Erin in Peru

2007-12-15T09:17:00.001-08:00

fotos cont´d

2007-12-15T08:59:00.000-08:00

Hey these are pictures of the kids I was working with that had lost their homes in the earthquake in Peru.

2007-11-08T05:56:00.000-08:00

I hate blogger. It never lets me sign in. Those of you who are thinking of creating a blog do not use blogger.

2007-10-24T06:52:00.000-07:00

Next entry I promise I will put pictures up.

What has been going on in good ole Batan Grande. Well, I have picked up gardening. I planted more then 100 seeds and three weeks later I think I have five plants. I am sure that I look like the ridiculous Gringa considering everybody in my community has farmland and I cannot even grow a vegetable garden. However, I am not ready to give up yet. I continue loving to teach the fifth and sixth graders in San Luis. They are awesome. We are going to do compost and vegetable gardens in the school. (Don´t worry, with the help of the professor.) We are doing compost in the vocational class in the highschool, the only problem is that the students have to bring livestock shit from their fields to put in the fertilizer, and none of them want to enter the school with a sack of shit. (can you blame them) This Sunday was the census. It was somewhat ridiculous. The whole country shut down, except the hospitals and public phones. No stores were open and the roads were closed. We were all expected to stay in our houses all day. However, living in a pueblo far away from the city these things are hard to control, so life pretty much went on as normal in Batan Grande.

One day I went to Chiclayo and a friend not knowing that I was in the city went to visit me in my site. My family asked her what religion she is. (surprisingly that is small talk and not offensive in Peru.) She said that she was raised protestant. I don´t know if that is true or not, but nobody would dare tell a Peruvian family in the village that they are agnostic or atheist. My host cousin lowered her voice and said, ¨Really Abby is Jewish¨ as if this statement was shocking enough to requiere the lowered voice. Hana my other friend, also Jewish, has many funny stories as well. One time she was hiking with some kids. They are short so they had to jump over a puddle, while she just had to step over it. One kid asked his friend why Hana did not jump. He said, Jews aren´t able to jump. I am not talking smack about these Peruvians because it is not prejudice but just lack of knowing. It is a very catholic nation and therefore there is not knowledge of other religions or the choice not to follow a religion simply is not even thought of as an option. Well, this is it. I should go to work.

2007-10-04T07:39:00.000-07:00

I just got back from Lima, meaning that I had Starbucks, Cheese burgers, Spinach dip, Quesadillas, Margaritas, Sweet rolls and.........no rice. What this also means is that I went to my favorite shopping center, Polvos Azules. It is a huge warehouse full of blackmarket items such as every single pirated DVD including many DVDS for movies that are not out in theater yet. I love it not only for the selection but for the service. I brought back a non functioning DVD two months after I bought it, because I live 12hours from Lima. They exchanged it without a hint of complaining. This would never happen in a legit store in Peru, In fact in legit stores, many times I have taken things back with a receipt and a guarantee and they have found ways to not exchange the product. Someone once said to me that more then 50 percent of the economy in Peru is illigitimate businesses and that does not surprise me. Today, I am starting a vegetable garden, something I have never done before...Other news, I have tried studying for the GRE, but have not succeeded because it makes me anxious because it is a reminder that I have no idea what I want to do with my life and therefore what I should study in Grad school. My face is swollen and itchy because I used a laundry bar soap to wash it when I ran out of soap..bad idea. Well, this is about it.

2007-09-06T08:33:00.000-07:00

I´m in love. His name is Esteben Louis. He is two months old. I know I am eating my words right now, yes, I was wrong when I said he was like a puppy but less cool. Now I think that he is definately equally as cool as a puppy. It is just that it took me two months to get to know him. We have communicated, me with a ton of kisses and him, well he just lays there, but he definately wiggles a lot more and I think that it awesome. I confessed to my host mom that at first I did not like him but I have really gotten to know him and I like him alot now. By the hurt look on her face I think that she did not understand that it was a compliment. I think my problem at first was that maybe I was a little jealous of all the attention that my host mom gave him and I began to think that maybe I wasn´t her gringita anymore. Nah, I don´t think so. I am a jealous person (que verguenza) but not that jealous. I think I just thought he was boring and did not understand why everybody else thought he was so cool. However, now I understand, and I would like to say to all the enraged mothers out there that I am sorry I was wrong. This baby is incredible. Mom and dad, don´t worry I will definately get knocked up in Peru! hahahaha.....just kidding.

