this was another fabulous day...because it rained in palpa. it was actually wonderful to be getting back to site with the rain, because after being in lima for a week i was getting used to the convenient life with options, variety, the ability to blend in, and was regretting a little that i had to go back. but, rain changed it all! I was in lima for the one year med checks. i checked out all fine. mouth is healthy, heart, body, mind, spirit. so, í guess i cleared for the next year! crazy! crazy, crazy, crazy to think one year in site has gone by! and i am here, doing some little projects, apparently the new seniors in site since the peace corps 12ers are leaving in these days (or already have). i am so proud of the pcv watsanners down here with me for all of us sticking together. it´s had hard moments that made me wonder if some would go home, and incredible moments that i never wanted to end. my first year has been an experience for myself that has been about palpa, myself, friends, endurance, discipline, flexibility, understanding, confusion, innovation, pain, and much, much, more. i wouldn´t say i would trade it for anything.
so...i got back to palpa and walked into my house with my older of the younger brothers listening to ¨baby gets back!¨ on his sterio. hah! he just loves to listen to music. he will sit on the sofa with his sterio and usb stick plugged in listening to whatever goes on. mostly they are songs in english and he doesn´t know the lyrics, but that´s what i come in. and translating things like ¨junk in the trunk¨ and ¨she caught me red handed...¨ don´t translate exactly the same. hah! but he laughs when i try to explain it, or i just make up something else for what they are trying to say. then i went over to my grandmothers house where my mom is (because she is still split with my dad chillin there). i played volleyball and soccer with my little brother and some neighbors girlfriends of his. now, the rain has stopped and i am heading back to my house to make some wallets. since i am leaving in two weeks to go home, i have to try and prepare presents for my friends here and the states these coming weeks! along with that, i have to wrap up a recycling project that is going on in 3 schools, an HIV/AIDs awareness campaign and see where the canal project is at.
the hardest thing about leaving site for these mandatory meetings that feel like they happen all the time is leaving the canal project. it is an on going project that always seems to be at a critical moment, and if i can´t be around to help it along i feel like i am fallaring (failing) the project. but, it feels so good to get a break from the craziness of it at times as well. there are a lot of political turns it takes, reasons for why we can´t get money for the project which are coruption issues, and difficulties motivating the people at times.
so, that´s life right now. i am on a computer that is going to kick me off in 6 minutes. i am gunna go home and do laundry in the dark because i ran out of clean underwear, do some yoga, and hopefully the wallet stuff if there is still time. oh, and hang out with my puppy who i haven´t seen for a week. :) i hope life where ever you are at is well! :) oh! and put your shoes out tonight - it´s St. Nicholas Day tomorrow!!!
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Friday, November 26, 2010
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!
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!
Sunday, October 24, 2010
the sand globe of palpa
i was sitting today under a straw awning on a tree trunk bench with several other women in their big hats and dresses and market bags, waiting for a truck with 20 people to come and pick me up. i was heading up the huanchaco in rio grande to do the canal work for this week. it started blowing sand everywhere with the wind, so the book i was reading got covered in a thin film of sand. what's new? i began thinking, it's like i live in one of those snow globes you see with the snowmen in them, only it's filled with sand. one thing i learned early on is that you can't hate the sand. it will always win. so, to succumb to pages that get a film of grimy sand, or the sand in the clothes, or the sand that enters the house and gets all over everything just becomes normal. it just makes washing your face and hair at the end of the nice that much better, because you really appreciate being clean. i also like to think of it as a natural exfoliation.
so, the truck never came to pick me up. i called up agustin, the coordinator in santa cruz for the people, and he said there were only 8 people this week who were going to come. well, that is just a number that is unexceptable. they know that i will not go up there unless there are aroudn 20, because otherwise we will just never get the work done. we will see if they can get 20 people for tomorrow so we can head out and get back to work. it is a little frustraiting when the people can't simply organize themselve to get out there and do work...they even are getting paid for it! the frustraiting part is that this is a project that will help them, we aren't charging, and who doesn't want water!? all they have to do is put the man de obra. we'll see how it develops.
