Happy Thanksgiving (and my first week as a Peace Corps volunteer)

I know that I have been here for 3 months, however, I have only been a real sworn in Peace Corps volunteer for a week. After 10 weeks of training, we were sworn in by a member of the U.S. Embassy and a health service representative of Peru as Peace Corps volunteers. The oath that we take to become a PCV is pretty much swearing ourselves to the U.S. government, and (in the most peaceful of manners) swear to defend against enemies foreign and domestic. Happily, I have passed my language classes and technical proficiencies, and I am worthy of being a Peace Corps volunteer. Wooty Woo!!!

Becoming a Peace Corps volunteer means that I have also taken that step to leave all of my English speaking fellow trainees, and have moved into my community where I will be living for the next two years. I have successfully completed my first week at site, and I am really looking forward to getting started with projects and writing my community diagnostic over the next three months. The first stage as a Peace Corps volunteer is to do a community analysis, and diagnose the needs of the community. Generally speaking, this means that the next three months will be me introducing myself to the community and doing lots and lots and lots of talking.

For the next two years I will be living in a community of 250 people in a town called Huashao. Huashao is a farming community that is nestled in the buffer zone of Huascaran National Park, and sits in the shadow of Huascaran, the largest

mountain in Peru (and largest tropical glacier in the world) and Huandoy. When the day is clear, I can look out of my bedroom window and see them both towering over the fields.....its pretty lovely. About 1 1/2 hours walk from my house is Laguna Llanganuco, a large glacial lake that is frequently visited by tourists. My host family is a small farming family of the wonderful Jaime, my host father who works construction and in the farm, mother Lucinda, sister Mariela and her 5 year old daughter Sumi (or as I have dubbed her Sumi Saurus, Pishtako, and Dona Cochinona), 16 year old sister Fiorela, and 3 year old brother Jaime.

My host family here is extremely amicable and consistently interested in my happiness and comfort in my new home. My host father is strongly involved in community politics, and has taken me to a community meeting to be introduced to our entire community. Actually, I gave a speech (in Spanish of course) to a large group of community members about my role in Huashao as a PCV, some examples of what I will be doing, and just pretty much warning them that I will be the strange gringa in their community for the next two years. Needless to say, I was terrified and stuttered a bit in Spanish. After my speech, my father spoke on my behalf in Quechua, which resulted in applause and thanks for my presence. Along with my introduction to my community, I met with the principal of the school, to ask for permission to teach a summer camp program during the rainy season (which has begun and will not cease to be until April). The director of the school was slightly stand offish, and I did not realize until later that she had given another PCV trouble about teaching in the school. No matter what, I am going to be extremely perseverant with the school, and somehow get myself in there to teach environmental education, some way, some how.

I have finally finished unpacking and I am starting to write up my interviews and surveys that I want to use to do my community diagnostic. I plan on interviewing community members, community leaders, staff and administration of the national park service, tourists (to invstigate ecotourism), local NGO´s, schools, and local community groups. This should all prove to be hard work, but I feel that it is completely necessary to interview all of these respective groups in order to create programs that are sustainable and directed to my program goals. I am about to get kicked off of the computer, but this week promises to be a busy, work and question filled few days to learn more about my community and my future projects here.