12 hours north

12 hours north of Lima, in the department of Lambayeque, lies the town of Reque - the site of my first non-Lima Peruvian adventure. Fellow trainees Justin and Heidi and I spent this past weekend shadowing a current volunteer there to learn, más o menos, what to expect during day-to-day life once we get to our sites. We saw and experienced a LOT, thanks to our wonderful host Hallie and her community socios, so I'm just going to hit the highlights:

• Attending a community bank meeting and getting to see microfinance in action. Super excited to (hopefully) start one or two of these in my site.
• Eating delicious home-made ceviche with Hallie's host family (and not getting sick!) - Reque is 15 minutes from the beach so the fish was fresh-as-can-be. Also trying espesado for the first time - a thick veggie and meat stew that gets its distinctive green color from lots of cilantro, and is a traditional dish in the north.
• Visiting the Eco-Centro NGO out in the campo near Reque - an inspiring Peruvian, organic, community-centered farming project that of course reminded me of Liam :)
• Helping a local panadería improve its basic accounting practices.
• Putting my feet in the Pacific ocean again, and relaxing on the beach watching the huge waves crash in.
• Touring the municipality's offices and learning the ins and outs of each and every department.
• Playing "Kitty from Seattle's" favorite bingo as part of the standard entertainment on the overnight bus trip.
• Seeing youth entrepreneurship in action, in both classroom and carpentry workshop settings.
• Helping Hallie teach English to a bunch of adorable kindergartners - they win the cuteness award hands down, even though they don't get much past colors, fruits, and "good morning."
• Spending a few hours walking around the regional capital of Chiclayo with its bustling market district.
• Meeting the ladies who run a local Comedor Popular, a government sponsored program that subsidizes daily lunch for poorer communities.

Here's a (very windblown) pic of this weekend's three amigos enjoying the beach:

Tanto TV

Here in Peru, people watch a LOT of tv. Not only do they watch a lot of tv, but it is totally socially acceptable to do so, despite the fact that few of the shows have much redeeming value. The excessive tv-watching issue is further exacerbated by each show's standard airing of new episodes every weekday for 1.5-2 hours per episode. In my house, one of five programs can almost always be found playing in the living room at all times:

1. Combate: A ridiculous game show where the red team competes against the green team in short survivor-esque games. None of the participants looks very Peruvian (all are white, most are blonde), and inter-contestant drama abounds. For example, one member of the green team broke up with his girlfriend (and teammate) on live television - so classy. My host family are strong supporters of los rojos, and will watch the entire 2 hours of this program every day to see what happens.

2. Yo Soy: Think American Idol, but instead of showing off their own talents, the contestants are showing off how well they can imitate the artist of their choice. I've seen imitations ranging from Kurt Cobain to Rihanna to Latino singers old and new. Almost all the volunteers' host families watch Yo Soy, so some of the particularly good (or bad) impressions are often the topic of lunchtime conversation at the training center.

3. Fútbol: Gooooooooooooool! It's been a busy few weeks of soccer: the European Championship, the usual schedule of intra-Peruvian matches, and one big World Cup qualifying match between Peru and Uruguay.

4. Telenovelas: Drama drama drama. Long meaningful stares, heavy silences, loud shouting, and absurd characters - the telenovelas do not disappoint.

5. Local news: Just like local news in the states, local news here revolves around the negative. Even if it's a little sensational at times, at least I learn a bit about what's going on around Peru.

Curiosidades

A collection of little curiosities that remind me on a day-to-day basis that I am living in Peru...

Inca Kola - you can't get much more Peruvian than a multinational corporation (Coca-Cola) using indigenous cultural heritage to market soft drinks. I'm not much of a soda drinker, but I'm told that this sugary yellow beverage tastes exactly like bubble gum.

Street dogs wearing sweaters - fondly referred to by PCVs as "slumdog millionaires."

An excellent find from this morning's visit to the National Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology: a Peruvian version of "The Last Supper" painting, in which Jesus is eating cuy for dinner.

Soccer "fields" that bear no resemblance to actual fields, largely due to the utter lack of grass.

