May or June. After the IST I hung out with a volunteer who had recently finished his service, Mike McGwire, and we just toured around Lima going to buy different things and chatting and so forth.

2. Christmas – I came back from Lima and then spent another week in my site through Christmas. The truth is that I am not a huge fan of Christmas here. Mostly because it is not a big deal at all, at least in Bigote. I guess no one has money to really spend on gifts or anything (but they sure have money to spend on booze). So on Christmas eve, you basically spend the night waiting for midnight to have a turkey or duck dinner. When I say duck, it is not nearly the extravagant affair you normally think of when you think of duck. These are corral ducks that are bred in the backyard are mostly muscle and tough meat, not nearly the delicacy that duck is.
Actually, in the wait for dinner, I went into my room to lie down and ended up falling asleep. I woke up to the Christmas song blasting on the radio, “Navidad, Navidad.” So half dazed, everyone starts calling my name saying, “Where is Alex?” I get out there and they serve me a huge plate of rice and spagetti with a huge wing of boiled turkey on top. Then they serve you a cup of hot chocolate and then they serve a huge fruit cake bread called Paneton which literally means big bread. The paneton was good and so was the chocolate.
I guess more than anything it was kindof depressing and definitely one of those moments when I started to miss friends and family from back home. I was also kindof unoccupied so I was a little bored at the same time. On Christmas day, no one does anything really except perhaps the men drinking in a cantina while the family is in the house. My family and I just chilled out in the house pretty much.
A side anecdote – I also realize how completely un-phased by anything I am now. So there I am sitting down to the eat the Christmas with José and Cholo when suddenly like 5 cockaroaches crawl across the table. Cholo simply says, “There are a lot of cockaroaches around here.” And I simply respond, “yeah” while in mid-swing to hit one with my sandal. We didn’t move. We just kept on eating. Shouldn’t you normally be a little alarmed that there are so many cockaroaches on the table where you are eating Christmas dinner?!! Yeah, so I think I might have some readjustment problems….

3. Anniversary
On the 29th of December it is the anniversary of the creation of the district of Bigote. And clearly in the same vain as every other anniversary, it must be celebrated in grand fashion. I don’t seem to remember that we celebrate so many anniversaries in the US, but maybe we do.
As part of the celebration, there was a marathon and a cycling competition. When I say marathon, it was basically a 1 mile run/sprint. So I decided to participate, because why not and its always another chance to share culturally. I do not know why but everyone thought that I was just going to demolish the rest of the group. I think it is because I am like a foot taller than everyone else and also that I had been training last years for 2 months. Anyway, there was one young guy who was fast. Well actually, there were a few. So anyway, I ended up coming in 4th place. They gave 120 soles to the winner which was pretty cool as well. I think they also didn’t want to let me win the money. I think that is pretty ridiculous that I spurred such a competitive spirit. It’d be nice if they did that without any incentive hunh?
So then anyway, after I had exhausted myself in the marathon, they decided to have the cycling competition. I was so completely exhausted but then I saw that there was only one participant in the cycling competition. So I thought I would participate just to have more than one (and heck Im not going to lie, they were giving 50 soles away for second place.) But then other people, decided to join until there were around 9 or so people. So we made our way to the start line. Now the course was basically one long straight shot ending with a hair pin curve and then returning in a straightaway to end in front of the Municipality. Again, this is not meant to be anything near a distance event, it is a cycling sprint. So anyway, I start out and I am going pretty good, despite how tired I was and I was in 4th place I think, when we reached the hairpin curve. I have a decent bike that the Peace Corps has loaned me and my brakes work much better than the majority of the rest of the group. There are even some bikers who don’t even have brakes. So as I am coming to the hair pin, I plan to brake hard and hopefully take over a few of the other guys and maybe have a shot at winning. This was my plan, but as I neared the hairpin, the guy in front of me (who had no brakes), shoots out his legs to use for braking. So I try to avoid them, and then I hit the brakes at the hair pin, but I hit a patch of sand on the road and the back tire gives way and so the whole bike comes out from underneath me. I got pretty scraped up (I was wearing my helmet thankfully). I guess from the adrenaline, I tried to get back up onto the bike by the whole chain and back tire were really messed up. So alas, my race was over.
One other comment that didn’t upset me so much as made me want to try to change the custom, but when I was running and as I was finishing the race in 4th place. Certain people watching on the street started yelling the equivalent of “You’re no good, gringo. Just stop now.”
“I thought you were good. You are not a good runner at all.” And then after both the marathon and the cycling race, kids and adults alike, kept asking me, “Why did you lose?” I think that here people get a lot of ridicule if they try something and do not succeed. I just thought that seemed so bad because that just lowers someone’s self-esteem and then prevents people from trying again. I tried to use it to show the kids that it is always important to try something and always finish what you started. There were two guys that started the race and seeing that they were not going to win, just quit before the race was even half over. I just hated to see that lack of dedication. Always stuff to work on and change hunh?
There was also a town dance with a group called Tierra Morena (Brown Earth). They were actually not that good, but it was live music and I was there with a bunch of friends and it was pretty fun. I had a great time in the dance and then when it was over I actually made my way back to where I live with a professor who I was helping in English, Miguel, and they asked me to tell some jokes. It was really fun until I decided to tell a your momma joke. I was a little tipsy from drinking a few beers in the dance and I guess I shouldve thought about it a little better, but I told a your momma joke and then one of the guys got pretty offended. Then Miguel came to my rescue and ushered me out of the group to go home. Then I just laughed with him back to my house. It was a good night.

4. Guayaquil
So for New Years, after the town anniversary, I went for 2 days to Guayaquil with some other fellow Peace Corps Volunteers. We left on a Wednesday night at around 6:30 or so for the 10-11 hour trip to the Ecuadorian city. We arrive at the border at 2am in the morning and we all have to get off at Peruvian immigration first and then a short bus ride later at the Ecuadorian side. So all goes fine on the Peruvian side but when I get to the Ecuadorian side, apparently their computer system had crashed and they were using an auxiliary system. So this auxiliary system apparently did not recognize or accept my passport number. I actually tried using my two different passports, both Peace Corps / Government issued and my personal passport. Neither worked. I ask the officer what I am supposed to do and he says I have to wait until around 4am when the computer system gets fixed. So then the bus driver starts getting impatient and says, “We have to go. You can get the next bus.” At this point, I just say to myself, “Who really is going to check my passport once I am in Guayaquil? I could probably get in and come back without a problem.” So I decide to just get onto the bus and go with my friends without the stamp or anything.

Now I don’t know if the Immigration officer called ahead or what, but about 10 minutes down the road a police officer gets on the bus and starts revising every single person’s passport. I was in the back of the bus, and never in my time in my travels in South America has a policeman ever come onto the bus and revised every single person’s passport. Anyway, clearly he finds me and tells me something is wrong and that I have to return to the immigration office to deal with the problem. Because I just wanted to keep going, we decided to bribe the guy and we gave him 10 bucks and he left us alone. So basically I went to Ecuador illegally though the truth was that I never wanted to do anything illegal. My friends made fun of me later because I kept saying, “Yo quiero entrar en el pais normal, como caballero. No tengo nada que esconder.” Roughly translated it means I want to enter the country normally, like a gentleman. I have nothing to hide. Caballero can also be translated as a knight. So now they just call me “caballero.”

Fast forward to New Year’s eve, we met some Lima middle-aged women staying at our hostal and we decided to go out with them. We go to the night club area of down but everything is completely dead. For New Year’s in many parts of Latin America, they burn a life-sized doll at midnight signifying the burning or end of the old year. So basically we just saw a bunch of dolls being burned in the streets for New Years. It was actually incredibly ridiculous. Basically in these huge fires of burning dolls, people would just throw huge packs of firecrackers and fireworks right into it and then they would all explode creating quite the light and fire spectacle. Anyway, we then went into a Salsa and Merengue bar and had a few drinks and danced until around 3:30-4 until some friends were starting to sleep in their seats in the bar, so we decided to leave. We get out into the street and see that it has come alive and that people are just now coming into the night club area of town. But at that point we were pretty spent so just went back to the hostal and collapsed.

We went sightseeing the next day. It was a cool quick short trip. Fast forward to border control coming back. I get to the Ecuadorian border and the immigration officer tells me that I won’t be able to get into Peru without an Ecuadorian entry and exit stamp. He says that those papers usually take 48 hours to process but he can do it in 5 minutes but for a fee of 20 bucks. So again I had to pay off the officer and he did it for me. I got back into Peru without a hitch. At least now I am legally back in the country where I serving for the Peace Corps / Government.

5.Town fiesta

So then apart from the town anniversary, there is the huge fiesta in my town where people spend far too much of their savings on alcohol in the name of the Holy Cross and the Virgin Mary.
The big event for me however, was that I invited 10 of my friends to come to the big concert with one of Peru’s most recognized bands, Grupo 5, which was coming to Bigote. They all came and despite some brief lodging problems (the place where I reserved a place for them to sleep was not available when I showed up) they were resolved without much of a hitch. The lights actually went out that night and we ended up having a few drinks and playing some games in the dark. It was also the unofficial going away party for volunteer Lebo Moore. She had come to Peru after being in Bolivia and when the Peace Corps program got booted from Bolivia, she transferred to Peru and was assigned to Piura. Anyway, she has now left but she was a good friend and so we all went to the concert in her name. As a matter of fact, my friend Elizabeth somehow convinced the band to let her on stage and give a shout out to Lebo in front of everyone in Bigote. She then danced a little on stage. It was pretty unbelievable. It was a good time and now I can’t here the end of the question, “So where are your brothers and sisters? Are they coming back?”

6. Computer classes and ALMA
I have now started a summer vacation course in computers for younger kids and young adults. I teach from Tuesday to Friday. I am also planning the Girls Youth Camp which now has funding and everything is set to kick off on February 4th. I am really excited but we still have some preparations to do beforehand.

7. Weird beliefs -- In this edition of my blog, I thought I would share some just weird and ridiculous beliefs that the people in Bigote and also most of Piura have that seemed mildly weird and/or interesting.

(a) You will get sick / die if you leave the fan on through the night: This is because they believe in an affliction or sickness called Bad Air and so if you leave a fan on in the middle of the night, you will clearly have higher odds at getting Bad Air.
(b) You will get sick/ die if you take a shower at night: I guess this is something like you could catch a cold in the rain or something like that in addition to the fact that there are no hot water heaters around here, but in any case, a lot of people (thankfully not my family) are afraid to take a shower past a certain hour because then you will pretty much just get sick of pneumonia and die.
(c) That New York is a close to Piura. Its pretty incredible how bad people’s geography is around here. They ask me a lot where I am from and how far it is away. I ask them first what they think and they usually say, “Maybe 18 hours in bus.” Unbelievable. They also think that China and Brazil are next to the US. Obviously this is more to do with lack of education and/or not participating or looking at the World Map I did, but nevertheless it never ceases to amaze.

(d) People with blue eyes can not see in the sun – I have no other way to explain this than one day, a kid in the school comes up to me and looks deep into my eyes and asks me if I can see when I go outside in the sun. Apparently having blue eyes means you are sensitive to light like a bat or something.
I did later find out that this belief might possibly come from the fact that there are some albino or some children with some skin affliction in another nearby district and these children are incredibly sensitive to the sun. Apparently they have blue or some form of lighter colored eyes.

(e) Chu-ka-kay – getting sick from the evil eye or from being embarrassed. This is one of my favorites because when someone makes a sarcastic comment or a joke about another person, people will laugh and if the person about whom the joke is made is not laughing, the rest of the group will say that the joker will give the jokee chu-ka-kay. Chu-ka-kay is basically a stomach illness where someone gets sick from being embarrassed. It would of course seem ridiculous that embarrassment was not the cause of the stomach pain and diarrhea, but rather perhaps….duh duh duh…a bacteria or a virus. Sorry. I don’t mean to downplay these beliefs but I guess after living through them so much, they start to become somewhat funny. You’ll love the next one.

(f) You should drink your own urine – This came when I was teaching my nutrition course in the school to the kids about having a balanced diet and eating properly. The one day in particular I was teaching the kids about water consumption and how everyone needed to drink at least 1.5 liters daily of water, if not more. Then I told them that liquids can substitute but not all. For example, coffee or alcohol are not good substitutes. Then one kids raises his hand and asks me if you should drink your own urine to make you stronger. All I could do is stare. After the shock too over, I responded that in dire circumstances you can drink you own urine once before you would become sick from consuming it again. He then responded that there are a lot of people in the sierra that drink their own urine. I don’t really know what to say to that.

(g) Ages in general – No one can seem to guess my age. I have gotten 40 years old and I have gotten 17. I have some other friends who have similar problems. I think maybe it is because of our coloring or something. Who knows, but no one can seem to guess our ages?

Another belief that was not so much shocking to me as something that led to a discussion in the classroom was with a teacher, Jessica, who had helped me with various programs throughout the course of the year. We were finishing my Vocational Training course and we were talking about good and bad qualities of someone. We started with good qualities – dedication, courage, honesty, etc. Then we moved to bad qualities and then one student mentioned “being gay.” As if thinking nothing of it, Jessica said, “Yes, that could be a problem.” And I had a pretty strong reaction, “No. No. What are you talking about? That is ridiculous.” Apparently, her opinion was that gays are in denial about what sex they are and thus have a low self-esteem. As a result, being gay is a bad quality. I of course couldn’t be further in disagreement and tried to say that I thought that being gay has nothing to do with being in denial or having low self-esteem. It is only about recognizing a sexual preference. Then she brought the Bible quotes out on me and then the discussion was over. I really do appreciate the Bible and believe that there are some incredibly valuable lessons written there, which is why it is the most read book on Earth, but the truth is that the Bible has become such a source of rhetoric and ignorance, I really dislike when someone brings up the Bible in other contexts like this on such a literal basis. I have always believed that the Bible should be interpreted figuratively interpreting the stories to mean other things besides what they literally say. Let’s just put it this way, the books Numbers and Leviticus, when interpreted literally are pretty far out there and have unfortunately become the source of proof for many conservatives. Anyway, I will stop ranting now.

Well that’s it for this edition friends. Be well and Happy Martin Luther Kind day.

Suerte a todos,
Peace Corps Volunteer Alejandro
Over and Out.

Hello folks,

Well. I am alive and well after going deep into the Amazon jungle. How was the trip, you ask? Short version: Incredible.

Here’s a recap of how I traveled a brief idea of what I did while I was there.

Last Monday I traveled from Piura to Chiclayo during the day with fellow volunteer Glenn Stanley. He is in the Youth Development program along with Erin who also came on the trip. Other members of the group included PCVs Elizabeth and Marian. Elizabeth was also playing host to her brother Grant and his longtime friend Alex while Marian was host to a friend from home as well, named Jasmine. And that was our group. Weirdly enough however, not everyone traveled to the beginning destination together. Glenn and I decided to opt for the cheaper bus (though not unsafe – not to worry) option because Glenn and I really don’t sleep well on the buses anyway. Erin, Marian and Jasmine, also traveling from Piura chose the more expensive and as it turns out slower and worse option on another bus line. Elizabeth, Grant and Alex came on an airplane flight from Lima because Grant and Alex had only just arrived beforehand.

Anyway, Glenn and I went to Chiclayo in the mid-afternoon in order to go get something to eat and perhaps buy our airline tickets from Iquitos to Lima for later on in the trip before catching our bus at 6:30 in the evening leaving for jungle city, Tarapoto. The only event worth mentioning was an encounter Glenn and I had with a random individual while waiting in line to get on the bus to Tarapoto. As a matter of fact, we had just literally ran from the airline agency where we had bought our tickets back from Iquitos to find the line to get on the bus. As we were waiting in line, checking our bags and getting our tickets ready, a rather scruffy white man comes up to us and in perfect English says, “Are you Germans?”
“No, but we speak English. We are from the US.” I say.
“Oh, well look,” he begins to explain, “I am from Austria and I have been backpacking for the past few months and then three days ago, while I was sleeping, I was robbed of all of my possessions. I lost my wallet, my passport, my credit cards everything.”
“Wow. That sucks.” Glenn and I both chime in. Both kindof feeling bad for the guy but at the same time kindof suspicious and also wondering where this is going. We are inside the bus agency by the way where there are security guards and everything.
“Yes. I really have no money and no options. I just need to get to the German embassy in Lima. If you give me a bank account, I can wire transfer money. I can give you all of my information and you could even contact the embassy for me. Please I just need some help. Can you help me?”
So if you were following along with us up until now, you are probably shaking your head, thinking, Alex are you serious? Are you going to nearly get robbed another time from some con man? Well, thankfully no, because I learned my lesson.
“Well I am sorry sir, we are just getting on this bus and we really have no money to spare at the moment because we really need it. Sorry.”
At that moment we arrived at the check-in counter and the attendant tells us that this man comes around the agency every day trying to con foreigners into giving their money. It was at this point that both Glenn and I scurried onto the bus as fast as we could and completely forgot any trace of this con man. I have two points here:
1. Who in their right mind goes through all that trouble just to con a few dollars from some foreigners? This guy knew Spanish, English and German and he couldn’t even get a job so that he could buy the drugs he probably uses with his own money. What an elaborate and seemingly believable story to create all in the name of robbing some innocent people. I am just continually perplexed by the creativity of these robbers. I mean, knowing English, it seems like it would almost be easier to just get a job hunh? Maybe that’s the point, but nevertheless.
2. Why is it that I seem to attract these kinds of people? No one else besides me among the Piura volunteers has had an encounter like this with someone. Clearly, I am a very believing type of person, perhaps always wanting to confide and trust in people and truth be told, I don’t think that is such a bad quality to have, obviously excluding these types of situations. But it almost seems to me that they can sniff me out, as if I have a big sign on my head that says, “Gullible and trusting – easy target.” It really makes me wonder if one day there would ever be a situation when someone really needed help and because I had learned to distrust people I didn’t help them. I guess I just always want to be the Good Samaritan, even sometimes to a fault.

The bus trip was very scenic and beautiful and with only a minor 3-hour delay due to rain and a big trailer getting stuck in the mud. These things happen and of course we had no other option but to sit in the bus. So I was able to continue to read my book.

Next day we got to Tarapoto and each of the members of the group gradually trickled in. We then went to a fantastic waterfall 15 km from Tarapoto called Ayuchuyu or something like that. It was a lot of fun because after being in the bus for so long, cooped up, we were able to walk up into a beautiful waterfall, take pictures and swim for a little. I even helped Erin jump in – she was very afraid but ended up taking the jump after much convincing.

From there, early in the morning Wednesday, we took a taxi from Tarapoto to Yurimaguas where we met the guide Klever who would lead our group into the jungle and took us to a very rustic barge where we set up our hammocks and bags for the 12 hour boat ride that began at 9am and ended at around 9pm or so when we arrived at the entry point into the jungle, located in a town called Lagunas. We stayed there for one night and then the next morning we were off with Klever and several other guides to go into the Amazon rainforest and into the second largest wildlife reserve in South America, Reserva Nacional Pacaya Samiria. It is not terribly developed as a wildlife viewing destination and that makes it all the more beautiful and allows tourists to see that much more animals.

To describe what it’s like does not really do it justice but suffice it to say that there is a lot of vegetation. Everything is green. You can see bright colored birds, tucans and parrots flying around, huge rainforest trees of 500 or more years old. The town itself is very poor with houses made of rustic wood slabs and palm trees. I liked the look of it however, and the palm trees are surprisingly incredible roofs both keeping out the heavy rains and keeping the house refreshingly airy in the incredible heat. I also really enjoyed how almost all of the houses were made with completely natural materials – using hemp or vine ropes to tie the wood beams and the palm trees rather than nails or anything else for example. My experience was very rustic, but perfect for me in that “being one with nature” type of way. I really felt like I was getting a very bare bones idea of what the jungle was like.

So after leaving early in the morning with our supplies on a mototaxi and traveling for approximately 40 minutes, we arrived at the canoe departure point into the jungle. Yeah, I was traveling paddling on canoes for 3 days in the Amazon. The canoes were made out of hallowed out trees and there on the boat were our basic needed food supplies. Try to picture the opening scene of The Mission. That is probably the best idea I could give you of what I experienced in terms of the nature and travel. I never saw any native Indians however and I am probably glad I didn’t. That will be for perhaps another jungle adventure.

So anyway from there were went down the tributaries of the Amazon. The animals that I saw include:
3-toed sloth – we saw one high in the canopy and then our guide, Harry, says to us, “Do you want to hold it?” All in Spanish clearly – they are not of the advanced English speaking guides. And we said, “ugh, yeah sure, I guess.” And so then he proceeds to get out of the boat and climb up the tree, get the tree branch down on which the sloth is hanging so that the sloth plumits to the ground with the tree branch and then Harry brings the sloth back to the boat, upon which we take a great deal of pictures. Ahhh tourists.
2 speces of caiman crocodile – many different sizes ranging from a baby of 20 centimeters to one of about 1.5-2 meters. One funny experience was once when I asked harry if I could swim in the river and he said to me, “Yeah no problem, just go for it.” When I come out he then proceeds to show us a baby crocodile that was in the reeds near where we were swimming and then fishes out some piranhas from the water. Needless to say, we were outraged.
4 types of monkeys of varying sizes
2 types of macaws
turtles
lots of fish including piranhas
2 types of snakes – a white boa and a water snake species
Pink river dolphin and bottlenose dolphin
Lots of birds, insects and of course a lot of trees

Major highlights include:
1. Going night adventuring to find the caimans at which point Harry or Klever would simply jump out of the boat and make some swift movement of their hands into the water and would come out with a 60 cm long caiman in their arms that he brought to the boat. Freaking ridiculous!
2. Fishing – they are incredible fisherman. Not only do they fish with nets, but with spears as well. They have such incredible eyesight that they would see a big fish in the brush, grab their spear and then throw it with such accuracy each time that they would get the fish in the single throw. The fish by the way were delicious and despite the lack of stove top or anything, they perhaps some delicious meals for us during the trip, usually containing their two most popular staples bananas and cassavas (also called yuca around here). It was amazing just to see how easily they made their way around the jungle and in the waters. It was so easy for the guides to live and make use of the land and to take advantage of the what resources they had. It was just really cool for me to see that and be a part of it for however short a time.

A Snag
So midway down the river we stopped for a refreshment break of pineapples and Elizabeth who had been in charge of the trip from the beginning decided to confirm for the umpteenth time with Klever when we would be getting back on Saturday from the 3-day tour. Klever said to them, we will be back at around 4pm on Saturday to take the boat to Iquitos so you get to Iquitos on Monday morning. Erin had previously booked a flight for Sunday night because she had a even planned for World AIDS day on December 1st. So of course her response was, well, I have to get out of here by Friday then. If the boat ride takes 30 hours, I have to make my flight and that means leaving on Friday night. As a result, everyone else started thinking that they would not have any time to spend in Iquitos if we didn’t leave earlier. So everyone started to say, “Let’s just leave tomorrow.” But realizing that we had already paid for the 3 days and that I was really enjoying myself in the jungle, I decided to stay, albeit by myself. There were two other german tourist who were my age, who were going to continue on and so I said, “Ill just go with them.”
So basically everyone ditched me in the Jungle after that first day. I went on further down the river and they went back on the second day. It was a really weird experience basically for the rest of the trip I was on my own.
I must say that it was not necessarily a bad experience, it was just very solitary and independent. As I mentioned, I really enjoyed my time in the jungle but when we made our way back to Lagunas on Saturday, I hit yet another snag. Not only were all of my friends gone, but I found out that there was not going to be a boat to Iquitos on Saturday night either. So that meant that I was staying over yet another night in Lagunas and also meant that my scheduled flight for Monday afternoon was not going to happen because I would be leaving some time on Sunday and possibly arriving in Iquitos on Tuesday morning and as much as I tried to contact the airline company, I couldn’t get them. Nor was I able to get to them by internet because the internet was incredibly limited in Lagunas coming in and out of service and additionally with only a few limited hours of electricity every day. As a result, I was basically screwed other than to call one of my Peace Corps friends who were going to arrive in Iquitos to tell them to tell the airline that I was not coming. And that’s what I did.

But then I realized that if I missed the flight, I would be making a double expense to go to Iquitos by then having to possibly buy another ticket. As a result, I decided to not even to go Iquitos at all and simply retrace my steps through Yurimaguas and Tarapoto and then go back to Piura. And so that’s what I did.

So I left Lagunas on Sunday night at around 10pm, expecting the boat to take a wee 10 hours to make it back to Yurimaguas then next morning. The boat took 24 hours!!! There I was in my hammock reading and watching movies for a day. I then arrived to Yurimaguas at 10pm on the next night and then decided to try and get all the way back to Tarapoto. I then got into a taxi and took the 2 hour or so trip to Tarapoto, found a hostel and then collapsed in the bed until the next morning.

The next morning, continuing on the solo journey, I went to the Tarapoto artisan market, and then got my direct bus back to Piura which I took through the night and then arrived in Piura on Wednesday morning, a full day after I had intended to be back and without ever having even visited Iquitos. Also by the way, I found out that I had not completely lost the one-way ticket that I had purchased. It is a transferable ticket that I can use at any time. So basically, I have a one-way ticket from Iquitos to be used whenever. Only problem is that you have to get to Iquitos – which is either another 100 dollar flight ticket or a 3-day trek. Fun.

Anyway, that was my bizarre trip to the jungle in which I was by myself for half of the trip. Hopefully I can make it back to the jungle once more before I leave Peru.

This past Sunday we had another meeting for the ALMA girls youth camp that we are going to be realizing in February. Then I delivered a presentation on Monday about my recycling project and also met the new group of volunteers who recently arrived in Piura. What this means of course is that a bunch of people have recently finished their service and now I am the “senior” volunteer so to speak. It is a very odd thing to have only 8 months or so left in my service but I guess Ill just continue to enjoy it all the same.

Things were pretty much the same old stuff at my site this past week. On Wednesday I had an ecology meeting with the ecology club and we made fruit salad and paper from recycled paper bits. It was fun. I think they enjoyed it too. Then on Friday, I again made the trek into Piura for Brett’s wedding.

Brett Wilhelm, a Peru 10 volunteer who just finished his service, had had a serious girlfriend during his service and in July asked her to marry him. Yeah. Pretty serious. The girl is actually really nice and comes from a very nice family. So on Friday, they had their wedding. The wedding was held in Colan, the same place where we had the despedida for both Peru 9 and 10, on the beach. It is a beautiful part of Piura and also where the upper crust has their beach house. The service was held in the church there, which happens to be one of the oldest churches in all of South America. I think it was said to be the oldest on the Pacific coast. It was very quaint and it mostly consisted of family and some friends. He had his family flown in from the US along with some close family friends who wanted to make the trek down. He actually invited very few volunteers, 4 to be exact – myself, a fellow Williams alum now PCV named Brian Hagan, a recently finished PCV named Irene and Elena Wigelworth, who actually was/is very good friends with Lucy. So it was actually a deep priviledge to be even invited to the wedding.

The truth is that I do not know Brett terribly well. We went to a few parties together in Piura and we went to Carnaval last year together and did VALOR together, but other than that he is rarely present in Piura with the rest of the group, mostly because he spends so much time with Lucy (his wife). What’s funny is that we seem to be kindred spirits and whenever we do hang out together, seem to hit it off and have a really good time. So perhaps that more than anything was what caused him to invite me.

I must say, even if I do say so myself, that I did add a little something to the party. I feel like I took a page out of wedding crashers. In the middle of the wedding (knowing my propensity for dance parties), they put on “Thriller” and then I started to lead a whole mass in the dance. There is some excellent video footage of me dancing thriller with about 20 peruvians following me in the background. The two Peace Corps doctors, Jorge and Suni, were also in attendance and it was really fun to see them. It was a really great time. The party ended pretty late and I hung around with Hagan talking with some Peruvians until around 4am. Yeah it was a late night. The next day we woke up went to the beach, layed in the sun for a little bit and then I made the long trek bad to Bigote, first to Piura and then back to site.

So that’s everything for now. On Wednesday, I make my way to Lima for another training session in Theatre for some of the newer volunteers. It should be fun. Happy holidays and belated thanksgiving.

All the best,
Suerte a todos.
Peace Corps Volunteer Alejandro
Over and Out.

Hey folks,

So since my last update after the Halloween party, my life has pretty much remained the same, simply executing the same projects of old. The self-esteem classes, vocational training, talks about energy conservation, biodiversity and environmental awareness, English classes galore for teachers and students. The three main updates are the following:

Recyclables sent to Piura: yeah you heard me. After all the trouble that I have been having with the recycling project in my town, I managed to coordinate with the mayor (alcalde) to help me send a bunch of stuff to Piura. So basically this is how it went down:

I wake up in the morning as usual and as I am on my way up to the school to teach and pass by the Municipality, I am called into the alcalde’s office who tells me that instead of going tomorrow (the day that he had agreed to), he needed to send everything to Piura that day and I needed to get my team of people organized. So there I am planning to go up to the school to help when all of that is completely overturned in the name of recycling. So I go to find my partner in recycling crime, Ivan, and ask him to come help me and then we got two other guys and told them that we would give them 15 soles to help us lift all the recyclables onto the dump truck. I left them working and came back in the middle once, when they were midway down and then when they had finished.

When they finished, the chofer tells me that we need to get going and so I go back to the house, change my clothes and get into the cabin of the dump truck and go to Piura with him to sell the recyclables. When we get to the buyers, basically the chofer upturners the entire dump truck emptying ever last can and bottle in the dump truck onto the sand in front of the buyer’s land. There I was for the next 3 some odd hours talking with some random workers who were helping me sort all of the trash into the necessary piles. It was one of those ridiculous Peace Corps moments where the Gringo is there sorting through trash with the Peruvian poor people. They were all so perplexed by my presence their that they couldn’t seem to stop laughing. And the truth is that neither could I. But after everything was said and done, I was pretty stoked when for all the recyclables, I was given 365 soles, more than 100 US dollars. Basically I had collected a hell of a lot of stuff. So hopefully we can use it to put it back into the project.

But oh, the night is not over. The dump truck had told me that they would be returning that night fairly late. He told me that I should go to meet him at the Gas Station nearby to the Recycling place. So when I get there some other guy who knows the chofer and had accompanied the two of us in the dump truck to Piura tells me that they are not leaving that night. At this point I clearly had two options: A) the more logical option, to stay in Piura for the night or B) try to make it back to Bigote by whatever means possible. The only problem was that I had been counting on returning to Bigote on the same day and so I had not brought a change of clothes or basically anything besides my wallet and the scummy clothes I was wearing. So I thought that it would just be eaiser to make my way back to Bigote. I talked with a taxi driver who was going to the to the town before Bigote, called Salitral, and I figure I could at the very least walk from there. It would be a 20 minute walk. So anyway, we get to Salitral and then he asks me where I was going to stay and I said that I was just going to walk. He was a very nice man and so he told me that he couldn’t let me walk at that time of night (it was around 9:30 when we arrived) and so he told me to stay in his house with him. He was very accomadating, gave me food and then put me in one of his son’s old beds. It was just such a weird experience because there I was sleeping in completely dirty trash clothes with a complete stranger in the middle of the campo all because I thought it would be a better idea to come back to Bigote.

2. Escuela de Padres: So apart from my recent projects, on Thursday and Friday I gave two separate parenting workshops with some parents from the school. The topic that I chose was communication and disciplining. I think it was pretty successful in general. Or at least I hope so. I tried give the parents some practical tips on how they could improve their communication with their kids and then how they might try to discipline them.

Funnily enough, I opened the talk by saying, “You all must be thinking, what the hell does a 23-year old young man without any kids know about being a parent. The truth is you are right. I am not a parent. I have no kids. But that doesn’t mean I don’t know anything about communication and disciplining kids. I have studied a great deal about child psychology, managing classroom environments and have a great deal of experience with kids, working even with kids in college to teach them swimming lessons. Additionally, my mother is a psychologist who works with parents regularly and has shared a great deal of her experience with me.” I guess I think it is kindof funny in retrospect because it seemed to speak to the situation I mentioned previously with regard to the other volunteer who thought I shouldn’t be leading the ALMA committeee. I may not be a parent, but I can have something valuable to say about parenting. I may not be a girl, but I can certainly have something valuable to give to a girls leadership camp.

Anyway, we talked about good communication skills as well as some tips for how one might deal with a son or daughter who is not obedient. I tried to communicate some things that I have learned about giving kids choices. Basically, I told the parents that they might want a specific behavior to happen but in order to get a child to fully accept that behavior can not come about by forcing that behavior down their throat. The child has to integrate that behavior as his own. This comes from the age old reaction formation behavior that if I say to you, “Do this.” There is an internal sort of reaction from someone to say, “No.” Another way of saying this is that it is impossible for the mind to not think in a contrary way and especially so for teens. For example, if I say, “Don’t think of a white bear.” What do you end up doing? You end up thinking about a white bear, don’t you? This is because we form a contrary image to what is wanted. Basically, it is impossible to MAKE something believe something. Perhaps we could go into a philosophical discussion of what Peace Corps is about from here, but I will leave that to the side for right now. My point is that forcing or imposing views is not how parents or anyone for that matter will get another person to really agree with or believe someone else.

So what can you do instead? What did I suggest? I suggested giving kids options, but options that you have yourself chosen. So basically they are pre-approved choices. This way they get to have the space to take responsibility for their choices but they are guided by a parent. For example instead of saying, “Put on this sweater, it’s cold out.” You can say, “Would you like to put on the sweater or take it with you?” The options nevertheless include using the sweater. Bringing the sweater is the desired behavior and what happens is that the son or daughter will then take more responsibility for that decision if it is their own. Or for example instead of “Finish your plate of food right now!” you can say, “Would you like to finish your food now or save it for later?” These options get your children to express their ideas with you without fear but still getting them to behave in the manner that you desire.

I actually had a really interesting conversation with the parents when I posed the question, “What was the behavior of your kids like in the past compared with now?” The overwhelming response was that kids now are far more spoiled and poorly behaved than before. In the past, they explained to me, there was corporal punishment such as spankings and such and though fearful, the kids knew to behave and greet family and knew the rules because if they didn’t, they would get spanked. This is what I call the fear-based punishment technique. Unfortunately, however, corporal punishment has severe negative effects. Apart from the fact that it is physically abusive to the child, it actually is counter-productive to parenting. What it creates is fear, trauma, distrust, lack of confidence and lack of communication with parentings. From this stems, bad self-esteem and a desire to express oneself without being able to. As a result, children again behave badly. So basically you start a vicious cycle of bad behavior followed by corporal punishment followed by negative ideas about authority figures followed by a quelled desire to communicate that is followed by bad behavior which then starts the circle once again.

But what happened in recent years in no better. They explained that with all the recent laws about child abuse and children’s rights, people have shied away from using corporal punishment and basically did not know what else to do, so they didn’t do anything. This is the no-punishment technique. Basically, if someone behaved poorly, the received no punishment or guidance and so then they assume this behavior is acceptable and so then their poor behavior continues. Perhaps this seems worse to them because at the very least, in the past, they kids behaved most of the time, though their was absolutely no trust or communication in the household. These thoughts seem very understandable to me, but clearly neither way seems to function properly.

