Really Exciting News for Awamaki Health!

We are really excited here at Awamaki Health as one of our volunteers has just secured us funding for a year! Kelsey has been here for nearly two months and her mother works in a high school in New Jersey. Each year, the high school sponsors a project/organization. Kelsey put together a power point about us and we are now sponsored by this school for the next year! All of the fund raising they do next year will be to the benefit of Ollantaytambo and the surrounding communities! I am just so psyched about this. We will be able to fund a full-time janitor, get our resource room for women organized and started as well as buy some much needed supplies and equipment!

I don't know how much money will come in throughout the year, but every little bit helps!

Another funny thing happened at the clinic yesterday. Yesterday and today were slow days at the clinic due to the Inti Raymi festivals in Cusco. So we decided to take advantage of the quiet and lack of patients to do some major cleaning. I don't think anyone had cleaned some of the rooms since we did in March. Anyway, this time we actually had some of the Posta staff helping us clean. We all were cleaning and chatting. I was talking to Eloy, a medical assistant who has worked at the Posta for years and years. We were commiserating together on my quickly approaching departure date. Talk turned to children and he was asking how old I was and when I wanted to have kids. So I told him I hope to have at least one biological child and then adopt after that, most likely.

He asked if I would like to adopt a child from Peru, and I said, sure, I would love to. He then asked if I wanted a boy or a girl. I said I would probably prefer a boy. He made sure I would need all the papers so the child could live with me wherever I am and not just as a sponsor here in Peru. I was like, of course I want the child with me. So then he proceeds to say he will start looking for a little boy for me for when I return next year!!! Can you imagine if I come home next summer with a little Peruvian baby! It would make nursing school a bit more complicated, that is for sure. But truthfully, after watching everyone here go about their lives with their babies strapped on their backs, I realize how ridiculous we are with all our toys and strollers and "stuff" for our babies. These kids have great childhoods without the newest and best baby things. Really puts life into perspective when you live in a culture that lives simply but extremely happily.

Anyway, I have only 2 days left in the clinic! We will run the chocolatada breakfast like normal and then I will work on Monday. Tuesday is a festival here: Ollanta Raymi. There is a big drama that acts out the history of Ollantaytambo against the Spaniards in Quechua near the big ruins. Then Wednesday is a packing and goodbye day for me. Thursday, I am off to Cusco, to Lima and finally arrive in Indy at 1pm on Friday.

We are going to do an appetizer and cocktail party tomorrow night at the rooftop bar at KBs. Then we are having a joint going away party for Dr. Arnaldo, Emma and myself with everyone from the Posta and the health volunteers. Saturday will be the last pizza party I have to attend here (thank God, so ready for good pizza when I get home). Will probably party at Porfi's on Saturday night and then Pisac markets on Sunday. Busy last week!

I have to do my going away lunch at my old host family's house as well as at Hallie's old host family's house. They have kind of adopted me too!

It will be a great last week!

I have a Namesake in Ollanta!

A funny thing happened in the clinic on Monday. I was introducing two new volunteers to one of the doctors and the obstetrics nurse came in with a man and a chart. Well, the man was the proud father of a newborn baby girl and the chart was not completed yet as the little girl had no name. So the doctor started going around the room asking the new volunteers their names and then said "Emma" (the nurse) and then they all looked at me and Dr. Arnaldo was like, "Alison, that is a pretty name and look, she is really pretty too". So this poor man looks at me with this big smile on his face, and I was like, "no, you don't have to name your daughter Alison" Which, by the way, is not pronounced the way we do but more like Ali and then Son. So the man nods his head in agreement and next thing you know, his new daughter is named Alison. So the jokes start up about how I will now have to be the Godmother! I was very amused yet also touched that I now have a namesake here. We'll see how the man's wife feels about his naming his daughter after a gringa!

Anyway, things are getting a little stressful with trying to wrap things up and train the new coordinator and deal with the influx of volunteers. We are getting about 3 health volunteers a week right now. We definitely need to put a cap on this for the future. We are just saturated. Plus, the majority do not have good Spanish skills so it makes it difficult in that they are only here for 6 weeks to 2 months and need Spanish to really get a good experience in the clinic. I am just getting a little frustrated at times. But overall, the volunteers are great and really enthusiastic. I think there are about 25-30 total Awamaki volunteers here at the moment. We are huge!!!

June seems to be the month of festivals in this area as Cusco is just one big party all the time. The clinic is only open for emergencies tomorrow and Thursday due to Inti Raymi in Cusco. I was in Cusco on Saturday for a night out with some of the clinic staff and it was craziness in the Plaza. There was a concert and then a great fireworks show. I am now prepared for the 4th of July. The only problem is that the festivities start again at 7am so sleep is very difficult. We had a really fun night out. Abby and Sydney and I were the only non-Peruvians. I was so happy because the old Intern, Elio, met us out and I just love that guy. I hadn't seen him since he left the clinic to start his rotations at the Cusco hospital.

We attempted to see the Winter Solstice sunrise light show on Monday morning, but the clouds thwarted that attempt. We all met up at 4am to hike up towards the Canteras and sit in a field for a good view of what was supposed to happen. So, what is supposed to happen is the sun comes up over the mountains and the rays come through the mountains and form this pyramid of sunlight on some fields in the valley. Well, with all the clouds, the rays had nowhere to go. So we had all been waiting around from about 5am until 7:30 when we realized it wasn't happening. Luckily, we got a second chance this morning. Marjo and I got up and out of the house a little before 6 and made it up to the spot by 6:40ish. It was a clear day and the sunrise was amazing. The pyramid of light was a bit anti-climatic though. One side of the pyramid was a bit wonky. It was still really nice.

I went with my host parents and baby Fabricio (who is bigger and bigger and cuter and cuter each day) to Shura's high school for their Father's Day celebration. The different classes either put on a skit or a traditional dance for the celebration. I was just sitting there thinking how you wouldn't catch most U.S. high school juniors and seniors out in traditional dress doing traditional dances if their lives depended on it. These kids were great though. I just love how old some of their cultures and traditions are here. Then Ana and I had dinner together and I am catching up on this.

I made some quinua and vegetable soup today. I used the chicken carcass from our baked chicken last night to make the broth. I think it turned out pretty bland but Betsy and Marjo really liked it. So I guess it wasn't all that bad. I will continue to work on that recipe at home though. I just love quinua!

Okay, I have to run to the pub quiz to coordinate where everyone is working tomorrow since the clinic in Ollanta will be bare bones. After two days of waking up before sunrise, I am beat and ready to go to bed!

I am home in my house in 10 days! Seems so strange! So much to do here before I go!

Time is flying

Luckily, Mare recovered to her old self by Saturday morning. We went up to Patacancha with a group of volunteers to get a tour and learn about the weaving project. Although I have been to Patacancha multiple times, this was the first time that I actually learned so much about the weaving project. We were able to buy some goods from the weavers and also enjoyed a watia. A watia is potatoes cooked in an earth oven. I bought myself a pretty bracelet and also claimed a belt "chumpi" being made by one of the weavers. Emma had to return to Patacancha for a tour on Monday so she said she would pick it up for me. -- Later I find out that the weaver sold it and is now making me a new one to be picked up on Saturday!

Anyway, Patacancha was beautiful and Mare and Betsy really enjoyed themselves. Betsy bought a tiny little hat for Max (they have decided on a name) and I bought a really cute, soft, baby alpaca hat for Elliot. Hopefully he will like it! After Patacancha, we came home and packed our overnight bags for a night out in Cusco.

Phil, Betsy's husband, was flying in on Sunday morning so we made a night out of the trip to Cusco. We got into town and were starving so we dropped our stuff at our hostel on the Plaza de Armas and headed to get some appetizers and a beer at an Irish pub nearby. Unfortunately, the pub was pretty crowded and we had to sit at the bar near this lone gentleman. Of course he started talking to us, and within ten minutes, we wished we could have been anywhere else. He was that stereotypical, ignorant American tourist that makes us cringe when we hear them speak. He had only flown in that day and was well on his way to being drunk. He kept getting louder and louder and saying annoying things like "let's show them how we do it in America!!". He was yelling for the bartenders and then decided to start saying "England sucks" really loudly to annoy the English girls sitting near us (because England and U.S. tied in their world cup game). Then he started railing on how bad English food was -- we were a little perplexed as it isn't like American food is known for its culinary genius!! -- needless to say, we finished our food and drinks and hightailed it out of there. At one point, he said, I was supposed to be meeting my friends here but they haven't shown up. We were not surprised!

So we headed back to shower and although the water pressure was minimal, at least the water was warm for the first time in two weeks for me! Yes, our shower is still broken. I have gotten used to the cold showers though. Anyway, we then went to dinner at this great little restaurant that Hallie introduced us to. The woman who owns it is French. The food is great. From there, we had some cocktails at a bar while waiting for the dance clubs to get going. We wanted to go to Mama Afrika but there was a reggae band playing, so we went in search of Roots. That was closed due to renovations, so we ended up at Mythologie. Betsy had gone home to bed so it was Mare and I dancing the night away just like old times. Yes, we did end up on the bar for at least three songs. At one point, Mare turned to me and said "are we too old to dance on the bar?" We both quickly smiled and shook our heads, "NO!" so up we went. I ran into one of the doctors and a nurse from the clinic!

we had a great time dancing. We left when the DJ started playing songs for a second time. Unfortunately, with our hostel on the Plaza, we were awoken at 7am to the sound of marching bands and fireworks. We walked down to the big open market so Mare could buy some gifts and then we went to get Phil at the airport. His flight was a bit delayed. We made it back to Ollanta around 2pm, ate some lunch and then Mare and I went home to relax and rest while Phil and Betsy got situated in their hostel.

Monday was a regular day. I worked in the clinic, worked on administrative stuff and then had a couple meetings. I have a really good group of volunteers right now. They are all very enthusiastic. My replacement arrives tomorrow. I have been sick since this afternoon, so I will probably just have to meet with her and give her an orientation on Thursday since I am still pretty weak and tired. I think I will need another day in bed. I am pretty positive I have the flu. Fever, chills, achy all over and horrible headache. The majority of patients coming through the Posta these past two weeks have had the flu. I am sure I picked it up there.

