How to beat the line at Starbucks

If the line at your local Starbucks gets to be too much for you, I have found the secret for getting by without waiting a single minute! Simply come to Peru, and bring any of the following people with you to Starbucks to serve as your line-cutting golden ticket: a) a pregnant woman, b) a woman holding a baby, c) an old person, or d) a person on crutches or otherwise unable to walk/stand easily. 

The extra courtesy extended to these folks is a social norm present throughout Peru (not just Starbucks), but the oh-so-familiar coffee house setting makes for an interesting cultural comparison. Imagine an old lady asking a Seattle Starbucks barista to let her jump ahead of five people waiting in line - if anyone had the guts to ask for such extraordinary preference, the favor would probably be granted, but not without some murmured grumbles or anxiously impatient foot-tapping on the part of those being cut. Here, time moves a little slower, and the majority don't mind waiting an extra few minutes for their latte. What's the rush? They're all planning on spending the afternoon there anyway, chatting away in the cozy armchairs - of which there are three times as many as in the average U.S. store, precisely to accommodate the more social nature of the Peruvian clientele.

Fiestas patrias

Yesterday and today mark Peru's annual independence day celebrations, or fiestas patrias. Each and every house has a Peruvian flag proudly flying, decorations are everywhere in public spaces, and this weekend has been full of parades, special foods, and celebrations. Of course, the Peace Corps training staff was not going to let such an important day pass unnoticed. Friday, we arrived at the center to be greeted by the entire staff decked out in traditional Peruvian dress and ready to party.

We sang the Peruvian national anthem and other patriotic songs, and then it was time for the main attraction: demonstrations of typical dances from each of Peru's regions.

Little did the staff know, we had surprises of our own in store for them. Tipped off about the upcoming festivities by one of the language teachers, we trainees prepared our own dance show. What started off as a nice and tranquilo rendition of another traditional Peruvian dance (the group in white and pink below) quickly took a crazy turn - when the Peruvian song was about to end, we switched the music to a popular dance tune here, and all 43 of us ran up to perform the flash mob-esque routine we'd learned earlier that week. Though our choreography was a little discombobulated, we had a blast performing and the staff got a kick out of our antics - our training director even said this was the best fiestas patrias show she'd ever experienced from a training group.

Realizing that this weekend was not only fiestas patrias, but also our last full weekend together as a group (we're traveling the next two) Peru 19 took it upon ourselves to make the most of it. Friday afternoon began with some fútbol, then later in the evening we all reunited at Steve's house to watch a replay of the Olympic opening ceremonies - new records were set for the maximum number of PCVs that can possibly fit into one small tv room. Once we'd seen the Peruvian team march into the stadium, we headed out for a night of dancing in Chosica. After a solid nap Saturday afternoon, it was time to gear up for Nydelis' birthday party, which brought the rest of the Peru 19 crew to our humble neighborhood of Huascata for another night of fun together.

It is crazy to think there's only three weeks of training left, and one of those is spent traveling out to visit our sites - the time here is just flying by.

CAJABAMBA!

Today I finally learned the exact location and details of where I will be living for the next two years: the town of Cajabamba, in the region of Cajamarca. According to Google, Cajabamba's main square looks something like this:

As you can see a bit from the photo, Cajabamba is up in the mountains, with an elevation of ~8,500 feet. The town itself has a population of 8,500, but the surrounding mini-towns add up to a total of around 18,000. Cajabamba is three hours away from the regional capital of Cajamarca City, which in turn sits a 15-hour bus ride away from Lima. Mom, get out your dramamine for those curvy mountain roads :)

Peace Corps has already picked out a host family for me, complete with host parents who are an art teacher and farmer, a set of host grandparents, two host brothers a bit older than me, and a cousin - should be a full house! I've also learned that, luckily for you blog readers, my town has internet, hooray! I will have a youth development site mate, who has already been living in Cajabamba for a year. In addition to the volunteers already living in the region, six of my Peru 19 amigos will be heading to Cajamarca as well - a good-looking group, plus Regional Coordinator José, to spend the next two years with!

