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