We've been having transportation strikes lately and so because there are most likely going to be strikes on Thursday and Friday (the road to Urubamba and Cusco will be closed) and Phil's flight is on Friday, he and Betsy are going to have to go to Cusco tomorrow to be safe. Phil, Bets and Mare went to Macchu Picchu today. I am anxious to hear how it was.

So now I am going back to bed. This is the longest I've been up since 12pm. The problem with being sick here is that there are no comfy couches to lounge on and watch tv. Heck, there are no televisions. So I was just bored hanging in my bed, dozing on and off. I just want to be healthy for when I come home.

Mare and Bets are here!

Hello again, everyone. Sorry I have been a bit lax about writing lately. I see that I left off last Tuesday so I will pick up from there. The pub quiz went well. There was a group of students from the University of Wisconsin in town so they joined in for the quiz and we all had a good time. Wednesday night's bonfire was probably our best one yet. The weather was perfect for a fire. We all just sat around and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and drank mulled wine or spiked hot chocolate. Thursday was a sad day because we had to say goodbye to Hallie, but luckily she had to leave in a rush from lunch to get to the airport so we did not have time for lingering goodbyes. I know I will see her again soon, so I am not dwelling on how much I miss having her around.

I had another meeting with Ariana, the woman who runs the nonprofit, Threads of Peru. We met to discuss our next steps for working on the nutrition project up in two extremely rural communities. As Ariana is over 8 months pregnant and I am leaving in less than a month, we are just going to try to get the planning in place and then move forward when I return next year. It actually was so hard to sit there and talk about this project as it is exactly what I had always wanted to work on when I was working on my MPH. It needs epidemiology, program planning, implementation, program evaluation, everything! I would love to just take this project and run with it, but I have to come home and earn some money as I am quickly running out!

I woke up in the middle of the night on Thursday not feeling well (typical stomach issues) so was dragging a bit at the clinic in the morning while serving breakfast and working triage. I left and spent most of Friday in bed trying to sleep off the stomach pains. I tried to eat a bland dinner on Friday night and go to bed early, but spent most of the night making trips down to the bathroom. After sleeping in on Saturday, I felt much better and was able to hang out with some friends. I find that if I just stop eating as soon as the stomach troubles start, they pass pretty quickly. So I nibbled on crackers and gatorade all day and was able to eat some quinoa soup on Saturday night. By Sunday, I was right as rain!

On Sunday, I was invited to Ana's sister's 20th birthday lunch at Ana's parents' house. (wow, there were a lot of apostrophes in that sentence!) I went expecting to have cuy as that is the typical birthday and special occasion food. Ana's mom is known in town for her good chicha. I do not like chicha, but it always cracks me up to walk around town or to be driving through towns and see these big long sticks with red plastic wrapped around the top so that it looks like a flower. That signals to outsiders that this is a house where chicha is sold.

Anyway, instead of cuy, I was in for a treat...a pachamanca! A pachamanca is basically food cooked in an earth oven. They heat all these rocks and dig a big hole in the ground. they then put the meat, chicken, pork or whatever on the rocks along with potatoes, sweet potatoes, beans, and other goodies. It is covered in the rocks and paper and then with dirt. It cooks in its little mound for about an hour. Then you dig it all up and eat it. It is soooo tasty. We all sat around the table just digging into our chicken, beef and pork with our hands. It was a vegetarian's nightmare! The potatoes here are just so good.

So then, there was the finals of the bull fights from last week because it got too dark to finish them last Sunday. I had a pretty chill night and went to bed all excited because I was going to pick Betsy and Mary Ellen up at the airport in Cusco in the morning!

I had to take two new volunteers down the clinic on Monday morning and then I was off to Cusco. Their flight from Lima was on time and they were waiting for me when I got there. We had a typical loud and boisterous reunion before heading back to the collectivo area to catch a combi back to Ollanta.

Mare and Betsy are in constant awe of the beauty here. They also just love how peaceful and laid back it is. This is good for Mare as sometimes she needs to be reminded to slow down! In her first two days here, she has already hiked to all of the ruins in the local area and walked to the neighboring town. The girl is a ball of energy. Unfortunately, she is lying in her bed in her hostel right now stricken with stomach problems. Hopefully they will pass by tomorrow and she will be ready to keep exploring.

They were in for a treat as Monday afternoon was the baptism of my host-nephew, Mauro. The tradition here is that little boys do not get their hair cut until their baptism. The godparents are the first to cut the hair and make a donation to the kid's future. Then everyone else is allowed to donate some money and cut some hair. The baptism itself was pretty typical of a Catholic baptism. Mauro looked adorable in his little suit (he is 5 years old). Then we all headed back to one of Ana's other sister's houses for the after party. This is the reason Mauro was 5 when he had his baptism. These parties are huge so the parents need to have saved a lot of money to fund it.

We all sat around while we were served small glasses of wine, pisco sour, chicha, and beers. Mare and Betsy were amazed at all of the alcohol they ply you with. Then the food arrived! The plates were massive! Such good food. We were actually going to leave because Betsy (who is 5 months pregnant) was tired, but we were convinced to stay just a bit longer as the hair cutting ceremony was about to start. So the godfather went first and donated 800 soles to Mauro's future and made the first cut. Mauro has very long hair as he hasn't had it cut since he was born. The godparents here are looked at in the traditional role of being the guardians of the godchild if anything were to happen to the parents. I had my turn and gave some money and cut his hair.

Betsy was besieged by children who wanted to take photos and see photos. After being given yet another beer, we were finally able to escape back home. It was neat that Bets and Mare were able to experience this on their first day here.

Mare has started walking in the mornings with me now that Hallie is gone. Although, with her being ill, we didn't walk today. I had to go to the clinic early yesterday and today for a vaccination campaign at the high school. However, this being Peru, we never ended up going yesterday (we were supposed to go at 8am and at 12pm, they finally told us it would be 8am tomorrow). 8am today came and went and finally at 10am, they left. I had to meet a new volunteer at 10am so I couldn't go. Supposedly we are going to do some sex education at the high school tomorrow. I will just see if it happens. Lord knows they need sex ed here with all these teenage pregnancies. Yesterday, Megan and I worked triage together. Megan and Kelly are sisters from Indianapolis so Megan and I were talking about all of our favorite restaurants. It made me excited to go home and eat good food!

I am three weeks away from my departure date. I can't believe my time here is coming to an end. It just doesn't seem real or right for that matter. I feel like I have a purpose here and I just worry about transitioning back home again. I am excited about seeing my family and friends again though.

I leave in exactly 1 month!! Sadness!

So I have hit my one month left mark. I can't believe these last 4 months have gone by so quickly. This next month is going to fly by since both Betsy and Mare will be here for most of it. I am soooo excited for their arrival. I have been figuring out fun but inexpensive things for us to do in the area. They arrive on Monday!!!

So Sunday marked "El Octavo" or the 8th and final day of the festival. Everything ended with the bull fights. I don't mean the kind of bull fight with matadors, either. These are literally bulls fighting bulls. There were about 20 gigantic bulls that would fight until one would run away. The only problem with this is that the townsfolk gather down on the field in a big circle around the fighting bulls, so that when one decides to run away, it runs right into the crowd. Then you have screaming and running people everywhere. From the safety of the ground above the field, I watched in amusement as people scattered. No one was hurt, don't worry. So it actually was pretty fun, watching the bulls and placing bets on who would win. I just stood around with Celestino and had a couple beers and cheered on the bulls that I liked.

Afterwards, a group of us hung out at our friends' house. I am very lucky that such a large group of us arrived at the same time towards the end of Jan/early Feb. We have all just had such a great time over the last 4 months. I will really miss these people when I leave. I am happy to know that Emma and Annie will still be in Ollanta when I return, but everyone else will have gone on their own ways. Luckily, I can easily visit Hallie up in Ann Arbor while she is in law school. I think I will see Will and Jess in August when they are in Michigan for a wedding. Sorry, Mom, but the invitations to Thanksgiving at the Peaper's this fall are growing!!

Anyway, the town is finally back to normal after all of the festivities. Hallie and Hayden leave on Thursday. I actually have to go to Cusco for a meeting on Thursday so I will accompany them and we will grab some food before they head to the airport. It really doesn't seem real that Hallie is leaving. All good things must come to an end.

Tonight, Rachel and I are the quiz masters for the pub quiz. We have some good topics so hopefully everyone will enjoy themselves. We on purpose barely used a computer so at least one person on each team should know the answers to our questions. I always hate it when the questions are so out there that they make you feel extremely stupid!!

Okay, we have pub quiz tonight, bonfire at the house (this is when having an open floor plan and upstairs patio comes in handy) tomorrow night for Hallie and Hayden's going away, movie night Thursday, and pizza party on Saturday to welcome the 4 volunteers who arrive on Friday. We definitely keep ourselves a busy social calendar!

On a side note, our electric shower is broken so for the past three days I have had absolutely freezing cold showers. Please think of me as you stand under your warm, high pressure showers. My hands have still not warmed back up since my shower and washing my clothes this morning! There are definitely some things that I really look forward to having again upon my return to the States!

Survived the Fiesta!

This past weekend and into the week have been really great. I had an awesome day at the clinic on Friday. I was working in the reception and triage area until a man came in and said he needed stitches. I wanted to get in on that action, so into the Topico room I went. There is a med student from U. of Minnesota here named John. He did the stitches. This man, I learned as I chatted to him while everyone was getting the sutures and stuff prepared, was cutting alfalfa in his fields and sliced a huge flap of his pinkie finger off. He then proceeded to RUN down to Ollanta from his field. It took him 3 hours!!! Can you imagine??? And he still was in a really talkative and good mood.

So stitching up his finger was a bit of a mess as he really had done a doozy on it. You could see tendon and bone. John did a great job. I had to maneuver myself around the man to hold a flashlight on the wound as the lighting in the Topico room is really bad. However, we got him all stitched up and made a splint for his finger. He was great. Immediately after we finished with him, a man (who was mute) came in with a nasty dog bite that had occurred on Wednesday but this was the first that he sought out medical care. We cleaned his wounds. Here, they use the white of an egg as a sealant for wounds. it actually works really well. However, we cleaned him up and his leg was really swollen due to infection. We got him some new bandages and antibiotics and sent him on his way.

The rest of the morning passed quickly as I was running the reception and triage by myself. I am proud at how good I have gotten with taking blood pressures here. The stethoscope sucks so that makes it hard and the people here have extremely low blood pressure so you will be listening for the first heartbeat sound and as it gets lower and lower, you think you have screwed it up, but lo and behold, you get your first *thump* around 80. Crazy!

