A Peace Corps Week

Before I receive an angry message from Jean saying I haven't blogged in a while, I figured I'd get one up. Jean—I'm still waiting for that e-mail by the way—passive aggression is big here by the way.

I think the reason I haven't put a blog up in a while is that after ten months in Perú, the not-so ordinary is beginning to feel ordinary. Sheep being lowered from a roof on a rope—seen it, uncomfortable moments with host family—felt them, Quechua—been talked about it in, rain—been pelted by it for 6 months, guinea pig- ate it, bread-helped cook it, cultural events—immersed self in, cultural music—danced to.

So instead of a specific memorable day in the Peace Corps, I figured I'd share a week with y'all. Today is Monday, and my memory is fresh—so let's see what I did today.

Monday:

Teach English in the colegio (English teaching is almost undoubtably every Youth Development PCV's least favorite task)--Ian, Kyle and I all teach it on Monday to get it done with. Today I taught some question words and greetings. It was riveting.

Internet in Tarica—very slow, not recommended, but a great price.

Lunch at homestay—very bland (stomach issues), not recommended, but great price.

Preschool Classes 3-5 p.m.-- Very Fun, definitely recommened, incredible price. This is a carry over from Vacaciones Utiles—every Monday and Wednesday, me, Marionella, Santa, Yessenia, Pierro, Angie, Diego, Jilary and various other 3-8 year olds get together for two hours of coloring, art activities, children's stories, mathematics or if you get lucky like today fruit salad making. Eventually the idea is to expand the program with high school trained teachers.

Volleyball-- From 5-7 I use my 1 meter 83 centimeters to drop bombs on my host-country partners. There's way more technique than I initially thought. Unfortunately, there's always a bet on the game, and I'm definitely down a few soles.

Tuesday:

Classes in Jahua—Jahua is a caserio—small town located about 30 minutes walking from Jangas. It's a beautiful hike—as the coolest morning commute I'll ever have, literally through the Andes, this is one of the several moments during each day where I am happy to have ended up in Peace Corps. Sorry Teach For America, but I don't think you've got anything on us here.

The challenge of work in Jahua comes in terms of language. While we've had a few Quechua classes, anyone that has ever studied languages knows that you ain't gonna be teaching a math lesson after studying the Quechua greetings.

However, I have a great, very manageable class here. I help the principal out with the 4th graders—6 girls and 4 boys. The kids stare at me with a little more uncertainty than normally, as they translate both spanish and the language of mathematics. Ocassionally they ask me questions in Quechua, where I do the best I can, picking up the spanish they mix in. This class is definitely a challenge, but the kids and I are getting to know each other, and we're already making some progress. For those that watch West Wing—sometimes it's about getting the kids to go to the blackboard—and although these are some of the shyest kids (and especially girls) I've ever worked with—they're starting to take those steps to the white board. It's a start.

Meeting with Mentors—

This is probably the most exciting program we have going on down here. For those that know me well, they know that throughout college, I mentored Maverick, and in my senior year of college, I fell in love with the DREAM Program. Well, it took about 9 months, but along with Beth Mentink, my mid-western partner in development, we now have a college mentoring program called “Sueña” (need I translate?). With some of the volunteer teachers from Vacaciones Utiles, we started a program that has 6 college students from Huaraz that go visit kids on Fridays. We're working on recruiting more mentors, fundraising, and forming the important relationships with the awesome youth group Beth started. Activities so far include: a birthday celebration, International Day of Water Celebration, and Mazamorra Sale (boiled pumpkin innards—actually really delicious)...

On Facebook—it's called “Sueña Chavin.”

Wednesday: Planning health Promoters and More Pre-school

Thursday: Jahua, Planning and Homework for Promotores de Salud (more on this later).

Friday: Planning and Sueña Program (Another breath-taking hike—it's 40 minutes if you're alone walk fast, it's longer if you form a mentoring program and now don't walk quite as fast...)

Saturday:

Youth Health Promotores! Kyle and I just started this program—the idea is to train about 30 adolescents in preventative health—nutrition, safe water practices, safe cooking practices, safe sexual practices, psychological health etc, so the adolescents can then work in their schools, families, and communities, sharing the information. It is by far the most fun project we have going—I'm not sure who has more fun, the kids or Kyle and I—but I think that's the whole idea of it.

Sunday:

Sunday is no day of rest here. It's business day. After my community analysis, I realized there was a major gap in the breakfast market in Jangas. Ceviche or Chocho (a form of Ceviche with beans) is great—but for breakfast? Really? Apparently acid-reflux isn't an issue here. Anyway, with a few of the JUMPers (Jóvenes Unidos Motivados para el Progreso—Young People United Motivated for Progress)--we sell pancakes and Jello. We were making about 5 soles, until Alberto came over, messed up and put too much baking soda into the mix—thanks to Alberto's clever business strategy, this past weekend, we made about 10 soles on pancakes, 5 on jello.

So that's my basic week—at least the work part. As you'll notice—there's not a whole lot going on at night. Yup, you read it correctly. That's why I have time to write blogs as long as this one, and in depth e-mails to all my friends :). Some nights, I'll watch pirated movies (they usually are scatched and frustrating), other nights I'll talk to host family or friends, other nights I'll talk on the phone with real family, or Peace Corps friends (free in-network talking is amazing), every once and a while we go dancing, but overall reading, writing, and mostly talking are as good as they've ever been.

Even with all the hobbies you can have, Peace Corps leaves more time to reflect about yourself and the world than I knew existed.
For the true Peace Corps Experience—I'll share one of these reflections (get ready—you're about to enter my psyche—jump off the diving board, it's about to get deep :).

Recently my World Map has gotten mostly wrecked. For three months we put in our afternoons, battling the rain and the tiny details of the Pacific Islands to put up a beautiful piece of art. But not even our best efforts could outdo the Ancash rainy season, and a couple of kid's with free time and a little aggression. You'd think this would bug me more, but other than a little feeling of annoyance, I remember that the map was never about the result, it was about the process of learning geography, and making frienships in my community—and as I come out on the bright side of my first Ancash rainy season—not even the lluvia and pealed paint can take that away.

We're already in the plans for a new world map. This time we're going to draw a Peter's projection (another West Wing reference—the map for social justice), a map of Perú, and most of all we're putting the map INSIDE the library. For me, the whole experience shows why human development projects are more lasting than infrastructure development projects. In a Youth Development volunteer's schedule, there's not a whole lot of time spent building letrinas, or chimneys for cooking stoves, but there is a lot of time spent with Marionella, Pierro, Neli, and Angel.

My host brother Marco, who put as much time in on the map as anyone, said it was a representation of the world's current current situation. In a way, he's right. But, as we're learning not even the Hosni Mubaraks of the world can stop united young people motivated for change from re-constructing their own worlds, one week, or day, at a time.