3 month countdown

3 month countdown: (JULY 2011)

Its not like I’m counting every minute...just every day that passes is all...

I’ve officially started my 3 month countdown. Well, it isn’t officially three months yet because my request to have an early COS by 30 days has yet to be officially approved and confirmed, but I see know reason why it wouldn’t be. Its odd how the Peace Corps has transformed my sense of time into thinking that 3 months is but a drop in the bucket, but I had this same sensation as I was finishing my military obligation as well. My feelings are being pulled in several directions as I wish time would move faster so I could move on with my life plans, hoping time doesn’t move to fast so that I remember to truly soak up my last few weeks in site, and not being able to believe where almost two years have gone...I arrived here in Obama’s first year of service; Avatar was still in theaters for crying out loud! I continually tell myself to keep my head in the game since there is still time to work and help out (seeing as my time left is still longer than many other NGO’s or foreign volunteers spend in foreign countries doing projects), but I won’t cover up the fact that I’m definitely catching up on my book backlog and movie supply; if anything to finally get rid of them as I start to think about packing.

The hard part about coming to the end of a long term commitment is being split in two parts, the present and the future. Its hard to stay focused on helping my host site when the prospect of finding a new apartment, applying to colleges, thinking about how best to spend the re-adjustment allowance, and all the other, “other” things that have nothing to do with my life here in Peru slowly start to creep over the horizon like the coming rays of morning, (the “light at the end of the tunnel” analogy seems apt as well.) I’ve never been one to have my entire being in the moment. I seem to always have at least one foot, a cocked eye, and an alert ear to the coming possibilities what my future can hold, and now is no exception. Try as I might to remain present minded it usually ends in vain considering that every conversation I have with people in my town has now become a handy reminder that, “tres meces, (three months)” *subtle whistle of astonishment* in fact “no es mucho tiempo, (isn’t much time)” or that I “no falta nada, (don’t have much more)” and indeed those last few months will “pasar rapido, (you guessed it, pass quickly).” So my best coping mechanism will be to just fall into the gentle reverie of waiting which Peru has taught me so well, and try to seek comfort in the idea that what could have been has been and what I could have done I did.

Now, another thing I also want to talk about is something that seems to be all-a-buzz with the Peru 14 volunteer group; who is staying for a third year. After getting through with the recent Limpi Sequia, which many of you blog followers may remember from last years posts and even my first year video that I made, I had a flash of what it might feel like to stay a third year. As the community members finished up the festivities and started naming the people that will be responsible for certain activities for next year ensuring the tradition gets carried on, they came upon my name since I was in charge of bringing coke for this year. They all looked at me with pleading eyes, asking me if I would be able to bring coke next year; such a heartbreakingly simple request which I had no power to say “yes” to since I wouldn’t be here. At that moment it flashed through my mind, “what if I was here next year?” And I found myself toying with the idea of how much more ingrained and heartfelt my relations would be with my host community if I could pass one more round of annual festivities. How much more enlightened they could become with all the extra environmental presentations I could give in an extra year. And even how much more productive I could be with technical projects with a whole new year to apply for grants. But like I said, the moment was a flash, and passed without anyone else but me realizing what had happened. I came back to reality, finalized my inability to pledge another round of coke for the next year, and felt satisfied that I had made the right decision of leaving when my two years are up. To be honest I want to leave on a high note. I want to leave just when my town doesn’t want me to go. I want to have a positive, nostalgic sigh pinned to every thought of me when the town members of Miraflores think of the awkward, bearded gringo that had the audacity to leave his parents for a foreign land...

...so once again, sorry Diego, I just don’t think the third year position is for me.

Its been much too long

So I'm catching up on blogs, and I'm going to post 4 in rapid succession. Sorry for the delay, hope you enjoy the reading...

Its been awhile and for that I apologize. (JUNE-JULY 2011)

I was struggling to write something for my blog recently because I wasn’t sure how I could accurately portray my recent life without falling back into some saddening anecdote of how I had to go back home on emergency leave to be at my older sister’s funeral. So now that it’s out there, that’s about all I want to say about it...

