Brittany McGee

Family.

Take a minute to think about what that means to you. Who is your family? What role do you play in your family?

Now, imagine all of the sudden having to assimilate into a new family. What if that family held beliefs different than yours? Spoke a different language? Valued different amenities? Had a different structure and dynamic?

As I’m slowly integrating into my first training family (the family I’ll be with until August when I move to my permanent site), I’ve come across a few of those situations and had to come up with my own solutions, sometimes on the spot. While I knew I’d be living with a host family while in Peru, I never really thought about what it would be like.

To give some background, I have a host mom, who owns her own business and works a lot. I typically only see her early in the mornings for breakfast and on Sunday afternoons. I’m usually asleep before she gets home (keep in mind that I pass out from exhaustion at around 9 here). She’s in her early 30s and single. I truly admire her work ethic and think she’s pretty awesome overall.

We live with her mom and brothers. Her mom is one of the community supervisors/leaders. Her dad travels a lot, so I have yet to meet him. My host mom’s aunt and 10-year-old cousin also live here.

I’ve bonded the most with my 10-year-old cousin. She likes to help me with my Spanish and I’ll occasionally help her with her English. Like many 10-year-olds in the United States, she’s pretty quick with technology. She even has a Facebook.

Overall, I think I’ve been fairly lucky as far as integrating into my new family. Our training staff continually reminds us that these training families are professional host families and have learned a lot about lifestyles in the United States from previous volunteers. I know my family has hosted Peace Corps volunteers for at least the past 5 years.

I think because of this, my family knows to add more vegetables to my food and doesn’t take offense to me not eating every last bite (though, they still give me large plates of food). **Side note** I’ll go into more detail about food and its cultural importance in another post.

That being said, the biggest adjustment thus far has been the language. It’s been frustrating not to be able to talk with my family as much as I’d like. I find myself often sitting at the dinner table very quiet, just listening. I understand most of what my family says, and try to ask questions, but I typically have trouble responding or adding anything thoughtful to the conversation. Poco a poco though.

The second adjustment- the cold showers. Especially when it’s 50 degrees outside. Water, bathrooms and laundry are also worthy of their own separate post.

Other minor adjustments have been adapting to having a younger child always around, feeling out new personalities, and remembering to tell my host family where I’m going and when I’ll be home. The last one isn’t too difficult as I tried to pay my parents the same courtesy when living with them for the past year. It’s also very much a safety thing here.

While I’ve had a fairly easy time thus far, I fully realize that when I get to my permanent site, I’ll likely go through a more difficult adjustment period.

More anecdotes to come!

Love from Peru,

B