A gigantic tower of bamboo sticks loaded with different types of fireworks (beautifully timed)... there were three of these throughtout the duration of the night. While in the midst of the party, I realized how far away I still am from understanding this Peruvian culture. I feel I had a good grip on the culture I experianced in the US, and could communicate pretty wella number of different ways... learning this new culture is a very interesting process, definitley one of the most interesting endeavors Ive ever experianced. Here's one culture norm I've caught onto thus far... When offered something, a food, or a drink, it is common for the recipient to refuse at first, and to make the other person ask more than one time. When the person is forced to offer something more than once, it is a much more sincere interaction... this is a pretty cool custom to catch onto, and it can really help interactions here, but its HORRIBLE when you really dont want to accept something.
Training/home
Things have been going great. Im continually learning more and more about business and Spanish language. We will be reevaluating our Spanish skills at the end of this week and will be assigned new classes with new teachers (this makes me pretty sad, class has been amazing with my two buuuuds Mike and David and our wonderful teacher Sarah)
Sometimes I feel like my Spanish isnt improving at all!!! I will get pretty upset about it, and in the same day I will sit down with my family and communicate for 2 hours straight... it is after there 2 hours that I realize that my language is indeed improving... 2 hours is a long time to communicate clearly.... it feels good! My dad seems to be putting in some extra effort in helping me understand Spanish. The other night as I was sitting on the couch, he walked inand started pointing at things and made me repeat after him. It turned out to be a pretty usefull exercize, I learned alot of new living room vocab.
One day last week the Small Business Development crew took a trip to a technical institute for 17-25 year olds. Our only task for this trip was to sit in on a Charla (educational) given to a group of 30 Peruvian students. The Charla was a business simulatino that touched on small business promotion and marketing. It was given by our two small-business trainters Ivan and Dennis. The reason we did this was so that we would get a better idea of what our Field Based Training will look like in 2 weeks... The Charla went great, and so did the activities afterwards. We all worked in small groups with Peruvians and got a better understanding of what its like to work alongside them. It was encouraging. They were very sharpt and had many great ideas and thoughts throughout the simulation, it made our jobs easy. We were there simply as facilitators and to offer suggestions.
La Escuela Agrederia (this part of the blog is written at the much more reasonable time of 7pm on Sunday night)
This last saturday we took the first of 4 trips to a well known agricultural school in Lima. Here we broke up into groups and learned many basics about agriculture, since many of us will have the opportunity to work with farmers and even begin small gardens of our own. We walked around the schools property and learned about common planting techniques throughout Peru... we learned the early stages of making our biohuertos (small gardens with multiple crops). We even prepared a field and planted some seeds, which we will continue to reurn to throughout our next visits. We also got to try about 7 new fruits that were completely new to all of us N. Americans... they were all exotic and amazing--- we'll be making 3 more trips out there throughout the next 2 months --- afterwards, I went to central lima with 5 other volunteers. I put to use my semi-expertise in guitars and helped each of them buy guitars... about 1/3 of the volunteers have bought guitars, and I think only about 5 of them have past experiance. We hope to practice our skills individually for the next two years, then make a band of 15 peace corps guitar players and tour the world!+other things
I spent the day with my family at a club for Marinas, which I think is equivalent to the US Navy. My brother has served as a marina for the past 15 years or so. We spent the day relaxing under the sun, surrounded by other peruvian families and cumbia music.
Grupo Cinco is a Peruvian boy band... and they are HUUGE in this country. It is impossible not to hear at least 5 songs by them daily, sometimes Ill get lucky and hear the exact same song 3 times in one day. Its kind of strange, but their music is growing on me, and I subconsciously get excited when I hear it come on the radio... Ive been learning about 3 of their songs on the guitar and playing them whenever I get the chance - its a sure-fire way to bring a smile to a peruvian's face...
Communicating with family and friends has been a challenge this past week. Its been hard for me to make it to the internet more than twice a week, which can be seen as a good thing as well... Ive been keeping busy around here. My telephone in my home hasnt been working for the past 3 days, so phone calls are very a rare. I hope to find a good balance of communcation with everyone somehow... this is easily one of the most frustrating parts of the PC experiance.
Us volunteers continue to pound down candy and ice-cream on a daily basis, I cant even begin to explain how wonderful this has been.
Some say my bearded friend Mike looks alot like Chuch Norris... though Im not completely convinced, the peruvians sure are! The other day, a whole slew of poeple stopped and started in awe as they thought the Texas Ranger himself were walking down their streets!
One day last week, the business group got to go to the mountains. It was niiiiice to see some mountains with green and heavy vegetation. We saw a trout farm and learned about its beginings and sustainability. We were also shown a few remains from the time of the Incas... Innnnnteresting...
I'm off into my 4th week here in Chacrasana! Not quite sure what we've got planned for the week, but Field Based Training is only 2 weeks away. Being away from the US for so long, Ive kinda forgotten what 4th of July even signifies... if someone could please fill me in, thatd be great. I hope you all enjoy your holliday!
Much LOVE and PEACE through Christ
James
3 comments:
crazy that the celebration with fireworks would go be able to go on so late
**be able to go on so late in the neighborhood
Im so glad you finally got to post this! great blog.
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