I am back! Ish...

So, I am terrible at blogging, it turns out. Mostly, there were like 3274204 things that happened in October and as I fell behind, I decided what I had to update was too daunting to even start. So what I am going to do is just skip over those things (with some intentions of back-posting about them in the future) and go with our most recent journey: Ecuador!

Last weekend we used our community vacation time to take a trip to Vilcabamba, Ecuador. It was a looooong journey for just two days (1 hour bus to Piura, 9 hour bus to Loja, 1 hour bus to Vilcabamba...and back), but it was refreshing in a lot of ways. The first being the fresh air and scenery. Our hostel was outside of town on a hill and looked over the valley below and the mountains in the distance. One of my favorite ways I spent my time was sitting on the porch, sipping coffee, and appreciating the splendor of nature before me. We also went hiking on our second day through a somewhat beaten, but mostly overgrown path through the mountains, sharing stories and jokes as we went.

The second, and maybe more important reason, was that it was good for me to get out of Chulucanas and have time to  think before jumping into our last full month here. I did a lot of processing. I love Chulucanas so much; I have a life here, with friends, several adopted Peruvian families, a basic routine, favorite places to eat and drink, etc...but I do very much miss my life back in the States. More specifically, the people in my life. When the time comes to leave, it will be the definition of bittersweet, but I feel very blessed to be coming home to a loving family, wonderful friends, and an incredibly supportive boyfriend (and his extremely supportive family). Having had the time in Ecuador and thereafter to sort out my feelings, I know I can move on and embrace this month with enthusiasm while I let the pangs of homesickness serve as a reminder of how very lucky I am.

Below is a video Tara made about our adventures in Vilcabamba. Enjoy! 

"Borrowed" from Tara's Blog...

This is an excerpt from Gracias a journal kept by priest Henri Nouwen when he worked in Peru. I could very much relate to this passage and wanted to include it to shed some better articulated insight to my own experience…


Sunday February 21, 1983
More and more, the desire grows in me simply to walk around, greet people, enter their homes, sit on their doorsteps, play ball, throw water and be known as someone who wants to live with them. It is a privilege to have the time and freedom to practice this simple ministry of presence. Still, it is not as simple as it seems. My own desire to be useful, to do something significant or to be part of some impressive project is so strong that soon my time is taken up by meetings, conferences, study groups and workshops that prevent me from walking the streets. It is difficult not to have plans, not to organize people around an urgent cause, and not to feel that you are working directly for social progress. But I wonder more and more if the first thing shouldn’t be to know people by name, to eat and drink with them, to listen to their stories and tell your own, and to let them know with words, handshakes, and hugs that you do not simply like them, but truly love them.

Cooking with Gladdis

Me, Gladdis and Junior - Peruvians don't really know how to take pictures

I first ate at Gladdis' restaurant, La Cincuentita, in February with the Castros. From that moment on it became my favorite place to eat out in Chulucanas. So much so in fact that when the doctors from Johns Hopkins came for the Pediatric Campaign, I took them all out to have some authentic Chulucanan cuisine there. I spent the night running around being the waitress and helping Gladdis take the food to the right people. Gladdis and I became good friends and at the end of the night I asked her if one day she would teach me how to cook the amazing food she prepared for her customers. A few weeks later I went over on a Saturday and learned how to make all kinds of delicious Peruvian food.

Tamales! After grinding the raw ingredients you wrap them up tight in the corn husk.

Boiling the tamales over an open, wood fire

Gladdis...and a rooster chillin under the table that stared at me all through lunch.

Carne seca drying in the sun. After it dries you throw it on top of hot coals (hey carcinogens) and then pound it with a rock.

Adding the liquified sauce to the pot for the turkey.

Mmm turkey!

Not only that, but I had a wonderful time getting to know her and her family (Mr. Campos and Junior, her VERY energetic son) and the friends she employs to help with all the cooking. Her and her oldest friend started out just 2 year ago selling chifles and  now sell chifles, tamales, turkey, duck, noodles, majada de yuca and de platano, and carne seca. She has 12 brothers and sisters, and 3 kids with 1  on the way. Her family is from Km 50 (about 15 or 20 mins away) and she uses her ONE day off a MONTH to go visit them. She invited me into her home like a sister; she fed me lunch with several servings of juice, explained every step of the cooking process for each thing very thoroughly,  and sent me home with a huge portion of majada de yuca and a big piece of turkey...which ended up being the liver...we think. An even nicer gesture because Peruvians pay good money for that.

Junior, hunting for cuy (pronounces q-wee)!

He looks so cute and innocent here...but he isn't. He is like 145 children rolled into one.

Spending the afternoon cooking with Gladdis was definitely one of the best experiences I have had here. It's times like these that remind me why I am here and how I fell so hard and so fast for Chulucanas and the people here. After battling some homesickness recently, it is so refreshing to have an experience like this that makes me so thankful to be here for another 3 months :)

Junior wanted a pic with his mom's "barriga" (stomach) which is currently the home of his baby sister.

Paz y amor,
Dani

The Marinera

The Marinera is also known as The National Dance of Peru. It is representative of courtship and has gotten a lot of recognition recently as one of the most prominent traditional dances in Peru (there are lots of traditional folk here that really span the gamut). The kids in this video are the Miss and Mr Chulucanas Marinera Champions of 2011. In my next post (when I get my act together/am not sick with a cold) I will be telling you about the Johns Hopkins pediatric campaign that we just spend the last week and a half translating for. In the meantime, enjoy!

