Ryan's PC Extravaganza

Huaraz pics

2009-09-05T15:41:00.006-04:00

climbin
me
me
me
me
yae
yae
me
me
yae
boots
the wall
sweet pic
nice
nice
I dont remember how to spell the name of the lake but its pretty awesome....glacial lake

almost falling
huascaran
glacial lake

It's been awhile...

2009-09-03T09:58:00.000-04:00

I have realized for the past month that I have not written anything in my blog for about 2 months which is pretty lame if I am honest with myself. Now, I really have no excuse given the fact that I have free wifi in my municipality. With that said, this is my long overdue update to my blog.
First, I guess I will talk about trips and vacations and what not. Towards the end of July I ventured up to Ancash for fiestas patrias (peru’s independence day). Where is Ancash you ask. Ancash is a department in northern Peru. The capital of the department, Huaraz is about 8 hours away from Lima by bus. Why go to Ancash you ask. Well, first off, a bunch of other volunteers from my group we’re heading there to celebrate fiestas patrias. Second, Ancash contains the Cordillera Blanca. The Cordillera Blanca contains the biggest collection of tall nevadas in Peru. It is captained by Huascaran, which is the biggest mountain in Peru. The cool thing about Ancash is that, unlike in Arequipa, most of the nevadas still have snow on top. With that said, when we were in Ancash we did ice climbing (yes with picks and those sharp shoes) on a glacier. Furthermore, we saw some cool glacial lakes and enjoyed the festivities there. Although Ancash was cool, Arequipa is still the best department in Peru.

Another celebration we attended was dia de Arequipa or more commonly known to English speakers as Arequipa Day. Every year Arequipa has a huge party for the anniversary of its creation. The party includes 4 different concerts at once on Friday night and on Saturday a huge parade which lasts all day. It was rather fun and hopefully I’ll be around for it next year.

As far as work is concerned, July and August have both been rather slow months. However, this current week has actually been rather exciting. We are starting up computer classes again in Mid-September because the municipality has received 10 new computers with internet!!! This eliminates the previous problem I had with working at the high school because people are in the municipality at night. I plan on teaching how to use the internet and how to make your own website. In addition, I would like to teach personal finance using excel but only a few are interested in that so I think I’m going to teach them individually.
Aside from this, the tourism association seems to be resurrecting itself. We’ll have to wait to see if that actually happens. The best thing that has happened recently is that I am now coaching the high school soccer team haha, which is great. We just started this week. We practice at 5AM in the morning which is horrible but not really b/c I go to bed at around 9 or 930 every night. I think it’s a great activity for the youth though. It instills a little discipline in their lives as well as serving as an activity which they can do outside of school (there aren’t any of those).

I will be heading to Lima on Saturday for training and medical checks. So, hopefully I’ll be able to update while I’m in Lima. Until then, hope all is well.

Camp Valor/Fight!

2009-06-08T10:37:00.000-04:00

This past weekend we held what is called Camp Valor. It’s a kind of retreat with all guys of about 14 or 15 years of age. The point of this camp is for the boys to bond with other boys from other towns in the valley as well as to bond with the male volunteers from the valley. The topics we covered at the camp were leadership, entrepreneurship, project design and organizational structure. In between each charla we played different games like dodgeball and crab soccer. It was actually very successful given our circumstances approaching the camp.

In addition, yesterday, Lari played Sibayo in the first round of the Copa Peru. This is basically the biggest cup of the year. Lari had already won 4-0 in Sibayo. Therefore, Sibayo would have to win at least by a score of 4-0 in Lari to just tie. It ended up being a 0-0 tie. However, at the end of the game the players from Sibayo were rather upset with the ref of the game. Practically the whole team surrounded the ref and were yelling at him. The refs tried to escaped the field and did but not before one of the Sibayo players kicked the ref in the butt pretty hard. After that, the team from Lari reentered the field and trash talking ensued. Then, one of the Sibayo players went after one of the Lari players. You must keep in mind that there are no police in town. Once this happened, all the fans from both teams entered the field and a rather large fight broke out. It was kind of scary, but ended up stopping on its own and somehow the Sibayo team made it out of Lari safely. Apparently it was the first time something like this had happened in Lari which I find hard to believe.

One Year in the books…14 months to go

2009-06-05T11:15:00.000-04:00

One year in Peru!!! This is a bit premature given the fact that my one year mark will be tomorrow. However, I will not be able to make this post tomorrow so everyone will just have to settle for this post a day in advance. So, I thought I would look back a little on to what I remembered from one year ago. One year ago, to this day, I was still at what Peace Corps likes to call staging. It’s where you first get to meet all the other volunteers from your group. It almost feels like the beginning of some sort of reality show. It’s like how Road Rules and Real World name all of there groups, well we were named Peru 11. Upon arrival in Miami for staging it felt kind of like arriving at college freshman year. You really don’t know anyone and you don’t really know what to expect. Not knowing what to expect is kind of the charm of pre –Peace Corps Service. That first day in Miami you split up into those big groups to go out like you did freshman year of college and you make your first judgments about the people around you, most of which were probably untrue. Then, the staging portion begins the very next day with a full day of…what is Peace Corps, what are the goals, what is development, etc. After staging, you board a plane with everyone else and arrive in Peru at night time which is what the new volunteers will be doing today. As I remember, the ride from the airport to Huampani (a sort of resort outside of Lima) was interesting. Lima really looked like a poor place in the dark of the night. Once we arrived at Huampani, we were assigned rooms and finally got to rest. The whole excitement of the experience was what kept you sane during those days. That first week of Peace Corps was a great high, but then it starts settling in that you’re going to be in Peru for 2 years and 3 months!!! Plus, the house you stay in at training, in most cases, is a lot better than the house you will be in for 2 years.

Peace Corps is composed of many ups and downs. One year ago I was on a high. Right now, I’d have to say I’m in the middle. The reason Peace Corps is made up of so many ups and downs is because of the countless failures you face. Everyone arrives to Peace Corps service well aware of the failures to come. However, it remains rather difficult to put one’s head around just how many failures one will face. Up until this point, all of the main projects I have planned and tried to bring to fruition have pretty much failed which is rather hard to stomach again and again. However, many lessons are learned from such failures. One of which is that one really cannot change people by his self or herself. It takes a volunteer’s effort in addition to their community’s efforts. If the community does not provide the effort for the project, it will never reach its goals. Although one can beat his self or herself up over this fact, it really is not worth it. Many people have a problem accepting the fact that no matter how much one tries to change a person, if that person does not want to change, the person will never change no matter how much one tries. It is a simple fact of life but one that is hard to grasp. However, with the help of Peace Corps it’s one I have come to realize.

PS – A crying sheep outside my door all of last night…only in Peace Corps.

Some Argentina Fotos

2009-06-03T11:57:00.003-04:00

cool pic
japanese garden
devil´s throat
rainbow
the smaller part of the falls

drying off after going under the waterfalls

cool pic

deep in thought

champagne on the bus..niceee
bocaaaa...we were there early given the empty seats

Argentina/Community Leadership/The wind again…

2009-06-03T10:57:00.000-04:00

I recently made a trip to Argentina which was my first rather large vacation and my first outside of Peru. We spent the most time in Buenos Aires but also made it up to Iguazu Falls and made it across the river to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay. These two side trips were definitely the coolest portions of the trip. Iguazu is one of those things that pictures really don’t do it justice. Colonia is just a really cool, picturesque town in Uruguay and is very easy to get to. There is a ferry that takes about an hour which runs everyday. However, you must buy your tickets in advance! The best way to get to Iguazu is by bus which is an 18 hour trip up and 18 hours back. This takes a lot of time but is totally worth it. As far as Buenos Aires is concerned, the nightlife is great, lots of restaurants with real pizza and pasta as well as the steakhouses. There’s also a really cool Japanese garden. Another must do is a Boca Juniors game if they are playing at home when you are there. That was really cool.

Back to real life. Once I got back from Argentina we partnered with an NGO from Arequipa called COPLAN and held a workshop on community leadership and teamwork. This will be the first workshop in a series of three. The partnership actually is a win win for both sides because COPLAN would never be able to coordinate something like this without us and we get access to having Peruvian young adults come to speak to the kids. The first workshop seemed to be a success. Hopefully all the kids continue to come.

Oh and the wind. A couple of days ago I woke up with a back pain which was connected to the movement of my head. Therefore, I figured it was because I slept incorrectly. Two days passed and I still had the pain. However, that day my host parents were going to harvest some potatoes and wanted me to come. I said no because of the back pain and of course they immediately were very worried. Everyone was telling me oh it must have been some bad air or the cold etc. Whatever, I’m not going to try to argue with them. I ended up getting some sort of plant which I cut open and rubbed the inside on my back. Then, at night my host mom made this woman come to do something. She through some plants on top of what looked like burning coal (it wasn’t) and then put the smoking bowl in my sleeping bag and made me take a breath of the smoke. Then, she put the bowl underneath my bed for a couple of minutes. Who knows what that was supposed to do. I do feel a little better today but I don’t think I’m going to give the smoking bowl the credit.

Mine or no mine

2009-04-29T11:18:00.000-04:00

Last night, a rather large multi-national mining company named Newmont came to Lari to give a presentation on what they wanted to do in Lari. Many might already know Newmont as the company which has the largest gold mine in the world which is located in Cajamarca, Peru. Because of this, I believe many of the community members already knew them as well to some extent. The informative meeting was supposed to alleviate any doubts or concerns the community members had about what the company would be doing. So, what exactly does the mining company want to do?

