And Training Commences...

I am currently in a little internet cafe about three blocks from the Salud Communitario Training Center (that is Community Health Training Center).  I just had my second real day of training for the Peace Corps, or Cuerpo de Paz as we call ourselves here.  In a word? exhausting. Things have been crazy since I landed in Peru...

When we landed and were waiting to exit the plane, a woman and her husband were sitting in the row in front of me in a sea of Peace Corps volunteers (there are 64 total in all of my Peru 18 training class).  They were peruvian, and asked in spanglish why there were so many people of the same age on the plane.  Were we a group?  Julianne, one of my training class, explained to them in spanish that we were here with el Cuerpo de Paz como voluntarios for two years.  The two of them gasped, and the little old man put a hand to his chest and thanked us so sincerely.  His wife chimed in too and they thanked us repeatedly for coming to their country.  Not a bad way to start off my time in Peru. 

We went through the whole customs thing, got our luggage, and then we all piled on two separate buses to drive to the retreat center about an hour outside Lima.  We got to the retreat center at about 1 am.  We trucked all our crap down to a little storage room and kept a backpack with us.  They then brought us to the cafeteria for a sandwich and some tea, and then sent us off to bed.  I ended up rooming with a girl name Annie who is from Simsbury, Connecticut go figure.  She´s an environmental volunteer so I am not going to end up seeing her much, which is a bit of a bummer because we really bonded during our stay at the retreat center.  We stayed in the building called Santiago, in room 12.  It was a tiny square room with two little cot beds and a bathroom with a shower, toilet and sink.  I enjoyed my last hot shower for a long time.

The next day and a half, we sat through a lot of charlas (chats) about medical and security stuff, and participated in a lot of silly ice breaker activities.  When med and the environment programs separated to get to know our staff, we ended up doing a lot of dancing and silly activities, while the environmental volunteers apparently had the crap scared out of them.  That night, one of the Peru 18ers lead a belly dancing class, and a bunch of us gave it a go, while getting eaten ALIVE by these little things that look like harmless gnats, but BITE.  Not tooo pleasant. 

Next morning, they split up environment and health and bused us to our separate training centers.  We got there and our host families were waiting for us.  When I met my host mom, Rosa, (she´s about 4´9¨ probably) she goes ´´Oh, so I get the smallest one¨ hahahha   Cesaer, my host dad, was there to pick me up also, and we got in their tiny beat up little blue car, and drove around the corner to a store to pick up a trash can for my toilet paper in what would soon be my bathroom.  I felt pretty awkward wandering around in the store after here, a GIGANTIC gringa shadow.  Lets be real, people stared.  I also just felt awkward in general because I hadn´t really adjusted well to speaking spanish.  Plus, the traffic here doesn´t lend itself to understanding anyone. 

We drove home to this lovely little house, and I met my host sisters, Shayla (26) and Angela (22), our three little rat dogs, our parrot, our two little birds, our rooster, and our chickens.  We sat down in the living room and enjoyed a really long chat.  They made me feel immediately comfortable, and I discovered that I was their fifth volunteer.  I got a nice little room all to myself, in a little building across from the main part of the house, with my own bathroom just a small walk outside from my door. 

I was really pleasantly surprised by my host dad.  He was in the Peruvian Navy back in the day and now works with solar powered lighthouses I believe.  I didn´t know how i would deal with the machismo dynamic common in peruvian households, but he made an effort to tell me how much he loved his wife and how well he knew that nothing would function without her in the home.  He is also extremely affectionate with her all the time, in public and in the home, and has been so invested in learning from me and talking with me about my home.  He was ecstatic to see the photo of a light house in the calendar of New Hampshire that I gave him.  I decided not to explain that New Hampshire has about a foot of coast.  I have also really bonded with my host sister, Shayla, who is always chatting with me and helping me when I stumble a little over spanish words, but I feel like I am adjusting really well.

I will fill in more when I can, but I need to head home before it gets dark.  Love you all!