I changed my website

http://web.me.com/caldwelljs/Journey_Peru/Welcome.html

My new posts are all going to be on the new site and this is all pretty out of date and probably way more interesting than this one. See you there...

Home Sweet Home...Yanque

Amy and I, July 2008 in the Colca Valley...my new home for the next 2 years.

I moved to my new home, Yanque, Arequipa, on August 28th...sorry I never told you guys but I've been sort of busy. Training finished on the 20th, when I signed my life away to the Peace Corps, said my Peace Corps Oath, went to our graduation ceremony, and was issued my official Peace Corps cell phone, and then I was on a 16 hour bus ride southbound to Arequipa, Peru.

Yanque is pretty tiny, with around 1,300 people living in it. It's located in the Colca Valley, at the entrance to the Colca Canyon (the deepest canyon in the world). We are about 11,200ft above sea-level...really high! Denver, Colorado, the "mile-high city", is 5,280 ft. above sea level if that puts it into perspective. I played soccer with the neighborhood kids a couple of times, and died from lack of oxygen after 10 minutes. Literally sprawled out on the field and dying... Poco a poco I'll get used to it.

It's unbelievable gorgeous here, and I still don't feel like it is real. All of the mountains in every direction I look are covered with tiered chacra (farmland) called Andenes. Those chacra you see below are my host dad's "office"...not too shabby.

The Colca Valley a little bit outside of Yanque. Each row is another field a different product.

The mountains in the distance are the beginning of the Colca Canyon (biggest in the world).

Right now, it is really dry and the fields are all yellow and brown, but they say come the rainy season (January-March) it all becomes green, and even more impressive.

My sister, Amy, being very touristy in the plaza of my town.

The students dance a traditional dance every morning in the plaza from 6-7 for the tourists to watch (or dance in Amy's case) and they take donations for school materials and school trips. They artisans also sell their products in the plaza to these same tourists. She visited my site in July, before I even knew I was moving here. Weird.

Most families own chacra (farmland) where they work most days, so Yanque is pretty dead during the day when they are all out in the chacra. For that reason, I have been trying to get out to the chacra as often as I can. I also want to learn as much as I can about it since that is basically how my community survives. By the way, growing up in Texas, you would probably assume I would have raised some cattle in my day, or maybe worked on the ranch or something. But I had to move all the way to Peru to finally get into it...and I get a kick out of it. I already cleaned the canals for irrigation to come this season, grazed the cows, learned to sling stones to protect the cows (like david and goliath), and drank chicha for lunch (fermented corn- I'm going to need an entire post to describe the chicha experience here). I had ridden horses before, but never anything as real as this.

My host dad, Don Gerardo, is a local farmer, who I'm pretty sure is the most popular guy in town. He is between 70 and 74, wears a cowboy hat everyday, and knows everyone in town (He also might be a grandfather/uncle/father/or godfather to 1/4 of the town). Since everyone knows him, everyone knows who I am...his gringo.

Don Gerardo (left) and his son (right) wearing their normal clothes and cowboy hats. Makes me feel like I'm still back in Texas. Pretty soon I'll be the third guy on the right with my cowboy hat and jeans.

Yanque actually feels like a small town in Texas, and the landscape reminds me of it as well. It is like Albany, Texas, just made up of stucco homes with thatch roofs, and with everyone speaking Spanish and the native language of Quechua instead of English. Also most people here raise an eat alpaca instead of beef (more economical-cows are for milk). My family for example raises alpaca in the highlands and slaughter about 3 per year. They eat some fresh, and then turn the rest into jerky and that's what they eat all year. They also live off of their farmland. My host family grows; choclo (dried overgrown corn) , habas (lima beans on steroids), wheat, barley, alfalfa, potatoes, quinoa, and some other stuff, and they store this, and eat it all year long.

Llama being herded (pronounced yama as my mom would say). These are a cousin of the alpaca I eat. They look similar, llama are just bigger.