Well, apparently there are seven stages to mining. The first of which is sampling which Newmont has already completed in the targeted area. The second stage is exploration. According to the Newmont brochure I received, exploration is “the development of geological studies, geophysics and topography to determine the possible sites of mineral concentration.” This is the stage which Newmont would be performing over the next 6 months. The company does not need permission from the community to carry out this phase. However, I believe they tried to be respectable in case they needed to perform some more drastic tests in the future so they had this meeting.

Well the meeting was a complete and utter disaster for Newmont. Basically, they made a presentation on mostly the benefits of having them in town and kept on reinforcing that they would be socially responsible (to the tune of 25 soles a day for 8 hours of work of a community member, hmmmmm). Also, they explained the fact that this phase of work would not require permission, because it really did little harm to the land. Now, before the meeting I was informed that no one in the community wanted the mining company to do anything except the community president. After the meeting, I can confidently say that the information I received was 100% correct. Almost every community member expressed, rather fervently, his or her concerns to the mining company. It became more of a debate than anything. The thing I was confused about was why the mining company stayed for so long. It was rather clear the community wanted nothing to do with any sort of mining activity whether it was harmful or not.

It was rather difficult for me, because I knew I could not take part in this meeting. I could only be a spectator. Getting involved in such a meeting would probably leave me much too involved in the politics of the town. However, I am definitely against any sort of activities done by the company. First, supporting the company in their endeavors to do exploration would almost be like endorsing them for the stages to come. Second, the company can express their desires to fulfill their social responsibility. However, what is the one thing we all learn in business class? We learned that a company’s top priority is satisfying their stockholders, which means making profits. Unfortunately, that is what will always come first. So, yes they might provide some benefits to the community but probably the minimum. Third, if there is a mine here, the development will not be sustainable. The mine won’t be here forever and once it is gone, the community will be so used to the economic benefits the mine has produced, it won’t be able to produce any benefits for itself. Fourth, although a mine can do everything in its power to prevent pollution or accidents, there is still a great risk of something of the sort happening, and pollution is a major risk for an agricultural community.

So, clearly I have many problems with the whole idea of a mine here, haha. Last night was rather interesting to see though. I was surprised that no one in the community came around to the idea because of the economic benefits. Apart from that big news, my tourism association president is going to resign which will provide another large bump in the road, but thus is life here in peace corps. There are a heck of a lot of bumps, but we continue on nonetheless.

Puno/Cusco Post

2009-04-14T13:08:00.000-04:00

So, this past week I went with my parents to puno and cusco, two definite must sees in Peru. Puno is located on the coasts of lake titikaka, the highest navigable lake in the world. In Puno, we ended up visiting the floating islands of the Uros. The uros people speak a language called aymara which is native to Peru. The floating islands were pretty cool but it seems to me that presently most of the people who live there are there for the tourism more than anything. There were just so many tourists visiting the islands, which kind of took the charm of the islands away. After visiting the floating islands, we traveled to an island called Amantani. Here there are about 11 communities, which have a total combined population of about 5,000. The communities on this island speak mostly quechua. The tour agency we booked through is using money they make from tours to build libraries in these communities, which I thought was pretty cool. So, we ended up being dropped off on the island and we ate lunch with our host family then went up to the library. We read a story or two to the kids there and then played games with them. After that we ended up climbing to the top of the mountain to see the sunset. Then, we ate dinner with our host families and spent the night there.

The thing that really surprised me about the families in the community was how much quechua they spoke. In my community most people will speak Spanish first instead of quechua. In these communities, the people spoke quechua first even the younger community members. Also, when we ate our meals, no one sat at the table with us even though they knew I could speak Spanish and some quechua. The families were incredibly conservative and timid in this respect. However, as usual, the people were very nice and hospitable.

From Puno we traveled to Cusco. Cusco reminded me of a Spanish town because it has very tiny streets in places. It’s a really beautiful town. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time to spend in the city of Cusco. We ended up taking a tour of the Sacred Valley one day which was really beautiful, but as many will tell you, it’s overflooded with tourists. I’d say that’s the only draw back of Cusco. It’s kind of like the Peru show instead of the real Peru. When you travel you want to see the sites and at the same time get a feel for the culture of the country. Unfortunately, I don’t think you can really do this if you just visit Cusco even though its necessary to visit Cusco. The next day we woke up at about 445AM to wait for the bus up to Machu Picchu. The reason we woke up so early was because we wanted tickets to climb wayna picchu. The INC only allows 400 people a day to climb wayna picchu. When we arrived to Machu Picchu by bus, it was very cloudy. Therefore we opted for the 10AM tickets to climb wayna picchu instead of the 7am tickets. It was good that we did. Until about 9am it was raining and cloudy. After 9am, the sun started breaking through and cleared the sky up. The climb up wayna picchu was rather difficult because the steps were stones which were wet due to the rain earlier in the day. Also, some parts were so steep they had cables you could hold onto. However, everyone made it up to the top including my mom which surprised me haha. The view up top made the climb totally worth it. I think the most dangerous part of waynu picchu is the decent especially for people with huge feet like me haha. The stairs were about half the size of my feet haha. Machu Picchu was pretty amazing though. It’s just so big that pictures really don’t do it justice.

Puno/Cusco Pictures

2009-04-14T11:39:00.009-04:00

machu picchu....wayna picchu...the one we climbed...is on the right...the bigger one
cool pic

steps to get up
at the top its just boulders and u have to slid down one haha

got the whole world in my hands

bus track up

machu picchu

llamass

it was really cloudy in the morning

where we ate lunch on tequile
titikaka at night

the town we stayed in
floating islands

Movies To See

2009-03-26T11:20:00.002-04:00

In no particular order:

Manhattan
In Bruges
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Ghost Town
Kramer Vs. Kramer
Frozen River
Rachel Getting Married
Maria Full of Grace
Y Tu Mama Tambien
Gol
Great Debaters
Slumdog Millionaire
In the Valley of Elah
Milk
The Reader
Frost/Nixon
Benjamin Button
The Visitor
The Wrestler
Doubt
Revolutionary Road
Waltz with Bashir
Man on Wire

A day in the life: Tourism Meeting

2009-03-25T11:22:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, Tuesday that is, the junta directiva (basically the e-board) and I were supposed to meet to make a project plan for the tourism association. Of course I was rather excited due to the fact that making plans and associations in the campo just do not go together. However, since my host dad and I went to our project design and management workshop, he has been rather gung-ho about doing a plan for the tourism association. So, even though most things fall through in Lari, I had high hopes for this meeting. I felt it could be a huge step for the organization and really the community in general.

Well, we arrived at the meeting yesterday at around 930AM even though the initial start time for the meeting was supposed to be 9AM. At 930AM there were about 2 people there, my host dad and I. I wasn’t worried because I knew no one would be there that early. Yes, I said that early haha. We waited around for about an hour and at around 1030AM we began the meeting. All the papolotes (which are big pieces of paper like in the pictures) were up on the front wall ready to be written on, there were about 20 people there ready to contribute, everything was set. I gave a little lecture on how the project planning process would go and such and then we were ready to begin. Everything seemed to be going very smoothly which I should have known was too good to be true. Then, an older man who is on the junta stood up and started talking about how representatives from the municipality weren’t there and how the mayor should be there blah blah blah and that we shouldn’t proceed with this. After that, someone else stood up and mentioned something to the same extent. I was like, here we go again. I could also see that my host dad was getting annoyed. It appeared as though this meeting was going bad fast.

So, my host dad stood up and said that we have to proceed because this sort of thing always happens and if we don’t do anything today we will just be moving backwards as always. I was like thank godddd. Afterward, another man stood up and said something similar about not going forward with the plan until we have a representative from every NGO and from the municipality there. I was thinking to myself, wow there’s a great idea, I wonder why we’ve never thought of that, oh maybe because the likelihood of getting all those people to show up to the same meeting is about as good as my likely hood of marrying a girl from Lari (which is low for the record). Then, I stood up and said something to this extent: “I’ve been here for 6 months and have attended many meetings and at every meeting I really have never seen anything accomplished. Everyone talks a lot and says many things but no one actually does anything. I don’t want to offend anyone but if you continue this way you will not make any progress in your community. I think we need to do this plan today with or without the municipality because as you have seen they are irresponsible. There are many other organizations out there whom can support us financially if needed. We’re all here now, let’s write up a plan and then present it to the authorities later so they can plug gaps.”

That was definitely something I had been wanting to say for the 6 months I’ve been here. The end result of all that arguing was that we continued and worked all day long and came up with a vision, strategies, goals and objectives for the tourism association. It was probably the best day I’ve had in site in these 6 months as far as work goes. We also made a map of all the touristic sites in Lari and made a little circuit for visiting the sites. It was a greatly successful day. The great thing about it was that I was only a facilitator for the discussion. I did not come up with the ideas, I only provided suggestions and tweakings which is really what development should be all about. So, our next step is to present our plan to the members of the association and then form plans of action with activities, people responsible for carrying out the activities, and dates for the activites. However, I think the community and the association has taken a huge step in the process of bringing tourism to Lari and just functioning better as a community!

