Christmas in Tomas, Yauyos

Well, Christmas has come and gone and the New Year is only days away. To say the least, this was the most unique Christmas I’ve ever had. In Tomas we have a four day Christmas celebration that feels more like the 4th of July than Christmas, but it was fun and exciting nonetheless.

During the 4 day celebration people come from Lima, Huancayo (the closest real city to Tomas) and all over the province of Yauyos, so more than twice the population of my town was here to celebrate. The celebration started in the afternoon of Christmas Eve with speeches from the four families that sponsored the party (a HUGE financial commitment because each family hires a band for 4 days and they hire cooks and provide free food for EVERY meal of the next four days). It was raining really hard all day but that didn’t stop the bands from marching and playing while a few people danced along.

On Christmas day the festivities began around 7:00 am, which makes for a short night after midnight mass. The day begins with the dance of the “Negritos”(meaning little black ones), which, as it sounds, is people wearing blackface masks who dance to represent the darker skinned pre-Hispanic Peruvians and to adorn the baby Jesus (I’m not sure how the two are connected, but that’s what I was told). It is kind of a parade as the dancers walk around the entire town and there are people lighting fireworks (hence it’s like the 4th of July). To an American, the costumes seem pretty racist, but that is NOT the intent and in Peruvian culture it doesn’t appear racist. After the Negritos groups of women dance the Paya, which again is to adorn the Baby Jesus. Each sponsor family has a group of Negritos and Payas, so these dances last for about 6 hours, with each band playing the same song for every dance!

After the dances and a free lunch (or in my case, free LUNCHES because I would receive lunch invitations from different families…at least overeating is consistent between American and Peruvian Christmases) the general dance begins. Then, from about 3:00 until midnight people are dancing and drinking (a lot of drinking) while the 4 bands rotate playing music (although, with many of the same songs and basically the same dance with little variation for 3 solid days!)

On the 26th the 3 other volunteers in Yauyos (my province) came to Tomas and we had our own little celebration and gift exchange. We had a great time and it was really nice to celebrate with some close friends and American Christmas music (including St. Olaf Christmas Fests, a GREAT change from the repetitivness of the bands). Overall, it was a great experience and a lot of fun. It was definitely not a Minnesota Christmas with the family, but certainly was a unique way to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Peace, Love, and Happy New Year!,
Jared

Dance of the Payas, to adorn Baby Jesus
One of the 4 bands with a group of Negritos dancing

The Nergritos beginning their parade around town, only to continue dancing for hours on end to the same music.

Settling in to Tomas

I've passed the 2 week mark and aleady i'm feeling very comfortable in my site. Each day i get more acclimated to the cold wetness (which isn't really that cold, but there are no heated buildings to escape the temps in the 40's at night). It's good that i'm acclimating because every day 2 or 3 people ask me if i'm accustomed to the weather yet...they are all very concerned about my wellbeing! Life has been a little busy recently, which has been good.

Last saturday night was the graduation and celebration of the 18 seniors in my town. Many people of the town where there and after we ate a small dinner and they passed out the diplomas, we began the night of dancing and drinking. The drinking customs are a little different here than in the US. In Peru everyone stands (or dances) in a circle and passes a bottle of beer and one cup. You fill the cup then pass the bottle. After you drink the cup, then the next person does the same. All that i've learned about not sharing beverages or glasses in my life is completely out the window here in Peru. My biggest challenge with this is avoiding all the offers to drink from nearly every person in the town. The people were a little surprised at how willing I was to dance though...who knew that dancing would help me get to know my community better.

I've also been getting busier with work. INRENA, or the Dept. of Natural Resources in Peru has been having a lot of end of the year meetings with updates on their projects. I attend all of these because i will be working directly with INRENA and their environmental education, along with trying to achieve some of their Protected Area goals. I live in one of 2 Land Reserves in Peru, which is a little different from a national park becuase the Reserve's master plan directly involves the communities within its limits, and there are efforts to improve tourism (we have great potential for ecotourism if we can get a little more infrastructure). Becuase of these meeting i've met a lot of mayors from different towns, as well as all the biologists and full time staff from INRENA. There is a lot of pressure with this because INRENA always presents the 4 volunteers from the Peace Corps (including me) as experts who are going to greatly help the effort. I sure hope that they're right.

The whole town is preparing for our four day Christmas party and celebration of the Virgin del Carmen, which will be four days of music, dancing, drinking, and Paneton (fruitcake, although much better than fruitcake in the U.S.) So there is a lot of excitement and all the kids are playing in the streets during the days because school ended. Again, i'm excited for the Christmas celebration here even though i already miss the traditions of a snowy, Minnesota Christmas!