And lastly, although there's no picture to accompany this one, today during our run my friend Heidi and I were doing some laps around a nearby park, and at a certain corner two adorable little girls ran after us giggling madly for about 30 feet, then got tired and waited for us to come around again. We tried to encourage them and told them how rápidas they were, but our chatting only brought on more fits of giggles, so we just enjoyed their amusement and went about our run.

Lima

After living the small-town life for our first two weeks, yesterday Peru 19 was finally allowed to venture out into the big city. With a population of almost 9 million people, Lima is a sprawling metropolis that even longtime natives can't ever fully explore, but we made a solid effort with our one-day excursion. We started the morning in Lima's historic centro, where the streets had a quiet, colonial-style feel to them.

The centro's main attraction is the Plaza de Armas. All the buildings around this plaza were yellow - later in the day I saw another plaza with a white theme, and then another all in blue. I have a running hypothesis that Lima's plazas are a full rainbow waiting to be discovered, but this will have to be confirmed during future visits.

Also around the plaza was the city's famous catedral:

And the palacio del gobierno, where the President lives and works:

The plaza is also home to some very understanding policemen, who didn't mind breaking ranks to take some pictures with us turistas :)

Bolstered by a morning snack of café and cheese sandwiches, we made our way across the city by a combination of foot and bus. Along the way we encountered a life-size cuy, who is apparently the chosen symbol of one of Peru's major political parties. I guess that's not too much stranger than having a donkey or an elephant?

Our afternoon destination was Miraflores, a very upscale part of Lima right along the coast. First stop: a delicious lunch, which was amazing not only for what it did not include (our usual daily fare of rice and potatoes), but for what it did: fresh fruit juice and authentic Peruvian ceviche!

The ceviche was definitely tasty, but unfortunately about an hour after lunch my stomach decided that this particular dish did not meet my body's biological standards and rejected my brain's lunchtime choices. I think this is a good time to note that Jorge, PC Peru's awesome head doctor, has informed us that approximately 70% of volunteers "Peru" their pants at some point during their service. NO, this has not happened to me yet - thankfully - but my incredulity at that statistic is definitely beginning to wane haha.

Gastronomic issues aside, Miraflores was beautiful, and Lima's usual cloud cover wore off just in time for us to enjoy a lovely afternoon of sun and ocean breezes as we walked around the parks and shops.

It felt good to have a day off, a change of scenery, and time to explore and relax with friends. Lima made an excellent first impression, and I'm sure this is only the first of many visits to come.

Aja Ají

Not even two weeks into my Peace Corps training, things are about to get real: in order to really learn good business practices, the CED (community economic development program) volunteers have split into three groups and we will each be opening our own Peruvian business. My group's venture, "Aja Ají," is selling home-made Peruvian ají (a one-word term encompassing all manner of spicy salsas/condiments Peruvians put on their food) to other PCVs during lunch at the training center.

Yesterday was our first day of sales, and opening week has been a hit! Though we did have some stiff competition from the other two groups: "Cookie Corps" selling home-made alfajores from a nearby bakery, and "Jugo de Paz" offering fresh fruit juices.

The best part of this project by far was learning to make the ajís from Nydelis' host mom, Ema. She grows our secret ingredient, pipi de mono, in her garden - but beware, adding even one of these little guys to your sauce means a serious spicy kick!

The first ají we made was garlic-based - luckily Ema had a stash of garlic big enough to last for years (that blue tub is big enough for me to sit in).

 

After sautéing the garlic, onions, peppers, and tomatoes in the pan, we blended everything together to create our first jar of delicious ají!

Familiar faces

Here are the 44 people I see everyday, fellow Peru 19-ers. We unfortunately have already lost two girls from our original 46 - Peace Corps is not for everyone! But as you can see, the rest of us are still having fun :)

And here's our language class group, along with facilitadora Isabel, on the terrace at the training center:

And, last but not least, this is Lulu, expertly balancing her favorite plastic donut on her head. While she of course cannot replace Soph-soph, as the official training center pet Lulu does help us all get our cute-dog fix every day.

Lunch

Yep, that's right. In honor of father's day, my host mom prepared the very special rodent-centered lunch of cuy, a.k.a. guinea pig. This is one of those cultural things that is super normal in Peru but nonexistent in the states - I have to say though, the little guy was actually pretty tasty!