Its almost over

Hello All,
I wish I could be more diligent about writing but sometimes life just takes over, or the last thing I want to do at the end of the day is to stare at a computer screen. So even though it is too many months past here is the update. March was filled with business trying to get ready for a training and getting all the regional coordinators informed on our new project framework. The newly defined and focused goals and objectives for our program are a great improvement. Now instead of focusing so much on the family's infrastructures we are looking at the direct advances of the kids nutrition and development. We are less focused on using indicators like the number of people trained or information related indicators and much more focused on the practices and ensuring improvements in the child's mental and physical development. Following the training I was off to Piura to do supervisions of some volunteer's projects. They are all doing a good job and we focused on strenghtening their organization and M&E skills. It was really cool to get to spend some time with them and help them be more effective or just give them positive feedback. I took advantage to head to La Matanza for a few hours get a nice lunch and catch up with some friends. To my surprise many people had gotten married and had their first baby really exciting to see how everyone was growing up.Then I took a vacation with Joel at the end of the month to celebrate Holy week we went to one of the world's biggest catholic celebrations. They had beautiful processions, created huge works of art on the streets made out of flowers, dancing at night with fireworks and running with the bulls. It was a lot of fun during the days we took advantage to go hiking we visited some preincan ruins, a cave where supposedly the first man lived in the americas, a waterfall and a rock forest. One day we were completely rained on which was freezing at the altitude but the fresh air and gorgeous scenery really helped us relax. In April, I headed to Cajamarca for a week to continue doing supervisions it was my first time to that area and the altitude definitely made it much more challenging to keep up with the hiking. After helping some people get on track in terms of our new framework I took my last day before returning to Lima having a delicious lunch, dipping in the hot springs and after almost 48 hours of traveling in buses and combis on dusty rocky roads I treated myself to a much needed massage. While in lima continued training 3 days a week and got ready for mom's visit. On the 24th Joel fought the current champion of Ecuador as the main event here in Lima, he unfortunately lost and was left needing stitches in the back of the head and behind his ear. It was the most terrifying moment to date to watch the person you love getting battered and then laying unconscious. So we spent a few hours in the ER getting all stitched up, certainly a learning experience. He is taking a few months to recover and will be probably fighting again in July needless to say I will be much more nervous for his next fight. Then mom came to town we went to the beaches in the south and checked out spots to have the wedding ceremony, then we went to PAracas and saw the mini galapagos of sea lions, birds and penguins. Amazing day out on the boat and in general fun trip to be able to share time with Joel and my mom. Mother approved thank goodness! We celebrated my 26th birthday with a haircut, pedicure, museum visit, thai food and some great drinks with exotic fruits. The next day we checked out an archaeological site also preincan civilization and closed out a fun trip with a gourmet lunch. Thanks Mom for coming down. And then back to preparations for another training event. Unexpectedly I was asked to travel to Chiclayo for more supervisions. Followed by another trip back to Piura we spent a week training volunteers, this time I was a facilitator for the behavior change session and helping with the project design and management section after 5 days of talking in strong voice for at least 4 hours a day I was left with a very hoarse voice. Following the training which felt very successful and up to date in terms of ALL the changes we have in the program in work style and priorities I was off to La Matanza again for a day and a half visiting with old friends and taking a short break before heading back to the City life of Lima. It seems like I brought the sun back with me thank goodness because I am not ready for the winter and 6 months of gray skies to begin. I am here for a week getting ready for our NEXT training event in 1 week where we will head to Ancash. So basically lots of traveling getting to see some new places and help volunteers become more effective. I will have June to close out my service and leave everything saved in the computer systems and hopefully in volunteer knowledge and practice to be able to form the following group that should be arriving in September. Oh how time flies, Joel and I are completing soon 1 year of living together. Every month is closer to the end of service I have bought my plane tickets home for July 2, going to CO on July 14 and heading back to Peru on August 2. People keep asking me what is next and to be honest I have not had the time to reflect very much on it, I would like to learn Portuguese, get married, get my residency and then go from there. Beyond that I suppose look for a job or start developing my nutrition business. It seems too hard to think that far into the future as so many things must happen first. I know it is only 2 months away really but the to do list in front of me is so long I can even look up. I can only trust whatever comes will come and it will be good because I will always work hard and do a good job. Sending love and cannot wait to see all of you so SOON!

