peru. #1

I finally made it! I have been waiting for this opportunity for so long, and it´s finally here! I´m short on time, so i´ll spare a lot of details, but try to hit you with the good stuff. Getting here was long and tiring, but after 28 hours in an airplane/airports I finally made it with a few other girls in my volunteer group. Life on this end has been so different and more challenging than I ever thought it would be, but also super rewarding. My first day here, we headed straight from the plane for a meeting in the heart of the city. We met with a local non-profit organization that works with the rural villages and teaches them to teach others about healthy agriculture and healthy living basically. It was super cool, I hope to work with them and help them find markets for their all natrual products. Its kind of crazy, like everything I said I wanted to do for a career is happening to me now. Anyway, they are the sweetest people ever. They are all super excited to meet you and be a part of your life. Ha so we have a cook here Monday-Friday and I love her so much. I just want to take her home with me. Ha her name is Luzbi and she just looks out for us like her own grandchildren. She is also an awesome cook, oh man Peruvian food is so great. I do miss my broccoli though. Ha everything is potatoes, rice, and meat. My fear of obesity may become a reality while I´m here.  Occasionally you´ll get an apple or something but produce is so hard to find and I am struggling with the transition. Ha oh well. The group and I are running everymorning ( in 95 degree weather...Hace Calor!) so hopefully that will help prevent me from becoming mucho gordo. Mm.. what else can I tell you about..? Day 2 of my great adventure was spent in a tiny tiny village called Villa Chulacanas..I am not sure how to spell it, but you should google it. It was so humbling. We spent a very long HOT day painting a school for them (which the volunteers last year built) and building a learning landscape. It was hard work, but it felt so good. They were so grateful. The little kids were so cute too! They just love to play with all of us. OH! ha I am learning to play soccer. Cool huh? The little boys in my neighborhood will play with us until the late hours of the night. Oh.. and fun fact, my bed is super infested with termites so I sleep with bugs all night. It´s an adjustment I haven´t quite made yet. I´m trying though. Yesterday was a free day for us (since it was the weekend) So I headed to a near by city called Catacous. It was such a cute little town full of crafty people. I bought a new bag and am in love with it. It´s legit. We also stopped in the black market in Piura on the way home to get a sheet. Why a sheet you ask? I am hanging it above my bed on the bunk above mine to prevent bugs from falling on me all night. So far it has worked well! The black market is so cool, its an entire street just full of busy merchants and they all want your money! You have to be so so careful with all of your bags or little children will rob you!  Wow this is long, I´m sure you´re sick of reading by now so i´ll end soon. I love it here! I am working and playing very hard! Sorry for being so random, it´s hard to write about it all. I feel like I better understand the life of a missionary now!´

Maybe from here on out I´ll bring my journal and just record a few of the entries and add in interesting tid bits? How does that sound? I don´t like how informal this post has been so I´ll try to work on it.

love you all!

-lakin