Site visits up north

These past weeks I have been visiting different volunteer sites with my boss. It is always a fun and funny adventure driving around the country side with my comical boss´s commentary.

I went to La Libertad, where we have a volunteer working on the beach, while another works over 3,000 meters high up in the mountains, a 6 hour windy bus ride on scary roads from the capital city. Right now it is rainy season in Peru so everything is turning green and its beautiful! This time in the mountains we stayed in a hotel in a little town called Cachicadón and in each room there were giant natural water hot tubs. The water comes from thermal mountain pools, and it was super hot and probably the most relaxing bath I´ve ever had. Mixed with the tranquility of the mountains, the quiet and the altitude messing with my brain, it was a great experience.

After visiting the La Libertad volunteers and being endlessly impressed with their enthusiasm and hard work, despite the isolation of the mountains, I headed off to Lambayeque. It felt so great arriving in my old stomping ground! My night in Chiclayo was interesting because the electricity went out in the entire city for most of the night. So, I found some friends and sat out on the patio of the hotel, enjoying the warm night and seeing the stars. The next day it was off to my old town to celebrate my host Dad and sister´s birthdays. But fist, I met up with volunteers in the area to have a meeting with a new manager of a mining operation. He is interested in making a good image for his company and wanted to help with environmental projects. It ended up being an interesting day of driving around in the hills, good food and lots of laughs. That night and danced and laughed with my host family for the birthday party. I listened to all the Sensual Karicia (sensual caress) songs I used to hear on a daily basis and felt as though my family was really happy and in a good place. My host brother chatted with me for a while and my married host sister was even around for an appearance! The next day I made sure to play a lot of cards with the younger ones. One thing I found funny about being at the house was how many babies there were! Babies galore, it was adorable.

In Lambayeque the volunteer projects amaze me. We have one helping to increase the amount of trash collection in their town, they have new garbage trucks and encourage recycling. It is going to make a big difference in the city´s cleanliness! Another volunteer had organized a community effort to build a library/community center out of plastic bottles stuffed with trash!! Talk about trash management. It is an incredible idea and the community is really behind it, they stuff bottles with trash weekly and at the very least, it is raising awareness about trash management and pollution. Others continually educate Peruvian youth about environmental protection and self esteem. One volunteer even got a kids drawing put up on a giant billboard outside of the city! The message says to keep their city clean, don´t throw trash in the streets. Another is working with a local zoo that protects some endangered species endemic to the region, like the white winged guan (paca aliblanca) and varios kinds of monkeys. Others run classes, put up solar panels and organize the community to build local parks.

I have the best job in the world. I get to see all of these projects, feel inspired, spread the word about their work and support them in the continuing goals. It makes me so happy to see volunteers at work with hopes and dreams and goals and ambition. I continue to feel proud of the Peace Corps mission and the difference volunteers make in people´s lives, and the changes they find within themselves throughout their service.

I made a slide show video of my visits in Lambayeque (where I did my service). You can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIiv5xed4fA&context=C3bbbff4ADOEgsToPDskLFzloHfrswkHfzO5Vb-Exn

Goodbye to my town

I wrote this as an email some time ago when I left my site and I thought I would share it here:

Saying goodbye to Sincape,

To be honest, I never really imagined myself as a Peace Corps volunteer living two years abroad in a poor community. I certainly did not believe it when my acceptance letter came and I was invited to serve as a volunteer in Peru... a country I knew very little about, even less the language! I didn´t love training, but I figured it was an adventure, and one of my fellow volunteers and told me on the flight to Peru the very first day that you just have to have in your mind that you will not leave, no matter what. Everyone made me feel like I would struggle, suffer and have a hard time for two years.

So what a surprise when the very first time I visited me town they had the entire primary school level out in the river waiting for me to walk to the school with them. There they recited poems and danced for me, making me feel loved and welcome. What a surprise that I loved my town, that I could be so happy with so little, that I could make friends in such increadibly different circumstances then what I had grown up with.

You all have shared parts of these two years with me through my emails and stories so I thought you might like to hear about how it felt to say goodbye.

