Going home- What a stretch since being in Peru for so long. I was excited, and nervous at the same time. I mix of emotions ran through me in the days leading up to the trip. When I finally arrived in Boston, I was greeted by my sister and best friend, Holly. In the next couple of days I saw many people, and quickly adapted to US culture. It was so convenient to have water and electricity everyday! I could have gotten used to it! And lets not forget the food! I didn't eat rice-once. Except in a sushi roll, but that doesn't count.
I even went to my old high school to give a presentation about Peace Corps and Peru. I found it difficult to share many experiences to students who have never been abroad but most were open to learning and asked intelligent questions. The school has changed a lot. Thank you John Stark, students and faculty for inviting me as a guest.
Christmas day came up quickly, we celebrated at my mom's apartment in Concord. Having the whole family together was similar and different from years past. We've learned to make new traditions. Jenni and Bill brought there dog, Bella who celebrated her first Christmas. I had brought many gifts and in return received practical gifts I could use for this next year. We ate a home made ham and relaxed. My dad, Bill and I watched "A White Christmas" and played with the dog.
I headed down to Boston for New Years to spend some time with friends, David and Josiah. Who both offered their apartments for a couple of nights. I showed them the carata video from August. I think this gave them a better perspective of life in the campo, instead of trying to imagine from photos. Joe and I rang in the new year with Dick Clark. 2006-What a year. What would 2007 bring?
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Thanksgiving 2 of 2
Wednesday Nov. 22nd
Huaraz is not quite as touristy as Cusco (where Machu Picchu is) but probably the second most next to Lima. Hikers from around the world come to trek the “Cordillera Blanca” “White mountain range”-one of the longest and highest chains of the Andes. Peaks reach heights of …..6,768 m, there are 22 hotsprings and more than 600 lakes. And a multitude of hikes to endulge yourself in, but most do the Santa Cruz or Huayhuash (pronounced Y-Wash) routes. The hikes differ in lengths and skill level. Next year in July/August a group of us are planning a 9 day trip through Huayhuash, and hiring guides and donkeys to carry our food, and gear.
To say the least I was happy to have arrived in backpacker’s heaven, especially with such a great group of friends for a couple of days of r & r. (to use an American expression). We settled into our hostel, La Colmena (the beehive) and unpacked. Some of the girls wanted to see an archeological site called Chavin, so we walked through the city to a recommended agency. The people are so completly different than in my region, I thought to myself. The women’s vibrantly colored skirts and their beautiful beige and green felt hats. It´s reminiscent to the serranos (Mountain men/women) from Carata, but because Trujillo is so modern and influences the sierra, most locals have lost traditions of wearing certain clothes.
I stayed back at the hostel to work on a presentation for mid-service checks and explore the city of Huaraz solo. I found a small Chinese restaurant for lunch, and called my friend Isaac while eating (what a bad habit) to see what he was up to during this holiday weekend. It occurred to me that Huaraz has a TATOO (backpacking store like EMS or REI) and even though I had no money, I thought it would be fun to check it out. But what was the address? The staff at California Café would know! The café, owned by an American-peruvian couple is one of the common hang out spots for pcv’s (peace corps volunteers). So popular in fact, that as I entered, I immediately recognized Mia, another Peru Sixer. Mia, is an environmental volunteer working in the town of Caraz. She would definitely know the address to Tatoo. I hadn’t seen her since December of 05. We had a lot of catch up to do, so I sat and talked. Erin B. was on her way to the café. I hadn’t seen Erin either, but heard the sad news that she was leaving Peru. She was having trouble in site, was unhappy and had decided going back to the US was the best option. I gave her a big hug when I saw her. I couldn’t imagine. She had just cleaned out her room, said goodbye to her host family and stood in the café doorway holding every memory and belonging in her hands. Will that be the rest of us come next year? Peacin’ Out.
I hung out with Mia and Erin for a little while later, than returned to my room to try calling my host family again. Mia took me to Tatoo and Andino Café, where our friend Mark was hanging out with his girl. Back at the hostal I finally got through to my host family, I wanted them to break into my room, find my passport and mail it to Lima. (It’s a long story, I’ll spare the details). I meet up with the Chavin group for pizza and we walked over to 13 Buhos for a beer. What a perfect day.
Thursday Nov. 23rd. It’s THANKSGIVING-but it’s not….
