Feliz Cumpleanos!

I love birthdays but I didn’t have many plans or expectations for my first Peruvian birthday. However, like most experiences in this country, it turned out be quite memorable. I woke up at 6:30am to a chorus of singing and banging on my door. Confused, I stumbled out of bed and opened my door to my host family smiling and singing, with their arms outstretched to embrace me in big birthday hugs. Although I was still half-asleep, their gesture made me feel so loved and was a fabulous start to my 23^rd birthday.

I continued my day sipping on a caramel-starbucks instant coffee, sent to me by my sister, Abby and reading through the stack of letters and packages sent from friends and family from home which took me back to the US for a few minutes. Later, I ate breakfast and wondered around town for a bit. Somehow word spread that it was my birthday, so I was given lots of hugs and invited to fruit and other birthday treats. Later in the morning Ian and Erin, two of my best friends and volunteers in La Libertad, surprised me at site and joined me for a lovely morning in the sunshine of Poroto. My host family killed one of their only two hens for lunch in honor of my birthday and we all shared in a meal filled with conversation and laughter. Erin and Ian brought a delicious chocolate cake that we shared after lunch, but only after my host mom attempted to smear icing all over my face.

The girls from my youth group insisted on taking me to the swimming pool to celebrate, so after lunch I met up with what turned out to be a group of about 15 girls. After greeting me with the traditional birthday hugs, we piled on the combi as they tried to keep the chocolate cake they prepared for me a secret. We went to the pool and spent the afternoon swimming and enjoying the sunshine. Most of the girls who came are part of my baking club, so they were really proud of their beautiful cake they prepared without my guidance. I was sung Happy Birthday in Spanish and English, had a photo shoot, and ended the afternoon with a dance party (It certainly wouldn’t be a proper Peruvian birthday celebration without some dancing).

I was able to talk to my family from home and received lots of cards and letters from friends from home, and thoughtful calls and texts from other volunteers, which made the day even better. After a full day of birthday celebrations, it ended perfectly with homemade pineapple upside down cake for dinner.

We're Famous!

Industria Interview

This year is the 50^th anniversary of the Peace Corps foundation in 1961. In honor of the celebration there have been various activities to commemorate the role of Peace Corps throughout the world. Recently my regional coordinator was contacted by the big Trujillo newspaper, La Industria, who was interested in putting together a story about Peace Corps volunteers serving within the district of Trujillo. They sele

cted me, Ian, and Melissa to participate in the story, and visited each of our sites, armed with cameras and various questions about our work, experiences, and integration. The details about this interview were unclear, so when they arrived at my site I was still in the middle of my baking club in the health post. I greeted the reporters with about 10 teenage girls and hands dripping with chocolate, but it ended up being a good context for an interview. They asked me about my work, my thoughts about Poroto and the culture of Peru, and also had a chance to speak with the health post staff and girls with whom I’ve been working. We also walked around town as they inquired further about my perceptions of the community as a Peace Corps volunteer.

The full-page article came out o

n February 24^{th (}they even acknowledged my birthday!), and featured large pictures and an extensive story about the three of us. Although they took a few liberties with word choice and focus of our interviews, overall it was a really cool article. Attached is the article, but I thought I would do my best to translate it into English (a lot of it won’t make perfect sense, but it will at least give you an idea!).

La Industria- February 24, 2010- Trujillo, La Libertad

Anniversary- Peace Corps celebrates 50 years dedicated to community service

Dame Que Te Doy (Give Me What I Give You)

Three volunteers from the United States enjoy the virtues and endure, with enthusiasm, the apathy of the people of La Libertad

Kelsi Ward celebrates her 23^rd birthday today and will celebrate it in Poroto, thousands of miles from her hometown in Pennsylvania (USA) where her parents, sister, and brother wish they could have her with them on this special day.

Kelsi doesn’t seem to be sad, on the contrary, she seems to emanate a rare emotion, maybe because today she will eat a spicy ceviche dish, just the way she likes it.

Kelsi loves Peruvian food and ají is her weakness. In the home in which she lives in Poroto, known for their exuberant production of pineapples, her family has a batan where they can grind their own aji, because as Kelsi says, “I just love the spicy food here, its delicious,” she confesses.

Kelsi breaks the prototype of a foreigner who can’t be convinced to enjoy the intense, and sometimes painful, flavor of aji.

