Soritor and Waterfalls

You don’t know the meaning of the term “field trip” until you’ve ridden in an open backed truck with 50 students and a couple professors through the Peruvian countryside. We went to another away game on Wednesday , this time to a village called Soritor. The drive was like riding a roller coaster, screaming and laughing and all, only more exciting because in a roller coaster you actually know you’re safe (no worries m Mother, I’m never actually in real danger). But after a while we diecded we wanted it to be even more exciting, so we through in some pouring rain. Fortunately we had some tarps to hold over us so we weren’t completely soaked. Plus, I was the more popular in Soritor than I’ve ever been in my life. It’s the white skin. We were sitting in the bleachers to watch the soccer game, and before long we each had a circle of fascinated teenagers wanting to talk to us. One of their favorite games was “translate this word,” meaning they say a word in Castellano (what they call Spanish here) and you translate it into English. It amuses them for a remarkable amount of time. They also love to hear us talk and sing in English, singing especially. Jenny and I sang “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” and the Titanic song, we all sang the national anthem for them, and they got Caleb going well enough and long enough that if we’d been charging we would have eaten for a week (not that we can complain about how much we pay to eat, since we eat on less than $4 a day with all three meals at a really good restaurant)It was an interesting experience to say the last. We don’t get nearly that reaction in Yantalo, probably because they’re more used to volunteers here. When we got back we realized that we hadn’t told anyone we were going (we were gone all day). When we walked into the restaurant we got the Spanish equivalent of “Where were you, we were worried!” from our happy little restaurant family and the same from our cute little Mama Flora. It’s nice to have a little family here looking out for us. Other than that this week has mostly been teaching classes in the Colegio and our English classes. We did get to learn how to make lomo saltado, one of my favorite dishes here, so I’ll make it for you when I get home, family.
Today was probably one of my favorite days so far. I got to go swimming! We met up with the JAS and hiked to some waterfalls, where we spent a few hours swimming, jumping off rocks, jumping off the falls, building rafts, etc. I did get pretty burned, but it was totally worth it. I wish I could capture how beautiful this place is, in words or with pictures, but I can't. Anyway, it was a blast. Have a good week!

