End of year... and pictures

Happy Holidays and New year!!!!

Spent Christmas camping out on the beach and spending New Years at a beautiful beach 9 hours away (bus ride)...




Meanwhile, enjoy pictures I've recently posted



Link to rest of fotos here: CLICK HERE..

Sin gas

did i already post on this? at the store you always have to request your water "sin gas" (by the way, all the corner markets are behind bars and everything you want you have to order at the gate and they bring it to you... my main guess is to prevent theft.. pretty much everywhere---foto copy, internet places too--- has a gated front door)...

not sure why there is so much sparkling water here... but if you don't specify that you want it with "sin gas" you are inevitably going to get a sparkling water...

La Cena para Navidad

The trip to the movie theatre was soooo successful!!! :) it was just about 400 more or less kids and parents bussed from Porvenir to the center of trujillo for the cinema... for many of the children it was their first time being in the movie theatre... we were quite organized and in turn rewarded with a smoothly run event, with no injuries or problems whatsoever! It was quite a beautiful thing to hear how excited the kids were during the movie (Madegascar 2)... and just how appreciative they were of the whole thing, it was quite amazing and (dare i get cheesy) practically brought tears to my eyes... it was just a really nice thing :)

The dinner we hosted for the SKIP families was quite successful!!!! there were about 600 people more or less... we hosted it at one of the nearby elementary schools. We had to move all the tables and chairs outside, the place was decorated, we had a number of dances and performances... including firespinning (me!!) leading out to a fireworks show... the preparing and serving of 600 plates of food (paneton, pork, potato salad, bread) and hot chocolate (which was also quite amazing to watch the mothers make the fire and prepare the hot chocolate)... was quite smoothly organized and just about perfect... hrm.. i dont think i'm giving enough justice to the amount of work we put into putting this together... it was ALOT.....

Now we're officially on vacation... i'm spending christmas with housemates, we've got a really cool crew right now (i think i've already mentioned that a number of times, but i'm quite happy with the folks i'm living with)... and then we're off to Mancora through the 3rd of January... I'm hearing it's quite crazy during the summer, and crazier during the holidays... so it'll be a nice break from reality (which of course isn't so bad), hehe :)

Then on to a successful Summer Camp....

my donation to SKIP

So i've just bought my major donation purchase for SKIP.. bought a MUCH needed file cabinet:


happy to contribute OUR FIRST FILE CABINET!!! :)

this isn't THE one, but pretty much looks like this one... don't have income and am living off of savings, so it will probably be my ONE major purchase for SKIP... we need one for the home office though... (this one went to the office at the SKIP location in Porvenir).

It was about S/.310... which comes out to $100...

we're getting ready for our 700 person dinner.. actually we're thinking of the people who show up, it should be a little less than 600.. which is crazy, but less than 700.. heh.. keep in mind we are an org of about 15 people more or less.. we have a few other people helping us, but we're preparing and serving all the food.. doing the setup, entertainment (I'm spinning fire), and cleaning ... EVERYTHING...

We've already wrapped 170 books for gifts for families (so you may be confused with all the numbers.. there are about 170 families more or less, but that comes out to like 500 children (more or less) and 200 parents...

tonight i'm cutting panetones into 8 pieces

we have been lucky to have donations, so fortunately it's not totally out of our pockets....

it's going to be crazy tomorrow...

Guy with whistle... and my new room

Did i mention about the security guy with the whistle outside our house? He walks up and down the avenue doing his whistle... seems like the purpose is to tell people that he's there it keeps robbers away??? ??? ???

and the other day there were gunshots.. lots of them.. and a housemate said it's the same guy.. but probably that he was drunk... he was shooting his gun like every 5 minutes or so ... up in the air maybe?? who knows...

not sure which way i feel safer..

either way, the noise (and other noise, like the windows rattling every time a truck goes by, honking, front door--everytime someone entered or came at all hours in the day/night, conversations in the house, etc etc etc) were keeping me awake..... but no longer!!! a room opened up and i have moved.. and i had my first realllllllll good sleep tonight :)

the room is really nice.. enough space (cozy, but i dont really want more room)... and most importantly enough internet signal to keep me skyping and happy :)

my worst fears....

