Things I would never do in the states that I did in my first week in Cajabamba

1. Be interviewed on live radio.

2. Be interviewed on live TV.
3. Have personal meetings with the town Mayor and Vice Mayor
4. Eat delicious homemade honey, avocados, lentils and oranges from my host family's farm.
5. Not flip out when a meeting started 1.5 hours late (I'd brought my kindle so thankfully did not die of boredom).
6. Consistently tell the small white lie that I've already finished my Masters - explaining PCMI is just too much work, especially when I already have to explain so much about myself every time I meet anyone.
7. Accept a majestic tiger bedspread as inevitable room decor. On the bright side though, I've got my room pretty much all done! Only big thing still to come is a small bookshelf for under the coatrack/window.

One week

I have now been in Cajabamba for my first full week. Time is a crazy and contradictory thing to think about sometimes. One week out of two years is a drop of water in a bucket, but a jam-packed and exciting drop nonetheless. My days here so far have been quite busy - which is the opposite of what I expected. I was (and am still trying to be, just in case) mentally prepared for a slow first couple months at site while I got to know the community and searched for good projects. But it turns out that sometimes those two activities can in fact keep you quite occupied!

Peace Corps advised us that it's a good idea to keep an agenda/calendar and write down what we do every day, so that we'll have a record to help us write our end-of-month reports on our activities. As you probably know, I am 100% the type of person who would do this anyway, as I am quite fond of being organized. However, this suggestion is still one of the most useful pieces of advice I took away from training - it has only been one week, and I am struggling to remember eight of the eight million different things I did in the past seven days. My theory is that this is partly due to the fact that everything is new and thus a bit jumbled, and partly due to the fact that the majority of my activities seem to just happen to me.

To clarify what I mean by this, I'll give you the example of my day on Wednesday. The story in fact starts on Tuesday night when, just before going to bed, I looked at my calendar for the next day and thought to myself, "hmm, pretty tranquilo day - just a meeting with a school Director at 10:45, a meeting with the Vice Mayor at 17:00, and meeting the Director of the Agrarian Agency after that." As I fell asleep I proceeded to brainstorm what places and people I wanted to try and visit during the rest of my seemingly wide-open day.

Of course, in typical Peruvian fashion, Wednesday unfolded very little as planned, but was still a great day:
10:45 Host mom and I head out to our (fully pre-arranged) meeting where she will be introducing me to her friend the school Director
10:50 Host mom's friend the Secretary informs us the Director is not around this morning, so we won't be meeting. Have a nice chat with the Secretary anyway, during which I introduce myself/Peace Corps and we discuss how I might work with the juniors and seniors of the high school there.
11:00 While walking out of the school, host mom spots the previously MIA Director walking casually across the plaza. She flags him down, we chat, I introduce myself/Peace Corps, and we suggest to him that I could work with the juniors and seniors. He smiles and nods and assents that we will talk more about it, then promptly absconds to wherever it was he originally wanted to be (which of course is not at his desk in the school).
11:05 We turn towards home, but next-door to the school is the Cooperative (popular financial institution for savings/loans here). Host mom decides that now is a good time for me to conocer the Cooperative. We march into various departments, I introduce myself/Peace Corps to the heads of Accounting and Marketing. It emerges that my host mom used to be on the Board of Directors of the Cooperative, and I then begin to understand why she knows everyone there and why it is acceptable for us to barge into everyone's offices like we own the place. At our final stop, the Credit department, we plant ourselves at the desk of a very helpful and slightly-taken-aback Credit Officer, and proceed to spend the next 45 minutes asking him questions and learning about how the Cooperative works.
12:00 Exiting the Cooperative, my host mom assures various employees that we will be back another day to meet the Manager, who wasn't there today. En route back to the house, she points out the Library that's run by the city's Association of Retired Teachers, and we go in. I meet Don Juanito, the very kind abuelito who often looks after the library, introduce myself/Peace Corps, and am treated to a disk-by-disk rundown of the approximately 20 electronic resources the library now has. We look around the shelves that line the two-room library, I ask very seriously if the three pre-internet era computers on the desk still work, Don Juanito laughs and says of course they do! Why wouldn't they? I resolve to come back and talk more with Don Juanito as soon as possible, because he is obviously awesome.
Lunchtime and the early afternoon go largely as I had envisioned the night before. I spend a couple hours creating my business card template, explaining to the print-shop how I want them to look, and making copies of some community diagnostic materials.
When five o'clock rolls around, I do indeed get to meet the Vice Mayor. She is a very sweet lady who welcomes me to Cajabamba, listens to me introduce myself/Peace Corps, and tells me that she is there to support me and looks forward to two years of great work together.
17:45 I leave the municipality and call Edwin and Eli, my socios who know the Director of the Agrarian Agency and are planning to introduce me to him this afternoon. We set off on the 20-ish minute walk into the campo towards the Agency, having some nice chats along the way about topics ranging from how to pronounce "eggs" to the similarities between Peru and the U.S.' gap between small farmers and industrial farming. When we are literally 30 feet from the entrance to the Agency, Eli says something along the lines of "uh-oh, Carlos (the Director) just wrote me that he cannot meet tonight." We walk down to the Agency just for good measure, call Carlos, and decide that I will go meet him the next morning instead.
18:05 Eli, Edwin and I spend the next couple hours hanging out at their quail-house, which is what I call the semi-enclosed space where they keep their 600 quails, taking care of that night's feeding/watering/cleaning duties and chatting.
When I arrive back at my house around 8pm, I am greeted not only with dinner, but with two dinner guests: the President of the Beekeepers' Association that I'd really like to work with, and the Regional Facilitator of the Sierra Norte Project, a government initiative that promotes development by working with the region's agricultural associations. Basically, two great potential socios were just sitting in my living room! Naturally I introduced myself/Peace Corps, they invited me to an upcoming meeting, and we talked about how we could work together.

