Thank you for your
letters. I am doing well here in Peru.
Just after I last
wrote to you, I was in a parade for saving the environment. There is a lake
near us that is in danger from pollution. I marched with the people who want to
make the lake into a nature reserve to help protect it. A lot of the children
from our region were in the parade, too.
Then we had Christmas
and New Year’s holidays. There was a lot of dancing in the plaza in Marco
during the New Year celebration. Every neighborhood has its own costumes. They
practice throughout the year. There are many opportunities to dance because
there are many holidays here. This is the dance team for the Jajachaca
neighborhood in Marco.
After the holidays, I
started teaching summer school. One subject I teach is English as a foreign
language. There are 67 children in our summer school, divided into 3
classrooms. The youngest classroom is for age 5 to 8. The middle classroom is
for ages 9 to 11. The oldest classroom is for ages 12 to 16. So far I have
taught them words for meeting people, like “Hello” and “How are you?”, and
colors, and numbers and parts of the body. They like learning English.
Here is a picture of
my students practicing words for parts of the body.
I taught them the songs
“Hokey-Pokey” and “Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” because those songs have lots
of words for parts of the body. Do you know those songs?
I also teach environmental
education because I’m here in Peru to help take care of the environment. One
day, the whole school focused on trees. The children made a list of all the
reasons they could think of to plant trees. Our school came up with 14
different reasons to plant trees. One was because trees give the air oxygen.
Another was because the leaves, bark or roots of some trees can be used to make
medicine. I bet you can think of other reasons, too. Then, all of my students
planted trees at our school. There were baby trees left over from a tree
planting project in the town. No one wanted them. My students rescued these
trees and planted them at the school. They did a great job!
As I told you before,
I am growing trees also. They are special because they’re a native species of
Peru. The tree is called ‘tara’. We’re helping to restore it because it is very
good for the soil here and provides a healthy habitat for Peruvian native
species of birds and insects. The leaves are good for stomachache if you make a
tea of them. My little tara trees have just sprouted. We’ll plant them in a few
months when they’re big enough.
We have a new member
of our household. One of our cows had a calf! He doesn’t have a name yet.
Now I’ll answer the
questions that you asked in your letters. You sure had a lot this time!
The total number of
animals at my house (chickens, turkeys, Guinea pigs, cats, dogs, sheep and
cows, but not counting the bees) is around 80. One of you wanted to know what
the animals are for. We eat the chickens, turkeys and Guinea pigs. The sheep
are for wool and for meat. The cows give milk that we drink and that my mother
makes cheese with. The bees give us honey. The cat kills mice and the dogs
guard the house. My family grows potatoes and beans—we eat some and sell some.
No, we don’t grow tomatoes here, it’s not warm enough.
Yes, I do like living
here. It is very interesting to live in a new country. As a Peace Corps
volunteer, I’m a part of the community, not a tourist. I like that. I miss the
United States and my family and friends sometimes, though.
For Halloween I was a dancer
with pink and yellow veils.
No, they don’t play
American football here. They play lots of soccer, which is called futbol in
Spanish.
Yes, I am calm here.
It’s a quiet kind of place.
Many of you want to
know what Guinea pig tastes like. I think it tastes like pork. The thing is,
the animal is so small that you don’t really get that much meat. They usually
serve it in a spicy sauce that’s like taco sauce. It’s not my favorite.
Our dogs are named
Donkey and Colita. Here’s a picture of them. Colita is the white one.
The cat is named
Michin. Yes, it is a little scary to hear her chasing mice in the ceiling at
night.
You had lots of
questions about weather and seasons. How long is a day in winter? Well, I don’t
notice that much difference in the length of day as the months go by. I think
that’s because we’re so close to the equator. Right now it is summer, and it
gets dark by 7 at night. Summer is rainy season. It rains every day, sometimes
for just an hour, sometimes all day long and all night, too. Winter will arrive
in June, and it will be dry with colder nights and slightly shorter days. It
might go down to freezing a few times. It almost never snows in Peru. Last week
it snowed high in the mountains and completely stopped traffic for a day
because they aren’t used to dealing with snow. It never gets very hot here,
though. Even the hottest days aren’t more than 65 degrees. Most of the time
it’s about 55 degrees.
Yes, some of the
people here believe in Santa.
A few of you asked
what I do for a living. Normally I teach college in Colorado. In Peru, I work
in the Peace Corps environment program. That means that I do things that are
good for the environment, like planting trees, helping with trash cleanup
programs and teaching about nature in the schools. One of you asked if I miss
my old job. No, I don’t. I like what I’m doing. Another of you asked what I’ll
do after my two years in the Peace Corps. I haven’t decided yet. I may go back
to my old job, or I may not.
Yes, I like animals. It’s
a good thing I do, because my family here are farmers.
The altitude—yes, at
first it made me sick. I felt a little dizzy and if I climbed up the stairs it
was hard to catch my breath. I felt weak. But now I’ve been up here above
11,000 feet for 2 months and I feel better. I just sleep more than I used to.
Maybe my body needs the extra rest. The highest place I’ve been in Peru so far was
15, 807 feet. Here it is:
You asked why I left
my other town to come here. All Peace Corps volunteers in Peru train in one
town at first, where we have a Peace Corps school, and then move to new towns
afterward. There were 57 of us who were in training together, but all of us
live in different towns now, in places all over Peru.
So far, I haven’t gone
on vacation, so I can’t answer the question about what I do for vacation yet.
It sounds like many of you had fun during your Christmas vacations. I stayed in
my town for the holidays and had good holiday meals and made a pretty nativity
scene with my family.
You had some questions
about the pictures in my last letter. No, the birthday cake wasn’t mine, it was
my host mother’s. Her name is Fabiana. What it says on the cake is “Feliz
cumpleaños Fabiana, con mucho cariño”. That means “Happy Birthday Fabiana, with much affection”. Another
picture several of you asked about is the first one. No, it’s not a zoo
picture. The taller animal is a llama and the smaller one is an alpaca. They
are pets that live at a hotel near here. There are free herds of llamas in my
state but they live a little higher up in the mountains.
Yes, I like movies,
too. Sometimes I watch them on my computer. I just watched E.T. in Spanish.
There is one movie theater in my state. It’s in the state capital. I haven’t
watched a movie there yet, but I want to.
The reason my road
isn’t paved is because it’s expensive to pave roads and keep them in good
repair. In Peru, the highways are paved, just like in the United States. The main
road that comes to Marco is paved. But all the rest of the roads in the town
are gravel or dirt.
Why can’t you get
pizza in Peru? Good question. Well, you can get it, in the big cities, but not
so much here in the country. I think part of the problem is that the kind of
cheese everyone makes in Peru isn’t the right kind for pizza.
No, I don’t have any
relatives in Peru. I live with a family and call them my mom and dad and sister
and nephew, but they’re not really my relatives.
Yes, the people chase
the cows out every day. But why do they bring them home at night? Good
question. One reason is that they bring them home to milk them. Another reason
is because they don’t have cowboys or sheperds that stay with the animals to
protect them. Instead, the custom is to bring them home so they don’t get
stolen and so they can be cared for.
That should answer
most of your questions. Thank you for all the letters. It was very fun to read
them. I look forward to your next letters.
I hope you are working
hard in school and enjoying the winter in New Mexico. Please give my regards to
your families.
Your friend in Peru,
Alane
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