Anyway, we took it easy on Friday knowing that Saturday was the beginning of the festival. Saturday was a bit low-key. We started drinking with lunch and then went out to the plaza to watch the procession of Senor de Choquekillka. All of the dance troupes were out there and everyone did a short dance. The costumes and music and dances are amazing. I took some pictures until it got too dark. We stayed out on the plaza all night just drinking and dancing and watching the dances.

I think I was still drunk on Sunday morning when I got up! I retrieved the Jello shots I had made and refrigerated at Ana and Celestino's. Then we started our mimosa power hour. That power hour was my downfall. We spent the rest of the morning wandering around town, watching the dances. Sunday was one of the biggest days of the fiesta. At lunch, we went to the cargo of the Copaq Negro dancers. A cargo is a private party.

Each dance group (remember, there are about 16) has a family that puts on the cargo for the year. Hosting a cargo is a massive feat. You pretty much feed all of the dancers and their friends and families all three meals for the 4 days as well as provide all of the beer. Here, a good cargo will set a family back $5000!!! For people who average a monthly income of $300 to $500, this is huge. But they all happily do this when it is their turn. So, we brought two crates of beer as our cargo-warming present and enjoyed lunch and the festivities with the Copaq Negros. The President of Awamaki Peru, Miguel, was the leader of this dance group. Also, our friends Raul and Porfi were dancers so it made sense for us to hang with them the whole time.

Hallie and I also got invited to the cargo of my host dad Celestino. So off we went to another party. Celestino was in "Los Majenos" dance group. They are really funny and are the drunks of the dances. They dress like cowboys (Peruvian cowboys) and carry bottles of beer around. At one point during the dance, they shake up the beer and open it onto the crowd. They are big crowd pleasers. The Copaq Negros tell the story of the slaves who worked for the Incans. All of the dances have masks so it is a bit unnerving to be walking around town with people talking to you and making comments but not knowing who they are due to the masks.

We danced from the Majenos cargo into the plaza with them. One of my friends got it on video. We were asked to dance with that group next year. They have 2 or 3 women who dance with them so that will be fun. Also, I will be living with Ana and Celestino again when I return next year and they are hosting the cargo so it will be a 4 day party at our house. I might as well be as much in the middle of it as I can.

Monday was a day of rest for me. I stayed out way too late on Sunday and never really stopped drinking or dancing so I needed a break. Hallie and I just took it easy. We watched some dances and ate a big salad then I was in bed early. Tuesday was the biggest day of the festival. It started with the dedication of the recently rebuilt chapel down by the river. There was a huge mass. Everyone went home for lunch and then back to the river for dancing and fireworks. There is this tradition where they hang a corn cob on a rope and all these people ride their horses under it and try to grab it. If you get it, you win some booze.

One of the scariest things about this fiesta is the fireworks. There are definitely no safety standards here as we all are standing within 25 feet of a man-made wooden structure with tons of fireworks set up all over it. You have to see it to realize just how crazy dangerous it is. One of my friends got some good photos of it.

Then we danced with the Copaq Negros up from the river and into town. We were wearing their hats and actually were videotaped by some tourist show in Bolivia. So I am on Bolivian tv somewhere! Then it was just more dancing and drinking into the night. I am sad that the festival is over. It really brings the town together.

I am happy that I will be here next year for it too. So now it is back to the grind. I have some volunteers coming (actually 2 are sisters from Indianapolis) within the next week and a half so I am busy organizing things for them. Hallie leaves one week from today. Crazy how time is flying. If you ever have a chance to visit Peru in May, make sure you enjoy at least a couple days of this festival in Ollantaytambo. It gets crazy but it is so neat to see the culture.

More Beautiful Days in Ollanta

Wow! I think this is the longest I have been without writing a blog post. Lots of things are happening everyday, but not many that are exciting to write about. My days are blending into one another. I wake up at 6:30am (except on Tuesdays when we get up at 6am to buy fruit from the fruit truck from the jungle). Then Hallie and I head out for our morning semi-hike. We walk the first (and hardest) hill of the Canteras hike. It takes about 40 minutes from our door to the top of the hill. Then we turn around and hike back down for the next 20 or so minutes. On Mondays and Wednesdays we do lunges across the bridge and on Tuesdays and Thursdays we do jump squats. Today we actually had 5 more walkers with us. The last two days we've had the company of Loba (translates to female wolf) on our walks. Loba was Hallie's host dog, she is a husky mix if you didn't figure it out by the name.

We get home and shower and eat breakfast and then begin our work days. I have been escorting new volunteers to the different clinics and introducing them around. I just organized the start of our "intercambio" with the clinic staff. We have paired up 15 of the Posta staff with our volunteers to start language intercambios. We will teach them English and they will help with our Spanish or Quechua. Everyone seems really excited about it and it will be a great relationship builder with the Posta staff.

Hallie and I make lunch and then get back to work. I generally spend my afternoons working on the computer or running meetings of some sort. It really is a lot of work trying to get this up and going. I know Keri, Ben and Annie don't feel very involved from the States, but I try to keep them updated by writing up minutes and emailing out summaries of the week. Hopefully the website and donation page will be up and running in full power soon.

Hallie and I joke about little slogans to use when asking for donations. We can get 7 bananas for 1 sol, which is about 33 cents. So we were saying that for the price of one Value Meal at a fast food restaurant, you could feed one child a banana a day for 3 straight months! Intense when you think about it. 90 bananas for $4.50.

We still enjoy our pub quiz nights and movie nights. The Public Health classes continue to be a big hit at the telecentro's after-school program. This week Audra and Kelsey will be teaching about the dangers of smoking.

I am actually excited about just hanging in Ollanta for the next month and a half before I leave. I have no plans to travel anymore. When Betsy and Mare come, we are just going to stay local with our adventures. There is plenty to do and see around Cusco, Ollanta, Urubamba and Pisaq. I am taking on 3 of the intercambios myself so hopefully I will also gain some good new words in Quechua and Spanish. I need to be here for the weekends to meet with the people.

So I am just rambling now, but I think you get the point. Life is good. Steady and routine. Today was absolutely breathtaking on our walk. We got to the top of the hill and for the first time in 3 and a half months, we saw the mountain named Veronica (the patron mountain of the Sacred Valley) in her full glory. There were no clouds, you could see the snow/glacier on the top in detail. It really was beautiful. I wish I had my camera.

Okay, hope all is well wherever you are. We have started the party planning for this weekend. As if there isn't going to be enough to see, do and drink without the extra games and events we are planning. The Fiesta starts on Saturday afternoon. We have to buy our crates of beer now because they run out in town. Nick's host dad said that the town will go through 3000 crates (12 1.5 liter bottles per crate) over the four days!!!! Ridiculous! They say that per capita, the adults drink 4 crates each. I am going to make some jello-shots and Hallie has some games planned along with a mimosa power hour on Sunday morning. We'll see how that goes. It may get ugly! Wish me luck!

Time is flying

Now that I am stepping into the full-time health coordinator role, time is flying by. I have 7 volunteers here that I am trying to keep organized and busy. I have 8 more coming in within the next six weeks. I had three and half hours of meetings today! I felt like I was back at the VA, bouncing from meeting to meeting!

Life isn't overly exciting, it is just busy. We had a bit of a rough end to our week last week. The Cinco de Mayo party went amazingly. Everyone enjoyed the taco bar and we played some Peruvian drinking games before going over to Porfi's bar and drinking margaritas. I spent more time behind the bar making margaritas than I actually spent drinking. Which was a good thing for both my wallet and my head!

My trip to Cusco went well on Thursday. I ran around like a crazy woman for 5 hours trying to get everything on my list and meet with the woman named Ariana who runs another NGO down here. The problem with going to Cusco is that everyone asks you to buy them things that we cannot get (or are outrageously expensive) in Ollanta. I had to buy a cutting board for Annie, marshmallows for Marjo, pain killers for Nick, saline solution for Ben, etc.

My meeting with Ariana was great. She is coming into Ollanta on Wednesday to sit down with myself and Kennedy to try to determine how Awamaki can get involved in her nutrition project in some really, really remote communities. Her communities make our Patacancha look like a metropolis. And believe me, I couldn't handle more than a week in Patacancha at the most. I can only imagine what these communities are like. So we will see how involved I get with her work.

However, on Thursday evening, after I got home from Cusco, I found out that our friends' kittens were dying. The mother cat had rejected the kittens about a week and a half ago but they were taking milk and some food. I guess they just started going downhill fast and by Thursday night, three of the 4 kittens (only 4 weeks old) had died. We set up a rotation of holding and syringe feeding but it did not do any good. They were just too little and weak. One kitten held on until about 4am on Saturday morning, but he too just couldn't make it. They were covered in fleas, had worms and were just so emaciated. It was one of the most heartbreaking things I have ever had to see. It was a relief in many ways when the final kitten died. We were all exhausted, both tired from caring for them as well as emotionally drained.

I could not go to Patacancha for the tour on Saturday as I had a horrible lactose intolerance episode due to the immense about of milk and butter that we used to cook our chicken pot pies on Friday night. I should have known better. I have avoided the milk here for 3 months and now I know that I need to keep avoiding it! So I had a lazy morning and then we started the preparations for Ben's potluck dinner. The dinner was awesome. Pretty much everyone brought a dish of some sort. I was really impressed. We had a relatively quiet night though.

Ben, Hallie and I went to a town called Pisaq, about and hour and a half from Ollanta, on Sunday to go to these huge craft markets. Ben wanted to buy some gifts for his family before he left. They have these hysterical looking hats that are perfect for gardening. I am definitely going back to get one for myself. Hallie took a couple of photos. I will have to post it. When we came back, Hallie and I baked about 7 dozen oatmeal chocolate chip cookies to give as gifts to our old host moms for mother's day. Of course, we had to give some to the volunteers who were hanging around the kitchen, some to Ben for his flights home, and to Will and Jess for their anniversary.

I then went to visit Ana and give her the cookies. She and Celestino chastised me for not visiting last week. I promised to go over for lunch on Friday of this week. The baby is just getting bigger and bigger each week. He has doubled in size since he was born (only a month ago). Such a little cutie. He just stares right up at you. He has the silkiest black hair.

