I know what you’re thinking…Australia right? Wrong. Eucalyptus trees also grow here in the Andes because it’s one of the few trees that can grow at such high altitude.
Oh FYI! <3
My new address: Celeste Grisham
Cuerpo de Paz Perú
Serpost Pomabamba
Ancash, Peru S.A.
As a new Peace Corps Volunteer, I firmly believe I go through about 18 different emotions a day…I believe this blog reveals it at it’s best: unfiltered, unedited, and all over the place. Good Luck!
So I have officially moved into my new house in Socosbamba. My family is very sweet and my socios are helpful. I live in an old tienda with adobe walls covered in cheap plaster. (If you lean on the walls you get white stuff all over you.) I still haven’t gotten used the smells here. Not all are bad but they are all unfamiliar. The worst has to be going into the latrine. Dirt floor and walls with a 5x8 inch hole. I hold my breath when I go in but it’s never long enough. There are probably 1000 gnats in there at any one time. I’m pretty sure I have actually inhaled a few.
Of course I will get used to all of this. My least favorite part so far has got to be when I had to scrub the dried dog poop off the floor…what fun.
By day 3 I was sick. Adjusting to the food has been hard. Lots of potatoes and rice….but that’s the easy part. I think the final straw may have been when I was served cuy head for breakfast. I almost died when I realized what it was. When my family isn’t watching I feed a lot of my food to the dogs…I just can’t eat that much especially liquefied fruits and seeds. It’s hard to choke down.
When I got sick my host mom was so sweet and constantly kept checking up on me. She made me a delicious homemade 5-herb tea. I think it helped.
Then I went for round two…haha but for real I’m better now.
So I’ve made a comprehensive list of the foods I can cook with here in the country it’s not looking too good may need a little help with some ingredients from the states J
List of foods at site thus far:
Potatoes
Masamorra (some sort of fruit or grain with cornstarch and water...comes in lots of different kinds...most are pretty gross)
Chicken (kind of pricey)
Corn purple or white...they also make a drink and beer with this stuff
Potatoes
Rice (oh hey more carbs)
Herbs
Potatoes
Guinea Pig including the heads (fried)
Cheese (only homemade which you can't cook with but it is good)
Potatoes
A watered down version of oatmeal and/or grits minus the sugar and salt
Salt
Potatoes
MSG
Tomatoes
Potatoes
Eggs
Bread Rolls
Lentils
Potatoes
Spaghetti sauce made from powder
Potatoes
A pumpkin like substance that they boil...seeds, guts, and all... it's really gross
Oil
Potatoes
Sheep
Trout (fried of course)
Canned tuna…kinda pricey too
Beef (maybe?)
Potato soup
Have I mentioned potatoes?
I know this makes everything sound horrible besides the food and lack of sanitation I really do like it here. There are a lot positive things. My host brother and sister are completely precious and I don’t even have to try and they love me and want to hang out every night. So far I’ve shown them, “The Sandlot” and the game M.A.S.H. that I used to play in elementary school….they played it for hours with everyone in the house…which is 8 people and then all of their cousins…and I’m not sure how many of those there are. Haha I’m also invited to my host’s sister’s graduation on Dec. 16 and after there is an 8-hour party. Gosh I hope I survive.
Ok so I went to the party before I was able to post this. Well of course I got the time wrong and showed up 3 hours early and missed lunch..so I good chunk of the time I just thought about how hungry I was. (I have got to get my kitchen set up so I can eat on my own terms.) Well the graduation party was fun but lasted up 7 in the morning. I, however, left at 3:30 to head for home…alone in the complete dark without a flash light in the rain and up hill. I almost slipped every ten feet because it was so muddy (I hate flats…have I mentioned this before…yeah they are “cute” or whatever but they are pretty uncomfortable…I’d put them up there with high heels except at least I have balance when I’m flat on the ground.) I used my camera as a flashlight, which worked better than I thought it would. I made it home and had to climb over the fence because the gate was locked. Anyway it made for an interesting night, got to learn how to dance to Peruvian music, and it was fun hanging out with people in my community.
As far as the professional side goes it’s as good as it can get with my level of Spanish and my zero level of Quechua. I already have the ball rolling on several things for my community diagnostic, which is what I’ll be doing for the next 3 months. My first full day here I ran into the director of the high school and he asked if I would teach English class because the teacher was out of town. So I did. I taught a 2-hour English class with zero prep time. Considering the circumstances I thought it went fairly well. If you would have asked me 2 months ago if I could teach a class in front of twenty students…I would have said no way. But I did. I managed to hold their attention and speak almost correct Spanish. Haha. But it was worth it just to meet a few new people. I even walked home with some of the girls from my class.
