Closing in on a month

So the holidays are a great time to share stories. I am having a tough time narrowing down the ones to share. Of course I will have to include one of my grandmama, and the chocolatada, but what else.

First the one with g-ma. If I have not mentioned it ehough I will continue to say that she is very senile, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. I spent x-mas with her my dad and thier family. I should mention that I am completly comfortable with being the only english speaker, white guy, person who does not eat with thier hands, blonde, person with a degree, or the plethera of other things that make me unique here. But I was the only person (out of 19) that was less than 55 years old. I kind of felt that the family was stealing my youth, this could also be because that I had the same conversation 27 times ( I had to repeat it with about half of the crowd).

The first awkward moment came when I entered the house. Everyone was sitting in a circle, so following cultural guidlines I started my way around the circle shaking hands and kissing the fam. My grandma was about third in line and she threw a wrench in to my other wise smooth entry. I went to shake my grandma's hand a give her a kiss on the cheek and that is when things got wierd.

My grandma has a grip of a bear. Which is really suprising for a near perilized 4'2" 86 year old. I have gotten used to it. Before I go in for the greeting I get about a foot away and put my feet shoulder with apart and try to center my balance. Thier really is no way to tell which way she will jerk me so I try to prepare for the best percentage possible.

After giving her the kiss she told me to greet the other in the circle (like her touch had made me forget everything I was doing just seconds before hand). She told me, "Meet them white foriegner, meet them", and introduced the next and the next. I was quickly falling behind, but to no fault of my own. She had a death grip on my arm. To be dead honest I do not think she knew she was still holding my arm. In turn she started to get mad at me for not shaking hands with people. So I lifted my arm so that her grasping limb was dangling infront of her face. It still took a minute or so but she finally let me go.

The night only gets better from there. So at midnight exactly the family gathers around in a circle to celebrate. For the last month every house has had a nativity scence set up in thier house, but with out a baby jesus. At midnight on the 24th/25th he gets delivered to the manger, but only if the acting godparents are there. In my family's case my grandma was godmother, and I was godfather. That is right I was the godfather to jesus. In true Peruvian fasion they just expected I knew what my responsibilities were. As I stood there with baby jesus in my arms and a briliant look of dumbfoundedment on my face they decided that instructions were in order. I took the baby around the room and each person kissed him and gave a little shout out. Finally when I was done I was to put him in the manger. As I lowered him twords the nativity scene I felt the air leave the room. I had forgot to kiss the plastic doll my self. Here I was trusted with Christmas itself in my hands (literally) and I was about to blow it. Luckly I had a whif of genius, devine intervention if you will, and I pulled back. I could here the fam breathe easy as I kissed jesus and did a backwards (not intentionaly) catholic cross thing and laid jesus down. Then we sat down for dinner.

Dinner is kind of like thanksgiving dinner. It has many different plates that are only served for x-mas. Like empanadas rellenas there are empanadas filled with chicken and olives. We also had fruit cake this is like apple pie to americans. The meal was rounded out with champane, white wine, turkey, hot chocalate, and about four different types of sweet rolls. The meal started out well. I ate my food and was ready to call it good. I am not really acustomed to eating a meal that large at one in the morning, but the family had other ideas. They invented a game I like to call, how much food can we stack on the gringo's plate. The winner is no one, but they sure can stack a whole lot of food. Each time the put more my face was a little more awkward and they laughed a little bit harder. I did not end up eating any of the third, fourth or tenth serving but it was fun to watch.

So on to the pictures. I was selected to be the piaso or entertainment for my counterparts holiday party. Children do not recieve many gifts if any for christmas, but they do get to go to some chocolatadas. This is a party where they get a toy, fruit cake, and hot chocolate. There is also games and we gave away some soda. The first pic is me playing chubby bunny with the kids. For those who do not know this is where the kids put a sweet roll in thier mouth and have to say feliz navidad. If they do this sucessfuly then they get another roll and repeat. The winner is who can say it with the most in thier mouth. The second is a little one getting her soda. The third is me handing out some gifts. The fourth is some of the five hundred kids with thier hot chocolate. And the last is of my favorite kid in all of my casorios. I affectioatly call her, "Tarzan Baby."

