Jared's Adventures in South America

One month to go.

2010-10-20T09:55:00.000-07:00

Since my last update I’ve been in my site, Tomas, running around like a madman doing a variety of environmental work, doing Peace Corps required reports and documents, and getting things ready to my replacement PCV. Throughout all this I’m making sure to leave time to enjoy a lunch with friends, visit some “relatives”, and celebrate my town’s 77^th anniversary. Let me tell you a little about it.

Work recently has been going very well. We’ve made a few minor adjustments to our waste collection system, including acquiring and painting 6 cylinders (or trash cans, as we might say in English) to place in various places around Tomas which seems to be helping keep the streets a little cleaner. I’ve been coordinating things with my students who participating in the provincial science fair, where we won first prize, and are now headed to the entire Lima Region contest on the 29^th of October. I’m really proud of my students who’ve learned a lot and put in many hours of work to be able to go to this science fair.

Then comes my town’s anniversary party. The 16^th marked the 77^th anniversary of the political creation of my town. We celebrated by having a traditional dance contest, soccer and volleyball tournaments, lots of food and a dance. This year, I participated in both the soccer tournament and the traditional dances. My group, which did a Peruvian costal dance about the harvest of sugar cane, won second prize. Below are a few pictures! My soccer team got third.

During the opening ceremony of the anniversary party, I was honored for the work I’ve done in Tomas. I was invited to sit with the Mayor and Governor of my town, and a teacher gave a short speech about the work I’ve done and the affect I’ve had on Tomas. I also gave a short speech, thanking my town for being so accepting and teaching me so much, and every gave a long applause as I sat down. It was very reassuring of the success I feel I’ve had in Tomas. It almost brought me to tears, feeling so supported and wanted by such a small, close knit community.

Right now I’m in Lima to give a training session to the environment trainees about pasture management and municipal waste management. I’m excited to meet the new group, and especially to make some guesses as to who is going to be my replacement in Tomas. I’ll let you know how things work out.

That is all for now. I’ll be home soon!

Peace,

Jared

Secondary school students, who against their will a helping out.

Students collecting trash during the post-anniversary cleanup.

The environmental committee members dancing in the landfill to compact the trash, who knew trash could be so much fun?

The first half of the garbage we collected in a post-party cleanup campaign.

What anniversary would be complete without each community entity marching? This is my environmental committee. Nice vests, huh?

The winning traditional dance, performing at the anniversary opening ceremony.

My host family and I after the dances, my sister did a different dance.

This is what my hair looked like after a long weekend of working in with animals. No hair gel, just Jared's all natural styling product.

An uncontrolled pasture burn, degrading and eroding andean soils!

The finished World Map, the photo of all those who helped!

Nearing the end.

2010-09-14T08:45:00.000-07:00

Life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around a while, you might miss it. –Ferris Bueller. That quote pretty much sums up how I feel about the last two years. Sunday marked two years for me in Peru, and since September 2008 I’ve been on quite a wild ride. I’ve recently taken some time to reflect on my past two years with all the other PCVs who are part of my same training group, Peru 12.

September 2nd and 3rd, just two days after a fun vacation with Elizabeth and Tippy (Tippy might not agree so much about the fun part), I attended my Close of Service, or COS, conference. The COS conference was two days in Lima with the 38 PCVs out of the original 47 people that have made it through their service. Peru has one of the highest PCV retention rates in the world, and losing 9 people might seem like a lot but it’s actually pretty good, considering the hardships of being a PCV. All nine people who left did so during the first year in Peru.

COS was a nice recap of what we’ve accomplished as a group, it was full of information about what we have to do to actually leave Peru, and there were helpful hints about writing résumés and getting jobs once we get home. I was expecting a much more emotional event, as it was the last time that we will be together as a group and most likely the last time I’ll ever see some of the people who I started Peace Corps with, but I guess we’ve all become immune to emotional hardship and the event ended up pretty being tranquil.

So, after two years, what do I think? We’ll that is a great question. Would I do Peace Corps again? 100 % yes. Do I think Peace Corps is a useful and worthwhile use of U.S. Government resources and the time of PCVs? Certainly. As a group, our list of accomplishments is impressive: thousands of trees planted, community and micro landfills built, many people educated, improved sanitation for many, list goes on and on. But that isn’t all.

Upon returning to my community after a ten day vacation and a week in Lima (a long time away from site), I’ve realized the biggest impact I’ve had isn’t the garbage collection system I’ve helped to start or the hundreds of trees we’ve planted, but the relationships that have been developed. That might sound funny, that relationships are worth all that U.S. Govt. investment, but I can attest that that is where the real difference is made.

Some people in my town (usually old people) still don’t know exactly what I “do” as a PCV, but what they do know is that I’m the “environment guy”. In my town people are starting to think about the environment in a new way. They’ve always been dependent on the land here in Tomas, but now a few people’s thoughts are set on maintaining and improving the environmental quality not only for their wellbeing, but also to be responsible citizens of Peru and the world. This environmental consciousness will stay with many of my students, my environmental committee, and a few others long after I leave. That is the most sustainable way to improve the wellbeing of many people, along with the environment here in Peru.

Aside from the work aspect, I’ve developed friendships that I’ll never forget, and I can only hope that they’ll never forget either. This group of friends includes about 100 students ranging from ages 3 to 17, many professors, community members, park guards, and many Tíos and Tías (literally meaning uncles and aunts, but also the generic term a young person uses with elderly people). I won’t forget all the “buenos dias joven Yared” (meaning “good morning young man Jared”) and “hola hijito” (meaning “hi son”, said with care) that I’ve recieved. I have no idea how these friendships will affect the people of Tomas, but I know that these friendships will have more affect on the people than if the U.S. Govt. came in giving donations to the people.

So, I thank all you tax payers for the opportunity to have this wonderful experience and all who have supported me in many ways during my service here in Peru. You helped to affect many lives, in ways that will forever be unknown. To sum this up, when someone asks me, “How was the Peace Corps?” I think my response will be, “It was the toughest, most rewarding friendship that I’ve ever had.”

I’m sure my opinions of Peace Corps will change a little as I actually leave Peru and have a time to process this whole experience. My worldview is a little more jaded than before, although I still have great hope for the people in Tomas and in Peru. But, when I officially end my service on November 24th, 2010, I’ll leave being fulfilled by what I’ve been able to do here and enriched by the relationships I’ve had with my fellow community members, my fellow PCVs, and the country I’ve gotten to know so well, Peru.

Peruvian Independence Day

2010-07-28T07:35:00.000-07:00

The month of July is almost over, Peruvian Independence day is here and I only have 4 more months as a PCV.

With only 4 months left, I can happily say that I have visible results (finally!) as a PCV. I guess the first 18 months or so were worth it to be able to have accomplished something worthwhile and important.

I’ve often talked of a Garbage Collection system in Tomas, but now the dream has become a reality. As of July 12, the town of Tomas has trash collection twice a week! Each Monday and Thursday, a worker who is paid by the municipality, passes through the streets from about 6:30 to 8:00 a.m. collecting trash from each house. Some people still throw trash in the river and there are many families that don’t know how to separate their recycables, but the vast majority of the town participates in the trash collection and we’ve kept a LOT of trash out of the river. The worker completes her duties very well, and my environmental committee makes sure that the Micro Landfill is well managed and that no flies or dogs or other vectors are in/around it. It is awesome to say that I’ve been the driving force of this work!

Aside from that, our world map is only one day away from being done (a few minor details to finish), and I’m the foreman of a high school science project that we’re preparing for a national science fair. Life is fun, and life is good.

Even before my service ends in November, I must use my vacation days before September, because during the last 3 months of service I must stay in Tomas. So, in planning to use these days, I recently took a three day trip to climb to a glacier in the department of Junin. The glacier is called Huaytapallana, and it was seen as sacred to the Incas. I went with three other PCVs from the Junin department and we did one day hiking, one day mountain biking, and one day horseback riding. The trip was fun, although it wasn’t nearly as “hard core” as the guide said it would be. The first day was supposed to be 4 hours hiking, but since we PCVs are already well acclimated to altitude and we ourselves are pretty “hard core”, we did the hike in 2 hours. Even though it didn’t meet our expectactions, it was still a fun trip and a great chance to see a dying glacier and know the Andes a little better.

I’m excitedly waiting the arrival of two good friends from the States, Erik Torgerson and Linnea Johnson, who’ll be here next week, and latter on in August the visit of Elizabeth and Tippy. I can happily say that before September I’ll use all my vacation days. Does Peace Corps seem a little like the “Posh Corps”? For the moment, maybe a little, but the vacationing is my last chance to know Peru and we are still advancing well with our environmental work in Tomas. So I look at it this way, these months will be good for the mind, body, and the spirit of a PCV. Travel, experiencing new places and things, and doing my best to make a positive difference in the lives of my community members.

The view from high above my town, pretty much the ceiling of the western hemisphere.

Standing on the Glacier at Huaytapallana.

Jatuncocha, which is Quechua for "big lake" at Huaytapallana.

My seniors in high school working on our research project for the science fair.

Me, sporting the new vest of my environmental committee, with an Alpaca. You know, standard life of a PCV.

Our community Micro Landfill, before being used.

OUr community Micro Landfill, this time in use.

The environmental committee in our new office. It could use a spicing up.

Mountain biking with Lauren, Briana, and Will in front of the glacier at Huaytapallana.

The Under 14 soccer team, after a celebratory trout lunch with our team photo.

Happy Winter Solstice

2010-06-26T15:48:00.000-07:00

It has been a long but very productive time since I’ve last written. Life has been moving REALLY fast; it is hard to believe that I only have 5 more months as a PCV and only 5 more months with my town and family that I love here in Peru. Yikes.

The last few months I’ve been focusing on trash management here in Tomas. The biggest thing was to write a project for the annual (and mandatory) municipal participation budget. Every year local municipalities are required by law to spend about %60 percent of their budget on projects that community groups, members or organizations propose, for the benefit of the entire town. This is part of a national government initiative to de-centralize a government that has been run strictly from Lima for a few centuries. So, with my Community natural resource committee, we took advantage and propose the “Trash system implementation and management for the district of Tomas”. Our project was well received by the municipality as a project that generates work for a few community members and gives benefits to all. So, we were awarded the top priority project for 2011, and granted a budget of 92,000 soles, or about $30,000. This is a huge deal, and the PCV that replaces me here in Tomas is going to have a great start by working with this large fund strictly for waste management. It is also a huge development for the community, as they will have a fully funded, complete waste management program, helping public health and the environment.

We’ve also encouraged the municipality to fund the construction of a provisional micro landfill and hire a worker to collect trash twice a week. Constructing the provisional landfill is a great start, although it does not use technical, sanitary techniques such as a ventilation chimney and tubes to extract the liquid wastes. Therefore, it is essentially just a large hole were we’ll bury our garbage. But that is much better that directly throwing trash in the river or burning it. The landfill should be done today (I’ve been given the responsibility to oversee the digging) and on either Thursday or next Monday we’ll begin the collection. I’m terrified that something will go wrong or not work out, but that is part of the learning experience.

