Sensational

Recently, I`ve been homesick for sensations.  Usually, it´s people that I miss more than anything.  But now, especailly because it`s summertime at home, I miss the feelings and smells of the seasons.  The dogwood trees garlanded in pink as soon as it warms.  Waking up at dawn on a humid morning for a run before it becomes impossibly hot.  Plunging hands into warm dark garden soil.  The smell of tomato plants.  Warm rain and thunderstorms that rattle you out of sleep.  Rolled up pants, tiptoeing into freezing streams, bare feet on algae rocks.  Bare feet anytime at all.  Being out in the dark with the moon and the night bugs.  Hours and hours of daylight.  Strawberries, fistfulls of blueberries, and corn good enough to eat without salt or butter.  Melty ice cream.  Spring peepers, lightning bugs, and catydids.  The color and smell of green.

Junin´s climate zone is polar tundra.  I`m sure I`ll be back in my familiar world before I know it and will be missing Peru.  I suppose it`s only human to long for things you`ve loved, even if there are new things to love all around. 

Photo Time

I just put a bunch of Junin photos on Facebook.  Some have been on the blog, but a bunch should be new.

Spontaneous Reactions

1. Stasia walks into a new school.
All nearby children run away screaming and flailing their hands over their heads.

2. Little Boy: Do you live in an airplane?
Stasia: Nope.  I live in a house by the river.
Little Boy: (face of crushing disappointment)

3. Some Lady: Gringwich.
Some Man behind Some Lady: Gringwich.

So, do you think they meant witch like bruja?  Or is a gringwich some sort of delicious sandwich?  If it's the latter, it probably has lots of cheese and bacon.

TP Tree

I made this tree out of cut up toilet paper rolls.  Pretty neat, right?  I´m going to repeat this project with kiddos in their classrooms.

Next,  I think I´m going to paint some Peruvian birds and monkeys and stuff to populate my tree.  Yay arts and crafts!

Mendigo

It seems that most PC volunteers resort to a bit of beggary in during their service, and here´s my first.

I´m putting out a request for frisbees.  I want to start an ultimate frisbee league in Carhuamayo.  It´ll start as just for girls, and expand to boys and adults if it´s successful.  Girls are often stuck at home and inactive after school because it´s not so acceptable for them to roam around and play soccer like the boys.  This frisbee league will get them active and increase their generally abysmal self-esteem.  I´m not saying the frisbee will keep them from getting pregnant at 16 and popping out babies and staying home the rest of their lives, but it can´t hurt.

Frisbees don´t really exist in Peru, and I don´t currently have the capital to order the dozen or so I´ll need to start up.

So if you have some old frisbees hanging around, send them my way.  If you do, I´ll write you a nice letter and send you some Peruvian candy.

My address is:

Anastasia Orkwiszewski, PCV
Correo Central
Provencia de Junin
Junin, Peru

Thanks for thinking about it!

Youtube Killed the Video Star

Hey friends!

Here´s a video another volunteer made about his service, and I´m in it!  It has a lot of our Huayhuash trek.  Ever wanted to see me shoot a snot rocket?  Well, today´s your day. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5Av5Op1Jog&feature=youtu.be

I haven´t had fast enough internet to watch it all yet, but I´m sure it´s enchanting.

What Are You Even Doing Up There?

Ok, so I haven’t updated in a long time.  Here’s what’s going on:

Two members of our region have moved to Ancash and Lambayeque.  Our diminutive region continues to shrink.  We may also lose Matteo and the end of the year to Ica, but that’s just so depressing that I won’t burn that bridge till I’m on it.  Here are the remainder (sin Matteo and one of our Lauras) during our Christmas in July family dinner (delicious) at our last regional meeting. 

Healthy cooking classes are resuming.  I’ve been approached by mamas while walking around town wondering when we’re going to cook again.  And apparently they were all saying that they wanted to cook with the gringa while I was away.  It’s really nice that folks like something that I’m doing.  The veggie scramble was a big hit.

The kiddos were on vacation for a week so I went out exploring.  I went hiking up a mountian I`ve been eyeballing with Leslie, the volunteer from Ondores across the lake.  We started with a sunny day and ended with snow and thunder-hail.

I also went and visited Grant’s site, Ulcumayo, for the first time.  I didn’t take any good photos, but we visited and organic milk farm and the two nice ladies that run it fed us a spaghetti mountain for lunch.  Grant is only an hour away, but he’s downhill in a valley and has a very different ecosystem.  More trees and songbirds. 

My family killed some animals.

Then they made pachamanca that was delicious, but made all of the contents of my digestive system  desperately tried to escape for several days.  I was trying not to poop my pants as I vomited.

But since then I’ve been doing some good work stuff.  I finally finished digging a micro-landfill at my house so we can clean up the yard and stop burning garbage.  Elka looks vexed because she dropped her oso in the micro.  I had to go fish it out. 

At Primaria Quilcacancha, I’ve got the kids started on a medicinal plants garden.  I taught them basic plant physiology and we went out and prepared the bed. Their homework is to learn about medicinal plants from their parents and bring specimens to plant in the bed we made.  I’m hoping for some serious thesis double-dipping here.  We’ll see.

I also made a cold-frame!

It’s like a mini greenhouse.  This took me an afternoon and a half, a lot of bent nails,some swearing, lots of Black Keys and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, but it was fun and turned out ok.  This one was a pilot.  I’m going to use it to grow veggies for the house and am planning to make more for the schools so they can grow their own. 

That’s about it!