So now I am just trying to get ahead of myself with all of these new volunteers. It is nice to be busy and feel like I am doing good. Exciting!

Day 3 of the Juice Diet and still going strong

So Hallie and I have been doing a strict fruit juice and fruit diet for the past 3 days. We have been dealing with the usual stomach issues lately, nothing I will write about here, but thought that a proper flushing of the system and starting anew would do us good. We go to the juice ladies for breakfast and lunch and then have snacked on bananas or apples or whatever we have during the afternoon. For dinner, we have made homemade applesauce. Our juices in the morning and for lunch consist of combinations of pineapple, orange, apple, papaya, banana, carrot and cucumber. So actually, as my friend Will says, we need to say we are on a fruit and carrot and cucumber diet to be totally truthful!

It seems to be doing the trick. We were torturing ourselves last night as we were searching out recipes we could cook here for our cinco de mayo party tomorrow night. I was staring at a picture of bean dip and wished it was in front of me right at that moment. However, only one more meal to go of fruit and we are back on to regular foods tomorrow! We will be easing back into food so we don't hurt our stomachs worse, but we are looking forward to the tacos and stuff we will be making for the party.

It is ridiculous how beautiful the mountains are right now. I thought the mountains were gorgeous during the rainy season, however, now that it is clear and sunny every day, it is amazing. I just walk around town with a big grin on my face as I look around me. It is getting really cold in the morning and night though. Winter is definitely coming. The other day I was out on the patio, reading in my bikini top and sweating but by 5pm, I had on 3 layers and was shivering! Talk about temperature swings!

All is good in the clinic. We have so many volunteers right now that I am creating a rotation schedule to get 2 volunteers out to each of the satellite clinics beginning next week. We are also trying to prep and start laying the groundwork for more community health projects. We need help with physical education at the middle/high school so if anyone wants to come and volunteer, we would love to have you. The PE teacher got injured playing soccer and if we don't cover the classes, then the kids will just have 90 minutes free at that time. Unfortunately, the Director of the school wants all or nothing and so he would prefer us to be there the 6 hours a day teaching or not there at all. It is going to be hard for us to cover this with our manpower as the classes are 40-45 kids and I don't feel comfortable putting one volunteer in charge of them all. We will see what we can do. The difficult thing is that they just don't have the equipment that we do so you are a little limited. Creativity is key!!

Everyone is starting to get really excited about the upcoming festival at the end of May. This is the biggest festival of the year...4 days of dancing and drinking!! The town shuts down and people come from all over the country to celebrate. There are 16 traditional dances that continuously run throughout the 4 days. Some days they go from 8pm to 5am, others are through the day. It is going to be so much fun. We know lots of men and women who are dancing. The main plaza is being redone so the workers are racing against the clock to get it all finished by Pentacostas (the festival).

So, my social calendar is filling up this week: tonight is pub quiz night, tomorrow is cinco de mayo party at Porfi's bar (he is putting tequila and corona on special), Friday a group of us are going up to Patacancha for the day to meet all of the weavers and see how they make their beautiful items and then we will have a lunch cooked in an underground earth oven. Saturday night is Ben's potluck dinner/going away party. It will consist of volunteers and health clinic staff. On Thursday I have to go to Cusco to meet with a woman who runs a different textile non-profit to see what help I can be with her nutrition program they are trying to start. Life is good but very busy!!

Hope all is well with everyone reading this! I am down to less than two months left -- sadness! So much to do and so little time.

Feliz Dia de los Trabajadores (Labor Day)

So today is labor day as well as the anniversary of the town of San Isidro, a little town just off of Ollanta. There has been a fiesta all day, but Hallie and I decided to go on a hike to some ruins called Pumamarca. We had a going-away party for a volunteer last night so hanging out at a fiesta all day did not sound good to me. We were out quite late last night and alcohol was the last thing on my mind.

So after having a nice sleep-in, I got up and had some breakfast. Then I aired out my sheets and sprayed the crap out of them with flea killer along with my mattress and blankets. I am covered in bites again. I've been back home here for a week and a half and I probably have 50 bites on my legs, stomach and back. I have two on my neck and a few on my arms. However, we are pretty sure that these are not fleas. There are wood mites that live in our beds and in our wood floors and stuff. These are the culprits, we believe. I have some B-complex vitamins that supposedly will make me stinky to bugs. I am going to start back up on those. We'll see. I woke myself up in the middle of the night scratching my bites. They itch like crazy!!

Anyway, Hallie and I began our hike around 2pm. It takes about an hour and 45 minutes to get to the ruins. The scenery was beautiful, of course, and these ruins were really big (as in tall) compared to many of the other ruins around here. We then had to find our way down to the town to meet up with the road that we were to follow back to Ollanta. We successfully navigated through fields and past farm animals to the road. When we started the walk back, we passed a woman and her two small children. The woman got up and asked if they could walk back with us.

She had a 7 year old son and a 4 year old daughter. The kids were adorable. However, the woman immediately started telling Hallie and I how her husband was a drunk and hit her and made the kids cry all the time. That he had sent her up to work on their fields and took all their money. She was heading down to Ollanta to stay with her sister and to get away from her husband. Well, at this point, Hallie and I were just kind of like, what the heck is going on? Was she looking for money? Did she just want someone to talk to? She smelled a bit like alcohol so we think she had been drinking as well.

Anyway, on the road down, we encounter her husband. He has obviously been drinking. It all becomes clear that the woman just wanted to walk with us so that we could keep her husband from doing anything. So he starts trying to hold the kids' hands and she keeps pulling them away and coming over near us. He is trying to get us to walk past them but she speeds up so she is always ahead or with us. At one point, the man starts grabbing her arm and pulling her aside and she starts yelling and the little girl starts crying. Hallie and I start shouting "Senor! Senor! Por favor, no ahorita!". We get him to stop grabbing at her. Then a taxi comes and the mom and kids get in and that leaves us walking down the road with the dad. Then the taxi stops and he gets in too and we heaved a sigh of relief. When they were fighting, we just tried to keep the kids occupied so they would not be so upset.

Everyone talks about how bad the domestic violence is here, especially when the men drink, but this is the first time we have seen it in our face. I have seen some women at the clinic who say they fell, but we all knew that was a lie. However, I was fully prepared to have to step in today if it was necessary. Especially since the children were there. Needless to say, Hallie and I were a little shaken up by the scene.

So we got home and took showers and went to our weekly pizza party. The pizza parties are weekly now as there seems to be one or two volunteers arriving each week. The new volunteer will be working in the health clinic as well. We are exhausted from the night before and from the hike, so we are just reading and going to bed early. Hopefully the neighbors next door who sell firewood will be taking the morning off from chopping wood. We wake up at 6am to the sound of "thunk, thunk, thunk" every day as they begin chopping wood. It could be worse! It could be metal clanging or horns or something. One of the volunteers is renting a room from a hostel and the hostel owner has parakeets. The birds wake her up each morning by saying "como te llamas, como te llamas" or "hola, como estas" repeatedly. That definitely is worse!

Awamaki Wins Global Giving Challenge!

The biggest news of the week so far is that Awamaki came in first for # of unique donors in the Global Giving challenge and 4th overall out of 150 projects for most money raised in one month. The Global Giving challenge began a month ago and we hoped to raise at least $4000 to fund part of the trip to the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market. The total cost of the trip will be around $10,000 to send the two Quechua weavers, a Quechua/Spanish translator (the Peruvian director, Miguel), and 2 Spanish/English speakers (our two directors, Kennedy and Emma). This trip is extremely important to the weavers of the community because this will allow them to get their textiles out to an international market and will secure an income for the women.

Anyway, the challenge rewards the project with the most unique donors as well as the project that raises the most money. We ended up getting #1 for the donors and earned a $3000 bonus for this. Then, because we came in 4th overall, we earned another $2000 in bonuses. So overall, in one month, Awamaki raised just under $16,000!! This is more money than we had in our bank account when this started. So we pretty much doubled our reserves. You donors are amazing!! We ended up with 378 donors! The money will fully fund the Santa Fe trip as well as go towards a 4x4 truck to help Awamaki expand to other mountain communities as well as towards a generator for the health clinic.

Of course, this is what I am extremely excited about since after watching a woman give birth by flashlight, a generator is so needed. This also means we won't be wasting vaccines every time we lose power. It is awesome. Last night we had a pizza and ice cream party to celebrate before our pub quiz.

Hallie and I went into Cusco yesterday to run errands and buy necessities for Awamaki. Our day started at 6am when we got up and went to buy fruit from the weekly fruit truck. There is fruit in the market every day, but on Tuesdays, the fruit truck has a better selection and is cheaper. We bought probably 30 bananas, 2 kilos of apples, a large pineapple, 20 limes, 6 mandarins, and a papaya for about $5. So fresh and so cheap!

We made our way to Cusco around 10am and it was one of those days where all of the outside forces were trying to work against us but we managed to succeed and check everything off our list. Whereas we had originally thought we would be back by 3pm, we didn't get home until 7! We were up against the worst of Peruvian inefficiency all day, but we survived.

My normal mornings begin at 6:30am with an hour and 15 minute round trip walk/hike up in the mountains with Hallie and Caylin. We always run into this family of 4 kids who are coming down the mountain from their house on their way to school. They are adorable and like to walk with us. They pretty much run down the mountain for an hour in the morning so I can only imagine how long it takes them to get home in the afternoon. I am trying to make sure I stay in good shape since we cook such great food in the house. Hallie and I made a complete menu for the week this week. Some of the goodies included taco night, lentil stew, sweet potato gnocchi, tuna and apple salad, just to name a few. It is absolutely mind boggling how many amazing dishes we can cook here with such basic amenities. we have no fridge, no microwave, no hot water. We are lucky that we have an oven. We splurged for that. Otherwise it would have been just the gas burner. Yet we have the freshest foods -- all organic. I bet my cholesterol has gone down a ton!

Okay, I am tired and have to go to bed to get a good rest before tomorrow's walk. I am having lunch at my old host family's house tomorrow. Fabricio is gigantic! I swear for a one month old, he is the size of a 3 month old! He is so cute with these huge chubby cheeks. Ana is going to take my measurements tomorrow for Brandi's bridesmaid dress. I will have to convert the centimeters to inches.

Tomorrow night is movie night at the pub. We had a really fun pub quiz last night but my team was robbed of the win by 2 points. It was hotly contested but the judge ruled against us! We really have a lot of fun here.