In other activities, my under 14-year-old soccer team (that I coach) had a little winning streak. We won the North Yauyos tournament (all local teams) then the Yauyos provincial tournament, against a much larger a better group of teams. Sadly, my boys lost the final in the all department tournament (equivalent to a state tournament), but it was a fun streak nonetheless. It will be nice now that we are done with soccer to get back to some more PC oriented activities, like finishing my world map and getting back to English club. Also, coaching 12, 13, and 14 year olds is often a test of my patience; so not coaching means a little less stress.

Like I said, life is moving really fast. I’m excited to see how much I can get done in my town as far as waste management goes and I’ll be soaking up as much of the Peruvian lifestyle as possible as my time here winds down.

And now, not the most interesting pictures, but something to look at for sure.

My Environmental Committee cleaning up our site for making compost.

Horseback riding, preparing to swim in the glacial fed lake down below.

My buddy Brad on his horse, looking like a pro (but really a first time rider).

Environmental PCVs at an abandoned village in Yauyos.

My U-14 soccer team, taking a march with all the other teams before the tournament started (this is one that we won).

A hike up to Lake Churup in Ancash, which is a glacial lake that we also swam in. This picture with my buddies from Yauyos, Mark and Brad, and Alex from Ancash.

Random things that make my life awesome!

2010-05-08T12:12:00.000-07:00

In the month and a half since I’ve last written a few cool things have happened. I’ve met a very important person, made some new things, been called a few new names, learned some interesting things about the Spanish language, and seen things that will make you lose your head (or at least boggle your mind)!

First, my host dad and I started a project that I never would have expected when I started with the PC over 20 months ago. We make yogurt! Seriously, we make a small amount of yogurt each week (usually 10 to 12 liters) that we sell to anyone who comes looking for it. We’ve made pineapple, lucuma (a Peruvian fruit that doesn’t have an English name) and unflavored. We sell it for 3.50 soles per bottle, which after cost of production earns about 2.50 soles. The 2.50 soles per liter of milk profit is great, considering that selling fresh cheese (which we also do) only earns about 1.00 sol per liter of milk. Yogurt takes a little more time, but it is worth it and after only about 3 weeks of production we’ve developed a pretty steady demand. The quality is high and it is all natural. It is a great income generating project. I’ve helped to get the initial materials, my host dad has used great initiative to have a sticker made so our product looks professional, and we’ve done the actual production (which takes about 3 hours of work and 5 hours of incubation) together. It is fun and I enjoy being “paid” in fresh yogurt.

Second, the Reserva Paisajística Nor Yauyos Cochas (RPNYC), the protected area where I live, celebrated its anniversary. To celebrate, the minister of the Ministry of Environment, Antonio Brack Egg (that is his real name) made a visit. The Minister knows about Peace Corps because PC has a contract with Peruvian protected areas, but it was fun to share lunch with him nonetheless. He is in the top 15 in terms of power rank in Peruvian government, so he’s kind of a big deal.

Thirdly, the annual Tomas horse race and duck pull (Jale Pato) happened. The horse race is exactly what it sounds like, people bring teams of 4 horses and there is a round robin style contest of a 300 meter sprint race. It is really fun to watch, the entire town is sitting in the hills watching, there is lots of food for sale, and it ends with the Duck Pull.

This, unfortunately, is also exactly what is sounds like. To decide who is the padrino, or sponsor of the next years race, they pull the head off of a duck. Besides the question of why, you might ask yourself how do you pull the head off of a duck. The answer is simple, tie a duck by a rope between tow large poles, then ride underneath the duck on your horses and pull on the head. If you pull hard enough or after enough tries, someone will eventually get the head. To make things more interesting, many people who were watching the races all day drinking get on horses to have a pull at this event. It is completely chaotic and looks like it could be right out of the wild west, except (thank God) without guns. It is a little cruel, but in the Peruvian highlands certainly not unusual. In many places they are adopting new ways to decide who is the Padrino without killing a duck, but for now it was at least a sight to see for this American.

Besides those things, I’m co-coaching under 14 soccer with the Priest, I’ve been working to keep up the tree nursery, SLOWLY making progress with the municipality to start having municipal trash collection, and I’ve been helping with the harvest, which is back breaking work that started last week. Life is good!

Now, enjoy the view from Peru!

My host brother, Dany, gathering a tuber called Oka during the harvest.

My sunburn from the harvest. I was fully sunscreened, although little did I know that being hunched over for hours could leave a small part of skin exposed...

The cup next to me is fresh aloe, thanks to my neighbor lady.

Yauyos "family" dinner of spaghetti and honey wine. The original 4, Brad, Sarah, Kate and I

After a pole holding the duck fell down, they used the community truck to hold the duck up so the riders could pull its head off.

Sarah, Sasha, Antonio Brack Egg, and Myself at the anniversary of the Reserva Paisajistica Nor Yauyos Cochas.

Proudly holding our yogurt bottles, my host dad and I.

Eating the remains of the yogurt...delicious.

My host dad proudly putting the stickers on our yogurt bottles.

Pasteurizing the milk before making the yogurt. Although it looks sketchy, we practice very good hygiene.

2010-03-26T07:45:00.000-07:00

Life has been moving quickly. Trees have been planted, school has started and all the students are back, world map painting has begun, we are making advances in our community landfill project, and many educational activities are being prepared! Overall, life in Tomas is busy and that is a good thing. Apart from my life here, I recently had the experience to work with a group of 16 PCVs and the Connecticut based NGO Builders Beyond Borders. Let me tell you a little more about that experience.

Builders Beyond Borders (B3) is an NGO that runs work-based service trips during spring break for Connecticut high school students. The students raise all the funds, provide most of the materials, and then do much of the labor themselves. The concept is great and is an opportunity for well off students to see different, and much poorer, parts of the world. This year B3 came to Peru. In Peru they coordinated with a 3 different PCVs on the coast to help organize their project. I was asked by the Peace Corps to help during one of these projects, translating, organizing a small work group, and just doing whatever was needed to help things go smoothly. So, last week I worked in the costal department of Ica, helping to build 15 pour flush toilets. Things went well and I learned a lot.

Working with Builders Beyond Borders was a really good experience for me. Not only did I learn a lot about construction, as in laying bricks, installing PVC tubing, building doors and corrugated metal roofs and other basics, but I saw a whole new interaction between Americans and Peruvians.

The interactions between the students and the families were very interesting because the students come in with almost no cultural sensitivity. They wear short shorts, are loud, rarely say good morning or another greeting that is important in Peruvian culture, and they just generally act as they always would without much consideration to the families. Yet despite this lack of cultural sensitivity the families were very excited and happy to have the American students in their town. It wasn’t so much about the bathrooms they received or the materials they brought, although those things were much appreciated. Mostly, the town was really excited about all the excitement that the students brought with their energy. The town had new things to talk about, new people to watch, and everything was different from the daily drone of working in the asparagus fields that surround their town. It made me realize the importance of presence. The presence of the students was more important than the work that they did.

Seeing this gave me a great feeling of pride, knowing that here in Tomas my service is much more than the technical and environmental advances that we are making. In Tomas the people appreciate the improvements, but I think it is my friendship and presence in their lives that makes my time here so important. Knowing that I’m making a difference in so many lives has a large effect on me personally and my perception of service work. Service work is showing people care and love, and that can be done in so many different ways. It can be done with the excitement of a group of high school kids or by developing relationships on a personal level. That difference is certainly worth my time here in Peru.

Now, some pictures to please your eyes!

My work crew at B3.

Some B3 students and our Peruvian bricklayers.

Putting a cement top on a small septic tank. That's not light work.

Building the outhouse.

The welcome parade the evening the students arrived. Pictured is fellow PCV sarah.

A beautiful night for the welcome parade.

A change of subject, some students in Tomas cleaning the wall to paint a world map.

Planting trees in Tomas. Running total for this year: 1473 trees!

Plant with care!

The 3rd annual cleanup campaign in the Reserva Paisajistica Nor Yauyos Cochas, were I live.

Rainy Season Fun

2010-02-21T14:53:00.000-08:00

These last few weeks since my last update haven’t been overly eventful. It is the rainy season, of course, which completely changes my town’s makeup. Some important things have happened though, and we have made some great advances with some of my main Peace Corps goals.Mostly I’ve had a pretty relaxed last month with time to prepare for school, which officially starts on March 1 (unofficially starts around March 15, thanks to teachers and students that are used to classes starting at the end of March).

The biggest, or most important I should say, thing I’ve done this February is finish our community trash composition study. That sounds exactly like what it is, we studied the type, weight and volume of garbage production per capita in my town of Tomas. With this study done, which entailed going to a select number of houses (or in our case, as many houses as had people in them) and collecting their trash and separating and measuring it, we know what size of micro sanitary landfill to build. It turns out that to build a landfill that will last at least 5 years it will have to be about 25 x 15 x 6 meters in size. This seems really big, but it isn’t too bad considering it is for my town and the town just up the road. Construction starts in April and will be done by June. The next step (besides making sure that the construction happens) is to start educating the people on garbage management in their homes!

Besides that, we’ve been going forward with tree planting. So far, 293 eucalyptus, 30 tara, and 25 queñuales, for a grand total of 348 trees! That may sound like a lot of trees (or maybe only a few?), but I’m still short of my PC goal of 1,000 but much more importantly, our tree nursery still has over 3,000 trees ready to plant this year. I’m not too worried though because March 3 is our big day. We have a community work day, called a faena, which means that all community members have to come and help plant the trees. We won’t plant all 3,000+ trees, but we should make a pretty good dent with over 1,000. That leaves me with about 2,000 trees to go. Yeah…I’ll let you know what happens. I have faith that they’ll make it into the ground. Things here kind of seem to work out, with enough pushing.

Besides my community projects, I’ve been travelling to new parts of my district (called Tomas, which entails my town and lots of surrounding land only accessible on foot) and of my province (called Yauyos, which is kind like the county I live in.). I’ve been to a community called Tupe that has its own language, Jaqaru. Tupe also has its own very unique dress, which they still use today. This community still exists because they have a sling-like leather piece that they used to throw rocks and defend themselves from first the Incas and then the Spanish. That sounds ridiculous, but when you see the pictures of where this place is, you might realize that just getting there is difficult, let alone if someone is hurling rocks at you.

I’ve also confirmed what I already knew regarding the District of Tomas (which you can Wikipedia, “Tomas, Yauyos”), that we have some INCREDIBLE natural surroundings. I’ve seen waterfalls, mountains, and animals that would make most any tourist willing to test their lungs at the high altitude just to see them.