2007-08-24T08:36:00.000-07:00

Here it is. What so many have asked for. Wednesday night, the night of the earthquake I was on a couch watching an ice skating movie featuring Will Ferrel and the dude from Napolean Dyanamite. I think there were 7 of us on the couch. Oh yeah, we were in some hospedaje located on the second floor of an old rickety building. Think ¨Old Spaghetti Factory¨...architecture wise. There was no food there. We started to feel the temblor and we were not that scared because we had all been woken up before my minor earthquakes in Peru. However, this one continued, so we hurriedly made our way under a doorway. It started getting really, really shaky and a window busted out and shattered at our feet. It lasted two minutes. That is a long time for an earthquake. Afterwards we went outside to avoid being stuck in the building in the case that their might be aftershock. Everybody in Lima must have been thinking the same thing, because the streets were packed full of people and all trying to use their cell phones. There was no service all night. Some of our friends were in a bar close to the ocean. We walked that way to check on them and realized that we were walking against the current. Everybody was walking away from the ocean.. We figured that that was not a good sign but we wanted to find our friends.. Later I went to the internet to email my fam in case it had made news and they were freaking out. I learned that it was the number one story on CNN and had ranked 8.0 at the epic center (ICA). I opened up my email and low and behold my dad had already written me to see if I was okay. News travels fast.

Some volunteers live in Ica, 90 miles south of Lima, where the earthquake actually happened. Luckily they were not there at the time. They called their host familys. They were okay, but were telling stories about houses destroyed and neighbors dead. No food because the owners of the stores won´t sell it because they are using it to feed their families. No water, Dead bodies in the roads and everybody sleeping outside due to lack of housing or fear of the earthquake reaccuring.

2007-08-08T08:15:00.001-07:00

Addition to things I miss

-Family
-Friends

2007-08-08T08:03:00.000-07:00

Things I miss from the States

1. Free refills
2. bathtubs
3. television
4. not rice
5. diet coke
6. people my age in my community
7. Brownie a la mode
8. Conversations that don´t revolve around me being a gringa
9. A busy routine
10. Not being a madrina for every event

Things I use to miss but now I am ok without.

1. Toilet seats
2. Toilet paper (don´t worry I pack my own in my purse)
3. Privacy
4. Books in English
5. Solid stools

Things I will miss when I return to the states.

1. Having someone cook for me every meal
2. Milk straight out of the cow
3. Fresh bread everyday
4. Hot weather
5. My host family
6. My peace corp friends
7. Books in Spanish
8. Travel
9. Having a cool job

2007-06-30T09:15:00.001-07:00

Congratulations Lily y Lucho!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!for your new baby boy!!!!!!!!!

2007-06-30T08:04:00.000-07:00

2007-06-30T07:53:00.000-07:00

2007-06-30T07:37:00.000-07:00

2007-06-30T07:30:00.000-07:00

2007-06-30T07:18:00.000-07:00

2007-06-30T07:03:00.000-07:00

It is the end of June and yet again time for my monthly blog. I will start with the most important news first. My host mom Lily had a baby yesterday. She asked me to stay overnight with and the babya nd her, which I gladly accepted, very honored that she asked me. However right now I am exhausted. I was completely unaware of how much babys suck. They are like little puppies except not fun. I was up all night consoling it when it was crying and changing it´s diapers. At one point I asked the nurse if she could lend me a blanket so I could sleep in the chair for a bit and she refused. I am still pissed. Anyways, sorry mom and dad, you are going to have to depend of Evan and Josh for grandchildren. I read a study in Newsweek that said a couple´s happiness does not actually increase with having children but decreases and increases again when they leave the house. Is that true ..question mark... Is life a lot more fun now that we are gone. I can kind of imagine that it is, alot less stressful at least....question mark...

I found out my community drinks their own pee to replenish vitamins....Times like this make me really happy that multi vitamins are readily accesible in the United States. My host uncle told me I need to start peeing on a towel and then salting it and put it on the forehead of my host sister whenever she is sleeping. Supposedly this cures anger problems..she is very passionate...but it sounds to me that maybe he has an anger problem with her.

The oddest thing happened the other day. I was walking home from school with a student and all of a sudden she shouted Erin Duck!!! we were lying in the middle of the road as a giant swarm of bees raced over our head. I can´t even explain how big it was. It was like something you would see in a Stephen King movie. Anyways the reason was that a man in a moto stole their house and with it there Queen bee. These bees are fascinating creatures and they live and die for their queen. If you guys don´t know anything about then, read up.

There is one transvestite that lives in our community and people some times mistake him for me. He is blond too. At first I was offended, but then they explained to me that he has a hot body, and now I think that it is kind of cool. That is about it for the news of the wierd. I am pumped about this month because it is packed full of vacations, and I did not have one day off last month so this is really exciting. I am going to send blogs with pictures now.

