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.