1/3 done

Who says high school/college are the best years of your life? This last weekend the volunteers of Lambayeque started a new tradition of Lambaysexy Prom. All the women rented Peruvian style dresses (think a mixture between a stripper and ugly bridesmaids’ dresses) and the guys dressed up nice and we all went out to the discotecca.  We even voted on a Prom King and Queen and Best Dressed.  I cannot wait to take part in the tradition next year when us 19ers will be the “seniors”!

All the Lambaysexy ladies

Lambaysexy 19ers falta Michelle, Betty, Erin and...Sam :(

The puffy dress gals

About two weeks ago I was watching an episode of Big Bang Theory with two other volunteers; Howard had just gotten back from a NASA expedition and when he returned it was all he could talk about, he even went out of his way to relate the conversations to his trip and eventually the others became very annoyed with him. I turned to the other two and said, “This is going to be us when we go back.” Not only will I not be able to shut up about Peru when I get back, I’ll also have some peculiar mannerisms. Before I left I always talked out loud to myself and I was always made fun of by my friends; now I feel normal about it, ALL volunteers talk to themselves out loud-we spend some much time solo that it becomes second nature.  I will probably be cursing out people all the time, I do this is here usually under my breath but still loud of enough to hear and I just take for granted that no one can understand what I’m actually saying.

Some others things I’ve become accustomed to:

-At night whenever I have to use the bathroom I will slowly enter and check the sink EVERYTIME.

A few months ago I walked into the bathroom and discovered a lizard in the sink and it jumped out of the sink and landed on my head and I screamed and screamed.  Ok. I’m going to level with you, the lizard didn’t land on my head nor did it leap out at me but it WAS there in the sink and I did scream and I will never make the mistake of walking into the bathroom without checking my surroundings first.

-An ant in my food or beverage              

I never thought I’d be able to pick a bug out of my food or beverage and continue consuming but now it has become second nature. Just now I was drinking a glass of water and there was a little anty in it and I tipped him out of the glass and continued to drink. Sometimes there is only a certain amount of boiled water in the house! Also I’m really wondering how I’m going to act in a restaurant in the states when I get back….you know the scene in Mean Girls when Lindsay Lohan leaps over the lunch table at Rachel McAdams? That’ll be me at restaurants when I see someone return a plate of food because of a piece of hair or a bug.

-Things starting late

It was so hard when I first arrived because things almost always start at least an hour late. Now I’ve gotten used to it, not only that but I’m incredibly surprised when something starts on time or is even less than an hour late. Things just take longer here.

-Spanglish

I am always mixing up the two languages. I’ll be talking on the phone with my mom from the states and will start inserting connecter words in Spanish without even realizing it. It’s especially weird when I talk to my German friends because they know Spanish and English so during our conversations we will be talking English part of the time and Spanish the other part. SO strange.

Since the end of March I have been so busy. The last week of March was my Semana Santa vacation (in Peru we get a 3 day weekend vacation for Easter) and I went to Trujillo/Huanchaco to hang out on the beach with some of my favorite gals.

Delicious Columbian restuarant in Huanchaco

us ladies posing with famous Columbian singer Juanes

Hot

dancin

A week after returning to site I had to leave again for Project Design Management training which actually turned out to be a really great learning experience. Each volunteer was asked to bring someone from their communities to attend the training and the young man I brought was very impressive; he paid attention and was very participative. We are hoping to create a youth group that promotes sexual health education and prevention of teen pregnancy- he is even busier than I am though so I am having doubts about how fast we can get this going.  Side note about the training-it was in Ancash. Which I have to say is one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen EVER. I was pretty sick the first 4 days of the trip and went to bed accordingly but on the day of my departure we went on a tour to one of the most staggeringly beautiful and majestic places I’ve ever been to. It was this lagoon-Llanganuco, imagine turquoise colored water and a snow capped mountain backdrop, so incredible, when I got off the bus I nearly cried. I have to wait until I get pictures from my friends from the trip because my camera is currently not working but I’m hoping it’s just a problem with charging the battery and am waiting for my friend to bring me back a wall charger from the states. Here is a picture I found on google

Since being back in site I’ve been keeping really busy. I meet twice a week with my Pasos Adelante class which is a Peace Corps initiative to help prevent HIV/AIDS and teen pregnancy-I’ve been doing this since February and I am almost done with this group and will be starting the new group in about a week-I’m hoping to have some of the boys from the previous group help me train the new group. In coordination with the psychologist at the health center we are giving workshops to two groups of adolescent mothers. I also have 8 hours of tutoria classes/week in the high school. So don’t worry about this girl….I’m doing great and keeping busy. Time is flying by and I’ll be giving you all hugs in less than 8 months when I come home for Christmas! xoxo Lots of love