Matt West Peace Corps Peru

2011-09-23T10:50:00.000-07:00

2011-09-23T09:28:00.000-07:00

ALMA 2010

2010-02-09T08:44:00.000-08:00

A year of service

2009-01-17T08:18:00.000-08:00

I am now more than a year into my service. About 16 months in country. I am a lot healthier than when I came. I hace learned a lot and taught even more. I wish I could of done more work but I have learned that it is not at my pace that work will be done. The next year looks to be very promising. I had a great holiday season complete with growing and killing my own turkey and see Gillian Martha and mom for xmas and my bday. I am collecting photos and will post a blog abnout it soon. I promised my mother in the airport as she was leaving I would be better about blogong this year. I will. The rains have started again so i should have some free time on my hand soon. The picture up top is what I look like now. The one below is from my first month in site.

Gangie

2009-01-17T07:53:00.000-08:00

My grandma, wow how do I start? Gainge is an eighty-eight-year-old mother of two. She married twice. First to Pedro and his sister’s father and later to Don Crillollo. She was married to him for 42 years before he passed just a month before I arrived for site visit. For 22 years she worked in her own restaurant feeding the engineers from the German NGO that constructed the drinking and irrigation system in this part of the country. She had a fall a couple of years ago. She broke her spine in three places. After the operations she was not able to walk. She can still move but you can not really call it walking. She stands about four feet tall on a good day. She is very well versed in folkloric poems and songs. Unfortunately for me she will break into verse in mid sentence. I do not know what is going on. Is she telling me a story of her life or is she just ranting again? I smile and nod, smile and nod. The stories are always filled with slang from the 1950’s and end with, “Oh! Mateito you don’t understand.” What can I say, she gets me. Gangie slips in between dementia and sanity. For the most part she does not do damage to her self. Her health fluctuates greatly. Some days she is singing and others she can’t speak due to pain. Through it all she is still very young in spirit. She laughs every day. She is always is ready to tell people about the good old days. Gangie is from a time where things were very different here. I have to pick and chose from her tales what is real and not, but all in the same she has seen it all and then some. She says that she has a broken back a drying kidney, high blood pressure, and a menagerie of other afflictions. Due to this she ingests the most eclectic regiment of cure-alls. Now for the list of my favorites. BY no means could I remember all of them but these are the best. One time I came home from giving a gardening workshop to see two forest pigeons in a cage. I had heard that their meat was like chicken, but a little bit gamier with a smoky flavor. Needless to say I was anxious to eat some. I asked Pedro how does one cook pigeon? He told me there are a variety of ways, but these birds were not for eating. I was a little shocked I had not heard of anyone who grew pigeons. I imagined that it was kind of hard to manage a flock. He told me they were not for that either. I asked, “What are they for?” They were Gangie's joints. Her elbows had really been hurting her. What? Yes the pigeons were to be filleted and put on the joints. Remember that all of you that ache in the rainy season.
Second, for the longest time I had noticed that there was a large plastic bowl with a brick in the middle ans bread around it soaking n water. The bowl is covered with a mosquito net. After a while I had to ask. Pedro took of the cover and inside I saw that there were lots of tiny little insects that resemble beetles. He took some out and put them into a drinking glass. He put a little water in it and Gangie drank it. Live bugs and all. I guess it is for her kidnies.
Third, Gangie not only has put me under the table when we drink moonshine, but she also makes her own brand of home made wine. This she like to give to anyone that comes and visits. I have seen her get 13 year olds drunk. All for the better. When they pass out she does not know and she has some one to talk to for hours.
If you look at the second foto you can pick her out and then find her in the rest of the pics. As you can tell when I go to family gatherings I am the youngest by a good twenty years.
At this point I need to wish a very happy birthday to my beloved strongly missed real grandfather-. I miss you a lot and think about you all the time. Keep on chugging I will see you soon.

Host Dad

2009-01-17T07:34:00.000-08:00

Perdro Caseres Alverez is my host father. He is a sixty-seven-year-old father of two. He is really does it all. I have never seen someone like him in my life. He fixes cars, tractors, chainsaws, tables, windows. He builds houses, shacks, ramadas, his own bee-hives, corrals, subterranean irrigation systems, and he welds. He wears many hats professionally also. He is a park guide at Chaparral, an active member of the board of ACOTURCH (the managerial organization for Chaparri), a beekeeper (28 hives, the honey is incredible!!!!), and he is a farmer. Not only a substance farmer, but he cycles his crops and he diversifies what he plants. But he is so much more than words. It is his thirst for education and pursuit to better him self that keeps me inspired while working here. On days he can’t work due to illness or in a strong downpour, you can find him in his room reading. He spends his days between his rice patty and the nature reserve. He does all of this while caring for his mother (Gangie, gain-gui as I call her).
The first time I met Pedro is a very funny story to tell. We have what is called counterpart day when we arrive for site visit, a week in the middle of training where break the ice in our sites. We meet the people representing who we will be working with for the next two years. After a day long workshop your counterpart/s take you back to see your site, host family, house and room for the first time. Pedro was not one of the people who came to the workshop. We got out a little late from counterpart day so we did not arrive to site until it was dark. It should be mentioned this is the first time it really dawned on me that I would be alone. This is where my inter monologue becomes a very intricate part of my life. We had to go all the way into Chongoyape to get transportation to my house. A rickshaw motor-cycle is the only form of transportation that would take us. I am ready for it. We pulled up to a large metal gate connecting two dilapidating adobe walls. The driver honks his horn into the pitch black night. After a couple of honking sessions an older man holding a table candle emerges to see about the commotion. My counter part yells to him, “Pedro, the gringo has arrived!” Pedro then opens the gate. We have a rapid exchange of formalities, and he shows me to my room. I could not see much until Pedro handed me my wax illuminator. As the my eyes survey my room for the next two years I was very surprised to see a bed that resembled something that I had slept on before. I was set. Pedro asked me if I had a mosquito net. I told him I would have one when I moved in permanently. He shrugged and said that it was not necessary but made life more comfortable. He assured me that when I came back in a month that I would have window panes. I shrugged and told him that they were not necessary but made life more comfortable. He got the joke. What a relief! He told me that his mom was sleeping and I would meet her tomorrow. There is no feasible way that I could have imagined what was in store for me. Pedro went back to sleep and I went to get comfortable.
My bed is made from a frame very similar to what we have in the states. The support is a series of mismatched planks. Not only do they very in length but also in width. My mattress is made of straw. This is perfect. I prefer to sleep on hard surfaces. I put my head to rest. As my I started to drift off I heard a fluttering noise above my head. I have to take a deep breathe convincing myself I really do want to know what is lurking about. It was nothing more than a bat. I remember thinking that as long as it does not land on me I will keep my cool. Plus they eat insects so in a weird way they would help keep my zone clean and safe. I drifted off once again, only to be awoken once again. The noise was much more disturbing than that of the bats. It was a loud howl. It reminded me of a monkey. Great bats and wild monkeys in my room? I did not sit up right away. I figured no one had slept in this room for a while so maybe the battling animals didn’t know that I was there. It was pretty dark, but I made out the monkey beast. It was not a monkey at but some nocturnal bird who’s call sounded like some kind of attacking chimpanzee. I guess my room was prime hunting ground for creatures of six legs or more. I put my mp3 player in my ears and went to sleep thinking about my next two years. At least I was not sleeping on dirt. At least the Pedro knew who I was. At least they were birds and not a troop of monkeys, but most of all. Where could I get windowpanes?

