"Yes, my earrings are in my sheep."

This is the past week in a nutshell.

Monday was, obviously, the 4^th of July! We got the day off from training and instead had an American fiesta! We met up with all of the business volunteers (since we live in different towns and go to different training facilities) and basically played soccer, football, volleyball, and other random games all morning. We had hamburgers and hotdogs for lunch, followed by a ridiculously delicious American flag cake. Of course we all sang the National Anthem, and I was surprised at how much it meant to me. It was a fun day- nothing like the 4^th in the states, but we got a little piece of it.

Tuesday my language class and a few others took a trip to Lima to visit a museum and then the PC headquarters where we would have an interview with the country director and meet some other employees. However, I was feeling sick all day long and barely made it through the museum. As soon as we got to the offices the doctor pulled me aside, gave me some meds (apparently I had a bacterial infection and a fairly high fever), and let me sleep for the rest of the day. So I didn’t have my interview or meet anyone, but that’s ok. Wednesday I ended up staying home from training and laid in bed all day long. I’m 100% better now, though! J

Saturday we took a “paseo” in a place about an hour from Santa Eulalia.  A paseo is basically a hike. We hiked (and when I say hiked, I really mean hiked) up a mountain for about an hour (seemed like way longer) and eventually made it to a waterfall. This is the off season so there wasn’t a lot of water, but it was pretty just the same. We spent a couple hours there and ate our lunches, then hiked back down. We got to see some ancient “ruins” on the way down. They were nothing like I expected, but they were interesting. Basically they were tiny little caves dug into rocks that served as houses for the indigenous people known as the “Yao Yaos.” It was cool to see and realize that Peru has more to offer than just Macchu Picchu.

GUESS WHAT! Tomorrow (Wednesday, July 13) all the drivers of public transportation are going to have a strike or protest! They are upset because the Municipality in Lima wants to enforce stricter regulations on the drivers, as well as downsize the amount of taxis, colectivos, moto-taxis and combis (all different forms of public transportation). And since this is the way a lot of Peruvians make their living, they aren´t too happy. So tomorrow is the scheduled protest.  There will be no public transportation, and if there is, they will most likely be stoned (literally).  There is also the possibility that it could get violent.  So, since PC doesn´t exactly know what´s going to happen, they´ve called off all training activities for tomorrow.  We are allowed to leave our houses, but we have to stick close to our neighborhoods.  Our neighborhood, however, is special.  We are literally a 2 minute walk from El Cruce, which is one of the most well-known bus stops in this area.  So we´re thinking that if there is a protest in Santa Eulalia, it´s going to be there.  Obviously we are not allowed to go, nor would I want to, but we might be able to see it from my neighbor´s roof.  So if anything happens, I´ll know!  Most likely it won´t get violent and will just be a peaceful gathering, but I´m not watch from the safety of the roof.  I´ll let you guys know what happens!

So, I’ve realized that my blog is rather…. boring, and I’d like to spruce it up a bit. So I’ll leave you with some fun facts/happenings/quotes that have happened in the past month

·         The first day I arrived at my host family’s house, Amir (8) and Alysa (5) insisted on helping me unpack my suitcase- no big deal, right? (Let me preface this by saying that I brought almost a year’s worth of tampons in tons of Ziploc bags). Well as I’m unpacking, Amir spots a few bags of brightly colored tampons and says, “What are these? Candy? Can I have one?” Picture me trying my hardest not to laugh, as well as interpret what I want to say into Spanish. I snicker and respond with, “Uhh…. They’re tampons.” “But what are they for?” “Um, Amir, they’re only for girls. Hey, can you hand me my socks?” This was not the welcoming I suspected, but I wouldn’t have it any other way!

·         I have over 300 flea bites on my body, and I’m allergic. Cool.

·         “Every bar in Kansas is an 80’s bar.” No explanation necessary.

·         “Every bar in Kansas is a country bar.” I couldn’t dispute this because it’s basically true.

·         “Nobody’s rubbin’ a cuy on me!” (Cuy=guinea pig. We were discussing “magic cures” in Spanish class and this is what it turned into.)

·         “Yes, my earrings are in my sheep.” I confused the word ear for sheep in Spanish. My host family got a huuuuge kick out of this!

·         I can now successfully wash all of my clothes by hand. I can’t say I enjoy it, but I can do it.

·         My host dad called me “Crazy” for the entire first week, and still sometimes does. I’m not sure if he confused Kelsey with Crazy, or if he could just see right through me, but he’s not far off!  ;)

·         “Head, shoulders, knees, and toes” is the soundtrack of my life. I never should have taught it to a 5-year-old.

·         I eat rice and potatoes for every.single.meal.

·         I have a new found love for avocadoes, because they are almost cheaper than dirt here.