Photos FINALLY uploaded!

Okay, so after two days and countless hours of wasted time when uploads failed, I finally got the beach photos up! I even added captions this time so I hope those are available as well. If not, I can email you the Picasa web album. Just let me know.

We had a going-away party for Elio, the Intern at the clinic, yesterday. We played a gamed of soccer and then went back to our house for drinking games. We learned some new, fun Peruvian drinking games. Then we went on the search for a bar to go dancing in but Porfi's was already closed and the disco was closed as well. So we ended up at this bar near the plaza. It was a really fun night. I am pretty sure that everyone, both the volunteers and the clinic staff had a great time. Elio will be missed. He may be slow when seeing patients, but he has a huge heart and is a lot of fun.

Enjoy the pics!

Back Home Again in Ollanta!

As much as I love the beach, I was very happy to fly into Cusco and land in between the beautiful green mountains. My friend Porfi met me at the airport so it was great to see a familiar face when I got off the plane. He had to stay in Cusco for work things, but we shared a taxi over to the combi/taxi area for rides to Ollanta. I got home to the volunteer house around 12:30pm. I was quite impressed that my flight was actually on time. That has never happened here before. Keri and I did not want to draw out a goodbye so she went running when I headed down to my taxi. Her flight was later in the day than mine. Luckily, we know we will be seeing each other again soon. I will probably make a trip out to Rochester to visit her and we have plans for her to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family this year!

I love living in the volunteer house. We cook great food (and chocolate chip cookies) and just hang out and talk a lot. I share a room with Hallie and then Marjo and Ben have their own rooms. Will and Jessica come over quite often so our little crew has been reunited. We miss Keri and Michelle, but we are all happy to be hanging out together again. There are lots of new volunteers arriving every week. Some are really cool and others just need to break out of their shells.

I have settled into my room and already gotten into the swing of going to the market every day to buy food to cook. As there are no refrigerators here, we have to buy our food and cook it daily. We also go to the fresh juice lady and get juices every morning. Yesterday, Hallie, Marjo and I shared two pitchers of mixed juice that had carrots, papaya, pineapple, apple and oranges in it. All for just 75 cents each! Amazing!

We had movie night at the pub last night. And tonight we are having a going away party for Elio, the intern at the health clinic. We are playing soccer against the clinic staff and then going out drinking and dancing. We just had a big lunch for him a the clinic. It is just so nice to be back. Everyone keeps commenting on my tan. Hallie's old host dad said to me, "You have changed color completely!". My taxi driver in Lima told me that he thought I was Latina. It cracks me up because here, they do not want to be dark and yet we go and lay out as much as we can.

Today was the anniversary of one of the kindergardens (el jardin) in town so the kids all dressed up in traditional clothes and danced traditional dances. It was the cutest thing I have seen in a long time. I took lots of pictures. I just wanted to squeeze them. You know how it is, 4 and 5 year olds really do not understand or remember all of the moves so you have some that are good and are dancing and others that are just kind of watching and others that are just running around. One of the dances involved the boys pretending to fight and fall down and the girls come and grab them by the collar and pull them away. It was so cute!

Okay, I'm going to try to upload my photos now so check back soon for a new and improved slideshow!

Cruz Del Sur Buses Rock!

So I am on the overnight bus to Lima as I type this. How great are these buses? We just ate a really good dinner, have watched 2 movies and now I am using the internet. I love it! Only about 13 more hours to go.

Our evening in Guyaquil ended deliciously with an amazing dinner at the restaurant Blu. It is one of the Zeller's favorite restaurants and I can understand why. We all had a starter, mine was beef carpaccio and then I had the sesame crusted tuna steak. It was amazing. The family then went with us to the bus station and Vincent wanted to make sure we were safe and got on the bus okay so they hung out with us in the waiting area. I think Vincent enjoyed it more than anyone as he had never spent time in the bus station. He quickly came to the same realization that we had the day before, this is an awesome bus station! So we said our goodbyes (which were hard to say as in just 24 hours, we had really become attached to this family) and then boarded our bus.

The bus was comfortable but we really didn't sleep as we left Guayaquil around midnight, then made it to the Ecuador border at 4am. It took another 20 or so minutes to get through the Peruvian immigration and then it was only 2 hours to Punta Sal. Keri and I still managed to have a grand time on the bus. We had this man sitting in front of us that we called "Smiles" because all he did was stare at us and smile. It is a little unnerving to look up and see a man just grinning at you through the crack between the seats. Imagine doing that about once every 20 minutes or so.

So we were supposed to be dropped off at Punta Sal. Around 6:15am, I asked the stewardess lady when we would be arriving in Punta Sal and she said in 10 minutes. So Keri and I got our stuff together. We were looking out the window and realized that we were coming into Mancora which is 30 minutes past Punta Sal. They had completely passed our stop. So the people on the bus rallied for us and ran up to tell the bus driver to stop. We were a little pissed because now we had to pay 20 soles to get a taxi from Mancora to Punta Sal. Unfortunately, there are no taxis to Punta Sal at 6:30am so we ended up taking a moto-taxi all the way there. It was hysterical. When I upload my photos, you will see. It took about 45 minutes and it is a bit scary when the huge tour buses go speeding past you, but we had a great time. It was so beautiful to be cruising along as the sun was going up and the wind in your face.

We got to our hotel, Caballito de Mar (which means Seahorse) around 7:15am and had to sit by the pool until Reception opened at 8am to get a room. It was a happy homecoming for us as we had gotten to know so many of the workers the week that we stayed at our beach house down the road. There were lots of hugs and kisses all around. We had breakfast, got our rooms (you pay the same price regardless if you share or not so we got separate rooms) and showered before heading down to the pool.

We spent the day by the pool and down at the beach. We had some fruity cocktails and hung out with our friend Gian. He has a break at 4:30 so we all went down to the beach to do some fishing. The kitchen manager cook is this portly older gentleman and when he was trying to fish, he got hit by a big wave that knocked him down and after rolling around in the surf, he managed to right himself, only to find three hooks from the lure attached to his shorts in the most unopportune spot. I will let you figure that one out. We were all dying with laughter, he was too. We didn't have much luck so we just hung out until Gian had to go back to work.

A family from Massachusetts checked in later in the afternoon so we all sat around the bar talking until it was dinner time. Keri and I had our favorite seafood dish and shared a bottle of wine. We were pretty beat since we didn't sleep much the night before so we went to bed. It was really hot though so it was a bit hard to sleep.

This morning, we just hung out by the pool, went into town to print out our bus vouchers at the only internet place and then came back to shower and head to Mancora to catch the bus. It was a sad, sad goodbye. Our taxi driver friend, Nito, took us into Mancora. He had a thing for Keri and we were both a little tickled yet also weirded out when he took a hair of Keri's that had transferred to him during one of his huge hugs to her and put it in his wallet to save. Strange, huh? Gian came with us to Mancora to say goodbye. He has the whole month of June off for vacation so we are trying to plan a rendevous in Cusco or Lima. We shall see. He is a really cool guy who helped us out a lot when we were in Punta Sal. One of those guys that knows everyone and can get things done.

So that brings us to now. On the bus to Lima. We are supposed to arrive at 11am. we have our hotel set up and Keri and I are planning a day of manicures and pedicures and massages. All of which we can get for only about 10 soles. Very cheap. Then it is to the airport on Wednesday to go our separate ways. Sadness!!! Oh, I gotta go. We just started playing BINGO on the bus and I love it!

Spoiled in Guyaquil

We enjoyed our last days of sun worshipping in Montañita and headed down to Guayaquil yesterday. The bus was very comfortable and only took 3 hours. We arrived in the biggest bus station I have ever been to. I swear, this bus station was bigger and better than most airports I have been in. There was a huge food court area, lots of shops and little stands. The only problem was that we were supposed to meet Soizick at 4pm in the station, but how in the heck were we going to find her in that huge place? We wandered around a bit and then decided that the food court seemed to be the most central location. We parked ourselves there, but were quickly moved on by some security guards. We were amazed at how many people came up to us to ask if we needed help. It was quite nice, even though they couldn't do anything for us. I found one of the telephone centers and called Soizick. Luckily this time she picked up and we made a rendevous spot.

Soizick and parents are wonderful! We had to go back to their office b/c a shipment for their cocoa company needed to be loaded up. So Keri and I got to go to the cocoa production plant!! We got a tour and tried some raw cocoa (extremely bitter) and got chased by the guard geese. Yes, you read that correctly. Evidently geese are amazing guard animals. The biggest and oldest goose is named Jose and he is very protective of his grounds. He squawks and goes after you. It is hysterical yet scary at the same time!

After they were done with work, we all (mom, dad, and us three girls) headed home. Their house is beautiful. Keri and I have been deprived of houses with indoor bathrooms for the last 3 months so this place seems like a palace. We have our own room and bathroom! They have a gorgeous backyard with a pool. It is heaven. We opened the refrigerator and the pantry and just stood there in silence as we absorbed what we were looking at. No fridges and pantries in Ollantaytambo!

It is so hot and humid here. At 7pm last night it was still in the 90s. After showering, Soizick, Keri and I went to this great mall near their house and had a good Italian dinner. We then came home and her parents drove us out to the area we were going to be hanging out in. We climed 500 steps to get up to where you have this beautiful view of the city and the huge Guayaquil River. Then we went to this really cool bar called La Paletta. It was bohemian and artsy. We stayed there all night just talking and hanging out with 2 of Soizick's guy friends.

Today we got up late, went to this really pretty park in old historical Guayaquil. There was this whole part where you go through and see animals of the area and of the Dry Tropical Forest. Then you went through all these old buildings that had been restored and saw what life was like in the 1800s here. There were people dressed in the clothing and acting like they lived during that time. It was really neat. We then went to the grocery and back to the house for a snack. We are going to shower and then go to dinner with the family to one of their favorite restaurants. After that, Keri and I are heading back to the greatest bus station in the world to catch an overnight bus to Punta Sal. We should arrive back at Punta Sal around 7:30am.

We are excited to stay at Caballito de Mar Hotel and hang out with our friend Gian, the bartender. We have set it up so that we get a good night sleep, then take an overnight bus, get a good night sleep, another bus then good night sleep and then fly our separate ways.

