Celebra La Vida

How cool would that be if your loved ones got together to celebrate you on your birthday even after you're long gone.



They would visit your grave to share their stories of memories about you, serenade you with your favorite songs you used to love, and pass a bottle in honor of your name until the sun goes down.



Afterwords they would dedicate a mass to you to send their hopes and feelings on High.. following with a large, home-cooked dinner with all of your loved ones together. Music, food, and sharing goes on late into the night.



Well, in Peru, it's not too far fetched of an idea...

Jeremiah was a Bullfrog

I am alive!


There has been a rather long respite in my blog entries due to a lot of action happening in my life. I am long overdue to give y’all the update that you deserve! Here are some interesting things that have been going on:

-Switched houses: I currently live in a different home than before. I used to live alone for a long while (renting a room in a vacant house) but as it turns out, Peace Corps/Peru has a rule that all volunteers must live with host families during their service. The reason for this is the cultural sharing that we bring, the safety that it provides us living with people in the community, and to evade loneliness in this foreign cloudy dream in which we live. I welcomed the change. It is nice living with other people to share experiences, talk, and also eat their yummy cooking! Hehehe. In this new house lives the mom, dad, and a younger 6-year old brother.



-Camp ALMA: This is a camp that the Peace Corps in my region put on for female adolescents in middle school. It was a huge success… we had speakers present on subjects of motivation, self-esteem, nutrition, sexuality, and career choices. We played games, had dynamic activities, and just provided a very open space for them to learn, meet new people, and have positive role models of us volunteers around. In a few weeks we will be having one with adolescent males, so we will see how that goes! We need donations for that so if anyone is willing, let me know!


[[Me with some of the girls that came to the camp. They made up a chant about my name, Catalina, it was really fun!]]

-Basketball game: My region held the monthly Peace Corps meeting in my beautiful city of NASCA a few weeks ago. I believe my favorite part was the basketball game that we had: USA vs PERU! It was quite a show. There were 3 different Peruvian teams that showed up, and we scrounged up one USA team. We won 2 games and lost 2, so it was a fun and challenging night! Also, we had 3 girls on our team, which is pretty much unheard of for women to play sports WITH the boys… so there’s some great girl power for ya! They were so impressed… and wanted to marry us all. hahaha



-Peru is Beautiful: I love hiking. I try to hike as much as possible. Here are some sites I've been taking in.


[[This is Puquio, which is about 4 hours east of Nasca. Amaaaazing lanscapes. The beauty is everywhere.]]


[[Camping trip in Laramonte, Ayacucho. During the day- incredible hiking, during the night- bonfires with s'mores!!!]]

-In-Service Training in ICA: We had 3 days of technical training for all the volunteers in my year’s Water and Sanitation Program. Each volunteer brings a community partner to the training sessions. It’s a great time to expose the community partner to a variety of water and sanitation technical things to better the health of their community. We learned about trash management, water chlorination techniques, eco-banos latrine system construction, and how to construct a “cocina mejorada” (“healthy stove”) to lower the amount of smoke that the moms and children inhale through the days. It was awesome to see all of our group’s volunteer friends and goof off like usual on our time off. It seems that everyone is having a very interesting and positive journey out of all of us. There are 19 of us who entered the WatSan program for Peru in September of 2011, and we are all still 19 here! We are very proud of that as it’s a very unusual thing for all the 100% of the entering volunteers to remain… let’s just keep our fingers crossed.


[[This is what a lot of the stove set-ups look like in the rural areas. This is one of the specific houses we were making a cocina mejorada for.]]


[[Me with some fellow volunteers working on the construction of a Cocina Mejorada.]]

-New volunteer arrivals: Group PERU 17 has arrived in site! There are now about 50 new volunteers in Peru working for the programs of “Adolescent Development” and “Small Business Development”. The city of Nasca has received one of the volunteers from “Adolescent Development”. Her name is Keaton. An artistic, independent 23-year old from Chicago. It’s been fun teaching and guiding a bit to introduce her to this community. It reminds me of when I first came into the game as a rookie and how I knew NOTHING at all. She’s adjusting super well and we may even be able to collaborate on some projects in the near future… which would be awesome to share the work-load on. It reminds me how so incredibly naive I was when I came into this! Wow, I have grown quite a bit...



