August 23, 2011
Today is Tuesday and I survived my first weekend in Chimbote!! Friday night we arrived and went to get hamburgers sold by this street vendor that were AMAZING (I know we aren’t supposed to eat street food…. But how can you resist when it’s so good??). Kelli and Emily introduced us to a couple of their friends – Richard, Anthony, and Giancarlo. They all are really nice and are always friends with the missionaries, so it was good that they knew what to expect and were so patient with our Spanish. Saturday Kelli and Emily took us to the market to buy paint, and Kyle and I painted our bedrooms all day, it was a fun community bonding experience. Sunday we went to the Parish for the first time for mass and to meet our parish community there… Then Sunday night we went to a birthday party for our new friend Colver who goes to our church and is a director of the church theatre group, TEFA. It was super fun!! Lots and lots of dancing and some food, and mostly beginning relationships with friends that we will have for the next two years!! Some names of new friends we met are Danny, Guisella, Gary, Victor, and Samantha.
Other people I know the names of so far are Juana – a neighbor who makes homemade jam and brings it by our house once-ish a week, Oscar – a little man with a moustache from our church who always has a huuuge smile and just like bounces around hugging everyone and being happy, Lucha – a neighbor who is very motherly and always looking out for us, she makes ceviche and sells it out of her home, and John – a deaf mute who owns a gym near the church and is super nice and really good at communicating with his hands and facial expressions.
What I have learned so far in Chimbote:
FOOD: The food is amazing. Rice with every meal. The vegetables are so fresh from the market. We trade off making lunch every day and we go to the market the morning that we are cooking and buy just enough for that day. Rice, beans, and vegetables are staple foods here. Cuye, A.k.a. guinea pig, is also a specialty here, as with Anticucho (cow heart kebap style). The Peruvians love eating cuye and ceviche (fish with onion and lemon lime sauce). The largest meal is lunch, with a siesta built in afterwards (businesses close from 1-3) and then dinner is just light with bread and fruit. So far my favorite thing has been pollo con arroz (rice with chicken) and frejolada. Yes, I have started eating meat (including a little cuye) since I have been here…. Which is a lot more of an emotional experience than I thought after being vegetarian for 8 years.
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| My first (and last) time trying ceviche |
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| Cuye head with rice |
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| Pachamanca, a traditional Peruvian plate that is cooked in the ground |
DOGS: Dogs here are everywhere. Literally. All over the sidewalks and streets, whether you look down or up (on the roofs) you will see a dog. People keep their dogs up on their roofs to protect them from getting broken into from above (there are not slanted roofs like in the states, but instead their roofs are made of flat concrete or a woven like plant thing). The dogs who have owners wear t shirts, like t shirts or even nice collared button down shirts that the owner has cut up and sewn to fit their dog. They also have an assortment of dog fleeces with different patterns that are sold everywhere. The stray dogs have no t shirts, but still follow you around and want to be petted nonetheless. Since there are so many stray dogs, I have never seen two dogs that look alike. There are many dogs with huge heads and tiny bodies, or huge bodies with tiny heads. Kyle and I’s favorite dog so far is our neighbors dog who is small and long and furry and weird looking, and has a huge underbite so it’s bottom teeth are always showing.
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| A dog in his flannel and overalls outfit |
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| dogs in their matching homemade red tank tops |
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| dogs on the roof |
WATER: Water comes from the city, and it comes twice a day. We have an underground well that is filled up in the morning and in the evening, and we turn on a pump to pump it to a tank on our roof. Then it will come out of the sinks and the toilets, etc. We have to boil all water before drinking it for sterilization purposes. I haven’t gotten sick yet – knock on wood!! And while we have running water in our house, we have to take bucket showers because it is winter here and hot water heaters don’t exist. We have to boil a pot of water and then pour it into a bucket, then fill the rest of the bucket up with cold water until it is the right temperature, and shower by pouring a cup over our heads. It isn’t so bad!! Better than a freezing shower every day. Or every 3 days, whatever.
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| this green bucket is how I shower |
SHOPPING: As I said before, we shop at the local markets. This is an area of land that is designated for people to come each morning and set up their booths to sell their product. It is open air to the outside, and hallways lined with booth after booth. An egg booth, a chicken booth, a clothing both, toiletries, fish, vegetables, fruits, dry beans, premade beans, animal food, dairy products, etc. Anything you need, you can find in the market. It makes for a very different experience than shopping in the states… but a more rich and beautiful experience. Already Kyle and I have an ‘egg lady’ who we regularly buy eggs from, a ‘potato lady’, and a ‘booth lady’ who just has this big booth of random stuff and gets so excited to see both of us when we walk by. It’s not only shopping, but forming relationships within our community and learning about other people every time we are there.