That's all I have for my town, but I have way more pictures to post

Englich as un Second Language

About 7 weeks ago, my friend Paul and I began teaching English classes to the kids in our neighborhood. First off, I have to say that it has been one giant experience after another. To put the entire situation into perspective, I studied Marketing and Finance in college, Paul is an Economist, and neither of us has ever taught a class in our lives, much less English. Our students are a group of about 8 Peruvian kids from our neighborhood, 8-12 years old, who are dying to learn English and are also dying to play all the time. An interesting combo…

Paul and our students on day one. That guy used to be an international economist...

"Informal Education", or just our expert teaching methods

English classes aren’t in my job description, but I think that they are something I can do to help my community and also to meet a lot of people. Peace Corps calls it an "easy win". The idea to teach English began after about two weeks in Peru. As I met the families in my neighborhood during my first weeks in Huascata, all of them asked the same thing, “Will you please teach the kids English”. And the kids wanted to show

me all the English words they knew, which about 90% were bad words and the other 10% poorly pronounced movie titles, and they all were dying to learn more. As it turns out, the schools only offer one hour of English per week, and it is usually only basic vocab without any p

ronunciation lessons. After hearing this, we decided that we wanted to teach the kids useful English phrases that they could apply in real life situations.

Example: How to pick up American girls. How to

Just kidding, we are professional in a professional atmosphere, who take our work very seriously as you will see in the pictures below.

Because this was sort of a make shift English class, we decided to use my living room as a classroom. We got all the benches and chairs in the house and packed them in the room for the students to sit on. If you look at the picture below, you can see where Arianna is standing in front

of the whiteboard. This is where we sat to teach the class…like I said, very professional.

Our classroom/my living room. My family was really cool about the screaming kids interrupting their afternoons.

Day one was straight out of a movie, and we learned a lot from those kids; about our teaching skills (or lack there of), children/wild animals, and English classes in general. I swear someone gave them Red Bull and candy before they showed up to that first class because they literally ran all over us for an hour. We had prepared a lesson plan on our bus ride home that day, and figured we would pretty much “wing it” or bribe them with candy…we did both and survived

Here I am resorting to animal crackers to save the day.

Here is a list of the Lesson Plans we had for each day. Like I said earlier, we usually went along with whatever problems showed up, so this plan usually changed pretty dramatically within the first 2 minutes of class.

CLASE 1: “Hello. What is your name?”

My name is _____________.

One candy please. (we set up a fake store where we gave them a candy if they said it correctly)

Thank You. Goodbye.

CLASE 2: Head, shoulders, legs, and feet…legs and feet (the song)

Eyes, ears, mouth, nose, hair, hand

Simple family tree words

CLASE 3: All schools in Peru were closed for about a month because of the swine flu, so only 4 kids showed up to class.

Animals: Dog, cat, bird, fish, cow, pig, donkey, monkey

CLASE 4: Soccer (Fútbol)

Pass me the ball, goal, shoot it, team, game, and field

We played soccer on my street after class for a “check for learning”

CLASE 5: (my first class without any help…yikes)

Reviewed everything covered in the past. Practiced pronunciation

Taught colors

How are you? I’m good. I’m bad

CLASE 6: (this coming Monday) Our final class

Games to apply vocab and phrases

Practice numbers up to 20

Play soccer (futbol) or volleyballs (volly)

We bounced the volleyball to practice the numbers. They are really good at 1-10, but they're going to have to practice their volleyball if they want to get good at the rest.

The time teaching classes has been really fun, and I am really glad I did it. I think the kids enjoyed it and learned quite a bit...I definitely know I have. My site already is expecting me to teach a lot of English classes when I move there, so I think this was great practice, and a good chance to make the major mistakes.

Speaking of mistakes, I made a pretty big one during one of my first classes when I showed the kids that I can “moonwalk”. They loved it and of course wanted to learn how to do it. At the time I thought it was such a great idea, I even promised my sister Stacey that I would film the kids doing it for her. But then as I was walking down my street the following day, saying hi to all the parents working in their yards, I heard a pack of kids yelling, “Hello Michael Jackson!”...Pretty cool in most situations, but definitely NOT when they are talking about their English teacher who holds classes in his family’s living room. If I were one of those parents, my child would have been out of that English class immediately, and I would have taught the “king of pop” a lesson myself and then moon walked his A#@ right out of town. Luckily Peruvians worship Michael Jackson, and I’m still alive and intact. I guess I can at least be glad that they were practicing their English when they said “Hello”.

