February Recap

I'm a little slow on this one, but it's better late than never. February was a busy month with a nice combination of work and fun with my summer school classes and a trip to Cusco. Here are a few things that stand out-

-It's HOT here. I've said it before, but I'll keep saying it until it gets cooler. Hot like 90-100 degrees. Like all the time. I sweat all day, every day. I'm getting used to it though, slowly but surely. 

-Summer school classes were awesome. The kids in my classes were fantastic and I hope to work with each of them again in the future. Teaching was a lot of fun and this summer course renewed my love of English teaching. 

-Kids are more creative than they get credit for here. I think the problem is not the kids, but rather the fact that they are never asked or encouraged to be creative. 

-Teaching is a lot of work. To the teachers out there, I tip my hat. Sure, 4 hours of teaching every day doesn't sound like much, but when you throw in all the planning, preparing, material buying, internet research, etc., teaching is a lot of work. Find your local teacher and hug him or her. Thanks :) 

-I got to watch the Superbowl... and it was completely underwhelming. Sure the 4th quarter was good, but by that point I had left for a sandwich, so I only saw that part of the game in replays... probably because it was the only part worth replaying. 

-I rode out mango season until it's bitter end... and I'll be ok if I don't see a mango for awhile. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. 

-I got to spend a tiny smattering of time in Lima before and after my Cusco trip. This means I got to go to a big fancy supermarket that felt like another one of those Miraflores trapdoors that lands me into the US. I found myself some bleu cheese, dark chocolate, and red wine. Om nom nom. 

-Cusco is as cool as they say it is, though it felt a little bit like the Disney version of the Peru I know. That was weird, like a parallel universe. 

-I was at Machu Picchu the same day Bono (of U2) was there. I did not see him, and that is totally ok. 

-Having a visit from a friend from home was wonderful, as expected. It's so nice to have the familiarity and comfort of an old friend in a new place. It's also nice to see my friends doing so well. Her awesome job brought her to Peru for a week and I'm so happy for her to have found such a good fit, profession wise. 

-The relatives from Cajamarca came at the beginning of the month. Their little baby is growing fast and was really fun this time. She likes me. The next time I talk to my brother Bryan, I will brag about this. He is not the only Nigon who babies love. Ha. 

-Valentines day was fun this year! I mean, it's Valentine's day and I still think it's a lame holiday, but it was fun spending it with my summer classes and sharing American traditions with them. 

-Two trips in one month: Cusco and Ancash! I'm so fortunate :) ...and both of those places are cold. Such a treat for me in this brutal summer heat of the North. 

That's all I've got for February. Great month. March is shaping out to be even better. Stay tuned... 

Beach Clean Up

Last Friday I was lucky enough to join a group of high school students from a neighboring town on a beach clean up organized by the local government. I am working closely with the Red Ambiental of my province, which is an environmental group organized by the school district to promote prevention and discussion of social, health, and environmental issues. Working with this group is one of my main projects and I have spent the past couple of months getting things ready for the school year that just began. I am very excited to get to know the kids in this year's group and get started with the year's activities. The first event with the Red Ambiental groups from each school will be a series of World Water Day activities this week. While at a meeting last week to plan some of those activities, I was invited to Friday's beach clean up. This was a perfect way to get to know some of the teens and to find another one of La Libertad's lovely hidden beaches. Magdalena de Cao is a tiny town about a half an hour from my site. They don't have a Peace Corps volunteer right now but they have had them in the past and are very enthusiastic about PC, so I like going there. The pretty beaches and awesome ceviche don't hurt either ;)

Anyway, I went with 11 students, a couple of people from the municipality who had organized this, and the science teacher who is also the Red Ambiental advisor for this school. We collected trash and painted the restroom facilities, but still made time to catch a few jumbo shrimp from the stream and enjoy some fresh ceviche at the end of the morning. This beach is a nice little secret to anyone but locals and there is only one restaurant and a few 'summer homes' there, but not much else. The one restaurant was home to some very nice people who prepared the shrimp for the kids who caught them to eat while we were painting the bathrooms. The municipality (local government) is trying to let the secret out about this beach to generate tourism, and that is why their tourism committee organized this clean up. With Holy Week coming up, they are hoping to get some more beach traffic. Friday's activity was one in a series of 4 events they have planned to clean the local beaches. At the end of the month, trash cans will be placed on the beaches which makes me very happy :) There are three beaches in Magdalena de Cao besides this one that I hope to meet sometime in the future. For now, I will leave you with these pictures. Enjoy :)

Friday, March 16 2012 

Playa La Bocana- Magdalena de Cao

Gross. 

