A Skype Date With Cultural Understanding

Peace Corps has gone 21^st century. While dad talked to his family once in two years on a coconut phone, things here are just plain technological. I'm coming to you live for chrissake. To my five readers in Russia—you're reading this tomorrow morning! Congratulations.

The Claro USB allows me to have fast, real world internet. No more playing three games of free cell while I wait for my attatchment to download.

I told everyone I purchased this USB stick for my “job search”--classic. So far my job search involves 20 months of back-logged time on facebook, g-mail and catching up with friends, or as our generation calls it: “networking.” Anyway—I'm on Linked In, I'm getting back into the swing of things, one step/procrastination at a time.

Anyway—this internet thing is not necessarily all vice. Today we connected the 6000 kilometers from Burlington, VT to Jangas, Perú. With my old DREAM friend Evan, we connected a class from Jangas, Perú to a class at the Lawrence Barnes school in Burlington.

For about thirty minutes, the kids stared at each other, asked each other questions about their free time, cheered when the learned they both loved video games, made farting noises, tried each others' languages, smiled at one another and generally had a rambunctiously good time.

After the skype call, Johanna and I talked about where these new friends came from—how not everyone from a “gringo” country is necessarily gringo, and how not everyone from a “rich” country is necessarily rich. The Jangas kids—the last students standing in 2012's Vacaciones Utiles are some of the most dedicated students I have met in my year and a half here. I'm glad we could reward their hard effort this summer with this skype call, and I think they enjoyed it a lot.

Knowing that your friends 6000 kilometers like playing video games just might be the first step to seeing that we're not all so different after all, and it just might spark a desire to learn, to travel and to meet.

ALMA

Volunteers and Young Women Leaders in Yungay, Ancash

Hey Everyone--

A funny thing happened on the way back to Jangas--I got internet. Before I used to have to write a blog entry, carry it with me on USB to the internet and pray that the ten year olds playing grand theft auto weren't hogging the bandwidth enough for the thing to take. Anyway, thanks to the Claro cell phone company none of that is necessary for my last six months here--let's g-chat too!

The point is: Expect to hear from me more frequently (I know I've said this before).

Anyway--I wanted to share some work us PCVs did a weekend ago. A week ago we held Camp ALMA--a leadership camp for teenage girls. The girls ranged in age from 9 (Rosmi our youngest camper from Beth's site and founding Perú DREAM member) and Neli (a 19 health promoter from Jangas).

The camp was filled with great activities: ice breakers, a sexual health lecture from our very own Peace Corps Doctor, team building activities, movie watching, nature walks, tree planting, global warming lectures and activities, a career panel with women professionals (policewoman, doctors, a psychologist (who works in Jangas!), archeologists, an environmental engineer, and a nutritionist). Everything was topped off with a recycled material fashion show. Us boy volunteers dressed up Pat's dog Eva--who came in a close sixth place (out of 6 contenders).

The girls had a great time and I think it was a unique opportunity for them to get away from their ordinary lives for a bit and just be themselves. In much the same way it was an opportunity for us volunteers--and we may have had more fun than the kids. In my activity I told the girls that I wanted to come back in thirty years and find them as mayors, doctors, psychologists and scientists. After what I saw in the workshops, I'm confident I will.

In the end, we all wrote each other notes in manila envelope mailboxes. I received a note from Belinda, that makes all the diarrhea, doubts, host family annoyances, etc worth it:

"Yon eres muy bueno por eso te quiero" Belinda, 10 años, Shilla, Perú

The Translation:

"John William, you are very good, therefore I love you" Belinda, 10 years old, Shilla, Perú

If this type of friendship is not why Kennedy created this whole thing, then I dunno.

20 Months in Books

It's time for a Book Review. A 35+1 Book Review.