update

For New Year´s We went out dancing and toasted champagne. Dakar which is a famous car race throughout the world was right in our backyard, so we got to check out all the cars, motos, trucks and quatrimotos. The race lasts 20 days and started in Lima and finished in Argentina, 4 drivers died. It was super intense, and I cannot imagine how difficult it must be to ride on uncharted terriotory through the desert for 20 days. It was pretty neat to see. Then I finally learned how to surf, it only took me 3 tries to get up on the board and ride the wave. I really enjoyed the high you get riding the waves. It was kind of like the first time I learned how to stand up on a snowboard. But way more work I really respect more surfers and how physically demanding of a sport it is. We celebrated Joel´s 35 birthday going out to dinner with his sister and brother in law, I bought him new boxing gloves from thailand. And because during the summer time the office hours end at 12pm on Fridays I spent the majority of weekends out on the beach with my coworkers. Nothing overly exciting has been going on with my volunteers. Though we have been doing some staff development trainings in the office which have been interesting. Joel went to fight in Brasil, unfortunately he did not win but it was a huge deal and opened doors to future oportunities. I continue to train 3 days a week and have started somewhat of a movement. We now have 10 other girls who started to train as well, and each week another girl comes. I think that we are going to develop this sport and finally have some competition of girls. Last night, history was made as Ronda Ramsey and Liz Komuch fighting in the UFC for the first time women fighting in the UFC and even more exciting as the main event. This is an opportunity and an advance in the sport and serves as a motivation to keep training. In Febraury more beach time and going out dancing. Lots of meetings in work making plans for the next 2 years of work. On the weekends we have been taking care our pitbull Leya. She is beautiful and 2 years old. We are teaching her how to play frisbee which some days she does very well and other days she just wants to eat it. Life has been pretty relaxed in the last 2 months. We hosted a seminar where one of the most famous coaches in MMA came from Brasil and did a 5 hour training. It was well organized and had a good turn out. I participated as well and it was really incredible to learn from someone with so much experience and talent. Him and his wife were lovely people and it was reassuring to see a couple that had made an empire of gyms and a life out of training fighters. I have decided to finish sooner my service and will be back stateside for 4th of July, some birthdays and for Liz´s wedding on the 21st. I will head back to Peru no longer a volunteer as of August. It is weird to think that I will no longer be part of this organization and at the same time I feel that my passion has started to wain in the presence of inadequate, short sighted, spineless leadership. It is also terrifying to not have that safety nedt and security of what you are doing and having someone else tell you what to do, when and how to do it. But I continue to try to respect that the future is the present. So that my anxiety does not consume me and prevent me from enjoying all the good things that are happening in the present.
For 2013 I suppose my goals have much to do with these really cool messages that I have been finding painted on walls in the streets or in restaurants and cafes.The 7 advices of Rumi:
1)Be like the river in generosity and helping others
2) Be like the sun in compassion and grace
3) Be like the night in concealing others faults
4) Be like the dead in anger and fury
5) Be like the soil in modesty and humility
6) Be like the ocean in tolerance
7) Either you appear as you are or be as you appear
These seem like really solid concepts to live life by and to bring you happiness.

