My House Video

Now that I have fast and reliable internet I can upload some videos that I meant to do a long time ago. Below is a video that I made of my house. I meant to film it over again with my new camcorder, but my room was too messy so I never got around to doing it. It's a little awkward because I am basically talking to myself because the girls that are filming it don't understand what I'm saying. Nevertheless, it gives you a better idea of how I lived. Please keep in mind that this is one of the "nicer" houses, and don't forget to listen to all the rooster noises in the background.

Finishing Up

So the last month in my site was ridiculously stressful. They extended the school year so I was still trying to teach classes in the primary school up until two days before I left my site. Besides my classes, there were promotions (graduations) to go to. I went to the pre-school graduation which was much more elaborate than the year before. There were 18 kids graduating, and every single one of them had a dance partner, and they even danced the waltz. It was very cute, and the party ended with barney and winnie the pooh coming to dance and play with the kids for the last few hours. Three days before I left was the high school graduation. This was a huge graduation, with 37 of the 40 kids deciding to take part in the graduation. Each kid also got to bring a dance partner, as well as 4 family members. They don't have a big auditorium, so it was very crowded in there. The promocion was fun, and I even danced. My host brother doesn't like to dance either but he went as the partner to my host sister who was graduating so he had to dance. I told him that I would dance at 2am. When 2am rolled around, he reminded me of what I said so I had to dance. Well, once I started dancing, it was non-stop until the party ended at 5:30am. I'm sure I've mentioned before how the dancing works here but I'll explain it again. In general the guy asks the girl to dance, and after every song, you usually take a seat and wait for someone else to ask you to dance. Once everyone saw that I was dancing, it didn't take long for all the high school boys to start asking me to dance. Dancing is tiring, but I think I finally got the hang of the cumbia dance, which is basically just a shuffle. However, after 2.5 years in Peru, I still haven't mastered huayno. I was attempting to dance huayno, which is basically hopping and skipping around, but I was also playing around because the floor was so slippery. Everyone just dumps the beer foam on the ground before they pass the cup to someone else, so by the end of the night, if you also taken to account the party fouls, the floor is one big slip and slide. So there I was, skipping around and I ate it right in the middle of the dance floor. There wasn't too many people dancing at this point, so everyone saw me fall! It was a little embarrassing, but shortly after, one of the moms fell as well. This was actually the second time I fell that night. Once again (i think this happened last year or the year before) I fell in the mud outside after going to the bathroom and trying to avoid the fountain of men peeing from the balcony above. Falling aside, it was a fun night, and a great way to end my service here in Peru.

So, the mistake I made here was that I was too nice. As you may know, I've been taking and developing photos for people for the past year. It got a little out of hand, and I was developing 400 fotos every week. Well after my last trip into Cajamarca, I was relieved because I wouldn't have to develop anymore photos. However, people wanted photos of the promotion and when they realized I was leaving they all wanted me to take some more photos of them because once I left, there wouldn't be anyone to take photos. I figured out if they paid me in advance, I could develop the photos the day I left my site, and then send them back with my host family. I wanted to do them a favor, because before I came, people would charge 3 times more than what I charged for a photo. Unfortunately, my last week in site was ridiculously busy. People were looking for me nonstop asking me to develop fotos, asking me for a keychain (i'll explain later), or giving me a handcrocheted lacelike tapestry. I was burning DVD after DVD of photos to give to all the kids that graduated. I hardly slept, and I didn't' even really get to enjoy my last days. Two peace corps friends came by a few days before I left, and I hardly got to see them. Someone was ALWAYS looking for me. And on top of all this, my room was a disaster of all the stuff that I had accumulated, and I hadn't even packed yet. My final day in site, I ran into the problem of being invited to too many places. I am just one person, and it felt like EVERYONE wanted to talk to me. So the day I actually left, I had stayed up most of the night trying to fit everything in my suitcase. Once the suitcases were full, I finally gave up. I called over some of the kids that are my friends in site, and told them to go at it. I gave away so much stuff, it was like an early christmas present. Most of the stuff I gave away was stuff that I would still use, but it was impractical to take with me because it wouldn't fit. Some of the stuff that I would have thrown away, the kids also wanted. They went away with bags full of "presents" including, old magazines, markers, movies, towels (I had like 10 b/c I would always forget to bring one and then have to buy one if the hotel didn't have a towel), market bags, paper, cans of tuna and other food, plastic water bottles that aren't BPA free, shoes, most of my toiletries, perfume, make up, and even my plastic twisty ties. So in the end, I packed everything up and left site. I really lucked out because my host family was also going to Cajamarca so we just loaded everything up in their pick-up truck, and I was able to leave the stuff at their house until my bus left. Leaving site was hard though. I was definitely holding back tears as the kids started to cry. It also felt a little unreal because while most people knew that I was leaving, I was so busy that I didn't even get to say goodbye to a lot of people. What made it easier, is that I plan to go back and visit in a few months. I bought a roundtrip ticket home for christmas, and I'll be in the states for a month. After that I'm going to Ecuador to go to the galapagos, and then I want to travel around for a little bit. I'm not sure where I'll go or how long I'll travel for, but I definitely want to go to Bolivia. I promised everyone that when I pass through Peru I'll come by and visit since I'm already there. It made leaving easier because I told them that I'd come back in a few months, but just to visit. After this next visit, it might be a while until I visit again, but hopefully it won't be as hard to leave, because everyone has already gotten used to me not being there.

