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!

A touch too heady for my taste.

After reading a few of my piers’ blogs I realized I was doing a bit too much analyzing and not enough explaining of my service. Of course there is a healthy dose of both, but I feel its time I got back to PC Goal #3, which talks about creating a better understanding of the culture we live with. So with that said, I’d like to start rambling if you’ll permit me...

Like I posted before, we successfully transformed 9, 55 gal. drums into public trash cans to try and help the problem of people throwing trash in the river, (incriminating pictures to come.) I think the most interesting part is now that trash management is being discussed more and more, and the towns people are more and more self-conscious of tossing trash into their water source, that many of the towns people are simply going outside what’s considered the village limits of Miraflores and dumping their trash there; there is some thought process going on that I don’t understand that is making those town members think it better to go a few kilometers to dump trash, then right in their own plaza with the trash cans. It’s some sort of “cultural, barrier analysis” thing that the PC office just loves to talk about and is the buzz word in development work, but to me it’s just the slow process of breaking bad habits. But overall there are several people in my town that are really motivated about getting this trash management system off the ground; one of the most important is the town’s mayor. He actually approached me about creating a community landfill, and we’re hoping to have it completed by this month! Score one for the environment and the river! But keep in mind I did just see a newly posted propaganda sign for the mayor as he intends to run again for the next term, and so we can unwittingly assume it’s more of a political move to say he’s completed this project than anything, but in this case I guess I can look past the means to the end.

As I said before there are several other motivated individuals, another one of them being Sra. Orivia. She and I, (her being the invited community partner because she is part of the Municipality Board,) went to a Peace Corps sponsored seminar in Trujillo, Peru about environmental projects and small donations for projects. During the seminar and especially afterwards, she kept pulling me aside to tell me her thoughts and ideas and what projects she wants to start in Miraflores! Score one for more sustainable community development!

My environmental/English class is doing okay, I get about 5-7 kids that come pretty regularly. I’m actually pretty proud with how much about environmental topics they already know, and how easy it makes it to talk about protecting the environment. I’m a firm believer that this information that we give the students sinks in somewhere in their mind grapes, and the hope is that after the hormones level out in their brain a bit they will actually be able to apply some of the stuff we are teaching them; but isn’t that the hope of any teacher of adolescents across the globe!

Miraflores also received a new Agro-Pecuaria teacher, (Agro-pecuraria is pretty much like 4-H), who is full of newcomer’s motivation and has plans to build a green-house in the school. We’ve also developed a tree planting idea where each kid will plant 6-10 trees for points. Pretty much 6 trees are the minimum amount of points to pass and 10 trees is an “A”. After spending as much time with the kids as I have I can only imagine we’ll be seeing a lot of 6er’s, but there are a few kids who I know will step up to the 10 mark. I think the biggest problem with trying to promote environmentally conscious students here in Miraflores is that the majority all know (or hope) that they will just leave after grado sexto, which is their equivalent to high-school, to look for work in the city. The thing is, is that when I first arrived all of the grado sexto students left after promotion, and at least 4 of the 7 have returned already; some with kids! So for now, 6 trees per kid is just fine, the trees should have some good growth on them by the time they come back from the city.

On a personal note, I have to admit I’m growing more and more sad as we march towards November, because in November all of my fellow Yauyos volunteers that were here one year before me will be leaving. Of course I’m excited to get to know a whole new group of volunteers after then, but it kind of sucks to think I couldn’t do the full two years with one group and form some really strong bonds.

We are also approaching the rainy season again, which means more grass for the cows and the start of planting season! I’ve pretty much seen the full circle of the subsistence living here, from planting to harvesting, and its pretty neat to know that this process has pretty much been doing its thang’ since the time of the Incans. Now, if only I can find some tools that are a bit more my size, I might be a bit more inclined to spend more hours in the fields ; )

Once again, I hope you are all safe, happy and healthy, and I’ll check back in soon.

Looking back on a year.

I’m about one week from when I left for the Peace Corps, one year ago. Its like a birthday in a way, except at this birthday I actually have a good response if someone asks me, “how do you feel to be one year older.” I would say I feel fairly accomplished with my service thus far. With my community, we’ve made public trash cans, planted hundreds of trees, and even dug an irrigation canal on the side of a mountain just to get water to them. I’ve given classes of English and Environment, and with the students we’ve dug mico-landfills, started composting, and we’ve even begun separating the trash at the school and saving our recyclables. I’m completing my goals as an Environmental Volunteer and I’m very impressed with how far my Spanish has come. So overall, my spirits are high...atleast as far as my projects go.

