Congrats to Sara!!

The beautiful bride and my best friend since first grade, Sar-bear!




















The wedding cake! And cookies! Because Jeremy (the groom) doesn't do cake.




















The wedding party!















"I do!"















Alli and I hanging out pre-wedding...Yay! Friends!















A toast to the bride!















Walking down the aisle...

Census Day, obviously...

I’m not sure what I’m going to do when I return to the states, where there aren’t national strikes every month and when there is no organization that isn’t upset about something, well, then it must be census day. October 21st, no one is allowed to leave their house from 8am to 8pm. Normally, I would appreciate the break from, well, having to leave the house to work. But, for anyone paying attention, I might have a flight to catch on the night of the 22nd. Umm, this is going to be fun.

My favorite consejo (advise) comes from the mother of one of my friends: “Well, you could just pay the fine.” Yeah, but I’m not a resident! So… I’m not sure if they are going to fine me but there will definitely be no transport these hours ‘cause I’m pretty sure most of the drivers are from, well, Peru…

My First Faena!

I left this morning a little apprehensive. I’ve been working with this small little community of Tanin for a while and their participation has been, well, spotty at best. But, today they really pulled through! We called a “faena” today. A “faena” is basically when they call all members of the community (or, in this case, all parents of students attending the school) to a work day. Today we took a patch of land (maybe 5 x 10 yards?) took out all the rocks (there were a lot of rocks), leveled it (more or less), and planted radish, lettuce, swiss chard, and carrot seeds. Perhaps you are thinking this is an odd combination, well, these are the plants that grow in this region in 2-3 months. This is important because, well, school ends the end of December. We had already discussed this but there was a constant murmuring of, “Where are the beet seeds? Why didn’t she bring the beet seeds?” (PS – Beets take longer than three months to grow, by the way). About twenty parents showed up (15 were missing, I hear) and I brought the snacks of Inca Kola (bubble gum flavored pop, yum!) and bananas (trying to be nutritious since everyone thinks I’m a nutritionist anyway). The first cry was not for soda though, it was for some good ol’ hard alcohol. So the first round was Inca Kola and cañazo and then an hour later the good stuff (as in just soda) came out. The director handed out cookies and when I went around with the fruit everyone said, “Wow! This isn’t a snack, this is lunch!” Hmm, not sure what to make of that.
On the whole, a highly productive day and I’m looking forward to as many faena’s or at least family work days in the future. As the director told me, everyone there knew how to prepared land and plant seeds, it just took a little push (me!) to get them started. Well, that’s what I’m here for…


New Word of the Day:
Akinetopsia: A disease in which you can’t see things when they move. (Brought to you by House, M.D.)

Um, oops?

Hey everyone,
Well, for the last month, I’ve basically forgotten to write any blog entries. So, I’m going to try and write some quick summaries:

Radio show: I’m officially starting shows when I come back from the states on the 8th of November. I have until this Friday to make some small spots to advertise or, well, do something. Hmm, and I have two days to figure it out…

Peru 10: Guess what? Guess what? There might be a new Peace Corps volunteer in a nearby caserio of San Marcos! And it’s all my fault! J Muahaha… I’ve been developing a new site and just had the initial meeting with my director and some authorities in the town. Now, I have a lot more work to do… Blah… But, I did figure out how to get people to come to a meeting!! That is a very novel and useful skill, by the way. People don’t just come, nay, they most assuredly won’t. So, I invited them on Friday, went back on Monday to remind them (and make them send representatives if they couldn’t come), and went back three hours before the meeting on Tuesday to, well, remind them once again. This town is an hour and a half walk away, I’ll have you know.

Tanin: I have a Nutrition course going on in Tanin, a caserio of Chavin, right now. And no one was showing up. So, I had a little chat with the director of the elementary school where I might have, um, raised my voice? Anyway, it worked and he called a meeting of all of the parents in the school for my course. Upon seeing the quantity of people, I changed theme and we did a small discussion of how cheap vegetables are when you grow them and then we hopped right into growing a school garden complete with compost pile. So, on Friday they called a “faena” which is when everyone comes and does a group project, more or less. So, we are going to level the ground, plant seeds, remove a latrine, and dig a compost hole. Sounds awesome. We shall see…

Piura: I went on a technical exchange in the first week of October to Alta Piura to learn about organic composting and to see my friend Casey! It was amazing! Alta Piura is beautiful, much greener than where I am living, but still in the Andes Mountains so the scenery is pretty similar to my site. It was a great experience and inspired me to start composting in my house and the school gardens that I’m working in. AND, Casey is doing an exercise class so when I get back to site, I’m starting one too…Woohoo! I’m going to be an aerobics instructor! :)
Hmm, I guess that didn’t take as long as I thought…