Lejos de Ti

At this moment I am in my new room lying on my new comforter in my new bed and I’m feeling all sorts of emotions. I feel so lucky (I live like 2 blocks from the beach and it’s beautiful.) I feel cared for (my new family is so sweet and caring. I feel scared (my Spanish needs improvement) I feel sad (I miss my family in the states, my family in Lima, other volunteers, my friends in the states. I feel pressure (my socio completely freaked me out; only 1 hour after arriving with all my things he drops by my house to ask me when we are

getting started with work and I’m like dude “slow your roll” I need to relajar for a bit!

The last week of training was kinda a blur; it went by so fast. It was pretty much filling out evaluations and completing tests. On Thursday we had a party for our host families which was pretty fun.

The night before swearing in I had to say good-bye to my Huascaran family because only one member of the family was allowed to come to the swearing in ceremony and yes, I cried.

In the morning of swearing in I left my house in Huascaran with all my things and headed to the training center. We all exchanged words of wisdom to each other. (watch for my next post “Words of Wisdom.”

We loaded the bus to Lima around 12:30 and I pretty much slept the whole way there. We got to U.S. ambassador’s house right before 2pm when the ceremony began. Let me tell ya, that’s a nice house. I can’t believe my tax dollars are going to that! I would have taken pictures but we weren’t allowed to bring electronics inside, we had to go through security/metal detector. Inside the house we were all seated and they called our names one at a time and we proceeded to swear in as a group. Did you know that the Peace Corps oath is the same as the oath for swearing into the army? Anyway after that we hung out in the patio and they served us little appetizers, (a glass of champagne would have been nice but I understand why they didn’t serve booze-and anywho the celebrating came later that night :P ) They served a few different kinds of sandwiches but I kept going back to the caprese sandwiches nom nom nom. After an hour or so they scooted us out of there and we said good-bye to the host family member who came-in my case it was my host mom. I seriously didn’t think I was going to cry and I didn’t want to (I was actually wearing make-up that day) but it happened. She told me not to cry and she proceeded to wipe at my eyes with her hand roughly and at the moment I thought vainly- crap my mascara and then shortly after, crap she makes me laugh I’m going to miss her! There were crying girls everywhere while we were all loading the buses to our hostals in Lima; which is one thing that makes Peace Corps so great because we all knew what each other were going through and understood and comforted each other. After wiping our tears and fixing our makeup back at the hostal we headed to the country director’s house (Sanjay) for a reception. I was nervous it would be kinda stiff but it was fun. Sanjay’s house was awesome; he has a huge backyard and a platform to dance on. It took us a forever to get a taxi to his house so some of us didn’t get there til after 7 even though it started at 6, oh well fashionably late. Guess what is delicious? Cow heart! Seriously don’t knock til you try it, I thought it was gonna be really sketch but actually it was AMAHZING! Nom nom nom. Anyways after stuffing my face, taking pics, dancing with volunteers and PC staff we headed back to the hostal. Brittany and I went to the store to buy some refreshments for the night; it’s just so much cheaper than to buy refreshments at the bar!

First we went to a bar in Mira Flores and then went back to hostal around 12:30ish to rest and went back out to Barrognk (a district of Lima) and we were out dancing until about 4:00am. It was a blast. I’d like to give a shout out to Brittany and Morgan for being my wing women that night, you girls are awesome.

The bus to Lambayeque left at 7:30pm on Saturday, so I woke up early and spent the day hanging out with other volunteers (I figured I could sleep on the bus!) It was a good last day but I didn’t get to say good-bye to everyone because we were all hanging in different parts of Lima L I’ll miss you fellow 19ers you guys rock!

On Sunday when we arrived in Chiclayo (capitol city of the department I live in) the current Lambayeque volunteers greeted us at the bus station and we went out for breakfast. We were all still really exhausted I laid in bed pretty much the whole day.

On Monday we went mattress shopping and then I headed to Pimentel and now I’m here for the next two years and I’ll do my best to keep this updated and tell you all about what I’m doing here.

Please everyone, keep in touch.  I’m going to need all the support I can get!!! Love you all and miss you!!!! xoxo 

enjoy my pics below

Huascaran host mom at the Host Family party at the training center.

host sister, brother, and mom

we had a "fashion show" at the host family party here we are showing off our awesome pants

sweetest girl ever and I on our last day together at the center

Betty y yo

dancing with the PC staff at Sanjay's

Anticucho (cow heart)

me enjoying the cow heart

my wing woman

this girl is awesome

us eating/hanging out in the backyard at Sanjay's

some of the Lambayeque volunteers greeting us at the bus station

our Regional Coordinator's daughter doing a traditional for us

here is all my crap on the floor I don't have a place to put my crap yet

my lovely bed with a mosquito net

here is my wall of letters (from before I left I've only gotten one since I've been here get on it people) and pics 

here we are making cards for each other I guess this pic is week 8...I fell behind on taking pics a bit , it takes forever to load!

made French toast for my host family in Huascaran they loved it!

some family members in my new home

new host family

I took a picture of the chicken because the aji was especially  spicy and delicious this night

My host sister in Hauscaran and her dog Snow

There are no good-byes, where ever we are, you’ll always be in my heart.

