First visit to downtown Lima

Last weekend, our Peace Corps language teachers took us to downtown Lima to explore. Even though we live right outside of Lima, we live in smaller suburb cities so this was our first time to explore actual Lima. First, they took us the “El Centro Historico” (the historic section of downtown). Don’t think that I am a stuck up snob for saying this, but honestly, I was not that impressed with Lima’s historic downtown. I only say this because I spent six months in Quito, Ecuador which is a city known to have the most beautiful historic downtown in all of South America. So it was with reason that I was not super impressed by Lima’s historic downtown. Quito’s historic downtown is truly stunning with its breathtaking plazas, statues, churches with amazing views of the whole city, quaint shops and restaurants, and so much more. I can just picture myself in Quito walking down the cobble stone streets, through the plazas, in awe of all the beauty around me while always having site of my favorite enormous statue miles away of some virgin saint that overlooks the whole city. Quito is also in the Sierra mountain range so it is surrounded by gorgeous mountains…I get homesick for Quito just thinking about it. But ok sorry, enough about Quito! As I mentioned, Lima is on the ocean and so there are some beautiful ocean views from certain parts of town. But in my opinion, nothing is as beautiful as being surrounded by mountains. The ocean views of Lima can be seen from a part of town called “Miraflores”. We spent the second part of our day in this section of town. Miraflores is the uppity, yuppity, touristy part of Lima. It’s the part of town where you can walk through and literally forget that you are in Peru at all and subconsciously think you are in the US. It is a beautiful part of town, but quite frankly it also disgusts me a little bit. To see e the mall on the waterfront, all the American fast food restaurants and American name brand shopping stores kind of makes my heart sad.  But I guess we live in a material obsessed world and so these parts of town exist in every country. I will be headed back to this section of town to meet up with a good friend from college who is currently in Lima! I am bringing my fifteen year old host sister and we are going to hang out for the day. It will be fun to see a friend of mine from the states!!

Here are some photos from our visit to Lima:

The heart of the historic downtown section of Lima

Our Spanish class in a coffee shop right down the street from the Peruvian white house

The Peruvian white house

At the water from in Miraflores

Miraflores waterfront shopping center

JFK statue honoring him for starting the Peace Corps 51 years ago!

Every day is an adventure!

One reason why I love living abroad while integrating yourself into the community is that every day is a new adventure full of new experiences. I am sure that once I have been living here in Peru for a year or so, it won't feel like that as much. But for now it sure does and I love it :)

For example, last night some other volunteers and I went to a festival that was happening in a nearby community. We took the public bus there and then five of us had to take this tiny “moto-taxi” ride in the dark through all these bumpy roads and we had no idea where in the heck we were even going. We arrived to this hole in the wall festival that started at 11pm and went on until 6am! It was full of dancing, live music and fire shows. People here sure know how to party and have a good time! And when I say party, I don't mean that everyone gets drunk and goes crazy because that's not what its about. It's about hanging out with your friends, family and neighbors, dancing (there is always a lot of dancing), and just enjoying life!

Then there are the every day adventures like riding the public bus, exploring the neighborhood, always meeting new people, trying new food, spending time with your host family, learning new words in Spanish, playing soccer with local kids, or whatever it may be! As long as you are putting your self out there to explore new things and learn about the culture, then every day is an adventure!

Last week, we went to a local school to give presentations on different subjects. I presented with two other volunteers and our topic was values! We gave three, half hour long presentations to three different groups of students. The Peace Corps wants to give us as much practice on presenting to youth as possible before we get placed in our permanent sites!

Today I went to the local school for an exposition that the students put together on the food and traditions of the different regions of Peru. It was so much fun! The kids were all dressed up in traditional clothing from the different provinces in Peru and the mom’s had helped prepare food from each region that we could buy for lunch. Peru is such a vibrant and colorful country with so much cultural diversity and pride! My heart sings just being here and being able to try to integrate myself into this amazing culture.