-R-E-C-Y-C-L-E : IT BEGINS WITH YOU AND ME
So, I have been crowned The Queen here… that is, the Queen of Trash. Hahahah! It’s a joke amongst the Peace Corps because I’m working on a big city-wide project of trash-management. I’m working with an NGO called “Ciudad Saludable” (or “Healthy City”) from Lima. It’s been a really interesting experience working with an NGO, facing all the unending problems, and beginning a project that needs to continue to be sustainable from now until forever. It’s really delicate sometimes and well, most the time is a head ache. But as Time flows, we work… and hopefully something sticks. Right now we’re doing a city-wide recycling project. Hopefully within the next 2 years we will become a cleaner, healthier city with an established recycling program, composting program, and a nationally-approved landfill. I’ll keep y’all posted how it goes!


[[Here's a shot of our team doing the trash characterization study: sorting samples of trash from almost 200 different houses from the entire district of Nasca... talk about dirty business.]]


[[This is the Kick-off of the recycling project in Nasca! That's the mayor in the middle in white. Eeee!]]


Well, I hope you enjoyed the update. PS-- Jeremiah being a bullfrog doesn't really have a lot to do with this blog... except for the fact that it's really important for us to always remember to find time to smile and laugh, even when things are rough.
(listen to Creedance Clearwater Revival)

Some Days

Trying to define what a typical day is like here during my experience in the Peace Corps is like trying to define the taste of water. It’s incomparable, it’s distinct, almost indescribable. Personally, every day for me is a whole new experience, a whole new surprise. Like I’ve said before- it’s a small city, a big town- and being so, there’s always something going on or someone new has a story or idea. Things fluctuate. To give you an idea what some days are like...

Some days are in such energetic motion that I just collapse into my bed at the end of it... some days roll by so slow and uneventful that I am almost in tears at the thought of how bored and anxious I am... some days I feel like no one cares about my work at all and that I am just fighting in this battle all alone... some days I feel loved and like I am actually making a difference with all the hard, continuous work I'm putting into this job... some days I take 30 little energetic kids on a field trip walking to a spot few kilometers away... some days I sit in the municipality talking/waiting for someone to have an answer to my project proposals after 3 months of waiting/trying to get it pulled through... some days I just sit on the toilet half the day... some days I am really sad and bogged down about all of the poverty/ corruption/ sadness that most the world faces... some days I forget about home... some days I tear on the phone missing my family... some days I hold these poor little kids in my arms because I just want them to feel loved... some days I feel so passionate about my work that I feel I can conquer anything at all... some days I try to play volleyball with a new group without knowing that they are all reeeeally good and I get embarrassed at how bad I am and made them lose the game/their money... some days I play basketball with all boys and it makes them fight because they’re getting beat by a girl... some days people open up to me with very emotional stories of their lives... some days people say I should not be here my work is in vain... some days I just want to climb mountains... some days I don’t want to get out of bed... some days I just hop a bus and explore... some days I run in the cold rain... some days I sand board in the hot desert sand dunes... some days I spend an afternoon making recycled paper with grown adults... some days I spend an afternoon teaching English to children workers... some days I wait for an hour for a meeting to start... some days I’m so nervous that I can barely even speak... some days I’m in love... some days I can’t express myself in Spanish how I want... some days I feel proud.

The feeling I feel the most: gratefulness.

The feeling I feel the least: boredom.

The feeling I want to feel: lying on the grass with a picnic listening to live music surrounded by family and friends

The feeling I don’t want to feel: The distrust that I have in most people here.

What keeps me going: my rechargeable, high-powered batteries, little kids’ hugs, people in the community who take interest in the projects.