Fortaleza, PDM and School finally starts…

2009-03-18T12:10:00.000-04:00

So, lots has happened since my last post. First off, I hiked up to the Fortaleza in Madrigal again with Zach and his community. It was the anniversary of the Fortaleza. So, the community did some rituals and sacrifices to Pachamama up at the fort which we participated in. Of course all of the rituals include taking a shot of horrible liquor which is unwelcomed but a necessary evil. The view from the fort is amazing right now because the whole canyon is green. Also, the climb up to the fort was a lot less demanding than before. However, on the way down, Zach took a little spill (his nickname is Surgeon Spills, but for other reasons) and almost spilled off the side of the mountain haha.

Anyways, I also went up to Pacasmayo en La Libertad with my host dad to a Project Design and Management Workshop held by Peace Corps. The workshop was rather painful for the volunteers I thought. It was kind of like being in business administration class again. However, it was very helpful for our community partners. My host dad seemed to understand why it was important to have like a vision, goals, objectives, a plan, etc. So, hopefully we can transfer this knowledge into the tourism association. That would be ideal. However, we will see.

Furthermore, my boss came to visit my site yesterday which went rather well. We had a meeting with what people we could gather up from the tourism association at 3PM which is probably the worse time for meetings haha. However, we had about 13 people all of whom we’re curious and asked my boss lots of questions. It was actually nice to have him there to clear up doubts about my role in the community. I can say all I want about my role in the community and sometimes it just goes in one ear and out the other but I think and hope they were listening to him. One guy started going on a rant about how the US after World War II was stealing riches from Peru. I really don’t know what he was talking about but it was interesting to say the least.

Well, it seems like work is actually picking up again now that the rainy season is almost over. It’s really weird how Peace Corps works. During the rainy season there was really nothing to do and now it seems like there’s a lot more promising work out there. It’s definitely a series of ups and downs. Apart from the tourism association, I met with the director of the high school to speak about the new program I wanted to implement there. The program will consist of some vocational training, providing the students with information on how to apply to college, how to prepare for the entrance exams and we hope to bring professionals from a variety of professions into town to describe a day in the life so that the students have an idea of how the professions are. I really think apart from computer training or English this is the most beneficial thing for the students because as of now information on these topics in non-existent.

That’s all I’ve got…there are some photos of the fort and carnaval celebrations. Hope all is well.

2009-03-18T11:16:00.007-04:00

condor
river wild

lil kids
giving ur soul away haha
making sacrifices and such
hot
canyon
otra vez
waterfall
view of the fort from above
sweet look at the canyon
la fortaleza
madrigal is the closest...then lari is behind that...and to the right is maca
little waterfall
sweet nevadas
again
cool
condorsss
condor
arch

sweet view
i walked to madrigal at 5am this is a view of the dawn
carnaval tree cutting
carrying
the big pot with yummy caldito..kinda yummy
lots of food
all that is for my host dad

Quechua!!!

2009-02-05T14:07:00.000-05:00

So I’ve been away for quite awhile. I was up in lima for two days visiting a friend. After that, I had quechua class. Therefore, I have not written much in the past couple of weeks. However, now I’m back and writing again. So, quechua class, what is quechua, why do I have class about it? Quechua is the indigenous language that is still spoken in the country of Peru. It dates back to the Incas (I think or I’m just making that up haha). However, it has no resemblance to Spanish and is therefore rather difficult to pick up. I think it most resembles German. The pronunciations are rather difficult and although that grammar is kind of similar to English it really doesn’t help. The language you were born speaking with doesn’t really help you learn other languages, at least that’s how I feel. I’ve learned Spanish. So, other languages similar to that would be easy to learn. A language similar to English is not really easy to learn b/c I don’t think about grammatical structure and all that jazz when I speak English. I just know it. I hope that made sense haha. Anyways, learning quechua will allow me to speak it with the people in my town. The people here in the canyon love when a gringo can speak quechua. It’s not really necessary to learn but it’s better to know it than no to know it. So, I’m working on my third language now…pretty sweet.

Other than that, not too much is going on. I’m heading across the canyon today to attend my friend’s town festival. I really don’t want to go because I know I’ll be forced to at least drink a little. However, I’m arming myself with my younger brother so I have a legit excuse not to drink haha. Unfortunately drinking is a huge problem at these parties. Also, peruvians seem to be those people that get really drunk and don’t pass out. If you saw these people you’d be amazed they are still standing and functioning in their state. Buttttt, of course the poor towns are spending their money on liquor and beer. The cool thing about the parties is the traditional dancing and stuff like that. I don’t really want to dance anymore either haha. However, there’s this band that’s supposed to be popular which is called Genesis. Now, I wish it was the one with Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins. However, I’m pretty certain it’s not. So, we’ll see how they are in concert haha. The bands here are crazy they play from about 8PM til 6AM. Maybe their counterparts in the U.S. should ponder playing more than an hour and a half when we pay about 60 dollars to see them. Just a thought.

That’s about it. I have a regional meeting this weekend in Arequipa at our regional coordinators house. We’re making hot wings..yessssss. Also, it was a pretty good super bowl. It was basically the eagles cardinals game over again except the cardinals lost, haha. But you can’t complain about how the steelers won. That catch was pretty nasty. That’s it. I’ll post soon. Hope everyone is well.

Town Anniversary

2009-01-13T10:20:00.005-05:00

we just built a puente colgante to maca...without the help of maca...chris´s fault

carrying the banner

drunkard fighting with the "security"

dance dance

high school dancing

me singing haha

my dad dancing with the high school..the guy with the green skirt

cool pic of the municipality

high schoolers

sweet pic of the castillo...a wooden plethora of fireworks...notice that its wooden haha

cool

more fire!!

cool pic of the church with the full mooon

llamaaasss

Pics from the Canyon

2009-01-07T10:24:00.004-05:00

lizardddd

pic of the canyon at one of the more deep points...and there are towns there too dunno if u can see them

canyon

we´ve got a bunch of weird pics like this hahaha

i look really weird

nother pic

the oasis

Reflections on 2008

2009-01-05T11:39:00.001-05:00

2008 has been a rather eventful year for me. I graduated from college and left to live in Peru
for two years of service with the Peace Corps. On the brink of 2009, all of which will most likely be spent in South America, I have some reflections and revelations. First, I must say, that I imagined before coming to Peru that I would lose touch with most of my friends back home. Luckily, that is far from the case. I even received a nice Christmas video from all of my friends in college which was greatly appreciated. Second, I definitely thought that the transition to Peru would be much harder. However, it has been smooth and I wouldn’t say easy but not hard either. Part of this is due to the fact that Peru and its people are quite stellar. Also, all the PC volunteers down here are really amazing people and provide a support network like no other.

Another thought which has come to my mind many times this past year in Peru has to do with development. Although we all believe that coming into impoverished towns to provide aid and assistance should be a good thing, it does have it’s down side as well. Recently, I borrowed a pollera (traditional dress) from a family here in my town so that I could participate in the typical dances for the provincial capital’s big party. When I got back from the party with the pollera, the person which I had borrowed the pollera from came to my house to collect the pollera and asked for 10 soles for the usage. I assumed when I borrowed it that it was out of good faith. Just like if you borrow a pot or pan from a neighbor. Apparently, nowadays people ask for money whenever they do a favor for someone else in my town. However, back in the day this was not the case. I think this partly has to do with the fact that there are now tourists with money that come through the canyon. Also, I think it has to do with the access to the city these people have now. Sometimes, it might even be better for a society to live in ignorance of the things which are out there in the outside world because I believe this area about 70 years ago had a pure sense of happiness which is hard to obtain. Once these people had access to the outside world, thoughts of things they did not have started coming into their mind and now people want money for anything. It’s interesting to think about. I still fully believe in what I’m doing, but it’s nice to think of the other side.

I think my fourth and final revelation which I would like to share with everyone would be in regards to people relationships. Last night, I was reading this book called Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. The protagonist in the story, Greg Mortenson, is a hardcore moutaneer who attempts to climb K2 in 1993. Unfortunately he fails and accidentally ends up in an impoverished Pakistan village in the mountains. This village takes care of him, feeds him the best food they own, treats him like a family member and so on. Regrettably, this remote town in the mountains does not have a school where the kids can study. Therefore, Mortenson promises to come back and build a school. He overcomes many obstacles and eventually gets back to start to build the school. However, at this point, he is a leader of an instution with a large endowment whose mission is to build many schools in the area. So, he tries to boss and push the villagers around as much as he can so the school can get finished as soon as possible. Well, one day, the town chief takes Mortenson aside and taught him a very important lesson about how he was handling the situation. Here is the quote from Mortenson:

” That day, Haji Ali taught me the most important lesson I’ve ever learned in my life. We Americans think you have to accomplish everything quickly. We’re the country of thirty-minute power lunches and two-minute football drills. Our leaders thought their ‘shock and awe’ campaign could end the war in Iraq before it even started. Haji Ali taught me to share three cups of tea, to slow down and make building relationships as important as building projects. He taught me that I had more to learn form the people I was with than I could ever hope to teach them.”

I really love that quote and I think it relates a lot to my Peace Corps service. I’ve learned that we’re all in such a rush to get our work done everyday that we miss out on the most important thing in life, people relationships. Here in Peru, if I’m on my way to the chacra to work, it wouldn’t be uncommon for me to stop and talk to someone for a half an hour. That’s something we’d never do in the U.S. and I think it hurts our country as a society. So, if you don’t have a New Year’s Resolution, try to increase and strengthen your people relationships. The world runs on people relationships. If we can strengthen them, we will make the world a safer and happier place.