so, i went over to beto's house, my site mate, and chilled. there is a circus in his town right now. it's actually the circus that was in my town for about a month, and was in palpa like 5 months earlier as well. i call it the circo pobre. it's just that. the enterance is tattered, the clothes they wear are old, the music is scratched from years of use, the animals look tired, the actresses are either very young (like 8) or really old, and in total there are like 6 that change roles throughout the show because there just aren't enough people otherwise! the reason the circus is here, is because they didn't make enough money in palpa to support their transportation to another spot, so they moved next door to the even smaller rio grande. i doubt if they will get like 10 people to go from here! i wonder how long i will hear the circus music that starts at 6 when i come to visit beto's house? months...
so, the truck never came to pick me up. i called up agustin, the coordinator in santa cruz for the people, and he said there were only 8 people this week who were going to come. well, that is just a number that is unexceptable. they know that i will not go up there unless there are aroudn 20, because otherwise we will just never get the work done. we will see if they can get 20 people for tomorrow so we can head out and get back to work. it is a little frustraiting when the people can't simply organize themselve to get out there and do work...they even are getting paid for it! the frustraiting part is that this is a project that will help them, we aren't charging, and who doesn't want water!? all they have to do is put the man de obra. we'll see how it develops.
so, i went over to beto's house, my site mate, and chilled. there is a circus in his town right now. it's actually the circus that was in my town for about a month, and was in palpa like 5 months earlier as well. i call it the circo pobre. it's just that. the enterance is tattered, the clothes they wear are old, the music is scratched from years of use, the animals look tired, the actresses are either very young (like 8) or really old, and in total there are like 6 that change roles throughout the show because there just aren't enough people otherwise! the reason the circus is here, is because they didn't make enough money in palpa to support their transportation to another spot, so they moved next door to the even smaller rio grande. i doubt if they will get like 10 people to go from here! i wonder how long i will hear the circus music that starts at 6 when i come to visit beto's house? months...
Thursday, October 21, 2010
lovely life in lima
here i am, in the office, dedicating three days to helping the PCVC finish the end of the year report for our project group. it was apparently a nightmare last year, but this year it has been a breeze, and honestly i haven´t needed to do too much of the report because he had finished so much before i got here. this is now my last day here, and then it´s back to the district of Palpa. the other day i went to play ultimate frisbee at the embassy. amazing! the first real game i had played in months. within the walls of the embassy with those 16 other americans, i felt like i had transported back to the field at city park and was playing during the tuesday and thursday night pick ups, only this time with shoes and without beer. one of the players there happened to go to college with a highschool friend, abe graber. he was wearing a carelton hat and said they had played frisbee together...small world! the others were either studying, working at the embassy, some working with health NGOs, and some just looking to live there to improve their spanish. sweet!
i have also really enjoyed the variety of food here in lima, as i always do. whenever i get the chance to come up here i am always excited about the middle eastern food, the mcdonalds (yea, i just said that), sushi and the starbucks. this time i tried out indian food at a place called Guru´s. WOW! probably better than any of the other food that i have had here. will definitely be going back. it´s a switch up from the pollo a la brasa (though one night i was looking for just that but decided to take advantage of the options while here), papa de la guancaina, cevichi, and chaufa.
i have also really enjoyed the opportunity to run in lima without feeling like a million people are watching me. it´s normal here! usually i get around to doing some yoga as well, catching up with those friend, but this time i didn´t get the chance. i am still targeting out some musiums i want to visit, but that will happen on another visit.
when i head back to site i am going to be heading back to the moutain to continue work on the canal. it´s currenlty a sunday night to wednesday night job. then i get back and have to start up my HIV-AIDs prevention project with some doctors in my site to try and finish that before december. and i am finally starting up the ecology club! yay! my school is excited, i am excited, and i just need to buy the trashcans. it´s taken quite some time in the planning, but before i get frustrated at thinking about that, i remember that i am in peru. and that´s the way it is.
