¡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