Hey.
So anyway, it's December and just a few more days until 2012 culminates. It's only 4 days away from the world apparently sinking into darkness and there are tons of Peruvians pretty preocupados with that. Personally, I've been kind of swamped with work and a little too busy to even remember what day it is.
Still, here are some updates!
Last week, I made the pilgrimage to the city of Otuzco for the Virgen de la Puerta. It's a 2 day hike from Trujillo to Otuzco, but my friends and I decided to do just one day, starting in Shiran. When we initially asked Barry, a guy who runs a vegetarian restaurant in Huanchaco, how long he thought the hike might be, he gave us an estimate of roughly 14 hours. Uphill. All the way.
We raised our eyebrows, straightened out our shoulders, and agreed that we would walk the entire thing. And then we show up in Shiran, when another friend says her host sibling estimated it to be a 4 to 6 hour walk and that last year, they did it in 5.
Wait. What?
We figure, whatever it is, it is what it is, and begin walking from Shiran. A few hours later, it's sweltering hot and I'm reapplying sunblock every 30min to an hour. We take a nice break in a small town, refill on water and find there is ice cold gatorade for sale, eat a few of the snacks we packed, and continue.
Every time we stop, we're told that Otuzco is only 5 more hours away. But, I mean, 2 hours later, it's still 5 hours away. We finally make our way up dirt road, sometimes climbing rocks to help cut the journey a bit shorter, until we finally hit pavement! How much further away are we? 5 hours, say the locals.
There are cars and trucks and buses passing by, filled with people who didn't want to walk or decided that it was enough walking for the day and they just wanted to get there. Some people handed us rosaries, others passed us oranges, there was even one bus who threw out virgen de la puerta t-shirts (one I was not lucky enough to get, but ah well).
Eventually, we find ourselves in a place where the girls who live in Otuzco tell me is a recognizable marker and the people are now telling us it's 3 hours away. My knees are not taking this very well (recall, they are fairly damaged from trying to run that half marathon last July) but I keep trekking and by this point, all of us are quite starved and ready for some polla a la brasa once we get in.
It starts to get seriously chilly and the sweaters get donned as the mist rolls in and darkness begins to fall. Just as it gets really dark, we see the sign- Otuzco, just ahead! We make it in as the sun has fully set, grab some food, and make our way to one of the volunteer's house for some slumber party fun.
The siesta fiesta turns more into brownies before bed and we all immediately pass out...
We wake up the next morning, hurting but not as badly as you would think. The party in the street is going already and we decide to grab some cheese (delicious, sharp, queso suizo) and some delicious tangy yogurt from the cheese lady, a few pork sandwiches and this goat cheese tasting cow cheese sandwiches and sit in the plaza to nom.
The rest of the day involves walking around to look at all the cool stuff and enjoying the atmosphere before heading to the burrocross and watching children race donkeys. That was pretty interesting and such a sierra event, haha.
My friend and I eventually head back to Trujillo, grab some Pinkberry (new! so good! I love froyo!) before heading back to our respective sites.
It was a seriously good few days of rest, but now I'm back in site and the week is full of last minute december/2012 things before I can take a few days of vacation in Ecuador with friends.
I'm not really going to go on about work and stuff just yet, but things are going well. I have high hopes for my final few months in site, and I'm getting ready for the crazy that January will bring. I won't be coming back to Peru until the 5th of January, will be leaving for Lima to visit my host sister from training who'll be having a babyshower then, and the 19th is not only a regional meeting, but a world guiness record breaking down for most marinera dancers on the plaza! I might join. I need a partner, though... and learn how to dance marinera. It should be interesting.
Then there's Carnival for february and possible friends or family visiting. Before you know it, it'll be my last few months in site and I'll be trying to figure out how time went by so quickly.
Man, that's a strange thought. Time, huh? Freaky.
Well, that's all for now! Update you soon enough.
Peace and Love, y'all.
Monday, December 17, 2012
Thursday, December 6, 2012
day 547: relationships are weird
Hey friends
Relationships are weird, don't you think?
I mean, relationships with friends and family are fantastic and yea, they get a little strained sometimes due to a variety of reasons, but those are bridges I like to have reinforced and checked up on at least monthly, if not daily. Plus, they do tend to be weird, sometimes. There are definitely people who I am friends with now that I wonder, would I have been friends with them years ago when I was in high school? College? And my relationship with my family is a little odd. I love them to death and I would do anything for them, but I don't really talk to them as often as I used to. I don't know why, it's just how life has become. I mean, I try to call and skype whenever I can, but chances are my internet is out or our timing is off or if my internet is on, the connection can be described as shitty at best.
But the weirdest relationships I can think of are the romantic ones, the significant others in our lives. Personally? I don't like them. I know it's probably because I've never really had a relationship. The ones I did have were terrible- timing, expectations, everything was just never right. The sad thing is, I like being with other people and my general nature, the need to make other people happy, has resulted in my being in relationships that are, at best, not good for me.
Still, I think I'm learning. I'm figuring out what I like, what I don't like, and how to actually talk about it. I've been reading a lot of articles on a topic that has recently been making more and more of a presence in the media these days- the concept of a rape culture.
The fact that "Don't get raped" is taught and "Don't rape" isn't discussed. I think at this moment in our history, it would be stupid to stop teaching how to not get raped. Unfortunately, that part of our culture still exists and we need to ensure that girls and boys know how to defend themselves. However, it is equally if not more ignorant of us not to teach and reinforce the message of "DO NOT RAPE."
This is a huge part of our culture that we look over. I asked my Sex ed (called "Pasos Adelante") class what the spanish word was for "rape" and they told me, "violación." The english homonym is, of course, violation. Rape is a violation. But I find this interesting because we grow up in a culture where rape culture is actually cultivated as something that, if it doesn't go as far as drugging someone and physical violence, is actually a romantic ideal- something that girls and boys should practice and expect.
You see it on television shows, the boy plying the girl with wine during a date, the boy pursuing a girl who has repeatedly told him no until she eventually gives in and says she loves him, the boy who hits the girl and the girl is told it's because he likes her, the girl who plays hard to get and teases and toys but never says yes until the boy throws himself into a passionate frenzy and the girl gives in to her actual desires.
This is ridiculous. All of these are forms of rape. No mean no.
And I know that I've played a part in this. I definitely liked the idea of being pursued, of a guy working hard to convince me that I should date him, of playing those stupid games that are always played between couples. I was told as a child by my teachers that the only reason a boy was bullying me was because he liked me. I have come to associate pain with pleasure and have accepted that I can't be loved by someone who is nice to me.
It's stupid. I've decided today, that I can't be a part of it anymore. I can't, as a responsible human being, condone a culture where I see girls and boys doing this to each other, a culture where nice boys finish last. I'm sick of it.
So yea... relationships are weird. But they're also things that we, especially my generation, which holds so much potential for the future, it's something that we need to start changing. The social interactions we have shape the way future relationships will be viewed. We need to start setting the examples.
I've seen girls as young as 12 tell me they love some guy who's 16 or 18 or 25, and that he has worked so hard to show her his love, that even though she knows she's young and her parents don't want them to be together, that he must be her soulmate.
What.
It blows my mind. For the rest of us, it seems to obvious. A 12 year old should not be sharing a bed with a 25 year old. That's pretty gross. But to these young girls who believe so much of what the media puts out there, what tv tells them, what the internet tells them, who don't know what their parents aren't communicating with them, who don't have the role models that most of us can turn to for help... it's a culture that is very dominant and if the world ends on dec. 21st, I sincerely hope that it's a social end to all these terrible problems our society needs to unite against.
Relationships are weird, don't you think?
I mean, relationships with friends and family are fantastic and yea, they get a little strained sometimes due to a variety of reasons, but those are bridges I like to have reinforced and checked up on at least monthly, if not daily. Plus, they do tend to be weird, sometimes. There are definitely people who I am friends with now that I wonder, would I have been friends with them years ago when I was in high school? College? And my relationship with my family is a little odd. I love them to death and I would do anything for them, but I don't really talk to them as often as I used to. I don't know why, it's just how life has become. I mean, I try to call and skype whenever I can, but chances are my internet is out or our timing is off or if my internet is on, the connection can be described as shitty at best.
But the weirdest relationships I can think of are the romantic ones, the significant others in our lives. Personally? I don't like them. I know it's probably because I've never really had a relationship. The ones I did have were terrible- timing, expectations, everything was just never right. The sad thing is, I like being with other people and my general nature, the need to make other people happy, has resulted in my being in relationships that are, at best, not good for me.
Still, I think I'm learning. I'm figuring out what I like, what I don't like, and how to actually talk about it. I've been reading a lot of articles on a topic that has recently been making more and more of a presence in the media these days- the concept of a rape culture.
The fact that "Don't get raped" is taught and "Don't rape" isn't discussed. I think at this moment in our history, it would be stupid to stop teaching how to not get raped. Unfortunately, that part of our culture still exists and we need to ensure that girls and boys know how to defend themselves. However, it is equally if not more ignorant of us not to teach and reinforce the message of "DO NOT RAPE."
This is a huge part of our culture that we look over. I asked my Sex ed (called "Pasos Adelante") class what the spanish word was for "rape" and they told me, "violación." The english homonym is, of course, violation. Rape is a violation. But I find this interesting because we grow up in a culture where rape culture is actually cultivated as something that, if it doesn't go as far as drugging someone and physical violence, is actually a romantic ideal- something that girls and boys should practice and expect.
You see it on television shows, the boy plying the girl with wine during a date, the boy pursuing a girl who has repeatedly told him no until she eventually gives in and says she loves him, the boy who hits the girl and the girl is told it's because he likes her, the girl who plays hard to get and teases and toys but never says yes until the boy throws himself into a passionate frenzy and the girl gives in to her actual desires.
This is ridiculous. All of these are forms of rape. No mean no.
And I know that I've played a part in this. I definitely liked the idea of being pursued, of a guy working hard to convince me that I should date him, of playing those stupid games that are always played between couples. I was told as a child by my teachers that the only reason a boy was bullying me was because he liked me. I have come to associate pain with pleasure and have accepted that I can't be loved by someone who is nice to me.
It's stupid. I've decided today, that I can't be a part of it anymore. I can't, as a responsible human being, condone a culture where I see girls and boys doing this to each other, a culture where nice boys finish last. I'm sick of it.
So yea... relationships are weird. But they're also things that we, especially my generation, which holds so much potential for the future, it's something that we need to start changing. The social interactions we have shape the way future relationships will be viewed. We need to start setting the examples.
I've seen girls as young as 12 tell me they love some guy who's 16 or 18 or 25, and that he has worked so hard to show her his love, that even though she knows she's young and her parents don't want them to be together, that he must be her soulmate.
What.
It blows my mind. For the rest of us, it seems to obvious. A 12 year old should not be sharing a bed with a 25 year old. That's pretty gross. But to these young girls who believe so much of what the media puts out there, what tv tells them, what the internet tells them, who don't know what their parents aren't communicating with them, who don't have the role models that most of us can turn to for help... it's a culture that is very dominant and if the world ends on dec. 21st, I sincerely hope that it's a social end to all these terrible problems our society needs to unite against.
Monday, December 3, 2012
day 544: being old is kind of fun
Sup amiguitos.
So, here's an idea: Being old is kind of fun. Your thoughts?
I mean for me, there're a number of things that prompt this idea for me. First and foremost, it's almost my birthday. On the 11th, I turn 25 years old. That's a quarter of a century. I can test drive nice cars if I want to. I can rent a car without the "you're under 25" fee. People think of me as more mature because hey, you're twenty freakin five years old. But if I screw up, hey- you're only twenty freakin five years old!
What a nice age.
On top of that, I'm group 17. Group 16 has just cos'd (Close Of Service) and only a few 16ers remain (tears. so many tears. I miss them all). This means that my fellow 17ers and I are the vets of Peace Corps Peru right now.
We are the grizzled veterans, the ones who've gone through the gauntlet to emerge, scarred and triumphant, regaling the young-uns with tales of amazing feats and woe. How weird is that? Seriously weird. But pretty cool.
I think I'm going to really enjoy being old. Right now, I'm getting there. Slowly, but surely, the years are passing by and I'm aging. Right now, though, even if I'm calling myself aged and wise, I know that I'm kind of an idiot and too young to really understand it.
I accept that.
I'm freaking out, mostly, about my future. I have roughly 7 months remaining as a peace corps volunteer and I have no idea what I'm going to do once my service is over. I was really motivated to go to school, but I realized that I had no idea what I wanted to specialize in.
Do I go to med school? The idea of someone's LIFE being my responsibility, that as a doctor I am definitely likely to be responsible for the death of someone... I don't think I could ever survive the weight that would have on my conscious. Still, medicine fascinates me and how the human body works is just absolutely insanely cool.
Do I go to law school? The idea of a life of paperwork makes me want to scream, and that's just the idea of it. Law is an interesting subject, especially in relation to medicine and health. How do you balance moral right and wrong versus legal right and wrong? It's an interesting thought. Law school is definitely still in the back of my mind.