I think I’m starting to get somewhere. I have more meetings even though I know I’m not talking enough. Yikes! Come on Spanish. For instance one of the high school teachers invited me to lunch…or so I thought. It was actually a party for the high school seniors. I was served cuy and the biggest potato I have ever seen. But the strangest thing was how this crazy lady would walk into the room (something like a make shift gym/theater) with a bowl in hand. She looked so creepy and I’m pretty sure she may be the town nut because I saw her earlier in the day sitting outside the kindergarten building scratching her leg with a stick. (They happened to be cooking as well.)
Afterwards there was dancing. Before I knew it they had me dancing with an 80 year old Quechua man and a high school senior. The music was the worst. I must save that for another day. So there is a beer here called chicha, which is also a drink. The purple one is non-fermented and is pretty much their version of kool-aid. So they offer me chicha and I just automatically think oh purple chicha..Sure…why not. Except they come out with a big glass of yellow chicha which is a corn beer. I didn’t know what to do…so I drank it anyway…it tasted like fermented vomit. It was really gross and really strong. I spent the rest of the night trying to convince them I didn’t want anymore. I was successful. I won’t make that mistake again. Gross.
I finally made it to the town with the market. It is an hour walk away….straight up hill. The best cardio I’ve had since I’ve been here. We hung out most the day at a dance festival and had lunch at a rather dumpy restaurant but I did enjoy hanging out with my family and getting sunburned…gotta remember that sunblock. It’s doing no good sitting at the house.
Another great thing about living in the campo and having a lot of free time is the freedom to casually read once again. I haven’t done it in forever and it’s great. Especially on the rainy nights when the power goes out and I get to read by candlelight…at that point I really do feel like I’m on Little House on the Prairie. But it’s wonderful. The flame gives that extra little bit of heat that you don’t get on a usual cold night. So I’m going to keep a running list of books I read here. One, so don’t forget what I’ve read. Two, because I want to.
This past couple of weeks I have read:
1. Alice in Wonderland (Why am I just now reading this?) Glad I did though. All those movies and shows finally make a little more sense though they never really did in the first place but that’s the beauty of the story.
2. The Hobbit (Same question. Equally as good. Wish I had read this one before I read LOTR)
3. Touching the Void- It’s about a coupe of guys who climb a mountain in Peru and the author of the book breaks his leg and his partner has to cut rope leaving him stranded, alive and very injured….he eventually crawls back to base camp. Basically, the mountain climbing version of 127 hours. It’s also a documentary, which I really want to see now.
4. Water for Elephants-don’t bother…not good. Don’t know about the movie either…never seen it.
5. “Stuff” my dad says- A little vulgar but hilarious…think of it as the modern day Archie Bunker tale.
I’ve also been able to told a couple of dance parties with my little host brother and sister and of course their cousins tag along. I think their favorite was probably Cotton Eyed Joe. At night it’s really, really dark and a lot of times the power goes out or it rains (talk about mud) but I usually relax with a workout, a book, TV show, or movie. The dance parties are almost nightly around here if not my little host siblings are constantly keeping me entertained. They are so much fun and think it’s hilarious when I workout.
As you know Peru is mainly Catholic and the Evangelicals are somewhat snobby here so I have yet to associate myself with either. However than you Podcast because every week I still get to have a little church through various sermons I downloaded off the internet.
David Platt proposed these questions and it has got me thinking more about what I’m doing here and what I should be doing here….
If our lives should reflect Christ, in what ways do our lives show to be different unique and set apart? Do our lives just look like the rest of the worlds? What ways should we be living our lives to reveal the glory of God and not live the life of a casual Christian? Why do we not live a life that is an example that we possess the most valuable thing in the world?
What areas of my life are not reflecting the holiness of God?
Just some things I’ve been reflecting on…thought maybe they would help someone else out there too.
I have become a big fan of lists lately…(it really helps me get stuff done).
I finally made a list of things people can send me, since I have a permanent address for the next 2 years.
Things people can send me:
Peanut butter JIF natural
Chocolate (um any kind amazing at this point)
Sour skittles
Garlic salt
Chili powder
Twin sheets (cheap anything better than the 10 count i have)
Tuna packs
A dog whistle (they bark all night)
Velveeta mac and cheese
Rotel
Maple syrup
Chapstick
Kool-Aid fruit punch is my favorite... also need the kind that already has sugar in it
Gum
Spanish tracks
Black pepper
Used books (good ones that people enjoy reading… English or Spanish…they can be heavy so look out for weight, which translates to a lot for shipping)
Operation World (a prayer book probably can be found at Lifeway or at least on Amazon...don't know the author...heard it in a David Platt sermon)
Creamer (plain)
Tea (especially like chai, green tea, and earl grey)
Taco seasoning, pesto, or ranch packs
Stickers or anything an 11-year old girl or 9-year-old boy would like
In case you didn’t catch it the first time:
Celeste Grisham
Cuerpo de Paz Perú
Serpost Pomabamba
Ancash, Peru S.A.
Let me know if you send something so I can be on the lookout for it. J
"I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness or abilities that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again."- William Penn
