casa dulce casa...

Yeah...so I am home now! Yay! Home is really fun especially since right now I am in Hawaii with my family on vacation.
I got a few complaints that I stopped blogging at the end of my trip. Sorry to my faithful followers! And even my not-as-faithful followers. So I decided I would do at least one more blog post to sum up the rest of my trip.
The last couple weeks in yantalo were great. I fell in love with all my students and it was really hard to say bye to them. We finished our nutrition/physiology program with the physical education teacher and I taught about vitamins and fitness nutrition.
I did finally organize the nutrition curriculum with the vaso de leche program which was three classes. I didn't however ever have anyone come to my classes which is embarrassing to admit, but I am trying to share the failures along with the success stories. The first class I didn't advertise at all, I just gave a few invitations to the lady in charge and she said she would distribute them. When no one came, I did more advertising before my next class and spent a couple hours delivering invitations...still no one came. Then I even had them announce it over the loudspeaker in town, but no one came. I was pretty bummed at first, but then I realized it was still a good experience. I met a lot of people and had good conversations when I was delivering invitations. I also learned a lot from preparing the lessons so the only real bummer was that I didn't get to share the information with the people I loved so much.
We also finished our english lessons, but we were trying to get another volunteer to continue the lessons because we all now you never really finish learning a language and our students don't have a lot of places to practice.
Speaking of them practicing, after I left yantalo but while I was still in peru a couple of our students called my cell phone on average six or seven times a day. It was nice to know that I was missed, but I had hoped to be more replaceable so all the programs and classes would be sustainable.
After leaving yantalo, I went with Caleb and Starla to Lima, Huancayo, Satipo, and Huanuco. Each was an area that Caleb had served in on his mission so we met a ton of people that were so hospitable. It was really fun to sit around and chat and I was glad we did it at the end of our trip when I had more spanish practice.
After all that traveling, we went back to Lima and I met up with my dad and John and Liz (brother and sister). Then we went to Cuzco and Machu Picchu and did a lot of touring and souvenir shopping. Caleb and Starla were with us on and off and overall it was a very fun last week. Maybe I'll make another post sometime just so I can add pictures.
So yeah, that's the end of my trip in a nutshell. I had such a good time and I am grateful for the experiences I had, the people I met, and all the things I learned. If anyone is thinking of visiting Peru I would recommend it. It is a beautiful country and the people are so kind.
Thanks everyone for your support and interest in my travels. I'm home safely and I am enjoying adjusting to life in the states again. We really are so blessed. Love you all! Chow!

Daily happenings not just weekend trips

This is how we get in our room when we forget our keys, which happens more and more often. I´ve gotten fairly good and climbing in the window :D

Three of my favorite students and me after an afternoon english class. That day was a lot more playing than learning, but it´s good to have fun every so often to keep them wanting to come and learn. The one on my right is my favorite; his name is Kevin.

Some kids just call my name through the window until I come out to practice flashcards with them. I feel like we´re teaching all day, but it´s not enough for these kids. Party on the front porch. This was the largest crowd I´ve had. Usually it´s just a couple, but this day attracted others as well. I love these kids!

This week we started teaching nutrition and physiology to the PE kids and the activity I had them do during their second hour was build food pyramids...well out of people as you can see. I just assigned them to be bread or carrots or whatever and they did pretty well from there. Most were pretty hesitant at first, but they got better at it and it has been really fun.

Animal Adventures

Here are a few animals I´ve encountered since being in the jungle. I don´t have much time to do captions, but I think you can figure out what´s what. Love love.

Bet you weren´t expecting this!

Hello all, we decided to drop into Moyo in the middle of the week just to switch things up a bit...and restock our fruit supply. There´s not much to update since last time except our english classes are getting bigger and bigger. It is so great. The only hard thing is deciphering which students to teach what because now we have a big range of ability. It is good though, last night we had over 30 students so we broke it into three groups and Caleb, Starla and I each took one. I think they all went well. Today we had a lot of kids in the afternoon as well so we´ll see how tonight goes. We may have to start getting help from other volunteers.
Other volunteers...yeah there´s a group of med students from New York here now. They´re pretty awesome and they have their own research projects so we´re mostly doing the same thing as we were before. There is another group coming from Chicago this month sometime so Starla and I may have to move into a house of girls then they´d put the boys in our current house with Caleb. We´ll see...
Yeah life is good. We´re starting our physiology/nutrition program next week in the PE classes. I don´t remember if I´ve posted about the doctor leaving on this blog, but yeah the original nutrition program plan was under a doctor who decided to go to Spain for five years and she left last week. I´m working on developing a new one, something with a vaso de leche plan they already have. Again...we´ll see.
As always I´ll keep you updated. Life is great, our classes are really moving and people are actually learning, yay! Ok, love to all. Stay sweet.