I hope you had a merry christmas and have a happy new year

Two and counting

This week was a lot more of the same. I mean I spent a lot of time running around and I put a couple of steps in the right direction. I finally signed up for facebook. Facebook is like having a child. The more time that you have it the more yo need to take care of it.
On the project front I made some good progress this week. I got my paint for my World Map Project. I set up meetings with a couple of directors and met with three different NGOs. Mext week I am making pizza (because all Gringos eat at home is pizza) with the faculty in Pierra Perada. I think this will be my most successful proect area with youth. The faculty is very motivated and the kids are really sweet. I have awesome class with them on wensday followed by a introduction to garden. I have my fingers crossed. I NGOs I met with were interested in my ideas, but have plans of thier ownalso. I think that I will be able to succur funding from them on multiple occations. One is a local lending firm via the largest employer in my area, San Juan Grapes. The other is a local NGO that only works in my department. Both of these organizaton focus on improving the quality of life for the people in my area. I just have to find a way to make thier funding end up in sustainable areas. I am meeting with the PTA of the Scol in Tierra Blanca on friday to discuss the logistics of my map. I should be able to start painting in January if all goes right. I started my house visits this week. They are going to be a learniong experience. Each one of them. The people love to talk, but it takes about an hour to get down to it. I have four hundred houses that I ahve to visit about three times each. Do the math. I am going to busy.
I have three good stories from this week. Fisrt the shortest. I was walking down the main street in down with my site mate yesterday on the way to ceatch a intercity transport. When we were crossing the street I looked down and saw roadkill, but it was not just any kind of roadkill. It was arat. Now I know us americans think that we all have it figured out, and that we are the most efficent with our time. But this really throws a wrench into the spokes of that idea. Talk about time saving.
The second and easily the most discusting came yesterday morning. I woke up late (about 8 o´clock) and went to the table. My grandma here imediatly tells me to sit down and eat. So I grab some bread and coffe and have my breakfast. No sooner than finishing my first piece of bread I hear the goat start to bah like no one´s business. About 20 seconds later my dad walks aroung the corner carrying the goat upside down by its legs. He puts it down on the table about 20 feet in front of me in clear view. Now I never really think of my self a city boy, but this shattered that realization. He took a knife and slit its throat right in front of me. As I felt my stomach tighten watching the goat bleed out, my grandma (like she does every 7 seconds when I am at the table) said, Ëat whity eat!. With her pestering I finished my breakfast with the senery of goat slaying and skinning.
The third story is also a little grusome but a lot funnier. It happened about a week ago. I came home late, near dark, and as I entered the house my grandma yelled at me to eat. So I went to my room and grabbed my head lamp. I sat down at the table to eat. As I regretfuly uncovered my plate it was the same food I have every single night. fried cabbage, rice and this night chicken (there is not usually meat). So I ate my chicken leg mixing in bites of cold rice and cabbage. also had half of a chicken breast. Might I remind you that it was pitch black out site of the shine of my head lamp. I have this system where in order to eat the 5 some odd pounds of rice that I get every meal I like to pick the meat off the bone all at once, and the mix it in with the rice to give it some flavor. As I started to pick the meat off the chicken breast I noticed a couple of things. First off this meat was really hard to seperate from th bone. Most of the meat I eat is over cooked (thank god not the opposite) so it is really odd it would not seperate. Than I looked a little closer. The meat was really dark. I told my self that it was probably burnt, and thought nothing else of it. So Peruvians understandably get really offended if you throw out food, so I pick my bones clean. One I got all of my meat from the extior off I notcied there was some more under the breast plate. I stuck my finger in the cavity that my fork would not fit. I moved it around, and all of a sudden it happened. A eyeball came rolling out. At this point I was a bit confused. Chickens eyes are not suposed to be in there chest. So I took a closer look once again. I notice that this in fact was not a chicken breats, but a guinea pig skull. With closer observation I noticed the teeth, eye sockets, and brain. Needless to say guinea pig tastes like chicken.

