If only there were more hours in the day

Well thanks to my mother I realize now that I have not posted in almost two months. Sorry. I should really schedule it into my planner so that I get at least one post a month. So Lima life has been really busy. Starting where I left off. I did not get to go to Cajamarca because the conflicts while they improved did not get better soon enough. People are protesting that a new mine open because they fear it will contaminate their water. In other parts of the country the doctors and teachers are striking because they are not getting paid enough or on time. These strikes result in the shutting down of most institutions and sometimes highways. In Lima there have been transportation strikes which makes getting to work a nightmare. But none of that is really new its kind of a constant thing here. I have been training MMA three days a week I am in the best shape of my life and having a lot of fun lowering my stress. I have a lot of potential and am really quite good. I hope to start competing before the year is out. The hard part is finding girls to compete with but they are slowly but surly coming out of the wood work. Each class is a warm up, push ups, jumping jacks, crunchies, leaps, rolls, and running. Followed by 30 minutes of learning submission, boxing, kicking, take down or wrestling techniques and then 10 minutes of sparring at the end of the class. I have recently been gifted a new pair of muay thai boxing gloves from Thailand. There are super nice. At least once a week I work with a punching bag and the other days I work with a partner. I completed 6 months with my boyfriend Joel things are amazing and it is so interesting to get to see what a real and serious and functional relationship is like. These past months we have gone to quite a few fighting events, out dancing, to art and food festivals, to the beach, parades, to break dancing events, to china town and to museums. Things are going very well. Speaking of relationships Jordyn got married Congratulations and Liz and Cari are setting dates for their weddings as well. Who knows maybe I will be next... In work I have gotten a sort of promotion working with the Ministry of Health because I moved up a level in the office I am working at. Instead of writing interventions and monitoring tools I am now developing educational materials mostly related to nutrition and revising other materials that are being developed. I review for quality, easiness to understand, formatting, marketing appeal while also editing surveys and other evaluation tools. Of the materials I wrote they printed out 5,000 handouts of one, 2,000 trifold handouts of another and made 2,000 flip charts that will be used for education in parents and teachers as a means to prevent obesity, overweight and anemia in East Lima. It was so exciting to see something that I made turn into a material that would be distributed on a large scale. I went back to my site the end of August which was a nice time to see my host family and friends. Though it definitely feel like my life in Lima has outgrown my life in La Matanza. It is crazy to think that almost a year has passed and how much faster everything happens in big cities. Everything there remains the same, same parties, same drama, same people, same thing different day. It was sunshine, ceviche, dancing, sleep, eat, drink, repeat. Happy Birthday to Grams and Sally. I sent you something in the mail Grams not sure if it ever got to you but all the same miss you, love you heard you had an entertaining time. I will be sending your Bday and Xmas gifts with Mom in November. Keep your spunk on! The old volunteer group is heading out in November. While another group just arrived in September there are 29 new ones. For the moment we are managing about 80. Which is why I have not been able to catch up. For the old group we had a conference and have to see out all the paperwork before they leave, for the second group that almost completes a year we have to edit their reports, grants, visit and advise them and plan their mid service conference. For the new group we have to run trainings, plan trips, do interviews, set up sites and host families and socios, in general it is trying to remember a million things. And if that was not enough we are changing our program framework so we have been busy editing and writing and rewriting and evaluating the framework so that we can start implementing a more effective and reliable framework as of November. And then well I was offered my job again. No one presented for the position which put my boss in a sort of compromising situation because it would have implied that there not be a coordinator. So in a strange chain of events me and my best friend here who also works in Lima are staying on for 4th years. It was not a very challenging decision I am learning so much, computer skills, leadership skills, planning and evaluating skills, diplomacy (even if I rarely practice it). Professionally and personally I am maturing through the process. And well I am the momma hen for all my chicks that I have to take care of. So in general there has been a really positive response from my volunteers that have said that they are eternally grateful that I am not abandoning them. It is a truly special thing this position watching people grow up and face their struggles, find their patience, their peace, overcoming adversity, facing their fears, finding what it means to "develop" and what is "sustainable" or "effective."  How do you define "failure" or "success"? And maybe our failure is actually the catalyst for something bigger than we even imagined. Somewhere in all of it they find the new them and lose the parts that are better left behind. They do really change people's lives and contribute more than just a grain of rice. They discover that no one can change the world, that perhaps the world does not have to or want to be saved. That you can only help people who want to be helped and when it comes to behavior change every single person including themselves is almost impossible to change. That the change has to come from the community and community members and that the volunteer is just a step in the long term process that we consider progress.At the end they realize what was really important are the relationships and not the projects, the during and not the results, the effort and example and not perfection. So the story of Peru continues.  I am happy, after my yearly physical today I can say I am 100% healthy, I am exploring new talents. I hope you all wish me the best as I continue this journey. I bought a camera so I promise to start posting more pictures and I will be sure to get better about my blog. I love you all very much.