2008-10-29T09:39:00.000-07:00

So this is what a faily gathering includes. My would be grand fether passed a year ago. So as the custom goes we had a mas and killed lots of animals. The pig they are cleaning ws my first swine kill. I am a veteran of the goat. We dreank moonshine and native wine and sang lots of folkloric songs. It was a good time. I can not see the pictures right now so I can not describe them. I can tell you that the cleaning method for the pig is very different here on the coast then what I saw in the mountians. In the mountians they used a blow torch. They take there pig very seriouly up there. so the first pic is of my dad giving a nature lesson on bats. If you clic on the photo you can see it better. We found it sleeping in our hand drying towel. The rest are of the prosess of makeing the food. And one of my extended family.

2008-10-29T07:58:00.000-07:00

The Jungle was amazing, my best vacation yet. I did not see all that I wanted to so I will have to go back. Tarapoto is a really interesting town. It has the best infurstructure of any place I have visited. There is a large police tranning facility outside of town. I believe that is why. The people obey the street lights, the streets are clean, really quite amazing. The food was different and increadible. I still prefer the food of northern coast, buit it was really good. In the sierra the base of the diet is potatoes, on the coast rice, and in the jungle platino. I also had the best sandwich, pulled pork with a delicious sause from native herbs. The diet also includes a lot more pork and beef than in the mountians and coast. As you might imagine the fruit is increadible. So many jucies so little time. With in an hour of Tarapoto you can get to numerous lagoon and water falls. Tarapoto lies on the boarder in between the eastern andes and the amazonian flood plain.

My favorite place that I visited was a town called Lamas. It is still very traditional to the native lifestyle. The natives here defeated the advances of the Incas so the culture is very different from what I have seen. In this small town the villagers still dress the same, use the sme mothods to cook and live very much with in the limitations of the land. One belief the people have and I could not figure out why is, The build there houses with out windows. You have to imagine in the summer it is 100 percent humidity and about 110 degrees. No windows are you crazy. The first picture is of this village Lamas, the second of the mopuntians outside of Moyabamba the third is of one of the many lagoons in the area, this lagoon contained many large turtles. I could not get there fotos. The fourth is a view of the limits of Tarapoto. The last is of another form of traditional house. This for usually does not have walls, but a second floor. Much like a barn with out walls and apalm tree roof. The family will sleep above. The first movie is cutter ants, they are about and inch long. The second is of the exit to Tarapoto. I will have two more blogs in the next week. Chau

One year in Country!