At least not for us in Peru. We decided all 15 of us, that we’d leave Friday for the cooking and feast and Thanksgiving day we’d go hiking. The group split up, I stayed with the craziest who agreed to travel out to Yungay to meet our tour guide extraordinare and dear friend, Erin S. This girl has spent many weekends hiking altitudes of 12, 13 and 14,000 ft. She was training for a marathon last I knew, but than withdrew due to injury. But she was still alright to take us on a day hike, Laguna 69.
We hired two taxi drivers to bring us to the starting point in Huascaran national park, and told them to come back in three hours for us. They wanted to be paid, but we knew they wouldn’t return if we paid them in full. A deal’s a deal. The views were amazing! We were surrounded by mountains at 3,500 m and planned to hike to 4,500 m. We packed enough food for lunch, enough clothes for the rain and enough water to stay hydrated.
It got hot walking through a valley between two peaks, I stopped to peal off some layers. As we walked the eight of us talked about future vacations and when we should plan a trip into the jungle or a long trek, like Huayhuash. These were the moments that I have enjoyed most about living abroad. Planning vacations with fellow volunteers. We get so bored living in our sites, and rarely get to see each other, aside from those who live close to us. Honestly, the breaks from work are helping me get through these two years with sanity.
As we slowly climbed the trail we passed a lake and continued around it. Two group members stayed back. Costeños! I could feel the air getting thin. And then it began to rain. Figures. November in the mountains? The rainy season had already began in Ancash. Thank god it was slow to start in La Libertad. We stopped, waited for the others and ate some snacks. Erin said we were getting closer to the hardest part of the climb, but than the trail would flatten out again. I was holding my own, I think all the walking I do in site really pays off for big hikes. It’s a good training regimen.
Rob started complaining of a stomach ache that had come and gone since the previous night but he still carried on. As the designated nurse, I knew exactly what was going on. Diarrhea. (I always get it when I hike) So I did what any good friend would do, offered my toilet paper to him. We eventually arrived to the crest and strolled along the flat basin. Up ahead we couldn’t see well because the fog was coming in deep. After scaling a few more parts the most lucent blue green lake lye ahead of us. We made it. Lunch time. In honor of the sexual innuendo of the trails name, we took a picture of us mooning the camera. The trail is actually called Nevado Chacraraju, but some Europeans re-named it Laguna 69. As we hiked down, the sky cleared and we could see the snow topped mountains above, they looked close enough to touch!
Rob and Mike were starting to feel really bad, symptoms of altitude sickness. They just aren’t used to such heights since living in flatter regions of the country. I felt for them. The best we could do was get back to the city, shower at the hostel and meet up for dinner. Over dinner we talked about who was cooking what and where for tomorrow. Thanksgiving was on! We remembered to call our families at home and went to bed early after feeling sore from the hike.
Friday Nov. 24
The cooking begins! Just as if we were in our households in the US preparing for Thanksgiving we did the same from three hostels in Huaraz. The dinner was planned for 4 o’clock at the Way Inn Lodge a few km from the city. The volunteers from Ancash, Erin, Mia, Ann, Mark and Erin had been raving about this lodge and there was enough space for the 15 of us. The lodge is owned by a young English couple who moved to Ancash a few years back. They gave us a deal for the night as long as we feed them.
I made banana bread, apple pie and helped Khaliah with her apple cobbler. What a treat! In total, we prepared stuffing, vegetables, mash potatoes, cranberry sauce, asparagus, a mixed salad, garlic bread, casserole and gravy. The turkey ended up being three chickens because it was easier to pay a chicken restaurant to cook it for us! In the end, it was all good. As the sun set the lodge owners told us the generator was down and we wouldn’t have electricity for the night. And just like seasoned peace corps volunteers we turned lemons into lemonade and played cards, board games, and drank late into the evening under candle light.
We slept outside the lodge in a man made cave which housed 10 twin beds angling around the cave walls from ceiling to floor. With all that body heat the place maintained a warm temperature during the night. It didn’t seem to matter that there was no lights, the sun would be rising shortly. I snuggled into my summer camp like home and slept soundly for the night.
Saturday Nov. 25
Erin convinced us that there was a great local hike close to the lodge to another spectacular lake. I was up for it! No rain…the sky was light blue, perfect. Two of our friends from peace corps Ecuador who had finished service and were driving a jeep around South America met up with us for Thanksgiving. Although they were off to Lima, and than to Chile they offered to give us a ride closer to the trail opening.
