¨Poco a Poco¨

Well, I had this really great blog post already typed up and ready to load onto the computer, but it won´t let me, so I´m going to start from scratch. It won´t be as detailed because my time is limited, but I´ll do my best.

This weekend was a little rough for me. I´m used to looking forward to the weekends, hanging out with friends, doing social activities, being lazy- but that doesn´t happen here in Peru. Weekends are almost worse than weekdays. Weekends are all Spanish, all the time. I enjoy my host family, but I just wanted to get out of the house and actually DO something that didn´t consist of playing Spanish Monopoly with 8 and 9 year olds. I guess I just miss having a life, but hey, that´s what I signed up for, right? I also miss being independent and living on my own. Here I have a set of rules, which includes not coming home later than 10 pm. 10? Seriously? It´s ridiculous. I know they´re just doing it because they´re worried about my safety, but come oooon. Anyway, I´ve been really missing the states and questioning just exactly what I´m doing here. What in the HECK did I sign myself up for? I feel so unprepared to become a Volunteer, and I don´t know if that´s what I want to be doing anymore. I dont know what I expected, but I guess this isn´t it. Nothing terrible has happened to make me question anything, I´ve just been a little down in the dumps lately. I´m sure I´ll spring out of it soon. I´ve been making new friends, and I do enjoy their company, but it´s hard not to miss my friends back home. I know I shouldn´t be comparing them, but when I already have the BEST friends in the whole world, how can I not?

OH! On top of a not-so-good weekend and so-so Monday, I witnessed a dog get run over by a car yesterday. Abslutely the most terrible and gut-wrenching thing I´ve ever experienced first-hand.

But, as they say, for every bad thing there is a good thing.  Saturday I ended up going to Chaclacayo with my host mother and my 2 sisters (5 and 9), and it was actually pretty okay. My host mom´s daughter´s husband is a tour guide and actually speaks a little English. So between his broken English and my Spanish, we got along swimmingly. He was so kind and curious and wanted to know everything about me. Seeing that someone really cared that I was there and was interested in what I was doing was a really good feeling. So for a bad Saturday, that evening made up for it a little bit.

Today has been better than the past few days. We had language training in Chosica and had different ¨tasks¨ that we had to complete, and the activity went pretty well. I´m feeling pretty comfortable with approaching strangers and asking them for help now. We also learned today that we are to form ¨youth groups¨ in our community and we are supposed to have activities with them 3-5 times over the next 8 weeks. Each activity is to fall under one of the 3 goals we have as YD Volunteers: healthy lifestyle, preparing them for the world of work, and helping youth become community leaders. Ir´s going to be tough rounding up the kids in my neighborhood because I don´t really haaaave a neighborhood, but I´m ready for the challenge. I think this is really going to help me prepare to go to site, so I´m fairly excited about it (even though I KNOW they will be making fun of my Spanish abilities).

I´m slowly learning that this really is ¨The toughest job you´ll ever love.¨ Times have been and will continue to be hard, but there will be those little success that make me realize why I´m here. The Pervians say it best, ¨poco a poco,¨ which means ¨little by little.¨ My Spanish will improve little by little. I will adjust little by little. I will make progress in my community little by little.

I´ve received some letters (thanks Mom, Nana, and Jess!), and you have no idea how great it is to see your name on one of those envelopes! It instantly turns a bad day around, at least for a little bit! So, thanks to those of you who have been thinking about me, and know that I´m thinking about you, too! One of my goals is to figure out this whole Peruvian post office thing so I can send some letters back your way!

Love and more love.