Early IST.

IST.
23 Enero 2011

wow. early IST. a whirlwind of information, catching up, presenting, and bonfires which resulted in many new stories to add to my peruvian adventure…

we arrived with our socios on sunday and checked in to our beautiful hotel in Huanchaco.

chuck and mark - in front of their room:

kaysi:

tim:

after a late ceviche lunch, a few of us went down to the beach to watch the beautiful sunset. we are all so close, and we truly missed each other.

sunset - time on the beach:

our days were filled with learning about community banks - a new concept that, im sure, is going to excel in catache. my socia was one of the more actively participating ones, and we came up with a plan to execute the bank in our community.

charlas:

Ryan:

and our nights were filled with catch-up time for all of us volunteers.

the socios left after the 3rd day, and despite the fact that we were all exhausted from the charlas lasting from sun up to sun down, we got a chance to openly discuss our communities. the last night, we had a recap on the beach with alfredo, luis, dr. jorge, and enrique. it was nice to finally connect with them on a more personal level. later, we all had a bonfire on the beach with s’mores and hot dogs.

on the last day our country director, sanjay, came and spoke with us about the difficult week we had in the peace corps… between the 20/20 episode and loosing Sargent Shriver (the first peace corps director), it was a tough week for all of us. but, sanjay was optimistic and hopeful - as we all were. and listening to him speak was such a treat - as always.

that night, most of us went in to Trujillo and we got a chance to see the city. the next day, a few of us went sand boarding for the first time. super cool - and definitely not as hard as i thought it would be.

before showering the sand off, omar, andrew, and i got dropped off and took a combi to see some ruins from the moche period - huacas del sol y de la luna (temples of the sun and the moon). im so glad that we dragged our tired, sand-filled bodies to see this. the ruins were much bigger and grander than i anticipated, and so rich in history! the huaca del sol is the largest single pre-columbian structure in peru, and was built with an estimated 140 million adobe bricks.

all in all - such a great time! i really got a lot out of every aspect - the classes, the meetings, the time with our bosses, and the time with each other. and im leaving with so many great new ideas for programs that i know will work in my community. im excited to put things into motion when i get back to site!