I really adore the Peruvian family that I am living with and I am really enjoying my time with them. They genuinely want me to be happy here and unlike the family that I lived with in Ecuador, they aren’t using me just to get money that the Peace Corps is paying them. They want me to live with them for the cultural exchange experience and it is so refreshing. Something really sweet is that my 15 year old sister and I have become really close. We spend a lot of time together when I am home and my mom says that when I am not home she is always asking about me when I will be back. A few mornings ago at like 4am she came into my room and said “Sis, I can’t sleep. Can I come in?” And she got into my bed and cuddled up to try to fall asleep. Sooo cute. She has had a lot of body image trouble and even an eating disorder in the past recent years so I am really trying to be a good example for her and show her that a woman can take care of her body, eat healthy and exercise but that is should not be an obsession.

Here are some random photos from the last week:

(soon to come, photos from our excursion to downtown Lima that the Peace Corps took us on yesterday!)

My Peruvian parents and I!

At the school where we presented

One of the groups of students that I presented to

Mom, this is for you! A heart shaped fruit! My mom loves natural objects that are shaped like hearts :)

A street dog that we pass every day on our way to training.  This dog is so funny looking and cute! always makes me laugh :)

A dog who like to protect us volunteers and walks us to the bus stop every day. One time he got in a fight with another dog that was bothering me and another girl.

At the school presentation of food and culture from the different regions of Peru!

My sweet friend Gissel :) She lives in my neighborhood. 

Trying new food!

Barbies dressed up in indigenous clothes? Yes please.

Why I love the market!

The street markets in Latin America is an aspect and similarity of the culture that I’ve appreciated in all three Latin American countries that I’ve lived in this far. I could go to a market here for hours without even buying anything and be completely satisfied just observing all that is going on around me. There is a street market about ten minutes down the road (by bus) from me in a town called Chosica. Last week, we took a trip to the market and I was reminded why I love the street markets down in Latin America: the colors of the different food, fruits and vegetables and the colors of the brightly colored fabrics of the different clothing being sold, the life and vibrancy that you feel just being there and walking through, the interesting aspect of any and every type of animal body part hanging out in the open, the mothers and children walking through to buy their weekly groceries, the families ranging from young children to older grandparents who are working there selling their products, trying to make a living, the social aspect of people hanging out and just getting a bite to eat while catching up on the latest news of the town, and the lovely chaos  and unorganized matter of it all. Going to the market here makes me feel so alive and happy and thankful to be where I am.

The only aspect of going to the market that I don’t appreciate is constantly having the prices jacked up so high for me because they see that I am white. Sometimes they even jack up the prices for locals that I am with. When I went to the market with my mom and sister last week, I wasn’t even buying anything but just because people saw that my family was with a gringa, they raised the prices even for them assuming that they had money because they had an American with them.  So if I start posting photos of me looking drastically different and very Peruvian, don’t be surprised because some days I truly do feel like dying my hair black, using dark brown colored contacts, and using fake tanner just so I don’t stand out so much and have people make assumptions about me…okay so that might be exaggerating a little bit but sometimes I really do feel like dying my hair black at least! In the states, people of color are discriminated against simply for the color of there skin so for me it is just a small taste of what it feels like to be judged for the way you were born. 

Here are some photos from the local market:

Different spices!

One row of the market

I love the colors!

If you look closely you can see all parts of the pig including the face, hoof, skin, lungs, kidneys, intestines, and just about any other part imaginable. 

There is even a set of teeth in there!

My sister and I at the plaza outside of the market.

Weekend Fun

Over the weekend there was a father's day celebration performance put on by the elementary school that is right by my house. It was so cute and fun to see!! Here in Latin America they really make a big deal about every holiday and celebrate it to the max with dances, fiestas, decorations, food and getting family together. It is something that I have really enjoyed about every Latin American country that I have lived in. Here are some photos of the dance performance and me with some kids I met at the dance:

Singing the Peruvian national anthem before the dance began.

Too precious!

I was lucky enough to get a dance with this handsome guy ;)

Just look at him!!

