April 12, 2010. From the desk of Peter…
The huyano music is extremely loud today…and live. I have decided to write to you all in hopes that I can turn the “beautiful”, loud, repetitive music/lyrics into background noise. Here goes…
I have been back in site for a week or so now after our beach vacation to Hunachaco, a small beach town outside of Trujillo. It was quite the trip. I did nothing, and it was amazing. A group of the Ancash volunteers stumbled out of the mountains, beards and all, and made camp on the beach for a few days. It was lovely. The town of Huanchaco is a lively little place and attracts a great deal of tourists and eccentric surfers. When you mix these things with Peruvian beach hippies, good ceviche, and a reggae bar it’s a great recipe for a vacation atmosphere. We spent most of our days lying on the beach and when hunger found us we turned to the nearest beach side cevicheria and ordered a plate of Peru’s national dish and a cold beer. It was a bit different than time in site and the sierra to say the least. We also got to visit a group of incredible old ruins known as Chan Chan. If you are interested in Peruvian or South American history/archaeology, feel free to spend a few minutes on Wikipedia reading about the culture of Chimú and their city of Chan Chan. All in all, the vacation was a great way to rest, soak in the beach atmosphere, and escape the campo lifestyle for a while.
Now its back to reality; if you consider reality living in a small, rural Andean village teaching little kids how to compost. Classes have been going well this month. Since I started in the primary school down the road from me, we have completed two different compost piles, a micro-relleno (a hole for garbage in layman’s terms), and a garden. Not bad for only a month or so. Now we need to keep these things going and continue to talk about why we dug a big hole to put garbage in and why we mixed animal manure with vegetable scraps. Without the “why” it’s just a big hole and a pile of decomposing organic matter. Hopefully the students can become pro’s and take this knowledge home to their families…that’s the hope at least. The high school and I have been on a break since vacation and my last global warming class. I plan to venture back down there this week and start things back up. That’s the update on Mr. Blank’s classroom.
In other, more exciting news, I hiked to a mountain pass yesterday to bottle and bring home “mineral water” that my family has told me about since my arrival. My host brother, sister, and I hiked a good two hours through fields, hills, and streams to arrive at the Quebrada Ulta. This valley splits the Cordillera Blanca (my mountain range) and allows for travel between my side of the big hill and the other. It was a very beautiful site: a gushing mountain river flowing in between enormous peaks with scattered forests clinging to their sides. We climbed down to the river bed and found the magical source of the pure, clean mineral water. It was a trickle coming out of a rock and flowing into the river. I was hesitant to drink it at first when I noticed the cow patties scattered about and a piece of trash floating in it, but my brother assured me it was clean. I’m not sure it was the best idea to drink the bubbling water undoubtedly full of parasites but heck, why not. We had a few drinks and then filled up all my recycled plastic bottles we brought…it proved to be a great impromptu “this is one reason why you recycle” talk. We then headed back home with our bounty of bottled water. It was a fun and beautiful hike.
Today is my host dad’s birthday. That is the reason for the loud, live huyano music. It also kept us up late last night passing the vaso (cup) and enjoying a huyano jam session with my dad and his friends. It was fun but I had to call it a night after we sang “happy birthday” at midnight. The festivities are carrying on today as well. The chicken has been killed and meat is on the menu for lunch, something that excites me greatly. So the birthday activities should keep me busy the rest of the day.
I head into Huaraz this weekend for our monthly meeting, another round of Quechua class (yay!), and to post this blog for your enjoyment. Then I hurry back to site for another week before heading north to Chiclayo, Lambayeque for our early-IST training. I am bringing my host dad and my counterpart, president of the community, and good pal Daniel along for the first few days. It should be fun to see all of the MAC crew again and hear the sure-to-be enthralling talks on eco-tourism, trash management, and things of that nature. We also are presenting our community diagnostics to the group that week. This implies that the community diagnostic needs to be finished before than…I am finally writing the thing I have been “writing” for the last 4 months. It is coming along swimmingly and I hope to turn in a pretty good write-up of my community complete with graphs and pictures. If anyone wants a copy please don’t hesitate to ask. It should keep you entertained for days depending on what online translation website you use and/or previous knowledge of Spanish. The first 5 people to request a copy will get a complimentary kilo of community grown potatoes…so don’t wait!
Only another month before the Blank’s tackle Peru. I am really excited to see the family and show them around my new home. I am even more excited to watch them all squeamishly try guinea pig for the first time. Photo documentation of the whole trip and especially the cuy eating will be available mid-June.
That’s all the new for now. I will be sure to update you when something really, really cool happens. Thanks for reading and take care!
Pete
p.s. I have been promising pictures for months now…the next blogs will be phlogs™ (photo blogs that is — I just trademarked it). If they are not up by Sunday April 18, PLEASE call me out on it with an email, phone, or messenger pigeon reminder!
4/17/2010
3/29/2010
What’s this!? More than one blog post in a month? You must be asking yourself if something is wrong. Fear not, nothing has gone astray, I just felt the urge to write. So please, enjoy the following banter.
I recently started my second week of class. Today is Tuesday, March 23. I just finished my classes for the day and am anxiously awaiting a fresh French press (that is kind of a tongue twister if you say it fast enough….try it out) of coffee to accompany my afternoon reading, music listening, and helping siblings with homework routine. It’s a pretty nice routine. Anywho, I doubt anyone cares about my coffee habits or what song on my iTunes I will put on. Although for those who might: I normally drink about a cup and a half of coffee so as not to get the jitters and have been recently putting my entire iTunes library on “shuffle” and enjoying whatever comes on.
Now back to business. Things here have been going great since last we talked (or you read, whichever it was). I began my classes in the high school and the elementary school. The elementary school has about 40 students total and the high school has about 100. I teach environmental topics Monday and Tuesday and switch to English and computers for Wednesday and Thursday. I really enjoy the environmental sessions. I get to apply all the cool things I research on wikipedia. That was a joke. I have a lot of great teaching lessons and materials form Peace Corps and my own findings, which enable me to piece together some cool yet informative classes. The kids seem responsive enough. I don’t know if that is because I am a crazy loud gringo who occasionally partakes in self-mockery, or the fact that I am an amazing teacher. I am going to go with the latter. The English classes in the schools are not as thrilling as my other classes, but the kids enjoy them as well. The last 5 minutes of class normally consists of me shouting out random vocab words in English such as “rain”, “cow”, “peter”, and “house”. So, classes are going well and keep me busy.