So I started to explain that to break from this bad chain, you need to embrace the listening-based consequence technique. This is to say consequence instead of punishment because consequence is simply taking responsibility for your actions as opposed to being beaten. Consequence conjures the idea of responsibility and confidence while punishment conjures abuse and harm. By this way, you can ask children to communicate how they should resolve the problem through some simple clues and simply asking them and giving them ideas of how they should resolve their own problems. This is improving their own conflict resolution skills and taking responsibility. So let’s say a kid broke a window, instead of screaming at him or her or spanking him, you can simply have a conversation to resolve the problem, beginning with how one feels, “I am very concerned about this window.” Or “I am very upset that the window is broken because it is costly to replace.” This will stimulate conversation and a response from the child that is not based in fear, which can lead to questions such as, “How can I can help you to resolve this problem?” This is working out a solution together. This is a much better way than any corporal punishment, putting kids in time out or anything else. Punishment simply is not as effective as other ways, its just that people don’t know them and don’t bother to try. Maybe after my little workshop, they will try something a little different.

3. Jungle Trip

Well on Monday I am heading to the Amazon Jungle for a week for Thanksgiving. It should be a lot of fun. I am pretty excited to be going out there. I have wanted to go since I came to Peru. I am in for quite an adventure. Happy Thanksgiving to all! It seems like Ill be back home so soon, hunh? Only 8 months. Gotta leave my mark in Bigote first. Then off to Fordham Law School. New York City will be a whole different story hunh?

Suerte a todos,
Peace Corps Volunteer Alejandro
Over and Out.

Hey folks:

Life has been been surprisingly uneventful for me in the past few weeks, but there have been some highlights that I would be glad to share.

1. Basketball club: I have started teaching basketball to a group of kids in the secondary school and though the group is fairly small for right now, they all seem to thoroughly enjoy it. I am having a lot of fun with it because they enjoy playing and I both enjoy playing with them and teaching them as well. Being a coach can be a lot of fun.

2. Marinera competition: In the Northern part of Peru, there is a typical dance called the Marinara. It involves a really nice dress for the females that goes down to the feet and then a suit for the male with a thick woolen belt wrapped around the waist. I have actually come to really enjoy it and recently there was a competition in Bigote presented by the cultural club of Bigote. The high school of Bigote (named after the famous Peruvian philosopher/writer Jose Carlos Mariategui) was host to 3 other institutions that came from around the area and each school brought a pair of dancers who each performed their edition of the marinera. Marinera literally means the seawoman.

The competition was really cool because each of the grades were competiting for a prize based on the amount of spirit / noise they made in their section of the crowd. I tried to help some of the grades out, but in the end some of them just didn’t organize themselves as well as they should. A lot of things happen here very last minute and people expect them to come out wonderfully and the truth is that usually it is not as realistic. Sometimes it is frustrating for me to see the lack of planning that occurs with the kids and even up to the mayor for lack of planning of some activities. For example, I had been asked to be ready to present on a large screen a video of the marinera between the acts and I had done my part to get the projector and the necessary screen but then at the end no one had provided me with the necessary electricity connection to be able to hook it up. And thus, all of the work that I did was all for naught and no video was shown.

In any case, Bigote ended up winning and I think rightfully so. Even though we were the host, the objectively did dance the best and had the best dress and presented themselves very well. There was one girl on another team who danced very well but her partner wasn’t up to speed and thus, they didn’t win.

3. Accion Civica: This was a day where the military came to Bigote and had an entire day presentation of all of the aspects of the military, the machines used and some fun aspects as well including some musical and artisitic numbers as well as playing some sports. A day of class was cancelled for it, but it was pretty cool I think. Truth be told, I did not spend a huge amount of time there checking it out, mostly because it was so hot out, but it looked fairly interesting and I think it was important for the youth to see the military and at least give them an idea of a possibility for them for the future. I, perhaps obviously given that I am in an Organization whose name includes the word “Peace,” am not a huge proponent of the military, but at the very least, I must acknowledge that it is a very real possibility for many of the youth in Bigote who may not have the possibility of going to university.

4. Ecology club: So my ecology club has been going fine, I guess. We had talked about water and then did the practical activity of building the worm composter with Lebo, then we talked about water and then built a slow-sand water filter and then we talked about air contamination / global warming and watched a movie. After the movie we had planned on having a day to install some rudimentary trash cans in the school and we had asked for a donation of 3 bags of cement from the municipality and the mayor had verbally agreed to help but then when I went to get the bags of cement, he was nowhere to be found nor were the bags of cement nor any order from the mayor to give them to me. So obviously we hit a snag and from then we kept waiting and basically we had missed 3 weeks of ecology club because of it. So I did hit a snag but I hope to continue this coming week with more about energy and hopefully we will be able to build a solar oven the next week.

Additionally, I have collected a great deal of recyclables in town and it seems that I might be able to send them out to Piura pretty soon. Hopefully we can keep this recycling project going. I think I am going to invite more people to join the group because right now its just me and it has gotten kindof boring for me to just keep recycling in Bigote all by myself and truth be told, I don’t know if I should be doing it all by myself, as much as I am helping to clean up the town.

5. Teaching English to Teachers: So a few weeks ago the director of the school came up to me and asked me if I could teach a workshop in English for teachers. Basically this is not only a goal of Peace Corps for educational enhancement, but also has always seemed like a better idea for me because heck I can teach a ton of students but when I leave the students will probably receive the same bad teaching if the teachers never change. So what better way than to teach the teachers English instead. So the director said that to give the teachers more incentive, he was going to get the Teachers Union called UGEL, to sign off on it and give the certificates more legitimacy. He said that then he would get back to me. I was expecting that to take several weeks. Little did I know that within days after mentioning it to me, he had gotten approval and asked me to start the workshop.

So now I am teaching English 4 days a week to the teachers and though I am not certified to necessarily teach English as a Foreign language, I think I am doing alright. I have some resources and I think it is going pretty well for right now. I actually showed part of High School Musical 3 the other day to get them listening to some English. Though I have my doubts, I think it actually worked out alright because they all loved the music and dancing part even if they had no idea what they were saying. I played it once in pure English then in Spanish to get them listening. Hopefully this will all work out.

6. Theatre club rejuvenated!! So after all the IST training and other stuff I have been doing to write a manual based on theatre techniques for Peace Corps, some kids came up to me and proposed the idea of starting a theatre group. We had two meetings last week and they were really fun and successful. I think the kids really liked it (though there were only a 5 participants). Nevertheless, I think this is going to be fun. We are having our meetings every Tuesday now and I am really excited to be doing more with theatre now in my site. Funny how things work out like that hunh?

I also recently (by recently I mean I went this Friday and Saturday and came back today Sunday) helped a Health Volunteer named Robyn in the northernmost department of Tumbes with a introductory theatre workshop that she did in her site. She herself has little experience with it and wanted someone to help with it so who better than the person who led the IST? So I went up there and the truth was that it didn’t go as well as I’d hoped, but nevertheless, it was a good experience I think for the kids. They were really shy and didn’t really open up to the games until towards the end of the workshop but then they had to go and I had run out of time. I guess with everyone it is a little different and you learn every time.

I was talking with my mom today about it and I think she made a point that I think is true that I thought I might share. Robyn only called me up and asked me about doing the workshop the previous week and I just quickly made the decision despite the possibilities of doing more stuff in Bigote. My mom said to me that a long while ago I had said that I was dedicated to living my life in the moment and giving of myself to helping others in each and every moment. And that is really what I did. I gave of myself to go to help this other volunteer, despite the success of the workshop. So that makes me feel a little better about what happened. But of course I don’t mean to sound like it was all bad because certainly the kids began to have a little more self-esteem and hopefully had a little fun during the time we spent together. After the workshop Robyn and I went to a nice beach in Tumbes and then had a ceviche. The ceviche in Tumbes is supposed to be better than Piura’s, but the truth is it tasted pretty much the same. The ceviche to beat to date in my book comes from my Mancora experience during Semana Santa. Unbelievable. So I stayed with her in her site with her host family, who were incredibly nice to me, and we talked and then I woke up early this morning and made the wonderful 8 hours two-legged bus ride back to Bigote. Yeah, wonderful.

Two other things that came out of my visit to Robyn’s site in Pampa de Hospital. 1. I noticed that everyone has a very different experience in their site and a different relationships to the people in their site. Truth be told, though I know that most people still view me as a foreigner and perhaps a rich person, because I have been so outgoing, free, genuine and sharing with the community, I think I have stronger bonds with people. I really feel like I understand people that much more. Perhaps this is a gift that I have: to be able to understand people, sympathize and try to see solutions and common ground with them. I know that is a strength of mine actually. I just didn’t realize how much it helped me until I realize how much I felt Robyn and her host family misunderstood one another. In only 3 meals with the family, I realized that they really still had so many questions about who she was, what she was doing there, her beliefs and opinions that I know that my family knows about me. For example, she kept so many things secret from her site and her family about her personal life and I just laid it all out there. I know that there are advantages and disadvantages to each but I guess I just feel like you just get to know someone so much better when you just let yourself be. I realized that I have very little to hide in Bigote and most people really just accept me for what I am. Robyn shared very little with her host family about her life at home. My family knows a lot, or at the very least, I share with them. I guess I just realized that every volunteer has there only way of dealing with this experience and some make it a much more personal and private experience, separating their personal life from their outward Peace Corps persona and others, just let it get all mixed up. I don’t mean to judge or anything, but at the same time, I do like my way better.

Second, Robyn turned me on to TED talks. TED talks are these talks given by professionals and leaders in their fields to talk about useful and interesting new scientific, technological or design developments that could and/or are affecting the world of today and tomorrow. We watched a few on her laptop and they were all really interesting. I recommend that you all take a look at them online.

7. Self-esteem classes: Well I finished most of the HIV/AIDS stuff I was doing and then started the vocational courses and 3 self-esteem workshops in the school which I think are going really well. I have been incorporating a decent amount of the theatre games which the kids seem to generally enjoy. Some of the teachers respond to the activities better than others but I have enjoyed doing it with them each time. The vocational training courses have their ups and downs as well but I keep trudging on.

8. Tutoring: I am also beginning to do some tutoring for a girl who has never gone to school. It is a really sad case because her family is so poor that they have never been able to send her. She lives in extreme poverty, sleeping on a dirt floor and with really bad nutrition. She has been integrated in a program I had mentioned beforehand called the Casa Hogar or the orphanage where some kids are going to be going to live at a boarding type location and then going to school. The idea is to help extremely impoverished families by giving the kids in their families the opportunity to go to school. It is a really great idea, though it has yet to really get off the ground because the Municipality hasn’t really put their best foot forward to help the President with the program despite having an approved budget from last year’s municipal budget for 15000 soles. In any case, I am going to be donating my time to give a 14 year old girl who never got the chance to study a chance to get back on the same level with her peers. Hopefully I can make a difference. I think I will try to help with reading comprehension, writing skills, math and maybe throw some English in there because they always think I teach only English. It should be interesting.

9. ALMA planning: So I have continued to be the leader of the ALMA girls leadership camp that we are going to be doing in February of next year. The planning is going along just dandy really. We are trying to coordinate with some of the local NGO’s so that they can help us out with planning and possibly with the funding for the event. This would make it a much more sustainable event. We have a skeleton structure for the how the event should be working including the topics. We have had two meetings and they seem to have gone incredibly well. The topics that we have chosen for the weekend youth leadership camp seem really good to me. They include talking about feminism, sexual health, domestic violence and women abuse, self-discovery/entrepreneurship, a career panel and volunteerism. It has been a really great experience to put this together and I am, at least I think, doing a pretty good job of chairing it.

There was a slight hiccup however when it was brought to my attention by a fellow volunteer that a guy (i.e. me) was leading a girls youth leadership camp and perhaps there should be a female running it. I acknowledged the point and of course yes I would agree and the truth was that the whole time girls were going to be running the camp and leading the activities. I disagreed that a guy could not be the organizer and felt a little discredited that I had not been acknowledged for taking the initiative to put it all together. Nevertheless, I brought the issue up in the second meeting and the consensus was that this criticism was valid and that this person should co-chair the planning with me.
Let it also be known that additionally, this volunteer who was making said criticism and obviously wanted to assume the role that I had taken in the camp had not made it to either of the two meetings because on the first meeting, she had been detained at a cultural event that she felt it rude to leave from and on the second because it was in conflict with All Saints day and the event of putting flowers on tombs with her family.

So then I sent this volunteer the following email, which, though perhaps firm, I do not think to be offensive in any way:

I will be sending out an update later to everyone but I just thought Id try to personally let you know what is going on with ALMA. Basically, your point was brought up in the meeting yesterday by myself and others and the conclusion became that there could be a co-chair for ALMA, with a male and female. I will be the male representative and you were nominated to be the other chair. I assume you accept because you were the one who brought up the point in the first place.

I would like to reiterate the following now that I have had some time to myself think about what you said:

1. You bring up a valid point. This is a girls camp and it should definitely have female leadership involved. I think that who the campers see as the leader of the camp is perhaps the most important aspect of this and for this reason I understand your concern.

2. I disagree that a male should not lead the camp. Regardless of the fact that I am that leader, I think that the organizational aspect should be done by the most qualified person who has taken the most initiative and has the most desire in doing it. Up until today, that person has been me. I do not think you can dispute my interest, involvement and intiative in this project. I do not mean to say that there are not other competent people out there and yes, you did mention something about it during med-checks, but I was the one who has since then put this all together, organized it all and lead both meetings. Please do not misinterpret what I am saying to mean that I think that no one else can do it. On the contrary, others can. But the truth of the matter is that I was the one who stepped up to the plate and did something and I felt that my efforts in all of this were being undermined by what you said to me yesterday.

I felt that despite the immense effort I wanted to put into this and the leadership role that I took was not being valued. For example, why was John Hawley [a previous volunteer] as opposed to any other guy volunteer the leader of VALOR? Certainly myself and others are very competent at doing it. The reason is that John Hawley put it together and said let's make it happen.

3. If you are ready and willing to assume the role of co-director of this, I would appreciate it if you make ALMA more of a priority. I understand that both times you have had a conflict, but the truth is that a leader needs to make sacrifices and show your enthusiasm and interest in this. To me, it does not show interest and enthusiasm for the project if you do not show up. You had an entire month to express your concern about the conflict in time with velaciones, but you left it to the last minute. As far as I am concerned, when you are not present at a meeting, you lose your voice to express your concerns. I want you to be heard. I want you to be a voice in how this camp is going to be realized. You are a great volunteer with great ideas. But up until now, no one in the ALMA committee is aware of the ideas that you have. Basically, your influence has not been felt in directing ALMA to date.

Yes, I understand that there were conflicts with the last two meetings, but the truth is that I really believe you would have made more of an effort if you wanted to be a part of it. I know that sometimes things can seem rude to leave a party and such, but I think that it does not seem very professional of you to say I couldn't make it to a meeting because of a cultural activity. For me, if something is a priority, then make it a priority and be there on time and be ready to lead something that is important to you. Same for velaciones. For example, what would have happened if I, the supposed leader of the meeting, just called everyone who was waiting for me and said, "Sorry, I got caught up in a party with my family. Im not going to make it." It does not look professional and certainly does not show your interest in leading the camp and of course, nothing would have happened. A leader needs to be there, no matter what.

The reason I send you this is not to rehash everything and get into some argument about semantics and reasons why you should, would or could not be somewhere. The bottom line is that from now on you are expected to fulfill a certain role and I hope you fully understand what that role is. When I said I wanted to organize another ALMA, I fully knew the sacrifices that it entailed and I was willing to put my money where my mouth was, so to speak. I just want to make sure that you are too. I need to count on you and I need to have more constant contact if we are going to be doing this together. Please make responding to emails and being in contact a priority.

I am happy to talk further about this if you want, but at the very least please just let me know that you accept the co-chair position from this point forward.

All the best,
Alex

I would paste her response, but out of respect for her, I will simply paraphrase. She basically said that she did not want to get into semantics either and did not feel like justifying her actions to me or her leadership to me. She simply wanted to make the point that I appointed myself unilaterally without consulting the rest of the group if anyone else was interested in the position. (That comment was actually completely untrue. I did open it up to the floor on the first meeting, except she wasn’t there to make her opinion heard so she was not included.) She concluded by rejecting the offer to co-lead ALMA.

So basically I was left with the same thing I originally had: me leading ALMA. It was a very odd sequence of events. The girl with whom I had this discussion does not seem to be particularly happy with me. I guess I have realized that I am not really afraid of confrontation and sometimes people will get pretty pissed off, defensive and/or threatened by me when I am willing to put myself out there whether that be chasing after some guys who stole my money or a girl who wanted to lead a camp without ever actually showing up. I guess I am a person of strong integrity in that I align, or at least try to align, my intentions and my actions. This way I am generally acting in a manner that is consistent with my beliefs. And when someone doesn’t act consistently with their beliefs, I will usually tell them.

10. Halloween party: Oh, that was a fun party. We had a going-away party for the group of volunteers in Piura who are now leaving because their service is coming to a close. It was at the beach in Colan. It was a really fun party, with some real throwbacks to the US. I dressed in drag as an 80’s aerobic dancer from the video Call on Me. It was really inspired by a music video that was done a few years back that became the college sensation when I was a freshman at Williams. A group of volunteers actually performed the dance at a seranade ceremony. There are some terribly incriminating photos online, though oddly and surprisingly some people thought I looked fairly attractive as a girl. I don’t know quite how to respond to that one, except to say that I am not changing teams any time soon so that was just a one time thing folks.

It certainly was a fun night though and a good tribute to the volunteers from Piura. It was also a very weird realization that I would be a part of the next group of volunteers to leave in but 9 months time. Funny to think that less than a year is all I have in Bigote.

Time certainly does fly when you are having fun.

All the best,
Suerte a todos,
Peace Corps Volunteer Alejandro
Over and Over.

Hey folks,

So I have some serious updates since the last time I let all of you out there know about my life. I can’t believe how much has happened since those days before I went to Lima only 3 weeks ago but here we go:

1. I had my medical checks in Lima: So it was a really nice time to reconnect with some old friends from Peace Corps training that I had not seen in a long while. There are some people who are in the south of the country in a province called Arequipa near Cusco where Machu Pichu is, which is basically the furthest place possible from me in the north in Piura and thus, a 48-hour bus ride that I am hesitant to take and have not done to date. The cool thing about Lima is that there are so many restaurants and places to go that you never get bored. I had some good Italian food, some American-style burgers, pizza, you name it. Alas the advantages of being in a big city, or should I say, THE big city in Lima.

As for the actual medical aspect, I am doing just fine I suppose. I weigh about the same as I did when I came, though clearly I have lost some muscle mass seeing as I came in probably in the best shape of my life coming off my last season of swimming and water polo and such. Additionally, instead of continuing that work out regimine and my well-balanced diet, I work out less and have entered the wonderful world of an extreme high carb diet based on carbs such as rice and potatoes. So Id bet I am a little less muscly and a little more fatty. Ha ha. Ill fix that pretty quickly when I get back, though I must say I do my best to work out when I can in Bigote.

There were two downpoints however to my health. Number One: I had a parasite. It is the most popular parasite in Peru and in the world for that matter. Its called Giardia or in some places Beaver Fever. Basically, as gross as it sounds, it comes from drinking water that has been contaminated by feces. Apparently typical symptoms include sulfur burps that smell like rotten eggs and just having a great deal of gas. Additionally it is generally pretty difficult to detect because it has to come out in one’s feces and many people have to go through many tests before it is detected. For me, not only did I realize that I have been having stinky burps and gas for almost a year, but they detected giardia the first time round which suggests that it was a pretty serious case. I just thought that I had some gas or maybe something didn’t settle well. I never really thought that I had been living with a parasite for a year. The cure was simple though. I took two pills and it was over.

Number Two: I got my first cavities ever. This one really bugged me because I am generally so diligent with my teeth. I floss and brush regularly, though Ill be honest sometimes I only brushed once a day. In any case, I thought that that would be enough hunh. I really didn’t realize one simple fact until the dentist was revising me, but in developing countries the water supply does not have any fluoride. In the US, most people who have been teeth brushing habits are pretty well forgiven if they just rinse their mouth out every so often and have a drink of water regularly because water provides the chloride that they need. In Peru and most developing countries, there is no fluoride in the water so people with bad habits or even a small period of time of bad habits (which probably was the case with me being that I had been traveling with my mom and then went to Lima and such right before) get hit harder. So yeah basically you have to be really on top of your teeth. I had two cavities and the dentist fixed them. It was a little surprising but for about a week afterwards my tooth was very sensitive. The dentist said that was normal but Id never heard of that before. My teeth are fine now but other volunteers mentioned it too and it seemed a little odd to have your teeth tingling for more than a day after your check-up. Anyway, other than that I am healthy and happy.

2. Casino Night: So for some reason after going to the casino that one time in Piura and then once again in Guayaquil, I thought it might be fun to have a casino night in Lima. If figured that it would be a different thing to mix it up and additionally, in Lima, especially in Miraflores where mostly everyone was staying, there are a ton of casinos. I had also heard that you can ever play poker at some of them which sounds like so much fun and also the game that I am the best at. So at around 11pm after we had been drinking for a little bit in the hostal, a group of us including Mike, Glenn, Tim and Nicole, went out to a casino to gamble.

The first blow came when we realized that everything was in dollars and thus not cheap for our lowly Peace Corps budget. So as you know PCVs do not get much money and I dont have much funds to tap into from home so I am obviously not exactly the big gambler. Everyone started playing different games. I have 150 soles in my wallet and I said to myself, I am not taking out more than this. I started with the 100 soles (about 33 bucks) to play with and played some roulette and when that wasn’t turning out how Id hoped, I turned to blackjack. Hoping to stir my inner Bringing Down the House tactics, I tried my hand but unfortunately quickly lost my money. After taking a quick break, I decided to see if I could get it back with those 50 extra soles in my pocket. This sounds like a spiraling airplane ready to crash now doesn’t it? Yeah it does. A mere half hour later I had lost everything and was left felling pretty disappointed especially seeing my low funds and competitive spirit. I was sitting around watching my friends play blackjack and then one friend loaned my 10 bucks to play and then we all lost it again anyway. Jeez, we are so stupid.

In the meantime, I had been looking over at the poker table but you need 100 dollars (300 soles) to even sit down. Big money for me. And money I did not have in my wallet. So at 2am after losing my money and when everyone else had lost what they had originally put down, we had a group regroup session. What would we do? Be stupid and keep going or take the safe bet and go home and cut our losses? Well this wouldn’t be a good story if we did the latter hunh? So after some serious deliberation, I pulled my confidence together and asked my friends to loan my 150 soles so I could play poker. Sounds like a bad idea, hunh? Not so fast buster.

Starting with 1/3 of my living allowance for the month in my hand in the form of 100 bucks in chips, I was trembling not to lose, especially seeing as I was a little tipsy as well. I played conservatively however and a mere 2.5 hours later, I had won myself 350 dollars! Yeah you read correctly. I won the equivalent of 1 months pay/living allowance in a casino. So I was pretty psyched when at 5:30am I checked out all that money. I am not addicted don't worry. But yeah that was a great night. I walked home the big winner of the night, repaying what I had lost and borrowed and then a lot more. I couldn’t believe it. Third time at a casino is certainly a charm hunh?

The only really bad consequence was that the following day I had a meeting with Peace Corps in the morning and thus, I was extremely tired having only been able to sleep for about 3 hours. Plus getting to sleep was honestly difficult seeing as what I had just won.

3. In-Service Training (IST) Workshop in Social Theatre: As I mentioned in my last post, I had been organizing a workshop for volunteers and their community partners in how to use theatre as an educational tool and how to begin a youth theatre group. I was organizing it with Sophie Dila from Ancash and Kitty, the boss of the youth development program in Peru. The workshop went absolutely fantastic. It went so much better than the last IST that was done last year in September that I went to. We were so much better organized, with better games, more prepared talks, handouts, and even a better locale. And the food that was served was also an amazing plus for many of the participants because the event took place at a retreat center a little ways outside of the city of Lima and all of the vegetables were fresh and organically grown at the center. A very nice place.

It was not only really nice to partner up with a fellow PCV, and as a matter of fact, we will continue to do so, because we are creating a manual so that people can be trained in a similar manner all around the world in Peace Corps because as silly as it sounds, Peace Corps has never done this type of training before.

Obviously there were some hiccups here and there, but by and large, the group of PCVs and community partners all got the point of theatre and really enjoyed it. It even says so in our evaluations. One particular teacher/school director even went so far as to say that he was going to try and include theatre in his curriculum from that point onward. Pretty cool!

It was really a lot of hardwork and despite the intense amount of planning that had gone into it, I really had no idea how it would end up. People were thanking me and acknowledging what I had taught them, all saying that they were going to use it back in their sites. Those are the moments in Peace Corps that really make you think you are changing the world. It has also been incredibly refreshing for me to return a little bit to acting and the arts. I have always enjoyed doing characters and acting and such, but because I was so focused on swimming and water polo (ie. Athletics) at Williams, I didn’t give myself time to do that other stuff. It has been a lot of fun to do this stuff again. I kept thinking to myself if I had sufficient experience to be teaching this stuff. Truth is I was only in 2 dramatic productions at Choate and took only 2 acting classes but I guess it seemed to come naturally and I just took it in stride. I am really proud of how it went and how happy most of the participants left. Now what lies ahead is all the work to put the manual together but I think I am looking forward to that too. Hopefully I will have the chance to teach the workshop once before I leave Peru. YIKES! I guess the one year countdown has already begun. I now have only about 9 months left. Whoa.

4. Building a bathroom for my host family: As I had mentioned a long while ago, I had come up an idea to build a bathroom for my host family because for my first year of service and since forever, the family has been using a hole in the ground latrine without a roof. It is a pretty bad unhygienic situation so I thought it would be great to see if I might be able to help by getting some contributions from back home. Thanks to all those people back home who contributed a total of approximately 1500 dollars, I was able to buy the materials and the labor and build an incredible bathroom. In total, the cost came to around 1300 dollars or 3900 soles. I am so happy with how it turned out. It was only recently finished but when I went to Lima I left the bathroom in the process of construction and when I came back the structure was there, the only thing that was left was the installation of the tiling and the actual plumbing. That is now done and the only thing left is to find a door, but that is also on its way to being finished. The bathroom has a shower (yay no more bucket showers), a sink (yay for clean hands), a toilet with connecting sewage system (yay no more latrine) and I also installed a big sink so that Paula can wash dishes and wash clothes (yay clean sanitary dish washing and washboards.) I think my host family is incredibly happy with it, though I must say, I have noticed that it is a pretty big shock and hard to change habits. I saw Jose the other morning using the bucket to wash his hands and I went over and showed him that he could just use the sink. Funny how you get stuck into your ways with something hunh.

The only snag that came up was a weird thing whereby the bathroom actually crossed the boundary of the property and entered the property of another house. The deed of the house said that we were within the limits but the neighbor came by and angrily disagreed, claiming that a certain wall that had been in place determined the limits. We got the Justice of the Peace to come and he unfortunately agreed with the woman. Apparently there is a law in Peru that says that if you move onto a certain piece of land and live there for 5 years without any claims, it becomes yours. So the wall that was in question actually determined the limits of the house and as it turned out, that meant that 40 cm by 1 meter of the house went onto the neighbors property. Given that I want to be a lawyer and peacefully resolve things, I tried to propose a logical solution with an out-of-court settlement. Ha ha. Basically we had an act signed by the woman and by Jose and I gave the woman 150 soles for the property the pertained to the land in question. Seemed fair enough though I still feel as though I could have pressed it further if I wanted to. I must say it is pretty cool to take a shower these days. I must admit that somehow it doesn’t seem like the typical Peace Corps experience any more, living the dirty poor life, suffering without water 24 hours of the day (we now have a tank that provides water whenever we want). Then I just remind myself that we come to help and change things and if nothing else, I can go home saying that I built the bathroom for the family. Construction planned, funded and executed.

5. Bad news, then good news: So what happened during casino night actually comes into play here along with the bathroom project. Last week after coming back from Lima it became apparent that I needed to go back to Piura to buy the tiling materials and some plumbing things to finish the bathroom. As it turned out, from that night in the casino, I had cashed out my money in US dollars which of course is not the currency in Peru and I had never actually changed that money apart from 100 bucks which I used to pay for all my expenses while in Lima. So basically I had 340 US dollars sitting my wallet. I never walk around with that much money, but alas, given my luck, on the day I went to Piura to buy the bathroom materials, it was still sitting in my wallet.

So I arrived into Piura at the bus terminal and like always I take a mototaxi to a bridge called Puente Viejo (Old Bridge), and walk across and on the other side is the downtown area where I do all of my business and where the hostal is located. As I am crossing the bridge, I see a huge wad of bills in a plastic bag in the middle of the pathway. It looked like almost 1200 soles. Given my recent luck in the casino, I thought to myself “Jeez, I am on some lucky streak hunh?” As I am about to pick up the money, a guy saddles up next to me and picks it up. He looks around and says, “wow. There is a lot of money there. Let’s go and divide it up between us.” Hmm, sounds suspicious right. I thought so too. Maybe someone lost it. I looked around for a policeman (though Id probably have my doubts about their moral fiber as well) or someone looking for their money and then decided what the hell. I mean we were innocent weren’t we. So even making the decisio to go with this guy was obviously the big mistake.

We then crossed the bridge and then sat down on the other side. What then followed was that another man came up alongside us, and within a matter of moments, I was left with my wallet in my hand without the 340 US Dollars that were in it. The two men had been accomplices and had assaulted me. As they dashed off, I was left pondering what to do. As soon as someone yelled “Ladron (meaning Thief),” my instinct kicked in and I decided to run after them. With my backpack in hand, weighed down by my computer and other things, I threw it over my shoulder and chased after them. “Ladron!” I began to yell seeing them run to the other side of the bridge. As I arrived on the other side, only 6 meters or so behind them, I saw one was taking off the hat he was wearing while the other took off his sweatshirt, obviously in an attempt to hide from me. Then they seemed to disappear around the corner and I lost sight of them. But I was absolutely determined to get these guys. A good justice system make not exist in Peru, but I was going to make certain the justice existed on this day. As I arrived at the corner where Id lost them I began to ask, “Donde estan? (Where are they?)” As I waited for someone to help me, one man yelled, “Aqui está. (Here he is.)” I ran over to the newspaper stand where the man was and looked at him. He began to try to say that the men had run in the opposite direction but I recognized him as the thief. I grabbed his arm, somehow knowing he didn’t have any weapon on him, and told him to give me my money back. Probably about ready to pee his pants seeing the fury of a foreigner 2 times the size of him with his fist clenched, he handed over all of the money. I tried to explain to him that I came to Peru to help his country and this is how he treats me. I doubt he cared. Then I just let him go because I realized I was in the midst of a foreign place and perhaps would mix myself up with people I didn’t want to.

After that, trembling from the adrenaline, I was escorted back to the hostal by a kind man who had seen me and came to my aid afterward. That was definitely one of the stories to remember of Peru. I had been assaulted and then had the wherewithal and confidence to go after the punks who took my money. I had lost and regained my money within a matter of minutes. I now realize how dangerous and desperate some of these Peruvian thieves can be. This is the way of the world. People steal from Gringos because they think we have money. And unfortunately, on this day, I did; ironically only because I had won it from a casino. It was a pretty big wake up call to me and I tell this story to advise those who read this that this stuff happens everywhere. In Boston, New York, LA, Buenos Aires or London. I want the world to be a better place and I have been pretty innocent, but that doesn’t mean you should lock your doors and avoid strangers. I forgot the cardinal rule of street smarts: Don’t talk to strangers. Consider this your warning.
I am fine now by the way. Not a scratch on me and not a cent lost. I guess my lucky streak did continue though in a certainly weird way. I will definitely be more careful from now going forward.

6. Projects returned to in site: So I came back and started doing some Vocational Training courses recently which is pretty excited along with a really great project which is a basketball club. Though the club is small, it seems to have caught on with those kids who have come and they really seem to enjoy it. I think it will come along nicely and I am having a great time with it and also I get to exercise. I am also going to be the director/head person for the next youth leadership camp that we hope to do in January/February. I really have enjoyed organizing them these past times and I think it will be great to do another one if not two before I leave Peru. My ecology group had another meeting the other day on water and we should be making a water filter next week. The recycling business is also progressing quite nicely. I have been collecting the recyclables by myself for some time and I guess Ill be making some money but I think after we put some capital down it can really get off the ground. Ill keep you updated on that.

That’s it for now I think.
Suerte a todos.
Peace Corps Volunteer Alejandro
Over and Out.

Hey folks,

So I was a little rushed the last time I tried to update everyone on my life. I have updated a ton of photos from the wonderful world of Alex recently and I hope you have been able to get a small glimpse of what my life has been like on this grand adventure. First a further update on my projects in Bigote. Here is a list of my projects recently:

1. Recycling project continues: So after about a month of me working alone, I got some help from the mother (her name is Rocio – pronounced Rosio) of my favorite kid in Bigote, Manuel, who had been working on the recycling project with me along with the other friend/community partner, Ivan. Both helped me load all of the recycling into one of the huge dump trucks and then we sent it to Piura. I couldn’t believe how much stuff we loaded into the garbage truck. In the end, the woman Rocio went to Piura with her husband and brought back 169 soles, which I didn’t think was that bad. After taking out the costs of transport, we were left with around 115 soles.
So then I became in charge of handing out the money and then because another girl named Leticia was participating, who wanted her part equal with the rest because she thought she had participated equally with everyone else. In the end, I just wanted to resolve it so I gave her the equal part and basically what remains of the recycling, I will use to reimburse myself. It seems like it is just one big headache, but I think in the end I am going to be able to get something really good going here. I have a lot of hopes for all of this and I am confident that little by little I am going to get it going.
I have also started an incentive system with certain families that contribute a great deal to the recycling. I am going to give them a t-shirt to make sure that they continue giving me the recycling. I think that that will keep them going.
As for the Municipalidad, I have just gotten tired of waiting for them to give me the mechanic press and to install the trash bins for the town. I can’t believe that it has taken so long just to execute a simple project. Anyway, we are continuing to keep working in any case.

2. English classes and English club: Yeah so I have been teaching a decent amount of English classes in the high school. The English teacher has absolutely no idea what he is doing and I basically guide him and teach him while I teach everyone else. It has been actually fairly entertaining and I don’t have too much of a problem teaching them English. I figure that is probably one of the things that I know best. One thing that really continues to surprise me is just how little these kids actually know about their own language. I asked them today for example, what an adjective was and they could not give me a definition without first scrambling to look in their books and even then no one gave me a correct answer. Apart from all of this, these kids are never asked for their own opinions. When I teach kids, I always ask them what they think and I feel like I am pulling teeth. They usually just stare at me blankly. Sometimes I just wonder what the difference would be to work as an inner-city teacher in the US. Obviously there must be a great deal of differences, but I can imagine that it is difficult in a very similar way because the job is not only about teaching, but trying to motivate the kids to want to learn because many of them probably feel as though there is very little point to it in the first place.
Back to English, so I teach them vocab and basic verb conjugations and so forth. Sometimes we have competitions; sometimes I even award candies to the winners. It is interactive and different. I figure it is a way to help the teacher and help the kids at the same time.

