Peace

A huge part of my service is promoting world peace and friendship. This part of service isn’t suppressed but it’s not the focus at times, or its importance isn't addressed as much as it should be. Us volunteers have to be on our best behavior at all times - and even if we don't realize it, this is the "promoting peace" bit of our service. This means we hold back anger and frustration at the developing world and things we are not used to at times. This builds up and explodes in different ways throughout our service – the depression, the anxieties, not wanting to come out of your room for 3 days in a row. But at the end, we take the hit because we understand deeply that we are here to promote something bigger than ourselves. We are representing what the United States of America stands for. We are walking, talking symbols of the importance of service and worldwide peace and teamwork. Peace is not just a noun. It is the verb we live by. It is our goal to show at least one person every day that peace is real. This crazy thing called "peace" is possible and we are after it.

Is it weird to think, "I have it good?"

I look around. Mud everywhere, ants on the counter top, a chicken coup, the water hasn’t come today. My view from my bedroom window – green hills, the dry forest, filled with two little houses made of sticks. Men carrying crops from the chacra to their humble homes. My little friends playing in the dirt, white clothing is non-existent. Shoes are a rare notion. Barefoot “campo feet” - nice and calloused. Babies crying. A beat up combi comes down the dirt road every now and then honking incessantly for passengers, to wake up a town that looks like that last frontier. Someone's playing Kumbia music VERY LOUD (a sound only Latin volunteers can appreciate). My room cramped and chaotic with walls covered in letters from friends in the states and so many trinkets that have a place but look like their lying around due to a small living space. A kid friend comes to the window to ask me how I’m doing, if I want to come outside and play futbol. I’m working on a lesson plan. The sun is beating down through the cracks in the aluminum rooftop and life just got sweaty. Drip. Drop. Time to turn on the life saving mechanism called ventiladora (fan).

Is it weird to think, “I have it good?” I am undergoing a living experience so different than anything I could have ever imagined. So extreme, so foreign, so exciting – all at the same time. I say I have it good because I am doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing in life. The unconventional. The daring. The “all my friends think I’m crazy” thing. Living on the extreme side. I’m a Peace Corps volunteer for crying out loud. I am naturally a person that lives simply, doesn’t ask for much, so it didn’t take too long to get used to the developing world daily bump and grind, but I still need to remind myself every once in a while of the immense difference from the first world. Shock myself a bit.

There are days I want to sit on a couch and watch TV comfortably and eat ice cream. There are days I want to drive myself to the beach, have myself a little surf sesh. There are days I wish I could be there in the states for my friends when they get a new boyfriend, a job promotion, hired – period. These days make me ever-so pissed and help me learn patience at the same time. You cannot always have what you want. You also must appreciate everything you have. Taking things for granted is no longer. I have learned a lesson we all think we know very well – sure we always say to “count our blessings” but now it’s real to me. I have lived the lesson. That’s why I say, I have it good.    

AMBUSH!! Some of my favorite little ones.

Where we play, we take care of!

An outing to the beach to the kids from my rural community is a huge deal. One kid had never even been to the beach. Another said it’s been years since they went to the beach. I’d think, how is this possible when you live only 45 minutes from the most beautiful beaches in Peru? That’s the poverty here smacking me right in the face.

I rounded up the kid’s club, Los Lideres del Manaña (The Leaders of Tomorrow), and had us all pick a date, do some fundraising and find a kombi to take us to the beach. I think every child has the right to enjoy the beach and just forget about their problems and worries for a day, so that’s just what we did...but not without doing something Peace Corpsey too!

When we got to what looks like Pacific Coast Highway, the kids were glued to the windows looking at the ocean. I was jamming out to my iPod, showing them photos of home, and stopped to join. Can’t take anything for granted around here. The car stops and everyone jumps out and runs to the sand. Raul just throws himself in the water and Gera and I sit on my towel to watch all the kids jump in too. After the excitement passes a little bit, I set some ground rules because most of these kids can’t swim and Lord knows their parents all told me to watch over their babies, blah blah blah, so I had a huge responsibility that day. Edu helped me keep everyone in line, thank God, because rowdy teenagers are really hard to deal with.

