2 years in CAJAMARCA!

Today was the biggest day of them all... we found out our location and assigments for the next two years of our lives. We had all been waiting for this moment since the day we got to Peru.

I have been assigned to a pueblo in Cajamarca

It is a small city located in the green green mountains of Cajamarca (very similar to the site I went to for FBT)

I will be working alongside two associations... 1. which works with the wholesale of live cuy (guinie pig) and 2. an association of ceramists!

I will be working closley with the head of the ceramics association who actually happens to be my host dad!

The house I will live in is the studio in which the ceramists do most of their work, Kiln and all!

some of the youth volunteers visited this very site for their FBT experiance. I am fortunate enough to have some picutres of my site handy! also some picutres of the house/studio in which I will live...

there is also a town about 30 minutes outside of Chacay where there is a guitar workshop in which I look forward to doing some work with as well!

all of this sounds too good to be true in all actuality, but its happening! I feel as if I could not have chosen a better site. I am rediculoulsy excited to search out the posibilities in the site...

I leave for a week long site visit this Sunday. I´ll return next Sunday and am excited to fill you all in on even more about the town! Thanks for your comments, thoughts, emails and prayers!

God is good,

James

Ceviche! and cooking!

heres a quick post for all those busy readers...


Ever since I arrived here in Peru, the locals have been asking me left and right... ´has probado ceviche?´ (have you tried ceviche). For a while I was clueless as to what it was... I quickly found out that it´s a classic here in Peru. Ceviche is described as a citrus-marinated raw fish, always accompanied by sweet potatos, mote (gigantic corn) and a mountain of onions. When I say citrus marinated... I mean it... lemon-city.




I´ve never been a huge fan of fish, let alone raw fish. I got to try sushi for the first time a few months back with my good friends Liz, Tom and Ashley at Liz´s moms resturaunt... but I never thought I´d come to a point where I can say this with confidence... I Love raw fish, Ceviche is delicious.




My friend Jason and I had our first cooking experiance! we cooked Torilla de Quinua and chocolate cake... look...






friday is the big day... I´ll be finding out where the next two years of my life will be spent. I´ll be quick to spread the word...

Peace to you, James

Field Based Training

San Miguel...in pictures






Trujillo

The week started off with a 17 hour bus ride north towards Cajamarca on an extra-luxurious bus. By far, the nicest bus I've ever seen... We arrived in Cajamarca city on Sunday afternoon and enjoyed a quick lunch before catching a cab to San Miguel. The last leg of our travel was a two hour 'video-game-like' cab ride up the side of a gigantic mountain... we feared for our lives... but made it safely.

Classes
My group and I successfully conducted 3 full days of businesses courses! We were assigned a classroom of 20 students ranging in age from 18-22. We came as prepared as possible, but knew our plans were bound to change. It took the students about half a day to warm up to us and activley participate in class. We were told to emphasize classroom participation - in hopes to engage them in the learning process as much as possible. We found out quick that if you want participation and attention, you have to fight for it... we allowed them to make up their own rules for the class - (if anyone was late, they had to dance in front of the class)
Throughout the three days of classes, we taught our students everything they needed to know to begin their own small business - everything from the meaning of ENTREPREnuership to methods of marketing a product or service. They each applied for a loan from the 'Peace Corps' bank ranging from 20-100 soles to begin their business.
Thursday was the day our groups headed out into the San Miguel market to sell their product. Most every group decided to make food to sell, which I'm told happens every year.
We divided our group into 3 groups...

1 group made and sold "chupetes" or popcicles - lucuma flavor
1 group made and sold Chicharones con mote (google it)
1 group made cuy con papa (guinie pig and potatos... yes, guinie pig is a common meal)
1 group had a free showing of the movie Titanic, and sold popcorn and mazamorra (google)
---wed. night, Sal, Kelly and I went to help one of our groups make their popcicles. We spent some quality time with them, on an informal level, which made us all look forward to our Peruvian friendships we will make once at site.

Each of our groups had successful businesses and were able to pay back their loans with a 2% interest. The biggest success of the entire week was the showing of Titanic. Amazingly, a crowd of 300 people showed up at 8pm to watch the 3 hour movie (which didn't actually start till 9). The popcorn and mazamorra sold out! It was a big surprise to everyone.
The week seemed to go by pretty slowly, but Thursday afternoon we found ourselves in front of all 70 students, handing out certificates and saying our goodbyes...
it was at this last meeting the the highlight of the week took place...Sal and I wrote a song about the food sold durring the business simulation, its called 'Estamos llenos' (we are full)... I've got it on video, and will post it on my youtube account soon enough!