What makes it challenging: The apathy/laziness of the people.

“Some days aren’t yours at all. They come and go as if they’re somebody else’s days. They come and leave behind someone else’s face.” –Regina Spektor

Semana Santa

Easter. When we think Easter, we think easter bunnies, little chocolate eggs, pastel colors, and sugarfully wonderful peeps. Interestingly enough, that has NO relevance whatsoever the Easter celebrations that the Peruvians go through.

So here in Peru, there are no bunnies running around, nor coma-inducing amounts of sweets. Instead, there’s the CUCH. Let me explain...

There is a mountain city called Ayacucho. Through the centuries it has become the center of easter celebration, which they call here Semana Santa, or “Holy Week”. Year after year this town is completely flooded by Peruvian and foreigners alike to celebrate one of the most important Christian holidays. So a group of about 25 of us volunteers decided to check it out. Every single day was an eye-popping experience, and sometimes even literally.

It’s about a 9-10 hour over-night travel time from Nasca, which in Peruvian travel time is nothing. So I get there at the crack of dawn to witness the sun rising over the incredible mountain scenery which is Peruvian highlands. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before- rolling hills of green, pastures of alpaca and llamas spattered through the hills, people working in their little agricultural fields. so after dropping our stuff off in a hostel, we head out to see the sights of the city… the city of 33 churches… and their not kidding! Every corner is a huge cathedral from the 1500s (from when the Spaniards invaded). The tradition is to travel to all of them and make a wish.



We made it to 7 and by the end my wish was to see something different than churches… so we headed off on a hike. Wandering through crowded streets, witnessing the very distinct cultural outfits of the highland Peruvians.


We spent most the day exploring the sights, sounds, and tastes of Ayacucho then enjoying the Peruvian night life a bit. ;)

Friday morning we get up and all jump onto a tour bus. We get taken on these winding roads through the beautiful highlands up to see Quinual (where the last Spaniard-Peruvian battle was fought), a waterfall hidden within the woods, and some old ruins of an ancient tribe, and even went horseback riding.



We picked and ate the fruit of cactus called “tuna” (not the fish!), which is deeeelicious, just watch out for the spikes.. oww. When we got back from that wonderful adventure, there was a competition in the streets around the main plaza. Hundreds of people were creating these HUGE murals on the streets; but it wasn’t paint they were using. It was all flower petals and materials directly from plants. (us environmentalist volunteers also thought it was quite appropriate happening to have landed on Earth Day as well!)




Saturday was a bunch of bull. No really! We started it off with running of the bulls in the morning. An extreme and unusual experience that we all agreed would never EVER occur in the States for liability reasons. But we loved every minute of it. There were processions at first of horses and typical dancers n whatnot, then after a while the first bull came! It was attached to a 30 foot rope held on by a guy riding a horse. Sounds like a good idea to control where the bull goes, right? Considering all of us are in the streets and there are no barriers. However, it just ended up clothes-lining people as they stormed through the streets. A funny sight, if you weren’t the one being clothes-lined of course.


It took a long time for the next bulls to come so the crowd was getting restless, so naturally the all began creating human towers! All us PCVs just were watching in amazement for a while, until we decided we wanted to do it too! Having the advantage of being sober and strategizing (which none of the other groups were), we managed to make a 4 level tower of us. It was quite amazing. Through all this time the other 3 bulls ran through, the firemen came and sprayed the hot, sweaty crowd with the water hose, and people were being thrown up in the air like bouncyballs. I’d say it was unforgettable.

This was a tower made by some enthused Peruvians next to where we were standing.

Before we knew it we found ourselves sitting in a stadium ring watching a bull-fight. It was one matador that couldn’t kill the bulls for the life of him, so it was a bloody depressing scene. It was definitely an experience at the least.

