Paperwork Party!

Yesterday and today were chocker-block full of paperwork! We learned all the paperwork necessary for the community profiles that we give the volunteers, how to set up the volunteer CALM plan that they follow in the case of an emergency, how we file health incidents, standards of conduct violations, etc. etc. etc!!!  My project director was not kidding when she told us how much paperwork we were going to have this summer.

Latin America is known for always finding something to celebrate.  This weekend there have been fireworks going off both nights.  Last night, we were told that they were celebrating the potato, which is a major staple in their diet.  Tonight after we were out to dinner, we walked through the Plaza de Armas to get Churros.  There was another celebration going on there where they were celebrating the Patron Saint, San Francisco. They had more fireworks going off tonight :)

Today, we also found out about our community routes for the summer! There are three regions that we are working with, each of which are associated with different partner agencies.  There are seven supervisors and in general we all have between three and four communities in one region.  I have a slightly different set-up as I will be doing a split route.  Meaning that I will have two communities in one region and two in another, giving me the opportunity to work with two different partner agencies.

I will be working with Plan who primarily focuses on youth leadership development and child rights. And I will also be working with CEDEPAS which is a primarily agriculture organization.  This will be our first year working with CEDEPAS so I will have the opportunity to somewhat dictate how our relationship with the organization grows over the summer!

My general week on route will start on Tuesday and I will go out to San Marcos to visit my Plan communities.  I will spend two nights there and then head back to Cajamarca, our staff house city.  I will be able to be at staff house for a time period (anywhere from 30 minutes to 5 hours) to relax and shower and then I will take another Combi (similar to a van) to the CEDEPAS communities in San Pablo.

While I will have some added paperwork and meetings because of working with two partner agencies, I also am the only sup that gets to travel back to staff house mid week.  All of the other supervisors will be taking mostly bucket baths on route!  I am very excited to be in my communities for the first time this upcoming week, starting on Tuesday.

Tomorrow we are taking some time off from working to go have some fun and visit ruins near Caja and then we are going to Los Baños del Inca in the afternoon! The baños are essentially hot springs :) It will be my first hot shower since I have arrived in Peru which will be amazing! I guess we can also pay a little bit extra in order to get a massage, which I most definitely will be doing!

Sorry! No Pictures on this post, we have been too busy doing paperwork! I will make sure to share some from our fun adventures tomorrow!

The Amazing Race

We have officially begun training! Yesterday we started around mid-day and did a half-day of training mostly consisting of ice-breakers and get to know you games. Today we had a full day of training starting at 8:30. But before the training, I went out with other supervisor and we bought 24 pieces of bread for breakfast.  That only cost 2 soles… which is the equivalent of less than $1.  That plus a little peanut butter and jam, makes for a great breakfast. 

Post breakfast we spend the morning learning about budget, our partner agencies and ran through some samples problems that we would have with our volunteers and how to address the issues.  We have four partner agencies that will be supporting us on our projects this summer.  These include: Plan, CEDEPAS, Prodia and Enseña Peru.  They all are associated with various causes, but the general themes are youth education and empowerment, gender equality, sustainability and agriculture development. 

For Lunch we ate at a ‘Menu’.  I am not sure if I have explained ‘Menus’ before, but they are restaurants that are located all around the city where you can get a large quantity of food for very cheap.  The one we went to today would be considered nicer since we got a starter, the main meal, juice, and jello for dessert.  The main meal always includes either rice or potatoes or rice and potatos.  Also, today we didn’t, but normally the starter is a soup of some kind.  We have been drinking the water in the city and so far we all seem fine.  We only have one member of our staff get sick and it was most definitely connected with food.  Supposedly the water in the city is relatively well filtered.  We will see how our water drinking experiment holds up. Cross your fingers for us!

After lunch, we were sent out on an amazing race to find places and things in the city.  Some included, the tackiest toy we could find at the metro (Supermarket), our project directors favorite café, vegetables from the outdoor market, a specific type of graffiti on the streets, our Amigos bank, the local emergency clinic, and a gorgeous church at the top of a very steep hill. 

 La clinica de emergencias! 

 We had to rely completely on asking the natives on the streets for directions, which definitely sent us in circles at times.  Once we even asked a security guard for a bank that we had been looking for, for about 20 minutes, and he pointed his finger directly up.  We had asked the security guard of the bank we needed to find.  He tried to keep a straight face, but all he could do was chuckle at us.

To access the church we had to climb a LOT of stairs, and it took us way too long because we were out of breath with the altitude.  In the picture about, that is only about half of the stairs to get to the top.  I have set a personal goal to be able to walk the stairs before the end of the summer, without needing rest breaks! Right now that seems like quite the feat!

For dinner, we cooked in for the first time! My co-sup and I made pasta with a ton of veggies.  It actually worked really well, and made me feel at home! I hope we cook as much as possible on the weekends, because I am getting very tired of potatoes, and soup and lentils already… Buenas noches!

Llegada a Cajamarca! (Arrival to Cajamarca)

Buen dia desde Cajamarca! Hello from Cajamarca!

24 hours of travel later and I have arrive in Cajamarca, the city that I will call my home for the next 11 weeks :) Travel went smoothly other than a delay here or a long layover there.  It is hard to believe that I only left Seattle yesterday.  The one perk was that on each of my flights I had an empty seat next to me!

I was picked up from the airport by my project director Becky and we took a taxi to staff house.  Taxis are very cheap here.  We were in the cab for about 15 minutes and it only cost us 10 soles.  Which is the equivalent of around $3.60.  After arriving at staff house, I took a much needed three hour nap and unpacked a little bit.  We are going to be very squished for the next few months.  There are three bedrooms.  One that is dedicated to the one male on the project and then two for females.  I really don't think we are all going to fit.  Other than that, staff house is very open.  There is a main living area with a couch and a bunch of chairs and a kitchen.  I think it will be very cozy for our time here.  Our landlord is very kind and she speaks very good english, I am pretty sure that she lived in the states for a time period.  She has two little boys that are very interested in what we are doing.

Staff house is located right across from the police head quarters in Cajamarca and from the main elementary school in the city.  I really haven't done a ton of exploring other than to walk to get some food and look for maps. The city is not as full of indigenous people as I would have thought and the streets are always crowded with people.

We start our project training tomorrow once the last two project supervisors arrive.  I am very glad that I got to have a day to relax before jumping into the project.

That is it for now! I think I am going to go take another nap :)

Packing for four months of travel... 

The view from the roof of my building!  

Cajamarca is larger than I expected!