Sass.

This post was going to be centered around the theme, “Look at my sweet Piura and Lambayeque pictures!” but, something rather impossible to ignore occurred yesterday.

I found out where I’m going to be for the next two years.

And then I found out it’s one of the communities I visited last week, in Santo Domingo, Piura.

(Disclaimer: Eric tells me there’s a chance the site might fall through, so it’s only 90% sure, but if the site works out, it is mine.)

You might have somehow gleaned the information that we weren’t supposed to get our site assignments until this Friday, and that, my friend, is a funny story. So yesterday after lunch, the environment Trainees who hadn’t gotten their interviews to state their site preferences yet were crowded around our APCD (Associate Peace Corps Director, in this case for the Peruvian environmental program) Eric, setting times for our interviews. Eric’s notebook fell down, and a couple papers fell out. I gazed down, saw a sheet that had all our pictures on it, and immediately thought, “Well, that’s a bad picture of me.” It took another 4 seconds or so for me to think, “And why are the words ‘Santo Domingo’ WRITTEN ACROSS MY FOREHEAD?”

We then had to go to focus groups, also known as group therapy, where we talk about our feelings, our reasons for being here, and diarrhea. I had a small breakdown of impatience waiting to talk to Eric, got a little teary, blamed it on the baby flu I picked up in Lambayeque. Two hours later, he came and got me, we sat down, and while I could recreate the conversation creatively, it’s probably more entertaining and informative in its natural form (according to my memory, where everything is performance).

Act I:
Eric: Hi. How are you feeling?
Alyssa: I...have something to tell you. This might totally change the dynamic of this interview. I saw the piece of paper that said Santo Domingo across my face.
Eric: Oh. That does change the dynamic of this interview. Cheater.
Alyssa: Right.
Eric: Did you see anyone else’s?
Alyssa: No (this is true, I swear. Only 3 more days!).
Eric: Okay. How do you feel about going to Santo Domingo?
Alyssa: I’m terrified of replacing Ryan (the Volunteer who’s there now who started the solid waste management program I’ll be working on).
Eric: Well, there are plenty of other niches in the community to work in to make yourself unique. The schools are wide open, and they’re considering a reforestation program for the forest that’s about an hour away.
Alyssa: Since it’s obvious my preferences didn’t really affect your decision to place me, and it was all about your perceptions of me, I’d like to know what your perceptions of me are. Why did you think Santo Domingo was a good place for me?
Eric: You’re confident and fearless. You’re not easily intimidated by authority figures, and you speak out when you need to. You’ll be working with the municipality, so this is all pretty necessary.
Alyssa: Huh.
Eric: Plus, you studied urban planning.
Alyssa: How does that figure into this?
Eric: The municipalidad wants to create an integral plan for all their natural resources that combines solid waste, forest, and water resource management. It would be a lot of working with planning documents.
Alyssa (soliloquy): I talked up my urban planning experience far, far too much on my CV. Planning documents...in Spanish? Here’s hoping Peru hasn’t discovered zoning.

(intermission)

Eric: Well, now you know your site. Want to talk about something else?
(short conversation about the progress of training, see previous entries for more)
Alyssa: Well, I thought at some point you’d want to address my age. Everyone keeps fussing over me being The Twenty-Year Old Peace Corps Volunteer.
Eric (smirking): No, see, I wouldn’t have brought that up in an interview, because that would be illegal. It’s called age discrimination.
Alyssa: Oh. I thought age discrimination only protected older people.
Eric: No. Remember that, Alyssa.
Alyssa: Okay.
Eric: Since we’re on the topic, how DID you graduate from college that early?
(short conversation about my life story)
Eric: So you’re bright, then.
Alyssa: And, apparently, sassy. (This is probably a lie, I fear the word “sassy” was not in fact used in this interview, but it was totally implied.) Are we done, then?
Eric: Yeah, I guess. You really did change the dynamic of that interview.
Alyssa: Well, that’s a typical Peace Corps experience. You think you’re getting into something small and easy, and then it turns into something else completely (this was verbatim what Eric told us during our pseudo-kidnapping. That sass is going to get me in trouble someday.)

End scene.
I’m overall pretty pleased with this site. As with any site, there are things to be excited about and intimidated by, pleased with and confused by. And I tried to post the pictures AGAIN, but was again let down by Blogger. And it is now time to get home and finish this 80s mermaid (¿?) costume I concocted for Halloween. Options are limited here.