dia del padre!

on sunday, it was dia del padre. i spent most of my time with my pops and the fam. i taught my sister how to play poker and she taught me how to play a game she called escalator. in class this week, i switched spanish classes, so now im in a class with ellen and marcus (mark). i also started getting tutored with ellen. rosa maria is tutoring us and she is so wonderful. this week, me, ellen, and biz hiked up to the top of the mountain of huascaran to the cross. it was very beautiful!

thats biz at the top of that mountain:

then, later kyle, zach, and i took another trip up.

other exciting things that happened this week: drag race in huascaran while enjoying drinks at veros corner shop and an earthquake! tomorrow is our camping trip - very very exciting! more to come!

la comida.

today was our first day we didnt have to venture off to the training center. i woke up this morning and had desayunar (breakfast) with my little sis. unfortunately, breakfast is not the most important meal of the day here.. i am usually my hungriest when i first wake up. almorzar (lunch) is most important in peru. for breakfast, i usually have bread and guacamole - or bread and an egg - or just bread. this morning i had bread and guacamole. for lunch today, i had pasta and some kind of carrot-based sauce and pollo (chicken). usually, i have rice and some crazy chicken or potato-based sauce.. and something similar for cena (dinner). they are HUGE on carbs here. and we arent supposed to eat any salads or ceviche for the first 3 weeks - which slowly allows time for our stomachs to get used to peru. honestly, i havent had any stomach problems yet - but we learn in our training that about 90% of us will literally poop in our pants at least once during our service. (heheh) and peruvians call doler en el estomago (a stomach ache) “bicicleta” for some reason - - which means bicycle. hmm.. those crazy peruvians.

en la noche (in the evening), my fellow peace corps peeps and i took a combi to chaclasana. they were having a huge fiesta for their procesion. loads of fireworks, food, cervesas, and people! a few of the trainees live over there, so most of us met up with them at the fiesta. it was a blast (quite literally - with their psycho fuego artificial)!

feeling like a bisca

i had a rough start to the day today.. i decided to switch jackets at the last minute, so i went back into my room and locked my room keys in there. i told my mama - and she said she had no spare! also, i was running late and she hadnt given me my lunch yet. she said something about lunch that i couldnt understand, but because i was running late i didnt have too much time for trying to get what she was saying. i politely said goodbye and left the house with no keys and no lunch. on the way to the training center, i was telling everyone about my morning - not paying attention to anything else - and i walked right in to a huge mud puddle with my dress shoes. everyone was saying, “ashley - ashley!” - but i was in my own little world.

my day did get better though. ryan and i presented our formal/informal project - we were the only ones who took pictures.. smart cookies.

we had spanish at the training center today, where we all obviously had the friday ants in our pants. even our instructor, sara, was super giggly as she taught us valuable words like chin-chon (a head bump) and bisca (a one-eyed person).. heheh

My Spanish Class - the "scared" pose:

(i guess thats biz looking scared)

i also had my interview with my small business development boss. hes the head of peace corps peru business projects. it went so great. he asked how things were going, and i said that my only concern would be my (lack-of) spanish. i told him my background and he took notes. i said i had a lot to give, i was just concerned with how i would give it in my spanglish. he made me feel so much better - “dont think about your spanish right now - youre a smart girl, youll get it.. tell me more about your expectations with your assignment in your permanent site.” i told him i wanted to be in the mountains - and amenities are not necessary. i told him about my experiences with production and quality control. i think hes going to put me in a district working with artisans. he also mentioned maybe being in or close to a district with another PCV who is working onanother project... which would be cool. i just trust his judgment in placement and i told him that.

at the end of the day - we found out some very exciting news!!! my small business development crew and i are taking a field trip with our instructors!!! next weekend, we are driving 3 hours outside of chosica up to the ruins of Marcahuasi! halfway up, there is a very very small town that makes arts, crafts, and cheeses!!! from there, we hike all day up to the top where there are pre-incan ruins - and we will be camping overnight!! the locals are arranging the details for us and horses will be bringing up our supplies.. how exciting!!! we will be 4100 m high - so we’ll see how all of our bodies react to the pressure change, for sure! and on a side note, the director of the entire peace corps peru is coming with us!!! (needless to say, the youth development trainees are super jealous because they dont get to go)

tonight, we went out for julians birthday. my neighbor, cassandra, and i met our friend linda at her house. (shes got a sweet set-up on the roof of her casa) about half of us (25 of us) went to this bar that apparently peace corps volunteers take-over every training period. it was lots of fun. we are a good crew, really. it takes a special type of person to want to join the
peace corps.

poco a poco.

yesterday was awful. i was feeling very down. no means of communicating in espanol with my peruvian family. no time to type.. just to study spanish. once again questioning my purpose in peru.

but, today was much better!

since weve started classes in the training center, weve received 4 shots (4 shots in 2 days). we are getting a total of over 10 shots within the next few weeks, so we are slowly getting used to it.

