moda de reciclaje...

today it was a fabulous day. it rained. and yesterday fabulous, it was thanksgiving. i celebrated it desert style with pcvs in ica eating pachamanca topping it off with 7 pies (thanks a million kate, teigan, and karen!). in true american style, i stuffed myself into a food coma which turned into a 2 hour snooze when i got back to the hostel. we went around and shared what we gave thanks to during the year - my peace corps family, my real family, laughter, surviving a year in peru, music for when i am frustrated, art for when i am stressed, the kids in my site which have so much energy, my friends back home, for being alive right now...we had a wonderful time chilling with the peace corps together. i met new friends who had served in the north, and said goodbye to friends who were finishing their service. it made me feel nostalgic. i feel like i can put into a new perspective my time here, how fast it is going, and how much it is affecting me.

one of the realizations i have had here is that i experience all of my emotions with more frequency than i ever did in the states - happiness, frustration, joy, anger, motivation, depression, boredom, overworked. here in peru i have learned that i love creativity. in peru i have learned that the energy children have is what makes this world full of colors. i have learned that it´s hard to teach older people to change their life-long habits. i have learned that you can´t force anything to happen. i have learned that people can surprise you. i have learned that things can change. i have learned that things will probably not go the way they have been planned. i have learned that i am still learning...


today was fabulous because it rained. it was also fabulous because on my way back to my site i felt like i was coming back to friends and my neighborhood. i felt comfortable. comfortable like i was in my house at cherry lane. at least, the closest to that feel than i have been during my time here. i was a judge today for the 3 time during my time here. this was a fashion show at the secondary school i am doing a recycling project at. it was a fashion show made all of recycled materials. i was flabergasted! the clothes they made were sooo incredible! they were made from plastic bags, plastic table clothes, newspapers, paper sugar bags, the silver lining of chip bags, cds, plastic bottle caps...and the creativity they used in designing the clothing was amazing! i will put pictures up on facebook soon for everyone to see. at the end of the fashion show the students gave some words at to the importance of recycling for the environment. and they are going to have a parade this week and all of the clothing that was made will be featured. they want to show the community what they are doing, and that they are a school recycling.

sooo many things were accomplished by this fashion show that makes me incredibly prowd of the students and the school! first off, they are recycling. also, they have changed the celebration they have done the past 24 years to include this new theme and topic of recycling. this is HUGE! because straying from the normal and expected in latin american just isn´t done. if someone dresses differently, does something in a different way, they are immediately labled as wierd and shunned. because no one wants that, they allll conform. so, it was huge that they even thought to do this fashion show and could get over the mental thought that they were wearing ´trash´. also, the creativity. VIVA CREATIVIDAD! there is none of it here. in art classes at school, the professors will make the art projects for the kids to take home for their parents. why? because if the parents see that the kids are ´making´ pretty things in school they will think they are learning something and want their kids to keep going ot school. now, it has the opposite efect, because the professors make all the art projects. or, if the students are assigned to do drawings they will pay an artists to draw it, make it perfect, and turn it in as their own. so, that the kids made their clothes for the show is amazing. a lot of them also seeked the help of their amily and parents, therefore teaching them what it means to recycle. :) also, it will be publicized on the tv station tonight, showing all of palpa that this school did this for their anniversary and that it turned out well. because this school is known as having hte best anniversay celebrations, it will be listened too, and i believe their rival school and most all the other schools will now want to start recycling. and to focus on teaching recylcing.

then, in the evening there was a beautiful sunset, i talked with my parents, and i bought a present for my little brothers birthday, which is sunday. hugs and love to all!