Moving to Site

On August 17th we were sworn in as Peace Corps volunteers. This means that my Peru 19 group is now scattered throughout Peru—from Piura and Cajamarca in the north to Arequipa in the south.  Thus far, Peace Corps has been nothing but trainings and facilitations, which at times were long and tedious, but all the while we had the support and closeness of our fellow trainees.  Now, we are all in our very own sights…all alone.

But…I love my site so far and am very happy; it is absolutely BEAUTIFUL.  It is in a valley, still at about 3,330 meters  (almost 11,000 ft), and we see the highest peak in the Huayhuash mountain range (Yerupaja), as well as numerous other snow-capped peaks from Chiquián, my yard especially.  I live in an adobe house with a host mom, dad, and two sisters 7 and 4.  My host parents also have 3 older children, two of whom are studying at the University in Huaraz, and the oldest lives in Chiquián with her husband and her 3 year old son; she is pregnant.  They are all amazing, but I would be lying if I said the 4 year old doesn’t already drive me crazy.  My room is really nice, wooden floors, a bed, shelves, dresser, outlet, and lights.   My host dad recently made me a beautiful desk and a clothes rack.  I originally thought that I would have a washing machine and hot water, I have come to find out that that is entirely false.  But all in all, I am very happy, comfortable, and excited to be here.

There is also a lot of work to do and the people that I have thus far met at the health center and schools are really great and helpful.  Everyone seems excited to get started.  I'll fill you in on projects once they arise.  Working on the community diagnostic now--getting to know the people and the community.

I have been in site for a week now, and I am already a changed lady.  First of all, I am no longer Leland.  I am from here on out in Peru known as Lila, which means Lilac.  As it turns out, Leland Garivaltis is not the easiest of names to pronounce.  So, I go by Lila, Liliana, Leelee, or some other combination of these letters.   Secondly, I now wear sombreros and sunscreen all day every day, until the sun goes down, then, I wear 2 pairs of pants, a sweater, and a jacket.  Once I learn how to knit, and maybe how to sheer some sheep, I will work on knitting some gloves, scarves, hats, and blankets of my own to abrigarme (bundle up).  Lastly, I don’t shower on the reg.  In fact, it seems like I will only shower when I visit the capital city of Huaraz…twice a month.

Some things I have learned/ realized thus far in my service…Time means little in Peru.  This concept is widely known at la hora peruana.  This basically means that nothing starts on time ever, and we, U.S. citizens, will be spending a lot of time waiting for meetings, charlas, parties or whatever to begin.  By time means little in Peru I also mean that a supposed 30 minute meeting could be two hours long.  Also, I am meeting so many new people everyday; so, it is hard to remember everyone especially as I cannot pronounce half of their names.  But, since clothes are not changed frequently by most here in Chiquián, I have started to recognize people by their clothing—works great, until they change.  I spent four hours with a nurse the other day.  I thought we were really hitting it off, I was loving her turquoise scrubs.  Later in the day, she was wearing normal clothes and I walked right by her without noticing—there goes my first chance at friendship. 

Bueno, my first day and week in site were actually amazing.  I accompanied a nutritionist and a representative from the municipality to one of the caseríos outside of Chiquián, which are smaller towns with fewer resources that commonly share colegios, health posts, and municipalities with larger nearby towns.  I sat in on a nutrition charla with about 21 traditional, sierra mothers waiting to receive their government-issued quantities of rice, milk and oil.  Little did I know that the next day I myself would be giving a talk on hygiene to about 45 mothers.  It was a great success and a lot of fun.  I have also spent this first week going back and forth between the two colegios.  I plan to visit tutorías to talk to and meet the kids of the high school and hand out surveys to the 500ish high school students here in Chiquián as well as those that come from neighboring caseríos. 

Some fun facts: I have many small critters that live in my room as well as on my cloth ceiling.  I am in fact accustomed to living side by side with mice, and if Sammy can sleep with both snakes and mice, I think I can watch them run around through my fabric ceiling…until they fall through on and into my bed, then we will have a slightly different situation.  Lastly, as I was writing this entry, I was also helping my 7-year-old host sister with her division problems.  Dad, I understand the frustration—now picture doing it in Spanish.