Lots of Laughs: The Highs and Lows of FBT

This morning I returned to Lima from my Field Based Training trip in La Libertad. We took a Super VIP bus from Trujilo to Lima, seriously the best 8 hours of transportation I've experienced -better than first class on a plane because the seats recline all the way back! FBT was an fun, stressful, inspiring, pride-making, eye-opening experience! There was 9 us of in the group along with Ana Maria (tech trainer), Claudia (language facilitatior), and Britt (current PC volunteer). I feel really lucky too because over the week I got a lot closer with some really great people in the training group!!! 

When we got to Trujilo on Sunday we met up with a bunch of current volunteers basically just Q&A style. The volunteers made me feel better about my Spanish, I’m pretty nervous about it, but like most things it’ll get easier with time

Hopefully ya’ll won’t get bored with my super long post but a lot went down this last week! Below I broke it down into days of the week, the site and in parenthesis is the name of the volunteer and a brief thing about the day in case you don’t want to read the whole paragraph but if you were a true friend you would :p jk…but really.

 Monday-Belle Horizante (Ian) Self-esteem charla with Betty

We had our first facilitation of the week-def my least favorite facilitation of the week only because the kids didn’t seem too responsive but afterwards we got to see Ian’s house which was the first time we saw a volunteer’s house in site so that was cool.

Tuesday-San Pedro (Sue) –Anorexia/Bulimia charla with Brittany

Brittany and I facilitated the session 2 times each at an all-girls school. At the end of each session we did a self-esteem building activity with the girls-they all drew a picture of themselves on a piece of paper and then they passed the paper around the classroom to the other girls to write nice things on it so at the end they had a paper that said at the top: (girl’s name)  es bonita porque… and then all over the paper reasons why they are pretty (inside and out) the girls really liked it and felt really good to be in that classroom JThen we visited Sue’s home which was a super nice house; I doubt I’ll get that lucky.

Wednesday- Guadalupe (Amanda) Handwashing and Friendship charlas with Erin at a caserio

This day was a little stressful because we didn’t plan too much for our sessions but nonetheless I really enjoyed seeing the kids.  We read aloud a children’s book (Stelaluna) to the class and every time it was my turn to read it was a long page (by children’s book standards anyway) and I had no idea what the words meant. :x  Oh well I think they enjoyed it anyway.  We visited Amanda’s house which was really interesting because she had moved out of her original host family’s home into this home that she basically had built for her because she got along with this other family better! So I guess if I don’t get along with my first host family and find another family who I get along with but their house doesn’t fit PC standards than I can get help the family build me a room!

Thursday-Guadalupe again-Alcoholism charla

Thursday was my last solo facilitation for the week. I was nervous because it was a class full of teenage boys but it went really well. Near the end of my session I asked if they had any questions one asked if I had a boyfriend and I answered-“yes I’m married”. I figured that would stop them from whistling at me- when the class was over they were asking me if I had pictures of this fictional person and I just pretended like I didn’t understand them :x Also I’ve had a few Peruvians tell me I look like Velma from Scooby Doo it must be the glasses.  

Friday we did a few dinamicas with some kids at a monthly event called “Red Ambiental” which is like an environmental awareness group. Then we went to Britt’s meeting of English teachers. The title of this blog is dedicated to our awesome PCVC Evan because during this meeting one teacher asked the meaning of LOL and when to use it, Evan says seriously-"I know what that means: lots of laughs" maybe you had to be there but we all burst out laughing and even know I as type I'm chuckling. After we went to one life changing little restaurant se llama San Augustine- the sandwiches were so amazing that we went Thursday and Friday night- def best thing I’ve put in my mouth since being in Peru.

Saturday we went to El Cultural in Trujilo to talk to the English classes. It was nice to talk in front of a class in English and then we got to chat one on one with some of the students in English and in Spanish so we could both practice J After that we traveled to Huanchaco which is now my favorite city in Peru-granted I haven’t visited many places but still it’s awesome. The beach had big beautiful waves and nice boardwalk with cute shops and restaurants. Great way to end the trip! I honestly felt a little sad when we were all sitting on the beach together talking about the week because I probably won’t get to spend time with these people in such a setting again. It was an incredible week that I won’t forget. 

