Goodbyes

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Well we finished up in Canduya this week. It´s hard to believe that the project is already half over. We managed to finish the water filter, dig a hole for plastic garbage (not the best solution, but otherwise they burn it) put in two ´model´organic fertilized vegitable gardens for two families and paint a mural on the side of the school, in addition to all of our workshops. We said our goodbyes and there were a few tears, especially when saying goodbye to the family we´ve been living with there. They´ve invited us to thier daughter´s graduation party on Friday though, so hopefully we´ll see them then. We have to find out what our schedule is like in Gradas (the community we´re starting to work in on Monday) to see if we´ll be able to leave in the early afternoon on Friday. I feel like we did a good job, the moms and teachers made us lunch on friday as a thank you and lots of people stopped to thank us as we were working on the mural.
I have mixed feelings about the success of some of our workshops, particularily the family planning one (there was a lot of whispering and giggling and not much particpation) but I guess it is a hard topic to talk about. We did childrens workshops on nutrition, environmental health, dental health, hygiene, anatomy, and sexual health (puberty), and we did adult workshops on nutrition, sexual health, composting and organic fertilizers, first aid, family planning and STDs, and medicinal plants.
In Gradas it sounds like we´ll be working on a large community garden in the mornings and then doing workshops in the evenings. There´s a nun who´s doing workshops with the kids every day all summer, so we might work with her a little bit depending on what she´s covering. The evening workshops will sometimes be with the 20 health volunteers from all the surrounding communities, who will also be helping us with the garden, and sometimes with adults in the communities. They seemed a lot more community oriented there so I expect a bigger turnout for workshops. Luckily we´ve done most of them once already, so we´ll be well prepared.
If we can, we´re going to take a long weekend next weekend and go check out Baños, which is a tourist spot about 3 hours away where there are hot springs on the side of a mountain. I really hope it works out because everyone´s nerves are wearing thin. We have a good group, but living in the same room as 5 other people and spending every day with them is really starting to get to me. Pretty much everyone has had a little break down in the last couple weeks.

Well that´s all for now, I forgot my camera so I can´t upload pictures today. I´ll try to make it to the internet tomorrow.
I miss everyone a lot, especially with the news that Amanda is getting married, and I´m the maid of honour! 5 more weeks (ish) till I get home.

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