Peace and Love,

Jared

This is a picture from the town graduation party. My community counter part (who I often work with) is the young man with the beer. 18 graduates, 1 town party that ended at 5:00 am, and 50 crates of 12 bottles of beer (each bottle is 600ml, or almost 2 US beers).

A picture of me and my parents, Hugo and Inta. Final, i'm tall for once in my life!

Finally here...permenantely.

So 8 days ago I arrived in Tomas, Yauyos, Lima, Peru to begin my 2 years of service. Training is done, and i'm out on my own now. The transition was a little difficult, as expected, to leave my host family in Lima and the 47 other volunteers, but I can already tell that these next two years are going to be exciting and full of adventures.

In my first week i've milked a cow and made cheese, done surveys with community members about the community of Tomas, studied lots of Spanish (the first verb I learned was "abrigarse", which means to bundle up), I've met all the health post workers, painted my furniture, exercised twice, showered once (becuase it is too cold to shower, or sweat for that matter), and many other things that seem minor but have helped me to get to know my community. Each day I get closer with my family and friends and each day Tomas feels more and more like home (although not quite yet).

My typical day thus far entails waking up around 7:00 or 7:30. Everyone in the town normally gets up around 5:30, but as of now i still need at least 9 hours of sleep because of the altitude (12,000 ft). After taking my vitamin and daily banana, i eat breakfast with my family. Around 8:30 I either head out with my dad or counterpart to do random tasks, or I head to the plaza to chat with whoever I can find (there is always someone around). I eat lunch between 12:30 and 1:30. Sometimes I eat 2 lunches if I get invited to eat at someone elses house, which isn't normally a problem for me. In the afternoons I make sure to wash up a little bite, becuase the other times of day are too cold. I have different meetings with people in the afternoons, or sometimes I just talk with the kids and shop owners about the town and life in general. I sometimes play soccer in the evening before dinner, although the rainy season has started so games are much less frequent. It now rains pretty heavily each day, but we normally get a few hours of sun as well. My family and I have bread and tea around 7:00 and around 8:15 we eat dinner (rice, potatoes, and a variety of foods ranging from lentils to eggs to hot dogs). I read in the evenings and fall asleep around 10:00, to ensure that I have enough energy to do it all again.

Things are moving along well though, even though it often feels like I haven't done anything tangible during the day. My spanish is rapidly improving and i'm getting pretty well known in my community. I also have a lot of meetings set up for the next few weeks and there is a lot for me to look forward to. Tomas has a 4 day community festival from December 24-27 (for Christmas and the Saint Virgin de Carmen), so that should be a fun, nice distraction from being away from home on Christmas.

I'm enjoying my time and staying healthy, and the time is moving very fast. I feel so much more accustomed to my site that 8 days ago or my first visit here, it is incredible. I hope all is well at home and i'll try to get some picture up from my site. Happy Advent and Peace to all!

My first experience in Tomas!

Hello all,
So i've been back in Lima for almost a week after my visit to my site for 2 years, Tomas. I have one more week in Lima and then there will be a tough goodbye with my family here before I head off to the tranquil mountain life for 2 years!
My mew town, Tomas, has about 500 people and it is high in the mountains and COLD. In the evenings the temp drops significantly, with occasional frost (during the winter, which is the U.S. summer). It especially feels cold becuase there is no heat in any building. My adobe room warms up a decent amount by the morning, but it is pretty cold to start with. My kitchen is a seperate little room, with wooden walls and a corrugated metal roof. It is smokey becuase we have a fire that we cook with, and we burn cow dung as our fuel. I'll work on something with my host dad to change that though, as it is kind of a health hazard. I do plan on buying a propane stove and cooking for myself a for atleast one meal a day, otherwise my diet will contain rice and potatoes, with the occasional egg or hot dog. I'm going to need some protein and vitamins, becuase i even lost weight during my 3 days in site.
My dad and mom are great, plus we have 2 dogs and a cat. My parents have a herd of 22 cows and 5 calves, with our pasture being a 2 hour walk up the mountain. I milked my first cow during my visit, and i drank what is probably the freshed milk of my life (after boiling it). My parents don't really like cats, but she keeps our patio and house rodent free. As it is spring here, the animals were displaying some instinctal tendencies. One of my dogs, named King Kong, actually tries to mate with my cat (which i named cat). Unfortunately, king kong has yet to be successful.
I'm going to be working largely with the Peruvian National Parks Service, which will include doing surveys of the wildlife (alpacas and llamas and vicuñas) by going camping on horseback and recording what i find. There is a LOT of work to be done in my site though. People throw garbage directly into our river, we only have Eucalyptus trees, which ruin soil quality and aren't native, and there is always plenty to be done with the schools and environmental education. People are excited to work with me (I think), which is really good. There are some unrealistic expectation of what i'll be doing by some of the locals, but that is better than thinking i'll do nothing and not wanting to work with me.
Our last week in Lima should be a fun one, with lots to do in terms of preparation for moving and Thanksgiving. I'm excited to move to Tomas even though i've thoroughly enjoyed my time in Lima. I do have internet in Tomas, but it isn´t the highest quality. I will do my best to stay in touch though, and i´ll let you all know what my new address is when i get my P.O. box. Thanks to those who've sent letters and e-mail.

