Arrival and first week in Chicklayo.

On August 20th, I flew together with another volunteer from Lima to Chicklayo, my placement, which is about 10 km away from the coast in the north. Upon arrival, I was warmly welcomed by my host family. My host family consists of my host parents, a host sister, and a host brother. However, my host sister will move to Austria at the end of September, where the oldest daughter already lives and studies.

This already indicates that my host family is relatively affluent compared to the Peruvian standard. The house is also relatively large, and they have a car and hot water - all rarities in Peru.

Due to this, I was able to settle in quickly, which, of course, is mainly due to the kindness and helpfulness of my host family.

In the first few days in Chicklayo, I spent a lot of time with my host family. They showed me the city, the nearby beach town, and much more. My first impression is that the city is not the most beautiful in Peru. The houses are often unfinished and not even plastered from the outside, there are very few green spaces, and there is a lot of garbage on the streets in general. However, there are also beautiful places, and the fact that both the sea and the mountains are just a stone's throw away makes many things much better.

In addition, so far, all the people I have met have been very nice to me. Of course, some ask where I am from, and during football, I got the new nickname "Gringo" (a slang term in South America for people from Central Europe). However, this is by no means meant negatively. On the contrary, so far I have experienced great hospitality and openness.

Nevertheless, my family has also given me some safety tips that I should pay particular attention to as a "European" here. There are some barrios (neighborhoods) that I should avoid. I should also only take official taxis and not take out my cell phone on the street. All of this naturally restricts me a bit at the beginning since I don't know the city very well yet. Therefore, I won't do much alone at the beginning.

It's even better that besides another volunteer who traveled with me, there is another volunteer who has been here for 6 months through the same organization. So I was able to exchange ideas with her a lot and, for example, go to the city together again.

Unfortunately, my social project is still not exactly determined. However, it looks good now, that I can start in the next few days. I will provide more information when I have final details.

As for the language and communication, a certain ambivalence can be seen. On the one hand, with my three years of Spanish in school, I already understand a lot. On the other hand, it is extremely difficult for me to express what I actually want to say. But the first few days have already brought some progress. My host family has also already told me that they definitely see improvements, which is motivating, of course :)