So I am just now finishing up my first week at site and so far, so good. After having requested a site change and having it be granted, I chose to come to a town called Grocio Prado in the provincia of Chincha in the departamento of Ica. Grocio Prado (technically a district) is a town with about 20.000 people about 2 and a half hours south of Lima. Chincha is known to Peruvians as the home of afro-Peruvian culture and everyone I told that I´d be going to Chincha said the same phrase to me in the same deep, seemingly uneducated accent -- ¨vamos pa´ Chincha familia¨. Needless to say, I have seen some morenitas, but Grocio Prado doesn´t really have many and you can´t really observe the presence of an afro-Peruvian culture here.
I am living with a family here two blocks off of the main square – the Plaza de Armas. I have a host brother named Jean (20 years old), a host sister named Cristel (15 years old), a host mom named Mirtha (40 years old), and a host father who recently found a job as a watchman in another city. I think he is coming in next week for Jean´s birthday.
I´ve been eating all of my meals with my host family. Breakfast being coffee, bread with either cheese, tortilla (a pancake made of eggs, milk, and onion), or avocado. Lunch being some sort of soup, a plate with rice, potatoes, yucca (some sort of Peruvian cousin of the potato), and a piece of meet. And finally dinner being basically a repeat of lunch. Needless to say, Peruvians don´t eat many fruits and vegetables.
Other than that, after not having run much during training, I´ve run each of the past six days, today having run to the beach, which is about 40 minutes from my house. I´ve spent a lot of time with the previous volunteer, Alana who recently departed for the United States. She gave me a run-down of what she´s been working on and introduced me to her community counterparts and other people she has had the opportunity to work with during her service.
Regretfully, I have yet to meet the mayor who is literally never in his office. I have met the head of the artisan association with which Alana was working but I have yet to meet any of the other artisans. It appears that the people of Grocio Prado (denominated Grocio Pradinos) lack trust in other people, and most definitely in foreigners. I am guessing that in my two years here, I am going to encounter a great deal of resistance.
Also, it is interesting to note that the town has many tourists who come to see the Melchorita, the house of a Peruvian Ghandi. They come to see the house, pray, eat (Grocio Prado is known for having fantastic food), buy artisan products, and the leave. My first day in Grocio Prado, I went for a jugo de fresa (strawberry and milk shake) and was charged 4 soles. Over lunch, I told my host family about how delicious I was – turns out I was engañado – it should have costed between 1.50 and 2 soles.
Welcome to Grocio Prado :-)