so.. just to make sure i wasn't feeling bad enough about the relationship situation, i get another kicker....in the head...

so most of you who know me, know about my one HUGE phobia... PARASITES!

well.. so my head had been itching for weeks now.. and being allergic to almost everything, i figured that it was maybe my shampoo or new laundry detergent... or just a couple days of dry scalp.. or the water from surfing.. it COULD NOT be lice... even though i work with children infested with them in a community that hasn't had the proper education about prevention of them... IT COULD NOT BE!! so i continued to wait.. waiting for the itching to subside.. but it didn't..

anyway, finally my housemate was convinced that she had them.. very matter-of-fact, without fear of them.. she was going to head off to the pharmacy to buy a comb, so i asked some housemates to check my hair "just in case"... but likely i don't have them, right??

nope...

apparently i was infested with them... 2+ weeks worth just about, maybe more????... and again, may i remind you of my phobia.. not just squeamish about parasites, but like panic attack sort of feelings... anyway, my housemates were awesome in helping me feel alot better and we spent the next 3 hours picking the buggers out and using the shampoo and comb...

can i just tell you I did not realize how freakin' big these bugs get??? I don't remember ever having this as a kid, so this was a first for me.. and it was sort of like the reality was almost worst than the fear.. as fearful as i was about having them, i thought they were maybe the size of tiny dots.. not like.. milimeters long... like the size of rice... :(

also i seem to have an allergy to them because i have a rash all down my neck to my shoulders (...please don't tell me it's somethign else altogether!!! let me believe its a result of the lice.....)

ugh i feel sick just recounting it..

felt just about as bad as when i found out my cat had tape worms... UGH

anyway, apparently this is just going to be a reality.. we're going to attempt to do some more education about lice during summer camp with the kids, but it's just gonna be something i'll have to deal with for the next 7 months....

AND LET ME JUST SAY!>...... that i shower on a regular basis and am very clean ..so it has nothing to do with my personal hygeine! :)

hope you weren't eating while reading this post!



not my picture, but it was similar heh.

good articles: http://lancaster.unl.edu/pest/lice/headlice018.shtml
http://www.drgreene.com/21_640.html

oh.. so for my future reference .. here is what i'm doing for removal....
so from talking to mates here, it looks like it's going to be an ongoing problem while i'm here, so rather than using pesticides (which is usually how parents go about delousing their kids...) what i did the first day we discovered the little buggers was to shampoo (actually the shampoo had the slightest bit of the pesticide), condition the hair (to make it easier to comb)... then you start the 3+ hour long process of combing the hair very carefully with this fine tooth comb specially made for lice to get each and every lice out and cover every strand of your hair... the 3 hour process also includes you sitting there with mates picking out the lice with their fingers like monkeys... the nits (eggs) are literally cemented to the shaft of your hair, so you have to carefullly pull very hard to get them off your hair.. the bugs are easier to pull off, but they do move around, so you have to catch them, heh..

this happened on wednesday, i'm doing it again today (friday) and every couple days or so for 14 days (the amount of days it takes for eggs to hatch).. the idea is to catch the baby ones before they become moms to lay eggs again...

i'm the picture of sexiness :)

Relationships

Not sure if I should be posting this since it's a personal matter (though I've posted on other personal feelings)... but I figured it's all a part of my traveling experience, so maybe I'll just comment on it really quick...

It's an obvious statement to say that long distance relationships are hard.. and i think taking on the challenge of keeping one up for the amount of time that i'll be gone was a bit overconfident... going that long without that physical presence is not very natural and no matter how often you talk on the phone or skype, the emotional connection is impeded upon... you're definitely not getting your needs met on either level...

no matter how much you love each other, it's not fair to either to put through i think.... and the strain of all of this is a recipe for disaster I think... a potential disaster that could affect any sort of future at all in that relationship...

so that being said... brentt and I have broken up... before any disasters happening... things can be re-evaluated when I return to the states... though my travels plans continue for the next 2 years (with a few short term stays in the U.S.), so it'll be a long wait...

