To New Beginnings

About a week and half into site now, and it’s been an experience so far. Since I’ve arrived I’ve gotten to meet a lot of people, revisit others, and get to know my host family a lot better. To get to my town I have to take a bus from Lima to Trujillo, then a bus from Trujillo to a town called Pacasmayo, then a taxi from there to my town. For this trip people take what’s known as a colectivo, which is basically where they stuff a taxi as full as they can to make it cheaper for us but make a little more for them as well. The minimum is five per taxi and I’ve gotten to be in one with 8. But anyways, as I was coming up to my house someone else in the taxi had to get out a little before me so I thought I may as well just get out there and walk but before I could finish the woman next me said, oh no he lives in Profesor Chuyo’s house (my host dad). Had I known this woman I wouldn’t have thought much of it, but as far as I know I hadn’t even met her. I think it was a testament to things to come and just how easily word can travel in my community. My father is pretty well known and even though he is retired he still carries the name Profesor or ‘Profe’ for short. In Peru people place even more importance on titles than the U.S. and will be known by that forever.

The adjustment period is coming along, slowly but surely and little by little I’m getting to know the community. The first week especially I’ve just been kind of hanging with the pops to get to know people, along with going around with my socio. I’ve quickly realized that most of my meetings and projects most likely will be in the afternoon or at night because in the morning most people are working, which means working the land for the majority, and aren’t free until afterwards. Additionally, Peru seems to still go by the ‘siesta’ concept of having a longer lunch where a lot of businesses will shut down for a couple hours and then stay open later at night. And I must admit, since lunch is generally the largest meal of the day I could see some mid afternoon naps in my future because I just feel as though it will be culturally appropriate. But as far as some more specific activities I’ve gotten into, I have fixed up an old desk for my room with my host dad, helped build an adobe house, attended a religious celebration which I still quite don’t understand, gone on a hike to some of the archeological sites around me, attended a traditional Peruvian birthday party, learned how to make ceramics from scratch, and introduced myself to every school within the town limits. So all in all I’ve tried to stay pretty busy and feel as though I can be for the rest of this week and the next; however I could see it slowing down considerably in the near future. There are only so many people you can meet in a small town and I’m sure the host family will tire of my incessant questions , so I feel like I need to start some activities to keep myself busy and possibly start meeting more people from the town over.

Needless to say it’s been an interesting cultural experience and I know that it will only continue to be more so as I stay here longer and gain more trust within the community. But I will also relish the opportunity to get some more reading done, improve my Spanish, both orally and written, and enjoy a little free time. It’s just still hard to believe that I will be here for two years, and I’m struggling to visualize how exactly it will be for me.

As of now I’ve mainly illustrated my events as they’ve come along but for my next entry I will focus on some of the Peruvian customs I’ve come to know and love. Food is something that has certainly been different, eating guinea pig case in point, but it obviously goes beyond that. There is also passing the egg, the hora loca, drinking circles, and some more that I will touch upon next.