My real life

In what I like to refer to as my real life I would never eat ice cream at 10 AM. I also would never eat a large, wonderfully seasoned pork steak with potatoes and hot sauce at 10 AM but I have done each of these things. I have abandoned all of the social norms I hold near and dear to my heart since I have been in this country and it feels good. It´s like eating desert before dinner, it is so bad but sooooo good.

On another note, I thought I would share all of the interesting things that have been going on in my life lately. Well, just as I thought I had experienced every type of cat call humanly possible I was cat called by a man peeing on a wall in broad daylight. I know, you are probably thinking how offended I must be but really it was one of the funnier things I´ve seen lately. What a loser! My second encounter was less friendly and less funny. As I was walking to the Polleria (chicken spot) a regular Sunday ritual for me, I crossed by some friendly neighborhood assholes who of course began with their cat calls. Much to my surprise, just as I turned the corner, almost out of their site one of them screamed- PERRA! Yes, a perra is a female dog but not in the way us North Americans politely refer to women as bitches but rather a very harsh insult which I am still not totally sure of the definition. As I returned home I asked my roomate what the word meant, she looked at me and asked why. When I told her someone had called me it she was appauled. I was insulted and didn´t even know it. Oh well. Ok, lastly, I pretty much thought that after the young man who politely pissed and whistled at me nothing could really compare, oh boy was I wrong. Monday afternoon I entered the English class that I teach three times a week with the exam in my hand. One of my students is the son of a host cousin. I am in love with this little boy, he is adorrible and his story is really sad. He lives in a place with no water, no electricity and no mommy. His mom abandoned him and he is living with his father who is a really nice guy. So I sit down next to my favorite little student and realize that he does not brush his teeth. When I ask him if he does, he readily admits that he doesn´t and instead chews coca every day because according to his father that is better for dental hygiene. I told him that I wanted him to tell his dad to buy him a toothbrush and toothpaste and he agreed. After this short conversation he whispered in my ear that he had to tell me something. He told me that his father sends his regards and he wants to know if he can take me out with his son sometime and if I could please forward my phone number with his son that would be great. WHAT????? You just had your six year old son ask me on a date? So cute, so hysterical, absolutely did not give out the number ;) Such is life here. I´m a celebrity and I never knew it.

Other than that, things are coming along rather well, finishing up my community diagnostic and getting ready to present at the meeting in two weeks.

P.S. Going to harvest the corn this afternoon with my family....just another day!

Sunday Morning...

This morning I am walking around like it is Sunday Morning and rightfully so, it is Sunday. I know half of the shit I write on here the average person would not understand but this blog was never meant for that person to understand, it was meant for my friends and family to understand. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Ok...that was ridiculous and pointless. This week was long and is still not over. I was in Pisco, a city an hour and a half away from where I live for three days doing some work. I came back relaxed for a day and then came back into my capital city to have our departmental meeting. Which in fact, always proves to be interesting because it´s the time of month that I get to reunite with 14 of my favorite Peace Corps Volunteers. I hope you can understand where I am going with this...I am currently feeling like poop. Last night was Saturday...today is Sunday. Ok, now that we have gotten that over with. I am good, still in Peru. I never really have anything interesting to say on this blog. This week I am planning on finishing up the diagnostic I have been doing about my community. Then I want to set up some meetings to talk to people about starting a trash program. Yup....I live in Peru :)

Middle Class Guilt from a Hotel Room Balcony

I´ve been thinking about this for a while now. I feel bad. Most of the time for being middle class, for having the opportunity to work a good job, to study, to travel, to buy expensive shoes. I feel guilty. People want to see the world, but they don´t realize the sad reality that exists underneath it all.

Taking six months off from your hollywood job to travel latin america does not make you an expert on this reality. This reality is cold even when it´s hot. These people spend all of their lives searching for something that will help them provide a better future for their children. You spend your whole life searching for someone elses reality. Doesn´t it seem so ironic. These people whose reality you need to know so badly would give their lives to escape this reality but none the less you need to see it. You need to see it, so that you can sit around with your educated friends, the ones that have traveled the world and talk about all of the sadness that exists. Or better yet you can watch it from your Hotel Room Balcony.