Cultural Difference #2 (Personal Space)

2008-12-30T10:50:00.003-05:00

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.

2008-12-19T10:17:00.000-05:00

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

2008-12-17T16:35:00.000-05:00

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

2008-12-12T13:30:00.002-05:00

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...

2008-12-05T18:17:00.000-05:00

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

2008-12-03T17:30:00.000-05:00

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)

2008-11-11T16:33:00.000-05:00

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!!!

2008-11-09T18:07:00.000-05:00

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.

2008-10-29T18:20:00.003-04:00

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!

2008-10-15T17:57:00.004-04:00

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…

2008-10-09T19:01:00.000-04:00

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

2008-09-30T17:23:00.003-04:00

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..

2008-09-19T16:55:00.001-04:00

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)

2008-09-15T13:42:00.007-04:00

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

2008-09-02T13:38:00.002-04:00

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.

Site Visit Pics Part 2

2008-08-14T17:23:00.004-04:00

finally we get to go down and my searing headache can be relieved...you can only last so long at over 5000 meters with a headache

llamaaaaaasss are everywhere
town meeting at over 5000 m...pretty standard
dinner/lunch time is clutch after 5 hour hikes
the band....yes they carried there instruments up...actually ran them up
this is just an awesome pic

en my familys chacra aka the farm
this was about 5am in the morning and we werent even a fifth of the way there
cool
finally got to the piont
this is a pic of my town in march to clean the river from the mountains which provides water to our town...about as fresh of water as you can get...they shovel the stones out of the river to increase water flow...this is why i was up so high in the snowy mountians....it was good to gain confianza with the community...aka some trust and confidence...lots more people started talking to me...however it took alll day i was out from 5am til 6pm and when we got back into town we did a march into the plaza de armas and around the plaza...and guess what...i had to lead the march with the flag...it was crazyyyyyyyyy....and if you didnt know peruvian army marches like the old hitler army does...its really weird/scary but it was funny for me to do...then while i was marching two buses with tourists pulled into my town and took pics of the march..they were probably wondering why there was a white person leading the march good times

Site visit pics part 1

2008-08-12T21:25:00.005-04:00

cactus with snoww oooo
how amazinggggg no??? this is the other side of the canyon across from me
being at over 5000 meters never tasted so good
this is where my towns water comes from...so we hiked up there to clean out the river of the stones and improve water flow....the only bad thing was the searing headache i had from the altitude...ayyyyy
so beautiful

this is my house...my room is the first door
my room i slept on bags of rice i think not sure
niceee
that 2x4 locks my door...gonna have to change that haha
en my familys chacra...aka the farm with the cow

la iglesia
a streete in my town los burrossss estan aquiiiiii
my toilet for the next two years...my legs will be strong after a month
my bathroom

arequipa city
one of the three volcanoes
plaza de armas
otra vez
sweet pic but there are better on the way

site visit

2008-08-12T21:22:00.001-04:00

I think my site visit can best be described through photos. However, I’m going to write a little blog entry about it as well. Sorry I have been MIA for so long but i left last saturday for my site visit in Arequipa and did not return until this past Sunday. It was a roller coaster of a week but I’m sure I will be ok at site and it will be a great experience.

First, lets talk about Arequipa city. It’s really beautiful and looks almost exactly like Sevilla which is where I studied abroad. I was kind of in awe when I got there and saw it looked like sevilla. The city is surrounded by three volcanoes and is pretty temperate. It’s a decently big tourist place and I am really glad that it’s my capitol city.

After the first two days in the city, I left Arequipa to go to my site with my community partner. When I got to my house that night it was a bit of a shock as you will see from the pictures. However, at site I got to be introduced by the mayor countless times and was able to meet with all of the associations that I will be working with for the next two years. Some of these associations included…

Artisans, Farmers, Pig Farmers, Guinea pig farmers, Natural Resources…etc
All of them had a lot of organizational problems and accounting problems. There will be a lot of work to be done and it gets me excited to think about how much I could really change these people’s lives. Ok, as im writing this I’m figuring out how much better captions under my pics will be. So, look at my other post with the pics for more of the story.

Me voy a Arequipa

2008-08-03T13:55:00.000-04:00

I finally found out what I will be doing and where I will be living for the next 2 years!!! I will be going to the department of Arequipa (departments are like states) in the South of Peru. I will be working with an artesian association, farmers, and doing some tourism work as well. For mor specifics about my site you’ll have to shoot me an email so I can divulge them to you.
I must say I’m really pumped. On Sunday I leave for my site visit and wont return until the next Sunday. Basically we get to meet our community counterpart on the site visit and then get to stay in our site for about 4 days to experience it and learn more about it. Then we come back for 2 more weeks of training and then are off for 2 yearsss.

The only thing I think that sucks about knowing where exactly we are going is that us being separated from friends again is coming up soon. Most of us have become accustomed to our host families and fellow trainees. I know I have at least. However, we will have to start anew once again in less than a month. It’s pretty crazy/scary to think about but that’s why we all signed up for this job right? Also, at least I know for me, I’ll be living in harsher conditions (I’m pretty sure my house is made of Adobe bricks….aka dirt!)

Other things going on…we learned about beekeeping today and guinea pig farming at la Agraria. The honey from the bees was soooooo gooooodddddd. It was our last session at la Agraria. I can’t really think of too much else that happened this week other than us getting our sites b/c that was so large. I related this week to the days leading up to Christmas when you were a kid. I felt like I was back on my balcony of sorts at my house waiting to go downstairs to open presents. This week was pretty painful in that way but in the end it was awesome.

Funny phrases using Arequipa… (phonetic spelling = Air-uh-keep-uh)

Arequipeen it real (This is the motto)

Im an Arequipaaa (Soccer keeper)

Arequip it in your pants

baby shower, bday and independence day

2008-07-28T16:32:00.006-04:00

mi cancha...football field to the right
chacrasana
otra vez
hahaha baby shawer

the father with a diaper
good stuff
pelea de gallos
my host dad and sister
mi familia

bday party for lil ones
pinata
spiderman party

This weekend is Independence day for Peruvians. Unfortunately, Peruvians don’t go quite as buckwild as us Americans do for the 4th. However, I did attend a birthday party for a 6 year old yesterday and then a baby shower at the same house. First, the birthday party. This was pretty much me and two other volunteers with about 15 little kids running around and a couple of moms. There was a ton of food and a piñata. It was kinda fun to hit a piñata again, brought back some good memories. Then, the kids had to dance haha. I think this why people from latin america are so good at dancing because when they have their sixth birthday they are torced to dance. So, by the time they come to the US they are a lot better than us. In addition, at this first party I was forced to eat about 5 pieces of cake…and thats not an exaggeration. Then, I stayed there to help set up for the baby shower.

Baby showers here are a lot different than back in the US. First off, guys go to the baby shower. Secondly, there were Clowns haha. I think we were all a little confused because when we got there before the birthday party we asked if there were going to be clowns and she said yes. So, we assumed the clowns would be a the 6 year olds birthday party. Little did we know that they would be at the baby shower haha. So, pretty much the baby shower was hosted by clowns and it was kind of like a roast of the father. The father was forced to do a lot of embarrassing things while the mother just sat and enjoyed. There was also some crowd participation which was pretty funny. The last part of the baby shower the dad had to guess what each present was and if he didn’t know he had to drink pisco(alcohol) from a baby bottle. My mom told me there are some more extreme baby showers where there is a lot more drinking. That seems to be a common theme in Peru, drinking that is haha. It’s a huge part of every activity to be honest which is why there are a lot of problems with alcoholism out in the campo. Anyways, I was at this house for about 9 hours yesterday for both parties and at about 10 pounds of food. I’m still waiting for the consequences of my decisions. Ooooo I totally forgot. I had another new food yesterday, anticucho orrrr cow heart!!! It was pretty good to be honest haha. Today we’re having some trout and cow heart again and then tomorrow we’re having turkey. I tried to explain to my family the wonders of turkey on thanksgiving. Then, Tuesday we have a mini independence day celebration after training and on Friday I finally get my site! Then, I can start planning vacations with everyone! Ok, that’s all....

FBT Pics Part 2

2008-07-25T19:27:00.002-04:00

surfinggg
haaaa
coolll pic
at the surf shop
surf for 15 soles or like 3 dollars

FBT

2008-07-23T19:21:00.000-04:00

It’s been awhile since I last posted. Mostly because of the fact that I was in field based training for the past week. So let me break down the last week for you as there was a lot that happened.

Day 1

We left on Saturday on a pretty nice bus. It was pretty like riding in a plane in first class. Also, the seats reclined almost to a bed state which was pretty awesome. We got dinner and breakfast and got to watch some movies. One stipulation on the bus was that you couldn’t poop in the bathroom. This meant that in order to poo you would have to ask the bus driver to pull over. Unfortunately, one volunteer pooed in the bus, I won’t mention names, but this clogged the toilet for people that had to pee. I ended up holding my pee for possibly 4 hours. It was pretty bad. In addition, the roads were horrible so it was almost like a terrimoto (earthquake). We got into Cajamarca city around midday and spent an hour in the plaza de armas. Cajamarca was a pretty sweet town. We then had to take a combi for 2.5 hours to another town. Then, take a taxis thing to San Miguel for another 2 hours. By the time we reached San Miguel, we had been traveling for 23 hours. WOOOO. That night we had a fogata (campfire) which was pretty cool. When you’re out in the campo you can pretty much just do a campfire wherever you want. PS San Miguel is about 9,000 or 10,000 ft above sea level…pretty sweet.