I'm pretty sure it's cool everywhere to "dar cinco" (high five).

If this is what I’m getting paid to do…I think I love my job.

Mi Vida: Packing List

Here is a list of everything I can think of that I brought with me. (There are pictures of what it all looked like in a previous post). I was limited to; 2 checked bags under 50 lbs. each, my guitar, and a carry-on. This list seems like a lot to me right now, but when I was packing it felt like nothing (I was actually 15 lbs. under the max at check-in). I don’t wish that I had brought anything except for maybe more pictures of my family and the states to show my family here. Luckily it is 2009 and Al Gore happened to have invented the Internet, electricity, email, and the Facebook because I am able to get those pictures in about 2 minutes.

*NOTE TO FUTURE VOLUNTEERS: If you are packing for the Peace Corps right now, don’t stress out. You will make due with what you have, and can always buy stuff at the market or in the bigger cities. Just bring clothes you are comfortable wearing because you are the one who has to wear them for 2 years, so you might as well like them. You just might want to stay away from the 80’s Body Glove style neon colors and flashy stuff since you’re already a gringo among Peruvians and probably don’t want the extra attention.

• Outdoor skills that Bear Grylls couldn't dream about faking on TV
  
• 3 Button Downs- once wore my white one with dark down pants and a backpack and earned the nickname Mormon John around the training center…not cool.
• 6ish T shirts (some cotton, some outdoor materials- doesn’t really make a difference, I still wear them all multiple days without washing them.)
• 10 pair Underwear (Exofficio are the best, they never smell. I only change them out of self-consciousness, not because they smell. Plus, my body odor smells excellent anyways)
• I’m in the market for some Alpaca fur boxers if anyone knows where they sell them. My site in Arequipa is going to be freezing at 11,200 ft. and I have to think about what is important...
  
• 2 pair long underwear
  
• Socks- Some white, some short, some wool, and some hiking
• My icebreakers thin day socks are great and not too hot
• Foot powder is a necessity since showering isn't.
  
• Short socks are usually recommended for soccer, but if you have to play in long tube socks, it’s OK, Gringos already look goofy on the soccer field regardless...might as well just play along
• 4 pair outdoor pants
• 2 pair jeans – Rarely get washed
• 2 pair outdoor shorts (Haven’t worn them- Peruvians only wear shorts for soccer)
• 1 Bathing suit- Been surfing twice but always use an extremely used rental wetsuit – haven’t touched swim suit but could have crabs from the wetsuit...lets keep that between us
  
• 2 pair dress pants- Good for meetings and teaching business classes. (Dark pants are way more common in Peru)
• 1 Blazer
• 1 Tie
• 3 Collared polos
• Danna Design Backpacking Backpack (Good call for easy traveling if you don't care about looking like 99% of travelers in the bus stations)
• Mountainsmith Bugaboo Daypack
• Ended up buying a smaller book bag for 16 soles (about $3) and it tore on week 1…what a surprise.
  
• Light rain jacket
• Rain Pants- with crucial full leg zipper to avoid getting muddy shoes all over the inside
  
• Fleece jacket
  
• Heavy ski jacket
• Light jacket
• 2 fleece pullovers
  
• Going to need every warm layer I brought since it is going to be freezing in my site
• Gray zip up hoody- Exact replica of Paulie Bleeker's in the movie Juno
  
• I know you are worried Amy, but don't worry I haven't worn it yet. Once I do, I'll send lots of pictures because I know you hate it.
  
