We had a good day of work at the office in Projects Abroad Mexico. The first part of the Care & Teaching workshop took place last Friday! 

Prof. Consuelo Velasco held the workshop and gave some useful tips to care and teaching volunteers. A continuation of it will happen some time really soon. Any tip given by a professional of education is really helpful! 

Thank you to all the volunteers who attended and thank you to Consuelo! 

See you in the next one! 

I haven´t written anything for a while, more for lack of time than lack of things to say. But I shall remedy that now. 

This weekend was the biggest fiesta in Urubamba in the whole year (Easter included), and is in celebration of Senor de Torrechayoc (the patron saint of Urubamba/Jesus). It started on Saturday morning at 4am, and still isn´t over (midday on the Monday after). Peruvians, when givn the chance, really know how to party! We were very excited, as my host father and brother would both be dancing in the parades (the multiple is necessary, they had to do their parade 5 times in the end!), and my host father was singing a solo in the mass. 

At about 9am on saturday the procession started coming past our house on the way to the stadium, and it really was amazing. There were about 40 groups in total, each with a different dance and different costumes. The costumes were amazing, all brightly coloured, some with masks with huge hooked noses, some with hats covered in sparkly sequins and coloured ribbons down the back, some with huge platform boots (not strictly Peruvian but we´ll overlook that for now...), and some wearing big bear costumes (again, not sure of the Peruvian relevance!).  The closest parallel I can think of to their dancing was like Scottish dancing, normally two lines interacting with each other and spinning round. the similarities kind of end there, as I´m pretty sure they don´t get to use whips in Scottish dancing, and I don´t think there´s a ´joker´ who goes around playing tricks on the crowd. Basically Peuvian dancing is a whole lot cooler. 

They then arrived in the stadium, and we followed them in, where a mass was held (the only religious part I could see of the whole ...

Das letzte Wochenende bin ich mal zu hause geblieben, weil ich mal ein ruhiges Wochenende machen wollte, lesen, schlafen und nichts anstrengendes machen :) Tja natuerlich laeuft das hier anders als geplant!Samstag war ich mit anderen verabredet eine Fahrradtour zu machen...ich weiss was ihr jetzt denkt "hat sie denn das Desaster mit der Wasserfalltour vergessen?" nein hatte ich nicht und ich war auch ein bisschen nervoes, aber geplant war urspruenglich eine 2 Stuendige Tour, eine Stunde zu einem Wasserfall, da ein bisschen schwimmen und eine Stunde wieder zurueck! Klang super und auch fuer mich machbar...aber dann  meinte der Fahrradverleihtyp es gaebe da auch eine andere Tour 4 Stunden hin zu einem Wasserfall und dann wird man dort abgeholt...Meine Freunde hier meinten dann alle, da wir ja den ganzen TAg haben koennten wir doch die 4 stuendige Tour machen....Ok, da ich ueberstimmt war und wir wirklich den ganzen Tag hatten hab ich zugestimmt! Unser Tourguide hiess Spiderman...ich mein, was soll mit einem Superheld schon passieren.Also nachdem wir mit Fahrrad und Helm ausgestattet waren gings los....naja nicht fuer mich, weil meine Kette direkt mal rausgesprungen ist...also stand ich mitten auf der Strasse und musste nach Spiderman rufen:) Gut, nachdem das dann wieder ganz war gings los. Am Anfang haben sie uns eine Karte mit den Hoehenangaben gezeigt....am Anfang sollte es einen hohen Berg hochgehen, aber dann nur noch kleinere und flacher....Oh mann nach dem Berg hab ich gedacht, dass wird easy, aber die folgenden waren nicht wirklich klein...das gute war, dass wir eine 12 jaehrige dabei hatten, die auch oefters Pausen gebraucht hat:) Naja irgendwann bei der Haelfte hab ich echt gedacht ich pack das nicht...es war auch einfach soo heiss, da wir eben nicht ...

The past couple days have been chaos to say the least. I have said a lot of things that I never thought would come out of my mouth in preparation for this trip. Just yesterday I had to ask my mom why my Typhoid vaccine was no longer with the butter in my refrigerator. The fact that this will be my last post on this continent is also included. Even telling people that I am going to Africa still sounds strange to me. The magnitude of this trip has finally set in, and I could not be more excited.

Mr. Parchment gave me some of the best advice at Church yesterday. "You are going to see things that you are going to want to fix in your own way. You have to accept that you can do what you can do, and it may not turn out the way that you want. You have to have confidence in your ability, even if things do not turn out the way you expect." He then cited an example from my fourth trip to Haiti; I was spending the day with an optometrist and a little girl came in with severe congenital cataracts. She was almost completely blind. In the states this is treated at birth and avoided through genetic counseling as her older sister had the same problem and was also almost completely blind. If the girl had been born into the United States' healthcare system she would most likely have perfect vision.

Injustices like this make my heart ache, but Mr. Parchment is right that I have to have confidence in what I am doing and know that things may not always be taken care of in the ways that I would expect. Advice like this, and the kind words of so many people, has given me the confidence to go to Africa believing I can help. I am so blessed with so many great people in my life who have supported me throughout this whole process. My church family has been calling me, posting, and a priest even ...

Nothing like starting off the week with a few shots and some pills, eh?  Naturally I'm referring to my first round of vaccinations for Nepal- don't know what YOU were thinking...

Today I got vaccinated against Polio and Hepatitis A and started a pill for the Typhoid Fever vaccination.  I have a few more vaccinations to get, but they are special order and highly expensive- approximately $1000- including the tetanus booster, Japanese Encephalitis and Rabies (which is currently unavailable in the US).

For most temporary travelers, the higher-end vaccinations (Japanese encephalitis and rabies) are not required.  However, because of the time of year I'll be there (post-monsoon season=higher insect population), the population I'll be working with and amount of time I will be there, I opted to receive those vaccinations to better protect myself.  I will be at a higher risk than short-term travellers and want to take the best precautionary measures possible.  Unfortunately, they come at a large cost, though not as large a cost than if I were to opt-out and find myself infected.

It feels good to have done something tangible to prepare for my trip.  So far, everything has been logisitical and planning/organization oriented.  Two needles in the arm isn't the optimal tangible experience, but I'll take it!  I have also started stocking up on some much needed supplie including hiking/trekking apparel, equipment and gear.  Living out of a backpack for a few months will be challenging, but I'm looking forward to it!

Apart from getting a few more vaccinations, the next step is planning my flights.  I will be receving my project details in June which include dates, exact placements and host family accomodations.  It's all coming ...