Saturday, June 19, 2010

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!?

Thursday, June 17, 2010

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.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

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. :)

Sunday, June 13, 2010

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.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

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. :)

Thursday, June 3, 2010

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.