Life is going well but school starting will be a welcomed change from the relaxing, slow paced, quiet life that takes place during the rainy season. And now some pictures…

The mountain called Cajarreal, the Sacred Mountain of my town of Tomas. A very prominent peak.

Some alpacas running from our community truck.

A waterfall that i've never seen before, since it is about a 5 hour walk from my town. Thanks to a community pasture planting event, i was forced (luckily!) to make the journey.

My family's new dog, Oso, and my friend Luis (age 9) in front of some of the newly planted pastures.

A landslide blocking the road up to my community's cow farm. Some heavy rains are the cause of this.

The little girl is wearing the traditional "Tupe" clothing, including the head wrap. All the women and girls wore this style of clothing.

A view of the valley that eventually heads to my town. My town is about a 3 hour drive up the valley from here, so it is a VERY different climate where I live (colder and wetter).

My boss, Diego, head of the Community-Based Environmental Management program during his visit to my site. We're on the short hiking trail that passes through some pre-Incan ruins, with my town of Tomas is the background.

Makin´ it happen.

2010-01-29T12:41:00.000-08:00

As a part of my New Year’s resolution to write more to my friends and family at home, here it is, an unprecedented second updated within the month of January.

Since being back, things during this rainy season have been going great. There have been more people than I’ve expected, or at least this year I know who is willing to work with me of the people who are here. We’ve been hitting the theme of garbage management hard, and it looks like it is going to pay off. What does that mean, to hit the theme of garbage management? Let me tell you.

As you know, I live within the boundaries of the Reserva Paisijística Nor Yauyos Cochas. This is a protected landscape reserve, which according to Peruvian law means that people still live within the area in harmony with nature. The RPNYC was created in October of 2005 and each year it makes many advances to achieve this goal of harmony between man and nature. This year the push with the park service (SERNANP) is to build sanitary landfills in each of the nine districts of the park. That is where Peace Corps and I come in handy.

Since the first of January, we’ve located a place in my town to build the landfill (a challenge to find a flat space 50 meters from the river), we’ve had a solid waste engineer come do a site evaluation, and we are in the process of studying the garbage that we produce each day per capita so we know what size of landfill we need. We have the support of the Municipality (very important, since they have the funding), SERNANP, a local NGO called Instituto Rural Valle Grande, and the conservation committee of Tomas. All these players are helping, and I am specifically working with organizing all of these and helping with the logistics of moving a project like this forward.

The plan is to have all 9 districts of the RPNYC have a sanitary landfill before July of this year. This is an ambitious goal but with the right amount of push from many players, it is possible. Tomas is in a great spot since we have already acquired most of the resources that we need to get this project done. I’ll keep you updated. It is exciting.

Besides this ambitious garbage project, we are slowly moving with forward with planting the 4,000 eucalyptus trees we have. We are having weekly showings of the series Planet Earth by the BBC as a part of environmental education on the community level. I have 2 English classes each week, and a few other small projects always seem to be popping up here and there (such as restoring Andean Terraces). I’ve been busy, and except for the Vikings NFC Championship game loss on Sunday and a depressing amount of rain, I’m really happy with my time here. I’d love to hear from you all in emails or whatever form you choose!

And now some pictures for you viewing enjoyment…

My family coming home from the cows one day. Notice the shoes of my cousin Angie (blue pants), she stepped a little deep in the mud.

A meeting with all the Mayors of the RPNYC and the park service (SERNANP). Makin´it happen.

My dog, Oso. He´s grown quite a bit since the last picture.

One of the two rivers in my town. This is the same afternoon that further up the mountain there was a large landslide, which turned the water the color of hot chocolate.

Notice that little white oven on behind Brad? That allows for such bonding times as cookie baking here in Yauyos. I can almost guarantee those were the first M&M cookies baked in the region. MMMMMM, delicious dough, too.

My host borther, Dany, crossing a small landslide on a small road. Lots of landslides make things a little dangerous.

Some Andean Terraces up the hill that we are restoring. To make the restoration complete we need to plant something...

Fellow Yauyos PCV, Sarah, posing with a model of trash recepticales that her town´s schools are getting.

My first and only trout caught in Yauyos. Fishing in a lake is much different than the river. My host brother caught 11 and my host dad 9...i just need a little more practice.

Working with my community on the Terrace restoration.

Happy New Decade!

2010-01-08T09:51:00.000-08:00

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…

After a three-month hiatus from blogging, I’ve re-entered the blogosphere from the Southern Hemisphere. MUCH has happened during this time, much more than I’ll be able to say in this blog. I’ll put some highlights up here and I promise (maybe I should have made this a new year’s resolution?) to update this my blog often.

1. On November 28 I completed one year as a Peace Corps Volunteer! This is a big milestone for many reasons, including the fact that I’m over halfway done in Peru. It is scary and exciting because now I’m counting down days instead of up, but I fear that I won’t have time to accomplish all that I want to here in Tomas.

2. The Peruvian school year ended. Surprisingly, that was not my doing, but it does mean that I made it through an entire school year of English club, helping with science classes when teachers weren’t around (essential I am my town’s substitute teacher), and doing a few other projects such as making micro landfills and working with students in our tree nursery.

3. I’m a Padrino! No, I didn’t agree to take responsibility of a Peruvian child as their godfather (although I am asked to do that a lot). Rather, my niece, Elsa Jean Lee, was baptized on December 27^th, 2009, while I was home visiting over the holidays and I was given the honor of being godfather. In case you’re wondering, she is super cute and a ton of fun. Luckily, she’s more like her mom than her dad…

4. I visited one of my favorite places on Earth, MINNESOTA! (it really was Mjnnesota nice) I was home for 12 days over Christmas and New Year’s, which was a great time. I got to see almost all my family and many friends. The time went REALLY fast, but it was well worth the trip to the States to be back to my own holiday traditions. If you are reading this blog from the USA, remember how fortunate you are to live where you do. Peru is an amazing place that I highly recommend visiting and experiencing for yourself; although we have SO many opportunities and comforts in the states we really are lucky.

Those are the big events, although daily life continues to be busy and always full of adventure. Recently, since there are no classes and it rains every day, this is what I’ve been up to. I’ve been teaching a new set of English classes, this time to anyone who wants to come, not just students.We are working of planting some 4,000 trees, which involves finding places to plant and people to do the work. We are starting compost piles with a few individual families, and I’m even learning the tricks to cultivating potatoes (hard work, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!)

I promise it won’t be another three months in between blog updates! Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Peace and Happy New Decade, Jared

And for you viewing enjoyment...

This is my families dog, King Kong, climbing into the sink to look for food scraps. He only goes in there when he thinks nobody is looking. Unfortunately for him, I caught him from my balcony.

Heather and I on our first official date. Ice skating in Rice Park, St. Paul.

Who's excited about being and Uncle/Godfather? This guy!

A teacher in my town: "Yared, can you be Santa to pass out these gifts?"

Me: "why don't we have a fat person play Santa?"

Teacher: "Because Santa is white."

Honestly, how can I go against that logic?

My family's new puppy, Oso (means bear), which I convinced my family to keep because he is SO cute.

Some other PCVs and I on top of Volcan Misit, a volcano 19,119 feet above sea level, which we climbed the day after Thanksgiving. It was tough, but a worth it.

This picture is the kindergarten graduation. I took their pictures. For some reason, if you put gowns on a 5 year olds, they behave like little angels!

The primary school kids took formation for Tomas' anniversary party on October 16th.

What happened to september?

2009-10-07T09:28:00.000-07:00

It has been a VERY eventful and busy two months since I have last updated my blog. You may (or may not) have been wondering what I’ve been up to, so here is my best attempt at an update, although one blog is not nearly enough for two months worth of Peace Corps adventures.

First, my parents came! They spent 17 days in Perú with me, including 3 days in my site of Tomas. I’m pretty sure they had a good time, and if not they at least had a few out of the ordinary adventures. For example, riding in a taxi (which we had rented for the day) and the driver picking up a few more passengers so that we wouldn’t feel lonely. How kind of him as we cruised on the mountain roads with 8 passengers in a Toyota Corolla wagon. We ate Ceviche (raw, delicious seafood), alcapa meat, some Peruvian fruits, and even McDonald’s (happy birthday dad!)

We visited Machu Picchu, which really is one of the seven wonders of the world. We saw some other Incan Archeological sites, some great waterfalls and mountains, and even did a three day stint in the jungle. In the jungle we were welcomed by tarantulas, spider monkeys, red howler monkeys, caiman (alligator family), a variety of birds and butterflies, and a the largest rodent in the world, the capybara.

After the wonderful visit from my parents, my friend Heather came to visit, which again was another incredible week. We did some work in my site of Tomas, including my English club with high school students, worked with a group of moms in the tree nursery, and did some general Peace Corps schmoozing with the local Tomasinos, who were all excited to meet her. Overall, it was a blast to have Heather here and it was great for my town to get to know another American.

Work wise things have never been busier. A high school science teacher has been away for a few weeks with appendicitis/ appendix removal surgery. I, as the most qualified member of the community and by far the most interested, have been teaching his share of the classes of (C.T.A., or Ciencias, Tecnología y Ambiente, or high school science and environment classes). It has been fun to get more time than normal with the students, although the fact that I have no written curriculum has been quite the challenge. Not to worry, because I have my St. Olaf liberal arts education to help me overcome this challenge. Thanks black and gold!

In our community tree nursery things are advancing nicely. We have over 4,000 tree saplings in plastic bags, including Pine, Eucalyptus, Queñal (an endemic Peruvian species), and Tara (another Peruvian species). Some will be ready to plant this December/January when the rains begin more frequently, and others will wait until Dec. 2010. I won’t even be here to plant those in 2010, how quickly time flies.

During the last 2 months, here are some brief events that don’t need much explanation.
1. I got 5 stitches in one toe on my left foot.
2. I’ve completed one year in Peru. As of now, less than 14 months to go (is that enough time to get my projects done?)
3. Travel continues to be dangerous, as a mini van on its way to my town fell into the river and 11 people died (including 3 from my town).
4. I became an Uncle! Elsa Jean Lee was born on October 3. Can I get a shout out to Liz and Tippy for that!
5. Last night I watched the first half of Monday Night Football here in Tomas, Vikings vs. Packers, because I talked to the municipality about changing one of our two channels on the Direct TV satellite. They gave me from 7:30 to 9:00 pm. It was amazing…

Well, that is what I remember as of right now, although I’m sure I’m missing a few things. I hope that all is going well stateside, and I hope that you’ve enjoyed this update!

Peace

Jared

Now, for your viewing enjoyment

Mom and Dad eating "Pollo a la Brasa", a Peruvian treat.

The Yauyos volunteers at a training in Lambayeque

Doing some tree nursery work with the Mother's Club

Dad and I at the Parque de la Indentidad in Huancayo

Parque de la Reserva in Lima. Great lights and fountains.