As Promised...Pictures

A couple pictures from our super long hike to the top of the mountain. One is at the top, and one is at the bottom after it all. I´m going to assume you can figure out which is which. Well, I´ll give you a clue in case...the one with Starla is at the top. Ok, that was a pretty good hint, there´s no excuse if you don´t get it.


These are some pics from our waterfall trip last week...super fun.


These are a couple pictures to illustrate the crazy field trips here. There is a rope in the middle holding the sides of the truck together...really safe. Law suit anyone?

This is a picture of me fishing with a string...notice the reflection of the beautiful clouds.

Ok, I hope you all enjoy the pictures. I think maybe next time I´ll bring a couple from everyday life. Love love.

Jungle Fever

So I was a bit sick at the beginning of the week. It was amazing how many people wanted to help and were concerned for my well-being. At first they thought I might have Dengue Fever because I went to Soritor, the neighboring city that apparently has had problems with that. It turned out I just had a bit of pharyngitis or something. Some kind of a bacteria or virus. I took some pills and got a blessing and slept for a couple days then I was better. I had to postpone my nutrition class, but I did get to teach it on Thursday. It went pretty well, it was a little less than an hour and I felt like it was good enough. I think it was the first class that I taught all by myself. The director asked us to come back and teach other things too so it must not have been too bad. Next time I might just ask for questions first then plan my lesson because I spent a lot of time answering questions based on weird traditions they have. It was kind of like when I was sick, people told me a wide variety of reasons I wasn´t feeling well. Some were legit, and some just made me laugh. I don´t think they ever learned the germ theory here...maybe I´ll make that my next lesson. Ok, well I´m going to try and post some pictures but as a different post just in case it doesn´t work. Thanks for all your support, I really am loving my time here. I am glad I get to be settled in the village, as more volunteers come and go I realize how much easier it is to make a difference when you spend a significant amount of time. We´ve been here for about a month and we´re still developing solutions to problems we´ve only just barely found. It really is a wonderful place, the people are great and the life is simple. The people have such a desire to learn and to make life better, especially for their kids. It is just an awesome place to work. Ok, that´s all. Love to all. -Jenny

Teaching!

This week was more working which was great! We taught a lot and went to meetings to teach more. Most of our classes are still at the colegio (elementary, middle, and high school) which is fun and gives us a lot of variety. This week we also started our night english classes for anyone who wants to come- yes including you guys. The weather was bad and our advertising was lacking so the attendence was scarce, but it´s bound to improve. People ask us about it all the time.
There´s not much else that is new...oh. One thing, I am going to teach a nutrition lesson to some people who take night classes. It should be fun.
Also, we had another field trip...only this time we rode with the kids in the truck I was telling you about last week.
This morning we went with some kids from the church to some waterfalls and it was awesome! Such a beautiful day, wonderful people, and fun swimming, hiking, and rock jumping stuff.
I´m actually about out of time, so I´m going to make this one short. All is well here and I hope it´s the same wherever you are. Love love.

Good Times

Ok, this is actually a post from last week that didn´t work. Sorry it´s been a while. Here ya go:
Oh the jungle! This week was full of crazy activities. Field trips, fishing, karate classes, and hiking to the top of a mountain, we even found a few vines to swing on…literally.
We went to another village called Pueblo Libre that is even smaller than Yantaló to watch some of our students play volleyball. It was awesome, they’re pretty good. The field trip was a little different because the students just piled into a truck which took them to a river where they crossed on a ferry to get on another truck. We had the same trip, but we rode in motos or vans instead of the truck. It was a little over an hour to get there then we got special treatment because I guess technically we’re professors since we’re teaching English and such. So we got free lunch and everyone wanted us to feel really welcome. People are constantly asking if we’re enjoying Yantaló and making sure we have everything we need, which we do. So mom, you can stop worrying. Actually, since mom doesn’t know how to get on the computer to read this, I’m trusting one of my siblings to relay the message.
The fishing was also really fun, they just use some fishing line wrapped around a block of wood. I am really bad at fishing, but I already knew that. I did become the master of casting by the end but that was only after I threw in one of the blocks of wood. Apparently they’re so valuable that the son of the guy that took us jumped in after it; needless to say I kept the wood in my pocket after that.
The karate classes were taught by our roommate Lura from Colorado, she owns a Tae Kwon Do school where she’s from and just came to share her talent. I was designated the photographer for the class (probably after demonstrating a complete lack of skill) which was fun because I got to talk to the kids and observe thoroughly.
Speaking of classes, our “topic” this week for the students in the high school was sex health. Some classes were mature about it and others not. Let’s just say talking about STDs with a bunch of teenagers made me glad that I’m no longer in high school. I think we’ll do the same thing this week and I’ll probably be doing more teaching; I’m excited for the nutrition program to start in June.
Oh, I never blogged about the earthquake! We had an earthquake last week :D It was pretty fun, just long enough for us to realize what was happening, try to get out front, and realize we were locked out of the house. Nothing dangerous for us, apparently it destroyed a bit of road and such closer to Chiclayo.
So…hiking. Hiking Mount Moro. Craziest hike I’ve been on…but so fun and beautiful. Well, probably more beautiful than fun. It was all worth it though, we had about three hours hiking to/up the mountain about the same back. There was a bit of rock climbing, ducking under barbed wire fences, trying (sometimes unsuccessfully) to balance on logs through some water, and a lot of sun and exhaustion. At one point I had to do a headstand for a minute to get my legs to share some blood with my head.
Ok, that´s about all the news you can handle hearing. Love to all.

