Carral

This past weekend, we took a trip north to Carral, which is one of the oldest in the world, and the oldest sacred city in the Americas!

I obviously know how to look like a tourist, check it!

A view of one of the pyramids.. they were used for sacrifice and religious events

Another scenic view


Afterwards, we went to Barranco, a town on the coast, for some lunch. If you can guess what this is called, I'll give you a shout out in my next post! (Hint: rice, beans, with seafood)

A beautiful sunset on the drive home

In the forefront you can see the edge of the cliff we were driving along

Update: The week has gone by really quickly. I've been very busy in El Agustino, preparing and conducting interviews with women who work in the Comedores. They have some really moving stories about why and when they became involved. I wish I had stronger Spanish already, so I could take away more, and ask more follow-up questions. Its frustrating when you don't have the right words to say what you're thinking!

Tonight, we're driving to Trujillo for a long weekend. Look for my next post within the next week!

Trabajos Voluntarios

View from Terrazas, one of the "Casa del Niños" sites... Yes, we walked all the way up!

As part of the Peru program, each of us was assigned a volunteer position for the first half of term in El Agustino, a poor area of Lima. We're all working with Servicios Educativos El Agustino (SEA), which is an organization that offers innumerable services to community members of El Agustino, including workshops on computer training, providing micro-loans to first-time business starters, as well as management assistance to business owners, after school programming, and many other services.

Unfortunately, when we first arrived last Monday to begin our volunteer jobs, they were not as organized as our director hoped, so we did a fair amount of shuffling and restructuring who would be doing what, when. Last week, I helped the Carls who have been placed in the various after school programs, assisting elementary school students with their math, spelling, and religion homework. Don't worry, we got to play, too!

This Monday was my first day working at my "official" volunteer job: helping women with their "Comedores", better understood as "Open Dining Rooms", which function similarly to a hybrid soup kitchen/food pantry. The format is really different from anything I've heard about in the United States, and awesome. These women get funding and government assistance (albeit little) to prepare daily meals that families pick up and bring home--either to provide the evening meal, or to add to what they already have at their table. Each portion is equivalent to $0.60, and I don't think there is a limit to how many a family picks up.

Anyway, SUPER COOL, right!? I was under the impression that I would be helping the women prepare the daily meals, but on Monday, I found out that Arielle and I are charged with visiting each of the 29 Comedores to listen to the testimonies/histories of each, and to collect observations for SEA managers to more properly assist the Comedores' needs. EVEN COOLER!!

The first steps for this project have been to hold meetings with the Comedores of various zones (the 29 comedores make up 5 zones). Ari and I were in charge of preparing the structure to these meetings, which has not been an easy feat. We decided to focus on some pretty basic concepts: Defining the organization, its purpose, and functional strengths and weaknesses. I won't bore you with more details (this is already a long post!)

In short, today was the first of the "Zone Meetings". My meeting began with the Zone's Director introducing herself and asking me what the meeting was about. I was shocked that she hadn't been given ANY information about the purpose of this meeting, but once I explained what Ari and I prepared, she took over and the meeting went smoothly. Apparently, Ari was not as lucky. Her Zone's Director sat in the back and had her lead the whole meeting, gasp!

Today really taught me that while I understand a fair amount of Spanish, I really need to strengthen my speaking skills and vocabulary.. It was really difficult to answer the questions these women had and to accurately portray my ideas during small group discussions. We'll see what tomorrow brings!

Photo entry

Hello again! Because I didn't include any photos the last time I wrote, I decided to make this a photo journal. I have been very careful with bringing my camera around because I don't want anything to happen to it, but the times I have brought it, I've been very pleased with the products. (if you double click a photo, it should open a slideshow, where they will view more clearly) Enjoy!


Here is a photo of my room! As you can see, it's definitely big enough for two.. just sayin'... ;)



This is a view from my window, looking out on the street. Welcome to my neighborhood!