All in all, Cajabamba seems like exactly what I was hoping for in a site, and I am so excited to go visit in two weeks (before swearing-in August 17). Aaand, in case I haven't totally convinced you to visit me yet, here's another little tidbit: Cajamarca is home to the craziest, paint-covered Carnaval celebration in all of Perú - watch out for water balloons if you're here in February!

FBT - week in review

Here's what I did during FBT (besides eating delicious food - for culinary delights, see previous post)...

Visited Trujillo, the departmental capital of La Libertad.

Fit 3 Peruvians, 6 Peace Corps trainees, and 1 PC tech trainer, plus the aforementioned 7 people's week's worth of luggage, into one small 11-person van that has no trunk space. It was cozy!

Spent the week in Otuzco, a town of about 12,000 people nestled among beautiful mountains.

Watched high school students perform a variety of traditional dances from all over Peru.

Saw la Virgen de la Puerta, the reason behind why Otuzco is called the "capital of faith" in Peru, along with the collection of her many past dresses and the candles pilgrims light in her honor.

Made the trek out to the village of Trigo Pampa to see the technical college's organic farming project.

Taught a 4-day workshop to 20 technical college students on how to start their own businesses, culminating in each group applying for a loan from the "Banco de Paz," and selling its product to compete for the highest profits. On the final day, each student received a certificate, every student and group of students wanted to take photos with the gringos - particularly "Brad Pitt" :)

Went on a hike to have a picnic lunch and see Otuzco from above.

Spent a Saturday afternoon soaking up the coastal sun at the beach town of Huanchaco.

But, however nice the beach may be, nothing beats the SIERRA!

FBT - food edition

Our week of FBT (field-based training) in the sierra town of Otuzco, La Libertad was amazing for many reasons, lots of delicious food being one of them. Thus, I have decided to dedicate this post purely to the gastronomía side of FBT.

Let's start with breakfast. Each morning the six of us walked a few blocks from our hostel towards two key Otuzco establishments: the egg sandwich lady, and the yogurt/cheese lady. Luckily for us, these two shops were located almost across the street from one another, making it very simple for some hungry Peace Corps volunteers to mix-and-match our exact breakfast desires. Below you can see Heidi and Jackie enjoying our first day of yogurt (you can tell it's our first day because of the 3 liters of yogurt on the table... our eyes were a little bigger than our stomachs that day due to our extreme excitement over how delicious it was). All yogurt in Peru is of the liquid/drinkable variety, so we would buy 2 liters each day and share the peach and strawberry flavors around via the comically minuscule shot-sized plastic cups the yogurt lady provided us. The particular breakfast pictured below also included cheese sandwiches (with fresh cheese from the same dairy shop), and some muffins and egg sandwiches from the egg lady. With breakfasts like these, which, by the way, totaled around $2/person, we had no problem starting our days off right.

Otuzco's other key culinary establishment is the papas rellenas lady. Every day around 3:00, she sets up her street-side cart and starts cooking up wonderfully hot and greasy papas, which you buy for approximately 3 cents (USD) each and top with some spicy and flavorful ají. The difficult thing here is to resist eating ridiculously large quantities of these papas, which is extremely hard to do because they are so deliciously addictive. Luckily for our waistlines, our teaching schedule during the week prevented us from passing by during the papas lady's selling hours, so her treats remained beginning- and end-of-week indulgences.

One night at dinner at a run-of-the-mill Otuzcan restaurant, a small miracle occurred. In Spanish, outside of Mexico, the word tortilla almost always means omelet, and almost never means an actual tortilla. Thus, when I ordered the "tortilla con carne" from the dinner menu, I was expecting an omelet with some beef in it. Instead, I received the Mexican-ish platter pictured below: an actual tortilla/burrito, GUACAMOLE (not a Peruvian thing at all, particularly in the mountains and when avocados aren't in season), and a cute little Aztec pyramid of rice. A very pleasant surprise that left my fellow volunteers wishing they'd gone for the tortilla as well.

