Finally, after 7 weeks of training, we were set loose upon our sites. (We were all given three to four days to explore our future sites, meet our new host families, and get acquainted with the town before we completed our last two weeks of training.) Each volunteer is given a different pueblo or town throughout Peru (mostly in districts along the Western coast). My site is Nazca. Yes, as in the Nazca Lines! I live about 10 minutes from them, and with the tour planes flying overhead every day. Nazca is also the site of many pre-Incan archeological sites... which I love. Also home of the Cerro Blanco, which is the biggest sand dune in all of South America. Oh yeah, sand dune- did I mention that Nazca is in the center of the desert..? Yeah. Summer temps averaging over 100 deg F. A lil toasty. BUT- that makes for perfect climate for some awesome foods. Mangos, grapes (therefore wine and Pisco), oranges, pecans, corn, papas to name a few. I am the very first volunteer to this site, so everything is new and ground-breaking... just how I like it.
Most volunteers are placed in a pueblo or city ranging from around 300-3,000 people. I, on the other hand, for some reason or another have been assigned a city with 30,000 people (and covering a district with about 70,000 people). Big task. So where do I begin? Well, first thing is to meet as many of the community leaders as possible to get the word out there of who I am and what I'm doing. I want as many big guns on my side as possible (but not real guns! we're PEACE corps. wink) So my socio comunitario (the person I will be working with a lot on my various projects) Flor made sure I not waste time and set up appointments for me right away. After my morning bucket bath and my 3-day old crunchy bread, Flor came to come pick me up. We visited the school of which she is the director. I oh-so-naively thought that I was just going there to see where she works. Little did I know, I was soon greeting teacher after teacher in the office, explaining to them all what I would be doing in their town for 2 years and answering every question under the sun. Furthermore, Flor soon began taking me to every single classroom where I had to stand in front of the classes and introduce myself to all of the students. Four hundred and fifty of them. With my broken-Spanish and no preparation, mind you. Being an RA in college led me to feel pretty comfortable to speaking in front of crowds, but nothing could have prepared me for something like that! Well, I somehow got through it and felt so good that I had accomplished it. So, what was next? Flor said she was going to take me to the Municipality. Alright, I said, I can handle that meeting a few workers in there.
After meeting the Director of the Municipality and several other key figures, I found myself sitting really close face to face, knees touching with some man. I just kind of took it as normal because here there's often not much “personal space boundaries”... that is until he whipped out two voice recorders. Turned out he was wanting to interview me for the radio show. Right there on the spot! I only had time to internally freak out, come to acceptance of this, and recollect myself all in a matter of 20 seconds before he began recording. I used every single ounce of my power to compose myself at that moment. Adrenaline rushing to the max, still to this moment I don't remember a single thing that he asked me, or what I said. All I know was that I could feel the beads of sweat on my face from nervousness and that I had never spoken better Spanish than at that moment in my entire life. It's amazing what a little pressure can do. Okay, so I somehow get through 10 minutes of that and afterwards I feel like a champ. Like I had just beat a long-time opponent in a well-fought soccer match. Grateful that I did not faint afterwards, I cheerfully asked Flor what was next, assuming that nothing could come close to being more difficult than that.
“Vamos a conocer el elcalde.” “El alcalde?!?!” We were on our way to meet the mayor of the city. By this time a few other leaders in the community had joined us on the mission to speak with the mayor. We had to get as much Umph as we could to get the mayor on our side to agree and succeed with accepting me into the community. This was a big deal. This is the man of the city. For quick example, there were two guards outside the restaurant we were in making sure that the crowd of people outside didn't come in and disturb us. Yeah. So after 20 minutes of the leaders and I speaking of my job as a member of Cuerpo de Paz, he finally accepted my presence there and even offered me an office in the Municipality building! Wow, success. At that moment I felt as if anything else I did from then on would be a piece of cake. That was yet another huge moment in my acceptance into the community and I somehow swung through it with success... nothing could possibly be harder. But sister, was I wrong.
The most intense part of this day didn't happen until the 7:00pm that night... on the Karibena news. That's right, the news. They wanted to interview me live on their district news channel 15. I seriously thought they were kidding at first when they told me this. Not until I got to the news station and saw the machines, cameras, and setup did I really believe what I was doing. I sweated buckets, made mistakes and was looking into the wrong camera half the time, but in the end it all worked out really well. By 8pm that night, (the first day of me being there in their town) the entire town knew me.
After all was said and done that day, I fell onto my bed with the biggest smile on my face. If I could get through that day, one of the most challenging days of my life, I could get through anything. And that is where I stand.
