To think that the last time I was sitting on my balcony and writing my first blog post as an official Ñunya Jalcan was almost a month ago blows my mind. Bit by bit I have adapted to my life here and began to feel like this small community - full of platano trees, rocky roads, colorful roosters, and loads of rain - is my new home. The first few weeks of my time here were quite busy, to say the least, filled with sessions at the colegio, chocolatadas to celebrate Christmas, and meetings at the health post. Off the cusp, having a busy schedule was a smooth way to meet community members and feel purposeful, but things are changing now. With the holidays ramping up, local work slowing down and school being out for summer, I am learning to find peace in the slow life. But before getting deeper into my reflections on time thus far, let me cover some of my highlights of the holiday season.

A Peruvian Kitchen

I think the perfect place to begin is my kitchen. As many of you know, cooking brings connection and joy into my life. It’s a way I can show my love and gratitude whether there is a language barrier or not. From my host family in Lima to my host family in Ñunya Jalca, I have used cooking to bridge the gap between our cultures and to find the beautiful similarities we share between our love for oregano and turmeric to the vast differences we feel such as my love and their despise for spice.

Patacónes have become my new favorite snack in Ñunya Jalca; oh the simple yet mouth-watering flavor! All it takes is frying sliced green platanos until they are soft, gently smashing them, frying them a bit more, adding a dash of salt, and wallah! There you have the most delicious, fresh platano chifles in the world. I would like to think that two years from now, you will be able to call me a patacón master as I count down the days each week until my host grandpa brings more platanos from our chacra.

Another delicious delight I am learning to make is empanadas, and doing so with fresh trigo gives it a flavor like no other. The melted cheese, crispy edges, and flavor of tradition make this meal one of comfort.

My photos will never do our meals justice and I think that symbolizes the majority of my experiences here. Each experience is near impossible to depict in words. I have come to realize that with each experience I have, emotions that I haven’t experienced before bubble up and verbalizing these sentiments are challenging because of their unique beauty that is only captured through human experience.

Each ingredient mixed, each flip of a patacón or empanada, and each conversation shared in the kitchen is an act of love and service.

From Cooking to Movement

With all of the delicious meals we eat, comes the need for movement! Luckily I have found many ways to move my body each day. Some days, Lucas (brother), Franck (brother), Noemi (mom), and I stroll to the campo either at the colegio or cementario for a sunset run. It’s sweet to see this become a tradition for us, them subconsciously bringing a volleyball as they get bored running more than ten vueltas as I try to make it to thirty!

Along with our tri-weekly running, I would like to officially call myself a soccer player. My friend, Liz, has brought me in so kindly to play with her and some of the other girls in town around three nights a week. Unfortunately, with hora peruana, we don’t end up starting until around 9 pm, but I feel so lucky to have begun the process of developing a social life here with other girls close to my age. Our games are a perfect mix of effort and delight, laughing when we miss a goal but also hearing the occasional Spanish hergas that probably shouldn’t be used on a blog! I’ve come to realize, my greatest language barrier is in a group of young people in a social environment such as this, but I still rarely feel awkward and I accredit that to the kindness of my community!

Start of the Holidays

With the school year winding down, I taught a final orientación vocacional class to help the seniors develop their plan for post-graduation. I truly love working in the classroom and am beyond excited to watch my relationships grow with my students throughout my two years here. The second to last week of school, the students had Día de Logro: each classroom displayed a piece of their work as parents and teachers walked one by one to watch each presentation outside of the classroom. The creativity of these students was astonishing, ranging from theatrical performances to snowmen made of recycled materials. For weeks, my host brother prepared We Wish You a Merry Christmas in English, and as his class sang the song it brought tears to my eyes. I couldn’t tell you if this sentiment came from me missing home during the holidays or the beauty of effort and love the students shared as carols rolled off their tongues.

Now it is time to talk about chocolatadas: the most important celebration at this time of year! I was lucky enough to have one with the health post staff and another with the adultos mayores in town. It is naive to think that these celebrations will only take a couple of hours! For our work chocolatada, we began cooking chicken, rice, potatoes, and of course, hot chocolate over the fire at 1 pm at the losa while hanging up all sorts of decorations for photos later that evening. I couldn’t tell you why it takes 10 hours to prepare all of this, but for some reason, time just works that way here. We spent the night chatting; dancing huayno, bachata, and anaconda; and of course, participating in drinking circles. The health post knows how to party!