We got to hang out with the current volunteer living in San Miguel and got to check out of the work she does there. She introduced us to her artisan association that she works with, and invited some of us to join her running group that she does every morning.
Thursday after classes... some students invited us to a bonfire for a while - and the school threw a dance together for us later that night.It seems like some of our dance skills are finally improving.
At the end of the week, I think we all gained quite a bit of confidence. At first, the entire week seemed daunting, with many challenges and obstacles to work around. Now that it is over, I have full confidence in our ability as volunteers. The week was filled with creativity and persistence amongst all the volunteers.

Trujillo

Friday morning we took off to our vacation part of the weeklong trip. We headed to the coastal city of Trujillo. We spent one night in a very nice hostle, and one day at a nearby beach. I tried some local favorite dishes on the shore... played some beach soccer... and even took a shot at surfing (the hardest sport ever invented)
There was a nice mall in the middle of Trujillo where we ate our share of N. American fast food, relaxed and saw the new Batman movie.

The week ended with yet another busride... this time only 8 hours. We arrived back in the city of Lima around 7, and to Chacrasana at 8.

Whats next?
5 more weeks until we swear in as official Peace Corps volunteers... In two weeks we will find out our Site Assignments! everyone is waiting impatiently to find out where we will spend the next 2 years of our lives. Once we find out, we will go on a week long site visit to do a community analysis and get to know a bit about our future sites.


I hope your all doing well...
Love you all, James
ps... check the new pictures

Gone to San Miguel...

I'll be out of contact for a while, you need me - you can find me here...San Miguel, Cajamarca

Tomorrow the small business development group will be 'Cajamarca-bound'...
the long awaited Field Based Training week will soon be upon us. We have been preparing for the last 2 weeks and we're hoping the week will be a complete success! I am working in a group of 3 with my friends Kelly and Sal...

As many of you know, I have ZERO experience in teaching. The only credentials I'm putting my weight on was the year I spent teaching guitar to my friend Cylas. It was such a rewarding experience... I've had many teachers in my life that have had a profound influence on who I am and what I've learned...

I reflect on this topic, because I am about to experience what it means to be a teacher
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week- my partners and I will be in front of a class of 30 Peruvian students for 6 hours each day.
We will be teaching many different topics
-entrepreneurship
-leadership
-finance
-accounting
-market analysis
-business plans

it has been our task to create lesson plans including charlas (educationals), activities, games, etc. in the most creative way possible. We have been advised to not teach like N. Americans. We have been working on understanding the ways in which Peruvians think in terms of business... this has greatly shaped our preparation for FBT. I am excited to teach in an informal way, while getting to know the students throughout the week...

get this --- at the end of the week, we will be breaking the students into small groups and handing out small loans (the equivalent of $40) to each group. From here, the students will be expected to take all the necessary steps needed in order to get their 'business for a day' up and running --- at the end of the day, the students will need to pay back their loan (with interest) and are able to keep the profit made. (supposedly, every group in the past has been able to pay back the loan with money to spare).

sounds like a tough assignment for us baby Peace Corps Volunteers, no?
One more thing to keep in mind... Its all in SPANISH!!!

I can't wait to fill you in on how the whole week goes! I hope your all doing well!
talk to you in a week or so....
-James

P.S. heres a fun photo to keep you occupied for a week

if you had the power to hover, like I can, where would you hover? who would you hover with? over what kind of surface would you hover? would you teach others to hover like US?

Just Like Home

This past week acutally came without too much excitement, which is kind of a relief. I´m feeling a bit more settled in here in Peru, and getting accustomed to the new experiances, views and foods.

I thought I´d give you all a peek of what a Peruvian 4th of July celebration is like!

We had relay races, played soccer, ate tons of food, ICE CREAM, played music (thats our main trainer pluckin the strings)... and I fell in love with INCA COLA... (I´ll give a more detailed blog about this drink soon, it deserves it)

I felt right at home in the U.S... minus my parents backyard

4

Happy Fourth of July to you and yours!

The Fiesta Experiance

I write this blog from my bed on Sunday morning at 3:07 am... why? You ask... there is a fiesta going on about 100 feet from my shack, and it wont be done till about 2 more hours. Today is the celbration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus here in Chacrasana... The fiesta began around 10 oclock after much of the town attended mass. There is a live band pumping out salsa and cumbia tunes while 150 from the community celebrate through dancing and slightly heavy drinking. Most of us volunteers hung around for a while, but most definitely could not make it past 2 oclock out there... we were there long enough to dance a bit and see this ---->

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