We have also been finishing up the tree-planting project with AgroRural. We put up a good amount of barbed wire fencing around the new trees and have lined a road leading through our community forest. It’s quite fun putting up a barbed wire fence. I can’t explain why, it just is. With the completion of the fencing we are about done with the forestation project for now. More to come in the future…hopefully with some native species as well.
Other fun facts from my life:
- Today I had to break up a fistfight between 2 ten year olds in my class. I assume they were fighting over which one has recycled more plastic bottles but it was hard to decipher the Quechua.
- I was stumped on my younger brother’s math homework last night. I always hated those story problems. It was slightly embarrassing and made me realize I have a lot of GRE studying to do.
- My two female cuyes are pregnant. I should have babies in 2 months time.
- We celebrated my little brother’s birthday on St. Patty’s day with a rabbit I brought home from the market.
That’s all I can really think of for now. Every day is an exciting experience; the above are just a few highlights that I remember.
Next week I am taking my first vacation in Peru. I know, very trivial, but I’m sure at least one of you is interested in this. We get semana santa, or holy week, off for vacation. I will be traveling to the beach to enjoy the coastal side of Peru for a few days. It should be a swell time. Then it’s back to “work”. I am going to complete my diagnostic in the next few weeks and then start working on some bigger projects outside of my classes. That’s the hope at least. Things tend to move at a different (and slower) pace down here. Fear not, I have plenty of time left to get some things rolling.
Well, I hope you enjoyed the read. I have no more exciting stories to tell and I’m sure at this point you have lost interest in my coffee, iTunes, and other ramblings. I hope all is well and until next time…
Pete
I recently started my second week of class. Today is Tuesday, March 23. I just finished my classes for the day and am anxiously awaiting a fresh French press (that is kind of a tongue twister if you say it fast enough….try it out) of coffee to accompany my afternoon reading, music listening, and helping siblings with homework routine. It’s a pretty nice routine. Anywho, I doubt anyone cares about my coffee habits or what song on my iTunes I will put on. Although for those who might: I normally drink about a cup and a half of coffee so as not to get the jitters and have been recently putting my entire iTunes library on “shuffle” and enjoying whatever comes on.
Now back to business. Things here have been going great since last we talked (or you read, whichever it was). I began my classes in the high school and the elementary school. The elementary school has about 40 students total and the high school has about 100. I teach environmental topics Monday and Tuesday and switch to English and computers for Wednesday and Thursday. I really enjoy the environmental sessions. I get to apply all the cool things I research on wikipedia. That was a joke. I have a lot of great teaching lessons and materials form Peace Corps and my own findings, which enable me to piece together some cool yet informative classes. The kids seem responsive enough. I don’t know if that is because I am a crazy loud gringo who occasionally partakes in self-mockery, or the fact that I am an amazing teacher. I am going to go with the latter. The English classes in the schools are not as thrilling as my other classes, but the kids enjoy them as well. The last 5 minutes of class normally consists of me shouting out random vocab words in English such as “rain”, “cow”, “peter”, and “house”. So, classes are going well and keep me busy.
We have also been finishing up the tree-planting project with AgroRural. We put up a good amount of barbed wire fencing around the new trees and have lined a road leading through our community forest. It’s quite fun putting up a barbed wire fence. I can’t explain why, it just is. With the completion of the fencing we are about done with the forestation project for now. More to come in the future…hopefully with some native species as well.
Other fun facts from my life:
- Today I had to break up a fistfight between 2 ten year olds in my class. I assume they were fighting over which one has recycled more plastic bottles but it was hard to decipher the Quechua.
- I was stumped on my younger brother’s math homework last night. I always hated those story problems. It was slightly embarrassing and made me realize I have a lot of GRE studying to do.
- My two female cuyes are pregnant. I should have babies in 2 months time.
- We celebrated my little brother’s birthday on St. Patty’s day with a rabbit I brought home from the market.
That’s all I can really think of for now. Every day is an exciting experience; the above are just a few highlights that I remember.
Next week I am taking my first vacation in Peru. I know, very trivial, but I’m sure at least one of you is interested in this. We get semana santa, or holy week, off for vacation. I will be traveling to the beach to enjoy the coastal side of Peru for a few days. It should be a swell time. Then it’s back to “work”. I am going to complete my diagnostic in the next few weeks and then start working on some bigger projects outside of my classes. That’s the hope at least. Things tend to move at a different (and slower) pace down here. Fear not, I have plenty of time left to get some things rolling.
Well, I hope you enjoyed the read. I have no more exciting stories to tell and I’m sure at this point you have lost interest in my coffee, iTunes, and other ramblings. I hope all is well and until next time…
Pete
3/12/2010
ahh the six month mark...
Well, I realized that we have started yet another month (sometimes this takes a week or so to sink in). This realization normally signals: “Pete! You need to update your blog!” So here I am, sitting in my room drafting what will hopefully be a thrilling, emotional roller coaster for my readers…or at the very least fill you in on what I have been up to.
Ah February. What didn’t I do during this lovely month?? Shower, shave, eat meat? All very good guesses, but I was able to enjoy the aforementioned amenities (not the shaving part) during our second Quechua week in Huaraz. I am now pretty much fluent in the ancient language of the Incas. Yeah, that’s a lie. The Quechua has been a little more challenging than I had anticipated. I’m not sure why I would ever think it would be “easy” to learn however. Our classes will continue through this year with monthly classes in site. Our teacher will come and conduct class in our homes, towns, and farm fields. This should help to embarrass us in front of our community members but simultaneously help us learn a bit faster and in a more authentic environment. I’m not a complete failure though…don’t worry mom. I have convinced most of my community that I am indeed a proficient Quechua speaker. All this took was mastering such simple phrases as “yes”, “no”, “how are you?”, “I’m looking for a wife”, and “the rain is coming/the rain is not coming”. These phrases, whether in Spanish or Quechua, sum up the normal small talk around town. So, when I pull out answers in Quechua they have no other option than to think I am near fluent. Lets hope I can keep this up until I learn some more profound aspects of the language. After a little studying and a few more months up here in site I am sure I will pick up some more!
Besides Quechua, February followed the status quo. I taught my English class twice a week, harvested some potato, took the cows out to graze, played cards with my siblings (I’m up at least 20 bucks on my little brother), and finished up some work on my diagnostic. It was a good month. Then March crept up on us and the work has started to flow in. I might even have to scratch out my siesta hour after lunch...this would be devastating.