Do I get a Master's in Public Health? I was definitely thinking of this. I had a bunch of schools and programs in mind, I had a bunch of applications downloaded and essays written. And then I realized, I would have to apply with a concentration in mind. What did I want to specialize in? Global health? Epidemiology? Statistics? And more! I narrowed my choices down to 5 different concentrations in Public Health and there was no way for me to decide on one except for casting dice or something else as equally irresponsible and left to the fates.
No, I've decided that I need to get a job that'll help me figure out what it is that I want to do. Plus, whether or not I'll even need a degree to pursue it. I might get a job and find out that having a master's degree works against me. I do NOT want to waste time and money to get ahead only to find myself farther behind!
Plus, I've been in Peru for 2 years. The states are so different and will be so different when I return. I mean, I just found out you can pay for things using your cellphone. Like, what? Seriously? Mind. Blown.
The rate of technology is seriously cray. I mean, talk about me getting old. I am so out of the loop it's ridiculous. But that's something I'm really excited about for when I return. Here, I don't expect my kids to have internet in their homes. I don't expect volunteers to read my emails or answer my phone calls because chances are, there's no signal and internet is slower than a concussed turtle. I'm one of the lucky few to have internet access on a daily basis (sometimes at home or if I set up shop in the municipality) which is both awesome (fb, pinterest, tumblr, email, time wasting potential at maximum capacity) and terrible (time wasting potential at maximum capacity, no one else has what I have, sometimes having it and sometimes not makes me unable to dismiss and ignore it... it's like gambling, I'm heavily addicted).
So once I'm back in the states, I know that most if not all of my friends are as connected as I will be. I won't have to worry about calling someone because I don't know if I have enough money on my phone to do it, and others being able to call/text me back will be normal. Side note: the cell phone system in Peru is god awful, but it's better than Mexico from what I hear. I'm really excited to get a phone in the states. I think a smartphone will take some getting used to since my current phone can send/receive calls and texts, has a calculator, and one game called "jewel quest" that I managed to get to the elusive level 51 before it pissed me off and I restarted it.
So yea, I'm excited to be nearing the end of my service. I know I complain a lot about things in my site, but I'm also really sad about the idea of leaving. Partially because of all the things I mentioned (no longer being a PCV means I have to face all the issues coming up in the future) but also because I'm a good volunteer. The work I'm doing, I'm good at. I love the kids in my site. I love my host family. I have found my groove, even if it gets kind of crazy sometimes, and I'm really going to miss the pace of life. Things work differently in Peru and although 70% of the time, the pace really clashes with 24 years of growing up the way I was raised, the other 30% of the time, I can really really really appreciate it. And that 30% weighs pretty heavily.
Anyway, it's my birthday in a week and I'm really excited. In 3 weeks, it'll be xmas, which I'll be celebrating with some friends in Ecuador. Before you know it, time is going to fly by in the blink of an eye. I can hardly believe that I've been in Peru for nearly 2 years now (a year and a half, more like). I can't imagine what the future has for me, but I really hope I'm happy in it.
So yea, that was just a quick update cause I feel like I haven't written in this blog for so long and I wanted to let you know what was up. December 1st was world AIDS day and I had a volleyball tournament in my site with some of my youth and their teachers. A bunch of 19ers came for in service training and they were super stars!
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
day 509: peace corps makes me feel like i suffer from a psychological disorder
Friends.
Today was a shitty day. Which is weird because this past weekend was spectacular.
I think my emotions are broken. I think Peace Corps has succeeded in breaking my feelings. If my sentiments were palpable, I'm pretty sure they'd be in tiny pieces, scattered all over Peru, like ashes in the wind.
So last weekend was the 16er despedida. I dressed up as a dragon (specifically, Drogon- the super awesome one from Game of Thrones), we drank, we ate, we laughed, we danced, and we swam in a lake for a while too. It was great, but I could feel myself falling into a dark, pensive state. I couldn't help myself from thinking about how soon the 16ers would be leaving, how sad that would make me in the next few months, and how my time in PC is slowly but surely coming to an end.
This kind of thought usually results in me freaking out about my lack of future plans- job? school? which one? am I qualified? deadlines? letter of recs? etc. etc. etc.
Still, I had fun and knowing this was the last hurrah for my lovely la lib 16ers, I was happy. And then the weekend ended and everything went to shit.
My municipality has lost my work plan and solicitude at least 3 times, and every time I go in asking about the progress, I am told that they need another copy. I've been into the office at least 2-3 times a week to figure out what is going on. Just a couple of weeks ago, my alcalde said that he would be giving everything we need to run the escuela de padres in one of the schools. YES. After 2 months of annoying everyone, it was finally going to get moving.
Not.
Last week, my alcalde told me to get the forms and things on Friday. I went to the municipality, the alcalde wasn't there (surprise, surprise) and the secretary told me that he would call him and see what's up. I was told to return on Monday because the alcalde needed to look at the paperwork once more.
I show up on Monday, nothing is ready, I'm told to come back on Tuesday. I show up today and lo and behold, still nothing is ready. They ask me to hand them another copy of the entire work plan, as well as a detailed explanation of what I will be using the funds for. Now, this is a project that my socia has been working on, and she's the one who knows all these details. I give her a call and let her know that there's a problem- the solicitude she turned in does not match the amount she's asking for in her work plan. She tells me she'll go to the muni tomorrow and work that out. I sigh, shake my head, and let her deal with that.
Then I turn in my formal solicitude to use the auditorium, sound system, and projector for a movie night I will be doing with my youth group for the day of halloween. The idea is to offer the youth an activity that is fun and doesn't involve drinking/smoking- which is what they would be doing if they go to the discotecas as many had planned on doing that night. I had talked to my muni last week to ask for this space and got a verbal "oh yes, absolutely, no problem, I'll write you down right now." With that, my kids sold tickets and were super pumped.
Today, the secretary turns to me and says that the space is no longer feasible- there is some activity going on that they forgot about.
What.
I'm seriously getting tired of working with my local government. It's slow and they make promises that they don't keep. They are all liars, is what it comes to in my head.
Sadly, I'm losing it at this point. I start cursing like a sailor, realize that I'm saying all these things out loud, explain to them that I'm going to cry, and walk out of there. I give a few other volunteers a call and literally, no one is answering. I give up after the 5th no answer and lose faith in everyone and everything.
Instead, I ride over to the school and try to get in touch with my youth kids. I'm talking to the vice principal and ask if it's possible if we use their space. I meet with the director who says I can use the auditorium, but I'll have to talk to another person about the sound system. I talk to this person who says I can't have the large system because it's broken, but I can use the smaller one- except I have to go buy a cable because they've lost theirs. Also, the sound system does not connect to my laptop, so it's pointless anyway.
I am losing my mind at this point and about to scream/pull out my hair/burst into tears.
I give the secretary another call and ask that if we can't do it on wednesday, can we hold the event on thursday? I'm given the green light.
So the whole point was to do this activity on Halloween, as a way of encouraging the youth to partake in activities that won't get them drunk, pregnant, riddled with disease. That's not going to happen, but at least it'll still be good practice for my youth group...
Sigh.
By the time I got home, it was noon... and to be honest, I had had my fill of BS for the day.
I am now declaring the rest of the evening a free day. I will be buying a large box of besos de moza, a handful of chocolates and chips, possibly a bottle of wine, some polla a la brasa, and curling up to a night of movies and books.
Tuesday is also supposed to be my one free day of the week, but I was asked to teach an english class. Pretty sure I'm going to cancel that and let them know that I'm sick and won't be able to make it.
Let's finish today. Today needs to end now. Ok, that's all.
Hopefully the next post is sooner and happier.
Love you all
peace
k bye.
Today was a shitty day. Which is weird because this past weekend was spectacular.
I think my emotions are broken. I think Peace Corps has succeeded in breaking my feelings. If my sentiments were palpable, I'm pretty sure they'd be in tiny pieces, scattered all over Peru, like ashes in the wind.
So last weekend was the 16er despedida. I dressed up as a dragon (specifically, Drogon- the super awesome one from Game of Thrones), we drank, we ate, we laughed, we danced, and we swam in a lake for a while too. It was great, but I could feel myself falling into a dark, pensive state. I couldn't help myself from thinking about how soon the 16ers would be leaving, how sad that would make me in the next few months, and how my time in PC is slowly but surely coming to an end.
This kind of thought usually results in me freaking out about my lack of future plans- job? school? which one? am I qualified? deadlines? letter of recs? etc. etc. etc.
Still, I had fun and knowing this was the last hurrah for my lovely la lib 16ers, I was happy. And then the weekend ended and everything went to shit.
My municipality has lost my work plan and solicitude at least 3 times, and every time I go in asking about the progress, I am told that they need another copy. I've been into the office at least 2-3 times a week to figure out what is going on. Just a couple of weeks ago, my alcalde said that he would be giving everything we need to run the escuela de padres in one of the schools. YES. After 2 months of annoying everyone, it was finally going to get moving.
Not.
Last week, my alcalde told me to get the forms and things on Friday. I went to the municipality, the alcalde wasn't there (surprise, surprise) and the secretary told me that he would call him and see what's up. I was told to return on Monday because the alcalde needed to look at the paperwork once more.
I show up on Monday, nothing is ready, I'm told to come back on Tuesday. I show up today and lo and behold, still nothing is ready. They ask me to hand them another copy of the entire work plan, as well as a detailed explanation of what I will be using the funds for. Now, this is a project that my socia has been working on, and she's the one who knows all these details. I give her a call and let her know that there's a problem- the solicitude she turned in does not match the amount she's asking for in her work plan. She tells me she'll go to the muni tomorrow and work that out. I sigh, shake my head, and let her deal with that.
Then I turn in my formal solicitude to use the auditorium, sound system, and projector for a movie night I will be doing with my youth group for the day of halloween. The idea is to offer the youth an activity that is fun and doesn't involve drinking/smoking- which is what they would be doing if they go to the discotecas as many had planned on doing that night. I had talked to my muni last week to ask for this space and got a verbal "oh yes, absolutely, no problem, I'll write you down right now." With that, my kids sold tickets and were super pumped.
Today, the secretary turns to me and says that the space is no longer feasible- there is some activity going on that they forgot about.
What.
I'm seriously getting tired of working with my local government. It's slow and they make promises that they don't keep. They are all liars, is what it comes to in my head.
Sadly, I'm losing it at this point. I start cursing like a sailor, realize that I'm saying all these things out loud, explain to them that I'm going to cry, and walk out of there. I give a few other volunteers a call and literally, no one is answering. I give up after the 5th no answer and lose faith in everyone and everything.
Instead, I ride over to the school and try to get in touch with my youth kids. I'm talking to the vice principal and ask if it's possible if we use their space. I meet with the director who says I can use the auditorium, but I'll have to talk to another person about the sound system. I talk to this person who says I can't have the large system because it's broken, but I can use the smaller one- except I have to go buy a cable because they've lost theirs. Also, the sound system does not connect to my laptop, so it's pointless anyway.
I am losing my mind at this point and about to scream/pull out my hair/burst into tears.
I give the secretary another call and ask that if we can't do it on wednesday, can we hold the event on thursday? I'm given the green light.
So the whole point was to do this activity on Halloween, as a way of encouraging the youth to partake in activities that won't get them drunk, pregnant, riddled with disease. That's not going to happen, but at least it'll still be good practice for my youth group...
Sigh.
By the time I got home, it was noon... and to be honest, I had had my fill of BS for the day.
I am now declaring the rest of the evening a free day. I will be buying a large box of besos de moza, a handful of chocolates and chips, possibly a bottle of wine, some polla a la brasa, and curling up to a night of movies and books.
Tuesday is also supposed to be my one free day of the week, but I was asked to teach an english class. Pretty sure I'm going to cancel that and let them know that I'm sick and won't be able to make it.
Let's finish today. Today needs to end now. Ok, that's all.
Hopefully the next post is sooner and happier.
Love you all
peace
k bye.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
day 483: river raft race continued!
Alright, boys and girls.
So last time, I left y'all with the pre-rafting story. Let's move on.
Day of the raft race and the boys and I are pumped. We will survive! is basically our motto. We get our stuff, head over to the meeting point, and we're off to Nauta to begin the race. Waiting for this bus, we're starting to realize that everyone else seems to have come with a load of stuff to pimp out their boats- plastic chairs, paint, flags, etc.
We brought... ourselves.
After the ceremonies and welcomes and all that, we have a little bit of time to wander around Nauta and we decide to start looking for some things we might want to put on our boat. We settle on some small plastic stools and one plastic chair.
Yea, that'll do.
The big boat comes, we get ourselves on it and off we go, just across the river to where our logs are waiting to be constructed into rafts!
Our initial plan was, do what we can and when we can't figure out what to do, higher a local to help. This didn't exactly workout because some Peruvian youth basically refused to let us do anything on our own and more or less started moving logs with us and constructing our raft. Ah well, we're all youth development volunteers for a reason, I suppose. Our raft turned out pretty boss though and it was dubbed "Duro as F*ck" because that's exactly what it was.
