Cultural Difference #2 (Personal Space)

Whether it be a 3 hour trip or a 10 minute trip, all of us have ridden on a bus once in our lives. We board the bus, find the seat number we purchased or just an open seat and sit there. Likewise, we have all ridden in cars or vans. We find a seat and sit in the open seat. When there are no open seats left, we wait for the next van or try to find another means of transportation. This sort of behavior is natural to us and we really don’t think there is any other way. Well, in Peru, there is.

In Peru, the concept of personal space is really non-existent. If you were to board a van and sit in a seat, you should not be surprised if you have someone else practically sitting right on top of you. Also, there does not exist a maximum capacity for any car or bus here in Peru. Vans are like clown cars and buses are the same. From my site, I have to take about an hour or an hour and a half ride into the provincial capital. Never have a I been comfortable on one of these rides haha. Grandmas will fall asleep on top of you sometimes or kids will do the same. There just is no recognition of personal space. It’s natural and accepted to lean on people, sit on top of them, etc. Even on the buses there is no personal space. If you have an aisle seat you can be assured someone who is standing in the aisle will use your arm rest or back of your seat as their own perching place. It’s been rather difficult sometimes dealing with this aspect of the Peruvian culture. However, you really can’t say anything about it because it’s normal to everyone else.

Anyways, update on my life. The tourism association has been chugging along. It took us like 2 hours to give a name to the association but the name is Asociacion del Turismo Nacimiento del Rio Amazonas del Lari. It’s way too long in my opinion and I expressed this opinion but no one listened to me. The birth of the Amazon is located in Lari at the Nevada which is called Mismi. So, the other name of the association could have been Asociacion del Turismo El Mismi de Lari. I feel it has a smoother sound to it and everyone knows that the birth of the Amazon is at Mismi. However, I got shot down. Also, people in my town are looking to build hotels which I’ve already said is not feasible right now due to capital, demand, etc. However, most people just think hotels will bring lots of money. I’ve got a lot of things to try to sort out with the association. Other than that, tonight is what Peruvians like to call Noche Buena. All the Peruvians wait up until midnight and then open presents, light fireworks, etc. However, in my town no one really does anything. Those sort of events happen more within the cities. On Christmas Day, people really do nothing. They basically work on the chacra some more. It’s definitely going to be different for sure.

Soccer Update: So, we had a game on Sunday, our third. We started off the game pretty poorly. The other team scored three goals right away. Our goalie isn’t really too dependable. But then we scored a goal on a volley from like 20 yards away (that’s likeee 16 meters I guess???). Then, I scored one on a breakaway. But then the ref called a handball on us in the box which was crap. So the other team was winning 4-2 at halftime. In the second half I got pulled down in the box and I put in the penalty kick so we were down one. Then, this kid on our team had a nasty volley from like 25 yards out that went upper 90 (aka right underneath the cross bar). We ended up tying 4-4. The ref sucked haha. The defense kept on taking me down from behind which was pissing me off a lot. So I ended up pushing the one kid over and I got a yellow card hahahaha. Then, on Christmas day we played my brothers team and lost 5-4. It was pretty disappointing. Lets just say we need to buy our goalkeeper gloves so he can hang onto the ball. We ended up getting knocked out...grrrr. The thing I really can’t stand about playing with peruvians (I’m not saying all peruvians but pretty much everyone I’ve played football with) is how they cheat so much. It’s so annoying. I really can’t stand people who cheat. Anyways, also it annoys me that no one shakes hands at the end of the game. I’ve been here 4 months and every football game I play, at the end I run over and shake the players from the other team’s hands. But my team never does it. Hopefully by the end of two years the players here will start doing it.

That’s all. I hope everyone has a happy new year.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…or not.

So, up here in the middle of nowhere, it’s not that we lack the Christmas spirit. It’s just that society hasn’t gotten us revved up for Christmas like it does the big cities. We lack a place to get a picture with Santa Claus. We lack Christmas music playing on every radio station. We also lack money with which to splurge on presents (that includes me haha). To say the least, this year’s Christmas will be like no other in many ways. I’ve asked many people about what they do for Christmas and no one seems to really care. There are two chocolatadas where the kids get hot chocolate from the municipality and that’s about it. The people here actually go out to the chacra to work on Christmas. How depressing haha. But really most of Christmas is commercialized nonsense (kinda like how people celebrate their birthdays for a whole week, you know who you are). However, us volunteers are going to try to get together on Christmas so that we don’t go insane. It’s gonna be real different but Christmas is Christmas.

