Cock fights and Christmas

(Prepare for another long blog…as it has been a long time since I have been to Piura. Included in this blog: my Christmas and New Years)

As many of you know I took a 2.5 day mental vacation to Piura. I needed to get out of Pambarumbe to clear my mind, get a good night of sleep, good food and talk too many of my friends and family. I even talked to people who I haven’t talked to since I have been here. I was able to sleep and eat and clear my mind. I believe I know what decision I will end up making, but I am spending, or I should say, I am trying to listen to what the Lord is saying. I left Piura with clear thinking and a happy heart and mind.

Nothing about any of this is easy, but ultimately I am the one who has to live and work here and it’s not worth being unhappy. Peace Corps doesn’t even want you to be unhappy…that’s why they give the option of going home. I know if I do come back to the USA that I have other options to work internationally and of course locally too; I can always return to my favorite little tienda ever, Victoria’s Secret (thank you Salleye). Man do I miss having some good undies and bras to wear. Ha! Don’t expect me to return before January 15 because I have many things I want to work on before then, but I can’t make promises after the 15th.

Anyway on the way back from Piura things got interesting. We were going around the mountain when our bus slammed on its breaks and then after a few minutes turned the engine. I figured we were just having engine problems, but come to find out, there was another giant bus who was having problems and because the roads are so tiny (basically one-way) we couldn’t pass. We sat there for a few hours and I just watched Grey’s Anatomy and played with this kitten that escaped his box. The owners of the kitten weren’t even around so when the bus took off I was panicking because there wasn’t any way I could take this little kitty back to Pambarumbe. First of all, I have no way to feed or care for it and secondly, I am probably going back to the States and as much as I would love to take a new kitty home, my parents would kill me and plus, I have Bella and Lucy waiting for me and they are all I really want.

Once we got to Paltaschaco the owners got on the bus and saw me with the kitten. I told them that it escaped its box and I have been keeping it. The lady accused me of stealing her cat, but I think she was joking. They shoved the kitten in the box and screamed at it when it was meowing uncontrollably. I told them if they want to kitten to be quiet they should hold it because it’s scared. They took my advice and it worked. I’m not sure why, but Peruvians find me very entertaining and interesting when they realize the love I have for animals. They like to even tell me, “You like animals.” The entire time I was holding that kitten I would get the strangest looks. Oh well. I ended up getting back to Pambarumbe a few hours late and my family found it hilarious for some reason. For some reason both my host families have found me very entertaining when it comes to things that just happen…like late buses or combis they just laugh and laugh. I have been told my facial expressions speak more Spanish than I do. I have also been told many times that I pick up dancing quicker than Spanish. Whatever. These hips don’t lie…

I woke up the next day deathly ill. It was basically these horrible stomach cramps and migraine. My body ached all over and I would break in to hardcore sweats and then 30 minutes later I would be freezing. I ate breakfast and then literally the rest of the day I stayed in bed and watched movies, tv shows and slept. Around 7:30PM my sister brought me some tea and these little pieces of cake. It was really sweet, but I wasn’t hungry and I needed water since I was sick so I just threw it out.
The next day I woke up feeling better and my family served me a mango the size of my head for breakfast. It was delicious!!! I make myself laugh at how my fingernails sometimes have an orange tint to them from all the mango eating I do.

While I was waiting with Mirtha to go to Santo Domingo, Brittany came around the corner because word spread that I had her cell phone. Due to the fact I couldn’t call her, she didn’t know I was planning on dropping it off on the way. We spent some time catching up and making plans for Christmas Day. She rode the bus part of the way back and we went separate ways. Once we got to Santo Domingo I am not sure why we even went and I just went to find Aman and hang out. She showed me around her city and we ran into Chris and visited with him for a little bit.

I had lunch with her family and it was pretty good. I got to spend time with some of the people she works with as well. Everyone was beyond friendly and super affectionate. I love Peruvians. Americans, listen up, when I come back, rather it be now or later, I plan on greeting you all like Peruvians…it’s nicer ok!
On the way back Mirtha and I hitch-hiked the entire way back since there weren’t any more buses leaving. Have you ever gone down the side of a mountain in the rain, in a car without windshield wipers, on a road made for one car, but always has two, in a car made for 5 but had 6 people, 5 turkeys and a plant and some luggage? I have and it was pretty fun. It’s just another day in the life. Thank you Peru. Always classy and always full of surprises. The rest of the day was uneventful. I read on the balcony and watched Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 with my sister.