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| veggies in the market |
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| outside of the booth ladys booth... rice, quinua, grains, etc. |
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| we get our wine from these giant awesome barrels |
MONEY: We get $80 a month stipend from the IWM progra
m to live on. That is about $20 a week. We get paid 3 months at a time. AKA I have to learn to budget my money. We will see how this goes!!
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| 20 Peruvian soles |
HOUSE: Our missionary house is way nicer and way bigger than I expected it to be!! We have two stories. Upstairs are four bedrooms and a bathroom. Downstairs is the kitchen, dining room, a bathroom, and a living room. Emily and Kelli decided to be roommates so that we can now make one of the bedrooms into a chapel for our house. We all think it would be nice to have a space specifically for prayer and meditation. We are planning to paint the Incarnate Word symbol on the wall and have our community nights there. I have my own room which is nice. Upstairs is also a balcony-ish thing with clothes lines and two big sinks and a washboard… since there are no washing machines and we wash all of our laundry by hand. Part of the roof is open to the sky, as is common with all Peruvian homes to only have part of a roof so air can flow through.
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| Our living room (with Fidea) |
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| My bedroom |
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| Our kitchen |
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| Our dining room |
COMMUNITY: Our missionary community is growing stronger each day!! Kyle and I are still getting along well and day by day becoming closer with Kelli and Emily. They are both really nice and fun girls who care a lot of Chimbote and the people here. We have been having a good time getting to know each other and they have been introducing us to our parish community and their friends. I feel very comfortable in my house with my missionary community and I am so grateful for them!! We also have a kitten named Fidea who is soooo cute and snuggly!! “Fideo” means “noodle” in Spanish, and she has this name because she was skinny as a noodle when they found her as a kitten in the back yard. Kyle and I are spoiling her though and trying to fatten her up.
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION: We pretty much walk everywhere, but if we need to go somewhere further, we have a few choices. We can take a Taxi, which is pretty self explanatory. We can take a Collectivo, which is like a taxi but lots of people who are strangers all pack into the car until it is full and then it will leave for its destination. We can take a Combi, which is like a big van which has a specific route with a number on top, so you watch for the number you want and jump on. We can also take a Mototaxi, which are like motorcycles with two wheels on the back instead of one, and are like little carriages with seats in the back…. but instead of getting an image of a nice little quaint carriage, think of a carriage that is painted black and red and is blaring techno music as loud as it can be turned up.
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| Taxi |
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A moto in front of our house |
FIESTAS: Parties here are really, REALLY different than in the US. There are chairs lined up against the wall around the room, and people sit along the wall. Then when music comes on that people like, people get up in the middle of the room and dance (merengue, bachata, cumbia, salsa, etc.), and then sit back down again along the wall until another song comes on. Could it be more awkward?? The answer is no. But we have fun anyway.
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| Our friend Anthonys birthday party, everyone sitting in their chairs around the room |
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| Dancing Salsa with my friend Colver |
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| Oscar and Emily dancing |
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| Everyone at our friend Colvers birthday party |
OUR PARISH: We go to a small Catholic church called San Francisco de Asis. We have one father who is probably in his 30s and is from Poland – Padre Luciano, another older father from Poland whose eyebrows are out of control and really need to be trimmed (he looks like a muppet for real) – Padre Simon, and one more father from Germany who isn’t around too much. There are 3 different choirs and Kelli is in one of them, I am thinking about joining just to make friends and learn more Spanish. There is also a theatre group that I am really excited about. The youth group seems pretty active here and I am excited to make more friends. There is a small community of Incarnate Word sisters here in Chimbote, and they are also really great and live very close to our house and the parish.
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| The inside of our church |
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| Canticos, Kellis choir, practicing for mass |
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| Our church is to the left |
MY SPANISH: My Spanish is coming along little by little, poco a poco. I remember a lot from living in Madrid, but the accent and definitely some vocabulary are very different. I can carry on a conversation, but certain conjugations and verbs are still hard for me to remember or process quickly enough to use them in a sentence naturally…. But that will come with time!! I am not too worried about it. I don’t feel any pressure because I know no one is expecting me to be fluent anyway.
Paz y amor!!
I'm addicted to your blog now. Someday I'll have money and I'll come visit!!!!! Also, I would take that techno trike everywhere I couldn't walk. Sounds AWESOME! Miss you bunches!!!
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