Pollo a la Brasa

In the year that I´ve been here, I´ve learned one thing: We are really passionate about our chicken. Two anecdotes:

(1) I was dining at a polleria (roast chicken restaurant) when one of the patrons suddenly went into a convulsion. Suddenly, there was mad chaos. The guy was unconscious, shaking, and bleeding from the mouth (he bit his tongue), while his family was pushing back tables trying to lay him down on the ground. Peruvians are very open about their emotions so, the woman, whom I presumed was his wife, started wailing and praying to God. (I mean, what else are you going to do when there´s no ambulance service?) Meanwhile, a crowd was forming, because if there´s one other thing we love more than chicken, it´s to know what´s going on at all times. Anyways, after 10 minutes of wailing and everyone fanning him with napkins, the man eventually comes to. Whew! The family then ushers him out (to home, I presume) and everything goes back to normal. But then, 15 minutes later, the entire family (minus the convulsed man) comes back, resume their normal places at the table, and continue to eat the chicken that they had left behind as if nothing happened. Huh!

(2) The second story involves a hostage situation that happened in Lima a little while ago. Some bloke was robbing a bank and were holding people hostage. When the police came to ask him what his demands were, he told them the usual TV hostage requests—cash and a helicopter for escape. And then to cap off those two big things, the kidnapper then asked for pollo a la brasa—roast chicken—to eat. At first, I was really judgmental about this fellow, because, number one, we´re in Peru—I´ve yet to see a helicopter here except on TV. (Chuck Norris is a second God here.) Second, pollo a la brasa as your last meal!? (And I say ¨last¨ only because bank robberies never end well here.) Like I said, I was really critical of him at first, but then I started thinking about my ideal meal and you know what? I could not get out of my head the damn image of a Santa Fe Chicken Skillet from Village Inn. (In case you are not lucky enough to have visited a Village Inn, imagine a heavenly diner-establishment where each plate costs less than $10 and the place serves as a cavern for all senior citizens to unite after Sunday mass. No seriously, there is a mad line every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.)

So the moral of the story is this: Chicken is part of our culture here. And, after a lot of deep soul searching, I realized that chicken has become an important part of my life as well. I mean, it made an appearance at every one of my important events last year—birthday, Christmas, New Year´s, my last meal before my accident, my go-to meal after I had just had my accident, my comfort meal after the nurses surprised me with a sponge bath (you get the point). And this year, I don´t see it being any different. Listen, I may have been a sucker for the sugary carbohydrates before (I defy you, Coldstone two layer chocolate chip cookie dough ice-cream cake!), but this year just know that I can only be bought with authentic, Peruvian pollo a la brasa!

Chirimoya

I swear I am not running for President of the I-Love-Peru fan club, but seeing that I will be home in 7 months, it´s hard not to reflect. US is like a big, scary world of adults…and, truth be told, I am TERRIFIED of it! I´m not going to name any names, but sometimes, when I talk to the peeps back home, they all sound so stressed, sighing and grunting over work and this and that. Meanwhile, my day sometimes just consist of doing project-related stuff in the morning, eating lunch, taking a siesta (It´s what everyone else does after lunch!), go to the gym, shower, eat again, read or watch a DVD or study my Spanish (or sometimes all 3), and then going to bed until the roosters wake me up at 7 a.m. Yay, happy as a clown!

(Really, the most exciting thing that happened today probably occurred over breakfast. I was eating a Peruvian fruit, chirimoya, and a little worm squirmed out. I said a silent prayer that I hadn´t ingested more of them and that none were growing in my stomach at that exact moment, flicked that sucker away, and just kept right on eating…I ain´t going to waste a perfectly good fruit! Money doesn´t grow on trees here, you know!)

And, then, I think about home again…work, make money, pay off my billions in student loans, rent or buy a place, track down car insurance prices, avoid getting all road-vengeful at rush hour, having barely 15 minutes to scarf down a lunch…and, yes, sighing and grunting (or in my case, snapping) my way through the day. One time, my dad said ¨hi¨ to me while I was studying and I chewed him out for having the audacity to interrupt me. (Bad daughter!)

Recently, when I expressed to one of my US counterparts how much I liked Peru´s lifestyle, I was told that I´m too young to live like this. I mean, when has a healthy balance between work and life equate to laziness? I´m sure that when I come back to the US, I´ll get a rush from working 60 hour weeks again. (It´s hard to believe that I used to like working so much!) But, in the meantime, have I mentioned how much I love living in Cajabamba, Peru? Seriously, if it wasn´t for the fam, friends, and food, I really think I could live here for a long time.

Clase de Ingles

In Peru, summer vacation begins in mid-December. So very soon, my classes will end. For one of my English classes, I had the kids dictate what they would like to do in their last two classes. One activity they chose was BINGO (easy enough), another they would like me to teach them a song or dance (Oh the horror! This was even after I explained to them that I have two left feet and can´t carry a tune to save my life.), and, for the last activity, they wanted to play the drinking game that I had taught them last year.

Um, let me explain so you know that I´m not getting a bunch of little kids drunk. I have realized that you can make an English lesson with just about any activity. You can even do that game where the kids form two lines and then they flip their cups over with one finger after they´ve finished chugging WATER. Yes, clean and drinkable water. For the kids who are watching in line, you can teach them useful English phrases like, ¨Hurry up!¨ ¨Good job!¨ or ¨Chug faster!¨ (Is the image going through your mind of little Peruvian children running around, yelling ¨Chug faster!¨?) But this is not the only lesson, you can also incorporate the importance of drinking clean water daily. Seriously, the other teachers thought it was the most brilliant activity ever… a win-win-win for all! Anyways, little did I know that the game was such a hit, that they still remember it after a year later. It´s times like this where I think I can stay in Cajabamba, Peru forever as its English teacher. :)

Una actualizacion

Just wanted to update that I am alive and well. I just got back from Lima after spending Thanksgiving there. Maybe I´ve been in Peru too long, but this second time around, I did not experience quite as much homesickness (no tears even!).

Everything with work is fine. I presented my project to a big beer company who may be able to help finance the construction costs of the ¨Comedor¨ dining room. (I know it´s like selling your soul to the devil—pleading with the local booze factory for a kid friendly soup kitchen—but I don´t know if I have any shame left in me. See next paragraph.) They will let me know their answer in a couple of months. So, in the meantime, I am a sitting duck just waiting. Grr…

As for the personal, I feel like I could really use an intervention. I think I hit rock bottom! It was over Thanksgiving weekend when I was in the mall at my capitol city. The bathroom had really nice liquid soap for once (which is really rare for Peru). The next thing I knew, I found myself taking out my little bottle of liquid soap that I carry with me and refilling it to the brim! Then, as if that wasn´t enough, I took toilet paper from one of the stalls and stuffed it into my bag. Oye. Someone needs to intervention my ass…I am a poor person´s cry for help!

Anyways, to make myself feel better (and richer), I took advantage of Cyber Monday. This must be a new thing. I would have remembered something so magical…I mean, free shipping everywhere! When I find out about stuff like this, I almost feel like God has laid a hand on me and gave me the blessing to shop so it´s like I have no choice but to obey. (Yes, I´ll lay off the Glee ¨Grilled Cheesus¨ episode.) No worries though, I didn´t ¨balla¨ it out with my American Express, only USD $26.03 was spent. But still, it was enough to make this Peace Corps volunteer feel much better!

Lo Logramos!

Here it is, everyone! What you are viewing is an important document that even spelled my name correctly (so you know it´s legit). Loosely, it translates to, ¨…to cordially make known that in Advisory Session No. 019-2010, held on the 7 of October 2010, that the project of Comedor Estudiantil, presented by Katie K. Hui, Peace Corps volunteer of the Youth Development program, was approved, approving as such the plan of administration and budget…¨

Run-on sentence aside, what it means is that my team and I did it!! Cajabamba, Peru will have its first soup kitchen for students next April when school resumes in Peru! It´s what I´ve been working on for the past year and it makes me so happy that the people in my town really came through on this project. I felt so grown-up yesterday as I got to sign the important document yesterday at the municipality in front of everyone! (I couldn´t stop smiling although I tried so hard to look serious, ie constipated.)