The trail entrance sign read- “Take nothing but pictures, Leave nothing but footprints, and kill nothing but time and mosquitoes.” Laguna Churup 4450 m. Our group was smaller for this hike, which was fine. Bryan, Jean, Anna, Erin and I had to work together to scale this trail. There were many advanced sections , one part included a hand made ladder, other treacherous parts required hands and feet and the help from a climbing partner. I almost slipped but caught myself. At the top this lake was as beautiful as the one we saw on Thursday. It was so crystal clear you could see the bottom. Surrounding the aqua color were glacial peaks draining from above.
Sunday afternoon we took a day bus to Lima and Monday morning we began mid service program meetings and health check ups. I wondered if I was carrying any unknown parasites. Only stool samples would tell!
Our program meeting for health volunteers was divided into two days. Fortunatly we got to hear from everyone in our group (13 of us) and see what projects they had completed since being in site for a year. I was truly impressed with everyones presentations. Fellow volunteers worked with water committees, planted community gardens, trained health promoters, coached basketball, acted in local theatre groups, spoke weekly on their own radio shows, filmed TV commercials, organized boys and girls leadership camps, participated in hand washing campaigns, worked with elders, raised guinea pigs, taught women to cook more nutritional meals, offered computer classes, built latrines and modern stoves, and almost everyone taught at least one English class. I got a lot of great ideas to bring back to Carata. And we shared insights into better practices. Such as, How can you increase participation? How do you verify learning? Is there a way to reward a family for improving their health? What incentives can we offer? What is sustainable about our projects, what isn’t?
The rest of the week in Lima was busy with appointments and meetings with our supervisor, Emilia. I had a physical-no health issues. And I went to the dentist. Isaac and I had a bet going about cavities. Even though we are both obsessed with brushing and flossing, we knew that after not seeing a dentist for more than a year we were bound to have issues. He who had more cavities owed a movie to the other. I lost. I needed a crown replaced. The bet should have been off when I found out there were two dentists doing our checkups. Our Dr. needed the help of two dentists because both the Environment and Health volunteers were together for checkups. Usually the Lima office does the groups separately, but because we wanted to see each other we petitioned for a entire Peru 6 group session. And we won. But I still lost the bet to Isaac. He was scheduled to see the female dentist (who had an enormous fountain in her waiting room!) and I got stuck with the not so gentle male dentist who was a perfectionist. Ouch-How do you say-“Use some more Novocain buddy!” in Spanish?
I got back to site early December and finalized a few last things to close the year. Our CODECO group planted the seeds in the school garden and labeled signs for each vegetable. We brought the youth group and the parents group together to thank them for their participation with a hot coco and fruit cake event. And I diligently worked on my four month report for Emilia. Damn, these PC reports are so painful, but its really the only formal documentation I have to do. So I suck it up and do it for the government.
And before I knew it I was packing for a trip home. The first time home in 15 months. Wow. Would I even recognize my own country? I think I was more excited about the food than my loved ones. Hi Mom and Dad, “It’s so good to see you”, “Can we go out for breakfast? I had been dreaming about The Friendly Toast in Portsmouth, NH for months. Bacon, Eggs, Tabasco and brown sugar home fries. YUUUMMM.
Huaraz is not quite as touristy as Cusco (where Machu Picchu is) but probably the second most next to Lima. Hikers from around the world come to trek the “Cordillera Blanca” “White mountain range”-one of the longest and highest chains of the Andes. Peaks reach heights of …..6,768 m, there are 22 hotsprings and more than 600 lakes. And a multitude of hikes to endulge yourself in, but most do the Santa Cruz or Huayhuash (pronounced Y-Wash) routes. The hikes differ in lengths and skill level. Next year in July/August a group of us are planning a 9 day trip through Huayhuash, and hiring guides and donkeys to carry our food, and gear.
To say the least I was happy to have arrived in backpacker’s heaven, especially with such a great group of friends for a couple of days of r & r. (to use an American expression). We settled into our hostel, La Colmena (the beehive) and unpacked. Some of the girls wanted to see an archeological site called Chavin, so we walked through the city to a recommended agency. The people are so completly different than in my region, I thought to myself. The women’s vibrantly colored skirts and their beautiful beige and green felt hats. It´s reminiscent to the serranos (Mountain men/women) from Carata, but because Trujillo is so modern and influences the sierra, most locals have lost traditions of wearing certain clothes.