news

Since my last post big things have been in the making. The old group of voluteers left the new group is swore in and gone to their sites. This week we are celebrating the half way mark of the second group in their one year conference. In the past few months I have been exploring more of Lima taking days at the sauna, trying out new restaurants, visiting beaches and different dance clubs. I finished my work at the Direction of Health and have begun to work for the Ministry of Development and Social inclusion whose work focuses on eradicating poverty, increasing gender equality, decreasing malnourishment, improving education and early childhood stimulation and giving an equal opportunity to succeed in this country to all its countrymen. It is a very exciting perspective full of great ideas and theories that we just have to figure out how to make work. When you are working in places like the jungle there are girls as young as 12 years old getting pregnant, in the mountains there is ridiculously high amounts of malnutrition people living above 14,000 ft with limited access to safe water, food, health and education services. Trying to resolve those sorts of issues and getting all of the different organizations governmental and non to work together in these common themes. Needless to say there is much work to be done each day I have worked there I spend 7 hours reading through countless documents attempting to get the hang of all the policies and processes and interventions that are in place and figure out how I am going to influence them. In mid October I traveled to the south a bit in Huancavelica to visit some volunteer's sites and run a training for the new volunteers. It was great to get back to the campo, covered in dirt and animal poop and working with community members. They have such a wonderful hospitality and sense of humor. When I got back from that trip Joel had his 7th professional MMA fight which he won! And to my surprise during his victory speech called me down to the ring and proposed marriage to me. I quite rosy cheeked tried not to fall down the flight of stairs to the ring and accepted. That weekend he then took me out for drinks at a trendy bar, dinner out on the pier and proposed again in a more private manner. We celebrated with champagne and dancing.  We are planning on having the first ceremony on a beach in southern Lima January 2014. Right now we are just enjoying the engagement and have time to plan a simple but definitely fun event. Sometime after in 2014 we will have a second ceremony in Colorado for all those who cannot make it down to Peru. I am still training 3 days a week and hopefully will have my first MMA fight in January I am going to compete in the National Wrestling Championship in January as well. In November I headed off to Arizona to spend time with my mom for a week Spaing and mediating on life and as usual getting silly and enjoying each others company. Thanks mom for a beautiful trip! I also shopped til I dropped but am now looking much more put together as I have transitioned from the juniors section to the woman section of the stores. Ekk! But it had to happen at some point and I now struggle much less in the mornings as I have so many options. I was also the maid of honor in my friends Karl and Theresa's Wedding. It was great to be a part of something that I schemed up 4 years ago when I set up my college roommate with my chemistry professor they thought it would never work and with a little insistence they are a great pair enjoying being newly weds. While I was in the states Joel when off to fight in a major event in South America in Paraguay where he won again! Though it was nice to be back for a visit I feel very comfortable with my life in Peru. It is most certainly challenging being far from family and friends but I feel a happiness and a sense of purpose here that I never felt in the states. They say the world may end on the 21st of this month so I would like to say I love you all with all my heart and soul. I appreciate so much the support you continue to give me in all that I do and all the influence that you guys had over the years shaping me into who I am. I wish to leave you with this reflection because if the world does not end what is undeniable is that the human race is using resources scandalously and consuming excessively everything. Be mindful and grateful for what you have because "If you have food in your fridge, clothes on your back, a roof over your head, and a place to sleep you are richer than 75% of the world. If you have money in your bank, in your wallet, and some spare change you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy. If you woke up this morning with health than illness you are more blessed than the million people who will not survive this week. IF you have never experienced the danger of battle, the agony of imprisonment and torture or the horrible pangs of starvation you are luckier than 500 million people living in suffering. If you can read this message you are more fortunate than 3 billion people in the world who cannot read at all." As Christmas rolls around be thoughtful about what you truly need and all that you already have. If you do not want to donate to a cause http://donate.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate if not do some charity work but not just during the month of december but throughout the year. There is need everywhere. Helping people makes you happier. Merry xmas and a happy new year.