3. Environment Ecology Club: I think this is my favorite program that I have developed during my time during Peace Corps. I have developed a program with the help of the Science teacher of a 10 –week after-school course for the students interested in the environment on several environmental themes – including two sessions about the soil, the air, the water, recycling, and energy. I think we could get some people interested in the recycling program through this and the kids are really going to learn a lot about the environment. The way the program is structured is that we have one week where we talk about something and then the following week we have a practical session of application. For example, last week we talked about soil composition, decomposition and composting, This week we are going to be making a portable hanging worm-composting bed for practical use out of cheap household materials. I have actually invited a fellow volunteer, Lebo, the same one from Canchaque a few weeks ago that came with her friend to do the Dance Workshop. She knows a ton about this worm composting stuff and I think it should be really productive. All of the kids are learning a ton about how to do it all and be environmentally conscious. I am pretty proud of this program and think it will be really successful.

4. Self-esteem/Theatre group for little kids: This is something based on a manual that was given to a us a while ago called “Quien Soy Yo?” meaning Who am I? in Spanish. It is basically a sequence of coloring and writing exercises for little kids based on building self-esteem. I formed a little group of kids and we have been doing some activities that have been fun and that I mentioned the last time about the excursion that I had with the kids. The truth is that I have tweaked the program a decent amount by making it much more interactive with a ton more games and thinking exercises for the group. I base a lot of what I am doing on the theatre resources that I have which are obviously also very good self-esteem building exercises. We do a lot with creating characters and playing games. We have a closing circle and give hugs and do warm fuzzy things like that make everyone feel good. Those groups are always great just because the little kids always just start to love you. Actually as a result of that group, I got really close to the two brothers of Manuel, Luis and José. All three are very different but I have enjoyed teaching because I just know how much they really enjoyed it.

5. Sex ed classes, especially on HIV/AIDS: These might be the most needed classes that I teach in Bigote, considering that no one even knows what HIV is. HIV is actually precariously close to developing into an endemic in Bigote and I am doing my part to make sure that it doesn’t continue that way. I have had 3 classes that I have taught HIV and AIDS recently and I am starting 1 more. These are a sequence of 5 sessions where we talk about what AIDS is, some myths and facts about HIV, practice methods of prevention and then talk about not having prejudices. At the end there is a little test to make sure they got something out of it. That is really a big challenge with a lot of these activities: You never know how much the kids actually capture of what you tell them. Nevertheless, I have used a decent amount of the Peace Corps resources for this one. It has been interesting and sometimes awkward talking with the kids but eventually I think it seems to ease the tension by talking about sex and how to take care of themselves.

6. Sexuality/Gender Equality Classes: These are a few sessions that I developed where I talk about how our culture influences our thinking about gender roles/sexuality and defining what those words mean. I have used commericals from magazines that the class has looked at and then we talk about how these images might influence someone’s behavior. I have found it particularly interesting to talk about gender equality with the students.

7. Nutrition classes: I have talked about the importance of drinking and purifying water, portion sizes, the food pyramid, needed vitamins and minerals in the diet and how to find these vitamins in different foods. Some of the students have been interested, others not so much. I try to make it fun and interactive, but sometimes it gets kindof dry to be honest. My goal is really to get these kids to have a more well-balanced diet because the truth is that they usually eat just a ton of rice with no nutritional value and not too much more, maybe just a little bone of meat. It really sucks. I mean I barely eat well enough sometimes. My mom made a half-joking comment the other day in Piura that I needed to come in to Piura for a weekly steak. That sounds nice and the truth is that my protein levels might benefit a great deal from something like that.

8. Parenting Workshops on Communication and HIV/AIDS: This has also been a very successful project that I have done. I lead a large communication workshop for around 100 parents a few weeks ago before going to Ecuador to meet my mom. It was large and some parents probably couldn’t hear and of course there are always things to improve on, but I was pretty happy with the outcome of that one as well. We followed that meeting up with another one that the doctor basically delivered on Sexually Transmitted Diseases, which bored the group to death. After he was done, as a wrap-up I asked the crowd some basic questions and they had no idea about what he had said. Ha ha. The wonderful ways of lectures. I am now completely convinced that the only way you get people to learn, especially those who aren’t outwardly interested in the topic, is by doing dynamic activities. That is the Peace Corps way and the way that I do it and I have to really believe in it. The HIV workshop was less of a success but I was especially happy with the first workshop.
Additionally, the day that I left for Ecuador, on my way to Piura, I stopped by the site of Peter Goldberg, a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer in La Matanza (which funnily enough means the massacre in Spanish) who was also doing an escuela de padres/ parenting workshop. His workshops were structured much differently than mine but were effective. It was a really cool sharing experience. He was able to share his resources and I think that his ideas will be really helpful to me in the future.

9. Building a bathroom for my host family: I received some donations from family and friends in the US to build a bathroom for my host family here in Bigote and I recently started building it. It is going to be pretty sweet. Finally I will be able to use the bathroom without a latrine and without flies buzzing around my butt. Ha ha ha. Much more hygienic hunh? It is going to have a shower, sink and toilet along with a big basin outside where senora Paula can wash clothes and what have you. The total of the whole project came to around 3000 soles, which is about 1000 bucks. I figure that should be about right. I am pretty excited about how it will turn out.

10. Guide to Piura: At the beginning of August I sent out an email to all of my fellow Piura Peace Corps Volunteers trying to compile the best places where everyone goes to eat and goes out to clubs when they go to Piura. I thought it might be a cool idea to compile all of that information and so little by little I got some other volunteers to send me suggestions and ratings of where to go. It’s like our own little Lonely Planet Peace Corps Version of Piura. I think it will gradually expand and could become a pretty cool little document. I took the iniciative to start it.

11. Expanding Peace Corps Resources and my own: Given that Peace Corps gives us only a limited section of resources to use and I am always trying to look for good resources to be able to teach and so forth, I asked fellow volunteers along with the guide to Piura if they had any workshops or information that they could share with the rest of Peace Corps or at least with me. I have also gotten some really cool information from people ranging from parenting workshops to small business, even worm composting. There is an online database that many companies use called sharepoint that Peace Corps has only recently started to use, but the truth is that most PCVs are not able to connect to it and do not properly know how to use it. I basically am trying to tap into the untapped resources. I have been happy with the results up until now. I also meant it to possibly push a bunch of people who do a lot of improvised stuff (including myself) to try and type something out that could be helpful to other people all around the world. That’s kind a cool thing hunh? That someone somewhere else in the world could use my workshop to execute a similar program.

12. Organizing the Peace Corps Piura Library: There are also a bunch of book in the hostal that we all stay at that Peace Corps Volunteers have left to share with fellow volunteers. The library is completely disorganized and there is no library system. I have taken it upon myself to organize and systemize the library. I am just going to be basically the librarian with the help of some fellow volunteers, Vince and Jessica. I am looking forward to that one.

13. The In-Service Training Workshop for PCV: Every PCV in Peru gets a chance to get a certain training workshop to help them in bettering the quality of their service. My boss, Kitty Kaping, has been at the forefront of selecting Social Theatre as the topic of the In-Service Training. I have been typing up and organizing all of the resources for that along with organizing the session plans and ideas for the actual workshop which I will be directing, leading and executing with fellow PCV Sophie Dila in about a weeks time in Lima. The entire Youth Development program that I came to Peru with will all be going to Lima together for medical check-ups after one year of service. After those med-checks and program meetings, we will be having the IST which Sophie and I will direct. It has been somewhat stressful organizing everything but I am confident it will all work out as planned and will be good.

Okay, that’s a little sum-up of some of the projects that I have been up to. Now what am I doing for fun you ask? Well going to Ecuador and the Galapagos of course. It was so nice to escape with my mom to see the Galapagos with her. I arrived in Ecuador and it was like I entered another world. The streets were so much cleaner and the roads were all so organized. Even the houses weren’t made of adobe but bricks instead. It was so surprising that just crossing the border would make such a difference. We stayed in a really nice hotel for a few days, walked around some and saw some of the sites. We were in Guayaquil which is a port city. We went up to a lighthouse and saw a nice overlook of the entire city.

Everything seems so different: The food was not as spicy and diverse as Peru. They listened to Salsa and Reggaeton instead of Cumbia. They were not all Andean Indian looking with darker skin. It was almost as if I was looking at a piece of the US at times. I know that the US has had a large influence in Ecuador (check out the book, Confessions of an Economic Hitman); it’s just funny how much it shows.

We even went to a casino one night and I blew 40 bucks on blackjack. I was pretty sure that I was playing it correctly at least according to the odds, but clearly I was not. That was the first time I’d ever played. Except for the week before…..

A week beforehand I went with fellow PCV to a casino in Piura after we went to a wedding of a friend from Bigote. It was a super weird wedding. The bride arrived in the middle of the ceremony and no one even blinked an eye. I actually arrived early with Elizabeth, assuming that of all things a wedding might start on time in Peru. Of course that was not the case. I arrived to an empty church and not seeing anyone I recognized. I had not even ever met the bride or the groom, just the father of the bride. Then finally at the back of the room appeared the mayor of Bigote and I knew that I must be in the right place. Ha ha. It was also somewhat weird because we brought our gift into the church and it just seemed weird to be carrying the gift with us. After the ceremony, we went to the reception and it was a very awkward dancing ceremony where basically every male in the room danced in sequence with the bride to the same song that repeated about 1 million times. Then they of course had to take as many ridiculous Disney World-esque pictures with the two gringos. It was also really funny because of the power that a white male has around here. When it comes to dancing, first off, you MUST dance. There is no option not to dance. So seeing as I was a special guest, it was even more of a must. Second, I could’ve danced with whomever I wanted. I remember dancing with one girl who looked at her mother and put on the most cheesy smile and then point at my back, as if signaling, “Look at who I am dancing with, mom!” Unbelievable. Funnily enough the opposite was true of Elizabeth: she was dancing with only the old men who had the tendency to slip with their hands and maybe catch a feel. Uggh. Not so fun for her I guess. Ha ha ha. The truth was though that the wedding was honestly nothing like what I hope any wedding I would ever possibly have would look like. The walls of the place were peeling and the whole thing just looked so rustic. I was not terribly impressed. I only say that here just to be honest, not to say that I was uncomfortable or anything. I think more than anything it just made me realize that getting married or the wedding is actually a huge expense and poor people generally just don’t have enough to make it a really nice wedding. I guess for some reason in the back of my mind I thought that even with a small budget you can have a pretty nice wedding. Maybe that’s true but this actually was only the third wedding that I’ve ever been too besides that of my dad’s second marriage and my sister’s. And the only one where I was not directly participating in the ceremony. In any case, after the reception we dove out of there and went back to the hostal and decided that it was casino night and we were going to the casino. Elizabeth is completely averse to losing money and so she was hysterical the entire time we were there although we were winning. It was actually pretty fun. Anyway…

Back to Ecuador. We went to the Galapagos after spending a few days in Guayaquil. The only crappy part was that I lost my really nice graduation-gift camera. I was really bummed. I don’t even know where I left it. As a result, we had to use my mom’s lesser quality camera to take pictures there. Nevertheless, I think the pictures I took came out pretty good. We saw a ton of animals, turtles, iguanas, sea lions, flamingos, and other to name a few. The coolest thing perhaps about the sea lions was that we were able to swim with them. I don’t know too many other places where the sea lions don’t get super defensive and start to attack. I would be snorkeling and they would be swimming all around me and I was even close enough to touch them. As a matter of fact, all of the animals were like that. They were all super duper tame and you could just walk right up to them and touch them. I couldn’t believe it. Basically the schedule on the cruise we took was that we would go to the shore of some island in the morning, see animals, swim around, return to the boat, go snorkeling around the boat or in another location to see marine life and then travel to another site during lunch and then see the other site in the afternoon. I saw the endemic blue-footed and Nasca boobies. I also saw the Charles Darwin center, though there was not actually too much reference to his studies while he was on the island. More emphasis was put on the conservation efforts of the turtles and the other endangered animals. I guess more than anything the entire trip was just relaxing and really cool to be in such close contact with untouched nature.

When we came back from Galapagos, mom and I basically went straight to Piura and then just hung out there a few days before I went back to the life of Bigote and she went on to Argentina. I am on my way now to Lima for the med-checks and IST. It will be really fun to see all of my fellow PCVs from our group that I have not seen in a really long time. That’s about it for right now.

Suerte a todos,
Peace Corps Volunteer Alejandro
Over and Out.

Hey folks,

So the last time I updated everyone was at the very end of July right after the going away party for Peru 9 that we had on the beach in Colan. That was a really fun party and it was really nice to conclude our time with them with a big bang. After that I pretty much just went back to Bigote and started a bunch of new programs. Basically what had happened was that public schools had been suspended nationally due to the Swine Flu breakouts. The idea was that there would be an extended mid-year vacation break in July (remember that there school year goes from mid-March until mid-December) so that they could fumigate the schools, hopefully preventing further breakouts in the schools where there is the highest risk. Funnily enough they never actually got to fumigating in Bigote because they don’t have the money to execute something like that. Plus the school director and everyone else just went to their homes and families in Piura and forgot about their responsibilities in Bigote so nothing got done until they came back 3 weeks later.

In any case, I came back to Bigote after a week of being with friends and the going-away party at the end of July to find that no classes were starting and not much was going on. Nevertheless, I had my English class, which has been going well and then my little group of kids for the self-esteem class. Those kids are just wonderful and they love coming to my group. On the last Friday before school started back up again, I went on an excursion with the kids up into the wilderness around Bigote. We went looking for the tourist attraction, La Cueva del Leon aka The Lions Cave. (When I say tourist attraction I mean that it’s a cave in the middle of nowhere that the people consider to be something that other people would come and see even though they barely even know what it’s like). The Lions Cave is supposed to be a place where the ancient tribes used to go and it was a tunnel that connected underneath the mountains but then the tunnel collapsed and now it is just a cave. I went looking for it with the kids and honestly I lost my way and we ended up just exploring the mountains. It might seem really bad, but the truth is that it was actually pretty fun and I think the group enjoyed it. Actually as we were in the mountains, I realized how much the kids liked being out there and just exploring. I thought to myself how fun it might be to start a type of Cub Scouts with the kids and we could learn how to go into the wilderness, start fires, tie ropes and all that stuff. One of my friends here Vince, a PCV in Piura, was an eagle scout and knows a ton more stuff than I do and I think we are going to see if we can come up with a program where he could come visit my site to help me out. That’s something that’s in the works, but I just thought I might share what was going on.

Returning to the update in Bigote, school started on the second week of August and I do not know what happened but it was just a storm of projects that came up all at once. I started teaching and helping with tons of classes in the schools. All the teachers wanted me to help them. So now I am teaching a hygiene class, a nutrition class 4 HIV/AIDS Awareness / Sex ed classes, a class in sexuality/gender issues, 4 English classes and 2 Environmental Science courses. I use a lot of the resources that were given to me by Peace Corps but I also make up a ton of stuff too on my own. It is really rewarding to be teaching so much. Basically every morning I go to the school and teach as if I were a normal teacher and then I go home for lunch and then I am in charge of some other program in the afternoon. Apart from all of those courses that I teach, I have clubs in the afternoons. For example on Mondays, I started, with the help of the math teacher, a chess club. Yeah yeah, I know pretty much nothing about chess, but I am going to try and learn and I think I can make the club into a type of future planning decision making course along with the games. I am pretty optimistic about the club and we will see how it goes. On Tuesdays I have a conflict right now which I have to work out but I am teaching English and I ended up teaching some Ecology / Environment Classes to a group of students. It was a really cool meeting. We talked about ecosystems and then went out into the surroundings and created an ecosystem. I am also doing a ton of stuff with my recycling program. It is pretty complicated to explain for right now but I will just say that I think we are finally going to be able to send the recyclables to be sold in a few days.

I also went to the Galapagos. It was amazing. I will give more of a better update soon but I am saying goodbye to my mom who came to visit me and I don’t have as much time to finish the blog as I wanted. I will finish the update sometime soon. In the meantime, check out my pictures online on my facebook page. Its at this address.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2044546&id=3900778&l=ce6034884e

That’s it for now.
Suerte a todos,
Peace Corps Volunteer Alejandro
Over and Out.

Hello folks,

So I thought I might change it up a little and give a synopsis of the last few weeks in a very short freehand telegram style that might give some images more than description.

July 7th. Belated Independence. Party. Piura. Drinks. Dance. Michael Jackson. RIP. Beat It. Tribute medley. Trying moonwalk. Half succeeding. Caught on tape. American music. Lots of dance. With 2 girls. With Brian Hagan. Ha ha. Girls that dance crazy. Up til 4. Lot of fun. Hagan wakes up at 5 to escort Peace Corps supervisor to his site. Irresponsible. But funny. Tired next day. Chores in Piura. Bought seeds.

Going to plant garden in school. New project: School ecology program. 10 weeks. 10 training sessions. Environmental awareness. Very excited. More support in Bigote. Makes me feel better. Teaching in schools daily. Teach health. Teach English. Had a lesson of musics. Listened to Beatles and Rolling Stones’ classic songs. Cultural exchange. Teach HIV/AIDS awareness. Teach sexuality. Very happy with programs developed. Afternoon teach too. Teach English. Just finished computer class. For older women. Trying to teach theatre. Little success. Kids not organized. Not responsible. Just started self-esteem course for little kids. One girl named Estrella. Very cute. 5 years old. Laughs and smiles at everything. Want to do everything with me. Very fun. They love me and time together. I enjoy it too. Great success. Programing for other entrepreneurship workshop and workshop for parents.. Really happy with these programs. Recycling program still struggling. Decided to be more proactive. Going to run business myself. Hope to rub off on others. Hope for more success. No results until now. Will update in future.

Huancabamba. Virgen del Carmen. Religious Festival. Dance of the Devils. Dance in street. Two teams. One team of devils. Satan in center. Elaborate dress. Tin cans for pig nose. Long pigtail. Peacock feathers. Other team Virgen del Carmen. Huge ornamented representative image. Represent end of paganism. Dominance of Catholicism. Little saint dances. Tries to kill devil. Saint wins. Virgen del Carmen wins. Paganism dead. Party afterward. With friends John and Vince. Party disappointing. Going back to Huancabamba in August. Huancabamba, place of magic. Herbal medicine and witchcraft. Enchanted lakes. Curers and medicine men. Can cure a great deal of illnesses. Many Peruvians visit. Very interested in medicinal properties. Spirituality of curers. Want to know how to cure. Look forward to future visit. 6 hour bus ride from Bigote. Nauseous coming back. Nearly threw up. Change in altitude. Much higher than Bigote.

School vacation granted early. More vacation because of swine flu. Apparently very contagious. I’m safe. Very little cases in Piura region. Taking precautions. Hope family and friends are safe. Fiestas patrias = Peruvian independence. 28 of July. Ban on all public dances and parties. Bigote has dance anyway. Really fun. 30 of July. Leaving-country party for Group 9. 2 years of completed service. 1 year more for me. WOW.

Host mom Paula in Lima. Visiting daughter Nancy. Nancy left in January. Only me and father Jose. Very entertaining. Enjoying cooking own meals a little more. Not able to cook every day because of work. Paual back soon. Jose can’t cook. In Piura, interesting sexual interdependence. Women need men to pay bills so they can eat. Men need women to cook so they can eat. Play soccer sometimes. Getting better. My cat pregnant. Neblina. About to give birth. Really fat. Whines a lot for food. Hard to find food for cat. Feel bad. Recent odd urge to play guitar. Might buy a cheap one. Might be fun to try. Any suggestions?

Canchaque. Virgen del Carmen. Again. Diabolicos. Again. Crazy fireworks display. Made 1000 drinks for public toast to Canchaque. Made with sugar cane alcohol, milk and sugar. Being judge of food contest. Eating sample foods. Drinking sample homemade licors. Chicharon (fried pork) with mashed bananas and roasted corn win. Almond liquer win. Chocolate mocha mouse wins. Delicious. Guy coming afterwards with extremely dirty hands. Sticks hands in food to eat. Disgusting. Unhygenic. Helping friend Lebo organize in Canchaque. Stayed in fellow volunteer Vince Hartman’s room. Nice room with paintings. Way more modern than Bigote. Had fire at night. Talked a long time. Went to waterfall called Peroles. Jumped down waterfall like a slide. Really fun. Got a little bruised. No worse for the wear. Did a bobsled with John and Eric down waterslide. Took funny Herbal Essence photos.

Went to beach in Colan. Had a going away party for Peru 9. Peru 9 came 1 year before me. Fun party. Another bonfire. Played game called mafia. Played cards the next day. Formed an alliance for food. Alliance didn’t work because everyone ate our food. Had some guacamole. Now I am oldest group in Peru.

Hung out in Piura. Played games. Ate good food. Relax. Much needed. Haven’t been in Piura in a while.

Mom coming August 21st. Galapagos Islands. Animals. Ocean. Mom. Trip of a lifetime. Extremely excited. No more updates for now.

There once was a city near the coast,
Piura was it’s name,
Sunshine was it’s fame
And having the best ceviche it can boast.

heat beats all day long
salt and Cumbia in air
la Piura vida

More updates soon.
Peace Corps Ale
Over and Out.

Hey folks,

So over the past few weeks I have had two full weekends of activities, one being a crazy birthday party for some gringo in town and another because of my involvement with an HIV-AIDS-STI workshop.

Let´s first talk about the beloved birthday. Just to respond to the age old question: “Do you feele older?” The truth is that I definitely feel older than the guy who entered Williams College as a young innocent freshman and certainly different than the boy who first went to Choate Rosemary Hall all those years ago. I don´t feel old or anything but definitely feel that I am a college grad. I like that feeling.

As for my birthday, I have had better but I’ve also had way worse. The whole preparation truth be told was quite an experience in and of itself. So a while ago I had asked a neighbor (Lucha) if she would help me with my birthday. She said she would love to. She has a huge sound system that she uses for her own business, which is the bar next door. She sells cebiche and sudado, two typical dishes of Peru and especially of Piura. She was very nice to me and as it turned out I thought this would be the best option. Usually birthdays are huge celebrations for people in Peru or at least in Bigote. Various other people later told me the party would be better done in the Mini-Coliseo, the huge platform where they have all the town parties and dances. In retrospect, this would’ve been the better idea and this was perhaps the biggest folly of my party and why it was not an incredible success. I do not mean to sound depressed, because as I will recount, it was a very fun party. But nevertheless, one sometimes does remember the mishaps better than the successes.

The main reason why the location became a problem was that most people, after the incidents over the past month or so, thought that people in the barrio where I live would cause a problem for my birthday, especially seeing as it was in the street. I was also later informed that having a party in the street like mine frightened some people because of the cars that sometimes passed by and that if the driver was not paying attention could hit and/or hurt someone in the process. I was also told later that sometimes parents would not send their kid to a fiesta like mine because it was not in an enclosed area, thinking that it was not safe for their child and who knows what they would get up to. When I say child, I mean even young women who I had invited and live with their families. Machismo runs deep in Peru. On the other hand, the minicoliseo is a large open space that, although it would be difficult to cook a meal there, is protected, safe and in a central location that no one would have problems about. The main reason for me to do all of it from my house was because my host mother Paula wanted to help, Lucha offered her sound system free of charge (lower costs for me) and I just liked the idea of a block party.

Nevertheless, I was actually a lot of fun in the end though only around 12 of the 50+ people I invited showed up. I made my own cake using the oven that Paula has. I decorated it with manjar blanco (dulce de leche / caramelized milk) that I had bought the previous day on an emergency trip to Piura. I had to buy all of the ingredients that they had asked me for to make special fried rice with goat and papas a la huancaina. It was absolutely declicious.

Oh and about the goat. The morning of the 20th I had to go looking for the goat that I would eventually go to kill. I bought the entire goat for 30 dollars and then brought it out back and with the help of a butcher in the community, we killed it. That probably sounds wild to a lot of you and it is. We are all so accustomed to just going to the supermarket to buy the meat that we eat without ever seeing exactly how it is processed. Truth is that it was really hard for me to watch them kill the animal, but I kept saying to myself and I believe that if I am okay with eating it, I have to be okay with killing it. And the truth is that putting the connection between those two things can be hard. I mean I saw them just jab a huge knife into its chest and it began to bleet and then the blood just spilled out. The really cool thing for me was that they used and we ate absolutely everything of the goat. We ate the kidneys, the liver, the intestines, the heart and of course the good meat too. I even sold the hide for 2 soles and we cooked the blood for blood sausage. Boy was it good. The only part that was not really used were the horns, which were thrown away for the dogs to gnaw on. I thought that was just so cool, like I was an Indian or something that killed an animal and used every single party of it.

I just finished ready an interesting book called “One Nation Under Dog,” which I would recommend. Anyway, the book talks about the US and Wester world obsession with pets (cats, dogs, etc. ) and how we treat them like celebrities, given them organic food, dressing them up, even going so far as to spend thousands of dollars to save them with expensive medical procedures. Then there is Perú. Here dogs and cats are treated as tools. A dog has a purpose and that purpose is to protect the house. According to this mentality, if I give the dog too much food, it will go to sleep and not protect my house in the case that someone comes to intrude. Plus they serve to eat any leftovers. So they give the animals just enough food to survive on the leftovers but nothing more. For that reason, most of the dogs are incredibly thin, to the point of looking emaciated. In a similar fashion, cats are purposely underfed, because otherwise if they are full, they won’t chase any rats. The purpose of cats are to catch rats and so if they don’t fulfill their role, they have no purpose.

So it all this just made me think that in Perú, animals are seen purely for the basic utility: eating, catching mice, protecting the house. But they are never seen as companions, never as something to be integrated into the family. Dogs are kept outside the house because that is where they belong. And the truth is that, though the modern advances and millions of people in the US might disagree with me, I think that that is there natural place. I think that the natural balance with humans and dogs is something along the lines of what they have established here. It seems as though something has gone wrong in the US where dogs have moved from the backyard dog house to the bedroom. I do not mean to sound judgmental in any way; I simply mean to state a fact of what I have seen here and my experience, for example, with my cat Neblina.

I adopted a cat about 8 months ago that was on the verge of dying because the dogs never allowed it to get to any food. And so I began to feed it and gradually the cat became so accustomed to me that it comes into the my room and sometimes lies on my bed to sleep or comes to me to stroke it. The cat, however, was never spayed and as a matter of fact is now pregnant with kittens. I have never washed the cat or given it flea pills or any shots or anything of the sort. The only money that I have spent on the cat is on some basic cat food which the cat does not even like very much and I just offered spairingly when they are no leftovers left for her. So all this has left me to wonder, are flea pills, shots, veterinarinary medicine and all the amenities of modern pet care, including pet food, really necessary. My answer is no. My cat loves regular food and as far as I can tell is perfectly healthy. Though she does have fleas, those fleas have never affected me or bitten me. I guess what I have to say is that I think modern pet care is a hoax and a lot of advertising that really isn’t that necessary. I think that pets have become members of the family in US households because there is a need to have some other attachment and once people get attached, the same as in a human relationship, people are willing to make large sacrifices. What happens when a dog or cat gets sick here? People say, “Oh, that’s a shame, the cat is sick. It might die.” Maybe they give the cat or dog some more food, maybe not. It probably sounds pretty cold, but I guess to me, after so much time here, it seems natural. It seems natural not because I have grown to hate animals or something from being here (quite the contrary in fact – I have come to recognize my love for animals that much more), I think it is just the fact that I recognize that in the same way that I believe there is a natural course for humans so is their for animals and if that course leads them to death, then so be it. An animal is just an animal that has a life and must die at some point and I think that if we are okay with humans and animals dying, then a lot less suffering would take place. Dying is just another part of life. I’d be open to discussion on these philosophical musings to any who dare.

Moving on, my bday was a lot of fun and a peace corps friend named Vince from a nearby town of canchaque came down for the party as well. I was up pretty late dancing and celebrating with everyone. I enjoyed it.

Last week after my birthday party, my regional supervisor, Wilfredo, and my sectoral supervisor, Kitty, came to visit me in Bigote to see how I was doing. The truth is that life has not always been easy in Bigote for the simple fact that the youth group JUBIADE that supposedly was ready to help a youth volunteer has basically never existed. So after explaining what is going on, Kitty explained that I could be doing more in Bigote and that was not only my fault, but also the fault of my community partners. So we had a meeting explaining that I needed some more support. The truth is that I AM a professional here that has the capacity to teach Bigote a lot of different things ranging from alcohol abuse to AIDS awareness to Vocational Training to Environmental awareness but very few times in my time in Bigote have I been approached by any organization for my help. I have simply been spinning my wheels and I have been the one going out to do projects because I am motivated but apart from that I have not gotten very much help. So we had a meeting and then we scheduled another meeting to think of ideas to solve the problem and present possible projects for me to help execute in the community. It seems like they want vocational training, HIV and self-esteem courses. So that has been helped a great deal by the visit of Kitty but still the municipality lacks iniciative sometimes and have not helped the community to form any youth group enterprises. But at least now I have a little more to do.

The only other news that I have to report is that a girl named Lebo, another Peace Corps friend, who also happens to be working in Canchaque, had a friend who was visiting from the US that teaches dance. So this past Thursday, Lebo calls me up and asked me if I wanted to do a dance workshop on Friday with some kids in my community. Though yesterday was supposed to be entirely dedicated to the arrival of the President Alan Garcia to Bigote to inaugurate the high school which is soon to be finished, Alan never arrived and there was no conflict so a bunch of kids showed up to the workshop. I can’t tell you how fun it was. I know very little about dance but the kids got really into it and we ended up having a really cool little dance by the end. The kids learned some basic steps and some basic rhthmns. I really enjoyed it.

Anyway, I have a training workshop in Canchaque (ironically) this coming Tuesday and then I will be in Piura on Wednesday. Happy fourth of July to all of you guys out there. Enjoy the summer.

Suerte a todos,
Peace Corps Volunteer Alejandro
Over and Out.

Hello folks:

It seems that yet another month has past by in the blink of an eye and I am writing this fully passing the 1 year mark in Perú and about to celebrate my second birthday here. I will pass one more next year and then off to more adventures in the wonderful journey that is my life.

Well we’ll start this with a few tidbits about what I have been doing in Bigote in the last month. Just a list of my projects will give the idea that I am pretty occupied and I am:
1. Ongoing recycling project
2. Theatre project
3. HIV/AIDS Workshops
4. Computer Classes
5. Movie Night
6. Youth Leadership Workshop in Piura

Yeah so I have been doing all that. Let’s go through explaining each one and how its going.

1. Ongoing recycling project: I have mentioned this project many times during my blog. It has been going slowly but surely. The truth is that we still haven’t sent the recyclables that we have for money yet so it has been hard to show the workers any profit in what we have been doing and thus it has been hard to motivate them to come on time and be responsible about it. For example, we have had numerous meetings and we set several days and times when we are going to meet and go out and recycle. Then after setting that schedule, they show up late or not at all and then try to get together on days when we have not scheduled and then some people are occupied and others are not. Sometimes there would be confusion about when we be going out because one person would be waiting for someone to come knock on their door and others would just go straight to the meeting place without having to be asked about anything.

How have I solved these problems? Well the truth is that we are still trying to solve these problems. The truth is that I think I understand why they have not been very responsible about coming and the reason is that we have not paid anyone yet so basically people are working as volunteers for right now until we send the recyclables and then they will get paid. Peruvian people, as much as I hate to generalize, are a very distrusting people and so it is natural for them to think that they will never get paid for their work, or at least to not put their best foot forward until they see concrete results. As a result, I have been trying to push getting the recyclables sent finally, but we still have not been able to. After that first batch that gets sent, I am pretty sure we will see a changed group of dedicated workers who see the profit in what we are doing.

As a side note, why do I say that Peruvian people are a distrusting people? Well the truth is that in Peru there is an incredible amount of liberty given to human beings. That is to say to the point of chaos. What do laws provide for a society? Well, they do provide restrictions on freedoms but obviously for the benefit of everyone in the form of order. Well, Peru has very little laws, or better said, not very many laws are enforced, mostly because police, who are the enforcers, are paid so poorly that are very willing to be bribed to supplement their awful pay. As a result, human beings are left to their own devices to make a living. As a result, most things around here depend on your word. Given that most people are poor, trying to gain as much profit for themselves as they can and there are very little consequences for acting immorally or unethically, people lie a lot. So basically, there has been a complete deterioration in the trust of the word of the man. For example, I have heard many cases, including my host mother, señora Paula, of people who have lent money to other people to have them only stiff them and not give the money back at all. This happens because all contracts are just through a gentlemen’s word. Even if I were to get a contract signed in the presence of the Justice of the Peace, if I break that contract, the worst that they would do is denounce me and then probably nothing would happen, at least for several months, which would give me the necessary time to flee the scene and never have to own up to the fiscal responsibility. As I have mentioned before, there are laws in Peru that say that the father of a family must recognize and pass alimony to his children every month, but if he doesn’t, as in the case of my host sister Nancy who left Bigote in January, nothing happens. I doubt it is as lackadaisical in the cities of Lima and Piura, but in the campo, there is very little justice as I see it, mostly because there is no police force other than the Rondas Campesinas who are a bunch of volunteer security officials who beat people with a cat-of-nine tails if they commit any kind of serious crime. Even if there was a police force, as I mentioned before, I am not sure that it would be much better because of the high levels of corruption.
Another example of something that happened recently brings the point home. Now for those who are reading this, please do not be scared or worry yourselves, I am and will continue to be fine and I always stay out of harms way. But for example, I live in a barrio that has a bunch of cantinas and sometimes, as we all know, people do some pretty stupid stuff when drunks. Well about 2 weeks ago, a guy in the neighborhood named Edgard though everyone calls him Bodoque, who has a reputation for drinking a lot, got drunk yet again. He was with his brother Jim. Apparently, Bodoque got into a confrontation with another person in the bar and wanted to start a fight. His brother intervened and started telling him to cool down and it was for these types of instances that people don’t care for him like other people. Then Bodoque took it upon himself to start a fight with his own brother. One thing led to another and the two brothers started fighting with fists and all. Then Jim reached for a bottle and broke it open on Bodoques head. Basically, this is the scene of your typical bar fight. What took it that much further was that Bodoque then went home and came back to the bar a few minutes later with his machete trying to chase his brother down to do who-know’s-what. Jim ran into a neighbors house to hide and that was the end. What was the result for Bodoque. Nothing. No citation. Didn’t pay for the broken bottles in the bar. Absolutely no consequences.
Another example, people have even gotten out of murder. I have been told a few times of people getting drunk and then getting into fights and then later on out of a vendetta they kill the guy as he is making his way home in the wee hours of the night. It happened for example to my host father’s brother, Santos. The culprit even came forward and said, “Yeah, I killed him. He dishonored me and so I convinced two other guys to help me kill him.” It sounds pretty crazy that something like this would happen hunh? What were the consequences? Verdict? Though the family tried to prosecute, sacrificing a lot of money to pay for a lawyer, in the end they didn’t have enough money and the guy was let off. So where is he now? Living in the same house. This is typical in the campo. It is an eye for an eye type of justice, like tribal wars or mafia or something like that.

Basically what I am saying is that I can break almost any law in Peru and not have any consequences. Open container laws and public urination simply do not exist. I think I saw some guy peeing on a cop car once.