My two families combined in one picture. Great.

My parents and I exploring around an alpine lake in Yauyos. (near where I live)

Cruisin' in a jungle canoe.

Machu Picchu with the family. Christmas picture?

15,584 Feet

2009-08-06T09:24:00.000-07:00

The last week in July is a holiday here in Peru, as the 27th and 28th are independence days. Peace Corps Volunteers are given this week as vacation, so I took advantage of this (along with a group of other volunteers) and we headed to the department of Ancash, the home of Peru’s largest and the worlds largest tropical mountain, Huascarán. I spent a few days in the capital city of Huaraz, enjoying great food and spending time with other volunteers, then I headed into Parque Nacional Huascarán for 3 days of backpacking with a 3 others.

Huaraz itself is nice, has restaurants suited catered for foreigners (I even ate Thai food!), and is surrounded by the beautiful snowcapped Cordillera Blanca. We visited a hot springs, I got to go indoor rock climbing, and spent a day preparing for our backpacking adventure.

But early on the third morning, we let the real adventure begin as we headed into one of Peru’s most famous national parks (Huascarán National Park was founded with the help of PCV’s in the 1970’s).

The crew was Fletcher, Frieda, Lil’ Ryan, and myself. We had all we needed for food, we rented a tent and a stove, and one of us even got some sweet hiking poles (the oldest and wisest member of the group, Fletcher. Although the poles actually take a lot of strain off your knees). Ready for anything, we headed for the famous (although overly crowded) Santa Cruz Trek. Unlike most tourists, we didn’t rent donkeys, cooks or guides to help us at the high altitude, but we just took everything on our backs and headed out.

The first day was an easy 13 Km or so, which was gradually up hill. We camped next to a glacial stream within a Queñal forest (an Andean tree, which is endangered). W woke up with frost on the tents, but all was well. After a granola breakfast and some coffee (or hot water, depending on preference), we were off to a tougher day than any of us had imagined.

The second morning began with a fairly technical, if not intimidating stream crossing on a wet log. It took about 30 minutes to get everyone and all the gear across safely, but we weren’t worried about time (although we should have been). We were hiking at a good pace, and soon we were above 4,000 meters above sea level (13,000 feet). The trail was easy to follow, but soon the altitude began to affect some of us.

We were still making good time, but sometime around before lunch we lost the trail. We knew were we needed to go, but the off trail hiking, over wet, swampy ground, was tiring. We eventually got back on the trail, but by this time it was late afternoon, and we still had a good distance to get to Punta Union, the highest point on the trek at 4,750 meters above sea level (15,584 ft).

With some iron will and some rest stops, we made it up to the point at 5:20 p.m. The sun was still up, but not for long, and we had a long way to go before we would be at a feasible camping spot. We took a little break at the point to take a video and some photos, and we started the descent. The urgency of the situation was starting to kick in, because that altitude gets pretty cold without sun. We were making good time descending, but a little night hiking was certainly in order.

At about 7:15, 45 minutes into the night, we reached a camping spot. We set up the tents, started making dinner, and tried to rehydrate to get rid of the headaches we all had by this point. Altitude, exhaustion, and thirst were all compounding to make us feel pretty miserable. It was still incredible though, as all around us were glaciers and we could occasionally hear avalanches (although we were out of their range). We finished up dinner, and went straight to sleep.

We rose early on the third and final day of the trip to get back to Huaraz to catch our buses that night. We had no idea how much trail we still had in front of us, but we knew it was all downhill, a welcomed change from the day before. The Santa Cruz Trek is 50 Km, and during the first two days, due to our off trail side trip, we still have about 25 Km to go. We were making good time, until the final descent began to wear on our knees and feet under the weight of our packs. The last few kilometers took more time than expected, and we finished the trek around 5:00. It was good to be done, and head back to civilization.

Despite the difficulty of the trek (which many people do in 4 days instead of 3), it was worth it to see some incredible mountains, lakes, streams, and spend time in nature with some good friends. As my former boss told me while rafting on a snowy Montana spring day, “if it was easy, everyone would do it”. This is exactly how I felt upon completion, that I had accomplished something and I had a great time while doing it.

The plaza in Huaraz, with the Cordillera Blanca in the background.

Who wouldn't be this excited about trail mix?

Frost on the tents!

Hiking up to Punta Union

Me with the mountain Huascarán in the background.

15,584 feet above sea level

The whole group made it! Notice the trekking poles?

The view from our second campsite

Making the long trek downhill the last day

Emerald Lakes. It is better in real life.

2009-07-11T06:42:00.000-07:00

Nothing in more American than the 4^th of July. It’s a fun, festive, and of course, free time for Americans all over the world. In Perú, though, the 4^th doesn’t mean much in my small town of Tomas, Yauyos. Therefore, I took advantage of this weekend to see a new part of the Reserva Paisajística Nor Yauyos Cochas, and visited the town of Vilca. Although Vilca isn’t any more patriotic than Tomas, but it is one of the most incredibly gorgeous places I’ve seen up close and personal.

Sarah and I (my fellow PC friend who also stayed in Yauyos for the 4^th) went on a 3 day/2 night backpacking adventure to visit Vilca, a lake called Papacocha, and a forest of queñuales (a native Andean tree). What we found were breathtaking views and up close experiences with birds, waterfalls, trees, and even a local dog.

I don’t have much to write about Vilca, because the pictures and videos speak for themselves. Enjoy!

Trying to look tough on the road between Huancaya and Vilca

Dead, down and dry! Firewood in Vilca.

Sarah at a pool in Vilca

Some Quenales and the dry waterfalls in the background.

Some beautiful mossy waterfalls in Vilca

Who's excited to play in the waterfalls? This guy!

Looking pensive above the lake and quenal forest.

The tiny little town of Vilca...look at that river.

Cooking by the fire.

The evening colors, camping in a pasture on the side of a mountain.

Lake Papacocha and the beginning of the quenal forest.

A little video taken at the waterfalls of Vilca.

Let's get ready for Christmas!

2009-07-07T09:49:00.000-07:00

You might be wondering why we’re getting ready for Christmas in Tomas, because it is only July. No, it isn’t because we’re in the Southern hemisphere and everything is the opposite time of the year. Actually, when your Christmas party is a 4 day event with free food for 2000 people, it takes a lot of prep work. So here, on July 1st, we began to collect fire wood to cook at the big event.

This event, called the “Saca Leña”, which means “firewood take”, is an old tradition here in Tomas. The tradition has changes a lot of the years, basically due to accessibility to a chainsaw, but it is still a big family event. It used to be that the entire family would spend an entire day walking the mountains collecting firewood, hence the name, but now it has changed to cutting down one or two big trees and splitting and collecting the wood. My “great uncle” is one of the sponsors of the Christmas party this year, so all of my family was helping with the task of bringing and preparing all the firewood.

We started the day with a “mote” breakfast. Basically, it is a soup that has alpaca and corn, and is pretty tasty. Then, we all headed to my family’s garage/house to split a giant Eucalyptus tree that had been cut down the day before. We started working with axes, stakes and sledgehammers, and pry bars to split the massive tree. There were a lot of people working in a very small area, but amazingly nobody lost any fingers or toes. After some time working, we took a break where they started to pass around the beer, caña (gross, hard liquor), and coca leaves. I don’t particularly like the idea of getting a little buzzed while working with tools that could easily take a finger, hand, or eye, but nobody really seemed to notice that mixing these things was a bad idea. After the break we continued as before, although I was working a little more precaution.

The day ended with the splitting of a second tree, although much smaller than the first, and after a quick lunch I went to my regular Wednesday afternoon soccer game. This week was also special though…we got jerseys!

I play in a league that has 4 teams, the Municipality, Tomas Youth, the High School team, and my team, the Teachers. The teachers decided that uniforms are a good idea, since all the other teams have them. A teacher organized the whole thing and for 22 soles (about $7.33) we got a jersey, shorts, and socks. They even have our names on the chest. Everyone used their last name, except me, because having “Jared” on my shirt helps with the pronunciation of my name more the “Brandell”.

The other interesting thing that happened before the game was we had a special presentation by the Priest. We have a Priest in Tomas 4 days a week, and he teaches Religion classes as well as leading the Catholic Mass. So before we donned our new jerseys, the Priest blessed them and sprinkled them with water. It is certainly the first blessed item that I have. I can’t say it did nothing though, because we did win for the first time in 4 weeks…

Life is continuing to go well. I’ve got a camping trip planned for the 4th of July, although it won’t be anything like a weekend at the lake. My work is keeping me busy and as a community we are advancing with a few environmental projects, such as our Tree Nursery. I’m enjoying my time in Tomas, and the days go by so fast! My next 17 months will certainly fly by!

And now some random pictures of my life...

My good friend Luis in our Magisterio (teachers) soccer jerseys.

Some of the teachers and the mayor, after the uniforms were blessed.

Choppin' some wood.

On Father's day, the dads all received jackets from the municipality.

Taking a break from chopping wood, why not chew some coca leaves? (I didn't)

My host dad (left), and some other community members watching the father's day performances by the students.

I've been traveling...

2009-06-09T13:03:00.000-07:00

Time has been flying by here in Perú. I’ve been busy with my work, traveling to meetings, and project development training sessions with some members of my community. Everything has been going very well, although the traveling is tiring (often 8 to 12 hours on a bus at a time). Now I’m back in Tomas for at least 2 weeks before I head to the coast for another meeting, and I’m excited to take advantage of this time in my community to really get moving on my projects.
A lot has happened in the last 3 weeks, but here are some of the highlights. Some of them are quite interesting, others not so much. But nonetheless, I hope you enjoy!

Last regional meeting on the coast:
Each month I head down from the mountains to the coast to attend a regional meeting with all the voluteers in the area. These are important to not only cover important business, but also to get refreshed by spending some time with other volunteers. But our May meeting brought a few little surprises.
The first, is that the coast (winter in the Southern Hemisphere), which was once a hot desert, is now a cloudy, dreary, cool place. It kind of takes the fun out of going. The other surprise, is that the only bus company that travels from the coast to my region of Yauyos changed it schedule, and no longer goes to Yauyos on Mondays. While trying to buy tickets and being confused about the new schedule change, I pointed out to the desk attendant that the schedule on the wall clearly says Mondays it goes to Yauyos…apparently there is no such thing as a false advertising law in Perú.

