Stories about Site

I've been in Peru for almost one year now, so I think a few reflections are appropriate. This experience is like nothing I imagined in my wildest dreams and at once everything I hoped for. The sun is shining in Ancash, and Tumpa has come alive again. As a Youth Development volunteer, I seek to work with a "triangle of support" in the community, which consists of the school, the health post, and the municipality. I've worked intensively with both the school and health post, but the municipality is another story...

Before I was invited into the community, Tumpa believed that Peace Corps was the CIA or some sort of spy organization. After years of site development on Peace Corps' end and with much convincing from Feli, the nurse at the health post and my lovely community partner, Tumpa ultimately decided to invite Peace Corps to work in the community. But the CIA sentiments still remained.

One unpleasant manifestation of those sentiments came in mid-January of this year, when I was invited to a town meeting only to be kicked out because some community members were still unsure and wary of my role in Tumpa.

I'd obtained permission to attend the meeting from the President of Tumpa, with the intention to present my summer vacation work plan to all the parents so they could register their children.
I put on my traditional dress, left my house, and walked to the Plaza, confident and hopeful that this municipality meeting with the parents would be a breakthrough in my Peace Corps service. I arrived to the Plaza and was waved over by a group of Tumpesinas, traditional dress, toothy smiles and all. We sat and chatted, and then the President of the community started by reading of the agenda for the meeting, with "Words from Sophie Dila, Peace Corps Volunteer," ringing in at #3. That's when things got interesting. One man interrupted by objecting to my presence for fear that I would "llevar los jovenes," or "take the children" from the town.
I froze.
A debate erupted. Town members, including the Justice of the Peace and my host Grandfather spoke out loudly in my defense, while others I did not recognize theorized - lets just say negatively - about my role as a PCV in Tumpa. I was asked to leave the meeting by the President. "The Walk of Shame" took on a whole new meeting that day.

Five months later, things are looking up. 

I organized a community clean-up for Earth Day where all the students took 1 hour to pick up trash off the streets of Tumpa. 

I've finally met the Mayor and he invited me to the next private municipality meeting where I will formally get to know the leaders of Tumpa and invite them to participate in my Improved Kitchen project. The Improved Kitchens will minimize smoke, making a healthier home. Many community members have approached me expressing interest in the project, and the Mayor thinks it's a great idea. So the "triangle of support" seems to be materializing.

My teen social theater group is going well, and I'm working in the Primary school with the little guys on a self-esteem workshop called Quien Soy Yo? or Who am I? 

I spent a weekend in Lima - woo hoo! - so that the previous trainers of the Youth Development In-Service Training called "How to Form a Teen Social Theater Group" could pass the torch to me and Alex, another Peru 11er. In September, Alex and I will train our Peru 11 Youth Development Group on this theme.

And this is about 9 months into site, 1 year in Peru... so my reflection here is that things moooveee slooowwwlyyyy. My levels of patience have exponentially increased, and I've learned to take one day at a time, being sure to celebrate the smallest of victories.

So there you go, a few stories about site. 

Hiking in Anca$h

One of the reasons that Ancash is Better is because of its eco-tourism. Ancash is home to Huascaran, the largest tropical snow-capped mountain in the world, hundreds of glacial lakes, amazing rock climbing, white-water rafting, and of course, the Andes mountains. During this beautiful dry season, I've been enjoying Ancash to the fullest, going on beautiful hikes around Tumpa with my site mate Rabbit and exploring the Callejon de Huaylas with Ancash volunteers. 

*May was the month of beautiful hikes* 

Erica and Callie invited me and a few of other volunteers to participate in an environ

mental clean-up of Santa Cruz trek, one of the most famous, challenging and beautiful in all of Ancash. We left early in the morning with about 100 Peruvian arieros, or donkey drivers part of the local tourist committee. With our backpacks full of water, snacks, and sweaters, we were ready to brave the the cold Andean night. We spent the day hiking uphill, taking pictures and videos, and catching glimpses of the snowcaps from beh

ind the clouds. We arrived to camp by sunset, set up our tents despite the garua - the cold drizzle, and shared a warm dinner of rice and beef stew with the arieros. The drizzle cleared the next morning and we took off to reach the top of the trek. After getting a little off-trail and fording a couple of bone-chilling r

ivers, we made it to the turn around point and were rewarded by a spectacular view of an enormous snowcapped mountain. And the naked glacial lake jumps are a blast.

