And so it begins......

To begin our training as Peace Corps Trainees, as we are consistently referred to, all of the volunteers were booked into a conference resort called the centro vacacional de Huampani, which is a large compound that feels similar to a large and very colourful summer camp. The centro is located in a town called Chaclacayo, a large town situated about an hour and half from the city of Lima, straight down the Calleteria Central, the most dangerous highway in Peru due to its high frequency of traffic collisions. At the centro, I met my first pack of wild dogs, and after this grand encounter, watched them get chased down by a large angry llama, which made the situation exponentially more fantastic. Chaclacayo is situated right in the center of the foothills of the Andes, making it a deep valley that acts as a sink for alot of the dust flying off of the dry hills surrounding the area. Most days, the sun is out in the morning, but by midday the skies look white from the dust sinking into the valley. Our only day in Huampani was spent doing language proficiency interviews (I am novice high by the way), interviews with our new bosses from our respective programs, survival Spanish, and some introductions to our respective programs. After our brief stint in Huampani, all of the volunteers were led to the training center in Chaclacayo, our permanent base for the next three months. Once arriving at the training center, we got slightly accomodated to our new settings, and then waited for our host family to come pick us up around midday, to move into our new homes for the next three months. Extremely nervous and with shreds of confidence in my language proficiency, I nervously waited for my family to come pick me up from the center. My new family are the Villanuevas, an older couple from tres de Octubre, a small community in Chaclacayo that was created years ago on, surprisingly, the 3rd of October! I am now living with my 2 host parents, their 23 year old daughter, 25 year old son and his wife, and their great 3 year old daughter (and mi professora de español), Alejandra. At the house, my family owns a small internet cafe in front, complete with 6 computers and cameras. Luckily, for the next three months I have internet access before being sent off into an isolated area for the next two years. I have my own room in the house, and it is really spacious and comfortable. I have finally unpacked all of my things, my first step to actually moving in and getting myself acquianted to living in Chaclacayo.