by Micah
We are over two weeks in, and I think we´re really starting to get into a rhythm now. Training is good; between language, cultural, and technical sessions, we spend about 40 hours per week in training, so we´re pretty occupied. Our host family is great. We went to a Día del Campesino festival at the local school on Sunday, and our host parents kept buying us different kinds of traditional foods to try. Then they took us out to dinner that night. They´re very giving and really want to make us a part of their family, so we´re quite pleased.
We made our first trip to Lima on Saturday. Saw some touristy stuff, but it´s difficult to get a handle on such a big city in a few hours, so we´ll have to return with more of a plan so we can see the things we´re most interested in.
My 0.5 hr. of internet is almost up, so adiós for now.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
One week down....
By Alisha
We are almost done with our first week of training! Micah and I have been really busy with training and getting to know our host family. Training is pretty much a full time job with a variety of workshops on development, culture and language, heath, safety, and more. From 8:00am to 5:00pm we are usually at the training site, which is about a 25 minute, walk/bus ride from our house. Micah and I feel really lucky to be living with such a great host family. They have already had two previous PC trainees live with them so our presence in the house isn’t new to them and they are very understanding with my lack of Spanish. We have been spending most nights with our host family talking about the day and trying catch up on reading training materials. We are looking forward to this weekend when we have some free time! My host mom is studying cosmetology and (from my understanding) is going to be taking me to a nearby town for a pedicure this weekend because a friend of hers needs practice before an exam. Also, I am extremely excited to attend the quinceañera of a friend of my host sister.
Some highlights thus far:
On the first night with our host family, Micah locked us out of our bedroom and had to wake up our host mother (which in turn woke up the rest of the family) to have her let us back into our room.
Our family has a dog named Rambo.
Dogs bark all night long and the roosters start about 4:00am.
There is another volunteer in our training group from Mitchell, South Dakota. In addition, I met a current volunteer who is from Sioux Falls!
Another on of the trainees in our group looks like Chuck Norris. Exactly like him and it never gets old.
Some highlights thus far:
On the first night with our host family, Micah locked us out of our bedroom and had to wake up our host mother (which in turn woke up the rest of the family) to have her let us back into our room.
Our family has a dog named Rambo.
Dogs bark all night long and the roosters start about 4:00am.
There is another volunteer in our training group from Mitchell, South Dakota. In addition, I met a current volunteer who is from Sioux Falls!
Another on of the trainees in our group looks like Chuck Norris. Exactly like him and it never gets old.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
This is your captain speaking...
By Alisha & Micah
We made it! Micah and I arrived in Lima, Peru late last night and are now at a retreat center for an orientation. Tomorrow we will meet our host family and officially move in.
We boarded the plane in Miami and sat on the tarmac for an hour and before taking off the captain announced that the plane was taking longer to get loaded and situated because it was at maximum weight capacity. As if that were not enough to make us nervous, he then said that he had never seen that before. The flight was great and everyone arrived safely.
Everyone in out training group has been great and the staff in Peru seem very motivated and capable, so we are very excited about the next 11 weeks of training.
We made it! Micah and I arrived in Lima, Peru late last night and are now at a retreat center for an orientation. Tomorrow we will meet our host family and officially move in.
We boarded the plane in Miami and sat on the tarmac for an hour and before taking off the captain announced that the plane was taking longer to get loaded and situated because it was at maximum weight capacity. As if that were not enough to make us nervous, he then said that he had never seen that before. The flight was great and everyone arrived safely.
Everyone in out training group has been great and the staff in Peru seem very motivated and capable, so we are very excited about the next 11 weeks of training.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Goodbye, hello
by Micah
Well, the time has finally arrived. Alisha and I will board a plane in KC tomorrow morning and fly to Miami via Raleigh to meet up with our fellow Peace Corps Trainees for a two-day staging. Then it's off to Peru for training.
We've had a fabulous time bouncing back and forth between Missouri and South Dakota (with stops in Nebraska), and we truly enjoyed spending time with so many family members and friends, some of whom we hadn't seen for some time. I think we got a lot accomplished over the last several weeks. We started out with my cousin Josh's wedding, got to celebrate both my sister's and Alisha's brother's high school graduations, met our two new second cousins, and ate a lot of farewell meals. Now, everything is packed and we're hoping our bags fall within the prescribed weight limit. Hopefully we'll get some good sleep because tomorrow our adventure begins.
Well, the time has finally arrived. Alisha and I will board a plane in KC tomorrow morning and fly to Miami via Raleigh to meet up with our fellow Peace Corps Trainees for a two-day staging. Then it's off to Peru for training.