My town decided to through me two parties. One was going to be a dance and drinking party at my house, and the other a student affair at the school. The weekend started on the Friday after thanksgiving when three of my best friends and fellow volunteers and one peruvian friend from the city came to my house with a bunch of prepared food and we shared thanksgiving dinner with my host family. We had a relaxing night of food and laughter and a small fire while one of my friends played some guitar: The next day was party day. I passed the day helping to get water for the house and hanging out with friends. The sound system came around 4 and I started to get nervous and excited. I had a breakdown at the start of the party watching my host Mom frantically prepare all the food and waiting for people to show up, but my host sisters and friends pulled me through. You can imagine how surprised I was when my host Dad asked me to write posters representing each of the community groups that donated to my party, and there were SEVEN! Both of the soccer clubs, the woman´s clubs, the school, the local police and the central community committee. I was shocked and touched that so many people came together just for me. The party was a great success. It started out with little kids doing dances for me and me joinging in with some volunteers. From a distance, (and with my friends creative decorating with balloons) I´m sure it looked like a little kids birthday party to start out! But eventually the adults came closer and the drinking and dancing started. At midnight I gave a speech. I thanked each of the seven groups and told stories about my time there, how they taught me to do laundry, laugh and say hello to everyone in a meeting even if your an hour late! When I started to thank my host family I broke down and needed a minute to recover, there were not enough ways to thank them for everything they did for me... and that is what I said. Afterwards, my volunteer friends and my host Dad said some very touching things about me, bringing me to tears again. Afterwards, we stayed up dacing until 4am.

The next morning was Sunday, my last Sunday with my family. I asked my host Dad for permission to use the moto because I had a Peruvian friend visiting from Chiclayo who know´s how to drive. With his help, I took my three youngest siblings to the local zoo, about 30 minutes away driving. I had promised them for a year to take them there, and I finally had the time and the ability to take them. They were thrilled and surprised and had a great time seeing all the animals. Before we left, I gave my host dad a photo album that I had made for the family, with a page dedicated to each family member and pictures of our two years together. To my surprise, my host Dad cried the entire time as he flipped through all the pages, remembering all of our memories together. It was another emotional moment.

Monday I was in the local school all day long. They cancled classed for the entire day to dedicate to me. The kids played soccer all morning, and the teachers had a delicious lunch prepared for me that we all ate together. After we ate, the kids did performances for me, dancing, singing songs, reading poems and giving speeches. I cried when a kid recited a beautiful poem for me that he had written himself... for me! I couldn´t believe it. But I cried even harder when my younger host sister, 9 years old, stood up and spoke in front of everyone about me. It was the first time she had spoken publicy in an event, and she didn´t recite anything or read a poem, she just spoke from her heart. The things she said were funny, about how I always give them free pictures and play, but it didn´t matter because I sobbed through the whole thing while the rest of the kids starred at me. I gave another speech about how wonderful the school has been with me and how wonderful all the kids are. I told them I hope to see them all being leaders in 5 or 10 years when I come back to visit. I talked again about my host Dad and how he always believed in me. It felt good to be able to express myself and thank everyone. I was given countless letters from kids I had worked with that I have saved to read in a quiet moment when I am traveling.

The day of my departure, after a day and a half of packing and organizing my things, my community said they would send me off the same way they invtied me in. That meant that all the highschool students walked with me through the entire town down to the river. The entire student body, teachers and some parents and friends came out to wave me goodbye. I proceeded to hug everyone, each and every nervous student, goodbye. The tears started to flow when I had to hug my host Mom and Dad for the last time. I cried until the next town, where my host sister who had married and moved, ran out of her house and stopped my moto so that she could hug me too.

I never imagined myself in a tiny Peruvian town without electricity or running water for two whole years... but I certainly never imagined the pain of saying goodbye. I am still getting phone calls and texts saying goodbye, and every single one makes me sad and grateful at the same time. I want to say thank you to all of you, friends and family back home, for supporting me through it all.

Chinese New Year

I had a rough/strange start to my year, so my Mom recommended that I ¨re-start¨ my year at the chinese new year. I am taking her advice, but on January 23rd, the start of the Chinese new year, I read that it is the year of the dragon! Apparently, 2011 was my year, the year of the rabbit (and I´ll be darned, I did have a fantastic year!). Considering dragons are obviously powerful and overpowering to timid and calm little rabbits, I am thinking this year will be a constant battle. So I´m arming up and getting my fighting face on! Bring it on 2012!

**Photo credits to:

1. Kydar at http://kydar.deviantart.com/art/Fighting-Rabbit-44267614

2. remigiaidos on http://remigiaidos.deviantart.com/art/rabbit-dragon-68015153

Campo-States-Big city Lima-Junin

Where do I even begin??

For starters, sorry for not updating more. I promise that in 2012 I will be better about it because I now have good internet everyday! Please enjoy this entry full of pictures and love!

