I apologize for the lack of updates. Now that I have nearly completed a year in site things are less new and shiny (in fact at the moment everything is covered in dust thanks to dry season). I was looking at my friend’s photos from their visit to my site and there were quite a few that made me realize how little I notice anymore. Especially all the burros, they may as well be cars. Actually, in a town where virtually no one owns one, cars get more of my attention these days than a burro.



The end of the school year has begun. You may be asking “Wait, didn’t it just start?’ Well technically classes began the first week of March, they actually began with all their students about April and July 28 aka Independence Day began a 2 week vacation which ended Monday only to begin town anniversary celebrations which will definitely disrupt classes, followed quickly by one high school anniversary, the near month long fiesta in September, a few more school anniversaries sprinkled in, and then things begin to wind down finally ending in December. Then begins rainy season and, as during most prolonged vacations, the vast majority of people will flee to the coast until the start of school/ Carnaval. It’s a frustrating system especially when you know that kids only go to school form 8 to 1 every day. Kids in the US may see this schedule as a dream but they don’t know what kind of gift they have been given. I take for granted less and less each day the primary and secondary education I received.

Something I struggle greatly with here is the lack of creativity and imagination in my students. Kids here live in a very realistic world. They are aware of what’s possible and what’s not. They know the harsh realities of life at an early age. Creativity and imagination on the whole aren’t encouraged nor expected. I ask my kids to imagine something and they just stare at me or copy off the one person in the class who managed to come up with an original idea. I took for granted that I was taught and encouraged to dream, imagine, and create.

This is part of the reason this library project is important to me. I want to create a place where kids can go anytime to participate in programs like art classes, story hours, or computer classes. Where they can go an exercise their imagination, explore and learn by reading a book. A real community place where the resources are free and available to anyone who seeks them. We recently received a grant from the World Connect, Kids to Kids Program, which will be used to create this type of place and provide the programs we are planning. It’s one hell of a slow process but its slowly coming together.


Something I also took for granted, gender equality. I have never been so aware of that fact I am a girl (although here I kind of lay in a grey zone, I am a girl but also an American).I am not saying that in the US sexism is non-existent, after all studies show that women still make 70 cents for every dollar a man makes for the doing the same job, but it is definitely not the same as living in a place where machismo is such a strong part of the culture. Machismo is very alive and “traditional” gender roles are encouraged. Activities are so gender regulated here and it’s a tradition that just keeps getting passed down from generation to generation. Men work in the fields, Women cook and clean, Men play soccer, Women play voleyball, women are nurses, men are engineers….ect. I try my best to encourage equality with my students but I can only go so far. It’s the mothers who raise the children here and teach their children what it means to be a boy and what it means to be a girl. It took a while before these things really started to bother me. For the first few months you are so overwhelmed by the new and different that you don’t take notice of certain things. Now, I feel like I do genuinely live here and the machismo is more evident and annoying than ever. I’ve had a few really in depth conversations about it with my host sister, who is 20 and studying in Lima to be an English teacher, and my host parents. My host sister is very intelligent girl and we talked about how prevalent sexism is in the workplace. Women aren’t taken seriously as professionals but at the same time receive a large amount of extra work. I was furious the day I went to the high school and they had cancelled classes so students could go see a soccer game against a local rival school. The fact that I had showed up to do a class that would not be held was not what bothered me. All the male teachers headed off to the game while the female teachers all stayed behind entering grades until late at night. This is only one example of what constantly happens to the female teachers. They consistently get saddled with extra work. The high school is not the exception, it’s the rule.
I took for granted the equality I experienced growing up. I didn’t realize how lucky I was that I grew up in a society where I could easily find female role models in any profession. I was recently looking for successful Peruvian women for an activity and I was hard pressed to find any outside of the arts or sports arenas. President Humala recently appointed 3 female cabinet members, which I believe is the most there have ever been, although they were appointed to more “female” positions (Ministers of Culture, Women and Social Development, and Education).



As I become more desensitized to this “foreign culture” I think the more important it is to reflect. Its almost too easy at the beginning. Everything is so drastically difference its hard not to notice. Reflecting keeps me aware of what I´m doing and why I´m here, staying aware of my goals.


Coming next week, a little lighter entry…follow Kim through a week as a PCV!