March started with an excursion down to an AgroRural tree nursery to load up 20,000 + eucalyptus trees to plant in the community forest. I had been attending meetings during February and January with AgroRural (a governmental organization that promotes rural agricultural development) to discuss this reforestation project, which is part of the 2010 budget for my zone. Well, we finally got out of the conference room and into the field (metaphorically of course…we don’t actually have a conference room here). The other week, 8 of us drove down the mountain to the nursery in a town about 1.5 hours away. We spent the day loading up the trees one-by-one. The trees had been in the nursery for about a year, allowing them to grow to about 20 cm in their bags. We then drove them back home and dropped them off in our community center. The whole way home we were trapped in the afternoon rain. Not usually a problem unless you are sitting on top of 10,000 tree seedlings in the back of a huge dump truck. It was a cold, rainy, wet, yet surprisingly fun ride home. Early this week we planted these seedlings in our community forest. It was a two-day event with about 80 workers each day. My mom, dad, and I made a good team of planters. Dad dug the holes and mom and I planted the trees. We finished our quoted 150 trees in about two hours. It was a good day for an environmental volunteer. Even though the project wasn’t mine personally it was nice to work under one of our program goals and get my hands dirty with some “MAC” type work. Yay trees!
I also had my first site visit from my boss, Diego, the first week in March. He came up with my fellow MAC volunteer and site mate Alex, our fellow site mate Kaitlyn, regional boss Nelly, and some representatives from SERNANP (the national park service). We had a meeting with the park service about options and possible projects for this year. It was a good meeting and it was helpful having Diego with us to help explain/petition our wants and needs in a more proficient and professional manner. In the works for this year is the creation of a native tree species nursery with the help of the park as well as incorporating some educational information about the park and the surrounding area in my classes this year. Classes you ask?! What classes?!
I have been coordinating with the two local schools and next week will begin teaching 4 days a week. Two days will be spent in the primary school right next to my house and two days in the “high-school” about a 30-minute hike down the hill. I will have a good mix of environmental education and some English (you just can’t escape the English). This should open up some opportunities not only to teach but also to do some hands-on projects with composting, gardens, and the like.
Now with classes starting, more projects with AgroRural, my upcoming in-service training, and the final due date of my diagnostic things have started to pick up the pace. I have made it through the first three months of service and am now entering the “real deal” if you will.
In other news I recently acquired a french-press so I can make real coffee. It’s amazing. No more instant. I also planted some broccoli in our bio-huerto (home garden), which should be a healthy treat in a few months. Other interesting facts that have happened since we last talked (via this blog that is): I bought an amazing cardigan sweater with llamas on it, purchased two of my very own cuyes, cemented my room and finally got my bed/bookshelf set up, and moved out of my suitcase. All very interesting and exciting stuff…at least for me. I am heading into Huaraz tomorrow morning and will be able to post this then, so hopefully you will all be reading this within the next 48 hours, depending on how often you refresh this webpage. Well, that’s all the update I have for now. I am hoping to put up some more pictures as well in the next few days. Keep your eyes peeled for that.
I hope things are going well for all of you and that you are enjoying work, school, and/or life! Take care, and email me if you have any more questions or updates of your own, I would love to hear from you!
Cheers,
Pete
Ah February. What didn’t I do during this lovely month?? Shower, shave, eat meat? All very good guesses, but I was able to enjoy the aforementioned amenities (not the shaving part) during our second Quechua week in Huaraz. I am now pretty much fluent in the ancient language of the Incas. Yeah, that’s a lie. The Quechua has been a little more challenging than I had anticipated. I’m not sure why I would ever think it would be “easy” to learn however. Our classes will continue through this year with monthly classes in site. Our teacher will come and conduct class in our homes, towns, and farm fields. This should help to embarrass us in front of our community members but simultaneously help us learn a bit faster and in a more authentic environment. I’m not a complete failure though…don’t worry mom. I have convinced most of my community that I am indeed a proficient Quechua speaker. All this took was mastering such simple phrases as “yes”, “no”, “how are you?”, “I’m looking for a wife”, and “the rain is coming/the rain is not coming”. These phrases, whether in Spanish or Quechua, sum up the normal small talk around town. So, when I pull out answers in Quechua they have no other option than to think I am near fluent. Lets hope I can keep this up until I learn some more profound aspects of the language. After a little studying and a few more months up here in site I am sure I will pick up some more!
Besides Quechua, February followed the status quo. I taught my English class twice a week, harvested some potato, took the cows out to graze, played cards with my siblings (I’m up at least 20 bucks on my little brother), and finished up some work on my diagnostic. It was a good month. Then March crept up on us and the work has started to flow in. I might even have to scratch out my siesta hour after lunch...this would be devastating.
March started with an excursion down to an AgroRural tree nursery to load up 20,000 + eucalyptus trees to plant in the community forest. I had been attending meetings during February and January with AgroRural (a governmental organization that promotes rural agricultural development) to discuss this reforestation project, which is part of the 2010 budget for my zone. Well, we finally got out of the conference room and into the field (metaphorically of course…we don’t actually have a conference room here). The other week, 8 of us drove down the mountain to the nursery in a town about 1.5 hours away. We spent the day loading up the trees one-by-one. The trees had been in the nursery for about a year, allowing them to grow to about 20 cm in their bags. We then drove them back home and dropped them off in our community center. The whole way home we were trapped in the afternoon rain. Not usually a problem unless you are sitting on top of 10,000 tree seedlings in the back of a huge dump truck. It was a cold, rainy, wet, yet surprisingly fun ride home. Early this week we planted these seedlings in our community forest. It was a two-day event with about 80 workers each day. My mom, dad, and I made a good team of planters. Dad dug the holes and mom and I planted the trees. We finished our quoted 150 trees in about two hours. It was a good day for an environmental volunteer. Even though the project wasn’t mine personally it was nice to work under one of our program goals and get my hands dirty with some “MAC” type work. Yay trees!
I also had my first site visit from my boss, Diego, the first week in March. He came up with my fellow MAC volunteer and site mate Alex, our fellow site mate Kaitlyn, regional boss Nelly, and some representatives from SERNANP (the national park service). We had a meeting with the park service about options and possible projects for this year. It was a good meeting and it was helpful having Diego with us to help explain/petition our wants and needs in a more proficient and professional manner. In the works for this year is the creation of a native tree species nursery with the help of the park as well as incorporating some educational information about the park and the surrounding area in my classes this year. Classes you ask?! What classes?!