We finally finished our raft, starving and dehydrated. Lunch was provided at around 5pm that evening and when they ran out of water, they gave us beer. Warm beer, mind, but still - awesome. Sadly, I was seriously dehydrated and after informing one of the workers "if I don't get water, I will walk into this water and drown myself in it," I was lead onto the boat and given 4 bottles of water.
LIARS.
But now, I wasn't thirsty anymore. Histrionics really pay off sometimes! We got our raft built, ate our food (btw, the food was catered by people that the iquitos municipality uses to cater their events. Basically, it was seriously delicious. Except breakfast. Breakfast was rather weak considering it was going to be the meal fueling us. They gave us one piece of bread with a little bit of meat (think, a thin piece of deli ham). And juice. Basically, that's less than what I eat for breakfast when I'm NOT working out. Thank the dear lord we were warned about the lack of food and brought enough snacks to keep us mildly well fueled during the rafting!) and went to bed, pumped for the next morning.
The day of the race and oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boooooooooyyyyyy! Like the beautiful volunteers we are, all the PCVs helped each other lift their rafts and get them into the water. Almost brought tears to my eyes how easily we come to the aide of one another. During this time, unfortunately, while we were all trekking back to shore to get the next raft in, I see one of my boys on the sidelines, surrounded by peruvians and looking rattled.
What?
He looks over and is clearly concerned about what has happened- I GOT STUNG BY A STINGRAY, he laments.
WHAT?
We walk over, wondering where the medic is, and he explains that he lost his sandal in the water and was searching for it when he felt something stab him. When he shook his foot, something flew off and went back into the water. We can see that there is a hole in his foot (small, like a needle got jabbed into him) and finally someone comes to check on his foot.
The man smacks his foot a few times, squeezes the area, and asks how that feels. They conclude- it's not a stingray. He got stabbed by some other creature with a barb, but it's not poisonous and he'll be fine.
Sillyness.
So we get back on our raft and float on over to the center of the river. THE RAFT FLOATS! YES! Finally, the whistle is blown and we start paddling. Paddle, paddle, paddle, paddle.
So last time, I left y'all with the pre-rafting story. Let's move on.
Day of the raft race and the boys and I are pumped. We will survive! is basically our motto. We get our stuff, head over to the meeting point, and we're off to Nauta to begin the race. Waiting for this bus, we're starting to realize that everyone else seems to have come with a load of stuff to pimp out their boats- plastic chairs, paint, flags, etc.
We brought... ourselves.
After the ceremonies and welcomes and all that, we have a little bit of time to wander around Nauta and we decide to start looking for some things we might want to put on our boat. We settle on some small plastic stools and one plastic chair.
Yea, that'll do.
The big boat comes, we get ourselves on it and off we go, just across the river to where our logs are waiting to be constructed into rafts!
 |
| On the boat, heading to the other side of the amazon river! |
They use a lotto name drawing to assign us some logs that have already been pre-divided into 8 a piece. Of course, there are actually a couple of Peruvian teams who had shown up earlier that day and had already begun constructing their rafts. There is a mild uproar about it, stating how unfair that is, but nothing is done to solve the issue. We get issued our logs and start constructing.
 |
| Moving our balsa logs to start constructing. |
 |
| We were given a machete, an axe, a hammer, nails, and a rope. Prior to this, the founder of the raft asked us gringos to please not use the machetes, and to hire locals to do this part for us. Psh. We showed him. |
We finally finished our raft, starving and dehydrated. Lunch was provided at around 5pm that evening and when they ran out of water, they gave us beer. Warm beer, mind, but still - awesome. Sadly, I was seriously dehydrated and after informing one of the workers "if I don't get water, I will walk into this water and drown myself in it," I was lead onto the boat and given 4 bottles of water.
LIARS.
But now, I wasn't thirsty anymore. Histrionics really pay off sometimes! We got our raft built, ate our food (btw, the food was catered by people that the iquitos municipality uses to cater their events. Basically, it was seriously delicious. Except breakfast. Breakfast was rather weak considering it was going to be the meal fueling us. They gave us one piece of bread with a little bit of meat (think, a thin piece of deli ham). And juice. Basically, that's less than what I eat for breakfast when I'm NOT working out. Thank the dear lord we were warned about the lack of food and brought enough snacks to keep us mildly well fueled during the rafting!) and went to bed, pumped for the next morning.
The day of the race and oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boooooooooyyyyyy! Like the beautiful volunteers we are, all the PCVs helped each other lift their rafts and get them into the water. Almost brought tears to my eyes how easily we come to the aide of one another. During this time, unfortunately, while we were all trekking back to shore to get the next raft in, I see one of my boys on the sidelines, surrounded by peruvians and looking rattled.
What?
He looks over and is clearly concerned about what has happened- I GOT STUNG BY A STINGRAY, he laments.
WHAT?
We walk over, wondering where the medic is, and he explains that he lost his sandal in the water and was searching for it when he felt something stab him. When he shook his foot, something flew off and went back into the water. We can see that there is a hole in his foot (small, like a needle got jabbed into him) and finally someone comes to check on his foot.
The man smacks his foot a few times, squeezes the area, and asks how that feels. They conclude- it's not a stingray. He got stabbed by some other creature with a barb, but it's not poisonous and he'll be fine.
Sillyness.
So we get back on our raft and float on over to the center of the river. THE RAFT FLOATS! YES! Finally, the whistle is blown and we start paddling. Paddle, paddle, paddle, paddle.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Sarabeth B |
Clouds above are starting to look a bit ominous when flash! Lightning! Thunderstorm! Woo! The water is amazing bliss and the choppyness of the waves is actually a relief- anything that isn't still water is welcome. But wow, I'm losing it. We're so close, I can see the boat. We'd been playing catch up and pass with a number of other rafts and feeling the urge to stay ahead (turns out, all of us are kind of secretly really competitive people), we paddle. I feel like I'm going to cry. I'm exhausted, hungry, and I just want this stupid race to be over. I scream obscenities at the water, and curse the race. "Woah, look at that." We look behind us and see the wind from the storm has kicked up a giant cloud of sand that's whipping around behind us. Wow. Glad we missed that. Finally, we make it to the end and grab some food.
You're the second international team to make it! Katoo is there, apparently we were right on his tail. Woah, nice! There are cameras immediately in your face and you're not even off the raft yet. They ask for words of advice, and Z responds "just keep paddling."
Lol.
We get off the raft and head straight for food. I apologize for my freakout and my lovely lovely teammates assure me that it wasn't as bad as I thought I was (I'm sure they were lying to me, but I love them for it anyway). Then we get out of our nasty river clothes, grab some beers, and chill out on this super chill spot that one of my guys randomly discovers. Brilliant.
At this point, I realize I am ridiculously burnt and my face hurts. But not so bad that a cold beer doesn't solve it. We watch as night falls and rafts slowly make their way in. Many rafts are towed that day, and some have to abandon ship and cannot complete the race. No one seems really bummed though, and dinner is delicious. There's another presentation, and the dances are seriously awesome. It's obvious that these kids have practiced hard to coordinate their moves, but sadly the storms hits and it hits hard. Rain POURS and we move from the tents to random classrooms and spaces indoors. By the morning, though, the rain has cleared but clouds remain.
Day 3. Competitive spirit kicks in. We realize we've done well these past two days, and today is the final day. We can continue this. International teams are sent off first, with national teams to follow afterwards. This does level the playing field a bit, as we realize that all of us are now clustered close enough to each other that we'll be rafting in view of one another for the most part. We had stocked up on more snacks the previous night, but snacks were more or less forgotten (except when Z would shove cookies into J's mouth). We kept paddling, trying to distance ourselves from the rest but finding that our pace was more or less the same. "We'll pass em through endurance" says Z, and he's right. When teams pause to drink water and stretch, we keep going- stopping only long enough to swap sides and reapply sunscreen. But the sun is hidden behind clouds and it's actually rather chilly. Captain's log: Peruvian teams started after us but are flying by already. One kind team (a family) notices us and gives us a lighter, smaller paddle for me to use. How sweet of them! Balls, as reported by crew, are at an all time high.
Finally, the river bends and we're in this rather open area. We can see a few teams are on the left, but we stick to the middle of the river. Finally, all of us slow down. We can't tell where to go- the river seems to turn right, but the ms word paint map given to us shows nothing of the kind. Everyone slows and gets confused. I look over and see our support boat. Is that our support boat? "No, that's a bus" says J. Ah, so it is. It's on the sand. It's a sand bus. Suddenly, rafts are disappearing into this sand.
I think we all went kind of insane at this point.
Turns out, there's a very small channel that goes upstream and can only be seen if you're on the left side, looking for it. We passed it. FRACK. We start paddling like maniacs, against a strong current, trying to get into this little inlet of a stream. We get grounded on the sand and I jump out and just push our raft. We finally get to where we're supposed to be and the entire battle is upstream.
Remember that sand bus? Yea. It really is our support boat. It seems we're at the end when we see a boat waving a green flag and a red flag in circles. I don't think that means anything, in flag talk. What is going on. We see another raft ahead and realize, the support boat does not signify an end. There's still more to paddle. Exhausted, we keep getting caught on sand banks. I get frustrated. Captain's log: I hate everyone on this raft. Everyone on this raft hates me. I don't want to paddle anymore. Spirits are shattered and I want to strangle the person waving those flags... with those flags.
A storm hits. Waves get super choppy, wind blows sheets of rain into our face. Locals stare and do nothing to help us. We reach a point where the river splits and we have to decide to go left or right. What? So many people are going to get lost at this point, why is there nothing here to indicate that you must go left or right? We stare in each direction and notice that there is a small, bright pink and green dot in the distance on the left. That must be another raft, we decide, and go left.
It looks so close but it takes us nearly another hour to cross this small stretch of water, battling rain and wind and current. We finally get there and shivering in the cold, crawl out. They tell us to head over to this giant building made of columns. It's freezing. Captain's log: No, this time balls are at an all time high. The boys agree.
We get to the columns and are greeted with cold beer and girls in tight clothes advertising said beer. We down one, and grab a second before heading up the stairs. We find out that the support raft was grounded by the same sand banks we were getting caught on, but the bigger problem was that some mechanic bit was destroyed. All of our stuff (aka dry clothes) are on this boat.
Shivering, we're immediately swarmed by people with cameras and microphones. Someone puts a mike in my face and asks, "do you plan on doing this again?" my immediate response is "no. absolutely not." I get food, get water, and I can tell that the team feels kind of bad- we could have won had we not missed that left turn. Argh. But still, we finished! WE JUST FINISHED THIS MOTHER EFFING AMAZON RAFT RACE.
#WINNERS
We continue to watch as people start coming in. The water is coming down so hard, now, you can barely see the river. We were right about that right/left split- teams who managed to get all the way to the end, missed the left and went right. They were literally within site of the end but due to a lack of visibility and directions from the raft race group, missed it. Obviously, they were disappointed at having to abandon ship in the last stretch so hopefully in future years, the race will do something to fix that.
Everyone is cold and wet, hoping our stuff makes it back to us at some point. But before then, the winners are called up. First, the national teams- the family that lent me the oar won in the mixed category! Then they started calling the international teams.
As each first place and second place winners of the all male team, the all female team, the mixed teams are called up, my mates and I are looking at each other. We definitely made it in before some of these teams, or at least were right on the tails of some of the first place winners. I'm thinking, naw, we're not gonna win... but there's a part of me that refuses to leave and stays while they call the mixed team winners.
In second place, "Oar We There Yet?"
Eyes. Huge. We just look at each other for a second and then with giant smiles, make our way up to the stage. I can hear PCVs shouting and I just can't believe it. We won? This is insane. Absolutely insane.
But insane as it is, turns out it's true! We came in second! I look out at the crowd of cameras and videos, and the man standing next to me asks where we're from. I tell him, all over the USA but oh! Peace Corps! He calls out "Cuerpo de Paz" and all the PCVs in the crowd start cheering. So Awesome. We're to collect our prize money the day after. On top of all that, we're allowed to keep our oars as a token!
Actually, we ended up taking the money and eventually leaving the oars. I wanted mine, but in terms of luggage space, it just didn't make the cut :c
 |
| The boys < 3 |
 |
| Captain Song getting paid cash money (S/3000 for the team!) |
 |
| WHAT UPPPPPP! |
Sadly, all this money was spent in an instant, paying for this jungle trip. Pretty sure I should have saved some of it, considering my general state of broke... but I had a fantastic trip!
Tell you more about that later, though.
ALRIGHT forgot to end my last post with my usual so here, times two, I leave you with peace and love!
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
day 482: oh boy, do i have a story to tell you!
SUP AMIGITOS
Jeez, it's been super forever since I last logged on here to tell you what's up. Well, let's be honest, there really wasn't much happening. September has come and gone (wake me up, when September eeenndds~), it was full of ups and downs and the usual roller coaster ride...