(PS- No gloves. I'm a badass.)

Breezy, overcast day. 

Nice break from the sun and high temps we've had all month.

Jumbo shrimp, anyone?

Painting the bathroom hut. 

That little stamp on the left is free promotion for the Red Ambiental. Love it :) 

February Packages

Just wanted to show some love for those of you who sent such GREAT packages last month. I think other volunteers are starting to hate me a little bit. I'm so spoiled. I did manage to share a lot of this month's treats though, so that's progress. 

(Anti) Valentine's Day package from Eva. All of my favorite guilty pleasures ;)

Another random card from Sara and some stickers that my summer school students LOVED. 

AWESOME package from Steve and Annah. Thanks guys! The stickers were a big hit with my students and even with the teachers I work with :)

Package #2 from Steve and Annah. Yeah, I ate the candy before I got it home to take pictures :p

Thanks again to everyone who thought of me last month and sent these wonderful treats. You guys are the best! 

The Same, But Different

I often have the thought that Peru is like the States was in the 90's in a lot of ways. A lot of social issues that are prominent here right now were prominent social topics during my childhood in the 90s. I think Peru is on it's way. The way I see it, they are developing and things are getting better. But even though the rate at which things are happening here seems to be a couple decades slower than the rate at which the US is coming along, sometimes I can't help but think about how similar things are in both places. 

This general theme popped into my mind yesterday, as it often does, while I was at the high school. I was in a teacher's office at the end of the school day discussing plans for the school year when 3 young men came in timidly begging for their cell phones. Cell phones are prohibited at school, and if students get caught with them, the phone is taken away. The first time is a warning and they get their phone back at the end of the day. If it happens again, the threat is that they won't get their phone back until the end of the school year. With school having started on March 1st, the unlucky gents whose phones were in jail today just screwed themselves if they ever want to bring their phones back to school. I couldn't help but think of high schools in the States and how cell phones + teenagers is a problem everywhere. The other thing about this that felt a little familiar was that the cell phones these kids were looking to rescue were really nice phones. All three were smart phones that made my tiny little Peace Corps-issued mobile nervous to even show it's face. I joked with the kids and told them if it happened again and they lost their phones for good, I'd take their phones and let them have mine ;) They didn't like that idea so much. Anyway, it was cool to see this system at work. The teacher I'm working with is a new community partner for me and I'll be doing a lot with him throughout the school year. He is great with the kids, as was obvious in the cell phone encounter, and should be a big help in the projects I'm planning for the school year. The cell phone thing isn't the only occurrence this week that has me comparing Peru and the States, though. 

Monday I was invited to an event in Trujillo with my community partner from the school district and one of the local nurses. This event was a launch for a program to promote healthy kiosks in the schools of La Libertad. Because the school day ends around 1, the kids eat lunch at home. Even though there is no public lunch plan, every school has a kiosk that sells snacks. Typically, the kiosks sell a lot of really bad food like soda, chips, candy, fried food, noodles, etc. The Healthy Kioks (Quioscos Saludables) initiative aims to change the food that is sold in schools to fruits/ vegetables, healthy sandwiches, fresh juices, etc. The presentation given on Monday not only included the President of La Libertad and actors dressed like super healthy super heroes (which the kids loved), but also the vice ministers of Health and Education who had come from Lima to be a part of this event. Watching all of this and hearing the stats on children who are overweight or obese in Peru sent my mind on another ride on the "this sounds familiar" train. 

The whole world has problems, and it seems to me like they are more similar than we realize. 

This is a subject I could yammer on about for hours, and it's a theory of my that gets reinforced almost everyday. I just thought I'd touch on it for today and share this link on Monday's event for anyone who is bored and likes reading articles in Spanish. I forgot my camera that day so this is the best I could do ;) 

http://www.noticiastrujillo.pe/?q=trujillo/exitoso-lanzamiento-de-programa-quioscos-saludables-en-trujillo

Very Important Peruvians: The president of La Libertad shaking hands with Peru's Vice Minister of Education (sitting) and Vice Minister of Health. 

Sunday at the Beach

I have been away for the past few weekends and was looking to spend some time in Ascope this weekend catching up with the host fam. Turns out, I picked a good weekend for it because today was beach day at our house. As the boys have recently gone back to school and the summer beach crowds are starting to thin, today was the perfect day for an escape to a neighboring beach town. This worked out well for me because I was coming off of a very long, busy, and stressful week. I will never turn down an invitation to the beach, but this weekend especially a trip to the beach was a very welcome idea. 

