EAGLE VS. STOKES

    It is December 12th here in Illimo, Peru.  It is baking hot and 1pm.  As my part of the United States faces  the beginning of a cold Winter I face a daily dance on the Sun.  One and a half hours removed from the coast and sitting hours from the equator my town begins to bake about 9:30 AM.  A breeze comes in around 3:30 and cools things down, it is still pleasant at night…ideal sleeping conditions with a full open window and fan.  In my off time I have been reading a book titled Guns, Germs, and Steel-the fates of human societies.  Which is a historical break down of how our world ended up as it did why certain countries conquered others, where food production developed, and how our society is as it is presently.  It was a grand book, in my other free time I have been watching Trueblood the HBO vampire series.  This is my last week of classes before the youth encounter their vacation so things have slowed down a bit for me…..and after this week I face two weeks of not much whic

    In a few days it will mark three months that I have been in my site. I live in Illimo-a mid size pueblo in Northern Peru. It lies within the department of Lambayeque-a region known for its Archeology, good food, and for friendly people. Midsize town here means 5,000 people with an additional 3,000 in the surrounding smaller areas , out in the more campo style landscape known as Caserios in English it falls under the word hamlet-when I here hamlet I think of a small French village two hours outside of Paris…this is obviously not the case. It falls short in being esthetically appealing from first glance but its beauty it seems lies right below. It would be thunderously absurd to give a summary on a town or people after living in it for three months and not understanding most of the dialogue going on around me. I am also aware that any failures or successes are initial and time will show the real value of my presence here for myself and the town. The last three days here have bee

Two to three times a week I go running after my days activities….on these days I have different routes I take as to mix up the scenery and to explore different areas near the center of town.…you quickly move from paved to unpaved…..from electricity to none and the world changes within a five minute 34 year olds running pace (we all know I have the speed of a large jungle cat so the age is not a factor). Every day on my run a select group of young children and men over the age of fifty then recreate the scene from Rocky where he is running through the streets of Philadelphia and a large group starts assembling around admiring his spirit and the fact that within the film he embodies the spirit of the city of Philadelphia itself. For me it is not as poetic or inspiring but it adds a good deal to my daily existence. I would gather 75% of the people that see me think it is highly entertaining that a human being runs just to run…..they find it a novel idea…..kids think I am training t

One Year of Prime A friend of mine and I cannot say for certain who it was as I have had my way with many a computer over the last few months, gifted a program to me via their hard drive entitled Freaks and Geeks. Within the show there are numerous future stars and the creator director is someone of considerable note at this time. From what I gather the show only lasted one season and I am fastly approaching the final episode of the season. The show is based in the early 80's and chronicles the experiences of a group of people in different stages of High School.....Wonder Years with an 80's feel....a bit more less family friendly but who could measure up to the innocence of Kevin and Winnie?? The Wonder Years merits a novel within itself......so last night...... I had finished a tutoring session with a woman in town who teaches English in a school two hours from her home....she wakes up at 4:30 every morning to make her commute and returns home each night between 6:3

The hardest part of my day is getting out of bed-I do not say that in some sort of depression commercial run at 2 PM during a Monday afternoon. In the night I see so many of the people I do not get to see during my daily life here...I see family, college friends, high school friends, and those who I would not be able to see in the States or anywhere else minus the afterlife. My dreams here have more vivid than at any time than I can recall-perhaps it is my minds way to compensate for the physical presence or a small gift from above. Whatever that may be.... when that time ends it takes a bit more effort to separate me from manger style bed. Every morning I then proceed down stairs with what I would say is something similar to what one would use in a college dorm situation.....a ridiculous plastic carrier...one section has my soap, the other my toothbrush and paste, the other a wash cloth, and a fourth spot for any wildcard item I choose....perhaps face wash......mouthwash.....lotio

