For the past 8 weeks I have spent all of my days in a very cushy training center in Chaclacayo, where we have 8 hours everyday of classes. For 4-5 hours everyday we were split into groups of 4 people for language training, which consisted of immersion based lessons in grammar, vocabulary and conversational Peruvian Spanish. Each day we did lessons and then practiced them with exercises in the community. For example, one day we learned vocabulary words for different foods, and then we were sent into the marketplace with 3 soles to bargain and buy food for the day. It was slightly terrifying some days to get sent out into what felt like the wild blue yonder of the Spanish language, but it forced us to speak Spanish and it made me alot less nervous to talk to native Spanish speakers. For a mini community diagnostic project, I was sent out to interview community members in order to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the community, in order to analyse what they deem as areas of need. For this exercise, I walked around to tiendas, homes and the health post to ask people questions and converse with them about the resources in Chaclacayo. After a long day of interviews and questionnaires, I sat in the conchita to organize my notes, when an older woman of the community came out
of her home with a huge plate of food for me and my partner to eat while we worked. Little invitations like this are huge gestures of acceptance, and it made me realize that although I struggled with the language and was nervous to speak, people still liked me. Ha.
In addition to language training we have had classes on Peruvian history and government, culture, medical and health sessions (which always include new vaccines), security classes, and best of all, technical training. Tech training is where we learn to build organic gardens, manage trash, set up recycling programs, build micro rellenos, build tree nurseries, learn how to reforest, assess natural resources, manage rangeland, develop ecotourism...........I love it. Technical training is in the training center for the duration of the week, but every Saturday we travel to Lima to take classes at Peru´s only agricultural university, La
Agraria. At La Agraria, we are given lectures by different professors on reforestation, organic agriculture, dendrology, irrigation systems and small animal husbandry. After days of classes, my friends and I travel into Lima to visit the museums, catacombs or the bioferria, a fair of organic produce which is awesome! In addition to our university classes, we have been taken on field trips to farming communities and protected areas to introduce us to the two different aspects of our time as protected areas and community based environmental managers.
In the past few weeks, our field based training has been the most exciting and most memorable time of my entire training experience. Our first field trip was a full day excursion to a region called Ayas, a community in the foothills of the Andes
that grows a huge diversity of crops, including alfalfa, chirimoya, apples, San Pedro (not a crop), sauco, corn, and potatoes. Our trip to Ayas was planned to conduct a survey of all of the natural resources of an area, including agricultural and wild, in order to assess the biological health and productivity of the area. As it turns out, as you climb the large hills (if nothing else mountains) of Ayas, you meet three different climate zones, which are home to different types of vegetation and cultivation. Unluckily, Ayas was rich in mineral resources, and due to mining there is a good deal of copper and other heavy metal leachage into the drainages, which then lead to their water sources. Ayas was also home to beautiful forests of high elevation tree species, waterfalls, and pre Incan ruins.
Our first trip to a protected area, Lomas de Lachay, is a biological reserve and
wildlife refuge on the coast of Lima. Lomas de Lachay is unique in that it is an entirely vegetated range in the middle of what should be a desert. As you drive to Lomas, you drive along the coast of the department of Lima, which are huge sand hills along the Pacific. As you enter the reserve, everything becomes green, slowly with low lying bushes and then later with larger tree species and wildflowers. Lomas de Lachay lies in the heart of a circle of mountains, and due to its luck of
the draw, it traps the clouds and dew that comes in from the Pacific, creating a sink of humidity that allows the rich vegetation to grow here. A wide diversity of plant and animal species call Lomas de Lachay their home, including a few endemic species as well. Luckily during my day here, I happily spotted a few different hawks and eagles (the species I am uncertain of....still waiting to buy that damn field guide off of Amazon).
During our time in Lomas, we learned about reserve management and challenges from the park guides, and afterwards helped with a reforestation effort and planted 100 trees (native species of course).
Our final single day field trip was to Pantamos de Villa, a RAMSAR site very close to the city of Lima, that is very desperately threatened by human development and industrial pollution. RAMSAR is a program through the United Nations that provides support and funding to protect areas that are deemed as important wetland habitats and important areas for migratory bird species.
Pantamos has received a ton of support and effort from the United Nations, the Peruvian government, environmental organizations and the general population in order to protect and preserve this lasting scrap of land for the wildlife that call it home. Pantamos is a brackish wetland that is separated from the Pacific solely by about 100 yards of a beach, and I am certain that during storm surges much of the saline waters of the Pacific make their way into the brackish waters of Pantamos. Sadly, the surrounding communities around Pantamos illegally try to fill it with desmonte (which is a combination of rock, sand and destroyed cement) in order to make more space for things like soccer fields and flat areas to build. Alot of this illegal dumping is the result of invasions, which are squatter communities that literally invade an area and settle there for a long period of time. After learning about the endless management challenges presented by a wetland in the midst of sprawl, my training group and I headed to the beach for lunch, where about 5 of us proceeded to jump into the ocean in our underwear.