I am now back in Peru after a wonderful month in the United States. I managed to get my peruvian desert dog to New York, after a very complicated and costly interaction. He is happy and now bonding with my parents while I miss him terribly and all the time. I had a BLAST in the Ithaca, Kentucky and Toronto while I was home. I told Mom that I had about 6 major highlights and she said that is more then she has in half a year sometimes! So I feel very lucky. I saw so many friends and friendly faces, got to visit my Mom´s Montessori school, had a hilarious and fun filled Christmas in Kentucky and New Years full of lantern walks, drinks and dancing. Kentucky was so great because so many of my cousins came this year and we laughed so much I swear I came out it with stronger ab muscles! On new years, Greg and Jackie and I somehow all came together at the same place without planning it and broke in the new year together dancing around and just acting like the crazy Booth´s we always are. I had a visit from one of my best friends in Peace Corps for 4 fun filled days where we explored Ithaca and drank lots of hot chocolate and caught up on our girl talk. I even made it to Toronto to see some of my college buddies and hang out with all my brothers wonderful house mates, accompanied by another Peace Corps girlfriend from Rochester. At the end of the trip I must have wanted to stay longer because I mis-read my plane ticket and completely missed my flight! I don´t know how that happened because I like to think I´m pretty responsible about dates and traveling usually. But, it was solved easily and I ended up leaving the next day, 2 days before I thought I was going to leave. It was a shock to suddenly be going back before I was ready, but it was nice to arrive to a warm climate and a bed that is mine.

Being a volunteer in Lima is a completely different reality. I work 9 to 5pm, I take a bus to work. I speak a mixture of English and Spanish all day. I live on my own, cook my own food and its… well… its like being a grown up again. I take a 40-minute bus to work everyday and usually listen to music or read a book. One day, in the giant city of Lima with almost 9 million people, a guy got on the bus and sat next to me while I was deeply engaged in my book. He didn´t say a word but eventually I looked up and realized he was someone I knew! It was such random meeting; I had just met him that weekend as one of the friends of a fellow volunteer. He proceeded to tell me about his work experiences. Do any of you remember a service that would turn your voicemails into text messages that you could read? Turns out, that is not a computer translating your voicemails to written text, but Young Peruvians who speak English writing them out for you! He told me hilarious things about not being able to understand accents well, all the wild things people would say in voicemails, and noted that the of the voicemails in Columbia he listened to, 90% of them said ¨I bet you are cheating on me!¨ often in much stronger language. Not only that, but he also used to do translations for Hispanic clients in American hospitals. The hospital would call a number and it would go to his phone and he would help to translate the whole medical interaction.

Where I have decided to live is a 10 minute walk from the beach front and right in the heart of one of the nicest parts of Lima. I have a room in a shared house where there is a comical mixture of characters including a salsa dancing polish couple, a writer and internet editing single woman in her 40´s, an 18 year old Peruvian girl who works and is studying to be a chef, and a middle aged man from Canada working in something I can never remember and barely speaks any Spanish. Oh, and of course there is the 40-something owner who is a fun loving, self employed guy taking care of the house. It is a fun and funny family who has invited me in with open arms, taking me out dancing, inviting me to food and offering to teach me to prepare certain plates. They are a friendly and outgoing group and I am content with the situation as it is right now. Soon another volunteer will be moving in as well. I have a great room with internet, tv and a great big window. It is a big change from my tiny, dirt floored, adobe house in the dry forest of the north of Peru.

However, after only 2 weeks in Lima and a month in the states, I had seriously started missing some well-cooked Peruvian food. So, one Sunday I made a voyage to the outskirts of Lima just to visit my training host family and to prepare and eat delicious Peruvian food with them. It was one of my best days in Lima so far! I re-bonded with the family, the sibling all being around my age. We joked around as I helped them around the house and sang along to popular songs. It was great to feel Peruvian again.

In terms of my job, I am considered the

coordinator of the environmental volunteers in Peru, of which there are about 35. I work directly with the director of the environment program in the office, doing any errand he asks while being a contact person for the volunteers when they need materials or advice. Another part of this job is traveling with my boss to every environment volunteers´ site to see how they are doing, see their projects and see if they need any support. I am just retuning from a week long trip t

o Junín, a province of Peru high in the Andes mountains where there really is no escap

ing the cold. There are 9 volunteers there, and we visited two or three

of them each day, using a Peace Corps issued car. We left from the boiling hot summer climate of Lima and by late afternoon we arrived to 3,800 meters and freezing cold temperatures. The first night we all just went to sleep so that we could acclimate to the high altitude and cold. At night I slept in layers of clothing, tons of blankets and never took a shower because it was just too cold to take of my clothes and then at the end have get out of the luke-warm water. The volunteers in this region are some of the most hard core I have seen. They suffer extreme cold without ever being able to enter a warm home or sit by a fire. Some of them don´t bath for weeks at a time because the

water is ice cold and they just don´t feel the need. We even have the highest working volunteer in the world at 4,200 meters! And yet, they work hard and are an incredible group of young volunteers. Almost all of them have started ¨recycling buys¨ where they call on the community to bring in their plastic bottles and tin cans to sell to them. They buy them and then sell them to a big city nearby, making their money back. All the recycling they buy is garbage that previously would have been burned in people´s back yards. Such a small step, with such a big impact! All of that with some of them only having a hole in the ground in the middle of a field for a bathroom! I feel so fortunate to have the position I have, getting the opportunity to see the changes these volunteers are making all over the country despite the hardships of poverty, cold and learning a new language.