Peace

Field Based Training complete...4 weeks to go!

Hello all,
It has been far too long since I've had contact with you all in the U.S., but I've been very busy. We just finished our week of Field Based Training, for which I was sent to Cajamarca, in the Northern part of Perú. I was with 5 other trainees and 2 volunteers at their sites. It was over 8,000 feet above sea level and it was raining on and off the entire time, but a pleasant change from the desert of Lima. (There is a possibility that this is an El Niño year, so it will be very interesting at my mountain site.) We taught about the environment to 3 different classes of various ages, were interviewed by a local TV station, did a one hour radio show talking about our work with the Peace Corps, relaxed for an afternoon at a hot springs, and got to see and experience the Andes Mountains of Perú.
Field Based Training is an experience that really involves putting trainees in some real work. Leading classes about the environment (in Spanish) proved to be fun but challenging. We lead classes of 5th, 6th, and 9th graders, all of which went fairly well. Our largest class day was 2 groups of 40 5th and 6th graders. We working the classrooms for about an hour (even though the actual teacher "had to leave" for a while) and then we planted trees with the kids and a worker from the local munincipality tree nursery. It was fun, but i realized the challenge ahead in the next 2 years as I watched the environment worker from the munincipality throw the plastic bags from the tree saplings into the river (as shown above)...it is difficult to help kids change their environmental practices when the adults are so set on their ways.

In the past month I have visited the oldest ruins in the Americas, Caral, which are small pyramids that date back 5,000 years, i've attended numerous family birthday parties, participated in a Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament, improved my Spanish, felt a few eathquakes, and many other new experiences.

Futbol Adventures and Riding the Combi!

Well, the soccer tournament has officially ended...we didn´t win the championship but we did win 2 more games, including our final game which was a 3-0 blowout of the other team. We didn´t make the championship round but our team did win the ´Premio de Amistad´ or ´Friendship Award´, which is an award the tournament organizers designed specifically for our team. Everyone in the neighborhood that hosted the tournament enjoyed watching us play and it also turns out that every other team plays much, much dirtier than we do, so the award kind of makes sense...i guess. As a result of the award, we were given jerseys that look like the Peruvian national jerseys and they have the name of the neighborhood on the front, they are very cool. The awards were presented last night at the neighborhood´s anniversary festival, which included a stage, live music, dancing, a beer kiosk, and our captain was even called on stage to give an impromtu speech, which is not easy to do in Spanish in front of a large crowd.

The title of this post includes ´Riding the Combi´, so you may be wondering what that is. The combi is the name of the public transit in and around the Lima area. They are very small buses, with about 20 seats and a center aisle to stand in. There is a door on the side of the bus that is used, often to enter or exit while the bus is still moving. All the combis are privately owned so there isn´t a schedule, rather you just stand on the side of the major road and wave them down. This also means that it is in the best interest of the drivers to get to their destinations as fast as possible so they can get as many riders as possible. It is always an adventure, and you better hold on when staring or stopping. The price is negotiable, but there are "standard" prices for certain distances. Despite they common price, the door operaters frequently try to overcharge the gringos, so you have to be fierce. On one occasion I had to tell the door operator "I might be white, but i´m not dumb", and that seemed to work pretty well.
Since 17 volunteers live in the same neighborhood as me and we use the same Combi stop, we often end up going to class in small groups. This is especially exciting in the morning during the "bitch hour" (as it was described to me by a very old woman at my combi stop) because we Americans are significantly larger than a standard Peruvian.

Yep, all in a days work as a trainee here in Peru. I´m having a blast with the group and classes/training sessions are going well. We have our second language evaluation on Wednesday to re-determine our language level and classes. I love hearing from you all!
Peace

19 days already?