After recovering from the action of the day, the fiesta began for the resurrection time. Saturday night coming into Sunday morning, there were fireworks going off the entire night. Music and dancing in the main plaza until the sun came up. At around 4am began the show. We're talking huuuge 70 foot towers made from tiny bamboo rods that are absolutely dripping in fireworks dressing. The sparks are spurting everywhere and every few minutes a firework ring would lauch into the air, shooting it's firey ball into the unknown. Safe, no. Cool, YES. %%%94 Then at sunrise, they brought out the huge ceremonial piece made of wood, candles, and lights... so big that about 400 people had to hold it. This was all to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Personally, I think Jesus would have had a great time!

Sigue Con la Chomba

Recently I traveled to Trujillo, La Libertad, Peru for a week of Early In-Service Training for the Peace Corps. Professionals and Staff came from Lima to train us on a variety of topics to better prepare us for our positions of Water and Sanitation Volunteers. It was a great experience, not only because of all the really helpful info that we learned, but also because we got to see all our best amigos from Pre-service training!! We also got to eat Mexican food, which was a delightful delicacy to our tastebuds!!


We had part of our training in the "Sierra" (mountains) so the cold obviously obliged us to purchase touristy, colorful, peruvian toboggans. =)


The boys in our group had a peruvian mustache competition!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

So my work here in Nasca is crazy and is never-ending… and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Working here takes a lot of patience and persistence. Peruvians have a nasty habit of saying one thing and then not following through. I’m hoping that my consistence will rub off on them.

So what is it exactly that I’m doing? Good question. I have recently finished my community diagnostic of the community which is a very large 3-month long process. It is basically a full report of our site to learn about everything: the culture, the functioning of the pueblo, the specifics on the water and sanitation here, and leaders/institutions in the community. It’s a great tool to get us to get out in the community and understand the workings so we can begin working to the best of our ability. This diagnostics includes talking to people in the community, holding interviews with the various institutions, meetings of presentations, and surveys in the community. Nasca being a bigger city, it was a good challenge getting “conocer” everything; however, I can confidently say that with 4 months in I have been able to get to know many people in the community (especially those who I want to work with in various institutions) and have been able to form various plans for the community. I will list a few so you have an idea of what I’m up to:

-A Province-wide diagnostic and capacity building of the theme of solid waste. The people here do not have much of a consciousness about trash management… just throw the trash on the ground, in the rivers, in the archeological sites. It’s a problem. SO basically we are trying to fix that. This is a huuuge project, but luckily there’s a lot of community support for it.

-Teaching about trash management in the school systems and doing a city-wide competition between the schools about how creative they can get with their recyclables- making toys, clothes, house objects, decorations, etc. This is not only to teach about recycling, but also to raise the consciousness of what they should do with their trash.

-Transforming one specific school into the example for Nasca of a “Colegio Saludable” (a healthy school). We are improving their rates of hand washing, doing compost, making a greenhouse thing, begin recycling system, starting a health club, training the teachers, making a school for parents to teach them about various healthy family topics, etc. Basically, I want for all the schools in Nasca to look at this school and say “Wow, I want that.” (well, in Spanish of course haha!) and then copy healthy living tips from that school.

-I am beginning a tv talk show here in Nasca. Every Wednesday at 8PM I will be talking about topics of healthy living, water management, world facts, etc. I want to make learning fun for these people.

-HIV/Aids workshops in various school systems. There is barely any sexual educations… which explains for the excessive amounts of kids people have.

-A pen-pal match between a school here and my high school back home. It’s a fun way for them to share cultures and get see a different point of view on things (on both ends of the pen).

-We are also going to be starting up basketball teams in some of the schools around here. I am really looking forward to this because if I have time I will want to coach as well.

