My Birthday

October 17th 2006 La Encantada, Peru

My Birthday

Today is my birthday. I woke up sick and had to visit the latrine 3 times before lunch. And my artisans were fighting over some order. Not what I had hoped. But then I got better. My family had a good dinner for me and invited over some family friends.

Yesterday, Rachel and Mike took me out for lunch. That was really nice of them. Volunteers tend to be more generous than the average person in my opinion. Its almost annoying sometimes how generous people are.

The Embassy Fair And Goodbye Parties

October 10th thru 16th, 2006 Lima, Peru

Fargo´s House

Today we headed down to the Fair in Lima. The bus ride is 14 hours but overnight. Usually, I sleep better. After arriving, Tom and I headed to the Fargo´s house. Mr. Fargo is a General in the Marines. His wife and daughter visited us in Encantada to buy ceramics and extended an open invitation to stay with them whenever I am in the Lima area. They have a really nice house. Most embassy family houses are.

First Visit Back to Santa Eulalia

I then headed back to the training center in SE. I stopped by my friend Ryan´s old house to see his mother and sister. They gave me lunch. I then swung by the training center to meet the new trainees and catch up with the training staff. It was nice to be able to hold full conversations with the language professors and my old host family as well.

I gave my host sister a vase with a butterfly on it. She loves butterflies. I spent the next few hours catching up with my host family and grandparents. It was interesting how the dynamic changed since I no longer live there. It was good to see them again.

Embassy Fair

Yesterday we had a workshop on how to export. It was pretty informing, the speaker really knew his stuff. When we arrived this morning, our pieces still weren´t there. They were supposed to be there yesterday. Eventually they arrived 15 minutes before the fair started and we set up quickly. We sold about 75% of our pieces which is pretty good. I learned a lot about fairs, although this one is very different since it is only for selling the pieces. There are other fairs where the objective is make contacts for the future.

Out on the Town

After we all sent our artisans back to there respective sites, all of us Volunteers went out in Lima. It was really good to see everyone again. We caught a good dinner, hit up a bar and then finished the night at a discotech.

Saturday morning, I headed to the Corner Bar with Jorge and my old language professor. We spent the whole afternoon watching College Football until my bus left that night. That was quite refreshing. I really miss watching football all Saturday and Sunday with my roommates.

October 8th thru 9th, 2006 La Encantada, Peru

Despedidas

All week Tom and I have been attending going away parties for Tommy. They usually consist of a dozen people, a meal called capuss (its basically turkey cooked in the ground, quite good), and more Peruvian beer than I would like to drink.

Have I told you about how they drink beer here? Or anything for that matter. Basically, they have one little plastic Dixie type cup and numerous beers. You pour your cup, however much you want, then pass the bottle. You drink your portion and then pass the cup. This continues in a circle for hours and hours. No one drinks from the bottle straight. Custom is to buy 3 for 10 Soles. People take turns buying all night.

The final Despedida was Monday the 9th. Everyone gathered in the Local to say one last goodbye to Thomas. It began by a few people giving words about how much Tommy has meant to them. The President asked me to give a few words as well. Normally, I can BS with the best of them on the spot, but in Spanish it tends to present a whole new ballgame. We then ate and I acted as photographer for Tom taking pictures of all the families with Tom.

Around 3am, they put on a little Peruvian hip-hop and I threw a little move. Tommy did as well, and everyone cheered. He then asked me if I would like to battle, and we spent the next 5 minutes in a crazy dance off making fools of ourselves. I attempted “the worm” for the first time, only to encounter bruises and scrapes. It was quite the party.



October 7th, 2006 La Encantada, Peru

Preparing for the Fair

Today we had the artisans bring in there pieces for the Embassy fair next Friday. Each of the 30 members brought two pieces each. Tommy and I coded them and created a price list for the fair while capacitating Juan, the artisan traveling with us. I am excited about the fair.

Just Kidding

October 6th, 2006 La Encantada, Peru

Just Kidding

I just got a call from Jorge and turns out he is going to stay. He is going to be living in Lima, quite a change from his small pueblo, and working with an organization that coordinates with college students. I am glad he is staying. I don´t ever want to see anyone go.