2008-09-25T08:46:00.000-07:00

I Have officially been in Peru for a year. I have had to change my goals drastically over the last year, and in no way would of thought that I would be so content with what little I have done. On paper I have not done much, but I have created an enviornment for change. The poeple are ready to turn the corner. With that said I am going to tell you exactly what i have done, why and where I am hoping we go.
First: Biohuertos
I am in the prosess of constructing 11 home gardens. I am not going to recieve funding until next year so it is coming out of pocket and being thrify now. The gardens will feature a compost system and a liquid fertilizer (organic). All garden have to be in closed. They have to have some kind of protection against roaming goats, chickens, donkies. The idea is to provide a cheeper way of living while increasing nutrition. I would like thirty by the time I am done. We will see. I am working with a NGO from Spain called CIPDES. They have promised funds for next year but who knows.
The idea is when we get funding we will complete the first phase of gardens. The will put in gardens at the schools, teach the children how to cultivate at thier homes. Then will will put in green houses for the reforestation project. We are planning to reforest 1000 hectares. So it will take a carful approch to this we are in the planning stages of this.
Second: Waste Management
The district captial has a truck that collect waste, but it only serves the pueblo. The plan is to expand it to the casarios that are in route to chaparri. We will start by putting trash barrels trohu out four casarios. and then go housde to house teaching people the bennifits and how to use them. This is in corrdination with the muiniciple goverment. Once we have gotten the people accoustomed to that we will attempt recyling. I have a huge meeting for this today. I hope it is in place by december. The idea we will end up with a clean route to chaparri. So when people comne visi the reserve they wont wade through trash to get We all know it is better not to live with garbage everywhere but the obvious reasons are not always considered here.
Third:Eco tourism
This is my most successful project. My sitemate, Heather Pack and I start a club for the youth of the area. We invite speakers from Chiclayo, Universities and guides to come talk to the children. During the three month corse they recieve a buch of lectures and native plants, birds aanimals, what is tourism, sefl esteem, basci science, and touristic zones here in chongoyape. Then we also go on excirsioins to different places in the area to see them and hear experts talk. I wanted to dso this project because the guides are aging in Chaparri. They are having a difficult time recuiting new ones. It is the most sustainable and well paying job in the area, but none of the youth really want to commit to staying in Chongoyape. Well soime do but we are discovering them through the club. We started with 50 and ended with 13. I was really sauprised to see that many finish. We are revising the ciriculum for next session right now. I want to include community service projects in the next cycle.
The pictures you see hewre are from our club. The first is from our excursion to ¨La Cascada¨. I want our first sirvice project to be to better this area. The second is from our graduations. Heather is to the left and left of her is opur diustrict mayor. To the right are the secrataries of education and tourism for our district. The rest are our alumnos. The third is from Chapparri. We are sitting on a rock that was used by local shaman to give a yearly prayer for rains. The fourth isd also from Chaparri. It is my favortie part of the park to take fotos. The lkast is from when Heather´s boss, Kitty came to visit. The students where given a touristic zone and told to research and present. They did wonderful.
That is all for this blog. In the next couple look for new news on my work and fotos from my up coming trip to the Jungle.
Chao

Santo Domingo to Vice

2008-09-09T12:01:00.000-07:00

It is a little strange to pass Sept. 11th in a place where time stnds still. I only know dates of paydays and concerts. To think tht everyone will be subjected to hours of propaganda and forced to tell stories of 2001. I on the other hand realized the date because it is two buddies birthday (yan and Ian). I am in a very new phase of my service. I am in the process of getting funding for my projects, and AND I m getting it. So work is looking good.

I have been on the road seeing new places and visiting sites of successful volunteers. Finlly I made it to alta piura. The first four picutres of the road to nd Santo Domingo. Thier we visited a enviornmental volunteer who is closing her service in a couple of months. She was a replacement volunteer and after four yer it is amazing what they have accomplished. They have a waste management system in place. Including home pick up and a recycling center. I look t my community nd it is hrd toimgine the change. It is really beautiful there. The people re extremly beutiful in her small town. The hydrology there was also very interesting. s you can see in the second to last picture the clouds are in the valley below the town. during the day the sun heats up the clouds and the raise to block out the sun. During the night they cool and go bck down. For this it is known as a equtorial cloud forrest.

The lst photo is from the souther most mangroves one the pacific coast. We hve a volunteer there working with a group of healthy living premoters. It is also very beutiful there. They have lmost as many bird spicies as I do in my site. Mine are much pretier. His are all gulls. I hope everyone is getting back into school and ending the summer well. I will post again next week with some great pics from our secudariy schools anniversery. I am going to judge a beauty contest fridy.

The endless excitement of development work

2008-08-20T11:39:00.000-07:00

So I m writing this to tell two stories but first I will have to get you caught up on my life. I went to the most touristy beach in peru. It was not all that it is cracked up to be. It was like spring break, and cost like it too. Which is fine when you earn money in the US but when you are in the Peace Corps it is a little harsh on the old pocket book. My work looks to be making head way. I have huge meeting today were I will present all of my projects for the up coming year. So if I get funding it sould be really a great year, if not I will continue the search.

Okay first the first is the resault of the second. I told my grandma about the second story and she told me this gem of a tail. Now if you dont know my grandma is 87 can not see, walk, or think really well. She is amazing and full of life all the same.

My housekeeper told me one day that my grandma was smelling really bad. I mean really bad. My grandma told her it was probably because she wet herself. My housekeeper, Rose did not believe that was the case, but it is kind of caste like in my house so she did not say anything. The next day a chicken got satuck under my grandmother's bed. When Rosa went down to get it out the smell returned, and it had grown. She told my grandma she was smelling then same thing as the day before. After a descusion they norrowed it down to two things Rosa's upper lip or my grandmotyher's feet. So Rosa took her shoes off. The smell increase (Rosa told me later se had to leave the room and gag). On my grandmother's toe was what appeared to be a foot leg of some sort. Rosa washed her feet, and thaught it was all over. It was not. The smell was still there. So she looked in the shoe. Eureka! It was a toad carcas. The toad was in the shoe a few days before when my grandma had put them on, and as you might of guessed she killed it. I do not know what you do not feel something the size of a baseball in your shoe, but if thier is some one one the planet who would not it is my grandma. We all had a good laugh and my grandma once again explained to me was old.

So as I mentioned this was all braught on because I had told them a story. A tale of my sitemate Heather and I earlier in the day. Now to be fair I should say that Heather and I are shameless with each other. I mean literally thier is nothing that we do not talk about. NOTHING! So I had been telling here about how many mice live in my room. I am all about mice or whatever but the little (Explicative)s keep me up all night. I try to kill them and they hide in these holes they have dug in my dirt floor. My grandma told me to pour boiling water in the hole, but I told her it would stink when they died. I was quickly negated because the hole were in dirt and dead animales dont stink when they are in contact with dirt. Go figure. Let continue with the story.

