El Mercado

This morning I went to the market with my madre to do some shopping. We left the house and walked for awhile until we encountered a moto-taxi. I have no idea who was ever sitting around and thought, “Ah yes, a moto-taxi will be a good way to transport people and goods around a country.” These things are terrifying. They have three wheels (one in front and two in back). The driver sits up front on a motorcycle-esk seat, and the passengers sit in back under a canopy of sorts on a bench that is open to the air on the sides. They are smaller than a Smart Car. Every single one looks like it’s about to fall apart, and I’ve seen several go up on two wheels while attempting even the most benign corners. They are all red or blue. They have the acceleration capacity of your average bicycle (or maybe tricycle…), and yet this does not prevent them from pulling out in front of giant buses on the main highway or blatantly cutting off cars as they turn. I’ve seen more than one with its back “window” shaped like Batman’s call sign. So, my madre and I got up into the moto-taxi and I hoped for the best as we zoomed to the market. The market of Chaclacayo is just like any other run-of-the-mill Latin American market. There are large slabs of meat hanging from hooks, most of which are still very recognizable as animals, many of which still have tails/fur, and some of which are bleeding onto the floor. There are stalls of fresh fruit and vegetables as far as the eye can see in every direction, and you’re as likely as not to have ever seen the fruit before in your life. They even have pitaya!!! Hooray!!! (I discovered them yesterday and have already personally consumed three.) The aisles are jam-packed with women (and some men) with a baby in their arms and several kids in tow. Other vendors push their way through the crowds selling sandals, soap, and dish towels to anyone who will stop to hear their schpeel. Today my madre headed straight towards the chickens, and ordered four chicken breasts. Then we stood around as the chicken-vendor-woman prepared them. Call me naïve, but I thought this was very chevere (cool), as they say here. She took what looked exactly like a rubber chicken, only bigger, cut off the bottom part with the legs, cut off the head, scooped out the innards and the heart, and then cut the breast from the bone. Lo and behold, what was left on her counter looked exactly like what I buy at the super-market in the States! I mean, I knew this was the process, but I had never seen it done before, and I was surprised at how exactly the breast from the giant “rubber” chicken resembled the stuff in the Styrofoam container back home. Who woulda guessed? I also now know that if there is a market at my site I can have them prepare the chicken for me there instead of attempting to take it home and do it myself- disaster. I ate the aforementioned breast for lunch today, and it was delicious.

Some things I love about Peru so far:

1. The llama chiclets commercial: This commercial has llama close-up after llama close-up of llamas “saying” chevere. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a llama close-up, but the things are butt-ugly. The idea of them saying chevere is hysterical. The commercial closes by saying simply, “Chilets son chevere.” I think I’ll go buy some this afternoon.
2. Anti-idol: This is a show of people attempting to sing karaoke in English, who do not speak English. Believe me, you haven’t lived until you’ve seen a 20-something Peruvian male who’s never attempted English before in his life belting out “We go together like shamamala, badingidy diggidong.” Or whatever it is.
3. Lima! We went yesterday as a group, and it’s great!! There is so much to do and see there, and it is so alive. Don’t believe people who tell you that Lima is a dirty thieving dump. I mean, it is unbelievably dirty (when I blew my nose last night it was black), and there are un monton de thieves, but it’s so much more than that!
4. Alan Garcia- the president. Right now he has a 19% approval rating, and so he makes me feel right at home! ;)
5. El Comercio, the national paper. Today they had an article from the Economist! The ECONOMIST!! Oh, Economist, te quiero.
6. Internet for 33 cents an hour.
7. Argentina. Why? I was walking through Lima yesterday speaking Spanish, and a guy stopped me and said (in Spanish), “Are you Argentinean?” “No,” I said, “I’m from los Estados.” “But you speak Spanish so well!” was his reply. Yay for Latinoamericanos who are actually pale, blue-eyed, and tall like me so guys like that can stroke my Spanish ego :).

I can’t wait to get to know more of the “real” Peru, but for now we are mostly stuck in classes at the training center from 8am-5pm six days a week. Sigh. Pues, today is Sunday, and I’m off to Lima with the fam. Miss you all!

Besos,
Sarita (not one single Peruvian has called me Sara yet, it is always Sarita, including in my classes)

In Peru!

Hi everyone,

Well, after over a year of applying and waiting, I am finally in Peru. So far it is wonderful. We arrived in Lima on Friday night (well, Saturday morning) at around 2am. From there we went to a retreat center for a quick one-day orientation before meeting with our host families on Sunday.

My host family is wonderful. I live in a nice house in Huascaran, a neighborhood very close to Chaclacayo, where the Peace Corps training center is. It´s a 15 minute walk for me to get there in the mornings. I have a host mom, a host dad, two host brothers (24 and 19) and a host sister (14). They are all extremely nice and like to chat with me. They have had four Peace Corps volunteers previously, so they are very accostomed to our schedule and to the ¨weird¨ things that we americanos sometimes do. They are also amazed that I speak Spanish as well as I do, which is nice. My Spanish has actually been holding up very well, and I can feel it improving every day. Sometimes I speak so quickly now that I startle even myself!

Six days a week we have training at the Peace Corps training center. Generally, we receive language and culture training the mornings, and technical training the afternoons. I placed into the highest language class, and so my language class is mostly culture and research, which I enjoy. Training is fairly taxing because we are in class from 8am-5pm and then we have homework at night when we are with our host families. It is difficult to make time for excersize, maintaining contacts back home, or generally keeping sane. In the end it´ll be worth it though because we are learning so much.

So, so far so good from Peru. I hope you all are doing well, and I´d love to hear from you. Oh! And I have a new address. The old one will still work, but this one goes directly to the training center:

Sarah Walker
Cuerpo de Paz
Calle los Cedros 647
Chaclacayo
Lima 8, Peru, S.A.

Chau!

Greetings from Staging

Well, I've officially survived the first small part of the Peace Corps- staging in Washington D.C.. We checked in to the hotel in Georgetown by 3pm yesterday, and spent yesterday afternoon and all day today going over basic expectations, cross cultural communication strategies, safety concerns, and logistics for Peru, and generally get to know one another.

So far I am pleased with our group. There are 47 of us, all going to Peru, who will work as Community Health Promoters, Water Sanitation Volunteers, and Agribusiness/ Forestry Volunteers. There is one retired volunteer (see- it's never too late! :)), one married couple, and a handful of us who are over 21/22 and fresh out of college. It's about evenly split male/female, although there are probably a few more girls. I've met a guy from Grand Junction, CO, a gal who went to CU Boulder, and there are a full THREE of us who attended college in Northfield, MN (the other two are Oles). Two people have never left the country. Wow. I've found one other person who has a master's degree, but hers is in Tropical Medicine (cool!!!). The best part is that despite our diverse backgrounds and life experiences, we are all scared, excited, optimistic, and have roughly the same fears. I feel so much calmer knowing that in no way will I be alone in this experience. We may all be crazy, but at least we can be crazy together.

So, I leave for Peru tomorrow. I'll be at a two-night, one day orientation just outside of Lima this weekend, and then on Sunday we go to Chaclacayo to meet our host families. I have no idea what kind of internet access I'll have or how I'll communicate, but I'm sure I'll have a lot to say after my first few days. I am unbelievably nervous, but I think I've made the right decision. As they told us in training today, "You are officially not that person who always wanted to do the Peace Corps, or that person who almost did the Peace Corps, but rather, you have joined the ranks of people who said, 'yes, it's time to do the Peace Corps' and acted on that decision."