strange in a familiar way, familiar in a strange way January 31, 2009

The night’s grown and it seems to holler and glow…
Those of you that know me know that I will try most anything twice. Most everything. There is a small list of things I won’t try – the obvious: PCP, heroin, international drug trafficking, slavery, being a country music star, voting for McCain… and then there’s the less obvious, apparently: for example, drinking chicken blood. When I was generously offered to join a group of individuals this morning with a fine refreshing drink of chicken’s blood, I found myself having to politely decline… that’s a first for me in Peru. “You see, ma’am, I’m sure your particular chicken blood with small chicken organs mixed in for good measure is, in fact, the most delicious chicken blood in the land, and yet… I’m just soooo full, I couldn’t possibly…” Geez ow. So there’s that.
And I remember the storm was wet like birth
And the hail would lick the weeds
And the battling of trees
Above the earth
There was a pretty bad motorcycle accident in town a few days ago, which kind of shook everybody up. One of the men that works at the municipality was on a motorcycle with Humberto, Ryan’s host brother, when he ran into a pole head first without a helmet on. He then started bleeding from every orifice in his face. This is not the kind of injury we are equipped to handle at the health post here in Santo Domingo, so he had to be transported to Piura city. I hear he’s magically fine now, but jesus. *note: Ryan’s host brother walked away basically uninjured.
Where my plate is empty thinking of the plenty noon emotions ‘cross the ocean…
In work successes: The garbage men have made a compactor (basically a slab of concrete attached to some iron) to compact the landfill, so the garbage will take up less space over time – which is an issue because the land that the landfill area is on is rented by the municipality an will eventually run out.
I went to San Miguel (one of the caserios) to set up a date to present the micro rilleno project to the authorities of the town and got to meet several of them, make a good first impression, and gauge their interest in the project.
I am ready to start planting! Just need to wait for some people to get back in town so I can put together a team of students.
I made posters about separating inorganic and organic trash, and now only have to wait for them to be approved and printed.
We have emailed the plastics company for quotes on prices for all of the trash equipment we are looking to buy and are waiting on a response.
And lastly, I have started getting solid feedback/ideas from interested town members, both formally and informally – written and oral – about ways to get people to protect the environment better!
And here, home is darker than a river of ashes, but there in the morning, the sun’ll do dances for you…
Peace corps disappointments: I am no longer able to go to Carnival in Cajamarca. We were originally told that we would be allowed to go even though Carnival falls something like 10 days before the time my training group is officially allowed to travel. However, that decision was recently changed and we were told that this was no longer a possibility. Rough. I’m currently seeking something comparable and local. I’m sure there will be celebrations, although nothing as fabulous as Carnival. Good thing there’s always next year.
I have finished reading the Life of Pi. Finally! That’s been on my list of books to read since my freshman year of college. Part one was rough to get into, but once you get going, it’s amazing. Read it. I’m about to start Veronika Decides to Die.
We continue to have water problems. I desperately miss bathing regularly. People are starting to get all riled up about it and there is even a rumored protest set to go down tomorrow. I believe a compromise has been reached where we will have water from 8am to 4pm every day until the situation is corrected, but I don’t really trust what the engineers say anymore because they’ve been really inconsistent, and so it is entirely possible that we will continue to have an hour of water or so every day or two. And I really hope that’s not the case.
A few fellow Peace Corps Volunteers visited this week, Jenna and Peter. Peter is our “warden”, which means he is responsible for making sure everyone is happy and safe at their site and in case of an emergency he would be the one to contact us, I believe. I’m not sure on the details. At any rate, when he and Jenna were in town, the four of us had a lovely dinner feast. Rolling blackouts and lack of running water notwithstanding, we really held our own, I think. It’s funny being around other volunteers because the things that have become habit are suddenly magnified as being odd. For example, when we haven’t had running water for a few days, it seems perfectly normal to me to set out large buckets to collect rain water and the roof runoff. Then, I pour these buckets into a stone filter, which will filter the water almost painfully slowly, after which I boil it before using it for consumption. This is normal to me, but hilarious when other Americans are around. Or for example, when instead of throwing the organic waste into the organic waste bucket, Peter decided to make pig slop out of it, not thinking for a second that there was a possibility that my family didn’t have pigs. Mark showed up today wearing 1 dollar sandals made out of used tires. That’s about as campo as it gets. Readjusting back to America is going to be hilarious.
So that about covers things here. I’m going back to Piura for another regional meeting. I leave tomorrow and will be back probably Wednesday.
Love. love. love.
Sasha