if I was being graded for length, A+

I have probably, a book to write, so please be patient. Starting from where I left out last time, 4th of July was great and everything, however I was asleep by 8:45 Friday night. This is a pattern. I come home, exhausted, and I go to sleep early. It's probably for the best, my American counterparts that stayed out for the fourth of July, had a tough time getting up for our second trip to the Agraria, the agriculture school. This time we had to show up at 730, which means that when the rooster crows, we actually had to get up. This brings me to a point that Ive been meaning to speak to: the noise pollution in Yanacoto. First of all, I don't mind the roosters and I don't mind the dogs barking. Both of these are facts of life in this society, people raise chickens, and dogs are their low-tech ADT security systems. That said, I am terrified of my boxer, not because he could easily rip my throat out, but because, in coaxing him not to rip my throat out, I have to pet him, and I have linked this to insect bites on my hands. Living with a scary dog with fleas is a delicate tight rope between getting him to like you and then again not like you enough to constantly want to be pet. Back to the noise pollution. There is no such thing as common courtesy. Look, I'm not the person that calls the cops on Brandeis parties at 1130 complaining about noise, but at a certain point, you just gotta know that your neighbor's lives are being negatively affected by your terrible choice in music at high volume. I'm talking about loud music starting at one and running till five in the morning. I am also talking about those times when your buddies and you stay out to see the sun come up drinking heavily on your front porch, cursing, commenting on las flacas, and throwing rocks at the stray dogs. More noise pollution is not hard to come across, every informal business that does its business door to door, announces its presence in the neighborhood with a bicycle horn. There's about, I don't know, 5 of these in my small community that at predictable times in the day, honk, doppler effect included, for at least 10 minutes each. This is not marketing, this is harassment! The message is, come out of your houses, buy my product, and the horn honking will stop for as long as the transaction is taking place. More noise pollution, and this one is the one i'd curse about if I didn't view this as family friendly entertainment, loudspeakers. In Yanacoto, which is a community on a hill, there are two political factions. Each faction has a loudspeaker strategically placed high on the mountain that wakes the community up promptly at 630 with blaring community announcements about paying the water bill and other banalities. This would be bad enough, but as soon as one of the political groups is on the air, read 6:30 promptly every morning, the other gets on the other loudspeaker and you probably wont believe this but they commence discussion. Two warring loudspeakers, these things would be at home in Warsaw circa 1943, bickering over politics at 630 in the morning, every morning. My family has told me they think its a nuisance, that everyone thinks its a nuisance, and yet they accept it because, in case of earthquake, it might facilitate a quicker evacuation. I think Id rather perish in an earthquake. Its like living next to Heistein's park during a soccer tournament every morning. Continuing, to my trip to the Agraria, the entire morning was dedicated to composting. Mom, I thought of you, hope that piles doing great. I learned how to make a real, right, and proper compost pile, which takes a long time to decay, so, eventually when I'm a member of the landed gentry of the United States, perhaps I'll consider it for my purposes. We learned it, so we could teach it, not so we could do it. To do it correctly, you have to make one each month or so, so that the amount of fertilizer or soil your left with, isn't realized all in one time, if this makes sense. Here's how you do it in short, In large piles one chops up all his or her still green organics as a base layer, next he or she covers it in cow detritus, lastly it is necessary to cover this with dried organic material. This is the making of one "layer". Next soak that layer in water, and then one repeats that process until he or she has at least 3 layers of this alternating mescla of pleasantries. Ideally a 7 layer pile will yield the best results. The manure is necessary as it contains microorganisms that heat up the pile, and do your work for you. It obviously didn't take the whole day just for that, but we built a few, asked lots of questions about it, and also, learned how to set up a worm/dirt/composting farm. Apparently, worm detritus, ie topsoil, is quite valuable in Peru, as it is in the United States, yet the costs of building the farm are quite low. This makes it a possible buen negocio for many landed Peruvians. All one needs are a few swimming pool length areas walled off with about a one and a half-foot of brick wall all the way around, some worms, lots of decomposing stuff, add time, and