All Kinds of Excitement

Hey Everyone,

I know it's been ages since I last updated this blog, but I promise I have some good stories to make up for it.

First, in March, Peace Corps celebrated our 50th anniversary. In 1961 President Kennedy signed the Peace Corps Act and gave the lead to Sargent Shriver (who also passed away this year) who made it one of the most unique and successful government agencies in history. To celebrate these 50 years of helping other countries and inter-cultural exchange, the US Ambassador threw a party at her residence for some 90 or so volunteers, our Peruvian counterparts, foreign and US diplomats, Peruvian government officials, and other random folks. It was a really ritzy event and I met lots of interesting people. Even the former president, Alejandro Toledo, and the current first lady were present! It was a good time and fun was had by all!

Back in site, I have begun working with a counterpart to create a group of youth leaders. Our goal is to form a group of teenagers who take leadership roles within their communities and actively participate within the communities. It's been getting off to kind of a slow start, but such is the way business is conducted in Peru. After enduring countless cancelled meetings, no-shows, and other bumps, we are finally working with a group of kids. I hope to get them designing and implementing their own community projects very soon.

I have also continued teaching English classes. The English classes are my favorite part of my job. The kids earnestly want to learn English and I feel it's the one area where I have expertise (take that everyone who has ever called me a 'Grammar Nazi'!) However, rather than teaching my own independent classes, I have partnered with the English teachers in the schools to offer the kids a focused complement to their classes. I've also introduced some neat learning techniques into the classroom. I've been learning Arabic on Rosetta Stone and it inspired me to come up with some creative lessons that the kids love. English is definitely my favorite activity here.

In even more exciting news: I got mugged! It's OK though because I beat-up the muggers and got my stuff back. It all happened when I was walking down the street in a pretty bad area of Lima. I didn't know it was a bad area and I wanted to get to know the city so I thought a walk would be fun, little did I know... I sensed a guy coming up behind me to my right and then his friends to my left and immediately behind me. I tried to evade them by making a sharp turn to into the street, but they jumped on me and one of them hit me in the nose, which stunned me. They got me on the ground and tried going through my pockets. At this point I was pretty stunned and just trying to keep them from getting my stuff. One guy kept saying "Saca la pistola! Saca la pistola!" but when nobody showed me a gun, and I hadn't been stabbed, I decided they didn't have any weapons. That's when I decided to fight. I started swinging my arms and hit one guy in the face with my elbow. Then I head-butted another. They weren't very big so I was able to drag them into the street where I was hoping a car would hit us and hurt them more than me.

They eventually got off me and when I checked for my stuff I noticed that my cell phone was missing. I looked at them and told them to give it back to me. They refused so I started running after them and screaming. They ran away down an alley. I came up to a couple who had picked up some pieces of wood. One guy threw the wood at me but I was able to just knock it away. Another guy started swinging the wood, but I could tell he was too weak to handle it properly so I started towards him and screamed in my craziest angriest voice that I was going to murder him. I guess he believed me because he took my phone out of his pocket and threw it to me. Then some people came out and helped me find a cab.

I ended up with nothing more than a bloody nose and some scraps on my arm and shoulder, but I got everything back! It was pretty exciting to get attacked by 6 Peruvians and then turn the tables on them. I bet that's the last time they mess with a gringo!

Besides getting mugged, life's been pretty chill down here. We're going into Winter now so it's getting colder, but it's not really that cold at all. I'll try to be better about updating this blog in the future.

Chau!

A New Year and Lots of Work

Well it's been less than a month since my last update, so I consider that being on top of things. The new year has been great so far. I started giving English classes, began a summer school project, my movie nights are getting bigger, and I've met lots of people who want to work with me. On top of all this, my dad got promoted from librarian to Sub-Director for Social Development for my city, so now I have a great connection in the Municipality.

The mayor of my town began his second term on January 1st. With the new term, every in the Municipality and the city seemed to be energized and ready to get down to work. This was great for me and my work.

The mayor asked me to speak at a flag-raising ceremony one morning. The ceremony took part in the central plaza and I got up and spoke for a few minutes in front of everyone. It was a really good opportunity to further my work in the town, because a lot of people knew that a gringo was in town, but didn't know who I was or what I was doing. After I spoke, the provincial governor, a group of artisans, and a group of university students who work with youth all came up to me and expressed interest in working together. I was very fortunate to have this experience, because all though I thought I had already met a lot of people and made a lot of connections, I saw that there were still more people to work with.

Now that my dad is the Sub-Director for Social Development, he has a lot more power to get things done and can help me more with my projects. The first big project we are working on is a Summer school (remember it's Summer down here in the Southern Hemisphere) project for children in one of the poorer neighborhoods of my city - Villa el Milagro.

I am working with an English teacher, Judy, from Villa el Milagro. She is fantastic and has a lot of energy. We want to have four youth groups. One group that does theater, one for art, one for dance, and one for folklore music. We have already started the theater group and now we are collecting kids for the other three groups. I bought some origami paper the other day and learned how to make a paper crane, so I want to do that and a recycled art project with the art group. I'm not too excited about the dance group, mainly because I am a terrible dancer, but Judy assures me that she is a fabulous dancer. The folklore group will be fun. We are trying to get instruments now.

I am also teaching English classes. I have mixed feelings about these classes. On one hand, I feel that English is one of the most effective, sustainable ways I can help my community. On the other hand, I could easily devote all of my time to teaching English, because it is what everyone wants, and ignore other avenues of youth development. This tension became painfully obvious my first class, when 40 students showed up. The next class, 60 showed up. And that's just in the morning section. I also have an afternoon section which is only for teenagers. In that class I have 15 students.

I enjoy teaching the classes, but the morning class, which is 11 and under, can get a little hectic. All the kids are really enthusiastic about learning English so they each ask a million questions. This makes it impossible to attend to all the kids appropriately. I don't want to make two classes because I don't want to devote all of my time to teaching English, so I think I am going to worry less about teaching English in the morning class and just do fun games and projects that involve English. This way, the kids will be more manageable and will learn a little English at the same time.

My afternoon class is great. There are 15 students between the ages of 13 and 18. It is obvious that they really want to learn English and they work hard. I look back at my childhood and realize that if someone was offering Spanish classes for free in my neighborhood during Summer vacation, I would never have gone. But these kids show up on time, pay attention in class, and are actually excited to get homework. I couldn't imagine that happening in the States. These contrasts between American society and that of other countries really makes me wonder what the future holds for The United States.

My movie nights are also going really well. We have moved them from the library to the Municipality (City Hall) because the audiences were getting too big. On the last movie night, we showed Pan's Labyrinth. The kids seemed to like it a lot. However, all did not go according to plan. We had some last minute technical glitches. After running around the city looking for the appropriate equipment, I finally got the movie going (albeit half an hour late).

Besides the Summer school, English classes, and movie nights, I am also going to start working on a community center for youth. I have met a man who wants to work with me and we are going to start planning this week. I'm still not sure if our visions line-up exactly, but that's what planning is for, so I'll see.

I also want to find a way to sell my mom's artisan crafts in the United States and other markets. She makes really pretty, good quality wallets, hand bags, and other accessories, but the local market doesn't offer much potential. I'm thinking about just starting a blog to showcase the goods and take orders. I'll keep everyone updated on that as well.

Thanks for reading!

Chau!