They’d go in the water, they played soccer on the beach, they played tag, they dug holes, they looked for sand crabs, they thanked me and squeezed me so tight for organizing this with them, which really they had done all the work. A Peace Corps volunteer is just a “facilitator” that gives the illusion we’re doing all the work, but really we’re motivating others who end up being the ones to pull through. J

The whole day passed by and I realized we still hadn’t done our beach clean-up. Days go by so quickly when you’re having fun, so I huddled everyone up and told them, where we play, we must take care of. They all agreed and I handed them trash bags and we walked up and down the beach picking up trash, going up to people for their trash. It was a good end to the day – work hard, play harder, ya know? On the kombi back, I shared this philosophy and the teens actually listened, but then were distracted by the next song on the radio of course. All good though – I liked the song too!

I sang “Wonderwall” by Oasis with Gera. I’d been teaching her that song and it was such a big deal because it was in English. It’s one of my favorite songs about friendship too so I was perfectly fine belting it out with her at night our my patio underneath a blanket of stars and the moon with all the other kids looking at us kind of weird because they didn’t understand, but they liked the beat! Ya just can’t be afraid to sing.

Now we sang on the beach and it was a moment I hold dear to my heart. It was the first time we went the whole song through without her stopping and laughing and asking what the last word was. Video coming soon!

My entertainment in site's name is Bianca

Hello from Peru, one of my favorite pictures

How a birthday party's done!

My favorite family! Happy birthday to Riza!

Picture of my neighbors - the infamous BIANCA and the TWINS!

I've got Bianca as a neighbor to my right. Her nickname is "el terremoto" (the earthquake) and that says it all. Then I've got these twins to my left! Aline and Snyder. Never a dull moment. At night you can find me curled up on the hammock with all three of them singing to them or playing some sort of silly game they come up with.

Bianca, the earthquake

The twins, Synder and Aline

Cultural exchange for the week - CHECK!

Gera’s a very good friend in my community. She’s 16 and wants to be a doctor. She talks to me A LOT about her dreams of being a doctor and traveling. We watch scary or funny movies at least one night every week and share chocolate milk and strawberries! She helps me with anything I need, and makes me laugh a lot. We both just crack each other up in general. We cooked quesadilla’s together too! She’d never had one before. Obviously we ended up making more. She was hooked. For now she'll just have to get her travel fill through yummy American food!

My host baby brother, Jeremy...too cute to not post this photo!!

I can't help but think of the day he finally says my name for the first time! So excited! He turns 1 years old July 13.

Feeling at home with my favorite señora's!

Here we have Yuvicsa, one of my "co-workers" and good friends. She helps me with my Viviendas Saludables project (working with 30 mothers and children to help them adopt better health practices). She helps me visit the family - do "house visits" - and we do different health practices with the families. She's got a great work ethic, super diligent, always punctual...and that in Peru is very hard to find since "la hora peruana" es fuertisimo. I am spending my birthday, July 3, with her. She wants to have me try some of her favorite wine. I'm so excited to spend time on my special day with a very special señora!

This is LUCY! She cracks me up the most in site. She calls me "hija" (daughter) and I call her MAMA! It's only fitting! She makes me laugh so much and I love visiting her. We usually just sit on her front porch and laugh about little things. I feel at home with her.

Don't ever take chocolate chip cookies for granted!

One family in my site has an oven, so of course I persuaded them to bake this crazy foreign alien looking food, chocolate chip cookies! They had never had them before. It was time to aprovechar.

"What is this crazy thing, 'CHO-COH-LIT SHIP KOO-KIE?'"

Mashing up a white chocolate bar for the "chips"

Sami wanted to help out with the cookies. I told him to put an egg in the batter. Should have said to crack the egg and THEN put it in the batter because his cute little self  just threw it in there, shell and all. Cracked me and the family up to no end!

Maria Antonieta, one of my favorite women in my site

It was a success. All the cookies were gone in 30 minutes after being taken out of the oven! Ha!

"Officially"

Officially started a choir with 7-12 year olds. Goal: Perform Christmas carols to the community in the park at the end of the year. Some in Spanish and maybe 1 or 2 in English. No I haven’t had experience directing a group of crazy kids singing. This should be good. 

Give me song recommendations! Deck the halls with boughs of holly...fa la la la la LA LA LA LA! ha!

Just comparing Peru to the states as usual and realizing almost every day I'm invited into a new señora's house for lunch or dinner, and most of them don't know me. I'm a complete stranger and they invite me over to spend time with their families, to exchange cultures, ideas, foods. Has that ever happened to you in the states? Why are people so afraid? How are people so open hearted here when it's supposed to be "more dangerous, more unstable?" Obviously you need to be careful and not be an IDIOT and just trust ANYONE off the street, but I admire Peruvian people so much for their open arms. When I return, I'll have to make it a point to be a friend to strangers. I encourage whoever's reading to try it out. It's unconventional as hell, but who knows what good can come out of it? After all, doing good only brings more goodness into your life. Share the meal. It's a stranger AND a person AND, most likely, a GOOD person, just like you. Thank you for hearing me out. Namaste, homies.

