Site Visit Pics Part 2

finally we get to go down and my searing headache can be relieved...you can only last so long at over 5000 meters with a headache

llamaaaaaasss are everywhere
town meeting at over 5000 m...pretty standard
dinner/lunch time is clutch after 5 hour hikes
the band....yes they carried there instruments up...actually ran them up
this is just an awesome pic

en my familys chacra aka the farm
this was about 5am in the morning and we werent even a fifth of the way there
cool
finally got to the piont
this is a pic of my town in march to clean the river from the mountains which provides water to our town...about as fresh of water as you can get...they shovel the stones out of the river to increase water flow...this is why i was up so high in the snowy mountians....it was good to gain confianza with the community...aka some trust and confidence...lots more people started talking to me...however it took alll day i was out from 5am til 6pm and when we got back into town we did a march into the plaza de armas and around the plaza...and guess what...i had to lead the march with the flag...it was crazyyyyyyyyy....and if you didnt know peruvian army marches like the old hitler army does...its really weird/scary but it was funny for me to do...then while i was marching two buses with tourists pulled into my town and took pics of the march..they were probably wondering why there was a white person leading the march good times

Site visit pics part 1

cactus with snoww oooo
how amazinggggg no??? this is the other side of the canyon across from me
being at over 5000 meters never tasted so good
this is where my towns water comes from...so we hiked up there to clean out the river of the stones and improve water flow....the only bad thing was the searing headache i had from the altitude...ayyyyy
so beautiful

this is my house...my room is the first door
my room i slept on bags of rice i think not sure
niceee
that 2x4 locks my door...gonna have to change that haha
en my familys chacra...aka the farm with the cow

la iglesia
a streete in my town los burrossss estan aquiiiiii
my toilet for the next two years...my legs will be strong after a month
my bathroom

arequipa city
one of the three volcanoes
plaza de armas
otra vez
sweet pic but there are better on the way

site visit

I think my site visit can best be described through photos. However, I’m going to write a little blog entry about it as well. Sorry I have been MIA for so long but i left last saturday for my site visit in Arequipa and did not return until this past Sunday. It was a roller coaster of a week but I’m sure I will be ok at site and it will be a great experience.

First, lets talk about Arequipa city. It’s really beautiful and looks almost exactly like Sevilla which is where I studied abroad. I was kind of in awe when I got there and saw it looked like sevilla. The city is surrounded by three volcanoes and is pretty temperate. It’s a decently big tourist place and I am really glad that it’s my capitol city.

After the first two days in the city, I left Arequipa to go to my site with my community partner. When I got to my house that night it was a bit of a shock as you will see from the pictures. However, at site I got to be introduced by the mayor countless times and was able to meet with all of the associations that I will be working with for the next two years. Some of these associations included…

Artisans, Farmers, Pig Farmers, Guinea pig farmers, Natural Resources…etc
All of them had a lot of organizational problems and accounting problems. There will be a lot of work to be done and it gets me excited to think about how much I could really change these people’s lives. Ok, as im writing this I’m figuring out how much better captions under my pics will be. So, look at my other post with the pics for more of the story.

Me voy a Arequipa

I finally found out what I will be doing and where I will be living for the next 2 years!!! I will be going to the department of Arequipa (departments are like states) in the South of Peru. I will be working with an artesian association, farmers, and doing some tourism work as well. For mor specifics about my site you’ll have to shoot me an email so I can divulge them to you.
I must say I’m really pumped. On Sunday I leave for my site visit and wont return until the next Sunday. Basically we get to meet our community counterpart on the site visit and then get to stay in our site for about 4 days to experience it and learn more about it. Then we come back for 2 more weeks of training and then are off for 2 yearsss.

The only thing I think that sucks about knowing where exactly we are going is that us being separated from friends again is coming up soon. Most of us have become accustomed to our host families and fellow trainees. I know I have at least. However, we will have to start anew once again in less than a month. It’s pretty crazy/scary to think about but that’s why we all signed up for this job right? Also, at least I know for me, I’ll be living in harsher conditions (I’m pretty sure my house is made of Adobe bricks….aka dirt!)

Other things going on…we learned about beekeeping today and guinea pig farming at la Agraria. The honey from the bees was soooooo gooooodddddd. It was our last session at la Agraria. I can’t really think of too much else that happened this week other than us getting our sites b/c that was so large. I related this week to the days leading up to Christmas when you were a kid. I felt like I was back on my balcony of sorts at my house waiting to go downstairs to open presents. This week was pretty painful in that way but in the end it was awesome.

Funny phrases using Arequipa… (phonetic spelling = Air-uh-keep-uh)

Arequipeen it real (This is the motto)

Im an Arequipaaa (Soccer keeper)

Arequip it in your pants