well, it looks like it rained a little last night, so i am gunna take a walk along the beach and soak up some of those water dropplets. it will be rain than i have had in palpa during the past year. then, later on to some amazing restaurant before heading down under again...
i have also really enjoyed the variety of food here in lima, as i always do. whenever i get the chance to come up here i am always excited about the middle eastern food, the mcdonalds (yea, i just said that), sushi and the starbucks. this time i tried out indian food at a place called Guru´s. WOW! probably better than any of the other food that i have had here. will definitely be going back. it´s a switch up from the pollo a la brasa (though one night i was looking for just that but decided to take advantage of the options while here), papa de la guancaina, cevichi, and chaufa.
i have also really enjoyed the opportunity to run in lima without feeling like a million people are watching me. it´s normal here! usually i get around to doing some yoga as well, catching up with those friend, but this time i didn´t get the chance. i am still targeting out some musiums i want to visit, but that will happen on another visit.
when i head back to site i am going to be heading back to the moutain to continue work on the canal. it´s currenlty a sunday night to wednesday night job. then i get back and have to start up my HIV-AIDs prevention project with some doctors in my site to try and finish that before december. and i am finally starting up the ecology club! yay! my school is excited, i am excited, and i just need to buy the trashcans. it´s taken quite some time in the planning, but before i get frustrated at thinking about that, i remember that i am in peru. and that´s the way it is.
well, it looks like it rained a little last night, so i am gunna take a walk along the beach and soak up some of those water dropplets. it will be rain than i have had in palpa during the past year. then, later on to some amazing restaurant before heading down under again...
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
colgate
so, i just started using the colage toothpaste that mike brought down for me from the states. it´s amazing. first off, the actual tube it´s in is bigger than anything i have bought here in peru (not to be crude), and it has an amazing flavor. a little bit of america in a tube. fabulous.
recently i have been feeling a mixture of emotions - excitement, frustration, and distance. the excitment is because this past week has been filled with celebrations which were all leading up to my towns anniversary on the 15th. it started with the miss naranja event on the 6th. then each of the different offices had a different day to put together celebrations in the plaza de armas. i participated in two marathons and got first for both (since in the women category there were only 2 women each time). the best prize being a whoooping S/.30. watched a bike race, a carros tubulares race, a bull fight, i was one of the 5 judges for a miss gay palpa event which was hillarious (a little uncomfortable and shocking when the stripper came out), a concert, and cock fighting. on the 14th came a well known band from Trujillo (though i can´t remember their name! something like, bianuevos) and i showed them around town after randomly running into them and getting to know them. so, obviously, they had to do several shout outs to me during the concert. i would say that they were accepted into my groupy click! haha. at the final cockfight each of the 16 finalists recieved the plates i have been painting for the past 1.5 months. it was so satesfying to see them all situated on the table with the other prizes. i got interviewed by the press because they were interested in the prizes and wanted to publicise them on the web. and now i have people asking me if i will paint pictures of their family and more plates. awesome! more painting! sounds good to me!
now it´s tuesday the 17th and all the celebrations have come to an end. palpa has turned quiet again until the next year. as for the frustration, i am frustraited by politics. because it´s an election year, all the candidates are trying to promise projects to the people so they will be voted for. this means that politicians are trying to take credit for the canal project i am working on with jose in palpa, which has turned this mucky. it is absolutely annoying. people who you think are your friends will tell their friend politicians what is going on in the project, and then befor eyou know it ´they have taken credit. you really dn´t know who are your friends at this time. then, it comes to the money part of the proejct and all peruvians are trying to be incharge of it because that means they can steal the money. so, then we have to start worrying about who is dealing with the money. so there are a million things to get frustraited about with that. sigh.
