There's A Fiesta For Everything Here!

Hola amigos!

As you can see, I’ve decided to try writing a blog and see how I like it! This will be to document my travels from Peru to Argentina to Austin to who-knows-where over the next 8-12 months! This first post will probably be a bit massive to tell you about our house and volunteer tasks, so future posts can just be updates on what we’ve been doing.

Christine and I have been in Peru for just over a week now and so far it’s been quite lovely. In the mornings we have been volunteering at a school for kids with disabilities called Cerritos Azul, and we just started teaching English classes to children in Pamplona Alta at the community centre in Torres Mina on Thursday. At the moment, the English classes are less useful sessions and more carrying around 2-3 VERY excited children at once while the rest yell and run around like mad and ask us, “Como se dice ‘papas’ in español?” and then laugh hysterically when we respond with, “Potatoes!” It’s really, really fun and funny but we’re hoping to talk to Victor and see if maybe we can divide up the kids by their ages so that the older kids can learn some more complex stuff. The way it works right now is in the afternoon we are either met by someone in a mototaxi or who takes us in a bus up to the shantytown. When we get there, a woman from the soup kitchen goes on the loudspeaker and yells out to the community to send their children to English classes and the kids come running out of everywhere and get us to chase them before we round them up for “class”- so it’s a wee bit informal but so ridiculously fun.

Cerritos Azul is a really cool place to be at. The people who run it are Mariel (Victor’s sister-in-law) and her husband Jorge who are so incredibly kind and wonderful. There’s a sliding scale for parents to pay and the children are divided into classrooms by ages. I’ve been volunteering in the oldest classroom so the students range from around 12 to 26 years old! The students in my class have very high needs and it’s been a little bit frustrating because there seems to be a lot of time where they are being told to sit down and wait but I’m not sure what for. Some of the students are told to sit down a lot but they don’t want to do that and they act out by chewing their hair, yelling, taking off and running away, and breaking things. I get a bit frustrated because I think if there were more resources, training, or staff maybe some of these students could be given constructive tasks to work on. I think it’s really hard for the teachers though, and it’s difficult for me to understand fully how best to help because of the language barrier. Last week I purchased some plasticine and I’m going to see tomorrow if the teachers are open to sharing it with the students, and if that helps. Over only a few days I’ve grown really attached to the students and I hope that this week has less frustrating moments.

We quickly found out that in Peru, there’s a celebration for EVERYTHING. It’s really, really great. Last Saturday we went to the celebration for Solidaridad en Marcha’s anniversary, then during the week Christine and I each had birthday celebrations for students in our classes...then on Friday we went to an SEM campaign and even though we only ended up helping out for about 45 minutes, we were invited to celebrate the anniversary of the clinic we were at with causa and cake...and then today we attended the celebration of the anniversary of Cerritos Azul where all of the kids did traditional dances with their teachers and classes and Peruvian celebrities donated their time to help with the ceremonies. At all of these celebrations they have traditional Peruvian food, dancing, CAKE, and often little cups of really sweet wine and cups of beer. I’m beginning to think that we need to learn to celebrate what we have in Canada a little more, because getting this much cake, causa, and aji de gallina every week (not to mention the dancing and general enthusiasm) is really wonderful and makes me feel truly lucky.

Speaking of wonderful, my mind is blown by Peruvian hospitality! Everyone here is so incredibly nice to us and so generous with their time, houses, food, warmth, everything. As Christine and I’ve discussed, it’s for “no reason at all,” but I think that maybe that’s the best reason of all. I appreciate so much being treated so well without having to earn it, and it makes me want to open my heart and home to others as well.  I think that if the whole world could adopt this warmhearted, open approach, there wouldn’t be nearly so much paranoia and fear and the ensuing reactions to those emotions. For example, we were asked if we could teach English to some folks that work for SEM, so yesterday we went to Leyla’s boyfriend’s house and taught Leyla, Junior, Milagritos, and Leyla’s boyfriend’s sister English for a while, and were then treated to an INCREDIBLE lunch of rotisserie chicken (which was cooked in their rooftop oven!), potatoes, rice, salad, and avocado, and then Junior and Milagritos accompanied us to an Inca Market near the airport- even though they had nothing they wanted to buy. They then accompanied us all the way home even though they live near the airport- they just wanted to keep us company and make sure we were safe. It’s really incredible how much time and energy people are willing to give to one another here and as visitors to this country we are receiving so much goodwill.

