Rainy Season Update

So since its pouring rain once again, (a little unseasonably actually and my town is worried this year’s potato harvest might be negatively affected), and since most of my movies have been watched twice by now, and the book by Norm Chomsky I’m attempting is proving to be a bit heavy for night time reading, I’ve decided to update my blog! School is back in session and so are my classes with the elementary school. I’ve tried to see if the Jr. High and High School are more interested this year than they were last year for my services and all I’ve been able to get out of them is a “possible” English class which they have yet to follow up on. So I’m content with the little kids for now, they have way more energy and interest in environment stuff anyway...they haven’t quite discovered the opposite sex yet, so there is still some hope. I’ve also been doing various movie nights with environmentally themed movies like Planet Earth and Blue Planet which I happily bought the bootleg copy of in Spanish. I’ve even found some Spanish versions of some of my favorite environmentally themed animes like Princess Mononoke and Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind, both great movies if you have a free night and looking for some entertainment. Of course I usually supply some sort of popcorn or candy snack, which usually brings in a few more viewers. The crowd usually consists of kids and I asked Plinio, my project buddy, what movies would bring in more adults and he mentioned movies themed on family issues and money issues. BORED! I think I’ll stick to entertaining kids with jumping sharks and stampeding buffalos! We also recently had our town’s anniversary party in the beginning of March, which made me consider two very interesting topics; 1. Its amazing to believe how fast the time has gone by, and 2. I realized that if I played soccer and drank beer my whole service I’d probably be just as successful in my town with or without actual life changing projects! So more on the second topic firstly. One of my volunteer buddies from Yauyos came to my town to play in the soccer championship since he loves soccer and played in college and is know playing for his town’s team. He is also known to partake in many drinking circles in his town, owning to the fact (from the Peace Corps perspective) that his Spanish isn’t very good and needs a more “obvious” technique of integration, and leading to the idea ( the Peruvian perspective) that HE’s COME TO PARTY! Which Peruvians love, of course. I’ve often mentioned several times to many other agreeing volunteers that sometimes it feels that our towns want us to be more like dancing circus monkeys, than good willed humanitarians; but who can say for sure. So much to my chagrin, and being heavily weighted for the fact that I’m horrible at playing soccer and avoid it all costs, my town has been raving about how great my volunteer buddy is, and I’m assuming hinting at how much more like him I should be! So, yeah, that’s a good feeling; a year and a half in a town and my soccer playing, beer drinking buddy (God bless him) shows up with 3 months under his belt FROM ANOTHER TOWN, and he’s already more popular than me! HA! As for the first topic, secondly. Realizing how fast time is passing even though the days are crawling is such a shock. I remember being at last years anniversary, I remember how I thought and how poorly I spoke Spanish and how many ideas I had then, and how many of those ideas have changed since then. I’ve done numerous workshops, traveled hundreds of miles in Peru, seen and met various Peruvians, and have had equally as many random conversations. Even the projects in my town have evolved, and the one word salutation relationships I had with folks in my town my first year have turned into us knowing a multi-generational history of each other. And out of it all I think the greatest measure of the time and trust that I’ve gained here was the nickname one of the oldest members of my town, Sr. Pedro, used to call me; “Yankee Huaqisino” alluding to the combination of “Yankee” which stands for how many of the older Peruvians derogatorily view the United States, and “Huaqisino” standing for ancestors of my host town. Of course he was saying this in complete jest (and with a toothless chuckle to boot) but I realized how far my integration had come when he stopped me one day and we had the following conversation, (in Spanish); I said, “Hello there, sir, its your favorite Yankee Huaqisino,” and he pulled my hand in close looked at me smilingly in the eyes and replied, “You’re not a Yankee anymore, your pure Huaqisino.” Though time has passed and maybe opportunities to do such and such project and improve such and such activity has passed, overall, when I look back over a year of experiences I will always know my town has thought it pretty neat that I was willing to take the time to get to know them. I hope this blog finds you all well, and you’ll be happy to know that in the time its taken me to write the rain has come and gone. I’m still working out on the soccer field so I hope tomorrow morning won’t be too soggy, my exercises are already entertaining enough for those up early enough to watch me, I can only imagine me slipping on my ass could only add to the flavor. Take care, and we’ll talk soon. Much love, Mark.