Our fifth day in Otuzco was the final day of the start-your-own-business workshop we'd been teaching at the technical college, so each group of five students was out in the plaza selling their products and competing to try and earn the biggest profit. My favorite by far was the apple pie group. I don't know how they did it, but somehow this enterprising group managed to bake an apple pie equal to any American version I've tasted. Naturally, I ate three slices, and I think between all us volunteers we probably bought out half their stock :)

To celebrate a successful week of teaching, we spent our last morning in Otuzco hiking up one of the neighboring hills. Here we encountered a very imposing Tomás the turkey, and decided he could make an excellent Peruvian Thanksgiving feast.

Our hike also included a picnic, centered around more fresh cheese sandwiches, courtesy of our favorite cheese lady. Delicious snacks plus being outdoors in the beautiful mountains made for a great farewell to Otuzco.

Back in the regional capital of Trujillo, Saturday's breakfast of course could not compare to those of the egg/yogurt lady. However, this meal did not lack for laughs, since when I ordered a mug of hot milk I instead received this huge beer stein. I am 100% sure that the restaurant had normal mugs, since I pointed to my friends' average-sized coffee mugs when I asked for my mug of milk, so it remains another Peruvian mystery why the owner decided a normal mug simply would not suffice for me.

For the last afternoon of FBT, we got to meet up with one of the youth volunteer groups who had been doing their trainings in the same region, and spend the day together in the beach town of Huanchaco. Culinary highlights included: strawberry/milk/ice drinks called batidos, and all-natural, manjar flavored ice cream cones from a man who's had his beachfront ice cream shack for 32 years. Yum!

Back to the future

I have re-entered the 21st century - Peru 19 has received our cell phones!

After five weeks of organizing plans via "meet you at the central park statue in Chosica tonight at 9:30," or "be at the canchita in Yanacoto at 2:00 Sunday," it has been a serious struggle to adjust my mentality to the new possibilities opened to us by our phones. I've found myself starting to make our usual type of meet-up plans, only to realize mid-sentence that we don't need to worry about making exact coordinations. The new catch phrase is "if something happens, we can just call each other!" - and it feels very strange to have such freedom. Strange, but good :)

Tomorrow night I'm off to Field-Based Training (FBT) for a whole week. Myself and 5 other economic development volunteers are headed to the sierra town of Otuzco, in the northern region of La Libertad. We'll be leading a 4-day intensive create-your-own-business workshop for technical college students, and then spending the other days visiting current volunteers, hiking in the mountains, and even getting in a day at the beach on our way back to Lima. I am really looking forward to another adventure in the provincias of Peru, and to my first time in the highlands!

Recipe for a high school marketing lesson

3 awesome facilitators (me, Brad, and Nydelis)

12 students tangled in a human knot ice-breaker game

1 dinámica to illustrate the 4 P's of marketing

10 minutes of group work

2 teams competing in a speed quiz to check for learning

Result: one successful class

Bonus: recess fun with some niñas who wanted our "autographs" ... I tried to tell them I wasn't famous, but this determined bunch was dead set on me writing my name on their pieces of paper. They were also extremely disappointed to learn that we trainees are stone-age beings without cell phones, and that we thus could not give them our teléfonos and become BFFs by calling each other all the time. Sometimes not having a phone is not such a bad thing after all :)

Hi ho, hi ho

It's off to the mountains I go! 

Today all the Peru 19 trainees learned whether we will be assigned to sites in the costa (coast) or the sierra (highlands), and I am pleased to report that I will be heading to a site somewhere in the highlands of northern Peru. I had requested sierra for its non-desert, and thus more inspiring, landscape, its greenery, and its cooler temperatures (i.e. lows below 85 in the winter, which coastal sites do not offer), so I'm excited that my preferences were taken into account.

