FBT

So I’ve been trying to figure out how I can write a blog that sums up my Field Based Training experience without being so incredibly long that you all fall asleep while reading it. Now do not get me wrong, FBT was not boring, the complete opposite, it’s just I never thought that so much could be crammed into a week…so I’m just going to give this a shot:
You might ask, how does one travel from Lima, the capital of Peru to the province of Piura (which if any of you have seen a map of Peru you know that Piura is freaking far away from Lima)? Well in a Bus Cama of course! So for the Spanish-disinclined, bus cama literally translates into Bed Bus. And its just that, a really nice bus with seats that recline back to nearly a bed. Now I’m not sure if I’m just too tall for these busses (well any gringo for that matter) or if I just can’t sleep on busses—both are very well possible. But I just wasn’t able to get much sleep on my 14 hour bus ride (during the night) to La Cuidad de Piura. But I will give Bus Camas this one thing: not once did my butt fall asleep, so that goodness for that! After our 14 hours in a bus (with a dinner and breakfast that were actually eatable) we hopped in some taxis and began the second phase of the Piura adventure: the 4 hour ride in a taxi that is older than we are!! Never-the-less, our beat up yellow itty-bitty taxi somehow made it to Jilili (the city I spent 3 days in for FBT). Jilili is the site of a Peru-10 volunteer (I’m a Peru 12, so that means he’s been in site for a year just to fill you in on Peace Corps lingo…its confusing I know) named Brian. His site was just beautiful. It was a mix of sierra and selva (mountains and jungle), it had the tall steep, winding mountain views combined with mango trees, banana trees, and sugar cane. Brian spends most of his time working with the JASS program, which is a committee that monitors the collection, treatment, and distribution of water and the management of sewage…he’s still got a ways to go with the treatment part…let’s just say us trainees were advised to brush our teeth with bottled water…yumm. But Brian is doing a great job so far just keeping the ball rolling with his projects, and finishing up the projects of the previous volunteer at his site (she worked with latrines and there is still a lot of follow up he has to do with those).
While in Jilili we took a tour of the heath center, saw some HOLSTIENS (wendy I know you’re proud!!!), worked with some latrines, and community garden/compost projects, gave a few education sessions of the importance of communication to 3rd, 4th, and 5th grados (aka 13-16 year olds), and attempted to make a radio spot but was forced to abandon that due the rain. Rain on a calaminia roof (aka tin roof) is really loud and makes it IMPOSSIBLE to record a skit for the radio on a computer…trust us we tried. But that just about sums up my 3 days in Jilili to the best of my cliffs note abilities. So onward to Potrerillo!
From Jilili we ran, quite literally, to the combi as it was pulling away from the town center with all of our things yelling “WAIT!!!!!” The bus did wait, we were able to get our seats between a woman with a rooster and a man with a typical hat of Piura on (think reeeealy wide brimmed cowboy hat-10 gallon style). After a 3 hour bus ride and a 2n hour taxi ride we were at our next site, Portrerillo. AND small worlds of small worlds the volunteer, Lizzi, is from DURHAM!!! Turns out we lived all of 20 minutes from each other, she went to Durham Academy (I know, but we like her anyways)! It was so cool to be able to “talk shop” with a fellow Durham-ite. She was asking about all the good places (Elmo’s, Cosmic, Fosters, Mad Hatters, so on) AND we realized that we have a few common friends (Lindsey and Jeffery Spears mom cause I know you’re wondering…). It’s just such a small world.
But Portrerillo is way different that Jilili, it’s located in a valley called Chipillico and is soooo pretty. There are rice fields as far as the eye can see at times surrounded by beautiful mountains, banana trees, more mango trees, and all the chickens, cows, and pigs your heart could desire. (PS Wendy tell me what type of cow has a huge hump on its back and some hair business going on its belly…cause that’s all they have there). But the sun here was fierce! I’m talking Eric got a sunburn from the part of the sun that was shining through the window on his leg in the car ride to the site…wow. But Lizzi has the coolest project I think I’ve seen yet, she is finishing it up now (just in time to end her service in late November), she has worked with an NGO called Plan International and brought her community and the surrounding communities the coolest gift ever—FLUSHABLE LATRINES!!!! Ok so Ya’ll probably aren’t as excited as I am about this…but you don’t have to poop in a hole…so I don’t expect much animation. But the way these things work: Plan International and her worked together to supply the communities with the necessary supplies, bricks, metal doors, TOLIETS, PVC tubing, cement, and skilled workers. And the communities in return provided the man power, the adobe bricks for the walls of the bathroom, and the will and want to work to better their community. So here’s the Basic Run down: You’ve got a normal toilet, all white and shiny and just asking to get used, that you put on a cement base, get this INSIDE of your house, and connect the toilet to a “septic tank” with a PVC tube. The “septic tank” is a hole in the ground with a wall of bricks with spaces in between them, you then fill in the bottom of the tank and the sides of the hole (between the dirt and brick) with a mixture of sand and larger rocks. Top off the “tank” with some cement and a ventilation tube, and you’re DONE! How this works: you walk to the canal (irrigation/water source for everyone usually really close to the house) grab a bucket of water, go to the bathroom, do you’re thing, pour the water in the toilet and TADA it flushes. The water travels in the tube and is filtered through the sand and rock and the clean water goes into the surrounding earth, while the nastiness is kept in the tank. And just when you think it can’t get better…oh it does: Potrerillo is supposed to be getting a RED Sistema de Agua (aka a water system, with pipes that bring water to the house, and remove sewage and used water from the house) so the community will be able to use their pre-existing bathrooms with the new system…they’re moving on up in the world!