·         My favorite Peruvian phrase is “Que pina!” That directly translates to “The pineapple,” but it actually means “Ah shoot” or “Dang it!” I don’t know how they came up with that, but I think it’s hilarious.

·         Ice cold showers are still as bad as they sound. Possibly even worse.

·         They do, in fact, have karaoke in Peru. I knew Thursday night Karaoke would come in handy!

·         My host father keeps trying to set me up with his single nephews. He’s convinced that I’m going to marry a Peruvian. The last one was 17!  :-/

·         Peruvians loooove my tie-dye!

·         My host family loves that my middle name is Hanna because it’s like Hannah Montana. If I get called Hannah Montana one more time I might go crazy.

·         60% of conversations held between Volunteers consist of one topic: poop.

·         There is a festival in Peru in which you dance around in a circle, drink Pisco (very potent alcohol), and try to chop down a present-filled tree with a machete. I have witnessed this first-hand.

·         Practically every day in Peru is a holiday. No complaints here.

I could go on for days, but I’ll limit it to that for now. Thank you guys for all of the emails, letters, and packages; not to mention all the prayers, well wishes, and love. Have I mentioned just how lucky I am?!  I can’t tell you how much I love and appreciate each one of you!

¨Man in the Mirror¨

Well, this blog post is going to be a bit more uplifting than the last one, thank goodness! I haven’t updated in a while, so this could prove to be a bit long- sorry!

On Thursday, June 23^rd I had my first experience in a Peruvian school.  Our tech trainers planned a trip to nearby schools in which we were supposed to be able to sit in the back of a classroom and observe classroom management, teaching styles, class participation, etc.  I was a little nervous going into this, but I knew it’d be pretty cool. But of course, my group of 4 had to be placed with the one teacher who didn’t want us there! Welcome to my life, right? Haha, it wasn’t really that bad, but it was definitely intimidating at first.  What happened was the teacher had no clue about what was going on because the Director of the school didn’t tell him about it.  So of course he wanted documented proof that we were supposed to be there.  After he saw the document he reluctantly let our group inside.  So we each introduced ourselves and spoke a little about what it is we’re doing in Peru, and we expected him to continue teaching so we could observe.  But nope, he decided to open the floor for questions.  So here we are, 4 Americans who are only just beginning their language learning, and we are placed in front of twenty 14-17year olds!  So I’m thinking, “Ok, this isn’t going to be so bad.  We’ll talk about PC, maybe a little culture, some food, and we’ll call it good.”  Once again, I was wrong!  Although we did discuss those things, the teacher threw in topics such as crime and delinquency, the death penalty, police and government corruption, and the list goes on.  Not an easy convo in English, let alone in Spanish!  But it wasn’t so bad.  Although there was a lot of giggling, on our part and the entire class, the conversation/question panel was actually okay.  It was interesting to hear about what they think about their culture, and hear their questions about America.  It turned out to be a pretty enlightening day.  And of course, the students just wanted to talk our ears off after class because we are “beautiful Americans,” and we even exchanged some emails.

That coming Saturday, June 26 was a great day.  The PC planned a trip for us to Lima in which we split up into our individual language classes and had a series of “homeworks” to complete.  We started at La Plaza Mayoria, which is basically the Plaza of Peru, similar to the Plaza de Espana in Spain.  Alan Garcia’s (if you don’t know who he is, do a little Wikipedia search on him) house is right across the street from the Plaza, so that was cool to see his not-so-humble abode.  Anyway, our “homeworks:” we had to interview random people on the streets about varying subjects, such as: crime, dangerous areas of Lima, tourist attractions, youth delinquency, and other topics.  It was a little awkward to go up to people and say, “What is wrong with the youth in Peru?”  But, it wasn’t too bad.  I’m realizing that although my Spanish has much room for improvement, I am able to get around and make conversation with people, which is a promising thing for me!  After Plaza Mayoria we cabbed it over MiraFlores, which is a very nice part of Peru.  We asked some of the same questions and watched some street dancers before heading to lunch.  We caved and ate at Chili’s- turns out we were all missing American food a bit.  It was nothing to write home about, but I had a hamburger and I couldn’t have been happier!  Later that night most of us trainees met up at a bar that one of the trainee’s uncle owns, and just had an American good time.  My host parents gave me a curfew of midnight, which was 2 hours later than my previous one, so I was on cloud nine!  Saturday was good because it actually made me feel like a 23 year-old young adult as opposed to a teenager in high school. 