then, there is the distance. i have been told that month 10 is a difficult one and i am now at month 11 in peru, month 9 in palpa. so, i am feeling distance. something that i don´t really notice until i am talking with friends in site about my family and sometimes i can´t help but tear up. aaaah. so, i miss my home, friends and family. it´s wonderful to have people come visit, but it´s nothing like just being at home. i am excited to be back to visit, but i know once i am there the time is going to fly and it´ll be difficult to return. we´ll have to wait and see when that time comes. currently, i enjoy the toothpaste i use in the morning and at night, and am looking forward to making peanutbutter with the new blending i got in exchange for painting plates!
recently i have been feeling a mixture of emotions - excitement, frustration, and distance. the excitment is because this past week has been filled with celebrations which were all leading up to my towns anniversary on the 15th. it started with the miss naranja event on the 6th. then each of the different offices had a different day to put together celebrations in the plaza de armas. i participated in two marathons and got first for both (since in the women category there were only 2 women each time). the best prize being a whoooping S/.30. watched a bike race, a carros tubulares race, a bull fight, i was one of the 5 judges for a miss gay palpa event which was hillarious (a little uncomfortable and shocking when the stripper came out), a concert, and cock fighting. on the 14th came a well known band from Trujillo (though i can´t remember their name! something like, bianuevos) and i showed them around town after randomly running into them and getting to know them. so, obviously, they had to do several shout outs to me during the concert. i would say that they were accepted into my groupy click! haha. at the final cockfight each of the 16 finalists recieved the plates i have been painting for the past 1.5 months. it was so satesfying to see them all situated on the table with the other prizes. i got interviewed by the press because they were interested in the prizes and wanted to publicise them on the web. and now i have people asking me if i will paint pictures of their family and more plates. awesome! more painting! sounds good to me!
now it´s tuesday the 17th and all the celebrations have come to an end. palpa has turned quiet again until the next year. as for the frustration, i am frustraited by politics. because it´s an election year, all the candidates are trying to promise projects to the people so they will be voted for. this means that politicians are trying to take credit for the canal project i am working on with jose in palpa, which has turned this mucky. it is absolutely annoying. people who you think are your friends will tell their friend politicians what is going on in the project, and then befor eyou know it ´they have taken credit. you really dn´t know who are your friends at this time. then, it comes to the money part of the proejct and all peruvians are trying to be incharge of it because that means they can steal the money. so, then we have to start worrying about who is dealing with the money. so there are a million things to get frustraited about with that. sigh.
then, there is the distance. i have been told that month 10 is a difficult one and i am now at month 11 in peru, month 9 in palpa. so, i am feeling distance. something that i don´t really notice until i am talking with friends in site about my family and sometimes i can´t help but tear up. aaaah. so, i miss my home, friends and family. it´s wonderful to have people come visit, but it´s nothing like just being at home. i am excited to be back to visit, but i know once i am there the time is going to fly and it´ll be difficult to return. we´ll have to wait and see when that time comes. currently, i enjoy the toothpaste i use in the morning and at night, and am looking forward to making peanutbutter with the new blending i got in exchange for painting plates!
Thursday, August 5, 2010
a new breeze
palpa is cold. arequipa is colder. arequipa is also drier and browner from when i went there in march with rion. however, the condors still fly at the mirador and the tourists still come to take their pictures so they can forever remember those seconds when they were standing on top of the worlds second deepest canyon.
mike came to visit for the past 19 days. it was so great to have a little piece of iowa come to peru. having him come visit was like jumping back into the pace of life at home, but here. kind of like pushing the play button again for the continuation of the life i left in iowa - how is the lab, the engineering friends, the frisbee peeps, what´s new in iowa...etc. he passed several days in my site and it was wonderful to show him kind of a glimps on what i day daily (though every day is different). he was introduced on the radio station in palpa as the ¨visiting engineering specialing in canal designs¨. haha! so hillarious how that worked. he helped out with the canal design and came to a ¨paying the mountain¨ occasion that we had to do as part of the canal project. that is to say, as we had been walking on the mountain making the elevation marks, the mountain was ´bothering´ the peruvians who came to help so we had to ´pay the mountain´ so it would leave us alone. this consisted on a ritual in the evening aftering driving 3 hours out to the site and digging a hole to put a lot of different things into it. what went in was some inka cola, chocolate, coca leaves, candles, apples, flowers, carmels, ... and other stuff a mountain would like. then we had to repeate what the shamen said as we were asking the mountain to take our offerings and leave us in peace as we walked on the mountains and did our work. next came the part when we played a card game with the mountain. this consisted of flipping cards over to see what was revealed and the shamen enterpreted what it said. then, we ended by taking shots of alcohol with the mountain. so, all in all i would say it´s fun to drink with a mountain, but it isn´t much of a conversation holder. hehe. it was a super cool experience.
