Peace Corps Peru 18 Training: Word.mov

So I now realize why people in training didn’t keep their blogs active. It is rather hard! Feel like there is no time to do anything. This is our last week of training, so we want to spend as much time as possible together and get packed, go shopping for stuff that is only available in Lima, spend time with current host family, write/ do our mini community diagnostic, and sleep. Haha. So needless to say it is a lot to get done and when you don’t have internet in your house and have to plan when to get on it is just that one extra thing that gets shoved to the side (or at least for me it does). 

 PS made an apple pie

                So what has happened in the last few weeks…Starting with week 7: first and foremost we found out just where we would be living for the next two years! A time when emotions where running high and nobody could concentrate or at least I couldn’t….haha so impatient. How they did it. We were having a cultural day meaning traditional dances and dress by the office/ language/ training staff. My language teacher Monica did a beautiful dance and she is just as precious as can be. Side note really like her because she is just a little ray of sunshine always with a positive comment and a smile; makes language class easier to get through. Anyways, then our APCD and other Salud staff sang for us and started to dance and dance and come grab us. So a big dance party started and balloons where handed out, like any Peru party haha. So we are there dancing dancing then colored ribbons start getting put on us. The ribbons separated us into groups…………the groups that we will be living with for the NEXT TWO YEARS! AH!!!! Finally the revealing a card was flipped over in front of each group.

                You ask: well where am I going to be?

                CAJAMARCA!! Just where I wanted, someplace with lots of green and rain and is mountainy but not true up in the mountains cold. Aka perfect! Yeah yeah. I’m living there with 4 other girls: Diamond, Kate, Hayden, and Ellie! 

All people with great qualities and can’t wait to get close to them…which I will undoubtedly will because they are my new life lines to the English language haha, also emotional support. I will be living in a town called Tunel Conchano. It is about 30-40 min outside of the big city of Chota. To compare the cities is like to compare Ponca City or a place even smaller like Blackwell to Stillwater. Why Stillwater because Chota is the big city but it is not really that big…such as there is a market and a hospital and lots of small shops but there isn’t a Metro or Plaza Vea, the equivalents to say Wal-mart. My town doesn’t have a market so we go to Chota about once a week, Sunday market day. Also, to have internet access I have to go into the city.

                My new host family is quite young, the mom and dad and 4 kids: two girls and two boys between the ages of 16-11. Next door lives my dad’s niece; she is 21 and very nice. They are all really nice, taking pity on my awful Spanish. Which I feel like all the other volunteers have been improving their language skills during this 10 week training…..and then there is me, like frozen in time. Making the same mistakes that I made the first day I got here. Ah. Such a frustrating feeling to have. Although I’m going to stay positive and study my ass off when I’m alone in sight and have nothing else to do. So maybe the next time I talk about my skills they will be awing! Hahaha.

Bamamarca

My view

My new house mom

 My house

 My new sisters

                Anyways back to the real stuff haha, during week 8 we traveled to Cajamarca. It is a 16 hour bus ride to the city of Cajamarca then a 3 hour combi ride to Bambamarca then another hour combi ride to Chota and then that short little drive to my town. So needless to say it is a full day event. During our Field Based Training (FBT) we first stayed in Bambamarca for the first 3 nights of our trip. We meet with 3 or 4 other volunteers to do our first activity…working with Health Promoters in San Antonio a 30 min ride from Bamba. It was super awkward because we got there and then started right in on the work. The next day we went back to San Antonio but this time we actually cooked and then gave a charla (lecture thing ish) over healthy plates and how to get picky eaters, awful but we did only have one day to prepare.

                Next we went to Paccha, which was a ton of fun because we tromped around in the mud in the rain to do a house visit. Slipping and sliding around was the perfect tension breaker ha ha.  Also so fun to watch the others of the group almost fall…no butts touched the ground so no technical falls hahaha. Then we finally made it to Chota and the next day meet our Socios….which are the people who are suppose to be our support and helpers in the community. We each have 3….only one of mine came and she is actually not my listed socio but so okay because she was super duper nice and over the next 3 days helped me get to know some people in my community of Tunel. Her name is Clara and I definitely think she is AWESOME! But quiet, I’ll work on that hahaha.

                We came back and man oh man were the last few weeks of training hard to keep up with…everybody became super distracted! Why? Because some sessions we knew wouldn’t apply to us anymore and others yes. Also because we now know who we won’t see very often…which is super sad b/c you make good friends and then you are on opposite sides of the country!!! Ah. Haha

                Yesterday we had a celebration with the staff for Thanksgiving and then a party with the families! The Staff did this big wonderful gesture of cooking us a Thanksgiving dinner but!! I really don’t like to eat prepare plates…meaning the mash potatoes were all up in the sweet potatoes business and the turkey just plopped on top with some stuffing mixed in. Needless to say the picky eater in my came out full blast. Everything tasted really wonderful but! Couldn’t eat most of it because of the mixing situation and then the green bean casserole had huge mushrooms in it so that was hard to even look at on my plate…………………………………………..but there was hope first KCM and I (more her than me haha) made green bean casserole with cream of broccoli, which turned out to be super yummy! Then another volunteer John made candied yams and baked mac and cheese and for the people who didn’t want turkey they had oven roasted chicken. So I was able to make my own second plate and eat how I like to. Then to top it off Kate (one of the girls who is going to be living in Cajamarca) made enough apple pie to go around…and it was really good the only thing missing was the whipped cream and vanilla ice cream.

                TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m officially a volunteer of Peace Corps! Yeah hahahaha yeah! We spent the whole day at the other training center which is absolutely gorgeous! Green everywhere!  We spent the morning doing lovey dovey stuff….then the ceremony started. I now know the Ambassador for Peru. She let me take a picture with her…how cool. Feel like I’ve got some clout now haha suckers.  But needless to say it was a very special day. Took lots of photos with my host family and friends from training. All of which will probably make it to facebook eventually. …just like how these blogs eventually make it up.

                I’ve finished packing up my stuff. Tomorrow we go to Lima. Then on Sunday we are taking a bus to Chiclayo and from there we don’t know quite yet. Mmmrrree haha. Anyways tonight is the last night here in Yanacoto going to go out or spend time with the fam. \///

Love Jennifer