What´s next for us is that I´m going down to my capital city this week to meet with other potential donors. Right now, the soup kitchen only has the capacity to cater to the students at one school. However, if we were to have sufficient space for, say 100s of students, we could potentially cater to the students at other schools. I will hold my breath though. The cost of the construction will require about S/. 111,000 (USD $38,000), which is a lot for any country´s standards. But all I can do is try!

So ignore my previous post. Maybe the s--- will hit the fan tomorrow and something will go wrong (gaw, I hope not), but as of today, I am loving the Municipality of Cajabamba!

Polly quiere una galleta?

Another reason I love it here. Where else can you go but to look up while you’re washing your clothes and see a parrot staring at you? But while I have written many posts about all my good feelings for this country, I should also be fair and counterbalance it.

For one, the length of time that it takes to get things done here drive me nuts. (Also true for the US, I suppose.) The Municipality of Cajabamba has verbally promised us that it would fund all of our start-up costs for the soup kitchen project. This is really good news and would fulfill everything that I had been working towards…if only I had it in writing. The municipality promised us weeks ago that they would draft this happy document, but still, I find myself without a celebration and without a cheap bottle of Peruvian wine at my side to celebrate. :(

Sometimes, I leave meetings somewhere between disgruntled and pissed off; so much bureaucracy and time delays. The professor who has been working on me on this project (whom I´ve now made Director) used to try and un-disgruntle me by bribing me with ice-cream. (How sad is that that my inner fat kid is so apparent? Shamelessly, it worked, too.) But now, because of a much lighter coin purse and being used to me ranting and raving under my breath in every language I know how, he just laughs. On the upside, I would like to think that because of me, he´s learned quite a few ¨street words¨ in both English and Chinese!

La Corrida de los Toros

Do you remember one particularly embarrassing incident involving me, slices of cake, and the obscurity of night time? It ultimately ended with me sprawling ungracefully across the pavement…with the right side of my face eating most of the cake…at the Mayor´s birthday party with all the important governmental officials there…after I had just arrived to my town…with a bunch of drunk people making fun of me afterwards for the rest of the night. (Why do so many of my stories end up with me falling somewhere?)

Anyways, I think I finally have a story to top mine!! Yep, I do! The other day I was at a bullfight in one of the nearby town. One of the Matador was really young and he looked nervous, too. (Youth + nervousness = shit show…always.) Case in point, no sooner had the fight started did he trip over his red cloth and fell backwards. Oye. As if that wasn´t bad enough, within minutes later, he fell again, except this time he didn´t even have the cloth as an excuse--he just fell over his own feet.

And both times after he fell, the bull went after him. (I swear, the next time I fall, I am going to feel incredibly lucky that at least no big and angry bull is there to attack me.) As if that wasn´t bad enough, when he finally did get up to face the crowd, there was a big ol´ slit located…wait for it…strategically on his right butt cheek (darn frisky bull!). We saw everything!!! Every time he turned his back to one direction, that side of the crowd would laugh and when he turned another way, the other side of the crowd would laugh. (It´s like that dream you had as a kid where you were in front of a stage naked; except for this poor guy, it actually happened!) And, since he had to finish the fight, he wasn´t able to change (or hide); he just had to finish the fight…butt cheek and all. It was very hard to concentrate on the bull while all the cameras and body parts were flashing. (Did you notice the clever play-on words there? :) )

Besides that, the Peruvian fiestas ended well. I went to a lot of the other activities and took in a lot of the dances, fireworks, and singing. I know that you are going to think that this is very wrong of me, but I really enjoy watching bullfights. Yes, PETA, I know that I am a bad person for liking something that treats the poor animals with so much violence and cruelty, but I can´t help it. :) It keeps me on the edge of my seat and biting my knuckles. Besides which, this is my last fiesta in Peru. By this time next year, I will be back in the US. Sad face x 500. I spent a lot of the fiesta trying not to get weepy by thinking about it. Did I mention within the last five minutes that I am a little in love with this country right now?

PS The picture was taken after at another bullfight here in my town; we were able to buy the meat and had ourselves a nice little BBQ...Delicious!

Me cai de la gracia

Man, talk about a fall from grace. I remember once upon a time (a long time ago) when I would consider myself to be a germaphobe. (I know yáll don´t know this, I used to wipe down my toilet seat everyday in the US even though I was the only one using that bathroom!)

Tonight I´m staying in a hostel that for USD $7 a night, I´m getting a cushion instead of a pillow, questionable looking bedding (with stains...ew), a scary toilet, and dust bunnies. But, despite all that, I was pleasantly surprised when they handed me a bar of soap, toilet paper, and a towel. (I actually used the word, ¨Wow!¨ when they handed it to me.) I know...How the mighty has fallen, right?

QUE!?

What?! My beloved ¨Heroes¨ has been canceled by NBC?! Why am I always the last to know these things??? Sheesh, you leave the country for over a year and everything goes awry!!!! I am very unhappy about this! Sad face x 5.

Las Botas

All the ladies in my aerobics class have been making fun of me for wearing my rain boots. :( I got them for 15 soles (USD $5) last year, because we get crazy rain here during the rainy season. Yes, sadly, rainy season is upon Cajabamba again.

I´ve broken out the boots, because they keep my feet nice and toasted (to the point of grossly sweaty) and because the heavy rubber is enough to keep a monsoon at bay from my feet! However, they are not very stylish and the people here make fun of them, because usually only people from the campo wear them. Sad face x 5. (Even the Peruvians make fun of me for being campo!)

Anyways, I wore them today, only to find out that right before I arrived to class, a girl had slipped and fell while wearing her non-rain resistant shoes and another one broke her cell phone after it slipped out from her pocket and landed in the rain water. (Ok, the former may not have had anything to do with rainboots, but who knows, maybe if she did have my magic boots on, her cell phone wouldn´t have been so quick to abandon her!) So take that aerobic ladies who laughed at me...look who´s laughing now!! ;P

Um, anyways, I hope you all are doing well in the states.

La Eleccion

Today is Election Day in Peru. Unlike the US, people here are mandated to vote once they turn 18 (or else bad things happen to them). We are electing our new local government officials (not national). The presidential election is next year, but in the meantime, a truckload of military men arrived the other day with their sub machine guns guarding every election post. (It could just be me, but I think Peru handles their election process differently.) Everyone from the smaller campo towns have all descended into my town as all the voting posts are here. They arrived yesterday and slept on the streets if they had nowhere else to go. Sad face. But the election will be over in a few more hours and then it will be party time with beer and homemade chicha liquor! Happy face!

Also, my town´s fiesta starts this month. (Yep, more booze.) It´s such a reminder that a year ago, I had just gotten here and at that time, all I could think about was going home. This place held nothing familiar—neither food, people, nor culture. A year later and it´s almost nostalgic being here. I can´t believe that time is going by so fast. I just want it to stop so that I can enjoy the food, people, and culture before I have to go home next year. Sorry, I am a real sap right now so I´ll stop this chatter.

Bella y la Bestia

I went to the girl´s school today and showed them the movie ¨Beauty and the Beast.¨ Only two scenes garnered the most attention: Belle walking down in her yellow dress (Who doesn´t love that scene?!) and the banquet scene when all the food was displayed. There were audible gasps. :) Guess I´m not the only starving one in this town.

