Site Info

There was a lot of speculation and build-up in the days, and hours, leading up to the revealing of our sites. After FBT, we had to wait until Tuesday. Tuesday in the afternoon. In the afternoon after a BBQ and speeches. Then there were more speeches. Finally, a bucket of Styrofoam fish were dumped into the pool in the back of the training center and we went up in pairs to ‘fish’ them out. On each fish was the name of a city, department, and whether the site was for a health or environment volunteer. Only after the city and department had been announced would the program director announce the name of the volunteer headed to that site. Before having time to look over the information in the folder given to us with site information, we then had to take our turn at fishing out the next piece of Styrofoam for the next volunteer. We were all completely on edge.
I was right about the cluster of volunteers that I am placed near, although the location is different from my initial idea of where I would go. Is this description beginning to make you antsy to know my site the same way the information was held back from me? Here it goes . . .
Arequipa. I am moving to a medium sized city in the department of Arequipa, province of Castilla. I’ll be living in a valley with a river, and my city is known for it’s shrimping from the river. They’ve got shrimp scampi, shrimp gumbo, fried shrimp, baked shrimp . . . I’ll have electricity, water, a toilet rather than a latrine, cell service, and there is surely internet access in my city.
Arequipa itself is supposed to be one of the most beautiful cities in Peru, and is known as the white city because most of the buildings are made of sillar, or white volcanic stone. The dynamic that exists between those Peruvians from Arequipa and those Peruvians from anywhere else in Peru. Some people have considered Arequipa to be like the Texas of Peru, where all the citizens think they are better than anyone from the rest of the country, and they would rather be their own country. They call it the “Republica Independiente de Arequipa”, and when I was given my site information I was also given a fake diplomatic passport to be able to “get into” the department. I think it’s funny that people from my department think they are better than the rest of Peru, and I’m excited to join in with the patriotic sentiment for the ‘real’ Peru. Arequipa the city is only 8 hours from Cusco . . . a perfect excuse to come visit me before heading to Machu Picchu! The two other volunteers and I are headed out this weekend for Arequipa to visit our sites and get to know the people who are already positioned in the south – there aren’t many of us! The cluster of three sites are all new sites, without previous volunteers, but it sounds like the communities have a lot of opportunities for me to get involved, including work in psychology. I’m really looking forward to taking the 14-16 hour bus ride down south to check out my site.