One Week Down

I actually came to site a day earlier than I needed. I really wanted to get things started. It is a really tough time to enter in to a community, it being christmas and summer vacation in all. So I got straight to work. My first day I went to three different schools to set up meetings later in the week. I had a meeting with my conterpart here, and visited the office of the guides that work in the reserve. The next day I dug a hole to start my compost and visited a couple of families in town. The next day I went to the town hall and talked to the mayor. He signed of on my project succuring my funding. The next day I had meeting with two PTA groups and introduced my self. Then I talked to one of the schools directors about painting the wall. I am going to start wenesday with the kids. I also spent a really wierd day in Chiclayo. The resault is I now have ELECTRICITY! Which consist of a car battery and a converter. It cost me a pretty penny, but it shold give me about 15 days of three hours of power, and it only costs about a dollor to recharge. The best part is that I can recarge it here in town.I spent a day in the garden planting 10 different plots of herbs. I am really excited to get that going. I also have had another two meetings with the director of the public high school. I think I will be able to get some really good things done there. I went to a meeting of my counter part angency and that was really wierd. They faught with each the whole time. I see where my main project will be. I am thinking I can really help orginize them. Today I am having the first meeting of my artisian group. I am trying to expand the scope of "What is tourism?" here. This group is going to be a lot of fun. I also am helping my sitemate decorate a palm/christmas tree in the town square soon as I am done writing this. My plans for the rest of this week include visiting the schools again, starting awesome class ( I will explain later), getting my room put togeather (I am sleeping on a straw mataress, have no dresser, bookshelf or mirror, and my walls are blank), planting my cucumbers, melons and onions, going to see the current reforestation project (next to the waterfall), going to the health post and starting my house visits in Las Colmenas (the first of three rounds I will do in four different communities). I will post next week with a couple of pics.
Matt

Voluntario

Well the day finally came. I swore in. I am officially a Peace Corps volunteer. The first lady of Peru spoke at our swaring in cerimony, it was really nice. She slipped on the way to the podium. I had to do every thing in my power not to laugh. If she had hit the groud there is no way I could of held it in. It was not too hard to say good bye to my old family, but it was not easy either. We had a nice final lunch of salad and papa rellena. It was delicious. After we swore in they rented us a bus to send us of to Lima. With all of our gear this bus would of seated 20 comfortably. The Problem was that there was 37 of us. We quickly realized that the bus would not fit our gear where need be so we packed it Beverly Hill'billie style and were on our way.The night of swaring in they put us up in a really great place in a really nice part of town (Lima, Mira Flores). Needless to say we let loose. The next day we all set off for our reigonal capitals. To stay for a couple of days and collect our ¨thaughts¨.