The house we live in is fantastic. We didn’t meet the woman who owns the house, Chelo (Victor’s mother-in-law) until Friday because her mother died a bit before we got here, but when we met her I instantly loved her. She is so so so friendly and warm and such a grandmother- she brought back these really amazing treats called roscas con azucar, fruit, potatoes, cake, bread, and kept offering all of these foods to us over and over again. She is so fantastic- she told us she loves to talk so it will be good practice for us in understanding Spanish haha. She also gives a fantastic ego boost, because she is always telling us what beautiful hair we have, how beautiful we are, and how nice our clothes are, and then when I was on skype with my sister and mother last night she came over to talk to them and tell them how wonderful I am and how happy she is with me. So if I’m ever feeling down, I just ask Chelo what she thinks about my outfit and I feel a thousand times better! To give a great example of what Chelo is like, in the middle of writing this post she called Christine and I into the kitchen for “un poquito de sopa, una sopita” ie “a little bit of soup, just a little” which amounted to a big bowl of delicious, homemade chicken noodle soup to which Chelo kept adding, “uno mas papita” ie “one more little potato” even as we were in the process of eating the giant portion she had already given us. So great. She is incredibly excited for her granddaughter, Lizeth and Victor’s daughter, to be born in January, and from everything I’ve seen she is and will be the most wonderful abuelita ever. I’m still working on getting them to name the baby after me and I think they’re warming up to it :)

Some particularly cool/funny moments so far: 

• Luciano and his friends have started a project in Pamplona Alta where every few weeks they project a movie for the community to come watch, to share values with the children and to create a family-friendly event. Luciano is working on getting people from outside communities to also attend to remove the stigma of a free movie being held in a poor shantytown, and it is a really beautiful thing to see. Christine and I were lucky enough to attend the last part of the movie on Thursday, and Victor told us that we were the first Canadians to be in Pamplona Alta at night. It was really amazing and we got to walk around for a while afterward- such an amazing experience. Victor said that one night we may even be able to sleep in Pamplona Alta! I think this would be an incredible experience.

• The sheer amount we get hit on is astounding. No one has made us feel very uncomfortable but there’s definitely been some funny shared moments, such as today when two men walked by us, stared at us the whole way by, then in unison wheeled around to walk after us shouting, “Hey! Bonitas! You are beautiful!” Another man basically said the equivalent of, “I would like you to eat my penis,” to which my response was, not surprisingly, “No, gracias.” Let me tell you...he really knew how to talk to a girl! No worries though, a “No, gracias,” usually is quite effective at deterring the curious hombres, and no one has been uncomfortably pushy or forward.

• The experience of living where we are is so cool- we are actually living in the more developed part of the shantytown of San Juan de Miraflores, which is a part of the city that tourists never even hear about, let alone get to go to. It’s not even in guide books about Peru, but it’s the way that so many Peruvians live. The area itself is safe, and we’re close to a busy street and a fruit/vegetable market where we go to buy food for dinner, and some really amazing little bakeries. Getting to live here and experience this part of Lima is a huge privilege. And for all of you who have been on a PSI Peru trip in the past, be jealous: Not only do we get to live with Chelo, but Victor and his wife Lizeth have a little apartment attached to this house, so we are all living together and we get to hang out with both Victor and Lizeth on a regular basis!

• Learning Spanish in a Spanish-speaking country, and on top of that, how much I already understand. We are having Spanish classes 2-3 times a week, although they’re starting a bit slowly so I’m hoping that this week will be a bit more intense! In general though, if people are willing to speak slowly I’ve felt very good about how much I can understand, and how much I can communicate back. It’s obviously a bit frustrating sometimes, and I often feel quite lost, but it’s making me feel very motivated to learn as much as I can while I’m here. Many of the people we see regularly- Victor, Lizeth, Chelo, Milagritos, Leyla, Mariel, etc. are so patient with us and are very good about speaking slowly and simply and illustrating with hand actions to help us along, and everyone is eager to practice their English in return.

Well, this post is getting a bit ridiculously long but I’ll try to update again in a week or so! There’s many more stories and photos and moments to share, but I’ll leave it at this for now. I’m very happy here and I feel very safe and lucky to be where I am. In conversation with Jorge and Mariel earlier this week they told us that there are not really  volunteers in Peru, because in trying to get by there often isn’t the time or resources for people to volunteer (although I would argue that the amount of heart and soul that many people put into their jobs here amounts to volunteer-esque enthusiasm and hours!). I’m coming to realize that even being able to volunteer my time in another country is an incredible privilege, and an amazing learning experience. I feel as though much of our volunteering right now will make an impact only in the present moment, so it is my hope to work with Luciano, Victor, and others to develop some projects that will also be useful to the people of San Juan de Miraflores in the future. Luciano and I have spoken a bit about developing a composting model and guide for people to use in their homes, and I’m really excited to work further on this with him and Victor!

Know that I am thinking of you all a lot while remaining present in my work and activities here, and love receiving emails and facebook messages from home. We have an internet connection in our home, so if anyone would like to skype at some point I would love that :) Just email me and let me know!

Much love and Peruvian sunshine to all of you!

Cassie (or, as they call me here, “Casi Casi” which means “almost almost.”)