Heather and I were revising a document for a eco-tourism club I I kept smeeling something just aweful. She told me she had gas and thaught that would be that. I kept smelling and she had not let any lose. She tried to convince me that they were really bad. I told her that if her insides smelled like that she needed to go to the doctor. She told me that mice were living under her bed, and it was probably that. So I started to take everything out from underneathe. No luck. So I smelled the matress. I pulled back both of her blankets and took a wiff. It was not there. So I smeelled the blaket. Bingo! Boy did it stick. She told me that her farts had been absorbed into the blanket. Now I should mention that Heather is freaked out by crickets let alone a small fast moving mammal. With the mystery solved she went to make her bed. She seperated the blankets and let lose a blood curdling srceam. She ran at me and started to hit me. All I could do was ask, "Why are you hitting me? What did I do?". She said, "Look, Look at my bed!" So I did. In her bed was a dead mouse. The best part is the mouse had been dead long engough to start to stink. Let me connect the dots. She had been sleeping with a dead mouse in her bed for a few days. Oh the magic. Hope you enjoyed. I will post some pics soon. I have a great idea for a series of black and whites.

He gives and takes away

2008-07-15T11:48:00.000-07:00

So this blog will be quick. I have two super high quality stories to accompany the photos.

First the bottom pic. It is a picture of my latrine. I think you need to click on it to really appreciate the story.

My dad is a real handy man so of course he built his latrine by hand. It is really nice. Normally the latrines are made from corragated metal. Which you might imagine this close to the equator are just plain aweful. Our is made of a hole covered by wood support beems covered with a mud- concrete mix. It has adobe walls and has got great airflow.

Between us volunteers we joke around alot about are digestive tracts. We are always sick, and it is a part of every day life for us. So it manifests itself in conversation. This story is along those lines. About two weeks ago I went for my morning stop at the latrine. All seemed normal enough. As I sat down and got comfortable I experienced one of the scariest moments of my life. It needs to be mentioned that I have seen multiple scorpions in the latrine before, but this blows that level of fear out of the water.

So I was just getting comfortable when I felt the floor move. I do not mean an earth quake but the hand patched floor started to give way. I can only begin to describe to you what was going through my head, and it goes something by this. The floor is about to give way to a two meter deep hole filled with awefullness. To top that off I have my pants around my ankles and the walls look like they will fall on top of me as well. I have intergrated but if this were to happen I would not want anyone to save me.

The floor did not give out. But due to my irregular bowls I would continue to use the latrine. For another two weeks at least. Two days ago it happened. If you look closly at the foto you can see that the far side of the floor has caved in. I can say this for all of you that it takes a awlie to wake up in the morning. Being inside a collapsing latrine will get your motor going.

Now the big news. You can see in the fisrt picture one of my resident bats. I have no screens on my windows so at night the fly in and rest on my light bulb. The battle these noctural birds that have a call very similar to a monkey. We do not have electricity so at leasts it has some purpose. I have sat awake many nights listening to the squabbles thinking I wish I had electricity so that when the bats landed on the bulb it would burn thier feet and I would not have to worry about night rabies exposure. Well last saturday the elventh of July 2008 electricity came to LAs Colmenas. I can now do my work from home. I do not have to lug my 20 lbs battery 7 km to get it recharged. LIfe is good. Can you say ability to cook after 7 pm. Man this is awesome.

Bullfights in Chota

2008-07-14T13:18:00.000-07:00

I live in a town that consist mostly of people who move here from the mountians. There are two towns in the province of Cajamarca that the people come from, sanat Cruz and Chota. Chota is famos for two things. One is that the people are violent and weild machetes. The other is for the second largest bullfight in the contry. There are only seven countries in the world that have bull fights.
The first one was really aweful. The matador was from Spain. He was supposed to be one of the best in the world. He had a hard time killing the bull. At that point I was not thrilled at all I had to watch anoth 17 bulls get treated like that. But the very next matador was from Mexico. He was increadible. He taunted and danced like no other through out the weekend. With out question he was the best matador there. But due to racism he did not win. The peruvians wanted a peruvian to win. The head judge is the acting mayor, so I imagine it would kill your carrer tpo vote for a foriegner. We did go out with the mexican guy at night. He not only was good at what he did but he was also one hell of a guy.
We were treated to the wonderful weekend by the volunteer who lives in a small town outside of Chota. He family had us over one day to kill a pig. Yes, kill a pig. The typical food of the region is fried pork skin. So her family wanted to prepare some for us. It was really nice to see a small cajamarcan town. To see the real form of life there. Her family raises guinea pigs, so they had a barn full of them. I mean hundreds of them. The food was great and her mom sent us on our way to the fights with a bag of meat. How sweet of her, right.
So the best story from the trip came on my last night. My buddy Justin and I went out to eat at a resturaunt. It was Chota so the fact that we were eating at the nicest resturant in town does not mean much. It just so happen that all of the matadors were sitting to the table to the left of us, and to our right was Grupo 5 the peruvian beetles if you will. About half way through our meal justing and I noticed something. We were getting better service and more attention that either of the afor mentions groups. We had a good laugh about it. We are very acoustomed to the racisim here but usually it is the negative type. I went to the grupo 5 concert that night and had a blast. It was one of the best shows I have been to in my life.
I got some huge news for everybody that I will put in my blog in the next couple of days. I am trying to get my pictures up but my camera is out of batteries. They will be up tomorrow.

Anniversario

2008-06-22T08:49:00.000-07:00

So this will be a short one. So we just had our towns 183rd anniversery. This included a beauty pagebt, mini marathon, a talent competion, a parade, and a huge concert. The pics are from 1: international day for conservation of the enviornment. I spoke infront of all of them!! As you know public speaking does not fluster me, but this occasion was different. They asked me after I planted 11 new trees and was really dirty. This is one of the things about the culture. it is really not cool to go out in public when you are not sparkling clean. Let alone speak infront of 500 youth. I was not prepared but it went well. I got a huge applause and then ran home to take a shame shower. The second is of the new girl I would like to start dating and my gangy on a good day.The last ones are from the parade. What a parade means is that each school has a marching squad, a band, and a color gaurd. The march in unicen while the parents belittle them. But look at the pictures they are so cute. I will post another blog in a couple of minutes with just more pictures of the kids. I want to do this as a get well gift to my mom. I know she loves the pictures of the kids here. For those of you that do not know my mom had surgury last week. She is recovering well,

but it is hard when you are this far away. So please put her in your prayers, hopes wishes, what ever you believe in. Gracias

What part am I eating? They really have parts but if I had to say it would be the knee.

