At this moment in my life I have mothers. My real mother, of course back in the states, and my mother who´s house I live in in Peru. I never compared the two before, it just never occurred to me before. But then the other day I found out how old my host mother is. I was shocked to realize she is the exact same age as my real mom, and this got me thinking. Why was it I never thought about the two of them in the same category before? Besides the mountain of differences between the two, I think the big reason is that I always viewed my host mom in more of the grandmother category than a mother category. Most likely because she is a grandmother. She has 6 grandchildren right now and one more on the way. But that doesn´t exempt her from the child-rearing category though, because she has two teenage daughters. Get this, she a daughter and granddaughter that are the same age.
My host mom also acts a lot older than she is. She walks and talks like some one who is in her late 70´s. In comparison to my real mom who goes to the gym everyday, takes luxurious vacations with her girl friends, and in general has the vigour of a 25 year old still. Comparing these two women has become a really interesting cross-cultural examination in my head (sorry mom if you´ve been reduced to little more than research). My host mom doesn´t work. Everyday she makes a huge pot of food that feeds 10 people twice. She does this every single day. There are no days that she feels tired and orders chinese take out, or leaves the fam to fend for themselves. On top of cooking, cleaning and raising a gigantic family, she is the most actively involved woman in the community. I really look up to this woman for the years of thankless work she has done. My mom on the other hand, balanced working part time, raising 3 kids and managing the house hold. My mom put in a good 25 years doing this, but now that her youngest is off to college, she enjoying much more time for herself. I don't think my host mom will ever have time for herself until it is she that needs taking care of. I plan to develop this cross cultural examination further. Perhaps in a year or so I shall write a really interesting entry about what it means to be a mom in Peru vs US. Stay tuned.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Peru, Day 119
Monday morning I woke up with something so foul in my system, my body decided it needed to be ousted immediately. Operation purification was underway, blitzkrieg style. The only time I left my bed was when I needed to go to the bathroom, which was way more often than I would have liked. I even experienced a rite of passage all PCV’s must endure at least once during their service. I soiled myself. Now who wants to compare that with their bad case of the Mondays? Whatever it was that was disagreeing with my body so much has seemed to lost its battle to extrapolating all foreign substance from my system and 22 hours of sleep.
The bad thing is I think I did this to myself. I finally decided I was gonna take charge of my eating situation. I couldn’t take any more rice, potatoes and really weird animal parts. I went to the market and bought a good 20 soles worth of food. I came home and made a weeks supply of chicken breast, spinach and egg quiche and sweet potatoes. It must have been one of these three things that unleashed the demon in my system. Sadly, I don’t know which one and have to throw out all my food. Making it not only a waste of time, money and effort, but it also discourages me from cooking for myself. But the icing on the cake is that this morning I woke up feeling a bit better and decided I would try eating a piece of fruit I bought. Except when I went down stairs, all my fruit was gone. Not only do I not get to enjoy the food I have to throw away, but my family ate the 7 pieces of fruit I had bought for the week on the day I was sick.
Patience and flexibility are two of the most important qualities one can have at site, but the whole ordeal of being sick and having my family eat all my friut in one day was a bit much, I wanted to cry. I don’t think my body was hydrated enough to cry, luckily. Aside from all the bad news, there have been plenty of happy times as well. After my stay at the ambassadors house I resumed my workshops at the Hogars. I tough my first real self-esteem wor shop at the home for sexually abused girls and it went okay, I guess. I honestly don’t feel I’m ready have stepped right into this role. I wish was allowed more time to assimilate and even work on my language skills. I could have I’m sure, but the expectations are high and I didn’t want to let any one down. So I’m trying to step out of my prescribed roles and into areas where I feel more comfortable. I have officially joined a bogie boarding club and am going to start working with the NGO WAVES for development which gives surf boards to under privileged kids in Peru. I don’t want to get too ahead of myself here, but I think I may have found my niche.