I have been coordinating with the two local schools and next week will begin teaching 4 days a week. Two days will be spent in the primary school right next to my house and two days in the “high-school” about a 30-minute hike down the hill. I will have a good mix of environmental education and some English (you just can’t escape the English). This should open up some opportunities not only to teach but also to do some hands-on projects with composting, gardens, and the like.
Now with classes starting, more projects with AgroRural, my upcoming in-service training, and the final due date of my diagnostic things have started to pick up the pace. I have made it through the first three months of service and am now entering the “real deal” if you will.
In other news I recently acquired a french-press so I can make real coffee. It’s amazing. No more instant. I also planted some broccoli in our bio-huerto (home garden), which should be a healthy treat in a few months. Other interesting facts that have happened since we last talked (via this blog that is): I bought an amazing cardigan sweater with llamas on it, purchased two of my very own cuyes, cemented my room and finally got my bed/bookshelf set up, and moved out of my suitcase. All very interesting and exciting stuff…at least for me. I am heading into Huaraz tomorrow morning and will be able to post this then, so hopefully you will all be reading this within the next 48 hours, depending on how often you refresh this webpage. Well, that’s all the update I have for now. I am hoping to put up some more pictures as well in the next few days. Keep your eyes peeled for that.
I hope things are going well for all of you and that you are enjoying work, school, and/or life! Take care, and email me if you have any more questions or updates of your own, I would love to hear from you!
Cheers,
Pete
Well, I realized that we have started yet another month (sometimes this takes a week or so to sink in). This realization normally signals: “Pete! You need to update your blog!” So here I am, sitting in my room drafting what will hopefully be a thrilling, emotional roller coaster for my readers…or at the very least fill you in on what I have been up to.
Ah February. What didn’t I do during this lovely month?? Shower, shave, eat meat? All very good guesses, but I was able to enjoy the aforementioned amenities (not the shaving part) during our second Quechua week in Huaraz. I am now pretty much fluent in the ancient language of the Incas. Yeah, that’s a lie. The Quechua has been a little more challenging than I had anticipated. I’m not sure why I would ever think it would be “easy” to learn however. Our classes will continue through this year with monthly classes in site. Our teacher will come and conduct class in our homes, towns, and farm fields. This should help to embarrass us in front of our community members but simultaneously help us learn a bit faster and in a more authentic environment. I’m not a complete failure though…don’t worry mom. I have convinced most of my community that I am indeed a proficient Quechua speaker. All this took was mastering such simple phrases as “yes”, “no”, “how are you?”, “I’m looking for a wife”, and “the rain is coming/the rain is not coming”. These phrases, whether in Spanish or Quechua, sum up the normal small talk around town. So, when I pull out answers in Quechua they have no other option than to think I am near fluent. Lets hope I can keep this up until I learn some more profound aspects of the language. After a little studying and a few more months up here in site I am sure I will pick up some more!
Besides Quechua, February followed the status quo. I taught my English class twice a week, harvested some potato, took the cows out to graze, played cards with my siblings (I’m up at least 20 bucks on my little brother), and finished up some work on my diagnostic. It was a good month. Then March crept up on us and the work has started to flow in. I might even have to scratch out my siesta hour after lunch...this would be devastating.
March started with an excursion down to an AgroRural tree nursery to load up 20,000 + eucalyptus trees to plant in the community forest. I had been attending meetings during February and January with AgroRural (a governmental organization that promotes rural agricultural development) to discuss this reforestation project, which is part of the 2010 budget for my zone. Well, we finally got out of the conference room and into the field (metaphorically of course…we don’t actually have a conference room here). The other week, 8 of us drove down the mountain to the nursery in a town about 1.5 hours away. We spent the day loading up the trees one-by-one. The trees had been in the nursery for about a year, allowing them to grow to about 20 cm in their bags. We then drove them back home and dropped them off in our community center. The whole way home we were trapped in the afternoon rain. Not usually a problem unless you are sitting on top of 10,000 tree seedlings in the back of a huge dump truck. It was a cold, rainy, wet, yet surprisingly fun ride home. Early this week we planted these seedlings in our community forest. It was a two-day event with about 80 workers each day. My mom, dad, and I made a good team of planters. Dad dug the holes and mom and I planted the trees. We finished our quoted 150 trees in about two hours. It was a good day for an environmental volunteer. Even though the project wasn’t mine personally it was nice to work under one of our program goals and get my hands dirty with some “MAC” type work. Yay trees!
I also had my first site visit from my boss, Diego, the first week in March. He came up with my fellow MAC volunteer and site mate Alex, our fellow site mate Kaitlyn, regional boss Nelly, and some representatives from SERNANP (the national park service). We had a meeting with the park service about options and possible projects for this year. It was a good meeting and it was helpful having Diego with us to help explain/petition our wants and needs in a more proficient and professional manner. In the works for this year is the creation of a native tree species nursery with the help of the park as well as incorporating some educational information about the park and the surrounding area in my classes this year. Classes you ask?! What classes?!
I have been coordinating with the two local schools and next week will begin teaching 4 days a week. Two days will be spent in the primary school right next to my house and two days in the “high-school” about a 30-minute hike down the hill. I will have a good mix of environmental education and some English (you just can’t escape the English). This should open up some opportunities not only to teach but also to do some hands-on projects with composting, gardens, and the like.
Now with classes starting, more projects with AgroRural, my upcoming in-service training, and the final due date of my diagnostic things have started to pick up the pace. I have made it through the first three months of service and am now entering the “real deal” if you will.
In other news I recently acquired a french-press so I can make real coffee. It’s amazing. No more instant. I also planted some broccoli in our bio-huerto (home garden), which should be a healthy treat in a few months. Other interesting facts that have happened since we last talked (via this blog that is): I bought an amazing cardigan sweater with llamas on it, purchased two of my very own cuyes, cemented my room and finally got my bed/bookshelf set up, and moved out of my suitcase. All very interesting and exciting stuff…at least for me. I am heading into Huaraz tomorrow morning and will be able to post this then, so hopefully you will all be reading this within the next 48 hours, depending on how often you refresh this webpage. Well, that’s all the update I have for now. I am hoping to put up some more pictures as well in the next few days. Keep your eyes peeled for that.
I hope things are going well for all of you and that you are enjoying work, school, and/or life! Take care, and email me if you have any more questions or updates of your own, I would love to hear from you!