I spend my free days in Lima (and I´ve had very few) walking along the beach front, meeting up with friends, preparing food

for the week, going to the beach to take advantage of the few months of sunshine and still trying to organize my room and life. I now have access to most luxuries and don´t feel myself missing American foods or culture because I am basically in a mini Spanish speaking America with a Peruvian cultural twist.

On a personal note:

My theme song for January: Adele - ¨Someone Like You¨

¨Never mind I´ll find someone like you,
I wish nothing but the best for you too
¨…sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead¨
¨…regrets and mistakes they´re memories made, ¨
Who would have known how bitter sweet this would taste¨

Not trying to be a downer, but that is just how my year started out and Adele has been inspiring me with that song all through the month. Please don´t get me wrong, I have been super happy lately!

Hasta pronto,
-C

Remembering the Weird

As Peace Corps volunteers (or really anyone who first arrives in a foreign country), we notice all the funky things that are different and/or amusing about our towns and countries. We laugh at donkeys walking across soccer fields during a game, or cringe all night long as roosters crow. After a few months (or years), we become used to these things and don't notice their odd-ness anymore. I cant now sleep through thirteen roosters crowing every hour all night long. I don't notice pigs wandering across my path, or feel fear at the dogs barking aggressively at me everywhere I go. I don't notice goats and sheep tied to carts or strapped to the top of cars everywhere I go, bleating loudly and sometimes sounding like children. However, I recently attended Peace Corps "end of service" conference that they hold for all volunteers three months before we finish our two year service. The goal of the conference is to prepare us for all the paperwork and technical items we will need to know for returning to the United States. It also provides us with an opportunity to get together with our training class and gives us tips for saying goodbye to our communities and winding down our projects. I am not leaving quite yet, so I felt a significant amount less stressed about the paperwork aspect. But, I did take to heart some of the things they said about how to leave our communities because I will be leaving my little norther Peruvian town that was my home for two years. The tips they gave us were to take as many pictures of possible of all the things we had noticed when we first arrived as funny or strange, because anyone we meet in the future will probably enjoy seeing it and hearing about it. So, that is what I have started to do. In the mean-time, I have also paid more attention to the everyday hilarious things that happen to me and would like to recount two funny, recent stories here today.



Airplanes

The other day I was outside sitting in front of my house. I was waiting for a moto-taxi to drive by so that I could wave it down to drive me into the main town to meet up with some fellow volunteers for some organizing and internet work. All of a sudden my two youngest host siblings (7 and 9) yelled at me from a few feet away, standing in the soccer field and staring at the sky, "carol, come here, come here!"
"What is it?" I asked, feeling lazy as they often yell at me so come see weird things like how well they can play with a yo-yo. "A plane!!!" they yelled! I smiled and walked out to see what was actually a helicopter flying over-head. Their eyes were wide and their amazement great as they asked me all kinds of questions like; "where is it going?" "Is that how high you go when you fly in a plane?" I tried to explain that is was a helicopter and I didn't know where it was going.. but my explanations were lost in their amazement. I kept that with me the rest of the day, the pure joy and amazement two (and probably all the children in the town) felt as they watched one simple helicopter fly overhead. Simple pleasures.

Outdoor English in the Rain

I live in a desert. Well, technically a "dry forest," potato patAto, right? It rains about 2-3 months out of the year (sometimes) for the rainy season. So, needless to say, when it is not rainy season, it hardly EVER rains. But, here in Peace Corps we are taught to constantly go with the flow and make the best of things. So, when I couldn't find the keys to the classrooms for my Saturday English and Environment classes this week, I just shrugged and decided I would do the class outdoors. As usual, most kids showed up about 45 minutes late after I had been teaching the 5 or 6 on time kids. As soon as everyone arrived, it started to drizzle and we were forced to scrunch together under the patio area. I gave them coloring sheets and had them all color, outside, under a small roof while it rained lightly and I had only a poster sheet to write on to work with. The rain did eventually stop and the kids promptly spread out onto the concrete and copied down greetings in English laying on their stomachs and propped up on their elbows. I was so happy I brought my camera that day! While that class is always a nightmare in terms of class control because the students bring their 2-3 year old siblings and it becomes kind of like a daycare, this particular class kept me smiling because of the humor of it all.