Another note: My neighbor just died today. A real surprise. I was not too close with him but every time I walked out of my house he’d say “Ingeniero!!!!” which means engineer. People get hung up on titles here in Peru but ingeniero is one of the best ones haha. He also used to root for me at football games and he’s helped my family out a lot with our chacras and moving the adobe bricks. He once was drunk at a soccer game and took my hand and kissed it haha. He was a light hearted guy and will surely be missed by the community.

Education

Imagine coming to school one day and finding that your professor did not show up to teach for the day and there were no substitutes. Imagine having your professor just leave the class for 30 minutes without explaining what he/she was doing or where he/she was going. Even imagine professors drinking after school in the director’s office. These things and many more greatly affect the education system in the campo of Peru.

While I was growing up, I took my education for granted. I came to school; everything functioned properly (for the most part) and efficiently. I ended up taking a lot of knowledge away from my years of schooling and had an opportunity to attend college. Part of this is due to the emphasis that is placed on education in the United States. Another part of this is due to my parents’ emphasis on education as well. Unfortunately, none of those things exist here. Even when education is stressed in households, only a select few can afford to attend a university. There only exist two scholarships for each grade which go to the students which receive the best grades of the class. Other than that, financial aid or more scholarships do not exist. As one can see, the lack of access to education and the lack of importance placed on education results in a poverty trap. The vast majority of the students graduating this year from high school will end up hanging around town and working in the chacra. A select few will seek work in Arequipa but without a college education under their belt. An even more select few, 2 or 3, will attend college but will most likely not return to their hometown. So, Lari will not reap the benefits of those who attend university.

It appears to be a rather grim situation for most campo towns in Peru and it is. Right now the school year is coming to a close. By the end of this week most kids will be done with school and out working in the chacra alongside their parents. Unfortunately, parents do not understand the importance of an education. Some do understand, like my host dad. However, even if they do understand, the parents lack the resources to send their kids off to college in the big city.
I hope to try to change the way things work in education here before I leave. I’m hoping to start a program next year which is almost like a guidance counselor program for the students. As of now, the students are provided zero guidance as far as what to do after high school. Furthermore, even if they had the desire to go to college, there is no information regarding their options as far as colleges or information regarding how to prepare for the entrance exam. I hope to augment those resources. In addition, I hope to provide guidance to those who are planning on searching for jobs in Arequipa right after high school. These students lack various skills including how to exactly search for a job and how to create a resume. Also, we are hoping to bring some professionals in from Arequipa to speak to the students about what is involved in becoming a doctor, dentist, etc. and what the job is like. Those are my ambitious plans. However, I do live in the campo of Peru, which most likely will hinder my plans greatly

wititi

me solo in wititi attire
our procession...we were out in front!
im in the red skirt or pullera...my friend chris is in the green...men in the olden days used to dress up like the women and wear hats covering their eyes so that they could sneak out and dance with women in their town
us at one of the many houses we went to to eat drink and dance
us again...this guy was drunkkkk

More Adobe...

These past two afternoon I’ve felt like I was in prison doing manual labor, haha. We have been transporting the adobe bricks we made about a month and a half ago to my house. In encompasses carrying about two adobe bricks about 50 ft to a tractor. Then, having the tractor transport about 300 of the bricks to the house. Then, all of us forming a line and passing brick by brick by hand into our “yard” I guess we would call it. Little did I know that the bricks were practically like cement. It wasn’t so much the weight of the bricks, although it was, it was the fact that all of them had jagged edges. So, my hands and arms are pretty much torn up from all the work haha. It’s curious why I would write “haha” after that statement. However, there is a little charm to going out and doing manual labor here in my town. Everyone has fun while doing it as I have mentioned before. Even though our arms were about to fall of a quarter of the way through, everyone put a smile on their face and made it somewhat fun to do.