Back to the distrust, given then that there is so much liberty and I only can depend on your word, most people don’t trust your word and so thus, the very distrustful culture. It seems almost like an anthropological study of human kind when left to their own devices. This is my opinion is the ultimate use of the law in society, as a guiding foundation that provides order to society. Speaking of the law, I recently wrote another personal statement that I am revising to be sent to update applications for law school and thought I’d share. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let me know because I would like to make it as interesting as I can. Here it is:


The golden rule is not just some phrase for me; it is something that I live by. After more than a year of service as a Peace Corps volunteer in a rural agricultural town, Bigote, in northern Peru, my morning routine does not seem so strange to me anymore. When the roosters, donkeys and dogs all begin to croon their cacophonous symphony, I part my mosquito net away from the adobe brick surrounding my creaky bed and throw on my flimsy sandals before stepping onto the dirt floor, wary of dead mosquitoes or insects on the floor. I then make my way out back to collect water in buckets from the spraying faucet that wets the muddy backyard where the ducks and chickens bathe, nearly grazing my head on the corrugated tin roof that hangs low, before finding the cement slab where I take my morning bath. All this before venturing out to the Municipality to work on the comprehensive recycling program that I started, give a talk on HIV/AIDS or perhaps to meet a group of young boys and girls for our theatre club.
My life experiences have allowed me to cultivate a deep understanding of the brotherhood that exists between all living beings. My first lesson in understanding our human bonds came when my parents divorced and my mother and I subsequently moved from the bustling city of New York to the cool blue waters of Bermuda when I was but five years old. It took a year of painful tears to realize that parental love and familial bonds are undying. As I grew up in the diverse island community of Bermuda, I realized that I, like the inimitable island clam chowder that I love, was another distinct ingredient in the mixture of Canadian, Portuguese, British, Jamaican and native black Bermudian ethnicities that combined to form the brotherhood that made up the Western developed world as I knew it. I remember reading Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech “I Have a Dream” for the first time when I was ten years old and affirming that his vision would be the driving ambition for my life’s work.
In 2001, however, I seriously questioned those human bonds that I had unconditionally accepted for the first time when our country was attacked and thousands of human lives were taken by several violent acts of hatred on September 11th. Obviously, people had died during the course of my life, but never had it been so close to my own heart; New York City was where I had learned to take my first steps and where my family had lived for many years. Those acts made me wonder not only how anyone could disregard humanity on such a large scale, but also whether or not our interconnectedness extended beyond the Western world.
It was in 2006, when I went to Buenos Aires, Argentina for a semester abroad, that I saw that the only nation worth fighting for is humanity. The common denominator that merits respect is not my religion, country, sex or politics, but simply the fact that I am a human being. My feelings of helplessness and empathy are still fresh from when I saw a scraggly five year old with ragged clothing emerge from a shanty with only a broken plastic cup to accept few monedas for his mother, who straggled behind with one child on each shoulder. Here in Perú, those feelings of compassion have been even further extended as I have witnessed poverty to the extreme: women with only a dirt floor to sleep on and only oil and onions to feed three young children. Serving in the Peace Corps has only strengthened my resolve to build stronger communities and give each human being a chance at living a life of liberty and happiness for all.
In the midst of my unique journey, I now recognize that the law is the centerpiece to realizing that vision. The law creates the groundwork from which any community and culture are built. By creating laws, representing different points of view on a level playing field and by weighing the balances of justice, the legal system around the world allows people to respect and honor the humanity inherent in each individual. Each verdict delivered is not only a product of equal representation towards peaceful conflict resolution, but also a mandate on how we should live our lives. I am dedicating my life to this cause – the law – because I want to see that my children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren transcend the concept of countries and cultural and racial limitations and live in one united world where high moral conduct, collaboration and acknowledgment for all life abound.


Apart from that stuff, the recyling project is going well. I am also soliciting the used recyclables from the construction sites and from the eateries where people use a ton of cans of milk and tuna. So that is going well and I will keep you updated.

2. Theatre project
Well after the crazy Evelyn left, a lot of the kids stopped coming so I have been trying to revamp the program by implementing an older group of more responsible kids to go on the radio to read a play over the air waves. I really am excited about this possibility and think it could be a great success to get kids involved and talk about social themes. I am still working on the script and getting the kids together but I think I will be having a meeting tomorrow.

3. HIV/AIDS Workshops
At the end of may I gave a talk on HIV/AIDS with the help of the obstetric nurse to the Women’s Network. About 12 women were there and we did dynamic activities and exercises that really helped to enforce all the information that we were talking about. I think it was a real success and we are organizing another talk for younger people for the 27th of June, where the workshop will be a 4 hour long workshop talking about HIV/AIDS along with other STD’s.

4. Computer Classes
At the end of May I also started offering computer classes to adults in the community in the Rec center, La Casa de La Cultura. Given that I had problems with people coming beforehand, I decided to charge a minimal fee of 15 soles. This was to assure that people really wanted to come and to raise some money to provide for the computers that were not working properly. I think in the end I am actually going to give the money or some of it back to the participants. The reality was that I don’t care about the money, I just wanted to make sure that the participants were making an investment in their own learning and made a commitment to coming every day. I had had several experiences beforehand where I was left waiting for people in the Rec Center and no one came. That kindof stuff was stuff that I just didn’t have patience for. So I figured that if I charged, it would assure that people really wanted to come and learn. And that is exactly what happened. I have dedicated students who come all the time and are eager to learn and I am happy to teach them.

The truth is however that my work is supposed to be and continues to be free of charge so I have two options going forward. One is to just return the money to the participants because the down payment served its purpose of making people faithful to come to learn and I have no need for the money as it is. Second is to use the money as a donation towards bettering the equipment in the Rec center. I think I might go somewhere in the middle of those two, taking a small amount to be donated to the Rec Center of 5 soles per person and then returning the rest.

5. Movie Night
So in order to realize the last activity of the Youth Leadership Workshop in Piura, we needed to raise some funds to help the Peace Corps with the costs of the workshop. As a result, I decided to host a movie night for kids and parents to watch a movie like in a movie theatre. In addition, I had thought that it would be a perfect way for me to find a way to present the theatrical plays that I had wanted to perform. The truth is that Bigote does not have, nor very many other sites in Alto Piura, a culture of the performing arts. For example, the only similar type of presentations that go on in the town are serenades for special holidays such as Mother’s Day or the Anniversary of the Town or the Town Fiesta. In said presentations, there is a lot of singing and dancing, but never a skit or play or anything similar. Additionally, it would be very difficult to get a ton of people to come see a play given by little kids, especially when the play would last 15 or 20 minutes. So my idea was that we could make the movie night a regular thing and then beforehand the theatre group could present their play, have a brief discussion with the crowd and then show a movie that touched on similar themes.

In any case, at the movie night I showed the movie Get Smart from last year with Steve Carrell. I actually saw it in movie theatres and thought it was absolutely hilarious. The movie that was shown was dubbed but I think the kids were entertained. The truth was that it was too much for me to do all by myself, but I did it. I had to coordinate getting the locale, connecting electricity, getting the cables to connect the electricity, getting speakers to project the music, getting the projector from the municipality, getting the DVD, cooking the popcorn to sell, buying the other treats to be sold and selling the tickets. Yeah, in 1 week I did pretty much all of that. It was actually a pretty good success because I made 40 soles profit which helped with the travel expenses of the two boys who I brought to the camp. I then showed The Last Samurai with Tom Cruise the next day which was for older people and we had a poorer showing but still got some profit and helped me pay off some of the expenses of holding the activity, i.e. electricity and locale.

Furthermore, all the little kids keep asking me when I am going to do it again. I do not know when I will be able to do it again, but from the great response to the activity, I figure it is definitely something that I can do with more regularity.

6. Youth Leadership Workshop in Piura

So as those who keep track of my blog might remember, in January I helped to realize a youth camp exclusively for girls called ALMA, roughly translanting to Activities for Leaders of Adolescente Women (Mujeres). Actividades de Liderazgo para Mujeres Adolescentes. The workshop basically enabled a large group of volunteers to bring youth from their communities to Piura for a 3-day workshop in which several visiting people would give talks on varios topics including entrepreneurship, self-esteem, self-respect and sexual health. In any case, a few months ago we began planning, for a similar camp, only this time for young men, called VALOR. Varones (Men) Adolescentes (Adolescents) Lideres (Leaders) Organizados (Organized) y Responsables (and Responsible).

I was a main organizer of this camp, basically coordinating and organizing a lot of the activities that we had planned throughout the entire weekend. Last Friday, I left with two boys, our recurring friend Manuel and another boy from the Upper part of Bigote, with the original name of Klisman. Yes, like the German soccer player from whom surely his parents were inspired. We left fairly early in the morning and arrived at the locale at around 12pm for registration and check-in. Both were given their rooms, we had lunch and then the activities began. I will not tediously go through every activity of the weekend, but needless to say, though with its hiccups, the weekend was a great success, more of a success in my opinion than the ALMA equivalent, mostly because those directing had had the practice from the previous experience.
We had a field games part, played capture the flag, dodgeball and had some really great speakers including our favorite Doctor from the Peace Corps, Jorge Bazan.

What’s funny is that the two main organizers, John Hawley and Elena Wiglesworth, are going to be leaving Perú because their Peace Corps service is ending in a month or so, so it seems that someone is going to have to replace them and most people are assuming that someone is going to be me. I would not necessarily be opposed to it, in fact, I would be thrilled. But we will see about when that could be done. More for the future. But the camp was a great success and Klisman and Manuel can’t stop talking about it.

Furthermore, we are planning to do a sex ed charla as a replica activity to share with the rest of the community in a few weeks which should be a good experience for them as well.

In other news, I am throwing a rather large public birthday party on Saturday night, in which I have invited a number of head authority figures in Bigote. We are going to be killed two goats and making one of my favorite dishes, Papas a la huancaina. There will also be more than a few loud speakers, perhaps the most important part of the party, for dancing. It should be a fun time. 23 years certainly does go by faster than you would think. I have planned to have a piñata and some other fun stuff for the party.

On other thing was that I had been planning to build a bathroom for some time now for my host family but a program called Techo Propio that builds a bathroom and a huge salon for a reduced price has come to town so I thought that for the reduced price, I would just wait and help the family with that. So we are still waiting on that as well.

That’s it for now.
Suerte a todos,
Peace Corps Volunteer Alejandro
Over and Out.

Hey folks:

So I have officially entered my 12 month of service in Perú. That is a decent amount of time. I can’t believe that another swimming season has come and gone at Williams without me, friends are both studying graduate school and/or working. I guess some are also looking for jobs because of the recession and such. It is just so incredible that I have been here for such a long time. I guess I must say that even though I have been living in poverty conditions, time has passed by because it has been fun. I think that time passes by not only when you are having fun, but also just when you are not thinking about anything besides the present moment. My life has been very focused on being here and now and perhaps that is the greatest reward of being here.

What have I been doing? What have I learned in this time? I think I have learned and am learning more what it means to be a Peruvian and what it means to really help someone. I know those two things probably sound really general, but I think it is the truth. I think about what is the best way to help another person a lot not only because I wonder how I can be more successful with my job but also because I think the Peace Corps itself can improve and I wonder how. The truth is that sometimes an organization like Peace Corps or other NGOs could act like an imposing force that comes into a community and tells them what they need to have in terms of infrastructure and then executes projects based on those needs that they have assessed. Perhaps in the way I have worded it, that could sound bad. But the truth is that there are many times when people do not really know what they are missing and because of their lack of knowledge they are missing out on something that could really help you. I now view this perspective as incorrect, simply because even though they do not know what they are missing, they are in fact not missing it. What I mean is that most of the time people are happy with their lives, even in poverty. Maybe that is because you get very accustomed to certain things while living in them. I myself have become so accustomed to taking bucket showers and going to the bathroom in a hole in the ground that now I don’t even think twice about doing it. I just go outside and fill my bucket up and then walk onto the rough concrete in the bathroom and throw the bucket on me. It seems so easy. I even remember when my mom came to visit me that I, for the life of me, had so much trouble empathizing with her because I could not seem to understand what was so weird about sleeping in a house with dirt floors and having to sleep underneath a mosquito net. Back to the topic of how to help. I think that the best help comes from giving people what they truthfully want and ask for. There is obviously a difference between some guy on the street telling you he wants to learn English and some who comes to you with a group of motivated people with books and pencils in hand to learn. The latter is obviously what you need.

Help as I have come to know it here, is just bringing knowledge to people, perhaps letting them know what might be a good idea but listening to what they might like to do – whether it be bettering their house, creating a business or computer classes – and finding a way to do it. I think that the imposition method, though it can create results, is ultimately not the best way to do it simply because it assumes that something is wrong with that community if you are immediately to change it. Let’s take a native indian culture in the Amazon for example. They may be living in bamboo and palm leaf huts, hunting turtles and other small animals for their food with bow and arrows. They may wear palm leaves or weaved straw for clothing instead of polyester, wash their clothes and plates in the river instead of a washing machine and use flowers and plants instead of pills for medicine. Maybe you think that people don’t really live like that in the world. I assure you that a good portion of Africa and the Amazon jungle do live like this. It is a definite reality in this world. This living situation is obviously a far cry from industrialization and modern advancement, but I sincerely ask, is there anything wrong with living a life like this if you are content and happy? I was reading Tales of a Shaman Apprentice and the author talks about how these people would not change their culture if it hadn’t been for missionaries and other people invading their land thinking that they needed to “help” these poor people. I find more utility in going into their culture, learning from them and what they feel like they lack. For example, if they say that none of their crops seem to survive the torrential waters, perhaps you can teach them a way of irrigation and canaling that would allow them to cultivate those lands. I think that you can only help people that have an expressed need and truly want to help themselves. The truth is that people in Bigote for example, do express that they need and want many of the things that NGOs and the Peace Corps naturally provide but perhaps I think that a large part of that is because of how their culture has changed and suited itself to the industrialized world. Most say that the USA is better than Peru because it is “developed.” I say that if you look through the lens of industrialization and infrastructure, sure we win. But if you look at it through happiness maybe it would be equal or the reverse.

So what am I doing here? I am listening and learning from the people of Bigote and doing projects to help people that want to do certain projects. They have the ideas and maybe I can make it better with my input, but I am here to help execute exactly what they need and want. These are my thoughts for right now. I am happy to talk with anyone about these thoughts because the truth is that it is always great to share.

As for the past month or so, I have been focusing on the recycling project. As I mentioned in the last message, we received some of our materials, though a far cry from all of them. We received the 2 tricycles to use for the collection of the recyclables and 2000 plastic bags (of poor quality plastic in my opinion) in addition to a dozen brooms, shovels and other such materials. The municipality helped me to add elevated sides to the tricycles so that we could put more stuff inside which delayed a little bit. I continued on a daily basis to push the municipality to use the dump truck and then finally we were able to use it and make our first round of collection at the beginning of April. We filled the entire dump truck with cans, bottles and tons of other recyclables. I thought it was a success though the truck did go fairly fast and some families were left behind. Since then the group lost motivation and did not make another collection until recently when I came back and integrated another young woman named Rosio who had experience in recycling in Lima. She immediately took the reigns and we have become more organized and we made another 2 collections this past week. I think that the project is going to advance wonderfully. Right now I am just waiting on the public trash cans for Bigote along with the compression machine that will smash and compress all of the cans and bottles so that they can be transported much more easily. Plus there is the formalization of the company, which are all things that I will be doing in the coming days.

I think the biggest aspect of my recent 2 months that I would like to take this opportunity to explain and vent is an experience that I had while in a relationship with a Peruvian woman. This experience will sound as if it is from a soap opera or some crazy story you hear on TV, but I kid you not that every part of what I tell you is true. As I tell you this now, I have learned a lot about Peruvian culture and that I will not get involved again while in Peru, at the very least with someone who lives in Bigote. I share the following both as my opportunity to recount the events as well as perhaps an opportunity to enter the mind of a young male for one relationship.

So as I had mentioned before in some of my blogs, I have had a youth theatre club here in Bigote for the past several months. The idea that I had was to meet with the kids in the group and practice the dramatic arts, though extremely basic things and hopefully perform in front of a live audience. I am very proud to say as a matter of fact that we presented a small work for Mother’s Day here in Bigote on Saturday the 9th of May. It was a play about appreciating the role that mother’s play in our lives and what they do as well as about gender stereotypes. In any case, the truth is that at the end of January my group was not working out so well, mostly because I had decided not to start practicizing any sort of play, but had just being doing games with the kids.

Additionally, as you may or may not know, there is no permanent dentist in Bigote, but they have a university student come to Bigote for a period of 4 months at a time for a type of practice period as part of finishing his or her degree. As it happened, a new dentist came at the beginning of January just in time for the The Fiesta Patronal. I met this new dentist, her name is Evelyn, one day at the beginning of January when I went into the Health Post. The second time I met her was after I had gotten stitches in my eye brow and had to have them removed. She was the one who removed them and as a matter of fact, I nearly fainted when she was doing it.

Fast forward to the beginning of February, I had invited her to a few attempts at starting an English class and she was the only one who showed up. People from the municipality showed up once but then never again. Just shows that you need to work with people that REALLY want your help hunh? In any case, she and I became somewhat friendly, but nothing beyond casual conversation. One day she saw me in my youth group and decided to enter and see what I was doing. The way that I had structured my youth group was to have a drawing self-esteem activity to think about your family and yourself before launching into the theatre games. She walked in to the drawing activity and just plopped down and started talking with perhaps the most dynamic boy of the group, Manuel. Manuel is one of the boys that you see and you think to yourself that he does not belong in this poor town and is some day going to make it out of there. I know this with all my heart and I am going to do my best to support him along that way. Back to the action, so she started talking and hearing that the group wanted to do more theatre games and such, she told them that she would help them out. It was hard to accept that I hadn’t being doing what the kids wanted but I did, but perhaps what I thought was most troubling was that the kids immediately trusted this woman and she neglected to ask me how she was going to help me, but just told the kids she was going to help. Nevertheless, seeing her good gesture I didn’t take it personally and hoped the best for the kids.

From then on she came to the group and wrote a preliminary script which I then made much better entitled La Fiesta de Bokilandia (roughly means The Party in Mouthland). It was about cleaning your teeth and hygiene. When I had to leave for Peace Corps related meetings, she continued with the group and was able to help them memorize the words though she has far less experience with theatre than I do, though perhaps a little more experience working directly with groups of kids. I mean the truth about me is that I am usually up for anything, but have I studied acting in a great deal? No. Have I been in an extensive list of plays? No. Have I been in tons of summer camps and learned how to work with kids in groups settings? No. I only have limited babysitting experience and my playful kid-like attitude that seems to work well most of the time. But I am willing to learn and try it. So I got books and looked up stuff on the internet and made it work. In any case, she handled the kids fairly well and I did the theatre.

Then on the 28th of February we had a meeting with the kids and I mentioned that I would be going to Piura on Sunday. Evelyn had mentioned that she goes to Piura some times to see her friends and was going on Saturday. Fast forward to Saturday night, she comes round my house to look for me and explains that she wasn’t able to go on Saturday night and was planning on going the following day and wanted to see if I was still going and if I wanted to go together. So as it turned out, I was and so I said sure, thinking that everything was fairly amicable. I should mentioned that she was a fairly attractive girl from a nice area of Lima and from what sounded like a nice family in addition to the fact that she was going to be a professional dentist. Peace Corps had continually made clear that you should be careful with women in site because you never know what is going through their mind when they try to start a relationship with you. Boy do I know now! But not for the possible listed reasons of digging for money or a visa etc.
In any case, the Sunday the 1st of March I go to pick her up and then we take a taxi to Piura. Once we get there I am about to say goodbye and then she asks me where I am going. I say, translated of course, “Uh, to my hostal?”
“Oh, I don’t have a place. Can I come too?”
“Sure….I guess.”
Once at the hostal, we find out that there are no available rooms. I say, “Well now I have to go do some errands in the market and such.”
“Oh I do too. Can I come?”
It was at this point that started thinking to myself, “Now this girl is definitely showing a lot of interest.”
Anyway, we go to the market, do the errands and such, then we go to have lunch and return to the hostal. At this point, the guy at the front desk tells us that we can have a matrimonial bed or a two double beds. Though somewhat skeptical, I think to myself of what I might do with a friend in US and I would share a room with someone, so I thought it was no problem. Anyway, we settle there and then I had a meeting with Peace Corps so I had to leave. I have no idea what she did, but I kept wondering if she was ever going to actually meet up with her friends.
Fast forward to later that night. I am drinking a few beers with some of my friends and hanging out when I get a message from her saying that she wants me to kill a cockroach in the room. I feel like this is her telling me that she wants to be more than just friends so to speak. So I go down to where the room was (we had been drinking in a lobby area upstairs), and find no cockroach. I then told her that this situation was little weird and that the way that she was acting showed the she was interested in me and that I might be interested in her.
She then vehemently denied it and apologetically I went to sleep.
Nothing more was to be said regarding this until the following Wednesday when we met for the youth group and after the youth group I had to stick around teaching computers. She stuck around in the back awkwardly waiting for me to finish and then handed me a note that she that in fact after much thinking she was interested in me too, but she wanted me to read the note when I went home and we would talk the following day.
When we talked I told her about the problems about being seen in public in Bigote because it is so gossipy and I mentioned the fact that there was only a limited time period for everything, but seemingly we worked out those concerns and decided to begin a relationship.
I would then go over to the Health Post in the evening times to go say hello and so we talked about Peru and the US and all kinds of things, which was fun to share cultures.
Fast forward to March 21st, we both went in to Piura again for a concert of Grupo Cinco, one of the most popular Cumbia bands in Peru. As I have mentioned before, Cumbia is a type of local salsa-like ballad. It was fun and I went not only with her but with a ton of my Peace Corps friends who all got to meet her and seemed to like her.
So things we going well until the 29th of March, when we spent the Sunday together and then we were talking and I mentioned the fact that I had planned a trip to go to the US for the middle of April. By the way, this whole time she had been sending love letters saying how wonderful I was and how I had changed her life and how I was the reason she woke up every morning. Pretty intense. I reciprocated to a certain degree saying that I did enjoy sharing things with her and that she was a special person, but the truth was that I was never head over heels for her because I really didn’t know her and at this point I started to realize that she was not the person for me, for a number of different reasons. Just her interests were not matched with mine and perhaps I just was not in a place to give myself fully to someone. When I mentioned my trip in April, she became somewhat distraught but started saying how great her experience had been in Bigote and how it had changed her life. I left her at the Health Post seemingly okay.
The next day I received 2 text messages saying that she never wanted to see me again and that it had been nice to get to know me but that she didn’t want to accustom herself with me anymore. She told me that she did not want to see me again. Yeah I kid you not. Crazy freaking message to send to someone. This was warning number 1 to get out of the relationship.
That day however I had decided to go to Piura to fix some things with my flight and was going to stay over night but that we should talk the following day. I told her I didn’t understand.
The following day I came back and she basically began to interrogate me about what I wanted out of the relationship and if I had any end in sight for her. I told her honestly that I didn’t but that I was just enjoying my time with her. I told her that it was certainly possible that we would lose touch and that we would break up when she left, but I left it open as a possibility always. She seemed to understand and she said then that we should just end the relationship. Part of me honestly was kindof relieved because it was starting to get very dramatic. However, somewhere in there she took that to mean that I thought she meant nothing and that I was just playing her the entire time. She had obviously greatly misinterpreted the situation and that troubled me a great deal, especially seeing as the following day, Wednesday she brought me a gift bag with an original Peruvian national jersey (a fairly expensive gift) for our one month anniversary (are you serious?) gift that she wanted to give m the following week and a card that said that I had just being playing her the whole time and that she was worth more than to just be someone’s play toy. She told me in the card that she valued herself and that obviously I was just a player who didn’t care at all about anyone’s feelings; I could find people like her in Perú, but not of her class and character.
With that card that left me completely flabbergasted at how incorrect she was and anticipated gift, I went to see her and told her she was completely off her rocker. I explained myself yet again that I just had thought about being with someone for the time that we had and if things brought itself to wanting to continue in the future then I was always open to that. That was the truth. I never was thinking when I began the relationship that I would begin the relationship and then definitely end it before she left. Here I believe was the ultimate difference in culture. In Perú, when you say to someone, I am interested and I’d like to see where this goes, that means a decently long term commitment. It means more than the equivalent let’s go out on a date in the USA. The big jump, where I myself did not figure out until it was too late, was that there is no such thing as dating in Perú as far as I know. The idea of going out with someone once or twice and then not continuing further with them is not an option. You are either a slut/prostitute who goes for a one night stand or you are boyfriend and girlfriend for an extended period of time.

Additionally, the culture is very untrustworthy because the stereotypical latino male is not very faithful coupled with the strong machismo culture. As a result, latino men are unfaithful going from woman to woman behind their back, though (obviously a double-standard) demanding that the woman not talk to any other men. Thus, males get very jealous when females talk to other males because that threatens their dominance over that female but at the same time the women who generally are very wary of the unfaithful men, become jealous when any male talks to another female. Returning back to my situation, there is another girl in town named Irina, who has basically been in love with me for the past 6 months. This suspicion was turned into fact when she gave me a stuffed animal for Christmas that said “Te Amo (I Love You).” Though I am not interested in this girl at all and have never made any attempt to even approach the subject, there is or was a running joke in the barrio where I live that she was my girlfriend. To complicate things with Evelyn, she apparently had been asking around about what was my situation with her even though I had plainly said to her that I was with Evelyn beforehand. Apparently, Irina had told a number of people that she would get me eventually and even on one opportunity went so far as to visit Evelyn. On this occasion, it seems, though I only had the story recounted from Irina and Evelyn both of which are biased sources, that Irina had come to let Evelyn know that she and I were just friends, even though we play around, she is part of the recycling project and we apparently (this is false) were planning a trip to Paita with the recycling group. Whether Evelyn kept her calm or got mad is in doubt but nevertheless, perhaps some of these jealousy issues were at stake her too.

Back to this conversation with Eveyln on Wednesday. I tried to clear it up the best I could and then she asked me whether I wanted to get back together. I said I was confused and thought that I couldn’t exactly just return back to normal after someone had called me a player and didn’t trust me. I told her I just wanted to enjoy the time we had together. She seemingly understood but began to cry and felt so bad. I told her that I wanted to clear things up, but that I was confused. Warning number 2 to get out of the relationship. She then seemingly accepted the proposal to just live in the moment and enjoy our time together.

The next day she came by my house and stopped by to talk for a little bit, saying that she was okay and wanted to plan our trip to Mancora together for the following week. It was so weird because she acted as if everything was just rosy red. That night I went to visit her and she said something ridiculous to me that she was now living with her head and not her heart. That is to say that she was reserving her emotions with her head because she knew that it wasn’t going to last. Ask me how she fell so hard for me in less than a month? I have no idea.

So then I thought about it and decided that this best thing to do was just to break up after such a ridiculous sequence of events. I did not need drama in my life and I this was obviously super drama. So I wrote a note for my benefit that I wanted to read to her. It was more of an outpouring of my thoughts that was probably pretty cold, but I planned on making it a bit more soft for her sake in person. In any case, I went to deliver the message and as I got the note out she took it from me (apparently thinking that I wasn’t going to read it word for word, which was correct) and she wanted to see how I had written it. I had not written it formally or nicely. There were errors which she apparently also took offense to because I had not taken any time to write a proper note. In any case, in the note I said that I wasn’t ready for something with her because I could not give all of myself and that when there is no future in something it prevents there from being a present. She seemingly accepted it in stride and we went our separate ways. Opportunity number 3 to let it go.

So then I left it alone for that night until Manuel, the little 13 year old boy, comes up to me on the Friday night and tells me how destroyed Evelyn is by the whole development. He tells me that she cared for me so deeply and that we were such a wonderful pair. By the way, at this point most of the theatre club had caught on to the fact that she and I were together. He comes up to me and basically tells me that I am so cold and awful for writing that letter to her. So basically what had happened was that Evelyn had confided in this little boy with her problems with me. I can’t tell you how furious I was. I should have refrained from talking more to him, but seeing as she had skewed his opinion enough I decided to give him my side of the story. Reminding me of myself, he decided to take it upon himself to fix the situation which he judged to be just a huge misunderstanding in communication because she had interpreted a great deal of what I had said incorrectly both in the last note I had given and in our previous conversations. He said he would bring her to the theatre group the following day to try to resolve the problem.

The following day he came with her as promised and after the meeting ended he staged an intervention of sorts. It was actually kind of funny as he explained both sides as they each had explained to him and then asked us both if we wanted to continue the relationship. Honestly what was happening in side of me at this point was that I was both confused about her because I did not know how much of what I didn’t like about her was because of a miscommunication in addition to the fact that I somehow felt like I owed it to her. The truth was that I was really hesitant about it, but in the end we agreed to get back together. WRONG DECISION. For all those guys out there, never get back together with someone no matter who, out of a feeling of obligation. I just wasn’t feeling it and that was how I felt. The truth was that I hated feeling like I was the determiner of the relationship and that’s how I felt the whole time. She basically had thrown herself at me full throttle and was pleading for another chance. I felt like I had her in the palm of my hands. I know that sounds wrong and I agree that it is. One, I didn’t want to have that kind of power over her and two, it was unattractive. The truth is that I think in any relationship both people have to kind of keep each other on the edge. Not to say that you can never fully love someone, but that there is always a play of cat and mouse, a struggle of who has control over the other so to speak. I mean that in a very good way. The relationship just lost all the juice when I knew that I could do whatever I wanted with her and she’d probably take me back. I mean I did not abuse it (that much) because I am a good guy, but if I weren’t she would’ve been in trouble.

From then on, we were decently alright for the next couple of days. In the interim, she had told her family about the situation and her mom had told her that she was going to send her sister and two friends up to Mancora anyway to accompany her to forget me. So she had planned to stay with her friends while I had planned to stay with mine. I actually loved this idea because that meant that if things became rocky again, I had an escape. Oh and yeah they got rocky.

Back to how I was feeling about this whole thing. After we got back together, I started thinking to myself, well I better figure out soon if I really like this girl so that I can get out of this before she gets even more attached. And the more we talked and were together I just realized that although she was really nice and sweet, she just wasn’t the girl for me. I feel like it would sound cold to list things about her out and the truth is that it was not even any one thing on the list, but rather you just realize that that loving feeling isn’t in the cards for you. I started to feel oddly distant when she gave me a kiss and nothing felt really comfortable. We went to Mancora and that was fine until one night she noted my distance and asked me what was wrong and I just told her that I really felt like we didn’t have too much in common and that I could not share a lot of the things with her that made me who I am because she didn’t like them – she wasn’t in to art, literature, philosophy, talking about God, politics or even trying cultural foods.
She told me something like well its okay to like two different things. We are different people and we each have different tastes. And yeah that’s true. We are all different people, but at the same time, somewhere along the line I feel like you have to start thinking about someone that you want to spend all of your time with and if you don’t share a lot of common ground, what is there to keep you together, especially if you do not already have love for one another? My answer: nothing.
Anyway, the following night I was hanging out with all my friends and showed up to a beach party late that she had already infiltrated. All my Peace Corps buddies, by the way, did not like her because they thought she was so extremely fake with everyone and I agree. She would go up to all of my friends and start hugging them as if they were long time friends. Anyway, my Peace Corps buddy Ken comes up to me and asks me to come be his wingman and he would buy me a drink in return. Thinking that it would be fine, I went. The girl then finds me there with Ken about 45 minutes later talking with this other girl. Remember she thought I was this player the whole time. She got so mad and left. I had a discussion and then I just said to her that I did not understand why I can’t just do my own thing while she does hers. The truth is that I really did not want to be with her at this point and perhaps part of me was completely okay just hanging out with other people, though I did nothing besides talk. I know that there was something ingenuine about what I did, but I felt as though she was just loving me with her eyes closed and did not want to accept what I was telling her straight on, “I don’t want to be with you.” Additionally, as I said, there was a weird power dynamic and perhaps this is the only time when I absued it. I just wanted it to be over. Anyway, she told me that didn’t want to be with a player and broke up with me. She left. Then Ken says to me, “Alrighty, I am sorry, but can you come help me with these girls?” Seeing as I had already been over with Evelyn beforehand, I said sure, again only thinking so far as to accompany my friend. Then secretively Evelyn and one of her friends comes back to visit me and finds me in the same place. Yeah. Soap opera style. So then she just left with her friend, thinking I was an awful person.
And the truth was, perhaps, yeah I can admit it. I think I treated her poorly in the end there, but I was truly happy with the breakup because I did not want to be with her anyway. I did not see or hear from her until the next evening.

The next evening she calls me from a friend’s phone and asks to talk. We sit down on a bench and I explain to her that I just can’t be with her anymore, that I just am not in that place, etc. It’s not you, it’s me. And that was the truth. I was the one who had a problem with her. She was a nice person, just not the one for me. So anyway, she then wanted to go to dinner “as friends” so we went to a nice Mexican place and invited the friend who had lent us the phone. Again, phonily confiding in my friend who she barely knew, she passed him a note during the meal which was marked but awkward silence after awkward silence, saying that I had broken up with her. Then the friend tells me that she is in love with me and that she had come to talk to reconcile with me. Again I fell into the manipulation trap and started to feel bad for her.
Cut a long story short, I take her back to her room and then she basically begs me to give her one more chance. I was about to leave for good when she pleaded me to stay and talk. She said to me, “Please can’t we just be happy here in Mancora together. My friends have left back to go to Lima and I am all alone. Please can’t we just spend a good time in Mancora together.” Stupidly I obliged.
The next day we hung out, though the entire time I resented it and was uphappy. I was sincerely doing the entire thing because I felt bad for her. We went back to Piura together and then I got on my bus and went to Lima and to the USA for a week.