well, then mike went off to cusco and we met up again in arequipa. in arequipa we did a three day hike in the canyon and i ate some of the best food in peru! wow! who knew - deep canyon, great food, fun random friends from spain and england. to finish off his trip he didnt only experience the awesomness of peru, but unfortunately the sour as well. his backpack got stolen from the bottom of the bus on the way home. gosh. every time something gets stolen from me (i am at count 3 rigth now) or someone i know i just turn hatred onto all peruvians. sometimes....gosh...just sooo unfair and the sick things is there is just nooooothing you can do about it. it´s just the damn fact of it all. well, he is now heading back to the states and i am here, back in palpa, planning an HIV-AIDs project, a kids project, and a canal project...HOPING i can squeeze in a few days to go home one of these days soon.
coming up, however is the miss naranja festival of palpa. one of the big celebrations! they are currently having the showing of the candidates...and i was about to be one! hah! three different organizations in town asked if i would be their candidate, but seeing as i wasn´t born in palpa i had to ¨respectfully decline.¨ though it would have been one of the funniest thigns if i won miss naranja of palpa! instead of that, i am going to be one of the judges for a miss drag queen event on the 12th. should be a good one. one of my friends and a stereotypical gay person in my site asked if i would assume the position, and there was no way i could say no! this will be the 4th time it´s been put on and i hear it´s one of the best events of the year! yea! so let´s go palpa...
besos!
mike came to visit for the past 19 days. it was so great to have a little piece of iowa come to peru. having him come visit was like jumping back into the pace of life at home, but here. kind of like pushing the play button again for the continuation of the life i left in iowa - how is the lab, the engineering friends, the frisbee peeps, what´s new in iowa...etc. he passed several days in my site and it was wonderful to show him kind of a glimps on what i day daily (though every day is different). he was introduced on the radio station in palpa as the ¨visiting engineering specialing in canal designs¨. haha! so hillarious how that worked. he helped out with the canal design and came to a ¨paying the mountain¨ occasion that we had to do as part of the canal project. that is to say, as we had been walking on the mountain making the elevation marks, the mountain was ´bothering´ the peruvians who came to help so we had to ´pay the mountain´ so it would leave us alone. this consisted on a ritual in the evening aftering driving 3 hours out to the site and digging a hole to put a lot of different things into it. what went in was some inka cola, chocolate, coca leaves, candles, apples, flowers, carmels, ... and other stuff a mountain would like. then we had to repeate what the shamen said as we were asking the mountain to take our offerings and leave us in peace as we walked on the mountains and did our work. next came the part when we played a card game with the mountain. this consisted of flipping cards over to see what was revealed and the shamen enterpreted what it said. then, we ended by taking shots of alcohol with the mountain. so, all in all i would say it´s fun to drink with a mountain, but it isn´t much of a conversation holder. hehe. it was a super cool experience.
well, then mike went off to cusco and we met up again in arequipa. in arequipa we did a three day hike in the canyon and i ate some of the best food in peru! wow! who knew - deep canyon, great food, fun random friends from spain and england. to finish off his trip he didnt only experience the awesomness of peru, but unfortunately the sour as well. his backpack got stolen from the bottom of the bus on the way home. gosh. every time something gets stolen from me (i am at count 3 rigth now) or someone i know i just turn hatred onto all peruvians. sometimes....gosh...just sooo unfair and the sick things is there is just nooooothing you can do about it. it´s just the damn fact of it all. well, he is now heading back to the states and i am here, back in palpa, planning an HIV-AIDs project, a kids project, and a canal project...HOPING i can squeeze in a few days to go home one of these days soon.
