perusing peru&#8230;

chaclacayo, family, hauscaran, home, la libertad, pacasmayo, san pedro, training, trujillo

eist.

there is not too much to report on this. i don’t think it is a secret to everyone that i am one of the few people where training is not my favorite part of my experience. however, i did welcome the opportunity to partake in some pinkberry and get to stay with my host family in lima again.

it was especially nice to spend time with my lima host family, because my language has improved so much and i was able to understand and communicate with them so much better. it was such a tender-delight. i love my lima family with all my heart, and i cannot wait to see them again in just one quick month!

the main church in trujillo.

for the second half of training i went to trujillo. i spent all week with the gripe (cold), and so my energy wasn’t there to explore. however i did get to have an all-american night where i partook of papa john’s, pinkberry and even went to go see twilight…AGAIN…but this time it was dubbed in spanish…but you know what? it was just as good.

we found a christmas tree at the mall. merry christmas y’all!

anyways, i finally returned home yesterday afternoon after a long regional meeting. my heart is overjoyed to be back in site. all the worries that it started to experience the week before were placated, and my since of purpose in stie has been strengthened. i think i experience the opposite of volunteers…where the majority experience their doubts while in site and then go to training and are rejuvenated, whereas i am the opposite, and being in site gives me the strength and excitement and purpose and reminds me why i am in service. it was also a nice treat to experience all the saludos after i returned, as i learned that my town actually missed me. woohoo for integration!

fbt, huanchaco, la libertad, pacasmayo, street art, trujillo

street art.

let me just start out with this: good morning mike!

but really, i have been nonstop impressed with the street art that i have seen everywhere, but i found it to be more prominent on the coast. here are some of my favorite shots from throughout the week.

trujillo.

pacasmayo.

huanchaco.

ceviche, fbt, huanchaco, la libertad

huanchaco.

we spent saturday afternoon at a big tourist beach, which had incredible waves. it left me wishing i had packed my swimsuit.

kallan and brian dining on ceviche on the beache.

a dilapidated seawall.

i spent a lot of time just sitting on the beach. i took a brief break to get a pineapple & maracuya juice. but then it was back to the beach.

there were tons of jellyfish at the beach. kallan and brittany both braved the water and also both got stung.

colorful streets.

dr. suess trees.

sunset on the beach.

the entire yd fbt crew + hosts + facilitators.

chiclin, fbt, la libertad

chiclin.

lunch.

we spent friday afternoon in chichlin. we helped facilitate an english class for english teachers. it was a lot of fun. i bonded with many of the adults, and it reasserted to me that my best age group is on the older end of the age spectrum. needless to say, a lot of laughs were shared amongst everyone in the class.

a dog cooling off in the shade at the school.

fbt, la libertad, puerto malabrigo

puerto malabrigo.

la plaza de armas en puerto malabrigo.

we spent friday morning in puerto mlabrigo, which was the site of a volunteer that just completed service earlier in the week. another youth volunteer will replace the previous one (a site of about 5,000). i wish it was going to be me, but alas, a male volunteer has been requested. in this site, the volunteer literally lives on the beach and their main socio is with a surf school. talk about a rough two-years…

we spent the morning there to participate in a program called “red ambiente,” which is supposed to help promote youth leadership. we sat through two presentations, one of which was on la pesete (the plague). supposedly it is still a problem in that province, with most reported cases in peru being from their region. afterwards i facilitated a short game on how to synthesize the presentation and take the information back to their community.

then we just spent a short bit at the beach.

fbt, guadalupe, la libertad

guadalupe.

we spent two days in guadalupe visiting a volunteer, whose site had about 30,000 people.

the municipality at the plaza de armas.

taxidermy at a local lunch spot.

it was about a 30 minute combi ride from pacasmayo. the first day i sat on the back bench of the combi and quickly learned that was the worst possible place to sit. i found myself sitting on the engine and, quite literally, had the exhaust smoke blowing out beneath my legs. my nostrils and my lungs stung. needless to say, the next morning i grabbed a seat in the front.

my morning combi ride.

i taught at a more rural primary school, just out of town. it was a two room school house and between the two days, i taught four classes: hand washing, teeth brushing, friendship and virtues. the municipality was nice to give us a lift out to the school, but we all had to fit in one truck, which meant we had to ride in the back…which i love to do anyhow.

carlhey, me, evan (our pcvc) and brian (the la libertad pcvl) riding in the back of the police truck.

pretending we live a hard-knock life.

the youngest of the primary classes.

showing off the glitter on their hands and ready to learn to wash their hands.

saw this in the older class. an anatomically correct lion. details. details.

two of the students ready to bike home with a rice field behind them.

at the end of our first day, we went to a special needs school that the volunteer works at as well. we worked with young adults with special needs, showing them how to make a picture frame and also painting a map of peru on the school walls. it was a blast.

the whole crew (volunteers + students) with our finished map.

our last afternoon in guadalupe, the municipality set up a nice lunch for us at the house of a local artist. we had lunch in his garden which was quite beautiful.

where we dined.

he concluded lunch by sharing some of his original poetry. it was beautiful. he also showed us some of his paintings as well. to top it off, he had six-week-old kittens. needless to saw our hearts were overjoyed that afternoon.

kittens for cat.

kittens. kittens. kittens.

also, i saw this really awesome spider:

does anyone know what kind of spider this is?

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fbt, la libertad, pacasmayo

pacasmayo.

we stayed a couple of evenings in a great little surf town in pacasmayo.

it was a nice little surf hostel.

it was so green, and had hammocks and even a trampoline!

casey taking a much needed nap in the hammock at the hostel.

this is the closest i have gotten to machu picchu. at a surf hostel on the other side of the country.

great, colorful fishing boats filled the beaches.

the beach at sunset.

this dog and i became the best of friends over those couple of days.

every town seems to have some type of statue at the top of a hill. pacasmayo has jesus (which is more common than not).

fbt, la libertad, san pedro

san pedro.

on tuesday, we visited another volunteer who lived in much larger site (around 17,000). we taught nutrition charlas at an all girl school. the girls were a lot of fun, and just loved to laugh.

plaza de armas.

the girls practicing their marches for the fiestas patrias this week.

working on creating their plate of food.

the food pyramid and a group’s plate of food.

all the volunteers with the girls.

viva el peru.