We don't find out the exact region/location of our sites for another two weeks, but I'm hoping my final site will have such cool llamas and mountain-climbers as the ones in this picture our tech-trainer drew today:

Lima's indie scene

Last night I got to see a concert with a bunch of bands from independent Peruvian music labels. The show was free, outdoors, and full of folks who would've felt right at home at Seattle's Bumbershoot. Each band only played for 20 or 30 minutes, so we got a sampling of both the good and bad (there were definitely some that were not my style). The best band by far was Kanaku y el Tigre, an eclectic band that played instruments from the harmonica to trumpet to xylophone, resulting in an awesome folk/bluegrass/rock sound. This video has a little snippet of one of their songs:

One month

Today marks one month since my arrival in Peru. Fittingly, today is also the day of my first real Peace Corps work out in the community. This morning I led a 45-minute session for 20 instituto students (the Peruvian version of a community or technical college) on how to write a resume. I was excited to get my feet wet with some of the work I'll be doing over the 26 remaining months of my service, and am happy to report that the session went really well with lots of participation from the students.

Later this week we business kids will be back in the schools, each teaching a class of high schoolers about the 4 P's of marketing. Should be fun, even though I myself only learned the 4 P's a week and a half ago :)

A cultural case study: Peruvian vs. American photo-taking norms

American version: smile, pose for the photo.

Peruvian version: do not smile, fail to look at the camera.

The one exception in this particular case study is Steve (far right), who looks a bit unusual in both versions - just goes to show, navigating intercultural waters is never an exact science :)

4 de julio

Celebrating 4th of July in Peru was, in a word, amazing. We had the day off from training, but we still started the festivities bright and early with a field day organized by our language facilitators. They divided us into five teams by color-coded headbands, and my black team decided to name ourselves "la plaga" (the plague). 

After some very serious warm-up exercises, we joined the other teams at the main starting line.

Over the course of the morning, the teams competed in a dozen different games, including wheelbarrow race, egg race, pin the tail on the donkey, eating contest, 3-legged race, and many more. With points given out for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places, the competition was fierce in pursuit of the title of 4th-of-July-Olympics Champion!

We also got to experience the traditional Peruvian game of tombola, in which a confused guinea pig is released from a box in the middle of a circle of numbered boxes and must then choose his home. Each person bets on which of the numbered boxes the cuy will enter, and the ones who guess correctly win a prize. Surprisingly the cuy seems to know he is the center of attention, and so he will draw out the suspense of the game by wandering around in circles for a little while before scurrying into his box of choice. While the cuy contemplates his decision, everyone stands around shouting at him "box 5!" "aquí!", etcetera, so it's a bit of a crazy scene. Here is the calm before the storm, while the cuy is still in his center box:

Decision time:

Aaaand we have a winner! Brad looks on fondly at his winning cuy in its new favorite box:

After the morning's games were all said and done, our team ended up taking third place, for which we were rewarded with an excellent prize of bananas and cookies. After so much activity we were all starved, so luckily it was time for a good old American cookout of hamburgers and hot-dogs. We cranked a 'Murica playlist of classic American songs and chowed down on our delicious lunch feast, topped off by a red-white-and-blue chocolate cake.

As soon as our lunch had some time to digest, it was time for the "Rep yo' hood" soccer tournament. Basically, we trainees live in five different small communities near the training center's main hub of Chaclacayo, so each neighborhood rallied its fútbol troops to compete for bragging rights. As our town of Huascata is only home to three volunteers, we teamed up with the similarly small group of 3 de octubre, and eventually emerged victorious!

To top off the afternoon, we built a bonfire and made some (slightly unusual) s'mores. Marshmallows do exist in the big supermarkets here, but graham crackers had to be foregone, sadly replaced by whole-wheat crackers. But who needs the crackers anyway? :)

The day ended with almost all 44 volunteers packed into a nearby local watering hole, not wanting the day of fun to come to an end. Though lacking in fireworks, it was an incredible 4th of July, and one I know will remember as one-of-a-kind.