2007-05-17T07:44:00.000-07:00

I was kindly informed by my Auntie Ann that I need to Cite what I wrote in my last blog. It is taken from a book entitled All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum

2007-05-15T18:58:00.000-07:00

My friend Mark wrote this is his facebook profile and I like it. Maybe it is a little corny, but hell I{m a little corny.

Most of what I really need to know about how to live, and what to do, and how to be, I learned in Kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the college school mountain, but there in the sandbox at nursery school. These are the things I learned: Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.Wash your hands before you eat. Flush. Warm cookies and milk are good for you.Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some and and draw and paint and sing and dance and and play and work some everyday. Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands, and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the plastic cup. The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the plastic cup-they all die. So do we. And then remember the book about Dick and Jane and the first word you learned, the biggest word of all: LOOK. Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation, ecology and politics and sane living. Think of what a better world it would be if we all-the whole world-had cookies and milk about 3 o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap. Or if we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations to always put things back where you found them and clean up our own messes. And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

2007-05-10T08:08:00.000-07:00

Got caught taking illegal vacation, in deep trouble. I have one strike, I have to be perfect the rest of my service. This will be a huge struggle.

2007-05-05T13:43:00.000-07:00

Back in Ica, celebrating a friend´s birthday and my hostal has free internet, so I am taking full advantage. Last month we had an all girl´s leadership/environmental camp. It was awesome, for the majority of the girls it was the first time that they had spent the night outside of their house, so they were super excited. We had awesome peruvian women speakers come in, a botanist and a psychologist. The pschycologist was pretty typical, doing a ton of self esteem activities with the girls, that the vols have all witnessed enough to feel like they were super corny. The botanist, on the other hand, was awesome. She started talking about natural medicine, and how every single plant on the earth has medicinal properties, and how pharmecutical medicine is all based on the design of natural medicine. She also talked about how the people living in this area were experts on natural medicine because they can´t afford medicine in a pharmacy and also because a phamarcy or doctor´s office is so far away. Another thing she stated which I found pretty cool was that everything in the world has a purpose, including disease, because it acts as a population check. She ended her talk by teaching us how to make medicinal balms. I hope this blog is not packed full of info to the point of oversaturation, but if it is I am sorry. Another thing we learned at camp is SODIS, it is a process of water purification. In Peru, not many people drink boiled water for many reasons, the process is tedious, gas for the oven is expensive, the process is even more tedious if the women only have firewood to cook over. Anyways, so we introduced a new way of water purification, in which you fill up 3 liter sized bottles full of water and then lay them on the roof for 6 hours and the rays from the sun kills all the bacteria, parasites, virus´s, etc. This camp was so awesome because the girls got to see that women are valuable on their own, not by how they are useful to men, beauty, cooking, cleaning, washing, etc. They participated in discussions and were encouraged to share their opinions. It was so great and needed in this really, really machista culture. When I got home my girls that I brought to camp told me that they wanted to start a girl´s leadership group, and I am so pumped. I am going to give them complete ownership. They want to raise money to go on trips, and they want to teach what they have learned to the community. It is so completely empowering to see it, and it makes me see living in a machista culture in a new light, because instead of accepting it, I see it as my job to challenge it, and try to encourage the girls to feel worth in their own being, instead of how well they marry or if they even marry at all.

oh yeah, side note, we had compliment bags in which the girls put nice things about everybody in camp. In the guy volunteers´bags they put things like you are really guapo (hot) and responsable. hehehehe...It is so funny because they are regurgitating words they heard from the leadership talks, and they are saying things like that which is complete crap because after the talks they think that that is what gringos like to hear.

This should be another blog, but I am putting it as this one because I am scared that if I add it as a blog no one will read what I said up above this run on sentence thinking that it is an old blog. If that makes sense, good, or if it is not very coherent, don´t think about it too much it is not that important.

Stuff I had to deal with in one day.

some stranger in my town told me I was gaining weight and asked if I had stopped running. I lost my temper and told him, yeah, but the thing was I could lose the weight, he is always going to be ugly.......I know, not the right thing to say, but to tell you the truth I do not regret saying it at all.

My host mom told me that I had gotten really good at washing my clothes by hand, and finally that meant I could get married. Shoot me.

A woman that lives in the house told me that she was really thirsty and that I should invite the family to a soda. I told her I only had money for the car into town, where my bank is, and she kept begging, I asked her why didn´t she invite me to a soda and she told me because I had just got paid, and asked why I did not have money. At this point I had to leave, because I wanted to strangle her.