Picture 1 is of Peru 10. To be modest, I believe it to be the best Peace Corps group ever. This is Enviornment and Health. The second picture is of my first spanish class. We became known as "Los Super Machos", for good reason. Our profesora, Edith, was at one time a nun. You would never have guessed it. I remember the day we were learning about body barts. We all had formal education when studying Spanish so we only knew the medical terms for the unmentionables. By the end of our lesson Edith was fondaling herself yell, "C´mon what are these!? What do you call these?" We responded like and group of young men dubed "Los Super Machos" would, "We don´t know please god tell us." The urgency was not so much perverted as it was to get her to stop. I learned a importnat lesson that day (No it is not the 30 different ways to say breasts in Spanish). It was that even though you may be called a super macho, a fifty-five year old woman can make you seem timid. The third picture is where I lived in Chalacayo. Actually I lived in the pool house off to the left. I know Huh? This is Peace Corps? Actually my family did not live here. My mom is the cleaning lady. The lady who owns the house lives in Lima, but raised here children in the house. Durning this time she became great friends with my mom. My mom now has free reign to the property durning most of the year. This includes my sister LLisela who lived in between the Avacado trees in the back of the house, in one of the three other "mini" houses. When I arrived the pool was much different. Actually it was half filled with emerald green mosquito water. I asked the Peace Corps doctor, Jorge, at least ten differnt times if I was going to die of malaria. He assured me that malaria was not in Lima and sent me on my way. I did not believe him. Once I got to know my mother and relaized how great of a person she was I decided to claen the pool as a gift to the lady for letting my mom use it to house volunteers. I "Peruvian rigged" the house pump to the pool and got the water out. This success was shortly lived. For some reason my mom has my very preagnat sister do some house work. This includes watering the lawn. One day she was watering and the hose became disconnected. The pool was filled, and was living in fear of malaria all over again. It took some time, but I finally drained the pool again, with a lot of help from my co-volunteer Brett (Super Macho on the far left). When we got down to the bottom it was a mix of what I can only discribe as living awefulness. We then hand sanded the pool. After that we washed it three times and painted it. Then we filled it and threw the greatest Peace Corps party that I will experience just two days before swaring in. The forth picture is Peace corps 10 Enviornment with the First Lady of Peru. The last picutre (way over due is my family minus Maria Antuanette who really reminds me of my real sister Martha. I think in large part of the family dynamic and the way she reacts to it.) On the left is my dad Rafeal. He is a airplane mechanic at Lima International. He is a very complicated guy. By that I mean he is either really happy and personable, or extremly angry and verbally abusive (to his family not me). There is no middle ground. On My right is Maria Mariujenia. She is 16 and wants to study chemistry or Phisics. I did not talk to her as much as the others because she was always lip locked with her boyfriend (I guess some things transend culture) Antonio, who I call Antonia because I saw pictures of him in full make-up and would not let him live it down. Not Like I ever did that, and then went to school in my sister´s dress. Sometimes it is fun to be hypocritical. My mother Lidia is on the right of Maru. She is a kindered spirit. She embodies evrything that a strong woman in Peruvian culture should. She was my rock during training and I will always keep in touch with her. On the far right is my older sister Maria LLisela. She is married to this dude that I could not stand, and my family barely put up with. He is a human leech and suffers from extrme machismo. Also he is not very intellegent. The family and I would have a great time making fun of him. She on the other hand is a very loving mother and has a great playful personality. This concludes my Posts on tranning and I will now focus on my time in site. Expect another post shortly to let you know how my first week in site went.

Matt

Site Visit

After a year of waiting I finally made it to site. I am so pleased. It is beautiful and the people are motivated. I spent the week meeting as many people in possisions to help me as possible. I am living about 3-5 km outside of a city. My house does not have electricity, for now. I am going to rig up a car battery when I get there to power my computer. It has running water once and a while, but it is only used for cooking and my grandmother's showers. This is my shower, the first picture, it was a little interesting using it the first time. Especially since the house worker watched me. I am telling my self it was because she knew how confused I was. I had seen the shower in the house, but I had a feeling I was not supposed to use it. So I asked my grandma where I should bathe. She has had three spinal surgeries so she does not walk very well. With that said she just told me to go out back, and that there are two showers "very nice" out there. I went out there and did not see anything. So I went to the organic garden, no shower. I went to the rice field, no shower. I went to the mango grove, no shower. I went back into the house and ask where the bath was. After a awkward stare, like how could I not find it, the house worker showed me. She took me to the stream and pointed to picture 1 and said, "Here it is. Don't worry it has a concrete bottom." Believe you me it having a concrete bottom was the least of my worries. She left me be and I took time to soak up Peru. I realiezed that when I was bathing I would be visible to anyone that passed on the road, and then I came to a very important conclution. When in Rome.....

I was not joking when I said my site was beautiful. Picture two is a sunset from my back yard/ mango grove. If I walk about 30 feet I run into a canal. The canal was constructed by a group of German enginiers some years back. It empties in to the Tirijones resivor, picture 3. I do not know how well the picture shows up on other computer screnes, but there the most beuatiful bird of prey in flight right in the middle of the screne. I will have more to talk about my work once I get in to it.

I hope every one had a great Thanksgiving. I was thankful for a lot this year. The Peace Corps Peru 10 had a celebration here also. We had what you call a Panchamanca. It is a quechua word for earth cooking. You heat stones untill they are really hot and the put them in a hole in the ground. Then put the food on it and coverit with earth. The food was really good. We have some chefs in our group. A couple of volunteers made desserts. They were amazing. I got my pumkin pie! One of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving with new people is that you get new kinds of food. It was almost all new to me this year and I liked it. That reminds me that I have to get a turkey when I move up north to start fattening for next year.