2008-06-11T08:03:00.000-07:00

Dont get used to this frequency but the next couple of weeks are jammed packed with cool things so I will try to put up two more this month. My towns anniversery is next week so I will have lots of great stories and pictures, and the last week of this month I am going to the second biggest bullfight in the country. It is in the department of Cajamarca in a town called Chota. Oddly enough the majority of my town has migrated from Chota. So betwwen the two I should have two great blogs. I had to get this one up before hand because I have two really great stories.

The is about a a peruvian tradition. It should be mentioned that in what ever peruvians do they have godparents. Birthdays, Baptisms, Weddings, Anniverseries, and in this case putting on the cord. Putting on the cord is a tradition for children in thier first and last years of school. For the kids who participate in school police, ecological police, flag barrers, and class monitors are rewarded with a largve public cerimony and a special colored cord places on thier right shoulder of thier school uniform. So each of the kids have a godparent to do this. I usually shy away from things like these because you are suposed to give gifts. But the people do not tell you how much and then after the fact ask for a lot. You are left in this really awekward spot; do you get extorted or do you call them out for abusing your generosity.

In this case the little girl (ten years old) asked me very professionaly and I was taken by her maturity. She later said that we were not allowed to give gifts and I knew I was in the clear. For her honesty and being forth-right I decided to get her some school supplies. I went to her house before hand and gave her the gifts I had boughten. We left for the cerimony. The cerimony started at three we got there at three thirty and the festivities began at four thirty. While I was waiting a strange thing happened. A young girl was with out a god parent. This is exactly what I dreaded. I wold get pawned off on some body and then taken for all of the money in my pockets. I forgot one important thing, I am a registered member and carry a gringo card. This for better or worse allows racism to play out. Sometimes bennificially more often non bennificially. In this case the girl was soooo happy to have a gringo god-father she did not ask for anything. So I figured I would take a picture of us (huge tradition). I will print it out and give it to her in a frame. Well the reaction of the peruvians was a little much. It was like when you go in to the back hall to put food in Elma's dish. The mothers of these little kids came running over kid in hand begging to have their child in a photo with Heather and I. I felt like chuckie cheese with out the delicious american pizza. I made it out all right, but feeling a little wierd. I left for Chiclayo shortly after and had plenty of time to think about it. It was when I got back home things were really really odd.

My houseworkers 14 year old daughter is 8 months pregnat and will not tell anyone who the father is and is having complications. The resault is we do not have food at my house. So when I came back from CHiclayo I found my grandmother and sister in the kitchen. I had brought with me peas, lentils, and three kinds of beans. It was a warm welcoming. I went to my room to unpack and soon returned to my kitchen to find my dad talking to the rest of the fam. He turns to me and asks two questions. First, he puts his hands up about a meter and a half apart and says, "Have you seen a snake about this big?". I am not blown away by questions like these any moer, just slightly unsettled. I responded calmly, "No I haven't what color is it?". It was brown. I did not know any snakes in this area were that big so I had to ask, "Is is venomous?" He reponded while laughing, "Of corse not. You think we would eat a venomous one?" He proceded to tell me that he was keeping it for my return and that we were going to eat it for dinner. But it had escaped. I said that maybe it would eat some of the rats that are living in the roof and would get fatter. Thinking that more meat the better. I have a lot to learn. My sister responded quickly and with conviction, "If that snake eats a rat I will have nothing to do with it!" So then he asked me the second question, "So what are you doing right now?" So as if it was not odd engough that I was going to eat snake, but now I had to hunt and kill it. That we did. When we got it the snake was a lot closer to two meters. I asked my dad, "I thought you said it was a meter and a half?" He response was classic, "If I told you that you wouldn't of wanted to hunt now would you?" So we sat down for a nice quiet family dinner.

This I fel tops the trantuala story in the Dominican, and I am sure that it will not hold the crown for long.

The pictures are from putting on the cord, my mother's day preformance, and the anniversery of the private kindergarden.