Training sessions with the Park Guards of the Reserva Paisajística Nor Yauyos Cochas:
So I work with park guards of the Landscape Reserve within which I live. At the end of each month there are 2 days of training for the Park Guards, and this month I was asked to give a session on Env. Ed. The park guards are all from within the Reserva, so even though they are park guards their env. ed is about the same as every other person who lives here…which isn’t much. I decided to give a talk on Global Climate Change, because that term gets used a lot, in a lot of interesting situations.
The talk was going well, with about half the guards sleeping and the other half listening intently and asking questions. After I finished talked and asked for a few more questions, things got a little interesting.
Questions where being asked about every environmental subject I could think of. From pollution spreading from a mining town 6 hours away, about effects climate change has on our water, and my favorite, when I was asked about acid rain but my spanish failed me and I thought the question was about Asian rains. (“Asia” and “ácida” are very similar in pronunciation). I had a good laugh about it later, although for some reason the Peruvians didn’t think it was that funny. Maybe they just expect me to make language mistakes?

And the big shebang, traveling to the city of Chiclayo for Project Development training with a group of park guards and all the other Environmental Volunteers:
This training, called PDM, is a Peace Corps run training session, and it’s a chance to develop projects with people you work with. Chiclayo, though, is about a 24 hour journey from Tomas, so the 4 day training was really an 8 day trip. The training was fine, although working with 3 park guards to write a project proposal is quite a difficult task. Until now I’ve taken for granted all the group work I did as a student in the U.S., but I realized that if you’ve never worked with a group on a project, things move frustratingly slow. In the end, we developed a good project to manage the garbage at every Guard Post in the Reserva. So I hope we can actually implement it.
Our last day of training we went with the park guards to National Protected Forest, Bosque Nacional Pomac. This is an incredible place. It is a dry forest of algarroba trees, which are similar to Mesquite trees in the Southwest U.S. The area looks like a desert, but it is covered in green trees. The trees survive with a 25 meter tap root (that’s really deep) and they grow during the rains that come every 10 years with El Niño. There are also pyramids from an ancient society, the Sican, which ended about 700 years ago. It was neat, to say the least.

That is quite the lengthy blog update, so thanks to those who read the whole thing! Now something for your viewing pleasure.

The group of park guards with PC volunteers with a giant Algorroba tree in the background.

The dry forest, with a pyramid in the background.

This is what i look like now...incase you forget during the last 9 months.

A traditional Sicán dress, along with all the park guards and PC volunteers.

A completely random picture, of a night i made BBQ beef and mashed potatoes with my friend and co-worker, Cate.

Construction complete of a micro landfill with the 9th graders.

Just getting landfill construction underway.

Census Time…and call me coach!

2009-05-16T14:56:00.000-07:00

Recently I was asked to help with a biodiversity census within the Reserva Paisajística Nor Yauyos Cochas (the landscape reserve I live in). A team of biologists came from Lima to count plants, insects, and identify new species within the Reserva. This census involved traveling to the upper regions of a few districts, and focused on Queñal forests, an endangered Andean tree.

My job throughout most of this was to count plants of a certain species within a certain quadrant, and to help the Limeños carry their stuff up and down the mountains. It was a little funny and ironic that the foreigner was the one carrying the equipment, and the Peruvians were the ones having problems with the altitude, but I guess that’s what happens after five and a half months of acclimation in the mountains. The counting plants isn’t too fun, but it was fun to look for different species of plants and to see many new parts of the Reserve within which I live. Also I tasted and learned about many medicinal plants, and I even hiked to about 5,000 meters above sea level. Overall, a fun experience that took me to many places no gringo has gone before!

In other Yauyos news, one of my new activities is helping to coach the high school soccer team. In July there is a tournament in which every high school of the area participates to take home a trophy, and especially bragging rights. It may seem funny that a gringo is the one coaching soccer in a Latin country, but it turns out there are a lot of basic skills that I can help with as the “Técnico Americano”.

My main role as coach is to improve the fitness aspect of the team. Every Monday, Wednesday, Friday we are up and running at 5:30 a.m (a time I did NOT choose). It is still dark at this hour, but the boys get up and running almost right on time. We run for about 45 minutes and then my “expertise” comes into play. We stretch. Stretching is something that many Tomasinos are unaware of. We are learning the importance and correct techniques, as a team, and the kids enjoy it. Then we do push-ups and sit-ups. It is hilarious to listen to the boys yell and complain about the workout, although afterward they tell me how fun it was. I hope that our fitness and strength training will give Tomas the edge in the July tourney, because it would be fun to take home the championship.

Life continues to move quickly (and sometimes productively) here in Tomas. I’ve been in Perú more than 8 months now, and I don’t know where the time is going…

And now, a few pictures for your viewing pleasure!

Flowers of a Colle tree, an endangered species that is native to this part of the Andes.

My Park Guard friend Marisol. Being a Park Guard is a full time job, so you take advantage and sleep anytime you can, including in the back of a VERY bumpy pickup ride.

Measuring Colle trees. These trees are endangered and are tough to grow. These giants must be 200 years old (seriously, these are old)

The gelatin like substance of the Potaka plant. It is medicinal, and supposedly helps the liver. Not much flavor, so I recommend that next time you're eating Potaka you add sugar.

A grove of Potaka, with the biologists. As is custom, everyone is sporting their vests.

In a Queñual Forest, with a biologist and two park guards. Notice that I also have a vest. It is from SERNANP, or the Servicio Nacional de Areas Naturales Protegidas (park service). Both practical, and sporty. Certainly a trend i'll try and bring back to the States.

Off to the Races...

2009-05-09T15:33:00.000-07:00

Upon entering Tomas from the East, there is a large arch that is made up of two large boots and topped with a horse being ridden by a jockey. When first arriving I wondered why the quaint little town of Tomas had such items on their welcome arch, but soon it all became clear to me. So, without further adieu I would like to welcome you all to the festival that is Tomas, the Carrera de Caballos, or Horse Races.

Every year the first weekend of May is a celebration in Tomas. This festival involves a Futblito (6 on 6 soccer on a basketball court sized cement field) tournament, a full field soccer tournament, a volleyball tournament, and on Sunday culminates with horse races. I had heard of these tournaments months ago when asking why there was a horse on our welcome arch, but finally the time came to experience it for myself.

Friday morning, May 1^st started a little different than most days. There were no classes because all the teachers had gone to Huancayo (a big city about 3 ½ hours away) the day before to collect their monthly paychecks (as is custom for the last day of any month). Usually when the there are no classes the people head out to their animals, but this Friday was different. Tomas was full of hustle and bustle, including the arrivals of many Tomasinos from Lima and Huancayo. Despite the arrivals of everyone, the tourneys didn’t start until the usual Peruvian hour, which is a few hours after the scheduled time. Oh yeah, and we had to wait for the Cock Fight tournament before we could play soccer. (Don’t worry, they stop the fights if they get too out of hand, so roosters don’t get too beat up. Although I still found it pretty distasteful)

I played with the Magisterio, or the teachers of Tomas. I usually end up on their team because I work with them a lot and they’re some of my best friends. Unfortunately, we don’t win, as is our usual, but it was fun nonetheless.

Saturday morning saw the arrival of Brad, Sarah and Cate, the 3 other volunteers I’m clustered with in the Yauyos region (and the only volunteers within 8 hours). We ate some Pachamanca (alpaca meat cooked on hot rocks, all buried underground), then in the afternoon came the big event of the day, the soccer tournament.

As a member of the Community of Tomas, it was only right that I play for one of the two teams my town had. I ended up playing with Oriente Andino, a team whose player base is a large family with many brothers and a few cousins from Tomas. I got to play forward, and when I score the first goal of the game (off of a crossed ball that I just had to put in the net) the crowd went wild. Being the only gringo that lives in Tomas and still the newest member of the community, the crowd thinks it is a pretty big deal that I play soccer. It was quite the moment. We ended up getting second in the tournament, although it would have been nice to win and get that Bull that was the first place prize.

Sunday, though, was the main event. After a breakfast of pancakes (which turned out great, even though it was our first time making pancakes in Peru), we (me and the other volunteers) made the 20 minute trek to the small pasture of Siria. We arrived and the band was already playing (the same music as the previous 2 days), and we waited for the races to begin. The races are about a quarter mile, and they run 2 horses at a time. It is kind of scary to watch, because most riders are young kids without any kind of safety equipment, and these horses are going fast. We watched the races with a group of health post workers (our good friends), and, of course, ate more Alpaca meat Pachamanca.

It was a fun weekend that helped me to really understand why we have a horse on top of our welcome arch…I’m still a little unsure about the boots, but I’ve got 18 ½ months to figure that out.

The Archway entering Tomas. Nice boots, nice horse.

The Band. All your favorite Huayno Classics! That's my good friend Luis giving the thumbs up at bass drum.

Myself, Sarah, former Tomas Doctor Brigette, Cate, and Brad with a little pre-race fun.

Sarah, herself a horseback rider, taking one of my neighbor's horses for a little trot. Fortunately, she didn't race (because that is scary!)

EARTH DAY!!!

2009-04-22T14:52:00.000-07:00

So April is quickly coming to an end, which means I’ll soon have completed 5 months here in Tomas. Time is going fast, and I’m enjoying my time here. Since my last update I’ve gone to the jungle (Holy Week) and been working a lot in the schools. Today, though, is a very special day. Since 1970, April 22nd has been recognized as Earth Day, and being an environmental volunteer it was the perfect chance to do something big here in Tomas.
Yesterday and today we had workshops with all three levels of schools in Tomas, Kindergarten, Elementary, and High School. Workshops involved activities such as drawings, discussions, High Schoolers watching part of the BBC series Plant Earth, and each grade/student making an environmental awareness sign for the main even, the pasacalles.
Pasacalles, literally meaning “street passing”, was our big event that brought all three schools and the teachers into the community. Each student or sometimes group of students had a sign about some environmental issue, and we paraded around Tomas for a little over 30 minutes. The event included many (unplanned) chants such as, “Queremos agua limpia!” (meaning, “We want clean water!”), and part of the high school band played as we walked. The event culminated with all students and many community members in the Plaza for a few short speeches.
One of these speeches, as it turns out, was given by me. I was unaware of this before the event started, but as Professor Fredy announced to the crowd to give a round of applause for our friend Jared, I had to think quick about what to say. It is one thing to give an impromptu speech in front of a small group, but it is another to give an impromptu speech in from of the good majority of a town…and in Spanish. The situation was made a little more difficult being that I had to follow two teachers who had already said all the most important things about Earth Day. Professor Fredy even went on a rant about the mines contaminating our river. It was quite the act to follow.
I ended up thanking the kids for their participation and challenging everyone to talk about what Earth Day means with their families and neighbors. I also tried to be encouraging by saying that we can overcome the environmental problems that we have in Tomas. I think my brief message was well received, I just hope that I didn’t say anything with exceptionally poor grammar or the wrong words to make me look dumb. If I did, oh well, it was a new experience.
Earth Day is an important day, and it does have a lot of importance here in Tomas. With all the commotion we had with the Pasacalles, people will be talking about this event for weeks. They might even talk about how “Ya-red” (that’s me, in Spanish) gave a speech. Hopefully it can be a springboard into action here in Tomas. The day was a success, which I hope we can continue into the future.