Conscience of am Liberal by Paul Krugman

Harry Potter Seven (In Spanish) by JK Rowling

Healing the Mind in the Age of the Brain by Elio Frattarolli

Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese

Northern Borders by Howard Mosher

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

John Adams by David McCullough

The Irreducible Needs of Children by Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, Dr. Stanley I. Greenspan

The Big Short by Michael Lewis

Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell

Africa United by Steve Bloomfield

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

The Ugly American by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer

Waiting for Superman by Various Authors

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

The Great Bridge by David McCullough

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson

Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto by Chuck Klosterman

Extraordinary Life Abe Lincoln by The Smithsonian Society (this one shouldn't really count)

Bananas by Peter Chapman

Common Ground by J. Anthony Lukas

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

Petty Crimes by Gary Soto

Living up the Street by Gary Soto

Truman by David McCullough

Cien Años de Soledad por Gabriel García Marquéz

A Wing and a Prayer by Harry Crozby

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger

#36 Finished After This blog was written: Lost in Shanri-La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II by Mitchell Zuckoff

As you know in Peace Corps we have plenty of time to read. Chris Matthews (one of the most famous PCVs) wrote in an alumni newsletter that we should take advantage of this opportunity to read as much as possible cause you never have a better opportunity to read as much in your life (one of the books I read is actually BY Chris Matthews). I think Matthew read 75 books during his service, lots of classics and history I believe—and even a book forbodingly titled “Gulag”-- Needless to say everyone has their tastes.

Kyle reads Mystery Novels—Kyle said he read so many of them he was starting to dream as the detectives—more on Dreaming and Reading soon. Beth reads Travel Adventure books and lots of them (Beth's goal is 100 books in 2 years...). Elke reads guru books. Johanna reads classical literature. I read History. It's what I do. Well I also basically read whatever anyone sends me :). And I have been blessed believe you me.

I have to give a few shout outs. First to Mom--I was in a rut there for a while but mom fortunately sent down Gary's Soto “Growing Up Tough” an “ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers.” This book's font can be read from the hubble telescope :). Thanks Mom :). But seriously mom has supplied some of the best books down here—Cutting For Stone, To Kill a Mockingbird, J Adams, Truman etc. Thank you!

Matthew gets a shout out for Cloud Atlas—I may have read it 3 years late but in a book that spans 1000s of years then works its way back to 1849—what's a few years anyway? That shit was real.

Katherine—sure 100 Years of Solitude may have taken me about that long to read, but it gave me a new perspective on life in Latin America so thanks a lot. Wing and a Prayer—awesome. Lost in Shangri-La—made our cultural misunderstandings down here look like nothing.

Duffy—what can I say about my brother in law. The man knows a good read. Sure I doubted when I pulled “Common Ground” out of a Serpost package. But some 660 odd pages about political turmoil in Boston in the 70s and I got really interested in city policy. Devil in the White City—almost crapped myself scared of Holmes. J Wilkes Booth is a Douche. Sex Drugs and Arica United, thanks a lot Duffy and Katherine for sending these great books down.

David McCullough—I have a historical crush on you :). Text Me :).

Johanna's recent gift of All Quiet on the Western Front was an incredible anti-war novel written by a German World War I soldier.

This book mixed into my dreams where instead of matriculating Summer School students I started matriculating soldiers and giving them their assignments. A powerful book against any war, anywhere.

Harper Lee, J.D. Salinger—sure I've read you before, but you get something new every time.

If it does one thing, Peace Corps changes and deepens your perspective—giving you a time to explore your passions, and read whatever the hell you want (or can get your hands on). Here I have re-discovered my passion for reading and my passion for history. Along with Spanish, a little bit of Quechua, a love for guinea pig cooked with aji, this is just one of the many great things I will take home with me in August.

And I still have 6 months left (almost exactly)... Will I hit 50? At the rate January is going, I will do a lot better we'll see... Left on the list:

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens—it was the best of time, it was the worst of times :)

La Ciudad de los Perros by Mario Vargas Llosa

The Path Between the Seas—Oh David McCullough, how dost though write so well?

*And anything you send me :).

And what the hell, just to keep the tradition going—Gulag :). Dad what did you read in Peace Corps? Now back to Holden Caufield.