Well, it´s been a while, hasn´t it?

So here we are, almost a year later! Oooops. Lot´s has happened lately!

To begin with, I changed sites in October. I went from Corral de Arena to the district capital, Olmos. I love it bunches. It´s nice to be closer to other volunteers (there are two within reasonable walking distance) and to be closer to things in general. Internet, the market, lots of people. Running water. It took me a while to admit to myself that I just wasn´t cut out for campo living. Not that I need constant running water or internet or anything personally, but in order to get work done and to stay sane, it actually is a little necessary. And it´s easier to talk to people in Olmos, as the conversations have gone farther than "you just hanging out?" and "you´re totally going to get married and live here forever." Nope. Not going to do that.

I´ve been working with a captive breeding and rescue center, Crax 2000, which is in another caserío (little town in the campo) of Olmos. It really cute, and eventually I will post some pics. Once I figure out how to do that. It´s challenging, but a good challenge.

A few weekends ago, we went to the department of Cajamarca to celebrate Carnaval, which is Peru´s version of Mardi Gras. It was ridiculous. Ridiculously awesome, I mean. There was a city wide water fight, and for some reason it´s cool to throw paint out, too. It made from some cool souveniers, anyway. I´ll always remember why those clothes are colored to strangely now. The next day, they had a 5 hour long parade, still threw water balloons (thankfully i think it was illegal to throw paint, though), and we all relaxed and recovered, heading home on a night bus. of course, i got sick, as always, but it didn´t last too long.

While most of us were in Cajamarca, my new (as of January) sitemate and another volunteer masterminded a super awesome sandwich competition, because most of us live on sandwiches and, well, who doesn´t like a day of fantastic food? That craziness happened last weekend. I was really impresed by the sandwiches that everyone made. There were 8 contestants (5 volunteers and 3 Peruvian women), and we had everything from mayo and hotdog, to super tangy maracuyà (a local fruit) marinated chicken, currey and soy meat, lots of mangos, and an omlet. Definitely ranks up there as one of the 5 best days ever. A special shout out to our fantastic judges, as well. One judge, Dani, was dying of a migraine and saying she was probably going to puke her guts out, but she was so dedicated to judging such delicacies that she put that aside. And kept it all in! Mike, our volunteer leader, put his best foot forward and judged everyone fairly. Sarah´s 2 host siblings also participated, and, of course, judged her sandwhich the best. Whatever. I still got second :) And her sandwhich was awesome anyway.

The 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps was this month! On 1 March, Peace Corps threw a party in Lima, which a small number of volunteers were randomly given the opportunity to attend (we did a raffel). Then each department had their own regional celebration throughout the month. Ours was last Tuesday, and it was a huge success. We spent a huge amount of time putting togther a beautiful picture gallery (if I don´t say so myself) and the actual ceremony went well. Even if I caught Dani´s flu from two days before and spent the afternoon puking my guts out. But the day itself was nice. A group of dancers performed a really beautiful dance, as well. For a second I thought, " I could totally do this, that looks awesome." then I remembered that I have zero rythm. Oh well. One can dream, no?

Sarah and I are on our way out to Zaña today, which is our friend Nicole´s site. She had invited the dance group to the anniersary party and they are performing in a festival tonight. Should be good! Pics to come, as usual.