Sleeping under the stars

The other night, all of us volunteers that are located in nearby locations got together to visit a fellow volunteer for his towns anniversary. We watched soccer and ate ice creams and chatted on his rooftop, a paved rooftop under the stars. Because there are many of us (6) and he has a small room, we decided to unroll our sleeping bags right there on the paved roof and sleep under the stars. Like I mentioned, we live in a desert so it really doesn't get that cold... ever. We had a cuddled together slumber party right out in the open, next to a highway as semi-trucks rolled by all night and the stars shined in the electricity-less town.

Thank you for reading!

Peruvian vacation

Well, I took my time, that's for sure! I am now in Lima for about a week for our two year volunteer medical exams and end of service conference. It is a final goodbye (three months in advance) for a lot of us, and has been a fun reunion so far. It will give me some time to catch up on some seriously set back emailing and updating and contacting!

So to start, I'm sure most of you have already heard but it has been officially announced in the Peace Corps Peru community that I have been selected to stay a third year as a volunteer coordinator for the Environment program in Peru, working out of the capital city of Lima. In other words... I'm not leaving! Somehow, Peru has sucked me in and I wasn't ready to go yet. I was looking for options to stick around for a while (travel, teaching English) and I somehow got offered a great position that will offer me some great office work experience, as well as a LOT of traveling to visit volunteers in the field. Fortunately, Peace Corps offer's third year volunteers a month to go home right around the holiday's! So I'll be around for Christmas and New Years and look forward to seeing as many friends and family as possible before I leave for another year.

So how was that trip I went on with my parents, Jackie, Steve and Carol? It was almost a month ago that it ended and none of us have written a thing about it (that I have seen anyway). Jackie, thanks for putting up a little bit of photographic evidence that the trip DID happen and my aunt, uncle, parents and sister didn't just get lost in the Peruvian wilderness for a month!

The trip started with my being broke and the family arriving in the Lima airport. I admit it, I cried out of joy (or was it relief? I had just taken the GRE that morning....) when I saw them and wrapped everyone in my arms with a giant smile on my face. We got to our hotel nice and late at night and were soon all asleep after a little night cap of gin and tonic... Oh how I felt like I was in America again! Things started out great food-wise. The breakfast at our Lima hotel was one of the best, complete with the regular bread and egg selection, but including special things like cake! We explored the city by foot, and by the afternoon I was dragging my family to a restaurant/bar to watch Peru play in the America Cup. They ended up placing third out of all the Latin America teams and Peru as a whole was very proud. This served as a great conversation starter from then on with all our guides and people we met. The family as a whole was unimpressed with Lima weather, which is constantly overcast and drizzling. The "bet you cant wait to live here for a year, huh Carolyn?" jokes never got old!

Soon we were off to our first tourist destination, Arequipa. Arequipa is one of the largest cities in Peru, in the southern part and in the mountains. In Peru, the south is much colder then the north (farther from the equator), we we were instantly breaking out our scarves and jackets. We were tired by the altitude, so we did a little exploring and were quickly worn out. Luckily, the tour my Dad planned for us meant that we got to be shuttled around in cars to various destinations most of the time, while different tourist attractions were explained to us (in English). We saw volcanoes and and beautiful churches and listened to more soccer games on the radio. Soon, we were up super early and headed off on a nice long drive through the country-side to Colca Canyon, where we were to bath in hot springs and see condors in flight. The views were beautiful and our guide was a riot. He was my age and spoke great English and had even lived in Kentucky! Small world. He told us all about the llamas, alpacas and vicunas, stopping along the way to let us take pictures and look for interesting wild life. Upon arrival, we were exhausted from the altitude and everyone went to take a nap while my Mom waited for our passports from the hotel reception. However, she herself got tired and went to close her eyes for a minute. That minute turned into an hour, and when she woke up she realized Dad was gone (thinking he had been in the bathroom all that time). Soon, when the haze of the nap faded away, she also noticed that none of her things were in the room! Woops. Wrong room! We managed to mess up quite a few beds that morning! That night was a blast when the guide took us to a tourist restaurant and I ended up dancing a traditional dance (that aunt Carol has named the "shakey shakey" dance). Dad got video footage, and I'm sure some of you have already witnessed it. I get to whip a 14 year old boy, and then get whipped in return. Always appropriate, right? Later that night, Jackie and I hit the "town" (really, just a tiny little village) with our guide and driver and danced the night away in a tiny hole in the wall where we were the only people there. It was a blast. In the morning, only a little exhausted and hung over, we went off to see the Condors! It was a beautiful site, but not the romantic alone "us with nature" that I sort of imagined. There were a TON of people there. But, when you saw the condors in flight, souring in the canyon, it didn't matter how many other people were there, it was a special moment for sure.