Every now and then, Ancash volunteers like to have destination regional meetings. We had the last one at the top of the 69 trek - a short but challenging day hike at 4600 meters. W

e had a great time hiking up together and when we reached the top we stripped down, kept tradition alive, and jumped into the ice cold laguna. 

As a New Englander, of course I miss the beach, the seafood, and the costal lifesty

le. But I've become much more of an outdoorsy person since living in Peru, and have grown a true appreciation for the mountain life. 

La Lluvia

"Those who journey can easily understand,
the more they see the more they'll learn,
the more that they will be.
So this I swear to you, and this I swear to me,
I'll never rest till I've seen all I can see.
No, I'll never rest till I've seen all i can see."
-Brendan James

I've survived my first rainy season in the Andes. Although it's still raining, the sunlight is in sight at the end of this proverbial rainy tunnel. Over the past few months, I've been visited by my parents, who both came up to my site and met my Peruvian family. My trips with my parents were amazing and refreshing. I found complete peace on my jungle trip with my Dad. And apart from luxing-out in a beautiful beach bungalo in the North of Peru, the real highlight of my mom's trip was when she camp up to Llanganuco Laguna with some friends and me, and captured the kodak moment that was us jumping into that glacial lake in the nude. It was hard to see my parents go, but that's the sacrifice.

*Posing in our Ancashina mantas before the big jump*

I also spent two weeks in Huaraz learning Quechua, the language of the Incas with about 10 other Ancashino volunteers. Although I did learn a good base of the language, we did manage to behave like teenagers during our classes - defacing each others notebooks, etc. I have no idea how I'm going to survive going back to school after Peace Corps. Focusing is something I just can't...

*A little mid-Quechua-class yoga...*

School has started again in Tumpa, which means that my work life has been much more productive and exciting. Although the full school transition has yet to occur (we're still missing a couple teachers), I've initiated a couple promising projects. The Ministry of Education in Peru has identified the student's reading comprehension as being one of the greatest weaknesses in education right now. Thus, the school librarian and I are working on a Library Expansion project. Through local community fundraising a Peace Corps fund, Lidia and I will purchase books of fiction and non-fiction in Spanish, English and Quechua for the students. We'll fill up the library and start some reading groups with the goal of increasing reading comprehension among students in Tumpa. I also started a Youth Social Theater Group, and we had our first performance this week! It totally brought me back to my acting days at GFA. We prepared a play about Tuberculosis and the kids performed in front of their entire school on World Tuberculosis Prevention Day. The play was followed by a parade around town. It's great to see campo kids animated and enthusiastic. This friday, I'll start tutoring English to the most outstanding English students at Tumpa's high school. So I've got some interesting and dynamic projects going, which is just the motivation I need to survive the final weeks of the rain.
Enjoy the pictures, keep in touch, and keep the packages coming!


*Play practice at the health center*

*The whole theater group, post-show, with their Tuberculosis banner getting ready for the parade*

New Photo Albums of the Rainy Season

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2144301&id=7403642&l=e59e47c4ba

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2144318&id=7403642&l=acae448bc6

Lots of love.

New Year Reflections

It’s already the end of January. I think back to one year ago – I was in Ketchum, Idaho breathing in the crisp mountain air and catching edges on the ski slopes of Baldy Mountain alongside best friend and surrogate sister Peyton. I remember a particular early-morning ski run we took on the mountain. It was an absolutely freezing and devastatingly beautiful morning. Peyton had taken the morning off of her job, and bundled up together on that windy mountain, we began to soak in the reality that I’d be leaving soon to some unknown destination to volunteer in the Peace Corps and that these last moments were truly precious. I knew then that my life was about to change dramatically. I could never have imagined the ways.

I’m coming up on another birthday, and thinking back over this last year, I think it’s actually been the best one yet. I celebrated my last birthday on the slopes with my mom in Idaho. We celebrated quietly with close friends that evening. I received my Peace Corps invitation to serve in Peru that same week. The next couple of months were spent saying way too many goodbyes to brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews, friends, cities, neighborhoods, and towns. On June 4th, I took an early morning flight to Miami and was the first trainee to arrive to an extravagant hotel, the site of my Peace Corps orientation. That day 38 strangers flew into Miami from all parts of the country with all sorts of reasons for making this decision to join the Peace Corps. We all knew that day when we got on the plane that we were making a sacrifice – leaving loved ones and all that is familiar behind us and choosing the unknown for our futures. It sounds absolutely crazy, now, thinking about it, but it’s the best decision I’ve ever made. This has been the wildest and most awakening year of my life. Believe me, it has not been easy. I have hit roadblocks. I’ve shed some tears. I truly know what it means to be homesick now. I have missed my life back home. But the high moments have far outweighed the low ones, and for me, if it were easy, it wouldn’t be fun.