So yeah! These are some of the projects I am working on. The cool things that I really like about these projects are that they are very sustainable because basically I am just setting up and helping organize them, but the citizens here are the ones running a lot of it… which is one of my biggest goals. When I leave Nasca in the next few years, I want things to still continue to flow. I am just beginning things right now, so there’s not much to show for things yet, but poco a poco things will build their way. Things move pretty slowly here so we just take it at Peruvian pace. ;D

PS- For those of you that have been sending packages/want to send packages/ SHOULD send me packages (hehehe) here is a little list of things I would love:

Oatmeal packets!!! All flavors yumyumyumyum
Granola bars, and other healthy snacks
Pictures of places and people I love
Sanitary face wipes/ good smelling hand sanitizer
Scotch tape
Gum
Homemade baked goods and/or oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
Relaxing facial mask cream or something calming like that
Peanut butter
Magazines about science/outdoors/NatGeo... basically just want to learn/read interesting articles!!!
Things that make me smile/relax
You!


I love helping out at the farm!

A Day In The Life: En la Chacra

Eyes slowly opening to the sound of a candle being lit near the foot of my bed. Did I even fall asleep last night? It’s still dark outside. “Catalina, ya son las 3:30” I guess I better get up. My feet fall to the cool, muddy floor. I look around in the candle light- I’m in a house, a room that is a house, made of straw. Their ceiling is sticks and tarps. The floor- the earth. This is how they live. I understand a little better now.

Eggs crackling over the fire. The calming sound of breakfast being prepared. I stumble my way out behind the hut through the dark and the rocks to find a lone spot to do my morning duty. There’s no such things as bathrooms here. I find my way back. By that time she is waiting for me, my friend Diana. She tells me I need to get dressed. She hands me a long sleeve shirt, a sweater, a large rag, and gloves. All this? But we’re in the desert! She explains the intensity of the heat out en las chacras, in the fields. So I layer-up.

“Vamos Cata ya es la hora!” Alright…. Vamos. We make our way walking to the other end of town where there’s about 50 people standing around waiting. I begin walking towards them with Diana and someone says “MIRA!” Everyone turns to look. They’re staring at me, every single one. They begin saying comments- Look at that white girl, she’s never going to last, I bet she goes home in an hour. It caught me by surprise. We walked over to a truck that was already filled with 20 women in the back… and we had to fit in too. I feel the burning of their eyes on my skin, their comments flood my ears.. I take a deep breath and attempt to squeeze my way in. The first thing I do upon entering the truck is I knock 3 people over. The second thing I do is step on 4 people’s feet. Great start, bigshot. I finally find a spot.

“What is this gringa doing here?” everyone is asking… I’m currently asking myself the same thing. Diana explained to them that I wanted to see what it’s like to work en la chacra, to understand the experience. Yeah, what she said! Around here in Peru, people are initially very stand-offish to outsiders, so I usually wait for my moment to slip in a good joke to try to get their respect. Eventually I made it, they laughed, and I was in. They still didn’t understand why a white girl was coming to the farm to do extremely intense manual labor with them, but at least she’s kinda funny.

We arrive to the farm as the sun is beginning to peak above the horizon. We eat our breakfast and get on to work. We all wear rags around our heads and necks, hats, long sleeves and jackets… and huge straw bags with a belt around our waist in the front to hold the seeds. Today we are planting cebolla… onions. We huddle around huge sacks of onion seeds, transferring as much as we can into our own personal bags, probably about 20lbs each (which we refill about every 20-30 minutes in the field). Then we head to the wide open, neatly plowed dirt/rocky field. Each woman lines up, each one to a line on the field, as if we are beginning a race of some sort. I look around me, nervous, anxious. Everyone kept telling me how difficult this job is, that I’m not going to be able to walk the next day or even sit down. Is what they say true? Well, I guess I will find out soon enough…

And we begin. Bending down, planting each seed one by one. Reach in the sack, plant the seeds, reach, plant, stretch, step, bend, repeat. 30 minutes in- “This isn’t half bad! It’s actually kind of fun.” Reach, plant, reach, plant, stretch, step, bend, repeat. 1 hour in- “Soooo when do we get a break? Heh…” “Oh, we don’t get breaks.” No breaks? Alright, I’m strong, I can do this…