Day 2

Teaching started today. We went to the institute and of course no one was ready on time. Eventually we had an introduction where the sub-directora introduced us all. Then, we got to say like what are names were and our profession. Class started after that. The first day we taught the students about entrepreneurship and how to be an entrepreneur. It was pretty cool and I think we got the trust of the kids right away b/c my groups language level was pretty good. I found that I didn’t speak tooo much the first day. I’m not sure why but I would remedy that in the days to come. Another volunteer and I also went and played football that day which was lots of fun. A good way to bond with the students. That night we had our first meal at the wonderous Polloria (Chicken store I guess you would call it). It was a huge piece of chicken and fries for 5 soles (aka $1.50 or so, yes if you are planning on visiting me in peru you will be living the high life).

Day 3

Today we went over Market and Feasibility Analysis. It went well and then we took the students out to the market to inquire about their potential mini businesses they would start. I don’t remember too much else about this day. I think I took a nap in the middle of the day haha.

Day 4

Today we taught Accounting, Finance, Marketing, and how to write a little business plan. The students then were taken to the “bank” to apply for a loan. It was pretty cool. The students were really excited about getting a loan and starting on their businesses. After that was done, Kevin and I tried hiking up this mountain on the side of the town. However, the mountain was lacking a defined path. I don’t think I’ve ever had so many hitchhikers and just plain old crap on my pants before. We climbed over barbed wire and through mazes of pricklies to get some good pics. For a moment we didn’t think we were going to be able to find a way back. However, we found what we think was a river bed and followed it down haha. It was quite the adventure. At night, one group from another class had a showing of Titanic. The entry was free but they sold popcorn and some other stuff to make money. Around 300 people from the town came out for it. It was really awesome and the group made around 80 or 90 soles from it. One of our groups was out making picarones which are like fried bread.

Day 5

Today was THE day. I think all of us were worried that our groups weren’t going to make enough money to pay back the loans. Most of the groups set up shop in the plaza de armas to sell their food. Oh yea, ps, peruvians love to sell food. They like to do what they already know, which was how to make food. It worked out though. Everyone paid back their loans and one of our groups made the most money, 106 soles. That’s pretty impressive for one day when some people make like 14 soles a day or so. Once the money was returned we had a closing ceremony where we handed out certificates to the students for completing the course. The students were really excited to receive those. Two other volunteers sang a song for the students entitled “Estamos llenos” (We’re full). Obviously, because of all the food we ate. It was really funny and fitting. That night the students made another fogata for us and also we had a dance at the school. The dance was fun but a little weird because the girls don’t look in your eyes when you dance with them because if they do it signifies that they want a little more to do with you haah (ps the girls were like in their 20s so it isn’t weird to dance with them haha).

Day 6

We left to go to Trujillo in the morning. We arrived in the evening in Trujillo and went out to a discoteca at night. Oh yea, on the bus ride to Trujillo there was a baby pig across the aisle from me. Only in peru haha.

Day 7

We got to talk to some volunteers in the Trujillo area and got to go surfing in Huanchaco which is like 15 minutes from Trujillo. Peru has some of the best surfing in the world and if you come visit you can experience it!! Haha. It was lots of fun but definitely difficult. After the beach we returned to lima. A couple of us stayed and watched the new Batman which was AMAZING GO SEE IT.

So that was my week in a nutshell. Definitely lots of fun and good times had by all. It reassured me that I wanted to go to the mountains. In fact I just had my last one-on-one with my boss about my preferences for a site.

I WILL NOT KNOW MY SITE UNTIL AUGUST 1

Just wanted to say that out loud so everyone knew haha. Anyways, that’s all, everything is going well and as that I am back I will be making more frequent posts. Hasta pronto.

Pics from FBT week (Part 1)

2008-07-22T13:24:00.007-04:00

the bussss
Cajamarca city
San Miguel church POLLORIAAA
San miguel...awesomeeee

this is for nadeea...accounting...Peace Corps Peru style
Our sweet staff
us handing out the certificates
The closest thing we had to a path on the hike
cow poop haha

cinturon de herramientas...just a little thing we did to make the concepts easier to grab
awesome view from the hikeeee
our class
eating some cuyyyyyyyy
sweet view from the hik again
teaching some business skillsss
my group at FBT
again
hahaha funny pic in trujillo
Kevin was in the ZONE at the dance

Great Pics I just found...

2008-07-07T20:07:00.004-04:00

This is definitely the best pic from the 4th of july field day. It was the water balloon toss and everyone in this pic has a hilarious face. Click on it ot make it larger.

Futbol during the 4th
Orange eating contest
Mummy relay
da training center jardin

pic of the group...or at least most of us

1 month in the books

2008-07-07T19:58:00.001-04:00

One month is in the bag down here in Peru with 26 left to go. I think it is time for a little reflection. Today we spoke about culture shock and diversity during training. It really forced everyone try to analyze their past month here and the experiences they have had. I think one of the hardest things I’ve been dealing with down here is not being able to really get to know some people really well, because we are all hanging out together in big groups so much. Therefore, you really don’t have a go to person down here, at least thus far. Another thing which has been tough has been living with children. I would love for just once to be able to close my door without a little hand or foot shooting through to prevente me from doing so. That is really part of living in another country though. There are going to be little things that will bug the hell out of you, but you need to step back and look at why they bug you and why they are happening instead of just getting angry about it. On the brighter side, I think the positive aspects definitely out weigh the negatives. This past Saturday, we had a party for my host dad’s birthday. A bunch of volunteers came over and we had a little bonfire out back where we just sat, ate and drank. It was really nice. Towards the end of the night it was just my host parents, 2 other volunteers and myself. During this time, my host mom just had the most wonderful things to say about me and other volunteers in general. For example, how i’m a part of the family, how she houses volunteers for the cultural exchange and not the money , and how hard it is going to be when we end up leaving. There has been a stark contrast between my study abroad experience and this one. The families here do not take in americans for the Money or as a Business. It’s because they believe in what we are doing and want to help. It’s really awesome. So, yea you have your nagging cultural aspects, but the wonderful relationships you have with people really starts to outweigh those little negatives.

Anyways, a little update on what I’ve been up to. The fourth was lots of fun even though I was in Peru. We had a mini field day at the training center with relay races and such. Then we went to a party at night which was cool. The next Saturday, as I said, we had a party at my house for my host dad. We were at my house til 230 with my host parents. Then, down the street, the other volunteer’s brother was having a birthday party. This wasn’t just any birthday party however. The room the party was in had a disco ball, different colored lighting, and a strobe Light. It was pretty much a discoteca. It was lots of fun and I ended up in bed by 5AM haha. All in all pretty good stuff. Keep the emails coming I really enjoy them. I will respond eventually. I put them on my flash drive so I can type up a response.

Farming, parties, and guinea pigs oh my

2008-06-29T17:18:00.005-04:00

la piscigranja
beautiful

el cuyi...guinea pig...mmm
it was actually delicious haha
presenting traditional dance of la libertad
callahuanca is pretty
a waterfall

in the car on the way to callahuanca
party in tres de octubre
drinking chiramoya...good fruit
in callahuanca
cool stone

Two pretty cool things happened this weekend. Actually three pretty cool things. First, we went to “La Agraria” on Saturday morning. La agraria is a agriculture university more or less. It’s incredibly competitive to get into. Anyways, at la agraria we learned about types of fruits we might encounter out at site. There are a ton of fruits here in Peru and lots of them you cannot find in the US. It’s really awesome. Then, we learned how to create soil which is suitable to plant a seed into. Basically we combined musco, which I think was mossy soil, with some sand and water. After we made the soil, we put the soil in those plastic things with little gaps for plants to grow then seeded the soil. We learned how to seed out in the field too (like those big corn fields and stuff). We planted zucchini anddddd something else I forget. However, I felt really accomplished after the session was done.

After that I came back and bought some new soccer shoes for playing on the concrete. They’re a Peruvian brand which is pretty cool. Then that night we went to a party in our town. It was just out on the middle of the street. They had set up a stage and these huge towers made out of bamboo sticks. A band played for most of the night. The other volunteers and I were all in attendance. The dancing was rather interesting. We pretty much frolicked in a circle holding hands more or less. I guess that’s a good description of it. Pretty much everyone was drunk. Oh and when you drink here in peru, if you buy a bottle of beer you have to share it with everyone else in the group. Basically, one person buys a bottle and pours a little in a plastic cup to drink. He’ll drink it then pour out the backwash and hand it to the next person. This continues until the beer is done. It’s a really inefficient way of drinking but that’s how it goes here. Also, a lot different than we are used to. Around 1AM or so they told us they were going to light the towers on fire, which we took to mean like the whole thing. However, the towers were lined with fireworks. It was pretty crazy. These things were probably 25 to 30 feet high and had tons of fireworks on them. Something that definitely would be prohibited in the US. It was pretty cool though.

Today, I ate guinea pig. It was really delicious once you got past the fact that you could see its little feet and its head haha. Guinea pig is actually one of the most nutritious meats around apparently. My mom fried it this time. We still have four more babies which I guess we are finishing before I leave. Wooohoooo.

