Greetings! I´m back from our Field-Based Training on the north coast of Perú. We spent a week in the city of Piura. It was hot. Like Davis-California-in-the-middle-of-August kind of hot. And summer´s coming, so it was about to get HOTTER. Not my idea of how I´d like to spend my next two years, with sand in every crevass and blasting my contacts. I now understand why the PC dissapproves of contact lenses. So...great place to vacation. I won´t even go into great detail about the training.
We went out into the campo (countryside) a few times to see how we might be living. This area of Perú is called Dry Forest. As in scrubby trees growing in sand and there´s only rain when El Niño hits every seven years. Dry. Sandy. Hot.
We visited a few schools to tell kids about the environment, we ate ceviche with the mayor of a city who also sells honey and sings and gave each of us a copy of his CD, and then I spent a night throwing up with simultaneous diarrhea. No, it was not the ceviche. It was the half of a jar of honey with bee pollen that I binged on, because of my withdrawal from American food containing vast amounts of high fructose corn syrup. Needless to say, my sweets craving has been satiated. Overall, it was a relaxing week in a hostal with my first hot shower in 8 weeks. Comparing stories with the other groups upon return to the Training Center, we found that we lucked out. Others had spent 10 hours each day doing grueling labor building latrines, living with families with no electricity, and traveling hours on bumpy roads.
Moving on. This week has been quite amazing. I am proud to be an American again. Peruvians are very happy we have elected Obama, as am I.
Perhaps most importantly, this week was SITE PLACEMENTS!!!! All 48 of us found out where we´ll be living for the next two years. My site is in the village of Cashapampa, elevation 9,515 feet. A google search has me in heaven. I will be living on the outskirts of Huascarán National Park in the Cordillera Blanca range of the Andes mountains. The mountain Huascarán is the tallest subtropical mountain in the world. Yes folks, the world. It rings in at 22,205 feet. There is so much to say about the region I will be living in, that I´ve added a website for more info: http://www.peru-explorer.com/huscara.htm
I will visit my new capital city tomorrow. Huaraz is a mecca for ex-pats, climbers, trekkers, mountaineers, french food, cafes, peruvian food, non-peruvian food, and any other adventure sport you can think of. I get to visit Huaraz twice a month or so to get my mail and check my email. It is 2 hours from my village of Cashapampa. My house is apparently a thatched hut.
So, I lucked out bigtime in the Peace Corps lottery as far as sites. Most Perú volunteers in our program live along the coast. Dry, hot, sandy. [See my distaste as described above.] Oh, in addition to learning Spanish, I get additional training in Quechua. Other volunteers have approached me and expressed their jealousy at not only my fertile green site surrounded by snow-capped mountains, but also the Quechua training and my thatched hut (the ¨true¨ PC experience many were looking for). Most everyone else has solid walls, some have internet. I think I have electricity and one faucet of running water. There´s definitely no bathroom, only a latrine. My room has a dirt floor and no window.
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