In other updates, my soup kitchen project is currently being presented to a local Congresswoman here. After presenting it to an agency called CARE in my capital city, they were unable to help us in donations but agreed to present it to the Congresswoman on our behalf. Next week, I sit in on a governmental meeting in my municipality as they decide on what to donate. Ugh. All these meetings make me feel like I have to pee all the time...so nerve wrecking.

Last bit of news and this one is in regards to Mr. Hand. When I was in Lima, my doctor told me that the nerves in my arm are damaged. Sad face x 3. Mr. Hand has to continue in physical therapy (still) and a new regimen of medications. I can´t wait until all this is behind me.

Un Artista

The picture shown is done by one of my elementary students who won first place in the town´s annual drawing contest. And then instead of keeping it or saving it for his family, he gifted it to me yesterday. I was so touched. It´s now hanging up on my wall. The drawing represents my town well...people drinking, dancing, and buying beer in our town square. :)

Besides letting you all know how appreciated I am here, I also want to share a ¨how to be cool 101 tip by Katie´s dad.¨ (Because I don´t think you´re ever too old to take cool tips from your father.) Anyways, while he was visiting, one day he was happy and said in his heavy Chinese accent, ¨Give me five!¨ Once I did so, he switched it up to the ¨knucks¨ (where two people touch knuckles instead of shaking hands). I thought that was rather cool so I have been using it in my class. (And look what it got me...a free painting!) All I am saying is that next time if you want free stuff, remember the ¨knucks.¨ And then you can thank my dad for his free tips on how to be cool. Happy freebie hunting and happy face x 3!

Dos fotos favoritos

I want to share two cute photos. The first was taken before I left. If I were to title it, it would say, ¨Pigging out...as usual.¨ Yep, that about summed up my life in the states; I didn´t even have time to look at the camera. (Doesn´t my cousin Jim Jim look so cute!?)

The second is a photo that was taken last month when the US doctors were in my site for their medical mission. Even though it was a little delusional of me to be dressed in scrubs (like a real doctor!)...and only answer to ¨Dr. Yang¨...and pretend-listen to patients´ hearts with a stethescope (not my idea--it was the blond´s), I´m not going to lie, it was a lot of fun. And PS, don´t I look like a real doctor!?

Saludos de Arequipa

Hi, everyone. My father and I are in Arequipa and, for me, it´s good to be back. It was the last place that I visited before my accident so this time, I´m going to be really careful when I return. I come sharing some of my favorite photos...And, yep, they´re all of me!

It´s been really fun being a tourist in Peru! I´ve eaten at restaurants and gotten to do things that I have never done before. Within the last week, I´ve peed in more toilet-seated toilets than I have in the last year, eaten meals that cost over USD $1, and I´ve shopped so much...Awesome! It makes me have a whole new appreciation for this country that I´m actually thinking about applying to become a national. It wasn´t the luxury toilets that swayed me (although it did help), more and more, I´ve grown to love a lot of things about this country. And by being a national, I can come back whenever I want and visit Machu Picchu at a discount price...Sweet!

But some old habits are hard to break. Campo life has made me become, well, campo. Case in point, we stayed at a place in Cusco that offered a breakfast buffet. Because free meals are hard to come by, I took full advantage of the all you can eat watermelon (expensive in my site) until one of the employees actually came up to me and told me to save some for the other guests. I was so embarrassed. :( (But what she didn´t know was that once she left, I made a beeline for more...Sweet!)

The other favorite memory was our last meal in Cusco. We went to this hip and happening restaurant so I ordered a Sangria (a homemade fruit wine). When I was about half way through, I got really sick and had to sit myself outside on the curb like a bum. This is not my fault, you know, I haven´t drank for about a year in the campo! Afterwards, I apologized like crazy but my dad and aunt both had to half carry me back to the hostel. :( x 2. I am now either a cheap drunk or a cheap date...or both. Later, when my dad and I visited a winery on another date, I tasted sips of wine, and my father thinking that he was really funny kept saying, ¨Don´t drink too much now or I´ll have to carry you again...Oh! That´s enough for you!¨ :( x 3.

Last embarrassing memory was visiting this awesome museum in Lima. Everything was going swimmingly. I was actually doing a really good job translating the tour guide´s words from English/Spanish to Chinese for my father...until we got to the erotic pottery section. Then the guide started talking about certain body parts and this and that and what they meant that it no longer became fun translating for my father. After a while of describing what the pottery meant when a man and woman ¨conduct business,¨ I just gave up all together.

Anyways, the journey continues on for Katie and father in Peru for another week. Time has gone by really fast and I have enjoyed visiting with my long lost family. Wish us luck! I hope you guys are doing well back in the states!

Disculpe!

Sorry, I haven´t written in so long. My family/friends of a family´s family friends have been visiting so we´ve been making Machu Picchu and Lima our stomping ground. Seven people have left and my dad remains so we´re headed off to Arequipa tomorrow.

In the meantime, let me show y´all a picture of me in Machu Picchu and how I can still be ¨accidentally hot.¨ That´s right, I said that and I should title this blog, ¨Caliente por accidente,¨ because while in Cusco, some lady thought that I was my dad´s ¨esposa¨ (ie wife). EWWWWWWWWWWWWW..... x 100. I was so offended! And then everybody in my group started discussing the changes to my physical appearance during the year that I´ve been in Peru. In short, I suffer from sun damage (Hello! I do live in the Peruvian sierra!), I´ve aged from it, and that I´ve become more Peruvian. (I don´t know if they mean that as a good thing when taken everything into context.) So, whatever, this is just a picture to show everyone that this girl still got it. Yep, that´s right...bien caliente.

Um...I´ll post more in a week after my dad leaves.

El arco iris y los perritos

This is an e-mail I sent to my family and friends a few days ago:

"Well, I just wanted to say hi...and to tell you all some good news. As of yesterday, my project to start a local soup kitchen for the girls at a local high school was approved by the governor and local municipality office. That doesn´t mean that the project will be up and running; we still have a lot of fundraising and soliciting to do! (No worries, I´m not asking you fine folks for help.) But for the first time, I´m optimistic that this project might actually have a chance.

If all does go well, then approximately 250 students (most of whom work/go to school, live far away in the campo, do not have access to good financial resources) will be able to pay 1 sol (.33 cents) for their lunch meal that will consist of approximately 750-925 calories of healthy carbohydrates, protein, fat, a fruit, and a glass of milk. (I have been working with a nutritionist for the exact measurements.) My committee consisting of the school director, 2 professors, advisor to the Governor´s office, me, and the nutritionist have gotten quite a few things together to make this happen. Our budget is currently at 50,000 soles (USD $17,000) + 7,000 soles (USD $2500) monthly (mostly for cooking gas, firewood, and food). So even though I don´t know what will happen tomorrow, today I´m in a celebratory mood. :) When I go into town tomorrow, I might even splurge on a 10 soles meal for myself instead of the usual 3! Yep. :)

Otherwise, things are going well in Peace Corps Peru. I still actively keep up on my blog, http://peacecorpskatiekit.blogspot.com (with about 625 hits so far...so popular) and for one fleeting second last week, I even thought about extendng my service to a third year...but then I came back down to earth. My year as a Peace Corps volunteer has been amazing. Some highlights so far: Serving as this town´s judge for everything, including judging the best guinea pig dish competition (and, surprisingly, not throwing up afterwards even after eating almost 20 different types of guinea pigs); meeting other volunteers who dedicate themselves daily to make things better, sometimes at the expense of themselves; falling in love with the Spanish language (even when I´ve made some gaw awful mistakes...never, ever translate ¨Saving Private Ryan¨ literally); being able to bargain for my fruits and vegetables so that I can get 100 avocados for 5 soles (USD $1.75)...um hmm, I´m a stud; and seeing a town come together with good intentions. Yep, I am just full of sunshine and puppies right now!