But another part of having the earth complete another circuit around the sun and watching a year tick by, is gaining more knowledge and perspective than the year before. As my Spanish improves I’m able to have more in-depth conversations with Peruvians, and I’m truly starting to see the true nature of their hearts and minds. I’m seeing that they are proud of their country, but can’t see how to develop their country without outside help. They see the USA as the end of all means, and if its not given to them it may not be worth trying to get. I see radical Peruvians tired of being exploited by outside organizations, and I see placid Peruvians being ungrateful and selfish with the help that is given to them – and of course all manners of people in between. I’m starting to see the subtle undertone of suspicion when I say I’m from “Cuerpo de Paz” or “Body of Peace” when you directly translate it, which sometimes acts as another reminder of the “Cuerpos de pacificación” that came into their towns and “pacified” the “terrorists” during the 80’s and 90’s. I’m seeing that, like everything in life, even just giving your time with the best of your intentions isn’t even immune to the blending of black and white. Its not that I’m questioning development work, I’m wondering about the history of where its been and where it will go into the future. I’m wondering about what the free-handout does today to the people of tomorrow. I’m also just simply wondering if working in the health field would be a more satisfying way to help people instead of environment work, (if you ever get to see the blank stares you get when trying to describe the importance of reducing our carbon footprint to a rural community of Peruvians, you’ll know what I mean.) I guess it’s a good thing that I’m thinking about it, I think that means I still care.

So as I complete my Peace Corps Birthday this September 11 (yes, we left on 9/11 last year,) I want to say what I’m thankful for and give birthday wishes. I’m thankful for the beautiful site that I live in, I’m thankful for the extremely motivated community members, and I’m thankful for just being able to help-out now and then and have this experience and give a positive representation to Peruvians on behalf of the USA. I wish that the projects will keep coming, I wish that I Peru will eventually brew a decent beer, and I wish that all of you back home stay safe, happy, and healthy and I can’t wait to see you at Christmas!!!

Photos are just easier!

So here's one of the projects we've been working on finishing and finally completed last week! We slowly obtained enough 50 gal. drums to sand down and paint to use for trash cans in our town. We made three of "organics", three of "inorganics", and three more of "recyclables." Even though it took about two months to get everything together, the REALLY long part will be starting the presentations with my town teaching them what the differences are between the three catagories, and, hopefully, getting them into the habit of using them. The first photo is my very first presentation I gave; one down, who knows how many more to go!

Let’s slow it down a notch.

So I’m not going to lie, its gotten slow here in Miraflores. Mostly because after the rapid fire succession of being in-site for a week then out-of-site for a week for almost two months time seems to turn into molasses when I’m not looking to leave site for almost two or three weeks at a time. Granted we have “La Feria” (Fair) coming up next week where I should be able to see exhibitions of local food, customs, and dancing, and we also have Fiestas Patrias coming up at the end of the month, which should give me something to count down to. And honestly each day brings a new experience still so I shouldn’t really complain about time moving to slow, but there are days when your only plan is to sit and read a magazine in the sun because everyone is at their farms. I’m sure these slow days will be something I look back on when I’m surrounded by floresent lighting and irate bosses and wish I was back in Peru, so I’m taking them all in, enjoying them as they come, and reminding myself that this is just as much a part of Peace Corps as the days when you can barely get a meal in because it seems the few 300 people in my town all seem to realize they need you for something!

My town is in the dry season right now, and we’ve finished harvesting all the crops, so in general we’re in kind of a down season. But its okay because its also the time for one of the biggest fiestas which should be coming up in August. My school is also planning on building a fuel-efficient, smokeless stove called a “cocina mejorada” literally meaning “better stove” and I’m hoping other people in my town will show an interest and I can help them build their own. The problem I run into though since we have a big NGO working here in the region is that when you propose a project the families aren’t really keen on supplying the materials themselves since they are so used to the NGO just supplying things for them. It’s a hard habit to break, and I’m afraid unless I put up some of the materials nothing will really take off the ground, so its an obstacle I’ll just have to overcome.

Overall I’m still happy and healthy, staying warm and still eating way to many potatoes. Frieda and I are still happy as ever. We are “Peace Corps Dating” which means we see each other every few weeks and hopefully can send the occasional email or have a phone call hoping there’s electricity or a good signal. Her and I are planning on hitting the US Circuit Tour this Christmas and taking vacation together to visit each other’s homes, so I’m looking forward to introducing her to all you guys back home! Other than that all I have to say is no matter how slow time seems to be passing its hard to believe I’ll have been in Peru for one year in about two months!

I hope all is well back home, send me some emails some time, I love you all.