We've had a fabulous time bouncing back and forth between Missouri and South Dakota (with stops in Nebraska), and we truly enjoyed spending time with so many family members and friends, some of whom we hadn't seen for some time. I think we got a lot accomplished over the last several weeks. We started out with my cousin Josh's wedding, got to celebrate both my sister's and Alisha's brother's high school graduations, met our two new second cousins, and ate a lot of farewell meals. Now, everything is packed and we're hoping our bags fall within the prescribed weight limit. Hopefully we'll get some good sleep because tomorrow our adventure begins.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
A Penske Truck, A Malibu, and 573.74 miles later...
by Alisha
This past Monday, Micah and I started our migration south. We caravaned from Milwaukee to Independence, Missouri, where Micah's dad lives. Thankfully, we are able to store all of our things with Micah's dad for the next 2 years. It was a strange feeling to see all of our possessions loaded into our small rental truck and to say goodbye to Milwaukee and the friends we had made there over the past three years. On the other hand it felt pretty refreshing to be able to simplify things a bit and to sell furniture and o
ne of our cars. It was surprisingly difficult to say goodbye to Luminescence, our pristine '95 Lumina.
The long trip to was very uneventful and both vehicles and all of our stuff survived. Luckily, I have had quite a bit of experience driving "Big Sexy" a certain moving truck at my last job with Lad Lake. We are now looking forward to spending time with friends and family and are in for a busy month of weddings, graduations, and family gatherings.
During the long drive, aside from listening to NPR, I thought of a couple of things that are bringing me some anxiety when thinking about living in Peru.
First and foremost, I have an underlying fear that for some reason, I will be absolutely unable to learn Spanish no matter what. This is most likely selling myself short, but who knows. I hope that I can put my frustrations aside and not compare myself to the language abilities of Micah or other members of our training group. Really the only other thing aside from the possibility that I will not be able to communicate with anyone for the next two years, would be being sick for the entire two years. Since the possibility of both of these things is pretty minimal, I am really getting excited to go!
Plus I figure that if you can survive driving a truck across Wisconsin and Iowa that anything is possible.
This past Monday, Micah and I started our migration south. We caravaned from Milwaukee to Independence, Missouri, where Micah's dad lives. Thankfully, we are able to store all of our things with Micah's dad for the next 2 years. It was a strange feeling to see all of our possessions loaded into our small rental truck and to say goodbye to Milwaukee and the friends we had made there over the past three years. On the other hand it felt pretty refreshing to be able to simplify things a bit and to sell furniture and o
ne of our cars. It was surprisingly difficult to say goodbye to Luminescence, our pristine '95 Lumina.The long trip to was very uneventful and both vehicles and all of our stuff survived. Luckily, I have had quite a bit of experience driving "Big Sexy" a certain moving truck at my last job with Lad Lake. We are now looking forward to spending time with friends and family and are in for a busy month of weddings, graduations, and family gatherings.
During the long drive, aside from listening to NPR, I thought of a couple of things that are bringing me some anxiety when thinking about living in Peru.
First and foremost, I have an underlying fear that for some reason, I will be absolutely unable to learn Spanish no matter what. This is most likely selling myself short, but who knows. I hope that I can put my frustrations aside and not compare myself to the language abilities of Micah or other members of our training group. Really the only other thing aside from the possibility that I will not be able to communicate with anyone for the next two years, would be being sick for the entire two years. Since the possibility of both of these things is pretty minimal, I am really getting excited to go!
Plus I figure that if you can survive driving a truck across Wisconsin and Iowa that anything is possible.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Unemployment & Packing
by Micah
Welcome to our first blog entry. We're still a little over one month away from leaving for Peru, but in the meantime, we're feverishly preparing for our Midwest Mega-tour 2008 with stops in Missouri, Nebraska, and South Dakota.
Alisha and I finished up our jobs last week, so, as this entry's title says, we are unemployed. Personally, unemployment has provided me with much more satisfactory responses to some of life's salient questions than the work world ever could. For instance, now that I'm jobless, the answer to the question, "Should I shave today?" is a resounding "NO!", and when I consider whether or not sweatpants constitute appropriate attire for the day's activities, I can gleefully answer "YES!" Heady stuff, I know.
Alisha's last day of work was Friday, and her co-workers kindly threw her a going-away party, complete with enormous steaks and the appropriately decorated cake seen above. My fellow interpreters are throwing a bash for me (along with another departing co-worker) on Saturday, so that should be nice. In the meantime, we have been and will continue to be packing up our apartment (that's me with the sweatband after a long day of packing) so as to vacate our apartment by next Monday (28 April) and kick off the first Missouri leg of the aforementioned Mega-tour. Between attending farewell festivities and boxing up our astonishing collection of books, we're trying to see as many of the good friends we've made in Milwaukee as possible. Stay tuned for more pre-departure exploits...
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