Busy week and lots of Spanish practice!

Hello everyone! I'm a little late posting this week, but we have been non-stop busy here in Peru! The weeks are just flying by now and I can't believe that this one is almost over now too.

Last week we had our workshop in Monsefu and it was awesome! It was basically a huge celebration of water. The mayor of the town spoke and people danced the Marinera, a traditional Peruvian dance. The people were so grateful that we were there. I have never been hugged and kissed by so many people before. And I successfully taught handwashing in Spanish. We taught them a song they can sing while washing their hands and everyone sang along. It was just so fun. I love the people in Peru!

We also worked in the medical posts again and helped the medical students plan for their upcoming health

The boys at the river showing me their fish

fair. Funny story from our time with the medical students: After they got done with class they told us we needed to come with them because we were going swimming. So we followed the med students down the dusty road, trying to figure out where where in the world we'd find water in this desert, and then walked through a small village and low and behold, found a river on the other side. One of the med students jumped in. We just dipped our feet. They keep telling us we need to go back and bring our swimsuits but me and the other volunteer are a little wary, haha!

Teaching in Chulucanas

This week I taught at a school in a town called Chulucanas. The students are between the ages of 16-19 and they are training to educate families about health in small communities in the mountains. They have lessons in disease prevention and treatment, nutrition, etc. I gave 2 lessons this week on the prevention of acute respiratory and diarrhoeal diseases. Good news is, I'm much more comfortable teaching in Spanish now. And the students help me with my pronunciation when I struggle with a word. They're really sweet. We're hoping to go with them sometime to the communities to teach the families, so we we'll have to see when that will work out. But it's 5-6 hours away so we have to plan it on a weekend. I'm
running out of weekends here!

English class at the orphanage

I also have been teaching English at an orphanage here in Piura. It's an all boys orphanage and there's about 15 boys total. I go on Wednesdays and help teach the younger boys They are so hyper!!
They want to learn English, but they also just love to play so we try to make up games. Last week we taught introductions and numbers and then played hide and seek, but everyone had to count in English. This week we taught fruits and vegetable and then played fruit basket. I think their favorite words are "coconut" and "good morning". These boys are just hilarious!

A woman in Ejidos carrying water on her donkey

I've found that it takes a lot of time to prep and plan for lessons and to prepare projects. I've been working on starting a new project here. We're going to build homemade mosquito traps and give them to families in Las Frias, where there have been several recent outbreaks of Dengue virus. It's been really cool for me to do because I'm getting real experience in finding a health need, planning an intervention, and pretty soon, carrying out that intervention. This is exactly what I wanted to do here and I am so excited that my project is coming together. This is truly an amazing experience and I am so happy to be here. I have awesome directors who help me translate and practice my lessons and encourage me to accomplish my goals, and I have made amazing friends among the other volunteers.
Peru is the best.