• 1 Expedition weight long underwear top
• Baseball cap
• 1 pair of dress shoes- great with white socks for Michael Jackson impersonations (who this country literally worships).
• 1 pair of Addidas sneakers (good for soccer but don't listen to their commercials...you are still going to suck at soccer)
• 1 pair Zamberland Hiking boots
• 1 pair hiking shoes
• Chaco sandals
• Sunglasses
• Watch (Cheap looking- I’m already skinny and Gringo, the last thing I need is a flashy watch attracting the 12 year old thieves of Lima)
• 1 Towel and 1 washcloth
• 1 Leatherman Wave
• 1 pair of workgloves
• 1 Gerber Flashlight
• 1 Headlamp- I have electricity so these are untouched as of today…knock on wood
• 1 Basic flashlight
• Compact umbrella
• ENO Hammock
• Fly Rod, reel and fly’s (might end up just decorating my wall, but you never know)
• Digital camera (extra battery)
• Flip Video (Thank You Balcom Agency- Maybe we’ll see a rebirth of our favorite weatherman reporting from Peru)
• External Hard drive- crucial for storing movies that might get me through the lonely times at sight
  
• Nalgene (Duct Tape around it of course- Greg)
• Travel Speaker
• Sleeping bag
• First Aid Kit- Peace Corps provides one with tons of stuff
• Anti diarreah meds and Pepto chewables are like gold around here
  
• Tylenol PM should come in all First Aid kits- 16 hour overnight bus rides are pretty rough when a poorly dubbed off color movie in Spanish is playing on the TV and you have an upset stomach
  
• 1 Jar of Peanut Butter- it was on my Peace Corps packing list so I brought it incase I’m ever starving… highly doubtful since I get fed like I’m a Sumo Wrestler
• Thermarest
• iPod 8 Gigabyte Nano
• Classical Guitar- and the ability to play tons of intros to songs without ever finishing one.
• Two years in a gorgeous setting where know one knows me sounds like the perfect place to finally find time to practice
  
• Laptop
• Power Converter
• USB (w/virus’ complements of every computer in my neighborhoods internet café. Ask Franny, I already gave her a computer STD)
• 1 Journal
• Books (The Road, A Confederacy of Dunces, Diarios de Motocicleta, All the Pretty Horses, the Catcher in the Rye, Bible, Guitar Guide, Peace Corps recommended Reading, and some others)
• By the way, I'm finishing City of Thieves right now and it is pretty awesome.
  
• Toiletries (Travel size everything-it all can be bought in Peru)
• My spanish accent that literally melts Peruvian women's hearts, stunning gringo looks that can pretty much get me into any door in this continent, and business knowledge that could possibly spare Peru of all of its poverty.
  
• BROMA (JOKE)...hey a guy can dream right!

Buen Provecho: The tastier side of things

This is a picture of my last meal with my family in El Paso. I am literally salivating over this right now, but I keep accidentally looking at the picture and have to tell someone about it (and it is a good segue into Peruvian food). The mountain of shredded beef and other stuff is called Sal Picón, and it makes the best tacos in the world, (Peruvians don’t eat tortillas, so I’m going to have to include this in my “intercultural exchanging”). The night before this, we also ate like kings when Greg cooked some awesome steaks with home made chile con queso on top and we cooked enchiladas with them…Wow that sounds awesome.

As for Peruvian food, I really can’t complain most days. My family here cooks really good dishes, and haven’t made me sick yet…they haven’t made me sick, but that is definitely not to say that other Peruvian cooks haven’t done so (a huge topic to be discussed at a later time). My family feeds me portions fit for a Sumo Wrestler, but I’ve gotten used to it and might have a future in competitive eating after the Peace Corps. It’s really become a funny situation because my fellow volunteers think I am insane to eat so much, but my family honestly told me that I don’t eat very much food the other day…I guess too much food isn’t something to be mad about.

Every meal here always has potatoes and rice in it, and usually some chicken and corn as well if possible. I think that some volunteers are about to crack from all the rice and potatoes, but I am still holdin’ strong. My family has somehow managed to make every sort of dish imaginable with these same ingredients. They are from the Sierra (mountains) but live in a coastal region, so we get all sorts of different dishes. Also, if any Peruvian food isn’t good, I am always able to put a bunch of lime and ají/rocoto (chile that is really hot and usually made into different types of salsa).

