To Piura and Back

Hey Everyone back home.

After a 16 hour bus ride I am back from Piura, Peru. This past week was Field Based Training. What does Field Base Training mean?

For our FBT we went to Piura on a camabus (bedbus) which was pretty comfortable. You leave at 6:30 p.m. and hope you don't need the real bathroom until 9:00 a.m. the next morning, cause that's when you arrive at your destination. For us that was Piura, in the north, one province away from Ecuador. In Piura it's pretty hot, but being a bad packer, I forgot flip flops, which sucked during the day, and my sweatshirt, which sucked at night, luckily I coped--though it really hurt when I stepped in Shiiiit on one of the last days.

We visited four Volunteers´ sites, some closer to the coast, with drier climates, and one in the mountains. We went to a place called Pambarumbe in the mountains--this was by far the highlight (minus the bicicleta I rode--bicicleta is slang for needing to use the bathroom, the idea being that when it comes you´re gonna want a bike...)

The town is about 300 people--and imagine what that´s like when 12 Americans come. I felt like a member of a delegation--at an inauguration ceremony for a computer lab, we sat up front as the honored guests, and even had to dance while about 80 or so Pambarumbian's looked on. Mostly I followed my Peruvian language instructors´steps and hoped I didn't pee myself infront of the crowd (2 cups of tea before hand may not have been my best idea).

The next day we ran a session at the school. Our activity was trash art and Origami--and it had some great results, with the kids having to represent the idea of keeping Pambarumbe clean with trash art. I'll post a picture, they were really amazing.

On the trip to other sites, we visited a Special Education school, and a couple other schools.

In a picture I will post soon, you can see us performing a play in front of about 100 school children. The play was about healthy lifestyles and was named Al Fondo Hay Baño, a play off the popular Al Fondo Hay Sitio telenovela here (I am told that I look like one of the characters on the show, although I think that's mostly cause we're both white).

Finally we hit up the beach for a short trip which was a beautiful fishing beach, ate a lot of good food--ceviche is as good as the books say and trecked back 16 hours.

Tonight is my host sisters' 2nd birthday, so that should be exciting.

I hope everyone is doing well, and I look forward to hearing from all of you as well.

Take Care, lots of love from South America.

¡Hola Todos!

Hello everyone from Yanacoto, Peru. This is a picture that I took in my new town, about a block from where I live. Life has changed quickly from college, and instead of Suite H with four dudes, I now live with a family of five-Ronald, Viviana (los padres) and Matias (8), Valentina (5) and Antonella (soon to be 2). I also have a 19 year old host uncle Josué who keeps me up to date with the latest "jerga" (slangwords). Things are good south of the Equator, with relatively hot days and cold nights, lots of rice and chicken and cold showers. Lots of new friends, Peruvian and American alike. Next week I´ll be in Piura in the north to go on site visits. Hasta Luego--I plan to write about once a week, and hope future entries will be a lot funnier. Take Care, or as they say here Cuídate!