Taking another trip

I am sitting here in a quaint hostel in Lima writing this. I arrived in Lima a couple of days ago and will be here for the rest of the week. Purpose? Medical checks. This basically means an hour or two of meetings then free time in Lima. While it is fun to be in the city it is very easy to get lost in the hustle and bustle of eleven million people and everything is VERY expensive. My wallet more than my anything else will be happen when I head back to Cajamarca.

So far I have been medically checked and am waiting for dental checks tomorrow. I am a bit nervous as I have had several cavities in the past and after living for over a year in a country where there is no fluoride in the water there is a much higher chance for problems. many people who have never had problems are coming back from their appointments with cavities. I am praying for better luck.

In a couple of days I will be at a couple day training (still in Lima) and will wait in Lima through early next week for some more meetings. All in all it is a good trip and change of pace. But as always, I imagine I will be quite ready to be back to Cajamarca and continue will all of the work I have been doing. I just hope nothing drastic has changed (as it frequently does) while I am gone.

Tim.

Pressing on

As was mentioned before, I was traveling for Peruvian Independence Day. I went to the coast to a VERY touristy town. While there are much more interesting places to visit in Peru, it was a fun week. Also, I probably had the best meal that I have had in Peru there. Something to the tune of a 20 ounce steak. It was amazing.

Several of my friends here in Peru are volunteers from Germany. They are very interesting as I get to learn about Germany and still speak Spanish (it is also fun to listen to Spanish with a German accent). Not to mention that they are just cool people. As they only serve for one year, they were getting ready to head back to German, but not before on last vacation to the jungle. As I will not be visiting Germany in the near future to visit, I decided to go along.

We went to Iquitos then took a three day tour through the rainforest. We saw a lot of wildlife, caught piranhas, ate the piranhas, swam in the Amazon River, and a lot of other interesting jungle activities. In the end it was a trip to remember. Here are some photos:

Learning how to get water from natural plant life if we ever get lost in the jungle :-o

Paddling our canoe down the river

Learning how to prepare the piranhas

Heading back to Iquitos after a fun three days

Again I am excited to be back in my site and get back to my projects. We have worked very hard to get things going and I am glad to be back and see our projects implemented.

One other point to note: as of the 22nd of August, I will have been a sworn-in volunteer for one full year (this does not count the 11 weeks of training at the beginning). Quite a milestone.

I hope you are all well. I think about you often.

until next time,

tim.

A Long Time Past

So, I have had several people comment that I should write something new on this blog. After much procrastination, here it goes.

As general as I can be (I can get more specific later...) things have been going really well. Work has been coming along but is also frustrating at times. We have been trying to start up our healthy living school program the last 4 weeks, but coincidently the last 4 Mondays have been holidays.

On a similar note, it really feels like I have not been in my site for the past month and a half. We had a girls camp where volunteers all brought girls from their sites into the city for a weekend. Later I was on the coast to run a half marathon. Next I was traveling for a week to train a new group of volunteers on "what it is like to be a volunteer". Then, to finish out a crazy month, I will be on vacation to celebrate Peruvian Independence Day later this week. While I have been in site more that not, there has been little consistency to get projects off the ground.

Anyway, here are some very random pictures and hopefully my next post will come within the next three months :-)

Until next time,

-tim-

February posting...

Sorry for the long absence.  I can thing of many excuses, but I will spare you all of the waste of time it would take to read my rediculous rationalizations.

To summarize, I really have not done much exciting.  I have been working and not much else.  I have three groups I currently lead: an english group, and self esteem group, and a cooking/vocational group.  I am also making plans with my community partner to start a school based program that we may or may not be able to distribute to other heath staff in the region if successful.  But truly, that is a step by step process. 

Anyway, as I was so kindly told by my friend meg, apparently pictures are WAY more interesting that anything I actually have to say.  so here are some pics. (I will say that i have been culprit of not carrying my camera much, so here is what i have...)

My family and I playing some UNO (they love this game) and trying to look pensive.

 

Taking a trip outside the city only to be foiled by rain!  Luckily I had my trusty UNO game.

My nephew being thrilled by this Thomas the Train card game my former work set me for Christmas.  He is obsessed with Thomas and there are no Thomas products here in Peru.  Way to go CAC!

I think this is the only time He has ever been excited about a book; major accomplishment!

Some of the girls from my cooking group taste testing some of brownies we made (to tell the truth, they were nothing like brownies.  they were simply chocolate disasters!!!)

Anyway, that is the majority of the excitement that has been going on.  I will be doing a fair amount of traveling through trainings and vacations in the coming months which will be really nice.  I have been really antsy here in my site and it will be nice to "get some fresh air" with some trips.  

As I think I have mentioned, my site is the center of Carnival for all of Peru, which is essentially mardi gras.  For those not keeping track, this weekend is when the majority of festivities are.  Needless to say, I am quite excited.  I have never experienced a mardi gras before, so it should be quite interesting.  Plus, I am really excited to see some friends from other departments that are coming in who I have not seen in quite sometime.  

Also, thank you to everyone who facebooked, called, and/or sent me things for my birthday!!! Everything was really good and it was nice to wake up to all of that love in message/email/or package form!  Thanks!!!

that is all for now, 

tim.