Anyhow, my computer classes are dwindling right now down to only the basico level. The intermediate level is definitely done. However, the avanzado level was lacking last night due to a despedida for the seniors of high school. The funny thing about the despedida is that there are still two more weeks of school left which are composed of finals. Therefore, they still could fail and have to repeat. I think that is kind of amusing. Today, I’m heading out to do some irrigation (not like we think of it, but by hand and shovel). Tomorrow I’m planning on going over to Madrigal to work on a “how to manage your farm’s finances” charla with two other volunteers in my group. Next week I plan on heading into Chivay for the annual festival and in a week I’m back in Arequipa for another regional meeting. That’s all I got. Chao.

Deep thoughtssss

Doubt is a feeling of uncertainty or lack of conviction. To doubt is to feel uncertain about something. Many of the volunteers in Peace Corps deal with doubt almost daily. Doubting whether or not this job is the right job for them. Doubting whether or not their artisans are going to show up for the meeting that night. Doubting whether or not their cell phone is going to stay connected for that very important conversation with their best friend. Even doubting whether or not their intestine will ever produce anything solid. Doubt riddles the lives of volunteers sometimes to the point of no return. However, for those who have made it this far, doubt has failed to pierce our motivation or state of certainty. On the contrary, doubt seems to have made us even stronger. Now when one looks upon a doubtful situation, he or she looks deeper. Instead of giving up, he or she works harder. Because, really, who can predict the result of a doubtful situation.

Being on the verge of a half a year in Peru, I have doubted many things. However, I have come the revelation that when one faces a doubtful situation there are two choices: to push on through even though the result is not certain or to give up and turn around because the result is unknown. After almost six months in Peru, I believe one must work even harder and look even deeper at an uncertain situation. The easy way out is to give up and move back to something more comfortable, more certain. However, people can only grow and be made stronger when they are taken out of their element. Sports analysts identify the best players in history based on their performances in adverse conditions, or when there exists much uncertainty on the outcome of the game. Even if that player fails in that instance of uncertainty, the player comes away with much more knowledge and many lessons learned. This relates to the Peace Corps. All of us are in situations where the outcomes, among many things, are doubtful and uncertain. From time to time, we fail, and we fall hard. However, the skills and knowledge we draw from those experiences is what makes it all worth it.

What Am I Up To?
Jus thought I had to write something a little insightful at the half-year mark. It’s pretty crazy to think I’ve been here for a half a year, 6 months, 26 weeks, 182 days. However, I’m still here which is the important thing. Yesterday, I got back from Reconnect/Thanksgiving Vacation. It was definitely a much-needed break from my site. It was great to see everyone. We got to have a Thanksgiving lunch the day before Thanksgiving which was delicious. In addition, we were sitting on a porch overlooking the beach for this lunch which was cool, but didn’t really have that Thanksgiving charm of a cold Thanksgiving day. I must give Steve, the volunteer who organized reconnect a lot of credit. Pacasmayo was a great place to have reconnect and I plan to be back in July for the marathon. Reconnect was a great time to see what everyone else was up to and just to hang out with everyone once again. The coolest thing about Reconnect was how it seemed as though everyone still got along just as well even after three months. After reconnect we went to Huanchaco which is a beach town right outside of Trujillo. This town had a bit more to do and eat which was nice. All in All, reconnect was great and I feel more energized to work in my community again. I have already scheduled a meeting with the woman in charge of turismo vivencal. Since the tourism season starts in March or April, we really need to prepare and get organized. My classes are continuing as well. Right when I got back people were asking me about when the classes were going to start up again which was nice to see. It’s rather motivating when one sees people taking an interest in things because that doesn’t often happen here haha. Anyways, next week begins the ferias here in the canon. Basically, it starts in Chivay, the provincial capital and moves its way down the canyon through every town. We have ours the first week in January. It should be lots of fun.

