December 1, 2008, 3ish pm I stumbled, quite literally off the bus from Chiclayo and landed in Nanchoc, Cajamarca. The bus dropped me off in front of the Health Post with my 2 bags each weighing way more than they should have (this is hindsight talking, at the time I thought I didn’t have enough) and left me in the dust. I was faced with the rather daunting task of hauling these bags the 10 yards to my front door all by myself. It was in that moment that I realized I was actually in the Peace Corps. That concept seemed to have evaded me during the 3 months of training suddenly smacked me square in the face. I managed to drag my bags to the front door to find the door locked and the house empty—damn. I then dragged my bags the 10 yards back to the Health Post all the while trying to remember at least ONE name of a Health Post employee or how to explain that I’m locked out of my house in Spanish. I walked into the waiting room and interrupted a training activity with all of the surrounding Health Posts. 15 pairs of eyes immediately turned on me and I resisted the urge to piss myself or run screaming for my mommy. I was saved by the OBGYN Dr. Emma who raised her arms over her head and belted “Look its Yennifer! How was your trip?” I then preceded to thank whatever higher power there might be for her giving the explanation of who I was and why I looked so lost to the 15 other health workers.
Looking back that seems so long ago. I now know almost all of those 15 eyes by name (a few left the area before I could learn their names), I better than to ever travel with that much crud, and I can talk my way out of almost any awkward situation. I consider myself lucky to actually feel at home in this place, I get homesick for Nanchoc when I’m doing a lot of Peace Corps traveling. Before my mother can breakdown crying let me state for the record that Durham, North Carolina is and forever will be my home and I miss it more than words can say. I know from talking to my fellow volunteers that actually feeling at home in your site is a rare commodity. I am fortunate enough to have real friends here and a host family that genuinely care for me. Aside from the baking heat and the pouring rain I couldn’t have asked for a better community to live in…ok well I could ask that they come to a few more meetings, but we can’t get to picky now can we?
I didn’t until recently realize how much I like this place. I went to Lima for medical checks and came out with a half cracked open tooth. Long story short I had a cavity that would put most bear’s winter house to shame and in the dentist’s efforts to excavate the cave-like hole he broke my tooth in half…without pain killers. So we can just sum that day up as an all around bad day. The day was then made worse by red-tape. We had to send x-rays and images to Washington to decide the next course of action, aka to fix the tooth or not to fix the tooth. I will admit I was distressed over my tooth-- I have a giant hole in my mouth currently being covered with a temporary paste that would freak out the most normal person. But I wasn’t getting all riled up over the in-limbo state of my tooth as much as I was about the possibility of missing my town’s 51st anniversary. The town’s anniversary is celebrated December 1-3rd, This wasn’t just the town’s party, I wanted to celebrate my 1 year in site milestone. This celebration was marking many a moment and I was in no mood to be in Lima in red-tape-limbo missing the soccer and parades.
We are lucky in Peace Corps Peru to have amazing doctors Suni and Jorge working for us who care about not only our health concerns but our personal dramas. I was all but expecting them to tell me that I was going to miss my town party and my 1 year mark in site and be stuck in Lima doped out on pain killers after a root canal. I was however surprised to find that Suni completely understood, we worked out a compromise: It was obvious that I need to have a root canal and a crown put on, even Washington agreed (thankfully!), but it was also equally as obvious to her that I couldn’t miss this moment in my site. So I was given an extra coat of the temporary cave-plugging paste and sent back to site to celebrate the 51st and the 1st anniversaries and will be returning to Lima in a week to enjoy more dental health adventures in Peru.
And as I write this I’m listening to the thumping of the base and the singing of a Cajamarca-Huano cover band at 11pm sunburned from a day of cheering on our horrible soccer team and watching the kids march in the parade. The day could have only been made better if my camera battery hadn’t died and I had it all on film…Oh well, we can’t have it all. But I can still cross my fingers that the band will go home by 1am so I can get some sleep…
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