Building Bathrooms

It’s been a busy couple weeks. This past weekend, the WATSAN volunteers of Peru 12 in Lima and Ica, and the new WATSAN trainees of Peru 14 got together at another PCV’s site to build a series of bathrooms for several families. It was a lot of fun, but also a lot of work. It gave us a chance to help some people out while also learning something new, since the majority of us had never built a composting bathroom or a pour flush latrine before. It was also fun getting to know the new WATSAN volunteers who will be swearing in soon.

I don’t really have much else to write, since most of my time at site is spent preparing for bigger projects ahead (boring budget stuff, emails, meetings), so there isn’t anything to show off. I’m also bummed that both LA teams lost in the MLB playoffs, and that USC got smashed by Oregon so I guess that’s it for now…until next time, hasta luego!

And if you want to check out some pics of our día de practica, the 6k run, and international hand washing day, you can check out these links.


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2155363&id=19510535&l=094e6ee2f9


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2150784&id=19510535&l=59663079c4

Festival de Nispero

My town celebrated the 13th Festival de Nispero two weeks ago. In any normal weekend, Coayllo as Karen put it ´´is like a ghost town.´´ It´s a very small town and people here keep themselves busy by working in the fields, doing household chores, or helping with the re-construction. So if you walked through the plaza during the day, there wouldn´t be much going on. When I first arrived, I didn´t think I would be able to last in this tranquility, and lack of movement, but of course like any PCV, you adjust, and you take pride in it.

During the festival, it was a different story. In the past year, I´ve had zero overnight visitors (other PCV´s) visit my town. Coayllo isn´t located near anything central, nor is it a must-see site, but it is one of the oldest towns in the region, but let´s face it, I wouldn´t break an appointment to see my town, except for the festival.

Megann and Rico came for the festival, and it was nice to have visitors. This festival was planned very quickly due to the H1N1 scare in Peru, so it wasn´t as extravagant as other years, but it was really cool to see my town in a festive atmosphere. There wasn´t anything particularly special about the festival compared to other celebrations I´ve been to in Peru, but it was in my town, and it was really awesome to see it full of people, and with a lot of movement.

Work at site has been steadily moving along. A little mishap with one of my water projects occurred recently, but hopefully with coordination, we can start preparing for it in a couple months. Recently, I´ve been working on this ´´intercambio´´ with my English classes here in Coayllo with some Spanish classes at my high school in the states, where letters and postcards will be sent back and forth between the students. My English students seem excited about it, so I hope it is something that lasts, and that they learn something about the states.

Along with this exchange, it gives me the opportunity to present my town to some students in Colton. I remember thinking in high school that I probably never would speak Spanish outside of those classes, but look who´s laughing now. Looking back, do you ever just wonder to yourself ´´how the hell did I get here?´´ If I went back in time, and talked to high school Mark that he would be a PCV after college, I would´ve bet my all the money I had for college that it wasn´t going to happen. Funny how things work out…

This week, we´re celebrating ´´International Day of Washing Hands,´´ which seems like is a Peace Corps initiative. Organizations like the Red Cross, and the United Nations are doing stuff all over the world for it, and by the time I post this, I´ll have pictures of this celebration in Coayllo also. We are working on this recycling fund for the colegio with the municipality (I have to design a logo and slogan for it) which should be done soon, and I can look forward to next month. Man time is flying. I will finally build a worm composting bin this November, and along with surveying the neighboring towns for composting bathroom interest, and Thanksgiving and our yearly med checks, looks like November will be pretty busy.
The end of October has cool stuff happening for me. I´m participating in this 6k run in Lima with a couple other volunteers, and all the proceeds go to breast cancer research on October 18, and our monthly meeting is on the 24th. Last week, I had the opportunity to visit the training group (Peru 14) and accompany Karen on her charla on working with community partners. It was weird to have people listen to us about our experiences at site. The group seems really cool, and it´ll be interesting to have more n00bs in our region. That´s it for Peru!

I´m glad to see that both the Dodgers and Angels swept through the Division Series, and I´m really hoping for an LA-LA World Series. It´ll be like the Bay Area in the 90´s except that the Warriors still sucked. With USC killing Cal 30-3, the Lakers winning the NBA championship, and none of the Bay Area teams making the playoffs again (you can count the Sharks if you want) it must suck to be a sports fan in the bay. I know I´m hating, but when you had a friend who rep´d the bay your whole college life, you have to enjoy it when it is absolutely miserable for them.

Anyway, I have to go. Take care guys.

