Jenny Chapman, Peace Corp Volunteer in Peru

Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2003 9:04 PM
Subject: Huaraz!

Hey Everyone! Well, it has been awhile since my last update and hard to top at that. Anyway, I am now in Huaraz. We arrived here after an 8 hour bus ride that climbs through the mountains. We spent Thursday - Sunday in a hostal with hot water! Monday everyone started heading off for their sites. I am actually going to be staying in the city Huaraz for the time being even though my responsibilities are in smaller villages. Everyone else is staying in their villages.

I had the opportunity to accompany my nervous peers as they were dropped off in their villages where they will be living for 2 years. We all piled in a four-wheel drive pick up truck from Prisma (our counterpart NGO) and slowly made our way up the rocky terrain. These communities are absolutely amazingly beautiful and poor. We dropped off one of my fellow volunteers at his village, Huanja, way up in the mountains. We got there and the whole community was there to welcome him. First one of the town's officials invited us to breakfast. We had tea and egg sandwiches followed by potato soup. Then there was a town meeting in front of the house where he will be staying. Many people gave speeches to welcome him into the community. They speeches were given in Spanish and then translated into Quechua. Then afterwards everyone came around to shake our hands. The women were so cute! They would shake my hand and not let go. They kept rubbing my hand and touching my face saying "you're so white". And they also kept talking about my eyes and telling me the sun would burn me. I would smile and they would giggle. I guess for some it was there first time seeing a white person. I even spoke a couple of words in Quechua and they got all excited. All the women stood together and waved and laughed as we left.

The next day we dropped off my other fellow volunteer Jamie. She pretty much is living in a similar community. Everyone came out to greet us. All the men formed a line to unload her stuff and take it to her new house. Later that day, myself and the Regional Director of Prisma returned where all the men were digging a trench so that water would run into an abandoned school building where Jamie will eventually stay. They were all working and drinking chicha at the same time. Chicha is basically moonshine made from corn. Of course they offerred and I had to take a couple of sips. It was just so interesting to see how the whole community (old and young men alike) came to work and dig a trench for Jamie while getting drunk! Pretty typical in the Andean culture. They say that the drinking animates them and allows them to work longer and harder. I also talked with 2 kids who were starring at me. I thought they were about ages 4 and 7. As it turns out they were 7 and 13!!!! Due to chronic malnutrion they are very small. It was really hard to believe how old they were. Other little kids were running around sneezing and just leaving the snot on their faces! They just have no idea about hygiene.

Today I went with a couple of nurses from the Center of Health in Monterrey. We went up to this community called Chavin. There was a rumor that a pregnant woman with twins had died. This was of course a great concern to us and we had to go confirm. As it turns out it was just a bunch of confusion. An old man had died and a little baby about 1 month old had died due to malnutrion or cholera (not sure yet which one). We met one of the other doctors at the health post in Chavin where we found out about a 16 year old boy who had been diagnosed with Tuberculosis (TB). The doctor at the health post was worried because the boy didn't come down the mountain to get his medicine. So myself and Liz (one of the nurses) hiked up to his house. He wasn't there but we talked to his Mom and his Dad who was working out in the field barefoot (pretty common actually). They had 3 other young children who were equally dirty but so cute. It is weird because Liz tried to explain the gravity of the situation. They of course didn't know what Tuberculosis was. She had to explain that too. She told them that he had to take the medicine everyday. As it turns out the father told us that the medicine made his son's stomach burn and that is why he didn't want to take it. We eventually climbed back down the mountain to the health post where a woman came in who was six months (or so) pregnant. This was her first time coming to the doctor since being pregnant! She actually had no idea how far along she was. She also didn't know when her other children were born. She only had estimates about how old they were (again very common). It's just amazing to see the reality of the situation. We have a lot of work to do here in Peru.

I have a town meeting where I will be introduced to my village, Santa Rosa on Sunday. I am pretty excited to get to meet them. The total population of my village is 150! I read some info about some of the families. There are several families who have over 5 children. There is one family in particular where the mom had her first child when she was 16. She now has 8! I hope to be able to move out there sometime soon once I find suitable housing. Most of the houses are adobe and apparently there are no toilets. I would either have to use the one letrine in the village or just go outside like everyone else. This situation hasn't been confirmed though. I will check it out. But apparently there is a school for kids age 4-5 that I will be working with and a bee-keeping commitee that wants my support. How cool will it be to learn how to bee-keep. I will more than likely help them with organization and maybe some marketing of their finally product. I also will be working with a kindergarten school and an elementary school in Monterrey. Ken, my boss, also told me about another community called Churap which is an hour and a half hike from Santa Rosa that he would like me to check out. Depending on what I think and see in that community Peace Corps might send another volunteer there from the second group which is due to arrive for training in September.

Anyway, as I said earlier I am currently staying in Huaraz. I am renting a room from a family on the third floor on the "main drag" in Huaraz. It definitely has its advantages like hot water and close to internet access but I really want to get out and live with my community.

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Well that's all for now. HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

Jenny