The US was amazing. From the 14th when I arrived until the 22nd when I left, it was just great to see friends and family of all kinds. If I didn’t get a chance to see or talk to you all, I am sorry but I am always here via email. I probably will not be coming back to the US until end of July/beginning of August 2010 so that was the one and only time for me I think. I spent time with family on Tuesday and Wednesday, then had a little get together with Williams friends on Thursday and then went up to Williamstown for Friday and Saturday which was also really refreshing. A lot of people asked me if it was weird to be back. The truth was that yes it was in a certain sense because things had changed a great deal since when I left. I went to the Apple Store for example with Doernberger and was just completely flabbergasted at the advances in technology that I just have not seen in perú. On the other hand, my friendships and relationships and most other things felt as if it was the same as when I left. I did not feel too weird being in the US just because it felt like being at home, which never feels weird. Anyway, I had a great stay.
Then I came back to Bigote on the Thursday 23rd of April, mostly because I had to take a 15 hour bus from Lima to Piura after the 8 hour flight because to Perú.
When I got back, Evelyn acted as if we were still together. Evelyn threw me a welcome back party with the kids in the theatre group. It was a nice surprise but midway through I decided to leave to go give the soccer club some balls and jerseys that my dad had generously donated. Additionally, I really wanted to play on the team with my new cleets. So I left to go play and promised to return soon.
So I went up to play, and when I came back everyone had left. Cut a long story short, everyone was mad at me for not having returned even though they all changed locations to another place shortly after I had left. The first night back I was super tired as I said from my trip but additionally I just didn’t want to deal with breaking up with her on that first night back. The truth is too that I was kindof scared about who else she would involve to get me to stay in the relationship. So I called her and said I was tired and would see her tomorrow.
At 11pm that night, I heard the sound of rocks hitting me roof and my bed from the outside. Then I hear, “Alex! Alex!” I wake up and go outside to find her with Manuel. Manuel begins to ask me why I hadn’t come to visit her after my long trip, asking me all the questions that I didn’t want to have answered. He also questioned me on why I didn’t’ come back to see everyone with Evelyn sitting there defending Manuel instead of me. And like a coward, Evelyn pretended as though Manuel had dragged her there against her force, as if she could not stop a little kid from going to my house to wake me up. It made me mad. I told them to go home. I gave Evelyn a hug and went back to sleep.
The next night I showed up to say hello. We talked for a little bit and again I approached the subject of the fact that I didn’t have very much in common with her and that maybe this relationship wasn’t the best idea. Then she got a call from her crazy ex-boyfriend who doesn’t stop calling her for the past 5 months since they broke up. She apparently was with this guy for 9 years, starting when she was 13 and ending last year in November when she was 22. This probably was also another force in the dynamic of the relationship. Apparently he cheated on her and she did not want anything more to do with him, even though she cared deeply for him. In any case, he calls and she starts talking to him. After she gets off, I decided to leave.
About 40 minutes later, when I am asleep in my bed, yet again, those little rocks start hitting my bed through the opening between the wall and the roof and I hear “Alex! Alex!” yet again. I go outside to find Evelyn crying, telling me that her ex had called again and told her that he was coming from Cusco to see her and that he was going to hurt her or make her feel the way he does now. She seemed upset, so I consoled her and then took her back to the Health Post, where she sleeps and went back to my house.
Next day, we have the theatre group yet again for a meeting. By the way, since I left, Evelyn had taken it upon herself to meet with the kids every day of the week. As a result, they loved her so very much and did anything that she said. Basically, despite her good will, I felt as though she had robbed my youth group from me. I know that sounds ridiculous and why should I care, but the thing was that that first day when she came into the group, she said she wanted to help me and in the end, I never felt as though she helped. Anyway, then we walked the kids back to their houses and then I went to see her later on. At this point, I kissed her on the cheek to greet her as I would most other people and then she asked me why I never kiss her on the lips any more. I took this opportunity to tell her that things were not the way I wanted them to be and explained how I didn’t want to be with her. She demanded an explanation of how my feelings developed and I gave it to her. She cried and then turning over a completely new face, she said, “okay well then let’s be friends. I knew this was going to happen the whole time.” And so with that she asked me just to stay and chat for a little. We actually had a nice conversation afterwards about Perú and what its like in the jungle etc. Then we looked at our watches at it was 3am. She says to me, “Well I don’t want to wake the guardsman because he is sleeping inside and makes so little money.” Pissed off that she wouldn’t go inside, she then asks me if she could stay in my separate bedroom in my house. Again stupidly I agree.
We then go to my house and then I put her in MY bed, lock the door and then go outside to a separate room that has no door and is open to the animals. I slept that night with a duck underneath my bed. It was freaking wild. By the way, supposedly, I was to play in a soccer match the following day at midday and needed to get a good night’s rest beforehand. As it turned out, I was excluded from playing on the basis that I am not Peruvian and I was not able to play. I had participated in one match before I had left to the US. The team that I was playing for was Club Alianza Pachitea, known for being somewhat irresponsible with their drinking habits before games. Irresponsible players is pretty much the way Peruvian soccer is and why they suck so much, in my opinion at least. In any case, the club did try their hardest to get me to play but in the end the rule states that not non-Peruvian can play, even though they may have a visa or whatever else. Anyway, so back to that night, I woke up again at 6am to get her back to the Health Post early. I woke her up and then we are walking back when she tells me that it is too scandalous and she would prefer to stay a little longer and go back later. So then we go back to the original situation and then I just sleep, get woken up to have breakfast and transfer to my bed when she leaves. Obviously my host family were a little surprised to see her there but nevertheless it was not a big deal. The most surprising part was when they found me in the outside bedroom next to the corral.
So here was the situation at this point; everyone in town knows/thinks I am with her so they expect me to act a certain way with her, but at the same time, I know we are not together nor do I want to be with her. What happens is that she uses the knowledge of the town against me and obliges me to follow her around because she knows that I do not want to ruin my reputation with everyone else in town. So anyway, that Sunday I went up to the game and she was there with some of the kids and I go to say hello with them. The kids then asked me to throw a going away party for her the following day. I said I could do that for them. Then she follows me back home and basically invites herself to dinner with my family and leaves at around 8:30 on an emergency tooth problem. Thinking that was the end of her invasion into my house for the day, I go to sleep. Then yet again I hear the stones being thrown at my bed and then this time she wakes up the entire family. They let her in and they start knocking on my door at 10pm. Then she says to me that she wants to exchange photos. Pissed off yet again that this girl will not accept that I don’t want to be with her, I download the photos and then (as if I had to ask) tell her I would accompany her back to the Health Post, at which time she just tells me she would stay in our house. Jeez. So I show her the spare room and go back to bed.
The next morning at breakfast I ask her why she is spending so much time in my house. She responds that she doesn’t want anything to do with me and just comes as a friend. Confused I tell her that it makes me feel uncomfortable. Seemingly she says okay. Later on she comes by again and seemingly have a normal conversation and then she leaves. I see her at the going away party which was very nice. All the kids started crying hysterically in the middle when we made some farewell speeches. After the party, she accompanied a girl who lives opposite my house back home and then came to say hello to my family. Thinking that was the end of the road and knowing that she was leaving the following day, I sat down to rest and then she asked me if I was coming to her going away party at the health post. Yet again manipulated. I can say all of this in retrospect now that it is over. NEVER AGAIN.
So we went to the Health Post party and we had a nice meal. We were drinking for a little bit and then we started dancing. Then Evelyn wanted the party to keep going so she and the Doctor along with his girlfriend (quite a convenient foursome hunh?) went looking for booze while I tagged along far behind. Finally, we started drinking some awful wine at 2am or so. I fell asleep and when we woke up I walked Evelyn back to the Health Post and she wanted to talk outside with me so the Doctor went in alone. She was really drunk and began throwing up. I try to knock on the door to get her to go inside, as I knock on the door, she bolts running as fast as she can away. After apologizing to the watchman, I run after her. I find her walking about 100 yards from my house. Having been fed up with this craziness I turn her around and tell her she can’t stay in my house. I somewhat forcefully push her back in the direction of the Health Post until finally she turns around and says, “You are nothing to me. Don’t touch me. You are nothing and you can’t tell me what to do.” I said fine and went home to go to sleep. As I am about to turn the lights off, I see the lights go on outside in the room next to the corral. I go outside and see what she is doing. I ask her what she is doing and she says she is staying there and I have no right to say anything. Furious, I turned off the lights and went to my room. A few minutes later, I thought to myself, “How would I like to be treated?” and brought a pillow and blanket for her. Later on Paula, my host mom, found her and told her to come inside to the spare bedroom. Yet again she woke up in my house.
Might I add, that at this point most people in the neighborhood think that I have married her because the normal sequence of events is for someone to move into your house and then you are married. So I am getting all kinds of ridiculous questions when it couldn’t be further from the truth.
The next day she spent the entire day in my house making calls etc until she had to leave for the health post to go pack. I saw her in the municipality and she asked me to go see her in the health post to see her off. When I went, there was Manuel and his mom helping her pack. They pleaded with me to go with her to Piura to accompany her. I told them that there was no way that was happening. Evelyn was very late and missed the bus. I was in the Plaza de Armas with her again asking her why she was staying in my house and that it offended me that she was there, when my mom called and I decided to answer and talk. Thinking it was the last I’d seen of her, she rode off in a mototaxi.
Later on I came back to the house to find her plopped down in the middle of the living room with all of her luggage. At this point I just didn’t know what else to do. She told me that she had no option because she obviously couldn’t stay in the empty room in the Health Post instead of in my house. We went to sleep and then I woke up and had to do some things so I left early without really talking with her, not that I wanted to.
I came back for lunch and she was still there. I told her again that she had no respect for me because she just wouldn’t listen to me when I said I didn’t want her in my house. Thinking she had to finish packing, she left the table. I later realized she went to cry. Then the bus came and she left, crying and giving my host mother kisses. I can’t tell you how happy I was to see her go.
So she left and sent me some nasty messages and then came back the following Friday, May 1st for a dance that the Health Post was putting on.
I saw her at the dance and was cordial and explained that I never meant any harm, but she needed to let go of me and move on with her life. All true. What was the weirdest part what her manic attitude towards me, saying sometimes, “You are a special person to me and always will be.” And then later on saying, “You are nothing to me. You mean nothing. Don’t tell me what to do.” I danced with her a little bit and then she left. For good. She stayed the weekend in another house. I saw little of her and then went to Piura on Sunday and didn’t see her leave. Somehow I don’t feel like it is the last I will see of her though. Can someone say obsessed? I hear rumors of her wanting to come some time in June. Knowing that she knows my birthday is the 19th and that that day falls on a Friday of a weekend, I feel like she might be planning it for then. I tell you that I might be planning a trip somewhere else.

It was a soap opera-esque drama series that I hope will never happen again in my life. It really all stemmed from the fact that I felt bad for her and truthfully did not have enough guts to break up with her when I should have. My advice to all: Just suck it up and break up if you don’t feel that thing, because you’ll make it worse for both in the end if you don’t.
So that’s my story. That’s about all I have for right now. I think I have spoken for a good ole time and now we can just digest what has been said. All 12 pages worth. Enjoy.

Suerte a todos,
Peace Corps Volunteer
Alejandro
Over and Out.

PS. Funny thing happened the other day that I thought I might just mention: So we have ducks and the mother duck had 6 baby ducklings. We now have 3. Ask me how we lost the other three? 2 were eaten by dogs and one fell down the latrine hole when the mother duck wandered in there. Obviously shortly thereafter the duckling died of suffocation, immersed in a mountain of human feces and urine. Great way to die, hunh? Anyone want some duck?

Hello folks:

So sorry for not having updated in a while. Especially for those who are desperate to find about the novelties that exist in my life. The truth is that the longer that I seem to spend in Perú the more I seem to be accostumed to the life here and the easier it all feels. With that I guess time just seems to pass by without me realizing and a find myself one month later needing to update this blog because so much seems to have happened even though it all went by so quickly.

Well the last time I updated this was some time in mid February so let me think what has happened since then. Well as for my activities in Bigote, I was teaching Vacaciones Utiles, which are basically summer school classes here during the month of January up until the end of February right before I left Bigote for a few days for the 20th of February. The Vacaciones Utiles was fun mostly because the kids here are so adorable and I love kids so much. I do not know why I have always enjoyed being around little kids especially but I am pretty sure it is just because they are so innocent and pure. Kids are a young age seem less corrupted by the needs and desires that our cultures impose on them, saying that we need to have toys and money and power and a good job. Kids seem pretty content just to play around and as long as you give them some attention they do not really care. I think above all it is just the knowledge that when a kid looks you in the eye, he is usually not judging you – thinking to himself any number of possible thoughts. You need not worry because somehow the kid is just there in front of you just to BE with you. And the kids here are especially cute. There was one girl for instance during the Vacaciones that for some reason was completely afraid of me. She thought I was a monster or something because of my skin color and would start to cry and going into hysterics whenever I entered the room. As a matter of fact of the 4 classes that I taught in that class, she had to leave and go home for every single one of them. But then one day towards the end of the summer school session, she came up to me with her mother and said “Hola.” Then rather innocently she began to touch my arm and pull on the little hairs, or peach fuzz as my dad affectionately likes to call it, on my arm. Peruvians in general have almost zero body hair. They have absolutely no chest hair and very little hair on their legs or arms, but generally have very thick dark hair on their head. I mean I wouldn’t consider myself a very hairy gorilla man like some people I knew on the swim team at Williams, but I do have some hair on my legs and arms in addition to the fact that my hair is obviously a different color than everyone around here. As a result, to this little girl, the hair on my arms was very weird. But she just started to stroke those little hairs as if I was a dog or something. It was just so cute I thought. Now she waves to me whenever I see her so I think she isn’t afraid of the big bad hairy Gringo anymore. Those moments along with the moments when little 6 year olds give me a hug are those moments when you just enjoy life. Maybe not everyone out there enjoys being with kids as much as I do because to be sure, sometimes they do not listen to you and all shout at you at the same time and just want to play and can just in general seem like such brats, but at the end of the day I think those hugs or cute little moments outweigh all the others for me. It’s hard to hate little kids when they give you a hug and can barely get their arms above your knees.

As for what I was actually teaching during the Vacaciones, I was asked to teach English because naturally because I am from the United States I am perfectly qualified to be teaching English to younger kids. In any case, I see those opportunities as a chance to get to know the kids and maybe talk about some important concepts about health, self-esteem, teamwork and leadership. So for example one class I gave was about nutrition and I put up the Food Pyramid and started talking about a balanced diet and then I would mention some names of some foods in English. So was I give an English class or a nutrition class. Well maybe a little of both to be sure, but perhaps working towards something that is more immediately needed in their culture. So that was a good experience and now most of the little kids (ages 4-12) in the town know who I am.

As a matter of fact, though I was teaching completely free of charge (there were 5 other professors who were teaching there under agreement with the Municipality), the professor in charge of the program, I can’t remember his name right now, made what is called a resolution for each of the participants including me that said that we participated in the program. The truth is that in Peru if there is not written evidence that a certain program or event happened on paper to give to someone as proof, it is as good as never happened. As a result there is generally a huge paper trail for any event or program. A resolution is a document written and signed by some authority, in this case the mayor of Bigote, that says that X event happened. It can be used for career advancement as well which is why so many people want them. Of course the resolution does not mean very much to me, in the same way as a certificate that I give to someone for completely a workshop with me would not really mean much to their career advancement because I have no sway with anyone in Peru. Nevertheless, it was a nice gesture. The truth was however that I was not even able to be present to receive the resolution in person on the last day of the summer vacation course because I was on my way to Cajamarca for the Festival of Carnaval. O and if you think that it was really irresponsible of me to skip out on the last day of the schooling, let me remind you of two things: 1. The last day was simply to give out certificates to the participants of the summer school with the mayor present and hand out some snacks and dance. It was basically a party that I missed which in my opinion was missable. 2. I showed up every day to teach during the month. I never missed one day. The other 5 professors who were getting paid as opposed to me who was a volunteer, all missed at least 1 day of teaching during the small period of 16 days schooling days. In the end, I think the Summer Vacation course did very little to help the kids because the tests at the end of the course used as evaluation basically had the same results as the kids had when the went in. Nevertheless, I think I was able to reach a few of them with even a few words.

On to Cajamarca. So for those of you are unfamiliar with the holiday celebration, Carnaval is basically Mardi Gras in latin America. The most famous celebration is done in Rio de Janiero where they have an incredible parade of typical dresses of Brazil and have a huge exhibition of different typical dinner dishes and so forth. Cajamarca is supposed to have the second biggest celebration of Carnaval in the world, but it is completely different. In Cajamarca, for the month leading up to the 40 days of the Pentecost every starts throwing water balloons at each other. I do not have any idea if there is some supposed religious significance to any of this by the way. On the Saturday before Ash Wednesday, in the city of Cajamarca and in some other places such as San Pablo where a friend Ken happens to be a volunteer, the people of cajamarca leave the houses with buckets of paint filled in large groups and literally paint the town. There is a huge parade throughout the whole day, a huge party with people drinking beer, rum, the corn beer chichi (of a very different flavor to the that of Piura), and painting anyone and everyone the whole day. I naturally wanted to be a part of this crazy party, I mean, “cultural experience.” So I traveled to Cajamarca on the night of Thursday and arrived in Cajamarca on the Friday morning. Among the other Cajamarcan volunteers, my friend Glenn, Mark (who happens to be from Hilton Head South Carolina where I went for a week right before graduation) among other people both PCVs and Peruvians alike were there. By the way, I spent the entire day of Thursday in Chiclayo in the province adjacent to Piura, Lambeyeque, waiting for the bus to leave for Cajamarca. As a result I spent the greater part of the afternoon at the beach with Mark and another PCV Dave, both volunteering in Lambayeque. A few months ago I went to visit Mark actually. His site is right on the border with Piura and only about 3 hours from where I am. As I read that last sentence I realize how funny that might seem to a lot of you guys out there. I guess trip time seems not to matter that much to me anymore. To go to Piura from Bigote every 2 weeks or so, I have a standard 2.5 hour trip. It has become so easy that 3 hours now seems like a piece of cake. Maybe those trips might seem long to you all. Anyway, I diverge. So I went to the beach in Chiclayo where another girl happens to be volunteering called Puerto Eten. It was a pretty nice beach I’d say. We just spent the afternoon in the sun and had a few cool beers. Then as the sun went down, we went inside and had a wonderful ceviche, the raw fish with lemon dish that is perhaps the most typical dish of Peru. Then we headed back and had a burger from the street that was absolutely delicious though probably disgustingly unhealthy not only in terms of nutrition but in terms of cleanliness. Funny anecdote: Dave was by this point somewhat drunk and had previously decided that he wouldn’t be going to Carnaval because he had just gotten back from a trip with his family. Nevertheless, if it hadn’t been for the fact that the tickets were sold out, we would have gotten Dave onto the bus because we had convinced him to come. Ha ha. That would’ve been quite the waker-upper, “Where am I?” “Oh hey bud. Welcome to Cajamarca.”

Another quick anecdote: So the three of us were just chilling on the beach throwing a frisbee around and then an older man comes over to me and says (translated), “Hello young man. I’d like to introduce you to my daughter.” He then leads me over to the family and the daughter who was there. I introduced myself and the Peace Corps and what I was doing in Chiclayo. Then in not so many words, the father asked me to take his daughter out on a date. The girl who had barely said a word up until this point just shyly looked over at me and smiled. The whole scenario just seemed surreal to me, but then the kicker was that I then started to talk to her, we exchanged phone numbers and then I casually asked how old she was. Response: 15. YIKES! I then casually worked my way out of the conversation and said goodbye. I guess the age thing is not really a problem for people around here seeing as they start having babies at 14. Thanks but no jailbait for me. I guess that’s a nice little story for the books.

Back to Cajamarca. So we dedicated most of Friday to finding paint and costumes. As a matter of fact, Mark was a male cheerleader at the University of South Carolina. Anyway, he got it into his mind to dress up as a team of gay gringos so that was what we did. I might have been a little bit of a risky venture I must say. The pictures tell all. I have had some trouble uploading photos recently which is why I haven’t been able to post more, but I promise that by mid-April all the photos of my experiences until then will be posted because I will be making my great return as most of you know April 13th and will be able upload my pictures from home. Back to the gay gringos. So I basically dressed up as a gay Rambo. I had a huge supersoaker in one hand and bucket of waterbaloons and paint in the other. I had on a pair of booty shorts and a tight tank top. Yeah, it was priceless I am sure you can imagine. Anyway, pretty much all of Saturday I was just touring around the city of Cajamarca with Peruvians and fellow volunteers mostly getting painted but occasionally painting others as well. It was absolutely crazy.

Then we went back to the Hostal and took a wonderfully refreshing and long shower, mostly because of how long it took to wash off all the paint. Some people were pretty freaking awful though putting paint almost directly into my eyes or throwing clay or kerosene or even shoe polish. It is basically an uncontrollable brawl. Then at the night time in the town square of Cajamarca there the most incredible celebration where people start banging drums and waving flags of all kinds. There is one awesome shot of me with Mark waving a Che Guevara flag. Obviously for a lot of Peruvians it was just a drunken mess. Of the two nights I was there both nights were crazy in the town square, but the first night ended late and there was a huge fight with people throwing beer bottles at one another. Even a security guard was thrown into the middle of it and got severely cut up by one bottle. It was absolutely nuts.

As a side note: normally I never eat very much American style food here in Peru, but in Cajamarca we had the distinct pleasure of eating a pretty decent Pizza at La Vaca Loca, or the Crazy Cow. A nice little treat I’d say.

The only other major event of my stay in Cajamarca occurred on Sunday when Edson (another PCV friend), Mark, Nate (another Cajamarca PCV) and some others went to Los Baños del Inca. It was actually the site where the Conquistator was said to have held random the King of the Incas. He held him ransom for the amount of gold that it would take to fill up a room in the town square where the King was held. In any case, baños del Inca is a place of hot springs where people go to take hot showers and baths because a lot of people don’t have hot water or maybe not even running water. We made our excursion a little different and made it into a 4 hour extravanganza of taking ridiculous pictures in the hot tub and just hanging out. I think we were only supposed to stay in the hot tub for 30 minutes but we ended up staying there for so much longer. It’s hard to explain exactly what the hot tub is like, but basically they have found a way to tap the hot springs and have the hot water running through tubes. So now they have large private baths in separate rooms down a hallway and you pay for a room to use for a certain amount of time and size of the tub. They were actually surprisingly cleanly and very comfortable though small.

From Cajamarca, I went back to Chiclayo in anticipation for a workshop with the Peace Corps called Project Design and Management. It is a great workshop to get clear with members of the community on how to progress with projects in the community with or without the help of a Peace Corps Volunteer. It basically starts with step one of the establishing a vision for a project and then following through to the small objectives, the budget needed and materials and time frame. In any case, on that occasion I had invited Armando from Bigote to meet me in Chiclayo on that Monday evening. As it turned out he had to present his thesis to his thesis advisor that week and at the last minute cancelled on me. Things like that happen all the time around here – people canceling on you at the last minute that is. No one really cares about advanced warning. I mean I completely understood where Armando was coming from; he had to present his thesis and he needs to get his degree, so you have to do what you’ve got to do.


Anyway, so I had to spend that night and then the next day I was speaking to the boss, Kitty for a few hours and we got carried away and so I ended up missing my bus back to Piura. So I stayed another day and hung out with Mark who had been in Chiclayo too. We went to see the movie Changeling in the movie theatres which was impressive. (I have also since seen Slumdog Millionaire and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, both of which were also incredible movies.)

So then I went back to Bigote to find that nothing much had changed with my recycling project and so I went to plead with the mayor and Muncipal manager to come through for me by giving the necessary materials to start collecting the recyclables. I started doing my theatre group that had started to go defunct towards the end of January and then a dentist who is interning in the health post until the end of April entered one day and given that she was pretty good with kids, in a way that a male guy such as myself could not be, she helped revamp the group. So since then I have been meeting with the kids twice a week to do a little thinking exercises about themselves to improve their self-esteem. It has been really great actually. I keep looking up new games and things to do with the kids and they have been really receptive. It brings me back to my days at Choate when I did acting class with Mrs. Delvanthal and did all kinds of improv games. Improv was always my favorite just because it required such quick thinking. We do a lot of those kinds of games.

So I did that and then went back to Piura for the 1st of March for planning for a camp similar to the one we did in January (CAMP ALMA) but instead of the target group being girls it is going to be adolescent boys. I may have mentioned a really good boy named Manuel before who has been participating in my youth groups with me (the World Map, the Social Theatre, Computer Classes etc.) He is really charismatic even though he comes from a poor family and his mother is pretty unstable – for example, she tried to just take him and his two brothers to Lima on a whim the other day. Thankfully they returned after a few days. In any case, the camp for boys is called Camp VALOR. Apparently I got put in charge of writing the SPA Grant that will fund the project from USAID and also am in charge of the major activity planning for the weekend. Sheesh! Actually I am very excited about the project, but it will be a decent amount of work, much more work for me than the ALMA camp.

Here’s another interesting somewhat strange story from that weekend: So the dentist who I just mentioned who has been helping me with the theatre group, her name is Evelyn, has been very nice and kind to me. She is 23 so around my age and hails from the city of Lima, and as a matter of fact the very posh ritzy area of Miraflores, where there is the fancy mall and where all the tourists go to live. She goes to the best Medical School there (she hasn’t finished here studies because her time in Bigote is like an internship to help complete her studies.) So she comes from a very different life and had a really hard time adapting to life here and so she and I became friends. She was also coming to an English class that I was teaching here, but even so most of our interactions were mostly within the context of the group and nothing terribly personal. Anyway, she went to Piura with me a few weekends ago and we did some errands and such together. It has been really interesting getting to know someone from the Peruvian upper class, especially while living in Bigote. It’s almost funny how she complains to me about not having hot water, and for me, at this point, it seems completely normal. I almost want to say that she is spoiled if it were not for the fact that I was in that exact position barely a few months ago in addition to the fact that having hot water hardly seems like such a tall order. I guess more than anything I haven’t really know anyone who has been used to having the best amenities, the best food and the highest quality of everything. I think she pities me and thinks that I am having a terrible time here in Bigote given that it is so different from my country. Funnily I bet I am happier here in Bigote than she is. Annnyway, she’ll be leaving at the end of April so it will be yet another friend in passing. She actually invited me to a Grupo Cinco concert this Saturday, so that should be pretty fun. Grupo Cinco is of course the most popular Kumbia band in the country. It should be a good time.

One last thing is that the stuff for the recycling project finally arrived! After 4 months of waiting it is finally here. We handed out the plastic bags yesterday and we are starting to collect the products in the coming weeks. We will see how it all works out but I am glad to finally get started with it. More updates to come on this to be sure.

Not too much more to update, other than that I am trying to build a bathroom for my family here in Bigote and I am trying to collect some donations to help me do that project. The house does have plumping, sewage and sanitation pipes so I know that the house has the infrastructure to do it, it is just that none of it has been installed and they do not have the money to build it so I would like to help towards the betterment of their living situation. Anything would be really helpful. Every cent of your money will be spent towards building a complete bathroom for the family and any money left over will be spent towards improving the living conditions of the house. Every day there are tons of NGO’s and institutions asking for your money towards a cause. Perhaps most if not all of these of these organizations are dedicated to a good cause. But the truth is that in most cases, you do not where you money will end up going. I have promised the next two years of my life to being here in San Juan de Bigote and will continue to dedicate myself to this town’s development. I promise you that you money will be put to good use to help others if you so choose to donate. Please take a moment, whatever your personal economic situation might be, and take the time to think of how well a few of your dollars might be put to use helping to improve an impoverished family who does not even have a bathroom. Anyway, for those of you that want to help, let me know.

Another side note is that I am coming back to the US on April 13 and staying until the 27th. It should be a great time, but I would love to see as many people as possible during my time but at the same time I am trying to keep myself within the New York area. Please let me know if we can coordinate a time to meet up. I am also thinking of having a party for the Friday night of the 17th of April in New York city. Let me know if you’d like to be a part of it. Addtionally, I will be going up to Williamstown, home of my alma matter Williams College, for an alumni tournament the following weekend and hope to be there from the Friday night until the following Monday morning (at the very least) so there should be plenty of time for us all to hang out.

Alrighty that’s it for now.
Suerte a todos,
Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,
Peace Corps Volunteer Alejandro
Over and Out.

Hello folks:

Two more weeks down in the Peace Corps service and boy does the time fly by. Sometimes I feel like my service is just about making myself avaibable to opportunities when they present themselves. Maybe this is just the philosopher in me talking, but I am getting the hunch that that is kindof what life is about in general: making yourself open to opportunities that present themselves and taking them if it is towards something you like/want to do.

In any case, let’s recap. I left you all when I was at the ALMA camp with a bunch of the Peace Corps Volunteers and a bunch of girls from our various communities. I came in with the two girls that I had decided to bring, both with rather strange names to the average American, Jubitza and Jaswinder. I always find myself asking little kids to repeat themselves when they tell me their names because they usually sound so odd. One kid named Estali Lebniez, clearly a butchering of Stalin, the ruthless dictator and Leibniz, the mathematician, was one in particular that threw me for a loop. For those who are just picking up on the thread and are asking themselves, “What the hell is ALMA?”, the answer is very simple. It stands for Actividades de Liderazgo para Mujeres Adolescentes. Translated that means a Leadership Activity for Adolesent/Teen Women. It was composed entirely of girls from different communities in Piura and Tumbes, the two most northernmost provinces where there are volunteers. As it turned out there were 16 volunteers who brought 22 girls to the camp.

The camp started after lunch on January 16 and ended by lunchtime on January 18, so it was basically a 48 intensive workshop. The idea of the camp is to give girls the opportunity to share with others from all across the province and also for them to participate in activities and interact with people that could encourage them to move forward in their lives by being leaders in their communities and also simply for themselves by finding work and taking the necessary risks to pursue what they most want to do. We had three speakers come to visit, one was a younger woman who had overcome hardships in her family, finding odd jobs and doing whatever needed to be done to pay for her education to finally achieve her new life as a professional working at an NGO in Peru. Another speaker was the doctor for the Peace Corps who also had overcome some hardships in her family to fight for her education and finally become a doctor with a prestigious organization such as the Peace Corps. The last woman, though perhaps the least dynamic of the three, talked a little about her life as an entrepreneur and realizing your dreams. Each speaker was supposed to be something of an inspirational speaker for the group and I think that they all took something special away from each one.

Apart from these speakers, we had some campy somewhat cheesy but in the end useful activities for the girls. Like for example we had one game where we put a bunch of random materials in a box and then selected one person from the group to step outside and name all the things that she had seen in the box while the rest of the group as a whole recounted what was in the box. Of course, the result was that working together as a group always yields better results than one single person. We also had a blind-fold activity where the girls had to trust each other and walk hand in hand. I led a few of the activities, such as one where the girls had to throw a ball to another and remember their name. Initially it was slow going but after a few rounds they got in to it and it was a success. Another thing that I led that was a big success was a list of riddles that the girls had to figure out before they were given permission to leave the cafeteria. I am not trying to say that all my activities were necessarily a big hit because I led them, but they were successful as were many other activities over the course of the weekend. As always, there were some hiccups but I think it went pretty smoothly. The doctor of the Peace Corps was great for the girls and we also showed the movie Mulan as a demonstration for them to think about gender relations and overcoming stereotypes and machismo, themes that are very prevalent in Peruvian (and Latin American) culture. On the Sunday afternoon, I brought the girls to the bus station and put them on the bus. I actually did not travel with them back to site (I obviously let the parents know about that beforehand) because there was a regional meeting for all of Tumbes and Piura the following Monday so I decided to stay in.

I was able to do some errands and talk with Wilfredo, our regional coordinator as well as some other volunteers on some important things that I am doing within site. The main thing was with regard to the trash collection business that I am trying to start around here. Jeez has it been a long wait to get them to do something around here. I feel like I go to the Muncipality every other day to ask for some kind of update with them always saying, “The stuff is coming this coming week. We will let you know.” Let me rephrase that. I spoke with the Muncipal Manager/ Administator once at the beginning of January to check in with him about the project and he told me that the materials should be coming within the following week. It is of course 5 weeks later at this point. What happened in the meantime you ask? Oh, the manager went to Lima on some urgent business and obviously left no one in charge of his duties and thus, my project was left hanging. When I went looking for the Mayor, the Municipal Mananger’s superior, he too was out of town. When I went asking others, they told me that they could not help me. Additionally, when I went looking for the Engineer who had helped me to set up the project, he too was on vacation. At that point, about 3 weeks ago, I just decided to let it go and wait until someone else wanted to get something done. Then the other day I went into the Municipality to check in with my counter part Armando, and lo and behold, there was the Manager. I set up a meeting with him and the Engineer for this coming Wednesday at 4pm to talk about how the project will move going forward. Wish me luck on that one. I think I will respectfully say something to the effect of, “In my culture, leaving a main project such as this without any supervision for over a month is a sign of disrespect.” Just to make him understand that it really is not cool, though I am pretty sure it is the same in this culture. Anyway, so I got some information for some other volunteers during my time in Piura for those days. Plus, as always, it was really nice to just relax in a nice bed with hot water. Ha ha. O the luxuries hunh?

Of course the day after that, the 20th, was the inauguration of the newest hero in American history: Barrack Obama. I don’t actually remember ever watching an inauguration before so I don’t have much to compare it to, however, his speech was excellent and I am always just wowed by his tenacity, charisma and power. I know that everyone is led to a different path in their lives; some follow their callings more than others. The bottom line is that I think he has found his and I really enjoy watching him.

Since then, I have just been in Bigote, enjoying my life in the campo. When I returned that Wednesday, I got word that some teachers were going to be starting a summer school program for the Primary school students. Of course, I realized that would be a great opportunity for me to help the community and get my foot in the door with some of the kids. I decided to volunteer myself for English classes, though the truth is that I mix some exercises about working together as a team and other dynamic exercises focused on self-esteem into my classes, but nevertheless, most of the kids who go to the summer school (which estimates at around 150 students) all know my name and all say Hello to me in the street and some have even got the ABC’s and 123’s down. It is kindof a cool little thing for me to do that has helped me pass the time. I teach Monday through Thursday in the mornings. I also play board games such as checkers, chess, and chinese checkers with some of the kids during recess. I think it has been another good experience for the kids to learn how to play those games because it forces them to apply the knowledge of mathematics that the learned in the classroom. Of course, my experiences at Choate and Williams definitely taught me that being able to apply formulas and theories to situations is just as important as knowing those formulas and theories themselves.

Also a girl who is going to be studying at a technical institute later on in the year wanted to learn how to use the computer. Naturally I said of course and we had been having two classes every week in the evening for her to learn about the computer. Given that I was teaching computer classes during October and November, it has been pretty easy for me to pick that up too. Another little class that was asked of me was an English class by some workers in the Muncipality. So now we are doing that twice a week as well. I feel like it is so much easier to help people when they come to you. The only thing is making yourself available so that they do come to ask you. I think that by now sufficient people know my role and what I can teach that it has become easier to start thing going.

As for what else I have been doing, I have been reading a bunch and also I have been playing a bunch of futbito with the people who play everyday in the Minicoliseo. It has been bittersweet for me to play because on the one hand I have made some good friends playing, but given that every day that bet on who is going to win and I seem to always find myself on the losing team and usually playing goalie and making mistakes along the way between the two posts, that it is hard not to get frustrated. Nevertheless, I do enjoy the time I get to do some athletic activity and forge new bonds of friendship.

By the way, to those who are reading this, I have recently planned a trip to return back to the US during the month of April. I will be arriving in New York for the 14th of April and spending my time in New York with family and anyone else who wants to see me. Then on the 17th I will be heading up to Williamstown for the Annual Vitruvian Shootout Water Polo Tournament. I will up there for Friday, Saturday and Sunday and Monday and then returning back to the city for Tuesday to get ready before my flight that Wednesday. I’d love to see as many people as possible so just let me know, the only snag is that I am trying to keep myself in one location to make things a little easier on the traveling for me. Anyway, hopefully all that want to see me can do so for the limited time I will be back.

Well that’s about it for now.
Suerte a todos,
Peace Corps Volunteer Alejandro
Over and Out.

Hey folks,

So I have some good news and some bad news and an update. The update is that my burns have healed sufficiently though they did last for a week longer. Boy o boy am I going to remember to wear a shirt or put way more sunblock on the next time I go to the beach.

The bad news is that I cut my eyebrow when I was playing soccer and needed two stiches. First time I ever needed stiches in my life, but it has since healed pretty well. I will explain the situation for all of you out there that are about to call up the Peace Corps thinking about how unsafe my life is here. I was playing for a team in a tournament during the town fiesta that was held from January 8th to January 12th. In any case, I was playing and I jumped up in the air for a header and followed the ball right into another guy’s head. We hit and actually I had not noticed that I was bleeding until the referee said to me a minute later, “Gringo, botas sangre a todos lados” which basically means, gringo you are bleeding all over the place. It really didn’t hurt very much, but then I touched my forehead and felt the blood and the bump where I had hit the other guy. I also noticed that the blood was all down my cheek, not to be too graffic or anything. Anyway, someone gave me a tissue to blot the blood and then they kept looking at it and telling me that I needed stiches. So eventually after I was assessed by several people, I decided to go to the health post, accompanied by my amigo Ivan, who saw the whole thing there.