As a volunteer of the Peace Corps one inevitably has more free time on their hands then they are accustomed to in the states. We work no 9-5 schedule –there is no gym, there are no happy hours, no pool parties, no in town movie theatres, bowling alleys, skating rinks (not that grown men spend much time at skating rinks), or malls…..and the work is sought out more than delivered to ones door. I have begun a few projects within my site-I am working at schools 3 days a week, am assisting in the Planning of a festival for the Beekeepers Association, and working on my project for the government which is classified as a Community Diagnostic. What is this place about, what are the strengths, weaknesses, where does it need help, and how can I help it? The latter part of that sentence being the part that lends one to wonder of being an effective human being in a foreign culture….pretty normal feelings all things considered. With my spare time I have taken to watching TV series which is som

When you were young you were the King of everything around you….or at least that is the way life could seem to feel at different times or different situations. Boundless energy, boundless confidence mixed with gripping fear over the exposing of the confidence previously mentioned as false and a front all along. I have been the best in certain situations at certain things at different times in my life and everyone has experienced this at some time or another. At those times it is easy to lose any grounding we may have possessed. Arrogance is a foolish and selfish endeavor but a human one that none of us have not at least dipped our toes in. I myself still hold a certain amount at certain times and while the effort to change that has been great for me over the last number of years….it rears its ugly head on occasion. Last week it did just that and taught me a lesson I will not soon forget. I am currently teaching English classes two days a week in a local high school. Tuesdays a

The following is composed of parts of an email that I sent my dear friend Kate Butler earlier today and also motivated by an email I received from another friend last week concerning a few struggles related to life as we all know it is far from always being easy and those who believe that have just yet to live it.…it has been amended to exclude some more offensive remarks but I thought it conveyed the idea that while I am living an adventure it is not without times where I miss the things that will never be replaced with a random parade or triumphant act of life’s buffoonery. I find it very easy to make a quip or comment but difficult to actually sit down to pen anything significant about my life here as it is really a changing situation day to day. Yesterday I had my first day working in my local school giving English classes in the morning and teaching about small business in an afternoon session.....to say it was not frightening would be the equivalent of saying Priests and Televan

Dear Diary -As a person of no particular skills at this time- in a country that has castrated me via it having a different language- it is amazing how many things can occur or not occur when you least expect them. After a relatively productive morning slumming in the library and the municipality putting together some surveys for the good people of Illimo I retired to my home. At exactly 1 PM the daily task of seeing how much food my host family can put in front of me to see if I can eat it all commenced….each day at 1 PM there is a serving of food put in front of me that can only lead me to believe that they have full intentions of at some point roasting me over an open fire. I believe they mock me when I exercise, they scoff at how much water I drink, and they laugh as I groan through the last bites of my lunch time feeding. I literally have to retire to my chambers every day and lay quietly on my bed as all blood resources in my body rush to my stomach area to aid in digestion

I still do not venture on here too often as I still find it more than a bit self-indulgent to fester over my own happenings but today was a day of relevantsignificance for me. Today was my first full day....start to end in my new home town of Illimo, Peru. I arose after a night of sleep comparable to that of a truck driver chewing meth tablets on Interstate 95 (this is not to infer all truck drivers use meth--my brother in law is in fact a case in point). My new house is fine...my room is in the back of the house-modest but potentially comfortable....the problem with last eve was I had not a pillow, a blanket, or anything else to go along with my child sized bed......when I think of the spoils of home I usually lust most about my pillow top queen sized mattress that now sits in my mother’s guest bed room.....I then think of how many guests must have had a slumber on her and I go into a small bit of mental anguish thinking about her being used like that. I digress.....so the family

Approaching two months in Peru buta more interesting milestone is fastly approaching- less a week before I am told where I will spend the next two years of my life. On Tuesday we are given our site assignments-from what I understand they do it in some campy way……fish it out of a pond in a plastic pod or dig it up in the backyard dog bone style type of activity. Fact is and remains this is a significant day for myself and all those I have been in training with. I will either be in the mountains or on the coast-in a large city with running water and internet or a small campo site with less or none of the previously mentioned. The list of potential variables goes on and on-the dilemma I sit in and it is not necessarily a bad one is that I do not know which I desire. Regardless of the path it will be drastically different than life as I have known it and that part holds a bit of fever and excitement. Last week we had what is referred to as Field Based Training-I continued with my ass