Cheers,
Pete
Ah February. What didn’t I do during this lovely month?? Shower, shave, eat meat? All very good guesses, but I was able to enjoy the aforementioned amenities (not the shaving part) during our second Quechua week in Huaraz. I am now pretty much fluent in the ancient language of the Incas. Yeah, that’s a lie. The Quechua has been a little more challenging than I had anticipated. I’m not sure why I would ever think it would be “easy” to learn however. Our classes will continue through this year with monthly classes in site. Our teacher will come and conduct class in our homes, towns, and farm fields. This should help to embarrass us in front of our community members but simultaneously help us learn a bit faster and in a more authentic environment. I’m not a complete failure though…don’t worry mom. I have convinced most of my community that I am indeed a proficient Quechua speaker. All this took was mastering such simple phrases as “yes”, “no”, “how are you?”, “I’m looking for a wife”, and “the rain is coming/the rain is not coming”. These phrases, whether in Spanish or Quechua, sum up the normal small talk around town. So, when I pull out answers in Quechua they have no other option than to think I am near fluent. Lets hope I can keep this up until I learn some more profound aspects of the language. After a little studying and a few more months up here in site I am sure I will pick up some more!
Besides Quechua, February followed the status quo. I taught my English class twice a week, harvested some potato, took the cows out to graze, played cards with my siblings (I’m up at least 20 bucks on my little brother), and finished up some work on my diagnostic. It was a good month. Then March crept up on us and the work has started to flow in. I might even have to scratch out my siesta hour after lunch...this would be devastating.
March started with an excursion down to an AgroRural tree nursery to load up 20,000 + eucalyptus trees to plant in the community forest. I had been attending meetings during February and January with AgroRural (a governmental organization that promotes rural agricultural development) to discuss this reforestation project, which is part of the 2010 budget for my zone. Well, we finally got out of the conference room and into the field (metaphorically of course…we don’t actually have a conference room here). The other week, 8 of us drove down the mountain to the nursery in a town about 1.5 hours away. We spent the day loading up the trees one-by-one. The trees had been in the nursery for about a year, allowing them to grow to about 20 cm in their bags. We then drove them back home and dropped them off in our community center. The whole way home we were trapped in the afternoon rain. Not usually a problem unless you are sitting on top of 10,000 tree seedlings in the back of a huge dump truck. It was a cold, rainy, wet, yet surprisingly fun ride home. Early this week we planted these seedlings in our community forest. It was a two-day event with about 80 workers each day. My mom, dad, and I made a good team of planters. Dad dug the holes and mom and I planted the trees. We finished our quoted 150 trees in about two hours. It was a good day for an environmental volunteer. Even though the project wasn’t mine personally it was nice to work under one of our program goals and get my hands dirty with some “MAC” type work. Yay trees!
I also had my first site visit from my boss, Diego, the first week in March. He came up with my fellow MAC volunteer and site mate Alex, our fellow site mate Kaitlyn, regional boss Nelly, and some representatives from SERNANP (the national park service). We had a meeting with the park service about options and possible projects for this year. It was a good meeting and it was helpful having Diego with us to help explain/petition our wants and needs in a more proficient and professional manner. In the works for this year is the creation of a native tree species nursery with the help of the park as well as incorporating some educational information about the park and the surrounding area in my classes this year. Classes you ask?! What classes?!
I have been coordinating with the two local schools and next week will begin teaching 4 days a week. Two days will be spent in the primary school right next to my house and two days in the “high-school” about a 30-minute hike down the hill. I will have a good mix of environmental education and some English (you just can’t escape the English). This should open up some opportunities not only to teach but also to do some hands-on projects with composting, gardens, and the like.
Now with classes starting, more projects with AgroRural, my upcoming in-service training, and the final due date of my diagnostic things have started to pick up the pace. I have made it through the first three months of service and am now entering the “real deal” if you will.
In other news I recently acquired a french-press so I can make real coffee. It’s amazing. No more instant. I also planted some broccoli in our bio-huerto (home garden), which should be a healthy treat in a few months. Other interesting facts that have happened since we last talked (via this blog that is): I bought an amazing cardigan sweater with llamas on it, purchased two of my very own cuyes, cemented my room and finally got my bed/bookshelf set up, and moved out of my suitcase. All very interesting and exciting stuff…at least for me. I am heading into Huaraz tomorrow morning and will be able to post this then, so hopefully you will all be reading this within the next 48 hours, depending on how often you refresh this webpage. Well, that’s all the update I have for now. I am hoping to put up some more pictures as well in the next few days. Keep your eyes peeled for that.
I hope things are going well for all of you and that you are enjoying work, school, and/or life! Take care, and email me if you have any more questions or updates of your own, I would love to hear from you!
Cheers,
Pete
2/08/2010
scenes from the town
ahh sunsets in the andes....
me using my sink/shower/water source/animal cleaning station/and laundry machine
the market place at first light
cuyes: before and after. i got to eat a whole one of these...quite the honor.
some of the mountains on a good day
1/29/2010
quechua, cows, and trees
Time has been flying!
Last week I passed the “two month at site” mark, having a week previously passed “five months in Peru”. Things are going well here in Huashcao. Sorry for the delay on this update! This past month has been scattered by new experiences, rain, meetings, cows, and other awesome happenings that can’t be captured by words.
Like Christmas, I stayed in site for New Years. I spent New Years Eve reading and then trying to sleep while listening to live huayno music until about 3 am. I didn’t have the “party” in me like I normally do. No harm though, the following day my fellow Peru 14-ers in my valley (Kaitlyn and Alex) came up to my site for a quick hike. We followed my younger siblings as they guided us up to the National Park of Huascaran. It took us about 15 minutes to get to the park and then we had a good time wandering around inside through various forests and little rivers. It was a beautiful start to the new year and we even got to pick some wild “fruit”. This wild fruit, known as shaka-shaka in Quechua, tasted like a watery tulip bulb…dirt and all. Not the best snack that nature could have given us, but I am sure Bear Gryls would have eaten them if they featured the sierra of Ancash on a “Man vs. Wild” episode. We spent the rest of the day playing cards and eating potatoes…this has become my new favorite afternoon pastime. Cards and potatoes. Good stuff. That sums up my bringing-in of the new year.