A conversation that almost made up for it. I was talking to my host mom about the miss Universe contests and telling her that I did not really agree with them, and she told me, you know what Erin, I never told anybody this, but I don´t either, because I think that a person should be judged by what is on the inside and not the outside. We talked about this more, talked about the objectifying of women, and she was saying that maybe that is why women in Peru have little rights in the society, because they are not really looked at as a person, but are sexualized and have been sexualized since childhood, wearing minny skirts and high heels since the time they could walk. Their worth is determined by how much they are adored by men and subservient to men. This was a conversation I never thought I would have with a Peruvian. It was pretty cool.

ummmmmm, that is about it. Until next time!!

2007-05-01T19:08:00.000-07:00

What a mess. I tried to enter to write a blog and they told me my password was wrong. Whatever it is in charge of writing and telling me that is a liar, because I know my password frontward and backward. Then I gave them my email address so that they could send me my password, I checked my email and it was not there. 9 hours later I realized that it probably was sent to my spam file, I checked, it was there. As it turns out what they were trying to tell me is that now I have to sign in under my google password, and to make a long and boring story short , well here I am.

wow, it has been a while since I have written. I will start with the basics, like last email.

mood...hyped up to the point of discomfort. I drank coffee and am not accustomed to doing this and it is a little too much caffeine

music...like always Shakira, but I am really missing Bob Marley, Lucinda Williams and Skynnerd (sp)

books...everything mom and aunt sent me plus Bastard out of Carolina.

I will start at the beginning. My trip to Ica. It was awesome!!! I stayed in a backpackers hostal for less then 3 dollars a night. It was full of travelers from all over the world, a monkey, several turtles, a dog, that was walking around with something looking like what I would imagine a placenta hanging out (gross) (really really gross). My friends and I went sandboarding, we were all ridiculously terrible, but the doon buggy ride was awesome. We sat on top of one of the dunes and watched the sunset, all the while talking about everything possible. The next day we went on a boat ride to an island without human inhabitants, but full of sea lions, with a few penguins. I will put up pictures later. That night I stayed up talking to some guys that worked there until the sunrose. It turns out one of the guys worked in Chatanooga for 2 years painting the inside of some hotel, I don´t remember the name of it. But it is an expensive hotel. And the grand finale, I held a monkey in my arms. He wouldn´t leave my arms, and I was scared that if I forced the Adios he would bite me so I got kind of nervous and sort of threw him. He crawled up in a ball and started crying, and so I told him that I was sorry and invited him to cuddle in my arms again. My invitation was accepted. It was a great trip. The only downer was that it left me completely broke the whole month, but well worth it. I am out of time, but a preview of the coming attraction, CAMP ALMA

oh yeah P.S. Margaret and Ann, sorry I assumed that only immediate family read my blog. I am very happy that you guys and also a few of my dad´s buds from his blog read my blog as well.

2007-03-29T13:22:00.000-07:00

Okay, a glimpse into my life.

Mood- on a definate high, still thinking about how it was great to see Auntie and Mom
Current music- Patty Griffin and Shakira
Current addiction- Friends, I bought all 10 seasons
Health- Great, just finished my pills for bacterial infection in my stomache and once again feeling on top of the world
Book recently finished- Let my people surf- business manual written by owner of Pantagonia

ummmmm.yeah.. what else

Right now, I am teaching English in an elementary that is an hour walk from Batan Grande. IT is a combination english class and self-esteem workshop. An abnormaly high percentage of these kids come from an abusive family and it can be seen by interacting with them that there self -esteem is pretty low- I am suppose to do "I am special" activities with them, but honestly I think that that is kind of lame, so I am doing a little bit of that, and then cool stuff like throwing them birthday parties and emphasizing friendship and positivity in the class. If all else fails, I guess what I am hoping is that they can just forget about life for an hour and get lost in the fun that they are having in that moment.
The walk to the elementary school is my favorite part of the day. I walk on this gravel road through sugarcane fields. I love it, because when I am walking I am not thinking about anything. I am just content in the moment looking at the beautiful view and smelling the smells of nature, which yes, consist of more then cow dung. The view is awesome because the sugarcane fields are yellow, like the color of corn and they contrast perfectly with the far off blue foothills of the Andes. The smells are of whatever flower is pollinating at the time. I arrive at this school that has no running water or electicity, filled with kids that most likely have never watched tv in their life, and I enter the classroom. This is the part that I find amazing. More then half the time the principal cancels the class due to lack of organization. The kids refuse to leave. They tell me to come anyways, and they sit in their desks, in a now empty school waiting for their english class. I love these kids so much. I don't know what happens but once I enter the classroom, I just feel like I am in my element, like everything in the world makes sense. I love teaching them, and seeing their smiling faces, and trying to talk to the really shy ones. It just feels real. Anyways today we had a vocab contest, which is kind of like a spelling bee but with vocab words, and it was down to two kids. They were in front of the class. It was intense, at least in thier minds, I am sure the other kids were goofing off at this point, but you could sense level of nervousness and the adrenalin running. The winner was this little munchkin of a kid named Joel. It was funny because the first day that I was with them, I made them make nametags, that said mr. or ms.(according to their sex) and then there name. Ask mom because she was there. I can say, ask mom, because I am pretty sure the only people that read this are family. Anyways, Joel, the winner came today sporting his nametag. I was surprised, because I planned it as an activity to teach them about titles and never really expected them to wear them again, and yet 2nd week in he still comes in with his nametag. I think all the other kids are on the same page as me, because he is the only kid who has returned with it. Well as I was congratulating him on his win, I looked closely at his nametag and was surprised to see that it said Ms. Joel. I guess that this is a testament of my teaching or maybe their complete newness at learning the language, that the winner of the contest, thinks that he is a Ms. ummmmm.out of time.

