PERÚ it may concern

Next week, the group of PCVs I arrived to Peru with, Peru 20, just two years ago will be heading down to Lima for our Close of Service (COS) training. Our lovely training staff will be schooling us on closing out our grants, wrapping up projects, writing final reports and preparing us for re-assimilation into good old American culture. This will be the first time we'll all be together since we left training in November 2012. The reunion is sure to get wild so I'll update you all on that when I get back. As the final couple months are coming to a close, I have a few basic projects I'll be finishing up including my English class in Casa Blanca where we're also working to install two biosand filters to treat their well water before they drink it and my leadership and hygiene practices (yes, it sounds odd but I'll explain more later) group, Mano a Mano, in the local girls' high school; however, on top of these smaller in-site projects, I got roped into one last p...

As Peru 20 comes up on the second anniversary of our arrival to Peru, I catch myself reminiscing more and more about the amazing, sometimes frustrating and often ridiculous situations I've found myself in as a Peace Corps Volunteer, about the differences between now and then. Around mid-service I realized I had more questions about Peru, about why things are the way they are, than I had at the beginning of my service and even fewer answers. Where do the beliefs that drinking a cold beverage, drinking water while sweating or eating too much fruit will get you sick come from? Is there any sort of waiting-in-line etiquette here? Does the technical meaning of "de repente" ever actually come into play? Why are loud, explosion-filled and action-packed movies the go-to choices for 11pm night buses? Would I be able to answer any of these questions by the end of my service or would the list of unknowns continue to grow? In my second year, I've somehow made the unconscious de...