I had a really nice weekend. All the business volunteers were in town for a fair at the embassy. I didn’t go to the fair cause I had spent the whole previous week in Lima and attended another fair with various business volunteers, but I did meet up with a handful of friends during the evening. I had planned to go back to the training center with the majority of the group for a party at one of our former hosts families. But instead I ended up spending the evening with Rachelle and Danielle at a friends apartment in Lima. Danielle’s friend’s parents were staying at her apartment as well, which was really cool. Even though we all live with families, there’s something about being with a mom and dad from your own country that really makes it feel familiar. We all watched a movie together at night and all had breakfast together in the morning. Then in the afternoon me and the girls took a long walk along the cliffs of lima. All the modern high rise buildings on one side, the beach and the pacific on the other. I felt so removed from my site, when really it’s only 25 miles away.
We had lunch with our old language professor and her sister. One of the big things that’s surprised me so far about my Peace Corps experience, is all the people I’ve met. I knew I would meet interesting people, but I assumed they would be Peruvians. While I’ve met a ballparks worth a Peruvians, the people who have impacted me the most have been people from the international community. And I love it.
This weekend was more like therapy than anything else. We talked a lot about our most recent friend to go home. It was a pretty serious situation, and it’s better that we were able to talk about it amongst our fellow PCV’s because the Peruvians that we’ve talked to about it didn’t seem to find the gravity of the situation, which only made us feel worse. We did some intense griping about what bothers us in our communities and in the Peruvian culture. It wasn’t so much complaining about petty things, but discussing really pressing matters like machismo and sexual harassment. Every female volunteer already has at least one story of how their security and their integrity have been jeopardized by the cultural norms of machismo.
At the end of the weekend, we weren´t looking forward to going back to site. After spending time in the world of modernity, of hot showers, of paved streets and of people with whom you feel at home, it’s hard to go back. We’re at that point in our service were it’s really tough. We’ve made it through 50 days at site. And while things have become more familiar they haven’t gotten any easier. Having two of my closest friends return back to the US doesn’t help either. But even on my worst days, I don’t think about going home. I think about home a lot, all my friends and my favorite places, but I don’t really have a desire to go home. I really like it hear. Yes, site is a struggle, but that’s what makes it worth it. I’ve been hear 119 days and everyday has been an adventure. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
The bad thing is I think I did this to myself. I finally decided I was gonna take charge of my eating situation. I couldn’t take any more rice, potatoes and really weird animal parts. I went to the market and bought a good 20 soles worth of food. I came home and made a weeks supply of chicken breast, spinach and egg quiche and sweet potatoes. It must have been one of these three things that unleashed the demon in my system. Sadly, I don’t know which one and have to throw out all my food. Making it not only a waste of time, money and effort, but it also discourages me from cooking for myself. But the icing on the cake is that this morning I woke up feeling a bit better and decided I would try eating a piece of fruit I bought. Except when I went down stairs, all my fruit was gone. Not only do I not get to enjoy the food I have to throw away, but my family ate the 7 pieces of fruit I had bought for the week on the day I was sick.
Patience and flexibility are two of the most important qualities one can have at site, but the whole ordeal of being sick and having my family eat all my friut in one day was a bit much, I wanted to cry. I don’t think my body was hydrated enough to cry, luckily. Aside from all the bad news, there have been plenty of happy times as well. After my stay at the ambassadors house I resumed my workshops at the Hogars. I tough my first real self-esteem wor shop at the home for sexually abused girls and it went okay, I guess. I honestly don’t feel I’m ready have stepped right into this role. I wish was allowed more time to assimilate and even work on my language skills. I could have I’m sure, but the expectations are high and I didn’t want to let any one down. So I’m trying to step out of my prescribed roles and into areas where I feel more comfortable. I have officially joined a bogie boarding club and am going to start working with the NGO WAVES for development which gives surf boards to under privileged kids in Peru. I don’t want to get too ahead of myself here, but I think I may have found my niche.
I had a really nice weekend. All the business volunteers were in town for a fair at the embassy. I didn’t go to the fair cause I had spent the whole previous week in Lima and attended another fair with various business volunteers, but I did meet up with a handful of friends during the evening. I had planned to go back to the training center with the majority of the group for a party at one of our former hosts families. But instead I ended up spending the evening with Rachelle and Danielle at a friends apartment in Lima. Danielle’s friend’s parents were staying at her apartment as well, which was really cool. Even though we all live with families, there’s something about being with a mom and dad from your own country that really makes it feel familiar. We all watched a movie together at night and all had breakfast together in the morning. Then in the afternoon me and the girls took a long walk along the cliffs of lima. All the modern high rise buildings on one side, the beach and the pacific on the other. I felt so removed from my site, when really it’s only 25 miles away.