So, i´ve been in Peru for two and a half weeks and it has just flown by. Everyday we have training from 8 to 5 and we have saturday morning sessions in Lima. Life is very busy, especially with the soccer tournament we´re in. We have games almost every night and many of our family members come and support our team when we play. The tournament ends this week, with a large party on Friday night in the neighborhood where we play. We haven´t lost in the last 3 games, winning one and tying 2. There is actually a lot of gossip about our team, because we are gringos and i think other teams are embarrassed when they don´t beat us. We´re actually not bad though.
Saturday we had a training session at the University of Agriculture outside of Lima. We learned many names for fruits and vegetables that are grown in Peru, both native and non-native. We also learned how to plant seeds, which is the same as in the U.S. but will be useful for the tree planting portion of my service. Saturday evening we attended a neighborhood party that involved a stage, 2 bands, and lots of fireworks. There was a large wooden tower that shot fireworks in every direction, including into the crowd, but nobody seemed too worried about it. Then, ¨toro loco¨happened, which is a wooden bull that a man (who´d had a few) runs around in and fireworks shoot out in all directions. With this the fireworks are very close to the crowd and sparks are flying everywhere. It reminded me of a quote from my sisters Thai host family, ¨In America, safety first. In Thailand, no problem!¨ That quote also seems to apply to Peru.
Sunday was another family day, except in the afternoon i went to s professional soccer game with my older host brother. It was fun and there were of course ridiculous air horns and drums being played the entire time, which really spiced things up.
As of today, all training sessions are now in Spanish, which makes it much more difficult to pay attention. For me, language is the most important aspect of my training. The other parts of training involve learning how to approach people and work in groups...kind of like camp. I have even taught a few camp games to the Environmental group, becuase a large part of what we´ll be doing is working with/educating youth. As a whole, training is going well and we are having a pretty good time. Language is the only thing that gets overwhelming at times, becuase we learn so much vocab every day that their isn´t time to practice everything. I´m doing a lot of selective learning that this point of what is going to be important at this time. I figure I have 2 years to learn vocab.
That´s about it for now. I´ll try to get some pictures up soon, but we´ll see.

Peace

More from Yanacoto

So, after one whole week living with my host family things are going great. In case I didn´t already explain, I live in Yanacoto, which is a small neighborhood an hour inland from Lima. The air is cleaner here, and it is always sunny. Daytime highs are in the upper 70s to low 80s but it is dry. We are just entering spring here, but there aren´t really 4 distinct seasons. Nighttime the temp drops into the 50s, so the weather is quite pleasant.
Sunday in my host family is always a family day because nobody in my family has to work. My mom and dad, four of their kids/spouses, and 6 grandchildren (ranging from 12 yrs to 20 months) were all at my house for breakfast and lunch, followed by relaxing and watching a soccer game between two popular teams from Lima. It was relaxing and fun to have so much family around. All the kids causes quite a lot of noise, but it wasn´t too different from a family gathering in the U.S.
We have language class 3 or 4 times a week, and this week my class of 5 people is meeting at my house (it changes each week). Class is fun and relaxed, as there are only five of us, but we learn a lot. My Spanish is coming along really well. I haven´t improved my grammar too much yet, but my vocabulary has really improved.
There is a soccer tournament in a neighborhood where a few volunteers live, and Peace Corps entered a team (unofficially). It is 6 on 6 and we play on a cement slab a little bigger than a tennis court. We lost our first game 1-0 but all our families were proud of us because normally the PC team gets demolished. It is pretty intense, the other teams all have jerseys and goalie gloves. Our team has a definate size advantage, even i´m bigger than most, but playing on cement is a different type of game. We have our second game tonight, so we´ll see what happens. We just want to have some fun.

I´m quickly getting used to life in Peru. I really enjoy my neighborhood because people are alway outside and it is easy to talk with and meet everyone around us. The food is great, lots of rice and potatoes, chicken, and fresh fruits.

All is well, Peace from Peru!

Here in Yanacoto

It´s my 10th day in Peru and all is well. My training has been going well. We have Spanish language class, letures about the Environmental program, and other activities to practice integrating into a new community. Most things are fun and interesting.

My host family is wonderful and welcoming. I´m excited to spend 3 months with them. Sorry for such a quick update the the internet cafe is closing for the night. More to come soon...

Thanks for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers.

Not quite yet...

First, I need to say Happy Birthday to my sister Elizabeth. Today is my last day at home and Mom and Elizabeth and I are headed out around town for one last day of fun. I'm almost packed...but it always seems like there is more to be done. Wednesday morning I take off for Washington D.C. for a day and a half of Peace Corps orientation. Then, on Friday September 12, we're off to Peru!