in the midst of our spanish class, today, we heard a band playing from behind the peace corps ground gates. sara, our spanish teacher, said, “come on, lets see what it is” (in spanish, of course). it was the community’s “procesion” of the heart of jesus. this is something that apparently each community does at different times of the year. there was a marching band and a shrine for jesus that some men were carrying on their shoulders. this was all lead by a woman periodically lighting fireworks from a coke bottle with her cigarette. quite the scene.

 some of the men took a few of the guys to carry the shrine for a few blocks - (they stood out like gringos!)

after class, a few of us volunteers in my town met up at the local store for a beer and some sweet potato chips. i got home and was surprised at the amount of spanish i was able to say to mi mama at dinner. i felt a bit more comfortable with mi espanol. “poco a poco” as they say here in the peace corps... “little by little.”

mi familia.

the training center was of walking distance from retreat, and it is beautiful. someone told me today that its an old house that belonged to a wealthy italian man who passed away, and his wife has given the grounds to the peace corps. its huge and green and beautiful. we spend half of our time in classes outside, surrounded by mountains - and the other half inside with all of the windows opened!

spanish class is completely in spanish - no english is spoken at all. there are 4 people in my class (including myself). we had lunch with our facilitator and she gave us the names of our families. my new family: gladys, ivan, and their daughter galuska. before we finished our lunch, our families came through the wooden doors. and - once again - complete chaos. one lady walked up to our group with her daughter and our teacher said, “tu numbre?” after she said “gladys” i immediately started crying. it could have been the lack of sleep i had the last few days, or the way things happened so fast - but, nonetheless, i was crying. she laughed and gave me the biggest hug and introduced me to my new little sister - shes 16 years old. and just like that, we were off with my bags in a mototaxi (a crazy 3 wheeled car that frequents these peruvian streets). my family is actually the family of naomi - a current PCV (peace corps volunteer) that came to visit us when we were on our retreat... shes now at her main site, all finished with training.

my house is different. mi y mi familia live in the community of Huascaran. its insane. its even crazier than i expected. the houses are all half finished, dogs are running around the roofs of houses, and all over (I MEAN ALLLL OVER) the streets. my familys dogs name is dolly and hes a little terror. he never stops barking at me. naomi (the PCV) warned me of his awful demeanor and told me id better get used to his barks. my room consists of a twin sized bed (thanks, pops, for letting me practice sleeping in the twin back at home), no dresser, pictures of barbies on the walls, and one of jesus above my bed.

shortly after arriving to the house, my parents (gladys and ivan) said, “ashley, ashley... vamos!” and we were out to explore who-knows-where. we took an cumbi (a crazy bus that drives with no rules) to chosica (a nearby city). i had no idea what was going on.. the language barrier was/is the hardest thing. we hoped off and mi papa bought us all chocolate ice cream cones. we walked towards this park and kept walking past. soon, over the horizon, i saw cristo blanco (pictures attached) it was astounding. such a moving moment. i could see that they were pleased... even if i was freaking out in english.

after we left, we went to this weird store where you had to stand outside in a line as if you were going on a ride at disney world. we finally made it to the front, and walked in. it was just like walmart, only completely crowed with short people. i was the tallest person in there, and i stuck out like a sore thumb. when we left there, we went to the market and mi mama bought loads of delicious looking fruits while mi papa, mi hermana, and i watched the stray dogs chase cars on the corner.

when we finally got home, we had ham and bread for dinner and i showed them pictures of my family, friends, and riley. they seemed so interested in america, and i only hoped to speak to them about it someday soon. before bed, i took a shower. noooo hot water... and the shower is in the house, but open to the outside. it got down to 50 degrees tonight! needless to say, i wont be showering to much during my residence in peru.. not to surprised, eh? :)

puerta de la mágica:

my mom and our dog - and my home!

confusion begins.

june 12, 2010

when it all began...

after we got off of the plane - customs was more than a madhouse. we finally got to our baggage at around 2am. to describe the whole scene as chaotic would be an understatement. people running around all 54 of us gringos, shouting in spanish. it was a crazy whirlwind of who-knew-what. the peru peace corps staff was waiting for us - and they were taking pictures of our tired, sweaty, clueless faces as we approached the exit of the airport.

it was 3am when we got to our retreat. and driving through peru at 3am is not something i would recommend to anyone new to

the area. really not the best first impression. dead dogs on the road, seedy looking people all around.. it looked like a scary ghost town. our retreat was next to a popular square in a town outside of lima. we stumbled into our rooms and passed out.

we woke up this morning at 7:30am surrounded by huge, foggy, desolate mountains - basically tall, bare piles of dirt and rocks. we had breakfast and began our seminars. the whole retreat went by so fast.. we had language interviews - which i completely bombed. it kind of got me down about being here and (i hate to say it) i was questioning my decision. but soon afterwards, the director of our program gave us a moving speech about his experience with his own service with the peace corps and what we were about to embark on, so it got me all excited again. obviously this roller-coaster of feelings is common with every peace corps volunteer.