Thursday, November 19, 2009

Donde Voy a Vivir Para el Próximo Dos Años

Two weeks ago, we had the celebratory revealing of site locations after a suspenseful 8 weeks of training and subsequently traveled for a week of Field Based Training (FBT) and site visit. So where am I off too? JUNIN!

Reasons Junin is AMAZING:

1. The 4 Environmental Volunteers of Peru 14 (including me) and a 3rd year Environmental Volunteer are the first PCVs to be sent to work in the departmento de Junin. [FYI: Junin is the departmento (equivalent to a “state” in the US) east of the Lima in the center of Peru.] This means, I am not only the first volunteer at my site, but we are the first volunteers in all of the departamento and first to work with SERNANP officials in the Reserva Nacional de Junin which works to protect the uniquely diverse natural ecosystem around Lake Junin, home to many interesting bird species including the famous Zambullidor de Junin and a nearly extinct Rana Gigante (Giant Frog).

2. At over 4000 meters, we are very likely located at the highest location of all the PCVs sent around the world. Our region around Lake Junin is perfect since it is a plateau…making it also conducive to host the highest railroad and the highest altitude marathon (how cool would it be to say I completed the highest marathon in the world!), and biking is a very realistic method of transportation…that is after you adjust to the lack of oxygen!

3. Junin is beautiful! Pictures to come, but trust me it is incredible and everyone should consider adding it to their long list of must see places in Peru.

4. The people are warm hearted and friendly. A stereotype of Andean communities in Peru is that the people are less affectionate and much more reserved than Peruvians who live on the coast…Junin is definitely evidence of the exception. It is to be expected that you greet friends and new acquaintances with the “European” cheek kiss, striking up a conversation and asking for help is incredibly easy and they are overall generous and eager to share.

5. Quechua is not the predominant language. Many Andean communities, for example many communities in Ancash departamento, speak the traditional language Quechua and while all of the younger generations learn Castellano (“Latin American Spanish”) in school, Quechua is very wide spread making it difficult for PCVs to rely only on Spanish for communication. Surprisingly, the people is Junin speak very little Quechua and while I currently struggle with their slightly different pronunciation and accentation in sentences, I only need to learn Castellano to communicate. Clearly this is not all good, since it means that traditional culture is being lost. But, this culture is plenty present in cooking, dress, celebrations and traditions.

6. And more to come I am sure!

Likely Site Challenges:

1. We are the first volunteers, meaning we lack established connections and know very little about the area and community. It was definitely hard not having any current PCVs to talk with about their experiences…especially when I saw and heard all the excitement with everyone else. Still the excitement of the unknown and potential to be a trail blazer is also very rewarding.

2. New site PCV (aka not a replacement volunteer) has the difficult task of setting up sustainable development program and I have been warned not to set too high hopes of accomplishing impossible tasks in 2 years. Two years is short in regard to any development project, but it is even shorter when nothing is in place to prep your volunteer work.

3. Cold, cold, FREEZING. No one was lying when they said Junin is cold and clearly altitude can prevail over proximity to the Equator. Unfortunately we leave for our sites during the rainy season and without sun, Junin can be unbearably cold. Coming from a girl raised in Rochester (one of the coldest, snowiest, overcast places in the US), I would point out the huge difference it makes when you have no warm haven to hibernate in. Unlike in the US, the buildings are not heated or even insulated and sitting inside hardly feels warmer than sitting outside. During my week long visit in Junin I will shamefully admit that I only showered one day (even though I had 3 nights of warm shower opportunity in a hostal during FBT) and the thought of even removing clothes to change into pajamas was so unappealing that I couldn’t do it some nights. But as much as I am complaining, I will get used to it and during the daytime sun it is quite pleasant. And thinking about positives: no insect bites and I don’t sweat enough to really need a shower right? (don’t judge me!)

4. 4115 meters = inability to engage in physical activity…until I acclimate. Even worse, I found out I don’t do well with altitude sickness, so I will look forward to that every time I move from nearly sea level Lima to over 4000 m Junin. However, once I acclimate, I will be an athletic champ!