Great Song

Tara shared this song with us during her most recent prayer. I have been enjoying it ever since! Hope you do too :)

My AV Blog Post

Once throughout the year we are each asked to write a themed blog post for the AV website. Here is my post about my community:

“We are married, and divorce is not an option.”

That is what my community member, Caitlin, said at the beginning of our year, and while it is funny and silly, it is also kind of true. Living in community is completely different from any other living arrangement I have encountered; like a combination of everything almost.

It is like living with a roommate in that you have obligations to one another to keep the house clean, establish rules about visitors, and other courtesies of the like. It is like living with friends in that you depend on each other for emotional support, you make plans together, and generally look out for each other. It is like living with your family in that you tell each other where you are going and when you expect to back, you share meals together, and (eventually) when you get mad at each other, you can fight like nobody’s business knowing at the end of the day everything will be okay again.  

Living in a community is like all of those things with a pinch more responsibility, courtesy, compassion, understanding, and patience. Those can be hard feelings to muster up at times, especially since many of us (or I, at least) have just exited the most selfish time of our lives: the college years. College is all about you. All about where you want to go and when you want to go there. Of course your friends or your significant other play a role in your decisions, but you are living for you, essentially. I learned quickly that in a committed community, you are very much living for every other person in your community as well as yourself. And in a lot of ways, you have to live more for them than for yourself at times. As we learned in orientation, it is very much a transition from a “me” mentality to a “we” mentality.

And oh boy is it hard sometimes. But also so completely worth it.

When my community and I committed ourselves to each other we opened a door from which flowed an unending stream of trust, strength, and wisdom. When you know the person sitting across from you truly has your best interests at heart, you are free to be you and to share yourself in a way that at least I had never experienced before. I have felt so free to share my every doubt, about myself, my abilities, my faith life, and my experience here and from that I have experienced tremendous growth.

There are the small things, like remembering to pick up peanuts for Antonette, broccoli for Tara, and yogurt for Caitlin even when they don’t ask me to when I am going to the market. Then there are the bigger things, like when I wanted my mom and my boyfriend to come visit. Although they didn’t come right out and say it, I know they both weren’t sure how feasible coming to Peru would be. I talked with my community and God a lot, and what I realized what that I was asking a lot; too much. Coming to Peru is a whole day of traveling with layovers and everything, its expensive, and they have other things going on in their lives that I couldn’t ask them to drop on a dime. Instead of thinking about my wants, I focused instead on what they needed. Through the example of my community I was able to see that when it comes to the people you love, you sometimes have to do what is in their best interest, not yours. I know a year ago I never would have had that realization.

I have learned so much about myself this year both through structured and casual conversations with my community members. They have completely opened my eyes by giving me new ways to look at the world, its problems and my place amidst all of it. They share in my joy and in my sadness; they pick me up when I fall down; they sooth me when I am angry; they whisper words of encouragement when I feel hopeless; they show me how rewarding living for someone else in addition to myself can be and for that I am so incredibly grateful.

Pacaipampa

Last weekend me and the girls went up to Pacaipampa to visit the Sisters of Mercy stationed there and to celebrate the assumption of the Virgin (or something like that). We work with the Sisters of Mercy at the Ceo Betania, the women's center where I teach yoga. It's a 5 hour car ride over some pretty treacherous terrain. The first hour is highway and the next 4 are more or less off-roading:

I actually got really sick on the way up. We took a private car that belongs to the Sisters instead of the bus and I was riding in the back. Apparently, the bumps are way worse in the back, which I didn't learn until I sat in the front on the way home and was a-okay.

Anyway, we got there and had an AHmazing lunch with, wait for it...PUMPKIN PIE! One of the Sisters, Mary Alaina is American and made two huge pies for dessert. We ate one of them and the other was for people to snack on over the next few days...except that at the end of the weekend we counted and I definitely ate at least 3/4 of that pie by myself. And it was TOTALLY worth it.

After a great lunch we got a tour of the town from Mary Alaina:

Some burros chillin in the street.

A cool wall that holds up the houses on top of the hill.

Sister Mary Alaina explaining the origins of one of the smaller plazas.

Really pretty garden where the Priests live.

Flower from the garden.

Most adorable puppy ever.

From the balcony of the priests house looking out at the church.

Moseying down the road.

This water comes from underground and is pure enough to drink - it has been tested by the health post.

Hiked up to the cemetery - they put the cemetery on the highest hill so the dead are closer to heaven.

Drying corn on the street.

More corn.

After our walk about town we came back, had a great dinner and played charades with the sisters which was pretty hilarious. My days are getting all mixed up but on Saturday or Sunday we went hiking. We walked up to a school on top of one of the smaller hills to get a view of the city from above. And for the record, kids climb up and down the hill everyday and we were all suckin wind and taking breaks the entire time. How's that for devotion to learning!

Tara and Hermana Janet (who is HILARIOUS).

Our guides up the mountain - friends of the Sisters.

We did it!

Next came the celebration on Sunday. Mass, which we got suckered into being the choir for, and a lot of fireworks.

Anto with our friend Tito (left) and Father Tito (right).

Couldnt resist sneaking a picture from the alter.

The lighting of candles for loved ones is big at religious festivals here.

Yes, what you see is a big tower that will shortly be lit on fire with people standing all around and about 2 ft away from it.

Watching from above.

Our really good friend Alejandro (Deacon) who was recently moved from Chulu to Paciaipampa.

Our priest friends (from left): Pd. Tito. Robert (American), Alejandro

Hope you enjoyed the tour!
Dani