Kindergarten. Some of my favorite students in all of Tomas. It is hilarious when they try and say my name.

Second grade, nicely in line, followed by the masses of older kids.

This little guy sure was excited abuot not contaminating the environment!

Very creative Earth Day wear...quite the hat.

My quintessential PC experience...

2009-04-06T09:43:00.000-07:00

So I’ve been in Peru with the Peace Corps for seven months now, but just yesterday I had that moment when I thought to myself, “this is it, you’re a Peace Corps Volunteer now.”

I was at my towns alpaca farm for a community work day to shear about 100 alpacas. Twice a year they shear the herd, one half at a time. I’ve never helped at or even seen a herd of anything get sheared, and I was in for quite the adventure.

The day started off with a 6:15 breakfast of instant coffee mixed with Matchka, a delicious powdery mix of different grains that they eat in the mountains when there isn’t any bread. The quick breakfast allowed me to have a few more minutes of sleep before getting in the truck for a 2 hours climb up poor mountain roads to 4,600 meters above sea level and our 600 alpacas. When we arrived, there was still snow on the ground from the night before, although it always melts once the sun gets high enough. We then eat a breakfast of Mote, which is a hearty soup made from corn, onion, parsley, and alpaca meat.

After breakfast, there was a short discussion/meeting about what to do with the alpaca wool, to hold it or sell it now, because the market price for alpaca is about 1/3 of the price from a year ago. I’m still not sure what decision was made. After the discussion I watch as everyone starts getting ready for work. This entails chewing coca leaves (yes, the same leaves used to make cocaine, but this form is the legal form and only a mild stimulant (again, I only watch, not participate in this)), smoking cigarettes, and drinking caña, a disgusting hard liquor. This preparation takes about one hour, but I’m used to it by now because every community work event starts in the same manner.

After everyone is ready, then bring the alpacas into the shed were the shearing will take place. The alpacas resist this, and it is pretty funny to watch as a group of men are literally hitting and carrying alpacas through the gate. Once inside, a group of boys bring the alpacas to groups of 3 men with large scissors, who tie down the alpaca and in little more than 5 minutes what came in looking like a large alpaca will look like a weak, naked little animal. The alpacas scream throughout this whole process, even though shearing doesn’t hurt them. With about 10 shearing stations and 200 alpacas in the shed, it is quite a madhouse of commotion.

My job throughout all this was to paint a big red mark on the back of each alpaca after they had been sheared to mark that they got sheared in April, since only half the herd is sheared then. This isn’t as easy as it sounds, as I was always on the lookout for the next alpaca to be released, because if I waited too long I had to chase the alpaca into the herd and mark it before it got too far away. The shearers would yell, “pintura!, pintura!” and that meant I had about 10 seconds to mark the alpacas before it was released. It was an exciting job.

After we finished with the shearing and a lunch that was prepared for us, we followed the annual tradition and had a small 6 on 6 soccer tournament. This is a great idea, although it turns out that playing soccer at an elevation over 14,500 feet is a little more difficult than normal. We played for a few hours then got back in the truck for the 1 hour 40 minute descent back to Tomas.

While playing soccer, I looked around and realized my surroundings. There were mountains, alpacas, and a group of Peruvians that though nothing of it that I was playing soccer with them. That was when I realized that this is my Peace Corps experience. These people, none of whom look like me, all thought it normal that I would participate. They treat me like a community member, they don’t call me gringo, but rather by my name, and they know me on a personal level. It was a great realization that doesn’t just happen to everyone. It’s the moments like that that make this job amazing.

Aplacas before being herded into the shed.

An alpaca being sheared.

This shows how thick the wool is, and how tiny the body is.

Rolling up the wool from one alpaca.

This shows the big red spot I marked on every newly sheared alpaca.

Work Happens!

2009-03-28T14:42:00.000-07:00

So it has been a while since my last post and a lot has happened. I had my 3 month reconnect with all of the volunteers from my training group at the wonderful, though slightly dangerous, Northern beach town of Pacasmayo. We had 3 days of meetings, presentations about our sites and work, and some more training sessions over various topics. It was really refreshing to talk to the other volunteers and to learn that even though I may have felt like I wasn’t accomplishing much during my first 3 months, I’m in the same spot as most other volunteers. So things are going well.

Since returning from reconnect and a wonderful but brief 4 day vacation with my friend Heather (see pictures below!), things in Tomas have been going really well. School is back in full force, which means there are more people than ever in Tomas (well, at least during the weekdays). I’ve observed a few classes and even taught my first English class (it was a surprise 30 minute class, for which I hadn’t prepared anything ahead of time, but it went fine). I’ve helped construct a multi-family micro landfill, started a compost pile, and worked with our nursery.

Then, I received a visit from my boss, the associate director of Peace Corps Peru, and a Director of Programming from the Peace Corps office in Washington D.C. It was a fun visit and I proudly showed Tomas and the work we’ve been doing to all three.

I’m beginning to teach more English and starting with Environmental Education. In addition, I’ve got a busy month of meetings and planning to start a garbage/recycling program in Tomas. It is an exciting time to be a volunteer in Tomas, and I have really high hopes of coninuted successes in the months to come.

On a side note, 4 months ago today I officially swore in as a Peace Corps Volunteer, so that means 20 months of service to go. Time sure is going fast.

Humbolt Penguins at the Islas Ballestas

The sunset at Cerro Azul

Islas Ballestas: Covered with birds and therefore rich, bird poo fertilizer.

A somewhat eccentric Peruvian playing his Cajon for a few soles. He yelled a lot.

Heather and I in Huacachina, a desert oasis

Snadboarding...no big deal.

The dune buggy we rode in: loud, fast, and fun.

The micro-landfill for a few families that my host dad and i constructed. Also, the inagural trash being responsible thrown away!!

The nursery in Tomas. There are currently two beds of Eucalyptus and a spot for a compost pile.

My first Yauyos Wedding

2009-03-08T06:28:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,
So February has past and as of March 2nd I've completed 3 whole months of living in Tomas. The time is going fast. It hasn't always been easy but each day is better and I really enjoy the People of Tomas. Work is getting underway, with projects that even include making a school used micro-landfill and starting the collection of recyclables on the school level. People are back in Tomas after the 2 1/2 months in either Lima, Huancayo, or at their farms at the higher altitudes. Tomas has a very different feel now with so many more people, but that is a welcomed change.
On February 27th I went to my first wedding in Tomas. It was a civil union, meaning there was no church, priest, or even much of a ceremony. The ceremony was held in the upper level of the municipality building. After a 2 minute talk by a member of the municipality and another 2 minutes of vows, we had a toast and the celebration began.
We began by toasting with wine; very very sweet, sugary wine (a Peruvian favorite, although i have a different opinion). After/during this toasting all of the parents, godparents, and local authorities said a few words about the couple. We then ate Pachamanca, which consists of meat (in Tomas almost always alpaca), potatoes, sweet potatoes, avas (a large bean in a pod) sometimes corn, cheese, and a dipping sauce for the potatoes. Which traditionally is wrapped in a bunch of flavorful herbs and placed on top of hot rocks, then covered with dirt for a few hours to cook. This underground style of cooking is very traditional in Peru and is often used for special occasions. (More often, a large pot is used but all the same ingredients are cooked, but it's much easier than cooking underground). It's a very delicious meal and i highly recommend it when you visit Peru.
After eating we began the dancing and passing the beer bottles and common cup. We danced to Cumbia, and of course, whino (a very typical style of music in Yauyos, that involves everyone holding hands and dancing in a circle). The evening was quite fun and as I left at 1:00 a.m. people were a little confused why I wanted to leave so early. Peruvian parties often go all night...literally.
It was a good experience and a great change of pace from my normal friday night in Tomas (going to bed early after reading for a few hours!)

To view pictures visit: http://picasaweb.google.com/JBrandell/AWeddingInTomas

Things are going well, peace and happy Lent.

My life as a cowhand...

2009-02-22T07:36:00.000-08:00

February has been kind of a slow month, hence the lack of new blog posts. Therefore, many of my best adventures thus far have involved cows or alpacas in Tomas. My family has a few cows and we produce cheese every day. I've gotten to help out with vaccinations of cows, which is quite the experience. To vaccinate a cow you follow these simple steps:
1.Rope the cow by the horns...they are often pretty hesitant to let this happen and sometimes involves running around the corral of field trying to get a good ropin'
2.Grab them by the horns. Sometimes you just need to grab the bull by the horns.
3. Use the big metal pliers and grab the cow by the nose. This causes big discomfort to the cows and allows us to immobilize them so we can give them their vaccination
4. Wrap their tail around their legs and pull so that they can't run forward.
5. Give the Vaccination
6. All let go of the cow at the same time and hopefully they peacefully walk away, but keep a close eye and be ready to run a few steps.

Six months ago I had no idea that my life would involve vaccinating cows in a rural setting, but with this economy i guess every little resume builder helps!

Life in Tomas is going fine, and work is starting to get moving. I've been a little frustrated with the lack of people in my site because this has prevented much actual development work from being done. On March second classes begin and the people will begin to come back, so i'm very excited to have things get moving a little. I'm staying positive and i love the few people that are still in Tomas. Things are going to be busy in March, and I was expecting the first 3 months in site to be the slow. All is well and i love hearing from the states!

http://picasaweb.google.com/JBrandell/CowAdventures

Peace and Love, Jared

A little more from January

2009-02-05T15:55:00.000-08:00

So, from my capital city I have real internet and I can upload videos! Now that i know this i'll start taking more videos. This video is from Heather and Terri's visit, at the waterfall about a kilometer from my town, call Angel Falls. This video is actually from underneath the waterfall. I hope you enjoy it. Come to Tomas and see it in person, it is more impressive!

Take Care and God Bless

January Excitment

2009-01-29T08:14:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since we’ve last talked, but i’ve been busy and a lot has happened. Work continues to move along, and now I’m beginning to translate some documents into English for the Ministry of Environment, and we have a big clean up campaign that we’re promoting on February 15. I’m also beginning to plant tree seeds with a group of youth. So all is going well.

Last weekend was our monthly regional meeting, so I got to warm up on the coast for a few days. I also went to Lima to gather travel information of how to come to the protected area that I live in, the Reserva Paisajistica Nor Yauyos Cochas. It was energizing to talk to some other volunteers and share some ideas. Then while I was in Lima my friend Heather Brook, who I know from Camp, and her mother Terri arrived.

We spent one day in downtown Lima, which was when I was able to gather travel information, and that evening we headed up into the Andes Mountains (on the rustic overnight bus) to visit my site of Tomas and the region of Yauyos. The overnight bus somehow arrived in the town nearest to Tomas about 5 hours early, around 1:30 at night, but fortunately the local doctor was also on the bus and he offered us 2 beds in the medical post, so there our Yauyos adventure began.