The Battle We Face

Just listened to that song "Unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield the other day. Well, not listened, more like - sung my heart out, ha! I was on a combi back home after a days work packed with some fellow volunteers and some of our Peruvian counterparts as well and a friend and I found out this combi actually had a cord to connect an iPod, so NATURALLY, we connected mine and blasted the song "Unwritten" and ended up singing it at the top of our lungs. Such a release. The Peruvians had no idea what the words were but passion is a universal language so we had the whole bus clapping and cheering. It got me thinking...

My favorite lyric of the song - "Live life with arms wide open." Such strong words that I have to give them a second thought.

We have the greatest opportunity in life to be loving beings and make each others life better but do we all take it? If not, why don't we? Are we so enveloped in society's norms that we've lost touch with what really matters? How disillusioned are we? Do we know how to lose our ego's? Because let me tell you right now, the vast majority of our people do not. I speak for myself as well.

Disclaimer really quick: I'm not trying to be some self-righteous jerk-off...I am at fault because I am human and flawed and make mistakes every single day, but these are the things I think about here in Peace Corps. I want to challenge myself to be a better person every day, and in that sense, I think I can speak on behalf of all of you reading. 

Or, in the perfect world and some enlightened folk, are we fighting to seize every moment? Because that indeed is a battle. I'll talk about the players in the battle next.

In Peace Corps, every day I live simply. I'm talking, we just didn't have water for a month because the distributor broke for our small town and that meant having to walk to the river bringing buckets back home to use for cooking and cleaning. Having to shower in the freezing cold river with other members of the community...kid's splashing around, me feeling awkward in my bathing suit because I'm supposed to be a "professional" then just using that good ol' sense of humor of mine and not even caring about being half naked in front of all these people. There are just some moments in life where being embarrassed is silly. I partook in some of the splashing too! Cute scene. I don't know what kind of crazy vortex I'm in these days but my being has been stripped to the bare necessities. White flag. Battle over. That in turn has changed the way I perceive what's all around me. Without many "things" we see who we REALLY are. Nothing's clouding my inner being from showing. Before I came I was battling this person to let go and be real, this person everyone else sees but it's not me, it doesn't show what I believe in. That's to say, there's the person we are OUTSIDE (the person visible to everyone - with the clothes, iPhone, fancy make up) and there's a person INSIDE of us (the one that holds your secrets, that decides whether to share your weird crazy thoughts or not, that's calculating your next move ultimately driving you to find your happiness).

I challenge you to think of this person inside as your most important being and someone you should share more of. Get to the point where that's the person people see, so that you no longer have such an obvious "outside" person. Your thoughts become your actions eventually anyways.

What's around me nowadays are opportunities like actually having a dialogue with the taxi driver about his day, helping someone because that's all we are here on this earth for really and just being more of a pleasant person in general. I guess my worries have become REAL, substantial. I consider this a tactic in how to win the battle. How many worries of yours drive you crazy on a daily basis? Like the saying goes, if it won't matter in 5 days, it won't matter in 5 months. Did you forget to do laundry? Are your nails not painted bugging you? Were you late to work because of traffic and it got you all nervous for the remainder of the day? I challenge you to have one worry and one worry only.

Worry about being a good person. Opening doors for others, being actively patient in the super market line, cheering on the kids at a soccer game. My person inside has always worried about being a "good person" and yes I'm following social convention (as well as a call from God, in my opinion, because it has to take something intense to get you to do the Peace Corps). At the end of the day though, that worry is what's brought me to the middle of nowhere, no electricity or water for days sometimes, Peru. Obviously I can do more good to this world but by giving of myself in Peace Corps I experience endless daily gifts. Thank goodness I followed my inner self. It's brought me to new heights, and I find in this environment, I get higher and higher every day.

Living simply has lifted a weight off my shoulders, allowed me to really see who I am, and most importantly, I fill my mind with good things to see what I CAN BE. We are ever-changing, and should be ever-improving as well.

In a nutshell, I'm really doing some growing up here guys.

May your willingness to share more of you inside bring many people to your home.