The biggest Debbie Downer really has been the homesickness. (I spent last Christmas secretly crying in my room since we don´t really celebrate it here.)...Oh, and of course, the people (probably includes you), the food (right now, Lender´s frozen blueberry bagels and strawberry cream cheese), and my car (Dan, Amy, Wendy, please continue to shield her from rain, hail, and heavy snow). But more often than not, I find myself doing fine and spiffy!

Anyways, I just wanted to say ¨hi¨ to y´all. I hope that your time in the states (or wherever you are) finds you doing just as well, if not better (sunshine and puppies). Please be well.

Katie"

La Senorita Amistad, Responsibilidad, y Puntualidad

Okay, here´s me last night serving as a Beauty Pageant judge. Besides being the cuy (best guinea pig dish) judge for this town, I also have the responsibility of determining who´s Miss Responsibility, Miss Friendship, and Miss Amistad of a local girls high school. The criteria included their overall presentation, elegance, and eloquency. Here´s me posing with one of the winners. They served me coffee, a chicken sandwich, and we had even had a half time show...just like a real pageant!

Una actualizacion

I started my physical therapy in site which has been rather odd. My doctor likes to hum along loudly to 80´s American music while he works and the session starts off by him pouring hot wax all over my arm (and not in a sexy way either).

Everything else is going well. My team for the student soup kitchen and I met with the governor´s office yesterday. You know that it was a big deal since I even put on a blazer (with jeans, of course, since we are in the campo still). No official word, yet. He´s going to meet with his committee sometime this week and we should have an answer soon as to whether or not his office can help. It´s a big deal, because if the governor´s not on board with the project, then it would be hard to continue it. He sounded optimistic though so we´ll keep our fingers crossed. For the first time, I feel as though the project might actually have a chance at taking off. If everything goes as planned, we should be able to open by the start of Peru´s school year of next April. I budgeted that s/.3000 (or USD $1000) monthly should keep the project afloat and I want all of that money to come from the Peruvian´s as this country should be able to help themselves.

I´ve also been asked to judge a ¨Ms. Responsibility¨ contest at a local girls high school on Thursday. The winner will be judged based on their appearance, answers to questions (I think there is actually a ¨I wish for world peace¨ question in there somewhere), their academic performance, and overall grace. Okay, so it´s more like a beauty pageant. And although I am no expert to this type of thing (um...grace?!), I´m glad that they asked because it shows me that they view me as a role model to the girls. There will be two other judges as well (both young professionals) and we will all be dressed up. As for our compensation, cuy (aka guinea pig) will be served to us for dinner. Ugh. I have to eat it in front of a live audience, so no choice but to shove it down my throat yet again.

Otherwise, I´m glad to be back in site. Internet went bye'bye here, so my posts might be more sporadic from now on. If anybody needs to get a hold of me, please call. Thanks!

El agua y la plaga

I'm finally back in Cajabamba again after being away for about a month for physical therapy. Lucky enough, one of the Cajabamba hospitals does have a physical therapy program as well, so my therapy will continue here.

As for how things have been going for the last few days...We are facing a serious water shortage in my site. The water has been getting shut off earlier and earlier, now at 2 p.m. until the next day. One of the nearby rivers has dried up and rainy season does not start until a month and a half away. Because we are not as fancy as other countries, transporting water from other towns do not apply here. Hopefully, it'll rain sooner this year, but in the meantime, we've stopped flushing the toilets regularly and I've started bucket bathing.

Second, a group of US doctors were here in Cajabamba for two days for a medical missionary trip. Of course, I got to translate again and the experience was awesome! I am a little in love with Spanish right now, so getting the chance to speak Spanish for hours on end is a dream.

Equally as exciting was that one of the doctors lent me their scrubs. As such, we (or maybe just me) were "Grey's Anatomy" yesterday. I had them call me Dr. Yang...Awesome! And the patients themselves even called me "Doctora"....Awesome, awesome! When the photographer from a newspaper started taking pictures, I used my stethescope to listen to one of my "patient's" heart so that I looked very official. (Only to sit down again immediately once the picture was snapped. He he. I was maybe a little too giddy with excitement.)

Anyways, I'm sure that the US doctors didn't think anything weird of it. In fact, I think they were complimenting me when they said that they could tell I had been in the Peace Corps for a year....surely they were impressed by all the good work I've done.

Unfortunately, the rest of the day was less eventful. There were some truly awful cases, probably made worst by the fact that I live here, too. A 9-year-old girl had really enlarged lymph nodes. After the "other" doctor (hmph!) checked her over, she thought it could possibly be cancer or something else.

Which brings me to my next point, about 7 hours away from my town is a city called Trujillo, where people from my town go back and forth regularly. It is also the place where a boy has just died from the Bubonic Plague and where other cases have been reported. The 9-year-old's enlarged lymph nodes and other symptoms are consistent with the plague's. So sadly, a Bubonic Plague diagnosis would be better for this girl than the latter since treatment is available. Isn't it strange the problems that third world countries have to deal with?

Eclipse

¨Eclipse¨...totally, completely awesome! Katie is in love, everyone. I posted a picture of my husband. Ok, enough insanity.

Today was kind of a hard day. I went back to the site of my accident. Until today, I had not been back since my accident 4 months ago. It took a lot to force myself to go. I went because I wanted to prove to myself that I can do anything and all that hoopla and also to see my former host family. My host dad stayed with me after I had fallen that day and he deserved to know that I am okay.

It was great seeing my host family again but it took a lot of hyperventilating to get up that hill. At one point, I just froze because I was so scared. (Not that bad ass after all.) :( Oh well, I did revisit that infamous patio again, saw the dent that I made on the roof, and gave an I'm-so-sorry-that-I-fell-into-your-property-after-being-attacked-by-a-group-of-dogs gift to the family. (Because, you know, good manners and etiquette should be followed in all situations.)

After the visit, I just felt so exhausted and emotionally drained. So as an expensive pick-me-up gift to myself (regular theater outings really aren´t within the Peace Corps budget), I decided to go see my movie. I feel so much better and lest you forget, I´m in love. :) :) :)

Perdida en la traducion

I was talking to one of the hostal staff today while he was watching a war movie, so I asked him if he had ever seen ¨Saving Private Ryan.¨ And because he couldn´t understand the title in English, I tried to translate it for him in Spanish...literally. And it came out, ¨Hey, have you seen the movie, ´Saving Ryan´s Private?´¨ Oye.

He gave me a really weird look and when I realized what I had said, I spent the next five minutes convincing him that I was not referring to porn, but rather ¨private¨ can also mean a soldier of certain ranking blah blah blah. Fortunately, we were able to figure out the movie title together. (For your reference so that you don´t make the same mistake, it translates to ¨Saving Soldier Ryan.¨) But, really, why do I even try to speak Spanish?

Mi corazon esta sonriendo

I have a prolapsed heart valve, which is the reason for my mild heart murmur. It is nothing really. It just means that while everyone´s heart valve is shaped slightly like a frown, mine is shaped like a smile. :) (Or, wait, maybe it´s the other way around. Maybe mine is the one frowning...?? Anyways, I would like to think that my heart is smiling at the world.)

I was very relieved at the good diagnosis. On my way to the doctor´s office, I saw a body of a man who had just been hit by a car and I was afraid that it was a bad omen. Peru leads as one of the countries with the most pedestrian deaths so although I had seen something like that a couple of times before, it´s still disturbing to me.

And, after three months, I finally told my remaining family members about my accident. My dad took it surprisingly well, but my aunt not so much. She´s sad about what I´ve endured, even though I reassured her that I´m fine. She really wants to send me something. I know that it would make her feel better, but I have been racking my brain for days and I can´t think of a single thing. I think this is a sign of how spoiled I am and how generous everybody´s been.

