BINGO and parihuela!

i havent been writing daily, because ive been so busy. and im sure that my posts will probably come less and less frequent as time passes. but LOADS to tell as usual..

the other day i woke up and showered (my 3rd or 4th shower since my arrival). i cant seem to knock this cold, and the freezing water makes it worse. after my shower, my pops came up to me with a bottle of makers mark that was filled with pisco (the peruvian liquor). he poured me a small glass and told me that it would help with my throat and congestion. of course, even the thought of downing some pisco in the morning made me gag, so i immediately refused and made a puke face to show him my disinterest. he insisted i take at least a sip and said that he and my madre would even take some with me. after our shots of nastiness, i told my parents that i was in dire need of a hair cut. my pops jumped up with excitement and said he would be right back. when he returned, he had a pair of childrens scissors in his hand. so there i was - in my peruvian kitchen with my peruvian parents, taking shots of pisco for breakfast, as my pops cut my hair with mini-scissors.

i also went to a fiesta with my family. it was at my sisters school, and BINGO was the main event. we met up with my dads brother and 2 sisters. (i love my extended family.) there were hundreds of people there, and i was surprised that i only ran into one of my fellow PCTrainees. jim (-bo) was there with his family. after our lengthy familia introductions, i sat back down with the fam and my favorite aunt wouldnt stop talking about how cute she thought jim-bo was. “muy guapo!” she said. it was quite funny.

one of the more exciting things weve done in training was traveling to a school in tres de octubre (a small community outside of chaclacayo) to help some kids work on resume writing. my partner was carlitos (chuck), and we had two children assigned to us. one of the kids wanted to be a graphic designer and the other wanted to teach language in school. quite large aspirations for kids coming from an underdeveloped community such as this. it reminded me of my own goals, and my purpose for being here. very refreshing.

this morning, i walked with casandra through the old chaclacayo cemetery. its so historic, delicate, and beautiful. i was kicking myself in the butt for not bringing my camera and promised myself to take it with me the next time i decide to walk through it.

after our walk, we went to lunch in chosica. i ordered the infamous parihuela, which is a delicious tomato based soup with fish, squid, shrimp, and lord knows what else in it. we had that and ceviche. a lunch fit for a king!

i finally hung my world map and some pictures up in my room today. i got a little emotional when i hung the pictures of my sweet puppy, riley. i miss his unconditional love for me.

my new favorite spot is on my roof. its beautiful during the day, but its another world at night. i walk up the dark, dusty stairs of my unfinished house, headlamp in hand, up to the top of my home. i like to sit up there and look out at the lights of the surrounding towns. i listen to the noises huascaran makes after the sun sets below the mountains. it gives me such a feeling of peace while replenishing my soul..

will write more soon.

marcahuasi.

27 de julio.

camping was more than amazing.

to much to type.

in summary: we did a ton of cool stuff. the 19 (minus mallory and kaysi - because they were super-sick) of us small business volunteers took a camping trip up to some Pre-Incan ruins; we took a bus 3 hours into the mountains in the district of Lima (the drive up there alone was so breathtaking), and got on horses and rode another 3 hours up to the top of this mountain where we stayed overnight.

some awesome things about our trip:
it was freezing.
hiking at night was great.
chicken soup with feet in it.
roasting marshmallows.
very cozy - 5 girls to a 3 person tent.
i saw a fox while peeing on the top of a mountain.
se llama.
down grade cumbi on the way home.

mision imposible

june 16, 2010

today was the hardest day for me. this morning, we met at my house for spanish class, and i got so frustrated towards the middle of it, i cried. yup... i just broke down in front of my teacher, and the other 3 trainees in my group. its only day 3 of training, and i feel like its been about 3 weeks. im mentally exhausted. after spanish, we met as a group at the training center for business meetings. i talked to 2 other girls who cried today, too - so it made me feel a little better. this is seriously intense and its making me crazy. i feel as though i dont have time to even type this - i should be working on spanish.. 24 hours a day - ESPANOL!

june 17, 2010

things are better today.. we had a “mision imposible” project today. we were given a partner and we had to go to chosica (where cristo blanco is) and find an informal and formal business to interview and set up a presentation for friday. my partner, ryan, and i went to a pharmacy (formal) and then we interviewed some shoeshiners in the square (informal). it was fun to get out and walk around and talk to people (of course, ryan is fluent and he did all the talking for us). i have a little spanish homework to do with my family tonight, so we’ll see how that goes after dinner. i might even take a cold shower :)

Ryan with a shoe shiner:

uno loco fin de semana!

it was a crazy weekend.. on saturday morning, we (small business group) took an hour bus ride to lima for some language projects. it was nice to get out and see the capital.