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.

on the road again

Because as I had gotten back from Piura I unpacked only to repack my bags and go to Ancash to spend 10 days climbing around 10 different communities supervising volunteers working in the highlands of the Andes. I took what is supposedly voted one of the most dangerous roads in the world for ten hours on windy roads with a beautiful view of the highest mountain of Peru for the majority of the trip. It is incredible to see the dedication of volunteers in a zone where the community speaks the local dialect Quechua and they have had to learn a bit of that language or use translators to be able to work, where mothers are illiterate and have not completed elementary school. They face the challenges of altitude, harsh sun, freezing weather and isolation. But they are also seriously provoking development in these areas. I was waking up each day at 5 am to be able to catch the only transportation of the day up to these really remote towns, huffing and puffing with a lack of oxygen and getting wind chapped and sunburnt each day. I visited a kid whose site made me cry. It was just soo far out and he can only walk in and out 4 hours to get to the nearest city. Rough life. Then I had to hike off to the next towns at least an hour and a half with my backpack early in the mornings. Gorgeous scenery and inspired by the success that each of the volunteers have and their positive attitudes I could not even really feel the fatigue. But then I got literally 125 flea bites in one night and was suffering for the rest of the trip and accidentally left fleas in my friend's bed when I went to see her. In my last visit I saw the most unreal situation where people are still living in like 1920 and 80% of the population was chronically malnourished and had the hardest time fathoming how that sort of living situation could still exist. But the community was like 4 hours up and back completely isolated and the health worker commented that people slept with their pigs. It was the first time I saw what I considered to be even more extreme than extreme poverty. When I got back to Lima I started training 3 days a week learning Mixed Marcial Arts so I am in the best shape of my life possibly. My friend's grandparents came to visit so I had some lovely meals and took in some of the tourist attractions like getting to go to a place that does the traditional dances of Peru which made me wish that I could work there as a dancer. We had the most entertaining taxi ride where her grams was hitting on the driver and since she spoke a little spanish and her husband didnt she was flirting pretty shamelessly. She sang him songs and told the driver that my friend and I were dating the grandpa and she was single. The driver said her grandpa looked like Hue Heffner making us girls the playboy bunnies. The rest of the night her grandfather was speaking in Italian to my boyfriend who was trying to speak english and I kept translating everything in spanish. Somewhere lost in translation we learned a little of each language but we all enjoyed going salsa dancing together. Work is normal. Then out of the blue this girl that I used to do yoga with in Ft collins started working in Lima as a volunteer too. So we have been enjoying coffee dates and getting a new perspective on development as she did her service in Paraguay. Then I was back off to Trujillo to visit another volunteer got my hands dirty again working with cement and we got stuck walking 2 hours in rain down the mountain. Man sometimes I wonder how we make it through as volunteers we get inhumanly strong and nerves unshakable you see that all that matters at the end of the day is getting the job done, solve a problem and keep solving until it is fixed no second guessing yourself no wishing things were different. Within 48 hours back to Lima then off to vacations. I went to the Amazon Jungle for like a week we took a 10 hour boat ride deep into the Jungle where there were only 5 communities in total the majority with less than 100 people and house on stilts with palm tree roofs and no electricity. In the night time we would go looking for animals we saw sloths, monkies, pink dolphins, grey dolphins, crocodiles, countless birds, frogs, tarantulas and big bugs. It was incredibly relaxing and you completely disconnect from the outside world no cell phone service no stores. Taking showers in the river or in tropical rain storms hanging out in the hammock. We went hiking during the day and at night time with flash lights in search of wildlife. We saw the world's largest cockroaches. We drank water from tree roots we collect fruit and climbed up huge trees using electrician techniques we mucked through the mud and shin deep waters. During the day we would  We had to go fishing to get lunch and caught piranhas and other fish. You would have been proud Uncle Bill I taught a girl how to fish and she ended up catching more than anyone. She was surprised a city girl knew how to fish. I said it was the many trips and lessons you had given me. Happy Birthday! Getting back into the city we got to go to a butterfly farm, a monkey island where I got jumped on and bit not bad enough to break the skin but still crazy, we saw in the rescue center a jaguar and other wild cats plus I got to feed and touch manatees. It was a really beautiful trip and not too hot the food could have been better but we did harvest heart of palm and ate it in salads amazing that canned stuff does no justice. It was much needed relaxing. Now I am back in Lima with no serious plans to travel because my trip to Cajamarca was cancelled for the conflicts that are happening there hopefully I will be able to get out there in August to visit the volunteers everyone is safe but it makes working impossible as everyone is on strike and sometimes EVERYTHING is close highways, schools, health centers, municipalities, stores, everything. But on the big news front I did move into a new apartment the 5th and top floor with a sweet balcony and ocean view (sort of) and more space a lovely kitchen and a big comfy bed. It is such a better situation than the small room that was worse than mom's cave. so happy! well thats all for now back to work, training and probably not to far in the future more traveling. Be well. Have fun Uncle Bill glad to hear about the changes you have made.