Pretty much done....

Yeah right. Anyway, I´ve spent one year in Peru, and to tell you the truth, it was hella fast, and I hear the second year is even faster, especially since work will be picking up. As far as future projects, an NGO called Builders Beyond Borders is coming in February and March. Working on a recycling fund for the colegio right now, and I will be working on getting a composting latrine project started on a neighboring town, so year 2 looks promising.

As most of you know, my friends from Hawaii were starting their South American adventure, as we hung out in Lima and Cusco. Phase 2 occured when they met me and my fellow PCV´s at our regional meeting in Ica. The meeting was productive as we are in the starting stages of planning a kids camp for May, and getting things prepared for the continuous growth of the number of volunteers who will be living in our region soon.

After, we ate some delicious panchamanca, and headed out to party. We were celebrating a birthday, my friends visiting, and breaking in the n00bs in our region, so it ended up having a crazy nite. As for work lately, have a meeting to prepare for the B3 project on Monday, and working with one of my English classes on maybe possibly having an intercambio with some Spanish classes in the states. We will see.

I have to go now. I encourage everybody to follow up on my friends´ adventure in this dear continent as they trek their way through Bolivia onto Argentina. Their blog is aptlymegapixeled.tumblr.com

Take care guys, and hasta pronto. Chaufa!

Here´s another reason I love my friends...




If you want to see pictures go this link
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2147334&id=19510535&l=ee2353b2e2Create an Ad

Some Old Inca Stuff

I’m back from site from one of the coolest vacations I’ve ever had. Ten days ago, a trio of friends from Hawaii flew into Lima. After 24 hours of travelling (Honolulu to San Francisco, San Francisco to San Salvador, San Salvador to Lima) they finally made it to Peru. It’s good to have a little bit of home in South America, and it was a surreal feeling to be spending some of my service with these guys. We spent several days in Lima seeing El Centro, going out in Miraflores, and having a taste of Peruvian cuisine (ceviche, pollo a la brasa, anticucho, bisteck a la pobre) before we set foot on a plane to head to Cusco.

This trip had various early wake up times around 3:30 AM. Our flight to Cusco was at 5:45 AM, so some of us didn’t even close our eyes before we landed. Cusco is a very cool, yet very different than the rest of Peru. Their plaza de armas has many colonial buildings, yet if you venture off to other sites, you’ll see many examples of Incan architecture. Since it’s the tourist center of Peru, you can get away with not knowing Spanish as many of the places cater to tourists.

Cusco is a very fun town. You can pretty much eat whatever you want there, whether its pizza, Mexican food, or McDonald’s, they’ll probably have it. One thing I wanted to show my friends was the value of the Peruvian “menu” since they were going to be travelling for a while. Peru has these “menus” that are basically 2-course meals that can range from a dollar to up to four dollars depending on what kind of menu you are looking for. In a town like Cusco, it’s sometimes , very difficult to find these places that offer cheap menus, but after walking many blocks, we found a street where we can eat purely Peruvian dishes.

Cusco gave us the opportunity to eat guinea pig, ají de gallina, sopa de trigo, and chuleta de jugo. Writing this is making me hungry again. After Cusco, we set foot to our trip to Aguas Calientes to see Machu Picchu. We took a cab to this town called Ollantatambo, and had a very knowledgeable cab driver, Wilmer, who educated us about the surrounding area, and taught us a few words in Quechua. One of the cool things about the drive was seeing the landscape that surround Cusco. It’s beautiful, and the vistas from the top our breathtaking.

Finally arriving in Ollantatambo, we got on the train to Aguas Calientes. Another interesting thing about the trip was the chance to meet various people from different places doing different things. In our hostel, we met people from Canada, Scotland, and the states just staying in Cusco working before they set foot on their next trek. We met a couple from Ohio who celebrated their honeymoon doing the Inca trail, and a guy from Switzerland who was backpacking through South America the last four months.

Anyway, we spent the night in Aguas, and finally the time arrived to see Machu Picchu. We woke up at 3:30 AM, and walked down to the bus stop, where there were about 60 people in line already. Our plan was to board the first bus, so we could hike Huayna Picchu before it Machu Picchu was full of people. We boarded the third bus, and after a half hour ride, we were finally there.

It’s hard to describe what Machu Picchu is like without seeing it with your own eyes. The pictures are amazing, but experiencing it in real life is another story. I like describing this experience to the others I’ve had backpacking and seeing historical figures which are identified to the places I’ve been to (Sagrada Familia (Barcelona), Eiffel Tower (Paris), the Coliseum (Rome), and Sydney Opera House (Sydney)), so I’m not going to even attempt to describe Machu Picchu in my own words. Go and see it yourself, you won’t regret it.

