Shorts 1.0

4:53 PM | Posted by Unknown

No word for 'Awkward' in Spanish
After living by myself over the summer and with one house-mate during the school year certain things I just don't worry about because there is no one else around or I know exactly where the other person is. For example, I usually do not lock the bathroom door or worry about playing music too loudly. This, as one can imagine, creates opportunity for awkward. I was taking a shower the other day and did not lock the door, because it is not automatic. (An important note, shower curtains are a luxury, not a necessity in Peru. This causes problems for me, because I am not used to worrying about where the water goes and now I find myself tucking elbows and carefully choosing my positioning in order to not get water everywhere.) My host brother, age 23, walks in on me. AWKWARD. Classic moment. I had a grand chuckle and my brother did not acknowledge my existence for at least 24 hours.

The thing that I do not understand about the situation is why he just walked in. The door was closed. light was on, and the shower was on. Three warning signs that the restroom was occupied. On the bright side, I did get a good laugh out of the experience, I lock the door more frequently and also it had been a while since I had an awkward naked moment, so maybe I was due.

Colors of My Life
For those who know me or have seen a picture of me it is obvious that I have 'pasty' white skin with a spattering of freckles and while this has never been news it is now. It is Summer/Spring/Dry season in Peru and the sun is particularly strong here. I have burned two or three times now and each time my host mom notices my bright red freckled skin she says, "Oh hija...mas palabras en español que no entiendo." Then she proceeds to point out that I am four different colors and laughs heartily. The four colors that I can come up with are white, red, slightly tan and freckle brown. Then I smile and say, "esto es mi vida."

I really must use more sunscreen. When I get to my site I will have aloe vera plants and I will most likely die of skin cancer. Damn sun and Celtic skin!

It Is Not Meat
Today I was having lunch with my mom, brothers and my brother Alex's girlfriend. It was a fabulous meal, I had a tortilla, potato, and a plate of vegetables: lettuce, broccoli, radish, beets, and carrot. A Peruvian tortilla is essentially a cross between an omelet and a pancake; today mine included, green onions, oregano, and cauliflower, delicious! My family ate potatoes, rice, meat, and some vegetables.

After a moment or two my mom was telling me that they were not eating meat and asked if I wanted to try some. I was immediately suspicious but said I would try it. My mom brought me a forks worth and I tried it. The moment it hit my tongue I knew I had been lied to or that there was a severe miscommunication. Whatever they gave me definitely came from an animal and a foul one at that. The truly unfortunate thing was that my thoughts were written all over my face. I asked what it was and I mom proceeded to explain through hand gestures (hand swept across the right side of her abdomen below the ribs) and the word vaca (cow). Oh, perfect cow liver. My host brother repeated, "it is not meat." In my head, "Of course, it is meat!!" I replied, "it is the same for me." and quickly tried to find something to cover the taste.

As an explanation to inquiring minds, I am a vegetarian because I feel better and more energetic when I do not eat meat and thus I do not. I it is not because I am opposed to eating animals. If however I did eat meat, I would not eat liver, kidneys or any other organ that works on the 'clean the body' team.

The other thing that I find funny about the liver encounter is that they do not consider liver meat. OK, so it is not muscle, I will give them that, but it still part of an animal and thus is not included in the category of things I or any other vegetarian eat.

Cookies
I do not have a story about cookies. I just made cookies today with some new friends and thought of all my friends and family who I have given cookies to over the past years. Here is a picture to make you jealous:
Live Laugh Love
Kate

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Mi Casa

6:24 PM | Posted by Unknown


Front Door
Family Room
The other half of the family room
Dinning Room
Kitchen

My Room
My bed complete with a quilt my Mom made

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Introduction

9:05 AM | Posted by Unknown

Hello Family and Friends,

Welcome to my blog! This is my first blog and therefore make no promises of any kind. With that said, an update interview style:

Where are you?
Peru. I live with a family in the community of Hauscaran

What? Why?
I was invited to be a Peace Corps volunteer in July and am now in training.

But I thought you were in graduate school, what are you doing in Peru?
Since graduating from The University of Tulsa, I entered into a graduate program at Michigan Technological University. The program is combined with the Peace Corps, technically: Peace Corps Masters International in Mitigation of Natural Geologic Hazards. I spent the last year taking classes towards my degree and while I am in Peace Corps I will do my research. When I finish my service I will return to Michigan Tech to complete my degree. Upon completion, I will have earned a Masters of Science in Geology.

Where is Michigan Tech and how was your year there?
Michigan Tech is in the City of Houghton located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, duly named Canada Minor by my awesome friend Lee. I have to be honest, I did not think I would survive the winter in Houghton, but by the end of the coldest summer of my life I did not want to leave. Its funny, when I arrived in Houghton a little over a year ago I was in complete shock, because of the instant season change and the reality of its remoteness (if you don't know where Houghton is, it is worth looking it up on a map, especially in relation to Texas). After a year I did not want to leave. Now I could be wrong about this, but I think it has something to do with the friendships I formed while there. Like I said I could be wrong, but probably not. As for surviving my first real winter, it was invigorating and when I returned to Dallas in August for the first time I understood why people find it unbearably hot. If you don't live in it regularly, then it is like putting a frog in boiling water. To sum up my year I would say: Awesome place, Awesome people, Awesome school and generally a good time had by all.

So, you are now in Peru training to be a volunteer. How is it going?
Well, I will keep this short, because I have picture and stories for another time, but it is great. Here is the fact breakdown of what I have been up to. There are 57 trainees, 19 of which are Water and Sanitation volunteers, which includes me. We spend our mornings from 8 to noon in Spanish language class, then in the afternoon we do one or two of the following, medical chat accompanied by vaccines, safety chat (essentially how not to get into sticky situations), tech session ( we separate into our respective groups, Health, Environment and Water and Sanitation), more language with a dash of culture, or a session covering various topics concerning working in developing communities. In addition to that, I live with a family of four, Mom, Dad, and two boys, 10 and 23.

I am going to leave you with that.

Peace, Love, Joy
Chao!
Kate

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