presto. Forty Kilo bags of finished top soil fetch 40 soles, all that is required is that the worms be removed and the soil dried. Low input costs, high returns, good deal. It was a fun day all in all, but then I got to spend the rest of my afternoon in Lima. I did something shameful yesterday, following the trip to the agriculture school, and having already been transported to Lima, I ate at Burger King. I don't understand the appeal of fast food, when its not the cheapest option out there. It's expensive to eat at Burger King, not meaning that its more expensive in the States but that I could get more and better food elsewhere for cheaper, and I also have doubts as to whether or not its the quickest option. Its the same pricing scheme, a value meal is about 5 dollars, but in comparison the meal is slightly smaller. I could easily have had a much better meal for the same price, elsewhere, and there the deal would be negotiable, meaning I could say to the hostess, I'll eat here, but I want a free appetizer and a soda and she'd look at me, think for a minute, and say, "sure whatever you want, gringo". Anyway, my gringo friends and I went to Jockey Plaza, the Shorthills Mall of Peru, and we all proceeded to remember why we left America, its way less fun being in a shopping mall than perusing the markets, although they do take credit cards at the mall. I also found the movie theater, and I am not so patiently waiting for Wall-e to come out here, and would love it if its promoters would do me the service before I move out to the middle of nowhere. Speaking of this, I am becoming increasingly excited to know where I'm going to actually live for the next two years. I will find out in week 8, and for reference this is week 5. For the first time, it's starting to dawn on me that that this is finally not some distant abstract time thats far away! I don't know how many of you remember my mindset when I was applying or recall that dark period where I couldn't answer your questions about even the country I was going to be living in. Remember how my final site wasn't even on my mind as I knew these questions were so far away so as that they weren't even a concern? Well, my how time flies when you plan out your future, my actual site is finally becoming relevant! I am literally dying to know: whether or not I'll have internet, whether or not I'll have electricity, or running water, whether or not I'll be close to a city center or far away, how close I'll be to other volunteers, whether it will take 2 flights to visit me or just one, what my project will be... This is, to me, easily the biggest concern. I want to know what my primary project will be! I want to know if they're gonna put me on the coast or if they're going to put me in the mountains, I don't remember if I've said this before on the blog, but Peace Corps does not service the Amazon rain forest section of Peru, I think due to terrorist activity, or narco-trafficing, but its a political reason. Does Shining Path mean anything to anyone out there? Wikipedia it sometime, mentioning it here I think would be on par with passively bringing up Voldemort at Ron's house (thats a Harry Potter analogy so for those of you that don't know, I was just saying it would be wildly inappropriate and potentially dangerous territory for a conversation). Also, wikipedia Fujimori, because for this last week, his trial has been a full blown spectacle in Peru. From what I've taken away from las noticias, the news, he is ill with some form of mouth cancer and can't speak, but his ex-military cohort I believe his name is Antisinos is testifying against him, after he was arrested in 2005. I could write about Fujimori, the Japanese ex-president of Peru, for a day or two, but here's the short list: classic popular dictator, extended for a third term, made free press a sham, a few of his political adversaries had mysterious disappearances, he eventually turned out to not actually be a Peruvian citizen, and finally the government confiscated 2,700 videos of him bribing local officials, which he kept for purposes of extortion, when he was arrested in Chile. Continuing on the vein of things I'd really prefer to know as soon as possible, I want to know if I'm going to continue to learn Spanish or if my daily life will be in Quechua, a big difference. I want to know if I ever will have to eat cuy, Guinea pig, which is a staple in the Andes, or if I can continue to coast along on chicken hearts and rice. I'm almost certain that no form of rodent is Kosher, and wish I were more religious so as to use this as an excuse. Another big topic I want to talk about, my first impressions of the Peruvian night life! Yesterday, upon my return home from Lima, my host brothers Nestor and Allen took me to the discoteque, I think thats how you spell it. Well they took me to two separate ones. This was a real treat, a proper boys night out on the town. Allen works all day on Saturday's and for him to offer to spend his free time with me was a real honor. I've come to the conclusion that he is, right now, the main provider for the family along with Kenia's