Pachamanca on the roof of my house.

Since I am what I eat, here is a list of some of the different stuff I have eaten (the weird and the normal):

NOTE: Everything listed comes with a little bit of salad usually with red onions, radishes, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, beats and lime

• Anticuchos: chicken heart shish kabob’s cooked on a little grill and with chicken liver (usually with it (AWESOME)
• Sopa de mote: Soup made with and tripe (cow intestines and stomach) and corn that is literally almost an inch big.
• My buddy Paul, his house mom, and sister are sick right now from eating this soup at my house yesterday, but my family and I all feel great…maybe one of the iffier dishes to date.
• Lomo Saltado: stir-fry with sliced beef, onions, peppers and rice
• Pollo a la brasa: rotisserie chicken with rice, potatoes
• Pachamanca: Chicken, potatoes, sweet potatoes, giant peas, the biggest corn I've ever seen, and bananas all cooked under ground with very hot rocks and wood.
• I'm going to dedicate an entire post to this later because it is really cool and I have tons of pictures
  
• Trucha (trout): with a side of rice, potatoes
• Sometimes comes with a soup made with the trout heads, red onions, lime and ají- definitely not my favorite.
• Ceviche: raw fish soaked with onions and lime for a while to “cook”, sometimes with fresh ají (MAYBE THE BEST THING I’VE HAD).
• Arroz con Pollo: chicken and rice
• Arroz con Mariscos: A mountain of rice with vegetables and a bunch of random seafood in it. (really good)
• Papas rellenos (stuffed potatoes): stuffed with chicken and other stuff
• Papa a la Huancayina: Potatoes with cream sauce with a side of rice
• Ají de Gallina: Shredded chicken in a spicy cream sauce with a side of rice and potatoes
• Arroz Chaufa (fried rice): usually with chicken, but sometimes with hot dog slices (super popular- there is literally at least one chifa/Chinese restaurant on every block in this area
• Chicharón: Fried pig meat and mainly fat, rice, potatoes
• Made me really sick in the mountains a couple of weeks ago.
• Biztec (thin cut steak): marinated and pan cooked with rice and potatoes
• Chicken and rice soup
• Tamales
• Hamburgers: not always positive if they are made with beef, but really thin, with tomatoes, lettuce, ham, ají, and fried potatoes slices
• Also the first thing to make me sick here. I think it was from dirty lettuce
• They also hammer out chicken into hamburger-like patties and call them hamburgers
• Big and Tasty at Mc Donald’s- Amy bought me it in the Lima Airport, and it was with out a doubt the hardest thing on my stomach on this list. It basically did a cannonball into my stomach, and I almost didn’t make the bus ride home to my town that night.
• CUY!!! (Guinea Pig): I still have yet to eat it, but where I am moving, it is really common and my school I will teach at has a cuy farm. It’s usually fried or cooked like rotisserie chicken. I hear it is usually really good.

*NOTE TO FUTURE VOLUNTEERS: Peace Corps is right when they say you will get sick a lot…but it sorta just becomes more of a joke and it really isn’t too bad because you always get over it pretty quickly. Just try to ease you way into extreme foods. I didn’t eat ceviche until I was literally looking at the ocean and had lived in Peru for about 5 weeks. Just take advantage of the Training Center bathroom when you are sick, because it is way nicer than most homes, and not located almost in the living room you family always is in. My bathroom has a big gap above the door and it makes the bathroom like a megaphone into the den…I just feel bad for them.

For breakfast I usually eat the same thing: French rolls with butter, strawberry marmelade, cheese, and avocado to put on top. We always have Nescafé powder coffee (or what ever you call it) with raw ground sugar and canned Gloria’s brand milk. Some days I luck out and get scrambled eggs with sliced up hot dogs in them (I don’t know why, but this sounds like something I would have loved to eat at Hunter Williams house when I was little). Some other days I get “Quackér” (oatmeal) made with sugar and cinnamon and sometimes apples.

