Freedom Festivities

It’s been a pretty exciting week here in Peru. With the holiday and transportation strike, we only had three days of classes this week. And there is supposed to be another transportation strike this week. I am totally fine with chilling in my town, but I don’t want to miss out on too many language classes. I go through ups and downs with Spanish, some days I feel like I’m doing pretty well and some days I just want to bang my head against a wall because it’s so exhausting trying to communicate. There are more good days than bad, so I’ll take that as a good sign.

My host dad’s birthday was this past Thursday so we had a small little party at our house. I had no idea what to expect. There were about 10 people sitting in silence in my living room when I got home. I was kind of nervous that it was going to be a long and awkward evening, but once the beer circle got underway, the music got louder and there was lots of dancing. For a reason I do not understand, everyone shares one glass when drinking beer. You take a big bottle of beer, pour yourself a small glass, chug it and pass to the next person. The circle moves faster and faster as the night goes on and the glass reaches your hand almost immediately after you finished your previous glass. It’s hard to judge how much you’re actually drinking, but I do know that my brother had to go buy more beer three times. I’m sure you’ll all be surprised to hear that I’m just as bad a dancer in Peru as I am in the US. Worse even because some of these people can dance! I’m hoping to pick up a few moves over the next two years so I can come back and wow everyone with my Latin flavor. Another good thing to come out of this party (besides a giant, delicious plate of ají de gallina) was the fact that I got to see my dad get pretty tipsy. I’m pretty sure my curfew is going to be much more relaxed now. We’re tight these days.

All the trainees and the staff of the training center got together at the training center for a 4th of July picnic. It was delicious. I made sweet tea and it was heavenly. We had mac and cheese, fruit salad, lots of guacamole (avocados are super cheap here!), deviled eggs, cookies, cake…it was awesome. We moved the party to another trainee’s house since there is no alcohol allowed in the training center. No fireworks or beaches, but there was plenty of beer (I fell asleep on the combi ride home) so I’ll say it was a successful holiday. I was sitting in a plastic chair and leaning back, my balance was slightly compromised after a few Cristals, so I fell and hit my head on a concrete flower pot behind me. The dad was very concerned and so brought out a big bottle of rubbing alcohol and cotton balls and cleansed my “wound” in front of everyone. Slightly embarrassing. He kept assuring me that he was a doctor and knew what he was doing. He had also been steadily drinking for many hours so my protests that I didn’t actually get cut fell on deaf ears. I wound up with a soaked cotton ball in my hair. It’s cool.

Today was a big day for Yanacoto. A government minister came out from Lima, so the town organized a meeting to discuss water and electricity, or lack thereof. Apparently they’ve been trying to get some government official out here for months, but they keep canceling so it was a VERY big deal. My dad is on the water committee (and yet we run out of water every week. Ironic, no?), so he has been in a tizzy all week preparing for the event. Yesterday was a town clean-up day. All the trash was removed from the one paved road to impress the minister. My dad got up at 4am this morning to hang flags/streamers all around the town. The music started at approximately 7am (and is still going as I write this). There was a parade this morning when the minister arrived. Even the moto-taxis were decked out with red and white balloons. I went up the soccer field/basketball court/meeting hall to check out the action. The entire town was there. It was pretty hot today, so some enterprising souls were selling chupes (like Popsicles) and drinks. My dad was standing right by the stage, looking very spiffy and proud. His job appeared to be leading rounds of applause. Many people gave speeches. The basic gist is that a lot of people in Yanacoto and surrounding small towns don’t have steady access to water and electricity, so they’re lobbying the government to invest more money into further developing the infrastructure. There are already power lines and a big water reservoir, but there’s very limited access for many people. There’s a really fancy country club with two pools directly next to my town, and that seemed to come up a couple of times in the speeches. I guess the juxtaposition between the club and the living conditions of some of its employees is frustrating. I really wanted to see the traditional dancers, but the speeches kept going and going and I got hungry. I just went back up to the field to see if they were dancing, but the business part of the day is over and the drinking circles are forming. My host dad handed me a bag full of some sort of food and tell me to take it home for dinner, so I have a feeling he’ll be there for awhile. It isn’t everyday that you get to talk about potable water and sewage.

I am still having a great time and am loving these little experiences that make me feel like I am really living in Peru, as opposed to just visiting. We’ve made it a month, and I have a feeling the next few weeks of training are going to fly by. I’m ready to get to site and really settle in and get to work, and get ready for visitors! We find out our site placements on July 24. I’m going to Cajamarca (a department in the sierra) next week for field based training, which is when we visit current volunteers and carry out small projects/training sessions on our own. I’m excited to see more of the country and get to see some volunteers in action.

As always, I miss everyone and am thinking about you. Keep commenting, emailing, writing, etc. I love hearing from you!