2 weeks away

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Well I'm sitting at my kitchen table here in Chicago surrounded by boxes and text books and thinking 1 more week to go. I decided to create this "journal" to keep everyone informed on my life this summer. I'm pretty terrible at emails and keeping in contact so hopefully this will be the easiest way for people to see what I have been doing down in South America. That isn't to say of course that I don't want people to email, because I do. This will just replace mass email sent to everyone (plus it includes pictures if I ever figure out how to up load them). So feel free to check this page out occasionally or shoot me an email. I finally changed from my school address, my new address is: [e-mail] not too difficult. :o)

now for some real information: For those of you who don't know I'm spending 9 weeks this summer in Peru. The first seven weeks will be spent in Ayacucho interning for a medical facility. The last two weeks of my trip will be spent exploring with my sister Lisa. Basically we will be living the dream- jungle canopy climbing, amazon river boating, inca trail hiking, machu pichu and all the cities in between.

Ayacucho quick facts:
founded- 1540
altitude- 9,056 ft above sea level
population- 180,000 in the city
language: spanish and quechua
known as the city of 37 churches
Ayacucho is the capital of the province/department of Ayacucho (confusing... yes)
Politics- Upheval began in the 1960's and 1970's with the emergence of the Shining Path Sendero Luminoso movement. Unlike most revolutionary movements the SL leadership consisted of intellectuals, mestizos and whites, many recruited from university and high school ranks where radical politicization had been apart of student culture since the late 19th century. The impact of the violence of the actions of the SL and the responses of the peruvian army Ejercito Peruano had a devistating effect on rural life, especially in the emergency zone department of Ayacucho. From 1980-1990 an estimated 200,000 people were driven from their homes with and estimated 69,000 people killed, mostly in the department of Ayacucho. In five provinces in Ayacucho the population dropped two-thirds as people were driven to migrate to the cities of Lima, Ica and Huancayo. The violence ended in 1992 with the capture of the SL leader, Abimal Guzman as Sendero's activities came to a halt. There has been no violence in the city of Ayacucho since then, although there has been minor activity in the northern regions of the department of Ayacucho.
Poverty- 72.5%!o(MISSING)f the people of the department of Ayacucho live in poverty with 45.5%!o(MISSING)f the polulation living in extreme poverty (from the 2001 census- there has been a slight decrease in poverty rates in the past 6 years).

The program:
I'm going with a program I found off the internet called Cross Cultural Solutions.
http://www.crossculturalsolutions.org

The program consists of people of all ages either volunteering or interning in different areas in Ayacucho. It's an international volunteer program and as of now there are 28 people arriving the same day I am. Most are twenty-somethings from the US but there are a few from England and Canda. There are two homebases in the city within walking distance of each other. One houses the volunteers and the other houses the interns and families. They are divided because the volunteers usually stay a shorter period of time, 1-3 weeks, while the interns are required a 3 week minimum. Everything is provided for us in the houses. From what I understand I will have 2-3 roommates, western bathrooms and a laundry machine to wash my clothes, as well as a clothes line on the roof to dry them. There is also a staff that lives with us consisting of cooks, security guards and our program directors. One of these is my intern advisor, I will be doing some sort of research project while I am there as one of the requirements to get credit back here at De Paul for my senior thesis. I still have no idea what I will be doing so if any one has suggestions let me know. That is all I really know at this point so all that's left to do is wait until the 23rd.

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