Fishing and Mountains

This was a fun week with a lot of activities besides work. We don’t have to stick to a P day here when it comes to doing fun recreational things :)
Tuesday: Peruvian Pizza Adventure! (And my first earthquake) Caleb decided he was bound and determined to make a pizza, so he scrounged up some mozzarella (since a fair number of people here have never even heard of it) and flour and a few other ingredients and we went to the restaurant to have a pizza party with them. It was admittedly not really like American pizza. For one thing they don’t really have ovens here. The only oven they had is used for roasting like five chickens at once over a wood burning fire. So we set up a sort of barbeque over that fire and grilled our pizza by cooking one side of the crust, then flipping it over and putting the toppings on the cooked side and cooking the other side. There were only a few mishaps with the crust breaking, but it mostly worked pretty well. We also made up the dough recipe. We had a sort of sauce with chopped fresh tomatoes, garlic, salt, oregano, and basil, and for topping we had red onions, spinach, chicken, and steak. And in spite of its un-Americaness, it was really good. It’s funny what foods you find yourself missing. Jenny and I discovered that the Church building has an oven, and we are now determined to make chocolate chip cookies : ) Tuesday night we were just sitting and chilling when I felt my bed start shaking. I figured it was just Lura on the top bunk shaking her leg until someone said “earthquake” and I realized everyone (we had two other volunteers staying with us at the time as well) was looking at each other in alarm. There was some frenzied questioning about what we should do, and then we all hurried out to the backyard. We could see all the trees swaying and the bathroom mirror swinging. It only lasted a few seconds and nothing was damaged, but nobody was ready for bed after that. (The green "S"s are safe zones for earthquakes and are all over here. We took this picture a couple days before the quake.)
Wednesday: We expeditioned to another village with the school for the school kids to compete in soccer and volleyball. It was one of the moments where we just have to laugh at the differences. Transportation for the kids consisted of a large open backed truck that they just all stood up in (we were in a van with the professors, but there were still too many of us by US standards). We took those as far as the river, where they had to be abandoned upon taking the ferry. On the other side there was another truck for the kids and a fleet of motos and motorcycles for everyone else. The games were fun (though super hot) and it was interesting to see another village. It made us all really appreciate Yantalo, because as far as poor rural villages go it’s a pretty nice and clean one, mostly because they have a trash system instituted.
Thursday: Fishing! Caleb managed to make friends with a fisherman who agreed to take us on a trip. It was way cool because it involved about half an hour of walking through jungle river bank, which was beautiful. I wish pictures could even capture it. Fishing seems to be simpler here. You have a piece of wood with fishing line wrapped around it and a hook and a weight on the end and bait them with earthworms. I was the only one who managed to catch anything (meaning I caught one about 3 inches long that we cut up for bait, with which I managed to catch a crab that got away), but Jenny did manage to throw her line in the river when casting once, so our guide’s son had to dive in and save it. I’ll admit, I was jealous of the diving in part :) It rained while we were there, but it was so beautiful on the river. I loved it. Our guide gave us a big fish he caught so we could take it home and learn how to cook it and eat it, again at our little restaurant.
Friday: Sleep. It was kind of a crash day all around.
Saturday: Hiking! We hiked Mount Moro, which is sort of the Mt. Timp of this area. It was definitely the hardest hike I have ever done, which was probably a combination of the climate, the fact that I’ve only really been hiking once yet this year, and the fact that the philosophy of the trail seemed to be “the shortest distance between two points is a straight line,” because we were pretty much going straight up the mountain. (We found out later that there are three ways up the mountain, and that the way we took was the longest and hardest). It was so beautiful though. For part of the climb we were in serious jungle, and it was amazing. I wish pictures could capture it, but there’s something about the three-dimensionality of it and the space of branches, trees, and vines that flat cameras just can’t capture. It’s the kind of thing you have to see. After we came out of the jungle we got sweeping views of pretty much all of the San Martin valley area I think. It’s so green here, between the fields and forest, with little scattered villages. Climbing down was of course a lot quicker (on the way up we ended up having to rest kind of ridiculously often—I don’t think my body is used to losing water that quickly), but down was still kind of slow going as we had to be careful not to fall off the mountain because it was so steep. We got to do some bouldering/rock scrambling too, which was fun. It’s the first time that my arms have been really sore from hiking and not my legs—all the rock climbing stuff. On our way back through the jungle section we took a stop to swing on vines (see picture at top) :) It was a fun, crazy American thing to do, that the Peruvians really enjoyed as well : )
In general, life goes on here in Yantalo. This week my major goal is to really focus on and work hard on the language. Mostly understanding is ok, but can be really frustrating and embarrassing in conversation, especially when they can tell you’re just nodding and smile a little and say “no entiendes,” or “you don’t understand.” But it’s all good. Favorite quote for the week (besides being called Barbie at church—it’s the hair): “Mama, mira, gringas!” or “Look Mom, white girls!” Have a good week!