So it turns out that just about every day in Peru is a holiday, and I’m not complaining!  Almost any day of the week you can hear fireworks in celebration of some Saint, or the cross, or some other religious holiday.  Sunday, June 26 was a holiday in Ricardo Palma, which is a neighborhood very close to mine.  Some of my friends stopped by and asked me to go check it out, so of course I did.  There were 2 bands, drinking circles, dancing circles, and the entire town was out for the night.  They were celebrating the “Cross of Ricardo Palma.”  We didn’t stay too long, but while we were there I witnessed over 100 people singing and dancing in circles, running up and down the street!  It was definitely a sight to see!

Wednesday, June 29^th was yet another holiday, and everything was cancelled for the day!  No classes, no work.  I think it was “El dia de San Pedro,” or maybe it was San Pablo.  Who knows, it could’ve been both!  Anyway, my host family and I drove up, up, up the mountain to a little town called Callahuanca.  I’m not sure why we drove up there, because all we did was eat some ice cream, walk around, and steal some fruit (shhh).  It was about an hour and a half to a two hour drive up the mountain.  The roads are narrow and pretty sketchy, so I held my breath practically the entire time, haha!  It was actually pretty cool, because the mountains were absolutely gorgeous and I haven’t been anywhere other than Santa Eulalia and Lima.  After Callahuanca we drove back down a little bit and stopped at a “Campasina” and met up with the rest of the family- cousins, uncles and aunts, grandparents- the whole shebang.  If it had been at Claire and Tony’s and had the family spoken English, it almost would have been like Family Fest.  It’s pretty evident that my host family enjoys spending time with one another, and I like that.  It’s a little overwhelming for me at times, because I struggle to understand and communicated, but it also makes me happy to see people that love each other as much as my family does back in the states!  It was a little taste of home for me. 

My last excursion to address is yet another trip to Lima on Saturday July 2^nd.  Before leaving we were told not to bring anything of value- no cameras, watches, rings, bracelets, earrings, nothing.  The reason for this is because we were going to a bad part of town, called La Victoria.  (Remember last week in Lima when I had to ask people what parts of town were unsafe? The only answer was La Victoria).  But don’t worry, the PC wasn’t just dropping us off in a sketchy part of town, there was, of course, a reason behind it.  La Victoria has a major problem with children working on the streets and in the markets because their families are so poor.  So the Government of Peru has developed a program called “Educadores de Calles,” which basically translates to Educators of the Streets.  This program was developed to educate people of the problems in La Victoria and other neighborhoods, as well as get the kids of the street.  Every day from 9-5 there is a program, similar to a daycare, for the children to attend that keeps them off the streets.  They play games, get tutoring help, and are provided with food.  So we got to see this program in action.  We met a lot of the kids, and it just broke my heart to see them.  They were all covered in dirt, many had tempers, and most of them were fairly illiterate.  There were children as young as 5 in this program, and they have all seen more terrible things in their few years than most of us will probably see in our entire lives.  After meeting the children we were given the option of walking through the market with “guide” and seeing just what these kids actually do.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  The streets are covered in mud, vegetables and fruit are being stepped on, and people are actually buying this filthy produce because they can’t afford anything else.  Some of the kids accompanied us and showed us where their familes’ booths were.  Many of the families consisted of a single mother and as many as 6 or 7 children.  They told us that they’d be working the market until 3 or 4 in the morning.  And the saddest part is that the children are actually forced to work in these conditions.  It’s bad enough that their parents have to, but when you see a child begging you to buy a head of lettuce it nearly brings tears to your eyes because you realize that this is their life.  It was definitely an eye-opening experience for me.  When we left all the kids asked us if we were going to come back next weekend, and it broke my heart to have to say no to them.  Our visit was probably the highlight of their month, and the hugs we gave them were probably the only ones they’d be getting for a long time.  Makes me realize just how good I have it.

I forgot to mention that we had elections for a governing board a couple weeks ago, and I was nominated and elected as Treasurer.  The “Junta Directiva” as it is called will meet once a week and has quite a few responsibilities over the next 6 or 7 weeks.  I’m excited I was elected and am able to be on the inside of things!

Well, this is currently Week 4 of training.  It seems unreal that I’ve been here for a month already, yet at the same time, it feels like so much longer.  I’m finally starting to fall into a routine and life is getting easier day by day.  I don’t think about home or friends and family any less than the day before, but it’s getting easier to not be sad when I do.  I still miss everything, and I will for the entire 27 months, but I’m learning to be happy instead of sad.  I’m realizing that I’m not here for me and that I will be making some kind of a difference, no matter how small.  I just need to open up my eyes, mind, and heart to the people and culture of Peru.  So the next time you hear me complain about something (unless it’s fleas), remind me why I’m here and how lucky I am.  MJ says it best, “If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a CHANGE.”

**Note: I wrote this on Sunday, so it´s a little out of date. I´ll fill you in on everything else in a later post. Also, I tried to upload pics but it´s taking ridiculously long, so I´m going to try to figure something else out!**