Oh, and I participated in the world's longest river rafting race down the Amazon River, for 3 days, on a raft constructed out of 8 balsa logs, a machete, a saw, some nails, a hammer, and a rope. Came in second place in the international mixed category too.
Say WHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAATT?
Yea, that's right, I am now officially a RAFTER baby! Woo! So let's get you some details.
The 14th annual Great Amazon Raft Race was held on September 20th and my team, "Oar We There Yet?" was composed of me and 3 other PCVs whom I love and adore. Those three boys of mine are musicians. No one on this raft had much rafting experience. We were excited at the prospect of surviving through all of this. We knew it was going to be tough, but just how tough?
Well, let's just say getting to the day itself was an adventure. First, we had to get our vacation request forms in. I sent mine months ahead of time, so I was set. Of course, 2 of my boys waited until the last minute and one of them didn't make the cut (max 45 volunteers for any given holiday event and he was number 46- on the waiting list). Thankfully, a few people ended up dropping out and he made it!
Next, we had to figure out how we were going to pay the entrance fee ($600 per team of 4 people). Individually? In dollars? We ended up paying one person who happened to be in Iquitos anyway and paid the fee for all of us. That wasn't so bad. Except the director of the race then contacted me a month later and asked me for a copy of the receipt of our deposit. Now, that's just silly. Who's going to hold on to a piece of paper for that long? Plus, the only thing the paper had printed on it was the date and the operation number, which I had already sent them. The director lady insisted, so I said we'd see what we could do.
We could do nothing. I contact the lady and explain that she needs to go to the bank and look up the operation number. She responds back that she is no longer working there for personal reasons (something about a baby? I don't know. It was seriously personal. I was really surprised she shared that info with me.) and tells me to contact someone else. I contact someone else and repeat my story and get a really quick response that boiled down to, "Oh, ok, don't worry about it, we got this."
Awesome.
So that got figured out alright, after a week or two of worry and stress. And then it came time to buy plane tickets. Well, when I went to first purchase them, tickets were at about $110. I thought, maybe it'll go down? I was right! A week and a half or so later, it goes down to $95. I whip out my credit card, all ready to pay, and BOOM- REJECTION. They won't let me pay online with an international card. I have no money in my national bank at this point, so I can't pay with my national card. DAMN!
I run into the capital city the following weekend, and head to the airline office. They are closed randomly this weekend do to maintenance. BOOM-REJECTION part deux. So, I pull cash out of my american account, deposit it into my peruvian account, and try to buy the tickets again. BOOM-REJECTION take 3. Now what?! Turns out, I have to have my national card set up so that I can pay for things online or some ridiculousness. ARGH.
After another few days of trying to sort things out, I finally get the card to go through and buy my tickets, now marked up to $140. Whaddyagonnado. As I'm setting this all up though, I notice that the website maintenance has finished. The day I buy my tickets, they allow me to reserve a seat and buy my ticket (with my american card, if I so desire) the next time I'm in the regional capital. HEAD. DESK. REPEAT.
Whatever. Tickets are bought, I'm badgering my team to get their tickets. One of my boys is having issues buying things online so a few days before we're set to leave, he heads into the airline office to buy tickets and gets stuck with a lady who refuses to accept his card which states that we are legally peruvian residents and demands that he pay the non-resident price (which is seriously jacked up- a gringo tax? that's b.s.). He refuses and we can't figure out why this lady doesn't understand that the card attached to our passports clearly indicates that we are living in peru. He gets understandably annoyed, leaves, and gets another plane ticket.
Shiny.
So finally the day comes, I am scrambling to get all my last minute work done so that things still happen while I'm away from site for the next few days. Eventually I find myself some time to pack and I'm throwing things into a bag like I'm going to be away for months, not just a week. Get myself on a bus where 2 of my boys are and off we go to Lima!
We get off in Lima and head to a Korean restaurant.
SIDE STORY: So, during training (like more than a year ago), my mom met a priest who was going to be serving in Peru. She sent him something and asked him to please take it to Peru and send it to me while he was here. He agreed, but never sent it to me. I tried to contact him a number of times, but not understanding how to dial phone numbers since I didn't get a cellphone until the end of training, never managed to. He magically calls me one day and explains to me that he's been holding on to this electronic device for the past year and a half now, and needs to give it to me because he's heading back to the states. I explain that I do not live near Lima, but will be heading there someday. He tells me that he's going to leave it with some mysterious Korean man who attends his church, and that I should look for him the next time I'm in Lima. I thank him, jot down a phone number and address, and shrug my shoulders- no idea what my mom was trying to send me. Then, a week later, I realize that HEY! I'm going to Lima! Not for very long (a few hours), but enough time to stop by and find this man. I confer with my teammates and they agree that sure, we should go, and then eat at a Korean restaurant nearby since they have never had Korean food before.
Ridiculous. Korean food is amazing. I insist we must go at least to eat.
So I call this mysterious man, explain that I'm the girl who the priest left something for, and he recognizes me and tells me that he'll see me at his shop (Korean food specialty store). We make our way there, find the man, and he hands me this tiny little lego.
Wait. What? A Lego? Yea. I bought these little speakers for my ipod and it looks like a lego piece. THIS IS WHAT MY MOTHER HAS BEEN TRYING TO SEND ME FOR THE LAST YEAR. I seriously lol'ed in the shop. And then we ate Korean food, and it was super rico because I haven't had Korean food in FOREVER and the boys liked it, but it's obvy not the best I've had (which would be, ya know, my mom's food... but still)
Anyway, back to the story. Sorry for the randoms.
We get to Lima and then head to the airport to fly into Iquitos (max, 2 hours). Fun fact, they give you beer on LAN. Auspicious beginnings, my friend, auspicious beginnings.
While waiting for the one who took a different flight, the rest of us sat around in the hot jungle climate and sang (remember how all three of them are musicians? well fear not, a guitar and cajón were most def present during the trip.)
It was tons of fun and had me super ready for this race! We are all reunited, get swamped by guys trying to more or less drag us into their motos and taxis, and finally figure out that rather than spending a lot of money, we can get to our hostel for like S/1 if we take a combi right outside of the airport. Nice.
The hostel (Green Track Hostel) is fantastic. The room is air conditioned and brilliant, and I sleep on and off until the day comes! RAFT TIME!
I'm going to go to bed now and leave you with this. Promise to continue my story tomorrow~
edit: wanted to leave you with a new and original song made up on the spot by zack and jbibb at the airport (super catchy... and about the girl working at the snack shop on the other side of the window) but my video's won't load for some reason... meh. i'll try to upload it when my internet isn't so poopy.
Jeez, it's been super forever since I last logged on here to tell you what's up. Well, let's be honest, there really wasn't much happening. September has come and gone (wake me up, when September eeenndds~), it was full of ups and downs and the usual roller coaster ride...
Oh, and I participated in the world's longest river rafting race down the Amazon River, for 3 days, on a raft constructed out of 8 balsa logs, a machete, a saw, some nails, a hammer, and a rope. Came in second place in the international mixed category too.
Say WHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAATT?
Yea, that's right, I am now officially a RAFTER baby! Woo! So let's get you some details.
The 14th annual Great Amazon Raft Race was held on September 20th and my team, "Oar We There Yet?" was composed of me and 3 other PCVs whom I love and adore. Those three boys of mine are musicians. No one on this raft had much rafting experience. We were excited at the prospect of surviving through all of this. We knew it was going to be tough, but just how tough?
Well, let's just say getting to the day itself was an adventure. First, we had to get our vacation request forms in. I sent mine months ahead of time, so I was set. Of course, 2 of my boys waited until the last minute and one of them didn't make the cut (max 45 volunteers for any given holiday event and he was number 46- on the waiting list). Thankfully, a few people ended up dropping out and he made it!
Next, we had to figure out how we were going to pay the entrance fee ($600 per team of 4 people). Individually? In dollars? We ended up paying one person who happened to be in Iquitos anyway and paid the fee for all of us. That wasn't so bad. Except the director of the race then contacted me a month later and asked me for a copy of the receipt of our deposit. Now, that's just silly. Who's going to hold on to a piece of paper for that long? Plus, the only thing the paper had printed on it was the date and the operation number, which I had already sent them. The director lady insisted, so I said we'd see what we could do.
We could do nothing. I contact the lady and explain that she needs to go to the bank and look up the operation number. She responds back that she is no longer working there for personal reasons (something about a baby? I don't know. It was seriously personal. I was really surprised she shared that info with me.) and tells me to contact someone else. I contact someone else and repeat my story and get a really quick response that boiled down to, "Oh, ok, don't worry about it, we got this."
Awesome.
So that got figured out alright, after a week or two of worry and stress. And then it came time to buy plane tickets. Well, when I went to first purchase them, tickets were at about $110. I thought, maybe it'll go down? I was right! A week and a half or so later, it goes down to $95. I whip out my credit card, all ready to pay, and BOOM- REJECTION. They won't let me pay online with an international card. I have no money in my national bank at this point, so I can't pay with my national card. DAMN!
I run into the capital city the following weekend, and head to the airline office. They are closed randomly this weekend do to maintenance. BOOM-REJECTION part deux. So, I pull cash out of my american account, deposit it into my peruvian account, and try to buy the tickets again. BOOM-REJECTION take 3. Now what?! Turns out, I have to have my national card set up so that I can pay for things online or some ridiculousness. ARGH.
After another few days of trying to sort things out, I finally get the card to go through and buy my tickets, now marked up to $140. Whaddyagonnado. As I'm setting this all up though, I notice that the website maintenance has finished. The day I buy my tickets, they allow me to reserve a seat and buy my ticket (with my american card, if I so desire) the next time I'm in the regional capital. HEAD. DESK. REPEAT.
Whatever. Tickets are bought, I'm badgering my team to get their tickets. One of my boys is having issues buying things online so a few days before we're set to leave, he heads into the airline office to buy tickets and gets stuck with a lady who refuses to accept his card which states that we are legally peruvian residents and demands that he pay the non-resident price (which is seriously jacked up- a gringo tax? that's b.s.). He refuses and we can't figure out why this lady doesn't understand that the card attached to our passports clearly indicates that we are living in peru. He gets understandably annoyed, leaves, and gets another plane ticket.
Shiny.
So finally the day comes, I am scrambling to get all my last minute work done so that things still happen while I'm away from site for the next few days. Eventually I find myself some time to pack and I'm throwing things into a bag like I'm going to be away for months, not just a week. Get myself on a bus where 2 of my boys are and off we go to Lima!
We get off in Lima and head to a Korean restaurant.
SIDE STORY: So, during training (like more than a year ago), my mom met a priest who was going to be serving in Peru. She sent him something and asked him to please take it to Peru and send it to me while he was here. He agreed, but never sent it to me. I tried to contact him a number of times, but not understanding how to dial phone numbers since I didn't get a cellphone until the end of training, never managed to. He magically calls me one day and explains to me that he's been holding on to this electronic device for the past year and a half now, and needs to give it to me because he's heading back to the states. I explain that I do not live near Lima, but will be heading there someday. He tells me that he's going to leave it with some mysterious Korean man who attends his church, and that I should look for him the next time I'm in Lima. I thank him, jot down a phone number and address, and shrug my shoulders- no idea what my mom was trying to send me. Then, a week later, I realize that HEY! I'm going to Lima! Not for very long (a few hours), but enough time to stop by and find this man. I confer with my teammates and they agree that sure, we should go, and then eat at a Korean restaurant nearby since they have never had Korean food before.
Ridiculous. Korean food is amazing. I insist we must go at least to eat.
So I call this mysterious man, explain that I'm the girl who the priest left something for, and he recognizes me and tells me that he'll see me at his shop (Korean food specialty store). We make our way there, find the man, and he hands me this tiny little lego.
Wait. What? A Lego? Yea. I bought these little speakers for my ipod and it looks like a lego piece. THIS IS WHAT MY MOTHER HAS BEEN TRYING TO SEND ME FOR THE LAST YEAR. I seriously lol'ed in the shop. And then we ate Korean food, and it was super rico because I haven't had Korean food in FOREVER and the boys liked it, but it's obvy not the best I've had (which would be, ya know, my mom's food... but still)
Anyway, back to the story. Sorry for the randoms.
We get to Lima and then head to the airport to fly into Iquitos (max, 2 hours). Fun fact, they give you beer on LAN. Auspicious beginnings, my friend, auspicious beginnings.
While waiting for the one who took a different flight, the rest of us sat around in the hot jungle climate and sang (remember how all three of them are musicians? well fear not, a guitar and cajón were most def present during the trip.)
It was tons of fun and had me super ready for this race! We are all reunited, get swamped by guys trying to more or less drag us into their motos and taxis, and finally figure out that rather than spending a lot of money, we can get to our hostel for like S/1 if we take a combi right outside of the airport. Nice.
The hostel (Green Track Hostel) is fantastic. The room is air conditioned and brilliant, and I sleep on and off until the day comes! RAFT TIME!