Here is one of many photos I took during Brisas de Titicaca, a "traditional Peruvian dance" extravaganza. This dance was special because the costumes told a story, while the other dances were more definitively "m/f" pairings, this dance consisted of warriors, señoras, and other "roles". Below are two more photos from Brisas








Here is a picture from Thursday evening, the first day of Semana Santa (Holy Week) Julian, my host-cousin Gaby, and I went to Central Lima to tour their churches, along with probably 50% of Lima's population (in other words, 4,000,000 people) This is in one of the two main squares in Central Lima, in front of the Cathedral.


Here is a photo from the beach... I chose this one because I think it turned out pretty well, and I'd never seen a crab in real life before today. Also it was foggy/pollution-filled so I'm going to try again another day.

And for fun, I included a few group photos (thanks facebook!):


This one is taken in El Agustino, at the top of one of the cerros (big dirt hills) with some of the kids we're entertaining through an after school program


Here is a picture from the same square in Central Lima, taken during the day on our first week


One night we went to a fountain park..here's evidence! The park was really neat, I want to go back during the day when playing in the fountains would feel more refreshing!

I plan to bring my camera with me one of the days I go to El Agustino, so I can show you more graphically what its like there. Pictures of the University campus will also follow! Oh, also a food post!! Get excited! Love, Phoebe

Experimentation

Wow, what a long week it has been! I feel like I'm starting to develop a bit of a routine, but in many ways, each day is completely different. Living with a family provides the most consistency: I wake up in the morning around 7:30am for breakfast and conversations with my host mom. Then I get ready for school and walk the four sunny blocks to the university. After school, I get dropped off by a driver, search for my host mom, and we have the following conversation:
Mom: Oh, Phoebe, how was your day?
Phoebe: good, I'm tired
Mom: Yeah, what did you do today?
Phoebe: details, usually something along the lines of "Class was good (but too long) then I had lunch, and we went to El Agustino for volunteerism"
Mom: What did you eat for lunch?
Phoebe: "Rice, potatoes, {enter peruvian carne dish here}, and a weird dessert I don't know the name of (but explain vaguely)"
Mom: oh good (she tries to figure it out), then asks: Are you ready for dinner?

It is the rest of the day that provides the most spontaneity. When I first get to school, I find our classroom (where all three of our classes are held). It's obvious that as Carleton students, we are more time conscious than the rest of the university, because class rarely starts on time, and we all notice. We have three classes, but have yet to begin the third class (the professor is traveling).

Our professor for Peruvian Modern Culture is a professor here in Peru. If you imagine the comic book store owner from The Simpsons, you're not too far off from what Alex looks like: curly hair put in a ponytail, sneakers, khakis, a button up shirt that sometimes shows his belly, glasses, you get the idea....Don't be fooled though, his lectures are really entertaining. We've talked about a lot of really interesting ideas and he's shared a lot of information with us already, the two times we've met so far. He has really elaborate whiteboard drawings.

Our second class is with our Carleton professor, José. His philosophy for this study abroad program, he told us, consists in large part on Experimentation, and Improvisation. And that's exactly what he does. I think this is a good test for each of us in the program; we are all very accustomed to being told "Go here now, do this now, here's your schedule for the next 10 weeks, follow it!" We received a schedule like this, but every day ends up being a little different than suggested in the calendar. To summarize, we have all learned a few things:
1) always carry your cellphone with you, in case the bus is running late and you aren't yet on it.
2) Check your email in the morning, directions change (when class starts, whether or not its a good day to wear shorts)
3) I should have packed more than one pair of jeans
4) Look at the schedule from our program, add two hours to the time it says we get home, and you still might be a little late (because of traffic, etc)
5) During traffic grid-lock, have a few songs prepared to sing as a group, it helps pass time

Its difficult to design a new study abroad program for 22 students that involves classes in a university, volunteering in a neighborhood on the other side of town, and getting everyone home safely. I think we're all beginning to breath a little better as we get used to spontaneous changes in the program, and are learning to "go with the flow". I think it will become more stable after a few more days of working out kinks. At least until we begin our travels to Trujillo and Cuzco.

I will write again with more exciting details of what the last week entailed. but now, I'm going to the beach! Happy Holy Week (no classes!)