We had lunch with our old language professor and her sister. One of the big things that’s surprised me so far about my Peace Corps experience, is all the people I’ve met. I knew I would meet interesting people, but I assumed they would be Peruvians. While I’ve met a ballparks worth a Peruvians, the people who have impacted me the most have been people from the international community. And I love it.
This weekend was more like therapy than anything else. We talked a lot about our most recent friend to go home. It was a pretty serious situation, and it’s better that we were able to talk about it amongst our fellow PCV’s because the Peruvians that we’ve talked to about it didn’t seem to find the gravity of the situation, which only made us feel worse. We did some intense griping about what bothers us in our communities and in the Peruvian culture. It wasn’t so much complaining about petty things, but discussing really pressing matters like machismo and sexual harassment. Every female volunteer already has at least one story of how their security and their integrity have been jeopardized by the cultural norms of machismo.
At the end of the weekend, we weren´t looking forward to going back to site. After spending time in the world of modernity, of hot showers, of paved streets and of people with whom you feel at home, it’s hard to go back. We’re at that point in our service were it’s really tough. We’ve made it through 50 days at site. And while things have become more familiar they haven’t gotten any easier. Having two of my closest friends return back to the US doesn’t help either. But even on my worst days, I don’t think about going home. I think about home a lot, all my friends and my favorite places, but I don’t really have a desire to go home. I really like it hear. Yes, site is a struggle, but that’s what makes it worth it. I’ve been hear 119 days and everyday has been an adventure. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Reach out and Touch somebody
I know some of my friends have asked for my address. I´m having all my mail sent to the Peaced Corps headquarters cause I live so close and I feel it has a better chance of making it if it´s being sent to an American government organization. Here it is, feel free to send me anything you fancy. Spencer sent me the weekly mormon newsletter, so really, there is nothing I won´t gladly recieve.
Ali Fisher
Cuerpo de Paz
132Calle Via los Grandados
Santiage de Surco
Lima 33, Peru
Ali Fisher
Cuerpo de Paz
132Calle Via los Grandados
Santiage de Surco
Lima 33, Peru
Thursday, October 11, 2007
My Suedo Vacation
Remember the pictures I posted of my site and my house? Keep those in mind as you are looking at these. Talk about going from one extreme to the other. This is the house I stayed at this past week. It was unlike anything I have ever experienced. Now I am back at site and I am not missing the things I thought I would. I thought I would miss the hot baths and showers, the amazing meals, which I do miss. But the thing that I never thought about when I was staying with the ambassador, was how easy life was. Back at site, every day is a battle. Nothing is easy, nothing works. You dont think about these kinds of things, unless things don't work. It was so nice to pick up the phone and have it work. It was nice to not have to rearrange my day to take care of something that didn't work out like it was supposed to the day before. I think a big lesson that became clear to me because of this stay, is that when you have money, everyday life is easier. Its not necessarily happier and that doesn't mean you don't have to work really really hard to maintain this style of life. 
It means that little things, the things you never stop to think about are taken care of.So this is the back of the house. While I was staying here, I woke up for the first time to sun. Most of the days were gray though. It would have been nice if it were warm. I would have laid by the pool. My and my friend spent a lot of time in the house. We didn't go out too much. We sat in our room mostly, or in the TV room. We read, took baths and talked a lot. I also didn't realize how much I would miss the companionship when I got back to site. Because we spent so much time at the house, we really got to enjoy the simple luxuries.
Relaxing in big chairs, reading in the library, watching TV in english and sleeping in beds that weren't so caved in in the middle you can feel the pieces of wood holding up the mattress.The house was so elegant. But it was unlike the houses you see on Cribs. There were no plasma flat screen TVs or any sort of over the top luxury items. The house is not just a house. The whole downstairs is mainly for entertaining. The ambassador said he mainly lives upstairs and only goes downstairs to eat.
The whole house was filled with fresh flowers.