Almost everyday I eat lunch at the training center, so I take a sack lunch with my “Túper” (tupperwear) full of food and eat with all of the other volunteers. Most volunteers get the same thing for lunch and dinner (or get last nights leftovers) but I am lucky, and usually get different stuff.

Enjoy your next meal for me, because I miss some things like fried chicken and waffles, pancakes, enchiladas, tacos, and giant steaks. Bon Appetit!

Mi Vida: Huascata

Here is a shot of my Peruvian family (who are awesome), my house, and my hood (Huascata). The younger guy on the left is my house brother, Manuel, my dad Virginio is next to him, my mom, Celia is next to him holding my niece, Ariana, who is 20 months old. This is only part of the family. We also have three other brothers and one brother's wife. I don't know who the lady on the right is, but she works at the Monastery with my house parents. When I say that they work at the monastery, don't automatically assume I am doing mission work in Peru. I have already been dubbed the name Mormon John and am routinely confused with evangelical groups. So please, don't join that band wagon. My house dad works the fields (chacra) at this Benedictine Monastery below. This is awesome, because that means we get fresh herbs, veggies, and fruits right from the field sometimes.

My road is dirt right now, but should be paved by the end of the month if all goes to plan. My house is on the left where that lady is sticking her head out. Everyone made my community out to be pretty dangerous, but I never really feel like I'm in danger- Probably because I am so intimidating with my backpack and lunch pale I'm usually carrying. Apparently Huascata used to be like the wild west, with a lot of neighborhood justice that went on, so I think it still holds a pretty mean reputation...I always just say I'm here to clean up Gotham.

This is my house dad at the office. He could probably take on at least 10 of me in a fight and still have energy to work the chacra all day.

So My Journey Begins

Hey my family, friends, future Peace Corps Volunteers, and random people!

Welcome to my blog that I am finally publishing. I miss you all, but really can't say that I'm home sick yet. I have been in Peru since June 4th and it is incredible here, so I'm going to use this blog to keep you all updated. I already have a ton of pictures, letters and stories built up that I guess I should first catch ya'll up on, so I'll get started. Here goes nothing...

As I was wrapping up my Undergrad at good ol' TCU in December of 2009, I decided to apply to the Peace Corps. Actually I was talking to Maury in Doctor Thompson's marketing class when I figured out that I wanted to join the Peace Corps to be a Business Volunteer...and after that everything happened really fast. I had my interview in February where I was nominated to go to Latin America in June, and around mid March they told me I was leaving on June 4th to Peru as a Small Business Volunteer (6 months!). The Peace Corps has this crazy way of keeping you in the dark about pretty much everthing you're getting yourself into so these past 7 months have been really wild. For example: I still do not know were I am going to work as a volunteer for the next 2 years, and I've been here for nearly 2 months (maybe I'm an optimist, but it makes it way more exciting this way).

Until August 21st, and for the past two months, I will be in training in a town called Chaclacayo that is outsided of Lima, Peru. I live with a great peruvian family in a little community and I love it here. By the way, if your computer won't load the pictures of my community, just drive down Paisano in El Paso, look across the river into Juarez, and that should be pretty close. It is weird how similar it is, and I think I could stay here for ever. Right now I am usually in Spanish classes from about 8:15-noon, and then from about 1:30-5:00, I'm in Business or Peruvian culture classes.

After training I will be sent to a village somewhere in Peru (that I will find out on July 24th), where I will live for the next two years. I get to give a little bit of imput as to where I would like to live, but the final decision is up to the Small Business Coordinator, Alfredo...who, if you are reading this Alfredo, is really cool, my role model, wise beyond his years, really funny, and I assume excellent with the lady's. We'll see where I end up!

For my job, I'm going to live and work in a community with Small Business Consulting, Youth Entrepreneurship, and Community Economic Development. That all sounds pretty technical, so I promise to post some pictures and to give some real life descriptions later.

If you read that, sorry it was so long winded but I wanted to give you some sort of quick set up for what you are about to experience.