Working in El Jardin

Buenas Tardes!
So, I've finally gotten to work here in Yantalo. I've been working in el Jardin, or the preschool here in Yantalo, helping to teach English classes. There's a girl from Moyobamba already teaching here, but she's very soft-spoken, which doesn't always work well with three, four, and five year olds. The kids here are adorable. They call out to me on the streets when we're walking around and come up and give me hugs. They call me 'profesora' or 'estrella'. I've really enjoyed working there so far.
As for life in Yantalo in general, it's definitely a different world. There are chickens in the backyard and coffee beans drying on tarps in the streets and roosters crowing any time of day or night. Last night for an evening snack we knocked some coconuts down from the tree in our back garden and had coconut water (which is definitely an acquired taste, but I'm learning to like it) and fresh coconut meat. Something funny, they don't really believe in mixing things here. If you ask for a salad you'll get a plate that has a pile of avacado, a pile of cucumber, and a pile of tomato. Last night Caleb mixed his coconut with passion fruit and mandarina in the shell, which was way good, but when he showed it to Flora she looked disgusted. It was funny. Sadly they don't really sell fruit or veggies in Yantalo, so we stock up while we're here in Moyobamba. What do they eat then, you may ask? The answer is pretty much always rice, potatoes, and chicken, sometimes beef. Today they really switched things up by having pasta. In general, life here is good. It's definitely a different time frame, and when we find ourselves waiting we joke about being on Peruvian time. The people here live really day to day. We go to the school and they say 'how about you give a presentation on your major--right now' or 'how about you teach a class on nutrition--right now', which definitely make things interesting. We realized that we're really pretty much going to coordinate everything here ourselves, so we should be getting a lot of that done this week, plus we've got some really fun activities planned.
Something cool we did this week--Wuilman, the coordinator for Yantalo, took us up to his family's chacra, or field. He and his brothers were setting up a boundary to mark his land, because since his dad died people keep encroaching on it. They taught us about a lot of different plants and some bugs (bugs are a major part of life here, and sadly one method of entertainment for us. We watched a spider and a beetle battle it out the other night). We also got to try sugar cane, which is tastey, and pacai, which are these bean pods about a foot and a half long that grow on trees. The seeds are in this spongey white stuff that you suck off and then spit out the seeds. I actually didn't catch the spit out the seeds part until after I'd eaten four or five, but it's been more than 48 hours and there seem to be no ill effects, which is relieving. We've gotten to try a lot of fun fruit since getting here, and it's all good.
Anyway, I'm alive and well and learning to enjoy things like cold showers and lots of rice, and I promise I'll try to get some pictures up soon. I forgot my cord again today. Adios!

Surfing in Huanchaco and Church in Moyobamba

Hola! Que tal?
So we moved from Lima to Trujillo, where we spent a day visiting ruins (I have some pictures but I forgot my camera today so you'll have to wait to hear about the ruins), which was pretty cool. We also spent some time on the beachthat evening after we got home. We were actually staying in Huanchaco, a beach town close to Trujillo. If you're ever visiting Trujillo I can recommend a great little hostal to you that overlooks the beach. The next morning we had surfing lessons with a surf school there which was a major deal. We got great lessons, wetsuits, and board use for the day for about $13. They did a really good job of teaching. We were all up and riding waves in within an hour, and it was Jenny and Caleb's first time.
Surfing was followed by a long and arduous bus ride. I couldn't sleep and it was all at night so I couldn't even look out the window. Which was especially disappointing because we were driving through the Andes, and from what I could see in the dark the views are spectacular. Another unfortunate thing is that they play movies on the busses here... but not with headphones. They just play them over the speakers, so if you don't like what's playing... fortuneately Caleb noticed my discomfort and shared a headphone, so we watched a couple episodes of a cartoon, the cleanflicks version of Music and Lyrics, and listened to music, which pretty much to care of it. (Which I was very grateful for. One of the only times I've heard that much swearing was that morning in the surfer car. Fortuneately in the surfer car the song started skipping, much to the joy of the Mormons there.)
We arrived here in Moyobamba at about 7:00Am with just enough time to go to Yantalo, drop off our stuff and change, and then head back to Moyobamba in time to be late for Church :) Church was great and we already have some new friends, as there's a great group of young single adults here in Moyobamba. We're hanging out with them this weekend. There was lots of kissing at church with all of the introductions. I actually remember about two names, but I've got awhile to learn them. (The most awkward thing with the kissing is men. Some men do, and some don't, so you never know when to go in for the kiss). Another slightly awkward thing for me is introductions. Mom and Dad, you did a great job at giving me a name that is pretty difficult to say in Spanish. They struggle with both the st combination and the rl. So I introduce myself as Estarr, which works, except that it sounds like a Spanish verb, which is somewhat confusing. So I've taken to introducing myself as Estarla, and then immediately telling them they can call me Estarr when they struggle. I haven't even tried my last name.
We went back to Yantalo and unpacked and moved it, which was nice, then it was back to Moyobamba to call nuestros madres. It was Mother's Day here too, actually, so Jenny and I got presents at Church, and then everyone was asking us if we were mothers... We were really struggling to find cards and land lines that were open in Moyobamba, so we used our new resources and called our JAS leader (jovenes adultos solteros=young single adults), who met up with us with about five of our new friends. They found us a member's house to call from and accomanied us there, so we had fun talking while we took turns calling.
Unfortunately, the time delay resulted in some trauma in getting back to Yantalo (apparently the cars stop at about 7:00), but we made it home eventually and settled in. We're living in a cute little house (very little) with our Mamacita and Papa, Flora and Luis. Our house is yellow and has a pretty little haphazard garden full of flowers and trees in the back. The bathroom shed (which has running water :), but no warm water :( ) is in the middle of the garden, and is actually really cute as well. The toilet is purple.
So this is kind of a long post, (which was my worry with starting a blog)... sorry :) I'll leave off here and start a new one in case people just want to hear about what I'm doing. Nos vemos!

