Well, life moves along here and I have recently come to grips with the fact that I have only 5 precious weeks left here! Hard to believe that almost 6 months ago I was starting out on this multifaceted adventure with no idea how many blessing God would bring into my life. As the days pass ever more quickly, I am learning how to live more fully in the present and soak-up all that my Peruvian family has yet to teach me. But, it is going to be very hard to leave them.
A glimpse into my typical week here would show a never-ending supply of things to do. But, really, what is new?
I am working to finish the lomas project proposal for A Rocha Peru and building long-term contacts for the organization. Last week, my supervisor and host-mom, Amparo, were at a university presentation about a new lomas project started by a student group. Afterwards, we met their supporting professor and he invited us to a meeting with the Municipality of Lima that he was going to right then. We were definitely in the right place at the right time. We were able to gain the support of the local government for our lomas project and this is huge! A Rocha Peru was asked to be part of their technical support group and we met other interested stakeholders at the meeting. I had a chance to talk about the work we were doing and where I thought the Municipality could be of most help. Thank goodness I had been doing a little research!
I have been recently thinking how much I would love to come back to Peru while in Graduate school to do some additional research/implementation on this project. Who knows? It very well could happen. I really have been privileged to work with A Rocha during the formative "baby steps" of the project and learn about all the falls and smiles that are part of learning how to walk. Perhaps, I can also be around when the walking turns to running.
In other news, I have been learning how to dance the Marinera with my "aunt" Cielo. Slowly but surely I say. It is fun and we have quite a few laughs while doing it. Apparently, it is all about how well you can flirt....instead of the language of the hand fan, it is the language of the handkerchief. I'll keep you posted on how it turns out. I suppose it will depend if I can convince someone to be my dance partner or not ;)
Tonight I tried to make cookies for the first time since coming to Peru. It is hit and miss with ingredients here so I thought I would use the recipe on the back of the Spanish Quaker Oats package. I followed the instructions with a few improvisations and inexact measurements but the dough appeared to look normal. We never use the oven here because it cost too much to heat up, so we borrowed a little electric oven to bake them. It was while baking them at some unknown temperature that I decided they looked funny and did not smell like my mother's delicious oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.
However, I put them all on a plate and hoped I would be judged to harshly for the results. It was quite to my surprise, therefore, when Esteban came bursting into my room to tell me, "Congratulations Rachel, your cookies are a success, I LOVE them." I think I will count it as a success if it makes him happy. And, I am quite content to let him eat them all.
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