Christmas Eve I woke up feeling sick again. Yay. Same thing as the day before. I will be eating rice and potatoes and for dessert…cirpo. Thank God for Cipro because I have been on a Cipro diet this last month. Now PC says that many volunteers if you will, make a mess, in their pants. I have yet to have this happen (fingers crossed), but I did come pretty close to it when I opened up my bathroom door and a freakin bat flew out. There aren’t enough words to explain the emotions that went racing through my head. Basically I did a backwards flip outside the bathroom door and didn’t quite stick the landing. I’m fine. I went to my hill to take a picture of all the pretty fog that looked like it was tucking my city in like a blanket.

While at my hill I played with my favorite dirty kitten that now reminds me of Pig Pen from Peanuts. This poor kitty just will always have a cloud of dust over its head. (Now that I think about it, there are people in my city that remind me of Pig Pen). The kitty loves me and slept on my shoulder for a little bit and I have fleas now, but why not add a little something else to the mix? Walking down the hill I noticed a lady was playing with her parrot. That’s right. A freakin parrot. It’s not even in a cage so I went to see what that was about. She has had it for years and it speaks Spanish. It blew me kisses and called me mamacita senorita.

On Christmas Eve I ended up reading about 100 pages in my book, watching one episode of How I Met Your Mother, 6 episodes of Sex and the City, the movie Year One, The Sweetest Thing and some other movie I have never heard of. Needless to say, it wasn’t like most Christmas Eve’s. I did on the other hand get to meet my two other host sisters who study in Lima. They are super beautiful and sweet. They are around my age too!
And now for a Christmas Story:
Peruvians celebrate Christmas a little bit differently than we do. For starters the main celebrations take place at midnight on Christmas Eve. Everyone and their mom has a nativity scene set up, but Jesus is missing. Why is Jesus missing? Well at midnight on Christmas Eve there is a celebration to go put Jesus in his manger because; well now it’s the 25th…Jesus is born! I freaking love this tradition because it’s so simple and sweet. And honestly, I want to try to bring this home for next Christmas. After you put Jesus in his manger, we all have a giant feast of food. Pretty cool.
Christmas Day isn’t that exciting in Peru. You don’t really do anything at all which is why I hitchhiked my way to Santiago to hang out with Brittany. The car I hitchhiked in happened to have Anna in it, who was headed to Santo Domingo. Once I got to Santiago Brittany showed me around and then started watching Elf. After numerous interruptions from US family phone calls and Brittany’s family, we finished the movie. Her mom fixed me some food that looked terrible and I told her I was terribly sick (which I was) and that I couldn’t eat a lot. The next movie we watched was the National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. We weren’t lucky to finish that one because people wanted us to come out and dance. The people were terribly drunk, but we complied just to get it over with.

A few songs into dancing I realized the lack of cars to hitchhike my way back to Pambarumbe and if I was going to walk, then I needed to start walking then because it would be dark in an hour and it was an hour walk. After much debating about walking and figuring out what to do…all of us decided what was best and I got back to Pambarumbe in the coolest way ever. For my own personal safety, I will not talk on here about how I got back, but if you know me personally, you should totally ask because it was AWESOME. It turned a crappy Christmas into a cool one. At least I didn’t cry and sing too many Christmas carols to myself.

The day after Christmas I spent with my host sisters watching movies and just being lazy. I was reading a book when they came to ask a question and we all ended up looking at each other’s pictures and listening to music for a few hours. It was a lot of fun and I am going to hate to see them leave in a couple weeks. If I remember correctly, one of them has facebook so that will help in keeping in touch.
Not sure if I ever brought this up, but I have this thing I do every time I go into my room. It’s called a BSB check. I search my entire room with a fairly thorough look to check for: Bugs, Spiders and Bats. It may sound crazy, but I always anticipate some creature from the depths of Peru to be out to kill me. And if you remember, I have a shot to kill policy in my bedroom. I should probably clean it because there is a bug graveyard starting to build up in my room. Gross. Where is Bella when I need her?