we met all of our language instructors at the main park, where they had a huge television playing the soccer game. the park was crowded with people - it was beautiful. right next to all of this, was the presidents home..

and down the street from us was a dunkin doughnuts, starbucks, and tons of other american stores and restaurants. it was a little over whelming to be coming from little old chacalacayo to such a developed area.

as you can see in this photo -

an overwhelmed jimbo and ashley in the background...

who knows WHAT we were doing.

 while walking around, we wandered into a beautiful church. i snapped some shots of the paintings and statues inside of the cathedral. i was so taken aback by its beauty, i found myself kneeling at an alter - think i may have even said a little prayer.

after the first project, we went with our teams to mira flores - via taxi - where project 2 began. when we finished, linda, boston, and i bolted to mcdonalds for lunch. and, yes, it tasted more than american... and dangerously delicious.

we walked around and decided to have starbucks for dessert. such a marvelous day of food and drink!

linda, boston, and i got super lost trying to find the colectivo area to take us back to home base. colectivos could get us home in half the time a combi would. after asking many people for directions, we ended up taking a combi to some middle of nowhere part of lima, walked through a zoo, a museum, and a park until we decided to just forget about trying to find a colectivo and hop on a damn combi for a 2.5 hour bus ride back to huascaran.

when i finally made it home, it was time for a fiesta with my family. my pops told me about it last week.. all i could get out of it was: saturday night - work party - dancing - invite 4 friends. most of everyone was planning on a discotec night in chosica, so i invited courtney, the cobbs (chris and ellen), and zack.

after i got ready, mi padre called me out to the dinning room to help him wrap a gift for the party.. it was then that i realized what was going on.. the wrapping paper said “baby shower” all over it (peruvians say “baby shower” for baby showers... why i couldnt get that from the prior conversations i had with pops about the fiesta, the world may never know).

i didnt decide to tell my friends that we were indeed going to a baby shower until we were on a combi with my folks about half way there.. which, of course, they all thought it was very funny.

so, let me set things straight for my american friends and family: baby showers here are NOTHING like the ones we have in the states. NOTHINGGG like them! the moment we got there, we were handed small, unlimited cups of booze.. one or two of them made me tipsy. there were more men there than women. a CLOWN arrived and started his show.. immediately picking on us gringos, of course.. all in espanol. my family and the other peruvian people were laughing hysterically at the perverted clown jokes we barely understood. ellen and i had to put diapers on grown peruvian men, and zack and chris had to make a list of something having to do with sexual innuendoes..

then more food - and much more beer. everyone was tipsy - including my parents. my mother confessed her love for me, and her and my pops gave me a peruvian name: “ashlita” - or “lita” for short. and then the dancing began - and never stopped.. all of us... even my little peace corps gringos that wouldnt be caught dancing in normal circumstances (my lovely courtney and zack of course). before i knew it, things got even crazier, the quiet little zack became the life of the party and took over the dance floor, my peruvian mother was throwing up in-between dances, and we even caught her hitting on zack.. at one point, ellen tried to show my father (who could have cared less that my mother was puking) the state that she was in. ellen took him to the bathroom (which was behind a curtain outside), pulled back the curtain, and unveiled my mother pooping on the toilet! hilarious! everyone said that they had the best time ever and were super happy that they came to the fiesta instead of discotecing! we couldnt have imagined a better group of PCTs to have experienced this with!

we didnt leave until close to 4am, and one of the last things i remember from that night was zack was swinging from the handles on the roof of the combi ride home. courtney ended up sleeping over at my house, and we slept until 10:30am - the latest ive slept in a long time. such amazing, crazy times... a freakin peruvian baby shower.

and as if that wasnt enough, the next day was the 4th of july. a volunteer who lives close to the center had a pot-luck party at her host familys house for all of us americans. it was nice.. it started at around 2pm. courtney and i made peruvian finger-sandwiches with avacado, hard boiled eggs, and mayo on freshly baked bread. ryan bought a tres-leches cake that had “happy 4th of july PCTs” on it, and there was tons of food for all. we told everyone the crazy stories from the night before and ate our faces off. i attempted to be social and drink some beer with everyone else, but i just couldnt get into it after the night before - so i went home early with chris and ellen. i walked back into huascaran and knocked on my door only to find that no one was home (i have no keys to the front door). so, i went over to zacks house (who didnt end up coming to the 4th of july party at all) and convinced him to keep me company until my family came back. we walked towards the center and bought a bottle of red wine at one of the shops by the park, where we just sat there and people watched. when the bottle was gone, we were hungry enough to head back to huascaran and call it a night.


so, yeah, this week will be all work and no play - im in need of recovering from a weekend of fiestas!