Sophie's Life in Peace Corps Perú: La Lluvia

"Those who journey can easily understand,
the more they see the more they'll learn,
the more that they will be.
So this I swear to you, and this I swear to me,
I'll never rest till I've seen all I can see.
No, I'll never rest till I've seen all i can see."
-Brendan James

I've survived my first rainy season in the Andes. Although it's still raining, the sunlight is in sight at the end of this proverbial rainy tunnel. Over the past few months, I've been visited by my parents, who both came up to my site and met my Peruvian family. My trips with my parents were amazing and refreshing. I found complete peace on my jungle trip with my Dad. And apart from luxing-out in a beautiful beach bungalo in the North of Peru, the real highlight of my mom's trip was when she camp up to Llanganuco Laguna with some friends and me, and captured the kodak moment that was us jumping into that glacial lake in the nude. It was hard to see my parents go, but that's the sacrifice.

*Posing in our Ancashina mantas before the big jump*

I also spent two weeks in Huaraz learning Quechua, the language of the Incas with about 10 other Ancashino volunteers. Although I did learn a good base of the language, we did manage to behave like teenagers during our classes - defacing each others notebooks, etc. I have no idea how I'm going to survive going back to school after Peace Corps. Focusing is something I just can't...

*A little mid-Quechua-class yoga...*

School has started again in Tumpa, which means that my work life has been much more productive and exciting. Although the full school transition has yet to occur (we're still missing a couple teachers), I've initiated a couple promising projects. The Ministry of Education in Peru has identified the student's reading comprehension as being one of the greatest weaknesses in education right now. Thus, the school librarian and I are working on a Library Expansion project. Through local community fundraising a Peace Corps fund, Lidia and I will purchase books of fiction and non-fiction in Spanish, English and Quechua for the students. We'll fill up the library and start some reading groups with the goal of increasing reading comprehension among students in Tumpa. I also started a Youth Social Theater Group, and we had our first performance this week! It totally brought me back to my acting days at GFA. We prepared a play about Tuberculosis and the kids performed in front of their entire school on World Tuberculosis Prevention Day. The play was followed by a parade around town. It's great to see campo kids animated and enthusiastic. This friday, I'll start tutoring English to the most outstanding English students at Tumpa's high school. So I've got some interesting and dynamic projects going, which is just the motivation I need to survive the final weeks of the rain.
Enjoy the pictures, keep in touch, and keep the packages coming!

*Play practice at the health center*

*The whole theater group, post-show, with their Tuberculosis banner getting ready for the parade*