German Cyclists in Huallanca

 A few weeks ago I had the chance to meet two German cyclists who stopped through Huallanca. The story of their amazing cycling adventure is something that I would really love to share because it’s so awesome and inspiring. 

Huallanca rarely gets any kind of tourists. Any time a white person comes through town it seems like people talk about it for days and everyone stares and wants to know what they are doing here. That’s how I was able to spot the two German cyclists when they were walking through downtown Huallanca. Their names are Felix and Karl and they are in their mid-twenties. Thirteen months ago they flew from Berlin to Alaska to begin a year and a half long cycling adventure that would begin in Alaska and end at the Southern tip of Argentina. Thus far in their journey they have ridden their bicycles from Alaska to Peru!! They've ridden through Alaska, Canada, various US states on the Western side, many places in Mexico, ever country in Central America, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and they aren't done yet! Imagine!! They told me many of the stories of their adventures on the road and its been an incredible journey for them full of meeting amazing people, seeing amazing sights, camping, and lots of miles put on their bicycles. 

They had a free day to kill in Huallanca so I asked them if they wanted to come to a class with me to share their story with some of my students. They came to a class with me and my students loved it! My students don't get exposed to many people who do a lot of traveling so it was really fun for them to talk to these to guys from Germany who have been traveling on their bicycles for the past thirteen months. 

Himilaya

There is a youth dance group here in Huallanca who call themselves “Himilaya”. They choreograph their own dances and perform in competitions. All of the youth in this dance group are students of mine and thankfully I was able to watch them dance in a competition last week in the next town over! After practicing for months (I went to some of their practices to watch), they competed amongst about twenty other groups and they took second place! I was SO proud of them! They danced beautifully in gorgeous costumes and I am so glad that I was able to be there to support them because most of their parents didn’t go to the performance.

Here are some photos of their beautiful dance and of them in costume:

Right when they walked on stage and were about to start the dance

Mid dance!

Dancing beautifully!

After the dance so happy and proud :)

I am so proud of them!

Sonrisas Peruanas

I spent this past weekend in Huaraz with Jerry (a Peruvian dentist friend of mine from Lima) helping him with his NGO called "Sonrisas Peruanas" (Peruvian Smiles). With Sonrisas Peruanas, a small group of dentists and volunteers travel around to different parts of Peru to work with children in communities with limited economical resources. They perform free dental care on children, teach them how to care for their teeth, and  give them free dental supplies. Many people in Peru (especially rural areas)  have never been to the dentist, and do not even own a tooth brush and therefore do not have the most healthy teeth. A healthy smile is crucial for not only over all health but also self-esteem which is why NGOs like Sonrisas Peruanas in developing countries are important! 

To see more photos of Sonrisas Peruanas in action working around different parts of Peru, visit their facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/sonrisas.peruanas.5

You can also watch this short youtube video that has a few clips of Sonrisas Peruanas in action!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeSqD5UvBqQ

Putting fluoride on the kids teeth 

The group of kids we worked with on the first day

Jerry and I 

Some of the little girls we worked with who I fell in love with...so cute!!!

The small health post where we worked the second day

Loving on children is my favorite thing in the world to do :)

Trips to el Campo (the country side)

Huallanca is a small town in the middle of nowhere hours away from what feels like any other kind of civilization. But there are communities outside of Huallanca that are even more in the middle of nowhere and are much smaller. These communities are where people who farm for a living generally live. It is also where most of the indigenous Peruvian who speak Quechua live. Compared to Huallanca, these communities can feel like another world with a much higher lever of poverty, mal-nourished children, and illiteracy. This past week I went out to two different communities on different days with the health center to help check up on the nutrition of children and give health sessions. The two different communities are each about an hour driving distance from Huallanca and are very small towns of about 100-200 people. Most people who live there rarely go to Huallanca because the only means of transportation they have is either by foot or by horse. In both of these communities, there is an elementary school but no high school meaning that youth who live there either stop attending school after elementary, or they rent a room in Huallanca during the week and live by themselves to attend the high school (they often end up getting into trouble and not actually attending class). On both days that I went to the two different communities, moms came with their children and many of them walked hours from their homes to get to the health post where we were meeting them. Since people in these communities work on farms, most of them live wayyyy out in literally the middle of nowhere and their closest neighbor is an hour walking distance away. Indigenous woman and youth tend to be much shyer and less likely to trust an outsider due to past and current situations of people trying to change their culture and not being able to trust outsiders (ex. The Spaniards or people with money and of more modern traditions who want to change their ways or take their land).

Babies in el campo are always the cutest!!!

The health post in one of the communities we visited. We rode up in the old ambulance that the Huallanca health center has and I got to play with the sirens on the way up! Haha. 

Beautiful views. 

Teaching the moms how to cook with nutritious foods 

Indigenous people are known to have many children (I have met some women who have up to 15 kids). During some of the health sessions that we gave, the doctor decided to have me talk to the women about how many kids the average family in the US only has two or less kids and how is it better to have less children.