Cultural Differences (Health)

Sooo, as many can imagine, there are a few cultural differences between my Peruvian friends and myself. I think the biggest difference in opinion we’ve had so far has been what exactly is causing me to be sick. Of course, both times I have been sick diarrhea has accompanied it. Therefore, me, being raised in a society where we go to the doctor almost every time we’re sick, assumed it to be something I ate or the water. This should seem a very logical assumption to everyone back home. My host parents on the other hand believed it to be the wind. Now, I know most Peruvians in the Sierra have beliefs that the cold pretty much causes every sickness but the wind? I really wasn’t expecting that. It was hard to sit there and just nod my head at the notion that the wind could be causing diarrhea, (unless there is a new study I am unaware of) but I did nonetheless. I like to think that what I did was demonstrate, what employers nowadays like to call, cultural sensitivity by not evoking my own views on them. We could laugh at them and call them even stupid. However, it’s really not their fault. These beliefs and views have been passed down generation to generation. Not until recently has there actually been a doctor in my town let alone transportation to get out of my town to a doctor. We can really just chalk it up to ignorance. People in my town truly have confidence in herbal remedies which do not require pills or antibiotics. To me, this is interesting and I’m willing to try them out. Anyways, this is just one of the cultural differences I have come to find here in my town.

On the work front, I had my first entrepreneur club meeting last night. It was actually lots of fun. Six people came but six is better than zero. All of them were pretty into it towards the end and I hope to see them back next Monday.
Also, we recently just started another town soccer tourney two Sundays ago. I’m currently playing on a different team called Juvenil Sombra which literally means Shadow Youth (fittingly, we wear black jerseys). The first game I couldn’t make which we lost 1-0. The second game was this past Sunday against Olympia. We won 4-1. I scored two goals. Felt really good to score goals. So here are the current standings:

1. Union Talleres 4
2. Juvenil Sombra 3
3. Colegio 1
4. Olympia 1

Top two teams move on to play in the town’s aniversario in January against some teams from Arequipa. Exciting!

OBAMA!!!

It seems as though it has been a very long time in coming but Barack Obama is finally the U.S. President. I remember during the primaries my roommates and I would stay up on Tuesdays to see the results come in when he was still running against Hillary even though we had case studies do for Finance the next day. What is really more important? I think this is the first time I have confidence in the President. I realize that there will be let downs throughout his presidency, as nobody is perfect. However, I have a sense of security now. Also, it’s nice to be in a foreign country now and not have to field questions regarding Bush. Most Peruvians feel good about Obama as well. Another cool thing about Obama becoming President is the fact that he will be the first African-American President. This by no means signifies that racism is gone in our country. However, it gives me personally more confidence that our country is moving past the racism that has so long plagued our nation. Living in Peru, I experience even more racism than in the US. Therefore, it’s nice to see that one country is trying to get it’s act together. I don’t foresee that happening anytime soon for Peru.

Anyways, here in Peru things are pretty calm. Most things that used to be exciting, weird, funny or strange are rather normal to me now. Some things still bother me, but that will continue throughout the whole two years. Right now, I’m really trying to start computer classes at our secondary school. I have been trying, with the help of the municipality and my host dad for about a month and a half now. One would think something so beneficial to the community would not be so difficult or take so long. However, the Director of my secondary school has been extremely difficult. I think we have met with him about 15 times and everytime we meet with him he has another request for us to fulfill. The municipality hired a technician to fix about 10 broken computers first. Then, the municipality bought a stabilizer for the computers in case the electricity goes out. After that, I had to deliver a detailed schedule and plan of my classes. Now, he wants something called a “convenio” which in English literally signifies an agreement. So, I wrote something up for him which he did not approve of and proceeded to show me an example of what he wanted. Which was about a seven page document. A seven page document to have computer classes? Furthermore, he would not let me sign the agreement without a stamp which had the Peace Corps logo. My signature would not do. I think this is the first time I got really annoyed at someone here in my community. I’m a very easy going person and patient but after a month and a half of playing games I had about had it. I had to seek out a Peruvian intervention. Right now we are waiting on the municipality to come with us to the secondary school. It’s best for the Peruvians to handle the icky situations than you personally so that your reputation in the community remains in tact. However, it is sometimes very hard to let go.
Other than that my entrepreneur club will be starting this coming Monday. In addition, the volunteers down on this side of the canyon are looking to give a charla regarding turismo viviencial. Turismo viviencial is a form of tourism where the tourist comes and stays in a family’s house here in Lari for a couple of days and does all the activities that the family does (aka going to the chacra, eating with the family, seeding, etc.). It ends up being a lot cheaper for a tourist from the US or Europe and a lot more unique. On the flip side, the people of the town are getting a lot of money in their eyes. So, it’s a win win situation. My town is lacking any sort of association or organization in this field even though their our houses which are suitable.