At the health post I told them what had happened and then waited for the doctor to assess me. He told me I needed stiches to my dismay. I, of course, would prefer not to have anything but he told me that if I didn’t I would have a huge cicatriz or scar. As a result I gave in. From there the procedure was fairly simple: they sat me down, put some local anesthetic on the wound and then he sowed me up, 2 small stiches. The only small snaffoo was the fact that I was sweating so much because literally I had just come from playing about 1 hour of football. So another helper had to come in and swab me down while the doctor was working.

After that I had to fill out a bunch of paper work and pay a much higher fee because I didn’t have any insurance. By a much higher fee, I mean I had to pay 30 soles instead of 5. And the drama continues….

So I got the stiches on January 8th and got them out last Saturday. When I went back to the health post to get the stitches out, it was the recently assigned Dental Nurse who took the stitches out. I mean the procedure is fairly simple: you cut the stitches and pull the other end out. I do not know what it was that got me, maybe the fact that I was in the middle of freaking nowhere in Peru getting stiches taken out, but that’s just a guess. Anyway, in the middle of her taking the second stitch out, I began to feel faint and had to ask her for a minute. I think I just needed some air or water or both, but in the end I did not faint completely, I just kindof felt nauseous for a moment and then I layed down and I was fine. So that was the episode of the two stiches I got in Perú. Now I have a very small scar above my eyebrow as a memory. I probably would have preferred a framed photo but I guess I will settle for this.


As I mentioned, the big development over the past two weeks was the town fiesta which basically lasted the past week. The town fiesta is supposedly in honor of the patron saint of the cross. With that said, I have never seen such drunkenness in my life and trust me, I know what I mean when I say that. People started drinking for 4 days straight at 9 am in the morning and drank the entire day. The most common drinks were chicha, the fermented corn juice and beer.

People continue to ask me what are the differences in drinking habits here versus in the US. I’d basically summarize it by saying that Peruvians are binge drinkers. They save up (or use the little they have) and buy a bunch of beer and drink it with the explicit purpose of getting drunk. Apart from the college culture where binge drinking is of course clearly very popular, I’d say Americans are much more moderate in their drinking habits. I have not seen or heard of a Peruvian only drinking one beer and then going home or drinking the beer for the taste. People drink the 1.5 liter bottle in twelves (a caja or case of beer) at a time.

Anyway, lots of drunkness. We had guys just passing out on the side of the street and of course seeing as there really is no sewage system, people were just peeing all over the place in public spaces. I felt like I was on the set of Animal House Gone Peruvian for a week. Nevertheless, if you really don’t want to drink very much, the easy way to avoid getting drunk is simply to take a little bit in the glass that gets pasted to you. You can just fake drinking. It was not a very big obstacle for me at this point.

The town also filled with little traveling kioskos that sell anything from pots and pans to videos to clothes of all kinds. There were little traveling game stands that seemed absolutely ridiculous to me. One game was shooting a rifle to hit and cut a piece of paper that held a prize like a DVD or music or a candy of some short. I played that game and then determined that it was rigged because no one could ever knock any of the prizes down, including myself, despite the fact that I hit the paper perfectly 3 times. There was another ridiculous game in which people threw 10 cents coins onto little tablets that had a number value. If the penny landed exactly in the middle of the tab without touching the edges, the person won the value on the tablet. If not, the money was for the owner of the game. It is almost impossible to win at that game, but people play for diversion more than anything. There were also a bunch of temporary restaurants called ranchos set up all around the church where people drank and ate throughout the day. It was all pretty surreal for a religious festival.

Apart from the aforementioned football tournament, they were supposed to have a running race which they call a marathon even though it has got to be only about 2-3 km. On the day that they were supposed to have the marathon, it started raining hard and we couldn’t do it so it was cancelled along with the cycling race.

Maybe I forgot to mention this but we have now entered the rainy season. It rains pretty hard in the afternoon and late night and then in the mornings it clears up a little bit to be able to go outside. I looked out the front door the other day and road was like a river filled to the brim with water.

Two cumbia orquestras came to town to play, one was a more locally popular band, though still pretty popular called Corazon Serrano. That band was was more upbeat and their hit song is ironically a song called Eres mi cerveza or “You are my beer.” That just is so romantic, isn’t it?

I actually did not go to that dance because I was tired and still taking some antibiotics for my stitches. Nevertheless, the other dance, the main event dance, was with another famous cumbia band called Agua Marina. The dance was probably my favorite night in Peru so far. The main reason it was so fun was not only because the band was really entertaining but also because it was pouring down with rain. Everyone who had entered was completely drenched and it did not matter at all. Of course everyone would later say that they saw me dancing the night away not only because of how I tower above the short Peruvian crowd, but also because I was so drenched and wearing a white shirt that showed my whiter skin to the rest of the crowd. I was dancing with a group of local Peruvians and we were just jumping up and down. We even did a congo line. The best image I can give to you is of me at the end of the dance dancing the local dance, the marinera, which requires Lord of the Dance-Michael-Flatley-esque leg kicks, kicking puddles of water up while my female counterpart did the same. Of course, the other funny thing was that everyone wanted to dance with the gringo. People were even taking pictures of me like paparazzi or something. When I would look at them and ask if they wanted to take a picture, they stood still as if some deity had spoken to them. I always get a kick out of it. Sometimes I wonder if when I go back to the US, if I am a going to feel a let down from not being so famous anymore.

The saying after that night has been that Agua Marina played with Agua Divina, meaning the band Agua Marina (meaning Marine Water) played with Divine Water (meaning the Rain.) Definitely a good time. One of those good cultural exchanges I think.

In other news, of the 12 sons and daughters that señor Jose has, 2 more arrived this past Sunday to spend some time with the family during the fiesta. It is unknown exactly when they will be leaving but I am assuming that they are going to be spending some time in Bigote, perhaps a week or maybe a month. I have asked them but they just tell me when they no longer have any money. I don’t know if that’s always the best way to go but hey, that’s what they want to do, right?

Anyhow, one of Jose’s sons, Julian, has a wife, Janet, and a son of 7 years old, Yaimer and a daughter of 1 and a half named Naomi. Another son named Miguel also came too but he was a product of José other wife. Nevertheless, both were very nice and definitely partook in the festivities. Funnily enough, despite the fact that Julian does drink a fair amount, Janet is an evangelical. Here in Peru, evangelicals as part of their testament to God do not dance or drink. I have been with some on occasion in a party type setting but most people don’t understand why they don’t drink and sometimes really pressure them to do so. There was even a toast with champagne and everyone wanted this guy to drink even though it was against his religion. Before they could pressure more I decided to help the guy out and just took the glass from him. Maybe it looked like I was some kind of alcoholic, but I just wanted to help the guy out, I mean it was only a small glass.

In other news, I have been continuing with my projects with the kids. I have a few regular kids about 5 of them who come to all the meetings. I want to start rehearsing for a show but they are still so timid that I don’t think they are ready, even though the truth is that they are probably getting bored of just playing games all the times. Obviously I will keep figuring it out as I go. My recycling project that I solicited a long time ago has still not materialized though I continue to push the Municipal Manager about it. He tells me that they are buying all of the materials and they are just waiting on some materials. But we shall see when they come around.

This weekend we have had the ALMA workshop. As I had mentioned before, it is basically a self-esteem and leadership workshop for young adolescent women. We had speakers and fun games and such throughout the weekend. It was a great activity to do to feel like I had actually made a difference of some kind with the community doing a comprehensive workshop like this. As it turns out it was a lot of fun. But more on ALMA for the next entry. For right now I leave with the fact that peace, happiness and suffering is all dependent on your state of mind and that absolutely nothing is impossible.

Gotta go catch my bus.

Suerte a todos,
Peace Corps Volunteer Alejandro
Over and Out.

Hello folks:

Yes I know it has been a long while since my last entry. I am truly sorry for the delay seeing as I know a number of you like to read these entries to know whether or not I am still alive. While I will immediately assure you that I am completely healthy, sane and safe, the truth is that I have just recently returned from about 3 weeks of hectic travels to Pacasmayo, Huanchaco, back to Piura and Bigote then down to Lima, Cusco and then back up to Piura and Bigote and then one more trip to Piura, not to mention passing Christmas and the Anniversary of the Province of Bigote in Bigote.

The two main reasons for such traveling has been a) the Reconnect Peace Corps conference held in Pacasmayo and b) my mom coming to Peru to visit me.

Both were very enjoyable but now as I write this I am in a small way glad to be back in my little hut in Bigote hunched over my computer in my bed taking a rest from traveling and taking a moment to reflect on it all.

Given that so many things have happened in the past month or so, I think it will probably just be better to hit the highlights.

Reconnect: Reconnect is something that was started in Perú a few years ago to give new volunteers an opportunity to share ideas for their future two years of service. It is a time when volunteers have a time to take a break from their first 3 months of adapting to their new community and get to see all the people that they shared their first 3 months of training with. The truth is that it is 3 days of people giving power point presentations about their communities. That part did get a bit boring to tell the truth. Though it is fun and interesting to look at different peoples communities, the details that we were required to include, things about the demografics of the community and parts of our diagnostic study (our study of the needs and opportunities in the communities), could probably be left out. I feel like it was not exactly necessary that there are 423 people in the middle of nowhere in Lambayeque province in Perú. Not to be mean or anything, I mean the truth is that I barely even think it is important for me to know. In any case, there were a lot of those presentations and then some others given to us refreshing us about health and safety.

The three highlights of reconnect were first that it took place during Thanksgiving and a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner was prepared for all of us which was absolutely delicious even though its hard not to think about that pumpkin pie and football back in the US. Second was the fact that it took place in Pacasmayo which is right on the beach so that means that every afternoon right after the sessions were over we all went to the beach and hung out and usually played some American football. Just writing that I realize how ridiculous this all might sound – playing American football in the burning heat sun on a beach in Perú for Thanksgiving. At least for me, that image just seems so un-Thanksgiving it seems funny. Neverthelesss, it was really nice. I failed to mention of course that we stayed in a pretty nice hotel (read: I got to sleep on a really nice mattress and bed) and also the event took place at a resort-type complex that had all types of games like ping-pong, cards, and foosball. I felt like I was not living a Peace Corps life for a few days. It was a much-needed break in the luxury sense of the word. Thirdly and perhaps most obviously, it was really nice to just get to talking and sharing with all the other guys and gals who are going through a similar type of life in the Peace Corps that I am and also to catch up with all those people who I had lost contact with over the past few months.

Apart from the actual business of reconnect which typically deals with sharing about communities and possible future projects and such, there was something that had been looming over everyone’s head at the time – the resignation/forced resignation of one of the volunteer’s Leanna. I will get to her situation in a second, but the truth is that I had almost no idea about anything until I got to reconnect because the wonderful world of Bigote is quite a nice little bubble and so I get very little information. As you all know by now, I have no internet nor cell phone coverage (at least for the Movistar phone provided by the Peace Corps, there does exist Claro cell phone coverage--- another carrier) and there is one community telephone that I would never suggest anyone call. The community phone is actually kindof funny I think. Someone from somewhere else in Peru or anywhere in the world can call the community phone and someone will answer. You would have to tell that person who you are calling and then someone will be sent to go looking for you and that person who called you will be told to call back in 10 minutes. Seems like such a silly way to communicate but that’s what they have. Anyway, no one has ever called me via community phone. Kitty, my boss in the Peace Corps, once called the Health Post to deliver me a message to email a report in to her once. When I received the message I could only laugh at the fact that she wanted me to send an email when she couldn’t even give me a call to deliver me said message. In any case, I was not informed about the fact that she had left Peace Corps nor the fact that two other volunteers – James, who lived right across the way from me in Chacrasana and Margaret, who was the oldest of the group at age 40. James decided to leave because he felt unqualified for his job. He was a small business volunteer assigned to work with some artisans in Cajamarca. He had some limited small business knowledge from his minor in Economics, but he just felt like he did not know enough to help the people he was with. Margaret had been a social worker for a number of years and felt, on the other hand, completely overqualified. She thought that she could be more help doing things somewhere else. She also had a significant other back home who proposed to her and so they are getting married in July. I am convinced that there is never one clear cut reason someone decides to go home.

With that said, I will try to relay what little I know about the “Leanna Situation.” I had talked with her twice in the first three months at site. She was not an extremely close friend of mine, but I knew her better than the other two who left. In any case, so the story goes, she was having some trouble in her site. She was in an Adventist communitiy and many of the members of the community saw her as Miss Moneybags. She would go to mass and then they would say to her that she had to put 100 soles in the pot for the church, money which she just didn’t have nor was she really there to give. Remember as much as these communities might need some money to move things along in terms of development, a Peace Corps Volunteer’s job is to motivate the people within the community itself to develop themselves as abstract and general as that might sound. She was also at a pretty low level of Spanish so she could not communicate terribly well.
So as a result, she would go to the city of Cajamarca a lot to get things but also because she was having such a hard time. The Peace Corps stipulates that you let them know when you are coming into the capital city for security reasons and also because they want to know where you are and how to communicate with you. This is where Leanna fell short because she never called in and perhaps did not communicate fully the details of her situation to Peace Corps so that they might be able to help her, until people within her community started calling Peace Corps and telling them how awful she was. In any case, she was called in to Lima about a week and half before the Reconnect for a talk with Michael Hirsch, the director of Peace Corps in Perú. Apparently when the Peace Corps called her in she was told that she would never be going back to her community, to pack her things and go to Lima. She presumably asked what was the reason for her being called in but no one apparently clearly answered her. Then on the Sunday night before the meeting to be held on Monday morning, she was sent via email an itinerary of her plane flight back the US. According to the Peace Corps, this was simply a mistake made by the Peace Corps staff that had been given a heads up about the meeting with Leanna and the possibility that she might be going home. Nevertheless, it certainly seemed to her and many others that her fate had been decided before he even walked into the meeting. As I have heard from others, she was presented with the facts that she had disobeyed PC policy by not calling in when she wasn’t in site. One other nuance to the situation was that the regional coordinator in Cajarmarca was family with the people that Leanna was living with. As a result, perhaps there might have been a conflict of interest there. I think there are some other versions out there but that is about as much as I can tell.

Naturally, many people who were close to Leanna felt very hurt by her leaving. Officially it was a resignation, though of course there seems to be doubt about how voluntary it actually was. A lot of people felt that there was a real lack of support from Peace Corps and that when someone has a problem that they are just left out to dry. My opinion on the matter is this: on the one hand, a Peace Corps volunteer is largely left on their own and when they do something against PC policy they should be willing to accept responsibility for those actions regardless of whether that policy is just. Sometimes you just have to abide by the rules or suffer the consequences. Second, I think that PC does support people but only when they know the situation. If they don’t know the situation, obviously they can do little to help. I definitely think there might have been a conflict of interest going on with her situation in that community.

In any case, basically a formal meeting was demanded of Peace Corps while we were in Pacasmayo whereby some of the Peace Corps staff, including Kitty – the boss who had been very concerned for Leanna and Marco Dolan, the deputy director of the PC program in Peru, an awesome guy actually, but was caught up in something nasty. It was nice forum to get some things on the table for many, but unfortunately most of the questions were left unanswered because the Peace Corps staff could answer many of them due to confidentiality.

The truth is that I have trouble with the situation just because I feel like I don’t know enough nor do I ever feel I would know enough to make an informed opinion. What’s my opinion on what we do know? Well, I think some people (other volunteers) made it a big deal when it didn’t need to be, but I think the whole situation could have been handled a lot better that’s for sure. I guess I just would say that the Peace Corps gives you what you give it. I think that people want to help you , but at the same time, I keep the Peace Corps on a need to know basis.

So that situation was definitely a hot topic of the week.

Let’s move on to some other important news. After we had the Thanksgiving dinner/lunch in Pacasmayo, a lot of people including myself went to a place about an hour away in La Libertad called Huanchaco. A bunch of the business volunteers had been there before on their way back from their field-based training and said it was a lot of fun. So we went and it was basically a decent beach with a bunch of resorts right on the water. Ken and I hung out a lot in Huanchaco and it was a really good time to see him and catch up on things. He is the kind of guy that says pretty much what is on his mind and sometimes it comes out very cocky and arrogant. And on the one hand, it is certainly okay to be confident in your own abilities, sometimes his communication skills might make others feel bad. We had some really cool conversations where I basically told him to put himself in someone else’s shoes and think how it might sound to him if he was on the receiving end. He said he understood but it is pretty hard to catch himself. I feel like a lot of people, including myself, have a similar problem to Ken in that they have trouble catching themselves before they say something stupid or arrogant.

Anyway, Ken and I decided to take some surfing lessons and rent some surf boards. It was totally radical dude. Or should I say knarly. Ha ha. Whatever adjective you use, I did like it a lot. I definitely knew it was a sport I could get into and it is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Though after learning a few things in the lesson, I was able to ride a few waves which was pretty nectar. Ha ha. I couldn’t resist. You might think too that their might not be a really typical surfer dude culture down in Peru, but there definitely is. There are the super-tan guys with the long hair and such. I definitely liked it all. Though of course instead of a burger and a shake after surfing, we had some amazing fresh ceviche with fish basically right out of the water. I think over two days I had 3 ceviches.

Otherwise I just hung out with everyone in the late evening and afternoon. One time a bunch of them decided to go to a club in Trujillo but I was so tired from surfing that I just took a raincheck and went to bed. They got home at around 5 am so I think I was pretty grateful that I didn’t go.

One other interesting episode for public consumption: So on the Friday evening I had planned on leaving from Trujillo to take the 7 hour bus ride back to Piura with Erin and Marian. It was a direct bus and there was only one other direct bus I could’ve taken which would’ve been at 2pm which wasn’t very convenient. In general you save hotel fees by taking buses overnight and it is much easier to endure a long trip when you are sleeping through the whole thing, albeit not that comfortably. But the truth is that it would be uncomfortable either way. So the bus was scheduled to depart the Trujillo station at 11pm that evening and arrive at around 6am the next morning. That meant that we would leave Huanchaco at around 9:30 to get to the station with plenty of time to buy the tickets and then we would casually get on the bus, also leaving us with plenty of time to get dinner and spend the day in Huanchaco beforehand. Perfect, right? If only.

So what went wrong? Well, a bunch of the guys including Mark, Dave, JP, Matt and Mike, among other volunteers, decided we might have a few drinks before I left. We were playing games and talking and it was really fun to catch up, not to mention that we were in a restaurant overlooking the beach. So when I left the bar, I was by no means drunk or anything but obviously there was some alcohol on my breath, not to mention the fact that one of the other volunteers, who shall remain nameless, WAS pretty drunk and spilled beer all over me. Fastforward to the bus station, as we are getting on the bus, the man who is letting people on the bus takes my ticket and then asks me casually, not in any direct or interrogatory manner, obviously noticing the beer smell permeating my clothes, “Had a few beers have you?” thinking nothing of it, I obviously say yes, but before I could get another word in, they wisk me to the side and say that I will not be allowed on the bus because I am drunk and unfit for travel. Knowing that the next bus is the next day, when I specifically wanted to be back in Bigote, and additionally that my ticket was not refundable, I was immediately in a panic. A couple of the staff made some gestures as if I was some kindof alcoholic and chuckled pointing at me. Very professional I know. I was, however, determined to get on the bus. I was standing next to one of the secretaries. I looked her in the eye to let her know I was serious and said that I just wanted to get on the bus and go to sleep. I was not going to cause any trouble, and that I had only had a few beers with some friends. She seemed to believe me and went to convince others. They came back and said that I had to go drink a strong coffee and then I could get on. I found that funny, especially seeing as I had left my wallet on the bag that I had checked and was now on the bus. Anyway, after all the hassle I got a coffee, drank it and got on the bus without very much problems at all. That sure was a close one.

I spent the next few days in Bigote just trying to push along the recycling project I had started and then getting things organized for my summer camp. It seemed fairly successful. I only spent 4 days in Bigote, then I went back to Piura and took an overnight bus to Lima to meet my mom who was coming in on the 3rd of December from Argentina, where she had spent the last month or so. The trip was fairly smooth sailing and then I spent the day in Miraflores after I had checked my bags into the really nice hotel that my mom had booked. I went to see the new James Bond movie “Quantum of Solace”, which was a fantastic movie. I just hung around Miraflores, which was somewhat boring to do bymyself but I went touring around and fixed my computer after it had been broken for a little while. It was just nice to be in an awesome bed and watch some tv for a change. Then mom showed up at around 1am that night and found me sound asleep in the room waiting for her. It was kindof a funny way to say hello but nevertheless, it was a warm welcome, especially seeing as I think that had been the longest time we had both gone without see each other.

The next few days we spent in Lima, just hanging around Miraflores and relaxing in the hotel. We went to the Peace Corps center in Surco to fix some things with my student loans and my mom got a chance to see everything and even talk with my APCD Kitty. I thought that might allay some of her anxieties about my safety and service in the Peace Corps. We also went to a traditional Peruivan song and dance show one night which I thought was entertaining but which my mom nearly fell asleep by the end. Ha ha. We also went to visit my host family from training in Chacrasana. It was so great to see them, even if only for a short while. They made us a Pachamanca, one of the traditional Peruvian disheses in which they bury potatoes, chicken, sweet potatoes and soy beans in the ground with burning hot stones that cook the food. It is absolutely delicious and I always loved it. The only negative outcome of that trip was that my mom and I both got annihilated by mosquitoes that ate us alive. It was as bad as the bug bites we got during the 4th of July party if you can remember when I told you about that so long ago. My mom and I were itching for the rest of the trip. Her feet were swollen really bad from the bug bites, to the point where she became somewhat concerned. Nevertheless, we went to Chosica and Angelica (my former host mom) showed my mom her new store which is thriving.

The whole time too, for better or worse, we were deliberating on whether or not to go to Machu Pichu. Mom finally decided to go for it, but for us to do it our own way and not hassle with the travel agencies, who we, at the time, thought were charging and absolute fortune for everything. We booked two tickets pretty cheap and basically just got on the plane and flew there without anything else but I desire to get to Machu Pichu. Hindsight being 20/20, it was a stupid idea. We got to the airport and got manipulated into taking an overpriced taxi and then we found out that Machu Pichu is a 4 hour train ride from Cusco, where the plane arrived and that said train was not running until the next day unless we got a car to another town called Ollantaytambu, which was a town that was a part of the Sacred Valley Incan trail. We decided to take a cab there, which ended up being another overpriced ride and finally getting to the town called Aguas Calientes, that night after much hassle. My mom and I got so frustrated in the end with all the reservations and missed calls and such that we were about to pull both our own and each others hair out. The truth is that us deciding to do the whole thing on our own ended up taking away a little bit from our experience, which is why I would always recommend from here on out going with the travel agency, because though it sounds like a lot, you end up saving little by going alone and end up having much less aggravation. Anyway, the next day we took the bus from Aguas Calientes, which the little town at the bottom of the valley, up to the site of Machu Pichu on the top of the mountain. The trip was about 30 minutes to reach the top.

So was it awesome, you ask? Well, I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. On the one hand, the pictures speak for themselves. The place was absolutely gorgeous. It was just one of those things that it will be cool to say, yeah I’ve been to Machu Pichu. I took some unbelievable photos and the place is beyond impressive. The ruins are incredibly well excavated and conversed and the truth is that there is still more to be done. It is a town that is more than 3000 years old. I mean, think about that for a second. It is so incredible that those stones lasted that long. Most people, by the way, think that the Incans brought the stones up the mountain, and unfortunately that is just pure myth. The truth is that most of the stones were carved and grated to form perfectly constructed houses right nearby. They did not have to bring everything up the mountain but instead down the mountain from the quarry above. Not that that information should drastically change you might about how impressive the ruins are, but I just thought you might want to know.

On the other hand, the whole experience was very touristy and expensive. I never felt that I was entering some holy or sacred site. I felt like another sucker gringo being moved along in the crowd. They would fill up the buses (costing 14 US dollars per person round trip) and then we would have to pay the entrance fee when we got there which was 45 US dollars per person. It just seemed absolutely ludicrous. Not to mention the trains which cost around 100 round trip for the both of us from just Ollantaytambo. Plus every second of every day someone was asking if I wanted to buy a certain thing and also everyone just looked at the tourists as money waiting to be sucked up. Everything was something to bargain and take advantage of the rich Americans or Euorpeans. I mean I had been in Lima and Piura and so forth, but I never felt so foreign as in Cusco. I felt like a turkey that they just wanted to eat up. So future travelers beware.

After that, mom and I flew to Lima from Cusco and then took an overnight bus to Piura. We got to Piura hung out there for a day and then went to Bigote. It seemed like, though less developed, my mom liked the tranquil attitude of Piura. To tell the truth, that is one of my favorite parts about it. Bigote was quite an experience for my mom. She was born in Argentina and did experience some poverty while living there, but only for a short while until my grandmother became a famous opera singer and then she became accostumed to a different sort of life. Nevertheless, I can safely say that Bigote was just a completely different reality from anything she had ever experienced. She compared it to a bomb shelter and a concentration camp. She said it was just so barren and desolate that everywhere she looked, except for a few places with some more plush greenery, there was just dust and that was terribly depressing. I found myself somehow unable to put myself in her shoes. Despite the fact that I myself had similar shocked feelings when I first arrived, I remember being so dedicated to the cause that I just looked at most it as a challenge. I saw the dirt floor and latrine not as an inconvenience or something from the stroneage, but something that I was committed to getting used to and something that I was to experience to know what it was like to live that kindof life. For my mom, and understandably so, she was and has not dedicated herself to the same mission that I have. For that reason, she had no reason to necessarily want to live this life, nor necessarily experience it. It was just a surreal experience for her I think and I keep saying that I found it very hard to see Bigote through her eyes, mostly because I never did see from the point of view of a stranger or outsider, but always as someone who wanted to see it from the inside. For better or worse, I still am in that place. I really do commend my mom for wanting to come see my site though. It was important for me to share my life with someone, if only to let them know what it is like to live in my world right now.

After a two days in Bigote, that left me with some nasty bites from some lice coming from some recently bought bags of rice by Ivan, we went back to Piura for two days and then I left her to return back to the states. While in Piura, my mom expressed that she had become somewhat disillusioned with what the Peace Corps experience offered and was not sure that what she interpreted as the Peace Corps mission, was really making a difference. I think that that is an interesting question to ponder and perhaps one that every volunteer might think about from time to time, though I myself never question that I am doing good, that I am making a difference one person and a time, and that I am not imposing an external will onto that of a native population but that I am trying to see through their eyes and guide them to the goals and desires that they themselves have and maybe just maybe I might push them towards some things such as a recycling system, that they might not have even considered as worthwhile. But the truth is that, as I have mentioned before, I think change comes one at a time, that that is the only way and that if I help even 5 kids over the course of my two years to think of a brighter future or to even step outside the limits that they though that their world in bigote had, then I will consider my time a success. And the truth is that I feel like my host family will be the biggest success of all just because I spend so much time with them.

Okay, since then I have been chilling in my site. I finished my world map finally. I cannot tell you how awesome it looks and how proud of it I am. It is such a great project to do not only because it teaches so much about geography but because it is such a visible project that shows your progress off to the community. I worked on it almost everyday for about 2 weeks straight and finished on December 27th, right in time for the anniversary of the establishment of Bigote as an official district of Piura. They had a beauty contest in which a girl was named Miss Bigote, a very common practice in Perú and very similar to the contest for the schools anniversary during the first few months that I arrived in town. There was also a serenata or seranade celebrating song and dance of Bigote the night after, followed by a public dance for the entire town featuring Stan y Band. The dance was a lot of fun, though as the dance came to a close, it got a little hectic as some younger kids who had been drinking started fighting. I had a lot of fun though and everyone always loves it in my town when I dance. A lot of people think that I have a girlfriend in town (I assure you that I do not) and my host family always makes fun of me for the fact that all the girls in town want to dance with me. One other tradition they have around here is the burning of these huge firework castles called castillos. The fireworks go off and the cause the Castillo, made out of bamboo rods, to move in circles of fire. Needless to say there are lots of colors and a lot of spinning bamboo firelit rods. It is certainly quite the spectacle. There was also going to be a long running race, which they call a marathon but is nothing even close to it, but it got canceled because no one other than myself signed up to participate.

I was also invited to an incredible feast as an invited honorary guest in which I had a rare delicacy of bull ceviche, which is raw bull’s meat prepared with lime, onion and chill pepper, the same as ceviche with fish on this is with raw bull’s meat. It was really good. I left the lunch absolutely stuffed.

This all took place the 27th to the 29th in Bigote. On the 30th of December I left to go to Mancora, the famous surfing beach in the far Northeast of Piura, only a few short hours from the Ecuatorian border and right on the equator. A few months ago they had an incredible international professional surfing competition there that drew some large crowds. The main reason people go there is because though it is a large tourist zone, it is with good reason. There are good restaurants, a very nice beach with surfing as a possibility and a very fun nightlife. And what is more is that the nightlife is even more fun during New Years time.

So I got there on the evening of the 30th and we went out that night. There were some really fun parties with live music and some classic American music that I just love, mostly my favorite 80’s songs. I think I ended up getting back to the hostal at around 4:30am that first night. Unfortunately that kindof did me in for New Years Eve. I woke up only 4 hours later to go for breakfast and then spent the whole day at the beach. I knew the sun would be strong especially near the equator so I put sunblock on and then rented a surf board with Glenn and we went out surfing. I came back in and put some more sunblock on and then went surfing some more. Little did I know that I was actually just roasting myself in the sun the entire time. I came back to the hostal that night bright new with almost 2nd degree burns. Since that time, the sunburns have blistered over with huge water-filled bubbles and it has now begun to peel a little bit. I was in so much pain and so tired from the evening before that I actually retired before midnight hit. The truth was from what I heard from others that there really was not much of a countdown. The one interesting tradition here in Peru for New Years though is that people find old clothes from the year before to dress up and large human-sized doll. At midnight everyone burns these dolls as a symbol of burning the past and starting with a new beginning. Also some people buy something yellow to symbolize new beginnings and good luck for the new year. I actually was a part of very little of this because I went to sleep early. I was not the only one by the way, and I do not really regret it seeing as I could not have really kept my eyes open as it was.

We all then went back to Piura the next day, a quick 4 hour bus ride and relaxed in the hostal away from the sun and recuperating from our burn wounds. I bought some aloe vera and doused myself with that along with some help pain relievers. The funny things about farmacies around here is that you do not need a prescription to get anything, so you can get anything you want at any time of day anywhere. It is somewhat scary, but nice for me considering that it could be hard to go to see a doctor during the limited periods of time that I have available out of site.

And then I returned to Bigote for a day to recover still and hold another one of my youth camp meetings yesterday and then I had to return today, Sunday, for a meeting to the ALMA camp that is going to be held on January 16-18. I will talk about ALMA, my youth camp going on in site and my recycling project in the next edition, because I feel like this entry is more than sufficient for right now. Hopefully these burns will heal because damn they still hurt. You should’ve seen me when I walked into the hostal, everyone was so surprised. “Oooh that’s gotta hurt.”

That’s it for now.
Suerte a todos,
Peace Corps Volunteer Alejandro
Over and Out.

Hey folks,

Well since the last update I have been pretty busy in the wonderful world that is the mustache. In this edition of Peace Corps Alejandro, I will have some updates on my world map, my project with some youth in the community in forming a small recycling management business and some poorly assisted computer classes.

So my schedule every week looks something like this: Mondays are pretty open, I usually try to go to the high school or check in with my counterparts. Recently as part of my diagnostic study, I have been going into certain classrooms to do surveys of the kids. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I teach computer classes from 8am to 1:30pm to kids in the secondary school and primary school. There are 4 classes each day of about 20 students or so. I have coordinated with Professor Feria, who I may have mentioned before. On Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6 – 7:30 I teach older youth between the ages of 20 -28 computers as well. On Wednesday afternoon at 3pm I have my World Map Project group. That last for about 2 hours or so. On Thursday mornings, I generally going to the schools to do more of the diagnostic study and maybe teach some English if anyone wants me to help. Fridays is usually pretty open too because sometimes I go to Piura on Fridays, but I have met with my World Map group on Friday afternoons. Anytime that I might have open I go into the community and say hello to people, talk with Armando about future plans to do things, come to the Casa de La Cultura to type things up, help people with their literacy groups and have meetings with other groups of people. Saturdays and Sundays are sometimes a little boring, but generally I try to play some fubito, read and just hang out with the family. That is of course assuming I am not in Piura. If I am in Piura, I am going to the market and/or hanging out with friends.

With regard to the diagnostic activities, I have been asking them all kinds of questions about social issues, family life and their education. I have interviewed about 150 or so of the 300 kids in the high school. Here are some of the interesting results I have encountered so far, though none of these results are by any means certain or exactly quantified.

The overwhelming majority of kids have been drunk before, starting at ages 12 and up.
The majority of kids have a girlfriend/boyfriend.
The average age that most youth envision have a child is between 20 and 25.
Almost all the kids brush their teeth at least twice a day.
Very few of the youth drink water that has been boiled or treated properly for drinking.
Most kids do eat lots of fruits (not a surprise given the abundance of tropical fruits around here) but do not vegtables nor do they really like them.
Very few know anything about AIDS/HIV (which has a relatively high prevalence rate in Piura; it´s not Africa bad, but it is way above most countries) or sexually transmitted diseases.
Most have not thought about what they are going to do after they graduate, but would like to study in university.
Every single person has responded that they raise barn animals such as chickens, ducks, turkeys, guinea pigs, goats or cows, in their house.
Most youth say that they are religious, but do not go to mass every week.
No one smokes or uses drugs.
Most people prefer to use traditional herbs and medicines instead of going to the health post.
Most either throw their trash away in a public container that dumps it into a public container that is neither treated nor cared for very well or burn it.
Most of the kids say that they get along well with their parents, even though the general punishment in the house when they do something wrong is for the parents to hit/beat them.
Finally, they do not have very many activities to do outside of school except for a voleyball competition or pickup fubito games.

As you can see, there are definitely some positive points, some surprising things and well, let´s be honest, some things that we/I want to change. So those ideas will help me for my future service to know what I am dealing with exactly. The truth is with surveys like these you never can be completely sure that they understand the question and/or respond truthfully. One professor, Isbeth (a butchering of a translation of Elizabeth into Spanish if you ask me), told me that she had done a survey before with the older students about sexual topics. She told me that one student who she knew had had a child responded that he had never had sex before on the survey. All I have to say is that that kind of response is doubtful. So obviously, as with any survey, there might be problems with the data, but it is better than nothing.

It has been fun doing the surveys though. The kids seem to enjoy it because it is an opportunity to talk with the gringo and I like it not only to get information from them, but because it is an opportunity for them to reflect on what their life is like. Reflections like that in and of themselves can be very useful.

In other news, the World Map project is up and running. We have begun painting on the wall outside the Casa de La Cultura. I kindof think of it as a landmark of what I have been doing / will do here. Given that I have been teaching computer classes here in the Casa de La Cultura, it is like marking my home base. Then again we still have no internet here and the situation seems bleek that that will change at any point in the near future. As of right now, we have painted the ocean and are beginning to draw the continents and the countries. I hope that we will be able to finish everything by the time reconnect comes along, but who knows.