...I was home for about 20 days then I came back not really sure how to proceed with my Peace Corps service. So I did what most confused volunteers do, travel. I was back in time for Semana Santa in the end April and went up north to Huanchaco and Chiclayo. I was met up with Krista Latta and we had a wonderful time exploring ruins and eating way to much pollo a la brasa. I then returned to my town and my time there was mostly filled with me explaining why I had to leave in such a whirlwind and where I had been for over a month. I didn’t really plan any upcoming events because I knew that in a week and half I had another trip planned; to the wild and steamy jungles of Manu.

Once again I rendezvoused with my travel buddy Krista, but this time we were also joined by her Aunt Jill and Uncle David from the states. All in all we made a pretty lively team, and with our binoculars ready and hiking boots tied, we set out to with Manu Expeditions once we arrived in Cuzco to go as far as tourists can go into the Manu reserve. Once we crested the mountains outside of Cuzco the scenery immediately changed from dry shrub to lush cloud forest, and the vegetation and humidity only got thicker as we went further down towards the Madre de Dios River. We spent 9 days between river and jungle travel, staying in various bungalows along the way and spotting as many animals as possible. Our guide, named David as well, was incredibly knowledgeable and patient as we were continually awed at various common jungle animals and plants that he’s surely seen millions of times during his 20 years of guiding awe-struck gringos. We made it through the trip with high-spirits, low rates of malaria, and with a huge list of animal sightings especially numerous tropical birds and cool monkeys. And just to put this in there, we saw a jaguar! Ha!

I parted ways with David, Jill, and Krista in Lima and I went back to my site with mixed emotions. Mixed mostly because I couldn’t really see where my service was going to take me next. I kind of had a pre-mature sense of achievement when I went home for the emergency leave, and now it felt as if my motivation was pretty low. It felt like I was running a marathon and at mile 20 they stopped the race then told me that I had succeeded anyway, and then 2 weeks later they called me up and told me to run the last 6 miles for good measure. The sense of accomplishment and purpose just really isn’t there. Either way, I returned, re-scheduled my classes and got caught up on current local events.

Not to my surprise my sleepy mountain town hadn’t changed a bit and getting back in tune with my classes was easy. I’ll be honest in saying that I’m just now, almost two months since going home, feeling okay with being back in Peru again. Though its an understatement to say my service has a different taste to it. I think I’m now racing to the finish simply to have a successful and complete two years, and I’m trying to find some sort of “cruise control” for the rest of my time. So with three months left of travel and 16 days of vacation I think I can make a good run at it, and then after August September won’t look so long since I’ll be planning on leaving in October. Sorry Diego, the third year position just isn’t for me.

But don’t get me wrong, I’m still going to enjoy my time as much as possible, and I’ll fight off the “senior-idis” that is slowly encroaching on all of us Peru 14ers. I’m going to continue with my environment classes and maybe even work a bit more with the health post since the staff nurses are changing which could bring new ideas. I never thought that the my service would provide me with this variety, these two years may be the longest of my life simply because they’ve been so full of activity its hard to believe they aren’t over yet.

Its been awhile and for that I apologize.

Its been awhile and for that I apologize.

I was struggling to write something for my blog recently because I wasn’t sure how I could accurately portray my recent life without falling back into some saddening anecdote of how I had to go back home on emergency leave to be at my older sister’s funeral. So now that it’s out there, that’s about all I want to say about it...

...I was home for about 20 days then I came back not really sure how to proceed with my Peace Corps service. So I did what most confused volunteers do, travel. I was back in time for Semana Santa in the end April and went up north to Huanchaco and Chiclayo. I was met up with Krista Latta and we had a wonderful time exploring ruins and eating way to much pollo a la brasa. I then returned to my town and my time there was mostly filled with me explaining why I had to leave in such a whirlwind and where I had been for over a month. I didn’t really plan any upcoming events because I knew that in a week and half I had another trip planned; to the wild and steamy jungles of Manu.