As for the future of this blog. I'm not really sure. I'll update it at least one more time. I haven't decided yet if I'll continue it during my travels, but I'm thinking yes. I guess you'll just have to check it to see.

I made over 350 of these keychains to give to people in my site. They love that stuff. They also double as bottle openers.

The parrot that my host family brought back from the jungle

Most of my host family

She was scared

Teaching Guisela how to swim in a manmade reservoir that is freezing.

Preschool graduation

Promo Trip 2009 - Chachapoyas

So one of the reasons that the kids really wanted me to stay until the end of the year, was that so I could go on their promocion trip. However, this year there was a conflict, because the primary and secondary school BOTH wanted me to go on their trips, and they left back to back and we essentially going to the same place. Up until a few days before they left, the colegio didn't even know if they were going to be able to go on the trip. Luckily, the trip didn't conflict with Camp VALOR and I decided to go on the colegio trip, and then see how I felt before I decided to go on the primary school trip. Everyone told me that the primary school trip was "better" because they were going farther (Tarapoto versus Chachapoyas). I haven't actually been to Tarapoto, but these paseos aren't the best way to see places for the first time. Here they think farther is better, even if they only end up spending half a day in the place. I'm very close with most of the kids in the 5th grade of the colegio, so that made the trip a lot of fun. It was pretty much what I expected after last year, lots and lots of time on a bus, and disorganization. However, we did make it to our final destination, although we lost a day in the process. .

I bought a spray bottle top for 1 sol, about 30 cents. It was the best investment ever. EVERYONE was jealous, I just told them I was smart like that. Then I had to go around spaying everyone down because the heat was unbearable.

Entertaining themselves on the bus without air conditioning.

Jaen. It's part of Cajamarca, but at practically zero elevation so it's very hot. Here is the Plaza where we spent 2 hours taking photos.

No trip would be complete without a trip to the beach. Only one swimmer amongst the group (me), but luckily it wasn't deep.

The whole group in front of Kuelap....before the rain.

If we look uncomfortable it's because it's pouring rain and we are soaked.

Eating menú at a truck stop. But, they had fried PLANTAINS!!!!! I was very excited.

Definitely not the bus-cama-cama that I'm used to!

Camp VALOR, take 2

This past weekend the Volunteers in Cajamarca put on another kids camp. This camp, Camp VALOR, was for teenage boys. This was the 3rd camp I've participated in, and the second one involving boys. I am probably biased, but it's so much easier to entertain girls! Luckily I wasn't one of the people in charge of planning this camp so it was nice to not have all the pressure of running the camp. Nevertheless, the camp was a success, and all three boys that I brought from my site had a great time.