So after taking a butt load of pictures, we hiked up Huayna Picchu and took some more pictures. The view from there makes you feel like you’re on top of the world, and the chance to see Machu Picchu from a different perspective. We then ate our snacks, trekked down the hike, and took a nap in one of the Seven Wonders of the World. We boarded a bus, and that was our trip. My friends stayed in Cusco for an extra day, while I took my flight back to Lima for work. While my life is definitely out of the ordinary, this trio of friends from Hawaii is on an adventure of their own. In a few words, they worked their butts off; quit their jobs, and are going to backpack Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina for 2 months. After that, they will be living in Buenos Aires indefinitely. If you want to see their travels, you can read their blog here.

aptlymegapixeled.tumblr.com

That was our trip in a few words. There are a lot of stories that haven’t been told, but I have to save stuff just in case we talk. All trips have stories, and I guess it’s one of the great things about travelling. You’ll never know who you’ll meet, and what’s going to happen next. Until next time, chau!

If you want to see pics, go to this link. Aloha!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2144342&id=19510535&l=d3cd98539a

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2144345&id=19510535&l=2dd7e13333

Stress...the good kind!

First I want to start off by apologizing to everybody for the lack of blogging this past month. I’ve been kind of busy with work stuff, and will be looking forward to seeing the fruits of this labor within the next few months, and it’s also possible that a really big project will come to Coayllo within the first three months of next year. So we’ll cross our fingers, and see if we get chosen. I wish I could go into specifics of the project, but I’m still working on it, and hopefully I can tell you more about it in the future.

Last month has been spent going to different meetings and workshops, and being a host to several people who visited my town. A couple weeks ago, the WATSAN volunteers had IST (In-service Training) where we worked on latrine construction, project proposals, and water system maintenance. This month was also spent getting footage, and cutting a video for the incoming WATSAN trainees who will be coming to Peru in September. This little video will basically introduce what do in our own unique way.

After attending a workshop on solid waste management, several of us got the opportunity to meet two of the new volunteers who will be living in our region. It’s pretty exciting to meet new volunteers and see their progress as they get fully integrated to their sites. They seem to be really cool, and it seems like they are content on being there for the next couple years. I don’t envy them now, and it’s hard to remember being that new to my site. It’s kind of weird to go from a noob to a vet, but I guess it’ll be no time when I’m out of here, missing this place.
It looks like the month of September will be great as friends from Hawaii will be in Peru visiting, and we get the awesome opportunity to see one of the seven new wonders of the world, Machu Picchu. Ever since I received my Peace Corps nomination, I knew Cusco was going to be a destination for me while I backpacked through South America, but I was fortunate to be placed in this lovely country where I’m an hour flight away. This will also be a chance for my friends to see Coayllo, meet the other volunteers, and see the work I do.

On September 11th, Peru 12 will be celebrating our first year in Peru. Looking back, it was really fast and slow at the same time. Chunks of time go by real quick, but minutes and hours of the day go with the pace of the campo. I look forward to my second year of service because I feel like I really know where I fit in my site, and know what I want to do here. More importantly, the community members know too, and seem motivated to do so.

One last thing I want to say before I head to bed is how ill-equipped I feel writing this blog sometimes. With the encouragement of family and friends back home, I wrote this entry, but it’s weird to think that people actually read the words I type on this thing. With the realization that people refer other people to read my blog as they think about joining the Peace Corps, kind of frightens me. For some other people, it’s a relief to their mundane day, which is nice to know, but I guess what I’m trying to say is how hard it is to get the essence of what it’s like being here, doing development work in a foreign country as a PCV.

I don’t have the vocab to express every struggle that comes my way, or to express the joy I feel when a kid says that it’s going to suck when I leave. So for people who are interested in doing this, I encourage you to read the blogs of other PCV’s because every experience is different. If you want my opinion, I’m scared of the fact that my words might curb your opinion of going or not going. Apply and go through the process because it takes hella long. It’s difficult not to be idealistic, but as long as you are real with the reasons you are going, do it and have fun. It’s volunteer work, so you better WANT to do this stuff.

I love being here, and I’ll show you why in several weeks when I get to Cusco…until then, cuidense y chau-fa.

Here´s part of the video we worked on...enjoy!

