Staring into Death on a Horse

So this week was field based training. For most of my Peru 18 compatriots that meant that they went to the department they are going to be working in and did projects with current volunteers like building latrinas, doing charlas or if you are the department of Tumbes it means going to the beach. You can never have too much of a tan I reckon. For the Huancavelica 5 we didn’t go to our department, frankly because there is no one there besides one youth volunteer. You cant exactly do field based training if you don’t have a field. So instead we went up to San Pedro and then Marcawasi for our version of field based training. I say our version of FBT because it wasn’t an activity packed week but instead naptime, coffee, a spattering of charlas (educational sessions) and a lot of nerve calming. We learned fun facts like we were placed intentionally and not just dropped in Huancavelica. Also Pisco, my regional capital where I have to go every month for meetings is on the beach. Why this little fun fact was not presented with Huancavelica we will never know. But this means that I can escape the mountains and go to the beach if -3.3*C becomes too much. My town of 955 people and 9 people per kilometer seems a little less daunting when there is a beach and sand boarding in sight.

Although our field based training did not have much building or activities with other volunteers we did get a chance to see a sierra village and mayyyybbbbeeeeeee what life will be like in San Antonio de Cusicancha, Huancavelica. Cause lets get serious who the fuck knows what is in store. For about 12 hours we tried to hunt down the mayor but that was an unsuccessful endeavor. Our tech trainer swung it that this is an example of how we will have to be diligent in order to meet important people, even if we have an appointment. I have a feeling I am going to be reading a whole hell of a lot of books while waiting for someone to show up, or not show up.

Of the three charlas that we did was one with the heath post where we presented nutritional information to a whopping two people. The health workers were attentive but nutrition did not seem to be on their front burner. Probably because there were three of them for about 900 people. A bit of an off ratio. But I did learn that the concept of vegetables is all but non-existent in San Pedro. Ill probably eat a carrot a day in some soup unless I trek 4 hours to find a vegetable or build a green house to grow them. There was a green house at the school so I am thinking that the concept of making a green house may actually be more plausible than hiking for vegetables. I already have to hike down 150 meters to find Internet may as well grow something to make like moderately easier. Hopefully I haven’t inherited my mothers brown thumb.

The second charla we did was an early stimulation session with mothers and several kids. What I really learned was if you have more than 5 kids in a room at a time there is really no way to control them. Especially when they are over 1 years old. A problem I have encountered in both of the early stimulation sessions that I have done is the older siblings intervening and doing the activities in place of the three year old. There is no way to say get out of the way you are 7 years old of course you should be able to hop on one foot in a straight line without sounding like a crazy bitch. So generally I just teach them head shoulders knees and toes or make them draw in a corner. Of course the first time I taught head shoulders knees and toes I pointed at my mouth when I said nose and nose when I said mouth. That a quality way to teach a kids English. Don’t worry the 7 year old called me out on my mistake. Fail. Besides not knowing my nose from my mouth this early childhood stimulation session was successful. The 1 year olds were super into it and I couldn’t confuse them with silly things like language.

The third and final charla we did was with jovenes (young people). And by charla I really mean play time with children. We have the lideres jovenes, basically the student council of the school with us. The kids were between 10 and 15 years old. In true Peruvian fashion we had scheduled a charla for 9 am on a Saturday and one kid showed up at 9:15, several others strolled in around 9:40 and after an announcement at the municipality (basically a community wide PA system) the rest showed up at 10am. Now I say true Peruvian status because many Peruvians self identify Peruvian time which means showing up anywhere between 15 minutes-3 hours after the scheduled time. In this case I think it was a mix of Pervian time and teenageitus. Do you know any teenager that would show up promptly at 9 am on a Saturday? If you do, give it two years they will stop showing up on time, or decided they arbitrarily hate you for turning on the light wrong. When the kids finally did show up we played volleyball and soccer for a while and then moved on to “group building activities” such as the human knot. The youth day felt a lot more like play time than work time, which I was totally down for.

