I have officially completed one week of training in Peru!
YAYAYAYAY!! [Running around in circles with Muppet hands]
All 58 volunteers have been gathering each day at a
training center in Chaclacayo (about an hour outside of the center of Lima) for
sessions on personal safety, Peru’s political structure and history, health
issues and poverty issues facing Peruvians, the government’s goals for
improving the health and well-being of its citizens, health issues that volunteers
may face (more talk about diarrhea), cultural sensitivity training and mucho mucho
mucho Spanish lessons.
In addition to the instructional sessions, the health volunteers were given
a community outreach project on malnutrition. My project partner and I interviewed
local folks about their knowledge of nutrition and we surveyed a market to see
if a variety of nutritious food is available for purchase. Yes, I actually used my bad, broken Spanish
to gather information about people’s cooking habits and I actually understood most
of their responses!
After we finish our sessions at the training center, I
take a combi (also called a collectivo for you guys from Mexico, or
a minibus) about 5 minutes to my host family’s house in the hills in nearby community
of Chacrasana. Just when I think my
brain is too full to stuff anything new in it, my host mom pulls me into the
kitchen and launches into her own Spanish lesson for me. We discuss varieties of potatoes grown in
Peru (there are over 1,000) and how to cook different types of veggies. I try to memorize the names for artichoke (alcachofa), beets (betarraga), yam (camote),
and others until my brain starts to feel like it might ooze out the side of my
head until finally I excuse myself to work on my Spanish homework.
If you are concerned that I’m not having any fun down
here while I’m madly preparing for my service to help a Peruvian community, please
don’t be concerned. Fortunately, this
week I discovered an interesting phenomenon in Peru called “La
Hora Loca.”
Apparently every fiesta must have a point when everyone
goes bananas and the party gets totally insane. I am totally in favor of this concept (but it
seemed problematic when it occurred on a weeknight). Last Wednesday my host family threw a
surprise birthday party for my host brother who turned 30. When the birthday boy showed up,
the band launched into song and they played for about an hour while we nibbled
on potato snacks and drank a non-alcoholic drink made from purple corn.
And then all of a sudden two clowns busted into the house and got the party started. They gave us
Minnie Mouse hats and flower leis to wear, noisemakers and balloons to whack
each other with. The clowns then covered
the entire house with silly string, sprayed foam and confetti while we danced
madly under the instruction of one of the clowns shouting commands into the
microphone (Arriba! Abajo! Limbo!) while a life-sized guinea pig mascot danced
around us. !Que ridiculoso!
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Please keep in mind that this was all done without
the accompaniment of large quantities of alcohol. The only alcoholic drink offered to quests
was a tiny glass of a pisco drink with milk, ice, cinnamon and a concentrated
fruit juice called algorrobina. !Muy rico!
After the Hora Loca
was over and all of the guests were a sweaty mess, the birthday boy was required
to have a one-on-one dance with each of the ladies at the party (including
myself). And then we sang “Happy
Birthday” (in an odd combination of English and Spanish) to Russell while he
blew out the candles on the cake.
But there was still more insanity, as Russell busted open
the piñata and sent all of the kids scrambling for candy before we were finally
served carne asada for dinner around 11pm.
I was exhausted but still needed to get some Spanish homework done so I
snuck out away from the party and fell asleep straight away while the band was
still playing.
Just another day in paradise….:-)
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