2007-01-18T16:41:00.000-08:00

Ok.....what a week...here it goes. three things, two bad and one good. I will go in chronological order.
1. BAD-Ok, I have a club in which we raise money to go on trips. It consists of little kids and teenagers. We do activities to raise money, like cooking food and selling it outside of the market at lunch time. Everyone participates. The governing body cooks, and the little kids sell the papas. The food we cook is a mashed potatoe dish with a salse....delicious and very popular. As I mentioned before, the treasurer stole the money and flew to Lima. This made me sad for many reasons. First of all, I feel like he took advantage of little kids, and like most human beings, it makes me sad when little kids are taken advantage of because it is the beginning of the stripping of their innocence. Second of all, I thought that he was my friend. Third of all it shows how desperate the economic situation is, that a good guy, like Burro, would succomb to this low. And lastly, I could shoot myself for trusting a guy named Burro.

2. GOOD- We went on our first trip to the Bosque de Polmac, it is a dry forest with ancient pyramids. It was so much fun. Everyone was climbing the pyramids and we contracted a pick up truck so we were traveling around in the back of a truck, all the kids together, laughing and running around. It is such a great memory.

3. How do I start? One day I was sitting outside on the sidewalk with the neighborhood guys, guys who are part of my field trip project and also my English classes. We were talking, and eating mangos, when this 8 year old kid came up and tried to hit them with a waterballoon, they grabbed him, stripped him of his pants and threw his pants in the tree. The kid was laughing along with the guys, I sat there shocked, and trying to decide what to do, I looked at him, he was laughing, but his eyes were full of embarrasment. All of a sudden a mother came and yelled at them all, and they gave the kid back his pants, and the situation was over. Later his parents came up to me and asked my why I did nothing to help. I have never been so shamed in my life. His parents told me that people on the street, always grab this kid and take his pants off, and sometimes hit him on his bottom, and touch him in places inapropriados. Later, I walked up to the kid and told him that I am sorry I did not help him, and I started crying. I think he feels bad for me, because he has been nice to me eversince. Ironic, right. Later I called a meeting for all the guys that were there when it happened. Of course the guy who did it was not there. I told them that what happened was wrong, and that I was not accusing them because I was there too, and did nothing to help, and that when his pants were stripped his dignity was stripped along with it. In the middle of the talk I started crying again. It was pretty embarrasing. I told them that the kid was really embarrased, and in fact did not even tell his parents. They had to hear from another source, and that when they got a chance I think that it would be really good if they could tell him that they are sorry.After the talk they said to me, Erin I agree with everything you are saying but the person who did it is not even here. I resonded nevertheless, we were there and we did nothing to help, and therefore are guilty as well. One good thing came of it. Hours later, a kid came up to me and said, Erin when can we go and tell him that we are sorry. I told him how about tomorrow at 8:oo. He said ok, I will tell the guys and we will go. I asked if he wanted me to go with him, and he said no, they were going to do it without me. I was happy with this answer. I think it shows a lot of responsability. And here we have it, a moment I will never forgive myself for and I will never repeat.

2007-01-17T16:23:00.000-08:00

A glimpse into my life.

The other night my two sisters and I were stretched out in the bed, my cousin standing looking over us. We were covered in our nightly layer of sweat, totally oblivious to or maybe even relaxed by the monotony of the continual chirping of the crickets, the blinding darkness stopping at the window and the abrazive lighting from within the house. Que semana, (what a week) I stated. My sister repeated, Que semana, observing my words, but not really listening. She was lost in her own thoughts. My cousin looked at us and laughed. each one of us had had exhaustingly eventful weeks, and were camped out in the bed recovering.

