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.