It's official

I am now a Peace Corps volunteer! In case you are now wondering, "wait, then what were you the past 10 weeks?" I was a mere trainee - definite upgrade. Peru 19 was lucky enough to be the first-ever group to have our swearing-in ceremony at the U.S. Ambassador's residence in Lima - quite the elegant venue. However, it did come with the small downside of security prohibiting the entrance of cameras, so I currently only have photos from the hours leading up to the event. Here we have the 41 volunteers of Peru 19, plus Lulu:

Me, Heidi, and Jackie in front of the training center as we loaded all our bags onto the bus:

The deluxe and enormous bus that the 13 of us business volunteers had all to ourselves - heading off to Lima!

Our swearing-in ceremony also served as an event to honor Aquiles Lanao, one of the fathers of microfinance in Peru, and also the first host-country-national Peace Corps Program Director in the organization's history. To honor Aquiles, many former Peru PCVs and staff attended the ceremony, including two familiar faces. I had the great pleasure to be able to reconnect with John Hatch, FINCA's visionary Founder, and Professor Kevin Healy, whose Latin American Studies class I took at Georgetown. Unbeknownst to me, both of them had connections to Peace Corps Peru - Dr. Hatch as a former Regional Director, and Professor Healy as a volunteer.

After we'd taken our oath of service and the reception had come to an end, it was back to the buses to drop our extremely large number of suitcases off at our hostels in Lima. Then we taxied out to our Country Director's house in the upscale La Molina neighborhood for a post-swearing in fiesta that included a barbeque, dance floor, bonfire, and pisco sours. I was excited to finally try anticuchos for the first time - these are pieces of cow heart cooked on skewers kebab-style, and are a very common food in Peru. They basically taste like really tender pieces of beef, and are pretty delicious (if you avoid thinking about the fact that you are eating cow heart haha).

Upon leaving Sanjay's house around 9pm, we were by no means done celebrating. Training was over, we were official volunteers, and it was our last night together as a whole group until our Close-of-Service conference in two years. So we of course made the most of our time together with a night of fun and dancing in Barranco, Lima's hipster neighborhood known for its lively nightlife. When Heidi magically found the door to a hidden late-night sandwich shop, the night was complete.

*Update: here is the link to the Embassy's flickr account with photos from the swearing-in ceremony. http://www.flickr.com/photos/usembassyperu/sets/72157631193379704/show/

PST video

One of my fellow volunteers, Mike, put together an awesome end-of-training video to summarize our time in training these past ten weeks. If you're interested, check it out:

Last day of training

Today was our last day of training, as tomorrow Peru 19 heads to the U.S. Ambassador's residence in Lima to be sworn in as official Peace Corps Volunteers. It's a bittersweet time - an exciting/slightly scary new adventure is ahead of each of us, but it's sad to have our "summer camp" come to an end and split apart from all the friends we've made.

Of course, today was a day of celebrations. Despite an all-out transportation strike, our trainers still managed to get themselves and all 42 of us to the center this morning. Not only that, but upon arrival we were greeted with a patio full of Dunkin' Donuts and coffee - a delicious send-off breakfast.

After one final medical session with our favorite PCMOs Jorge and Suni, it was time for the host families celebration. At this event, we volunteers turned the tables and became hosts for the afternoon for the families who've housed us these past 10 weeks. We cooked up a storm of American and Peruvian food, made and hung decorations all over the center, put together a picture slideshow, bought gifts, and planned and performed a talent show that included poetry, karate, soccer juggling, a (Peruvian) fashion show, and the grand finale of the Thriller dance.

It's been a fun 10 weeks for the Huascata crew, pictured below - my host mom is the one just to the right of me.

The fortress

On Tuesday we economic development volunteers got to spend a morning at the U.S. embassy in Lima, because Peru 17 (volunteers who've already been here a year) was holding their Somos Emprendedores, Somos Perú youth business plan competition there. 

The embassy is seriously a fortress. A large, rectangular, imposing, compound-encircled fortress - pretty much the only thing missing is a moat. 

Photo credit to Google Images, because, in typical U.S.-silly-security fashion, all electronics must be checked at the gate.

A whale of a tale

Last night I had what Peace Corps might call a "small win:" I finished reading Moby Dick. 

This has approximately nothing to do with being a Peace Corps volunteer, but this weighty tome has been my nightly companion for the past five weeks, and I'm extremely pleased to finally be done with it. My Kindle would taunt me by constantly pointing out that I was only x% of the way through this marathon read, so seeing that final page appear felt like quite the achievement :)

So long, Ishmael, hello Tipping Point!

A taste of Cajabamba

This morning I returned to Lima after a week spent visiting my new site, Cajabamba. When I first heard my site assignment, I felt that it was going to be a great fit, and this week confirmed my initial impressions. My new host family, house, socios, town, and environment all seem wonderful, and I'm excited to finish training and officially become a cajabambina.

Here are some photos to give you a taste of my new home...

First stop on the week's journey was the regional capital of Cajamarca. The "Cajamarca crew" of Peru 19 had a couple of days to explore the city together before splitting off to our respective sites. We climbed up to a vista point overlooking the city:

Visited the main church on the plaza de armas:

And experienced first-hand some of the social conflict in the region regarding the controversial Conga mining project - this sign in a local dairy shop reads: "water and cheese YES, gold NO - Stop Conga d*****!"

Then on Tuesday we had "socio day," where each of our host families and one or two community partners (socios) came to Cajamarca to meet us, hear a bit more about the Peace Corps, and then accompany us back to our towns. Here's me on socio day with socio Edwin, Papá Javier, and Mamá Lourdes:

As it's currently summer in the mountains, every morning in Cajabamba dawns a beautiful sunny day, with the brilliant blue cielo cajamarquino (Cajamarcan sky). Cajabamba's main plaza just recently finished renovations, making for an even more picturesque scene with the church and yellow-painted buildings around the square.

This is the view from my house at sunset... not too shabby :)

One of the institutions I'll be working with in Cajabamba is the local technical college for agriculture and livestock, called CEFOP. Edwin works there as a veterinarian/professor, and he showed me around and introduced me to the farm's two adorable baby cows:

When he's not busy at CEFOP, Edwin also raises quails on his own... he has 600! I got to try some of the eggs he sells, and they pretty much taste like normal eggs - just smaller and fun to eat.

 Another afternoon, I went on a hike with Edwin, Papá Javier, and Jessica, the youth development volunteer who's already been in Cajabamba for a year. Here we are at la peña del olvido, a lookout point over the river valley below.

Instead of taking the same road back, we wound our way through some of the neighboring farms, passing cows, sheep, donkeys, dogs, pigs, chickens, and a whole lot of fields. Cajabamba is in the middle of a very agricultural zone, and many people make their living off their farms. In this picture you can see one such farm, the town of Cajabamba in the middle ground, and the beautiful mountains and cielo cajamarquino in the background. This is where you'll find me for the next two years!

It's the little things

Today was a good day, for three key reasons:
1) I accomplished a minor personal life goal: learning the dance to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" (stay tuned to future blogs to learn why).
2) A foosball table and ping-pong table mysteriously appeared in the training center garage - sometimes this type of wonderful thing just happens in Peace Corps without any explanation whatsoever, and you just have to aprovechar.
3) A fun dinner out with friends in Chosica, consisting of delicious Mexican tacos with extra guacamole - YUM.