Home for the Holidays!

I got a little taste of America last week. Yes, that's right. For those of you who didn't know or unfortunately I did not have time to see, I was back in the States for about a week to spend Christmas with my family. I didn't experience as much culture shock as I had thought I would, but what surprised me the most was how distant I feel from Michigan (emotionally, not literally). It definitely made me also realize that I will mostly likely not return to MI after my Peace Corps service. For reasons of work, not wanting to have a car, wanting to maintain my Spanish-speaking abilities, wanting to be near family, etc. MI just doesn't make sense for me anymore. Michigan will always be home for me, but I see my future outside of that great state.

Anyway, here I am back in Peru. Landing in the country made me surprisingly happy and excited to get back to what has become reality for me now. I realized that I missed the fresh, unprocessed food, the climate, the language and the people more than I thought I would. I spent New Year's Eve camping on the beach with other Peace Corps friends which was fun and exhausting. I've spent the last day and a half sleeping and recovering from all the traveling, so that come tomorrow (Monday) I can get right back to work.

Speaking of work...next month the Builders Beyond Borders volunteers arrive! This month will be very busy getting everything ready for that, but I am very excited for the project. After the second group comes in April, a third of the year will already be over! I have a feeling this year is going to fly by which makes me happy and sad all at the same time. I've already thought of what it will be like to say goodbye to this country - the people, food, culture, etc.- and it brings tears to my eyes, so really I try not to think about the end, because I know I'll be a mess.

2010 is going to be a big, crazy year, but I have high hopes and big expectations for what's in store. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and are ready for the new decade!

1 year anniversary

I made it half way...YAY!

It's definitely been a tough year, but also one of the most amazing and eye-opening year's of my life thus far. Ok ok, that's sufficient cheesyness.

Things have been going well the past few months and I've been staying extremely busy. About 25 volunteers got together for Thanksgiving a few days a ago and we all had a wonderful time. We decided to do that traditional going around the table and saying what we're grateful for, which again, although cheesy, was really touching and wonderful. It was especially nice to have volutneers from up north, the new volunteers down in my region, Lima 3rd year volunteers, and other US friends/family memebrs all share the day together.

Today is the anniversary of my town and my host-mom's birthday as well...basically there's a lot to celebrate. It's definitely nice to just relax and blow off some steam for a little while. Next week I'll be in Lima for the whole week to get 1 year medical check ups (I really hope my teeth are ok, I've not heard good reports from the Health volunteers). After that I'll have 2 weeks at site to try and get a lot accomplished and then I fly to Michigan for a week!

I would say that's the summary of recent events. If you have Facebook, check out recent pictures I posted. That's another way to see what I've been doing work-wise (yes, I do actually work).

I hope all is well state-side. Cuidense!

The Real Reason I'm Here

I don't know if you knew this, but the real reason I joined Peace Corps is to learn how to have and raise babies. It's true. It started like this...first I got my site assignment and the paper I received with the names and ages if my host family listed the age of the youngest member as "baby". When I arrived, I found out that "baby" meant 3 months old. I was a little nervous about this at first, but as it turned out, Victor Raul (aka "baby") is awesome and barely ever cried. Also, at that point he could hold his head up, so I didn't have to worry about the whole supporting-the-head thing that always makes me nervous when holding babies (that and the fear that I'll drop them).

Fast forward to April of this year, I became the godmother of Victor Raul. I'm now a "comadre" (co-mother) with my host mom. Great. But again, it has actually been fine so far since he's an awesome child.

Jump ahead to last week, when, drum roll please, I found out that my host mom is pregnant with her 7th child! I have no words for this. Well yes I do...shock. Holy crap, there's going to be a pregnant woman in my house and a new born come May 2010.

Additionally, I can't tell you have many conversations between señoras I've been privy to in which they discuss in detail pregnancy, child birth and child rearing. They usually joke that they're scaring me off from having kids, which is partly true, but not completely. While child birth does freak me out, I definitely listen to what these women talk about because let's face it, these fertile women know what they're talking about! They dedicate their lives to having and raising children.

So now you know. Maybe when I come back I’ll become a midwife (that's a joke).

On another note, my bathroom project was accepted by the NGO Builder's Beyond Borders. What does this mean? 2 groups of high school students will be coming to my town early next year to build bathrooms for 44 lucky families. I'm thrilled to be a part of this project, but there is a mountain of coordination/planning to get ready for it.

Also, I'll be in Michigan from December 21-30. I hope to see as many of you as possible. I can't wait!

Labor Day

Happy Labor Day to everyone at home! I hope you're all barbequing, drinking beer, out on a boat, etc. It is not Labor Day here - we celebrated that back in May. Still, the weather has been turning nice here so it sort of reminds me of September in MI.

Anyway...wow the past 2 months have been very busy and I feel like I'm starting a new chapter of my Peace Corps experience which is great (for the most part). I'm now involved in 2 major projects in my town and I could not be happier about it. The environment project I'm working on involves planting 100 trees, installing garbage cans around town and 100 families will receive seeds to plant a small home garden. This project was approved by the local government and the idea is to have everything ready for the town anniversary on November 28th.

