Solid

I’ve been here in Peru for, what seems to be months… 16 days and I’m feeling more and more accustomed to the culture almost daily. Day by day I’m feeling like more of an insider in these Peruvian communities. At training we have spent a few days out and about, getting to know a few communities close to where we are living. This has been an amazing booster for me and many other volunteers… Since the beginning of training we have heard over and over that we will spend many months getting to know our communities inside and out once we are at site. To my ears, this task has sounded daunting, especially since my Spanish skills remain at a mediocre level--- After the community activities, I was able to see the real possibility of getting familiar with a community and understanding the way things are run. We were all quickly able to recognize many strengths and weaknesses of the communities, which will be a huuuuge task once we get to site… I am also realizing that I will not be stranded out in a community for two years with no outside help, this brings me great comfort.
(I know many of you are still unsure as to what exactly I will be doing for my 2 years of service, I promise to write a more detailed description of what service will look like… I’m still trying to grasp it as well, but I will say that it is sounding beautiful yet challenging)

Today (6/21) we went to the city of Lima, which was a 1.5 hour ride in a combi (I will post a picture of one of these soon). We went with our language instructors to both practice Spanish and get more familiar with the city, since we will be taking many trips there during service (the PC center, and medical center is located here). It was a nice day… with a ridiculous amount of walking. Amazed at our first sight of American food such as McDonalds, BK, Starbucks, KFC, most volunteers rushed for their first taste of familiar food in weeks. I went with about 7 other volunteers for a gigantic personal pan pizza from PizzaHut! I was craving it all week. – here’s a quick funny story - We were given 5 soles (Peruvian currency) to figure out how to get home on our own (training purposes… I think). My friends Sal, Patty and I took a combi home… we stood crushed for the first 20 minutes of the ride, but thankfully, found a seat…we rested our legs and looked forward to riding home on our bums… about 15 minutes later, our combi cut someone off (which usually happens every 2 minutes or so) but this time, our driver was caught. His license was taken away from him, and we had to switch combis… We hopped on a different and had to ‘intimately stand’ for another 45 minutes till we arrived at home. It was hilarious, but be glad you weren’t there.

Guitar…

I know it would probably fit my character to spend a whole blog page about me buying a guitar, but I feel like keeping it simple. I bought a guitar about a week ago! It’s a nylon string classical guitar of pretty decent quality. Though I haven’t had the most time to pluck the ol’ strings, it has definitely helped me feel more at home.

Field Based Training…

In about 4 weeks, the Small Business Development group will be taking a weeklong trip to Cajamarca (16 hours north of Lima) to partake in Field Based Training, where we will be divided into groups and assigned to classes of business students. We will spend the week with them, teaching them different business and development related things… in strictly SPANISH! I heard that our bus is lux-u-rious, and we will be staying in a hotel with hot water!

Other things…

+I’ve experienced 2 minor earthquakes since I’ve been here. One was the first morning, during our retreat in Chaclacayo. The other was about 4 nights ago around 4 a.m. it woke me up, but I felt completely safe in my shack.

+It’s not uncommon for me to leave a bit of food on my plate at dinner, portions are pretty monstrous… the other night I was served crispy fried chicken on top of French fries and cut up hot dogs… with ketchup, mayonnaise and hot sauce sprinkled about… I slammed the meal in my stomach and smiled BIG at my family. They were surprised at my freshly polished plate, they knew I liked it, I am sure of this because I received the exact same thing the following night…haha. (this is a picture of a plate very similar to what theyve been serving me)

+ It seems many of the volunteers have rediscovered a deep, fiery passion for candy/ice cream/ sweets… it suddenly hit us all the same time a few days ago, all at once. We found ourselves rushing towards the shops on the way home. It’s been a real comfort, I mean it… I love candy.
+ I’ll end with some good news, which will better describe the title of this blog… my stomach is basically in tip-top shape! As some of you know, my sickness from last week went away with medicine, but quickly returned on Sunday morning. It was father’s day; I had a fever of 102 and no father… eeek. Since then my body has repaired itself without the help of medicine! I once again have confidence in my body’s abilities! We’ll see how long this lasts… but for now… solid

heres a picture of my sister Raquel, my mom and neice after a church service in Chaclacayo...

Much love to you all,
James

p.s. has anyone been to Peru before or South/Central America? if so, where? Any experiences you can relate to so far? I might need some people to sympathize with me some day…