Successful Korean DInner!!!

So, yesterday was one of my coolest evenings here because with the encouragement of a housemate, I cooked up a korean dinner... I was quite nervous about the whole thing because:
1. I dont cook often... if at all... (i can cook eggs and pasta)...
2. I have never cooked an entire korean meal by myself.. muchless the dishes i was about to do ..... (i have to admit, whenever meals were cooked at home it was either my mom, my sis, or my bro)....
3. Many of my housemates had not had korean food before... so lots of pressure to choose stuff that was tasty, and would make a good impression about korean food...

So, I cooked up some korean bbq, fried tofu, a bean sprout thing that is often served as "banchan", and a spinach thing often served as "banchan".. and rice... oh and i served kimchee with the meal...

Turned out great!!! People raved about the sauce... which was your sort of traditional korean flavor (soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, green onions, sugar)...

And i was sooooo excited to finally get some korean food in me.. yuuuuuuuuuummmmmmm

i've got some pictures that i'll post later...

And another package! AND... holiday plans.....

Got a package from my sis and Matt with christmas gifts!! :)

So I'm 3 for 3 with receiving mail from the states... my mom just sent me something again, so we'll see if it arrives... only thing is, it still is quite expensive to send stuff to me :(

I was careful not to look at the contents when the postal employee sorted through the package.. however, i unfortunately looked at the customs sheet on the outside of the package and saw one word! Sorry, Julienne!! I didn't mean to peek.. Anyway, only saw that one word, but it's actually somethign i was just about to go buy some of (and felt I was in "need" of)... so, looking forward to seeing what's actually in the package!!! :)


THANKS!!!!!!!

Looks like I'm spending the day after Christmas through New Years in Mancora.. a beautiful beach way north of Peru.. and then it'll only be a few more weeks after that that I get to see Brentt :)

Just so you know I'm actually working (and not surfing every day)....

Here's a picture of some of us volunteers doing some fundraising and volunteer recruiting... I seem to be not looking in the camera, but oh well :)
I know we look a bit silly with our hats.. :)



Fundraising/recruiting for:
1. Christmas dinner we are hosting for 154 families and more than 400 children.... we still need some funds, sugar, and chocolate (they have something called a Chocolatada, where everyone gets hot chocolate or something....?) ... but we're giving them a full dinner with paneton and hot chocolate and books as presents...
2. Volunteer house needs a fridge.. right now we have 9 volunteers living in the "SKIP house".. and we have 1 (small!) fridge... not sure if you can imagine how jam packed that can get.. We are expecting several more volunteers in January... so ... we're in need...
3. We're recruiting for volunteers in the summer for our summer camp :)

Actually, in the spirit of the holidays.. if you feel like donating money to SKIP... you can do so here:
1. Donating
or
2. Sponsor one of our kids

If you have questions about where the money goes to, you can email me... like for option #2 I personally know the kids in our program...

Page-A-Day Calendar

I get a daily Page-A-Day calendar (thanks A!)

Today's was:

MACHU PICCHU, PERU
Guests at the Sanctuary Lodge, steps from the entrance to this “lost city” of the Incas, have the unique privilege of wandering about the moonlit ruins after the day-tripping crowds leave.

More pictures up!

Of... Huanchaco, billiards, Chicama, surfing with SKIP teens, SKIP, Thanksgiving, random others


click picture...

New fruits: Cherimoya and Locuma...

just tried a Cherimola for the first time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annona_cherimola it tastes like gold is worth.(well before the value of gold went down.)




couldn't find a picture of locuma.. plus i haven't had the fruit by itself, only in yogurt, juice drinks and ice cream, but it's suuuuuuuuper yummy...

language confusion

the other day i tried to say "ahn yong ha seh yo" to someone.. it was very bizarre... i'm getting my languages mixed up and I'm forgetting how to say stuff in korean :( ...but then like the other day i'm randomly trying to speak korean.. i think it was because the lady looked asian (there are some asian looking peruvians).. and my instinctive response was: other language, asian looking: DO Korean!!

strange...