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!
Hello Katie,
ReplyDeletemy name is Mathilde and I have been a Peace Corps Volunteer in Northwest China (Lanzhou) for almost a year and a half. I want to transfer to work in youth development in Peru and am trying to contact PCV in that field in Peru to answer a few questions but PC China admin cannot give me the Peru admin contact. Would you mind getting in touch via email so that I can bother you with my questions or get in touch with any fellow Youth Development Peru PCV? I would really appreciated. Thank you so much. Mathilde, PCV China 15 (mverillaud at gmail.com )