We didn’t just so only latrines, we also saw the construction of an improved stove (one that uses less wood but gets way hotter for cooking) and gave s few education sessions on AIDS/HIV to a the local high school. Now I get to the fun part of Field Based Training: The Prank…
So, Rebecca (my DC Roomie) happened to have a birthday during FBT, Nov 1 to be exact. And Lizzie and my instructor had decided before FBT that a birthday party of sorts was needed in a bad way to celebrate. Sooo with a little planning and some kick ass acting if the rest of my group does say so, we had a plan in order. Here’s how it went down: Friday morning as we were waiting for a few people in the school yard before our HIV/AIDS talk (Rebecca being one of them) George (the instructor) laid out the plan. “We’re going back to Piura City for Rebecca’s birthday. But we want to surprise her, so she can’t know. I will say something later and just play along with it.” And the scene is set.
We made it through the class, the concert after the class, and lunch before the plan started to come together. Gorge spent A LOT of time on the phone, which made Rebecca worried, being the natural observer that she is. Then as we were about half way through with our stove George called Lizzie out of the room for a second and then he left. Lizzie walked back in and said, “OK guys, something’s happened. We need to thank the workers and the family and get back to the hostal for a meeting with Gorge.” So we all thanked everyone and started walking back. Once we arrived in the hostal George had a talk with us and told us that Michael Hirsh (the Country Director of Peace Corps Peru) was in Piura City and needed to have a talk with us, so pack up all of your things and get ready, the taxi will be here in 20 minutes. We all thought this was a great plan…but we didn’t know the effect it would have on Rebecca…the poor girl naturally assumed the worst: A Peace Corps Volunteer had died, a family member of someone in the group had died, and the list just goes on. So we did our best to be upbeat about our fake meeting with Michael. We all got our stuff together, hopped in our 2 taxis and were back in Piura City in a little over an hour and a half.
Now here’s where our “painless surprise birthday party” started to run into a few kinks. I forgot to mention that Rebecca was sick…well most of our group was sick in some form or another (Sick of taxis, sick in the stomach, nice and gaseous, something like that). Well when we showed up in Piura City…the hostal we were supposed to be staying at was closed. They had forgotten to write a receipt for a customer and the government had shut them down for 3 days (tough love, I know). So we walked around for an hour finding another hostal (we weren’t quitting till we found one with hot water!) and finally got one for a reasonable rate. George announced that we’d all meet back in the lobby in 30 minutes after everyone had the chance to shower, then we’d go and meet Michael at a local eatery for the meeting. Rebecca just couldn’t understand why we needed to shower to go meet with Michael, he was used to smelly PCVs--she was sick and just wanted to go to bed. Reluctantly she showered then we all went to the “meeting.” Lizzie and Gorge had already planned with Cappuccinos (the local PCV hangout) to have a table for 8 ready (there were 7 of us) so as we walked in there was our table…and by shear coincidence the table right beside us was another group of Peru 12 from the environment group…well that added a little more reality to our prank. So we went to their table before Rebecca and did the “so you’re here to meet with Michael too?” wink, wink, nudge, nudge move. That poor group was so confused, but we managed to get Rebecca away before they ruined our hard work. We sat down, acted anxious about meeting with Michael, and then the waiter brought wine. Rebecca said, “Why the heck is Michael Hirsh buying us wine??” Then George decided to break the news in form of a toast: “Rebecca, I just want to say on behalf of the group that we’re sorry but we played a trick on you…Michael Hirsh is not coming, this was a trick to get you here. Happy Birthday…did I mention we’re sorry?” Speechless, Rebecca sat and pondered the day’s events for a second and said, “wait…Hirsh isn’t coming? What? Ummm…”
Yes I’m pretty sure the lying made us bad people…but the food was worth it! Oh yeah, I left out one little part of the story. The electricity was out, so when we walked in everything was candle-lit and looked like a place you’d go on a date…that also confused her. And seeing as how the electricity was out they were only able to prepare half of the menu. So we all had salads and the BIGGEST brownie and ice cream we’d ever seen. The End.
Thanks everyone if you made it through the end of this blog, I know it was long…but it did sum up a while week! Take care!