Around mid day on the 26th we arrived in Tomas and we saw all the sites, including the “Angel Falls”. We met many people, toured the health post (as Heather will soon be a nurse), and had a dinner with my family. My family was a little timid to eat with the foreigners, but with a little persuasion they warmed up and we had a fun, local, dinner. Tuesday (Terri’s birthday) started with us waiting for the van that goes to Vitis, a town about 40 minutes from Tomas (where another volunteer, Brad, lives). After the van passed through Tomas without stopping (even though I chased it), we asked my brother to take us with my families car, which is an adventure in itself on mountain roads.

By chance we met up with Enrique and Suni, the security officer and doctor of Peace Corps Peru, who happened to be doing site visits that day. We were able to ride with them and we had a blast visiting Brad’s site and seeing some of the gorgous waterfallls and lakes of the region of Yauyos.

Wednesday morning all 4, Heather, Terri, Enrique and Suni, all left and life is getting back to normal. It was wonderful to have all of them here in Yauyos and I learned a lot about what we need to do in Tomas to improve our tourism services (a goal of my town). I’m feeling recharged and ready to work, and this February we have many things planned within our region. Garbage management is getting moving, along with some tree planting activities. And I only have one month left to plan my Environmental Education for the next school year. Things are busy and life is good, even though it is still raining and cold.

From the left: Terri, Heather, Me, Brad, Suni

This is on the road to Vilca, a tiny little town that is surrounded by some of the most beautiful lakes and waterfalls i've ever seen.

Terri and Heather at the best spot to see all of Tomas

Heather and Terri at the enterance to Tomas. There are boots because people wear them while working in their fields and they've become sort of a symbol of my town.

Peace and Love,
Jared

Let's get moving in January!

2009-01-13T08:12:00.000-08:00

We’re well into the new year and things are going fine in Tomas, Yauyos. Most of the population in Tomas has left for the months of January and February because of the summer vacation, so the population of about 450 adults has dropped to well below 100. It is a very different feel from the excitement of Tomas’ Christmas party in December. Here in Tomas we’re getting to the peak of the rainy season, with rain every day now and most nights. I hate to say it but the rain is making basic hygiene, such as laundry and bathing, much more difficult and cold to do. Don’t worry though, I can shower twice a month with hot water when I’m in my regional capital for the night.

Work is progressing a little slowly but without any major problems, so that is good. It is expected during the first few months that tangible work items go slowly, as I prepare my diagnostic. My Community Diagnostic Survey is coming along fine. Ideas and preparations of a Garbage system are even being talked about and that is a good first step in getting things moving. I feel good about the slow but steady progress here in Tomas.

With so few people in Tomas, it is easy to spend a lot of time with one or a few people. I’m starting to develop some closer relationships, which is really nice and it is helping my Spanish a lot.

There isn’t a whole more exciting news from Tomas and there might not be any really exciting changes during the next month and a half. Just more preparation work and finishing up my diagnostic survey. Life continues to be good, now it is just a little more tranquil. I’ve even started knitting with my host mom in the evenings. After a small bout of sickness last week, I’m healthy again, despite the constant cold of the rain.

Thank you to all who’ve sent letters. I’m in the process of responding to you all.
Happy January, Jared

Christmas in Tomas, Yauyos

2008-12-29T07:21:00.000-08:00

Well, Christmas has come and gone and the New Year is only days away. To say the least, this was the most unique Christmas I’ve ever had. In Tomas we have a four day Christmas celebration that feels more like the 4th of July than Christmas, but it was fun and exciting nonetheless.

During the 4 day celebration people come from Lima, Huancayo (the closest real city to Tomas) and all over the province of Yauyos, so more than twice the population of my town was here to celebrate. The celebration started in the afternoon of Christmas Eve with speeches from the four families that sponsored the party (a HUGE financial commitment because each family hires a band for 4 days and they hire cooks and provide free food for EVERY meal of the next four days). It was raining really hard all day but that didn’t stop the bands from marching and playing while a few people danced along.

On Christmas day the festivities began around 7:00 am, which makes for a short night after midnight mass. The day begins with the dance of the “Negritos”(meaning little black ones), which, as it sounds, is people wearing blackface masks who dance to represent the darker skinned pre-Hispanic Peruvians and to adorn the baby Jesus (I’m not sure how the two are connected, but that’s what I was told). It is kind of a parade as the dancers walk around the entire town and there are people lighting fireworks (hence it’s like the 4th of July). To an American, the costumes seem pretty racist, but that is NOT the intent and in Peruvian culture it doesn’t appear racist. After the Negritos groups of women dance the Paya, which again is to adorn the Baby Jesus. Each sponsor family has a group of Negritos and Payas, so these dances last for about 6 hours, with each band playing the same song for every dance!

After the dances and a free lunch (or in my case, free LUNCHES because I would receive lunch invitations from different families…at least overeating is consistent between American and Peruvian Christmases) the general dance begins. Then, from about 3:00 until midnight people are dancing and drinking (a lot of drinking) while the 4 bands rotate playing music (although, with many of the same songs and basically the same dance with little variation for 3 solid days!)

On the 26th the 3 other volunteers in Yauyos (my province) came to Tomas and we had our own little celebration and gift exchange. We had a great time and it was really nice to celebrate with some close friends and American Christmas music (including St. Olaf Christmas Fests, a GREAT change from the repetitivness of the bands). Overall, it was a great experience and a lot of fun. It was definitely not a Minnesota Christmas with the family, but certainly was a unique way to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Peace, Love, and Happy New Year!,
Jared

Dance of the Payas, to adorn Baby Jesus
One of the 4 bands with a group of Negritos dancing

The Nergritos beginning their parade around town, only to continue dancing for hours on end to the same music.

Settling in to Tomas

2008-12-18T07:18:00.000-08:00

I've passed the 2 week mark and aleady i'm feeling very comfortable in my site. Each day i get more acclimated to the cold wetness (which isn't really that cold, but there are no heated buildings to escape the temps in the 40's at night). It's good that i'm acclimating because every day 2 or 3 people ask me if i'm accustomed to the weather yet...they are all very concerned about my wellbeing! Life has been a little busy recently, which has been good.

Last saturday night was the graduation and celebration of the 18 seniors in my town. Many people of the town where there and after we ate a small dinner and they passed out the diplomas, we began the night of dancing and drinking. The drinking customs are a little different here than in the US. In Peru everyone stands (or dances) in a circle and passes a bottle of beer and one cup. You fill the cup then pass the bottle. After you drink the cup, then the next person does the same. All that i've learned about not sharing beverages or glasses in my life is completely out the window here in Peru. My biggest challenge with this is avoiding all the offers to drink from nearly every person in the town. The people were a little surprised at how willing I was to dance though...who knew that dancing would help me get to know my community better.

I've also been getting busier with work. INRENA, or the Dept. of Natural Resources in Peru has been having a lot of end of the year meetings with updates on their projects. I attend all of these because i will be working directly with INRENA and their environmental education, along with trying to achieve some of their Protected Area goals. I live in one of 2 Land Reserves in Peru, which is a little different from a national park becuase the Reserve's master plan directly involves the communities within its limits, and there are efforts to improve tourism (we have great potential for ecotourism if we can get a little more infrastructure). Becuase of these meeting i've met a lot of mayors from different towns, as well as all the biologists and full time staff from INRENA. There is a lot of pressure with this because INRENA always presents the 4 volunteers from the Peace Corps (including me) as experts who are going to greatly help the effort. I sure hope that they're right.

The whole town is preparing for our four day Christmas party and celebration of the Virgin del Carmen, which will be four days of music, dancing, drinking, and Paneton (fruitcake, although much better than fruitcake in the U.S.) So there is a lot of excitement and all the kids are playing in the streets during the days because school ended. Again, i'm excited for the Christmas celebration here even though i already miss the traditions of a snowy, Minnesota Christmas!

Peace and Love,

Jared

This is a picture from the town graduation party. My community counter part (who I often work with) is the young man with the beer. 18 graduates, 1 town party that ended at 5:00 am, and 50 crates of 12 bottles of beer (each bottle is 600ml, or almost 2 US beers).

A picture of me and my parents, Hugo and Inta. Final, i'm tall for once in my life!

Finally here...permenantely.

2008-12-10T07:17:00.000-08:00

So 8 days ago I arrived in Tomas, Yauyos, Lima, Peru to begin my 2 years of service. Training is done, and i'm out on my own now. The transition was a little difficult, as expected, to leave my host family in Lima and the 47 other volunteers, but I can already tell that these next two years are going to be exciting and full of adventures.

In my first week i've milked a cow and made cheese, done surveys with community members about the community of Tomas, studied lots of Spanish (the first verb I learned was "abrigarse", which means to bundle up), I've met all the health post workers, painted my furniture, exercised twice, showered once (becuase it is too cold to shower, or sweat for that matter), and many other things that seem minor but have helped me to get to know my community. Each day I get closer with my family and friends and each day Tomas feels more and more like home (although not quite yet).

My typical day thus far entails waking up around 7:00 or 7:30. Everyone in the town normally gets up around 5:30, but as of now i still need at least 9 hours of sleep because of the altitude (12,000 ft). After taking my vitamin and daily banana, i eat breakfast with my family. Around 8:30 I either head out with my dad or counterpart to do random tasks, or I head to the plaza to chat with whoever I can find (there is always someone around). I eat lunch between 12:30 and 1:30. Sometimes I eat 2 lunches if I get invited to eat at someone elses house, which isn't normally a problem for me. In the afternoons I make sure to wash up a little bite, becuase the other times of day are too cold. I have different meetings with people in the afternoons, or sometimes I just talk with the kids and shop owners about the town and life in general. I sometimes play soccer in the evening before dinner, although the rainy season has started so games are much less frequent. It now rains pretty heavily each day, but we normally get a few hours of sun as well. My family and I have bread and tea around 7:00 and around 8:15 we eat dinner (rice, potatoes, and a variety of foods ranging from lentils to eggs to hot dogs). I read in the evenings and fall asleep around 10:00, to ensure that I have enough energy to do it all again.

Things are moving along well though, even though it often feels like I haven't done anything tangible during the day. My spanish is rapidly improving and i'm getting pretty well known in my community. I also have a lot of meetings set up for the next few weeks and there is a lot for me to look forward to. Tomas has a 4 day community festival from December 24-27 (for Christmas and the Saint Virgin de Carmen), so that should be a fun, nice distraction from being away from home on Christmas.

I'm enjoying my time and staying healthy, and the time is moving very fast. I feel so much more accustomed to my site that 8 days ago or my first visit here, it is incredible. I hope all is well at home and i'll try to get some picture up from my site. Happy Advent and Peace to all!

My first experience in Tomas!