Lots of time was spent with the adultos mayores that week, as Kreysler (doctor) and I also conducted some of their house visits. I’ve grown to love working with the older population in my town. A small conversation, a hug, and a smile seem to fill a gap of loneliness that a lot of older individuals experience. It brought so much joy to my day hearing the excitement of one of the ladies who talked for two hours about the many variations of potatoes on her chacra (which she will be taking me to after the holidays)! The simple things in life.

Experiencing Chachapoyas

Chachapoyas… a little mountain town where the selva meets the sierra. We heard the other cohorts rave about how beautiful this town is, where the streets are cobblestone and the buildings are white adobe with wood-stained balconies. As soon as I knew I would be living in Amazonas, I couldn’t wait to explore the town I heard so much about. Us “baguan” volunteers took the windy road up to Chachapoyas the weekend before Christmas to celebrate the holidays with the other cohorts living in Amazonas. As we drove through the windy valley, surrounded by towering trees and flowing rivers, packed like sardines with the other Chachapoyas-goers, I felt immense gratitude for my new home.

Our first stop in Chachapoyas was a bar overlooking the Plaza de Armas where we sipped Pisco Sours and Black Margaritas while catching each other up on the lifetimes we lived over the three weeks we hadn’t seen one another. Other cohort volunteers trickled in, both new and known faces, and off the bat our family of 6 in Amazonas grew to 15. Because the other volunteers are seasoned veterans of the area, they showed us a delicious restaurant with fresh fish and space for sharing memories. The perfect location for our Secret Santa! That night we went to a favorite bar and ordered some mystery giant drink for 15 that was the cheapest thing on the menu and tasted that way too! The life of a stipend-living Peace Corps volunteer… As we sipped our mystery drink and played cards, we got to know each volunteer better, feeling more at home by the second.

The following day we sipped cappuccinos for breakfast accompanied by mote con huevos revueltos and sat chatting for hours. Throughout the day we walked and learned the streets of Chachapoyas that will become our monthly meeting spot to decompress and step outside of our community lives. Three immaculate coffees, 15,000 steps (in Olivia and I’s matching and controversially cute new shoes), and a surprisingly delicious sushi roll later, we crashed in our hotel room listening to the sound of rain falling on the metal ceiling. How rejuvenating it felt to be surrounded by best friends - a sense of home - during the holidays. The next morning we made the same journey back to our sites, saying farewell to Chachapoyas for the next month. It is safe to say the car ride home was not the same introspective, beautiful journey… I threw up three times from the winding roads and questionable driving: something I will have to get used to!

Christmas in Perú

I spent the holidays celebrating with my host family, Franck (brother) and I prepared peanut butter M&M cookies, a taste of home, using our plug-in little oven that fits 7 cookies at a time - therefore many hours of baking! We feasted on chicken, rice, potatoes, panetón, and hot chocolate for Christmas Eve dinner. The cookies were a hit and the marshmallows I brought for the hot chocolate were delightfully enjoyed by the family: something they were yet to try! Stomachs full, we headed to Plaza de Armas where the streets were filled with people dancing, children playing and Christmas lights shining! We fell asleep with our matching Christmas shirts and the following morning drove to Alto Perú to celebrate Christmas with Sergio’s (dad) side of the family.

How breathtaking the altura is here. Once you are above 5,000 feet the climate changes drastically: moving from selva to sierra, entering green-coated mountains, and watching cows graze the hillsides. I was warned before getting to the village that we would eat plates the size of mountains and this was not a lie! Breakfast (which I thought was lunch) included rice, chicken, potatoes, and picarones topped with quesillo and miel de caña. A Peruvian Christmas tradition. Rice harvested, chickens killed, potatoes pulled, trigo milled, and quesillo curdled directly from their chacra. Everything is directly from their chacra. How neat it is to know that what you are eating has been grown with love on the land of your family's generations.

I spent the day foraging for cedron, manzanilla, chulco, and hierba Luisa, exploring the village, putting together bouquets of wildflowers, and entering the many different houses of family members. I felt so connected to the earth; a feeling that I lacked in Chaclacayo but now gratefully am rekindling. After indulging in soup and chicharron, we drove back to Ñunya Jalca; the dirt roads rocking me to sleep as I embraced my food coma.

Being away from family during the holidays hasn’t been easy but I pinch myself when I think about how lucky I am to have a family that has brought me in so lovingly. My work may be slow right now and sometimes with that comes a sense of lack of purpose, but I know with time that will change. With the slow life, I am finding new hobbies, putting intention into all of my actions, and reflecting deeply on what the next year will bring.