Surviving the one year point and Onward

As of writing this post I’ve officially been at my site over one year. I have been busy as of late continuing with the classes I had going on and starting a couple other ones. Since it has been a while since the last post I can give a brief review of some of the more notable things over the past few months.

June: I helped run the Pacasmayo International Marathon over the 4th of July weekend. Also, I had some visitors from the states which were great. My mother and uncle came for over a week where we got to see my site and also the famous Machu Picchu. Also my sis and her good friend came up the north coast and got to see my site and host family.

July: I got to visit a city in the sierra of Southern Peru called Arequipa, otherwise known as the ‘white city’. Towards the end I finished up my business plan classes in my town and in the next town over.

August: Went to a business plan competition in Lima with two jovenes from my town which was a fun and exhausting experience.

September: Teaching a project management course in the town over along with English classes to a group of high school students in Pacasmayo.

October: Planning to have a youth camp in my site in early November. Amazon River Raft Race

So basically now I’m finishing up my project management course and planning for the youth camp in my site. I just got back from the Great Amazon River Raft Race which was a three day race down the river on a raft we made ourselves. The event was a blast and I’m still recovering from all the rowing we did. The first day was about 6 hours, the second 10 hours, and the third about 7 hours. Spent almost an entire day on a raft during the course of three days! Probably spent as much if not more time rowing than I did sleeping, which was pretty rough. Afterwards, my girlfriend and I got to explore the jungle a little more. We went to an animal reserve that had monkeys, sloths, birds, and snakes. It was pretty cool because the animals were free to come and go as they pleased and I got to hold an anaconda! We also went into the jungle by boat on one of the smaller rivers. From there went on a little hike to see some cool medicinal plants. To top it all off we then got to go piranha fishing! Was a fun trip, now getting back into the swing of things, finishing up my class, planning the youth camp for November, and then will have to think of some stuff do for the kids during summer vacation here.