Wow. Can we say culture shock?!
I think I experienced every emotion on my few days trip to my new place...Excitement, fear of the uknown, afraid, happy, sad, joyful, missing people,confusion,frustration,exhaustion, energetic, anxious,appreciative,surprised,awed, and the list goes on.
I know I already explained my town to you, but I officially met them! My family is super sweet and treats me as their own child. THe children are really young and they ask my parents sometimes for ice cream or some type of 'dulce' (sweets). Whenever my mom gives in, she always buys three of something; one for each kid plus me. I live in a very small house. my bathroom is right outside my house in the back, along with the water. No running water in the house, but its very close and im investing in a boiler. i have my own room, whew! i cant get my camera to work so i cant post pics. but theres a small living room, a kitchen, then a room for my parents and a room for me. I''m still trying to figure out where the kids sleep. I dont know if they sleep with the parents or if they sleep in a room close to the bathroom. Right now i have a dirt floor but am getting a carpet! another plus. I have no cell phone reception and limited internet access, but i DO have electricity so i can still straighten my hair, hahahaha. I'm such a girl. As long as I got electricity I'm good to go. oh, and i do have a shower but im a little scared to use it so im learning about bucket showers at the moment. ive never had a bucket shower, itll be interesting!
So the foothills are BEAUTIFUL. every morning I run around this HUGE mountain that the community hikes once a year and has a fiesta at the top. theres a couple palm trees, a beautiful park in the center. What I normally see in a typical day while walking my village: a herd of bulls walking along its herder, maybe a few hogs roaming around, kids playing volley, girls talking while the guys drink in circles outside their houses, women passing the streets with their donkeys and usually a baby on their back wearing the traditional sombrero and long skirts,and the scorching sun probably burning my face (dont worry mom im wearing sunblock! the strong stuff so i wont die). Theres also a few dogs--theyre so nicer than the ones here in Chacra! they actually dont bite!
transportaion is a bit difficult bc i live so far away from just about everything. but we are working on this situation and the country director is driving me to my city this time so i wont get lost on my own at night, so thats a good thing, whew. it took me 30 1/2 hours to get from Llama back to Chacrasana. but they do have these awesome full layout buses for the last bus ride i have to take, the 15 hour one. those things are fun!
its a little hard having people understand me in my broken spanish. ive gotten better but they speak in a different accent in this small village. however, they are super nice and are already teaching me their slang, and i met a friend of my socio (the person im supposed to work with for the next 2 weeks), and they took me out to the one restaurant in town. menu: rice and beans and soup. ha. you get the same at a restaurant and in the house, but i guess they think its different.i think once i start getting better with the spanish, ill be less frustrated and hoping ppl will understand me! but its exciting to always learn something new and is always funny and adventure with all my awkward encounters i have. i dont know when youll hear from me again.im leaving to go to site in 2 days, after my ceremony and initiation into becoming a volunteer this weekend! im almost a real volunteer! im still classified as a 'trainee' until this weekend! until then, nos vemos!
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
i got my site!
so I will be spending the next two years in.....
CAJAMARCA! thats a good thing. If anyone feels like stalking me and googling it, the exact place is llama, which is in the city of chota, which is in the providence of Cajamarca. 930 people live in my community, and I'm pretty way out there. My total trip time is on average 26 hours from Lima. Lima to Cajamarca is 15ish hours, then to the city chota is 6 hours, then another 5 hours to my site! BUT, good thing is because I'm so far away, I get an extra day of vacation when I travel. And I live about 2 hours from the closest volunteer. My room is currently being added to my house..not sure about the water situation or much. But I do know I'm by foothills. I leave this Sunday to meet my family!! ahhh! I will post back more later when I find out more descriptions. I do know they want me to be creating my own programs and projects for 'underprivileged youth,' helping out with programs with the catholic church, teaching in the schools and helping with tutoring, and teaming up with other leaders in the community to work together on other projects.
In other news............
The highlight of these past few weeks would have to be when I went to field based training, where I went with a group to a possible site and observed what the volunteers did and participated in the activities. It was cool because it showed me some stuff I could be doing when I get to site. We taught a lot in schools or non-informal places. We did a session on self esteem, one on nutrition, one on English, and we just played games with one. I had to speak in spanish when I taught and I failed miserably the first time! However, the second and third time was a whole lot better and I think people actually understood me. We also got to go on a tour of the ruins of the incans, that was interesting!
from top to bottom: Ninos playing the drums outside the afro-peruana museum in one of the volunteer's sites; watching youth in a school teaching a lesson to their peers after we spent the first hour teaching them the same thing;aaand a really cool bridge. there's this river thats not crossable by car, so theres this huge bridge that goes across where local villagers cross all the time.
thats all for now! as usual, I'm having problems uploading but hopefully i can put more up later.
CAJAMARCA! thats a good thing. If anyone feels like stalking me and googling it, the exact place is llama, which is in the city of chota, which is in the providence of Cajamarca. 930 people live in my community, and I'm pretty way out there. My total trip time is on average 26 hours from Lima. Lima to Cajamarca is 15ish hours, then to the city chota is 6 hours, then another 5 hours to my site! BUT, good thing is because I'm so far away, I get an extra day of vacation when I travel. And I live about 2 hours from the closest volunteer. My room is currently being added to my house..not sure about the water situation or much. But I do know I'm by foothills. I leave this Sunday to meet my family!! ahhh! I will post back more later when I find out more descriptions. I do know they want me to be creating my own programs and projects for 'underprivileged youth,' helping out with programs with the catholic church, teaching in the schools and helping with tutoring, and teaming up with other leaders in the community to work together on other projects.
In other news............
The highlight of these past few weeks would have to be when I went to field based training, where I went with a group to a possible site and observed what the volunteers did and participated in the activities. It was cool because it showed me some stuff I could be doing when I get to site. We taught a lot in schools or non-informal places. We did a session on self esteem, one on nutrition, one on English, and we just played games with one. I had to speak in spanish when I taught and I failed miserably the first time! However, the second and third time was a whole lot better and I think people actually understood me. We also got to go on a tour of the ruins of the incans, that was interesting!
from top to bottom: Ninos playing the drums outside the afro-peruana museum in one of the volunteer's sites; watching youth in a school teaching a lesson to their peers after we spent the first hour teaching them the same thing;aaand a really cool bridge. there's this river thats not crossable by car, so theres this huge bridge that goes across where local villagers cross all the time.
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