PCVs rock the box

2008-06-29T17:16:00.000-04:00

Nothing too large has happened lately. However, I’d just like to write about how cool Peace Corps Volunteers are. This really isn’t too brag about myself, but more or less to dish out some praise to fellow PCVs.

Many people I’ve spoken to joke about how Peace Corps is not a job or not something serious. While PC is not a job in the traditional aspect, it’s a job and much more. Everyone in the PC and specifically in PC Peru has sacrificed a lot to come down to Peru. There are people who have been working for many years and have come, people who have just graduated from college and sacrificed a normal good paying life, people who have children, people who have tightly knit families, the list goes on and on. The bottom line is that PCVs give up a lot to come to a country that they know little about. In addition to that, PCVs agree to not gross any money for 2 years. That is a huge commitment in itself. Many people cannot fathom not making money for 2 years. Next, they not only move to an unknown country for 2 years but also to a country in which the living conditions are far from the best. There is no warm water here, rice and potatoes for every meal, a different language is spoken, the culture is different, etc etc. On top of this, PCVs will be living in a most likely very rural community by themselves for 2 whole years. While other PCVs will be within maybe 3 or 4 hours, a PCV is pretty much out on their own left to their own devices to fit in and complete projects. Finally, the reason PCVs do all this is not for their own good but for the good of impoverished people who lack the same opportunities all the PCVs have had in their life.

This definitely may not seem like the normal job everyone is used to seeing. However, when you put all of these factors together, Peace Corps ends up being a hard working job if not even harder than most jobs in the US.

Kidsssss

2008-06-25T20:04:00.001-04:00

3 weeks in the books. It seems odd to be speaking in weeks when I will be here for about 26 more months. However, those three weeks seem like a couple of months to me.

I’ve started to realize why parenting is so difficult. Not that I am a parent in my house but I do feel like one when I get home after training. My brothers and sisters get home from school at around 2PM because there are morning and afternoon shifts of school. So, when I return home at around 530PM, they are here unsupervised and reeking havoc. Let me breakdown my adventure from the front door to my room. I knock on our front door and usually my brother, Antonio, answers the door. He never actually opens the door straight away. There is usually some banter about what my name is and that he doesn’t know me. Once he finally opens the door, he hugs me for awhile and tries to pretend fight with me. Then I move gradually through to the TV room where everyone is. Everyone gets up and hugs/hangs onto me. This could take about 5 minutes depending on whether or not they decide to take anything of mine. Once I finally get to my door, I have to be careful with my keys so that no one takes them. Losing my keys could add another 5 minutes onto my travel time through the house. After opening my door, I have to keep all of the kids out of my room. If one slips through, it could be deadly to my cause. If they in fact do get into my room, I usually just pick them up and place them outside of the room haha. Then, I try to close my door. Closing the door is impossible b/c it is not something I can really control. They usually stick their feet in the way of the door so I can’t close it until they want to. The tickle tactic works out pretty well but you have to be quick enough to close it and lock it right away. Closing the door isn’t good enough and my sister likes to hold the knob so I can’t lock it. After a process of around 15-20 minutes EVERYDAY, I can get into my room alone. Woooo. I love my brothers and sisters but the everyday routine gets to me sometimes definitely.

That’s my little tantrum on that. As you can see, when living abroad some things start to get to you, but that is a part of living abroad. What have I been up to lately. Sunday I was really sick with diarrhea!!! I still have it but I’m not actually sick anymore. Monday my mom killed our guinea pigs b/c they were getting too rowdy? I think that’s what she said, but we will be eating cuyi (that’s guinea pig in Spanish) on Saturday or Sunday. I’m pretty excited b/c its supposed to be good and healthy at the same time. Tuesday, we went to a town called Callahuanca in the mountains. It had an elevation of about 1,600 meters. That’s pretty high for us people in Pennsylvania and dc. It was really beautiful. While we were there, we got to see a fish farm. Also, really cool. It was around a 20 minute trek down the mountain to the fish farm. We got some good pics. I’ll post them when I get them from people.

Some things looking forward. We’re going to “La Agraria” on Saturday. It’s an agricultural college sort of. It’s apparently REALLY competitive to get into (only 3% get in). At la agraria we get to learn about how to plant gardens, bee keeping, etc., should be really cool and interesting. Monday is our sex lecture from the country director which apparently is always a highlight. That’s about it. I definitely like the business program. They try to get us out and about as much as possible. Keep up emails and comments. Makes me feel good. Hasta pronto.

Lima and FBT

2008-06-21T19:29:00.007-04:00

John da paul John da Paul
Haha
Wow this is hilarious. A robocop manaquin
mountain in the distance of lima
These things guard the president´s house haha

the marriot on the beach
chris snuck in my photo
im an odd person...
little walkway in lima with shops and such
plaza mayor...thats Presidente Garcia´s house behind me

cool fountain in lima
the beach!
tim
stores which are normal looking!
really odd face haha

snoozing
me and my host bro
me and jasmin
ivan my language teacher
hooray for starbucks haha

I guess we can start off with last night. Last night we went to another neighborhood which is a lot nicer than mine for a party at this guy’s house who has a PCV photo shrine on his wall. It was pretty fun. I might have drank more than I had liked to but I ended up waking up on time today.

Today was the big trip to Lima. We left here around 8am. My group went into Miraflores. A pretty safe and touristy part of Lima. There we pretty much did some stuff with community analysis and just talking to the people on the streets. Then, we walked to the beach where I had KFC!!! It was so good. The beach was pretty cool. Apparently you can’t swim in the water because its so dirty haha. It was actually brownish. Then, we practiced bartering with taxi drivers. It’s rather ridiculous. We asked them how much it would be to get a ride back to our town. They said 80 soles when it actually should be 30, but they know people in that area will still take their cab so they wouldn’t lower it. You can pretty much barter for things anywhere in Peru and you should! Then we went into the center of the city where the President lives and such. There were a lot of small stores and stuff similar to what Sevilla was like. It was a good day but definitely tiresome.

Oh, also this week we went over Field Based Training. This takes place in week 6. We leave on Sunday and are gone the whole week until Saturday. The small business group is going to Cajamarca for field based training into the “campo” or rural areas. We’ll be in the mountains which is exciting. Cajamarca is a 15 hour bus ride away or so then like 4 hours in a tiny combi to the campo.

So what is FBT? Our group will be divided into two groups which will go to two different spots in Cajamarca. In these two different spots we will go to a technical/business school. At the business school, we are divided into groups of 3 and each group of 3 will teach about 25 students of age 18-24 about business and such. The first 3 days will be all day lectures about starting and running a small business (like accounting, finance, marketing, etc.). The semi intense thing about this is that we will be lecturing the students for 3 days in Spanish! Then, we teach them how to create a business plan and they make a business plan for a microempresa(small business). After that, they submit the proposal to the PC bank to receive a small loan to start their business. Once they receive the loan, they go out for the day and run their small business (aka selling food, bingo, delivery service, etc.). During the day they have to make enough money to pay back the loan and the interest. At the end of the day, they keep the extra money they make. It seems like its going to be a great activity for us and them and fun as well.

Personal feelings right now? Everything is going well. Lots to look forward to. I really just want to know where I´m going for the next 2 years right??? In time. I think most people want to go to the coast bc its a bit easier to adjust and find food to eat that you like instead of just potatoes and rice. It´s rather funny actually. Peru has a national potato day. I think that everyday is a national potato day so i wonder what they actually do. Maybe they dont eat potatoes?

So that’s that. I posted some more pics from Lima. Write me comments if you want I enjoy them!!! Hasta.

PS this kid in the internet place just is blaring freakin sum 41 ¨perfect¨as well as singing it. AHHHH

Pics and jumbled updates

2008-06-19T19:00:00.007-04:00

all of my captions will be regarding the pics above the text...this is me in my room looking dumb

this is me out back in front of all the cages containing the crazy fighting cocks which i want to kill in the mornings with my brother limber

fighting cock!!!

bathroom
antonio y limber in the living room
limber in the living room

my bed room
nice and cozy

my bedroom as you can notice limber is in bascially every pic

tv room? its actually open to the outside so i dunno if its actually a room

limber with underwear on his head
mas gallos...aka fighting cocks

my house

my street if you wanna call it that

mountian surrounding my community

my street and my house to the left with the grass

that little path in the back leads up to the soccer field
moto taxi...so many of them

I just had like 3 chocolate things today…need to cut back. That’s pretty much what we do here at PC Peru as a stress reliever, pig out on sweets. I was wondering why I had a sweet tooth in Spain and now I remember. After having like rice, potatoes and some sort of meat for every meal, a chocolate cookie or something tastes sooooo gooodddd. Although I like the food, it just gets redundant. It’s kind of funny I say that now since I still have about 2 years 2 months and 3 weeks left haha.

Anyways, I had my interview with my APCD, associate peace corps director, today. My APCD is my boss basically. He’s in charge of the business program and my first line of defense against pretty much anything. Basically the interview was tot get a better feel of where he should place me for 2 years. He asked questions like:

Can you live without electricity?

Answer: I would prefer electricity but can live without it (I’m a PC volunteer right?)
Would you prefer working with a women’s artisan association which does weaving or men who do fish farming?