Once again I rendezvoused with my travel buddy Krista, but this time we were also joined by her Aunt Jill and Uncle David from the states. All in all we made a pretty lively team, and with our binoculars ready and hiking boots tied, we set out to with Manu Expeditions once we arrived in Cuzco to go as far as tourists can go into the Manu reserve. Once we crested the mountains outside of Cuzco the scenery immediately changed from dry shrub to lush cloud forest, and the vegetation and humidity only got thicker as we went further down towards the Madre de Dios River. We spent 9 days between river and jungle travel, staying in various bungalows along the way and spotting as many animals as possible. Our guide, named David as well, was incredibly knowledgeable and patient as we were continually awed at various common jungle animals and plants that he’s surely seen millions of times during his 20 years of guiding awe-struck gringos. We made it through the trip with high-spirits, low rates of malaria, and with a huge list of animal sightings especially numerous tropical birds and cool monkeys. And just to put this in there, we saw a jaguar! Ha!

I parted ways with David, Jill, and Krista in Lima and I went back to my site with mixed emotions. Mixed mostly because I couldn’t really see where my service was going to take me next. I kind of had a pre-mature sense of achievement when I went home for the emergency leave, and now it felt as if my motivation was pretty low. It felt like I was running a marathon and at mile 20 they stopped the race then told me that I had succeeded anyway, and then 2 weeks later they called me up and told me to run the last 6 miles for good measure. The sense of accomplishment and purpose just really isn’t there. Either way, I returned, re-scheduled my classes and got caught up on current local events.

Not to my surprise my sleepy mountain town hadn’t changed a bit and getting back in tune with my classes was easy. I’ll be honest in saying that I’m just now, almost two months since going home, feeling okay with being back in Peru again. Though its an understatement to say my service has a different taste to it. I think I’m now racing to the finish simply to have a successful and complete two years, and I’m trying to find some sort of “cruise control” for the rest of my time. So with three months left of travel and 16 days of vacation I think I can make a good run at it, and then after August September won’t look so long since I’ll be planning on leaving in October. Sorry Diego, the third year position just isn’t for me.

But don’t get me wrong, I’m still going to enjoy my time as much as possible, and I’ll fight off the “senior-idis” that is slowly encroaching on all of us Peru 14ers. I’m going to continue with my environment classes and maybe even work a bit more with the health post since the staff nurses are changing which could bring new ideas. I never thought that the my service would provide me with this variety, these two years may be the longest of my life simply because they’ve been so full of activity its hard to believe they aren’t over yet.

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.

SERNANP stepping it up

So the park protection agency called SERNANP which I work with frequently has just stepped up the game; but in a very motivating way. I was worried that as I came back to site after the winter concert tour back homemy second year would mostly be filled with just environmental education in the schools and possibly an occasional meeting with the adults. As important as evironmental ed is to my site, I was really worried that it wouldn't be enough to keep me very busy. Well once again I was proven that Peru will take care of you if you're patient enough to let it when the SERNANP director in our area, Carlos Sanchez, held a very motivating meeting with all of us from Yauyos. We pretty much outlined three major goals that SERNANP would like to see come from a Peace Corps/SERNANP work agreement. We outlined forming small groups, giving workshops, doing technical projects, and basic overall support coming from each organization. It was very exciting to see our Peruvian counterpart organization realizing our potential and ability to help and has taken the ball and ran with it. By the end of this year I'll surely have several, very measurable, successes in my site, mostly dealing with trash managment and technical support, which is what any volunteer could hope for! Whoot!

Back in the saddle

Its weird to think that I was preparing and looking forward to Christmas for so long during my first year but now its behind me. I feel like I’m missing something, like the feeling you get when you had something in your hand when you walked into a room and now you don’t. It was a great Christmas though, worth the wait! I was able to spend time with Frieda’s family in Iowa and with my family in Wyoming and Florida. I thought it would be a lot more of a system shock than it really was, and honestly the only real difficulty upon getting back to the states was getting past the habit to speak in Spanish. Since I had only been speaking English to fellow volunteers in Peru it was always assumed anyone else outside our group spoke Spanish. It was pretty funny to hear me ordering food for the first time in the states since my first reaction was to speak in Spanish. But I got over it, and other than that minor glitch, the re-adjustment period was really short for me and I hopped head first into enjoying my vacation.