Things are actually good, all the while I am getting old

Contrary to popular belief, things are going well. As I´ve written/said a million times, this is hard, harder than I had imagined. More often than not I use this blog as a place where I can vent, mostly about how crazy this place is making me and from now on I will try to use it to portray the positive aspects of my experience as well.

My hardships do not take away from the fact that every day I walk through my barrio and smile at the sounds of little Peruvian children screaming my name begging me to teach them English (which I will be starting next week, by the way). I had a meeting on Monday in one of the Caserios (towns) in my Municipality. The people were really great, warm, receptive. I thanked them for accepting me in their community and joked that I love to eat, if they could please invite me over I would greatly appreciate it. They loved it!!!

I have a new vice to add along to the long list I already have- Inca Kola (a Peruvian Soft Drink that was bought by Coca Cola a few years back- google it)

I live in a primarily agricultural community. We grow everything from: Pecans, Peaches, Lucuma (Peruvian fruit- google it), Cotton, Corn, Watermelon, Mango, Avocado, and GRAPES. Oh, the infamous grape. The grape apparently, according to most Peruvians, is a great detox. As far as I am concerned the grape has officially become the most toxic fruit I have ever encountered.

Ica (the department in which I live) is known for its grapes and its PISCO. For any of you that have tasted the delightfullness that is a Pisco Sour, you know what I am talking about. Otherwise, Google it. Pisco is a liquor made of grapes, as is Wine, as is Cachina (which I affectionately like to describe as a combination of Wine and Pisco). The grape is poisonous I tell you, I will not elaborate, I will let your imagination do the work.

My 27th birthday is tomorrow and I still cannot believe how quickly time flies. (I sound like my mother) I am spending my 27th birthday in my new home...sigh. It will be good. My roomate/host sister is throwing a Fiesta for me at our house. The invitees include: Friends, family and the Mayor, of course. Listen, when you live in East Bumble Fuck Peru being a Gringa automatically makes you VIP. :) I could have never gotten this type of treatment in NYC ;)

So that´s my life folks, cat calls, childrens calls, highs, lows, you name it, we got it right here.

A short one...

I decided to take this opportunity to say something relatively positive about my life right now. The end of my night yesterday turned out to be worth it. I ended up accompanying the Mayor´s secretary to the office of the engineering company that will be working on the new water system in my community. After spending a little too much time talking to one of the more self agrandizing people I´ve met in Peru (the engineer) he offered me a complete diagnostic of the community I am living in. Score!!!! I returned to my house, popped a benadryl so that the 200 plus mosquitoe bites would not wake me in the middle of the night, said a little prayer and passed out. Woke up this morning and took it upon myself to crash a teachers meeting at the school and meet everyone and then the Chief of Police took it upon himself to make me his new friend. Things are looking up...

I think I can comfortably say...

..that I am currently living in my own personal version of hell. I just don´t get it. Whoever said that I am living in a clean culture was full of it. Granted some families are very clean there are a vast majority who in my opinion just don´t give a shit. For example, there are waterbugs in New York but there are none in my house. Wanna know why? Because I am fucking clean and do not leave open tanks of water everywhere. That´s why!!!!! I am currently living in my new site and can also say that I am miserable. I just want to hide in a corner and cry but there´s no hiding in this country because I´m the tallest, whitest thing for MILES. I can´t even write this blog anymore because I seriously might have a nervous breakdown. There is no water. I am dirty. It is about 100 degrees here. I am black with dirt and cannot wash any part of my body. I am going to go now before I really lose it. Oh yea...Merry Christmas by the way.

Completely unrelated to the Peace Corps...

I have feelings that exist outside of my experience in the Peace Corps...I think. I have already talked about sacrifising peices of my identity to assimilate to this culture. I am currently on cultural strike. I will not eat a ton of rice, I will not sacrifice my almost 27 year old body because you do not understand the meaning of POCO!!! I don´t know what´s going on right now in my life. I might not be staying at my current site for much longer and I am really conflicted about the whole situation. The reason they are contemplating moving me are very good but I can´t help but feel guilty about the situation. I don´t know, unfortunately, I really don´t have much to say. I miss my mom, my dad, my nephews and neice, my family in Lima, my friends in the states, my friends in the Peace Corps, my friends in the World...etc. Leaving Lima was really difficult and I look forward to returning.