Medico

Since we´ve been here a year now, it is time for us to complete our full physical exams. I´m waiting for my other tests to come back, but so far, here´s I fare:

* 1 cavity (Ugh, so frustrating, since I brush everyday when I have water!)
* lost 5 pounds (Third world country diet works, I´m telling you all, no need to spend money at the gym or those low calorie gourmet meals.)
* 1 benign mole (Whew! That one worried me a bit, because of how strong the sun is up in the sierra.)
* Mild heart murmur (This is weird to me. Heart problems are reserved for old people...Not young, cute, and energetic me! :( I´m getting it checked out with a cardiologist probably sometime this week, but I´m pretty sure that it´s nothing.)

Our Peace Corps medical plan is generous to say the least: all of our medical exams: free, prescriptions: free, medical labs/tests: free, surgery (only non-cosmetic though...damn): free. I think the only people who can top that might be the Obama´s.

Anyways, I´ve been swimming a few times as a mean to improve my arm coordination and, lately, my food addiction has been to ¨sangrecito,¨ ie, chicken blood that has been made to clumps of ¨meat.¨ I know it sounds gross (and if you think about it, it is!), but it makes me feel one step closer to Team Edward. Yep, it seriously does. :)

Senor Mano

Photos, finally! Here's a post about Mr. Hand and his progress. The first clip is when Mr. Hand was finally freed of the cast after 3 months. The second one was taken recently after I had had 10 sessions of physical therapy.




Here's one of my scar. The lady here is torturing me while doing physical therapy.

Fiesta Patria

We are beginning to celebrate Fiesta Patria here in Peru, a day that celebrates Peru's independence from Spain on July 28. Yesterday we had a parade. (Think Macy's but on a smaller scale.) We actually have a grocery store named "Wong" in Lima. As such, my favorite part of the parade were the Chinese dances.






I didn't stay for very long though. The crowd was crushing, and at one point, I was actually scared that I was going to be crushed to death! And, for once, I'm not even being dramatic!

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Here's some photos from Buenos Aires. I loved the city so much that I almost did not come back. But, fortunately, I could never afford to live there. People dress so nicely that I did not fit in with my jenky Peace Corps clothes. Case in point, unlike Peru, no one tried to rob me while I was there! In fact, I actually think they held their purses closer to themselves when I walked by! Oh well. After a year of living in Peru, I actually feel more comfortable in poorer places anyway. Being in fancy places makes me feel uncomfortable and like I don't belong.

For one of our outings, we went to a Christian based theme park. It was odd, filled with a bunch of life sized plastic figurines, people dressed up in clothes of that time, and Big Jesuses, including one that rose from the sky while "Hallelujah" blared from the speakers. Odd.
Re-enactment of the last supper. Their plastic heads actually turn side-to-side and up-and-down.


Hallelujah!


Jesus grande!





And then, without meaning to, I went on a Jared diet. I ate Subway so much that even the employees there knew me. In my defense, I think I was just homesick and missed what I don't have in Peru. But, boy, were the sandwiches delicious!


The bed and breakfast that I stayed at was amazing filled with yummy breakfasts every morning and free tango lessons every night. I also took in other dances as well, like watching flamenco shows.


I went on Evita's balcony. Here's what Madonna saw while she belted out her song. (Don't worry, I didn't sing though.)









And then I shopped at Wal-Mart, something that I've also been deprived of. It was like America again that I stayed there for, like, 2 hours. And because I am a starving Peace Corps volunteer, I tried all their free samples twice. He he. I ate ham, crackers, cheese, and drank hot chocolate. You are my utopia, Wal-Mart, and the hour that it took me to get there was worth it.


I also crossed the border to Uruguay (another passport stamp) and spent a day strolling around a colonial town.


The Chinese food in BA, because you know that I had to try other Argentinian cuisines, beside Subways. No worries, I ate gelato and steak for all those other times. Please, no comments about my weight.


Lastly, Mr. Hand and I made the 20 hour bus ride to see Iguazu Falls...Amazing!





Amazing trip overall! If anybody's thinking of going in the near future, my color-coded itinerary is available...filled with things to do, bed-and-breakfasts, and, of course, food!

Dos semanas mas

Two more weeks in Lima for physical therapy. I had my doctor´s appointment today to evaluate my progress. And although I am doing well after 10 days of therapy, I am still not well enough to go back up to site, yet. It´s stressful because I want to start working again. But since there isn´t anything I can do about that, I am just trying to enjoy all the yummy delicious soft serve ice-cream that Lima has to offer. Also, having given up the Arnold weight lifting, Mr. Hand is not quite so swollen anymore.

The doctor did say that the usage of my arm might be more limiting. I still can´t turn my arm upward. The doctor said that, with the two bars in my arm, I might never regain full turning motion. Whatever. It makes it hard to hold out your hand to receive coins but I can live with that.

So, instead, with my newfound time in Lima, I´ve been taking advantage of all the free activities that this city has to offer. I´ve been to all the cultural centers, taking in their free indie films and exhibits. I also went to a dermatologist today to get a mole checked out. It´s always nerve wrecking for me to go to the doctor´s for that kind of stuff, but fortunately, everything is a'okay! Because we are at our 1 year mark for being in Peru, I am also going to get all my other medical exams done while I´m in Lima. Wish me suerte!

PS ¨Eclipse¨ is finally in Peru! I would like to share with everyone that that Rob Pattinson really makes my heart swoon. Oh...in love. :)

No soy una ¨Bad Ass¨

My Peace Corps doctor sent me back to my surgeon today. (I´m so special...I have three doctor: my general Peace Corps doctor, my arm surgeon who repaired my bones, and my physical therapist doctor). It turns out I ain´t as Bad Ass as I thought. Mr. Hand remains swollen so my Peace Corps doctor had it checked out. It turns out that I might be doing too much.

Case in point, I walked into the doctor´s office with Mr. Hand carrying a bag filled with a Spanish dictionary, another book, and groceries. I was then berated by my doctor who told me that I wasn´t supposed to lift anything still. Just when I was about to do the ¨Why didn´t anybody tell me this¨ speech, I suddenly recalled a conversation not too long ago where he did tell me ¨not to lift anything.¨ Oops, my bad.

I guess the swelling might have something to do with the fact that Mr. Hand has been carrying 3 liter water bottles around and I tried to bench press a couple of days ago. You´re probably thinking what the heck was I doing bench pressing and where, but let me tell you, my physical therapy office has all sorts of neat exercise equipment/gadgets. I couldn´t help but see if I was able to bench press the bar. (I couldn´t and, how could I when even before the accident, I wasn´t able to do it.) But it did hurt like a mother trying.

So now I´m back to taking it easy again. The doctor said that my bones have still not fully recovered and that it could very well break again if I´m not careful (another fact that was new to me). It´s really good that he told me that. Since I have a tendency to fall, I already had a ¨Safety Action Plan¨ in mind. Should I fall, I was ready to catch myself with Mr. Hand since it is now secured with two metal bars. However, since this is no longer a viable plan and I don´t want to injure my other remaining hand, my new plan involves me twisting my body to one side and putting both arms up in the air before hitting the ground. Smart, huh! That way, no limbs get hurt.

On the plus side, the doctor did evaluate my progress and said that Mr. Hand is doing extremely well considering that the cast came off exactly one week ago. (Happy anniversary, Mr. Hand!) For example, I found out today that Mr. Hand can now shave my left armpit with no problems at all...Oh, happy day! :)

Yo nade

I swam today. Yes, I´m very proud of Mr. Hand for stepping it up and taking advantage of the lap pools that Lima has to offer. :) My arm is doing better overall. Today I was able to touch my thumb to the center of my pinky (something that I was struggling with yesterday) and I can kind-of rotate my wrist now. I feel like I do my arm exercises all the time...anything to make physical therapy easier. I bend my limbs and fingers every which way and I´ve also bought one of those squeezy balls.

