Hola Mundo!
And tonight’s topic will be….tum tum tummmm…Host Families!
Let me start from the beginning. During our
27 month period in Peace Corps, we are assigned two host families. One during
training in Chaclacayo, and another one in our site for 24 months. They help us
integrate in the community and culture. They make you their family, and you
make them your family. They can range from an older couple taking care of you,
to a big family of many host siblings with kids, to a young family. Our
Regional Coordinators do their research with families in a community for a
volunteer and introduces rules to abide by for the host family.
You are assigned a room with a good door
lock. During training, the room will be furnished, so you wont have to worry
about buying anything. On your assigned site, it varies. You might get an
unfurnished room, a partially furnished room, or an empty room. Peace Corps
will give you a settling in allowance to buy some stuff depending if your room
was furnished or not. Room sizes may vary, location of the room may vary, roof
conditions of the roof may vary, “insulation” of the room may vary, and privacy
may vary. You are also given an allowance to pay rent to your family, during
training and in site (rent varies depending on different factors).
During training, families are, let’s say,
recycled. Because Peace Corps groups get trained in the same community, a
family may volunteer to do it again. Some families, in my case, have had like 8
volunteers. In my family I was the first volunteer to be a guy. At about the
second day of training in Peru, we were received by our host parents in the
training center and went away with our luggage; it was pretty exciting seeing
all the volunteers meeting their new family. ...just lovely!
As people kept getting going with their families, I was just smiling, and thinking I was left orphan (not) but then all of a sudden she calls my name, I run towards her and give her a hug…to my new tiny mother. We then took my stuff and went home in a mototaxi, classy, hehe. I started meeting the rest of my family after I put the stuff in my room. I had two sisters, one 7 and another one 13. They were great! I had an older brother of around 30, and mom and dad of around 50. My room was pretty cool. Well, it was spacy. The BONUS side of my family is..that…they had an internet café there! WOOOT!! And a corner store (not too big). I was able to borrow some internet to upload the first YouTube videos I did for training. But after training, It has been pretty slow.
As people kept getting going with their families, I was just smiling, and thinking I was left orphan (not) but then all of a sudden she calls my name, I run towards her and give her a hug…to my new tiny mother. We then took my stuff and went home in a mototaxi, classy, hehe. I started meeting the rest of my family after I put the stuff in my room. I had two sisters, one 7 and another one 13. They were great! I had an older brother of around 30, and mom and dad of around 50. My room was pretty cool. Well, it was spacy. The BONUS side of my family is..that…they had an internet café there! WOOOT!! And a corner store (not too big). I was able to borrow some internet to upload the first YouTube videos I did for training. But after training, It has been pretty slow.
At home, everyone called my host mother
“mom” including the granddaughters.
There are 2 dogs (one that got lost or died), 2 cats (one that got lost
or died), a peacock, and a rooster. Outside, around 30 feet away, there was the
central sports court. Where I sometimes played soccer (this got them to know me
and always call my name when I was walking home). In that small community of “3
de Octubre” there was 7 more volunteers, 2 of them neighbors. I hanged out with
2 of them mostly, from that community. There was also a foothills nearby, and I
liked going up in them. I didn’t want to run on flat roads. And there was also
a lot of fog in that valley, at first I thought it was dust flying in the
air…but I don’t think so.
NOW in my new site of Santiago de Chuco, I
have had my other adventures. This was more of a first time for my families to
have a volunteer, so they had to get adjusted to adopting a son. We had a site
visit for a week before we fully moved in (we took some luggage though).
During that week, I got pretty sick. With food, elevation, the cold, blahhh. Elevation is 3,100 meters (~10,000 ft), makes it chilly and makes me have headaches for the first days. Food was a bit different (I love my family’s food though, it varies. Mom also takes in mind stuff I don’t like). BUT, they took care of me. It was sweet. They kept asking about my condition and giving me teas. At first, it felt I was the center of attention, but after the first months, you become more part of the family, I like that, I don’t want to be too special. It has slowed down, but for the first month and a half, they were always saying “carlitos” or “carlitos carlitos carlitos” out of randomness, after me talking to them, or after I made them laugh, my guess is they’re happy to have me there, and the feeling is mutual.
For the first week, they had given me a suuuper tiny room, as you noticed in my site visit video. After that, they had mentioned they had a living room that wasn’t in too much use, they were just worried it was too cold because of the cemented floor. But I didn’t care, and I moved in…yes, in a big room! From tiny to giant! :D I loves.
They had a partially furnished room. I bought a few things. For the house, we have cuys (guinea pigs) and ducks on the roof of the 2nd floor, to eat later. 2nd floor has my old tiny room, my mom’s room, my brother’s room(18), and my sisters’ room(27, 31). 1st floor has the kitchen and a small store, oh and me. :D I wont talk about the town just yet, I’ll leave it for another blog. That’s pretty much about my families. They are respectful, sometimes religious, they have their traditions, they are fun, they are…my family.
During that week, I got pretty sick. With food, elevation, the cold, blahhh. Elevation is 3,100 meters (~10,000 ft), makes it chilly and makes me have headaches for the first days. Food was a bit different (I love my family’s food though, it varies. Mom also takes in mind stuff I don’t like). BUT, they took care of me. It was sweet. They kept asking about my condition and giving me teas. At first, it felt I was the center of attention, but after the first months, you become more part of the family, I like that, I don’t want to be too special. It has slowed down, but for the first month and a half, they were always saying “carlitos” or “carlitos carlitos carlitos” out of randomness, after me talking to them, or after I made them laugh, my guess is they’re happy to have me there, and the feeling is mutual.
For the first week, they had given me a suuuper tiny room, as you noticed in my site visit video. After that, they had mentioned they had a living room that wasn’t in too much use, they were just worried it was too cold because of the cemented floor. But I didn’t care, and I moved in…yes, in a big room! From tiny to giant! :D I loves.
They had a partially furnished room. I bought a few things. For the house, we have cuys (guinea pigs) and ducks on the roof of the 2nd floor, to eat later. 2nd floor has my old tiny room, my mom’s room, my brother’s room(18), and my sisters’ room(27, 31). 1st floor has the kitchen and a small store, oh and me. :D I wont talk about the town just yet, I’ll leave it for another blog. That’s pretty much about my families. They are respectful, sometimes religious, they have their traditions, they are fun, they are…my family.