Answer: Men, of course haha, who do fish farming. I think that would be really interesting. It’s also hands on and outdoors as well.

Is being close to another volunteer important to you?
Answer: Yes, like 2-3 hours away is fine.

Would you rather live in a small city which is close the regional capital but has no internet or live farther from the regional capital in a large city with internet?

Answer: Don’t have a very strong feeling about this one but would slightly prefer the bit larger town.

Would you rather replace a volunteer or start of new?

Answer: Start off new…no surprises here.

That was pretty much the interview. Said I wanted to be in the mountains. After the electricity question I was kind of worried because I wasn’t really strong in my pursuit of electricity but 90% of business volunteers have it so I figure there has to be one in my group that was like, I don’t care, and he will live w/o it. After telling my host mom my answers to these questions she’s like…ohhh the mountains have a lot of disease and blah blah blah. I’m like thanks this is really making me feel good haha. Whatever, you should see pics of the mountians though they are awesome.

I just had dinner with my host mom and she was telling me about the family’s situation. It’s rather sad to be honest because the mom and dad are separated but still live in the same house. She really wants to leave and take the kids but then the father will not give anything to her for support. There are no laws here in Peru to hold the father accountable for his children. It’s really sad because she works, takes care of the kids and me. I really don’t know what to say to her since I have not been in a similar situation. I just try to tell her that it will all be worth it once her kids are successful and living a good life. What else is there to say? But just try to appreciate the life you lead in the U.S. and the opportunities you have because there are billions who do not have the same.

So this blog entry is kinda choppy bc ive been updating it over the past 3 days. Yesterday we had another sort of community thing. Basically we went around the community gathering info and figuring out what people say and what problems there are. My group went to the health post and talked to the president´s family of one of the directivos or kinda political gropus in town. It was pretty fun and interesting. Also the people here are so nice. We went to a small store and the owner just let us into her house for drinks after like 5 minutes of talking. The whole world should be like that haha.

Today, we went to a small business industrial park. It was really interesitng to hear from the president about what the problems are and why his place is not taking off. Basically he says they are all experts in their business but don´t have the education or the management skills to really take off. Something that we can offer. It will be similar to when i got to my site to work.
This Saturday we are going to lima for the day to learn safety and stuff in the city. Then we have free time. It should be lots of fun and im planning on getting some greasy great amaerican food. Ill keep you up to date. Til then....hasta.

schedule and such...

2008-06-15T18:14:00.002-04:00

Ill get some better pics in a lil but i took these on my computer yesterday

So, I have been continually getting similar questions from many people about my schedule in the Peace Corps and what exactly I am doing in the Peace Corps. Let me first delve into my schedule. Right now I am a trainee. We receive language training, technical training (on micro businesses and such), safety/medical training and cultural training. I will be in training until August 22nd. The 22nd is when I will move to my site which is where I will be for 2 years. I do not find out what site I will be going to until the beginning of August. This is because they need to interview me to figure out where exactly will be the best place to put me. Once I enter my site I am there for 2 years!!! Also, I am in the small business development program. Once I enter my site, I will receive a primary project which would be working with like an artisan association and then can take on secondary projects as a see fit. The first three months out on site will be for information gathering, integration and community assessment. Then, after that, its pretty much up to me and the community as to what happens for the rest of the time. It really depends on the needs of the community.

Since the last time I wrote, I went to a birthday party for another trainee. It was pretty fun. I think we all needed a break to be honest. So much has happened in the last week that it was nice to have a beer and relax. Yesterday, I just hung out with my family and the kids. We went to the playground for like 2 hours haha and played tag and hide and seek. Pretty much amazing. Also, I’ve been getting grilled cheeses for breakfast. Maybe my sister Ali should move here. And last night I had them watch high school musical with me haha. It was actually kinda weird to be watching it with my brothers and sisters because the characters in the movie have cell phones and all this stuff that they don’t have. It was interesting. Today is father’s day in Peru as well. We had a nice lunch together and my sister sang for my father at the coleseo. In addition, we’ve been playing volleyball in the house with various balloons for much of the day. Pretty good time. Paz.

New Blog Website

2008-05-21T13:45:00.001-04:00

New website for my blog:

http://web.mac.com/ryanlehr/Site/Welcome.html

Classes are coming to a close...

2008-05-06T16:51:00.002-04:00

Peru is only 29 days away. Yet, I still find myself doing work for classes. College students live rough lives huh? Other than that, college has been winding down rather nicely. Grad week is on the horizon, my whole family will be present for graduation and a new macbook is on the way as a graduation present. We just recently celebrated my roommate's bday this past Thursday. It was rather perfect if I might say so myself (and in fact he did too). Our first surprise of the day was taking him to the infamous Pizza Hut Buffet. Now, I don't know how many people really appreciate the wonder of this buffet. You only have to pay $6 for as many pizza and bread sticks you can eat! Also, to appreciate this even more, you have to know my roommate. Pizza Hut pizza is far and away his favorite pizza. It's rather ridiculous. To prove it, that night after the buffet, he still wanted to order pizza hut. Our second surprise involved a big metal barrel of something and a lot of people. It was a blast. Also, Ken, a fellow Peru 11 PCV, actually got to partake in the festivities. He seems normal...hahaha jk.

So I've got one final in the hole and two to go (International Banking and Real Estate Finance, ugh). Seeing as how classes are winding down, I want to unleash a top 10 classes of college list (not all are on the list b/c of their content).

10. Multicultural Issues in Human Communication
- Yea, I couldn't tell you what this class was about but our star basketball player sat next to me one class and borrowed my pencil and that definitely is why it's on the list

9. Medical Ethics
- If you ever don't like a requirement for your degree, take it online, its just a tid bit easier. Also, this was a fascinating topic.

8. Advanced Financial Management
- This is a shocker. It's like a cinderella. The professor was mean and demanded a lot out of us ( a case study along with excel spreads every freakin class 2nd semester senior year!!). However, I got the most out of this class.

7. All Spanish Classes in the U.S.
- Speaking Spanish is awesome. Nuff said.

6. International Banking
- First day of class, my friend and I were sitting there listening to a tiny oriental man and looked at each other with the same look of fear. However, we'd soon find out this professor is the nicest, most caring, cool professor probably in the whole business school. He called me handsome at least 4 times throughout the semester. Don't get that too often.

5. Change and Organizations
- Everyone in the business school knows this is an easy A. However, the professor who teaches it is a very personable and knowledgeable professor. He taught a lot of practical information regarding organizations. Side note: He took us all out for a free happy hour too.

4. Intensive Business Spanish (Sevilla)
- This was the first class I had in Sevilla. Lots of great things here. 3 hour sessions everyday for a month can only bring about lots of great things.

3. International Marketing (Sevilla)
- Professor Curro, what can I say. The man called me Brian even though I told him a million times it was Ryan. However, he was really nice and cool. Also, he looked like Gus Gus from Cinderella. My first 30 page paper written in Spanish was in this class too, rather large accomplishment. Though the rating suffered due to its 8AM timing twice a week while abroad!!!

2. Playwriting
- This was the coolest class ever. I love using my creativity. I got to write two plays and see them acted out in class. Now that's what I call a writing class, none of this thesis smeshish

1. Operations Management (Sevilla)
- Wow this professor was da bomb. I can't tell you how cool he was. He invited us to his house for paella and drinks (what professor would do that in the U.S.?). He also told
me what the number 5 means in Spanish (it's too inappropriate to reveal). Really showed us how to live it up in Sevilla.

I think I made up for my last top 10 list with this one. The last one was pretty dull. This one I'm kinda proud of haha. Til next time.

It's been awhile...

2008-04-27T23:50:00.003-04:00

I've got a 12 page paper to write for International Finance due Tuesday which I have not started, but I felt writing a post would be more satisfying than starting the paper. Who assigns a 12 page paper for the end of Senior year though. Where are we supposed to find the motivation? Anyways, I haven't posted in a long time, and I'm absolutely certain it didn't bother anyone, haha. Maybe Aakash because this blog is on his Google reader feed. If you haven't heard, I'm going to Peru for Peace Corps. Leaving on June 4 for staging in Miami, then off to Peru on the 6th. It's pretty crazy to think that it's actually happening in 38 days (yes i do have a countdown). I will be doing small business development and yes Peace Corps volunteers do actually do that kind of stuff.

I've already been going through some varying emotions. Most of the time I'm rather excited about the prospect of living in Peru for 2 years. Other times it's depressing to think I'll be away from the familiarity of friends, family and the U.S. for that long. However, I really look upon this as an adventure, and I really like adventures haha. I'm glad I know where I'm going now though. People used to ask me where I was going for PC and I would respond, "Well, I know I'm going to Latin America, just don't know the country." I'm sure most thought I was full of it. Who has a job and doesn't actually know where they are going yet. Welcome to the wonder of the Peace Corps. Now I have started fielding the next imminent question...Where will you be in Peru? Nope, don't know that one either. Won't find out until probably August.

This blog post is kinda just something I'm doing because I'm awake and not tired. So, to make it a little more interesting. I'm going to do a top 10 list. Taking a page from High Fidelity which is an awesome book by the way. I guess we will make it a PC related top 10 list. Ok so...