Over the weekend I also learned how to do laundry. Everything is washed by hand so it’s a lot of work! It takes hours and hours, especially if you have a big family. Every Sunday my mom spends at least half the day washing clothes. I would also like to say that I am planning on just getting use to looking generally unattractive for the next two years here in Peru.  I had brought a hair dryer and hair straightener to use on special occasions. I tried to blow-dry and straighten my hair on Friday night when I went out dancing with friends…the blow dryer exploded about ten seconds after plugging it in and my staightener also blew a fuse or something so now neither of my hair electronics work.  I guess the electricity watts here are different and couldn’t handle the high wattage in my blow dryer and straightener. It was quite frightening to turn on my hair dryer and have it basically catch on fire in my hand and it made my room spell horrible! I was planning on trying to look decent every once in a while, but now that’s not even an option, haha! Going out with a big group of Peace Corps volunteers was a lot of fun! There was a group of like twenty of us and we all went to a club and basically just had a big Peace Corps dance party. We all had so much fun just dancing the night away, being silly and getting out all the stress from our first week of training. The club we went to played pretty much all of the same songs that they would play at the clubs in Ecuador when I lived there.  Reggaeton, bachata, salsa, etc. Needless to say, I was a happy girl because it brought back so many memories of Ecuador for me and I just love Latino music! A lot of things in Peru remind me of Ecuador because there are a lot of similarities between the two neighboring countries. But at the same time, Peru is a whole new country to me with so much to explore and learn! The possibilities are endless here in Peru is so many different ways and I am so excited!! 

Some of the PC friends I went out dancing with on Friday

That awkward moment when...

That awkward moment when your friend suddenly gets terrible diarrhea and you are both locked outside of her host families house...and when I say awkward moment I mean hilarious moment. At least for me because I wasn't the one with the problem! A few days ago a fellow PC volunteer and I went for a run after training. After our run we went back to her host families house so that she could change her clothes because we were planning to go out with the rest of the group that night. When we got home we realized that we were locked out of her house and that no one was home. Right after we realized that we were locked out she was suddenly like..."oh my gosh I need to use the bathroom right now. I have diarrhea and if I move at all I think it might run down my leg!"...She must have eaten something bad and it suddenly caught up to her. We ended up being locked out of her house for about an hour while just waiting outside. My poor friend!! We kept joking about how she was for sure going to be the first to poop her pants and it was only week one here in Peru! She didn't want to go knocking on the neighbors doors asking to use their bathroom because we are "suppose to integrate into the community" and she didn't want to be that weird gringa with bad diarrhea desperately needing a bathroom and making a weird impression. She was a great sport about it and sure did give me a good laugh because we were cracking jokes about the situation the whole time. She even had me record photos and videos of her because it was such a funny moment (or a funny hour I guess since we were waiting outside of her house for so long) and she wanted to show her friends and family so they would get a good laugh out of it. She is a really positive person which I think is such an important quality for a Peace Corps volunteer. She doesn't speak a lot of Spanish at all and things have been more difficult for her because of that but she always has a good attitude...even when she gets locked out her house with diarrhea!! Ahhh the things that happen to Peace Corps volunteers.

Locked out when nature is REALLY calling

Her "I gotta go but I'm locked out of the house" face.

My first birthday in Peru!

I recently had my 22nd birthday in Peru. My first of three birthdays in Peru! I thought that having my birthday the first week that I got to Peru would be sad because I wouldn't really be close with anyone or know anyone here very well but it was actually a very lovely birthday. My Spanish class surprised my with a cake and a cute little celebration on the back porch of the training center :) It was very sweet!! After training later in the day, about twenty people came out with me to get a beer to celebrate my birthday and then my family had a special birthday dinner for me! Getting birthday emails did make me a little homesick thinking about and missing all my wonderful friends and family in the states but it really was a lovely birthday and I am blessed to already have a wonderful community of friends who are already like family here (my fellow PC volunteers) and a great Peruvian family that I am living with!

With my Spanish teacher at my birthday celebration during training.

My little surprise birthday celebration with my Spanish class

The cute card they gave me!

The sign the Peace Corps staff put up on the entrance door at the training cener: "Happy birthday Kendra Pittman"

Joy-filled to be living in Peru :)

With my Peruvian family on my birthday! I am at least a foot taller than each of them. 

About to have a beer with some friends!

My host sisters and I!

