Week 5 down!

So the weeks go back fast, and the go by slow. Such is life. However, a day goes much slower after a night out at a local concert, and you wake up to your host mom tapping on your window, and you are confused because she is waking you up early on a sunday...then you sit up and realize it is tuesday. Not that that happened to me :)

So monday night was the...100th anniversary of Chosica, which meant there was a huge concert with many bands playing throughout the night. It also meant bad news for several poor gringos. Four volunteers were robbed in one way or another in just the span of 3 hours. Two got their wallets taken (only one really had stuff in it) while others got their phones stolen. However, besides the theft, it was a really

great time. The past volunteer to live with my host family was in town, so along with him, and my two host brothers, most of the group from Yanacoto headed to the concert. We were there from around 10, until 2am. It was nice to switch something up in the routine.

Unfortunately those incidents at the concert weren't the only robberies to take place in the past week. (Warning to each and all mothers reading: scary incident coming up, but will not happen to many people...so mom don't worry :) ) A girl in our group went to a concert this last saturday with her host sisters. They were related to someone in the salsa band, and they were looking for a cab to take them to the after-party. They did find one, and luckily (so they thought) a cheap one! Well after a few turns here and there, the driver turned around and said he needed everything they had, while pointing a gun at them. They did as he said, and luckily were left unhurt, however the girl didn't have any of the numbers for our directors. The police apparently weren't great to them either, at least not until they got in contact with our director, and our security director (who looks like the spanish version of Robert De Niro from Meet the Parents...and equally intense). As it turns out, they found and impounded the car. I'm not sure what will happen next. But we are all just thankful that she was ok.

Funny story about our security director (ex military...and you can tell). He is very serious about always calling him and getting help whenever we need it, no matter where, and even if it is somewhere that we shouldn't be. so someone asked "what do we do if we have to kill someone?" (as in if we were attacked...i'm guessing...unless we have a killer amongst us) And he answers very nonchalantly, "I'll deal with it after." Like i said, very De Niro-like.

Anyways, the rest tuesday and wednesday weren't anything big. Pretty normal. I have a new spanish class. However, much to my embarrassment, i didn't raise up a level after my last interview. I guess i'm not surprised, but it i felt soooo stupid. And usually, as many of you know, i can usually be my biggest critic. I really miss my old class. My new professor is very sweet, and i like my classmates, but my old class with Ivan as my prof. was awesome. Plus i got to spend most of the day with Chris, Melissa, and Alyse. Sadly i don't see them as much now, especially because we are starting to focus more on out tech classes.

Speaking of tech classes, this week began our thursday/friday practical training days. So this thursday our WATSAN group separated into 6 teams and did handwashing training at the school right across the street from my house. It was a lot of fun. My team worked with the 10-12 year olds. We played a couple of games, and then my group of students and I presented conjuntivitis (pink-eye) to the rest of the class.

After that, we left for our two day excursion. We first went to a district of Lima that has been a success story as a place where the community got organized about their trash and waste, and is now very clean. Apparently before they got organized, no dump truck had been up the hill in decades. And by the stench, giant mounds of trash, and the swarms of flies, you could tell. I can understand how big trucks couldn't get up and into a lot of the community on the hill. It was really, really steep, and the roads were wide enough for maybe a honda to get through. Also, amazing to me, more people lived on this one hill than do in my entire home town of Roseburg (more than 24 thousand lived there). It was amazing to hear of the change that has occured.

Next we traveled a few hours south on buses (while watchign Tom Hanks in Big, in spanish). We arrived in Cañete that evening. We enjoyed a night away fromthe ordinary, but i certainly didn't try to "enjoy" it as much as some of my fellow volunteers, who didn't look so great during our many tours the next day. OH! I got my first warm shower at the hostel! It was awesome. Probably worth all the traveling.

Friday we met with the mayor of Cañete, and then went to several site visits around the area. We saw trash/recycling centers, as well as dry bathrooms. This took up most of the day, but most of the day was spent going from place to place. After eating a late lunch with the entire WATSAN group + those who showed us around (probably 30 in total), we started our way back to Lima, and then home. Once back in Lima 5 of us Yoco elite found a tiny cab. I mean that literally. This thing was really small. I had my friend Jess on my lap for a good halfhour, and just about before i though i would have permanent blood flow problems to my legs, the driver said it was safe to have someone in the way back.

After the long day, this morning came much to quickly. However, it was back to the usual saturday routine for WATSAN, back a the center. It has been really overcast today, and at lunch my mother said that it was about time for the very little rain that they get during the spring and summer to arrive. She must have felt it in her bones, cause i was amazed to see it sprinkling an hour after her saying that. I'm glad to see a little bit of precipitation! 24 years of Oregon in my blood doesn't make me used to this dry dessert! Well, that's about it for me. Sorry that i don't have many pictures from this week, but we were told that they could easily get taken if we brought them to our site visits. However, there is a picture of me with my first package, which I received today!!!!! I felt like i had won the lottery. So far the best part of my day, and maybe the week. Miss you. Talk to you all soon.