The ambassadors wife insisted that they put tuberoses in every arrangement so the whole house was filled with its sweet sent. For those of you who have no idea what a tuberose is, or what it smells like, think about Hawaii. The air in Hawaii is so sweet because of the fragrant tropical flowers that grow all over the island. The tuberose is one of the flowers Im sure you've seen if you've ever travel there. It was cool to be in the middle of Lima, a big, cold and dirty city, but have it smell like Hawaii. I especially like the portrait of George Washington.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
A Step Up
This week has been a bit abnormal, to say the least. For the past 4 nights I have been staying with the American ambassador in his house in Lima. This place is a far cry from my site in Lurin. It is a large, luxurious, house that feels more like one of the palaces I've toured in Europe than anything else. I am staying there because I have a friend who was invited to stay with him and his family and she didn't want to be alone so she called me up and here I am.
We both feel a bit out of place in this mansion. We don't really know what we're doing and giggle a lot about stupid things we have done. Next to the grand dining room, there is a smaller, more intimate dining area that looks out to the patio and the pool. The first morning we got up, went down stairs for breakfast and found the table cleared except for two place settings. It was 8:30 in the morning and the rest of the family was already off at work or school. We sat down and looked at each other not knowing what to do. "Should we go into the kitchen and tell the wait staff we're here?" my friend asked. Next to my plate, there was a small remote control with a single button on it. The button had a musical note and we looked at the wall to the speakers. "this must be the remote to turn on the music" I said, "maybe if we turn on the music they'll know we're here." My friend agreed it was a good idea, so I pushed the button. We heard a bell off in another room. Turns out, this was the bell we rang when we wanted service. With in a few seconds a butler hurried in and found us bright red and holding back embarrassed smiles. He asked us what we would like to drink and how we would like our eggs prepared and swept out of the room. When he left, we didn't know what else to do but laugh. We're Peace Corps volunteers, who just summoned a butler by remote control bell. It just didn't seem right, we felt so bad. The next three mornings we have gone into the kitchen to let them know we were there and we never intend to use the bell again.
The ambassador and his family are really great, apart from letting two very silly girls stay in their hose and disrupt their lives. I've greatly enjoyed listening to the ambassador talk about his views on Peru and his past work in Africa and Europe. I've been living in my little bubble at site, trying to make my tiny difference with a few kids and it has been really good for me to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. The reason I am here, the reason Peace Corps is here, is to help Peru become a developed country. Even though the ambassador has a much more celebrated and glamorous job than I, he too is trying to make a difference in this crazy world.
So me and my friend have really been trying to take it all in and enjoy this amazing experience. We even got to meet the ex-president Alejandro Toledo. But you know you're a peace corps volunteer when taking a hot bath actually trumps meeting an ex-president as the most exciting thing you did all week. I'll be staying with the ambassador for at least a few more nights and am trying not to do anything else embarrassing and enjoy this incredible opportunity.
We both feel a bit out of place in this mansion. We don't really know what we're doing and giggle a lot about stupid things we have done. Next to the grand dining room, there is a smaller, more intimate dining area that looks out to the patio and the pool. The first morning we got up, went down stairs for breakfast and found the table cleared except for two place settings. It was 8:30 in the morning and the rest of the family was already off at work or school. We sat down and looked at each other not knowing what to do. "Should we go into the kitchen and tell the wait staff we're here?" my friend asked. Next to my plate, there was a small remote control with a single button on it. The button had a musical note and we looked at the wall to the speakers. "this must be the remote to turn on the music" I said, "maybe if we turn on the music they'll know we're here." My friend agreed it was a good idea, so I pushed the button. We heard a bell off in another room. Turns out, this was the bell we rang when we wanted service. With in a few seconds a butler hurried in and found us bright red and holding back embarrassed smiles. He asked us what we would like to drink and how we would like our eggs prepared and swept out of the room. When he left, we didn't know what else to do but laugh. We're Peace Corps volunteers, who just summoned a butler by remote control bell. It just didn't seem right, we felt so bad. The next three mornings we have gone into the kitchen to let them know we were there and we never intend to use the bell again.
The ambassador and his family are really great, apart from letting two very silly girls stay in their hose and disrupt their lives. I've greatly enjoyed listening to the ambassador talk about his views on Peru and his past work in Africa and Europe. I've been living in my little bubble at site, trying to make my tiny difference with a few kids and it has been really good for me to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. The reason I am here, the reason Peace Corps is here, is to help Peru become a developed country. Even though the ambassador has a much more celebrated and glamorous job than I, he too is trying to make a difference in this crazy world.