That is all I have for now.

Hasta luego,
Lauren

Las Metas del Programa de Manejo Ambiental Comunitario en Perú

Many of you might be wondering what exactly I aim to do as an Environmental Volunteer in Peru. As part of the Community Based Environmental Management program, we have three main goals/targets:

1. Environmental Awareness – work with adults and/or children in formal settings (i.e. town meetings and schools) and/or informal settings (i.e. ecotourism club for children or day to day conversations and actions as a role model) to educate the community on environmental issues

2. Natural Resource Management – concrete project is reforestation (i.e. aim to plant 1000 trees with the community) but many Environmental Volunteers are placed near National Protected Areas and will work with SERNANP (Servicio Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas aka a national park organization) on whatever natural resource management plan they have

3. Community Solid Waste Management – concrete project is promotion of microrelleno sanitary disposal of solid waste (i.e. 1 large landfill or 3 multifamily landfills or 10 family landfills) and minimization of solid waste includes separation into recycling (which will also provide revenue) and organic material for composting (which produces organic fertilizer that could displace cost of buying fertilizer or even provide source of revenue).

Along with these three specific program goals, Environmental Volunteers are also expected to promote strengthening of organizations by working as facilitators for sustainable development. It is also common to incorporate the promotion of ecotourism in the community.

As with all programs within the Peace Corps, secondary assignments are encouraged and can be as diverse as teaching English in the schools, organizing sports for women, AIDS awareness…honestly whatever the volunteer sees as an opportunity and merges the interest of both the volunteer and community members.

I will keep you posted on how I progress with these aims at my site!

Hasta luego,
Lauren

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

¨¡Lauren, mira! tu amiga está caminando abajo¨

I thought it was about time to share a little bit of information about where I live. How do you get to my house? “Walk until the paved road ends, go through the “doorway” carved out of the stone wall, walk through the dirt road, turn, keep walking…” This is really how I give directions to where I live, no kidding. I honestly don’t know even know the address of my house.

I posted pictures of my neighborhood but was not savy enough to add captions for each picture. The first was taken from the top of the hill in my town, the view is great from up there although the area is very dusty making it difficult to fully appreciate the beauty of the mountains since most days you cannot clearly see into the far distance. Which reminds me of a comment on the climate, it is extremely dry here! As you can see, there is very sparse vegetation as a result. In the 5 weeks I have been here, it has only ¨rained¨twice, once while I was sleeping and the second time was the smallest mist of raindrops. I actually miss the rain! The last two pictures are taken from my rooftop/porch area. We have two dogs that stay on top of the roof all of the time. I was surprised when I arrived, I expected the dogs to live outdoors but never expected to see dogs that never leave the rooftop. Perhaps only for intimidation? Although honestly my dogs are the most passively quiet and harmless dogs you can imagine. This is not to say that all of the neighbors have dogs on the roof, plenty of others own dogs that live behind their gated houses and there are still stray dogs roaming around. But in my town there are no overly territorial dogs that attack you when you go running...I am grateful for that!

One interesting observation I have made about the houses in my community is that it is extremely common to see houses only partially constructed. Many people live in houses that are not fully finished and continue to save money to pay for the rest of the construction. For example, most of the first and second floors of my house are empty and construction of those areas has been going on for the whole month that I have been here…and continues. Other houses have materials for building a second/third floor and are just waiting to be finished. Very different than the US, where people choose to live in smaller apartments or houses and wait until they can afford a large (and fully constructed) house.

My house has an awesome view because it is three floors but the main portion of the house is on the third floor (the bedrooms, kitchen, family room) and half of it is an open air roof/porch…still have not decided on the best word to describe it. As a result, my host family uses this area to see who is ringing the door or just people watch. Since I love people watching, it is fun to partake on Sundays when I have a break from training.