We had another day in the city of Arequipa after that where we had a walking tour of the city (I guess they assumed we were used to the altitude by then!) We learned about the different qualities of llama wool and visited a convent where were quizzed on exactly how many nuns lived there, and taught a little about the history of the place. While in the city, the food was delicious and my family got to experience a S./ 3.50 "menu" which is a cheap plate of traditional food that comes with a soup as a starter, a lot of rice and a (most likely) unboiled barley drink.... yum!

Then we were off to Puno! The family did not seem to love the city because the buildings were all half done and it was pretty small with very little to do. However, the main attraction was that it is the lake-side city of Lake Titicaca! The famous lake that Peru shares with Bolivia, the highest navigable lake in the world! We spent one whole day on that beautiful lake on a boat. We visited floating islands, where people actually build their homes and lives on compacted piles of reeds! They made a lot of jokes that when their neighbors don't want to help out with the community work, they just cut off their chunk of the island and watch them float away! My family was the most thrilled, however, when we saw some young boys, not wearing the traditional dress for the tourists for everyone else, chasing after and successfully catching a duck out from their canoes. It was funny and a treat to watch people acting normally. We went to another island called Tequille I believe, where we had one of the best lunches we had in the entire trip of trout while looking at the snow covered mountains of Bolivia across the lake. That night, we ventured out to find cheap-ish food and found a restaurant with giant plates of Peruvian food with the most hilarious translations I had ever seen!

Off to Cuzco!! The biggest tourist destination of them all, because from Cuzco we connected to Macchu Picchu. In Cuzco we requested to have very little guidance so that we could explore on our own. A lot of time was spent shopping shopping shopping, but on our first time we went straight to the central plaza to see some traditional, Spanish influenced, dancing and music from University groups all over Peru. The next morning, we toured around the nearby ruins with a new hilarious guide. We saw more llamas and alpacas, more tourist shops, and more beautiful views. In the evening we headed off to "Aguas Calientes" or "hot waters" where we were to spend the night so that we could to go Machchu Picchu NICE and early in the morning. We arrived at out hotel, Gringo Bills, pretty late and went straight to sleep. In the morning, bright and early before the sun, we chugged back some coffee and joined the masses in lines for buses going up the historical and famous Macchu Picchu. It was, of coarse, beautiful. The view was more incredible that one can imagine and we spent the entire morning walking around it, or just sitting and staring at the view. Jokes were told, stories remembered, but we were all entranced by what the ancient Mayan civilization left behind. I personally kept trying to imagine how they would live so high up! They must have been very strong. Afterwards, Jackie, Dad and I decided to hike down (yes, only down) to get some exercise before we started drinking beer to celebrate a successful trip! None of us could believe that the trip was winding down, but Jackie was getting more and more excited each day because we would soon be going to my home village.

So we spent another day or two Cuzco, taking it easy, exploring local markets and (me) thoroughly grossing out my family members with things in the market. And of course, shopping and eating! We watched two robberies happen, drank an excessive amount of coffee and talk about the things we had seen. When we headed off to Lima I think we were all happily exhausted. There we had to say good bye to Carol and Steve. It was sad to watch them go, but the silver lining was that it marked our next adventure to the North of Peru! The heat was awaiting!

We spent the night on Peru's luxury bus, the equivalent of $30 for an almost bed-like bus seat, dinner and breakfast. I got the hostess to put in Harry Potter so I finally got to see the second to last one! In the lovely city of Chiclayo, we had a relaxing day of eating some of the most amazing ceviche and exploring their large and famous market. That night, Jackie and I had big plans to hit the town but we ended up sleeping instead, worn out from the long trip we had only recently finished. The next day we jumped in "combis" or vans up to my city of Olmos, where we met up with my closest volunteer friends for lunch. We had a good time chatting and joking around until it was finally time for my American family to meet my Peruvian family. We loaded up all of out things in one moto (my Dad did not believe it was possible), piled my dog Botas on top and were off! We arrived to a soccer game that was about to start right outside of my house, no rest for my family! It reminded me of last year when the second my brother arrived in my town, I threw him in the back of a car to go to a soccer game in another time. No adjustment time with me! My parents were troupers, spending two nights sleeping on a mattress on the floor of my room, with my dog taking up all of their leg room, and roosters crowing all night long! They witnessed soccer game upon soccer game, my Dad attended his very first cock fight where he amused the spectators by attempting to bet only 3 soles! Most people bet above 10! He did manage to loose a sandwich and two beers to my volunteer friend, who also came out for the festivities. They were also good sports about going to a town dance and drinking ten beers with 12 people and only one cup. My Mom struggled a lot not being able to communicate in Spanish, so she decided she would just speak to everyone in English. Sometimes I would walk in on her telling an elaborate story to one of my little host siblings, looking at her blankly but respectfully and I couldn't help but want to burst into laughter. Translation was exhausting but rewarding, and I often found myself forgetting what people could and could not understand. My family also spent two nights in the town of Olmos, hanging out with my volunteer friends. My Mom even cooked us up some white bean chili! We spent a lot of quality time together, attempting to drink Peruvian wines (ouch!) and commenting on the awesome-ness of my adorable puppy!

