First, I’m sorry for all those that actually read my blog. Partly because you actually read it and partly for the 5 month lapse. I’m working on it. I’m going to try to write at least once a month. It really shouldn’t be that hard for me, and I’ve actually written at least 2 entries but then decided for one reason or another not to post them. Anyway, here I go with a really quick rundown of the last 5 months.

Right before Christmas I headed to Guayaquil, Ecuador. It was a trip full of mixed emotions (and some pretty hilarious bus stories, I’m too embarrassed to tell). I was saying goodbye to my friend, Chris who had been in Peru for about 3 months (sad) and going to pick up my family from the airport (happy). PS Chris, if you’re reading this, remind me someday to tell me the bus story I was to embarrassed to tell you when it happened! From Christmas day until the end of January my family was here. It had its ups and downs obviously but it was so great to see them. The thing is, before they came, I was used to living without them, but afterwards... Oh Lord! It was so hard to get used to not talking to them all the time. I miss them more than ever.

We made quite the circuit. They came in through Guayaquil, Ecuador.
Then we headed down to Piura for a day. Then farther down to Chiclayo to visit my site and hang out for a bit and then it was off to the South with two friends of mine. We spent New Years Eve in Arequipa City then wandered around the “state” of Arequipa, visiting volunteers and seeing the sites, for a little while.

 


After Arequipa my friends headed back up north to continue working and being good little volunteers, while we continued on to Cuzco to see the famous Machu Picchu.


Next, we were headed up north again to see the Gocta waterfall! It was incredible. Then we hit up a beach in Trujillo before coming back to Chiclayo to spend a few days close to my site before I accompanied them back to Ecuador.



It was quite an experience. Lots of traveling. Lots of site seeing. It was really great.

After my family left I took a few days to get myself back into gear. Then it was back to work. At my site we inaugurated a museum (which is pretty impressive), I’ve been working with an HIV/AIDS initiative, and helping a restaurant get their stuff together. I was pretty busy. It was great being busy, but I was having some problems with my host family, which stressed me out a ton. It took a while but I eventually met this girl, Amalia, who would become my new host sister. I moved in March. It has been awesome! It’s usually just Amalia, 23 and my host mom in the house and we get along fabulously. There are some things that still throw me off. I’ve heard some very strange explications of life but through it all, I’ve been super happy with them. They’re incredibly supportive and fun to be with. And to make it even better, we have 2 puppies! My sister and I have been raising them since they were 8 days old and still had to drink from a bottle. They’re getting so big now! I love having puppies around (even though one of them bit me today).

Aside from moving and work, there have been other trips. I went to Lima for a few days for a meeting and then for Easter vacation we went to the mountains of Ancash for a 4 day trek. We had some problems and ended up doing it in 3days. Despite the problems, it was pretty incredible. Beautiful. We hiked 60km and up to 5000meters. I saw snow! It was great!

After Ancash I headed back to my site and have been crazy busy since. It’s been nice having something to do. I’ve been training for a marathon (I ran 15.5miles today!) Actually, I’ve written countless blog entries in my head since beginning my training. The problem is I never actually get around to typing them out. Really, that may be a good thing. They usually start out positive and chipper then I see a man in the road up ahead and start getting tense and ornery. As I run close to him my thoughts turn embarrassingly violent as I plan what I will do if he touches or talks to me. As I approach I tense up. Sometimes I pass and he doesn’t say anything or actually politely acknowledges me and I calm down and continue running composing happy stories in my head. Usually, however, he says something rude and inappropriate or makes some obscene noise, which causes me to tense up even more and think of all the awful things I would say to him if I wasn’t afraid it would cause him to chase me down and kick the crap out of me. This high level of tension and anger continues for another 15 minutes or so and as long as I don’t see anyone else I’m able to calm down and resume blog writing in my head. Unfortunately, I can’t usually go that long with out seeing some random man on the road. But I try. And I try to avoid violent thoughts. I’m sure they aren’t helpful, but damn it, why do they always have something to say? So that’s my mini-rant about how I begin most of my days. Really it’s not that bad. Marathon training has kept me happy, healthy, and busy.

Aside from the marathon, I’m trying to plan out what on Earth to do with myself. My time in ends in August. And then what? I’m trying to stay one more year either in Lima or maybe another country. Who knows?

So that is the 1.5 page summary of 5 months. I’m leaving out a ton of stuff, but it would end up being pages and pages and no one wants to read that. I’ll try to throw in some pics to make this all a bit more interesting.