Field game activities

Everyone at VALOR

The 3 boys that I brought to VALOR

sLearning the Michael Jackson - Thriller dance

more maps

Last year I painted the world map with a bunch of kids in my site. This year I decided to change it up a little bit and paint a map of Peru in the primary school. I had the kids draw the map of Peru using the grid method, but then I had the good luck of finding someone who had a rented projector in my town. Since this was the only time I've ever found a projector in my site, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and used the projector to draw maps of Cajamarca, San Miguel, and Cochán. Ideally, Peru would have been the first map, but since I had already drawn it, I wasn't able to change the order. Peru is broken down into departments (Cajamarca), and then in Cajamarca there are provinces (San Miguel), and each province has districts (Cochán). Furthermore, each district consists of various caserios. So in the end, I ended up with 4 maps along the entranceway. While the world map was cool, I think the kids were way more interested in these maps, because it consisted of places they actually knew. It was very cute watching all the 6 year-olds trying to sound out the names, and then running their hands all over the map of Cochán to show everyone what caserio they lived in. The only problem with it being in the primary school was that the 10 and 11 year olds that I recruited to paint aren't that careful, and I was constantly having to stand guard during recess to make sure the kids didn't run their dirty hands all over the wet paint. Below are a few pictures of the painting process, and the finished project more or less. It's still missing a few finishing touches such as labels for each map, but I think you'll get the idea.

In order: Cajamarca, Peru, San Miguel, and Cochán

Basura!!

One of the most frustrating things about living here is the trash situation. While there are a few garbage cans in town, most people just burn their trash, or throw it on the street, grass, or whoever they are. Whenever I go on a hike, the kids want to leave the trash in the middle of nowhere, and I have to convince them to put it in a bag and carry it back to Cochán. Even in Cochán, they have people that sweep the streets, but they just dump all the trash into the stream that runs through town. The garbage cans are taken around the corner and dumped in plain site. There isn't any kind of hole or garbage dump. Anyway, the doctor in my site had a friend from Cajamarca that works with waste and decided to come to Cochán to raise awareness of the trash situation. When I heard about this, I jumped at the opportunity to help, because this is one of the things that bothers me the most. We decided to have the 4th and 5th grade of the colegio participate in a clean up of the river that runs through town. There were incentives such as prizes for the group that gathered the most trash, and they were taught how to separate organics from inorganic. Apparently the doctor tried to clean up the river with kids from the primary school the year before, but the parents were outraged and put out a denuncia. We figured that by working with the older kids there wouldn't be a problem, but there is always a problem. Even though we had the permission of the director, the day of, the same father who had a problem in the escuela, and happens to be the head of the parent committee, decided that it was hazardous and the children would not participate. Luckily, there was some negotiating, and they made the event optional. We ended up with 39 kids out of the 65, which ended up being perfect because there were only 40 t-shirts.

I had seen the trash from the river, but I never realized how disgusting it was. You would be amazed at what was found in there. Even though we were cleaning the river, people around still had a negative attitude. They told me, there's no point in doing that because people are just going to continue to dump things in there. They don't realize that while you can't expect a change overnight, hopefully little by little you are able to reach a few people and make a difference. People don't think it's a problem to dump things in the stream because once rainy season comes the water level rises and washes it all "away." Out of sight, out of mind apparently. While I've been doing my part to ingrain the importance of not littering on the kids, it would really be nice to do a whole campaign. Unfortunately I have little time left, and this problem is bigger than me. There is no support from the authorities in town, and no progress has been made to build a landfill. Once we had all the trashbags of trash, there was nowhere to put them and we were forced to put them around the corner, where all the other trash is thrown.

At first they weren't so eager to dig in.

Getting dirty

They found a mattress in the river.

The crowd that gathered to watch from the street (the middle of town). Apparently watching people pick up trash is interesting.

This group of 4 girls won, picking up 25 bags of trash!

Picking up trash is fun!

Lots of trash


After the clean up with their new t-shirts.