Picture Update

Ok, I´m not actually sure if the words go by the right picture or how this works, but if this is by a picture of a spider and a beetle then the following applies:
This is a picture of a spider and a beetle. The spider bit the beetle while it was trapped in its web. The beetle did break free, but unfortunately the venom had done the damage and the ants outside our door got to enjoy the body...brought to you by...National Geographic. This all took place on my ceiling...one of the reasons I moved to the bottom bunk.



The following message should be next to an excited picture of me with fruit and a knife:
Another wonderful thing about Peru. So many kinds of fruit! This is called...well actually it´s called tuna. Something else that is cool but I don´t have a picture of is sucking on sugar cane yum. They just ask you if you like to suck and you have to assume they mean on sugar cane and not like a vacuum. If someone tells you that you suck, it´s very sweet...like sugar cane.

Ok, well the other pictures won´t post now. These computers are very tempormental so I guess take what you can get. Yantaló is awesome, the people are used to having us around and the kids love us. Right now we have two other roommates: Aisan from Chicago who is leaving on Friday and Lura from Colorado who is leaving next week. We´ll have a lot of people drop in and out throughout the summer; we´re the only ones that are hard core and staying the whole time.
I´m going to post this before it deletes it again. I love you all!

¡Yantaló!

Hello all! So now I´m in Yantaló, well I live there. At this moment I´m actually in Moyobamba about 20 minutes away. There´s not internet in Yantaló so here we are. We had about a 17 hour bus ride from Trujillo and got here around 8 Sunday morning.
Today we went to the school and the clinic to get more details about our projects. The doctor I´ll be working with has a very authoritative manner and scares me a little with what she expects but hopefully I´ll figure out a way to make her happy. They´re starting some nutrition research to find out where the problems are and why, etc. etc. So I´ll be helping with that. She also said every Thursday we´ll teach a class about something people can make with what they have that´s very healthy and has the right amount of certain nutrients. I´ll tell you more about it as I get into it. She had a long list of duties that were all in Spanish; hopefully I caught them all. I´m actually really excited because it´s going to be awesome experience for real life stuff. It´s diagnosing problems and finding solutions mostly.
Anyway, a little about general living...
We go to church in Moyobamba and the branch is very welcoming and friendly. Yesterday they drove us around and helped us find a phone to call our moms for mothers day. Also, we´re invited to the institute activities they have on Saturdays. This week is kareoke :D Oh! Which reminds me, I haven´t blogged about this yet..I went surfing!! Yeah, when we were in Huanchaco (surfing capital of Peru) we got surfing lessons and rode some waves. I will say I surprised myself with how much I enjoyed it and how easy it was, but we also had people pushing us into the waves and telling us when to stand up so maybe that was most of my success. But hey, in my defense all those instructions were in a foreign language :D
Ok, back to Yantaló. The old couple we live with is darling! We have papa luis and mama flora. Their house is cute too. Starla and I live in the same room and we have a view of the cute garden of rose bushes and other flowers outside our window. The bathroom is outside, but it flushes so it´s not really an outhouse. The shower is a little ghetto, pretty open. (I don´t know if it´s appropriate to make a joke about feeling naked here so I´ll refrain). Anyway, I hung a towel over a broomstick that covered most of the space above the door but anyway, enough about the shower. Oh, except there´s also no hot water. Needless to say, I´m glad girls don´t shave their legs here, the less time in the shower the better. Ok, now I really am done...
Um...the food is so good. There´s a lot of starchy things we usually have rice or potatoes with lunch and dinner. The mormons are known as the people who only drink chocolate because everyone else drinks coffee or tea so we drink hot chocolate, but that´s just breakfast. This morning we had something...now I don´t remember what it´s called but it´s like a super super thin oatmeal. Like just the flavor not really the texture at all, it was good.
Weather, let´s talk about the weather...It has rained a lot since we´ve been here but it´s mostly hot and humid even with the rain. I slept with only a sheet over me and I was plenty warm. Oh, I sleep on a bunkbed. It´s cool, initially my mattress was on the bottom bunk but I put in on the top and put my stuff on bottom, it´s a pretty sweet set up.
There´s so much to talk about, I think that´s a pretty good summary for now. With each day feeling like a week and lacking internet access it´s hard to keep you all updated, but I´ll do my best. Oh, also the pictures are on my laptop which no longer gets internet so one of these days I´ll put some on a jump drive so you can see some things...sorry for the delay! Ok ok, I´m being timed so I better go. I love you all!
Love,
Jenny

