World Aids Day Fair

December 1st is International World Aids Day. My obstetris counterpart and I have known for months that we wanted to do some awareness events in honor of World Aids Day. We planned to do a street march and a small World Aids Day fair in the main plaza in our town. I even got some funding for a Peace Corps grant to buy some materials that we could use for our events :) Even though World Aids Day is on December 1st, we did our World Aids Day fair yesterday (on November 25th) about a week early because I am going on vacation and will not be in Huallanca for World Aids Day.

We planned to do a big World Aid´s day fair, but in 90% of the things you plan don´t turn out how you thought they would...So due to some complications, we were only able to get two tables/booths set up, but we made the most of what we could. I have about 20 student health promoters (see previous blog entry) who helped me inform and educate people at out World Aids Day fair. I was SO proud of them and loved to see them educating people about HIV/AIDS and correct condom use.

During our World Aids Day fair, we handed out brochures on HIV/AIDS education, red HIV/AIDS awareness ribbons for people to wear on their shirts, condoms along with correct condom use demonstrations (completely led by my students-I was SO proud!), dances, skits on HIV/AIDS, and we had a microphone and speaker that allowed us to give talks about HIV/AIDS education.

Like I keep saying, I was SO proud to see my students teaching people HIV/AIDS education. Knowing that they truly have learned from what I have taught them makes me so happy! It´s truly so rewarding for me to know that the work I am doing is actually making a small difference. Especially seeing the girls totally shine with knowledge that we brought to the Pasos Adelante conference (see previous blog entry) was really rewarding for me and my sitemate!

Here are some photos from our activities for World Aids Day!

A banner that I designed and bought with grant money for our World Aids Day events

Starting our street march 

Our street march

Our street march

Our street march- and yes that is a photo of a condom that says "use me!"

Our street march

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 A group of men learning the correct condom use from my students! I am so proud! 

A group of men learning the correct condom use from my students! I am so proud!

Performing a dance 

Performing a mini skit

World Aids day brochures, ribbons, and condoms. 

Some of my girls handing out World Aids Day ribbons 

They make me so proud :)

After a lot of hard work on all my projects, I am going on a long vacation! I will be heading to Arequipa (in southern Peru) and then to Bolivia! Photos to come upon my return!

Sex Ed Youth Leadership Conference

In Peace Corps Peru, we have a program that is called Pasos Adelante (Steps Ahead) that we use to teach sexual education and healthy lifestyles to the youth in our communities. We train the students who participate in Pasos Adelante to be peer health promoters to educate their peers in sexual health and healthy lifestyles. Training youth health promoters is a way that we try to promote sustainability with the work that we do and to empower the students to create change in their own communities. Pasos Adelante is a great program that I have had a lot of fun with since I started it nine months ago in Huallanca! 

Over the weekend, we were able to put on an over-night regional Pasos Adelante conference in our state´s capital city Huaraz. Each volunteer in Ancash that leads a Pasos Adelante group in their community brought several students and we all came together to motivate them and teach them even more about sexual education and healthy lifestyles and how to be a peer health promoter. The students had a blast! They loved meeting youth from other parts of our state and they had a great time with all the activities! It was so fun seeing them learn and grow in just a matter of a few days as they became even more comfortable talking about safe sex and healthy lifestyles. 

Between my site mate and me, we brought 6 girls from Huallanca. They were a bit of a handful, but like I said seeing them having so much fun and learning so much made it all worth it :)

During one of the activities

Another activity about sex vs gender 

Making friendship bracelets

On the second day we woke up to a beautiful clear day in Huaraz where the views of the mountains are just stunning!

The 6 girls we brought from Huallanca 

Me and my health promoters from my Pasos Adelante group :) 

Teaching about HIV/AIDS

Teaching correct condom use 

Correct condom use 

A group photo of all our wonerful youth health promoters :)

My first Peruvian Wedding

Last weekend, I attended my first Peruvian wedding. Where I live in the mountains, weddings are not very common because they cost money. People usually just live together and have kids together and consider themselves husband and wife but never actually sign the official papers making it legal. So I was very excited to get invited to the Peruvian wedding of my boyfriend´s good friends from Lima. The wedding was in a small beach town called Paracas which is about3-4 hours south of Lima. Jerry and I drove down in his jeep and enjoyed the road trip!

On our way to Paracas! 

As I mentioned, Paracas is an adorable little beach town that attracts a lot of international tourists because of the nearby islands they have with a lot of wildlife. I had been to Paracas once before with my mom and my aunt when they were visiting me in Peru!  

Enjoying the beach in Paracas before the wedding.

 I should mention that this was a very fancy and elegant wedding because the bride´s family is one of the wealthiest families in Peru. So it was very modern and "western" and simply stunning. Since it was a nice wedding, I got really dressed up for the first time in Peru!

All dressed up and ready for the wedding!

All dressed up and ready for the wedding!

The wedding took place on the beach and as I keep saying was an absolutely gorgeous wedding. As far as cultural differences that I noticed in comparison to American weddings, there were a few small differences in the ceremony, and the festivities. Like I was very confused on what was happening during the bouquet toss but the single ladies formed a circle around the bride and then did something instead of just tossing the bouquet. Also, a Zumba instructor was brought in and led about 30 minutes of Zumba dancing! "La hora loca" (the crazy hour) of course happened which is a big Latin American tradition in which people dance around with lights and whistles and wear crazy little costumes. We also got to release lanterns with wishes written on them for the new couple. Also a BIG difference in Peruvian vs American weddings and just any party in general is the timing. The wedding was supposed to start at 4pm but really started at 6pm and lasted until about 6am with all the partying afterward. Peruvians like to party hard!  

The dance floor

The bar and some of the seating.

The couple during the ceremony. 

The couples first dance during sunset. 

The dance floor. 

A candid shot taken by one of Jerry´s friends. 

Setting off our lantern

Setting off our lantern

Jerry with all of his closest guy friends. They are an awesome group!

During "la hora loca" (the crazy hour). 

Library Update

I´ve been working really hard these past few weeks on physical preparing the library to make it available for actual use. Generally in Peru things tend to be much more complicated than they should be so everything takes much longer to do which is why we are STILL working on preparing the library for use. But little by little things are happening which is a definitely plus in Peru so I am very content. The local municipality really, actually fixed the walls! Which is amazing and a big accomplishment because it can be nearly impossible to get them to do anything! I am so thankful that they actually came through and helped to support my project. So here is what it looked like after they fixed the walls and after my boyfriend and I scrapped about 30 pounds of dirt and crap off the floor: 

(For a before photo see the previous blog post-big difference!)

And today, we painted it a bright green color!:

The students are THRILLED to be getting a library and can´t stop talking about how excied they are about it! :)

One of the teachers helping me paint.

My little helper working hard :)

Here´s how it turned out! It´s so bright, I know!

It´s still drying but basically this is how it looks :)

So now we are just about ready to move in the book shelf and the books to FINALLY start using our library! I just went to check on the progress of the shelf and the carpenter is almost finished thankfully. Here is the shelf that is ALMOST finished:

The carpentor says that he will be finished with the book shelf on Wednesday and from there I will move it down to the library along with the books. Fingers crossed that it will actually be ready on Wednesday because he keeps delaying doing it which is just how things are in small town Peru. After the shelf, he will make children´s chairs and tables for our library :)

More library updates to come soon as we move the books and games in!