Last week the entire medio ambiente group was sent to Ancash for field based training. For 4 days, we visited sites of existing Peace Corps volunteers, and trained with governmental organizations of Peru as well. Our first stop on the trip was the home of a PCV named James, who has been living in site for about a year now. James lives in the highest site in the whole of the Peace Corps, in the Andes of Ancash. At his site, we were given lectures by AgroRural (the Peruvain equivalent of USDA) on tree nurseries, reforestation, and prime species to use for reforesting high elevation areas. In addition to our lessons, we participated in a reforestation effort in the town, planting native species such as Queñual and Aliso. As our grand professor Fauso was teaching us the proper way to dig a hole at its optimal depth, he came across what seemed to be a large rock. In order to eradicate this problem, he pounded a large metal spike into the ground, with which the first pound of pressure resulted in a huge fountain of water spraying up
from the hole. The rock turned out to be the water lines for the town, which were now punctured by the fury of our reforestation efforts. After a good deal of time looking for community leaders, we finally had the water turned off, and my boss patched up the pipeline. Later that night, I heartily ate my first meal of cuy, aka guinea pig, which is not as exciting as it sounds (it tastes like chicken, like everything else). The next day, we headed to the site of a volunteer named Brian, in a community called Collon. In Collon we taught classes to a group of farmers on different topics about solid waste management. The lesson that I taught was about building micro rellenos, a system of trash management for small rural communities here in the Sierra. After my lecture, we actually built a micro relleno (which consists of digging a deep square hole)
for the community, and then threw in the first few pieces of trash. Our last day of field training in Ancash was the absolute best....because I saw my site and home that I will be living in for the next two years.....but I will elaborate more on that after I do my week long site visit in two days.......Anywho, our last day of field based training consisted of visiting Huascaran National Park and the lovely Laguna Llanganuco (which I will be living about an hour or so walk from for the next two years). In Huascaran we met with the park guides to learn more about park management, trash management and ecotourism challenges in this region in Peru. With the park guide as our teacher, we went on a short hike to learn about some of the high elevation plant species, and he introduced us to a beautiful spot in the park that grew wild Andean orchids.
The orchids here grow in 8 different colours, depending on the altitude. Before we headed out of the park and down to a lodge to learn about ecotourism, my group, which consisted of only six of us, went skinny dipping in the pristine glacial waters of Laguna Llanganuco.
There is a tradition between the Ancash volunteers to skinny dip in as many glacial lakes as possible within two years. The record so far is 12,but because I am going to be an Ancashino for the next two years, I am certain their records are going to be smashed. To end our time in Ancash, we visited an amazing tourist lodge (which is only about 15 minutes from my future site) called Llanganuco Lodge, which is situated on a hill between the glaciers of Huandoy and Huascaran (the highest mountain in Peru). The purpose of our visit here was to meet the British proprietor of this fine establishment, a young accountant turned mountaineer and climber Charlie. Charlie is probably the British equivalent of Hunter S. Thompson, possibly lacking the writing, but complete with the eccentricities and the guns. It was here that we learned about the possibilites and opportunities of ecotourism in Peru, but also the huge challenges that we will face when working with local municipalities and local governments. Along from being a great resource for climbing and mountaineering gear (which I am absolutely and completely stoked about), this lodge has an extensive library, which I will surely be taking advantage of when I go on my runs up the mountain.
All in all, thus far I have loved training for the most part. There are the days when it feels like I have no time to rest or anytime to myself, but the classes are really interesting, the people are great, and I am so absolutely happy to be here. I constantly ask myself how I have been so lucky to have been placed here in Peru (a country that I have been obsessing over for my entire life), in a program that is perfect for me, working on programs that really make me feel fulfilled. Simply, I don´t believe I could be happier right now.
On another note, I just really wanted to thank everyone who has sent me mail! Receiving letters and postcards really makes my day, actually my week, and it always keeps me happy knowing that I am in the minds of people back home. Entonces, I just wanted to say thank you to my family and friends who have sent me letters, postcards, photos, reeses and smartwool socks. I will most definitely be sending you all letters sometime soon. Thank you so much for your support, it is truly appreciated and makes those rough days so much easier.
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