In 2008 I cut off a foot of my hair, skied my heart out, surfed in Santa Cruz, went to AU graduation, said farewell to Glover Park, played Kings with high school friends, planned my 5 year high school reunion, ate my last lobster, felt the family love, got on the plane, started a blog, visited Ancash for the first time, swore in as a Peace Corps Volunteer, ate my first guinea pig, voted for Barack Obama, found cell phone service just outside my adobe kitchen window, conquered my fear of spiders (well, almost), forgot just how good a hot shower feels, taught Peruvian kids how to sing in English, made pancakes with my host sister, celebrated Christmas with my host family, rang in the New Year with my Peace Corps family, went running at 10,000 ft, splashed in giant puddles with my rain boots, jumped in a glacial lake naked, channeled my inner child, and felt truly and wildly alive.

In 2009, I’ll do more yoga, read more books, obsess over the Obama Presidency, work and play with lots of adorable kids, learn Quechua, dance Huaino, and attempt to make the most of all this. And believe me, I’ll be missing you all the while. But I think it’ll be worth it. *

Christmas in the Andes

I'll let my pictures tell the story this time...

Posing in front of the Health Center's Christmas tree, the only one in town!

Christmas dinner - noodle soup, guinea pig and potatoes.

Host mom and me standing outside our house.
I guess I've got a hand-on-the-hip thing going this holiday season.

Juan Carlos, my host brother, catching dinner

Dinner!
I survived the holiday in my site.
These ducks were not so lucky.

Family and neighbors toasting Christmas.

Maria, my host sister, loving her Little Mermaid light-up pen that my mother sent.

My windowsill full of holiday cards and Christmas decorations.

This is my kitchen window. This is where I get my calls.

And it certainly is a room with view.

Happy Holidays!

Wrapping up 2008

December 19, 2008

It’s 10:30am on Friday morning, and I’m sitting in bed drinking a cup of earthy Ancash brew. Iron and Wine in my headphones draining out the constantly blaring huaino playing in my house. If you’ve never heard huaino, it’s the music of this region of the Andes, and it’s something like nails on a chalkboard. I digress.

It’s been a very busy, very sunny week. For late December, I'm enjoying this “rainy season,” which apparently started in September. It rains every now and then, just enough for the landscape to turn greener, for the dust settle, and to allow for an occasional afternoon nap. But the past two weeks have nothing but sunshine... And we finished the World Map!

The early stages were intense – drawing grid lines and grid lines and grid lines with Rabbit over an entire weekend was far more enjoyable than it could have been. I definitely owe that guy a beer. Then came Day One of my World Map Project… where, as described in a previous post, I sat in the rain and waited and waited and waited for the kids to show. Just two weeks later, with over 20 participants between ages 11 and 17, we drew and painted the whole wide world! It’s not the most perfect World Map I’ve seen, but it’s ours – Tumpa’s – and I love it. The completion of the map falls on graduation week, an inevitable transition time that I’ve been semi-dreading. School’s out for the summer! I always loved that… but now I’m on the flip side, living in a small Andean village where all the descendants of the Incas are about to skip town for Lima or the coast. Oh… how times have changed for us all.

I’ve set up a summer camp schedule, which would be a lot of fun if anyone signed up. I’m offering a yoga and exercise club, a movie and popcorn night, an English club, a social theater group, and youth groups using games and art as informal learning tools. I’ve advertised at the school, I've used the town’s megaphone PA system, and of course word of mouth. And three kids have signed up. Count ‘em. Think: structure in an unstructured environment… oil and water, baby. I think I’ll probably end up standing in the middle of the Plaza, bag of candy in hand, yelling “If anyone’s out there, Come play with me!!!” I’m optimistic.

