Beginnings and Endings of Life

On Friday September 21^st, my host aunt MariLu who lived down the street from us was killed in a car accident. The driver of the car fell asleep on the 3.5 hour drive from Huallanca to Huaraz. My host uncle and two little cousins were also in the car and thankfully everyone else survived.  My 4 year old little host cousin broke his femur in the accident. Aunt MariLu left behind a husband and four children ages 3, 4, 17, and 19. Obviously her death has been and will continue to be a huge tragedy and loss for my Peruvian host family. When a death occurs in small towns in the Sierra of Peru, there are some traditions and customs that are followed. The body is brought in the coffin to the house so that people can spend time mourning over the lost one. For four days our house was filled with hundreds of people mourning the loss of MariLu. We spent hours chopping vegetables, killed five sheep (literally) and made more soup than you’ve ever seen in your life, we cooked rice and potatoes and buttered crackers to serve and made gallons and gallons of instant coffee for all the family and guests. Aunt MariLu’s coffin sat in our house for four days and people cried and mourned and ate food and comforted each other. Our house was full of family, neighbors and people from near and far who came to say goodbye to MariLu. Nobody slept. All night people sat around her coffin and mourned (it was an open casket). People smoked cigarettes, drank alcohol, and chewed cocoa leaves. On the fourth day after her death, family members carried MariLu’s coffin around town so she could “say goodbye” to her town and her house. We paraded around town with the coffin, a band playing sad music and hundreds of people all dressed in black and then entered into the Catholic Church in the plaza where her funeral was held. After the funeral, we paraded up to the cemetery to bury her as hundreds of people crowded around to watch and say goodbye. After seeing the traditions of what a small town in the Sierra does when someone dies, I was really amazed at how so many people dropped their lives and came together to support one another and help our family out. May Aunt MariLu rest in peace and may our family and community members help to raise her little children who are now without a mother.

How the coffin was displayed in our house

Taking her coffin around to say goodbye to Huallanca

Tea my host grandma was drinking that is suppose to cure a "sad heart".

Where we cooked more soup than you could ever imagine for all the people who were at our house for  aunt MariLu's death.

The day after aunt MariLu was killed, my host mom gave birth to my new baby sister, Luciana Cardenas Rojas (They are still deciding on a middle name). Death and birth all in nearly the same day in our family...talk about a mix of emotions! My mom gave birth at the hospital in Huaraz (about 3 hours from Huallanca). I was planning to go to be present at the birth but with everything going on in the family with my host aunt's death, I ended up staying in Huallanca and helping out with the family. My baby sister Luciana is so precious and I am SO excited to be a part of the first two years of her life! 

My baby sister Luciana!

The family excited and meeting the baby for the first time when she came home from the hospital.

My little sister Melany (age 11) meeting her new baby sister for the first time.

Holding Luciana for the first time!

She is so precious :)

I had LOTS of family time during the days that the entire family spent at our house for the death of our aunt

Family time :) I love my host family!!

I understand what you’re saying but I have no idea what you are trying to say…

My first month in Huallanca has been the start of countless meetings with the teachers at the high school, meetings at the government office, and meetings at the health center. I leave 8/10 of these meetings wondering what the heck just happened, what decisions were made, and what the plan is for accomplishing what we discussed in the meeting. It’s not that I don’t understand Spanish or what they are saying. I understand perfectly well what they are saying in Spanish, yet it’s the “organization” of the meeting and the way Peruvians generally go out making plans that tends to leave me completely confused and lost, wondering what the heck is going on. My site mate and I attend most of the meetings together and it makes me feel a little better to know that it’s not just me because he also feels the same way. Right now Tyler (my site mate) and I are collaborating with the local health center to start giving health sessions to the students at both high schools in Hullanca. These sessions will ideally be weekly and will go December. Things could get complicated though because a nationwide teacher strike has just begun due to a new law implemented for Peruvian teachers. We had our first meeting to begin organizing and planning how we are going to go about doing this and Tyler and I left the meeting completely lost and confused about how in the world they plan to go about doing this. Peruvian meetings and decision making are gone about a completely different way than we do it in the US and so I suppose that is why Tyler and I get so confused and lost. Sometimes it seems like Peruvians talk and talk without ever getting a clear point across. Despite not really knowing how the organization of these health sessions will be implemented, I am really excited to start working with the youth in the field of health J

I went to a baptism here in Huallanca for a ten year old girl and there was a party to follow. If it’s one thing I’ve learned in South America it’s that people here love to party and dance and they will use any excuse to do so. This includes baptism parties in which people drink and dance which to me is very interesting because I feel like in the states would usually NOT drink at a baptism party. I always feel awkward when Peruvian men ask me to dance because everyone in the room stares at me (the only gringa) while I dance with an unknown older man who is usually always at least 3 feet shorter than me and I really don’t know how to dance to Peruvian music. I guess I better get used to it!