Training

It's only been two days of training and already we are all exhausted! We have an enormous amount of material to learn in only ten weeks before we start our two years of service. Today we started to learn about Youth Development in Peru and how we will be implementing that in our communities. We will be working with youth in our two year communities in the areas of "family life and health", "the world of work", and "active citizenship". So like I said, we have a ton to learn about the Peruvian culture, politics, and the best methods to go about youth development here in Peru. Obviously we can't just march into a community and try to take over as though our methods are the best. That is not how the Peace Corps works. Which is why we have such intensive training about culturally integrating ourselves into the community and collaborating with the local resources.

As I mentioned in my last post, I was placed in the highest level Spanish class which I found out in class yesterday means that I am basically in the Spanish class that has all the volunteers who are native speaker...shoot. When I found that out I was a bit intimidated because I am in class with people who grew up speaking Spanish in the home. But then I realized that our class is actually a lot more relaxed than the classes that are at low levels because they have a lot of pressure to drastically improve so that they can do their job and communicate. If they don't make it to a certain level by the end of the training then they won't be able to be sworn in as a volunteer. So I am glad to not have that kind of pressure on me but I still really do want to improve my Spanish even more!

So now for a bit of a strange topic for the general public but a topic that seems very normal in the Peace Corps world because of all the digestive problems volunteers in third world countries tend to get. Yesterday the Peace Corps Peru doctors came to give us a presentation on diarrhea and how we're all going to get it basically all the time and how we will probably all poop our pants at least once because it happens to pretty much every Peace Corps volunteer....oh joy. Being an American who is use to high sanitation standards, it is easy for us to get bacteria problems in our digestive systems. I never had these kinds of poop/diarrhea issues when I lived in Mexico and Ecuador and the two time that I did eat something bad in Ecuador, my body went into vomit mode for a few hours and then I was okay. So I am hoping that means I have a stronger stomach and that I will be one of the lucky volunteers who avoids pooping their pants. Some of the volunteers in our group have already been  having digestive problems, poor things! We keep joking about who is going to be the first to poop their pants. The doctors said we should make a bet on it and put in money. Hahaha ohhh the life of a Peace Corps volunteer. The doctors gave us this huge med kit that has every medical supply in it that we could ever need for almost anything under the sun. And if we have an unlimited supply of this stuff so all we have to do is ask for more if we run out.

Cambiando de tema, I still adore my host family. I'm glad that they have had volunteers live with them before because it makes it easier for them to understand that I don't want to eat heaps of rice and potatoes and that I like to exercise and drink a lot of water (all unusual things for Peruvians).  Every day, my host mom sends me with a lunch that she made in a lunch box. All of the host mom's do this for each volunteer and we've enjoyed feeling like we are in elementary school again. Especially when our parents took us to the training center on our first day. How cute! The weather here in Lima is very pleasant! It is very hot and sunny during the day and cooler in the morning and at night. It isn't humid or uncomfortably hot but the sun is very strong. My current least favorite part of the day is showering...it's so cold!!! I better get use to it though! Last night, some of the volunteers in my neighborhood got together to play soccer with some of the local boys. Its moments like playing soccer with the little Peruvian boys that really melts my  heart and makes me really appreciate where I am!

My on the first day of training with the lunch box that my host mom send me with every day.

At the training center during lunch break with a fellow volunteer  named Kaeli.

My Host Family and Neighborhood for the Next 10 weeks!

When the retreat ended, we were brought to the Peace Corps Peru training center right outside of Lima. The training center is located in a smaller town right outside of Lima called It is a very beautiful little building where we will be spending about forty hours a week Monday-Friday for the next ten weeks getting trained in language proficiency, safety and security, technical job training, and some other stuff that I've been told a million times but really can’t remember.  After arriving, we were split into groups based on our Spanish levels (we previously had conversational interviews so they could determine our Spanish level) which determines which neighborhood we get placed. The Spanish levels are beginner, intermediate and advanced. I was placed into the advanced Spanish level which means that they placed me into the neighborhood that is the farthest away.  They want to place the beginning Spanish speakers in neighborhoods as close to the training center as possible since communicating about getting there if they have to take a bus would be more difficult.  My neighborhood is called “Yanacoto” and it is about a 15 minute bus ride to the training center. Yanacoto seems to be on the side of a large dirt hill/mountain type thing. When I get off the bus I have to walk up for about 10 minutes until I get to my house. I don’t mind the walking because I’ll take all the exercise I can get! There are 12 other volunteer that live in my neighborhood which will be nice so that we can take the bus together or study together. For those of you who know me know that I love to go for jogs and exercise. My neighborhood isn't very jogging friendly but there are several big sets of stairs and today I went out to run stairs. I went right when it was getting dark and I felt totally safe. This is a very safe neighborhood. Don't picture me living in downtown Lima because that's definitely not what it is. It feels like a very small more secluded community on a  hill with dirt roads surrounded by hill/mountain things that look like big mounds of dirt. Sorry I'm not very good at describing the scenery around here but you'll see photos below!

