Best Turkey of My Life

No offense mom, or to any other person who's turkey I've consumed over the years, but this Thanksgiving I had the best turkey ever. I'm normally not a big turkey girl, I'm in it more for the sides: green bean casserole, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie are usually the items that have me salivating come November.

Peru has given me a new appreciation towards proteins. I really do view meat as a luxury now that I live with a family that considers chicken feet a great source of amino acids. But even taking into account my love of consuming things that were once alive, I still never thought I would have the most amazing Thanksgiving turkey here in Peru.

I've been making a big effort to expand my social circle in Lima. I made a good group of friends early on and realized recently that I wasn't making an attempt to meet new people outside the sanctity of my known network. But since coming back from medevac in September I was ready to put myself out there again and expand my horizons. Even in the states I never had just one set of friends. My social circles have always run deep. Especially when living in a foreign country where people are always moving away, it's good to have reserves.

What does all of this have to do with the best Turkey I ever ate? Well, if it wasn't for my recent social expansion, I never would have eaten this turkey. I met a girl named Ryan who is dating the head of diplomatic security for the embassy. Anthony is a big guy, I would guess 6'5'' with buzzed blond hair and some fat tattoos. His demeanor is tough but he is a big softy and is becoming a good friend. He really loves to cook and hosting thanksgiving dinner was his idea. Along with sharing a love a cooking, Anthony and I share another love, sausage. The other week we discovered our shared passion and had an hour long discussion on all things linked. I always complain that you can't find good sausage in Peru and Anthony told me at the commissary at the US embassy sells all kinds of good sausage. Since I am not allowed to shop at the commissary, Anthony has agreed to be my sausage hook-up. Ryan's okay with that too.

Pictured above, Winos.

So Thanksgiving this year, instead of cooking a whole turkey, Anthony got a long, lean chunk of turkey (I don't know what to call it, it looked like a big pork loin) and stuffed it with Italian sausage. Sausage stuffed turkey!! There aren't words to describe the delight I took in eating this masterpiece of a dish. When I have a readily available supply of sausage I will make this incredible meal for my family.

Apart from the turkey, my thanksgiving was lovely. I have spent the night at Ryan and Anthony's before and they are so good to me, that their place is beginning to feel like another home away from home. There is a group of girls I've been hanging out with lately, all of whom were there. I invited Josh, the new water and sanitation PCVC and recent Bolivan evacuee to come with me. Josh reminds me of my friends from home because all he does is make fun of me. It wouldn't be thanksgiving without someone giving me a hard time the whole night. We went through so many bottles of wine and at the end of the night were so full of good food, good wine and good friends.

The best part is that this is only thanksgiving take one! Take two commences tomorrow night at Tania's house. Today Ryan and Eric Lucchessi and Stephanie are all arriving from California. They are going to spend two days in Lima and then we are all flying to Cusco to climb the Inca trail.

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. I am thankful that you care about me enough to read about my life. I miss you all!

Baby Mama Drama

When I first moved into my current host family’s house, one of the sons named Arturo had recently moved out and was living with his pregnant girlfriend. I didn’t have any sort of opinion about him at first. A little cocky, but he seemed nice enough.

After a few months of living here, Viviana started telling me her opinion of her little brother. As the youngest of all the kids and a boy, Viviana felt her mother coddled and spoiled him. She would defent her son no matter how wrong he was. If Arturo were to kill some one, his mother would say the victim had it coming and that Arturo was still a saint. Viviana said that in reality, her brother is not a very nice person. He is a sloppy drunk who likes to come home and hit his pregnant girlfriend. And my host mom knows about it but says it’s Erika’s (the girlfriends) own fault and that Arturo has every right to do what he wants because he is the man and Erika should learn her place.

Whenever Erika and Arturo would get into a fight, Arturo would come over to our house and my host mom would rant about how terrible Erika is and how perfect Arturo is. From what I know of Erika, I like her. She’s a nurse and Arturo doesn’t work and mooches off his pregnant girlfriend and his parents. I detest the whole situation. The fact that my host mom actually defends him abusing his girlfriend makes me sick.

Their baby was born while my parents were visiting in June. I saw the baby a few times in July and by the time I had come back from the states in September, Arturo and Erika has split up, moved out of their apartment and both of them were back living with their parents. My host mom blamed the whole break up on Erika and her inability to take care of Arturo. Knowing his history of abuse with both alcohol and women, I questioned whether or not I should stay in the house now that he was living in the room next to mine. I didn’t feel my safety was threatened but that it was more a matter of principle. I didn’t want to approve his behavior by remaining the house.