Trujillo....eh....Huanchaco

For a summarized version, skip to the end. (See last paragraph)
So first I would like to give a bit of background since I realize some people may read this blog who didn't know I was going to Peru. Don't worry, there's not much catching up to do. I'm going...no...I'm in Peru. I'm here to complete an internship for my international development minor. Thus, I am an international development intern. I am on my way to a village called Yantalo with about 3000 people. Here I will be working closely with the organization called Yantalo (yeah same name as the village, don't be confused) as a volunteer.
Ok...now for the update on my journey.
I am now in Huanchaco which is a bit away from Trujillo. We're staying in a hotel right across from the ocean so the sound of the waves as you sleep is a free bonus. It's beautiful. Today we took a tour of the major historical sites/ruins and stuff that are nearby. We saw Huaca del Sol y Huaca del Luna which are temples of the Moche people (pre-Incan). And actually the Huaca del Sol hasn't really been excavated so I just took the word of the guide lady that it is under the mound of dirt she showed us. Well, I think that's what she said at least, all the tours were in Spanish so it's possible some of the facts got mixed up. Anyway, our next stop was...well lunch. THEN, we went to Chan Chan and Huaca El Dragon.
After all our touring we went to the beach just long enough to get a little wet and watch the sunset. I'm not a blog expert yet but I'm going to try and upload some pictures in a bit and hopefully that'll give you a better idea of things.
So, in order to not bore my faithful blog readers if you skipped to the end, here's a summary of my day: we saw a lot of ancient adobe then went to the beach.
Love,
Jenny

Three beds and a mini fridge

¡Hola! y bienvenidos to my blog.
So...I'm in Peru. We arrived this morning at 5ish and checked into our hotel in Lima after a nice man picked us up (not a nice stranger man, a nice previously arranged chauffer man). The title of this blog is a good description of what Starla and I found when we opened the door of the hotel room.
A few things that made me feel welcome:
-The green light that came on after I pushed an oversized button that told me I didn't have to have my bags checked in customs...Starla was not so lucky
-Taylor Swift song upon landing
-The previously mentioned chauffer man, also known as Victor
-A restaurant called Jenny
-Each jogger I saw. There was a surprising amount for 6 in the morning...(either that or a big game of tag that we totally missed out on)
-etc.
Yes well, there are a few things that are different i.e. traffic laws, kissing customs, etc. but it's very fun. This morning we went to breakfast (drinks) at 10 (11) with Luis (a group of medical students) Although it was more like the parenthetical descriptions that what I was expecting, I really enjoyed it. It was a lot of spanish since all the students were from Latin American countries, but I understood most of it. Oh, what I didn't understand most of was the concert we went to tonight. Maybe the microphone was slurring their ennuciation, maybe songs are harder to understand, maybe I got less than an hour of sleep in a bed last night, maybe I just need to practice Spanish. But I think some of these reasons ganged up and somehow made it so I was mostly lost. Oh, also...the songs were in Quechua not Spanish. But I did love the accordian :D
A few things that I need to get used to for my stay in Peru:
- Speaking Spanish
- Being without Taylor
- ¡The Spanish keyboard!
- Crazy traffic and drivers
- etc.
Ok, so for those of you who are wondering what I'll be doing in Peru (mom) I'll update you as I go. I learned today that one of the doctors that works at the clinic in Yantalo wants to start a nutrition program and Luis mentioned multiple times that it would be my job. I don't really know what that entails. For now, I'm working my way to the village one bus at a time. We're in Lima, tomorrow we go to Trujillo (about 9 hours by bus) and hopefully I'll update you from there. Oh, and mostly when I say we I mean Caleb, Starla and I :D
Lots of love to all,
-Jenny