I cannot thank Soizick and her family enough for the hospitality they have showed us over the last two days. It has been great to be in a family home again. Guayaquil is definitely a much more enjoyable city when you have locals taking you around. Thank you Betsy and Phil for introducing me to your family!!!

Ask and you shall receive

This place is great! Where else can you lie on the beach and purchase brownies, carrot cake, cookies, empanadas, calzones, snow cones, ceviche or drinks? So we were on the beach today and it was around 3pm so we had not eaten in quite a few hours. This woman comes by with carrot cake and cookies! So, maybe eating cake and cookies goes against the "do what you can to look thin in a swimming suit" idea, but how can you resist homemade cake and cookies when you are famished?? You can get everything you can ever want just sitting on the beach. No need to go anywhere, it comes to you!

Also today, one of the most amazing things happened to us. So, here we are in this beautiful beach town with a fun night life but all we want to do is eat dinner, go to our room, hang out in the a/c, watch movies and go to bed early. Today, we were watching Erin Brockavich and wishing that it was in English instead of Spanish. So I started playing with the remote to try to get the English subtitles on, when lo and behold, I find the "idioma seleccion" and can change the language to English!! O Happy Day! We are bummed that it took us 4 days to figure this out! We only have 2 days to enjoy this momentous feat.

We only have one more day of sun worshipping so tomorrow will be a full beach day. We have to figure out our bus to Guayaquil for Friday morning and just hang out the rest of the day. We will drink as many fruit smoothies as possible and probably eat some more cake on the beach. We are bummed that our favorite fish taco restaurant is only open on the weekends. Our largest decisions these days are which restaurant should we eat breakfast in and which restaurant should we eat dinner in. I know, tough life. But this is what vacation is about. Every day I get more emails from future volunteers so I know that as soon as I get back to Ollanta, my role as health volunteer coordinator will be a full-time gig. Not to mention working in the clinics and trying to organize the epidemiology stats and public health programs that I see as a necessity. I will definitely enjoy my last few days of vacation!

If it doesn't come from a mobile stand, we don't eat it!

Yesterday Keri and I played a fun game. We told ourselves that if we couldn't buy our food or drinks from a mobile stand, we would not eat! It worked out well until the evening. We love the fruit juices from the fruit stands, we got roasted corn on the cob from a street vendor, and our plan was to get ceviche for dinner from the guys who push these mobile ceviche carts shaped like boats around. However, by the evening, the ceviche guys cannot be found. Of course, we realized that this was due to the fact that by the evening, the raw seafood probably is not good and they don't want to get anyone sick. So we ended up having an amazingly delicious meal of rotisserie chicken and beans and rice. All for the whopping price of $2.50.

Today's goal in life was a simple one: make sure we place our towels in a spot that will not later be washed away by the surf like we were yesterday. We managed (with the help of some nice girls) to save our books and clothes from the waves but my towel was drenched and covered in sand. Hence, I was then also drenched and covered in sand. The wave came at the most inopportune moment. I had my top untied to try to sun my tan lines and as I heard Keri give a yelp of distress, I sat up to save myself and my stuff but quickly remembered my top was untied and decided to cover myself instead of flash the beach. So far, we have been able to achieve today's goal.

It was pretty overcast today but we still had a good 3 hours of beach time. Keri tried to surf but the waves were really huge and rough so that didn't last long. She kept trying to get me out there with her, but I am not dumb enough to tempt the sea gods on a day when the swells are a good 9 feet high. She stayed in the white wash for the most part but she still was getting knocked around.

So far I am really enjoying this beach town. It is really quiet here today since all the Ecuadorians here for the weekend have gone back to their homes and work. It is like a different place.

We've run into some other travelers we had met at the Loki in Mancora. They are still all into partying and we just want to chill. So I don't expect to be seeing much of them. We are going to go out in Guayaquil with Betsy's cousins on Friday night and stay until Sunday there with them. Then we will head back to Peru.

Beautiful Ecuador

I have been happily surprised at how beautiful Ecuador is! Our adventure to Ecuador began at 5am on Friday morning. Our friend Nito, a taxi driver, picked us up to drive us up to the border. It was a sad goodbye to our dog Rex and to Ben (for Keri). We had pretty much adopted this dog named Rex (no we did not name him). The man who runs the rental properties, William, also owns a store/restaurant in Punta Sal. Well Rex is kind of the store dog but he also has the run of the town. So he started hanging out with us at our beach house. He was so sweet and good natured, you just couldn't help but love him. He was only 8 months old so he had the energy and affection of a puppy. One day, it just broke our hearts, we went into Mancora for money and groceries and Rex followed us into town from the house as we walked. Then, when we got into the mototaxi (think of a motorcycle with a little 3 person covered seat attached to it on two wheels), he jumped right in with us. So we had to go through the motions of getting him out and then him jumping back in and so forth three or four times. So we take off in the mototaxi and he starts running behind us. It was terrible! He followed us for a good 5 minutes before giving up. But sure enough, the next day, he was back at the house with us! Anyway, he became our house dog and it was like he knew Keri and I were leaving because there he was at 5 in the morning, cuddled all up next to my legs so that if I moved, he would have fallen over. Ben later emailed to say that Rex was just whimpering during the day because we were gone.

Anyway, Nito picks us up and off we go. It took just under 2 hours to get to the border. Thank God we had Nito with us. We were joking that Nito was our "Coyote" and that he was going to smuggle us across. There were tons of people loitering around the immigration area on the Peru side trying to tell us that they were Ecuadorian and they would get us over to the other side. Nito just kept telling them to go away, that he knew what he was doing. I guess most taxi drivers just drop you off and leave you to your own devices.

It was actually really strange. So we stop in Peru and get stamped as leaving the country, but then we get in the taxi and drive another five minutes or so before parking and then walking down this road that is the official border. So you get into Ecuador and have to go quite a ways before actually being processed in Ecuador. Nito took us to a little bus station and we got tickets on a van to Guyaquil. From Guyaquil, we planned on going to Montañita. Also, on a side note, why did I have no idea that Ecuador uses American dollars?? Who knew?? It was strange to take US dollars out of the ATM.

So then Nito gets us in a taxi to take us to the Ecuador immigration point and we say our heartfelt goodbyes. He is such a great guy. We process in Ecuador, catch our van and off we go! The first thing that strikes me about Ecuador is how fast the people talk. I mean, my Spanish comprehension is pretty fluent right now and I have a hard time understanding these folks. The second thing that strikes me is the absolute beauty of the banana farms and the surrounding forest hillsides. Coming from the dry, sandy desert mountains of northern Peru, it was like stepping into an oasis. For the 4 hour drive to Guyaquil, there was hardly a time when I didn't have banana trees on either side of the car.

Guyaquil itself reminded me of a south Florida city like Miami or Tampa. Keri and I liked it immediately. Much prettier and cleaner than Lima. We were dropped off and had to find our way to another travel agency that drives up to Montañita. So we figure that out and also figure out that we can't go directly to Montañita so we book a van to Santa Elena and from there we are told we can get a bus to Montañita. We grab a quick lunch (by this time it is 1pm) and then hop in our other van. We get to Santa Elena around 3pm and instead of waiting for the crowded public buses, we say screw it, lets just take a taxi. So our final hour or so of travel was along this beautiful beach highway speeding along in a taxi. We shop around for places to stay up the beach from the main town center of Montañita. We had enough partying in Mancora. We found a room for $15 each a night with A/C and cable tv! The A/C is a godsend. The cable tv is perfect since we just want to chill at night. Most other places were charging $20-25 each a night with no A/C or tv. The bugs here are gigantic!

We had to change rooms from our first one because there was an infestation of huge crickets. They were everywhere! Everyone who knows me also knows that I do not like bugs. I can handle crickets and grasshoppers and stuff because they generally don't crawl all over you and bite you (like spiders) but an infestation of anything is pretty disgusting! So now we are in a suite that is nice but for the same price. It is the low season here so there aren't many people around. It allowed us to bargain a bit on the price.

The beach here is beautiful. Much prettier than Mancora and Punta Sal. Keri and I are in heaven. We've already dropped our dirty clothes off at a laundry place, we had awesome fish tacos for $1.50 last night. I can buy fresh juice anytime I want from the juice vendors. It is awesome. I think we are going to meet up with some of my college friend Betsy's Ecuadorian cousins either today or tomorrow. That should be a lot of fun. Today there are a lot of people on the beach. Where we are staying is known as one of the best suring areas in this part of the world. I think there is a competition today. By Sunday night, I'm sure it will be dead again once the Ecuadorians go back home for the work week. I have to keep reminding myself that we are in Ecuador and not Peru. They definitely use different words here but we are still able to communicate just fine.

Our plan is to stay for the week and just relax. The lack of sleep has given me a cold and bad sore throat so I just want to chill and feel better. Last night we were in bed by 10pm and didn't get up until close to 9am. The A/C felt amazing.

I will try to download some photos in the next couple days. I got some really good ones of the sunsets off our deck in Punta Sal. Plus, there are some really funny ones from our fishing trip. Which I just realized I forgot to write about. It was hysterical. We were expecting a nice fishing boat like you might find in Florida or wherever. Well, you will just have to see the photos because I can't really describe what our boat was like other than small and wooden. However, the fisherman and his two teenage sons who took us out were so nice and funny. We were out for 3 and a half hours and Keri was the star fisherman. I caught 2 fish but Keri caught like 4 and an eel! We didn't use poles but actually just used drop lines. So you drop the bait and weight down on the line and let it go for awhile and just wait until you feel something and then start grabbing the line up with the hopes that the fish is still on it! Difficult but fun.

The neatest thing happened on the way back in though. Keri and I were sitting at the front of the boat and we all see hundreds of sea birds circling this one part of the sea and dive bombing in for fish. Well, as we get closer, we notice all these dolphin fins as well. So we drove through it and I swear there were at least 100 dolphins swimming through this school of fish. There were big ones and baby ones. It was so beautiful. It was straight out of National Geographic. We were in awe. It totally made the day even more perfect. So we paid some man on the pier to clean our fish and filet them for us and off we went with a nice big fresh fish dinner to cook.

That is a novel for today. Hope it doesn't bore you.

Just Gotta Go with the Flow

So we are still in Punta Sal in Peru. The plan of leaving yesterday fell through when Ben decided it wasn´t really worth it for him to travel up into Ecuador and then have to take 2 days to get back to Lima to catch his flight. So we decided to lounge here until Friday and then Ben will catch a bus back to Lima and Keri and I will head north to Ecuador. We will be starting at the beach town of Montañita -- sorry spelled it wrong in last post. We´ve heard good things and there look to be some really cute places to stay.