This is a long one guys hope you enjoy

Last Saturday I left for Lambayeque to conocer my new site. Before leaving Lima Erin, Brittany and I saw Dark Knight Rises, if you haven’t seen it yet, finish reading this and GO SEE IT!!! It’s amahzing, I thought it wouldn’t compare to Dark Knight (one of my favorite movies) but it totally does. Anyways back to my site visit. I got into Chiclayo (capital of the department Lambayeque-Peru is split up into different departments kinda like states) on Sunday morning around 7:30am. We got off of the bus and took a taxi to our hotel but they said we couldn’t check in until 4pm so we walked around Chiclayo for a bit and then went to the beach in Pimentel (my site). It was a pretty relaxing day, the beach we went to is actually only two blocks away from where I’m going to live so I’m pretty stoked about that. 

On Monday we met the current volunteers in Lambayeque; they seemed really cool but some of them are leaving in September so that’s kinda a bummer. Tuesday we had our “socio day”.  This is when people from each site come to greet the volunteer and learn about the Peace Corps and what expectations to have about the volunteer. My socios (people I’ll possibly be working with in my site) that came were a doctor from the Health Center, a director of one of the colegios, and 2 people who work at the municipality. My host sister and host mother came as well. Overall Tuesday was really overwhelming. All at once I met these people and they are speaking super fast Spanish and I was feeling super lost; when I got into my room in Pimentel I cried a bit just for the shock of it all. My host family is reallllllly nice though and super caring. I feel a little nervous because they also speak really rapidly and even though I ask them to slow down it is still hard to understand. As most things in life this will get easier with time. Today Kimberly (another trainee who is also going to Lambayeque) pointed out the fact that time is always on your side, most everything in life is made easier with the passage of time. This is something I’m glad to have learned before coming here because I think this experience would be unbearable if I didn’t think it would get easier. Obviously there will be hard things to deal with down the road but this Spanish thing has got me down.

 Anyways on Wednesday I went to one of the high schools in Pimentel. The director and my socio from the municipalidad went with me to each classroom and introduced me to the students which was a little scary but also awesome. After that I was exhausted and went to my house and passed out for 3 hours before dinner. On Thursday morning I went to the municipality and met a bunch of people; in the afternoon I went to the health center and met with the doctor, psychologist, nurse and obstetriz (ya I don’t know how to spell this is Spanish ni English I had to look it up). On Friday morning I went back to the municipality and waited an hour and half for a van to come pick us up so we could go to the different programas sociales in the community. I visited with about 6 presidents of different sectors of Vasos de Leche and 2 presidents of comedores populares. Vasos de Leche is a government program that provides milk/formula to mothers in the community for children under the age of 7, comedores populares are kinda like food kitchens, one woman in the community will cook a large of amount of food and then sell it at a very low price to those in need in the community. I headed back to Chiclayo on Friday night but not before my new host family kept asking me if I was returning and then when I assured them I was they told me to come back soon- it’s incredible how much they want to care for me. I feel like once I get more comfortable with my Spanish I’ll fit right in.

Friday night when we all got back from site visits we hung out and later went dancing until four in the morning; it was a flipping blast! No bar close is a wonderful and terrible thing. I definitely paid for it on Saturday though; I felt like a zombie/vampire the sun was not my friend and I was moving pretty slowly but I’d have to say it was worth it and anyhow I slept great on the bus on the way back to Lima.

Overall thoughts about my site visit: I’m looking forward to working with the health post and colegio the most because I want to work on things like sexual health education and prevention of pregnancy/STDs. My socios are super intense but I’ve been told they will slow their roll after time passes they just get a little too enthusiastic when a volunteer first arrives. Don’t get me wrong enthusiasm is great but I feel like they were putting me on this pedestal and I’m gonna save the town which I’m definitely going to try but not in my capabilities to fix all the problems in the town. My family is great-it will take some getting used to because they are really overprotective of me but I think that’s a good thing because it just means they care a lot. My house is pretty good for Peace Corps standards, the bathroom is enclosed and there is a shower however we only have running water from 6-8amish, 12-1pmish, 6-7pmish and it’s cold. There is no refrigerator but I think we have a washing machine, in my opinion I’d rather have a refrigerator. No matter the condition of my house I’m just happy to live so close to the beach and McDonalds and Pizza Hut are only a short 30 minute combi ride away so I can’t really complain! Yes I realize those things shouldn’t be in important but as quoted in Zombieland: Enjoy the little things.

Michelle (also a fellow trainee) is HILARIOUS I hadn’t spent time with her at all before this trip because she is a business trainee but she is great, she kept dropping these one-liners that made me LOL, literally. Also I think we have a really good mix of  new volunteers going to Lambayeque and I’m really excited to start my 2 year adventure!!!!

With my family in the US, Huascaran, and Pimentel, I now have 5 parents, 10 brothers/sisters, about a million aunts/uncles/cousins, please note that these numbers do not include anyone I’m biologically related to.

PS Last night my host sister (in Lima) and I karaoke-d in the living room to Selena, Spice Girls, Blink-182, and Beyonce why have we not done this for the past 9 weeks!!?!? SO much fun I’m going to miss Rosa soooo freaking much L

Today I found out another trainee is going home. Even though I will miss her dearly I will never forget her. She was my roommate the first night in D.C. and I won't forget the kindness she has shown in the past 10 weeks. We'll miss you Jess xoxo

count down to swearing in!

Hello friends.
I'm going to be visiting my site this weekend for the duration of one week then I'll have one last week of training and then I swear in on August 17th. I can't believe how fast the time has gone! I just wanted to tell people to wait to send me mail. I'm going to be setting up a PO box at my site so when I get that address I'll post it :)

Love you,


~Friendship isn't about whom you have known the longest... It's about who came, and never left your side~
Even though you aren't physically by my side, I truly thank all the people in my life who I know supporting me through this amazing crazy adventure of my life!