I'm going to go to bed now and leave you with this. Promise to continue my story tomorrow~
edit: wanted to leave you with a new and original song made up on the spot by zack and jbibb at the airport (super catchy... and about the girl working at the snack shop on the other side of the window) but my video's won't load for some reason... meh. i'll try to upload it when my internet isn't so poopy.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
day 434: it's a palindrome! also, work. it got nuts.
SUP FRIENDS!
Feeling way better than I was that other day. See? I just need a few days for the glums to go away~
I don't actually have much time to be writing this, but that's exactly what I wanted to write about: WHEN DID ALL THIS WORK HAPPEN???
A few months ago, my days were pretty lax and pretty much crazy boring. My nutrition class fell through when the grant got pushed back a few months, my english classes were still there but student numbers were down to like 4 people. The Family/Sexual violence committees were doing their own work plans so it was just a matter of waiting for them to finish, and my youth group was on vacation. I had literally nothing to do, so I went to Trujillo and sat at a café for hours, I did my nails, cleaned my room a lot, watched 2 seasons of The Wire, read a bit more of Game of Thrones, finished another book called "why do men have nipples" (don't ask... but interesting), and sat in bed. A lot.
Well, dear friends, all that is done and over with. I'm working on the nutrition grant due the end of this month, I have a sex ed group about to start in Pacasmayo, my VA.y.A. youth group is clamoring to meet, I have an english nutrition program that needs to be completed within the next month, I'm working with a lady to get an escuela de padres formed and running in one of the schools so we're working on getting money from local organizations and the municipality, I'm researching gardening/how to create your own garden to convert my english kids into an environmental awareness group, I just got a call from a lady who lives in CHEPEN who wants to work with me to work on how to get a bunch of rowdy delinquents in line (no idea how this one will play out, but we'll see), and the family/sexual violence group is starting to make moves next week.
DEAR LORD GIVE ME STRENGTH AND THE ABILITY TO CONCENTRATE.
My head is hurting just writing all this down.
On top of all this, I gotta get work DONE before I head into Lima in 3 days for a week of med checks and training and getting to see allllll my lovely 17er youthies < 3 and I'll be leading some short training sessions for PSN while I'm there
Plus I'm running a 10k on the Sunday right before I head back to site.
I feel like sometimes I don't make good decisions, even though those decisions are for good things. But all this busy'll pass, like it or not, and my ride on the PC ride continues.
That's all for now! Gotta go eat something before I burn out, go teach my english class, review 2 documents to turn into 2 municipalities and a cement factory, and finish up year one of the nutrition document. EEP!
Vamanos Amigos!
With Peace and Love~
Feeling way better than I was that other day. See? I just need a few days for the glums to go away~
I don't actually have much time to be writing this, but that's exactly what I wanted to write about: WHEN DID ALL THIS WORK HAPPEN???
A few months ago, my days were pretty lax and pretty much crazy boring. My nutrition class fell through when the grant got pushed back a few months, my english classes were still there but student numbers were down to like 4 people. The Family/Sexual violence committees were doing their own work plans so it was just a matter of waiting for them to finish, and my youth group was on vacation. I had literally nothing to do, so I went to Trujillo and sat at a café for hours, I did my nails, cleaned my room a lot, watched 2 seasons of The Wire, read a bit more of Game of Thrones, finished another book called "why do men have nipples" (don't ask... but interesting), and sat in bed. A lot.
Well, dear friends, all that is done and over with. I'm working on the nutrition grant due the end of this month, I have a sex ed group about to start in Pacasmayo, my VA.y.A. youth group is clamoring to meet, I have an english nutrition program that needs to be completed within the next month, I'm working with a lady to get an escuela de padres formed and running in one of the schools so we're working on getting money from local organizations and the municipality, I'm researching gardening/how to create your own garden to convert my english kids into an environmental awareness group, I just got a call from a lady who lives in CHEPEN who wants to work with me to work on how to get a bunch of rowdy delinquents in line (no idea how this one will play out, but we'll see), and the family/sexual violence group is starting to make moves next week.
DEAR LORD GIVE ME STRENGTH AND THE ABILITY TO CONCENTRATE.
My head is hurting just writing all this down.
On top of all this, I gotta get work DONE before I head into Lima in 3 days for a week of med checks and training and getting to see allllll my lovely 17er youthies < 3 and I'll be leading some short training sessions for PSN while I'm there
Plus I'm running a 10k on the Sunday right before I head back to site.
I feel like sometimes I don't make good decisions, even though those decisions are for good things. But all this busy'll pass, like it or not, and my ride on the PC ride continues.
That's all for now! Gotta go eat something before I burn out, go teach my english class, review 2 documents to turn into 2 municipalities and a cement factory, and finish up year one of the nutrition document. EEP!
Vamanos Amigos!
With Peace and Love~
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
day 432: and boom, depression. wtf.
Friends, family, strangers,
I'm not feeling so great.
No, no, no, I haven't yet been invited to the world of parasites and gastrointestinal discomforts as my other volunteer friends have (we're hoping for a parasite of some kind though, preferably one I pick up in the jungle that no one knows about and it gives me super powers so I can fly, or become invisible, or read minds, or be able to regenerate, or become alex mack).
Alas, I'm just feeling regular down in the dumps, only the issue here is that I don't know why. Do you ever get that weird feeling? Like somehow, you just realize that no one in the world likes you. All your supposed friends actually don't care about you and are just being polite, dealing with your presence and wishing you'd just leave them alone.
I don't know. I just get this feeling, sometimes, when I'm talking to people, that they really don't want to be talking to me. I feel like a waste of space.
It's a horrid feeling. I wish it'd go away. But I'm afflicted by this emotion every few months. Back in the states, when this happened, I'd do something to get my mind off of it:
1. Bake or cook. You can't really think of things when you're trying to get a recipe right or trying to decide on whether adding slivered almonds would make a dish tastier or disgusting. Plus, you get to eat afterwards.
2. Hit the gym. Blast music on my ipod and workout so hard, I'm sweating into my eyes and I can't think of anything but how much I hurt/will hurt later.
3. Mall. Retail therapy is fun, but just looking at stuff in the mall, trying things on without any intent to buy, perusing electronics and silly gadgets, all with a smoothie or an iced coffee in hand is probably one of those cures for all maladies.
4. Drugs. No, I'm not talking about doing crack cocaine or heroine, but going to the store and picking out a nice pinot noir or trying a new german riesling I haven't had before, and just curling up with a book and a glass or 3 is nice. Sitting on a porch in the middle of winter with a mug of spiked hot chocolate or irish coffee and a cigarette. Having a cold IPA while sun bathing on the roof, my ipod blasting something fun- amazing.
5. Hanging out with friends. Being around the people I was convinced didn't like me, only to find out that actually, they're pretty pleased to be hanging with me was the best way to cure these little mini episodes of blah.
I CAN'T DO ANY OF THESE THINGS IN MY SITE! Probably explains why I'm feeling so glum. It doesn't help that it feels like so many people are leaving me. Of course, it's not personal, but I can't help but still be sad by it.
Bah. The roller coaster that is my emotions in Peace Corps continues. I don't know when I'm going to get off this ride. I'm going to go and try and make a box of mac and cheese, and then eat it all. Maybe I'll feel better then.
Maybe.
Peace and love.
< 3
p.s. next week marks my official 1 year in site! I'll be heading to Lima for our yearly med checks plus another few days of training, and possibly will be running a 10k if I can figure out how to get my registration form and money to the office in time. We'll see.
I'm not feeling so great.
No, no, no, I haven't yet been invited to the world of parasites and gastrointestinal discomforts as my other volunteer friends have (we're hoping for a parasite of some kind though, preferably one I pick up in the jungle that no one knows about and it gives me super powers so I can fly, or become invisible, or read minds, or be able to regenerate, or become alex mack).
Alas, I'm just feeling regular down in the dumps, only the issue here is that I don't know why. Do you ever get that weird feeling? Like somehow, you just realize that no one in the world likes you. All your supposed friends actually don't care about you and are just being polite, dealing with your presence and wishing you'd just leave them alone.
I don't know. I just get this feeling, sometimes, when I'm talking to people, that they really don't want to be talking to me. I feel like a waste of space.
It's a horrid feeling. I wish it'd go away. But I'm afflicted by this emotion every few months. Back in the states, when this happened, I'd do something to get my mind off of it:
1. Bake or cook. You can't really think of things when you're trying to get a recipe right or trying to decide on whether adding slivered almonds would make a dish tastier or disgusting. Plus, you get to eat afterwards.
2. Hit the gym. Blast music on my ipod and workout so hard, I'm sweating into my eyes and I can't think of anything but how much I hurt/will hurt later.
3. Mall. Retail therapy is fun, but just looking at stuff in the mall, trying things on without any intent to buy, perusing electronics and silly gadgets, all with a smoothie or an iced coffee in hand is probably one of those cures for all maladies.
4. Drugs. No, I'm not talking about doing crack cocaine or heroine, but going to the store and picking out a nice pinot noir or trying a new german riesling I haven't had before, and just curling up with a book and a glass or 3 is nice. Sitting on a porch in the middle of winter with a mug of spiked hot chocolate or irish coffee and a cigarette. Having a cold IPA while sun bathing on the roof, my ipod blasting something fun- amazing.
5. Hanging out with friends. Being around the people I was convinced didn't like me, only to find out that actually, they're pretty pleased to be hanging with me was the best way to cure these little mini episodes of blah.
I CAN'T DO ANY OF THESE THINGS IN MY SITE! Probably explains why I'm feeling so glum. It doesn't help that it feels like so many people are leaving me. Of course, it's not personal, but I can't help but still be sad by it.
Bah. The roller coaster that is my emotions in Peace Corps continues. I don't know when I'm going to get off this ride. I'm going to go and try and make a box of mac and cheese, and then eat it all. Maybe I'll feel better then.
Maybe.
Peace and love.
< 3
p.s. next week marks my official 1 year in site! I'll be heading to Lima for our yearly med checks plus another few days of training, and possibly will be running a 10k if I can figure out how to get my registration form and money to the office in time. We'll see.
Friday, August 10, 2012
day 428: travel broadens the mind, so they say
HELLO FRIENDS
So it's been a while, my bad. Last time I wrote was in regards to a quinceñera where I died and then woke up a few hours later to find I had spent the morning passed out. It was alright, considering everyone I knew was either teenaged or a parent. Still, got into some drinking circles and sat around and chatted. It was fun.
What I want to talk about right now, though, is my trip during Fiestas Patrias here in Peru.
What is Fiestas Patrias? All I can tell you for sure is that it's like the biggest mother effin holiday in Peru celebrating its Independence. But imagine your thanksgiving, independence day, christmas, and new years rolled up and shoved into the span of a few days (well, more like 2 weeks in my site). Seriously. Intense. I'm given a few days off to celebrate and rather than stick around in site, I decided to take advantage of this time and go travel.
Destination: Chachapoyas, Amazonas.
So my besties and I did all these touristy things during our 4 days here, like go see the ruins in Kuelap.
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| I said he couldn't get our faces and that sign with this shot. So he got just the faces and the sign. Nice. |
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| Aw, look at how happy we are to see old things. |
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| Look! Fake house. |
Went mini spelunking in some caves to go look at some stalagmites (on the ground) and stalactites (on the ceiling), but mostly went cause walking around in mud makes funny squishy noises that make me giggle.
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| The whole group! We met up the other 3 who happened to have had the same idea as us :D The more the merrier, I always say! |
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| Our boots coming out of that cave! |
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| THIS GIRL AND HER HORSE. I fell in love. No, stealing small children and their adorable pets is not beneath me. Hide yo kids, hide yo pets. |
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| See the sarcophaguys? |
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| These girls followed us after leading a few horses down the hill to pick flowers and laugh- a LOT. So friggin cute. I died. |
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| See the waterfall in the back? Yea, we hiked to that. |
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| WATERFALL! Pictures cannot describe. |
Chachapoyas was a seriously amazing trip. I had a blast and felt so lucky to be in this world where things like these exist, to be part of a human race that has survived for so long and created such amazing things, and to be there with friends who I love and who love me? I'm probably the luckiest girl in the world.
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| These things are called juanes. They remind me of tamales/humitas. But they're a million times better. Eat them. They're jungle food. |
I have a year left, now, to do as much as I possible can in my little site that I now call home. I don't know if I'll be able to leave if my work here doesn't feel complete. Every day, there is just more and more of a chance that I might just stay a third year. I know, I need to get moving on my life and apply to schools and get a job and keep moving forward. I know that there's more for me to do in this world. I just can't shake the feeling that if I don't get my work done while I'm here, I can't go. Not yet. Not until I'm sure my projects won't die when I'm gone. But given all of these thoughts, I can't help but feel so damn pleased that I'm here right now, living in a part of the world that allows me the chance to see so much in such little time. PERU IS FRIGGIN AMAZING. And the volunteers here really can't be beat!
