Gambia Story

This is a short story about something that would never happen in the United States. About a month ago Peru hosted the 17 and Under World Championship. Several of the soccer games were held in my city of Piura. Of the many countries that were represented in the championship, Gambia didn´t win the world cup, however they did win the ¨Most Spirited Country¨ Award in my book. You see, the President of Gambia apparently wanted to make sure his country would be represented in full force. So, the President rented a plane and filled it up with Gambian fans. The plane flew into Peruvian airspace near Piura without permission. The Piuran Airport requested that the jet land in Lima to be processed through customs. Knowing that they would have to go back to Gambia, the Gambian pilot told the air traffic control that they didn´t have any fuel and that it was an emergency. There were many emergency vehicles waiting in Piura for this ¨emergency landing¨ but of course when the plane landed there was no actual emergency as the pilot claimed. Somehow, the authorities at the airport let all of the illegal Gambian fans out of the plane. None of the Gambians had papers or documents. Not only did the Gambian fans bring their enthusiasm for succesfully arriving illegally in another country half way around the world, they brought all of thier musical instruments. The Gambians were the loudest, most animated group of fans in the stadium. For weeks after the world championship this story was in all the newspapers. Most of the Gambians returned to their country except one lucky fellah that was left behind. I see him most days selling fried bananas in the market. Could you imagine something like this happening in the United States.

My Youth Group

This is a picture of one of my youth groups that I have at the police station where I work. Every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, I work with 4 groups of 12-15 teenagers. We talk about anything and everything, play games, play sports, and hang out. Every day minus Sunday, there are about 300 teenagers that come to the Police Station to listen to professors review over material that will be on the entrance exam to the university. When I formed my youth groups I had to go in front of each class and choose people that wanted to be in my groups. The majority of the class wanted to be part of my groups so I was challenging to pick just a few people out of a hundred. My long term goal with them is to find leaders and develope their skills to so they can help their own country and people.

Winning the War against the Mosquitos

I decided to put to this picture in the blog becuase it was my first night to sleep without worrying about mosquitos biting me. For two months I have been trying to figure out a way to win the war against the mosquitos. Finally, I figured out that by sticking broomsticks between the bed and bedframe and draping my mosquito net over the poles is the best method.

Son de Rumba Salsa Group

¨Son de Rumba¨ Salsa Group
Lucho and Gianella Dancing
I had to put Andrea Leon on the blog because she is so prettySon de Rumba are a group of friends of my Peruvian brother that get together each week to dance and hang out. Every friday our garage fills up with dancers and the sound of Salsa music. Last night was the groups´ first public performance at a Ball fundraiser. The group did great and everyone was very happy with their performance. Leo, my brother and capitain of the group made me the Son de Rumba assistant. Maybe someday when I get better I will dance in the group. Right now I´m a horrible dancer.

Map of Peru

I live in Piura in northern Peru

(pop. approx. 350,000)

Scenic Photos of Colan

Sunset over the Desert Valley

¡The church in the picture is the oldest church in South America...can you see it!

Someone´s Summer Home
Colan Is Known for having amazing Sunsets
Sea Bank
Papa Manolo Thinking
Moyra going for a Walk on the Beach
I Want to Move Here!

Kayaking in Colan

My Peruvian Brother, Leo, kayaking in the Pacific. We had a good time riding the waves all the way into shore...much like surfing.

Top 10 Things I will miss about Peru ( 3 Months in Peru)

(In no particular order)

1. My Peruvian Family (Manolo, Gina, Juan Manuel, and Leo)
2. Peruvian Friends and especially my Peace Corps Friends from Peru group 5
3. The incredible Peruvian Cruisine (especially the cebiche)
4. Random things I see everyday...( I will write more about that later)
5. Duke, my rottweiler, Pocho, my parrot, and Jane, my Tortoise
6. Attention from Peruvian girls (When I come home I don´t know what I´m going to do)
7. Siestas
8 Going to the beach when I want
9. Going to the market
10. Pisco Sours ( the best drink I´ve tried...much like a margarita)

TOP 10 Things I miss about the USA ( 3 months in Peru)

(In no particular order)

1. Family (#1 for sure)
2. Friends
3. Pets
4. Oklahoma State University Basketball, and Football Games
5. Coffee in ¨to go cups¨
6. Hotwater for showers
7. Driving my car
8. Clean bathrooms
9. Dark Beer
10. My privacy and having personal space

Turtle Love

This amazing photo of the forces of nature was taken minutes after I introduced my female tortoise to my family´s male tortoise. This post is actually a continuation of my last post, titled, ¨My Pets¨. When I got home from the market with my new pet I put her in the yard to play and meet the other pets. Not thinking about anything I went back into the house to eat lunch. A few minutes I came back out to check to see if the dog was being nice to the tortoise but as you can imagine this is what I came out and saw. The male tortoise found love at first site or maybe it was the first turtle he has seen in years. My whole family quickly responded to my yells and came out to see what was going on. We all couldn´t believe our eyes. It was one of the funniest things I have seen in a while! I am expecting baby tortoises any month now.

Interesting Tortoise Fact- Male tortoise genitalia is extremely large- we literally couldn´t believe our eyes!

My Pets

Well since Oct. 4th is the official ¨Animal Day¨ in Peru in honor of the patron saint of animals, Francis of Assisi, I thought it would be appropriate to show you all my pets. The big Rottweiler is named ¨Duke¨, but Peruvians pronounce his name, ¨Dookay¨. Duke and I are really good buddies. He is always happy to see me which provides therapy on bad days. Tomorrow I plan on buying him a collar and leash so we can run together. The first few weeks I had to train him not to hump on my leg. He is getting better day after day.

The Parrot is named Pocho. I don´t have any real funny things to say about Pocho at this point. He is just a Parrot that likes to fuss until he gets fed his Papaya. He likes to hide in the trees but when I call his name and stand under his tree he flys down and lands on my shoulder. He also likes to bite me. I wish he could speak Spanish.

The newest addition to the group is my tortoise. I am still deciding on a name to give her but I have a pretty good idea what I am going to call her. I just got her today... While I was in the market my boss and I stumbled across the pet section and decided to stop and see all the animals. Most of the animals were parrots, canaries, rabbits, and guinea pigs but the one that stuck out the most was this poor tortoise that was crammed inside a cage with some rabbits. Well, as my boss started getting out her pocket book I thought she was buying the tortoise for her son´s birthday but later as I started carrying the tortoise through the market I found out she bought it for me. I guess I always wanted a tortoise that will live to be over 100 years old and grow to be an enormous size. I told her thanks for the tortoise and brought her home.