Out of Site Out of Mind

Man, I've been out of site a lot lately and have undergoing some feelings of guilt. Although many of these reasons have been Peace Corps related, and the others Peace Corps appproved, I am looking at going back to a whole new world in my site. After getting back from Reconnect, I had to head out again for something called PDM which is a project developement workshop to be attended with selected community members. I went ahead and attached a vacation trip to Ayacucho with a few awesome Peace Corps friends Frieda and Fletcher (aka Fletch City) to visit my sponsor child. He is a great kid and always had a smile on his face. I had brought him some gifts: a soccer uniform of Peru, a soccer ball, stickers, writting and drawing materials with colors, and some books. He seemed to really like them, which made me happy. We met in the NGO office along with the mom and members of the NGO and then headed to a park to play. The experience was great but went by fast. I was very glad I had that opportunity since it is so rare that sponsors have the opportunity to visit their sponsor kids.

After the PDM workshop, I felt much better about getting a good sustainable project started. Instead of spreading my work throughout several caserios, we felt that choosing one or two and doing a lot within those caserios would be more sustainable and overall a better idea. I can't wait to get the project plan together and start! I'm happy I have a project that I'm excited about now. Unfortunately, I won't be back in site until a few days after Easter because it wasn't really worth going back to site between my arrival from the PDM workshop in Lima and a regional meeting in my capital city. After the regional meeting, I had another couple-day period that I chose to spend visiting Eric's site near the regional capital. I loved his site (except the mosquitos) and realized how different the Peace Corps Peru atmosphere is for everyone. I went along with Matt and Mark and we helped a bit with the World Map project and a trial compost batch. Eric's host family was great. The mosquitos were not.

Now I'm back in the regional capital about to head out to the beach with other volunteers to celebrate our semana santa vacation. When I come back I have another workshop on AIDS and HIV through a US government initiative and then I finally get to go back to site. I've been gone for so long and feel pretty bad and guilty about it. I head that it is drying up and the sun us out, so it should be pretty different to see. I can't wait to start being outside and running again in site. This is a difficult season for the Sierra volunteers. I still think I like it better than the mosquitos though.

I hope everyone is well. Send questions if you have them! Have a happy Easter!