As for the computer classes, well this past week of the 10 classes that I had arranged to teach – 8 with the students in the secondary school and 2 with youth from the community – I was able to teach to teach about 2 and half. I say half because one student showed up to one of the evening classes and we really did not go over very much. I only explained a little bit of what Powerpoint was and how to use it. The truth is that I never really used Powerpoint very much so I could not explain it terribly well but more or less they or should I say she, because it was only one student, got the point.

The other things besides those two things that I have been doing is organizing a group of people for the trash and recycling business that I mentioned before. We had a meeting the past week in which only 4 people showed up and one of them was Ivan, who basically showed up because he is my friend and so did Flor and Irina, two others that have become friends in the community. The last one there was a girl named Karina. Karina and Ivan are both members of the somewhat defunct youth group JUBIADE. Flor is just someone who recently came back to town and wanted to get involved. I think it will be a good group of people, but we shall see. We had the meeting and then we were interviewed by the local radio station, Radio San Jose. They interviewed Ivan, as the President of Jubiade and me. We did our best to explain the situation. Each of them seemed to like the idea of a recycling business.

Of course, Halloween and well as Homecoming (Go Williams!) has come and gone. I wish I had organized a party with costumes and such for Halloween but in the end nothing materialized. No one celebrates Halloween here, in case you did not guess. Here the 31st is the day of indigenous music and song, but there was not really any big festival or anything. It was kindof a big weekend though because the 1st and 2nd are big holidays here. The 1st is called the day of the Angels (Día de los Angeles). The day celebrates those children who died very young into their life, more or less before they turned 20. As a result, anyone who lost a child at a young age finds a child in the community of the same age as the child was when he or she died and gives that child some candy or sweet breads. For example, and I did not know this until the other day, my host mother, señora Paula lost 2 children when they were very young. So she gave some sweets to two kids of the same age, and preferrably the same name, to bless them for their lives and keep them safe. November 2nd is the day of the dead (Día de los Muertos). You may have heard of this holiday because it is quite popular in Spain. Basically everyone in the entire town goes to the cementary to visit the tombs of anyone who has died in their lives. Most just put flowers on their graves and sit with each of them for some time. Others also light a candle and sit at that persons grave until the candle burns out. That could take a long time, though I imagine it is somewhat like a meditation with the dead.

On Sunday, I went with Paula to the cementary with her. It was a nice thing to just share that moment with her. We did not say very much while we were there, but I just helped put the flowers on the graves and just sat quietly. She had two aunts that died within one week of one another. I do not remember the entire story but I think one fell ill and died pretty rapidly and then within the next two days the sister died as well. They were buried together. I did like the tradition of going to visit the graves, if nothing more than to pay homage to those of the past and remember them. The graves were very humble and most of them were actually above ground. It is a little hard to describe unless you have seen it before, but the caskets are put in large holes above the ground and sealed with cement. If the family can´t afford a tombstone, they just inscribe the name in the cement that covers the tomb. There are a lot of Latin American movies with images of cementaries more or less like this and frankly that is the only kind I have seen here in Perú. Bigote’s cementary is very open though, mostly because it has such a recently history. Bigote was only converted into a town in 1986, so not that many people have died since then to fill the entire cementary, plus most of the people immigrated from other towns and I suppose some, if not, most were buried in their home towns.

One other major event of the weekend was that as part of the day of the dead celebration, most families need flowers to put on the graves. So Ivan and Paula decided to bring a bunch of flowers from Piura to sell. So the entire living was full of flowers as they were arranging it all. If you have seen the living room, it is not exactly a huge room and when señor Jose’s motorcycle is in the middle of the room, it has even less space. José, by the way, went to Lima for 1 week or so to visit his other sons and daughters who are there and also to visit the grave of his second wife who died last year and was living in Lima at the time of her death. Anyway, the entire house was filled with flowers and there was just a hell of a lot of commotion over the course of the weekend. On Saturday night, Paula and Ivan went to Salitral, the town over, to sell more flowers because apparently they did not have very many there. They spent the night in the cementary. I can’t imagine that was very comfortable. Also given that Jose and Paula were not around to help Nancy with Arianna and the baby William, Nancy was having a hard time with it all and as a result, Arianna got punished (aka beaten) more than usual. It makes me really uncomfortable and I have communicated that I don´t like it and there are other ways of dealing with kids, but it continues anyway. I think I am going to have a chat with Nancy and hopefully she will understand. It is always tricky to come across in a way that is not attacking but at the same time to get the point across that you should not beat your kids, however, obvious and silly that point may sound.

And that brings me to my last point. Recently when talking with my mom, she asked me what has my experience been about on a deeper level here in Perú. In other words, apart from seeing another part of the world and seeing another culture and helping and such, what I am learning about myself or about life in general. And I guess my answer is most simply that I am learning the way the bring peace, love and understanding to others. I think my life right now is about living the Golden Rule: Do unto to others as you would have them do unto you.

I think what I have learned and what I am practicing is the art of compassion and empathy more than anything. Trying to see the world through someone else´s point of view can be an incredibly powerful thing. Just think that if before we said or did anything we thought to ourselves, “How would that make me feel?,” how different would the world be? I think the world is suffering from a deficit not in money, in oil, in leaders who really want to do good or in food. What we are suffering from is a deficit in empathy. We wouldn’t tolerate schools that don’t teach, that are chronically underfunded and understaffed and underinspired, if we thought the children in them were like our children. It is hard to imagine the CEO of a company giving himself a multi-billion dollar raise while cutting the health care coverage for his workers if he tried to truly see through their eyes before acting. It is hard to imagine that those in power would certain think much longer and much harder about financing and launching a war if they envisioned their own son’s and daughter’s in harm’s way.

More empathy and compassion would shift the world to help those who are truly suffering in this world. I am not trying to say that those who are suffering don’t need to exercise some empathy for those who are in more advantaged positions as well. The poor need to understand why the rich might not exactly want to give away all their hard-earned money. The oppressed might see the world better if they though about what is causing someone to act the way they do. This is ability to recongize the physical, material and psychological suffering of others, to put ourselves “inside the skin” of the other. We “go inside” their body, feelings, and mentality and witness the suffering (and perhaps joys as well because, after all, life is not only about suffering) of another. I was reading The Audacity of Hope, Barrack Obama´s book, and I really liked something he had to say along those lines:

“I am obligated to try to see the world through George Bush’s eyes, no matter how much I disagree with him. That’s what empathy does – it calls us all to ask, the conversative and the liberal, the powerful and the powerless, the opressed and the oppressor. We are all shaken out of our complaceny. We are all forced beyound our limited vision. And so no one is exempt from the call to find common ground.”

And the truth is that what I am talking about is not just shallow observation. It is something a lot deeper. As Buddhist thinker, Thich Nhat Hanh said, We must become one with the object of our observation. When we are in contact with another’s suffering, a feeling of compassion is born in us.”

Let me give you a pretty clear example of what I am talking about. Let’s imagine that you wake up one morning and realize that the alarm did not go off. As a result, you and your sister/mother/loved one/whoever is late for work. But when you try to wake up said loved one, they kick you and instead of saying “Thanks for waking me up” they say “Shut up! Leave me alone! I was trying to sleep you idiot!” Well that would make us feel angry and underappreciated because we were just trying to help. That kindof a response might make us want to hit them or shout back at them or respond in the same way.
But instead of doing that, what would happen if we took a few seconds to put ourselves in their shoes and think about why they are feeling that way? Let’s say for example that during the night said loved one was coughing a lot and maybe she woke up sick. As a result it could seem possible that she shouted in the way that she did because she was sick.Or maybe it was because she was up all night think about someone who had shouted at them. After taking a few seconds to think about it like that, our anger seems to disappear. How could I be angry at someone when they are sick or were provoked? I could only feel bad for them and want to help. And after practicing that for so long, you cease to get agitated or angry because you understand that everyone is influenced by others.

And so it is with my experience in Perú. I bring a mind of compassion and empath to Bigote.

But you might be asking yourself, “Yeah that sounds good but what happens when the other person keeps on abusing you. What do you do when the sick loved one keeps yelling at you.” Well that’s a good question. Sure it can be hard to be in the presence of such abuse, but the only thing that I could say might be that after a while that person who is being abusive and not receiving anything in return while get tired of it and will have some compassion for you. It reminds me of Ghandi and the non-violent resistance. Armies upon armies of people could continue to beat/hit/kill you but sooner or later they are just not going to be able to do it any longer. It is too difficult for that person to continue to be violent in the face of peace. Peace always wins. Sooner or later, the other person will see your attitude and will share in your compassion.

I might be underappreciated. But I just bring the lens of someone who just tries to understand the world through the lens of someone else day in and day out. I try to see through the eyes of them and try to help them with that lens. I try to practice the art of empathy. And that is what I am doing in Perú and that’s how I think you change the world, one person at a time. I challenge you to do the same wherever you are.

Suerte a todos,
Peace Corps Volunteer Alejandro
Over and Out.

One extra note -- I wrote this entry before the elections came out. I kept thinking to myself that this is a really important time and I really hope the Obama wins because he is someone that will bring the mentality I am talking about to the presidency. And how glorious it is that he actually. I am very proud to call myself an American right now. I hope the world will change under his government and we will see more of a reflection of peace and love in the world.

Hey folks,

So I came into Piura this past weekend and lost my USB so I couldn´t upload my blog. I also got pickpocketed in the market. I was walking around with fellow volunteers Glenn and Lebo (pronounced Ley-bow), buying some things such as the paint for my world map. When we got into the taxi to go back to the hostal, I realized I no longer possessed my wallet. About 300 soles or 100 bucks was in the wallet and my bank card. Whammy.

Not exactly the ideal weekend in that sense. Yeah, not at all. But then again it was just another lesson that you are not in the US and you have to be careful. For all you worriers out there, only my bank card for Perú and the money was taken. I might be partially reimbursed for some of the money I lost and they are going to send me a new bank card prontito. At least no one held me up with a gun or something. That would have been scary.

Lebo, by the way, is a girl from the Peace Corps program in Bolivia that recently got terminated, by the way. For those that are not up on your Latin American news, Bolivia is about ready to break into civil war and Morales, the President, decided that he did not like the US there anymore so kicked out the ambassador and resulting embassy. Without an embassy in the country, Peace Corps is not allowed in country. As a result, some 200 or so volutneers had to be evacuated. Just imagine a military tank coming to your house in the middle of nowhere and telling you that you had 20 minutes to pack half of your belongings before leaving your site for good. I have been told they were in a cargo plane headed for La Paz when the pilot simply said, “The embassy is being stormed. Change of plans. We are going to Lima, Perú.” Pretty freaking crazy. So anyway, the Peace Corps Perú staff was dealing with all of them for a week or so. Most of them decided to just end their service and go back to the states instead of asking for another assignment with the Peace Corps. Lebo was one of the few who asked for another assignment. She was working in agriculture, teaching little kids mostly. Now she is in the Youth Development sector. Her site is actually fairly close to me. It seems pretty cool that she gets to have a look at two countries during her service, albeit disrupted.

On Friday morning, when I first got there we had our regional meeting for Piura. I hadn’t met a bunch of the people there so it was nice to meet some new people. Our regional coordinator, the guy in-charge of finding new places for volunteers in Piura and also the administrator and helper of the region, as I might have mentioned before, is Wilfredo Ortega. He ran the meeting and basically just asked each volunteer to explain what’s going on in their site and if they had any questions. He is a really helpful and understanding boss. Above him, if I hadn´t mentioned before, is Kitty Kaping, the Assistant Peace Corps Director (APCD for short) in charge of Youth Development. She was the main person in charge of giving me my site assignment of Bigote.

Anyway, back to the drama of the regional meeting. I actually arrived a little late and they had already started before I got there. To be true, I actually thought the meeting was on Saturday and came in on Friday so that I would be able to go do some stuff. Then again it really was not an informed decision because I had not communicated with anyone and was only going on what I had remembered from before. It was funny too because I was thinking of going straight to the market from the bus station, but decided to go to the Hostal to drop my bags off. And what do I run into? The regional meeting where I was invited in the first place. It would not have been a huge deal if I hadn´t made it (there was several volunteers absent), but funny that I walked in 10 minutes after they had started. The meeting lasted until about 12 and then we had some cebiche. By the way, the delicacy of cebiche is much better in Piura than Lima in my opinion. I think it is just because it is better quality fish. Cebiche (or ceviche to some) is a typical Peruvian dish made with raw, usually white, fish, that is soaked in lemon/lime juice and mixed with hot chilli peppers (ají) and onion (cebolla). What happens is that the lemon juice-onion-aji mixture tenderizes the meat and cooks it ever so slightly. Usually the raw meat is served with either a special kind of potatoe called yuca (pronounced yoo-ka), plaintains, sweet potatoe (camote, pronounced ka-moe-tay), roasted korn kernels or rice. The side just depends on where you are and what kind of restaurant it is. You might think it is like sushi, but it really isn´t. I don’t think I could compare it to very much, but the lime mixture with the fish is pretty damn good. Sometimes they use other kinds of fish, clams, crab or other types of seafood to mix it up, but pure cebiche is with white fish. If you ever find yourself in a Peruvian restaurant, ask for the cebiche because that is probably going to be their best dish.

After the delicious cebiche, we had another brief meeting amongst our group to talk about our community diagnostic progress. Wilfredo was pushing us to be more formal in some of our interviews as opposed to just talking with people in the street. Obviously some people might be unwilling to talk with you if it seems incredibly formal and you are intruding into their house. He suggested forming a group of people to help you and getting at least a 25-30% glimpse of the populations thoughts. Usually he said that is decently representative of the population. I have a meeting scheduled with Armando for November 8th with Armando here in Bigote with some of the population to get know some of their needs a little better.

Let´s talk about two things that have been making me feel happy in Bigote recently: first, my host niece named Arianna. If you remember, when I first came she cried a lot. And I mean a lot. She was very whiny. I haven’t yet found a word to describe whiny in Spanish. When she acts up or does something wrong the family comes from a culture of hitting her. Perhaps some of those reading this will think, well, yeah my dad always gave me a good smacking up when I did something wrong when I was a kid. I guess there are a few things that I would say to that. First, I did not come from that kind of household, so, for better or worse, that seems strange and perhaps a bit brutal to me. Second, psychology tells us that there are two basic types of reinforcement dating back to the days of Pavlov. There is positive reinforcement of which Pavlov is the first. We give people rewards for correct behavior. Then there is negative reinforcement which would be the equivalent to hitting Pavlov´s dog whenever he did something we did not want him to do. Both can have an effect in changing the behavior of the person or “subject.” Studies have shown, however, that behavior is changed more permanently and most productively with positive reinforcement. Why? Well let’s just take a second to think about it.

Let’s take the dog. I have a goal of making the dog sit down when I blow a whistle. Positive reinforcement says that if the dog sits after I blow the whistle, then I should give him a treat of some kind. Negative reinforcement says that whenever he does not sit when I blow the whistle, I should kick him. Well in this second method, how the hell is the dog every going to learn the correct approach? Basically the problem with negative reinforcement is that the “subject” will have trouble recognizing what the correct behavior should be and so they will, most likely, just continue the behavior that they had before or perhaps another incorrect approach, but this time with more fear of the person teaching them. Positive reinforcement teaches people the correct approach by validating and highlighting certain behaviors as opposed to others. So how does this go back to parenting and how to treat kids? Well easy. You should reinforce kids by giving them “treats” when they do correct actions instead of hitting them when they do something bad because then they are going to want to do that good behavior more. And by treats it could be anything from just saying “well done” to a sticker or a lollipop or something more extravagant.

Back to Arianna. The truth is that there are still times when the family just doesn’t get it as much as I say we have to listen to kids or let’s not hit her. I had to sit there the other day while the mother dealt with Arianna after she had pooped in her pants. I mean she is three years old. For one reason or another, she is doing that behavior. And what happens when Arianna did it. The mother took her out back, took off her clothes, gave her a few spankings and told her to wash her own clothes. Or in the same day, my host father, señor José or Cha-man as some say (it means witch doctor in the jungle), brings out his belt in front of her when she’s crying. And what is the worst part about it is that the girl stops crying, not because she is no longer upset, but out of fear. And what that does is it reinforces to José that the belt works. Thank God he never did anything with the belt, but he did have it out there. Sometimes I think to myself that if he raised the belt to hit her, I would get in the way. I really don’t know what I would do if I found myself in that situation. Hopefully it never comes.

I started this by saying that it makes me happy and it does. Mostly because I have noticed that Arianna is happier more these days and cries less. She always comes up to me because I give her attention. She hugs me and always asks me where I am going and what I am doing. She is very cute. They all say that she is malcriada (which ironically translated means poorly raised, but colloquially it means bad tempered or badly behaving), but she really is just a product of how her mother has raised her and the fact that her father has left. When she gives me a hug it makes me happy that even in 2 months I have made a little bit of a difference in this child’s life even though she may not remember me.

The truth is that I really have just loved playing with the little kids every so often. I am always so silly with them and just play games, but the truth is that no one ever plays with them so even if I give them a little dose of that, they immediately love me. That is the reason, though maybe some are mystified, why all the kids in town know my name by heart. Pun intended.

Another thing that is on a similar front that makes me happy is the dog that the family has named Alma. She is very poorly fed and recently had a little of puppies. But again, I pet the dog every day or so and always make sure to save the bones and a little bit of my food to give to her after dinner. And guess what has happened? Now the dog follows me around wherever I go. People joke that she is my guard dog. I took a pretty long walk from my house to the high school and she followed my every step the whole way. Just another example of how a little love can go a long way.

In other news, I have been giving computer classes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays to a wide range of youth. I have 4 classes each morning. There is also another group that comes in on Tuesday and Thursday evenings of older people such as Ivan and other people within my community. Most of them are from around where I live which is known as Pachitaya. As a side note, during the course of my diagnostic activities, I have found out that Pachitaya has a reputation of being kindof a bunch of hooligans and everyone tells me that if I change barrio Pachitaya during my service, I will have made a huge difference in Bigote. The computer classes go slowly sometimes and sometimes I don’t really know whether the kids understand me. But the truth is that I never had a computer class really. I just kindof learned how to play around on the computer. And more than anything that is what I am trying to facilitate for these kids. Learning a computer is just about exploring more than anything. Most of the times if you do something wrong you can reverse it or say no before something more serious happens just by reading the warning.

I also have formed the youth group with which I am going to be doing the world map. I have already solicited the wall in the Casa de La Cultura (the same place where I teach computers) to paint. There are about 10 or so kids that are in the group and so far we have just played a bunch of games, introduced ourselves and talked about the continents. It is so rewarding to know that I am actually teaching something that these kids find valuable and that I find valuable. We did one exercise to start off the group for example, which was to fill in an empty world map. Half the students labeled China as England. Taking the cultural differences aside, the two places could not be further from one another in location. And the kids are good kids. Two in particular one named Manuel and another named Reder are both kids that have aspirations and are willing to a lot of different things with me. Manuel is interested in the environment and wants to be a scientist for example. Kids with aspirations like that are hard to come by around here. I look forward to helping to push these kids to their further levels.

The other day I was asked to be the Godfather (Padrino) to a little girl’s baptism. It was really funny because I was just hanging out with my family this past Saturday and a mother came by my house looking for me and asked me to be her daughter’s godfather. I gladly accepted though I barely knew the woman or her child. Nevertheless, the requirements were minimal and all I had to do was show up and mark a cross in holy water on the girl’s head. Apparently the reason that they had asked me the day of was because they had been planning for the girl to do her first communion but of course it is necessary that she be baptized before she take the first communion and Saturday was the last chance that she had to do it. The ceremony was very peaceful and the truth is that it was nice to experience what a Peruvian church/mass is like. It was like a little meditation. Just taking a break and sitting quietly. I did not know any of the songs for example but just listened and received what was said. I mean people were staring at me wide mouthed as usual but sometimes it is just nice to be able to close my eyes and be at peace for a moment. I think everyone needs that every once in a while.

I played fubito the other day as well with some people from barrio Pachitaya and finally won a game. I think it was the first time I had won a game in a long time. We won 4 soles. As I have mentioned before no one plays a game with making even a small bet. Every player puts in 2 soles in order to play. There were 3 teams and the luck of the draw has it that two teams play first and the winner of that plays the third team. But the third team has to beat the winner in order to get the money. If there is a tie, the winner of the first game gets the advantage because they have already played. This was the case last week. We won the first game and tied the second so we won by default. I played goal again. I am getting a little better at it I think because it is hard for me to throw myself around too much both because I am not exactly short nor am I comfortable with throwing myself around on concrete, at least not just yet.

I also play cards with my host father José and his nephew Santos who lives in the house across the street. Given the José goes out on his motorcycle every morning to sell traditional remedies and also clothes as I explained in another post, he usually gets back to the house between 1 or 2 pm. Usually the family has lunch and then they like to watch a novella. Peruvians love their novellas. I think my family watches at least 3 if not 4 novellas every day. I am not really a huge fan, but sometimes I watch with them. Usually during the evening time when there is not really much light to be able to read. Sometimes I just grin and bear it with the minimal lighting that there is though. When they watch during the day, I usually take a quick nap to rejuvenate myself. That little siesta has become even more necessary seeing as I have taken to going for a run in the early morning. I never really liked running too much before, but the truth is that I really like it here, mostly because it is my chance to be alone and think or in some cases not think at all. I have gone the same route almost every day and somehow it never gets boring. I look up at the sky and the farmland that surrounds me, a rice paddie on one side and a huge dirt hill speckled with tropical trees that will turn plush green within two months, or so I am told. It is hard work but it is pretty relaxing and well, it keeps me from getting fat. Though truth be told, I think I have lost some weight since I have got here, probably some muscle along with whatever else. Don’t worry I am not starving by any means, I just don’t nearly as much as those days back at Williams when I would rip down 2 healthy portions of food for dinner at Greylock after a grueling practice with Mr. Steven J. Kuster. I guess you folks back at school are starting/have already started the season again. Good luck and enjoy the moments of another year.

The last thing I have been doing recently is trying to organize a group of youth to start a recycling and trash collection business in Bigote that the Municipality would like to support. Armando on Friday when the schools were finishing the school olympics, mentioned to me that an engineer was coming to give a talk to members of the community about how to start a small business. I went to see what it was all about and to see if I might be able to support or help in any way. As it turned out, it became a great avenue for me to help the kids and members of the community. First, there were several women of the community that represented various organizations including Comedores Populares and Vaso de Leche. Comedores are places where poor people can go every day to get a very low budget meal that is sponsored by the municipality/federal government. Vaso de Leche is similar and it provides a glass of milk to all the kids in the school systems to help them grow and be healthy and so forth. The problem/business venture that those women proposed was to start a business of better built stoves (or Cocinas Mejoradas.) Funnily enough, that is one of the Peace Corps’ primary goals, especially in the Health and Environment Sector plus I could easily find the manuals and be able to capacitate these people for free or bring someone from the health sector who does know about it to Bigote to teach them, again for free. So it was a cool little meeting if only to be able to say to these people that I could help them a great deal. Second, I proposed the idea of a possible recycling and waste management business in Bigote. Apparently that is a dream of the mayor so I would definitely gain some major help points for doing that, but besides that, I do actually think it would be great project because there is a lot of trash around Bigote and not many kids are conscious of it, despite the fact that they say they know they should throw trash on the ground. I think the fact of the matter is that there are about 2 public trash cans in the entire town. Where are people supposed to throw trash when they are in the street, even if they did not want to litter? The majority will just throw it on the ground anyway. Plus it is a way for the youth to make money, giving people who would otherwise be twiddlign their thumbs, some work. So now I have the hard task of trying to form a group of kids to do it, by the time the next meeting comes in November so that perhaps the group can move forward a little more towards creating a formal proposal for the municipality so that they can financially support the endeavor. Not a bad idea, even if I do say so myself. Forming the group might not be easy though, especially seeing as the group Jubiade of which Ivan is the President, has not met in a really long time and has very few active members. I am going to make it happen though. I will keep you posted.

Well I think that is it for right now. Bigote has been pretty good to me for the past 3 weeks but the truth is that it is really nice to be here in the capital city of Piura to see other volunteers and escape it, if only for a day or so. Oh, I requested and received a bike from the Peace Corps recently so that means that now I can be wheeling and dealing with my new bike in Bigote. I am pretty excited. I can’t believe I have been in Bigote for 2 months and in Perú for almost 5. That just seems crazy. It’s been a wild ride so far and I am sure there will be more bumps along the way. It’s just a good thing I have my seat belt on, so to speak.

Suerte a todos,
Peace Corps Volunteer Alejandro
Over and Out.

I am squatting over the hole in the ground that is my bathroom and a green frog emerges from underneath one of the cracks between the playwood wall and the cement floor. He takes a few hops towards me that made me thing he was coming after me. So much so that it nearly made me fall backwards into the silo of feces beneath me. But in the end, he just hoped along, paying me very little attention and then escaping through a crack in the curtain that functions as a door to the bathroom. Let´s just say that that was a first and I doubt that would happen stateside. Life is certainly different out here in Piura. That scene is a familiar one for me here in Bigote. And it always makes me think of all the luxuries that the Western world (including myself not too long ago) takes for granted.

Let’s just take communication for example. I find it quite amazing that I have not been able to check my email for over 2 weeks, I have not been able to call anyone other than from a community phone that costs me 50 cents a minute to call anywhere and limited cell phone coverage, even if I had the proper cell phone carrier. So basically no communication with anyone. On the one hand that seems pretty scary doesn’t it? I mean this blog is the only thing letting most of you know that I am still alive right. On the other hand, I have to admit, it is liberating in a way because without my cell phone attached to my side to call me away from whatever task I am doing, I have no choice but to immerse myself in the present task. Let me rephrase that because you certainly always have a choice don’t you. I could sit in my room all day thinking about how wonderful it would be to be able to communicate with the outside, and thereby my wallowing would prohibit me from enjoying the experience of being in Bigote, Piura in Peru. Not that I have been doing that because I haven’t, but I feel like there is only so much wallowing that I can do before I just resign myself to going outside and enjoying the moment.

One other thing about life with out communication I enjoy is that if I want to coordinate an activity it is all by word of mouth. There is an enormous paper trail here in Peru meaning that if I wanted to start a workshop I have to write a solicitud and get signatures from all the people involved before I can move forward. It is a lot of legwork and I experienced that to a small degree recently when I was organizing computer lessons with the director of the secondary school. I talked with him briefly about it, then he wrote up a lesson plan and got it approved by the municipality without involving me. Then I was given a lesson plan with hours of work as if I were an employee. I then had to go back to the director and talk to him about what I wanted my lesson plan to be and then he sent me to go fix the lesson plan myself but then I found myself in the same position the director was in before: programming the computer class without collaborating with the other community partner. So then I had to organize another meeting to formally fix and collaborate about the hours and details of the computer class. And each of these interactions consisted in me walking about a half mile back and forth from the school. Whoa. That’s a lot of legwork, right? Yeah. But the thing is that all the legwork is necessary because there is no other form of communication. What I like about it is that it forces personal interaction that has been lost by some forms of communication. Most know that I was not a huge fan of text messaging for that exact reason. I prefer to talk with people. This takes it to the ultimate degree. One other advantage is that it forces much more planning to set up a workshop, though at the same time it becomes very vulnerable to impromtu problems. Say for example that I program a workshop and one day is a holiday that I didn’t know about, then no one is going to show up except me and I have no idea why. Or maybe I am held up coming back from Piura city and can’t give my lesson or even just that I am a little late, I can’t let anyone know about it. They are just going to be disappointed and then I have to go to let them know what the problem was and reorganize another meeting. That is why lots of things in Peru (and most latin american countries in fact) are just plain late. Most are just accostumed to things starting late because no one can let anyone else know that they can’t get there on time. It just makes you remember that you have got it good being able to give someone a call if you have to cancel an appointment. It probably sounds primitive but it’s true.

What other priviledges to we have in the US that are not present in Bigote? Well how about supermarkets. If I need something in the US, I just head to the local Stop & Shop. Not the reality here my friend. Nothing is sold in one local store. If Nancy (my host sister) or my host mother (Paula) wants to buy something they have to go to someone’s house down the road to buy it from them. O and forget about refrigeration. Everyone only buys what they are going to be able to use for the day. So Nancy or Paula will by a cut of chicken for the day and that’s it. Some families, including ours, do actually own a refrigerator, but they don’t use it because it cost so much money (meaning about 20 soles or 7 dollars more per month). Some days they ask me to go buy the meat for them. Most of it is usually sold in the morning. So I went out to go buy 1.5 pounds of meat. I found the guy who has a table set up outside his house/hut with an axe and some knives to chop the huge side of cow that is draped on the table as if it were a wet table cloth. All I do is ask for 1.5 pounds of meat. Asking for a specific cut does not exist. You get meat, that’s it. Bones, muscle, fat, whatever it comes with. And no complaining. It seems like the luck of the draw what type of meat you will get, perhaps more with pork and cow than chicken, duck or turkey, but still a different system from our own. If I wanted sweet potatoe I would have to go to another person and yet another for rice and yet another for bananas or whatever else you can imagine. Oh the conveniences of having one store that has it all. All we have to do is walk two aisles over and there it is. I might walk three blocks to find that they have run out of whatever product I was looking for.

One very cool thing though that happens is that if people want a mango or a guava or a coco, they just go out and pick it from the tree in their back yard. All the produce and meat is incredibly fresh and I would expect, though I am not sure, organic. People don’t really use products to feed their animals or anything like that. You would never run into someone protesting against KFC for raising chickens without beaks and talons and being pumped full of food to plump them for our consumption. People just eat what is around in Peru. It seems a lot healthier than our way of life in certain ways, though perhaps their way of cutting the meat, preparing it and saving it could be a little more sanitary.

How about clean water from the tap? Now I know that drinking from a water bottle is all the rage in the US, but really the water supply is pretty damn good. It would never cross your mind that you would get so sick to your stomach if you drank some tap water, maybe the taste would not be what you had expected, but that’s about it. If I drink the tap water here, I have diarhhea for a week and probably will be bed-riden for one day. The thing is that most Peruvians have gotten accostumed to the parasites in their stomachs so they drink the impure water without boiling it or anything and they are fine. Of course I am not Peruvian so its not so easy for me. I recently bought I huge jug with a tap on it so that I could fill it with my own water and purify it on my own. It may seem crazy but I put 2 drops of clorox for every liter of water to kill the germs. The truth is though that water in the states has just as much if not more clorox in it. So don’t think I am drinking something crazy because it takes just the same as water in the US. But this idea of purfying the water is completely foreign to my family. I tried to put the jug in a public place for the family, but they thought it would be better in my room. One day I had a head ache and they were convinced that it was because the bleach in my water was too strong. Nor do they really put tops on the buckets they have for water, exposing it to the possibilities of malaria and dengue, not to mention leaves falling into the water supply. For this reason I just bought a big trash bin for them to put the water in so they could cover it. Water seems to instinctive to us, doesn’t it? We always have water. I have mentioned the hot water thing before, but just running water is something we take for granted. The hot water thing is actually not such a problem in Piura. Given that it is so freaking hot here all the time without being able to escape into air conditioning (it seems laughable that I should even mentioned that) or even a fan, I welcome the cold showers to refresh me from the hot sun. Sometimes in the early evening the water has even gotten to be lukewarm sitting out in the backyard all day, so it is like a lukewarm shower anyway.

Some people do not even take showers, they just go down to the river to wash themselves, bringing shampoo and soap with them. I have a gone down to the river a few times with some of the kids to show them how to play American football. Another volunteer who was leaving gave me his old one and so I brought it and they wanted to play so I obliged. In any case, we played in the middle of the river basically. Because it is not the rainy season, the river is low and most of the river is exposed. As a result, most of the silt from the bottom of the river is exposed and the kids play on it like it is sand. We played American football there. Afterwards we would go to the river and jump in. Some people would be washing themselves and others would just be hurling themselves off the rocks into the deeper parts of the water. I think the funniest part is that some of the younger kids would just swim around naked. When I say younger kids, I mean like 8 or 9 years old, so not so young that they do not really understand. Public nudity is completely cool. And all the others are just throwing him around. Normal.

Some also alerted me to the fact that some men have sex with animals from a young age, mostly donkeys. From the age of like 12 or so kids “experiment” with the animals. It obviously seems unacceptable to me, but this is just what these people grew up and doing. It might seem better if you consider that there is virtually no rape and little sexual assault in Bigote, nor is their prostitution. It seems a ridiculous thing to say but I’d rather someone have sex with a donkey than rape a woman, though obviously I am not exactly happy about either. Oh and before the jokes start, I will premptively say that no I will never ever nor will I ever even think about having sex with a donkey.

Another strange thing happened this past Saturday when I went to the Town Plaza to read in the open for a little bit. I do that sometimes so that I can be seen in the public eye so that people know that I am there in the community and that reading is good, not to mention being able to talk with passersby and get to more of the community. I was reading a really interesting book that I recommend, called the “The Unsupportable Lightness of Being.” Just to give you a quick understanding, the book is about an unfaithful couple and how there were moments in their lives when they felt as if the decisions that lay ahead of them weighed so heavily that it would be forever irreversable, simply by the fact that my life is only lived once and there is no going back once we have done something. The author, in a very poetic yet philosophical manner, talks about how this weight does not exist because we are always free to change and the universe is not a pre-written plan. Ironically, as I was reading, an Evangelical man came up to me and asked me what I was doing and what I was reading. He quickly explained that he was part of a music group that had played the night before and was going to play again. He further went on to say that he was lost in drug addiction, alcolholism and abuse a few years ago to the point that he wouldn’t recognize his own child. And then God saved him, and he found Christ. I really have no problem with talking with people from any background, because it is always an opportunity to learn. But the truth is that when someone starts targeting you and starts saying that you need to find Christ because you heart is empty, it seems very natural to want to react. And that is basically what the conversation turned in to: him trying evangelize me. At one point he brought his friend over and his picked up his book and said that the message in the Bible, written by the hand of God, was absolute and unwavering and that the message in my book was finite and only talked about the material world of man. Ironically, I think that it was further from the truth. I really had never been subject to an evangelization like that. In the end I told him that I enjoyed reading and that I think there were many ways to practice spirituality and find God and that I think that we should think about the message of God and what God is more than just take it for granted. I suggested that he read some other books and he in return suggested I read the Bible.

There are two funny things about this conversation that I will mention presently. First is that about a week before I had finished reading a book called the Celestine Prophecy. It immediately became one of my favorite books. It talks about spirituality and how the world is changing into a new world movement right now. More than anything it talks about reading into the coincidences of our lives and learing to let them guide our lives in such a way that we can arrive at things that deep down in our inner core we really desire. In other words, by reading and following the coincidences we can arrive at our personal callings and facilitate a more peaceful world order. Second, when I went into Piura the a few days prior a woman had given me the New Testament to read. I was buying some nails and a hammer of all things and she insisted that I take the Bible with me. Now I am not a particularly religious person, more understanding of spiritual practic than anything, but the combination of these events does seem to suggest that I should be reading the Bible, now doesn’t it? The fact that I read a book about the coincidences of our life, then I get given a Bible and then some Evangelical insists on me reading it. I am not sure, but maybe I will take a look. In any case, a very interesting talk with the Evangelical.