I think that’s all. I only have two weeks until I travel up to Trujillo to meet up with the rest of the volunteers in my Peru 11 group for reconnect. It will be really exciting to see everyone again. However, the trip is about 31 hours or so from my town here in Arequipa in bus. Hahahahahaha. Until next time.

draining the blood from the alpaaca

mini reconnect in lima

tearing the skin off of the alpaca

cut it up!!

lots of alpacas and llamas

cool pic

the lake at about 4500m

so many

im herding alpaca





That is the question of the day. I feel as though October has just flown by for me. This is in stark contrast to the first month here at site when I was rather bored. However, now that I am a little over two months in site, I’m finding my grove. I have really begun to like my host family. My host dad is my community partner (this is peace corps lingo but this basically means he is my co-worker and my connection to the community) and he has been awesome for me. I’ve heard about other volunteers’ community partners and they have had some poor experiences with them. Basically, I would call my host dad one of the superstars of my town. He knows everyone, has all the connections and has his head on straight too (meaning he knows whats going on in town and what needs to be done, hes not ignorant). The only bad thing about this is that a lot of people were coming to my host dad when they needed to talk to me instead of me. I have fixed this now and it is much better. Pretty much everyone in town knows me by name (whether it be Brian or Ryan, they cant pronounce Ryan very well) which is pretty cool. Anyways, let me recap a little of what I’ve been up to:

Last week, on Monday, I went up to one of our annexes up on high about 4500m up. Luckily, as opposed to site visit, the altitude didn’t kill me. It was a 5 hour combi ride up to the annex and we left around 3AM. The reason we were going up there is that about every 15 days all the people from my town who live up there come into the annex to meet, sell and buy goods. Most of them are alpaqueros meaning they are alpaca sheppards. So, we got up there, took a tour of the surrounding area where there is a really cool lake with trout. The birth of the amazon river is around there as well but a little farther away. Then, all of the people came in and had a town meeting which was a doosey too say the least. There was a lot of finger pointing at our mayor b/c he was supposed to come up that day but didn’t. It lasted, as do all meetings here in Peru, way, way too long. By the time the meeting was up it was time to head back. I did get to see them kill an alpaca. I also ate pretty fresh trucha..trout. By the time I came back I was not feeling well at all and the next morning I had diarrhea and a bad fever because of the trucha. So, that day I spent in bed pretty much. It was inconvenient timing because the next day I was to leave for Lima for the artisan fair.

Luckily, being the PC volunteer I am, I left the next day with my artisans for Lima. It takes about 21 hours in a car/bus to get to Lima from my site. Which really sucks when you are sick haha. However, we made it in one piece to Lima. The first day was a workshop on Marketing and Working at a fair in general which was held in the US embassy. The US embassy in Lima is one of the biggest buildings in Lima and is rather ridiculous. We weren’t even allowed to bring our cell phones into the embassy for security. I think my artisans were rather in awe considering this was their first time outside of our department. Once the workshop was over we made it to our hotel with complications of course, this is peru haha. However, traveling with my artisans was a bit of a pain because I basically had to hold their hand through the whole week. Anyways the next day was the fair. We sold a decent amount but none of the products had much of a margin on them to make a lot of profit. The highlight of the day was that the ambassador bought stuff from our table and then took a picture with us because my artisans were in their traditional dress. After the fair there was a mad rush to find a bus ticket back to Arequipa. We ended up riding on one of the more ghetto lines but we made it in one piece back to Arequipa.
This week I’ve been solidifying my Entrepreneur club and my computer classes. Both of which look to be starting next week finally. It’s been a painnnnn to get this stuff going but I think it’s going to be worthwhile. You would think something that is very beneficial to the community wouldn’t take so long to get going but not here. As you can tell I’m a little bitter about the whole process. I’m pretty sure without the pull of my host dad I wouldn’t have been able to pull it off. Tomorrow, there’s an EXPO here in Lari and then this weekend I’m heading back to Arequipa for a regional meeting. Thus is my life right now. Hope everyone is well back home!

