The first few days

The past few days have flown by - somehow it already feels like I left Seattle two weeks ago, rather than only four days. Our days have been jam-packed, culminating in meeting and moving in with our host families earlier this afternoon, so I thought I'd just share a few snapshots of what life has looked like the past few days...

Nearing the end of our 22-hour travel day on Friday, Peace Corps staff scored all 46 of us access to the diplomáticos line at immigration, so Peru 19 proceeded to enter the country in style.

Bolstered by four hours of sleep and an energy-assuring cold shower, we enjoyed our first Peruvian breakfast (tea, bread, jam, cheese) at the retreat center on Saturday morning.

After a day filled with sessions on survival Spanish, advice on host families, meeting the PC Peru staff, basic safety, and training overviews, we had some time to enjoy the beautiful weather - it's pretty much like a sunny Seattle summer here right now, which is lucky since I'm missing the one at home. As you can see in the photo below, the retreat center was a valley paradise surrounded by the foothills of the Andes.

I got dust all over my "business casual" clothes after an hour-long juggling circle attempt to reach 50... when our record maxed out at 29 we decided it was a parallel for life as a PCV: starting out believing you can change the world, then adjusting to the slightly-more-feasible reality of just doing what you can. After dinner we laughed our way through about ten different group games, the majority of which involved strange sounds and/or movements. It's amazing how fast our group of strangers has already come together to feel like great friends, and I know that will only grow stronger.

Saturday night represented a small miracle, as it not only included lots of fun with new friends, but then a HOT shower and 8 whole hours of sleep! Life was good, and it only got better with today's big event of meeting our host families for the next ten weeks. Here's me and my new host mom, Gudelia.

And here's my new room!

And, last but not least, the view out my window. My house is located in the community of Huascata, about a ten-minute combi (shared van/bus/taxi) ride from the PC training center, still within the municipalidad of Chaclacayo (a suburb of Lima). We are nestled right in the hills, with the big carretera central (highway) just a short walk down the hill. Huascata is nicely small and walkable (total population is about 800), and I live just around the corner from two other volunteers.

Now it's off to eat dinner!