The last time I was in a similar circumstance to this was in 1995. I was a recent high school graduate on the bad end of a terrible life experience. I was not ready to in any way to venture off to college and begin the next leg of my very unsuccessful academic career. Earlier in my senior year of high school my sister’s friend and then admirer Tomo Yamanaka stayed with us over the Thanksgiving break. He slept on the floor in my room. One night I arrived home relatively late and stepped over Tomo to climb into my bed….he was awake so we exchanged pleasantries after which he indicated to me that he thought “that God wanted him to ask me if I wanted to go to Japan”…..I of course had no idea how to respond but only chuckled in an appreciative way and let him know that I would most likely not be spending any times over seas in a country I knew nothing about….I did not even ask any follow up questions…I dismissed it and went off to slumber. Fast forward 6 months and one tragic life i

I enter week three of my training in the same way I entered the first day-with a slew of unknowns. I just finished doing a set of pushups in my room cell block C style. No cushy gyms, hot tubs etc. here. Just the floor and my fastly shrinking body...well related to muscle shrinking...I am pretty sure I have consumed enough rice and beans to secure the next pant size will soon be in my grasp. I can eat a heaping mountainous plate of the stuff and be hungry one hour later....rinse and repeat style......so I just eat. Perhaps it is because I am home sick and perhaps it is because it is a comfort.....if they had bon bons here I would be chowing down omega moo style I am sure. Last weekend we ventured to Marasca (spelling-forgive me to all the genuine Peruvians that may glance at this-none-I in fact could not spell or tell you the place if a large weapon was placed to my dome at the moment.). However I can tell you it was quite an experience-travel 30 minutes on the paved highway and double

I have now been in Peru for a bit more than a week but today buts the first full seven days that I have been within my home stay. It is a bit past 8 AM and it is Fathers day-Padre Un Dio. The odd thing about being away and realizing of course it has only been a week is not that I miss things terribly- it is the simple fact there is no remedy available. My father lives a bit more than two hours away from me in the States. I most likely would not have even seen him today but when I called him yesterday from a pay phone I was only able to leave a voicemail and when realization that I would not even get to speak to him set in it kicked the wind out of my sail a little bit. So I have attempted to remedy the situation by watching what I believe to be my favorite film "Stand by Me" in my mind it represenents and romaticices what growing up in the 1950's would be like. TV but only in doses and every event was a new one--things that had never been seen or imagined brought

In an attempt to be pro active I have traveled with my dad to Washington-DC to be in a geographicaly sane position to report to a hotel by noon in Downtown. Driving through York, Baltimore, and then into DC by noon would have been a bit to stressful for myself-added on with my dad would have been like two withdrawing meth addicts within a cardboard box with the promise of a hit located somewhere within. So after yet another tearful goodbye to my stepfather (who I missed physically this morning when I stopped by), my sister, nephew, and niece we departed. Not before we (Philip, Philip, Kaleb) stopped by to my niece's school for a final lunch and emotional meltdown. My niece was not melting down because of my departure although I am sure she is sad or will be about me leaving but because she is scheduled to go to the dentist on June 20th. I have never seen her more agonized-after sitting silently in the midst of the crowded lunch room she suddenly lunged across the table whaling that

Last night as my Friday eve entertainment I watched Tangled with my family. It would be cliche to claim a false guilt or guilty pleasure to cover for the fact I watched Tangled. The real fact is I had bitterness because I tried to force my niece and nephew to go see it with me in the movies and they my niece rejected me on at least four occasions. Looking back now I believe she was in a small way enjoying me reacting to her saying no more than her not actually wanting to venture out. So regardless my days dwindle down before I depart for the Peace Corps/Peru it was grand to sit on the couch with my mom, abigail, kaleb, and my sister while my step father perched in the large non recling chair. Hearing and seeing the youth react and analyze the movie while jockeying for extra popcorn...my sister pulling her movie nazi role off to perfection as her four year old son peppered with questions. The nice thing is that after she did it...she knew it and went out of her way to answer any and off