Another highlight of this month was we finally finished the cobertizo, or covered corral, we had been building for a while. It is a pretty big area enclosed by a stone and adobe wall, half of which is covered with a roof. The funding all came from a Peruvian governmental agency known as Agrorural. As the name implies this agency helps out with rural agricultural development. It wasn’t at all my project but it was fun to get out and work with my dad, brother, and a bunch of other guys in the community. Integration is key to this job. Sweating, carrying around adobe bricks, and drinking afterwards are all part of integration. So that was a fun project and now our cows can live happily in a covered, walled-in area. Happy cows make happy Peace Corps volunteers…or at least that’s what I have heard.
Another great new experience that came with the month of January was my first trip to the market. Not a trip that consisted of buying a pen and some bananas at noon. No no, this was the real campesino (farmer) trip to the market. It started at 7 am on Saturday morning when we started to harvest a small field of potatoes [they were the “yungay” variety for all those reading that know your Peruvian potatoes]. We harvested most of the day and then loaded up 14 72-kilo sacks of potatoes into a neighbor’s big steak bed truck. I went home, grubbed on some boiled potatoes (I can’t eat enough of them!), and then went to bed around 7:30. I set the alarm clock for 11:45 that same night and dragged myself out of bed at about midnight. I left with my mom and little host sister at 1 am when the same truck rolled by the house and gave us the courteous 1 am honk. We hopped in the back of the truck and made ourselves comfortable on top of the sacks of potatoes we harvested that day along with those of other neighbors all heading down to the market. I would say we had around 50 72-kilo sacks in there with us. They make for a really comfortable seat…. Anywho, we rattled on down the mountain stopping every so often to pick up another group of people heading into the market as well as their goods. We reached the marketplace in Carhauz a quick 3 hours later with 16 Peruvians, 1 gringo, thousands of pounds of potatoes, herbs, lettuce, and other market goodies in the back of the truck. The potato sellers (that’s us) got dropped off last on what can only be described as Potato Street. Each side of the street was lined and stacked high with the huge sacks of potatoes. We weren’t the only people with the bright idea to sell that day. Different trucks of all shapes and sizes came sputtering into the street and dropped off their load of people and potatoes before leaving. The next step is to stand by your bags of potatoes and wait for someone to come buy them. There are groups of bigger buyers that come by and offer to buy your crop. These guys buy in bulk. They send the potatoes all over Peru: Lima, Huaraz, the coast, etc. By 4:30 am we had made the deal and sold our harvest to one of these big guys. It was a “decent” price for us down here in Peru, but only amounted to about $12 for each sack of first-rate potatoes. That’s about 160lbs of potatoes for $12. I doubt you get that price at a Kroger’s. After we sold we waited for another 3 hours or so to get back our sacks that the potatoes came in. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Good thing my family already knows of this little practice. Or at the least they don’t want to pay for new sacks. I’m going to go ahead and think they are just really into recycling and saving the environment. We finally got our sacks back and then headed down the street into the market to buy what we needed. The market is incredible. Every Sunday and Wednesday the streets of Carhauz are turned into the biggest open-air market I have seen. You can find everything from fruits and vegetables, soap, Tupperware, shoes, batteries, and livestock. My mom is a very efficient shopper and we had what we needed within 30 minutes. We then sat down for a quick bit to eat. I changed things up and got some potatoes and a hard boiled egg. The egg was a nice addition. Then we headed to find a car going back up to Huashcao. We hopped in the back of another truck and two hours later I found myself back home. We came back with some onions, tomatoes, soap, two spoons, mangos, fertilizer, and a live chicken. It was an exhausting but awesome trip from start to finish. I got an inside look into the real life of my family and how the farmers here make their living. Two thumbs up in my book.
Those have been some of the day-to-day highlights from this past month. Great cultural experiences if you will. On the other side of things my “work” has been progressing….slowly, but nonetheless progressing. During this month I have had various different meetings with an NGO known as World Vision. They are planning small 3-day workshops for kids and their parents during this summer vacation. All of us Peace Corps folk in this area are going to help out when they visit our sites. World Vision has the capital to do a lot of projects and has a very good reputation in these parts, so this should be a good alliance to have. These workshops are taking place in my area in the middle of February, which will give me some stuff to work on during the following month. We also had our regional monthly meeting with all the Ancash volunteers a few weeks back in Huaraz. It was good to see everyone in the city and the meeting went well also. Finally, I have been meeting with a representative from the Agrorural (see above) agency about various reforestation and soil conservation projects in my site. He’s a cool guy that shows up on a motorcycle and wants to work with trees…an awesome combo for a environment volunteer. Hopefully all these meetings can lead to some bigger projects and cool opportunities in the future. The English classes continue and I am working on some interviews that will give me some more info for my diagnostic. So like I said, this month has been fairly productive on the “work” front. This weekend we are also starting our Quechua classes in Huaraz, so hopefully I can start sneaking some cool phrases into conversations to impress the locals.
Well, that’s all for now! Thanks for making it through this long and perhaps dry rambling of my January. I hope all you guys are doing well wherever you may be. I’ve included a few pics for your enjoyment. Keep me posted on things when you get a chance!
Cheers,
Pete
p.s. the pics are coming shortly in a following post!
Last week I passed the “two month at site” mark, having a week previously passed “five months in Peru”. Things are going well here in Huashcao. Sorry for the delay on this update! This past month has been scattered by new experiences, rain, meetings, cows, and other awesome happenings that can’t be captured by words.
Like Christmas, I stayed in site for New Years. I spent New Years Eve reading and then trying to sleep while listening to live huayno music until about 3 am. I didn’t have the “party” in me like I normally do. No harm though, the following day my fellow Peru 14-ers in my valley (Kaitlyn and Alex) came up to my site for a quick hike. We followed my younger siblings as they guided us up to the National Park of Huascaran. It took us about 15 minutes to get to the park and then we had a good time wandering around inside through various forests and little rivers. It was a beautiful start to the new year and we even got to pick some wild “fruit”. This wild fruit, known as shaka-shaka in Quechua, tasted like a watery tulip bulb…dirt and all. Not the best snack that nature could have given us, but I am sure Bear Gryls would have eaten them if they featured the sierra of Ancash on a “Man vs. Wild” episode. We spent the rest of the day playing cards and eating potatoes…this has become my new favorite afternoon pastime. Cards and potatoes. Good stuff. That sums up my bringing-in of the new year.