2008-06-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

Well I have a lot to tell. I have my projects lined up.\ for the next year and a half. That is right I have finished a quarter of my service, and with Perú 11 coming this month I will no longer be the “freshman” of volunteers. I am going to do four main projects. Fist I am going to have an Eco-tourism club with the youth in the area. I will have professionals come in and talk about ecology and tourism in the areas this is accompanied by a series of excursions to different areas in our zone. The idea is that by the end the youth will be ready to receive capacitating to become a guide at Chaparri. I have been giving the guides to people who can not speak Spanish. That has been a lot of fun. I have taken people from Australia, England and Tennessee. The second project is a household organic garden campaign. I hopefully will establish fifteen fully functional gardens. I plan to focus on the youth and mothers of my community. I want to do this so it directly translates to a healthier diet and a reduction in economic expenditures. The third is a solid waste management campaign. I have coordinated all of the loose ends and we start next week. It will include house visits, bulletins, community selected pick up locations, recycling campaign, and scheduled pick ups. Let see how this works. I do not trust that people will stop burning their trash but I have great support and have to give it a shot. The last is the money project. I have been designated as the engineer for a 1000 hectare reforestation project. I will be spending my efforts educating families about resource management and alternative uses of the dry forest.
Now for the stories. I have a lot but you will be previed to the gems. First is about my new Aussie friends. I went to the beach one weekend and met some travelers who were trekking through the north on their way to the jungle. I invited them to stay at my house when they came up to Chaparri. They were not ready for that kind of poverty, but they took it well. In appreciation for my hospitality they brought a great bottle of Chilean wine which we drank underneath the stars. It was a perfect way to finish a day of hiking. The next morning one of the guys found a scorpion in his bag. I am not sure if it was that or the fact that I was impartial to it that really scared him. After that we took a walk to the reservoir to look for some raptors. There we ran into a family that I am friends with and they took us up a dry river bed to see a heard of llamas. We had four kids under the age of 11 with us. While we were waiting for the llamas to descend a near by hill I taught the children how to skip rocks. On our way back they told me how incredible what I was doing is. I told them that poverty has its perks, for example how happy those kids were learning to skip rocks. Stuff like that is so simple but so rewarding.
The second story is about dancing. I do not like to dance but that excuse does not fly here. People love to dance every hour of the day in all social settings. I can not get out of it if I tried. Especially because every women and their mother need to get a song in with the resident gringo. This is a picture of a birthday party. Me and my two left feet were treated to a great meal of goat, cake and humble pie. I was asked to dance by everybody. Sure no problem right. I mean everyone else is dancing and it would be rude of me not to. The catch is that when I got up to boogie down everyone sat down to watch and give me pointers. Their were a lot of suggestions.
Mother’s day is huge here. I mean gigantic. I had no idea. It is like a second Christmas. The thing is they still do all of the cooking that day while the men get smashed. It was a week long festival with different events. Heather, my site mate was recently back from the US and wanted to do something for the municipalities’ party. I was not going it to have anything to do with it. Some how with their persistence and her lack of ability to say no. I was roped into singing (acapela) and doing a sketch. We wrote the sketch and preformed both in front of five hundred people. It went over really well and we are now living immortals in town.
Life is good. My weight has stabilized. I see a new girl, and work is coming together. Hope all is well. Please keep me in touch. I am much quicker to respond to email than I am to put up blogs.

Moe the Chicken, Cuy liberation, and my new piece of heaven

2008-04-23T11:06:00.000-07:00

So I should start by saying that I do remember that I said I would post more. This post will be worth the wait.

First story is Moe the Chicken. My nemisis for my first four months in site. Quite possibly the ugliest chick ever to inhabit this planet. Moe was a female but due to poor egg production and personality you would never know. I could never get a good photo of it because it was that type of sleezy bird. We are just starting to raise chicken in my house. I can not beggin to tell you how gross that actully is. So we grew them for two months and they started to produce eggs and offspring. All except for Moe. So now I have 16 chick that run around the house making rukus. By around the house I mean on the counters, on the stove, and they lay thier eggs underneathe the chair I eat my meals at. Moe was a lot bigger than the other chickens, and with no offspring to protect she became very aggresive. She would pick on the others. I was very vocal about my distain for the most repulsive creture on the planet. We all know that chickens when growing eventually lose thier down feathers. Well Moe did, but not on her head, so she was left with a black bowl cut, even by peruvian standards it was an aweful haircut. My grandma kept telling me we could kill her if she bothered me so much. I would respond by tellikng her that I new that we need her to produce to profit from our birds. She never did. So when my grandmothers 87th birthday rolled around her time was due. They let me do the honors, boy was it awesome. I have never had that much discust for anything. The meat was flavorful and cooked to perfection. I would of eaten it raw just to proven a point but the others saw no need for that. It ends up that when I was gutting her that she had four eggs she was to lay in the next week. Timing is everything.

For the next story I will start by say the Guinea Pig her is called cuy and I will refer to them as such. We also raise cuyes here. There are a lot of work to get at the meat but are quite delicious. I of couse being American am acustomed to having them as pets. So I adopted one as my new amigo. We would go for walks, watch sunsets and talk. He was a strong little guy and enjoyed my company. The rains have brought a plentiful crop of alfalfa and thus we are doing very well for are cuyes. It is important to mention we only raise animals to eat. When thier is no aminmal to kill we go weeks witho out eating meat. I named him Joe. I originaly had a calf that I would play my harmonica for but we moved him back to the mountians went we had gotten him to change his diet from milk to veggies. When he left I was lonley. So I took the first cuy that was born. He died in two days. I am a sucker for runts. So when I chose Joe I was a little more careful. My time with Joe was short spent. I had him for about two weeks. Then one day I was with him gardening and he split. I thought that liberation was probably the best thing for Joe. He was not like the other cuyes. Two days later I found a nine foot snake with his belly full. Timing is everything.

My last story has to due with my work. The rains have slowed everything here. So I decided to do work on my property. My dad gave me section of land to make my own. I have not included a picture because it is still under construction. I will go into further detail when it is complete (June). It is where I will do all of my thinking. The first photo is of moe the chicken, the second is a picture of my community getting lights. My house is still about three months off. You will all hear about it when it comes. I suggest clicking on the picture and checking it out. I like that no one is looking at the guy on the post. The third is of me on one of my wekly hikes, my pannts are a little big. It is kind of hard to afford new ones on my salary, it is now 45 pounds I have lost. Peru has the numberone biodiversity in the world for butterflies picture four id from my garden. The day I took the picture I counted seven different spieces with in a square meter. The last picture is of my girlfriend Deysi. She is a chemist in Lima. She is a really nicde girl and I enjoy spending time with her. She does not speak english, but we amke it work. I will try to be quicker with the next entery. How are the MAriners doing?