coming up, however is the miss naranja festival of palpa. one of the big celebrations! they are currently having the showing of the candidates...and i was about to be one! hah! three different organizations in town asked if i would be their candidate, but seeing as i wasn´t born in palpa i had to ¨respectfully decline.¨ though it would have been one of the funniest thigns if i won miss naranja of palpa! instead of that, i am going to be one of the judges for a miss drag queen event on the 12th. should be a good one. one of my friends and a stereotypical gay person in my site asked if i would assume the position, and there was no way i could say no! this will be the 4th time it´s been put on and i hear it´s one of the best events of the year! yea! so let´s go palpa...
besos!
Sunday, June 27, 2010
A Walk About
Tomorrow is the start of a canal project. AKA ¨Long Stream¨ Project. Details: 30km long, 90m drop, wrapping around the edge of the mountains of Rio Grande to the stream of Santa Cruz. It will be an agricutural project to bring more water to the river basin of Santa Cruz which only gets water in their stream once every 5 or 8 years. So, they are really falting water. Have been working on the 3D modle which is 2m by 1m in size and has an image of the mountain range to illustrate how the canal will wrap around. It is necessary, because Peruvians are having a hard time imagining how the stream is going to go. This will be the visual to explain it to them, again, and the sheer size will impress them. Guess that`s what we`re going for as well, because we need support. This type of a project has been talked about for the past 50 years and never done, so the people have lost faith. Now, however, we have renewed strength with a better project plan that will cost no money and the time. So, let`s get started!!!
Aside from that, working on getting some projects going in the schools here. A recycling project, water cleaning group, reforestation and solar oven project. The schools are all suuuper excited, but sometimes too excited without seeing the details of the project. What doest his mean exactly? Well, that they want this project to start now, and in alllll the school in the province, not just in Palpa. So, I have to remind them to start small, do the job well, and grow the next year. Otherwise, I would be the one running around to all the 8 schools and going the classes. IMPOSSIBLE, since I also want time for myself and for my primary projects. So, told them only 3 schools max. Let`s see if it will happen.
Um, the other day I started hearing stories about spirits in Palpa. In houses, in the mountains, all around....and, well, I haaaate scary stories, scary movies, scary books...all of it. So, well, it was quite hard for me to sleep. Jeez. So, I brought my pup home with me that I help take care of but stays at the water office where there is more room for it to run around, and she slept with me. It was perfect. Think I may need her company more permenanty! We`ll see.
Coming up is a holiday - Fourth of July! Gunna run a 5K.
Hope all is well with everyone! Paz y Amor!
Aside from that, working on getting some projects going in the schools here. A recycling project, water cleaning group, reforestation and solar oven project. The schools are all suuuper excited, but sometimes too excited without seeing the details of the project. What doest his mean exactly? Well, that they want this project to start now, and in alllll the school in the province, not just in Palpa. So, I have to remind them to start small, do the job well, and grow the next year. Otherwise, I would be the one running around to all the 8 schools and going the classes. IMPOSSIBLE, since I also want time for myself and for my primary projects. So, told them only 3 schools max. Let`s see if it will happen.
Um, the other day I started hearing stories about spirits in Palpa. In houses, in the mountains, all around....and, well, I haaaate scary stories, scary movies, scary books...all of it. So, well, it was quite hard for me to sleep. Jeez. So, I brought my pup home with me that I help take care of but stays at the water office where there is more room for it to run around, and she slept with me. It was perfect. Think I may need her company more permenanty! We`ll see.
Coming up is a holiday - Fourth of July! Gunna run a 5K.
Hope all is well with everyone! Paz y Amor!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