My family consists of:

Mom-Aide

Dad-Fredy

Sister (21 years old)-Isabel

Brother (17 years old)-Fredy

Sister (15 years old)-Mercedes

I love them already! After just one day, I already can tell that I have been blessed with a wonderful family. I first of all want to say that my family calls me by "Kennie" which is think is pretty stinkin' cute. My dad picked me up at the training center by himself while my mom was at home cooking lunch for our arrival. I was impressed that the dad actually picked me up because in my experience with Latin American families, the dad isn’t usually that involved with stuff like that at all. My dad is a very sweet little man who I have already had some great conversations with. My host mom seems to be a little bit shyer than him but she seems very sweet also. It seems like she will open up more as we get to know each other better. My parents work at the private school in the local neighborhood which is actually right next door to our house and my host dad started the school about five years ago. So they both work as the directors of the school. My dad is the head hancho owner man of the school and in addition to being the director my mom is also a math teacher in the high school. It is a small school and there are only about 80 students in total from kindergarten-seniors in high school. My 15 year old host sister talked about having her mom be her math teacher and how sometimes she’ll raise her hand and be like “Teacher can you help me with this” and her friends will say “Don’t call her teacher, call her mom!!” and then her mom will say “I’ll help you with that in the house, let me help these other students now.” Hahaha I got a kick out of that. I already really adore both of my host sisters! Isabel, the older sister, took me for a walk around the neighborhood today and we had a really great conversation about so many things. She is a very intelligent, mature person with a great heart who is studying sociology at the most competitive university in Peru. We talked about how we both see ourselves as humanitarians rather than any religious label and how we believe it is important to keep an open mind with everything and not see the world as black and white.  She really seems like an awesome person that I can’t wait to get to know even better. My 15 year old host sister is adorable and spent the majority of the day sitting on my bed chatting with me about everything as I unpacked my stuff. I am so thankful that I speak Spanish well because it really makes it so that I can get to know my host family very well and it just makes life here in general so much easier. I’ve definitely already done my time of the awkwardness of living with native Spanish speakers and not being able to speak the language at all literally learning word for word day by day slowly but surely (when I lived at the orphanage in Mexico and my first few weeks living in Ecuador) and I am so glad that I am where I am today with my Spanish. ALL MY HARD WORK HAS PAID OFF!!! Of course my Spanish isn't perfect and there is definitely still room for improvement which is why I am glad that I will be taking 10 weeks of Spanish class five hours a day five days a week with the Peace Corps. I have been told that language training with the Peace Corps is some of the best language training in the world so my Spanish will only get better! Tomorrow training classes begin and will go M-F 8am-5pm. 

The people who live in my neighborhood waiting for our host families to arrive!

Part of the beautiful Peace Corps Peru training center

Some of our luggage as we waited for our host families to arrive

Waiting at the training center for our host families to arrive

Meeting my host dad for the first time when he came to pick me up! Isn't he just  adorable?

My house for the next 10 weeks

My neighborhood

A view of my neighborhood

With my 21 year old host sister Isabel on a walk through the neighborhood

More  photos to come of the rest of my host family and my bedroom!!
Also, remember that this is not the family that I will have or where I will be living when I do my two years of service. This is only where  will be for the next 10 weeks as I complete the required Peace Corps training. Once training is completed, I will be sent to a different part of Peru where I will be doing my two years of service.