Campo Crazy

So, it’s been awhile. I am now writing to you as a real volunteer. No longer a PCT (Peace Corps Trainee), I have entered the realm of the illustrious PCV world (I’ll leave you to figure out that acronym). We swore in last Friday and the whole group spent one last, crazy night together in the posh parts of Lima, eating non-Peruvian food, drinking wine and just generally drinking away our anxiety.

I’m not going to lie this first week in site has been tough. It’s a weird adjustment to go from having every minute of every day planned for you to having absolutely nothing planned. To go from a group of 36 to a group of one. To go from our gringo bubble to the wide-open campo. To go from…you get the picture. And to do it all from inside a foreign language, that adds a whole new dimension. In Spanish I am reduced the simplest of sentences and expressions. Forget being funny and charming, I struggle with simply talking so as not to appear mute.

I can’t begin to explain the awkwardness of the past few days. I arrived to my site (after spending an extra day in Chiclayo, our regional capital (my excitement about heading to site quickly turned to “I-don’t-want-to-go-let’s-stay-here-together-and-eat-and-drink-and-speak-English-and-not-go-to-site-today-please-stay-with-me-please-ok-great-let’s-go-out.”)), on Monday afternoon only to find that no one from my host family save for my 6-year-old nephew was at the house. Brian gave me the key to my room so I started unloading my stuff. One of my host sisters showed up and helped with some bags and then told me she’d leave me alone to unpack. So I sat in my room for a couple of hours until they called me for dinner. I did get a cookie and some cake though, so clearly they love me. We’re saving the ticker-tape parade for another day.

I had a nice long chat with my host dad, who is super-motivated and has a lot of ideas for projects and opportunities. I really like him. Anyway, we were chatting and I look over to see mom pull a goat’s head out of a pot on the stove. My face must have given me away because they all started laughing and telling me about the goat they killed earlier that day. I went to bed with an uneasy feeling about the next day’s meals. Sure enough I was served goat intestine over rice for breakfast the next morning. Breakfast. Those of you who know me well can attest to my former picky eating habits. Well, there’s no room for picky in Peru. You eat what you’re served. And eat it I did. It tasted like what you would expect goat intestine to taste like, if you are so sadistic as to imagine such horrors. I think it says a lot that rice is my favorite part of many meals. I’ve since started running in the mornings and telling them I prefer to just eat a piece of fruit by myself in the mornings. For now I’m safe from future innards breakfasts.

Aside from plotting ways to avoid goat meals and forcing down mystery meats, I spent a good deal of the first couple days in my room, reading and watching movies on my laptop. I’ve taken the “slow adjustment integration” approach. And I think that’s OK. First order of business is to make myself comfortable and as happy as possible, and if I need some alone time to work up the will to pasear through town desperately searching for conversation, then that’s what I’m giving myself. Talking to all my PC friends it seems like we’re all in the same boat – doing a lot of sleeping, reading and free calling with our new cell phones. But I have been getting out more and more each day.

Yesterday I walked over to the artisan complex to talk with some of the artisans. I plopped myself down and started asking questions. It actually went really well. I got myself invited to a birthday party (where I had to dance with all the 17-year-old boys in the middle of giant circle…and pee outside while the mom watched me to make sure I didn’t fall down), got several free snacks, talked about some project ideas and coordinated with one of the artisans to go to a fair next weekend at a nearby university. I’ve also met with the director of the local school, who seems very willing to work with me. I’ve tentatively set up several meetings for next week. I’ve also already had several “meetings” cancelled or rescheduled. Oh, and I met one of the local political bigwigs, a municipality employee of some sort. My host dad and I went to his house one afternoon and he invited us in for a drink, in his underwear. Oh, Peru. How you taunt and tease me.

And I’m headed into Chiclayo today (or am actually already there by the time I post this) to do some shopping for my room and possibly go to the beach with my PC friends. So things are looking up. I keep telling myself it can only get less awkward from here.

I don’t mean to sound negative or down, I am excited to be here and I know these next two years are going to be full of amazing, enriching experiences. But the adjustment period is just that, an adjustment to a completely different life, far away from anything familiar. I am happy though and taking each day as it comes, content in the knowledge that I can do whatever I want because I’m already the weird gringa and they expect me to be odd. And I’m still laughing at all the little things, even if I have to laugh silently on the inside.

I miss you all, please write or call. I’ve updated my contact information on the right side of this page. We don’t have Internet in my site so be patient and keep reading and writing!

Oh, and no pictures for awhile...my camera was stolen a couple weeks ago in Lima. Sad times. My words will have to suffice for now. Paz afuera.