Hiking and more hiking

One thing I'm really going to miss when I leave here, is all the hiking that I've been able to do. There isn't much to do in town, and even less to do in my room, so I try to get out and see as much of the mountains that I can. While the little kids are adorable, I am lucky to also be friends with many of the older kids, thus I always have hiking partners. It's getting to the point where I've seen more of Cochán than most people in my town, and I've seen several tourist spots more than once. Condác is a waterfall that is about an hour and a half to two hour walk away. Most people in my town have never been but are always talking about going. I'd actually been twice before, but I offered to go again since a lot of people wanted to go. It also helps that I have a camera, thus I am always invited on these little outings. Kim, a volunteer in the nearby provincial capital of San Miguel, mentioned that she likes to hike, but there aren't that many places to go hiking in San Miguel. Now that there is relatively easy transport between our sites, I asked her if she wanted to come to Cochán for the day and go on a hike. She came over on the early combi, helped make empanadas and we were ready to go, or so we thought. The little group of 8 or so that I had planned to come somehow grew to 17 people. It was a very random group, but it was still a nice hike, and it didn't rain too much. There was very little water compared to when I went before, but this enabled us to cross the river and actually enter where the water fell. Crossing the river was still scary and on the way back when I jumped from rock to rock, my precious metal water bottle fell out and sunk to the bottom of the river. It was very sad, but luckily I still had my camelbak to hold me over.

The next weekend we planned to go on another hike, to some ventanillas in the neighboring district of Tumbaden. I had seen these ventanillas from across the mountain, but i had never actually been there. This was going to be a long hike, so many of the kids's parents wouldn't let them go. We ended up with a good group of 7, but two of the kids went on ahead. They were supposed to wait up for us on the road, but just as I called them my credit on my phone ran out. We were already out of town so there was no way for me to get credit. There was only about a minute of credit between the other four people I was with. One of the girls that went on ahead actually knew the route, and I was the only other person that had any idea where these ventanillas were because I had seen them from a distance. Well, we tried calling but Peruvians tend to be vague about where they are. I ask her where she was, and she told me was "por abajo" which basically means down there. We ended up going another route because one of the kids I was with thought that was the way, and we realized it wasn't when we called the girl again. This time she said she was at the bridge, which isn't very helpful considering there are a million bridges. She then clarified what bridge, and we realized that we were still an hour away from there because of our little detour. We told them to wait for us but we failed to mention that we didn't know the way. When we finally reached the bridge, they were nowhere to be seen. We used the last of the credit to call her, only to find out that she was already up the mountain at the ventanillas. We asked her where the path was and she responded "por alli por alli" which means over there, over there, before our credit ran out for good. I knew the general direction of the ventanillas, but since we couldn't find the path, we spent the next hour climbing and crawling up 1,000 feet in an effort to get up the mountain. All in all, we spent over 4 hours walking, in what should have been a 2 1/2 hour hike. Once we were there, we eventually met up with the two kids that went ahead and enjoyed the ventanillas. I had been to the ventanillas in Cochán, but these were much cooler. After some picture taking and lunch, we walking another 30 minutes to the pueblo of Tumbaden. It started to rain so we took shelter in this little veranda like structure on the plaza. All was good until the town drunk that had been sitting below decided to climb up the stairs and enter our little party. He stumbled up there and took a seat next to us with his belt in his hand. He looked at us and kept whipping his belt around. One of the local kids told us to be careful because he hits, so we gave him an empanada to keep him busy and got out of there as fast as we could. When we were in Tumbaden, we ran into 3 other girls from Cochán, and we all met up and decided to walk back together. We had a 3 hour hike ahead of us, and it was getting late and starting to rain. This time the hike was easier because we actually found the path, and we got back into Cochán just as it was getting dark.

Oooh - Ahhhh

Kim and I, entering the frigid water.

The group in front of the waterfall.

I present the ventanillas of Tumbaden

Lots of ventanillas.

There are some pretty cool and very random ventanillas.

On top of the ventanillas in a Tinaja. See those hills behind me? We had to go down the mountain, up the next one, back down, and up again.

We reached our final destination, Tumbaden, a district capital even smaller than Cochán in the neighboring province of San Pablo.