Semana Santa

2008-03-27T09:51:00.000-07:00

I know you all can´t believe it I am getting 3 entries in two weeks. Well don´t get used to it. Huaraz is one of the most amazing places I have ever been in my life. The mountians are big, the food is american, the poeple are amazing. Wow! I had a blast we spent a day on a guided tour. Sort of a mistake, but interesting none the less. I got to see a large part of the country side and how people live in areas similr to mine, with respect to being rural. The pictures are of the celebration of semana santa. They are using sand and saw dust, dyed of couse, to make large mosaics in the prinicle street in Huaraz. Some actually use flowers. The second and last picture are from our tour. This is a glacial lake, about 10000 feet up. The native trees to this are are amazing. Thier bark is like colored tissue paper. The mountians areoud us are something like 15-16 thousand feet. You really feel small in the valley. In 1970 Huaraz ws leved by an earth quake. so the building are not very apealing but when to have view like picture three, who cares. The view is frm a american sttyle cafe it is not what you would expect in Peru. I am eating a breakfest burrito at the time I snagged this pic. The valley in leading into the lake have a lot of water falls like four. You kind of have to turn your head to get it. I hd a blast in Huarazz nd I will be going back no later than August. So feel free to make plans with me.

2008-03-16T07:28:00.000-07:00

Well I guess I do not write as much as I should. The rains are pretty increadable. They turn everything to mud. I got cut off from my town due to flooding. You can see in the first picture a river always passes over the road. Well during the rains the river rose a whole foot nd we could not cross. The result was a diet of tea and crackers for week. Then I left for the beach and the rains stopped. It is relly increadable. The rainy seson actually mean rainy season. My garden actually needs more sun. My melon plants love this weather though. I am going to be eating cantlope until it comes out my ears. My beets, lutuce brocoli, and cauliflour are slow coming but are growing. My work has really slowed down due to thew rain.

I have found new project that looks very promising. I am going to clean up and reforest a hill on the way to the nature reserve. In the second picture you can see the pre-ican ruins that ly top of the hill. I m standing on the 1000 year old wall in the fourth picture.

In two days I am going to leave for the mountians of Ancsh. I am really excited. I will post afterwards with more pictures. I am sorry this is so short, but the rain is starting again. If I want to get home I need to leave now.

And the winner is........ Giardia

2008-02-16T10:38:00.000-08:00

I have offically been sick for seven weeks. I have lost close to forty pound last time I checked. I am sure it is more by now. I have taken two stool samples, and I now now I have giardia. I am still able to live my day to day life it just makes things a little harder. The Peace Corps office in Lima has sent me medicine. Now I just need time off to go pick it up. Maybe next week.
Things are starting to pick up here. I have English classes twice a week for two hours. I am getting a good turn out. I also am right in the middle of my World Map project. It is really time consuming. Especially since the youth are not around to help. I do not see the benifit of this project and think that it is an aweful idea. It distracts me from real work and is slowing my intergration into the community. In the next few week I am very occupied. I am working with the medical post to write a curiculum for the nurses. They will go to the rural schools twice a month and give the youth lectures. They will be about hand washing, drinking clean water, common disease, and so on. I am working with four different schools to develop a tree planting and organic garden component to thier classes. I will be revising the curent cirriculum on monday. I am working hard in my own garden. I am very pleased to say that I am finally having succes. I have about five hundred sprouts of 25 varities of veggies, herbs and fruit. I am forming a group of artesians. This group is very lost and I really have no idea what I am doing we will have to see how it works out. I have also started talking to two different NGOs about funding projects and how I can work along side them. I went out to the tabacco plantation today to learn about Peruvian style hydroponics. I am going to be trying to revise my counterpart in the next couple months. The system they are using right now is just plain aweful. They need a lot of help but do not want to take suggestions.
It is really hot here right now. It is downpours mixed with 90 degree heat. I miss the snow. Humid is a huge understatement. I have site visit from my boss on the first of March followed by a three day workshop with all of the volunteers from my group. I have a lot of worthless work to do for both and do not know where I will find the time. I hope all had a good St. Val's day.
Matt

Month two. Done and Done.

2008-02-02T13:27:00.000-08:00

I have some how forgotten to write everytime I come to the internet. A lot has been happening. I have been sick with what I can only guess is a intestinal parasite for the last month. I weighed myself about a week ago and I had lost over thirty pounds. I am glad to be getting to a healthy weight just wish I was doing it in a healthy way. My grandma is convinced that I need to eat more of the rancid food that they feed me. She tells me that I need to eat or I will die soon. I explain to her what colera is, and that it is only passed to other people when you do not wash you hands after going to the bathroom. Kind of like how she never does. She proceeds to tell me I am crazy, and I proceed to talk under my breathe in English. Nothing gets resolved and we have the same conversation when the next meal that I have previously said I do not want to eat arrives.
I have developed this really awesome super power here. I like to call it English. I can talk to selected people in it and everyone else looks at me baffled. With out it I am what I like to refer to as the ¨Mayor of Struggletown¨. In the sector of work I have been moving forward slowly. I am starting to paint my wall. I go the run around for a month and now the project is finally in my hands. I have collected a group of youth to help me, and found some youth who want to help. I can not wait to get this done. In the mean time I have been putting togeather a survey to ask the people in my area. This will be very hard to proceed with. People here are very friendly and do not like to tell you no. In fact they will answer with a response that you want to hear. I am forced to give this servey in my first three months before I have built confidence with my communinty. This should be good. I have alredy been told that I am too white and young to be asking people such questions. How do I respond to that. I will prevail. My main goal is to get it out of the way. On my own time through conversation I am making alliances-friends all over the place.When ever I go any where the people go out of their way to greet me. I really am enjoying my self. I can not tell you how much I could get done if I was healthy.
You know every person has their own reason for joining the Peace Corps. You know besides having this deep inner desire to save the world. I think I found my reason the other day. It had been raining for about 18 hours straight, and my world had been turned up side down. I mean you could not even walk outside because of the mud flat that now covered the entire valley. And that was it. I had my realization. How special it was to be in a place living amongst nature. Where the rainny season really meant the rainny season, not that you had to put on your gortex jacket and boots, or that you had to use your wind shield wippers, but that it was raining and that was that.
My garden had finally produced a plant. I am jubilant. I have a few sprouts, and I can not explain how happy I am. I was thinking in the southern hemisphere things were done different, but to my suprise things can be planted here. My grandma was very adiment to tell me that plants here do not need water until they are three inches tall. I questioned her and she told me that she had the experience and what did I know. I could not say anything besides I was a biuogeochemist and that that is not the way things work. She responded by telling to get my vudoo(science) the hell out of here and until I had some food for the table, I had nothing to be able to question here with. I love this lady. In three months I will have the most amazing garden including. Seven varieties of fruit trees, 14 varieties of vegies, and 13 herbs for starters.
I have pictures but they will have to wait. Untill next time, by that I mean next week.