Kelsi also destroys the mold of your average citizen. She is one of the few who abandoned the comforts and commodities of life in the first world, and decided to move to a far corner of the world to assist, support, and get to know the people there. She forms part of Peace Corps, an organization founded to promote community development and foster peace and friendship between the United States and other countries.

She has been in Poroto since August of last year and has initiated various actions oriented towards the youth of the town, in aspects of leadership, reproductive health, health promotion, environmental awareness, and others.

Together with a group of Porotinos, they are ready to launch a new blog, created to promote Poroto as a tourist destination. During this summer, she has developed a baking workshop, and yesterday afternoon they learned how to prepare bread pudding.

One of the centers in which Kelsi works is the community health center. “We are all very happy with Kelsi. She supports us significantly in everything that relates to the development of youth in Poroto, who are exposed to various social vices” expresses Doctor Roman Caycho Chumpitaz, who abandons the habitual motorcycle to walk to the faraway caserios with Kelsi because the volunteers are not permitted to travel in motorcycles.

Walking to the principal plaza, Kelsi speaks of the virtues of the townspeople. “They are extremely enthusiastic and work for the advancement of their town.” She advances and a little girl eating a mango greets Kelsi from the door of her house, “Hooooooooola Kellllsssiiiiiii.” “Hola Celeste”, she responds.

A few feet ahead, from inside a kiosk, a teenager asks if the baking classes have started. “Yes, but its ok… you can still come”, answers Kelsi.

In the park, Kelsi refers with much difficulty to the negative aspects she has found in Poroto. “There are many people who have a very narrow vision of life and devote time and energy purely to diversion. Although fiestas have their place, they seem to often dominate the lives of the citizens of Poroto” expresses in chewed Spanish. Minutes later, a beer truck passes next to her.

Summer's End

After two months of “vacaciones utiles” programs, the summer vacation is winding down and the new school year will begin shortly. The past two months have flown by, and I’ve been kept quite busy with the summer classes I’ve organized with the youth of Poroto.

I taught English classes to both elementary and high school students and incorporated aspects of both American and Peruvian culture into the lessons and activitie

s. The kids seemed to enjoy the classes, and those involved now greet me with a “hello” instead of an “hola” and can happily converse in basic English phrases. Although learning a language is an extensive process, exposure and interest at an early age will hopefully open doors for these students. Additionally, I taught classes focusing on environmental awareness where we explored the environment of Poroto and how we can better care for the community.

In addition, I taught “manualidades” classes, which is basically arts and crafts, but with the intention of using the products to sell and teach small business skills

. The girls loved learning how to make bracelets and earrings, and it was a great opportunity for them to get together and chat while learning a new hobby. I taught classes at the main school in Poroto as well as one of my caserios, Mochal, where I facilitated a “summer camp” style weekly program composed of art, sports, English, and other activities. One of their favorite games was “Casita.” What exactly is Casita, you may ask? Kickball. The first time I taught the students to play I drew the bases in chalk on the volleyball court, and not knowing what to write for “Home” I wrote “Casa,” which means “House.” Peruvians have a tendency to add “ita” to the end of every word, so Kickball in Poroto is now known as “Casita.”

The summer months have passed quickly and kept me busy; I’ve

learned a lot and have many ideas for how to facilitate programs in the future. Each day is a learning experience, and the longer I’m here the more comfortable I am. The weather is still warm and sunny, and as my friend Kim said, “This whole experience has just felt like a really long August.” She couldn’t have spoken more truly, because although I’ve been living here in Poroto for about 6 months, part of me feels like it’s just been an extended August.

English Language Training in Lima

Peace Corps offers various training opportunities throughout our service, some of which are mandatory, and others that only select volunteers can attend. We recently received information about an English Teaching Training that was open to volunteers to attend with a community counterpart. The focus of this training is on teaching English effectively in rural areas in Peru. There were only 20 spots available for the training and more than 200 volunteers in Peru, so I applied but was quite excited to be selected to participate. I chose to bring the principal from the main high school in Poroto, Virgen del Carmen. Although he doesn’t speak English, English classes are mandatory for all high school students, so I thought it would be beneficial for him to learn more interactive ways of teaching English. After the training I would like to hold training sessions with teachers at the high school to help enhance their teaching methods.