Even with what I´ve accomplished though, my physical therapy sessions are technically halfway up, I have only five more sessions to go. It worries me that my arm is still really hard, that I can only bend my thumb, wrist, and elbow part of the way, that my skin is constantly sensitive and in pain, and that I am still really hairy. I´m scared that I won´t be able to go back up to site next week. I´m scared of what the doctor might say--that I would be better off returning to the US to get my physical therapy done for two months as he had originally suggested. (To stay in the Peace Corps, two months in the US is simply not an option. I would have to go home then permanently.) I´m scared of therapy tomorrow, too, it is so painful and torturous still. I think, overall, I´m just a big scaredy cat this week.

I want to complete my Peace Corps service, but I think that three months in a cast was just too long and the damage is extensive. So I´m trying not to think about it too much, but just go with the flow and stay really positive. In the meantime, I´m treating my stay in Lima like vacation. I went to the mall today (which doesn´t exist in my site, of course), ate a waffle wrapped hot dog (delicious!), and have been keeping up on my E-News (um, Lindsay Lohan, what were you thinking?!).

Que tortura!

I´m trying to be a good patient, really I am, but physical therapy is a nightmare! The extent of the damage that I did is coming out. Normally, people are in a cast for a month after their surgeries. But because I was in it for three, my arm is in really bad shape. I broke into a cold sweat today, screamed like a pregnant woman, and asked my therapist to stop three times from the pain...and it´s only been the third day! It definitely pushes my pain threshold beyond my limits (and that is really saying something after having fallen through a roof).

But on the plus side, as weird as it sounds, it has been an amazing experience to learn how to re-use a limb again. The human body is amazing in recognizing what it should be doing and I´ve been impressed by its progress. Today for the first time, I was able to turn a door knob and touch my thumb to my fore, middle, and ring finger (pinky still lacks). I do my exercises everyday and everywhere...at the store, walking on the street, on the bus, etc.

I know that people may not understand everything I´ve been through; it´s a lot and it´s hard to grasp the experience. But just the support, good wishes, and potential packages of the people are enough. It motivates me to go to physical therapy (even though I really, really don´t want to) simply because people believe that I can recover. So I´m trying not to disappoint. So even when there are less than graceful moments where I beg my therapist to just let me die (dramatic, right?), I try to always think of the positive. I can´t wait to come back to the US next year and show everyone my ¨new¨ arm (and my bad ass scars). :)

terapia fisica

Hi, everyone! Just wanted to let you know that I am back from Buenos Aires...It was great! And as soon as I get back to my site, I'll post pictures. I am typing in capital letters again...which means that the cast came off (two days ago) and that I had my second physical therapy session today.

I was a failure yesterday in my first session. I cried partly because of the pain and partly because of self-pity. (And you know it's not pretty when I cry...I ugly cry complete with the loud, shallow breaths and frown.) After my cast came off, I got to see my arm again for the first time in 3 months. It had grown dark, skinny, hairy, and all the skin had started peeling...very were-wolfish. Instead of feeling elated that the cast was gone, I just felt sad that I had hurt myself so badly and exposed myself to danger. I have 3 scars now on that arm--two long ones from the surgery from where they put the bars in another circular one from where the bone had come out after my fall.

But today I decided to cop a new, can-do attitude. I'm making a conscious effort to use my right hand for everything (hence, capital letters again!) and I was even going to tell my physical therapist to use more force when pushing against my limbs. (Ok, that was just silly thinking, because what she did do already hurt so much that I was biting my other arm the whole time to keep from screaming.) I'm still working on extending my arm all the way, regaining use of my wrist and thumb, and turning my palms upward.

I have pictures and I'll post them when I get back up to site two weeks from now. Physical therapy will be a long process and I'll probably continue to do my exercises for months to come.

so i got a mullet....

i don't even know how to say that in spanish. no, it was not done on purpose. i just thought that it would be a good idea to get a haircut (think soft layers) before i left for argentina tomorrow. unfortunately, i don't have many choices here in my campo town. so even when the "stylist" pulled out huge garden hedge clippers to be used as haircutting scissors, i had no choice but to just sit there and hope for the best.

she divided my hair into 2 pigtails and then just clipped it in one swoop and then did the same to the other side. the whole process took less than ten minutes and, afterwards (in fear that she would shave me bald if i said anything otherwise), i said, "wow...que bonita!" "wow" is right.

anyways, i'm NOT going to take pics of my new 'do to show you but i do admit that it does give me a little bit of half laugh/cry everytime i see myself in the mirror. and on the other bright side, the whole thing only cost USD $1.10. now where can you go in the states for a hairbutch, i mean haircut, for that cheap!?

cómo ha caído el poderoso

oh, how the mighty has fallen. woke up today w/ a stuffy nose and head. i am scared that it might turn into the flu before i leave for buenos aires! :( about to go to bed...at 9 p.m. like an old woman.

Una foto...por fin!

we had a going away party this weekend for group 11 who are about to return to the US. look! i am all dressed up (yes, i can look like a girl after all) and partying in my cast.

Tengo los resultos

just want to update everyone that right arm and i are going to buenos aires this sunday. my US friend becky will meet me there and we are going to learn how to tango.

i am really excited about the trip since we have been planning it for months and it's the first time that i will see anyone i know from the US. weirdly enough i wish i was here in site for a little bit longer though. there is another opportunity to translate for a US medical team in a nearby town early next month and my soup kitchen project is coming along as well as can be expected.

while i was out of town translating this last week, the professors really pulled together to conduct a survey to determine exactly how many students would eat at the comedor. about 66% or 250 students said that they would. this means that between the hours of 1-3 p.m., we would have to serve this many meals.

today we had a parents meeting. about 300 people were there and i announced my idea to the entire assembly...in my gym clothes (i did not know that there would be so many people), in my broken spanish, over a microphone. it was so nerve wrecking, but at least it's a step in the right direction. :)

Campana Medica

so for 2 days last week, i got to translate for a team of US drs. who were here in cajamarca to facilitate a medical clinic in two small communities. it was really nerve wrecking to translate only after a year of being here, but it turned out to be an amazing learning experience. between 4 drs., we saw about 550 patients each day. so that means i probably translated for 200 some people in 2 days time.

the funny thing was that i also found out how much i have learned about peru. i was able to show some of the americans around on the last day, bargaining and explaning the peruvian customs. the group also let me stay with them at their facility. in the span of two nights i got to eat french toast, breakfast burritos with real salsa, corn flakes with milk, take my coffee with creamer, eat beef with A1 steak sauce, have a normal sized lunch of a sandwich and chips, use a hair dryer and someone even washed my pants for me in a washing machine. america! it was amazing. i had seconds at every meal (duh!).

unsurprisingly, by the end of their stay, i think the americans also saw me as a charity case and donated some lotion (bath and body works...score!), scabies cream (something else i picked up in site...oye), and all their uneaten american snacks to me (score! score! score!). i would love to say that i was too proud to be a charity case since they were here to help the peruvians, but you should see all the beef jerky that i got! (score again!)

anyways, with another "poor person" disease and my constant insatiable appetite for food, i've come to realize that...wait for it...i'm poor. :( and not just any poor, but poor on a poverty level. but i've also come to realize that i've not suffered horribly for it. besides food, my life in the peace corps have been above and beyond expectations. what i've learned and the changes that i've made have surpassed all the negativities that come with living in a developing country. after hosting foreigners around for even just a few hours, i've come to realize that i've become more worldly, more adjusted to different types of conditions, and...more peruvian.

mi papa viene

i think it might be happening! i just got off the phone with my father and he might be coming in sept! yippee!! tentatively, he wants to see machu picchu and arequipa (where i went during easter vacation). it'll be nice to finally have everything out in the open (the guilt is eating me alive!). i told him that i missed him so much that i might actually give him a hug when i see him...trust me, this is a rarity for our culture; he might freak out. :)

un ano!