The second project I'm even more excited about. I just found out yesterday that Builders Beyond Borders accepted my bathroom project proposal! 2 groups of 40 high school students each from the US will come in February and April to build approximately 40 bathrooms in my town. Lack of proper sanitation and higienic practices is the biggest threat facing the health of my community and this project will directly address that problem. We will be building 3 different types of bathrooms with my personal goal being that it generates interest in the rest of the community and others will be motivated to build their own bathroom.

Aside from work, I traveled to Huaraz in the department of Ancash in late July. The trip was amazing and so much fun. Huaraz is a city located in the gorgeous mountains of Peru. Wherever you look you see snow-capped mountains and greenery. The city itself is filled with trekkers/tourists which means there's good food everywhere! I spent the week going on day hikes, spending time with other volunteers that I rarely see and just hanging out.

On September 12th I (along with my training group) will celebrate 1 year in Peru. Then on December 1st we will celebrate 1 year at site. As I approach the end of my first year I, of course, find myself reflecting on the past year. There have been a lot of emotional ups and downs, but especially now that I have projects going and am keeping busy, I realize how fortunate I am to be having this experience. I am meeting a lot of truly amazing people and making friendships that I believe will last many years.

As always, I hope everyone is doing well at home. I hope to see many of you during Christmas. I don't know wxactly what dates I'll be home yet, but I should be in MI for about 10 days. Talk to you soon!

Not much really

What's been going on lately? Well...mostly spending time at site which has been good since I've been able to get a project going (even though it's more of an enviroment project than water and sanitation, but oh well). But, of course I've been traveling a little as well.

I would say that things in general are going well. I've now been at site for 8 months now and I finally feel comfortable and able to get things going. I'm not really homesick anymore and I don't really miss things about home as much as I used to, which is good.

Truly, I don't know what else to write today. Like I said, things are going well and I'm getting work done. What do you all want to hear about???

The Jonas Brothers Come to Bernales

Ok well not literally, but the young people here have discovered them. One of the coordinators was telling me that her 19 year old son wanted her to buy one of their CDs when we went to Pisco. High School Musical has also arrived. I heard a girl singing along to one of the Vanessa Hudgon's songs about 30 minutes ago. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I have not only seen HSM, but also the Jonas Brothers movie where they're at a summer camp. During training last fall, I was living with 2 young girls (5 and 12), so needless to say, I watched a lot of Discovery Kids and Disney. I even got to see the Backyardagains which I know about due to my little cousin Ava. Truth be told, Discovery Kids and Disney are great to watch when your still not great with Spanish. I also saw Horton Hears a Who and Kung Fu Panda last fall in español...they were great. But when I hear the Jonas Brothers blaring from a house when I walk down the street, it makes me laugh a little to myself.

Anyway, the weather is getting cold here. Yes, it gets cold in the desert apparently. I thought I would have no use for my wool socks, jackets, sweaters, hiking boots, etc., but I've been wearing them daily! Weather.com says it's about 60 degrees, which really isn't that cold, but either I'm becoming a totally wimp or more likely I think is the fact that my house isn't exactly enclosed makes for an all around chilly day. Add to that the fact that I have cold water showers and it makes it a little more undesirable. It's also been raining a little here, not enough to have muddy streets, but enough so that my slanted roof let in a bunch of rain that soaked half of my bedroom floor. Luckily, my host dad put some plastic on the roof, so now my room is a little warmer and only a little rain got in last night.

I don't mean to complain. I actually think the cool weather is making me more productive. I've been running more and I got quite a bit of work accomplished last week. Moving around means getting warmer, so it's working I think. I also have a whole new appreciation for my compañeros in the mountains. One of my friends told me that he grew tired of doing laundry and having mold grow on his clothes (they wouldn't dry due to the constant rain), so he takes his laundry to the capital city every 2 weeks and has it cleaned.

Shoot...gotta run...more later.

Traveling Around Peru

Sorry guys, almost 2 months since my last blog! For the record...I actually tried to update at the beginning of April, but my computer would not let me post it. So I got frustrated and forgot about it. Anyway, it's been a very busy couple of months. Here's a quick overview:

March
1. Reconnect: All the volunteers from my training group got together to talk, vent, see where to go from here, relax, etc. It was great to see everyone and enjoy the beach for a few days.

2. Katie visits: It was great to see someone from home and catch up. We only had 2 days, but we managed to catch up quite a bit (that's what happens when you get 2 talkers together)

3. Behavior Change Workshop: Why people do or do not practice a certain behavior and why...study this for 3 days...exhausting.

end of March, beginning of April
1. Project Design Management workshop with community partner: the title pretty much says it all.

April
1. Holy Week in Ayacucho: Beautiful scenery, awesome religious processions, interesting history, amazing handicrafts (i.e. lots of shopping), good food, a little cold and rainy....amazing overall
2. Ben visits: in a word...perfect! The love of my life comes to see my new life. We ate good food, saw the sites, became godparents, watched TV, walked a lot, had a wonderful time together.

That's the quick summary. It's been an amazing and exhausting couple of months. I'm glad to be back at site and try to start a project. Today I have a feasibility meeting with one neighborhood to see if we can do a latrine project...hopefully it goes well.

I hope to hear from you all soon. I miss everyone dearly and hope you are all doing well back home. Chau for now!