It`s still hot...

I haven’t written for whiiiile! Looking at my track record, normally I write about 3-4 entries per month (and even then I think it’s quite skimpy), but I have been hit an all time low last month of 2. It’s almost as if my popularity rating dropped-sorry guys! I actually felt like a little kid who is getting behind on homework only I’m not being reprimanded by getting a bad grade or failing a class, instead I am realizing how much better it feels to share this story and experience of Peru with people instead of keeping all the fun stuff to myself and friends here. So, even though sometimes it feels like a chore to keep writing in here, in the long run 3 times a month isn’t that much, and I’ll try to improve the amount I write in here. Here are some of the things that have happened in my life since the last time I wrote.

Well, one of the big things that happened was that I changed my house! I now have two younger brothers, seven and fourteen, a mother who just turned thirty-eight and who I call my older brother (but he is technically my dad). The family is great and sooo much better! They laugh a lot, smile, are hospitable as practically every other Peruvian is, and are enjoyable to hang out with. I live in a part of their house that has a private entrance and living space. It actually used to be an elementary school called “Nino Jesus”. So, I live in Little Baby Jesus’ Elementary School! Haha, so funny! This old school is two stories tall with a roof as well, so it’s like 3 stories…all to me. So, I have a lot of room, privacy, but the family is right there. I always go over for breakfast, lunch when I’m here, and dinner when I’m back in time. It’s nice to feel part of the family but not feel like I am annoying them if I come back late and visa versa. So, after moving in with the family I realized they own the business of setting up all the parties that happen in Palpa! Hah! They have a ton of beer they supply to parties, the stage for bands to play on, and the speaker equipment. So, the municipality party I went to last year for the anniversary of Rio Grande with Beto was put together by this family. Party on! Also learned that my older brother and younger brother have nick names called ‘nino de oro’ which means ‘kid of money.’ Hah! So, the family is pretty well off. Also, the family has an ‘hacienda’ where they grow mangos and export them to Lima and other countries. Soooo many mangos. I helped them load up the truck with mangos to get them ready for exporting and there were so many! My family keeps giving me more and more mangos to eat as a kind gesture, but I am getting sicker and sicker of them! I started getting the ‘bicicleta’ (diarrhea) and I’m pretty sure it’s because I’m eating too many mangos.

Talking about being gifted mangos (as Peruvian’s say), while doing my ‘enquestas’ there was one day when about every house I went to gave me a bag of at least 5 mangos and by the end of the day I had at least 30 mangos! Aaaah! So, discretely that night when I was walking home I dropped off one bag on each street corner being sure no one was watching. I know, it was a waste of mangos. But, there is absolutely no one to give them to! Everyone is trying to give their mangos away because they have too many! So, I guess I gave them to the dogs, unless they too are sick of eating mango scraps.

Well, back to the family, so I also found out just the other day that my family has a beach house. Sweet! So, I have yet to check that out, but between an hacienda, beach house, party planning, and my house on the PanAmerican, I think my time here in Palpa will be quite exciting! Ha!

So, another exciting thing that happened was the visiting of an NGO, Ayuda en Accion, for 2 weeks. They are a Spanish based organization with headquarters based in several countries around the world (from what I understand). Honestly, I felt like this was an NGO that is a perfect fit for me and volunteers in Peace Corps. We are both working on the same projects – water and sanitation. This means, water, toilets, biodigesters, cocinas mejoradas, solar ovens, location of animals, sanitation, trash cleanup, etc. (water and sanitation). This was the first time they came down to Palpa, and they came down to check out the water issues. There are several water systems in the province of Palpa, but one of them is almost 20 years old (San Ignacio). In this system people are getting water once every 4 days and most likely it is contaminated by an upstream mine, so Ayudo en Accion decided it was worth their attention and they are going to dedicate one year to plan a new system before returning to install the system.

That’s the long short of it. Lot’s of other stuff happened too. While the Spanish representative was here, we checked out all the systems the province of Palpa which includes the districts of Santa Cruz, Rio Grande, Llipata, and Igenio (in Nasca). Then we went to all the villages in the water system of San Ignacio, which is 7 villages, and explained to them the water emergency they are in. Explained to the people in each place that they need to take care of their water and not waste it by feeding animals and watering farms and to keep people from steeling water. It was an opportunity for Andres, the representative, to explain his NGO and for me to reiterate my project. And, since both of us are working in the same themed projects, how we are going to work together on this project – me helping them during their one year of planning for the system and them with the installation and funding everything. Pretty sweet pair up if you ask me.

So, now I am working on a water project and it just landed in my lap. The other thing we did with each village was to have them elect someone to be their ‘Promotor’ which is someone who is in charge of making sure the people in the community aren’t wasting their water. I am very excited about this because it gives me a contact person in each village whom I can go to to organize other speeches abouth sanitation and other projects. We put together a packet for the Promotores and I am going to teach them what it means and what kind of work they need to do.

I think this system and its Promotores will be the test run. If all goes well I am going to go to two other systems and have the people elect “promotores” in their area and set up this same network of people to make the community accountable for taking care of their potable water. It will hopefully help reorganize the system for this year and give more people access to more water by illuminating poor use of water.

Next order of business…I was gone from my site for a week which seemed like a loooong time! I was working with 10 other volunteers in a PCVs site to help with a bathroom project for one of her villages she was doing. A group of high school kids came down from the states, B3, to dedicate a week to build bathrooms. We built several bathrooms, burned in the sun, did some tourist stuff which was pretty fun, and saw a little bit of America. It was kind of a reverse culture shock and shows me how much I have become accustomed to Peruvian culture. It was fun though. Good to be around other PCVs and to meet other people. Just got back from there and it’s good to be home. I have decided Palpa has the best burgers and Pisco. This was decided when we went to Pisco for the last part of the B3 visit and had Pisco in the region known for it. And, it wasn’t that great in my opinion. The burger thing was decided there too. A lot of the PCV12s were boasting about how great the burgers were, and I wasn’t that impressed. So, when friends come down I am going to take them to the burger and Pisco place since apparently they are the best in Peru from my opinion now! Mmmmm!

So, friends are coming down this Saturday and I am stoked! Then, my older brother is coming down the weekend after that and we are going to road trip from down south back to the north! Soooo excited! Before getting to all that though, this is the last week of vacations for the kids here which means this is the last week of English and Music classes that I am going to teach for Vacaciones Utiles! I am quite excited for it to be over. Well, it was fun to teach, but I would like to have a little more direction on how to teach an English class. I think when the music classes are over I am going to continue teaching them to kids in the town but on a more one on one basis. I learned teaching a group of 8 kids piano at once is practically impossible. But, they did learn how to read music with their right hand! So that was really exciting!

Well, glad I got back on track with writing in here. Will try to keep it up! Hope the snow is treating everyone well in Iowa, and whoever else is in a cold climate. Don’t feel like you need to rush the sun’s arrival, it’s still hot when the suns out and you’re only going to wish it was cold again.

Chao chao! Besos!