One day my host sisters and I went and took some stuff to their old aunt’s house. I’m not sure why they invited me because it was only a 30 minute trip, but I was glad they did and learned things along the way. I learned we have a mango tree right in front of my house. We also have lime trees, guava trees, mandarin trees and orange trees. There is also a group of banana trees my neighbor has that you can see from our house. Their aunt, by the way, has a pig that is GIANT. I have never seen such a pig in my entire life. This big looks like it could eat me alive. I literally couldn’t quit staring and I pray that I never have to hear it killed because that’s going to take a loooong time.

I have noticed the closer it gets to January the more rain there is and the stronger it is too. One day my host sisters and I went to clean the church and it basically rained the entire time. All I really wanted was a dust mop because that would have saved us half the time. Oh well. I entertained people by playing the piano. I played Titanic just for Lee. (You’re Welcome Lee)

Side note: My host brother, Julio, who is the Catholic priest I met when visiting is in town now. He is super sweet and should be here for a couple weeks. Anyway, I also learned this week how to make one of my favorite foods called “Papa a la huancaina.” It is super delicious and I know I can find all the ingredients in the States expect for maybe two items. They are types of spices and I don’t know what they are called in English. It seems pretty easy to make too so plan on my attempt at that when I get back. Finally they just gave me a recipe book with Peruvian dishes and I typed up about 6 of my favorites. Luckily I think they are all pretty easy to make and most of the ingredients I know can be found in the USA. Win.

On New Year’s Eve I left and went to Brittany’s to go to a baptism. I heard they are extravagant events here, but this one wasn’t that grand. They only have it one time a year and it was only three kids. Of course there were parties because let’s face it, Peruvians will take any excuse to party. I hitch-hiked my way back to Pambarumbe to celebrate New Year’s with my family and friends.

We had dinner around 10 that night and for some reason I was the only one who was given a tortilla which I found special and funny. After that we just watched tv and hung out. For midnight we went to the top of the hill near the church and lit a stuffed man on fire. That’s right. At the stroke of midnight there was a guy stuffed with hay and clothing and we lit him on fire. It’s some type of strange tradition, but I was fortunate enough to help light him on fire. It was pretty awesome. Then we went to a person’s house and continued dancing until around 1:30 in the morning.
For my first day of 2011 I ate a giant mango for breakfast and then hitched a ride to Santiago to attend a cock fight with Brittany in Santa Ana. My first day of 2011 and I went to a cock fight. It wasn’t as gruesome as I anticipated, but it was pretty cool. Considering my hate for roosters and chickens I wasn’t appalled by it at all. Plus, when am I ever going to get to do something like that again? It was funny because since it wasn’t in either of our cities I didn’t expect to recognize anyone, but after walking in there for 5 minutes some guy yelled my name from afar and there were 4 guys from my city who offered us a seat. One of the guys had a rooster that was fighting and it won! I have to say I felt pretty cool when people recognized me AND knew my name. Haha.

I had to leave the fight asap because there was a mass for my parents anniversary. I hopped aboard some fun transportation and went back to Pambarumbe just in the nick of time. After mass we went to my grandmother’s house and had a fiesta. There was food and drinks for all and for some reason I was the only one given this food that I really liked. Lol. Not sure why, but oh well. It was way better than what everyone else was given. After the party we all took a ton of photos and bonded. I have to say, I love this family so much. They are amazing. But for my first day of 2011 I went to a cock fight, church and then a party. It’s going to be a good year! 

And now for a 2010 wrap up:
The year 2010 was basically amazing. I can’t believe all the things I was fortunate enough to do and accomplish. I want to thank everyone who was a part of it too. Without you all, it wouldn’t have been possible. I have the best friends and family ever! In 2010 here were the top five things I am most proud of: I graduated college, turned 22, went to Egypt, went to Peru for the Peace Corps and learned Spanish. How amazing is that? All in one year. There are 1,000 other things that made that year amazing, but it would take forever to write. I know 2011 is going to be amazing as well and I can’t wait to see what it brings. 