So me and my friend have really been trying to take it all in and enjoy this amazing experience. We even got to meet the ex-president Alejandro Toledo. But you know you're a peace corps volunteer when taking a hot bath actually trumps meeting an ex-president as the most exciting thing you did all week. I'll be staying with the ambassador for at least a few more nights and am trying not to do anything else embarrassing and enjoy this incredible opportunity.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
More Birthdays and Goodbyes
My last title was Birthdays and goodbyes although I didnt really talk about either. Thats because I wrote all this stuff and it took me 20 minutes to upload 2 pictures and then it just stopped working. Here are a few more pictures Id like to share with you. This is in the evening of my birthday. We re sitting in Jockey Plaza, the mall thats right next to the PC headquarters in Lima. This is 5 minutes before I said goodbye to Adrienne. If any other Peru 9ers are reading this, dont leave! I cant say goodbye to anyone else. Adrienne leaving has made me really sad and I dont want to see anyone else go. Ive said a lot of goodbyes in this mall. It seems kind of an odd place to have so many emotional goodbyes, but to me, its just like doing it in an airport.
Jah is fat, Jake is harry and I havent gone to the bathroom in three days. I dont remember who insisted we take a picture of our stomachs, but I swear it wasnt me. This is how I spent my birthday night. Clowning around with Jake and Jah. We ended up going to show and bar. Nothing crazy, at least on my end.
Okay, so this picture is not of me or my site. I found it on Toms facebook page and I liked it a lot. I think its a great example of the way other PCVs live. This is tom, the guy I was dancing with on the youtube video. Hes up in Arequipa, which is way up in the Andes. Hes in front of his house washing his clothes by hand next to the faucet that is the only source of water for the house.
Arequipa is a new site. There are only a few volunteers there right now. Back in the 60s and 70s, peace coprs main focus was arequipa. I complain a lot about how cold Lima is. Yes, its true its gloomy and foggy all the time, but check out how cold Arequipa is. I especially like James poncho. There is a part of me that feels like Im not getting the real peace corps expereince, that Im not sacrificing or roughing it enough. I never imagined myself living so close to Lima, I always thought I would go up to the mountains. Once summer rolls around and I can soak in the sun at the beach, I dont think I will be complaining
Monday, October 1, 2007
Birthdays and Goodbyes
So I reread my last entry and realized how poorly written it was. Heres my excuse--I wrote it at the Hogar. The Hogar is mostly little boys. They have such a strict schedule and have hardly anytime to play. Not to mention they are boys, and they love gadgets and toys. So, anytime I am on the internet when the kids are there I have at least 5 little boys hanging all over me, moving the mouse and poking the screen relentlessly asking me what everything is. I ask them about a hundred times to give me some space and not touch anything and they do. But then 30 seconds late they start inching their way closer and with in a minute I can smell Ignacio bad breath heaving down on me. I dont know why they just stand there and watch me type in English, it seems so boring. They find it fun to scream out the words they recognize. The other day some of the words they recognized were Birthday and Lima. I couldnt really concentrate when I was writing my last entry and I didnt feel like taking the time to proof read. This picture may give you an idea of the chaos that ensues whenever I have a technological gadget. They LOVE when I bring the camera. But I try not to bring it cause all the kids grab at it and when they demand to look at the photos they all poke the screen and touch the buttons even though thats the one condition they promise not to do when they ask to see the photo. In this picture Im trying to get every to take a nice picture and smile. This is the best one I got. They were all going nuts in front of the camera...wait a minute, that all go nuts all the time.
This picture is my birthday lunch with my host family. It was a good experience, but I cant tell if 
it brought me closer to them or separated me further. Me and my host mom went to the market in the morning and bought all the stuff we needed. I bought everything. Some members of the family seem to embrace me, others seem to resent me for having more than they do. I guess thats to be expected, we are all human.
it brought me closer to them or separated me further. Me and my host mom went to the market in the morning and bought all the stuff we needed. I bought everything. Some members of the family seem to embrace me, others seem to resent me for having more than they do. I guess thats to be expected, we are all human. Oh yeah, the sun came out that day for the first time! It was still a bit chilly but I didnt care, I celebrated (note the short sleve shirt). The other white girls at the table are Bianca to my left and Antonia to my right. It was really nice to have them both there.
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