Finally some Pictures

These are Spectacle Bears in the reintroduction phase of our reserve. They are very curious.
This is Cuto, and his mate. They are in the rehabilitation phase of our reserve.
This is the White-winged Guan. There is only 250 in the world. It and the Spectacle bear are our flagship species.
This is one of the better senic pics that I got from the reserve.
This is the residing Shaman at our reserve. He makes a mean drink!

And Away He Goes

Well I applied last October to the Peace Corps. I got accepted in January. I cleared medical in May. I found out in August I was coming to Peru. I arrived in September, and yesterday I found out where I will serve my two years. I will be living in a community of 240 people in the department of Lambayeque. I am about five km outside of a city between 12-20 thousand people. The difference is really that large. I am going to be living with an 86 year old woman and a 65 year old man. It should be interesting and humble. I do not have electricity or toilet, but I have a latrine and I can create an electricity connection using a car battery. I have cell phone coverage and Peace Corps will be giving me a cell phone once I complete training.
I do not know what projects I will be doing. I will not know for about four months at best. I am a replacement volunteer. So I will have some idea. The community has suggested some options. I am really excited. I am going to live on the edge of a nature preserve that contains five different endangered species, including the Spectacle Bear, a fox, a tree turkey, and a couple others that I do not know. The people want to organize eco-tourism. That could be really cool. The people want to organize eco-tourism. That could be really cool. Also there is also a honey production option. This could take a lot of work from a lot of different perspectives, but it is a system and would really be awesome to put together the pieces. Another option is to work with a group of artisans creating a web page and a catalog.
I am going to visit my site next week and so I should have a better idea of what it all entails next time I write. I get to talk to my previous site volunteer today.
Until next time,
Matt

A litle bit anxious

Halo,
I am glad to have the opportunity to write. I have been with out a day off for sometime now. The last time we had free time I was not feeling well and spent the day in my bed. Last night we had a great party to make up for Halloween. I think almost every volunteer in Peru 10 was there.
Last week I got a good look at what my future two years will be like. To be dead honest I was not that impressed. We went to the province of Lambayeque. It is a coastal province in the north. We spent the week looking at sustainable projects such as beekeeping, small animal husbandry, compost, latrine building, building efficient wood burning stoves, historical site preservation, small gardens, and for forest protection. I learned a great deal and will for sure have a opportunity to do good work. I just am not that thrilled about the dry forest. We visited the site where the Senor de Sipan was found. If you do not know who he is you really should look him up. When he was found the tomb was more decorated than King Tut.
We spent an afternoon looking at the Huascas (Ancient adobe pyramids) and there reconstruction projects. I have some great photos. I will get them up soon.
I get my site assignment next Tuesday. Needless to say I am very anxious. I really have not Idea where I am going. Pretty much it is some dry forest site in the north. Well that is all any one knows. I am ready to serve. I really enjoy training, but I would like to get started with things.
Yesterday I helped a woman from a different barrio build a cage for her Guinea pigs. I am really glad that I went. No one else there really had a clue of what they were doing. It was a really interesting experience. Their was a man there. HE actually knew about Peace Corps (this is really rare with the Peruvians). He asked a lot of questions of me when I was doing manual labor. Which I thought was weird. Maybe is it some new cultural difference I am just coming into contact. I will tell you what is a cultural difference. About an hour and a half in, while I was getting eaten alive by these what are called mosquitos, but are closer to sand flies, I looked up. The man who does not live at the house and really did not need to be there other than for social reasons was video taping me. I thought that was a little strange. Especially since after about another ten minute there where two other guys taking pictures. Why? I may never know, but you all should keep your eyes out for me in some tabloid :).
I plan to write again soon after I get my site assignment.
Hasta Luego,
Mateo

My niece (Fernanda) and my nephew (Andres).