back at site safe and sound. i've resigned to the fact that i'll have this cast forever. some people have been great. i got off the bus and this woman asked if she could brush my hair for me right there in the lobby. ok, that's kind of embarrassing; you look so jenky that even random strangers can't help but feel sorry for you. :( in my defense, i can brush my own hair. in fact, i've learned to do quite a few things. however, on that particular day, i was actually trying to go for the ruffled, poofy hair look that i thought was quite attractive. but unbeknowst to me, i had a big clump of knots in the back. oye.

so it's been a year since i've been in peru. overall, i can't complain. although things haven't turned out exactly as planned, i've been extremely lucky--time and crying have been able to fix most things. and who would have thought that i would be trying to open a soup kitchen in the midst of learning spanish and adusting to life in peru?

lately, i've been getting into spanish music. i listen to this song, "colgando en tus manos" several times a day. it's full of sappy lyrics of "my heart hanging in your hands so be careful, be careful...don't let me fall." sigh, see, i told you it was sappy! :) i think it's been a good distraction to the solitude and loneliness that i've felt through the year. it's been a good and bad thing. before i left the states, i wasn't sure if i considered myself to be a strong, independent person. now i think i'm a little tougher...a little better. :)

and now the biggest challenge is moving on from the accident. the cast is a constant reminder and it's been made harder by the fact that i still haven't told my family apart from my siblings. keeping secrets have never been easy for me; it's always been easier to tell the truth. but without them being here, i feel like it would be selfish to put them through so much worry. i wish i could tell them so that they could help me make decisions. i've been thinking if i want to get the rods taken out of my arm soon instead of going through physical therapy, regaining control of my arm, only to go into surgery and get casted again. i would love to know what my dad and aunt think, but it'll just have to wait. they would freak out.

so, for now, i'm going to spend my next and final year doing the best that i can...learning spanish and the keyboard (piano), working on the soup kitchen project, and begin to appreciate the consistent meals of potato, rice, and bread.

ps one funny story, my family here really loves their wall-sized calendars. my room had 12 when i first arrived and another volunteer and i counted 17 hanging in the livingroom. i came back from my Lima trip this time around and saw a new addition in the bathroom. yep, even you can't escape knowing exactly what day it is even while doing your "negocio."

pss because we're feeling nostaglgic today, i'm posting a photo from my good bye to katie luncheon a year ago. it's of me and my cousins.

No saca mi yeso

sorry, we´re still writing in small letters, which means that the cast has still not been taken off. i went to the dr´s office today. after he looked at my x-ray, he thought that it would be better if i waited a little bit longer and since i´ll be traveling in 3 weeks, it would be safer if my arm was protected still.

by the way, did i mention that i´ll be going to buenos aires in 3 weeks. my friend, becky, from the us will be meeting me there. my first person from the us reunion--i am so excited! it´s too bad that i´ll be traveling in a cast though. i always thought that it would be fun to learn the tango in BA, but i suppose there are worst things in life. (um...like falling through a damn roof after being attacked by dogs while in a developing country, but anyways...)

so, yes, i will go back to site tomorrow. i will postpone the keyboard lessons for now, but i´m looking forward to the smorgasborg of meat that i will be eating in less than a month...steak for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

Saca mi yeso!

tomorrow is a big day...the cast comes off! i am very excited. afterwards, it´ll be physical therapy for a couple of weeks. i´ve been told that the road to mend will be painful but i´m actually looking forward to it. it´ll be the first time (since i was a baby) that i´ll learn how to use a limb.

overall, i´m not in pain. i actually feel really good. i still can´t extend my arm all the way but i´ve been practicing the last couple of days. my therapy will take place in lima,which is where i´m currently at now. once i make enough progress and can endure the 20 hour bus ride then i´ll go back up to site. i plan on being a fast learner so that i can resume my life again. did i tell you guys that i already found someone to teach me the keyboard (since we don´t have a piano here)? i am very excited! i hope you guys are doing well!

ps does anyone know anything about letting metal rods stay in your arm? i actually have the option of getting both the metal rods and screws removed after everything heals, but is it just better to leave them in rather than risk the surgery again?

disculpame...

sorry, i've been so lazy and not updating my blog. it's been an adjustment to the cast. after i got back to site, i was not feeling so chipper. but, lately, i've been trying to do a lot more work and be more active. unfortunately, this is not working quite as i had hoped; my dr. has told me to cut back again because of the pain that i've been having in my hip. so i'm going to try to sit more and update more often. :)

otherwise, things are going well. i learned not to hate my cast anymore and have really tried to make the effort to not let it limit me. i handwashed my pants this weekend, have been typing in 1-hand, and my soup kitchen project is going as well as can be expected. i had a great meeting this weekend and have an appt. to meet w/ the governor's office tomorrow about what type of donations we might be able to receive.

the biggest obstacle right now is that we just figured out that the budget will not allow for gas stove cooking as i had originally planned. instead, we will need to construct a "cocina mejorada" at the school so that we can cook over fire. that will set us back another 250 soles ($90). so tomorrow my priority will remain on trying to get this project donated to us. in exchange, i will offer free english lessons. this has actually turned out to be a pretty good bargaining chip considering i am the only person who speaks english in my town. at the end of my two years, i don't know if there will be a single person who didn't take katie-english lessons.

i will spend the next few weeks working on my grant proposal, which i hope to submit sometime next month. (left hand is typing as fast as it can!) the budget section might be what kills me though. as much as i can do housewife grocery store math (for instance, i can always tell you which jar of tomato paste is the better bargain), i am having a hard time explaining the budget and finances of this project. no, i will never be voted in as the treasurer of the committee, so next week, we will devote a whole day entitled, "getting katie to understand math and the budget." because you can't be a grant person if you don't understand finances. oye. that just sounds so painful though.

ps since it's been a while since i've posted pictures, here is possibly my favorite photo from my easter trip to arequipa. the pizza was in the midst of welcoming me to his city in english. :) hello, pizza!

pss this outfit gone. it was one of my favorites, too, before the firefighters and their scissors got ahold of it the night of the accident. :(

mi vida con el yeso

my life with a cast. it's been 20 days since the accident and i'm still not used to it. the first days were horrible. i woke up in the hospital one night to find left arm tryng to push right arm off my ribs. of course it didn't work b/c it was in a sling. now i've learned to sleep through the night with it.

i've also started to take up some light exercise as a mean to loosen up the hip. nothing major. i'm an old woman now so just a little something to ease up the pain.

the peruvians react to my cast by gawking at me even more and those who do approach me shake my cast as if for good luck or something. it doesn't hurt, but it's just odd.

i start physical therapy right after my cast gets taken off in june. i tried to look up over the internet what type of rehab i would be faced with but instead came across all these stories of people who've died from falling through roofs. that really shook me up, b/c as much as i hate life in a cast, i know that i'm really, really lucky. (seriously, did all this really happen to me? everytime i tell the story, it still makes me want to laugh over its absurdity or weep with relief.)

on a side note, i formed my soup kitchen committee today w/ my community partners. first meeting, this saturday and i have so much to do to prepare for it!