The training turned out to be much better than I expected, and we had the opportunity to explore Lima and see several new areas of the city. The training was facilitated by the US Embassy in coordination with a Peruvian University in Lima, and although there were moments when the training seemed slow, overall it was definitely beneficial. Just because you speak English doesn’t mean you can effectively teach it, so receiving new information about innovative teaching methods was helpful. Additionally, it was wonderful to have several days to spend with the principal of my school because I could bounce ideas off of him and he could better understand my intentions and ambitions in Poroto. Together we came up with several ideas for work within the school in Poroto, so hopefully when we go back to site we’ll be able to initiate these ideas for the upcoming school year.

The second night of training we were invited to the residence of the Director of Public Affairs for the US Embassy. All participants of the training, volunteers and community counterparts, attended a formal dinner at her home in a beautiful part of Lima. The dinner was complete with pisco sours, butlers serving appetizers, and delicious food. There were several employees from the US Embassy, representatives from various NGOs, and important Peruvian educators. It was a really cool experience, especially for several of our community counterparts who live in small, isolated Peruvian towns and rarely have the chance to travel.

Training continued the following day as we learned various teaching methods and ways to integrate dynamic, interactive learning into typical Peruvian English classes which tend to be based on repetition and dictation. The area in which we were staying was beautiful, surrounded by a large park where we could enjoy the sunshine and warmth during our breaks. At night we went on a Mirabus tour of Lima, which is one of those 2-story tour buses that I would have felt completely ridiculous riding on it if it weren’t with dozens of other people. We actually had a great time on the tour and were able to see all of Lima- the beach, various parks, plazas, and the center of the city during sunset. As the tour concluded we stopped at the “Magical Fountains of Water Park” which sounds incredibly cheesy, but was actually quite impressive; there were fountains with colored lights, fountains coordinated to music, and tunnels of water.

Youth of Poroto Blog

One of the ideas we came up with in coordination with the youth is the formation of a web page or blog about Poroto. Although I initially thought the idea of a blog was somewhat unnecessary for a town of 1200, the more I work on it, the more I think the project will be beneficial for the youth and community as a whole. Not only will the youth learn how to present information in an effective way, they will also learn simple skills such as photography and basic writing.

The idea of the blog is to generate tourism for Poroto as well as to highlight the role of youth in our community. We’ve divided the tasks for the blog among various youth, and we’ve been working to collaborate for the final product. I’ve been on various photography trips throughout Poroto, which is a fun experience. The youth are able to decide what aspects of their town are important to include, and how they can “market” their town as a tourist destination. Together we climbed cerros, wondered through chacras, crossed the river, and captured photos of the Plaza de Armas and the Mirador. Additionally, we were able to visit many of the youth at their homes, which was a good way to see how each one lives and the type of lifestyle they lead. Many work in agriculture, so we snapped some pictures of harvesting yucca or pineapple to include in the blog.

Additionally, we’ve been researching the history and important events of Poroto to include in the blog. This has provided the youth with a better idea of their town’s past as well as issues that remain today. We’ve spoken with the municipality as well as other community organizations to help generate information for the blog, so it should be a comprehensive project.

We’re currently in the process of compiling the information and pictures to decide what we should include and how we can most effectively present Poroto as a desirable tourist attraction. It has been a fun project so far, and I’ll be sure to inform you all when we have a final product!

Micro-Red Plans

One of the central activities of a youth development volunteer is the formation of youth leadership groups within our communities. In Poroto there are various youth groups that have been formed by a Trujillo NGO, CEPROCUT. However, these youth groups lack organization and motivation, and are generally in need of revitalization. I’ve been working in coordination with the new coordinator from CEPROCUT to reinvigorate and strengthen these youth groups. We’ve had several meetings with youth from the district to help generate interested youth leaders.

Although youth generally express interest in joining a youth group or taking part in community activities, the reality is that very few are committed enough to maintain an effective group. I’ve found that it is most effective to begin with a concentrated group of dedicated youth and utilize them to reach out to their peers. In conjunction with CEPROCUT we’re trying to develop a “micro-network” of youth groups within the district of Poroto dedicated to different focus areas. In our most recent meeting we reflected on the dynamics of our community and how we could incorporate the interests of the youth and the needs of Poroto to develop a plan of action for the upcoming year.

We’ve made plans to address health promotion, environmental awareness, tourism, and community involvement, amongst other things, through various events and programs in Poroto. The youth seem genuinely interested in their community and working towards its advancement, so hopefully their enthusiasm will endure and their energy infused in the ideas they have for the town.