2008-11-20T16:55:00.000-08:00

Hello all,
So i've been back in Lima for almost a week after my visit to my site for 2 years, Tomas. I have one more week in Lima and then there will be a tough goodbye with my family here before I head off to the tranquil mountain life for 2 years!
My mew town, Tomas, has about 500 people and it is high in the mountains and COLD. In the evenings the temp drops significantly, with occasional frost (during the winter, which is the U.S. summer). It especially feels cold becuase there is no heat in any building. My adobe room warms up a decent amount by the morning, but it is pretty cold to start with. My kitchen is a seperate little room, with wooden walls and a corrugated metal roof. It is smokey becuase we have a fire that we cook with, and we burn cow dung as our fuel. I'll work on something with my host dad to change that though, as it is kind of a health hazard. I do plan on buying a propane stove and cooking for myself a for atleast one meal a day, otherwise my diet will contain rice and potatoes, with the occasional egg or hot dog. I'm going to need some protein and vitamins, becuase i even lost weight during my 3 days in site.
My dad and mom are great, plus we have 2 dogs and a cat. My parents have a herd of 22 cows and 5 calves, with our pasture being a 2 hour walk up the mountain. I milked my first cow during my visit, and i drank what is probably the freshed milk of my life (after boiling it). My parents don't really like cats, but she keeps our patio and house rodent free. As it is spring here, the animals were displaying some instinctal tendencies. One of my dogs, named King Kong, actually tries to mate with my cat (which i named cat). Unfortunately, king kong has yet to be successful.
I'm going to be working largely with the Peruvian National Parks Service, which will include doing surveys of the wildlife (alpacas and llamas and vicuñas) by going camping on horseback and recording what i find. There is a LOT of work to be done in my site though. People throw garbage directly into our river, we only have Eucalyptus trees, which ruin soil quality and aren't native, and there is always plenty to be done with the schools and environmental education. People are excited to work with me (I think), which is really good. There are some unrealistic expectation of what i'll be doing by some of the locals, but that is better than thinking i'll do nothing and not wanting to work with me.
Our last week in Lima should be a fun one, with lots to do in terms of preparation for moving and Thanksgiving. I'm excited to move to Tomas even though i've thoroughly enjoyed my time in Lima. I do have internet in Tomas, but it isn´t the highest quality. I will do my best to stay in touch though, and i´ll let you all know what my new address is when i get my P.O. box. Thanks to those who've sent letters and e-mail.

Peace

Field Based Training complete...4 weeks to go!

2008-11-02T15:23:00.000-08:00

Hello all,
It has been far too long since I've had contact with you all in the U.S., but I've been very busy. We just finished our week of Field Based Training, for which I was sent to Cajamarca, in the Northern part of Perú. I was with 5 other trainees and 2 volunteers at their sites. It was over 8,000 feet above sea level and it was raining on and off the entire time, but a pleasant change from the desert of Lima. (There is a possibility that this is an El Niño year, so it will be very interesting at my mountain site.) We taught about the environment to 3 different classes of various ages, were interviewed by a local TV station, did a one hour radio show talking about our work with the Peace Corps, relaxed for an afternoon at a hot springs, and got to see and experience the Andes Mountains of Perú.
Field Based Training is an experience that really involves putting trainees in some real work. Leading classes about the environment (in Spanish) proved to be fun but challenging. We lead classes of 5th, 6th, and 9th graders, all of which went fairly well. Our largest class day was 2 groups of 40 5th and 6th graders. We working the classrooms for about an hour (even though the actual teacher "had to leave" for a while) and then we planted trees with the kids and a worker from the local munincipality tree nursery. It was fun, but i realized the challenge ahead in the next 2 years as I watched the environment worker from the munincipality throw the plastic bags from the tree saplings into the river (as shown above)...it is difficult to help kids change their environmental practices when the adults are so set on their ways.

In the past month I have visited the oldest ruins in the Americas, Caral, which are small pyramids that date back 5,000 years, i've attended numerous family birthday parties, participated in a Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament, improved my Spanish, felt a few eathquakes, and many other new experiences.

Futbol Adventures and Riding the Combi!

2008-10-05T09:04:00.000-07:00

Well, the soccer tournament has officially ended...we didn´t win the championship but we did win 2 more games, including our final game which was a 3-0 blowout of the other team. We didn´t make the championship round but our team did win the ´Premio de Amistad´ or ´Friendship Award´, which is an award the tournament organizers designed specifically for our team. Everyone in the neighborhood that hosted the tournament enjoyed watching us play and it also turns out that every other team plays much, much dirtier than we do, so the award kind of makes sense...i guess. As a result of the award, we were given jerseys that look like the Peruvian national jerseys and they have the name of the neighborhood on the front, they are very cool. The awards were presented last night at the neighborhood´s anniversary festival, which included a stage, live music, dancing, a beer kiosk, and our captain was even called on stage to give an impromtu speech, which is not easy to do in Spanish in front of a large crowd.

The title of this post includes ´Riding the Combi´, so you may be wondering what that is. The combi is the name of the public transit in and around the Lima area. They are very small buses, with about 20 seats and a center aisle to stand in. There is a door on the side of the bus that is used, often to enter or exit while the bus is still moving. All the combis are privately owned so there isn´t a schedule, rather you just stand on the side of the major road and wave them down. This also means that it is in the best interest of the drivers to get to their destinations as fast as possible so they can get as many riders as possible. It is always an adventure, and you better hold on when staring or stopping. The price is negotiable, but there are "standard" prices for certain distances. Despite they common price, the door operaters frequently try to overcharge the gringos, so you have to be fierce. On one occasion I had to tell the door operator "I might be white, but i´m not dumb", and that seemed to work pretty well.
Since 17 volunteers live in the same neighborhood as me and we use the same Combi stop, we often end up going to class in small groups. This is especially exciting in the morning during the "bitch hour" (as it was described to me by a very old woman at my combi stop) because we Americans are significantly larger than a standard Peruvian.

Yep, all in a days work as a trainee here in Peru. I´m having a blast with the group and classes/training sessions are going well. We have our second language evaluation on Wednesday to re-determine our language level and classes. I love hearing from you all!
Peace

19 days already?

2008-09-29T16:05:00.000-07:00

So, i´ve been in Peru for two and a half weeks and it has just flown by. Everyday we have training from 8 to 5 and we have saturday morning sessions in Lima. Life is very busy, especially with the soccer tournament we´re in. We have games almost every night and many of our family members come and support our team when we play. The tournament ends this week, with a large party on Friday night in the neighborhood where we play. We haven´t lost in the last 3 games, winning one and tying 2. There is actually a lot of gossip about our team, because we are gringos and i think other teams are embarrassed when they don´t beat us. We´re actually not bad though.
Saturday we had a training session at the University of Agriculture outside of Lima. We learned many names for fruits and vegetables that are grown in Peru, both native and non-native. We also learned how to plant seeds, which is the same as in the U.S. but will be useful for the tree planting portion of my service. Saturday evening we attended a neighborhood party that involved a stage, 2 bands, and lots of fireworks. There was a large wooden tower that shot fireworks in every direction, including into the crowd, but nobody seemed too worried about it. Then, ¨toro loco¨happened, which is a wooden bull that a man (who´d had a few) runs around in and fireworks shoot out in all directions. With this the fireworks are very close to the crowd and sparks are flying everywhere. It reminded me of a quote from my sisters Thai host family, ¨In America, safety first. In Thailand, no problem!¨ That quote also seems to apply to Peru.
Sunday was another family day, except in the afternoon i went to s professional soccer game with my older host brother. It was fun and there were of course ridiculous air horns and drums being played the entire time, which really spiced things up.
As of today, all training sessions are now in Spanish, which makes it much more difficult to pay attention. For me, language is the most important aspect of my training. The other parts of training involve learning how to approach people and work in groups...kind of like camp. I have even taught a few camp games to the Environmental group, becuase a large part of what we´ll be doing is working with/educating youth. As a whole, training is going well and we are having a pretty good time. Language is the only thing that gets overwhelming at times, becuase we learn so much vocab every day that their isn´t time to practice everything. I´m doing a lot of selective learning that this point of what is going to be important at this time. I figure I have 2 years to learn vocab.
That´s about it for now. I´ll try to get some pictures up soon, but we´ll see.

Peace

More from Yanacoto

2008-09-22T14:59:00.000-07:00

So, after one whole week living with my host family things are going great. In case I didn´t already explain, I live in Yanacoto, which is a small neighborhood an hour inland from Lima. The air is cleaner here, and it is always sunny. Daytime highs are in the upper 70s to low 80s but it is dry. We are just entering spring here, but there aren´t really 4 distinct seasons. Nighttime the temp drops into the 50s, so the weather is quite pleasant.
Sunday in my host family is always a family day because nobody in my family has to work. My mom and dad, four of their kids/spouses, and 6 grandchildren (ranging from 12 yrs to 20 months) were all at my house for breakfast and lunch, followed by relaxing and watching a soccer game between two popular teams from Lima. It was relaxing and fun to have so much family around. All the kids causes quite a lot of noise, but it wasn´t too different from a family gathering in the U.S.
We have language class 3 or 4 times a week, and this week my class of 5 people is meeting at my house (it changes each week). Class is fun and relaxed, as there are only five of us, but we learn a lot. My Spanish is coming along really well. I haven´t improved my grammar too much yet, but my vocabulary has really improved.
There is a soccer tournament in a neighborhood where a few volunteers live, and Peace Corps entered a team (unofficially). It is 6 on 6 and we play on a cement slab a little bigger than a tennis court. We lost our first game 1-0 but all our families were proud of us because normally the PC team gets demolished. It is pretty intense, the other teams all have jerseys and goalie gloves. Our team has a definate size advantage, even i´m bigger than most, but playing on cement is a different type of game. We have our second game tonight, so we´ll see what happens. We just want to have some fun.

I´m quickly getting used to life in Peru. I really enjoy my neighborhood because people are alway outside and it is easy to talk with and meet everyone around us. The food is great, lots of rice and potatoes, chicken, and fresh fruits.

All is well, Peace from Peru!

Here in Yanacoto

2008-09-20T19:51:00.000-07:00

It´s my 10th day in Peru and all is well. My training has been going well. We have Spanish language class, letures about the Environmental program, and other activities to practice integrating into a new community. Most things are fun and interesting.

My host family is wonderful and welcoming. I´m excited to spend 3 months with them. Sorry for such a quick update the the internet cafe is closing for the night. More to come soon...

Thanks for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers.

Not quite yet...

2008-09-09T06:16:00.000-07:00

First, I need to say Happy Birthday to my sister Elizabeth. Today is my last day at home and Mom and Elizabeth and I are headed out around town for one last day of fun. I'm almost packed...but it always seems like there is more to be done. Wednesday morning I take off for Washington D.C. for a day and a half of Peace Corps orientation. Then, on Friday September 12, we're off to Peru!