So la gripe is coming, let’s move up Winter break

Man, I have felt very useless this week. Due to the recent outbreak of H1N1 in Peru (and the rest of the Southern Hemisphere it seems) the government decided to move up winter break up a couple weeks. So expecting the normal week of English classes before I headed to In-Service Training (IST), the break left me being a hermit crab in my own little room. The break also made me finish my Community Diagnostic Survey (CDS), which was due in May. Although the brunt of the data gathering was done in my first three months of service, Peace Corps has their volunteers turn in formal reports of this survey to be read by the lucky people of Washington D.C. So just like my college days, I reluctantly typed the report, and realized that I still am not a fan of paperwork, or typing anything formally. It’s a good thing I want to grad school after this…

Not much to report though, besides the fact that I’m ending my one week at site for the month of July. The rest of the month, my socio and I will be in IST with my fellow WATSAN volunteers down here in the south along with their counterparts brushing up on workshops on latrine construction, solid waste management, and water system repair. After that is Fiestas Patrias, which includes Peru’s Independence Day. For that week, volunteers have vacation days to celebrate up to the end of the month. I’ll be spending my holiday in Ancash seeing the Cordillera Blanca, and seeing something a little different than the coast of Peru.

In the work front, the recycling campaign is going well in my school. It seems the little kids in primaria are really into the recycling, having doubled the amount of plastic bottles than the rest of the colegio. We’re storing the recyclables of the two month contest in a spare room, and it’s already pretty full, so it looks like I’ll have some work to do when I get back from vacation. I will probably present my CDS to the rest of the community in August, which will hopefully motivate the community to think of ideas for some projects that we may be able to do in the future. I’ve also been talking to my host dad about improving facilities for his church, and a possible project might be on its way with their support, as some members of the community are lacking of some well needed amenities in order to live in a clean, healthy environment. Either way, with all the possibilities, I’m just hoping for something to pop up. Coayllo is due for one.

With all this alone time, I’ve read two complete books this week: Bel Canto and Into the Wild. I recommend both books, as they were entertaining in different ways for me. Here are two excerpts that hit at home for me:

This is from Bel Canto, and to set up this part of the book, one guy tells an opera singer that he loves her through a translator, and here we go…

“And what if there is nothing for me to give you?” She seemed to be interested in Fyodorov’s argument.
He shook his head. “What a thing to say, after all that you have given to me. But it is never about who has given what. That is not the way to think of gifts. This is not a business we are conducting. Would I be pleased if you were to say you loved me as well…A beautiful thought, surely but my wife would not be pleased.
This is from Into the Wild, the main character, Chris McCandles writing to a letter to a friend…

“So many people live within happy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one piece of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each to have a new and different sun.…You are wrong if you think joy emanates only or principally from human experiences. God has placed it all around us. It is everything and anything we might experience. We just have to have courage to turn against our habitual lifestyle and engage in unconventional living…Don’t hesitate or allow yourself to make excuses. Just get out and do it. Just get and out and do it. You will be very, very glad that you did.”

These books have awesome stories, but these particular excerpts kind of stuck with me the past week after I finished going through them. The part of Bel Canto hit me because I guess it’s the way I would like to show my love to things. I fall into the trap like others and sometimes am afraid of expressing love, but it shouldn’t be that way. Love should be something you feel, and show without thinking of the consequences. I like to think of love as one burning “hot potato” that once touched, has to be passed to someone else because it can’t be something you can hold and possess. You can’t “Bogart” it. You feel it, and you pass it. Repeat if necessary.

The Into the Wild part is the reason so many people travel. It’s the reason I’m here in this cold room typing this stupid blog right now. I don’t have anything remotely entertaining to say since I’ve been writing a 30 page report the past few days, yet I’m doing this blog because these words touch the core of me. I could never say I’m as adventurous as Chris McCandles, but I’d like to think I share his spirit of adventure and fearlessness at times. So many people are afraid to try new things, that it freezes them back to their security and safety.

You spend so much time “alone” as a Peace Corps Volunteer that sometimes you put yourself in a sour mood. What helps me is opening my eyes, and seeing the beauty in the things around me. I mean I’m not in Hawaii, or the sierras of Peru, truly beautiful places, but that deep breath I take before I take my run through the hills and desert of Coayllo, makes me feel alive. It’s not the things, the places or the people that make you feel happiness. I’ve seen a lot of depressed people in Hawaii during my college days. Yeah I know it’s hard to believe.