The sun begins rising. The rays begin to strike like daggers on our backs. The heat rising from the ground stabs from below. Furthermore, I am tall. 5’8”. I am at LEAST one foot taller than every other single person there. Height in this game is NOT an advantage. I am bending, stretching, lunging… for hours on end. What keeps me going is the other women working alongside me. We plant side by side, talking of whatever interest crosses our minds. We keep each other going. 4 hours in, I stood up to look around and starting getting dizzy, actually wondering if I was going to be able to make it. 5 hours in, I can barely bend over anymore. My legs hurt so badly that I am now having to kneel to plant the seeds. I am falling behind, big time. The others keep an eye out for me and help me out. By this time, we are all begging for water. Some ladies are screaming, pleading to the owners to give us water. Today the owners forgot it, so we are left without.

6 hours in, my mind is mush, my legs are fire, my body is exhausted. We’re done. I find the nearest piece of shade and plop down. So THIS is working en la chacra. This is what the women do day in and day out in order to make the minimum to feed their kids. I was absolutely spend after 1 day of this, but to even think that these people do this back-breaking work 6 days a week, every week just absolutely astounds me. And then to think they go home, have to cook and clean and take care of their kids on top of that…

So it seems that I have accomplished my goal of understanding a bit more about their reality. I wanted to experience it, I wanted to go through it with them, so my body could understand too. So now, as I am working with them in their communities, I have a little bit better grasp on their situations.

Life is really hard for these people. And it’s all just chance that they have been born into these situations, and I have been born into mine. What if it was the other way around? For one minute, just imagine yourself in their shoes.

Do you feel the gratefulness now? As North Americans, we are so incredibly lucky to live how we are. I wish more people in the States could realize that…

Acostumbrar-ing

In the beginning of any new scenario there is always a “choque,” a crash/collision. When joining a new culture, it takes time to figure out and get used to the ways things work. How the people act and think, and the general ambiance of the community. It’s taken me a good 2-3 months to start feeling comfortable and not as confused here in Nasca. Taking the time to understand the culture was a key step towards me integrating into the community. Here are some of the funnier things I’ve had to get accustomed to...

You know you are starting to get accustomed to life in NASCA Peru when:

-You are asking for another helping of sheep’s stomach
-You can´t smell the scent of burning trash anymore because it's so normal
-Talking about ‘how hot it is’ happens 10 times a day
-You start expecting to be catcalled every 5 minutes (and when it doesn’t happen for a while you wonder what’s wrong!)
-Car horns honking in all different sound styles is your constant background silence
-People peeing/being naked in public doesn’t really phase you anymore
-You know all the regaeton songs by heart (because there’s only a hand-full and they play them everywhere, all time)
-It’s odd to see actual water in the riverbeds
-Dust/dirt everywhere, all the time so sweeping is a daily activity
-What is air conditioner?
-The thought of drinking water out of the tap seems completely surreal
-Speaking in English doesn’t come natural anymore
-Dogs humping in the street is the typical nature scenery
-People showing up an hour late (or not showing at all) to a meeting is to be expected
-Cereal and milk is a delicacy
-You sweat as much from the heat while sleeping at night as you do from exercising
-It is understood that grass is for looking at, not lying/walking on
-You bring your own toilet paper roll everywhere you go
-Every corner you turn, someone knows you and stops to talk
-You understand and even start using some of the slang words and frases
-You realize that there’s more plastic figurines of Mother Mary than there are trees


Well there you are!

I also wanted to say a word about my birthday (feb 26th)... it was awesome!
Six of my volunteer friends came to my site and we went out with some of my Peruvian amigos to go dancing and what not. My favorite music to dance here is called Huayno, so naturally I requested to dance to it all night. =) Here's a pic or two.


Dancing is definitely one of those cross-cultural enjoyments.



But I must say, Peruvians definitely have amazing dance moves...



But Americans DO have S'MORES!!!


**I want to give a huge GRACIAS to all of you who shared your love with my over my birthday. All the calls, letters, packages, emails, are SO appreciated. In a difficult job, your support and love helps so much.**