Santa Eulalia

Hola,
This marks the first post about working in Perú in the Salud Comunitaria program. Our second full week of training (20 health and 18 environmental awareness volunteers) is completed here in Santa Eulalia, Peru, about an hour southeast of Lima! Only 27 and a half more months and we´re outta here! I joke.

First, landscape. This is the semi-desert but with mountains. It is very dusty and dry here and the mountains are barren. Santa Eulalia lies in a valley in the province of Haurochiri, which is in the departamento (state) of Lima. Spring has just begun here and the sun is very strong during the day. It is cool at night though and in the morning. Everyday, around 6 am, I wake up to roosters before my short wave radio alarm goes off. I can also hear the Rio Santa Eulalia which is behind my house.

My position here requires that I live with a family as all Peru volunteers must. I´ve got a mom and dad, 38, 39, both teachers at local high schools, and a brother, 13, who wants to play professional soccer here for Lima once he turns sixteen. This is my family for the next 9 weeks of training and then I am moving, likely to one of the northern departamentos here where I will begin my position as a Health Promoter for 24 months.

Us health volunteers have been told that we are all working in MINSA (Ministry of Health) established health posts or centers within communities. One of the directors of our program suggested I would be able to do mental health promotion efforts in an area where there is a psychologist in training who wants some help with different projects. Next week however, as an effort for us to begin community integration and cooperation with local health posts, we are helping out with the upcoming national rubella campaign.

Training is intense. We have our own training facility, which was formerly a drug treatment facility, here in St. Eulalia. Language training is 5 hours a day, plus going into our communities talking to people and living with our families. There is also technical training where we do research (for example on NGOs, not-for-profit organizations, international/national aid programs) and also job specific training in how to do field based, qualitative and participatory research. All of our trainers are highly skilled and amazing, but it is tough to adapt to the structure of training which resembles school sometimes.

For fun, last Sunday, was dedicated to soccer (fútbol)... I travelled three hours north along the coast to watch my brother play a team from Huaral, and on the way home, my mom and brother wanted to stop for professional game at Lima´s premier stadium, Estadio Monumental. Lima Universitario beat Huaral 3-0. I was exhausted by the day´s end... I thought of family and friends back home during the game when I was making an arbol geneologico (family tree) for my spanish class due the next day... I get so exhausted that I usually go to bed around 9.30 -10.00, a big change from the US.

Food. I´m eating plenty of rice I know that. Vegetebles are a little rare here despite the abundance of any kind you could ever want in nearby markets. I´m also eating animals which is something of a change for me. I´ll save my story about eating Cuy (guinea pig) for another post! Slowly the number of vegetarians in our training class is dwindling. I am considering attempting vegetarianism again once I get to my permenant site, though this will likely prove difficult. In Peru, breakfast is the awesome meal because we have extremely thick concoctions of juice from mangos, strawberries and other fruits. The thickness is a little odd at first (milkshake thick) but excellent overall!

I´m missing some amenities already, like the news, Imperial pizza, and porter, but I´m adaptando... Definitely miss the family and friends too... but appreciate the e-mails of support!

Going to Lima tomorrow to learn how to make biohuertos (organic gardens) .... Stay tuned for the next post!