A day in the life here in Peru.
Most days I arise early in the morning, put away my mosquito net, put on sunscreen and bug spray, and eat a quick breakfast of eggs and head out to start my day before 8am. Right now I am teaching summer school (since it is summer here), four English classes and two dance classes three times a week in the mornings. Otherwise, I usually swing by the municipality to chat with my partners about building a pilot biosand filter, coordinate meetings for the week, and just say hi to everybody! Then I head off to the hospital to check in with the nurses, and two times a week we complete Dengue inspections and community surveys in different sectors of the community. Sometimes I have water system inspections too. If I have time before lunch I will also swing by to chat with the President of the social organizations, and see if she has any meetings planned for me to attend.
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| Breakfast! This is a traditional breakfast dish here called "Shambar", it has popcorn in it |
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| Teaching english for summer school |
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| Water system inspections |
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| Checking the amount of residual chlorine in the water |
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| Dengue inspections of the flower vases in the cemetery |
Lunch here is at 1pm, which is late for me! So I usually have a mid-morning snack of fruit or crackers around 10am to tide me over. Lunch here is the main meal of the day, it is large, usually consists of soup/appetizer plus a full entre. Everybody in my host family can out eat me! Typical meals here include rice or potatoes, salad, lentils/beans, and a protein either fish, chicken, beef, duck, or guinea pig. Yes guinea pig - they eat guinea pigs here! They are actually very expensive...the most expensive meat you can buy. And another note, the protein portion is very small compared to the portion of rice and potatoes!
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| Enjoying lunch and chocolates from Hawaii |
http://www.radiostelarperu.com/
(Here in Peru I am currently 3 hours ahead of PST)
In the afternoons I visit Huacapongo, a community about 25 minutes by car from my site. Huacapongo also requested a Peace Corps volunteer, but there was not another volunteer available, so Peace Corps agreed to send me there to help out a couple days a week. The Mayor and all of the people in the community of Huacapongo are very nice and friendly! Most people in the community know my name, and it has is a nice "small-town" feel, very different than in my site, where over 40,000 people live.
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| Dengue awarness game in the city plaza |
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| Visiting water quality lab |
If I am done for the day early, I will read my book in the town central park (since it finally cools off around 5pm) and I will enjoy the early evening. At 6pm I go for a run, since the weather has cooled off and there are less cars on the road. I enjoy a lovely run through the fields of corn/agriculture and watch the sunset. Every night there is a beautiful pink/red sunset.
When I get home my host family will always be watching a television show called "Esto es Guerra" which means "This is War". It is a game show with two teams of contestants that battle it out with physical competitions, eating contests, dancing contests, and even wrestling matches. Possibly the most popular show in Peru (to be contested with another similar show that airs at the same time called "Combate" which means "Combat").
After dinner I usually work on my reports and lesson plans for the next day while watching "Corazon Valiente" with my host family, which is a soap opera that is also extremely popular here. My host family never misses an episode and it airs every night, Monday through Friday. Afterwards, I read for a bit and head to bed to start all over again the next day!
Everyday has been very busy, but enjoyable, and rewarding work.
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| Making popcorn with my host sister |
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