Guess what I did. I ran a half marathon. That’s right 21k. I didn’t do it very quickly. I certainly didn’t win the race but I at least finished it. For me that is something. So I know I can do 21k now I need to train and see if next year I can run the full 42k.
Another volunteer from my group, Steve, planned this amazing international marathon in this beach town where he lives called Pacasmayo. It was amazing. There were about 140 runners in total running 5, 10, 21, or 42 kilometers on a not quite so easy course. It used to be packed sand but with the rain etc. it was essentially a sand path with a decent number of hills, but hey I did it so it can’t be that hard. Another amazing part of the marathon was getting to see other volunteers. It made me realize how lucky I am to be apart of this group of PC volunteers in Peru, specifically Peru 9. They’re great people and it’s always great to see them.
So that was my fun weekend vacation. Then it was back to real life. Real life started when my cell phone went haywire last Thursday. I know, I know, I can’t complain, I’m a Peace Corps volunteer with a cell phone, but after having one for so long you come to rely on it. I am/was in the middle of planning this big event in my site (which I’ll explain in a bit) so I couldn’t get a hold of anyone for that. I also couldn’t call my host family to let them know I’d be coming back late so they were kinda worried. It was just kind of a pain. Once I got back into Chiclayo I got a hold of Peace Corps and the man in charge of cell phones. He told me to go to the telephone company and he would send them an email letting them know I was on my way and needed to figure out the cell phone thing. Well I went to the big office, waited 15 minutes for someone to answer my question, only to be told I had to go to the other office on the other side of town. At this point my legs were still kinda sore from the marathon and I was just generally very tired from a long weekend, so that seemed like a big deal to have to go to the other side of town. Once I got there it took another 30 minutes for me to meet up with someone, where I was told I would have to wait a few hours until she received an email from the Embassy telling her what to do. I took advantage of the time to eat lunch in a park, where I was thoroughly stared at and returned 3 hours later, as instructed. I waited another 30 minutes to talk to the senorita where she told me she was still waiting for a second response and I should have a seat and she’d call me once she received the response. There I waited another 45minutes. Finally she told me I was authorized to get a new cell phone. I had to go to the cashier, tell them my number. They then gave me a receipt which I took to another part of the building to receive my phone and then had to go to yet another part of the building to test my SIM card to see if everything worked. Of course, it didn’t. It was back to the first senorita to wait for another email. Then repeating the process of cashier, receiving my new SIM card, going back to the senorita so she could authorize it, and more waiting. Finally, she said everything was set. I could leave, I would just need to wait 20minutes for the SIM card to be registered and for my phone to work. Well 20 minutes ended up being about 3 hours but finally I am again with a working cell phone. And I know I can’t complain because I’m really lucky to have cell phone to start with and Peace Corps took care of all of the arrangements etc. but it took about 6 hours of running around and waiting and chaos. While Peru is incredibly beautiful and growing everyday, there are still some major efficiency issues. For example if you go to the pharmacy, first you need to talk to a pharmacist who tells you what he/she can give you. Then you go to another window where you pay for your medications. They you go to yet another window where you receive them. The process to buy aspirin for headache usually takes about 30 hours and amplifies your headache. That’s progress I suppose. A lot of waiting and inefficient trial and error until you finally get it right.
So here I am with my working cell phone trying to plan an event. My counterpart agency, Cáritas, is about to inaugurate their project and will be holding a 3 day event to celebrate. This event includes a cocktail party in my community, to be attended by the interim ambassador of Italia, other dignitaries, heads of organizations, and maybe even the President of Peru, Alan Garcia. I poured all my energy into coordinating with the community to form a budget, plan events for the night, organize cleaning efforts, etc. Then came the heads of Cáritas, who reversed all of my work and basically told us to start over. It’s a long story, but a pretty typical example of my relationship with Cáritas. I plan and work and have to be their messenger and tell the community all the bad news (mandates that come from Cáritas), then come the bosses who go back on everything they have told me and make me look like the bad guy who’s lying to the community and stomping on their ideas. It’s incredibly… discouraging. Finally I spoke with the member or Cáritas, Omar, who is my direct counterpart within Cáritas and explained my frustrations and told him I would leave this even to him. He understood and agreed with me (he is also frequently the scapegoat of Cáritas’s bad decisions) but I can tell he’s upset. Since I got a working cell phone I have received at least 2 calls a day from him asking for help, and I usually oblige. And so goes my work with Cáritas. This event is absorbing most of my time but I have decided that it is time to find new projects and a new path that I really believe in. What good would it to for me to abandon everything I know and love, and a job that actually pays me to come to Peru and do something I don’t believe in, that will never help anyone except the pocketbooks of the bosses of an international beneficiary? I could do that in the States and get paid. And so it’s back to square 1. AGAIN. And I’m lost. I have no idea how or where to start over again. I know I’ll figure it out and there are some great people in the community who are willing to help me out. I’m sure I will end up working more with children, which scares me to death. I’m not really a big fan of kids at this point of my life, and even less so children who are not used to discipline and rules (that don’t involve beating the crap out of them when they do anything that displeases their parents). I’m not about to beat on kids but I don’t know how to make them listen to me. It definitely makes me appreciate my parents more. I don’t know how they put up with me. I was a pain in the ass but somewhere they found (and sometimes lost) the patience to deal with me. I was lucky to have such a great family. I wished I would have realized it sooner.
And speaking of my great family, my dad bought tickets for my sister, brother, and him to come visit me! They get to Ecuador on Christmas Day and will be spending almost a month with me. That is the best news I have heard in over a year. I can’t wait. If nothing else I will keep trucking along because I know I can count down the days until my dad gets here!
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