fotos cont´d

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Addition to things I miss

-Family
-Friends

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