This situation unfortunately, is not uncommon for Peace Corps volunteers to face. Domestic violence is so common here along with the mentality that a man has the right to do whatever he wants to. After a lot of thought I decided to stay in the house. I haven’t had any problems with him, but he is very cold to me. Not in a vicious way, but in a spiteful, immature way. I’m a young girl that has the world at her feet and I’m living in his house taking his attention away from his parents who adore me. He doesn’t like my independence and only speaks to me in a condescending manner.

I had no idea what was happening with his daughter who he had abandoned or how much support he was giving ex. My host mom continued to spit at the mention of her name. Then, Thursday night I went down stairs and the whole family was sitting in the living room having a very intense conversation which I didn’t hear much of except for Viviana screaming “it’s not fair, it’s not fair!” and Arturo eventually got up and walked out the front door. Turns out, Erika is pregnant again! If my math skills are correct, she got knocked up 2 months after the pair split.
My host mom of course, blames Erika for getting pregnant. Her perfect some couldn’t be the cause of doing something so stupid. The family discussion that night was about what they were going to do. Arturo and Erika couldn’t afford another apartment at the moment and my host family wasn’t going to stand by and let Arturo bail on his 5 month old daughter and his pregnant ex. So tonight, Erika and the baby moved into the room next to mine. Ay ay ay! Erika and Arturo do not get along. My host mom does not like Erika and blames her for ruining her sons life.

This is going to be interesting. Maybe after the time I spend in Lima for Thanksgiving and the trip I’m taking with Stephanie and my friends, I’ll come back to my home and they’ll be broken up again and she’ll be moved out. I for the life of my can imagine being in either Erika or Arturo’s shoes. I feel like I should pull out some of my sexuality class material and give them a lesson on birth control.

Congressional Meet and Greet

This past thursday some of the American staff along with some volunteers represented Peace Corps at a congressional meet and greet at the home of the ambassador. There were 8 congressmen from sub-committee of foreign relations committee. Also invited to this meet and greet were high ranking embassy employees, high ranking military officers, elite members of Peruvian society and economic specialists that are here working on APEC.

The whole idea of a meet and greet is that all the people who are invited stand around and mingle, have cocktails and eat cheese. Other than that, I didn't really know what to expect. I was definitely looking forward to this event and honored I was given an invitation, but I wasn't really excited of nervous. Some of the embassy workers I've been hanging out with lately have been filling my head with all kinds of ideas. They don't really look at these meet and greets as fun social gatherings, but rather a mandatory evening where they are technically still working after a long week instead of sitting in their jammies at home. It's part of the foreign service job to constantly attend events like this, so the thrill of it kind of gets lost. Also, some people have suggested that the congressmen's visit to Peru, strategically placed right after the election, was more for the trip to Machu Picchu than accomplishing political agenda.

I didn't want to be innocently excited, so I played it cool and acted like it was no big thing to be going to this. When in actuality, it wasa huge deal. I am after all, a Peace Corps volunteer. I don't get the excuse to get dressed up every day. I've never met a member of congress before. I got a reason to be out of site on a random thursday night, and there was free food and alcohol. While to most attendees, the night was just mandatory protocol. To me it was very exciting.

It gave me a window into a world I'd only seen on episodes of the west wing. My first reaction was that I was standing in a room that was mostly white men. Everyone was in small groups chatting and my job was to butt in and introduce myself. Luckily for me, I actually knew a handful of non peace corps people who were used to this type of thing and they introduced me to a few people I didn't know until I got the hang of it (or until the pisco sours kicked in and my shyness melted away). I schmoozed with a lot of people and by the end of the night felt pleased with the effort I had put in.

Something that was new to me, was the conversations one has at these types things. It was very standardized and formal. I felt like there were strict guide lines that you couldn't wander out of when speaking. I didn't know what these guidelines were but it became very apparent to me when I stepped outside the lines and said something that didn't conform to the protocol conversation. But I guess that was to be expected by the Peace Corps volunteer who doesn't know any better.

There was one congress woman from California who I made an effort to talk to. She was the one member of congress that wasn't going strait to Cuzco, but flying up Cajamarca to visit an American woman who has been in jail for 12 years for terrorist activity. This woman is now pregnant in jail and the case is very controversial. I spoke to her a little bit about the case and being from California. Her district is in LA and I'm so used to people from So-Cal not knowing anything about Nor-Cal, so when asked where I'm from, I usually brush the answer aside with a "Sacramento area/you wouldn't know it" kind of response. But being a California congress woman, she had lived and worked out of Sacramento for 14 years. She knew Woodland, silly me.

The meet and greet was an interesting, exciting and intimidating experience. It was a new perspective look at political and foreign service life and has given me a lot to think about.

Obamanos!

Just another night in Lima where Americans were being loud and causing a scene. The only difference on tuesday night was we actually had a legitimate reason to celebrate.