I stayed back at the hostel to work on a presentation for mid-service checks and explore the city of Huaraz solo. I found a small Chinese restaurant for lunch, and called my friend Isaac while eating (what a bad habit) to see what he was up to during this holiday weekend. It occurred to me that Huaraz has a TATOO (backpacking store like EMS or REI) and even though I had no money, I thought it would be fun to check it out. But what was the address? The staff at California Café would know! The café, owned by an American-peruvian couple is one of the common hang out spots for pcv’s (peace corps volunteers). So popular in fact, that as I entered, I immediately recognized Mia, another Peru Sixer. Mia, is an environmental volunteer working in the town of Caraz. She would definitely know the address to Tatoo. I hadn’t seen her since December of 05. We had a lot of catch up to do, so I sat and talked. Erin B. was on her way to the café. I hadn’t seen Erin either, but heard the sad news that she was leaving Peru. She was having trouble in site, was unhappy and had decided going back to the US was the best option. I gave her a big hug when I saw her. I couldn’t imagine. She had just cleaned out her room, said goodbye to her host family and stood in the café doorway holding every memory and belonging in her hands. Will that be the rest of us come next year? Peacin’ Out.
I hung out with Mia and Erin for a little while later, than returned to my room to try calling my host family again. Mia took me to Tatoo and Andino Café, where our friend Mark was hanging out with his girl. Back at the hostal I finally got through to my host family, I wanted them to break into my room, find my passport and mail it to Lima. (It’s a long story, I’ll spare the details). I meet up with the Chavin group for pizza and we walked over to 13 Buhos for a beer. What a perfect day.
Thursday Nov. 23rd. It’s THANKSGIVING-but it’s not….
At least not for us in Peru. We decided all 15 of us, that we’d leave Friday for the cooking and feast and Thanksgiving day we’d go hiking. The group split up, I stayed with the craziest who agreed to travel out to Yungay to meet our tour guide extraordinare and dear friend, Erin S. This girl has spent many weekends hiking altitudes of 12, 13 and 14,000 ft. She was training for a marathon last I knew, but than withdrew due to injury. But she was still alright to take us on a day hike, Laguna 69.
We hired two taxi drivers to bring us to the starting point in Huascaran national park, and told them to come back in three hours for us. They wanted to be paid, but we knew they wouldn’t return if we paid them in full. A deal’s a deal. The views were amazing! We were surrounded by mountains at 3,500 m and planned to hike to 4,500 m. We packed enough food for lunch, enough clothes for the rain and enough water to stay hydrated.
It got hot walking through a valley between two peaks, I stopped to peal off some layers. As we walked the eight of us talked about future vacations and when we should plan a trip into the jungle or a long trek, like Huayhuash. These were the moments that I have enjoyed most about living abroad. Planning vacations with fellow volunteers. We get so bored living in our sites, and rarely get to see each other, aside from those who live close to us. Honestly, the breaks from work are helping me get through these two years with sanity.
As we slowly climbed the trail we passed a lake and continued around it. Two group members stayed back. Costeños! I could feel the air getting thin. And then it began to rain. Figures. November in the mountains? The rainy season had already began in Ancash. Thank god it was slow to start in La Libertad. We stopped, waited for the others and ate some snacks. Erin said we were getting closer to the hardest part of the climb, but than the trail would flatten out again. I was holding my own, I think all the walking I do in site really pays off for big hikes. It’s a good training regimen.
Rob started complaining of a stomach ache that had come and gone since the previous night but he still carried on. As the designated nurse, I knew exactly what was going on. Diarrhea. (I always get it when I hike) So I did what any good friend would do, offered my toilet paper to him. We eventually arrived to the crest and strolled along the flat basin. Up ahead we couldn’t see well because the fog was coming in deep. After scaling a few more parts the most lucent blue green lake lye ahead of us. We made it. Lunch time. In honor of the sexual innuendo of the trails name, we took a picture of us mooning the camera. The trail is actually called Nevado Chacraraju, but some Europeans re-named it Laguna 69. As we hiked down, the sky cleared and we could see the snow topped mountains above, they looked close enough to touch!
Rob and Mike were starting to feel really bad, symptoms of altitude sickness. They just aren’t used to such heights since living in flatter regions of the country. I felt for them. The best we could do was get back to the city, shower at the hostel and meet up for dinner. Over dinner we talked about who was cooking what and where for tomorrow. Thanksgiving was on! We remembered to call our families at home and went to bed early after feeling sore from the hike.
Friday Nov. 24
The cooking begins! Just as if we were in our households in the US preparing for Thanksgiving we did the same from three hostels in Huaraz. The dinner was planned for 4 o’clock at the Way Inn Lodge a few km from the city. The volunteers from Ancash, Erin, Mia, Ann, Mark and Erin had been raving about this lodge and there was enough space for the 15 of us. The lodge is owned by a young English couple who moved to Ancash a few years back. They gave us a deal for the night as long as we feed them.