So yea, just wanted to let all of you know how happy I am, with my work and my friends and... well, with life. I know lots of PCVs leave service wishing for something different, but I have to admit that for me, this experience is just getting better and better. I only have a year left, but then again, I HAVE A YEAR LEFT!!
Med checks and another In Service Training is coming up in a few days. I get to see all my lovely youthie 17ers, and get these cavities worked on... But until then, I gotta keep moving!
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| OR EVEN BETTER a package! This amazing one here brought to you by my one and only Momo <3 love="love" momo="momo" you="you"> |
WELPS that's all for now! Sending lots of love and happy thoughts in your direction (yea you, you lovely, lovely person, you). Leave me some comments, they make me happy.
PEACE AND LOVE < 3
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| Love < 3 |
Sunday, July 22, 2012
day 409: a quinceñera and now it's 5 in the morning
Friends!
So I went to my second quinceñera since being in Perú, and this experience was way different from the last.
Just a few quick thoughts to jot down before I slam full force into my bed and pass the effffff out (it's seriously 5am right now):
1. We passed by 2 other giant parties on the way to this one. Apparently, a lot of girls are turning 15. For those of you not in the know, La Quinceñera (aka the 15th birthday) is super important (think sweet 16 but more intense and ingrained in a culture) for girls (it's the 18th bday for boys, and it's not as intense). Not only that, the teens I know told me that they were some really popular girls whos parties were tonight. It was going to be parties based on popularity tonight.
2. The amount of time, money, and energy that is spent on a quinceñera rivals marriages, proms, and every other giant party that I've ever been to that focuses on a woman.
3. I still feel extremely uncomfortable around kids who are drinking, even those at the legal age of 18. Before I passed the pitcher of beer, I asked the kid "how old are you" and only gave it to them if they told me 18. They could have been lying, but then it got picked up by a few of the kids who only passed the beer to those over 18 (idea being: more for us) so that was kind of awesome. Still, lots of smokers and drinkers. Not excessive, but still underage. Too difficult to fight, will have to work to ignore desire to go on an anti-smoking/drinking campaign.
4. For me, more fun than the kids are the adults- especially the parents of the bday girl. The dad was already drunk and ranting about how much he loved me like a daughter and how grateful he was that I was there to do such amazing work for kids like his daughter. The mom invited me to a whole bunch of other ladies who told raunchy jokes and made me join their drinking circle. This was near the end of the festival but it was a hell of a lot of fun.
5. Heels suck but when you finally get one to fit (that was orignally 0.5 a size short) it feels worth the pain
6. It's really difficult to say no to sharing wine with a bunch of people who are members of the bdays family, including her parents. However, their goal is to get smashed and my goal is to get out of there in one piece. Our differences in opinions tend to collide more often on these....
that's all i could think of now. my face is melting off of my skull and is already in a puddle in my bed. The rest of me needs to go catch up. lve you all.
peace and love.
-sue
Friday, July 20, 2012
day 407: future trepidations
Hey Friends,
So I'm going to chuck a load of mind thoughts on here right now. Ready? K. Here we go:
I've been thinking about the future. Not like, in the timey, spacey, in the year 3000 future but the immediate, less than a year from now, what is my life going to be- future. I'm 24 years old and I still can't figure out what I want to do. Since forever, I wanted to be a doctor. I was going to go to medical school, learn everything about humans and diseases and all the stuff in between, and I was going to help people in a way they couldn't help themselves.
Boom. Plan. Done.
Not so much. Around my senior year of college, it hit me that I wasn't prepared to go to med school. I mean, sure, if someone came up to me and told me "hey, if you come to school tomorrow, you can be a medical student" I'd totally go, but you know what? It was the application process that daunted me.
I didn't understand it.
I know, I should have been on track since my freshman year of college- take classes that would boost my GPA, rock at the science and math courses I would need as a pre-med student, do a lot of volunteer work at the local hospital, make best friends out of all my professors to write me letters of rec, make the MCAT my bitch. Do you know how many of these things I actually did?
Ehrm. None.
That was a dumb move. Or rather, a dumb lack of movement. I really couldn't tell you why I didn't do any of these things. I took classes that interested me, but would prove to be more difficult and involve methods of examination that I did not excel at. I didn't do so hot in my chem classes and basically failed organic chemistry. All my volunteer work revolved around working with youth or school clubs and sports but nothing involving health, I made friends with grad students who T.A'd for the professors because why bother a professor when s/he has a TA? What reason would a TA be except as a giant human sign that a professor doesn't want to be bothered by your questions? Besides, professors are rock stars... I'm a mere mortal and I don't like talking to them. And I never took the MCAT. Studied for it, but never took it. Spent a crap load of cash to take tutored courses for it, but never even signed up for it.
Dumb dumb dumb dumb duuuumb.
Then in my senior year, as a peer to peer counselor and a member of a school club dedicated to the minds of the students, I realized that being a doctor means living in an environment where everyone is suffering. I didn't think I had the ability to separate my empathy from my focus.
It didn't matter though, because I joined the Peace Corps to not only give myself more time to think about all this, but to experience a new culture and to finally be DOING something, instead of just reading about stuff in a book.
But now my Peace Corps service is passing its 1 year mark and in a few months, I'm going to have to start applying for schools again or looking for a job. I don't know what to do. I don't know what my learning has prepared me for.
I have, however, figured out one thing that I'm really good at.
I'm a boss.
Yea, in every sense of the word. Haha, no, but seriously- I'm good at listening, offering advice when it's asked for, I'm good at editing other people's work, getting someone motivated and moving forward, I'm good at knowing silly facts and being intrigued by advances made in not just science but specifically in regards to health and humans, and I can pet an adorable animal for hours on end, and I'm good at helping other people.
I suck at helping myself, though. Dear god, trying to get myself motivated feels like I'm repeatedly bashing my head up against a wall. Getting someone else moving, though? My favorite thing ever.
So if anyone knows of any jobs or career paths out there that seems to fit my talents, let me know? Or if you have any tips on what it takes to get into med school or into a master's in public health, that'd be preeetty good information for me.
Anywho, that's all I have time for right now. I made lunch with my host siblings today (miso sopu and kimbap. They liked it! Yay!) and tomorrow we're making tacos (woooo! cultural things!). Thanks for reading this all to the end, love you all!
Peace and Love.
Sincerely,
Sue
Friday, July 13, 2012
day 400: is there such a thing as too much play?
Hello there friends.
So I'm sitting in Trujillo right now, wasting some time at a wonderful little café called Casona Deza, eating like a Capresse quesadilla on a wheat and deliciously grain-y tortilla and sipping on some key lime lemonade. Yea, I know, my life is hard.
It's kind of funny though. You'll hear a lot of volunteers say things like that- make a comment about how they're luxuriating and laughingly make a sarcastic comment on the difficulty of their lives. To be honest, though, I think we do live fairly basic, simple lives in areas that range from adobe walls, outhouses a mile away and impossible to get to at night, concrete castles, holes in the ground labelled toilet, dirt dust and sand, torrential never ending rains that threaten the next population wiping flood rivaling noah's ark and the perfect storm, mold, flies, moldy flies, etc.
But when we get to the regional capital for that once a month meeting... well, everything is a luxury. Your daily Starbucks run to grab a quick cup of Joe, cause no caffeine is like the full moon to your cafe werewolf? I make it a point to get off my 2 hr bus ride, grab a taxi to take me and all my things to the mall, and spend the next few hours refusing to leave this little part of what feels like the USA. It's kind of ridiculous how much money I'm willing to spend, knowing that the people with whom I work and live by will never be able to indulge the way I'm doing at that moment. I doubt most of them even know of Starbucks, except for what they may have seen on some television show on some american channel.
Do I feel guilty? A bit. Will I stop saving up money just to splurge it all in the capital? Hell to the no. I try to argue that I deserve it, but we all know that's not true. No, what it is is that this kind of luxury and pampering is what I'm used to in the states. It's my old life, and it was comfortable and nice and air conditioned, and I didn't even know how good I had it because that's how good I had it!
I don't even know where I'm going with this, it's just a thought I had for a split second that I just wrote down real quick. I want to go back to the states some day and think back to these days, read my silly rants, and smile with nostalgia. That's all.
Anyway, I was going to talk about vacationing and how much of it I happen to be doing this month. See, normally I go into the regional capital and just chill there for about 2 days, get some shopping things done or mail things done or destressing things done, but this month has been different. This month has been full of group 15 leaving to head back to the states now that their 2 years of service are completed. This month has been the Independence day of my mother country. This month is also Fiestas Patrias, aka Independence day, of my host country. All of this means a lot of travelling, a lot partying, and a lot of time spent not working. Sure, it's isn't just me- the people I work with have dropped the ball on their end a number of times, but that's normal. What's not normal is me choosing to go to a friend's despedida (goodbye party) instead of meeting with socio and rescheduling my meetings. That's weird. It's been happening all this month! Plus, I have plans to travel to Chachapoyas- JUNGLES! WOO!- and I don't feel bad about it.
I love traveling, whaddyagonnado.
August is med checks and the Lima Half Marathon, so I'll be away in Lima.
September is the Amazon River Raft race, so I'll be away in Iquitos doing crazy awesome things.
October is when the 16ers will be slowly leaving us, so more despedidas and saying goodbyes.
I hate saying goodbye. Maybe that's why I feel so bad this month. I'm not just missing days in site and in work, I'm missing all these people with whom I've just started to make good friends with. July is a mixed bag of suck and awesome. Maybe my projects will pick up and things'll get better? Maybe I'm about to go to the post office and pick up a package there that's been waiting for me for about a month and that'll make me feel loved? Maybe I'll get the guitar that my best-y let me borrow restrung and be able to practice and that'll keep me occupied? Maybe I'll go to the beach and half a few beers to celebrate a birthday and another volunteer leaving GAAAHHHHHHHHHHH.
Do Not Enjoy.
But I do know that those who are leaving are off to bigger and better things, because they're just too amazing to not be. The world wouldn't make sense unless all of them were achieving greatness. SIGH. Still doesn't stop me from being kind of sad about it all....
On another note: When travelling, double check whenever going to a place to exchange money. Guy at the money exchange place tried to trick me and then didn't give me all my cash. I sat there and berated him in Spanish, telling him what an awful human being he was trying to steal from a young girl who served in another country as a volunteer to help children, how the kids I teach know better than him, how he lacks any and all valor and should be ashamed, how sorry I feel for his friends and family for being associated with him, and how unfortunate it would be for him to have children and pass on such lack of morals to them. Well, not really the last bit cause that's super mean, but COME ON, lying bastard! Made him give me back all my money and went next door.
Be careful in your travels, friends, because although most people are super awesome, there's always that damn 1% messing up everything for everyone.
Altight, pretty sure the cafe I'm at is like... wtf is this girl just sitting here for more than an hour? Weird one.
So I'm gonna peace out and hope this gloom that's been hanging over my head goes far far away...
Peace and Love,
missing everyone like crazy!
Go get some Starbucks (grande ice caramal macchiatto with soy milk is my go to sugar charged escape in a cup) and think of me <3
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
day 391: I RAN MY FIRST HALF MARATHON!!!
So, my time in Peru has been just a series of firsts and one of my personal goals for these two years has been taking more risks and trying new things.
I just ran my first half marathon. The International Marathon in Pacasmayo was held the 1st of July. I don't know if you recall, but my site is just about 10-15 minutes from Pacasmayo and I had been more or less training to run 21km for 2 or so months.
Here's the problem- I have no markers to indicate my distance so I've just been running based on time. By the time the marathon rolled around, I'd run a maximum of about 1.5 hours in total and I figured, hey- good enough for me!
Yea... here's a break down of what was going on in my head the day of the race:
5:00am: WAKE UP! Holy crap, I'm nervous. Shoot, I didn't get enough sleep. EHRMAGAWD I'm not hungry, god that was a lot of pasta last night. Should I eat something? So many butterflies in my tummy. No, calm down, eat something or you're not gonna have the energy to run later. EAT SOMETHING.
5:30am: Ok, good, bread with some tuna stuff. Maybe that tuna stuff wasn't a good idea. Isn't fish supposed to be good for you? What if I puke cause I ate tuna so early in the morning? My stomach does NOT feel good right now. Uh oh. Whatever, I'll be fine, time to get ready.
6:00am: Good job, you're dressed. Let's pack some stuff for showering after the race then. Let's see, clothes, shampoo, soap, uhm... what else? Do I need anything else? Oh god, I'm going to forget something and hate myself for not bringing it. I pinned my number on, I have my running shoes on, oh! Put on your contacts! Ok... now what.
6:10am: Let's watch some Mad Men, that'll calm me down.
6:45am: OH CRAP! Lost track of time, holy crap, drink some water and get to Pacasmayo!
7:00am: Yay! Look at all these volunteers, all set and ready to go for an awesome run! God, I'm so nervous. My tummy really doesn't feel good. That tuna was a seriously bad idea. Drink water.
