Sorry friends for my abandonment of this blog. I have been busier than I could even want to explain and traveling perhaps too much. Ok so here it goes in more or less chronological order. I got back from Trujillo and started to Train health professionals here about how to talk about sex with youth and actually be entertaining enough to have teens listen to you and not make fun of you. It went over ridiculously well, which as you all know is surprising because my track record with trying to improve health professionals in this country had been kind of like getting punched in the teeth. BUT this time everyone was really receptive, asking questions, participating and really bright eyed and bushy tailed. I guess in Lima people realize that they need to be trained and that I am not threatening but rather a solution. It was awesome. On another positive note I had started dating a man named Joel the ultimate fighter I mentioned in the previous blog. More dates, dancing, traveling to beaches, conversations and loads of fun. Then IT was back to preparing for the next two major training events of the volunteers: logistics, making manuals, coordinating, budgeting and managing problems. Volunteers have been dropping out like flies I do not understand it but hey not everyone is committed. So rebounding from that negativity the team was loaded with responsibility because my boss went off to Europe for a month. And as it was Holy week here vacation was to be done I took my homage to my site to hang out with my host family and friends. It was really beautiful to get to finally get back to my roots and relax with people that treat me well and care for me. Lima is not a very cordial place. What can you expect it is a major city. So in my small town gossip got around that I was pregnant with my ex boyfriend's baby. So funny. It figures they would not have thought I would have come back. Good eats I think I ate like 5 to 6 meals a day and everyone kept commenting on how I was such a malnourished child now. I have lost weight but how could you not if you stop eating 6 times a day. From Piura back to lima got to go to see a few fighting events Muay Thai and then a world boxing championship front row seats. Man there are benefits to knowing a person that can get you into these things for free. It was a scene straight off of ESPN literally they were there and Peru won so everyone went crazy. It is the first time there is a Peruvian male boxing world champion. SO exciting to watch. Then I headed back to Piura 2 weeks later for a technical training for the volunteers followed by me doing supervisions in the mountains. The roads were needless to say sketchy but the landscapes worthwhile and the people so nice. It was interesting to get to see how other volunteers are managing their projects and see the change they are provoking in these towns. Plus it served to help them better their techniques and organization. One of the girls told me I was like super nanny coming in a fixing all the problems and nice and that everyone cried when I had to leave. It was a great compliment and made me feel like this position I have could be rewarding. Then back to Lima for a week to celebrate my birthday I went to a yoga community on the northern beach of Lima with my boyfriend everything ecological and organic it was interesting they use solar energy. Food was soooo good pictures on facebook. Any who, 25 seems to be going alright so far. Nothing as extraordinary as I had anticipated but then again I thought my whole world would implode as I entered what I consider to be irrevocably adulthood. Shiver. Then I headed up north to do another supervision in Chiclayo I had to cross a river by foot it was pretty entertaining. My job is so far off the beaten path I literally have to beat the path just to figure out where my Volunteers are. Then up to my old site for the second round of technical trainings. I got the opportunity to work with the mayor and the municipality again helping them to do another improved cook stove project and the nutrition project we did last year. They will be working with another 100 malnourished kids using the same design I provided them last year. Sustainable! Yes! It was so hot I came back to Lima 4 shades darker and covered with mosquito bites. So where in all this traveling, stress and heavy lifting I sprained my back. So the last days of the training I was trying to get things done without being able to pick up more than 10 lbs. Sucked. Met up with a doctor and got some muscle relaxants and antiinflammatories. He told me to lay on a beach for 7 days. I laughed in his face. He made me promise some days in bed. I said I would try. Then back to Lima I did stay in bed for the good part of 3 days except for there was this awesome arts festival that closed down the streets of Lima and covered the street with artwork from all over the country and on the buildings they played movies and light shows there was an electronic concert so I had to dance a little. Or a lot. It was incredible to be able to be dancing in a street that normally I am trying not to get smashed by a combi or a taxi. It would be like closing down the streets of new york city. So fun and interesting. This week I have been working half days so that my back can get better faster and realistically because my brain was starting to explode from the pressure of time constraints and seat belts. Next week, I am off to do supervisions for 9 days in the Andes of Ancash. Ancash is probably the most beautiful department of all of Ancash. After may finishes I should be much calmer and staying in Lima or traveling for VACATION instead of WORK. But hey I did say I wanted a job that pays me to travel and it is what I got. Thank you universe. Also Happy Mothers Day and I love you grams thanks to you and my mother for making me stubborn, independent, confident, resilient and trail blazing. I am out here doing good things for people who truly need it because of the influence you have on me. Love you both dearly and carry you with me where I go. And also congrats to Cari she is now engaged to her long time boyfriend. Guess that leaves well just me...