Rocio´s week: Last night we went to the park, the park is where the night life is. Everyone who is anyone is at the park at night. We were walking towards the house when a boy ran past and pegged her with a waterballoon. She stood there drenched,, humiliated, 13, and on the breaking point of tears. To make matters worse her boyfriend kept chiding her, saying that is was her fault for running, if she had stayed close to the Mollo and I, it never would have happened. Broken.

Mollo´s week: This week a boy confessed his feelings for her and kissed her. To make matters more complicated, she is completely in love with another, her boyfriend, who is passing summer vacations in Lima. This is a problem for anyone, but imagine being a 15 year old girl immersed in her first love and going through this.

Joanna´s week: I can´t post this on a blog

My week: read the next blog. I am not ready to write about it. I am still a little ovrewhelmed.

2007-01-15T07:01:00.000-08:00

Ok, I have 5 minutes. I am going to briefly describe my week in the format of + and -´s.

+ My group of youth finally raised enough money to go on a day trip to the Sican pyramids
- The treasurer of my youth group stole all the money and went to Lima.
+ I really feel like I have developed good friendships with my sisters.
- My host mom, also a good friend, is angry that I am unwilling to act like a mother to my sisters, for instance, telling on them when they are hanging out with boys, and scolding my sister for being overweight, two things I refuse to do.
To be continued

2007-01-14T10:22:00.000-08:00

fotos: hiking
top left: Yubbith Top right: las chicas Bottom lfeft: Blanca Bottom right: Carman and her sister

I hate computers. This is the slowest process in the world. I will write and post pictures later.

2007-01-10T17:17:00.000-08:00

My new weakness: Bollywood

2007-01-08T17:33:00.000-08:00

Next entry, I promise I will put pictures. A funny occurance today. I went to visit Jissinia, today, a friend of mine. The house that is attached to hers is where all the drunks hang out. Before I continue this story I need to explain certain customs of Peru. If you drink with drunks, especially if you are a woman, it is looked poorly apon, also if you refuse a drink it is looked poorly apon, especially if you are a foreigner trying to integrate into the community. As you can imagine this contradiction can create many awkrad situations. I know I spelled that word wrong but hitting the delete button really bothers me. I feel like I am regressing. Anyways. So, today I was heading over to my friends house when the drunks called me for a drink. I had to think fast. What do I do. Do I accept it and risk being associated with the drunks, do I say no and risk looking like a complete jerk. I chose to accept it. I went and was sitting with them celebrating a birthay when they were passing the bottle. (In Peru when people drink, everyone shares one glass and we pass the glass around with the bottle.) Anyways the bottle had passed to me three times before I realized how to get out of the situation. I said to the birthday man, Excuse me I need to go my friend is expecting me, we have to go over something for work. They said yeah, yeah, I said bye and left. I then went next door to my friends house and her aunt said that she was not there. The birthday party was staring at me, so I said, please let me in for at least 5 minutes. I explained that I had to enter because I told the party that I had to go because my friend was expecting me, therefore if I just knocked on the door and left it would be obvious that I was lying. She said, yeah, ok, and then we sat on the couch staring at each other for five minutes. I had to get out of there. I asked if she had a back door. She said yeah, and I left through the back door carefully so that nobody would see me. Then I ran to my house. The things I have to do, being a gringa and living in a small pueblo where everybody talks. Like the people here say "pueblo chico, infierno grande" Small town, big hell. That is all folks.

Hasta la vista baby,
Erin

2006-12-11T14:37:00.000-08:00

Okay, I am going to attempt to write and hope that the computer does not erase it. Right now the state of my mood: bored. It is hotter then a bakers buns´here in Batan Grande and right now there simply is not much work to do. I am bored. I am starting a ton of clubs for summer vacation. I have the dance taller, the adventure club, and I want to have an art club, and also an english club that is 30 minutes of learning english and 30 minutes of watching Grey´s anatomy. I forgot how obnoxious teenagers can be and now working with them I feel like I am entering a time of my life that I was happy to leave, just being around that much insecurity makes one also feel a little insecure. Anyways I keep thinking, what was it that made my adolescence bearable and actually kind of fun, and I come up with this answer. Soccer, it gave me something to be passionate about, confidence and friends, Therefore I am trying to create opportunities for these shit heads also. i think I will be happy when I develop some close friendships with them. It is just so hard, because I feel like they are so inhibited.
On another note, as some already know this story, I am sorry for retelling it.