Me and my Lima crew have been supporting Obama from the get go. I only knew one PCV and one Lima friend who was cheering for Hillary. Needless to say, there is not a single Bush supporter among us. Like many Americans, we were counting down the days till election night. For the past month, it's been impossible to have a conversation and not have the presidential race come up, even when talking to Peruvians.

This is my second consecutive election abroad. In Spain, there was a 9 hour time difference and my host family didn't have cable so I couldn't stay up to watch the results. I also wasn't a fervent Kerry supporter as I have been with Obama. And as much as I didn't want Bush to win, there wasn't the electricity in the air as there was this time around. The next day, Spaniards were pissed. Some even decided to take it out on me. I was hoping this year would not be a repeat of '04.

There is one American sports bar in Lima where on any given night you are bound to find a group of obnoxious Americans watching a Football or Basketball game. There is always a guaranteed crowd for events like the Oscars or the presidential debates. We had been planning for months to ring in the new era of American politics with our US comrades at this bar. It ended up being the perfect location to watch the results. We ate, we drank, we cheered and chanted. Some cried, some smoked cigars and we all took celebratory tequila shots. It has been the only night so far in my time abroad, that I have made it known to my host country that I am proud to be an American.

For those of us working and living abroad, this election meant the world to us, literally. What the US does effects the rest of the world so greatly and it seems as though most Americana's don't take that into account when casting their vote. Four years ago in Spain, 90% of Spaniards opposed Bush but some how he still got re-elected. The international community has rallied around Barack Obama in hopes that foreign relations with US will improve. Being a Peace Corps volunteer is like being a mini ambassador to the US and so I feel the outcome will effect me greatly. The day after the elections in my site, I had complete strangers walk up to me and congratulate me on our big victory. Come January, I will have a new boss. I really hope the President elect focuses more on peace than on war, and puts his money where his mouth is.

To top off the night, my friends and I headed to the cliffs over looking to ocean and opened a bottle of champagne. It was a night to celebrate and to never be forgotten.

I will add that I came home from downtown high on life only to find the results from California. I have always been so proud of being a Californian. So much so that when asked what I am, I will respond with Californian instead of American. It has been an interesting turn of events now that that has changed. California has always been a leader in advancement and modernity. I hope in the next decade we will see this prop h8ate overturned.

Finding the Right Balance

Social life, work, host family time, Ali time = Health, happiness and productivity .

Trying to find the right balance of all the goings on in my life is a struggle I feel fortunate have. My first few months at site, I had no social life. I worked a lot and I spent ample amount of time alone. I was very productive as a Peace Corps volunteer, but I was also miserable. Then when I started making friends, my happiness went through the roof, but my work output suffered. So instead of cutting back on either, I became a workaholic and a socialite. This combination led to me going on 6 weeks of medical leave. I am doing my best to balance the activities in my PCV life so I don’t burn my candle at both ends.

One of my biggest personal accomplishments so far, has been learning to say no. I got in a bit over my head with the nuns and my other people in my community, because when approached to do something I could never say no. It’s my obligation as a PCV to help out wherever I could, I thought. But then I started getting over worked and taken advantage of.

I have been so fortunate with my placement in Lima as it has allowed to be close enough to a lot of amazing people. My social network keeps expanding, and with it, social invitations. Being a PCV is a hard job for many reasons. One of them, is that we are volunteers who technically don’t have to do a damn thing for 2 years. When you have a 9-5, you don’t have much of a choice as to when you work and when you socialize. We are independent workers who’s productivity depends solely on self motivation. For this reason, I have imposed my own socializing hours so as not to offset the balance of my life.

Generally speaking, work all week and leave social events for the weekends. There are of course exceptions. Next week I’ve been asked by our country director to go into Lima on Thursday night for a meet and greet at the Ambassadors house with members from the US congress. This technically counts as a work and social event and is something I’m willing to make an exception for in rules about leaving site during the week. This is really exciting thing for me and I’m sure the only reason I was invited is cause of my proximity to Lima. RSVPing to this event helped me finalize saying no to other activities I was invited to this week.

Tonight, a bunch of my friends are going bowling. I haven’t been bowling in years and these days, bowling is a marquee event. I was also invited to play ultimate Frisbee at the US Embassy this evening with a PCV in Lima on sick leave. Tomorrow a bunch of ladies from a slew of different countries are getting together for their biweekly lunch and invited me to come along. Friday is Halloween and I would love to go to the US Marine party like I did last year. But so far I have declined all invitations. I am working all week and would have to sacrifice one of my projects for any one of these invitations.

I have however made an amazing Halloween costume. It’s not as creative or unique as my costumes have been in years past, but given the resources I have access to, I think it’s one of the greatest costumes I’ve ever put together. Instead of going to live jazz and salsa lessons like I was invited to do the past two nights, I’ve stayed at site watching Gilmore Girls on DVD and hand stitching my costume. Even if I don’t go to a Halloween party, it will make a great costume for my girls theater group.

