Made it to Cusco!

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Hello!

Just wanted to give ya’ll a quick update. I arrived safely in Cusco, Peru! Travel was long- roughly 24 hours- and I spent the night awake in a Starbucks. Luckily, the Starbucks was full and I asked to sit at a table with a few girls, one who was wearing a Kappa Delta shirt! I asked her what school she went to and she said Cornell, and then I realized she was with Alma Sana! So I spent my overnight getting to know the girls I’ll be living with the next 3 months!

There are going to be 6 of us living together. There will be a few other staff members coming in and out too, and one project manager who will be here with us the whole time. I’m the old fart of the group- they’re all 20 or 21 years old. I’m okay with that though. I learned in Africa that I can get along well with people of all ages, and they are all really sweet and outgoing. It’s going to be great J

So for those of you who don’t know, I’m here volunteering with an organization called Alma Sana. It’s an NGO funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation. Basically, the program started because Lauren, the president of the company, volunteered in Peru with ProWorld. She was going house to house 4 hours a day, reminding parents to immunize their kids. It was a waste of her time, and the clinic she was with was understaffed and unable to do it themselves. She took matters into her own hands and developed an immunization reminder bracelet. The bracelets are made out of the same rubbery material as livestrong bracelets. They feature the numbers of the months that the babies need to be vaccinated (2, 4, and 6), and have symbols for each vaccine needed that month. The babies wear them on their ankles to remind their moms to return and get them immunized. So the 6 of us will be working at 3 clinics, teaching the nurses and mothers about the program. We’ll be enrolling the moms and then collecting data regarding the effectiveness. The bracelets she has so far were donated by the company that made them, but they cost less than $1 each to make, and if the pilot is effective Lauren can apply for another grant from the Gates foundation. That means it’s a pretty sustainable program!

So, to tell you guys the truth, I was pretty unexcited about this trip before I got here. The last 2 weeks at home just flew by! I didn’t get to see everyone I wanted to unfortunately, and I just was so mentally exhausted I was pretty unproductive. I tried learning more Spanish, mostly by spending hours on end watching Harry Potter in Spanish. I had not fully recuperated from Africa, and I had to pack and get on a plane to Peru. My main concern was my ability to speak Spanish, but some of the other girls here are at roughly my level. I was really worried that I’d get here and be the worst one, but now that I know that we’re all bad I feel much much better. I’ll also be able to take classes here in Spanish, and being fully immersed is already helping.

Africa ended on an interesting note. A few weeks before I left, I went on a trip to Murchison Falls with another volunteer named Oli. We went on a safari and saw a lion and giraffes! There were tons of butterflies all around and it made the whole trip feel fairy-tale like. We also went rhino tracking, and I got to see a baby rhino breastfeeding. It was huge and I cannot believe that it was a baby- its poor mother had to push that thing out – ouch! Anyway, rhinos had become extinct in Uganda, so they were imported back in from other parts of Africa and around the world. This particular baby’s mom was from America and its dad was from Kenya- so they named it Obama! So great. We saw an amazing waterfall with a double rainbow, and it was just an amazing trip. We also visited Kampala, the capitol, and Jinja, the source of the Nile. I expected Kampala to be developed, but it was really just the same poorly constructed buildings in a more concentrated area. Jinja is the source of the Nile, so we watched the sunset there one night and went to a hydroelectric dam in the morning. I know you all are jealous. Oli’s friend helped finance it so we got a tour, and it was actually pretty neat! Oli is brilliant, and he inspired me and taught me a lot, so that aspect of the trip was great as well.

The sad thing that I learned was that oil was found under Murchison Falls National Park, and Queen Elizabeth national park. The government is considering taking away their titles as national parks so they can access the oil. Really sad stuff. The parks are so beautiful and home to so much wildlife.

Anyway, the end was bittersweet. I was really ready to go home. I was just mentally done with being there, but it was sad to leave and say bye. On the way to Peru, I started to really miss it for the first time, which is a bit ironic.

On the 3^rd flight it really hit me that I’m in Peru! We were flying over these beautiful hills and mountains and I remembered just how lucky I am to be here. The weather is cool- 70 during the day and 30 at night, but that’s alright. I’m just enjoying the company and getting acclimated a bit. We went to lunch today and to the grocery store, and drank lots of mate de yerba, a drink that helps with altitude sickness. So far so good on that front as well though! I feel okay!

So, overall, I’m safe and happy J Found out I got into grad school today as well so I’ll have something to do with my life after I’m done traveling!!

Love,

Jenny

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