Giving a session on parasites...something very common to get in Peru.

Family planning birth control methods! When I got put up in front to tell everyone why its better to have less kids like we supposedly do in the US.

The Peace Corps encourages us to work with these communities when possible and I am very happy to do so. The Peace Corps will be giving me a bike soon and my site mate and I plan to ride out bikes out to the communities to work with the youth and families maybe a few times a month. 

Town Festivities

Spring in Peru has arrived! Since we are on the other side of the equator, the seasons are opposite of that in the US. While the US is now into fall season, we are just getting into spring season. Even though it is now “spring” here in Huallanca, I feel like the weather is getting colder as I am now able to see my breath INSIDE my room when I wake up in the mornings…thank goodness packages of warm clothes arrived from my mom and her friend Robbin!! Thank you mom and Robbin, I feel much warmer with the clothes you sent me!! My town had a really cute "spring parade" to celebrate the season complete with floats and "princes and princesses" from each school. 

Putting up spring decorations

My students lining up for the festivities

The cute decorations in the Plaza! 

Some of the cute little princesses

Some of my students on one of the many floats

With some of my students at the spring parade :)

Dressed up as a cute sun and tree! How adorable!! 

Something else cute was the kindergarten bike race that was recently held here in Huallanca. They had it downtown by the plaza and many people came to cheer them on. Two of my little cousins participated and of course I was there to cheer them on as well. The local Huallanca news channel was even there to film parts of the bike race. They spotted me and asked to interview me and I was aired on the Huallanca news the next day haha. Here are some cute photos:

My adorable cousin Billy showing me his muscles and that he is ready for the bike race!

At the start line with my two cousins! They are ready to race :)

The 3 year olds even had a little tot race haha 

Billy I just adore you!

Jair with his Peruvian pride

Quechua Classes/Huallanca Happenings

A few days ago I got back to Huallanca after spending a week in Huaraz for Quechua class. This was our second week of Quechua class and we won’t have any more classes for about six months. Even though trying to learn Quechua has been really difficult for me, I still really appreciate the fact that I am given the opportunity to study such an ancient language that was and still is spoken by the native Peruvians. Quechua is kind of a “dying” language in Peru since most in %95 of the schools in Peru only Spanish is taught and spoken. There are a FEW Quechua/Spanish bilingual schools but they are very rare. Some people, especially adolescents who speak Quechua are ashamed and embarrassed to speak Quechua in public around non-Quechua speakers. This feeling of shame goes back to the time that the Spaniards conquered Latin America and forced their language and culture amongst the natives. Even if I am really bad at Quechua and I know that I will never become fluent in it (let alone be able to speak more than a few simple phrases), I am proud to at least try to learn it and keep it alive! 

It’s always so fun to get together with all the other volunteers when we are all in Huaraz J There was a goodbye party for a few volunteers who will be leaving soon. It was Hawaiian themed and we had a lot of fun dressing up and going out together. Our Quechua teacher even joined us!! He is an awesome guy and a GREAT teacher.

Most of the Peace Corps Volunteers in Ancash 

The volunteers from my training group Peru 19. There are 6 of us from Peru 19 in Ancash. 

My site mate and I

Out on the town with our Quechua teacher :)

Since arriving back in Huallanca things have been super busy for me. I feel like after a month of getting to know the town, working on my community diagnostic, telling people what I am here and what I am here to do, and making my face known, I am finally able to start some activities and programs! During this past week I have been giving sessions about self-esteem, sessions about the environment and recycling, coordinating with the health center to bring my students there for check-ups, working on getting things started for my world map project, leading an exercise group for girls in the mornings, and of course, helping out in the English classes. I am also still working on my youth surveys which are almost finished and I will soon be analyzing the youth responses to put in my community diagnostic.

My dentist in the states gave me a bunch of tooth brushes right before I  went to Peru to be able to give them to kids here so I gave a session on how to brush your teeth to a group of kids in my town and gave them all a tooth brush! Thanks Dr. Olson!! 

A cute little sheep that was in front of my house. It was waiting while its parents were killed at the slaughter house but I try to ignore that part. 

Some of my students…I have the best job in the world! I get to hang out with youth and take action to try to make their lives better!

My host family continues to be amazing! I think I love them more each day. They have truly been one of the best parts about life in Huallanca. Sadly, my new baby sister has a throat infection and had to stay in the hospital in Huaraz for 7 days when she was just a week old. She is still not doing very well and is not able to breathe through her nose so my host parents took her to the hospital in Lima to figure out what is going on. So at home right now it’s just my aunt and uncle, 11 year old sister Melany, and my three adorable little cousins. My five year old cousin Billy truly is one of the biggest joys in my life here and brings many smiles to my face on a daily basis. He is a mischievous little stinker sometimes but I just adore him. 

It’s easy to see why this little cousin of mine brings so much joy to my life! 

Apparently in Peru touching a sheep's nose to the baby's face will take out the infection...interesting!...

Who can resist this adorable little face?