Another highlight of this month was we finally finished the cobertizo, or covered corral, we had been building for a while. It is a pretty big area enclosed by a stone and adobe wall, half of which is covered with a roof. The funding all came from a Peruvian governmental agency known as Agrorural. As the name implies this agency helps out with rural agricultural development. It wasn’t at all my project but it was fun to get out and work with my dad, brother, and a bunch of other guys in the community. Integration is key to this job. Sweating, carrying around adobe bricks, and drinking afterwards are all part of integration. So that was a fun project and now our cows can live happily in a covered, walled-in area. Happy cows make happy Peace Corps volunteers…or at least that’s what I have heard.
Another great new experience that came with the month of January was my first trip to the market. Not a trip that consisted of buying a pen and some bananas at noon. No no, this was the real campesino (farmer) trip to the market. It started at 7 am on Saturday morning when we started to harvest a small field of potatoes [they were the “yungay” variety for all those reading that know your Peruvian potatoes]. We harvested most of the day and then loaded up 14 72-kilo sacks of potatoes into a neighbor’s big steak bed truck. I went home, grubbed on some boiled potatoes (I can’t eat enough of them!), and then went to bed around 7:30. I set the alarm clock for 11:45 that same night and dragged myself out of bed at about midnight. I left with my mom and little host sister at 1 am when the same truck rolled by the house and gave us the courteous 1 am honk. We hopped in the back of the truck and made ourselves comfortable on top of the sacks of potatoes we harvested that day along with those of other neighbors all heading down to the market. I would say we had around 50 72-kilo sacks in there with us. They make for a really comfortable seat…. Anywho, we rattled on down the mountain stopping every so often to pick up another group of people heading into the market as well as their goods. We reached the marketplace in Carhauz a quick 3 hours later with 16 Peruvians, 1 gringo, thousands of pounds of potatoes, herbs, lettuce, and other market goodies in the back of the truck. The potato sellers (that’s us) got dropped off last on what can only be described as Potato Street. Each side of the street was lined and stacked high with the huge sacks of potatoes. We weren’t the only people with the bright idea to sell that day. Different trucks of all shapes and sizes came sputtering into the street and dropped off their load of people and potatoes before leaving. The next step is to stand by your bags of potatoes and wait for someone to come buy them. There are groups of bigger buyers that come by and offer to buy your crop. These guys buy in bulk. They send the potatoes all over Peru: Lima, Huaraz, the coast, etc. By 4:30 am we had made the deal and sold our harvest to one of these big guys. It was a “decent” price for us down here in Peru, but only amounted to about $12 for each sack of first-rate potatoes. That’s about 160lbs of potatoes for $12. I doubt you get that price at a Kroger’s. After we sold we waited for another 3 hours or so to get back our sacks that the potatoes came in. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Good thing my family already knows of this little practice. Or at the least they don’t want to pay for new sacks. I’m going to go ahead and think they are just really into recycling and saving the environment. We finally got our sacks back and then headed down the street into the market to buy what we needed. The market is incredible. Every Sunday and Wednesday the streets of Carhauz are turned into the biggest open-air market I have seen. You can find everything from fruits and vegetables, soap, Tupperware, shoes, batteries, and livestock. My mom is a very efficient shopper and we had what we needed within 30 minutes. We then sat down for a quick bit to eat. I changed things up and got some potatoes and a hard boiled egg. The egg was a nice addition. Then we headed to find a car going back up to Huashcao. We hopped in the back of another truck and two hours later I found myself back home. We came back with some onions, tomatoes, soap, two spoons, mangos, fertilizer, and a live chicken. It was an exhausting but awesome trip from start to finish. I got an inside look into the real life of my family and how the farmers here make their living. Two thumbs up in my book.
Those have been some of the day-to-day highlights from this past month. Great cultural experiences if you will. On the other side of things my “work” has been progressing….slowly, but nonetheless progressing. During this month I have had various different meetings with an NGO known as World Vision. They are planning small 3-day workshops for kids and their parents during this summer vacation. All of us Peace Corps folk in this area are going to help out when they visit our sites. World Vision has the capital to do a lot of projects and has a very good reputation in these parts, so this should be a good alliance to have. These workshops are taking place in my area in the middle of February, which will give me some stuff to work on during the following month. We also had our regional monthly meeting with all the Ancash volunteers a few weeks back in Huaraz. It was good to see everyone in the city and the meeting went well also. Finally, I have been meeting with a representative from the Agrorural (see above) agency about various reforestation and soil conservation projects in my site. He’s a cool guy that shows up on a motorcycle and wants to work with trees…an awesome combo for a environment volunteer. Hopefully all these meetings can lead to some bigger projects and cool opportunities in the future. The English classes continue and I am working on some interviews that will give me some more info for my diagnostic. So like I said, this month has been fairly productive on the “work” front. This weekend we are also starting our Quechua classes in Huaraz, so hopefully I can start sneaking some cool phrases into conversations to impress the locals.
Well, that’s all for now! Thanks for making it through this long and perhaps dry rambling of my January. I hope all you guys are doing well wherever you may be. I’ve included a few pics for your enjoyment. Keep me posted on things when you get a chance!
Cheers,
Pete
p.s. the pics are coming shortly in a following post!
12/30/2009
ahh summer time...
It’s been a little while since my last update so there is a lot to fill everyone in on. The month of December is just about to end and a few weeks back I passed the one-month mark in site. I know, not a huge accomplishment on the grand scale of things but it was “high-five” worthy for me and the other Peru 14-ers in Ancash…it’s all about the little steps.
Things here in Huashcao have been going well. No large sustainable project plan yet, but I have been keeping busy. This coming week (the last in December) marks the official end of the school year here in Peru. Starting in January the kids go on a two-month summer vacation until March. The summer here is going to be great!... The whether channel is calling for two months of rain and colder temperatures. What an awesome time to be on vacation huh?
The next few months should be an interesting part of my service. Due to the above factors of no school and constant rain I am going to use this time to hunker down and write/work on my community diagnostic. It will be a lot of interviewing, talking, and shadowing of various people and it should keep me relatively busy during the rainy season. Other than working on my diagnostic I have been teaching in the schools. It has been a good few weeks to get to know the kids and teachers and I have been able to line up some more “permanent” teaching opportunities for the upcoming school year. For now this part of the job will go on hold when school lets out this week. I will still continue teaching a bit during the summer vacation with my weekly English class in the community center. I hope to add another day of class during the vacation period and dedicate half of each class period to environmental education and the other half English. I think I can lure them in for a second day with the idea of English classes and a weekly viewing of the Planet Earth series. Not that they won’t enjoy my (sure to be) fascinating environmental classes, but right now these aren’t on the front of their minds. That’s where the DVDs come in. So with any luck I will be teaching a little English and environment class as well as working more seriously on my diagnostic. When all else fails I can always head to the chacra (field) with my dad and put in a good days work.
