One year later

Today marks day 365 in Peru - the big one-year milestone has been reached! Time (for the most part) feels like it's flown by, and it's crazy to think about where the past year has taken me. Twelve months ago I was soaking up every minute of my last days at home with family and friends, saying some tough goodbyes, and trying to pack everything I'd need into two reasonably-sized suitcases. I had very little idea of what my new Peruvian life would be like, but I got on the plane anyway and started the daily struggle of figuring it out. One year later, I'm still doing some figuring out, but the struggle has come to feel normal.

Last summer I was a Peace Corps newbie, spending my days alongside an awesome group of 19ers as we tried to get a grip on what Peace Corps was going to be like and how exactly we were going to operate as real volunteers. During training, I learned such useful things as the Peruvian national anthem and the 4 P's of marketing, but when swearing-in day rolled around, I still had some serious unanswered questions, most of which centered around the principal theme of "how am I supposed to do this job??" Peace Corps is, if nothing else, a baby-bird type of experience: in your early days you're fed and coddled in the safety of the nest while your mom tells you a bit about the ways of the world, but then the day comes when it's time to learn to fly, and all of a sudden, sí o sí, you're kicked out of that comfort zone and it's either flap your wings or become a splatted pancake.

So I swallowed the lump in my throat and headed to site, armed with three broad program goals that my work should ideally help achieve, and not much else. I spent my first few months meeting people, introducing myself and offering to work with anyone and everyone who might be interested, and eventually I got some projects started. I feel incredibly lucky to have been placed in Cajabamba, where both my host family and the community in general have been so welcoming. My "work" doesn't often feel like work, because it's interactive, constantly changing, and often just plain fun. Over the past year I've taught vocational skills to high schoolers, painted a world map mural with some enthusiastic kiddos, helped cuy producers understand basic marketing concepts, started five community savings and loan banks, taught accounting to farmers, held leadership workshops for women, and much much more. I've also taken full advantage of one of Peace Corps' biggest benefits: awesome international vacations. But despite having done so much, I feel like I'm only recently hitting my stride in terms of work. Having been in Cajabamba almost 10 months, the community now knows me and I've been able to more effectively work with socios to make my projects more sustainable.

Hitting the year mark also means there's a lot of change on the horizon: a new group of volunteers (the 21ers) arrived in Peru last night, and in a couple weeks I'll go to Lima to help train them, and then bring a few back to my site for a "shadowing trip" that will hopefully give them a better idea of a day in the life of a PCV. The 17ers (the group of volunteers that's been here a year longer than I have) are gearing up to leave Peru - people who have been a huge part of our Cajamarca family will soon be back stateside, so there's some goodbye-ing to be done. Instead of counting up the months I've been in Peru, I'll soon be counting down to my Christmas visit home, and then to the end of my service - that is crazy. But between now and then, there's still a year+ of work and fun to be had, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.