I made banana bread, apple pie and helped Khaliah with her apple cobbler. What a treat! In total, we prepared stuffing, vegetables, mash potatoes, cranberry sauce, asparagus, a mixed salad, garlic bread, casserole and gravy. The turkey ended up being three chickens because it was easier to pay a chicken restaurant to cook it for us! In the end, it was all good. As the sun set the lodge owners told us the generator was down and we wouldn’t have electricity for the night. And just like seasoned peace corps volunteers we turned lemons into lemonade and played cards, board games, and drank late into the evening under candle light.
We slept outside the lodge in a man made cave which housed 10 twin beds angling around the cave walls from ceiling to floor. With all that body heat the place maintained a warm temperature during the night. It didn’t seem to matter that there was no lights, the sun would be rising shortly. I snuggled into my summer camp like home and slept soundly for the night.
Saturday Nov. 25
Erin convinced us that there was a great local hike close to the lodge to another spectacular lake. I was up for it! No rain…the sky was light blue, perfect. Two of our friends from peace corps Ecuador who had finished service and were driving a jeep around South America met up with us for Thanksgiving. Although they were off to Lima, and than to Chile they offered to give us a ride closer to the trail opening.
The trail entrance sign read- “Take nothing but pictures, Leave nothing but footprints, and kill nothing but time and mosquitoes.” Laguna Churup 4450 m. Our group was smaller for this hike, which was fine. Bryan, Jean, Anna, Erin and I had to work together to scale this trail. There were many advanced sections , one part included a hand made ladder, other treacherous parts required hands and feet and the help from a climbing partner. I almost slipped but caught myself. At the top this lake was as beautiful as the one we saw on Thursday. It was so crystal clear you could see the bottom. Surrounding the aqua color were glacial peaks draining from above.
Sunday afternoon we took a day bus to Lima and Monday morning we began mid service program meetings and health check ups. I wondered if I was carrying any unknown parasites. Only stool samples would tell!
Our program meeting for health volunteers was divided into two days. Fortunatly we got to hear from everyone in our group (13 of us) and see what projects they had completed since being in site for a year. I was truly impressed with everyones presentations. Fellow volunteers worked with water committees, planted community gardens, trained health promoters, coached basketball, acted in local theatre groups, spoke weekly on their own radio shows, filmed TV commercials, organized boys and girls leadership camps, participated in hand washing campaigns, worked with elders, raised guinea pigs, taught women to cook more nutritional meals, offered computer classes, built latrines and modern stoves, and almost everyone taught at least one English class. I got a lot of great ideas to bring back to Carata. And we shared insights into better practices. Such as, How can you increase participation? How do you verify learning? Is there a way to reward a family for improving their health? What incentives can we offer? What is sustainable about our projects, what isn’t?
The rest of the week in Lima was busy with appointments and meetings with our supervisor, Emilia. I had a physical-no health issues. And I went to the dentist. Isaac and I had a bet going about cavities. Even though we are both obsessed with brushing and flossing, we knew that after not seeing a dentist for more than a year we were bound to have issues. He who had more cavities owed a movie to the other. I lost. I needed a crown replaced. The bet should have been off when I found out there were two dentists doing our checkups. Our Dr. needed the help of two dentists because both the Environment and Health volunteers were together for checkups. Usually the Lima office does the groups separately, but because we wanted to see each other we petitioned for a entire Peru 6 group session. And we won. But I still lost the bet to Isaac. He was scheduled to see the female dentist (who had an enormous fountain in her waiting room!) and I got stuck with the not so gentle male dentist who was a perfectionist. Ouch-How do you say-“Use some more Novocain buddy!” in Spanish?
I got back to site early December and finalized a few last things to close the year. Our CODECO group planted the seeds in the school garden and labeled signs for each vegetable. We brought the youth group and the parents group together to thank them for their participation with a hot coco and fruit cake event. And I diligently worked on my four month report for Emilia. Damn, these PC reports are so painful, but its really the only formal documentation I have to do. So I suck it up and do it for the government.
And before I knew it I was packing for a trip home. The first time home in 15 months. Wow. Would I even recognize my own country? I think I was more excited about the food than my loved ones. Hi Mom and Dad, “It’s so good to see you”, “Can we go out for breakfast? I had been dreaming about The Friendly Toast in Portsmouth, NH for months. Bacon, Eggs, Tabasco and brown sugar home fries. YUUUMMM.
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