So I made it through the first couple weeks in site, I am even starting to feel comfortable there. My routine is slowly coming together, and I am beginning to get going on some work. Maybe not the Community Diagnostic as of yet, but hey, I dont need your judging eyes looking this way. So far I have started to work with the Municipality and the Health Post on a recycling project and spoken on the radio to all of Faique. I got home after this surprise radio show, to my host mom congratulating me. I am just shocked anyone could understand my spanish well enough to comprehend anything I said. The recycling project is getting under way and really important because trash disposal here is not the safest, or the healthiest. But the people here seem to really want to make a change. I have given a few presentations on recycling to three different areas of Faique, and last Friday we had a Clean Faique Campaign. I gave a presentation in the morning, then we all went off in teams and picked up the trash along the streets. A few hours of pushing a wheelbarrow around, followed by a solid hour of digging grass and mud out of a long untouched canal, and I was pretty well exhausted and ready to hide in my house for a bit. The rain began about 2 in the afternoon, and saved me.
The rain in Faique is starting to increase. Each day around 2 or 3 in the afternoon the rain starts to come sporadically until about 7 or 8, then its pretty steady most of the night. We have a sheet metal, tin roof, and the sound can be quite soothing. It has that relaxing consistency that always seems to put me down for a nap after lunch. Not to mention by that time I will have filled up on a soup, a plate of rice, fried platano, and some meat, and a delicious fresh made juice. The fruits here are amazing. I have tried tons of new fruits; guanabana, grenadilla, naranjilla, not to mention some old favorites like mangos, which are amazing here, and tons of oranges.
I finally met my host sister, Katy. She finished up the semester and is back for Christmas. Christmas here is really similar in some ways, and others its a lot different. It doesnt quite feel like Christmas for a lot of reasons, but the main one is not being with my family. But there are a lot of new things that make it feel like Christmas. We have a Christmas tree, I think its an orange tree, very small, but nonetheless has the lights and ornaments of any arbol de Navidad. We have lights up on the windows, and a lot of houses have the same. Also each house and institution has a Nativity scene. The police station, churches, and municipality all have large ones that are really cool. In my house it is right under the tree, and each year there is a big ceremony on Christmas Eve, right before Christmas, where they put Jesus into the scene. Its different, but pretty cool. I have also watched Home Alone 2 and It's A Wonderful Life to get me in the Christmas mood.
This past weekend, I came into Piura city. It was my birthday, and as everyone here has told me, I am now in my mid-20s. So that was an enjoyable revelation to think on. We went out to a club, which happened to be having a lingerie show. I told my friends it was too much for my birthday and that they shouldn't have. Thinking back on it now, the show may have not been a birthday present to me, but a guy can dream, cant he?
Overall, things are good. Coming up on my first month in site, and each day seems to go a little better than the day before. I have a long way to go, but its starting to feel like home and a place I can hang my hat for some time to come.
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