A New Beginning - Waking Up Excited

The Municipal building in San Luis - my new home

The last two weeks of Peace Corps training have flown by – a combination of anticipating the marvelous adventure ahead and enjoying last few days together with all of Peru 18. Graduation was yesterday. The Ambassador came with full security entourage and we all promised to defend the Constitution, etc. We are fielding a strong team here in Peru. The staff have done an extraordinary job of preparing us for the challenges ahead and given us the tools to serve the people of Peru. Lost 2 vols in training, but the rest are fit and very much ready for duty. We are ready for them, but are they ready for us ?

Thanksgiving : I was sad to miss the annual Fete Extraordinaire at sister Robin’s, but there was MUCH joy and gratitude to be found right here in Santa Eulalia. I am truly grateful to be so alive and able to enjoy this adventure of service. Grateful to my beautiful host family – Jaime and Deri are a model of a beautiful marriage/friendship/team. They have housed me, fed me, coached my Spanish, made me comfortable. But most of all, have been dear and special friends. I will miss them, but take comfort that they are only 4 hours away.

WATSAN 18   Swearing In

The Master of Ceremony in me has yet to fade, as I presided over our presentation of Thanks to all of the wonderful Peace Corps staff who have nurtured Peru 18 through training – the language facilitators, who were more than teachers and guided us on various field expeditions and showed us Peruvian culture and tradition with dances and songs and food. They are real angles, every one. Our Tech Trainers, Mira and Vero gave us the tools we’ll use in the field to improve many aspects of water treatment and sanitation solutions. The directors of training, Luis and dear Katalina, who protected and guided us and were ALWAYS there for us. The gate guards also got our thanks, as did Don Filipe the groundskeeper whose heart and spirit are so clearly evident in our beautiful gardens. They all gave so much to us and in turn to their fellow Peruvians who we will be assisting.

I’ve just completed the move to San Luis. Will Jensen (surfer form Hawaii) and I taxied in to Lima and caught the Soyuz Bus down to Canete. I’m always amazed how much I learn every time I come down the Pan-Am. A huge oil refinery is under construction – said to be one of the largest in S America. This will allow Peru to refine all it’s own oil, instead of sending it out and supposedly will bring down the price of gas here – currently about US$5/gal. A quick trip to San Vicente scored electrical wire, fittings and new pillows. Some splicing, serious cleaning and electrical tape later, my room was pretty livable. More improvements must await next month’s meager PC allowance. I’m doing my best to live within the allowance, but grateful that I have US reserves to call upon, if needed.

Lots of minor repairs around the house. Again, maintenance and repair are not very popular around here – just use it until it falls apart and get a new one. Very glad I brought some of my tools, they’ve really come in handy. New house has a washer right out of pioneer days. You pull and push a handle which agitates the wash and then use a hand crank wringer – a big step up from the straight scrub and hand-wring process I’ve been using.

The hardest part of my living situation is the three small kids. They are home all the time on weekends and their parents give them zero attention or supervision. So, they want to hang on me and explore all my stuff all the time. I’m happy to give them some attention, but did not sign up for babysitting service. Thankfully, the week is coming and I’ll get some quiet time. On the other hand, I’m really dreading “summer vacation” (3 months) which starts at Christmas.

Other than that, I feel quite at home in San Luis de Tolosa de Canete, my new home town. I’ve walked most of the streets and met some good folk. They are very willing to converse and suffer through my less-than-perfect Spanish (called Castellano here). While I didn’t see many blacks in San Vicente during our earlier site visit, they are very much in evidence in San Luis. As in the US, they were brought over from Africa as slaves to work the cotton and sugar cane plantations. African dance and rhythm has become very much a part of the culture here and there is a huge annual festival in San Vicente to celebrate it.

I had a nice combi ride with the dentist at the local health post, who was on his way to play in a band. Combis are mini-vans that shuttle up and down the Pan-Am. They usually wait until they have a near full load before heading out. You can carry just about anything (within reason) on a combi and they often fill to standing room. They are an extraordinarily efficient form of transport and in some ways, much more convenient than a personal car (go ahead and GASP, Americans), in that you never have to find a parking spot or wash your car. The other alternative here is the moto-taxi ( motorcycle converted into a rickshaw like vehicle). They will haul ANYTHING from people to mattresses, 55 gallon drums, rebar, stoves to a huge stack of brick. Very very taxis around here compared to Santa Eulalia. And then, people walk A LOT. I don’t see many bikes, but hope to get one very soon from the Corps, as some of my work sites are not accessible from combi routes.

We had a power outage last night, only the second I’ve seen here (earthquakes seem more common). With all the lights out, the stars were amazingly bright. The main source of auxiliary light seems to be the ubiquitous cell phone. Everyone on the street used them for light whenever there were no headlights available. I’m truly amazed that they don’t have more power problems, given the haphazard (hazard being the operative part) wiring system. Sometimes service wires from the street will cross over another house.  Wire nuts are unheard of and the electrical tape is more like black Scotch tape. Most homes have a “fuse box” with just one 30 amp (or even 60 amp) circuit breaker for the whole house. There is usually only one outlet per room, from which extends an endless cascade of extension cords. Only saving grace from rampant fire is the all adobe/brick construction. 

Jason, the current volunteer in site, will be back from Lima tomorrow, so I can start in on some of the following projects: finish 1^st bio-digester and find site for 2^nd and install and train local talent, re-plant trees with something that doesn’t need much water, like all the fichus that died per the mayor’s request – planning to work with high school kids on that, complete my mandatory community diagnostic, get that new water system working out in the campo and train local water committee in maintenance, survey all 240 eco-latrine users on the beach and find out why, after only 11 months, most are not in use, establish a tsunami warning program for low lying beach areas, continue working with high schoolers on the tree/plant nursery, compost and worm farm, do some HIV/sex education with the health post – just for starters. One of the questions asked at graduation was “How do you know that Peace Corps service in Peru is right for you at this time?”. My response : “Because I wake up every morning excited to begin the day.”