Top 10 things I'm looking forward to in PC and Peru

10. Getting the all important stamp in your passport which shows you travel and are cool b/c of it

9. Eating Guinea Pig (sounds kinda interesting)

8. Machu Picchu/ all the other ruins

7. Hiking in the mountains/running up mountains (i know my friends think my working out is crazy but I like it)

6. Living in a place where when you say i want to play football...it means the real football and not the one where you use your hands

5. Many many awkward cultural differences

4. Women who speak Spanish

3. Speaking Spanish

2. Meeting my fellow PCVs

1. Helping those in need

Great Quote

2007-10-06T00:22:00.000-04:00

"So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greather joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun." - Christopher McCandless

Whyyyy

2007-10-05T14:57:00.000-04:00

27 months..that’s such a long time!!!! Why would you do that, you’re not even getting paid!!! Why??!?!? These are some of the many questions I have faced since expressing my aspirations to volunteer in the Peace Corps. So, right now, I hope to quell all worries and anxieties with my explanation of why exactly I am doing this thing called the Peace Corps. With that….

How it started…

I don’t really know if I can give a date as to when my state of mind changed. After fall semester of freshman year, I believed I would be a Marketing major. This is why I transferred to the business school, to pursue the wonder which was being a Marketing major. I possessed, and still possess, the gift of creativity. Marketing would allow me to utilize this gift to its fullest extent right? Wellll, possibly it coud have, but this motivation soon turned to an interest in finance. I almost slipped into the accountancy profession (what a scare that would have been). So, I was set on finance. What would my finance major bring me after college? The big bucks of course and the rewards of being an investment banker. Yes, I know what you’re thinking. 100 hour weeks, countless hours in front of a computer screen, CAPM….How are these rewards? They aren’t the rewards, the money is, but can money trump all of these negatives? In my mind, it did not. I think this is where I really started to find out what I truly valued in life. These are indeed pretty profound thoughts here, but what would my blog be without profound thoughts.

So, I was really at a loss for where exactly I would be heading regarding a career path. I knew I liked finance, but not corporate finance. I knew I liked Spanish, which I have been taking since the 8th grade. So, I settled on International Finance. Maybe I did not have such a virtuous approach to international finance as I do now, but that is where my ambitions towards international finance began. My goal was to work at the World Bank and develop programs related to helping countries in Latin America. The only problem with this goal was that I lacked a capacity to speak Spanish fluently. The potential existed, but Spanish courses at GW only do so much for you (which is very little in fact).

I started to research study abroad opportunities and decided studying abroad in Sevilla was my best option, because it allowed me to graduate on time and provided me with a Spanish vocabulary of business terms. Studying abroad was definitely one of the biggest motivators of my decision to volunteer with the Peace Corps. I might not have gotten all the Spanish skills I have long sought after, but I got to meet people of many different cultures and see a whole lot. Studying abroad could have quite possibly been an eye opener. The variety of people types one meets while traveling is quite remarkable and rewarding. It really opened my mind. In addition, living with a Spanish family opened my mind too. I really value the intangibles of my experience abroad, not necessarily the course credit I received.

After Sevilla, I returned to the U.S. pretty satisfied and excited to begin an internship at XM Radio. In fact, the internship was exciting for awhile. I don’t think I’ll ever have the opportunity to work in the entertainment industry again. An experience is an experience and provides you with even more knowledge and outlook. Ironically, one day while sitting at this internship and “working”, I came across an article which spoke about how more and more college grads were joining organizations like Teach America and the Peace Corps. “Peace Corps?!?!?!”, I said. Pretty much the same reaction as I have received when talking to some people about it. I think everyone still has a 70’s Peace Corps image in their heads with just young kids rebelling against society and joining the Peace Corps. However, the PC has evolved greatly.

Why?!?!?!?!

Good question!!! There are so many different reasons and variables that went into this decision. Let’s start with the most important one my desire to help others. Although I don’t have much time to do it in college, over the last year or so I’ve come to realize just how lucky I’ve been growing up. Every opportunity hasn’t been handed to me, but the opportunity existed if I wanted to work for it. Many people do not have this opportunity, whether they are located in the United States or anywhere else in the world. I really would like to utilize my knowledge and experiences to help these people out. It’s something I’m very passionate about. Many of these people would like to work hard and achieve the things we have achieved but just aren’t able to. So, the PC allows me to perform this function. Other organizations perform this function as well, but not like the PC. I believe in the methodology of the PC. Many firms try to create and develop programs in developing countries but aren’t effective. The reason being, their employees come and stay in nice hotels and don’t really take the time to integrate and learn about the communities they are working for. PC volunteers live in their communities for 2 years!! They integrate and garner the respect of their peers in their communities. In this way PC volunteers are able to create and complete a project which lasts in their community even after they leave.

Wow, that was intense, but yes that is my main reason for joining. Another rather large reason is my love of learning about new cultures and meeting people from different cultures. As much as I hated eating jamon almost everyday in Spain or the dubbed TV shows or having to wear socks on the tile because if you didn’t it made you sick, I still loved the experience. PC allows me to experience a culture for a whole 2 years!!!. The thing I regret most about Sevilla was that I didn’t stay in Sevilla my whole time. So, I didn’t really get to speak the language as well as I would have liked to and still felt a little like an outsider when I left. This is my main priority going into the PC. To really integrate myself into the community. PC allows me to do this.

Other than that, there are certain logistics which are advantageous for me at this time in my life to join the PC. For example, I have no debt, no house, no real possessions, no obligations, no girlfriend (who wuda thought I would say that was a good thing), etc. etc. As you can see, there is nothing holding me back.

Ah I missed a big thing. This experience will correlate with my career as well. (I know, there are just so many good things right?!??!). I would like to pursue a career in international development. What better way to launch this career than by getting experience abroad, let alone 2 years!!

I think I’ve covered enough for now. If I need to make an addition I will. Contact me with questions or concerns.

And so it begins...

2007-09-23T22:41:00.000-04:00

So this is my 3rd blog that I've started probably in the last 2 years. However, there is something rather special about this one. This one I'm pretty sure will last, because unlike the others which only had the purpose of relaying the random thoughts which went through my head, this blog has some meaning. This blog will inform you of all of my thoughts, actions, etc. regarding my Peace Corps experience. So let's get started.

I started the application sometime in August when I was actually at my internship. Rather ironic I think but rather fitting. I came across an article in the Washington Post regarding how more college grads were joining teach for america and the peace corps after graduation. I think I always knew about the Peace Corps I just really didn't know exactly what it was. So, I did some research at work and was like...Wow this is exactly what I want to do with my life. Why haven't I found this earlier...After that moment, I've been a little obsessed with the Peace Corps.

I submitted my application on September 9th. The same date that my last reference was submitted (by my best friend Aakash, who in fact was given the information on how to fill out the reference first...its a long story). Anyways, I had my interview in about a week, on the 17th I believe. The interview was really great. It was professional but laid back at the same time. It flew by and she was like...Ok well let's look at some programs for you....it was hard to hold back excitement. So, she was like...I have a program leaving in July/August 2008 for Latin America in Business Advising...exactly what I want!!! I was like ...sign me up. So now I am in fact nominated for that program and waiting on my medical papers to arrive so I can get medically cleared.

As to my reasons for joining the Peace Corps...that post will have to wait a little longer...but let me leave you with my motivation statement....

My Motivation Statement

Endless plastic bags from CVS and 7-11 strewn across the floor, my gym clothes laid out on an un-made bed, an F.C. Sevilla flag just barely hanging on with the help of my weak masking tape, and a laptop computer with a desktop background of me dressed as a "torero" (bullfighter) at Carnaval in Cadiz. This is the scene I come home to everyday after my summer internship at XM radio in Washington D.C. It sounds like the college kid's dream: working at an entertainment company and having the opportunity to see famous performers on any given day. However, a finance internship at XM radio has left me unsatisfied. This feeling has given me pause, and I have begun to reevaluate my direction in life.

My XM internship combined with prior experiences would allow me to compete for positions at highly respected consulting or financial services firms. Still, I wonder if pursuing this path would ultimately be gratifying to me. Though the work of these firms is critical to the world economy and indirectly affects people’s lives, I am looking for an experience that is much more hands-on, with direct access to the people I am trying to help. I know I possess a longing to serve and help people who did not enjoy the opportunities that were available to me or people I know. Volunteering at CentroNía, a non-profit organization which focuses on educating underprivileged youth in D.C., granted me the chance to tutor disadvantaged children in the D.C. school system. This experience was very rewarding and satisfying, and is something I wish to build upon. Furthermore, a position in the Peace Corps would bolster my academic goals, and help turn theory into reality. I am currently studying international business and finance with the hope of having a career in the field of international development. I spent the past semester in Sevilla, Spain where I took business courses in Spanish and lived with a Spanish family. This experience only heightened my awareness and respect for other cultures and customs. In addition, it boosted my desire to obtain more experience in other diverse cultures.

Given my educational background and experience both at home and abroad, I believe that the Peace Corps can provide me with the opportunity to fulfill many of my goals. Serving as a volunteer with the Peace Corps would allow me to share my skills with people who live in an environment where it is very difficult to learn and obtain the skills that I have been able to acquire so easily and readily. Moreover, volunteering at the Peace Corps affords me the prospect of interacting and living in a new culture. In the future, the experience and skills I hope to gain as a Peace Corps volunteer will supply me with a great foundation for a career in international development or in the non-profit sector. For these reasons, I believe that I can learn a great deal as a volunteer in the Peace Corps, and that, in turn, I can become a valuable asset to the Peace Corps.