and here´s one for march

well, i would so rather write a list of what has happened during the last month...and think that would be the best way to tackle this feat of catching people up. at least it can be a start.

1. community diagnostic in many different villages to see their state of potable water availability, toilet use, kitchen set up, deposit of trash, and illnesses.

this is taking a lot of time and what i spend most of my days doing.

2. finished up summer classes for the kids in my town. i was teaching music lessons (piano and guitar) and english classes to kids between the ages of 12 and 19. it was quite fun, and my plan to make friends was executed peeeerfectly, but i am incredibly glad for it to be done. also, it was organized through the church and they took advantage of the fact that i was teaching for free to charge students a rate to attend my classes and keep the money for themselves. so, needless to say i felt used and for that reason am also glad it is done. (wasn´t aware of this until the end of classes.)

3. organized meetings with the elected ´promotores´ in each village and have done several informative sessions with them to educate them on their job responsibilites in regards to making sure people are using their water well. (For example, not to water the lawn when other people don´t even get water to drink.)

4. have started working with the health post and have coordinated an event for world water day (which happens to be the 22nd).

5. my brother, rion, came to visit! we went arequia which was suuuch a fabulous experience! it was the first time i was cold for an extended period of time and had to buy a hat, wear 2 layers of shirts and make an igloo under my blanket to keep warm! i cherished every moment of that. it also thunderstormed which was so beautiful! it was a week of visiting the south, paracas where birds almost pooped on our heads, of sandboarding, of checking out the nasca lines (and feeling like i was going ot die in the plane...will neeever again check out the lines from the air), of check out my site, and of helping to build bathroom with other volunteers. it was great to show him where i live and what peace corps peru is like. especially since i went to visit his site in belize before coming here. now we really have an idea of how different experiences can be and goes to show you can´t compare two different servies. haha! one of my favorite things we did was staying up late and playing dominose at my house. then, we decided to water the leaves of the orange tree i have in the courtyard of my house (since it was sooo dirty because it never rains). we were dumping water on my tree for about and hour and i was washing the leave, one at a time, with a rag. got to say, i didn´t realize how glowing green it was under the layer of dirt. hah! it was so funny!

6. got a showering of packages and letters from fabulously amazing friends! thank you chelsea, wanakee, jenna, fritze, cori, betsy, granny and grandpa! it makes my day to go in and get packages and letters in the serpost! my room is how decorated with pictures that people have sent me. and after eating the chocolate that people are sending, i have to confess i should be boosting the amount i am running/biking...but, i also figure the sun will make me sweat out all the extra weight. will keep you all updated on how well that´s going.

7. i found a group of awesome people in lima who do yoga in the park on monday and wednesday nights, along with slacklinning. it reminded me of my nz friends (bigblueandpatty!!!) and i realized how much i miss slacklining. also, i have a renewed energy to start up yoga in my site, so i will get on that soon.

8. oh! aren and eddie from the states came to visit me as they were passing through my site to cusco. that was wonderful! they accompanied me for my first to the discoteca in my town which happens to also be my neighbor. we went for a ´miss verano´ (miss summer) competition. during the night of dancing, i was in the corner trying to make it as minimally obvious as possible that we were gringos. but, of course nothing worked and the entire croud would stare at us and wanted to dance with us. by the end of the night the gay guys in the discoteca kept asking me if my guy friends were gay, and the straight guys were asking me what my number was. in all, it was super fun!

9. i learned how to make tamalies with two of my girlfriends in site - julie and jessica. they are my friends in the market that make fruit drinks every morning and i always visit them. it took us allll night (literally from 9 pm until 5 am) to make tamalies, but they also turned out fabulous!

so, those are the updates for now! life is wonderful! love you all, and peace!