It was really hard to say goodbye when they finally left. Everything went by way too fast and I felt like I still had way more I wish I could have shared with them. I'm grateful, though, that my family at home now has a link to my family here in Peru. It is something I don't think either family will forget.

On a personal note, things have been moving along fine. I felt a little lag on getting back into my work and now I am again dragged out of my town for Peace Corps reasons (and hence, more time for internet!). But, my local school recently bought its own computer, and I am donating two more thank you to Cornell University and my Dad's coordination! I'm excited to be a part of the technological education that will take place in my final months. My host Mom also had her 7th baby, a little girl, on September 1st at 8:45pm. They haven't chosen a name yet, and want me to make a list of all the girl names I can think of to help them decide. My life feels like its on a fast track and I cant believe that in less than 4 months I will be coming home for Christmas and saying goodbye to my little village for good. It will be a stressful and emotional time to get through the next few months of goodbyes, but I look forward to sharing the, what are sure to be, amusing, comical and tear filled goodbye stories with you all.

Thank you for reading and writing and being always present in my life abroad! All my love,

Carolyn

success stories

This update I want to focus on a few of my and my co-working volunteer success stories. First, I should explain that I live in a town called "O" which is a gigantic town made up of literally hundreds of "caserios" or "pueblos" which are mini-towns but are all governed by the O local government. O is like the city and the towns are the suburbs. It is so big that there are actually 7 of us volunteers living in O. Six of us do environment work, and one does work with youth development. My little town is called S but it is part of this larger town of O.

So my success stories therefore come in two parts: S success' which are more my own projects, and O success' that I share with my fellow volunteers. When I arrived in O we were only 3 volunteers in total. It was a small group and I worked mostly alone. Now, we are a like a unified force and the influence is obvious in our joint project progress.

I mentioned in my last email that I was working on getting running water to the local school in S. Well, I am happy to report that the water is now flowing! It makes me over-joyed to go to the school and watch kids run to the taps and rinse their hands and faces and wet their hair. They no longer have to care bottles of water to the school, or leave class to go to the river to carry buckets of water for their classrooms or for plants they are growing. It was a difficult and lengthy process, but through a few lucky connections and a little bit of charm, I found someone willing to install the pump and even buy the missing parts for free! So, I got the pump donated by an American non-profit group that donates to Peace Corps volunteer water projects called Appropriate Projects. I got the installing and missing parts put in for free and only had to spend the day hanging out with the men installing it. Not really that hard of a job now is it? But I cant even tell you how happy I was to see the water start to flow. The teachers are already starting up all kinds of tree planting projects on the school grounds. You can find pictures and a description of the finished project here: http://appropriateprojects.com/node/738

Also, a personal project that I recently completed was a recycling contest in the S School. I got all the classrooms to compete against each other in who could collect the most Kilo's of recycled goods. The younger kids got more excited about winning because the winning classroom was told they would have a party if they won. I gave them all a week to bring in recycling, suggesting they go for batteries for three reasons: 1) Because they weigh more, 2) They sell for a pretty good price, and 3) To get the batteries full of toxins off the ground and littered all over town. The whole project was very successful. In batteries alone the school collected about 30 kilos. I sold a couple sacks of bottles and paper the other day for the school and got 10 soles for the school (a little more then $3). I loved that the kids got into it and it was fun weighing all their items and watching them get excited about winning. The celebration party is planned for this Friday.