The Volunteer I am most proud of

Let me tell you about a Volunteer I am really proud of. His name is Joseph. This guy is so cool for so many reasons. He is very genuine and real caring person. Besides his sparkling personality, there is one particular aspect about Joseph that makes him especially awesome. Joseph is not the median age of a normal Peace Corps Volunteer. Joseph is 55 years old. But that doesn´t inhibit him the slightest. If anything his wisdom trumps the rest of our´s youthful vigor.

Joseph was a computer programmer in Texas until about a year and a half ago when he was offered a retirement buyout package. Which he took, and joined the Peace Corps. He decided he would sell his house and move a few thousand miles across the equator to a land unbeknownst to him called Peru. This meant learning a new language, a new culture and all that entails, basically, a new way of life. He also had to trade his conventional friends for a bunch of punk mid-twenty year olds. Oh, the times I felt sorry for Joseph when he had to put up with our immaturity during training.

But Joseph wants to give back. He wants to serve. He wants to learn, to experience life. But most of all, I believe Joseph doesn´t want to regret. The year or so I spent considering Peace Corps and enduring the application process, I was constantly bombarded with stories about people who “had always wanted to do something like that”. Well, Joseph is doing something like that. This is why I am proud of Joseph.

The first to go

October 4, 2006 Piura, Peru

The first to go

I just said goodbye to Jorge. The first Volunteer left today. Another person left during training, but it was the first week and a little early to develop any sort of real attachment. But Jorge has been here for 4 months now. I had a particular attachment to Jorge because he was from San Antonio, loves basketball and was the Volunteer living in closest proximity to me.

He said he realized he couldn´t work with kids for 2 years and that his heart wasn´t really in it. I would think it is a little hard to really know, considering he had only been in site for a month, but I am not him. Well, goodbyes suck.

September 21st thru October 2nd, 2006 Encantada, Peru

It’s great to be busy

My artisans have been busy than ever. It has been great. We have a ton of orders going on right now and are preparing for two fairs. On the 13th of October, we have a fair in Lima at the U.S. Embassy. This should be fun because I will get to see many of the volunteers I have not seen for a month and a half. Right now we are working on an order for a 1,000 pieces for an organization called ProPeru that is due on the 8th. We are also producing 300 pieces for a fair in Colombia, which unfortunately I do not get to attend. This is an incredibly important fair because all the major world exporters will be there making contacts and checking out suppliers. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that our pieces are of the highest quality. We also just received an order for 18,000 pieces from an exporter they made contact with in June. Needless, to say it is exciting times at the local. They even worked on Sunday. This is huge because sometimes they don’t even work on Monday.

Quality Control

This will be one of the first presentations I will have to give because the order for ProPeru was the first major order they had ever received and we have had some major quality control procedures, especially with the initial formation. My counterpart, Mario, and I examined each piece and only 42% made the cut. I don’t know what the industry average is, but there is some definite work to be done. Thus, a lot of pieces had to be remade for that order and the low quality ones will have to be sold at worse prices in local markets.

University Service Club

The universities here don’t really have extracurricular clubs. After speaking with some of the students there appeared to be interest of starting a service club where the students would act as volunteers in the development of Encantada. I spoke with Consuelo, and met with some other directors at the university and it appears as if we are going to try to gauge the interest of such a club. The university is only about 1 hour and 20 minutes away, located in the department capital. This would be truly exciting if sustainable.

On the Social Side of Things

I attended my first quinciyero. This is the special party for girls when they reach the age of 15. It was somewhat interesting but didn’t differ all that much from normal Peruvian parties.

I got to play basketball with my counterpart last Saturday, which was great. It was difficult though because they played zone the entire time. Who plays zone for pickup basketball? Anyways, I was a little frustrated because no one ever moved; they just stood around the perimeter. But it was fun to play ball.

Tuesday was also the “despedida” (departure party) for the Peru 4 volunteers who are leaving over the next month. I am replacing Thomas, who is leaving in October so I headed out there with my counterparts Mario and Luiggi. Yeah, the Mario Bros. are my counterparts. They are both pretty cool guys. It was fun to get to meet all the volunteers who live in Piura from Peru 4 thru 6.