That’s the “job” side of things for now. Christmas came and went a little differently this year. There weren’t any carols or Christmas trees but I did find myself eating a mountain of hot chocolate and panetón. The latter being a very sweet fruitcake that every single person here loves. I didn’t learn to love it but it was a nice treat the first few times I ate it. Then I ate it a lot more. The week leading up to Christmas and on Christmas itself we had the panetón/hot chocolate combo at least once a day. Some were at the schools, others in the health post, and on Chirstmas eve/day at my house. I’m ready for a break until next year. I spent the majority of Christmas day playing board games like chess and checkers with the host family (I’m still undefeated in chess and humiliated in my checkers ability). We had a big lunch with some more of the pig (yeah he’s still around after a month…) and relaxed. Not the typical Christmas, but an enjoyable one nonetheless. The Ancash volunteers had a chance to celebrate the holidays our own way the week before Christmas in Huaraz. We all got together and made dinner that was followed by a gift exchange, Christmas music, and wine. It was a good way to unwind for the holidays with our own traditions.
This is also the time of year for school graduations. The Peruvians enjoy celebrating kindergarten, primary school, and high school graduations in style. I had the privilege of being invited to the secondary school promoción as it is called. The festivities included a huge meal of picante de cuy (guinea pig/my new favorite dish), dancing to cumbia and huayno music (youtube those), and lots of warm cheap beer (ah, remember freshman year?). A good time was had by all and soon into the dance portion I was pulled up to show off the gringo skills. Don’t worry if you weren’t there to watch, there is plenty of video footage that I am sure will eventually make its way to youtube. The word is already drifting around town. For now just use your imagination: Peter awkwardly dancing amongst Peruvian high school graduates. That’s to help you get started. The promoción raged on long after I left, but it was fun while it lasted.
That’s the quick update from the Andes. This week for new years me, Alex, Kaitlyn, and Jess (my fellow 14-ers in Ancash) plan to take a new years day hike up to a lake in Huascaran National Park. It is about an hour away from me and right up the road from Jess’ site. That should be fun if we can sneak it in before the rain comes. Other than that things have been going well. I have been learning a bit more Quechua, realizing how many boiled potatoes I can eat in one sitting (the number is rising well over 15), introducing my host brother to the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel, reading, working in the fields, and countless of other activities with my family and the community. Things are all good down south!
I hope everyone enjoyed/is enjoying the holidays. Whenever you get a chance fill me in on how things are going wherever you may be. More updates to come…
Cheers,
Pete
Things here in Huashcao have been going well. No large sustainable project plan yet, but I have been keeping busy. This coming week (the last in December) marks the official end of the school year here in Peru. Starting in January the kids go on a two-month summer vacation until March. The summer here is going to be great!... The whether channel is calling for two months of rain and colder temperatures. What an awesome time to be on vacation huh?
The next few months should be an interesting part of my service. Due to the above factors of no school and constant rain I am going to use this time to hunker down and write/work on my community diagnostic. It will be a lot of interviewing, talking, and shadowing of various people and it should keep me relatively busy during the rainy season. Other than working on my diagnostic I have been teaching in the schools. It has been a good few weeks to get to know the kids and teachers and I have been able to line up some more “permanent” teaching opportunities for the upcoming school year. For now this part of the job will go on hold when school lets out this week. I will still continue teaching a bit during the summer vacation with my weekly English class in the community center. I hope to add another day of class during the vacation period and dedicate half of each class period to environmental education and the other half English. I think I can lure them in for a second day with the idea of English classes and a weekly viewing of the Planet Earth series. Not that they won’t enjoy my (sure to be) fascinating environmental classes, but right now these aren’t on the front of their minds. That’s where the DVDs come in. So with any luck I will be teaching a little English and environment class as well as working more seriously on my diagnostic. When all else fails I can always head to the chacra (field) with my dad and put in a good days work.
That’s the “job” side of things for now. Christmas came and went a little differently this year. There weren’t any carols or Christmas trees but I did find myself eating a mountain of hot chocolate and panetón. The latter being a very sweet fruitcake that every single person here loves. I didn’t learn to love it but it was a nice treat the first few times I ate it. Then I ate it a lot more. The week leading up to Christmas and on Christmas itself we had the panetón/hot chocolate combo at least once a day. Some were at the schools, others in the health post, and on Chirstmas eve/day at my house. I’m ready for a break until next year. I spent the majority of Christmas day playing board games like chess and checkers with the host family (I’m still undefeated in chess and humiliated in my checkers ability). We had a big lunch with some more of the pig (yeah he’s still around after a month…) and relaxed. Not the typical Christmas, but an enjoyable one nonetheless. The Ancash volunteers had a chance to celebrate the holidays our own way the week before Christmas in Huaraz. We all got together and made dinner that was followed by a gift exchange, Christmas music, and wine. It was a good way to unwind for the holidays with our own traditions.
This is also the time of year for school graduations. The Peruvians enjoy celebrating kindergarten, primary school, and high school graduations in style. I had the privilege of being invited to the secondary school promoción as it is called. The festivities included a huge meal of picante de cuy (guinea pig/my new favorite dish), dancing to cumbia and huayno music (youtube those), and lots of warm cheap beer (ah, remember freshman year?). A good time was had by all and soon into the dance portion I was pulled up to show off the gringo skills. Don’t worry if you weren’t there to watch, there is plenty of video footage that I am sure will eventually make its way to youtube. The word is already drifting around town. For now just use your imagination: Peter awkwardly dancing amongst Peruvian high school graduates. That’s to help you get started. The promoción raged on long after I left, but it was fun while it lasted.
That’s the quick update from the Andes. This week for new years me, Alex, Kaitlyn, and Jess (my fellow 14-ers in Ancash) plan to take a new years day hike up to a lake in Huascaran National Park. It is about an hour away from me and right up the road from Jess’ site. That should be fun if we can sneak it in before the rain comes. Other than that things have been going well. I have been learning a bit more Quechua, realizing how many boiled potatoes I can eat in one sitting (the number is rising well over 15), introducing my host brother to the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel, reading, working in the fields, and countless of other activities with my family and the community. Things are all good down south!
I hope everyone enjoyed/is enjoying the holidays. Whenever you get a chance fill me in on how things are going wherever you may be. More updates to come…
Cheers,
Pete
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