The next success story is a shared one. In O we do a radio show every Monday called "La Hora Ecologica" or the Ecological Hour where we talk about environmental issues of our choosing for half an hour. Surprisingly, we have gained a lot of popularity and we all get a lot of comments about people enjoying the show. We try to make it fun by writing environmental song lyrics to n*sync songs like Bye Bye Bye or having poetry contests amongst students in which the winners get to come to the radio and read their poems on the air. Last week, we decided to mix things up by inviting the only two male volunteers in O to do a show about woman's rights. It was an amazing show where the boys explained how we culture woman to stay in the home and be cooks by teaching them the ways of the kitchen early while young boys are given toy cars to go out and play. They mentioned how whistling to girls walking by is disrespectful and that men should imagine those girls being their sister's or daughters, and how they would feel. All things that seem obvious or at least ingrained in us in the U.S. However, I talked to my host Dad about it afterward and he said it was the best show we had put on. He said he had never thought about whistling at girls like it could be his own sisters. And the next morning, he got up at 4am with my host Mom to help her prepare breakfast that he would bring to work at 6am. He was very proud and says that he really liked the topic. That story about my host Dad has touched my volunteer friends, because sometimes we don't realize that we might make an impact on our listeners. But, I feel like our small little radio program really has the potential to share interesting and important information and at least make people think about different issues that are not normally presented to them.

The last story is also shared, and it is about the upcoming Festival de Limon. It is the Lime Festival which is basically a month long party in June in O. There are dance parties, beauty pageants, famous actors and actress presentations (from a famous novela!), moto-cross, bike races, etc. It is a big deal. This year, Peace Corps volunteers will be participating with our own float in the parade that will be decorated with recycled goods. We will also be trying to convince the mayor to install trash cans in the entire city for all the trash that will come of the giant, month-long party. We were lucky enough to somehow find ourselves invited to a live broad-casted meeting with the mayor about the festival in which Peace Corps was mentioned several times and we had the opportunity to mention the trash problem in the city. Side note: right now, O has no trash collection and only has trash cans in the plaza. Trash is generally put in sacks and carried out to the smaller rural areas (like where I live) and dumped on the sides of roads, or burned. We are trying to fight that, hopefully with a large landfill. But, we are taking baby steps and using the festival and the incoming tourists as a reason to deal with the trash problem.

Personally, the things I have coming up in June are the Festival de Limon that I just described and a boys Leadership camp in the department of Lambayeque. That means all the volunteers in the region, about 25 of us, bring two or three young boys from their towns for a three day and two night over-night camp in which we discuss leadership, goal setting, future job opportunities, play games and do a significant amount of sexual education. I have probably mentioned these camps before. Here in Lambayeque we do two camps a year, one for girls and one for boys. It's one of our biggest joint efforts and always is an enlightening and wonderful experience for the volunteers and kids involved. Also this month I am hoping to start up my very own youth program that will work with only upper level high school kids. It will be an integrated program in which the kids will learn about goal setting, job prospects and realities, they'll have to read book and keep journals, reach certain fitness goals and again, sex ed. A volunteer friend of mine is starting this program in her school and calls it the "Iron Man/Iron Woman" competition because it has fitness goals (like running a 5k) as well as educational goals. I decided to present it to the principal at my school and if she agrees, I will be in the school running this program, teaching classes a few times a month.

On a more personal level, June is my last month of training to run a marathon on July 3rd. So on the 4th of July I will be hopefully be celebrating America's independence by sipping beers on a beach after having run a ridiculously long time the day before. My dog, Botas Blancas, is still doing really well and is growing to be strong and a joy in my life. He follows me everywhere in town, going so far as to run with me when I bike places and jumping in moto-taxi's when I am getting rides to O. My volunteer friends in O are a blessing and keep me grounded, motivated and relaxed all at the same time. We often have "ladies nights" that involve a lot of popcorn eating, dancing and wine. And lastly, My host family continues to be a joy for me. We've had our ups and downs of getting to know each other, but we are now at a comfortable place. I get along really well with all of my host siblings and my host parents. My host Dad and I talk more openly then before and I feel more like a family member then a guest in the house.

One last story I'd like to share is a little about my host sister, who is 15 years old and inspiring to me because despite all she has against her (poverty, a so-so education, no free time) she has forged ahead. She is always getting her school work and her house chores done, has a positive attitude and has now convinced her parents to allow her to take computer classes on Sunday's so that she'll be technology savvy. I was so impressed when I heard she was taking these classes on her own initiative. She lives in a land where woman often drop out of school between the ages of 13-17 because of demands in their homes (someone needed to cook and clean), or because they decide to get married, often from early and unwanted pregnancies. Ericka for that reason is incredible because she doesn't let boys or peer pressure waver her from her ultimate dreams of leaving S to study and having a career. And while she is asked to do a lot in the home, she is fortunate to have a Dad that believes in woman's educational rights. She is one of my closest friends in town, despite our age difference, and she is always there to help me when I ask for advice or even just someone to edit my documents written in Spanish. She is really a shining star in the town and even in my host family and I feel lucky to be a part of her life.

For those of you who read my emails and updates, thank you for your support and for keeping me updated about things at home! I miss you and love you all.