A Recognized Member of the Barrio

Buenas a Todo,
I am now in the full swing of things. I am about to have my second placement test for Spanish and with out a doubt will be at a sufficient level to go in to the field. So really all have to do is keep a positive attitude and power through training. I started my classes at the university with a section on organic farming. For sure if any of you visit me I will have a fully functional garden going. The second part of my studies is learning how to raise pigeons, guinea pigs, and rabbits for foods and guano. I am really excited. I am still getting along with my family although I have run in to a couple of problems. Every day I am thankful for my time in the Dominican which really has prepared me well.
So I have a great story for everybody this entry. This last weekend was the anniversary of my barrio (3 de Octubre). The other volunteers and I have been paying in a soccer tournament that ended on the day of. About eleven in the evening we were all drinking and dancing when the President of the local government called me out to come up on stage. I was not sure what to think, but I had no choice. As I got up on to the stage the local government all shook my hand and handed me a large package. The president told the crown how happy they were to have us in the barrio, and handed me the microphone for an impromptu speech. As I looked out to the crowd I realized that I was speaking to at least 300 Peruvians and most of my Peace Corp group. Any of those who know me know that I am never short of words, but usually if I use enough of the I can articulate my point. I do not have this luxury in Spanish. My speech went something like this:
" Thank you. Thank you very much. I want to thankful for everything. Thank you for permit us to live with you. AHHHHH. Thank you very much."
I have had better speeches to say the least. The Peruvians are a very fore giving people. I received a round of applause and left the stage.
When I opened the gift I was amazed. The barrio had bought replica Peruvian National soccer jerseys with our names on the back. We all put on our jerseys and continued to party. About an hour later once again my name rang out over the load speaker. There was no way after that last speech that they were going to have me come up there again. Boy was I wrong. This time they awarded me a diploma for competing in the tournament.
I was a bit more prepared this time. I was able to tell them that we were very grateful, but much more than that. I was able to explain that it is very difficult to go somewhere so different, but with a community so nice and accommodating it really feels like home.
I left the stage this time feeling a lot better for myself and my representation of the group.

This is all for this entry, I can not figure out how to get the pictures up yet, but will continue to try. I will try to get a entry in before I leave to the north in two weeks. We have a trip to see what kind of environment we will be living in.
Chau,
Mateo Alejandro Oeste

First Entry

Bienvendios a Todo,
Finaly I got my blog up and running. I plan to do enteries as frequently as possible. Who knows how frequently that will be?
I am living in a district outside of LIma more or less an hour. I live in my own house, but it is in a compound with someother members of my family. I have a host mother (Lidia), father (Rafeal), four sisters (all named Maria, but we call them Mariasela, Maru, Antuenette, and Isella), a brother (Edson), a niece (Maria aka Fernada), a nephew (Andres), three dogs (Marcelino, Chata, and Cuto), and of course a Roster (It is not normal to name rosters).
I have been playing five times a week in the barrio's anniversery soccer tournament. Our Peace Corps team is winless, but what we lose in game we gain in cultural assimilation.
Our first weekend here our barrio had an increadable fiesta that was basically 56 straight hours of the same song, beautiful costumes, and drinking.
Last weekend a host father had a bbq at his house which was also awesome. We had cow heart kababs that were some of the best meat I have ever eaten. I was affraid that the food here would be really bland like the dominican, but I was very wrong. They have this sause called aji. It can be made in many various ways but is always spicy. I also have eaten Pirana, cow intestines, and civiche (fish cooked with citric acid and nothing else). I got kind of sick from the civiche.
My best story as of yet hapened on my second night here. We were all sitting at the dinner table talking, when all of a sudden my family all got up and started to move outside. The dogs were barking and my family was telling me to stay calm (as I was looking very confused, being the only one still sitting down). They encouraged me to move outside and I did.
I guess there was an earthquake and I had no idea.
The tranning is very long and labor intensive. As in the application prosess they are very vauge and somewhat misleading. The tough part is they waqnt us to ask questions and their response to them is alway, "What do you think?"
I am having a great time and plan to get pictures up soon.
MAteo Alejandro Oeste