7:15am: Omg Omg Omg Omg. At the starting line. Woooooooo so nervous. Wow, look at all these people dressed up and looking strong. Oh god, that woman looks like she's going to flllllly through this race. Oh gosh, I have to pee.
7:25am: I love Peace Corps.
7:26am: Have to pee have to pee have to pee have to pee have to pee have to pee have to pee. NO I DON'T!
7:34am: AAANNNNDDDD WE'RE OFF! Yea, yea, yea, go run ahead of me, I don't care. I'm here to finish, not place.
7:45am: The very first hill... god, this giant cement mountain is gonna suck.
7:48am: Woah, got up that thing, I'm breathing HARD. It's ok, so's everyone else, this is going to be an interesting race. Oh hey! Look at that, now we're running on the road. Coolsies.
8:10am: No, I don't need that water or powerade in a bag yet, thank you very much, here's a little finger wagging at you as I pass by- but thanks for the offer anyway!
8:30am: Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow, running down hills is not fun for my knees. Oh crap, I'm going to have to run UP this thing on the way back, huh? Arghhh.... but you know what? I'm not even sweating that much, my breathing is pretty solid, this is good!
8:45am: Hey! Is this the half way point? We're in Jequetepeque and aw, how adorable! So many people are out to cheer us on! Ah! I know all these people! Hello! Hello! Hola! Boost of energy! Awesome!
9:00am: I'm dying. This is the longest I've run during training. Why don't they put more distance markers?! How far have I been running? WHERE AM I!? WHY WON'T THEY PUT THE KILOMETER MAR- oh, 12km.
9:02am: .................
9:03am: I'VE ONLY RAN A MAX OF 12KM TO TRAIN FOR THIS!? OH GOD! HOW MANY KILOMETERS ARE LEFT???
9:10am: NINE. I'M GOING TO DIE.
9:15am: Alright, no, you'll be okay, you got through all those hills back up and now your legs feel like jelly. That's cool, you just gotta get over this wall, you'll be fine! and what? look at that, you're back where you started and there's only a few kilometers left! I don't think you have to go much further, just down that concrete hill you started at- owowowowowowoowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowow shit. That hurt.
9:20am: I have no idea where I'm going. I wonder how far I have left to go. Dear god, my legs are burning. Take a breather, Sue Song, just walk off some of this.
9:25am: ..... That there is Zack, returning and finishing his run. He was waaaayy ahead of me. If he's just coming back now... Holy crap, this is going to be further than I thought. Better start running again.
9:35am: This is what death feels like. My knees feel like jelly. I'm running on desert sand and crap tons of rocks. This is not fun. Why did I sign up for this? Why did this sound like a good idea? Oh god, another water station. I WANT ALL OF THE POWERADE.
9:40am: Why were those powerades given to me in plastic bags? I got half of it in my mouth and the other half is all over my face/hands. Sticky. So Sticky. I'm going to walk as I drink the next few of these.
9:41am: STOP WALKING. RUN.
9:42am: OOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWOWOWOOWOWOOOOWOWOOWOWOWOWOWOW FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU MY KNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ow ow ow ow ow, sht frack faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaadge! Aw crap, knee just gave out. What do I do? Well, brush off the dirt and rocks sticking from falling and limp on, I guess.
9:45am: What if I really jacked up my knee? Would this half be worth it?
9:45:30am: Yes.
9:47am: Alright, well you've only got like another 2 or 3 km left, you might as well just walk what you can and run when it feels better, but you're going to finish this thing!
10:00am: AWW! My friends who finished came back to find me! God, I love Peace Corps Volunteers! You can do this! Run!
10:05am: HOLY MOTHER OF CHRIST THIS IS PAINFUL. Wipe away the tears, keep going, both calves cramping? You can keep going. My knees are now cramping? That's just weird. I've never felt that before. What a seriously weird sensation. Almost there.
10:15am: CROSS THAT FINISH LINE. Oh god, I FINISHED. I'M AWESOME. YES GIVE ME THAT MEDAL. I AM AMAZING. I SERIOUSLY NEED MEDICAL ATTENTION. SOMEONE GIVE ME ICE AND MORE POWERADE.
That was more a less a breakdown of what was going on in my brains as I ran. I felt SO SORE the next day but thankfully a PCT who was in Pacasmayo shadowing a volunteer had a knee brace and lent it to me for the day so I felt a bit better. A couple friends from another department were visiting so I went to go see them in Trujillo the next day and we went and got these massages- shiatsu and normal- from a treatment center run by blind masseuses. Yea, it was really cool and oh so wonderful. I've never had a professional massage before and this was another first for me.
It will def not be my last. I came out of there purring.
We went and had some Papa John's pizza, which was a huge treat, and the first time I've taken advantage of their Buy One Get the Second for Only One Sole (like a quarter in the states)... I bought and ate an entire family sized pizza. Well, I managed to get half of it before I felt seriously ill, but I ate the rest of it later that night and more some this morning!
So all in all, a fantastic day of firsts. Sadly, I lost my voice from screaming on the day of the marathon (cheering on runners and later that night, being obnoxious while celebrating with my friends) but totally worth it. I have a million meetings happening tomorrow but today is the 4th of July and I'm going to be taking a mini reprieve to celebrate the day of independence of my wonderful country!
I hope all of you are doing amazing things in your life, and happy independence day to all friends and family back home! Love and miss you guys, always!!! Send letters or fun packages if you get the chance cause mail is worth its weight in gold to me, but otherwise I'll see you all in another year's time!
Peace, Love, and Liberty for all.
Sincerely,
Sue
I just ran my first half marathon. The International Marathon in Pacasmayo was held the 1st of July. I don't know if you recall, but my site is just about 10-15 minutes from Pacasmayo and I had been more or less training to run 21km for 2 or so months.
Here's the problem- I have no markers to indicate my distance so I've just been running based on time. By the time the marathon rolled around, I'd run a maximum of about 1.5 hours in total and I figured, hey- good enough for me!
Yea... here's a break down of what was going on in my head the day of the race:
5:00am: WAKE UP! Holy crap, I'm nervous. Shoot, I didn't get enough sleep. EHRMAGAWD I'm not hungry, god that was a lot of pasta last night. Should I eat something? So many butterflies in my tummy. No, calm down, eat something or you're not gonna have the energy to run later. EAT SOMETHING.
5:30am: Ok, good, bread with some tuna stuff. Maybe that tuna stuff wasn't a good idea. Isn't fish supposed to be good for you? What if I puke cause I ate tuna so early in the morning? My stomach does NOT feel good right now. Uh oh. Whatever, I'll be fine, time to get ready.
6:00am: Good job, you're dressed. Let's pack some stuff for showering after the race then. Let's see, clothes, shampoo, soap, uhm... what else? Do I need anything else? Oh god, I'm going to forget something and hate myself for not bringing it. I pinned my number on, I have my running shoes on, oh! Put on your contacts! Ok... now what.
6:10am: Let's watch some Mad Men, that'll calm me down.
6:45am: OH CRAP! Lost track of time, holy crap, drink some water and get to Pacasmayo!
7:00am: Yay! Look at all these volunteers, all set and ready to go for an awesome run! God, I'm so nervous. My tummy really doesn't feel good. That tuna was a seriously bad idea. Drink water.
7:15am: Omg Omg Omg Omg. At the starting line. Woooooooo so nervous. Wow, look at all these people dressed up and looking strong. Oh god, that woman looks like she's going to flllllly through this race. Oh gosh, I have to pee.
7:25am: I love Peace Corps.
7:26am: Have to pee have to pee have to pee have to pee have to pee have to pee have to pee. NO I DON'T!
7:34am: AAANNNNDDDD WE'RE OFF! Yea, yea, yea, go run ahead of me, I don't care. I'm here to finish, not place.
7:45am: The very first hill... god, this giant cement mountain is gonna suck.
7:48am: Woah, got up that thing, I'm breathing HARD. It's ok, so's everyone else, this is going to be an interesting race. Oh hey! Look at that, now we're running on the road. Coolsies.
8:10am: No, I don't need that water or powerade in a bag yet, thank you very much, here's a little finger wagging at you as I pass by- but thanks for the offer anyway!
8:30am: Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow, running down hills is not fun for my knees. Oh crap, I'm going to have to run UP this thing on the way back, huh? Arghhh.... but you know what? I'm not even sweating that much, my breathing is pretty solid, this is good!
8:45am: Hey! Is this the half way point? We're in Jequetepeque and aw, how adorable! So many people are out to cheer us on! Ah! I know all these people! Hello! Hello! Hola! Boost of energy! Awesome!
9:00am: I'm dying. This is the longest I've run during training. Why don't they put more distance markers?! How far have I been running? WHERE AM I!? WHY WON'T THEY PUT THE KILOMETER MAR- oh, 12km.
9:02am: .................
9:03am: I'VE ONLY RAN A MAX OF 12KM TO TRAIN FOR THIS!? OH GOD! HOW MANY KILOMETERS ARE LEFT???
9:10am: NINE. I'M GOING TO DIE.
9:15am: Alright, no, you'll be okay, you got through all those hills back up and now your legs feel like jelly. That's cool, you just gotta get over this wall, you'll be fine! and what? look at that, you're back where you started and there's only a few kilometers left! I don't think you have to go much further, just down that concrete hill you started at- owowowowowowoowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowow shit. That hurt.
9:20am: I have no idea where I'm going. I wonder how far I have left to go. Dear god, my legs are burning. Take a breather, Sue Song, just walk off some of this.
9:25am: ..... That there is Zack, returning and finishing his run. He was waaaayy ahead of me. If he's just coming back now... Holy crap, this is going to be further than I thought. Better start running again.
9:35am: This is what death feels like. My knees feel like jelly. I'm running on desert sand and crap tons of rocks. This is not fun. Why did I sign up for this? Why did this sound like a good idea? Oh god, another water station. I WANT ALL OF THE POWERADE.
9:40am: Why were those powerades given to me in plastic bags? I got half of it in my mouth and the other half is all over my face/hands. Sticky. So Sticky. I'm going to walk as I drink the next few of these.
9:41am: STOP WALKING. RUN.
9:42am: OOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWOWOWOOWOWOOOOWOWOOWOWOWOWOWOW FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU MY KNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ow ow ow ow ow, sht frack faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaadge! Aw crap, knee just gave out. What do I do? Well, brush off the dirt and rocks sticking from falling and limp on, I guess.
9:45am: What if I really jacked up my knee? Would this half be worth it?
9:45:30am: Yes.
9:47am: Alright, well you've only got like another 2 or 3 km left, you might as well just walk what you can and run when it feels better, but you're going to finish this thing!
10:00am: AWW! My friends who finished came back to find me! God, I love Peace Corps Volunteers! You can do this! Run!
10:05am: HOLY MOTHER OF CHRIST THIS IS PAINFUL. Wipe away the tears, keep going, both calves cramping? You can keep going. My knees are now cramping? That's just weird. I've never felt that before. What a seriously weird sensation. Almost there.
10:15am: CROSS THAT FINISH LINE. Oh god, I FINISHED. I'M AWESOME. YES GIVE ME THAT MEDAL. I AM AMAZING. I SERIOUSLY NEED MEDICAL ATTENTION. SOMEONE GIVE ME ICE AND MORE POWERADE.
That was more a less a breakdown of what was going on in my brains as I ran. I felt SO SORE the next day but thankfully a PCT who was in Pacasmayo shadowing a volunteer had a knee brace and lent it to me for the day so I felt a bit better. A couple friends from another department were visiting so I went to go see them in Trujillo the next day and we went and got these massages- shiatsu and normal- from a treatment center run by blind masseuses. Yea, it was really cool and oh so wonderful. I've never had a professional massage before and this was another first for me.
It will def not be my last. I came out of there purring.
We went and had some Papa John's pizza, which was a huge treat, and the first time I've taken advantage of their Buy One Get the Second for Only One Sole (like a quarter in the states)... I bought and ate an entire family sized pizza. Well, I managed to get half of it before I felt seriously ill, but I ate the rest of it later that night and more some this morning!
So all in all, a fantastic day of firsts. Sadly, I lost my voice from screaming on the day of the marathon (cheering on runners and later that night, being obnoxious while celebrating with my friends) but totally worth it. I have a million meetings happening tomorrow but today is the 4th of July and I'm going to be taking a mini reprieve to celebrate the day of independence of my wonderful country!
I hope all of you are doing amazing things in your life, and happy independence day to all friends and family back home! Love and miss you guys, always!!! Send letters or fun packages if you get the chance cause mail is worth its weight in gold to me, but otherwise I'll see you all in another year's time!
Peace, Love, and Liberty for all.
Sincerely,
Sue
Friday, June 8, 2012
DAY 365: ONE YEAR IN PERU!!!!
like WOAH.
One year ago, three hundred and sixty five days prior to today, I flew from the history enriched soils of Washington D.C. (or wherever the airport is around there) and landed in the culturally steeped lands of Peru.
HOLY CRAP. That is mad cray cray.
