It's Like Christmas Day...on Jan 13th

Hey everybody so I know that I’ve posted a lot of blogs recently…but lets face it I think you all like to read them, so it’s ok. The reason that I’ve been fortunate enough to have this much access to internet is because the SERPOST people in customs hate me. I came into Chiclayo on Monday with every intention of being a good Peace Corps Volunteer and going back to my site the next day on the next bus…but the guy at customs didn’t like that plan. I waited in line for 4 hours to fight this guy to get the package that my Outdoor Leadership professors, Ted, Tommy, and Terry sent me, and the package that Liz and her boys that I babysat sent me. Now normally I’m sure it wouldn’t have been this much of a hassle to get the boxes…or so I’m going to tell myself…but since the Peace Corps has my official government issued passport, all I have is a copy and a letter saying that the Peace Corps has my passport. Well to the guy at customs that just wasn’t sufficient. Now in the states I would have just said, “Ok fine, I’ll come back when I have my real passport back in 2 months.” The problem is in Peru they only hold packages in customs for a month…and the deadline was creeping up on my packages before they were to be sent BACK to the United States. Yikes.

So after realizing that Customs’ man hates me, I sent to solicit help from my favorite lady who works at the front desk (the place where I go to get my mail that doesn’t go through customs—basically if it’s less than 2 lbs and isn’t in a box she gets it, otherwise it goes to evil customs man) to see if she had any ideas. Well my lady apparently is the boss (wo)man and was not happy that evil customs man was making life hard for her gringos (she loves us Peace Corps people because we share the candy we get sent with her…so thanks guys!). Boss lady turned into this dude’s mom in 3.5 seconds doing everything but grabbing him by the ear and spanking him. I’ll call it explaining, because that sounds more polite than fussing out, to evil customs man that I can only make it into Chiclayo ever so often, and that due to all this rain we’ve been getting I probably won’t be able to make it back for a very long time. And that I have given him an official document that states that my passport is in the hands of the government and they’re sorry for the trouble, but give me the damn package. Yeah! Way to go boss lady!

Needless to say after 4 hours of this, I made it out of SERPOST with 10 envelopes from (yes this is time to thank you all by name…think of it like the Oscars):
My mom (of course she’s my mom!)
Mr. and Mrs. Shelhorse
Liz Stankavage and her boys that I used to babysit (Liz I LOVE the pictures of the boys, they have gotten so big! And tell Brooks that he looks amazing in his glasses)
Mr. and Mrs. Pickett
Anna Myers
Kacie Ross and the RHS Field Hockey Team (haha ok I have to giggle, that sounds like a really funny band name)
Ted, Terry, and Tommy-my Outdoor Leadership Profs (with some super wicked cool gear as Terry says)

Thanks to everyone who sent me all the goodies, I’m pretty sure I’ve made about 5lbs of candy, 2lbs of beef jerky (yumm) and all sorts of cool random stuff (just how I like it--nice and random!)

But back to the story as to why I’m still in Chiclayo (sorry I got distracted by all the goodies). $ hours from when SERPOST opens just happens to be noon…the time that if I am taking the bus back to Nanchoc I should probably be on my way to the bus terminal…or there already if I want a seat that’s not infested with chicken poo…hey I live in the country, it’s how people transport them. So I was running back to my hostel with a bag full of goodies and 2 boxes, make it back by 12:15 realize that CRAP I haven’t packed any of my stuff yet and I still have way too much stuff to do on the internet to leave right now. So I called Emilia (my boss in Lima) and begged to stay longer to look for more things on the internet and to finish buying stuff for my room, and thankfully she agreed. I love this woman! She’s so understanding of when we volunteers have a problem and very good about helping us find/or use a solution to make our lives easier. So thanks to Emilia’s awesome-ness I have had more time in the internet to look up more plans for Improved wood burning stoves (cocinas mejoradas), wood burning ovens (people in my town really seem to want them, I know it’s not really part of my Health Program’s goals…but I’ll consider it a secondary project), a really cool website www.biology4kids.com and its counter websites www.physics4kids.com and I think there’s a geography, earth science, and other cool 4kids parts too. So I have realized talking to parents and kids in my site that their science classes are NOT like ours. I remember the science fairs in middle school (yeah I know all the parents reading this just shuttered from the memories…but thanks for helping us guys!) then I need to get going to look up some more latrine plans and some AIDS/HIV stuff in Spanish for my health center.

But I hope that you all have enjoyed the blogs and the pictures. And if any of you want a giggle. My group made a rap video on YouTube