Things to look forward to: Christmas is just around the corner. This is bittersweet for me. This will be my first Christmas spent without one single family member. My parents and siblings will spend the holiday together in Montreal – one night at Kay’s and one night at my Mom’s. It’s very sweet - bittersweet - for me to know that everyone will be together while I’m away. My plans aren’t so bad though… I’ll spend Christmas 2008 with Angelica, Alberto, Maria and Juan Carlos – my Peruvian family - eating pachamanca, a coveted and delicious Peruvian meal that entails cooking spiced chicken, pork, beef, beans, camote and potatoes in a giant hole in the ground for hours. We’ll eat lots of chocolate this Christmas, as goes the tradition in Peru. Mine will be bittersweet.

Other things to look forward to: My dad’s visit on January 2nd… the perfect way to celebrate the New Year! I literally cannot believe that in two weeks from today, I will be in the presence of my dad. And just one month later, I’ll be lying on a beach with my mom celebrating our birthdays. It seems like light-years ago when I said goodbye to my parents at Newark airport in the wee-hours of the morning. Saying goodbye to friends and family (once, twice, maybe three times!) without knowing exactly the next time you’ll see each other is quite the sacrifice. So when I say I’m excited to see my parents, it’s a level of excitement that I’ve never experienced before. I’m so excited it almost hurts… like I can barely think about it… so at risk of shedding a tear on my precious MacBook, I’m changing the subject!

My little friend Gianella, 11, invited me to come to her lower school graduation this afternoon to eat cuy and dance huaino. Nothing like a little mid-afternoon guinea pig feast, complete with dancing with kids and parents. On Sunday the girls want make pancakes to celebrate their graduation. I’ll show them how to make paper snowflakes so we can decorate the house a-la-Rowayton. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, the holidays can be especially difficult and lonely. Tumpa is the farthest thing from New England, Connecticut. But this holiday season I’m lucky enough to be included, as a part of the family, in the Christmas traditions of my new Peruvian family. There’s a lot to be thankful for in this big wide world.

Sending Love.

Sophie

The beginning stages...

The completed World Map! Not the most beautiful color scheme, but it's mine and I love it.


The group of girls who finished the map.

Guinea Pig. It was good.

Gianella and me, at her lower school graduation, with her diploma.

World Map Project

Since the last time I wrote, lots has changed. First, I am so proud to announce to my Peruvian neighbors that I have a new President of the USA… Barack Obama. And they’re pretty excited about that fact as well. Todo es posible. Also, I’ve reconnected with the now 34 members of “Peru 11,” the volunteers I worked, sweat, cried, laughed, dreamed, and played with during training. We’ve lost 4 people since we touched down in Lima, Peru on June 6th… and we poured out a 40 for each one of those lovely people. So 6 months later, 3 months after moving to site, we reconnected to share stories, exchange ideas, and of course to work, sweat, cry, laugh, dream and play together. It was a very wonderful, very intense week, and I was glad to return to my little-piece-of-heaven mountain town in Ancash. Ancash is better, after all.

So post-reconnect, I’ve started my World Map Project. I spent all weekend painting the ocean and drawing the world’s most precise grid with Rabbit, my PCV neighbor. All week from 3-5pm I’ll be at the school with the kids drawing and painting the countries, and today was the first day. At 3:00pm exactly, I sat outside the school in the cold rain (the rainy season has begun…) waiting for the sign of just one small child. Nothing. 3:15pm. Nothing. 3:45pm. UGH… Nothing. But a few long minutes later, as if by miracle of God, out of the mist appeared 3 kids. One 11-year-old cutie pie, and two 17-year-old aspiring artistas. So up we went to the school library, the location of said World Map. (By the way, the library is completely disorganized and stocked with government-provided schoolbooks… not very exciting for the potential reader). We started out practicing drawing to scale by copying a bunny rabbit from a small square to a large square. Almost instantly, the 17 year olds stepped up to the wall and began to sketch Africa and South America. The 11 year old was more timid, though, and very hesitant to approach the daunting blue wall. Not much confianza in herself. But her practice sheets were good, and I really believed that this small child could do it! So I started to draw a small section of Australia, and gently asked her to try to finish the following small section. Next thing you know, this tiny all-star had drawn Australia, New Zealand and all of the surrounding islands…to perfection. The older kids, along with myself, were quite impressed. This is a sweet project.

The kids have two more weeks of school until their summer vacation starts. Rabbit and I are currently in the planning process of creating a summer camp for our kids. Think: basketball camp, yoga class, game hour, healthy lifestyle development workshops, movie nights (popcorn included), field trips, microscope nature club, and lots, lots more. Well maybe not too, too much more.

So yes, nearly 7 months later, I’m still having a great time in Peru.

Lots and lots of love,

Sophia