I got up earlier than usual, around six thirty, so that I could get to the camal, or local slaughterhouse, and back before breakfast. Got directions from Patti, and took a wrong turn as soon as I got to the bottom of the hill, so I ended up at least a kilometer off in the wrong direction. It was fun though, I got all sorts of help form the local little old ladies. They loved telling La Gringa that she was WAY off from where she wanted to be. So I hiked back to the square and caught a moto-taxi, which [View Full Entry]

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I´m behind! It´s so hard to keep up...Sunday was basically a much needed day off. We had an hour or so recap of the last week with Patricia, and a short look at what we will be doing in the next and then we fled to the market, where we wandered around, bought some stuff (I´m not telling!), had icecream (which, by the way, is abso-fricking-lutly delicious here, esp lucuma), ate lunch at El Abuelo, and regreso-ed. I meant to return to twon and get a few beer to share with all, but I never left my book, which is not [View Full Entry]

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In some ways this seems really short, but on the other hand, twenty days more in Peru seems like forever! It´s hard being here occasionally. I love our group, but I´d really like to get away everyonce and a while, adn the languge barrier is making it difficult to have even a few moments that aren´t intesive learning moments. I just want some down time!!! It´s good though, really stretching my limits. I am in a group meeting right now, with the Shilla mayor. I think that it is mostly about agriculture, so far, about changes, how he governs, how he [View Full Entry]

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We got up early, at quarter to seven, to go to the church up the hill. Well, almost all of us. It´s a teeny little chapel, with four benches and a cement podium and alter. The Padre was quite young, I think in his thirties, adn walked in carrying a guitar, which was way out of tune. It was great. We were there for a little over an hour and a half (ooooops) but it didn´t feel like that long, proably because I was really trying to follow what he was saying, and singing, and the Spanish was somewhat getting by [View Full Entry]

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We got up pretty early to go to the Cuy healer, for which Claire volunteered. I was glad about that, because originally I had, but then I read about it, and while I don´t mind things dying, I´d rather not feel that I had caused a Guineapig´s death through curiosity. At least she has headaches. So we got a cuy in a bag, and carried it down to the healer, who live just a little ways away. there was a man waiting for her outside the gate with a broken (!) arm adn a bag full of herbs that she had [View Full Entry]

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I received a blessing in my dreams last night. "What I want in my heart I want because I was born that way, becuase that is who I am. Follow your true desires because they are God-given." I woke up with that resounding in my head. It was pretty awesome. If you haven´t read The Alchmist, do so. It´s amazing. Notes on the meeting we went to today- Participatory Action Research- a way to facilitate building community awarness and change. How to make, say, health education a community driven process. How to use PAR to facilitate environmental action in the US [View Full Entry]

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Today we spent the day hiking in the area, guided by Martín, a wonderful local teacher, who is also our Quechua instructor. We walked about 15 km, a good hike. Most of my journal for today is vocab words in both Spanish and Quechua, but I will transcribe that part that isn´t. "We had a wonderful day today. We hiked up about 6 km on a kind of cultural hike with Martine, a man who grew up at the highest village we went to. It was great. We stopped ften to learn about certain plants, or logging, or special spots to [View Full Entry]

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Woke up late today (8:00), which was nice after the hike yesterday. Max Patrick and I had a good game of BS last night before sleeping. -I can´t remember if I´ve written about Patrick yet. He´s a participant ffrm teh last group, in June, who stayed longer. He goes to Yale, which made me think of Zef.- Patrick also came over the night before, after we went out and watched the moon for a while. I think he´s hooked on my gummy bears lol. He read passages from a David Sedaris book, laughing so hard that he could barely speak. He´s [View Full Entry]

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I have to start journaling in the short breaks we get! Too much stuff! We started the mornign with self led yoga, which meant the I did a sun salute adn some sit ups and push ups. Not really yoga, but there you go. Oh, and we had an adventure getting there! So Laura wakes us up to go, and I´m slow in the mornings, so they leave before moe. I hear geese screaming, a few shrieks and a lot of excited chatter as they return to our second floor porch thing. I go out, and they tell me that they´ve [View Full Entry]

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Got up this morning earlyish and had a really sweet drinkable yogurt, almost lile drinking custard. Not realy my thing. Laura arrived during the night (yay) so wa are all here. We took a taxi to the bus station and got on a beautiful (meaning large and comfortable) busand we are in the middle of the 7 (or 8) hour bus ride to Carhuaz. Very excited. And the air conditioner is broke, is that why I feel a little ill? Up in the mountains now! I hate writing on a bus!!1 It´s scribble...The road we are on is on the side [View Full Entry]

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