Next Tuesday is the election and I will definitely head into Lima for that. So I will be in Lima on Tuesday and Thursday of next week and that throws my balance way off. Rather coincidentally, a few of the international ladies I had lunch with a few weeks back just started a project with an NGO at my girls home Caritas Felices. They have volunteered to paint the school they are building at the home. So for the past few Fridays, my social life as come to me. I’ve been helping them paint during the day, then I take them to a restaurant in my town and we social in my hood for a change

Quarter Century Life Crisis

I turned 25 a few weeks ago and the best way to describe the time surrounding the silver anniversary of my birth, is a roller coaster ride. I've written about the difficulties I've had leaving my 6 week stay in California and coming back to Peru. Since I wrote last, things have improved over all, but I'm still having a lot of lows. At first when I started having these big swings of emotions, I felt out of control and really dumb for not being able to handle them after almost a year and a half in country. The weirdest part was that I was having a difficult time pin pointing exactly what was causing these swings. I turned to a lot of my friends back home, through email and skype, and have been in contact with lot's of close friends from high school and college.

What surprised me, is that practically everyone I talked to was having a similarly hard time with whatever it was they were tackling in their lives at this moment. This past September and October have been particularly hard on a lot of my friends. They are all dealing with different things, but the one thing we all have in common is our age. One friend put it nicely, she called it the Quarter Century Life Crisis. It may seem silly when you first hear it, but if you think about it, it makes sense. At 25 years of age, we feel like we should be full fledged adults. We've had a few years since college to fiddle around and try and figure out what we want to do. By 25 we are either supposed to have a good job or at least be on track to get it. But even for my friends that have the job they dreamed of in college, they are now second guessing if that's what they really want to spend the rest of their lives doing? All the sudden they feel like they are missing out on their twenties and have the urge to quit their amazing job and go wander the globe for a while. Then there are my friends who are wandering the globe and are freaked out that they are behind in life and they're not sure how to catch up.

I have friends who are dealing with break ups and deaths and reversely friends coping with marriages and having babies. It doesn't really matter how things are shaping up in a persons life, we thought things would be different. And even if things are exactly the way we planned them to be, we thought we would feel different. Our trial run as adults has us all reevaluating out lives and our situations.

For me, my life is pretty much where I had planned it to be. What has been scaring me lately, I think, is that I don't know where I'm going after my service wraps up in under 10 months. The world is literally at my feet. I can anything! But how do I choose? What direction do I start? The pull to go back home is strong, I love my friends and family. I love California. But the call of the rest of the world tempting. I try not to overwhelm myself with the question, what do I want to do with my life? Instead, I focus on a little bit at a time. What do I want to do with my life in the next 5 years? So far, I have about 50 ideas, 10 of them I'm seriously contemplating.

To all of my friends out there who are feeling a bit lost in the world, I ask you to stop comparing your lives to others. Almost all of my friends, when talking about the things they struggle with, have said to me they feel bad complaining because it's not like they live in a developing country like I do. They think just because they live in the US that these issues are easier to deal with then mine are. They are not. The Quarter Life Crisis knows no borders. And luckily, friendship doesn't either. So at least the silver lining in this whole crazy mess is that we are in it together.

Even though I am still having a hard time dealing with some stuff, I have definitely been doing a lot better overall. Going back to site after almost 2 months of being away was like finding the calm in the storm. Life is slow and easy going here. It doesn't matter what is happening in my life, the kids and girls are constant. They are always there and even if I disappear for 2 months, they will still love me when I come back. Life seems to make a little more sense at site then it did when I was on medical leave or freshly back in Peru and whisked to Piura for an IST. Life in Lima is anything but boring. Even after a year, I am discovering new things each week and meeting new people. I have a lot of things going for me right now. I am finally an experienced veteran who knows how to navigate her way through PC life in Peru. I am trying to ride this wave cause I know that soon I will be starting a new chapter in my life and will end up starting from scratch once again. So at least for now, it's comforting that I know what I will be doing with my life for the next 10 months.

Photos from IST

This is a picture of me moderating the "Question Game". I'm notorious for being terrible at this. Heather and Jamar on the other hand rocked this game, in spanish no less





One of the many fabulous skits preformed by the volunteers and their Peruvian counterparts.





While the weekend was very stressful and hard work for the trainers, we were given quite a bit of comic relief as shown in this picture by Jamar and Jah recreating and singing a Peruvian music video......Hilarious!









This is me pretending I have any idea what I'm talking about. Thank god Elena was there to bail me out when my Spanish failed me.







The 3 awesome trainers who made it all happen......somehow and I'm still not quite sure how we managed.