Monday, December 17, 2012

day 558: it's the end of the year, now what?

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.

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, "violaciĆ³n." 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!