I will let the photos do the explaining, but it was pretty much the perfect beach day. I taught Piere how to make a killer sand castle, I learned how to catch some weird little shellfish (but was unsuccessful in actually getting one), I bobbed around the waves with Farid, helped bury Piere in sand, picked up a few baby jellyfish, and "guarded the stuff," which is actually just an excuse to lay in the sun whilst allowing the fam some bonding time in the water ;) I even had time to pop into Erin's house to say hi, because yes she is lucky enough to live right on the beach in this awesome town. 

Not a bad way to spend a Sunday, I must say ;)

Sand Construction 101

Baby jellyfish that we found on shore and returned to the sea :)

Little man and me with our creation.

The Sand Man. 

Wave jumping with Farid.

Erin LIVES here. Lucky duck. Oh, and she's from Wisconsin too :)

Sea creatures. We caught at least 50 of them to make ceviche. I held the bucket while they caught them.

Brothers. 

Macaroni Saturday

I've lived with my host family for 6 months now and haven't cooked or baked anything for them. This has to do with my host mom/ grandma being awesome cooks, my Peace Corps budget, and the fact that I'm sort of intimidated by a kitchen that two women share. You know, that whole 'too many cooks in the kitchen' thing? Well, I finally decided to man up and make the easiest food to prepare aside from toast or a frozen pizza: macaroni and cheese. 

I bought two boxes of the good stuff in the blue box: Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, what else? My position 2 hours from Trujillo with a big Target-style box store lovingly referred to as Tottus allows me access to Kraft products and almost anything else American I could want (just bought some Nature's Valley granola bars as a little treat last week. Nom!). 

Anyway, Saturday morning after a quick trip to the market, about 2 blocks from where I live, my host mom and I set to work on our little project. It was as easy as I promised her it would be and the box was printed in Spanish, so she could double check my instructions- which she did, I assure you ;)

My favorite part of this entire endeavor was the moment I discovered via the blue box that the cheese powder, aka the best part, was produced in none other than...drumroll please... Wausau Wisconsin! Right next door to the place I called home. You can be sure I mentioned that about 16 times throughout the rest of the day. 

In the end, I had about a 50% approval rating on the mac and cheese. Our neighbor (in the picture below) liked it so much he had seconds, as did my host dad, and later the grandpa. Two more refused to try it, and the remaining two ate about a half a noodle and decided they "liked it" but not enough for a whole plate. "Too much cheese" or "I don't like cheese" were statements thrown out there. These are also statements I do not believe in. And yes, I realize that the numbers I just gave you don't match my percentage, but if you're reading this, you probably know that I hate math. Figure out the percentage and I'll send you a post card. 

My second favorite part of this adventure, behind the Wisconsin cheddar, happened at dinner time when it was time for round 2 of the mac and cheese. I walked into the kitchen to find our beautiful cheesy carbs... served with rice. Why wouldn't they be? I couldn't hold my giggles in about the irony of this. And you know, it didn't taste as bad as you might think it would. 

Wisconsin meets Peru. Pretty much perfect. 

Anything look... local? ;)

Away For Awhile...

Hey guys, 

Sorry I've been away from the blog for awhile. This has been a really busy time of year for me, with summer school classes winding down and school starting last week, things have been kind of crazy. On top of that, I had a Peace Corps training this past week which was really great for 2 reasons-

A- I got to take an awesome community partner with me and we had 3 days to plan our projects for the school year. Here she is being fantastic. I'm really looking forward to working with her and her colleagues on the project we have planned. More details to come when more time presents itself :)

B- I got to see some of my fabulous Peru 17 friends! Here we have Tina from way up North, and Richard from way down South. It was so nice seeing them again, meeting their community partners, and hearing about the great things they are doing in their sites. And don't worry Mom, I didn't make crazy face on the clock or in front of anyone of influence ;) 

Oh, and I guess there was a third perk I should mention- Ancash. For the third time in my almost nine months here (we'll have 9 months in-country this Saturday!), I spent a week in Ancash. The mountains alone are enough to make me happy about an Ancash visit, but what makes Ancash a nice place to be this time of year for me is the weather. Last week brought a very welcome break from the desert heat. I don't think I could handle the cold rainy wetness for a full rainy season, but a week of fun scarves and Smartwool socks was just long enough. 

The rest of this week and the one that follows are just as busy with meetings for the school year, a 2-day English workshop I'm holding for the high school English teachers of the province, and planning for the big giant project I started last weekend. So if the blog is blank for another week, I'm sorry. I'll do my best to keep you updated, but I'm sorry in advance if that doesn't happen ;) 

PS-This is random, but fun, so I will share. While I write this both host brothers are periodically coming in my room to show off their new school supplies that I missed out on seeing while I was away. Adorable. Missed them!