It Has Been a While

2008-01-14T08:13:00.000-08:00

So I should start with New Year's. There are a couple of traditions here that are very different than in the States. First of yellow is to be worn like St. Patty's day green. But for the least you need to ware yellow underware. On the day of I went looking. I did find some, but not my style of choice. They were nothing short of a banana hammock. To top it off they were brand name, by this I mean they were Stripper brand. I wish I was joking. I was strickly a boxer man before I came here, and some how in my first five months I have moved on to thongs. Somehow I do not think this was part of the cultural assimilation the Peace Corps was planning on. The soncond custom is to eat twelve grapes on the strike of midnight. The grapes have seeds in they, but when you are drinking quite possibly the cheapest bottle of champane in the world seeds are a welcome change of taste. The last and probably my favortie custon is the burning of a life size hey filled doll. I had some friends who the doll was made in to G.W. (not by thier choice), and others who the doll look strangly similar to them. I burned one with much less character. It did seem to turn heads though. I get stared at although I had three eyes and was a car wreck victum all of the time so it did not come to me with much suprise. But when that doll was on fire and gringos were the ones who set flame it was quite the spectacle. The night went well and I had a good tranquil b-day to follow. The next week was a bit troubling though.
I will write this to warn all of you that worry about me on the regular. Do not worry more so do to these next stories. They are a bit strange, but I am not scared myself.
The day I got into town after my birthday I was met with some starteling news. My neigbor had been murdered. The stroy goes that he was a natorious wife beater. His wife finally called it quits the day after christmas. Domestic violence is the most popular crime here in Peru, but there is no system to punish or stop it. She left her home and went with her children to Chiclayo. Around New Year's her husband fed up with the whole deal went to find her. It was not hard she was at her family's house there. He tried to get physical with her once again, but this time in front of her brothers and father. As you might of guessed they did not stand for it. They proceded to stab him to death. This is the troubling part. They are not being charged with anything. Vigilanty government is very accepted here, but it gets worse. They did not want the body there so they cut it up into small pieces and sent it back here to my town.
Now I am not too bothered by this. I am very against domestic violence and think that with out a better form of govenment this thing is bound to happen. I mean c'mon trying to beat your wife in front of her family. I do not think his punishment was completly deserve, but it is what it is.
That very same night my family was robbed. Not like what you would think in the US. Who ever stole from us snuck on to our property and stole a goat. It is a shame because at my house we give so many things for free to people in the community, and in reality they were stealing from an 86 year old woman. Shamful in my opinion.
The last story I think is boarderline funny now that it is after the fact. I lent my power cord to my computer to my site mate in expectations I would get it back the next day. She left town for the day and did not get back until 8 at night. So I was not expecting to have to ride home at night, therefore did not have my headlamp. I was about half a kilometer from my house when I noticed that a mototaxi was approching, but at an increadibly slow rate. As it got closer I decided the driver ws probebly good and drunk. My suspitions were later confirmed. As the it got with in 30 meter I noticed we were about to have a problem. He was on my side of the road. At about 10 meters I figured I better turn because this guy was not going to. So I did. A second or two after me he turned. I slammed on my brakes as he cutme off to get to his side of the road. He finally hit his brakes about five meters after he passed me. He got out and proceded to yell at me, "Where are you from", (he did not know I was not Peruvian at this point) "What are you doing on my side of the road." I was still stopped in the road in the same place I had stopped originally. On my side of the road. I was actually really mad and felt that maybe if I hit him it would knock some sense into hi. I did not and once again swallowed my pride and admitted it was my fault (you have to lower your self to amazingly low levels sometimes). He told me that if it was not for god himself I would be dead. I told him he should go drink some more and pray becasue God loves getting prayers from those who so greatfully let people like my self by even though they have made great errors. At this point he realized that I was white. His attitude changed immediatly. He was all of a sudden really nice and admitted that he could of been at fault also. I quickly bid him ado and was on my way. As I left I notices the house who we were in front of thought we were robbing him. So he chased down the other man. I proceded to my house. This is where things get a little harry. I looked up and realized that a giant sugarcane semi truck was coming down this barley one lane road. I got off my bike and moved off the road. As it got closer it became evedent I was not going to have enough room to fit with the truck. I fell over into the thorn bush (on purpose). as my luck would have it a piece of cane came racking though the bush above me as the truck passed. I got up went home and came to a really important conclusion. They country here and the country in the US are very different.
As far as my work is conserned things are going very slow. My projects have been put on hold due to sure layziness. I am meeting new important people daily. Which does not serve much good right now, but will pay off big in the coming months when I go to start my large projects.
I will write next week with some pics and hopefully news about my Mapi mundial and my garden.

Closing in on a month

2007-12-28T12:06:00.001-08:00

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

2007-12-16T10:18:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-10T10:14:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-06T09:30:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-23T07:39:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-23T07:18:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-07T08:27:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-02T11:09:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-09T16:49:00.001-07:00

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

A Recognized Member of the Barrio

2007-10-09T16:07:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-01T16:12:00.000-07:00

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