Keri and I are quite happy with our "absolutely no firm plans" approach to this trip. We have set up a deep sea fishing trip tomorrow for the morning. Our plan is to catch our dinner! Yesterday, we went into Mancora to get money from the ATM -- that should tell you how small this little beach town is that we are staying in -- and get groceries that aren´t extraordinarily expensive. We cooked dinner last night and were planning on going to a huge party to celebrate the anniversary of Punta Sal, but after the previous night´s party and the overall lack of sleep due to the music and late nights at the Loki, we all fell asleep around 9pm on the lounge chairs on the deck. We had to rouse ourselves to tell our new bartender friend that we wouldn´t be joining him for the party. I think I finally slept a full night for the first time in a week and a half.

Keri and Ben went off on a date today, so that left me just hanging by myself on the deck and in the pool. I am going to go hang out with Gian, our bartender friend, until he finishes his morning shift and then we will probably go down to the beach to go fishing with the other guys that work in the hotel. They do that in the afternoons. Maybe I will catch something.

Hopefully, the next time I write something, I will be in Ecuador!!!

Relaxing at a beach house in Punta Sal

So things haven´t really been going as planned for the last few days but luckily all is working out in our favor. We were supposed to check out of the Loki on Friday morning and head down the beach to a couple little bungalow type rooms. Well, on Thursday night, Ben got mugged down near where we were supposed to be moving to while he was running. Three guys surrounded him and stole his iPod and luckily wanted nothing else, but it still shook him up a bit. Then on Friday morning Keri went running and before she could even get near to where were were going to move, a security guard told her not to go farther. So, needless to say, Keri and Ben did not want to move down to that part of the beach but we were feeling a little screwed as it was the busiest day for check-ins in Mancora. Luckily, the managers at the Loki were not too keen on kicking us out and they had been careful not to over book for the holiday weekend and we were able to stay. Really, the reason they weren´t over-booked was that the bus coming in from Ecuador that day had not been able to leave Ecuador due to the driver being completely intoxicated. So we got lucky.

Anyway, we partied on Friday and then unfortunately, I was sick all day Saturday. I don´t know if I ate something bad, if the water just finally got to me or a combination of things, but my stomach revolted and I spent most of Saturday running between my bed and the bathroom. Keri and Ben had gone off to Punta Sal for the day on Saturday and came back on Sunday with a reservation at a beach house for really cheap. We checked out of the Loki in the morning and then headed to Punta Sal. After lounging on the beach and playing in the water -- Punta Sal is much more relaxed and chill than Mancora -- the landlord of the house came by and starting going off on Ben and I because he had agreed to let only Ben and Keri have the house and since more people were there now, he didn´t want us. Obviously there was some communication issues but the guy was being such a jerk that Ben and I decided to go find somewhere else. The guy was such an idiot. Everyone was gone now from the holiday weekend and he would rather not have anyone in the house and make no money versus making the money off of us.

Anyway, Michelle´s friend Gabriel had a friend who rents houses here in Punta Sal so we found this guy and he made a deal with us for a really nice beach house down a ways. It had three bedrooms, a big kitchen and a gorgeous deck with a little pool. We moved our stuff in, cooked dinner and enjoyed the waves crashing in front of us with a couple bottles of wine and good music.

Michelle had to go back to Mancora to catch a bus to Lima and now Ben, Keri and I are figuring out our next move. We are going to stay in the house here one more night and then head up to Ecuador tomorrow. Ben and Keri made friends with two men who work in a really nice hotel near our beach house and struck a deal for a taxi to the border -- only about 2 hours -- and then we will catch a bus to another beach town about 8 hours from the border. We can go fishing, whale watching, surfing, etc in Ecuador. I´ve heard it is a little more expensive but we shall see. Ben will have to leave us around the 10th, but Keri and I still have plenty of time.

We are now researching where we should go and stay in Mantanita -- the beach town we are headed to. So although our time in Mancora was fun in a "I´m in college and on Spring Break" kind of way, there comes a point in a 31 year old´s life where three or so days of this is plenty. We played Loki Olympics on Friday at the hostel and our team did horribly, but one of the other teams was named the Cougar Hunters. They were such young boys that I had to ask what constituted as a cougar in their eyes. Luckily I was not in that category, but the average age at the hostel was probably 22. I did meet a guy from Indianapolis though! Random! He lives in Broad Ripple.

Anyway, we are going to confirm our second night here, find the man that sells fish, buy some fish and then go cook our dinner! We have to be up and out early for our taxi to the border tomorrow.

Hope everyone is well. My tan is coming along nicely but I still would probably prefer other beaches to these ones. And it is hot as all get out. It was 85 degrees as I was trying to sleep last night. Muggy too!

Loving the beach life

Everything went smoothly for our travels up to the north to Máncora. Our flight out of Cusco was delayed a couple hours but luckily they somehow knew that the day before so when we went to check in at the travel agent, she told us and we didn´t have to go to the airport and just wait. We did still manage to have a funny adventure at the airport. Here, if your money is ripped or torn at all, most places will not take it. Well, Keri had a ripped 20 sole note that she had someone tape for her and tell her to pawn it off on the airport tax cashiers. So luckily the woman did take the ripped note. Now, I knew that the woman would then just pawn it off to the next person who needed change and let Ben go ahead of me with this thought in mind. Sure enough, the woman tried to give Ben the ripped 20 and he just turned to Keri and said "Bastard!". So we all are laughing and the woman at the window understood and gave him a different one. But as we were still laughing and carrying on, we get stopped by this older security guy. He asks us to follow him upstairs to a private room. We all look at each other and joke that this is what people who are trafficking drugs must feel like.

So there is this body scanner up there like the ones we have in our airports. He said he just needed one of us girls and Ben to go through it. Of course, any of you who know Keri Baker can just imagine her excitement and enthusiasm at this request. She hops up on the scanner and these are different in that you stand and it electronically moves you down the scanner like on a treadmill. So when it is done, Keri jumps down and asks to see the x-ray. Unlike ours in the States, the picture is just right there with no privacy. First of all, the man says that Keri´s stomach is obviously not holding any smuggled drugs but in fact the white areas are just gas. We crack up at this part. Then we really crack up when we realize how large the x-ray makes Keri look. Keri is skinny and it made her look huge. I could only imaging what my thighs would look like if Keri is a size 8 and I am a size 12 and she looked so large and in charge. Because of Keri´s enthusiasm, the man decided that he did not need to scan Ben after all. So we were allowed to leave. I truly do not think that the security man gets so much happiness and thanks from most of the people he pulls aside. Keri just kept thanking him over and over for letting her be scanned!

Anyway, we made it to Lima and the Cruz del Sur bus station with plenty of time. Luckily, since our tickets are the expensive bus cama ones, we were able to hang out in the air-conditioned VIP lounge and use the internet and watch tv for free. Our bus was definitely the nicest we have ridden. You get pillows and blankets, we watched 2 movies and then played BINGO. How funny is that? The dinner was actually really good and then it was time to sleep. You just had to be careful when returning your seat to the upright position from the reclining position as it was extremely forceful and you felt like you were being ejected straight into the person in front of you! During the daylight hours though, I couldn´t get over the difference in terrain from Cusco/Ollanta area. From Lima up north, the only things to see are dirt, dirt and more dirt in the form of dirt hills. It is just a barren desert type terrain. Not pretty at all. I am so glad that I live in Ollanta.

I slept quite well until we were awakened at 7am to the Chipmunks movie starting at the highest volume imaginable. We arrived in Máncora at 8:30am, made it to the hostel and got settled. Yesterday was a beautiful, hot, sunny day. We laid on the beach, went swimming and then hung by the pool. I was careful to constanly reapply sunscreen as the sun is super strong here. We were having a bit of a lodging crisis as it is Semana Santa this week and the whole country is on vacation. Our hostel was booked for the weekend (we have a room until Friday) so we needed to start looking. Our friend Christina had told us that a beach farther north called Zorritos was beautiful and peaceful so we started looking into places there. It was just a pain to call all these places and not get a hold of anyone. Keri and Ben had walked down through half of Máncora looking for a decent place for the weekend and all but one place was booked solid and the only one that wasn´t would be $35 per night per person. Which doesn´t seem much to you but here it is a lot!

Michelle and I then went for a walk down the other side of the beach and found 2 rooms at the very far north end of the beach for $20 a night per person. We decided to stay there until Monday and then Michelle has to go meet her brother in Lima and Ben, Keri and I are going to head north to Ecuador!! Ben has been to the beaches in Ecuador and say they are much better than the ones here so off we are going. I think we will most likely just be beaching it there, but we shall see.

Anyway, we showered and went to this amazing Thai/Chinese restaurant, had a few drinks at a bar across the street and then went to one of the beach bars near our hotel. We had our own dance party for a couple hours there before going back to our hostel and joining in the going away party for the man who had been manager for the past 2 years. He was hysterical. He is this really tall and skinny British guy named Jake, who for some reason was wearing a girl´s dress. It barely covered his butt. He was up on the bar dancing and Keri and I were dancing right up there with him! We had a blast. Then Keri and I walked on the beach to try to sober up a bit before bed.

It was pouring down rain last night and all this morning so we had a lazy morning. We secured the rooms down at the end of the beach, went for a mid-afternoon swim and then decided to use the internet. There is a big bbq at the hostel tonight so that should be fun. It is really starting to get packed here for the holiday week. Both foreign tourists and Peruvian tourists.

The beach itself reminds me a lot of Thailand. It is pretty and the surf is okay. There is no wind so kite surfing/boarding is out of the question, but you are constantly bombarded on the beach by men and women trying to sell you stuff. We are looking forward to moving to a secluded area on the beach so we won´t be bothered. Today, there were two men not even trying to hide the fact that they were either taking photos or a video of us swimming and hanging out on the beach. It was pretty disgusting. I have visions of photos of us appearing on the internet.

But this is still just a developing beach town as it is dirty and some of the places look quite run down. However, we just enjoy our view of the beach and the ocean and try to ignore the trash and the building and things going on around us. The hostel we are in is really fun and so there is always something to do.

Heading to the beach! Vamos a la Playa!!!

