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

Swearing In and Site

Yea I’m still alive and here. It’s been a long while since my last post. However, I’ve been really busy. I guess I will try to recap the last 2 weeks or so. The last week of training flew by. Most of our sessions were administrative and no one really wanted to be in training any longer. The only reason we didn’t want to leave was because we had all gotten to be a pretty tight knit group. My family threw me a going away party the last night that we were in the neighborhood. Let’s just say it was pretty wild and we will leave it at that. You can contact me for more information. We had swearing in the day after the party then we left to spend the night in Lima. Yet again, another crazy night which details will only be divulged through further inquiry by you the reader. We got into Arequipa city on August 24th. Us first timers participated in our first regional meeting and then headed out for a night on the town. Let me first just say that Arequipa has the best food ever. I’m really happy it’s my capital city. We ate Doner Kebab, Mexican, KFC, actual good pizza…etc etc. There is basically everything you need in the city. On the 26th we left for our sites.

When I got into my site I was exhausted but my host dad who is also my community partner led me to a session that was being given to the teachers at the school. It was a health session about things that I already knew and it lasted about 4 hours. Pretty painful but I put myself out there. The next day I woke up and got to meet a couple of more important people in the community and then was done by about 10AM HAA. It sounds cool but it really wasn’t. I came back to my room and passed out until lunch. I was still adjusting to the altitude and just everything. So, I really didn’t do much that day. Thursday rolled around and my host dad left for a meeting in Arequipa which meant I really had nothing to do again. See a recurring theme here? Haha. Plus, everyone in town goes to their chacra (farm) from about 6am til 6pm. Therefore, there is a lack of things to do during the day. I tried to go running on Thursday but only made it two laps around the soccer field before being completely out of breath because of the altitude. I did manage to take my first shower on Thursday with my solar shower. It was really satisfying. It just stinks because your feet get dirty due to the fact you’re showering outside in the dirt. Eh. On Friday, I was invited to partake in a competition in the community. I thought I was just going to tag along but I ended up being a judge. I’m not sure how I was qualified at all but I didn’t say anything. We were judging the ovens people had made in their homes (out of just dirt, glass, sand etc….these people are resourceful!), the presentation of their kitchens and their improvements made to their andenes (the type of farm that they use here). It took all day to judge everything and I got to hang out with some important people from the town all day which was good. Saturday, I traveled over to a fellow volunteer’s site because his town was having its aniversario. He was hurting pretty bad emotionally and physically so I think he was happy to see me. My family came along too. It was actually their idea to go. We spent the whole day watching the dance competition of traditional dances from the region. It was really cool.

Yesterday, Sunday, I got my first taste of football…aka soccer…at my site. There are 5 teams in my little district. I was invited to play with one team and their game was supposed to start at one. So, I showed up at 1230 to warm up and the game didn’t start until 2. Also, the game at 2 wasn’t the game I was supposed to play in, but I was recruited by another team, Real Esperanza to play. We played the colegio team and won 14-2, hahah. We had 10 people and they had 9, but 14-2 is just ridiculous. I had 4 goals and 3 assists. I was pretty tired and am still adjusting to this altitude. The game was a full 90 minutes and the field is pretty much just dust and rocks. Today, I went to work in the chacra. We are planting our crops on Wed or Thurs. So, we had to prepare the chacra for the seeding. I pretty much just cleared out rocks and what not from the chacra. That’s what I’ve been up to. I’m still definitely adjusting but it’s getting better. The first couple of days were rough but now I feel pretty good physically and mentally!

The internet here is really slow so I will try to post pics when I get into the city. Tupanacama.