I went to the river the other day to relax and read. I was swimming and I looked to my right and there was a boy sitting at a tree in his whitey tighteys watching me swim. (It is not as freaky as it sounds, males swim in there whity tighteys because as one can imagine swimming trunks is kind of a luxury) Anyways I got out and was drying off. He emerged from the bush and came up to me. Excuse me, he said, I need to tell you that I am in love with you. I responded, you are not in love with me, you don´t know me. he started explaining how he thinks it could work, and I inturrupted him to ask how old he is, 16 he said. I told him that he is too young for me. Then he asked the question, the shocker, he asked me , cuanto cobra, how much. i said, excuse me, what exactly are you refering to. He went on to explain and I told him that I am not a prostitute, and that I never wanted to see him or talk to him again. I packed up my things and left. I told my family, and they told me that it is dangerous to go to the rive alone, why they did not tall me that when I mencioned to them where I was going I dont know. The other thing I dont understand is what is this kid thinking. one moment he is telling me he loves me, the next that he wanted to pay me, anyways I gotta go, I am out of time on my computer.

2006-12-04T12:32:00.000-08:00

Wow, I just spent 30 minutes writing is this blog and the computer erased it. Anyways, I am starting over. Yesterday, I had a meeting for mothers of a youth group that I want to start. In this group we are going to hike every Sunday to a local hill. They call them hills, I think of them as mountains. The people here must be comparing them to the Andes. I am saying this just in case you guys are picturing these hills as the decline behind our old house that led to the track. That is a speed bump in comparison. Anyways, in these hill there are ancient ruins of the Sican culture. The Sican culture was a culture that was defeated by the Incans, more honestly, they probably just integrated into Incan culture. What I am getting at is that in these hills there are things such as ancient ceramics, walls, wallpaintings, etc. Before each hike I have a friend who is an expert in the archeology of Batan Grande. He is going to tell us about the significance of the artifacts in each hill. I have 2 minutes of computer time left. I will write later.

2006-11-02T15:26:00.000-08:00

Ok, I have been informed that I need to put up some new entries. So here goes it. Before I begin, I would like to say, that sorry, but for right now, no more pictures. Some punk kid in another pueblo stole my memory card. I got the name of the kid and the pueblo he lives in from the boss of the internet cafe, but then I lost it. I am going to ask again and then go searching. Hmmmmm, something new..Oh I have been proposed too by at least three middle aged men. I realize that I am worth alot, (citizenship to the United States), so I am bidding them against each other. I started off with the price of 1 million dollars, then one man said that he would pay that as long as he got to sleep in the same bed as me, so I changed it to 5 million dollars. However, the reality of the situation is that that is a shit load of money here. So the highest bid right now is really looking realisticly like 500 dollars. I feel cheap.

My daily schedule has changed. I swim in the river everyday. Sweet!!!!

I am pretty much teaching sex ed. in the school. It is well needed. There are many girls here who are pregnant at the age of 14.

I have a new friend. He is cool. His name is Miguelon, aka big Micky. He is a 32 year old divorcee that recently moved back here from living in Lima for 10 years. Dont worry Josh you dont have to fly down to beat anybody up. We are just friends. Everybody in Batan Grande loves him. Him and I are probably the most popular people in town, me because I am the first gringa that has ever lived in Batan Grande, and him because he is a trip. He actually deserves his popularity. Anyways he walks down the street, and the whole town shouts Mickey, ayy, Mickey. As you can imagine this gets old. So he shouts back, "Dale otra vez" "give it to me again" in english, completely sarcastic. Of course, they give it to him again. This town is full of smartasses. Then he shouts "anda por la mierda" "go walk in shit" the whole town laughs. I think it is hilarious. Anyways the whole town thinks that we are together. So whenever we pass any young hoolagans, they shout...puede ser mi tia!!! She could be my aunt. He has a big family, or they simply shout tia!!! it is hilarious.

Oh yeah, I won the best football player in Batan Grande award. A pair of socks!!!!!hahahaha They made me go up to the podium and give a speech. it was the worst 30 seconds of my life. That was how long the speech lasted. Afterwards everybody just looked at me like what the hell kind of speech was that.

Oh yeah, and my friend Abby that lives on the beach has made friends through other volunteers with this dude named Marco. Marco has a beach house, and he gave Abby the key, so Whenever I have flex time to the beach I go. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention he is a surfer!!!hot.

Oh yeah, there is this dog that follows me everywhere, into the classrooms everyday, when I am walking in the street, everywhere. It is the ugliest dog I have ever seen. It looks like its face has been smashed in with a shovel.

2006-10-01T09:26:00.000-07:00

2006-09-23T11:59:00.000-07:00

Check out my awesome daily schedule.