Me vuelvo!

i'm back in my site now and successfully mastered 2 Peruvian bus rides totaling 20 hours with my broken arm. success!

because i finished my grant application for the soup kitchen while i was on bed rest in lima, i was able to present it to my community partners right after i got back. we're going to meet next week to finalize it and then submit it. i don't want to count my chickens before they hatch, but everything seems to be going well with the project.

the next step after submitting the grant application is to put a committee together. i have a good idea who i want on my committee and while i was in lima, my community partner made contact w/ some key leaders, including the governor of the town. if we can get him on board on the project, then we have a good chance of gaining the municipality's support (and possibly getting them to write the project into their budget). so we hope to have our committee together and meet with the municipality sometime next month, because may is when budgeting starts. it's nerve wrecking b/c so much rides on the municipality meeting, but i feel as though we've gathered enough data and information to make a strong case.

i've also resumed my work at the local all girls school. don't laugh but i feel like i'm a pretty good role model there. in the end, i hope that my work eventually will help lessen the high teen pregnancy rate. i've also resumed my work with kids in the campo (rural areas) and picked up some work at the local trade school. i know it's odd, but i really do try to get across that a person with limited means can still achieve sucess.

so my passion right now lies in the soup kitchen project (as always) and creating programs at the schools so that the youths have a better chance of succeeding in life.

anyways, as for me, i am slowly adjusting to a one-armed life. but i will admit that i've been thinking a lot about what happened. weirdly, i'm more scared now than i was before. it wasn't a fall that could kill me, but more likely it was a fall that could have paralyzed me or cause head trauma. i've thought about this everyday since the accident. i know that i'll get past these thoughts, but eventually, it'll just take time.

i really thank you for everybody's support and good wishes. i'm really going to try hard to be more careful from now on.

Primero de Junio!

i had my dr.'s appt yesterday. it seems like every time i go, i learn something new. they found another fracture in my wrist so now i'm up to 3! they replaced my cast and now my thumb is bandaged up, too, because the broken wrist bone is the one for my thumb.

but the best news is that i get to have my cast taken off june 1! oh, happy day!! i've also been given the ok to go back to my site so i'll be leaving tomorrow.

from now on i am going to be much more careful. this is really hard for me since i trip and fall a lot. yesterday, i was walking and saying hi to our peace corps country director in passing. he was giving a very official woman from wash dc a tour of the office when i suddenly tripped over the sidewalk right in front of them and almost went flying. fortunately, i caught myself in time, but you should have seen the shocked expressions on their faces.

Una realizacion

just wanted to give you all an update that after being in the hostel for three days, peace corps decided that i should live with a family. it made more sense b/c i was supposed to be on bedrest, yet i had to go out to find lunch/dinner. fortunately, my friend angelica had offered me her place earlier so i have been staying at her place for the last few days.

since then, my leg has gotten a lot better and i'm able to walk with hardly a limp. yesterday, i even took in an opera ballet at the national museum and the other night, i went out for sushi. it's like America all over again! the hardest part is probably riding on the bus. it is really hard to be disabled here. people do not like to give up their seats and the bus starts moving even as you're still trying to get on.

but, otherwise, i'm doing well. today i have my dr's appt to remove all 18 of my stitches. if everything looks well enough for the bus ride home, i might go back to my site tomorrow. it will be nice to get back to some normalcy and start work again. i am now on page 19 in writing my grant proposal. it is slow-going but it will be done one day.

i also posted some pics of what my fracture looked like and how my arm is now. the hospital wouldn't release my x-ray photos, but these pics are pretty good representations.

el correo electronico a becky

here's what i wrote to my bff just now who was good enough to be concerned about me:

"i really am in good spirits simply simply b/c i survived. for a split second immediately after the fall, i actually thought i had died. i couldn't see anything but i knew something really bad had happened. after everything did come into focus, i realized that there was a glass table a few feet from where i had landed and in another corner, crates of empty beer bottles. if i had landed in either of those places, i probably wouldn't be as lucky. or if i hadn't tried to run across the roof as it was collapsing, i probably would have landed on my tail bone.

so with all these "what-ifs," i am in good spirits b/c i'm not paralyzed or anything worst. today is a really good day esp b/c after finding out that my hip wasn't broken, the drs prescribed me some anti-inflamatory meds. i took some last night and it's like a miracle drug. i woke up painfree and i'm able to walk!

i felt so good that i'm now sitting in the pc office working. i'm applying for a another grant to start the student soup kitchen. the previos grant i applied for didn't pan out b/c it was through an organization that aided small businesses. and although i tried to argue that a soup kitchen constitutes as a business where goods and services were exchanged, it was a no-go. so now i feel really motivated to do some good work in the remaining time that i have here.

i have always felt incredibly lucky to be serving in the pc, but now, even more so. i am doing something that i have always wanted to do since i was in high school! and i have no doubt that when i get back to site that people will help me out."

The worst thing right now is probably the itching. but unfortunately i can't jab something in my cast to scratch it b/c of the stitches. grr...

here´s what i just wrote to my sisters:

¨no broken hip...just inflamed. happy day! and lightheadedness is just from meds. arm cast will be on for another two MONTHS!! grrr...but had two metal rods put in, 12 screws total to join them to the bones and 18 stitches. i count myself incredibly lucky and blessed. i can´t wait to go back up to site in maybe a week to do some good work. pls con´t to not tell father.¨

still on bedrest...until forever but otherwise, doing well. thank you for all the good wishes. i feel so popular. if you see susan lawton, kathleen, jorge, or suni, give them props; they really came through for me and i am now a pc training story for future grps!!!

una semana santa inolvidable

here´s what i wrote to my sisters last thursday re: an incident that happened the day b/f:

¨i am typing w/ 1 hand so this will be short. i'm ok, but i'm in the hospital and i'll write more another time. anyways, we are here in lima for training and i was visiting my 1st host family after our mtg got done. dogs in poor communities are a lot worst at night and about five dogss started charging at me, growling and ready to attack while i was walking up the hill in the community. i had already thrown all three of my rocks so i started to back away`and onto the roof of a house. (there was nowhere else to go.) poor communities are generally built on hills with whatever material they can find and the roof of the house was made of cheap metal and on level with the ground that i was standing on. when i backed onto the roof, it collapsed and i ended up free-falling (really more like belly flopping) into a cement courtyard behind someone's house. my right forearm was in the shape of a 'v' and my wrist just hung.

afterwards, there was a lot of drama/chaos. the family whose house i landed in came running out after i started screaming for help in spanish. eventually made it to a public hospital on the back of a truck that the firemen used. but later, peace corps sent me to a much better hospital which is where i'm at now.¨

since then, i have had surgery on my arm b/c my right forearm is fractured in 2 places and the bone popped out of my skin in 1 of them. it was my first surgery ever...and in peru no less. tomorrow i will get my right leg checked out since i still have trouble walking but i really hope it´s nothing.

no worries, it's not as bad as it sounds. i'm fine and in good spirits overall and i'll probably stay in lima for a few days to re-coop. vacay! peace corps has taken good care of me. my phone is still broken (told you i had bad juju) and i only borrowed this computer. but, overall, i feel lucky to be a-ok. don't tell our father; he'll only worry so i'll tell him later.

hope you guys are doing well!

Semana Santa

It´s Easter Vacation, i.e., Semana Santa here in Peru. That means we get a four day vacation. So in celebration I have traveled to Arequipa, south of Peru, to celebrate. It is gorgeous here...so different from the northern sierra life. We took a 36 hour bus ride to get here and, so far, it has been well worth it. When I get the chance next week, I´ll write more and post some pictures. In the meantime, I am safe and very well in Arequipa, Peru.

Fotos! Fotos!

My friend took these pictures from when we had Carnaval last month in February. I could not stop laughing...I had so much fun! We jumped into the parade and posed with every odd creature that we could find. Enjoy our Peruvian Carnaval...





The floats were amazing. I'm in awe at how much thought and work they put into them. But the Peruvians are really good with their crafts.

One big happy weird family!

Pooh was so happy that he didn't even mind when I tried to whack him with my umbrella!



There was a float made up entirely of a Freddy Krueger theme. It was brilliant. They got it exactly right!



Everything's going well with the abominal snowman...

...Until he started to get frisky and I had to fight him off...Seriously.

Doesn't this kid look like a younger Heath Ledger?!

...So there goes me posing with him!

P.S. Hmm...I'm beginning to see that I pose exactly the same in every photo..Side frame and smile. I swear I did not photo-shop myself into the pictures.