dancing in the streets


larenos....my town representin at the 5k
my bro took third...our family is a forced to be reckon with

Band playing at my house before the camille(traditional day at the chacra...need to explain in more words)
yummm chicha....actually its growing on me but u drink a heck of a lot of chicha and u have to chug it
the new calf i have to name
the mother who is named storm so im thinking an Xmen name for the baby?
high school kids dancing through the streets for the camille

Not too much to report…

Not too much has happened since the last time I posted. Since then I went back into Arequipa for a regional meeting. We hung out with the college students from the NGO we are working for at a BBQ. Of course there was a U.S. vs. Peru futbolito game which was won by our team. However, the Peruvians will tell you differently. It was a timed game which when time was officially up we were winning. Of course, here in Peru, if you are losing when time is up against North Americans, the game continues til you are winning, haha. Oh it’s pretty ridiculous. I used to think that during basketball games in the US people cheated. You need to come to Peru for that, haha. Anyways, it was a good time nonetheless. The NGO will be coming towards the end of October to do their workshop on community participation with what we would call the juniors and seniors of high school. What else? I’m trying to start up an entrepreneurs club where I’ll be able to give lectures on business related topics and how to start a business. I’m also possibly going to be given some time on the town radio to do a radio show. Thank goodness I worked at XM and have experience with this haha. I’m probably going to use the time to do some world news, some business advice and of course music. Looking ahead, there is a party here on Saturday which I might be dancing in with costume. Who knows? I’ll get some pics from that. On Sunday, there is a town wide meeting which apparently takes all day. The mayor details his work plan and then anyone in the town has a chance to speak their mind. This seems to be the recurring problem at meetings is that they let anyone speak and for however long haha. I’m gonna try to work on brevity in speech. Don’t know how successful I will be. That’s all I can really think off. Oh, and GO PHILS! The shining light of Philly sports right now.

Work Ethic

my family at my host mom´s bday...from the left...dora my aunt...veronica? i think her daughter...my brother david...my mom sofia...my dad and community partner agapito...my bro aleansur...anddddd nancy
with me there
this is only a drill!!! we did an earthquake simulation today and the colegio got really into it haha...I´m responsible for seeing that the kids at pre-school are safe
this is me pretending to give cpr
la doctora and my host dad

Got to be in the parade in Chivay for Tourism Day.
Raising the flag on Sunday morning.
Singing the Peruvian national anthem.
Shoveling lots of mud for the adobe bricks.
Thats about half of what we made.

So this past Sunday and Monday, I spent both days making about 1,500 adobe bricks in total. It was definitely some of the hardest manual labor I have ever done in my life. To make an adobe brick you first shovel about 4 shovel loads of mud in a wheelbarrow. You can imagine shoveling mud like shoveling wet snow but even worse than that. Then, you run the wheelbarrow, let me emphasize run, to where the people with the molds are. Then, you pour the mud into the molds and the molders perfect the mud in the mold and pull out the mold. Each mold makes about 2 bricks. After that you run the wheelbarrow back and start all over again. The thing about manual labor here is that it’s like a game to them. It’s like watching the great outdoors games on ESPN (chopping wood, sawing wood). So, they work incredibly hard and fast. For most of the time I was a wheelbarrow runner. I don’t think I’ve ever been so tired in my life. However, the great thing about this, is that they really never complain ever and always are smiling and laughing even the children who are doing the work. Now, I know if I were 13, that I would not be smiling and laughing all throughout this type of work. It’s hard to find a time when the people in my town are complaining even though they don’t have much. I think the only time they complain is when they aren’t getting water for their chacra, haha.

Over 100 days..

this dead lamb is just chilling out on my roof
this is the work we did seeding...as you can see the bulls pulling the junta
this is how i wash my clothes by hand
thats the blister i got from walking an hour and a half uphill in my tevas
hanging up signs in town to help clean up and recycle

So, the other day, I just realized I have been here over a hundred days, 105 to be exact. It’s a pretty weird feeling and a good feeling to know that I have made it so far. I guess some reflections should be in order.