This is exactly what I mean when I say that things here just happen to me. A go-with-the-flow mentality has been my M-O this week, and it has served me incredibly well. This open attitude's utility is in fact topped only by the usefulness of my now-memorized "hi I'm Meghan I'm a Peace Corps volunteer in economic development these are the three goals of my program I'm here to work with you..." spiel - I probably couldn't survive an hour here without that!

But in all seriousness, I pretty much say yes to any invitation I receive, however formal or casual it may be, and just see where it takes me. Every night when I look back at my day, it reinforces the idea that I end up learning a lot of useful information about the community or potential work partners/projects from every encounter I have. This is true even for the most basic of activities, like walking somewhere with my host mom, because we inevitably run into someone or pass by somewhere that I otherwise wouldn't have known. I feel truly lucky to have had such a bustling and positive first week at site, and am so grateful for the many people here who have gone out of their way to welcome and include me. Hopefully this bodes well for a productive two years!

How to appear professional

Step one: print my very own (first-ever) business cards - watch out Cajabamba! :)

Furry friends

My new host family's house is inhabited not only by 8 people, but also by no fewer than 15 animals. First, the cats, Shiao and Keiko. Sometimes they are so cute they make me wish I wasn't allergic to them. Other times they are less cute and I still wish I wasn't allergic to them. Here they are being super adorable:

Second, Vlady, the very unkempt scruffball that is the family dog:

On the upstairs patio, where everyone can hear him chirp at whatever hour suits his fancy, lives our lone quail:

In the garden behind the house we have approximately 10 rabbits, some of whom are cute baby rabbits like this one:

And, last and definitely my least favorite we have the tarantula. He also lives in a cage on the upstairs patio. I usually try to avoid looking in his direction and attempt to forget he exists - spiders are not exactly my cup of tea.

23 in Peru

Yesterday I had the privilege to celebrate my 23rd birthday here in Peru. Despite the fact that it was only my second day in Cajabamba, my host family was so wonderful and made an enormous effort to make sure my day was special. 

After a solid day of work meetings, room shopping/decorating, and continuing my never-ending quest to get to know Cajabamba better, my family and a few friends/socios gathered at our house for some birthday festivities. Here is most of the gang enjoying Javi's delicious pisco sours - from left to right is tío Agusto, papá Javi, me, mamá Lourdes, sister Tana, amigo/socio Elí, and brother/socio Ciro:

And what Peruvian birthday is complete without a delicious tres leches cake?

The fiesta was made extra special by Edwin and Elí's addition of some Peruvian music on the guitar - they even persuaded Javi to play a couple of songs!

What with my fiesta and all the birthday well-wishes I received from loved ones both in Peru and back home, 23 was definitely a birthday to remember.

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.