5 months in Peru

Choko Soda. I really really like Choko Soda. There is nothing like it in the states that I know of. When I return (in one year and ten months), I will make them myself. It is basically a saltine cracker covered in chocolate. It doesn’t really sound that good, but it’s amazing. Whenever I go into Piura, I buy at least one six pack of them. They are only S./3.60 for 6 of them, which is like $1.20. It’s awesome. And I felt that I should share my love of Choko Soda with the world. I think that all of the volunteers from my group (Peru 11) already knew I had this obsession.

Anyway. In Pambarumbe news, I did a census of the town. Nobody would give me a straight answer as to how many people live here or how many families there are (mostly because no one really knows), so I decided to just do a census. I went door to door with two of the girls who live in my town and asked everyone who lives in their house, how old they were and what the jobs of each of the family members are. I am still missing about 10 families because they weren’t home when I did the census and the two days since I did the census, I have been sleeping and diarrhea-ing like a fiend. So, I haven’t felt like going to the last few homes.

Pambarumbe, it is safe to say, has just over 200 residents, though. There are about 65 families. It is tiny, and doing the census made me realize how small it really is. I love it though. The campo is definitely a different experience than life in the states…

Yesterday and the day before (November 1 and 2) were all saints day and all souls day. This means that everyone at one point goes to the cemetery and puts candles and flowers at the grave sites of their dead family members. It was really sad, I went with my counterpart and found out three of his kids have died. I didn’t ask how…I will some other time, but they constructed little flower holder things at each of the gravesites.

I’ve been watching Dexter like a fiend. I had watched the first few episodes in college and since I finished watching Arrested Development, it was the only other thing I had on my computer. It’s awesome. I hope I can find the other seasons when I’m in Piura. It’s awesome and if you guys haven’t seen it, you definitely should watch it.

In three weeks, I get to go to the beach for a week! Mostly, I’ll be in meetings with my boss and other Peace Corps staff and all of the volunteers of my group, but we are going to the beach. It’ll be during the week of Thanksgiving.