I have also been helping with a literacy campaign that was started recently here in Bigote. Given that there was a large about of machismo in earlier years, there are many older women who were not allowed to go to school because their role was seen to be solely in the home and thus schooling would be of no use to them. It is very sad, but the literacy campaign is great, though difficult. I have been helping a younger woman named Flor with her classes along with my other counterpart Ivan with his classes. In fact, my host mother Paula is one of those women who does not know how to write or read. I go to the sessions to help in any way that I can, but mostly to animate them to continue working on it, because sometimes it is difficult and boring. Jeez it is hard to teach them though. I spent about 2 hours trying to teach one woman how to connect two lines. It’s not so much that they do not understand what I am saying, I am convinced it is just that they just don’t know how to use their hands and muscles in that way. They have not done it for so long that it has become a habit not to know. It is the bodies way of rejecting change it seems.Anyway, I gave the mother some homework to connect the dots to just do some straight lines. It is very rewarding at the end of the session though, because learning how to read and write is such a powerful tool. I couldn’t imagine not being able to read or write. These women are 50+ years old. That’s a lot of time not being able to know how to do it. It’s really an honor to help, though it really is slow going.

This past week has been one big celebration. Unlike in the US, Peruvians take their anniversaries and town fiestas seriously and as a huge token of their tradition and culture. This past week we had the Anniversary of the Academic Institution of Bigote named after a famous philosopher who fought for independence, Jose Carlos Mariategui. There are several parts to the celebration, but the biggest ordeal of all, which I had the fortunate task of being involved in, was the selection of and coronation of the Queen of School, Miss Mariateguista. It was a competition between 3 candidates each selected from the 3 highest grades in the school. The three candidates were a senior named Nashelly Cordova, a junior named Sulmy Sullon, and a sophomore named Dalma Farfan. The way it works is that each candidate is asked to gain votes by selling tickets to people in the community. Each ticket is worth 2 votes. The sell these before the competition. Then, last Wednesday, the 18th of September, they had the competition which becomes basically a fundraiser. People submit money to back their candidate. 80% of the final decision about who wins is based on how many votes they ge. Each candidate also is asked several questions like what would you do to change Bigote, or what would you do if you were director of the school. They are also asked to show off their formal wear and then a traditional dress of Peru. It is basically a Miss America pageant for Bigote. 20 % of the final decision is based on what the judges have to say about their addresses to the crowd, their dress, how they answer the questions and their general presentation: I know all of this because I was solicited to be one of the 4 judges! So during the night of the 18th. They had their competition and each gained votes from the crowd and their godfathers. Godfathers or padrinos are those who back the certain candidates. One padrino was the current mayor, another was the ex-mayor and then one was the local doctor. They were expected to donate a considerable amount of money to the candidate. What does the candidate do with the money, you ask? She uses it to buy a dress for the anniversary of the school and whatever is leftover she uses for herself. I should say also that 25% of the total amount is immediately taken by the school to cover the costs of the graduation ceremony. So it is not only for the benefit of the candidate but also the school as a fundraiser.

Nashelly ended up winning at the last moment when someone donated 500 soles and brought her from last to first within the final seconds of the vote. Then on Sunday, there was a huge dance ceremony with the coronation of the queen. The other two candidates are also named Queens, but obviously not as notable. One is the Queen of Sympathy and the other the Queen of Well-Being, though I am not entirely sure on that last one. Everyone thought it was corrupt and thought that Dalma, the one who ended up coming in second, should have won. They thought that perhaps her father had put the money in knowing that it would immediately be returned to Nashelly, except for that 25%. We will never know. I would say that she was the best candidate from where I was sitting as a judge, but I had little to do with the final outcome because most of what decided it was how much money each raised.

I was also asked to coronate Sulmy on the Sunday night at the dance. It was a lot of fun, though I have to say the drinking scene in Peru in odd. Kids from 13 and up are drinking heavily and everyone passes around one glass to show a 750ml bottle of beer. Given that I am so easily picked out in a crowd in Bigote, everyone wants to invite me to have some with them. And if I refuse to drink, people take it really personal and think that it is because I don’t like them or who knows what. Obviously with so much alcoholism in the community I want to be a good role model for responsable drinking, not to mention that I just want to be safe in unknown territory, so I really want to be careful not to have too much. People also drink what is called chicha de jora, which is basically double-cooked maize flour so that it ferments a little bit. It has about as much alcohol as a beer I would imagine and sure gets you tipsy. It comes from the Incan times and was what they drank as alcohol, or so I am told. It tastes kindof bitter, but not really that bad. People also drink cañazo which is basically pure alcohol. They mix it with juice or just drink it alone. It is pretty gross, but again, given that most people here just drink to get drunk, it does what it needs to. Returning to the dance, it does become difficult for me to maneaveur the situation when tons of people are drinking so much, but I think I did a fairly good job by just dancing most of the time. It is really tough to see 13 year olds drinking with the professors of the school side by side. Again, part of the culture. Something that I have to think about how to promote more responsable drinking habits.

And then this past week was all celebration. On Monday, they had a day of fun games for all the kids. I played in a game of primary school professors against secondary school. We won, the first for me in a while, and I also scored a goal. I also feel like it is a success after playing fubito because I know it is such a bonding experience for most Peruvians. I feel like I win a little bit of their trust every time I play their sport on their turf with them.

On Thursday, we went to the beach in Piura which was a lot of fun too.

Lastly, a quick update on the games activity in Bigote. The Municipality has all of its games except the one in which we tied to begin, which means we are eliminated after the round robin round is over. I have been playing as the goalie for most of it but it has been tough getting to know the game because it is so fast and so different from real football. It has been a great opportunity for me to get to know Bigote and for its people to get to know me on the other hand, so I am not really disappointed. Nevertheless, I have never been a big fan of losing. I had a running streak of losing games in fubito that ended only a couple days ago. I felt like I’d lost several soles just on the betting that goes on before the games.

The Juegos Escolares were cancelled because of a quarrel between the director of the school of La Quemazon and the rest of the caserios because he had not registered his teams with the government like he should have, but still wanted to continue playing. It really is a shame because it was for the kids and a celebration for the kids but these things happen when people don’t follow the rules and others can’t find an exception. I am not going to side with either because the rules are there for a reason. Bottom line: the School Olympics are cancelled, for now.

I have also started playing Chess with some of the kids in school during recess and sometimes I play fubito in the street down where I live with the kids aswell. I really like the fact that a lot of people in the community are getting to know me. When I walk down the street, I will immediately hear lots of people, old and young alike, calling my name. But don’t worry, I can hear you calling me from the US every so often.

Suerte a todos,
Peace Corps Volunteer Alejandro
Over and Out.

Before I begin, I have two things to say. First, I have posted two blogs recently. One of the last few weeks of training which is listed below. So please take a look at that if you so desire. The fact was that I did not have the opportunity to post anything until I got to Bigote at which point I found out that the internet was down. I have been out of radio contact for a while, but I assure that I am okay and though it may happen again, I am doing the best I can and just remember that no news is good news in the Peace Corps. Second, please check out the pictures that I have posted on facebook. They are of all sorts of things from life in Bigote to the final days in Lima. For those non-facebookers out there, here is the link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2032454&l=f2e04&id=3900778

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2032019&l=c4198&id=3900778

Enjoy the entry.

Hello all:

What an experience it has been living in Bigote and being the only English-speaker within 2-3 hours of me. Just walking down the street every morning to go visit my community partner, Armando, in the municipality or to go to the secondary school, is quite the experience: I step out of my mud-floored tin-roofed house and I immediately hear “Oye Gringo. Buenos Dias.” I take a few steps down and everyone is staring at me. The kids come out of their houses not to play, but to stare at one of the strangest things that they have ever seen: a blonde-haired blue-eyed American. I get “Habla en ingles, gringo” Speak English to us, all the time. I end up saying some words like “Hello. How are you doing? Do you know what time it is?” to which their only response is to turn away, hide under the shoulder of their mom or a friend and giggle. Most of the time I love being the gringo in town. I am basically a celebrity. Everyone wants to know and be seen with the gringo. I have had conversations with people who just stare at my blue eyes and then look away and won´t respond when I ask them a question, as if my eyes were some deep abyss that had captured them and they could not escape. Some of the times though it does get annoying because people, mostly kids, try to make the sounds of English and completely butcher it and it comes out like how Chinese sounds to me, “wawa ista yowawa nameeee.” And they start shouting from 5 blocks away expecting me to answer them. But the truth is that it is kindof fun being such a novelty. And I am not sure it will ever wear off.

So we got to Piura city on Sunday morning and just chilled out most of the day. We had a meeting with our regional coordinator Wilfredo on Monday morning which just turned in to him taking us to various places around the city where could by stuff that we needed and getting our tickets ready to go to our sites the next day. The real adventure began when I got to Bigote on Tuesday morning.

I got off in the Town Plaza or Plaza de Armas. Where I found Armando pulling in on his bike to greet me. I had called him the day before to let him know I was coming. He was excited to see me and walked with me down to my house where I greeted my family again. I had brought them a kitchen knife that I bought in the market and a handcrafted artisan vase that had been given to me by a volunteer who had completed his service and was leaving and didn’t want it. The reason for the kitchen knife was that this country is full of people using dull knives and I had noticed that the knife collection in my family’s house was less than stellar so I thought it would be a good albeit useful gift.

There is really so much to share even in the brief moments I have had these first two weeks so I will try to give some brief but interesting stories from some of the moments I have had here.

Deportes, anyone? : On that Tuesday when I arrived Armando invited me to go with him to play soccer at the secondary school because they were all practicing for the upcoming Interschool Olympics that he organized within the District of Bigote, including the 34 surround little towns. So we played a game. Our team lost. Everyone bets money on the games, supposedly to make it more interesting, but I think it because they want to make some money. I guess it can be both. I played goal for a little and didn’t do so hot. I kept thinking that my younger brother, Campbell, might be better suited for goalie than I am (he plays that position for his team). Nevertheless, I did my best.

Then on Friday, I was invited to attend the inauguration of the Interschool Olympics or Juegos Escolares, at which time all the different towns with a primary or secondary school went to the town of La Quemazon for the ceremony. It was very long and drawn out, as most Peruvian occasions are, as I have come to notice. There was several dances, poems and performances by students. Then there was a march for the authorities of the town, including the mayor or alcalde and each school was judged on appearance and salute. There was a torch that took 15 minutes to run around the stadium and then also each authority of the District of Bigote and the town of La Quemazon said something. It was a great occasion though because not many places get to organize such a great event for the kids as to have competitions like this. Very few times during the year do the students get to do any kind of organized athletic activity and it showed how excited they all were for the games. I was also well noticed by kids and authorities too. I mean I was the only white person there, how could you miss me?

I was also enlisted to play for the Municipality in a court soccer tournament. Soccer is played on a concrete court made up of slabs of concrete about 3 m x 3 meters and has 6 players to a side. From here on out I will refer to this small court soccer as fubito. The inauguration for that tournament, which was completely different from the Juegos Escolares, was this past Tuesday and each team paraded in front of the Municipality in another contest. The Municipality´s team did not parade because they are the hosts and the idea was to promote recognition for the youth of Bigote more than anything.

In any case, I played on Wednesday night. They enlisted me to again play as the goalie. Basically I was goalie because no one else wants to be goalie, which is fine by me, because the main point of the exercise for me was to get to know people better and gain confidence with the public as well as be seen in the public eye. So to me goalie was just fine, though I had little idea about what I was doing. It was definitely a little nerve-racking when I first walked out there, knowing that all eyes were on the Gringo. The kids gathered behind the net and started asking me all kinds of questions. I wanted to be nice, but I needed to concentrate too. I didn´t want to embarrass myself or the municipality by me not playing well. Nevertheless, as the game got underway, I relaxed and it wasn’t so difficult. I saved a bunch of goals when I was one on one with the opposing team’s best player. Of the two goals the other team tallied, one was an own-goal and the other was a good play where I dove for the ball trying to steal it from the attacker and he swerved past me at the last moment and tapped it in the goal. The game ended in a tie 2-2 and I thought we should’ve lost so I think we did well. The rest of the team and a lot of the public congratulated me for playing well. I felt that it was a small victory for me in gaining the confidence of Bigote. I had been jumping around a lot and coming out of the goal to steal passes so I had been entertaining too for them. I felt like I had done something good after I finished. That happened this past Wednesday night.

On Thursday, the entire day at the schools was dedicated to the Juegos Escolares. They asked me to be the referee for one of the futbol games between Bigote and La Quemazon. The field is made of dirt rather than grass so the pitch becomes one big dusty cloud after a few minutes of play, but it was fun to be there and to talk with all the kids and for them to see me, the gringo, among them. I played some chess with some of the other kids on the side. All the kids are just dying to learn more but they just don’t have activities to do. I am really excited to start doing some stuff with these kids, especially the world map project I have planned. The world map project will be to paint a world map in some location in Bigote with some of the youth in my community. It is a chance for them to learn about geography, a poorly covered topic in class, and about where I am from, etc. I will be starting to organize that in the next few weeks. But the day of sport was great, just to see how happy each school was for the athletes who were participating and how fun it was for them all. I feel like I have walked into the perfect community to help: the already have some things going, but they could use some more and a little more of a push. I’d love to start some other sports like basketball or swimming as I had mentioned, or maybe just firm up more competitive leagues for the already established teams. So sports in Bigote are at a peak right now.

Fiesta, anyone? : So after the inauguration of the Juegos Escolares on Friday, we came back to Bigote for a short while and then Armando invited me to go with him and the rest of the Muncipality to play soccer in another little town going up in the mountains called Barrios. We drove up at around 5 in the back of an old open carriage pick-up/garbage truck. I was really funny for me because as we were driving I noticed that everyone we passed in the streets looked at me and was shocked to see a gringo so far from home. It was also one of those moments when you realize that you are in the middle of no where in South America. I was sitting next to a bunch of Peruvians fording a river in a huge garbage truck talking about how I should marry some Bigoteña.

As soon as we arrived we did end up playing and I played in the field for a little and then they asked me to play goalie and I said sure. I made a mistake and came out of the cage in the last moment to charge the attacker but he shot before my hands were up and scored. It was the winning goal. I felt like I’d let the team down a little. Then again, the defense had let me down a little and it was a good shot. As I just told you, I am pretty sure I redeemed myself later. In any case, it wasn´t really a big deal. And then we all gathered in the customary circle to talk and then we all shared a case of beer, passing around the customary cup and bottle of beer that everyone shares.

Then the fiesta began to commemorate the new fubito pitch, also called a platform here, which was the main reason the municipality had gone. What proceeded from then on was a rather rare demonstration of karaoke and dance. The local dance group would perform a few numbers and then some local students would sing some more Cumbia songs. There was not one point in the night when anyone danced. We all just watched until around 12pm or so. The traditional dance around here is called La Marinera, done with a lot of clapping and twirling of sombreros. It was very cool or bacan, as they say in Perú. One of the funny/disturbing points in the night was when a local drunkard made his way onto the middle of the platform when a couple was performing one of the traditional dances. He almost invaded the dance altogether if the couple had not moved away from him. It was bizarre that no one tried to stop him. Everyone just stared and either laughed or shook their head, or both. It seems that every town has it’s town drunkard and people just shake their heads and don’t listen to them. It was still a fun opportunity to play with the people I would be working with and get to know different parts of Bigote and the people and for them to meet me and the Peace Corps.

On Saturday, I was invited to another fiesta in another little town called Santa Rosa to celebrate ironically enough the day of Saint Rose and also the anniversary of their primary school there. Santa Rosa was very sparse, a very small and new town, but they were very nice and invited me to look at their newly constructed church. I spent the whole day there, talking with people from the town and playing with the kids from the school there. Everyone always wants to play with the gringo. And dance. They kept on asking me to dance with some Peruvian woman and then it would be this awkward encounter where I would ask the woman what her name was and she wouldn’t say anything and just stare off into space, anywhere but at me, while we danced and then she would run away after the song ended. It was bizarre, but I guess people just feel intimidated by my presence or embarrassed or something.

I also had my first encounter with drinking in public and getting pressured to drink a lot by people who I did not want to really drink with. I would drink a sip and then get up to play with the kids to avoid drinking more.

One other custom that they have here in Piura, especially in rural zones or the campo, is to drink chicha de jora. Chicha in general is their word for concentrated juice or something like it. Chicha de jora is made from maize that is grown in the area and it is cooked until it is slightly fermented. It is generally not alcoholic, though I think that it can make you tipsy it is has been fermented too long. People drink it out of a little cup called a poto, made from a hollowed out squash called calabaza or also it can be made from wood. Everyone passes the poto around in the circle and that is how it is drunk. It tasted decent in general and I shared that custom with them. They say it is a very good nutrient and that the Incas used to drink it.

Anyway, I was there with the governor of Bigote, which is different than the mayor. We stayed until around 9pm at which time I said I wanted to go back to Bigote. Given that Santa Rosa is such a new community and was on the other side of the Bigote river, it does not have electricity nor does it have any real system of transport. As a result, we had to take a 30-40 minute walk in the dark back home. When we started off, I felt blind and kindof stupid.

I mean I was with the governor so I did feel safe and he said he knew the way. But let’s be real. I only knew him for a few days and I had no idea where we were going. It seemed just crazy because as we were walking I could barely see my own feet under the moonlight. I probably should have been a little scared but then I realized that this was just the life of being in the countryside. People walked from Bigote to Santa Rosa all the time at night; we even passed a few people as we walked. You just walk at night because there are no cars or bikes and that’s just how it works. We walked into Bigote at around 10:30 and I was fine, if not for a few mud stains on my pants. I could only think that as I was walking, this might be stupid in any other place.

Witch doctor remedies: So I have enjoyed talking with my host father a lot. He has engaged me in topics about religion and what I think God is and so forth. I didn’t really get to know my host father from Chacrasana very well because he was always working in Lima, so it is nice to get to know an older Peruvian male better here. But what I didn’t know until the other day was that he sold home remedy type things to people. I found this out because some woman brought their child who was not feeling well to him and then he started to rub the boy’s stomach and told my host mother to get some of his special lotion. After the procedure was over, he explained that the lotion removed the toxins from the boys stomach gradually. He also told me that he had once split his head open when someone threw a huge rock at him and then he had refused to go to the health post or hospital. He stayed in bed and got better in the house. He then proceeded to show me all kinds of remedies that not only prevented diseases, but brought people success or money. Of course I was and am skeptical of the potions that he showed me, but it was an interesting thing to see. I couldn’t believe there was a potion for success. He said if you drink this remedy three times a week, it will bring you money within a year. And people buy this stuff in droves. I mean I am not exactly the first person to be going to the hospital, but I am pretty sure that modern medicine works for something. I know I am opening a whole can of worms with this topic but I guess I do not know what else to add besides I was surprised by what he had to say. As always however I was respectful and attentive to what he had to say. Just an another aspect of the cultural exchange.

Batman: So if you have not seen the picture that I took when I was in Bigote for my site visit, my room has mud floor and I have to sleep under a mosquito net each night or otherwise the mosquitoes would eat me alive. They already do bite me enough during the early evenings and before bed, but I would pretty much be eaten alive if I didn´t have protection from those suckers while I am sleeping. In any case, usually before bed I read a little bit, sometimes in the mornings too, while my host mother Paula and host sister Nancy are preparing breakfast.

This past Sunday night however, I was reading a little (I was reading and recently finished The Kite Runner in case you were curious and I also highly recommend it) when I heard a soft scratching sound in my room on the floor. I put my book down again thinking it was nothing or maybe something outside, seeing as part of the roof does open up to the open air. But then the scratching continued behind my dresser and I decided to take a look. So I got my lantern and threw some light on the situation. Pun intended. I was expecting maybe a frog or a rat. I found a bat. A nice big bat. Just sleeping behind my dresser. I called my host father in to my room and he said he didn´t seen it at first but then he found it. We got a broom brought the bat from out of the dresser and stomped it to death. He was going to burn it as a preventative measure, but I said it wasn´t necessary, especially seeing as he wanted to burn it in a plastic bag. People here seem to lack the sense that smoke can be just as bad if not worse for you than solid materials. Alas, my first encounter with creatures in my room. He said it was the first time he´d seen a bat in his house. I believe him, but I know that it is fairly common in Bigote. One more surprise to add to the list.

Clases de Ingles: One last thing is that I also have been going to the local secondary school all the time to get to know the professors along with the students and I have been helping the professors with their English classes. I have done 2 so far. I have helped with pronunciacion and we played the telephone game in one class. I know I am helping even in a little way for right now because the professors who had been teaching them barely could say three words to me in English. If they are the ones teaching the kids, how can they expect the kids to know how to say anything? So that has been a good sharing experience as well.

I think that is about it for now. Don’t be strangers out there.

Suerte a todos,
Peace Corps Volunteer Alejandro.
Over and Out.

This edition includes the last two weeks of training up until swearing-in night and leaving Lima for good.

I can’t figure out if I feel like I arrived here yesterday or if it seems like so long ago, but one thing is for sure: change is the name of the game in the Peace Corps. I came back from visiting Bigote and in a whirlwind of two weeks I am back here in Bigote summing up the last two weeks of training for all of you out there in the worldwide web.

I almost feel like I can’t even remember everything that happened so I will just start with the highlights. I have been playing soccer a few times with my friends in Yanacoto, the neighboring community to Chacrasana that is located just over the hill/mountain of dust and rocks. We have created what we have called the Dream Team or El Equipo en Sueno of Mark, Ken (who used to play soccer for the Finnish national team), Nate, Ryan, Dave and I. Just in case you were curious, Ken has dual citizenship with Finland through his mother who is Finnish, which is what allowed him to play on the national team. Finland is not amazingly good but he was definitely the best among us. He was on the attack, along with me, though I usually ran up and down the court like a midfielder. I think I forgot to mention that this is not your regular run of the mill soccer pitch. This is basically a basketball court where goals have been set up. It is made of out huge concrete squares that are very hard and very slippery. Part of the game is not only controlling the ball as it bounces on the court, but also trying not to slide all over the place all of the time. Most of the time we beat the best of the Peruvians, but sometimes the other guys on our team got really into it. The style of play here is just very different than what we are used to in the states. If the ball gets kicked out of play and someone has to run to go get it, if they throw it back the game starts without them. The other team never waits for them. There is a lot of pushing and fouling but no one gets called for it unless they touch the ball with their hands. And if the ball goes out of bounds, you have to argue with the other team a little bit before they give the ball over even if it was plainly off the other guy and your ball. Some of our guys got pissed at them because of the heat of the moment, but we always tried to show them more sportsmanship and fair play. This week was the first time that we bet a soda or gaseosa that the losers would have to pay. We won so we shared some gaseosa. It was a good integrating experience for everyone.

We also had our last meeting for the youth group in Chacrasana. But given that we had missed the last week because of site visits, we weren’t expecting very many kids. We bought some soda and some crackers and shared it with some of the kids. We were supposed to start at 3:30 but not very many people got there until 4pm. Once more kids got there, we decided to play some games. I love to play games with the kids and the fact of the matter is that they don’t really get the opportunity to do it very often. There are very little organized activities within Chacrasana so they loved every opportunity we had to play. We play red light, green light and also a game called octopus where kids get tagged and have to stay where they are and try and tag others. It is a little hard to explain in writing but it is kindof like red rover but when someone gets tagged they have to stay in their place. The kids loved it. I think what both made me happy and sad was that after we were done the kids wanted me to play with them more another day. It was great for me to see that I had done something worthwhile. On the other hand, I realized that these kids do need more support and that I could not be there to help them. I felt like I had helped them only a little bit and they could benefit from more of my help but I couldn’t give it to them. I do realize that that is part of the deal in training because we know it is only a very temporary thing, but on the other hand that does not make it easy.

Thinking about the youth group also makes me remember a talk given to us by a Pscyhologist who worked with one of our Youth Development Technical Trainer, Bianca. The psychologist was very entertaining and enjoyed hearing our questions. The basic topic was about how to deal with issues of sexual abuse in our sites. Obviously the subject was very heavy and depressing at times to realize the family abuse and sexual abuse, especially between fathers and daughters, is fairly common in Perú. She did lighten the mood a little bit with some humor and she even asked me to volunteer for a roleplay. It was funny when I was in front of the group because she was describing and sometimes quasi-demonstrating inappropriate ways to interact with kids.She mentioned several warning signs of possible sexual and/or familial abuse such as acting out, hitting other kids, not wanting to go home, not wanting to participate making inappropriate sexual comments, etc. She advocated simply just listening with patience and love. It reminded me a lot of what my mom would probably say. In any case, during the talk and after the youth group, I kept on thinking of the disturbed kid that I mentioned in one of my first journals, named Jose. He exhibited and continues to exhibit some of the warning signs that I just mentioned. I felt bad that I had not been able to make more progress with him but whenever I have seen him I also say hello and try and be as affectionate and patient with him as possible. It is easier to help kids when you realize that some, if not all, of their behavior is a product of how they have been treated and what kinds of behaviors and values they have learned and internalized.

On Saturday we went to the Peace Corps office in Lima to have our language interviews. I tested at the same level that I came in at – Advanced Low -- which in my opinion is completely bogus. Nevertheless, that’s what it is and it doesn’t really matter that much because I am going to be a volunteer anyway. You have to test out at Intermediate Medium in order to become a volunteer. In the interview they ask you all kinds of questions about your opinions on politics, and I think because I sat and tried to think about some things before I spoke she thought I was trying to translate what I wanted to say instead of just thinking about what I wanted to say. In any case, that was my level.

Later that night we had a sleepover party at the training center. It was supposed to be an opportunity to share photos and play games with each and just hang out for one last time together before we all go off to sites. We had made an agreement beforehand that we would not drink that night so that we could have fun with each other. I had a really good time with Nicole and Erin. Nicole is from San Francisco and Erin is from the Virginia area and went to Franklin and Marshsall. I got to be good friends with Nicole after we talked some about my experiences with Meditation and what I think about Free Will and God and all that jazz. I will share my thoughts about that some other time on this forum as well. It IS one of my favorite things to talk about. Erin is a lot of fun too because she has shared a lot of her experiences with me about studying abroad in Argentina and in the Dominican Republic.

I had a great time that night. We played manhant in the garden and talked around a fire or fugata that we made outside until around 5 am in the morning. Pretty late night I’d say. I had to sleep on the ground in my sleeping bag, which was less than comfortable but I ended up fine. Nicole and I then made pancakes in the morning of all varities, We had some with banana, some with Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and some with chocolate that Nicole’s fiancé had sent her. I probably should’ve mentioned that Nicole recently got engaged before she left for the Peace Corps.

There was one thorn of the night however. What happened was that a few people got drunk before coming to the training center. Not only drank but got sloppy drunk, including one person who threw up and two others who blacked out. I don’t know for sure if stuff was brought into the training center (which would have been a direct rule violation that could’ve been worthy of being kicked out of Peace Corps) but I know that people were drunk. Now let me be clear I am not saying that I was upset with people for drinking specifically, as much as it was a lack of respect for the rest of the people at the center. I mean I have been drunk before and I do understand when people want to party. I mean, as most of you out there probably know, I do enjoy having fun and I have been to parties and such before. But the thing is that we did agree not to do that. So that kindof irked me about it. Especially because there were other members of the group that were getting in trouble for drinking in their host communities. None of those people were at the center nor were any of them drinking.

So anyway that was really bothering me so I decided to confront them about it. One of the people who I confronted was a good friend. I am going to keep this description brief and anonymous because I don’t want to point fingers or anything. I expressed that I thought it was disrespectful and that I was disappointed in them for not using more judgment. The whole thing got blown out of proportion and certain people felt like I was attacking them and judging them instead of coming from a place of friendship. One person did not talk to me for several days. I thought it was a bit ridiculous and still do. Sometimes people need friends to let them know when they screwed up and that what I was doing. I did it as a friend and as someone who cared. What it really made me realize is that we need to always realize that what people say to us is embedded in what they are going through at that point in time. As a result, when we listen, I think we should listen with an open heart and open mind, but at the same time realize that we should not take what people say so personally. We can take what people say to us and interpret its own meaning for ourselves because there are any number of ways that we can take it. I think this friend took what I said very personally and in a negative way when I really did my best to present it kindly to her. In any case, we did end up talking more later on in the week and somewhat smoothed it over, but I think that she closed part of herself off from me because of what she thought I said. I guess it does take courage to confront people sometimes. I can’t say I really regret doing it, but sometimes messages come in different forms. I learned also to be more careful with how I present information to people, especially with delicate subjects.

On Monday, we found out that our Language trainer, Karina, was mourning the death of her mother. All but one member of our class went to visit her during her wake. It was really sobering to see her so distraught, though of course naturally so. Her mother had had cancer for a while, though I think the last week was a rapid decline that was somewhat unexpected. In the same way as I remember the funeral of Grandma Dorothy this past Spring, I remember just feeling a deep pain for those who were in the process of letting go of someone so dear to them. We saw her again on the last day of training for a farewell activity and I couldn’t help but cry for the inspiration that she gave me while at the same time made me feel so sad for her loss and the fact that I had to leave such good people who I had met during training.

On Tuesday evening, we went to Kitty Kaping’s house. She is the director of the Youth Development program in Peru and we had a pizza party and discussion with her. Some people have not gotten along that well with her, but I think she’s great. She has a very open spirit I think and just let’s her own spirit guide her. For example, to mark the occasion of us finishing training and going out to our sites, she gave each of us a Tootsie Pop with a famous quote on it. My quote was “The best way to predict the future is to change it.” By Stephen Covey. Everyone got a quote and had to talk about what it meant to them. I really resonated with my quote because I saw how connected it was to my own free will and to being in control of changing my own life. Sometimes when we make decisions they are not what we really want. I think that is where people get mixed up when they talk about free will. I think that if we quiet the noise of our minds and really listen to what our spirit or deep self wants, we can find what our destiny is being guided towards. But ultimately, I think that that destiny is created by us in conjunction with our surroundings. Where we are influences us in what we want to do but I do not think that anything is determined to any finite degree. The decisions I made in the past along with innate characteristics like how I was raised and where I was born made me who I am today and that I joined the Peace Corps for example. But none of that predicts the future. I could go back to the US right now if I wanted. I could do anything. It’s up to me. And that’s how that quote resonated with me.

I thought it was a wonderful little gathering for everyone to express their thoughts with each other again before we left. Then on Thursday we had a nice little gathering with our host families at the training center. Earlier on about two weeks ago, the guys in my Advanced Spanish class (Kenneth, Mark, Juan Pablo, Edson, Jason and I) performed a karaoke routine for a little Spanish class Talent Show competition. We sang a song by one of the popular cumbia bands here in Perú called Grupo Cinco (translated it means Group Five). Cumbia for those of you who are not familiar is a type of latin song that is something like reggatone and salsa. That’s probably a really poor description but I don’t know how else to describe it. It is usually pretty jumpy, repetitive and has love ballad-type lyrics. Anyway, we performed one of Grupo Cincos most popular songs called Te Vas, which means You Go Away. The reason I am telling you all of this is because we yet again performed the same number for the host families at the training center. We called ourselves Grupo Gringo. After that we then had a slide show of some of the pictures that the volunteers had compiled with their host families along with a buffet full of empanadas, mini-alfajores (which are a type of sweet pastry with caramel inside called dulce de leche, though the alfajores in Perú I must say, pale in comparison to those of Argentina), guacamole and soda. It was a nice chance just to thank the families for what they had given us. I gave my family a set of three framed pictures of us taken from over the three months.

On Friday we became volunteers. Wow. It is incredible to think that 3 months has gone by so quickly. In the morning we thanked the tech trainers as I had touched on before. It was a really moving activity because the language and technical trainers along with all the other directors at the training center, closed their eyes and Kat, the president of the training class, said some phrases like “This person was there for you when you felt homesick” or “This person made you laugh” and each volunteer would touch the shoulder or anyone of the trainiers that had affected them in that way. As I mentioned it was especially moving to see Karina my language teacher there and I felt so bad for her for losing her mother. Actually it was not only that. She had just had a rough couple of months during training. One day during training she was robbed at knife point in a taxi and 5000 soles (about 1600 dollares) was taken from her. She also had been very sick for about a week or so as well. So I definitely thought she inspired me and then also our training director, Kathleen, had just been so great as a director in motivating us and dealing with difficult situations. It just became one of those difficult moments when you realize you are saying goodbye to people when you don’t necessarily want to.

After that I went home and had lunch with Judy and the rest of the family one last time. Oh, one other thing I probably should have mentioned was that Edson, one of the other volunteers, moved into our house for the last two weeks of training after his host brother robbed his computer and sold it in Chosica. Basically what had happened was that after site visit, Edson came back to find that his computer was gone. He asked one of his two host brothers about it and he said that he had seen his other brother wearing a Hooters key chain that had been Edson’s so he might have taken it. When Edson confronted the other brother, he resisted for a while and then said that he knew where it was but he didn’t take it. Yeah right buddy. So they went to Chosica where he had sold it to some guy for a petty 100 dollars. It was a huge ordeal and the family was really embarrassed about it. I think the mother fainted three times when Edson was talking to the brother and then in Chosica the police got involved and the brother was taken away in handcuffs and then kicked out of the house. Anyway, clearly Edson could not stay there for much longer so the Peace Corps moved him to my house because there was a spare room. So he stayed with us the last two weeks. He has Columbian heritage so he spoke better Spanish than I did so it was kind of fun to have in the house, though I must admit I did like having the family to myself before that. Back to the story. Edson and I had lunch with the family and finished packing our stuff and then headed back to the training center for our swearing in ceremony for which the family was also invited. We headed over together. Some former Peace Corps volunteers were there and the Deputy head of the US Embassy was there to give some words along with Michael Hirsch the director of Peace Corps Peru, the mother of one of the host families and Micah McKay, who spoke on behalf of all of the Volunteers, thanking them for the entire training experience. It was a very nice ceremony, though fairly short and somewhat informal. All the guys put on a tie and nice pants and such. We all took some last photos with our families, had a few sandwiches and then we had to say our goodbyes as we packed our luggage onto some big buses and piled in to go to Lima. We spent the night in Lima and then would be leaving for our respective sites on Saturday.

Our buses were delayed for a long while because of a car crash on the highway. Transport in Perú, as I have quickly learned is always subject to change, be it delays or accidents or what have you. So we were supposed to leave the training center at 5pm but really we left at around 6:30 or so and arrived into the hostal at around 8pm. I was exhausted to I took a nap and then everyone was going out to the most prestigious club in Miraflores, called Gothika. It was really cool. It overlooked the Ocean and had a decent mix of music. I think I was out until around 5am or so. I came back slept until about 10 and then a bunch of us (Nicole, Erin, Margaret, Mike, Margaret, Micah and Alisha) went to have some Mediterranean food. I had a shish kebab and a falafel. It was delicious. We hung out on the lawns of Miraflores until everyone starting leaving to go to their buses. I met up with the Piura crew, we said our goodbyes and we made our way to the bus station. Given that this is where my training experience ends and my life as a volunteer begins, I think I will stop here for the moment. What a ride it has been so far! I can only imagine that my life for the next two years will be half as interesting. Given that I am writing this now from my bed in Bigote, I can certainly affirm that I think it might be.

Suerte a todos.
Peace Corps Volunteer Alejandro
Over and Out.