Here are my pictures from FBT and few pics are prior to FBT, sorry there isn't more, there was a lot of others taking pics so I plan to steal them once they get posted!

this is how we found out about our regional assignments, on the back of our pictures  they wrote "Costa o Sierra" and then we put the pictures up on these posters

Carlhey's birthday pinata

Carlhey and Jess 

Group at Municipalidad en San Pedro

My girl Brittany and I

playa en Pacasmayo

Erin and I sitting in the bedof the security pick up truck taking us to the caserio

dinamica with the kiddins

handwashing-yay!

super nice hostal we stayed at in Pacasmayo

Brittany and I did a foot comparison because I found out my feet are HUGE by Peruvian standards hers are pretty small though

this is a video of the longest left wave in the world (well that's what I was told anyway) don't know much about surfing but I thought maybe people would be interested, I have to say though it's cooler in person

playa, these are little boat like things that tourists go in looks fun but I didn't get  a chance to try it out

beautiful beach in Huanchaco

Betty, Jess and I, love these girls

there were a bunch of jellyfish that got washed up on the beach, poor Brittany and Kallan  got stung I wasn't  with them when it happened but if I was I would have stepped up as Chandler did, if you get my reference then we are truly friends

. 

I find out on Tuesday what site I'll be at for 2 years, I'm sooo nervous/excited!

 Love you all, continuing keeping in touch please. 

COAST!!!!!!

Dear friends, you are slackers. There is a guy in my training class who received 3 letters in the mail today! I'd need some love folks. I'm having a hard time missing Conner. I'm sure many of you are probably tired of reading about that but no one is making you read this. I just have to keep reminding myself that I've had a broken heart before and I made it ok, look how awesome I am now! Anyways on a happy note, I found out that I'm most likely going to be placed in a coastal site! I'm not here to go to the beach all the time but it'd be nice to have easy access to visit every now and then :) Lots to do this week, keep me in your thoughts guys. XOXOXO

I ain't your baby's llama mama!

I've been in Peru for 1 month!!!!!

 This last week has been quite the whirlwind. Tuesday was my 2nd facilitation in a classroom but this time it was a solo facilitation. Starla, Mike and I planned the facilitation together but we each spent 45 minutes in different classrooms. I honestly think that I did a good job considering my language level and lack of experience in a classroom however the kids in my class were older and some of them didn't really want to participate. I finally got some activeness out of them but I think next time I'm going to have to bring a lot more energy with me! 

On the morning of the 4th our language facilitators organized a "field day" with lots of fun games like 3 legged race, pass the apple, potato sack race, limbo and other fun ones (directions give in Spanish). (A few pictures below) For lunch we got hamburgers and lots of yummy side dishes. We just chilled outside listening to music, playing games and enjoying each other's company. After all that we decided to take a visit to Greggorios. Even though I had a lot of fun that day I still felt really homesick,I just kept thinking about the warm weather, fireworks, and all my friends together. I'm pretty sure that won't get easier, I think holidays will always be hard but at least I had enjoyed the day overall :) 

Thursday was a SUPER long day, we had our language interviews which was super nerve racking! When I came to Peru my level was novice medium and now I'm at intermediate low - I advanced two steps!!!! I also chatted with a volunteer from group 15, she is on her way out and gave out a lot of good advice, she is an AMAZING volunteer. I hope I can accomplish as much as she has the past two years! 

Today we got an overload of information for next week. On Tuesday we find out if we get placed in the coast or sierra but they said that's not definite I'd almost rather not even find out especially since it's not set in stone! We have our third facilitation on Thursday which we plan ourselves and we aren't getting any class time to plan for it so it has to all be done this weekend or after classes! On Saturday we go to Lima and then we travel to our Field Based Training sites. The 3 FBT sites are Ancash, La Libertad, and Ica, we are getting split into 3 groups of 10 and we will spend the entire week in one of the sites. I can't wait til Wednesday to find out which site I'll be visiting! 

Love you all for your support, even if we don't talk I still appreciate happy thoughts being sent my way! 

PS. I want letters!!!! 

not sure the name of this race but we had to keep the balloon between our chests without dropping it -hands behind our backs

10 boxes, prizes, 1 guinea pig. Volunteers bought numbers to the boxes and if the guinea pig entered your numbered box once it was released you won a prize. I won some markers and glue. I forgot to ask if the guinea pig was someone's dinner for that night.

this is me burning spun around for pin the tail on the donkey

American Cake! I actually didn't eat any but it's pretty!

Today our Spanish class made "Causa Limena" it's a very tasty dish! The other class made cheesecake, t'was a  good lunch :) 

the cooks

Lima! Lima!

I had a blast this weekend!!! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves and I'll add comments when needed :)

on the combi on the way to Lima

now imagine this space crammed without 20 more people and you've got Peru  public transportation, luckily we all got seats before it got jam-packed!

this is a Peruvian seed that they carve to make jewelry out of, I bought a green ring (pic below)

when we got off the combi on our way back to Chaclacayo we  stepped right into a gay pride parade!!!! it was  awesome

this is the ring I bought made from the seed

llama!!!

this is my host sister Rose

these are my girls right here

view from the bar we were out before going to the discotecca

Mike and Tyler

Mike and Tyler dancing

Discotecca!!!!

this discotecca was raging when we left at 2:30, not sure what time bars close in Peru