The first reflection would have to be regarding time here in site. The volunteers which came to visit and speak throughout training continuously emphasized the fact that training was nothing like your service in site. I must confirm this statement haha. Training was more like what we as Americans would view as a job. It was 8AM-5PM everyday junk full with sessions and even Saturdays included sessions. It was exhausting. It provided an easy escape from interacting with Peruvians because for about at least 8-9 hours we were with other volunteers. It was painful but indeed necessary. Here at site, I’m lucky to be busy more than around 3 or 4 hours at night. There really is no escape from Peruvians except my room. There is no structure and I still have yet to determine exactly what I will be doing. There exist many potential opportunities. However, when a Peruvian says he/she will do something or come to a meeting this can be far from the truth. This all sounds horrible and unbearable, but I’m starting to enjoy it. For one, I pretty much get to choose what projects I would like to take up and which I do not foresee as being worth my time. Second, the free time is welcomed since I lacked that summer of free time before heading off into the real world. I have tons of time to reflect and just ponder a lot of things. Third, the fact that I can’t escape Peruvians isn’t so bad. Luckily, my language abilities are pretty decent so it’s not too much of a headache for me to communicate. Therefore, it’s cool to speak Spanish everyday and a little bit of Quechua sometimes.

The second reflection would pertain to whether or not I feel as though Peace Corps is worth it so far. This is a rather hard thing to say only 3 and a half weeks into site. However, I can make predictions and these predictions are sometimes what keeps me going. I predict that after Peace Corps there isn’t any sort of environment or challenge that I would be afraid of facing. I predict that I will have so much patience I might sometimes be too patient after Peace Corps. I predict I will have amazing leadership and organizational skills which you could only get from being plopped in the middle of nowhere with the intent of developing the community but with not too many guidelines. I predict when I walk into my next interview it won’t be too hard to be able to answer any behavioral question posed at me. So, as you can see, I foresee this as being totally worth it still (which I think is a good thing).

The third reflection would have to be about Peru and Peruvians. I really love both of these things. Peru is about as diverse of a country as you can get in terms of nature and culture. You could probably spend weeks here doing vacations. Unfortunately, everyone just goes to Macchu Picchu and leaves. They seem to forget that Peru contains the deepest canyon in the world (where I live), lots of desert with a kick ass oasis, a corridor of I believe 32 mountains above 6000m, some really awesome beaches, Lake Titicaca( the saying is that the Peruvians get the Titi and the Bolivians get the caca, which means shit in Spanish), some amazing glacial lakes, the Amazon Jungle, must I go on? As for the people, they are the most hospitable I’ve ever met. We might dread the constant food intake sometimes, or the fact that we continually get offered to drink just one more drink before leaving but in the U.S. where could we find this? I know from experience that one more drink at a party might spur some sort of argument. I also know the same goes with food. The fact that most of the people in my town earn a couple of dollars a day and still will give me a meal speaks a lot I think. In addition, it seems as thought the people here remain happier than most in the U.S. even though they barely even have a shower. I think it says something about possessions in general. There are some things I could complain about, like the fact that everyone thinks my name is Bryan instead of Ryan, but my town has started to catch on after 3 weeks. I know really feel for all of my Indian friends whose names I have butchered. The more important thing is that I understand why they can’t pronounce my name. I think that’s an important breakthrough people should think about before getting mad at people. Everyone should step back and understand why the person is doing what they are doing before judging them or getting infuriated. It would make the world a better place and just a wiser place.

Anyways, I think that is all. Not too much is going on. I’m working with my artisans to get them to go to a fair in Lima. I’m going to start teaching computer classes next week. My community partner and I are looking into how we could possible set up a small business which prepares and processes meat so that they don’t just sell the animals to possible buyers (cut out the middle man). We’re also looking at processing crops or making organic crops. These are dream projects which who knows if they will happen. We are in the “What if?” stage I’d say. Hope all is well back in the States and keep sending me emails I enjoy them a lot.

Photos (swearing in and madrigal dance contest)

danzaaa
dances included 7 year olds with huge knives to cut down trees
dances included llamas...burning hands...pigs...and killing sheep
drunken man who just wanted to dance
dance dance

me and my language instructor
haha
me and my sister
surfer dude
cool pic out in the canyon

Performing Grupo Cinco - Te Vas
My family minus my dad
Speakers for swearing in
Colca Canyon rocksss
Thats my tie and the redskins suckk