I have a little over a year left of my service as a Peace Corps Volunteer and there are still a JABILLION things I want to do in my site!! I'll be talking to another volunteer to discuss how to bring hydroponic gardening to my lovely little town, I'm hoping to convert this weird empty space in the comedor poluar into a garden with my youth, I'm still teaching english but I kind of want to stop that now cause it's boring as ffffffffffuuuuuuuuuzzballs, I want my grant to go through so I can start pushing my women's nutrition group to start moving, and I need to go yell at my socia some more to get this youth health promoters group up and running cause I want that shiz going NOW. I also just met an english teacher at one of the schools and I'm helping her translate some documents (by documents, I mean research papers that are super interesting but I can understand why she'd get tripped up by the technical language) but she's also expressed interest in incorporating nutritional charlas into her classes so I'm going to be working with her on a curriculum and hopefully I can help her with some teaching practices that expand outside of the usual "copy and paste" method that teachers have going on. Speaking of english teachers, I'm hoping that in 2 or 3 months, I'll be working on a provincial wide english 2 day workshop for teachers to reinforce grammar and pronunciation, as well as teach more dynamic methods of teaching.
Lots of plans, we'll see how they go!
But for one year in service, I'm really happy with what I have done so far! I've made so many connections and I've learned to give up on a few things, like trying to convert my jail into a youth center... that's just not a one person movement but at least I'm working with a man to try and get a youth council in the municipality! Hopefully that gets up and running by the end of this year, and we get some provincial wide youth activities and what nots going.
On top of work, there are even more things that are hardcore FUN.
Liiiiike, I'm still running the half marathon in a month's time (I laughed at myself, a little, when I said 'run'.... more like dance and walk my way across that finish line. Yea, I'm not gonna win and I'm not taking any of this that seriously, but who cares? I'll live the rest of my life knowing I at least completed a half!), I'm going to be rafting down the Amazon River in 3 months time (in Iquitos, where I will also hopefully spot a pink dolphin and do some pirrhana fishing), I'm hoping to traverse through Ecuador sometime around Christmas, and my beautiful friend from back home should hopefully be visiting me next year so we can run around Cuzco and have a mini dance party in Machu Picchu after hiking some of that Incan trail :D
Man.
I love my life.
Seriously. These have got to be some of the greatest years of my life EVER and I'm only 24! Can you imagine what the rest of my life is going to be like?
SO PUMPED FOR MY FUTURE.
AWWWWMAAAAAAAAAAAAN! LIFE IS AWESOME.
Here's to hoping your lives are going as fantastically as my own, and if not? You hold all the power to go ahead and change it, cause life should be a party and you should be loving it. If the party's starting to feel a little stale, get out of there and go get yourself to the next party! I'm already there, dancing on a table top and screaming for another rouuund for the whooooole bar!!
PEACE AND LOVE, ladies and gents, and may the odds be EVER in your favor <3 <3 <3
One year ago, three hundred and sixty five days prior to today, I flew from the history enriched soils of Washington D.C. (or wherever the airport is around there) and landed in the culturally steeped lands of Peru.
HOLY CRAP. That is mad cray cray.
I have a little over a year left of my service as a Peace Corps Volunteer and there are still a JABILLION things I want to do in my site!! I'll be talking to another volunteer to discuss how to bring hydroponic gardening to my lovely little town, I'm hoping to convert this weird empty space in the comedor poluar into a garden with my youth, I'm still teaching english but I kind of want to stop that now cause it's boring as ffffffffffuuuuuuuuuzzballs, I want my grant to go through so I can start pushing my women's nutrition group to start moving, and I need to go yell at my socia some more to get this youth health promoters group up and running cause I want that shiz going NOW. I also just met an english teacher at one of the schools and I'm helping her translate some documents (by documents, I mean research papers that are super interesting but I can understand why she'd get tripped up by the technical language) but she's also expressed interest in incorporating nutritional charlas into her classes so I'm going to be working with her on a curriculum and hopefully I can help her with some teaching practices that expand outside of the usual "copy and paste" method that teachers have going on. Speaking of english teachers, I'm hoping that in 2 or 3 months, I'll be working on a provincial wide english 2 day workshop for teachers to reinforce grammar and pronunciation, as well as teach more dynamic methods of teaching.
Lots of plans, we'll see how they go!
But for one year in service, I'm really happy with what I have done so far! I've made so many connections and I've learned to give up on a few things, like trying to convert my jail into a youth center... that's just not a one person movement but at least I'm working with a man to try and get a youth council in the municipality! Hopefully that gets up and running by the end of this year, and we get some provincial wide youth activities and what nots going.
On top of work, there are even more things that are hardcore FUN.
Liiiiike, I'm still running the half marathon in a month's time (I laughed at myself, a little, when I said 'run'.... more like dance and walk my way across that finish line. Yea, I'm not gonna win and I'm not taking any of this that seriously, but who cares? I'll live the rest of my life knowing I at least completed a half!), I'm going to be rafting down the Amazon River in 3 months time (in Iquitos, where I will also hopefully spot a pink dolphin and do some pirrhana fishing), I'm hoping to traverse through Ecuador sometime around Christmas, and my beautiful friend from back home should hopefully be visiting me next year so we can run around Cuzco and have a mini dance party in Machu Picchu after hiking some of that Incan trail :D
Man.
I love my life.
Seriously. These have got to be some of the greatest years of my life EVER and I'm only 24! Can you imagine what the rest of my life is going to be like?
SO PUMPED FOR MY FUTURE.
AWWWWMAAAAAAAAAAAAN! LIFE IS AWESOME.
Here's to hoping your lives are going as fantastically as my own, and if not? You hold all the power to go ahead and change it, cause life should be a party and you should be loving it. If the party's starting to feel a little stale, get out of there and go get yourself to the next party! I'm already there, dancing on a table top and screaming for another rouuund for the whooooole bar!!
PEACE AND LOVE, ladies and gents, and may the odds be EVER in your favor <3 <3 <3
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
day 354: long time, no update like woah
For serious y'all.
Sup.
Sorry about that- It's been nearly a month since my last update, but it's sort of been a cray cray kind of few days. Not like I've been doing much, mind, but just things have been happening!
So, I didn't get the VAC position and losing makes me rather cross, but I did get to go to PSN training where I found out that they actually decided PSN members are not allowed to hold other positions so in reality, things turned out for the best there. (Note: As I wrote that sentence, I just took my shirt off because holy moly christ on a cracker, it's getting weirdly warm again. Weird cause the mornings are much cooler and clouded over, which makes for glorious morning runs but I'll talk about that in a bit).
PSN training was pretty much fanfreakintastic. First and foremost, I got to go to Lima for training and hang out with some of the most amazing people to exist ever. Secondly, PSN (Peer Support Network for those out of the loop) is an organization that exists in maybe 50% of all Peace Corps countries. The idea is to offer a peer to peer support network for volunteers through various means, but it's something that didn't really work in Peru. Our training was a combination of legit training-training (counselor stuff and what not) and recreating the bylaws, basically razing down the old and building up the new. I'm super pumped about the new PSN members and our new goals- they're not this froo froo "love yourself" hippie nonsense that remains on this idealistic intangible plane, but concrete and hands on that require PSN representatives who are actually willing to put in effort and time and energy in this work.
Pumped.
Plus, I got voted as Orientation Leader (lost the position of Coordinator and yea, bitter about that because I seriously HATE losing, but the volunteer who got it was suited way better for the position than I and I am totally going to rock as an O.L.)
On top of that, we just had camp ALMA - an all girls camp focused on leadership and future goal planning for girls who come from sites all over my department. Each volunteer brings a few girls and we spent 3 days visiting universities, getting charlas on women's health, vocational planning, team building, doing arts and crafts, playing fun games, and all in all having a blast. It turned out really great and the girls I brought are still talking about it! Coming up is the all boy's camp VALOR and another volunteer and I have volunteered to spearhead this project. I'm super pumped, even though I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing, but if it's anything like the girls camp, it's going to be a blast!
This weekend is our regional meeting to discuss camp VALOR things and I'm trying to get a few things done before then. This weekend actually also marks my 1 year in Peru! Not in site, but the day I flew from Washington D.C. to Peru to start my life as a Peace Corps Volunteer. The other volunteers in my 17er group and I are going to get together this weekend to celebrate but wow... I can't believe I've been in Peru for a year now.
Insanity.
I'm going to hit the beaches of Mancora in 2 weeks time, up in Piura, just cause I've never been and a few people I know are planning to go. Mancora is infamous. For everything. It's going to be a really great weekend. I don't plan on getting sue crazy but it'll be fun to see some Piura volunteers who happen to be in then! Plus Mancora is beautiful from what I hear.
Whaaat elssssssse... Oh! Running!
So I'm not doing too great. The half marathon is coming up in about a month and I'm still nowhere near able to run 13.1 miles. I still can't figure out how many miles I'm running now, but it's definitely less than 6... I also got really sick when I left Lima and hacking up my insides while running next to giant semis carrying wtf and giant buses definitely going over 90km/h to pass said semis.... I find myself severely demotivated.
On the plus side, I've finished books 1 and 2 of Game of Thrones and am diving right into book 3, even though I'm still stuck on Season 2, episode 6 of the show. Gotta finish that show.
Or rather, I gotta get to work. Some of my projects haven't started yet and they make me want to scream bloody murder at my socios while I chuck things at the wall. But I am a civilized lady and will not do that.
Anywho, gotta get myself motivated and moving forward.
Always forward.
Love and Peace <3
Sup.
Sorry about that- It's been nearly a month since my last update, but it's sort of been a cray cray kind of few days. Not like I've been doing much, mind, but just things have been happening!
So, I didn't get the VAC position and losing makes me rather cross, but I did get to go to PSN training where I found out that they actually decided PSN members are not allowed to hold other positions so in reality, things turned out for the best there. (Note: As I wrote that sentence, I just took my shirt off because holy moly christ on a cracker, it's getting weirdly warm again. Weird cause the mornings are much cooler and clouded over, which makes for glorious morning runs but I'll talk about that in a bit).
PSN training was pretty much fanfreakintastic. First and foremost, I got to go to Lima for training and hang out with some of the most amazing people to exist ever. Secondly, PSN (Peer Support Network for those out of the loop) is an organization that exists in maybe 50% of all Peace Corps countries. The idea is to offer a peer to peer support network for volunteers through various means, but it's something that didn't really work in Peru. Our training was a combination of legit training-training (counselor stuff and what not) and recreating the bylaws, basically razing down the old and building up the new. I'm super pumped about the new PSN members and our new goals- they're not this froo froo "love yourself" hippie nonsense that remains on this idealistic intangible plane, but concrete and hands on that require PSN representatives who are actually willing to put in effort and time and energy in this work.
Pumped.
Plus, I got voted as Orientation Leader (lost the position of Coordinator and yea, bitter about that because I seriously HATE losing, but the volunteer who got it was suited way better for the position than I and I am totally going to rock as an O.L.)
On top of that, we just had camp ALMA - an all girls camp focused on leadership and future goal planning for girls who come from sites all over my department. Each volunteer brings a few girls and we spent 3 days visiting universities, getting charlas on women's health, vocational planning, team building, doing arts and crafts, playing fun games, and all in all having a blast. It turned out really great and the girls I brought are still talking about it! Coming up is the all boy's camp VALOR and another volunteer and I have volunteered to spearhead this project. I'm super pumped, even though I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing, but if it's anything like the girls camp, it's going to be a blast!
This weekend is our regional meeting to discuss camp VALOR things and I'm trying to get a few things done before then. This weekend actually also marks my 1 year in Peru! Not in site, but the day I flew from Washington D.C. to Peru to start my life as a Peace Corps Volunteer. The other volunteers in my 17er group and I are going to get together this weekend to celebrate but wow... I can't believe I've been in Peru for a year now.
Insanity.
I'm going to hit the beaches of Mancora in 2 weeks time, up in Piura, just cause I've never been and a few people I know are planning to go. Mancora is infamous. For everything. It's going to be a really great weekend. I don't plan on getting sue crazy but it'll be fun to see some Piura volunteers who happen to be in then! Plus Mancora is beautiful from what I hear.
Whaaat elssssssse... Oh! Running!
So I'm not doing too great. The half marathon is coming up in about a month and I'm still nowhere near able to run 13.1 miles. I still can't figure out how many miles I'm running now, but it's definitely less than 6... I also got really sick when I left Lima and hacking up my insides while running next to giant semis carrying wtf and giant buses definitely going over 90km/h to pass said semis.... I find myself severely demotivated.
On the plus side, I've finished books 1 and 2 of Game of Thrones and am diving right into book 3, even though I'm still stuck on Season 2, episode 6 of the show. Gotta finish that show.
Or rather, I gotta get to work. Some of my projects haven't started yet and they make me want to scream bloody murder at my socios while I chuck things at the wall. But I am a civilized lady and will not do that.
Anywho, gotta get myself motivated and moving forward.
Always forward.
Love and Peace <3
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