One day during the second week after I arrived, my host mother and cousin were looking down at the road, spotted a gringa walking by and excitingly called me over to point out my “amiga” walking by. When I looked down, I was embarrassed to realize I had no idea who it was. Was it possible that I still didn’t even recognize all fifty seven Peru 14 Peace Corps trainees,or more specifically the 15 of those placed with host families in my town? I mean sure 57 is a large group, but I felt really awkward admitting I had absolutely no idea who it was. Later, I found out it was a PCV visiting her old host family and there was actually a gringa in our small town who I didn’t know! Turns out not all of the gringos know each other as surprising as that is to everyone in my community. Not to blame them because I live in a town with three streets and an invasion of 15 PCTs.

Another great assumption is only gringos go jogging in Perú, or so the gringos think. After classes, a lot of the PCTs like to go running, do yoga, play soccer…just about any of physical activities. But we never see anyone jogging in the streets. One day after class, my friend and I decided to pass around the soccer ball. I came home and invited my host brothers’ to join us in playing fútbol and to my excitement they loved the idea …next thing I know they had quickly recruited 4 more people in the neighborhood for an impromptu 4v4 partido del fútbol. After which we went for a jog to the park, eight of us mobbing the street and truly a motley group of neighborhood “kids.” I honestly felt like The Sandlot. We passed other PCTs who later told me they were extremely confused when they saw a group of Peruvians running beforing seeing that my friend and I were with them. It was a great time until I realized when my host brother suggested “veinte”, he was referring to “vueltas” not “minutes”…meaning 20 LAPS around the park, not 20 minutes!

Well that is a long enough post for now...

Hasta luego,
Lauren

Monday, September 21, 2009

¿Qué? No entiendo...

It has been close to 2 weeks since I arrived in Peru. I finally found time and motivation to post on my blog. So much to share that it is overwhelming, so I will try to start with two general observations:

I have been playing a (practically) nonstop game of Taboo. For those of you who don´t know, my Spanish skills are a bit lacking to say the least and living with my host family has been interesting as a result. Every night we chat and find the most round about ways to teach me new vocabulary. When in doubt it is easy to just add the occasional "sí" or laugh. But in all seriousness, it has been going great. My host family is amazing - incredibly patient and we joke around all the time, surprisingly I can communicate and understand jokes with my limited Spanish ability. Tiring at times, but I do think I am starting to pick it up fairly quickly considering it has been less than 2 weeks.

Training is like a strange mix of elementary school (the first day my host mom picked up and dropped me off at the training center and packs me lunch everyday), college study abroad experience in a foreign speaking country (living with a host family and "classes" from 8am-5pm every day), and fun real life experiences (learning my way around the area, learning practical skills like details on how to compost). All in all, I have been enjoying it but will not cover up the fact that the conditions at my training center are much different than previously imagined...and extremely different than how it will be at the site I will be placed at for the 2 years.

Hasta luego,
Lauren

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Solamente Dos Semanas Hasta Peru!

It’s hard to believe that after 8 months of the relatively arduous Peace Corps application process and anxious waiting, everything is finalized and I will be departing for Peru very soon. Given the pressure to chronicle this adventure, I finally gave in and decided to start up a personal blog. As self absorbed as I feel blogs can be, in all honestly it is probably the only way I will be able to update and stay in touch with many of you. So here I go…

After two and a half weeks back in Rochester - cherishing the remaining hot showers, delicious home cooked meals and the company of friends and family - I realize I have only two more weeks in the US before I embark on a new adventure. Should I start cramming in a list of everything I could possibly miss in the next 2 years before leaving the country…but how does anyone even go about doing that?

At the crack of dawn on September 10, I will catch a flight to Washington, DC for Staging (aka pre-departure orientation). There I will meet up with the new group of Peace Corps Trainees heading to Peru for the next 27 months. One long day of orientation and then I finally depart for Lima, Peru on September 11 (and yes I realized the other day that I am flying on 9/11, hope none of you are too superstitious and concerned)

Short post for now…but to be continued!

Hasta luego,

Lauren