One Year

By Alisha

Micah and I are just a few days away from completing our first year in Peru. When we first arrived in Lima last year we didn't know what to expect. I only knew a few words in Spanish and Micah had little experience working with youth, but I think I can speak for both of us when I say that I think our transition into life and work here in Peru has been pretty seamless. This is not to say that we haven't felt frustrated, questioned what we are doing, or wondered if our work is really benefiting anyone. In fact, those are things that I think about on an almost daily basis. Our feelings of contentment in our work and life here are really a testament to the people that we have met during the last year. We have been fortunate to have really understanding and accommodating host-families both during training and now in our site. We have made lasting friendships with people in our community and with other Peace Corps volunteers. These relationships have been really important in feeling at home here in Peru.

However, while I was thinking about how to summarize my impressions of our first year in Peru, I realized that no matter how comfortable I feel in my community, with the language, or with Peruvian culture in general there are always things that continue to surprise me.

When Micah and I first arrived in our community I knew that we would get a lot stares, and that was understandable. People were curious about the really tall, really white people hanging around. I really didn't mind whistles, staring (I mean stop-everything-you-are-doing, no-shame, 1-foot-from-my-face staring), or whispered comments. In fact, I expected this response and might have actually been disappointed if no one seemed to take an interest in us. I also expected that this interest would generally wear off over time...I was wrong. After being in our community for 9 months, the stares and comments continue. At times, it feels as if interest in us has intensified. The allure of being the topic of conversation has diminished and being called “gringo” twenty times while walking across town can be really annoying.

We have also encountered misconceptions and interesting questions about both ourselves and the United States.

• Cuy (guinea pig) is a popular food here and many people find it interesting that in the States guinea pigs are pets. While having a discussion with a student in one of our youth groups about this difference, she told us that her high school teacher had told her that instead of eating guinea pigs in the States we eat rats. Micah and I looked at eat other and confidently responded that her teacher was mistaken. We don’t eat rats.
• Another person we met was under the impression that we only eat canned food.
• We like to have kids try and guess our ages when they ask us how old we are. Micah tends to get outrageous guesses, like one kid who thought he was 56 years old.
• My host mom was convinced that there must not be potatoes in the US based on my lackluster performance in potato peeling. I tried to explain the concept of a vegetable peeler as opposed to using an unwieldy dull knife, but it was a lost cause.
• Mothers are also very interested in what Micah and I may have eaten to have caused us to be as tall as we are. We tried to explain the combination of vitamins and genetics, but have most mothers seem to be content only when they hear that we eat a lot less rice than Peruvians and a lot more vegetables.

We are sure that the next 15 months will be just as interesting as the first 12 have been!