Un Mes

After being repetitively asked what the cuisine of Ohio is, if I could cook, and a suggestion from Nancy, I decided to make Buckeyes. Armed with my dictionary, I braved the grocery store. I bought butter, flour (had a debate with Santiago about which was all-purpose), powdered sugar, and vanilla. Now we come to the chocolate part, more difficult than you might imagine. We went to a candy store and I bought a bar of chocolate that seemed like it would do the trick. OH was I wrong! It burnt in the bottom of the pan and I spent about 20 minutes trying to scrubbing it. So yesterday I bought some vanilla crackers and spread the sweet peanut butter mixture on them. I was in my room reading when Andrea tried one, and I hear her yelling, “¡FEO, MUY FEO!” Apparently, she did not like them. Later, with our after dinner mint tea we ate them. As Andrea told me that she did not like them, the rest of the family tried to cover it up by talking loudly to her and me at the same time, quite amusing. I think I will attempt pecan pie next, now if that is muy feo, I would be offended. Peanut butter on crackers doesn’t really get to me.
Pastor Rodrigo likes to make sarcastic comments, these I never really pick up on until I ask ¿verdad? and he tells me ‘es una broma.’ Now, I generally have a good sense of humor bordering on harsh, but here when I’m trying to figure out what is going on 80% of the time, it just flies right over my head. I cover up my attempts at sarcasm with laughing at my own jokes, so they get that I am joking. Yes, I am aware this makes me somewhat of a dork, but I can’t do any better yet.
I’ve noticed on the bus, several people making the sign of the cross. At first I laughed to myself, as I assumed they were doing this because the ride was getting a little rough. But, the other day the woman sitting next to me made the sign of the cross during a relatively safe ride. I looked out the window and noticed we were passing a catholic church. I realize that first impressions require further analysis. Even more so when you are in completely new surroundings... Monday at breakfast, the family was talking about how Andrea said she wanted to be a pastor, and she should go to Ohio and do this. I said maybe Andrea would be the first Peruana Pastora. Rodrigo responded with si, en Ohio. This past year I lived with a woman pastor and I have been encouraged to go to seminary. I don’t see that path in the cards for me, but I am struggling with the exclusion. I am loosely forming a connection between the fact women aren’t allowed to be pastors and one of the first questions I am frequently asked: if I am married. I am in the being and observing phase of my stay here in Peru, and I’m not trying to judge, merely comment.
The other YAVs and I have a joke dos o tres meses: this is not only the amount of time you are allowed to stay in the country with a travel visa, but also the estimated time it takes to become accustom to a new country and language. Jamie thinks that whatever ‘it’ is will always be dos o tres meses away.. right now I agree. But, because today makes a month that we have been here in Peru, I hope that thought will change in uno o dos meses.

Some Visuals

I'm not sure how to get the pictures in a specific order, so this is a mix and match mas o menos... The Peru YAVs: Sutton, me, Jamie, Jimmy, Jason, Emily and David. Here we are singing, which we were asked to do during orientation several times, we've come up with a set list that includes Lord I Lift Your Name on High, Sancuary, Kumbaya, Open the Eyes of My Heart, and Nun ya da.
Ruth and I at lunch on the last day of orientation. We went to a buffet and ate big's blood. I didn't know what it was until afterwards. It was kind of gross when I was eating it, and even worse after I knew what it was! But here I also tried arroz con leche for dessert, which was fabulous.
The landscape is the view out of my window on a good day. Generally the air is quite smogy and sometimes you can't even see it, but for a hazy outline.

Aparently, I was mistaken about the whole workshop thing (something that happens more often than I would like when I recieve instructions in another language). I don't have to lead these, only help out with them. Wahooo! Big weight lifted there. Today in the office I am working on an electronic newsletter...wahoo... something I know how to do, finally!

Last night after church I was talking/waiting for someone to slow down enough so that I can understand and imput something with some of the members. Jaime (Elizabeth's husband) asked me what my plan was here in Peru, for my motives. I found this difficult to explain. I didn't want to say God was calling me to help you. That seemed insensitive. And I don't have a plan for the year, I came not knowing what my tasks would be.

We spent a lot of time at orientation talking about the importance of being, and the changed term missonary-the idea of being in community with people of another culture. It seems to me as though my expected duties with Luz y Vida are those of the more traditional term for a missonary. My understanding is that I am to teach the youth group things via workshops; workshops about enviornment, values, sex and self-esteem. This frankly terrifies me. I think I may have over emphasised the fact that I worked with my youth group back home. I've tried to explain to Pastor Rodrigo that I don't teach them anything. We would just talk about stuff related to the Bible, sometimes very loosely related. I know nothing about these topics and when I asked Pastor Rodrigo for more information he gave me 5 books about sex and one text book sort of thing about self-esteem, all in Spanish! So my 'family' doesn't dance or drink and I am to teach a workshop about abstinence...Did I miss something here, when did I sign up for a new set of morals?

