Some days are diamonds and some days are stones

At the end of week 5, this is one tired woman. And I woke this morning with my back in pain so I´m slow moving today. I was attributing my fatigue to my 65 years when I talked with two volunteers in their early 20´s at lunch and learned that we´re all pretty beat. This is intense training and adjustment, lots of folks with diarrhea and lots of homework. So I took a break from classes and slept 2 hours on the cot in the little infimary. Ah, sleep mends a lot! When I get home, the yoga mat comes out!

I learned yesterday where I will be going for a week of field based training starting a week from Sunday. With 3 other volunteers and one of our trainers, I´ll be going to the way north of the state of Piura, close to the border of Equador. We´ll be in the mountains at about 3000 meters which translates to about 9000 feet. I´m pretty excited even with a 17 hour bus ride to get there. I´ll not be on the internet that week! Probably be helping build latrines, sleeping on the floor of a host family and eating more entirely new food. One of the volunteers who´s been here a year said something I keep in mind, ¨The way to their heart is through my stomach¨. My host mom has learned not to put a mountain of rice on my plate but in a new setting, it´s eat, eat, eat. I´ve lost weight here though because I really walk a lot.

Tomorrow night at midnight begins the quinceneros celebration of my host sister. My house is really busy with preparations. I got out my 1 good dress to wear for this all night affair. My family wants to see me dancing even though I´ve told them my dancing is worse than my Spanish. I´m helping with some of the cooking and will try to get to a neighoring market town to find an appropriate gift. I´m also taking the photos for this and they´ll be able to send them to a grandmother in Argentina online.

I love reading your comments, thanks for the cheering section!

Sarita