from here to there

So Lima was a great experience getting to meet up with and see the progress that all the volunteers of my program are making. I am extremely proud to be a part of this group I think we are all very dedicated and have certainly worked hard this year. It is crazy to think about the year as a whole all the hardship and breakthroughs. I really enjoyed getting to meet up with my three girl friends who are always like a breath of fresh air and inspire me to keep pushing. I was taken aback because we did a self esteem activity and all my co workers and boss wrote positive messages anonymously on a piece of paper. I did not realize how much and how many people respect my work and me as a person. As for my health I did not have anything wrong no thyroid issues, STDS, or parasites. So then I headed back to my site and got back to work for a week getting everything in place for 2011. I submitted my Nutrition Project to the municipality I have no idea if they are going to approve it and am actually a little nervous if they do because it is a huge undertaking on top of my Healthy Households Project. But I am sure that it is all manageable and honestly if it achieves its objectives I will have seriously changed the lives of entire families. Then there were some parties for Christmas and end of the year. My office is getting a face lift. I got newly painted yellow and green walls, hardwood floors, and a fixed bathroom. From some lucky project there will be Early Childhood Stimulation in that office which I will probably help teach at least once a week in the afternoons. I am just excited because it is absolutely gorgeous. I had a coordinator come in and check out my work and life. He was really impressed with how much the moms I teach have learned and adapted to their lives these techniques and information. Then I packed up my bags and traveled two days to the USA to spend Xmas with the family. It was crazy seeing snow and suffering in the cold weather. I got to go to a Xmas party with a friend and we went carolling around the neighborhood. It was an unexpected and great meet up with an old friend. Then my mom and I packed the bags and headed to PA to see my grams in her new apartment. I have to say it is weird not going to her old house that I grew up in. But it was time to downsize. I accept this was probably the last time I will see her. So to celebrate our lives we got drunk together and it was the most fun I have ever had with her and the best memory I will carry in my heart. A different friend showed up and got the experience of my family. She said that meeting my grams explained exactly why I am the way that I am. I could not agree more she is my hero for her antics and I try to take after her the best I can. Xmas was calm I spent the two days cooking for my family it is nice to give back to them. On a side note I love dishwashers, hot showers, and more than anything a washing machine. Then my engaged friends showed up and we talked for a bit before my mom and I came back to MD. Shopping with gift cards I think my mom wanted to kill me because literally there are a million choices and the variety here just blows my mind and so I was touching and reading and looking at everything I think had she not been there to put a stop to it all I could have easily been in any store especially a book store or grocery store for hours on end without noticing. And as of today I am headed back to Peru. I feel like I am going back with the same energy that I originally went there with and at one year you start getting a little fatigued or uncertain in your decision making. So this trip was exactly what I needed to refresh and regroup and remember why I went there and more so why I am there now. I will try to be better at blogging because I learned how many of yall are actually reading so I will try to do it at least every two weeks if not more. I wrote this the day I spent in lima at a mall on my way to the states:
Same place different time staring into the expanse of corporations. Cars zoom by, pure pavement, high heels click clack. I see a desert. I see emptiness and needs not being fulfilled. I keep wondering if this is development. If when we work day in and day out it is all with this goal in mind. Because I do not feel like pushing button, nicely dressed selling unnecessary things is what development is all about. If everyone works in the same thing and everything is technology and shiny clean. It is not likely people or the society as a whole will survive we need agriculturalist. Because people need food more than they need fuel, clothes, gas, and electricity. I want people to be healthy and safe. I certainly wish for them financial stability but never all this. I do not feel like everyone driving a car, perfectly fashionable, and mega malls is progress. I think the middle class is the only one that has it all. Work, decent pay, family, friends, free time, health, security, education. Above and below there are many problems and a harshness that prevents happiness.
So I wish for you all in the new year that we evaluate what is really important to us, is what we are doing a means to an end or an end? Are we only working to better ourselves or others as well? Do we think that pain is a terrible thing or just as important and necessary as pleasure? Are we seeking happiness or just immediate gratification? Leave the bs from 2010 behind and build on the base or get back to the basics. Happy New Year.I love you, be good.

sickly

Lets see it was the Aniversary of my site last week which was full of dancing competitions, singing competitions, seranades, cooking competitions and fireworks, Lots of good music good sights and good times. i made a sweet shrit out of a piece of green fabric and safety pins. and dancing my tail off. I prepared a guinea pig dish to present as a nutritional dish during the food competition. In the agriculutral fair i taught about how to do compost, basic nutrition, handwashing, and the breeding of guinea pigs. I think i am starting a sweet business for my friend to gain money with. Been hanging out with my moms lately checking how the cookstoves are cooking they are excellent everyone is incredibly satisfied. I think i saved a three month old baby from dying from a high fever. By making the mom bathe her child. I had a worlds aids day event that turned out fairly poorly but i did succeed in teaching about 20 people how to use a condom right. Then taught a different day to one of my english classes about the subject and they said they had never heard anything about HIV or AIDs before so that is good. Then I recently left my site to come to lima for our mid service meetings and medical checks. I will get to see the damage this past year has taken out on me. I am grateful beceause for the past two weeks i have been pretty sick with vomiting and diahrrea and overall no apetite which leaves me weak and tired pretty much all the time. so one week in the big city then i go back for a week to my site and then i am off to the states to visit my familia. Cant wait ill keep yall updated on my bill of health.