Keri and I are running around crazy today trying to tie up loose ends and pack our stuff. I´m lucky knowing that I am coming back in 3 weeks but poor Keri also has to say all of her goodbyes. It is really sad. We have made some really amazing friends here.

So our plan is to go into Cusco tonight and spend the night and then catch an early flight to Lima on Monday morning. We have to be at the bus station at 2:30pm tomorrow afternoon to catch our bus to Mancora. We will arrive in Mancora around 9am. We are psyched to take this 17 hour bus ride as it is a full cama bus -- your seat reclines all the way to a bed and you are tucked in by the steward. We are served dinner and breakfast on the bus too. So it is swanky! Ben and Keri and I will be meeting Michelle at the hostel in the morning.

We are just going to see how we like it there and have no other tickets bought so we may have 3 weeks at the beach or we may leave after a week and spend 2 weeks hiking in Huaraz. We shall see!! I´m just excited to lay out and relax and get all of my flea bites healed!

I´ll be posting blogs as I travel.

Imagine giving birth by candlelight! It happens here!

We had no power all day yesterday and the clinic does not have a generator so many of the rooms were very dark. At one point I walked into the Topico room and found one of the nursing students trying to clean a man´s foot and treat his wound with no light at all. However, the worst of it was that a woman was in labor and the birthing room has no natural light and the emergency lights on the wall died after about 15 minutes. So I ran home to get my mini maglite and Elena ran to get her head lamp. As I came back into the room (not even 15 minutes later) the baby had just been born and there is Keri holding Elena´s head lamp up for the obstetrics nurse. If we didn´t have our two lights, they would have been doing everything by the light of three candles.

So I held my flash light up so Charo could stitch the woman up and deal with the afterbirth. The most horrific part of all of this is just how different they treat the patients here. I guess while the woman was pushing, a nursing student was holding her hand, but as soon as the baby was born, no one really spoke the the poor woman. There was no "Congratulations!" or "Good Job" or even just a "You have a baby boy!". They do not use pain medication at all. When Charo was stitching her up, she gave one shot of anesthetic in the vaginal area and just set to work. The woman was in so much pain and no one even talked to her! And, she didn´t get to hold the baby afterwards at all. Then to top it all off, after they kind of cleaned her up and gave her a sanitary pad, they asked for her underwear. Well, her mother was nowhere to be found and the girl did not have a clean pair of underwear. Charo starts yelling at the top of her lungs, "Underwear!" "She needs Underwear" (en español of course) for all of the clinic to hear. So someone had to run to the market and buy her undies. The poor woman!

I learned a lot about the kind of midwife I want to be in the future just by watching the entire process. We all just kind of were watching in shock -- no lights, the yelling and screaming (on the part of the obstetrics nurse, not the patient), the joking of the other nurses, the lack of communication or caring toward the patient. All of it was a lot to take in! But, I am very excited to be here until July and participate in more births. This birth was complicated because the girl had syphillis and she was supposed to deliver in the hospital in Cusco but she went into labor a month early and could not make it to Cusco in time. So everyone was all suited up to prevent any blood contact. They also were really worried about the mother passing syphillis on to the baby. Very educational! This is why I am here!

Last night, a group of us ate dinner together and then we all headed over to our new volunteer house for a bonfire and drinks. I just sat around talking to my friends here and thought , "Wow, I am really happy here. I love my life right now!" I live in a beautiful town, I have amazing friends, and the people here are so great. Life is good!

Today was another successful breakfast at the clinic. Poor Keri got peed on by a baby and I was a weighing, measuring, taking blood pressure phenom today. Some of these babies are just so little! I had to weigh and measure a 5 day old and a 15 day old. So cute!

And our baby Fabricio is coming home today (he should already be home) so we get to hold and cuddle him for the rest of the weekend before we leave.

We are having a painting and pizza party at the new volunteer house tonight and then KB is having a roof top party at his hostel tomorrow night. Fun times in Ollanta!

We have a new baby boy!!!

Ana went into labor yesterday afternoon, went to the hospital yesterday evening and at 8:50am this morning, we welcomed as yet unnamed baby boy into the world! They are going between the two names Fabricio Valentino and Jose Valentino. Shura, Keri and I all like Fabricio better than Jose but I guess Jose is the saint of the month of March. So we shall see. Valentino was Celestino´s father´s name. He is huge! He was 4 days overdue and it looks like he is already a week old. He weighed 3.5 kilos and was 52 centimeters long. I will let you convert that to pounds and inches! Both mama and baby are doing well. They will be coming home tomorrow. When we went to visit, he was all wrapped up in one of the blankets we gave as a present and he just looked adorable!!

I´ve been busy these last few days. I was sick all day on Monday with major stomach problems, but I feel much better by today. I am at least able to eat now so that is good. We went out to the Chillca clinic today to scope out there needs and how many volunteers they would like. It is a really nice clinic. It was built in 2005 and is staffed by 2 nurses and 2 techs. I was extremely impressed with their epidemiology data. They do surveillance, have a map of houses that have people infected with specific diseases and perform weekly tests on the mosquito population to make sure they are not infected with disease. Very impressive for such a small clinic.

Yesterday, I started my Quechua lessons. I can now say all the salutations in Quechua that I could ever imagine. It is a very pretty language actually. I have class tomorrow night and Friday night and then will have to just study while I travel for 3 weeks before returning to resume my studies.

We really need to buckle down and get some work done these next few days as once Keri and I leave on Sunday, that will be the last time Keri, Ben and I are all together to plan the Awamaki Health stuff. Ben is almost done with the website.

Okay, I´ve got to go to dinner now. I´m hanging out with some locals this evening. I wish this place had a movie theatre or bowling alley. I have no idea what we will do other than walk around the plaza and maybe get a drink somewhere. Who knows!

Tapananchiskama!!! (Quecha for until our next meeting!)

Check out the new photos on the slideshow!

Just wanted you all to see that I uploaded new photos. They are out of order, but enjoy!

Good Times in Cusco

Friday and Saturday were eventful days. We always feel like we get so much done on Fridays since we are up so early to prepare the breakfast at the clinic. We normally get to the clinic around 7am and start cooking the oatmeal. This week was similar to the first Friday we worked in that there were quite a lot of patients. If you could just see the scene in the clinic on Fridays, people are everywhere, the smell is a bit overwhelming -- it is a mix of wood smoke, body odor and just plain dirtyness (don´t think that is a word but oh, well). There are children rolling all around on the muddy, dirty floor with dirty feet and hands and green snot coming out of their noses. Yet, for it all, they are really sweet, cute kids. We really just need some more providers. We can get the people through admission/triage quite quickly and then they have to wait for upwards of 3 hours to see the providers. That is partially why we serve them breakfast. Most families have left their homes by 5am to get to the clinic around 8. They wait all day and then head home without eating much.

So after the clinic, Keri, Michelle, Hallie and I went to Michelle´s host family´s house for her going-away lunch. It was really good. Oven baked chicken, beet salad, choklo (large kernal corn), rice and potatoes (of course). Then they start bringing out the beers. It is a custom here to drink your beer with Coke. So you put about half and half, coke and beer. It actually isn´t that bad, it is just really carbonated. The cokes and soft drinks here are extremely bubbly b/c of our altitude. So all together, there were probably about 9 of us (Michelle´s host mother, sister, aunts and cousin) just laughed and talked and drank. We then went home to freshen up and met back out for some sangria before heading to the Awamaki pizza party. After pizza, the whole group (which we are now up to like 22 volunteers) went to Porfi´s bar to have another salsa lesson with Michelle´s host sister, Valentina. We learned some new moves and then just continued dancing to regular hip hop and other music. Keri and I went home early because we had to be up early to work at the Yanahuara clinic.

At the Yanahuara clinic, I worked in admissions and triage while Keri assited the nurse with the insurance papers. I had to learn the filing system there and they could definitely benefit from the color coding system we want to implement in Ollanta. Unfortunately, the stomach virus that has been circulating amongst the volunteers hit me on Saturday morning. I made it through the morning at the clinic with only a couple emergency trips to the bathroom but by the time we got on the bus to Cusco, I was starting to feel bad all over. When Keri and I caught the bus to Cusco, we thought, WOW! this is one nice mini-bus. Especially when we heard it was only 3 soles per person. However, after the first hour and a half (when we normally would be in the center of Cusco if we had taken a taxi), we realized why it was so cheap. We stopped all the time to pick up and drop people off or to let vendors on to sell choklo and popsicles. Just after 2 hours of traveling, we made it to Cusco.

We had some errands to run before meeting up with people around 4pm. So we bought our plane tickets to Lima for next week, we bought latex gloves for the clinic, we bought a new top to wear out dancing, and we had some lunch. We met up with Michelle and Hallie and headed to the hotel. After resting for a few hours (Hallie went to pick up Wanda at 7pm) and showering, I was feeling a bit better but still wavering on whether I should go out dancing. I had been drinking water and gatorade, ate some crackers and decided, just go and if you feel bad, you can leave.

I´m really glad I went because I ended up feeling fine and danced the night away. We ended up having a group of 12 people -- 5 of us girls, Porfi, Raul and Rider from Ollanta, Dr. Arnaldo, Elio, and two nursing students from the Clinic. We went to a number of clubs and just had a great time. I only drank water but still had a great time dancing. After a late night stop at McDonalds, we crashed at the hotel. We ate our nice breakfast buffet and then headed to the combi stop to go home. We didn´t have much luck with this combi either. It was packed, someone had horrible body odor (intermixed with nasty gas) and then this poor little girl behind us got car sick. We were glad to be home.

Unfortunately, after eating lunch today, my stomach has revolted again. I am skipping dinner. Ana still has not had the baby. He is now three days late. I really hope she has him soon. Keri and I leave on Sunday to start our 3 weeks of traveling. Luckily I get to return and hang out with the family, but I know that Keri really wants the baby to arrive before we leave.

So that is it. I just hope this stomach thing is a virus and not parasites. I´m going to give it a couple more days. Luckily, working in the clinic, they will just write me a prescription.

I´ve downloaded some new photos. These are from the Lares hike, some of the Ollanta clinic and the Patacancha clinic, our tour of the huge ruins in Ollantaytambo, our trip to Puno and Lake Titicaca, and Keri and I´s experience in the tattoo parlor in Cusco. Flick -- sorry we didn´t wait but see if you like the design so you can get it too!