Estoy in Peru!

So far, Peru has been treating me pretty well. Actually, to be more accurate, Luis has been treating us very well. However, my body is struggling somewhat to adjust to the new order of things, like meals. Last semester I ate at 8, 11, 3:30, and at some point after that. Today I had hot chocolate at 11:30, lunch at 2:30, and dinner at 11:30, with just a little icecream in between. The difficultly of obtaining water safe to drink is a pain as well. It's all good though, I'll adjust.

Fun Peru things for the Day:
-I learned the proper way to greet people as a female in Peru: offer the hand with a bent elbow and kiss the cheek of whoever it is, be they male or female. I got some practice at our breakfast/drinks this morning, as we met up with some Lima medical students. I'm assuming for the cultural experience, as they aren't coming to Yantalo.
-Caleb (one of my two traveling companions, along with Jenny--you'll probably hear a lot about them) and I went exploring in Lima and found our way down the cliffs to the beach! It involved a lot of Frogger, a beautiful garden path, a sketchy green wooden stairwell with uncomfortable smells (which turned out to be a tsunami escape route), and just a lot of stairs in general, which weren't so bad on our way down, but turned out to be not so much fun on our way up. We didn't do much more than watch the waves and listen to them pull the rocks (it was a small rocks/gravel beach, not sand) and feel the water, but it was fun. Caleb also added further evidence to my theory that boys, rocks, and water cannot be in the same place at the same time without the boy throwing a rock into the water by announcing before we left that he needed to throw a rock into the ocean :) We got pictures with some cheery surfer guys (though we were admittedly a little worried about them stealing the camera) who were part of a surfing school and offered to meet up with us for surfing lessons in Trujillo on Friday (about 13 US dollars, including wetsuits and boards and a guarantee to get up on the first lesson. There's a good chance we're going to do it :) ). It was fun, though I'm excited to go to the beach for reals. As in, get in the water.
-Lima driving: ok, so maybe this wasn't fun, but it's certainly interesting. If you don't like getting cut off, never drive in Lima, because it's standard procedure. People use the lines and even their blinkers, they just switch lanes like crazy without any warning but a honk of the horn to let you know they're there. They also turn in whichever direction they want from whichever lane they want, whenever they want, which makes intersections really interesting. I'll admit that one of my most common mental phrases is ''vamos a morir,'' or, ''we're going to die.'' No worries, I'm not actually in real danger, it's just a different method than I'm used to. The frogger thing too. Anyway, that's Peru so far! I'm alive and well and learning Spanish, since everything is in Spanish, including the people I'm with. Adios!