Joy comes from the entire experience. It’s the awkwardness. It’s the loneliness. It’s the hunger. It’s the frustration. It’s the new friendships. It’s the shared laughter. It’s the tears. I can’t imagine being in a better place right now than being cold and restless in Peru, waiting for the next adventure to begin. Why do I feel like I’m going to regret these words…?

So that´s what 21km feels like...

Man it feels good to be back “home.” Usually I don’t mind being away from site for a few days, but I kind of missed “working” and seeing the idiosyncrasies of Coayllo the past couple days. Travel takes a toll on the psyche, and leaves the normal PCV exhausted as they return, adjusting to what happened. This week I, along with 80 other PCV’s participated in the 2nd annual Pacasmayo International Marathon. This event was organized by a fellow PCV, and was in my opinion, very successful. (I’m already looking forward to next year’s.) Since the Lima/Ica region hasn’t been developed as much as other regions, it was nice to see other volunteers from other training groups. We arrived in Pacasmayo on the 4th of July, and they had a parade to welcome the participants. The marathon consisted of PCV’s from Peru, RPCV’s from Panama, Bulgaria, and Dominican Republic, and citizens from Hong Kong, Canada, Mexico, Peru, and a couple other countries which I can’t remember at the moment. There were 4 different races (5km, 10km, 21km, and 42 km) and each had about 30 participants and a great group of volunteers that helped out motivating the runners during the race, and passing out water and fruit.

Since I never ran anything further than a 10 km race, a half marathon was going to be tough. I’ve never been a fan of running, mainly because I thought it was boring. There was no ball involved, nor creativity, nor style. It’s just you and your legs going, but one thing I’ve always wanted to do is finish an entire marathon, so you can say I’m half way to that goal.

So after all the training at site, and mental preparation to run this distance, the day finally arrived. Along with the other group of runners, we stretched, ate, hydrated, and did whatever was necessary to prepare for the race. At 8:25 AM, the gun sounded, and we were off. Then 2 hours later, I was done. (I don’t know my official time, it’s around 1:57, I believe) and I finished in pain, but with a smile in my face, knowing that I ran further than I ever had before without stopping to walk. I can honestly say that this was harder than anything I’ve done, and it was great to test my mind and body this way (with the help of Jay-Z and the Roots blaring in my headphones).

After the race, we ate, we rested, we partied, then we were off to work again, or so we thought. I travelled with 3 other PCV’s in my region, and before we boarded our overnight bus from Trujillo to Lima, we found out that we were one bag less than we arrived. When we arrived in Trujillo during lunch time from Pacasmayo, we paid the bus agency to watch and store our stuff as we went through the city. After a great lunch (ceviche, and steamed fish), a horrible movie (the new one with Nicholas Cage…I know what you’re thinking, but it was the only one in English), and an awesome dinner (French toast, for mi amigo, and a club sandwich for me), we got back looking at disappointment staring back at us.

Although my friend lost important stuff in value (an ipod, a nice backpack, clothes) and in sentimental value (he was 2nd place prize in the half marathon, a medal, marathon shirt) things could have been worse. I looked at it, as me dodging a bullet because I had my laptop and external hard drive in my bag, and would’ve been distraught because that would’ve been everything in value I have, which brings me to the point of the double edge sword travelers live. What the fuck can you do when you can’t even pay a guy to lock a door for you? You can’t lug your stuff around. Not only is it uncomfortable, but it puts a target on you for people who might want to rob you in the city. So caution to travelers out there, your stuff is never “safe”, and your options are few, so just be careful with your valuables.

We got to Lima, looking forward to going home, and found out there were strikes which blocked our way back to our sites. The strike gave us an extra day in Lima, and we took advantage of it by running errands (washing clothes, go to the PC Center) and hanging out with the rest of the PCV’s who were in Lima for different reasons. Sadly, we also said goodbye to two more volunteers from our training group. Its tough seeing them go, but they are happy with their decision, and I hope the best for them in the states. After a couple of days, I boarded a bus with a new cell phone (lost my other one), new books, clean clothes, and two movies to talk about (the other being Transformers 2), along with other news.

It was a good trip. It had its ups and downs, but all I can say is that it’s great being home. Trujillo and Huanchaco are awesome towns. We visited some ruins before the marathon, and now I’m enjoying the tranquility of Coayllo. I hope everyone enjoyed their 4th of July weekend. Enjoy the summer out there guys, and for the other PCV’s, hang in there. Cuidense and stay classy.

Here are some links to some pictures...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2132214&id=19510535&l=8aa75b293b

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2129453&id=19510535&l=fa587da61a

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2125076&id=19510535&l=d40851f984