teaching job. My host mother works as a school administrator, but G-d knows how much money that could bring home, the Peruvian government shells out something like 150 US dollars per child per year for education, and my father is unemployed, although he does to his credit occupy his time as el almo de casa, and I've caught him cooking plenty a meal, washing plenty of sets of clothes, and cleaning. In this machismo society, I think that my host father is much better than some of the other volunteers host parents in terms of sharing household duties. On sharing duties, Arturo, Kenia's 2 year old child, and my host brother, is much more a house-wide project than children in the United States are. Id guess that with parents often away for long periods of time, siblings are much more involved in the raising of their younger counterparts than in the States, and I'd also guess that this is built into the culture of more than simply my host family. Anyway, I digress, back to the nightlife. The first establishment was more of a bar than a nightclub, although this was a function of our early arrival. Cigarette smoking is not yet banned, actually I doubt it ever will be, and you can imagine that that has a negative impact on the general visibility, as soon as the place fills up. I dont know how to describe the first one, I'd imagine it exists in Dover somewhere as an exact replica, and that I simply haven't known the right people to have gone to it. A pitcher of beer was approximately 4 dollars, so again, I'm laughing all the way to the bank, a common theme. The clientele at this first club was older, and women did not come alone, not that I would be caught looking. It was tranquilo, my host brother Allen and I used it as an opportunity to pick on the younger brother, who's relationship of the last year and eight months, places him in serious danger of getting married before his 22nd birthday, thats being really generous actually, although I haven't inquired to average ages for marrying your serious girlfriend. The second discoteque was Squid Roe, my favorite Cabo establishment, with way less decoration, and a communal trough to pee in at the bathroom. It had two levels, and the second level was, exactly like Squid Roe, a full wring of a balcony, looking down on the first floor. Oh yeah, unlike Squid Roe there are no white people. I'm just barely getting used to living in a fish bowl. By this I mean, everyone sees me, all the time, and the Discoteque is no exception. Its not that I'm unwelcome, I think in comparison to New Yorks clubs, I'm actually more welcome, as I'm not immediately singled out as poor and young by the bouncers. Maybe I'm more of a circus attraction, than a fish in a fishbowl, but either way, people take notice when I enter the room. Being accompanied by my Peruvian host brothers, keeps me safe for now, but there's no guarantee that I have a 26 year old host brother at my next site, and so it will be on me to make Peruvian friends my own age if I want to enjoy any of the night life later. Anyway this club had two levels, played a smattering of party rock music, rap music, salsa music, and of course Cumbia. People get a kick out of my knowing every word to the English songs, and they try to teach me the words to the Spanish language songs, but for now, that's a lost cause. It was a great night out, I spent 14 dollars total, and my host brothers and I had a great time. The night culminated with Allen, not wanting to go in the front door for fear of waking up his mother, and so He boosted the lighter Nestor over the wall, and into the courtyard, where we were subsequently let in. I also was the first of the brothers up in the morning, in an attempt to promote my responsible appearance with my host mother. Today, I've done relatively little other than help out around the house, fold my laundry, and watched the Classica Peruana, which is apparently an important match. Im supposed to support the U, pronounced OOO, because thats Lima's team. Sunday is unofficially dubbed dubbed movies with the family day. Which brings me to another and I think final point for the day, the TV. I realize that in the states, many families also turn to the television for its central source of entertainment. In fairness, however, our programming is in no way monopolized, and we have a lot of choice as to the content. In Peru, theres only a smattering of channels, although my family does have some cable channels (CNN international baby!). I think what I'm trying to get to is that its all Telemundo, all the time, not that there's a channel called Telemundo, rather all the channels are Telemundo-esque. Latin Soap Opera's have had a lot to do with my advancement in Spanish I believe so, if anyone at home wants to learn a foreign language, I recommend that over paying for classes. Anyway, I know this was probably too long for most people to actually read, but if you stuck with it, thanks for reading, and if you skimmed it, thanks for reading. Keep the emails coming, it really isn't fun to have to pay for the internet to find out you didn't get any messages.
Su pata,Mateo