So I finally got my act together and got this blog started. The first week in country has been a little busy, but I’ll try and paint a quick picture of my setup down here as well as give a short summary of highlights from the first week. I’ll try and get photos posted up as I go along.
I am part of the 16th group of Peace Corps volunteers (PCVs) sent to Peru since Peru and Peace Corp renewed their partnership in the early 2000s after a long hiatus with no volunteers in country (due to political reasons). They call us Peru 16 for short. I believe there are now 77 of us, broken up into three different sectors, Health, Environment, and Water and Sanitation, or WatSan, as they call it here. I find myself in this last group. We took part in a one-day orientation in DC on Friday, September 16th before flying out the next day. After having burgers the day before, Kelly and I decided to have Thai take-out as my last dinner in the US.
The next morning, we had to be on a bus headed to the airport at 7:30 AM for our 1 PM departure (thru Miami). Both our flight and airport pickup were delayed. By the time I was in my ‘hotel’ room and in bed, it was about 1 AM CDT. We spent the next day on the hotel grounds, taking part in more orientation lectures, before meeting our host families the next morning.
When I woke up the next day, I noticed that my mouth felt strange. I went to the bathroom and was shocked when I saw that my upper lip had exploded to literally 3-4 times its normal size. I had been bothered during the night by mosquitoes buzzing in my ear off and on. I can only guess I was bit on the lip and had some sort of allergic reaction. I immediately took some meds, which helped get the swelling down some by the end of the day, but I can only imagine what my host family was thinking when I introduced myself with a ginormous lip.
I live with a family of five in a small town called, Yanacoto, located in a dry, desert climate on the side of a hill (or what might be considered a small mountain in the US). Landslides are not an issue because it’s so dry here, but I wonder what a strong earthquake might do to the houses in this town (we had one during the night this past week). My parents, Felicia and Cesar, are probably in their upper 50s or lower 60s and have three children, Alian (29), Jimmy (24), and Madeleyne (15). They’re all very nice, but most interaction takes place between the parents and me. The first night at their house, Cesar made me feel very welcome by inviting me to have a few beers (to share food/drinks, also known as ‘invitando’ another person, is very common here). It was a nice gesture and I think it helped all parties to loosen up a little and get to know each other. They also have a cute puppy they named Vaca (cow, in Spanish) because it’s white and black like a cow and when he was born, they nursed it back to life on a mostly milk diet. As far as water/sanitation goes, the tap water isn’t safe to drink, our bathroom is an outhouse, and the shower only puts out cold water. But, all in all, I’ve either managed or learned to adjust.
Each morning, during the work week, the other 12 or 13 PCVs in Yanacoto and I take the ridiculous public bus/vans, called ‘Combis,’ to our training site some 40 minutes away. It’s there where we meet up with the rest of the PCVs for language and technical proficiency (read: WatSan) training. I have been placed with four other WatSan PCVs into one of the higher-level Spanish classes where the small group, intensive Spanish has been very helpful for me, even after only one week. Also, the Peruvian accent and manner of speaking Spanish has been much, much easier for me to understand than the Chilean Spanish I thoroughly struggled with during study abroad. Chile is a tough place to learn the language. WatSan training sessions haven’t been too interesting or exciting yet. I expect them to pick up soon.