6:30 Get up and eat a breakfast of fresh bread and fresh out of the cow cheese with a cup of
warm milk and a tid bit of coffee and a heaping spoonful of sugar.
7:00 Walk around town with the Grandma of my house for 20 minutes because the doctor
advised her to do this because of her cholesteral level.
7:20 Sit in my back yard....let me explain my backyard....It has banana trees, and other fruit
trees, beyond that it is fields of sugar cane and behind that mountains......I sit in my
backyard and read Harry Potter, in Spanish
8:00 I study for the GRE for an Hour.
9:oo I work in the school until school is out.
12:oo Lunch...3 plates 1st rice and goat, 2nd ceviche 3rd soup, way too much food
1:00 Siesta
3:00 Play soccer
6:oo Dinner
7:00 I hang out with the women of the family, (grandma, aunt and mom) joking around until
bed time
9-10:00 bed time.

I don't know if this schedule sounds awesome or totally lame to you guys, but I think it is pretty sweet, and I don`t think I ever want to readjust to the USA lifestyle.

2006-09-18T16:26:00.000-07:00

Distressed--- I was sick this weekend with my yearly bronchitus. I called the Doctor got amoxycillan and figured that is that. I know the drill. I will take my pills and wait it out. Not the case. My family decided it was their personal responsability to take care of me. They decided that the reason that I was sick was because I slept with the window open and I caught a cold. It is at least 90 degrees out, and I live in an adobe house. (Adobe traps heat making it alot hotter,) However i´ll be flexible and say that maybe their right about that. There resolution, though, does not fit the cause. They decidided that I am never allowed to have the window open, not even in the day. They had my cousin Joanna sleep with me to make sure that I did not throw off my blankets in the middle of the night, and I was only allowed to drink hot water. All this in 90 degree heat. I have never sweated so much in my life. My host mom entered my room every night to rub vicks vapor rub on my chest and back. She was worried. I was coughing all night every night. understandable. However the last night she decided to use some of the remedys her mother tought her . First she put vicks vapor rub in boiling water to make the air smell like it. good idea, right. The list goes on. Then she decided to rub the Vicks vapor rub all over the newspaper and then light a candle. She slowly carressed the flame over the newspaper, heating the vicks, and also spilling wax onto the newspaper. Then she stuck the scalding newspater to my back and chest and told me not to remove it until the morning. To say the least I am better, but I feel like my personal space has been seriously challenged.
Times like this I wonder what I am doing. On a positive note, I am better.

ERin

2006-09-08T08:24:00.000-07:00

My community Batan Grande

The terrain is super dry, but surprisingly there is alot of vegatation, kind of reminescent of Taos, New MExico. There is one cement road with a chain of pastel boxy, attached houses on either side. Other then that there is not really a road but houses dispersed randomly around the pueblo. on the outer rim of the town you see crops extending to the horizon, and beyond that mountains. You can walk through the town at 9:00 in the morning and then again at 6:00 at night and you will see the same old folks sitting outside their houses, not haven moved an inch. It is a typical small town, as the people here say, pueblo pequeno, infierno grande. small town, big hell. everybody knows everybody´s business. The good thing is that since it is such a small town, things such as abandoned children in the streets just dont exist. The mother of my house has taken in one child because her father refused to recognize her as his, and the grandmother took in another, for the same reason. In other words children are abandoned, but they are soon absorbed into another families. The odd thing about this is that it is such a small town that you see the real fathers pass by on the sidewalk and pretend not to recognize the children, when the children are just looking at them dead in the eye, whispering among the adopted family or to me, "That is my father. He is a bad man." or "that is the wife of my father, she is a bad women." My back hurts from typing.

2006-08-31T12:07:00.000-07:00

I received this in training and found it interesting.

The Rules for Being Human
1. You will recieve a body.
You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period of this time around.

2. You will learn lessons.
You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called life. Each day in this school wou will have the
opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or find them irrelavant and stupid.

3. There are no mistakes only lessons.
Growth is a process of trial and error: Experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a pary of the
process as the experiment that ultimately "works"

4. A lesson is repeated until learned.
A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you
can go to the next lesson.

5. Learning lessons does not end.
There is no part of life that does not contain lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.

6. "There" is no better than "here."
When your "there" has become a "here" you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better thatn "here"

7. Others are merely mirrors of you.
You cannot love or hate something or about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.

8. What you make of your life is up to you.
You have all the tools and resources you need. what you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.

9. Your answers lie inside of you.
The answers to Life{s questions lie inside you. All you need to do is look, listen and trust.

Cherie Carter-Scott

2006-08-26T15:56:00.000-07:00

mas fotos