So I decided to write a blog for my family, friends, or anyone interested in the Peace Corps in general. I’ll try to write as much as I can and to keep it interesting. Let me know if I’m rambling and losing interest or there is something else you would like to know about. I know before coming here I had tons of questions, some of which I’m still figuring out. I really had no idea what to expect when coming here, whether I would have running water, how my host family would be like, what kind of food they eat… But I have to say that so far I’ve been pleasantly surprised and can’t wait to get to some projects and start doing some of the work I have before me.
To give a brief overview, I’m in the small business development section of the Peace Corps with the specific title of ‘small business promoter’. This may sound pretty generic, and I’m sure it is on purpose, because what exactly we will be doing depends on what site we get assigned too. Right now we are in a training group of 53 aspirantes, 19 of which are in the small business and the other 34 are in youth development. We will likely be working on a number of projects on site and will undoubtedly have some projects that will part of other departments and may end up partnering with other volunteers in different areas. We don’t know what site we will have until about week 8, which is a little nerve racking but at same time kind of exciting.
Right now we are in Chaclacayo, which is a district of Lima. It is about an hour and half away from the center of Lima, situated alongside the major highway. The training center is really pretty nice and most people’s home stays are nice as well. I have a great host family, where I live with my mother and her two older sons, in a barrio called 3 de Octubre. It’s a quaint little neighborhood, about a 30 minute walk from the training center. All in all the area is pretty nice, although there is a huge disparity in the quality of homes in such a small area. There are the poorer shacks with shotty construction to the posh houses that reside on the hillsides. My house is somewhere in between, and besides the cold showers I can’t complain. I feel as these 10 weeks of training are just a warm-up for our two year assignment where I’m sure our living situations are going to be quite different…
My daily routine is to wake up at about 7 or so, shower and eat and then have language training from 8 to 12 in someone’s home stay. We are grouped based on our language level and all have a pretty small group that definitely helps give us more attention. After lunch we generally will be in the training center for our sector specific training, learning the basics of Peruvian customs to the more specifics of its economy and laws. On weekends we will either be free or have some trips that we go on. This past weekend we went to a town in the Mountains called San Pedro de Castas and it was a pretty amazing trip. From here on out I’ll give some more specifics and some of the observations I have about my experience, so far it’s been busy for sure and a lot of fun.