With the girl who got baptized and my cousin on the right

Also my little sister Melany turned 11 last week and we had a little birthday celebration with most of the extended family in which of course a lot of dancing took place. We are still waiting for my host mom to have her baby! It should be any day now!! 

Dancing at my little sister's bday party

My family...part of them at least :) 

Lots of dancing

My precious cousin Billy who stole my heart the first day I met him.

My other sweet cousin Jair.

Quechua Classes and Glacier Hikes

This entire past week I have been in Huaraz because we had Quechua (the native Peruvian language) classes. The Peace Corps wants the volunteers in Ancash to have extra Quechua classes since we live in an area where a lot of Quechua speakers live. Quechua is a very strange and interesting language that sounds almost Asian to me. And I really suck at it...I am really bad at learning languages. I had to work by butt off to learn Spanish but I was super motivated and I worked really hard and eventually did learn it. So we'll see how this strange Quechua language goes for me!

I do miss Huallanca but it has been really nice to be in Huaraz for a week where the weather is warmer, I have internet, cell service, my Peace Corps friends to hang out with every day, and delicious food at all the great restaurants here. I bought a salad and just about died of happiness to finally consume a green vegetable since in Huallanca we only eat potatoes. It was also SO nice to have cell service to be able to talk to Kaeli, my Peace Corps best friend every day who lives in northern Peru on the coast. In Huallanca I don't have movistar cell service there unless I get really lucky and find service by chance at the top of the church tower after climbing about five sets of rickety latters. Its also so nice to have constant internet and be able to talk to my loved ones back in the states :) HOWEVER, while this "city" life in Huaraz has been nice for the past week, I miss Huallanca and I am ready to go back! I can't wait to see my family and start working with the youth again :) 

Yesterday, a group of 5 of us girls in Ancash went for a beautiful hike to a crystal clear, sky blue lake at the very foot of a glacier. The altitude was at 15,000 ft and we thought we were going to die hiking up the last mountain, but we made it and the view was so worth it :)

I love living in Ancash and being surrounded by the beauty of glaciers and mountains!!! 

The start of the hike

So beautiful!!! 

The view we saw once we made it up the last mountain :) 

Sky blue water

Crystal clear! 

Huallanca Love

My room!! 

View from my patio

More of my room

Being a Peace Corps Volunteer living in a small town is kind of like being somewhat of a celebrity. During training we were told this by current volunteers but it was hard to imagine what that would be like and I didn’t believe them but after living in Huallanca for two weeks now, I now see what they mean.  Everywhere you go people stare at you, want to meet you, want to be your friend, want to know every detail about your life, and everything that you do is heavily observed by those around you and gossiped about. Every day that I work in the high school, I have students tell me things like “Señorita Kendra yesterday I saw you going for a run”, “Last night I saw you talking on your cell phone in the plaza”, “Yesterday I saw you taking pictures by the river with a little girl”, “Yesterday I saw you buying bread with your family”, etc. These were all random moments when I had no idea people were watching me and it made me realize that people here really do watch my every move. This is not something to be excited about because I am not perfect in anyway and the idea of every move I make being observed is kind of scary. I am hoping that once my town gets use to me, they will no longer heavily observe my every move, stare at me everywhere I go, and that they won’t call me “gringa” anymore. Something cool about being such an exciting new attraction is that my site mate and I got interviewed on the local radio station! We talked about why we will be here in Huallanca for the next two years, what the Peace Corps is, and what we plan to do here.

We were interviewed on the local radio station!

My family in Huallanca is wonderful. I am really happy with them and I feel so lucky to get to be a part of their family. They are a HUGE family and I swear we have relatives on every block so everywhere I go I am being introduced to another aunt, uncle or cousin. Everyone in our huge family is so friendly and respectful to me and very interested to talk with me and ask me many questions. It’s really fun to be a part of such a big family because there are always lots of people to hang out with.

My little sister and I...Melany wanted to be just like her big sis and have a Peace Corps shirt so she had a patch sew on to her polo too :) 

My aunt and my cousin that invite me over to eat when my family is out of town :) 

Meet Billy...my wild little cousin who is an every day joy for me. He lives in the house attached to our house and I spend as much time with him as I can because he is so fun and silly. 