It started in Chicago with a deep dish pizza and a beer and then went to Frieda’s parent’s house where we celebrated three different Christmases with all of her relatives. We had a beautiful white Christmas and I had a great time getting to know her family, and hopefully they can say the same of me ; ) I even shaved off my beard and held off on the obnoxious Christmas sweater I was planning on wearing to make a good impression. But the stop in Iowa also started the common trend that lasted all throughout the vacation; good food, family time, comfy couches, and great movies.
We then went to my house in Cheyenne and were surprised to see how much the house had changed and how big my sisters had gotten! Frieda loved playing with my sisters and I don’t think they lacked a bit of energy for our entire trip there! We did ice-skating and played in the snow, survived blizzards, celebrated New Year’s by playing Rock Band with my buddy Josh, and had plenty of relaxing time.
After Cheyenne was Florida to see my Dad and take in some sun. Frieda and I had a blast at Disney World and we loved the warm climate after the snow in Iowa and Wyoming. We also spent some time at the pier overlooking the gulf, and definitely got our fill of good restaurants.

Its sad to think that my trip is over, and its overwhelming to think that I still have another 10 months left, but my vacation was definitely an opportunity for me to hit “reset” and my mind is reeling with ideas for my second year. So my New Year’s resolution is mostly dealing with my service here in Peru; I want to give more workshops, more classes in Environmental Education, and hopefully develop a place for my town to through its trash! I think those are some very achievable goals.

On the spot

Hey everyone, I'm just haning out in Huancayo for the weekend and decided to do a "on the fly" blog and just type without composing something beforehand....so here goes...

We decided to come to Huancayo after having our PEPFAR reunion in Yauyos. It stands for The Presidents (USA) Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, and is a new initiative that is happening all over the world with Peace Corps volunteers and NGO's. The reunion went well, granted just trying to get the presenters to Yauyos was something in need of "Emergency Relief" itself. The presenters were coming from Canete and weren't familiar with the area and pretty much spent a day and a half just trying to get to the town we recomended them going to in the first place! Oh well, once the two day reunion (usually three days without hectic traveling) got started we were able to become incredibly informed on the current stats and findings of AIDS/HIV. We (me and my volunteer buddies from Yauyos) all brought one student, a professor, and a health post worker to the presentation and by the last day we all were able to develop a mini-project for our sites to start promoting AIDS/HIV prevention. I would say all in all it went well, we were able to "capacitar" our host country counterparts from the health posts, and we all develop small projects for our sites and learned how to ask for funds in the future.

Like I said, we decided to come to Huancayo to visit the ATM since we all pretty much ran out of money on travel and hotels during the PEPFAR reunion, and sadly enough this will probably be one of the last, if not the last, times we all get together in Huancayo before the other Yauyoiners head out and their replacements come in.

In site I've happily started my environmental class with the elementary (primaria) students; see picture-----

So as it stands now, I pretty much have classes all week; Mon, Wed, Fri with the little ones and Tues, Thurs with the Jr. High/High Schoolers. Its going good so far, and the elementary kids are such a positive energy boost. Every time I walk into the class I get a heartfelt "Buenos dias joven Markos!" and when I have to skip a class because of some sort of travel outside of my site I definitly hear about it the next day from the kids. I'm really glad I held off on teaching with the little kids because now I have a nice, energetic and positive way to start my second year.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned my Christmas trip in my blog yet, but we've bought the tickets and will be home Dec 19th-9 Jan. As Dad calls it, it will be the "Winter Concert Tour" for Frieda and I, and i'm super excited to bee-bop around the country.

I'm starting to realize that my second year will probably have much more traveling around Peru than I gave myself in my first year. Dad and Rhonda have already said they want to come and visit, and maybe I can get some more of you fearless travelers to take the leap and come see Peru.

I also want to start a blog discussion if possible. The question I propose is; Should I go to Med-School? Since i'm considering being a nurse, I thought I might as well consider being a doctor as well. Let me know what you think or share any personal stories or ideas, I'd love to hear from you.

Alright, we're about to go and get some lunch so I'll talk to you all later!