Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Site visit!

I am already in love with my site, the beautiful small town of Huallanca, Bolognesi, Ancash!! Huallanca sits in a small valley nestled among the gorgeous mountains in the Sierra. It takes about four hours to get there on the bus from the capital city Huaraz. The bus ride to Huallanca is STUNNING. The entire bus ride there my nose was pressed to the window as I stared out the window with mouth open and eyes wide in awe of the beautiful mountains, streams, rivers, lakes and picturesque views. After seeing only mountains, huts made of straw and rock, and indigenous farmers tending to their sheep , you suddenly turn a corner and there is cute little Huallanca. The town has a very small feel and within a few days I already felt acquainted to it. I can’t wait to explore it more and get to know as many people as I can and build relationships with the locals!

The day before heading to Huallanca, we had what the Peace Corps calls “socio day” in Huaraz. The Peace Corps sets us up with “socios” who are counterparts from our community that we will work with during our two years. They are people like school directors, nurses from the local health post, and people who work at the local municipality. Our socios will be a huge resource for us and a big “in” to the community. I had four socios show up from my community for socio day and all day we talked about what the Peace Corps is and we made plans for my first few weeks in the community. After spending the day with them, we took the bus to Huallanca and I saw it for the first time and stayed for the rest of the week. I spent a lot of time with my nurse socio who I can already tell is going to be a HUGE resource for me. At the health center, she primarily works with pregnant woman and infants and I can’t wait to partner with her to start support groups and nutrition classes for young moms. Never in my life have I seen so many pregnant young women and babies EVERYWHERE! It was shocking! I also spent a lot of time with the people who work at the municipality and a few of them even gave me a tour of the town. My socios already seem awesome! Everyone is so welcoming and excited to work with me! I feel so lucky to be in such a beautiful town with such awesome people to work with!

I got to meet my new host family when I was in Huallanca as well! I didn’t stay with them because they were leaving for vacation (I stayed with my nurse socio) but I did get to meet them and see the house and my room. Something shocking for me is the amount of money they seem to have…for my Peace Corps living experience, I was hoping for something rustic and simple. Like dirt floors, an adobe house, a hole in the ground for a toilet, etc. Instead of this, I am pretty sure my family is the wealthiest family in the town! We’re talking a big and fancy modern house, a flat screen TV, a brand new SUV, and even a WASHING MACHINE! This is not what I was expecting at all and to be honest I am a little bit disappointed because I wanted something very different from the way I live in the states. I also don’t want the people in my community to think “oh of course the white girl is living with the richest family in town”. However, the family seems very sweet and I know that I will get along with them very well and when it comes down to it that is what’s most important.

My site mate Tyler also really enjoyed our visit to Huallanca and we are both really excited to move there and get settled and started on our work. Tyler and I agreed that we will only speak in Spanish to each other when we are in our site. Now let me tell you, it is a bit odd to speak with another American in Spanish 24/7 but we agreed to this for several reasons the first being that I did not come all the way to Peru to speak in English with other Americans. The best way for language to improve is to speak only that language all the time and I don’t want to jeopardize my Spanish skills. Another reason that we don’t want to speak in English while in our site is because it would seem pretty darn rude to the locals of the community if we walked through town speaking English.

This Friday those of us who have made it through training and have decided that being a Peace Corps volunteers is really what we want to dedicate ourselves to for the next two years swear in as an official Peace Corps volunteers at the US embassy in Lima!! The next day we will all get on buses and move to our different sites all over Peru. That means this week we are finishing up training, saying goodbye to our host families and saying goodbye to each other. It is all very bitter sweet. I am super sad about having to part ways with my best friend Kaeli who has become my other half and my biggest support system over these past ten weeks. She is moving to the north of Peru to Piura and we will be about a 16 hour bus ride away from each other.  And it doesn’t help that I don’t get cell service in my site so we won’t be able to talk on the phone very often L

These past ten weeks have been a mixture of every possible emotion and while I am sad to say goodbye to my host family here in Lima and my wonderful volunteer friends that I have been in training with, I am so excited to get to my site and begin life as an official volunteer!!  Here’s to two amazing and challenging years!!! 

A German friend of mine who I met while traveling in Ecuador  a year ago happened to be in Huaraz at the same time as me and we were able to hang out!!  It was so great to see her and to reminisce about Ecuador! 

On a small hike to a view that overlooks Huaraz

All of the new volunteers who will be living in Ancash for the next 2 years! We all did the small hike together.

Huaraz



All the new volunteers ready for socio day!

With my socios and my site mate on socio day! One is the director at one of the local high school, a worker  in the municipality, a dentist, and a nurse all from Huallanca.

On the drive to Huallanca all you see are mountains, huts and farm animals.



Huallanca!!

With my favorite socio (a nurse) who has already taken me under her wing and will be an amazing resource for me in the community. I stayed at her house during site visit. 

Cute little Huallanca



My site mate Tyler and I

One of the schools in Huallanca

Downtown area

The plaza

My house in Huallanca! Its so big and nice right?!

With my cousin (left) and my little sister (right)

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