I was traveling

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...

Trainings

So work is going well, if non stop busy but great. In my one job we just finished a training with the volunteers where I got one good beach day in and it was so funny because my friend spent it throwing dead fish at me I told her how dangerous and unhygienic it is but well hygiene is not her finer suit. In which case I thought that I had found a dead crab and picked it up and was mocking her with it when I realized it was still alive and shaking its claws at her as well. One the day we arrived there was also some random event about how we should take care of the ocean and they had this sort of aerobic latin dance class outside and there was a huge crowd of people watching and we could not help ourselves so we jumped in a sweated off all the salt and sunscreen. Then we spent three days inside training and escaping to sun bathe at every chance we could. I got to do some activities and presentations and felt really confident about the abilities that I have to train. It was interesting getting to know the new group of workers and see how their first months are going in their sites and how emotion those first months can be. Then there was a bunch of drama in another area and it is still unresolved so as usual it feels like we are constantly juggling like a 100 balls high in the air at the same time and hoping that none falls. As we wrapped up a successful event we already have to have the next one ready which will be happening next month but all the budgets and plans have to be turned in 6 weeks in advance. There is no procrastination. Boo. As a result of the stress and perhaps the changes in my sleep schedule and eating habits I got sick at on the third day of training with bacterial pharyngitis. Ill terrible and forced to sleep for like 2 days straight and take antibiotics. Lets see in my other job we have completely revamped the way that they are doing health promotion and standardized their interventions that they do in schools and the work they are doing with families. It is incredible but has required a lot of making documents and lesson plans and educative materials. So necessary. These past weeks and upcoming 2 involve trainings of a long list of people on how to use these tools and techniques that I have brought some of which I have personally developed. If this works I will be able to feel personally responsible for having provoked changes in statistics. I have been dancing quite a bit which has reduce my stress levels immensely not to mention that I met an ultimate fighter that has his own gym and I have been training with him. He says that I hit harder than any girl he has ever trained with and if I could dedicate 3 days a week in the gym that I would be able to get good enough to compete which I would LOVE but doubt that I have the time considering next month and all the following months I will be traveling two weeks out of each month. Those types of interruptions make it impossible to stay up to shape and develop a solid technique and endurance, so no worries I will not be getting beat up. It was probably the first time I have worked out in over 2 years and I literally left pools of sweat. Talk about cleansing. However, I think that if I would work out regularly and get a more regular eating habit my immune system would get better. I really cannot afford to be sick all the time. It makes you work at half speed. There are fun concerts to go to here and summer still means beach visits on the weekends. There is quite a bit to be explored in terms of cultural events and architecture, history and anthropology in Lima and right outside of the city there are many places to explore. Although I have yet to do much I am thinking that perhaps if I schedule it in each weekend I will be able to experience a bunch more. Optimistic and living life the the fullest. I would like to congratulate my friend Molly Pond on her recent marriage and send my wishes of joy and fulfillment in the new stage of your life. love yall.