The final day of field based training was when we went up to Marcawasi, pre-Incian ruins buy horse and camped over night. Which sounds awesome and it was. Gotta love some pre-Incian ruins and dead skeletons. And let me just say those skeletons defiantly did not die pleasantly. But anyways this whole indevor was quite fun. I slept in a mere 19 layers of clothing. What were these layers you may ask, 1 bras, 1 sports bra, one tank top, 1 teeshit, one long sleeve, one hoodie, one down jacket, one wool sweater over the down jacket, 2 hats, one scarf, one pair of gloves, one pair of underwear, one pair of shorties, one pir of spandex sports, one pair of spandex, one pair of sweat pants, one pair of short socks, one pair of smart wool socks, one pair of knee highs and one scarf. I looked super nifty. Especially with my headlamp on. My fashion skills have just gone through the roof here in Peru. Oh random tangent on the fashion note. I recently learned that certain colors may mean certain things in the campo. Such as teal may mean I am looking and ready for a husband. Gooood thing I just bought a pair of teal pants. Cant wear tehm unless I want a husband. But back to the camping. It was supes fun expect for the people who had an all night rage in our camp ground. And then were shocked when people called them out in the morning. They said they thought they were just having a conversation. I’m sorry just a conversation does not include music at 5 am. Thank god for headphones.

Actually exploring the ruins and rocks of Marcawasi was about a 4 hour hike which I was totally down for until we reached the point where we had to scale the wall near a ledge. Now I don’t know if you have met me but I’m a liiittttllle clumsy. So im not scared of hights, just ledges. I like to leave a solid 6 feet if not more between a ledge and me because this way if I stumble and fall I fall on the ground and don’t plummet to my death. The hike through Marcawasi showed me some stunning rocks and also tested my ledge fear.

At one point we had to walk in between two rocks up to a ledge to lookout over about a 500 foot drop. There were only 4 feet between me and the ledge. I tried to walk up the two rocks but then I started to shake so naturally I slid down the rock and tried a different route. Our guide Jorge kept calling to me as I was sliding down the rock to go the new route. But the way he was prouncing it sounded like kitty instead of Katie. So my tech trainer Katrine started to shout “here kitty kitty kitty.” This new route up thte the ledge was far less parlous than the first and yet I still found myself walking up the rocks on hand and feet and then at one point hugging the rock and hovering above the ground. 6 inches above the ground. I literally could have extended my left toe and I would have touched the ground. But instead I decided to stay there hugging the rock for a solid minute before it actually sunk in how close to the ground I was. Sadly no one caught a picture of this classy moment because they were all too busy telling me how close to the ground I actually was.

I would like to say the decent downhill by house was a pleasant trip down a country road but that would just be a bold face lie. You thought my life flashed before my eyes when I was hovering 6 inches above the ground. Lies. It flashed before my eyes when I was basically riding on the neck on a pony down a steep rocky narrow cliff and bouncing. I literally almost bounced off the horse and into a rocky pit of cactus doom. Now I’m no dainty feather and so I tried to get on the biggest horse but got turned away and put on a smaller one. My far more dainty friend Ty with a big back pack got put on the fully grown house. I got the munchkin one. All was going well until we reached a 50* downward angle that was rocky. My horse was literally bowing and jumping down the rocks. I thought I was going to fall off. I was bouncing. And dying inside. And figuring out which way to throw myself to cause the least damage. The guide started to tell me that my muchilla weighed too much. I was too panic stricken to also translate that my backpack was too heavy until finally he said Im going to hold this. Then he asked me my weight. Which I also had to translate from pounds to kilograms. I asked if I was too big and he said no your fine just your backpack. Sorry buddy I don’t thin kit was my 5 pound back pack. It was probably my ass in the saddle, which as we were going down hill was slipping further and further up the horses back until I was basically on its neck. When my horses knees buckled while it was standing on the edge of the cliff I decided that I had enough of staring at my own death and so I got off the horse and walked. Nothing like being too fat for a horse to boost your self esteem. I kid, I’m fine. That poor horse on the other hand needs some serious help.

All in all field based training was quite an experience. I mean how many of you can say you have peed on pre Incian ruins. And tomorrow I head off to Pisco and then on Tuesday is the fateful day I actually see Huancavelica. Hopefully my associates show up. Or else I have to find my village by myself. Hmmmmm. Also im really curious about the typography of Huancavelica because I have to climb about 200 meters uphill or downhill to get roughly anywhere. Buns of steele.