Billy's littler sister, my baby cousin Mercedes

At a neighborhood fiesta with my little sis and cousin

For my community diagnostic, I have been initiating formal and informal interviews with teachers, youth, workers in the municipality, the health center, and just about anyone in the community that I get a chance to talk with, asking them all the same questions: “What kind of problems do you feel exist for the youth in Huallanca?” and “What kinds of programs, activities, and workshops do the youth of Huallanca need?”. So far I have interviewed about twenty or so people and I have gotten many different but also similar responses. There are two things that I want to get started very soon: Vocational classes for the high school seniors who are about to graduate as well as classes on recycling and the environment. After talked with a lot of the students, I have noticed that most of the high school seniors have no idea what they are going to do after they graduate in a few months. I have also noticed that people don’t recycle at all let alone even put their garbage in a trash bin. Youth (as well as adults) are constantly throwing garbage in the streets. This is due to a lack of education and a lack of trash bins in public places and it’s definitely something that I want to try to change asap. Of course a big obvious problem is also the teen pregnancy in Huallanca, but I need to start with the smaller things and let the town and the youth get to know me as I gain a reputation, trust, and their confidence before I start teaching youth how to use condoms and birth control and start things like parenting classes. In addition to doing interviews for my community diagnostic, I spent every possible moment in the high school helping out in the English and Tutor classes. I want to spend a lot of time in the classes to get to know the students, and gain their trust. I also want to gain a reputation as being a teacher because then I think people will be even more likely to take me seriously and to respect me. The students love me being in their class and they all cheer and surround me every time I walk into a class room. I am sure that will change once they get use to me but for now it’s nice to feel the love from the students.

Some of my students

More of my students in a different grade

Teaching our own English class (with  my site mate). 

I really do adore Huallanca. I could not have gotten a better site J

Fried Sheep Blood, Zombies, and How to Butcher a Cow

If you have a week stomach when it comes to dead animals, I would advise not reading this post or looking at the pictures. I use to be very bothered by seeing dead animals or animal parts. I was a vegetarian for eight years! …Then I joined the Peace Corps and that had to change.

When I applied for the Peace Corps something that was made very clear during the application process was that no matter what country I was placed in, I would be fed strange food of different animal parts that I would not be use to eating and I had to be willing to give everything a try because in most countries it is very rude to deny food. So coming to Peru, I knew that I would be given strange food, but what I didn’t know is that I would be fed sheep blood because the thought never occurred to me that people eat that as a main course. But yes, yes indeed I was given fried sheep blood as the main course of a meal this week. The thought alone of even putting sheep blood in my mouth made me want to vomit and watching my family eat it at the table made me feel sick. They could tell that I looked very scared and shocked and they all eagerly waited for me to try it. I didn’t think I was going to be able to even try a tiny bite but after a lot of coaxing, I finally did and the whole family watched my face as I took a tiny bite to see my reaction. I honestly hope that I never have to eat it again but I feel like it’s going to happen since my family raved about how delicious it is and how good it is for you and how in addition to sheep blood they also love to eat chicken blood (“la sangrecita del pollo es bien rico!!”).

Sheep blood...it's what's for dinner. 

I can also now tell you the exact step of how to butcher a cow, a sheep and a pig because as I have mentioned in previous posts, literally right by my house is a meat slaughtering/butchering place in which there are many open spaces and everything is very visible (how convenient right?!). I am not going to lie, I burst into tears when I saw them cut the throat of a pig and listened to it scream and squeal as it quickly lost its life. Thankfully, my site mate was right there with me to give me a shoulder to cry on/laugh together about how “oh my god I can’t believe we just saw that happen”. And now every morning at 6 am when I am woken up by the screech of a dying pig, I can picture in my head what it looks like as it dies….pleasant. I wait the day when this will not bother me anymore!

Cow butchering

Pig torching right after they killed it to get the fur off. After the skin is off they cell it on the street just how it is.

Lets just drain all the animal blood and guts into the river where kids play,  people bathe, and wash clothes....great idea. 

Over the weekend all of the Peace Corps Volunteers in Ancash went to our regional capital in Huaraz for our regional Peace Corps meeting. There are about thirty of us volunteers in Ancash. It was fun to get together and get to hang out with everyone as well as stay a weekend in Huaraz and eat good food that doesn’t consist of strange animal body parts. On Friday night we all dressed up as Zombies and went out on the town. We all got really into it and had a lot of fun. It is a tradition for the Peace Corps Volunteers in Ancash to have dress up themed nights out together. The theory is that everyone already stares at the gringos anyway so might as well dress up crazy and have fun even more fun since people will be staring anyway.