Anyway I told Jaime that I came because I talked with Ruth in April and I liked her and what she had to say, and she said come to Peru!

The idea of faith based social justice programs is really exciting to me. I hope this year to soak up as much information as possible. I want to learn about non-profit organizations, about fair trade and exporting artisan crafts, about justice and reconciliation issues, about human rights and advocacy campaigns, to speak Spanish, and to salsa dance. I brought this up at lunch today, we talked about the whole YAV discernment process, and decided that most of the group came because Ruth is an excellent recruitor!

I am undergoing an experiment to figure out if blonds or brunettes have more fun... in truth, I decided that I didn't want to stick out ridiculously. But, it doesn't really make too much difference anyway. I stick out, Eduardo (who works in the office) told me today that I wear brighter colors. I don't believe that will make a difference either. I stick out here. So this is me as a brunette.
I am tall here too. I am the tallest in my 'family' - Pastor Rodrigo is a bit shorter, and the women in my 'family' come up to my sholders. Yes, there are tall people here, but so many are shorter than me. Yesterday at lunch Jenny, Eduardo and Maribel(who work in the office) told me I should find a Peruvian man, I told them the men here are too short for me!
Lunch is my favorite part of the day here... social and fun attempts at improving my castellano.

Tomorrow is our last day together as a group. I suppose we have now been sufficiently oriented to the life and times of Peru. While I am learning and seeing new things everyday, particular things are gradually becoming familer to me:
our breakfast of bread and jam-sometimes with cheese or bologna
greeting everyone in the room with a kiss on the cheek
the look and feel of the sol as currency
my confusion as I attempt to communicate with my family, taxi drivers, shopkeepers
rice at every meal
the size of the meals
my bus route
dogs everywhere, even on the roofs
traffic everywhere, even on the roofs
the faces of the six other volunteers who have rapidly become support and comfort
mountains looming in the sky line
smog and exhaust of cars and buses
the group of guys with dice on the corner near my house at night and singing to myself I got your horse right here...
the old man sitting outside the corner store in the morning
looking in the mirror and remembering I am a brunette
coming home to Andrea calling Hermana Kori Hermana Kori
always carrying toliet paper with me
and the fact that my shoes squeek when I walk around the house.

I made it to work and back all by myself today (all 4 buses)! I feel so independent, even if its only small accomplishments.

Welcome to the blog of Kori. Yes I have become a 'blogger' about my life this year. I am living with a very nice and very quiet family in Lima, Peru: The Maslucans. The cast of characters includes Pastor Rodrigo & Neillie and their daughters, Jaquline, Loida, and Elizabeth who lives on the first floor with her husband Jamie and their two daughters, Andrea who is 3 but claims 4 because her birthday is September 18th, and Flourella age 1. This is the imediate family, but yesterday morning David was at breakfast and dinner as well as today. He makes this introverted family seem like chatty cathys, so I haven't quite yet figured out who he is and how he is connected. He went home tonight, so maybe he works with the church and goes home on the weekends.

We arrived on Monday night and are in the orientation phase of the year. I am doing much listening and learning and attempting to communicate. The Spanish is coming along poco a poco, but it seems as though I start over every day with the learning process. We meet with the group, 7 YAVs y dos mas gringos, at the officina de Red where I will be working. Jimmy, David, Emily and Sutton (who has been renamed Santiago because it doesn't translate very well) leave for other proviences of Peru next Saturday. Jamie, Jason and I remain in Lima to work with different churches and parts of Red (The Network). Lima is very big and I am about a twenty minute to forty minute ride into the center of town where Jason is and Jamie is about forty-five minutes farther. By the way my name is the Quechua word for gold.

Today we went to a celebration/demonstration for the third anniversary of a truth commission report about the terrorism and violences and massacures that happened here in the 80s and 90s. They have constructed a beautiful memorial in rememberance of the lives lost during that time. In the center of this laybrith is a stone sculpture called el ojo de llanto (the crying eye). The stones that make up the path of the laybrith have names, ages and the year of a victim's death. The most heart breaking were those names with 0 años. As I learn more and more about the history of Peru, I am constantly reminded of what is happening in Colombia right now. This thought is so overwhelming at times because I know these autrosities and power struggles happen over and over in place after place. But the more and more people are aware of these things we can begin to change and at least keep them from continuing.

In this culture you greet everyone when you enter and say good bye to everyone as you leave with a kiss on the cheek for las damas and men shake hands. But, you do this with everyone and if you say good bye then continue talking - before you leave you go around again and again if that is the case so that the last thing you do before you exit is say good bye. I enjoy this custom, it is so inclusive. On Tuesday we celebrated the holiday of Santa Rosa (the patron saint of Lima I think) with the nine churches Jamie is going to be working with. They had the 7 of us stand in a line and every one of them greeted us with kiss or a hand shake!

All in all its been an exciting-challenging-welcoming-exhausting-cold showering first week.