Hot Springs

My friend Abby and I spent the day in Huaraz visiting some hot springs that we heard about from some Peace Corps friends of mine. The hot springs were a bit difficult to get to but by the time we finally arrived it was totally worth it! The hot springs were so beautiful and amazing! It was literally in the middle of nowhere in a forest next to a river. We were the only ones there so we got to relax and just enjoy nature and the hot water. The water was scalding hot and felt amazing! Also the water ended up dying my swim suit top orange but it was still worth it haha.

Here are some photos of these amazing, quirky hot springs:

Summer Classes and Rainy Season

For the past 6 weeks I have been teaching free summer classes in my new library. Due to a few challenges and delays, our library opened for use right when the normal school year classes were out and summer vacation started. While I was frustrated that the library was FINALLY ready for use right when the school year let out, I knew that I at least wanted to take advantage of the space by teaching my summer classes in the new library space to get a feel for how things would go teaching in my new space. I gathered up a bunch of kids who I knew could benefit from the classes and I taught classes to them every morning for about 4 hours Monday-Thursday. The classes were all focused on improving reading levels, critical thinking, and art.

One of my three year olds putting a puzzle together 

Showing their art project that we did with sea shells that I brought after my trip to the beach!

Her sweet little smile just melts my heart!

Note the dog that we had accompany us to class every day! 

Making valentine's cards. 

The only downside to my library is that the space is quite small. Even fifteen kids at once in the library is a tight fit and with my summer classes I had anywhere from 17-30 kids per day show up for classes! I had kids sitting on buckets, and sitting on the floor. At times there was no space to even walk through the classroom at all. But I never wanted to turn a kid away from learning even if it meant more stress for me. So we dealt with the lack of space and managed quite snuggly but we survived :) Thankfully kids in poverty complain about very little so I had no complaints from my students about their lack of space. I think it also helped that in Peru personal space is not a thing here, haha.

A typical day in the library-very full! But this isn't too bad compared to some days where there was literally no floor space because there were so many kids that had to sit on the floor!

These boys worked so hard to put together a 150 piece puzzle. They even stayed after class to finish it and they were SO proud when it was finally done :) 

Our faithful dog Winston who accompanied us to class EVERY day! 

My friend Abby from the US reading to the kids! She has been in Peru visiting me! 

My and my kiddos! And Winston the dog was in there too of course! 

On our last day of class we had a field games day. 

Playing duck duck goose!

Our faithful doggie friend Winston. 

 Summer classes are over and the normal school year is starting up in a week! I am super excited to get back to teaching normal classes and continuing on with all of the after-school activities that I lead during last school year :)

On a different note, rainy season has been in full swing here in the mountains of Peru for the past few weeks. It has been raining hard almost nonstop for the past week and our rivers have risen by at least two meters and have begun starting to flood over into the streets. Yesterday a car was carried away by the water! I am getting by fine in my rain coat, rain pants, and rain boots. We are all hoping that the rain settles down but we are just only half-way through out rainy season that usually goes through the end of March/early April! 

The only outfit that I will wear outside when it's rainy season! Those boots especially have saved my life. (Thanks Aunt Wendy!) 

Also, one of my best friends from the US, Abby, has been with me in Peru and we have really been enjoying our time together :) I will post photos of some of our adventures soon!  

Re-appeciating Peru

After my amazing trip to Ecuador last week, I was really sad to leave. In fact, I did not want to leave at all and I wanted to stay in Ecuador forever because it has such a special place in my heart and I just feel really happy there. Don't get me wrong, I love Peru as well but it's just different because the lifestyle that I live here is so different from the lifestyle that I lived in Ecuador. So I definitely left Ecuador with a heavy heart, but then when I returned to Peru I felt like my eyes were re-opened to the beauty that surrounds me where I live. Not only the beauty of the nature and the mountains, but the beauty of the people and all the wonderful friendships that I have with so many kids and families.

So I just wanted to share some photos of things that I really appreciate about where I live because I have been feeling very sentimental and thankful these past two weeks since returning from Ecuador.

My amazing and beautiful Peruvian mom

She loves to braid my hair

My amazing Peruvian families. 

One of the many little girls in Huallanca that I care for deeply. 

Hanging out with our families pig :) 

I recently took a day trip to a nearby town with some Peruvian friends of mine. On the way, we stopped and saw some regionally famous dinosaur fossils that I have heard a lot about but still hadn't seen. It was pretty cool to see! Then we spent the day in a cute little town about an hour outside of Huallanca and got to enjoy some pretty views. I live in such a beautiful area and I am so thankful to be here! I only have 5.5 months left here and I truly want to enjoy every day.

The dinosaur foot print fossils 

 Our day trip ended with a beautiful sunset over the mountains as were were driving back to Huallanca :)

Summer school is in full swing and the kids are keeping me very busy teaching classes! I will post photos of that soon! 

Another Trip to Ecuador!

I recently returned from a quick trip  to Ecuador :) Almost three years ago I lived in Quito, Ecuador to study abroad and volunteer at an orphanage and I totally fell in love with Quito and with Ecuador. Since then, I have been back to Ecuador to visit three times because I love it so much and know so many wonderful Ecuadorians that I want to keep up a relationship with. Two of the times that I have returned to Ecuador have been while living in Peru. I take advantage of the fact that Ecuador is so close!

This latest visit was, as always, amazing and way too short. Quito is my favorite city in the world (along with Portland, Oregon of course!) and I just love being back there. I feel so at home and so happy there and I have really close relationships with some of the most amazing Ecuadorian families there. I feel very lucky! While there I spent time in Quito and Otavalo visiting Ecuadorian friends and families and also just enjoying being there and revisiting the places that I loved when I lived there! I also visited the orphanage where I use to volunteer at and I visited the school where I studied abroad. It was just a week full of visiting familiar faces and places!

I also met up with one of my best friends from college, Abby, who had been in Ecuador for the past 3 months doing an internship in the jungle. We met up in Ecuador and then she traveled down to Peru with me and is currently in Peru with me! :)

Here are some photos from my trip:

With my very good Ecuadorian friend Adriana

My friend Adriana teaches art classes and i got to accompany her to one :)

La Basilica. We went up to the very top which I have done many times but it still never gets old. 

Ahhh I love Quito so much!

With my Ecuadorian sister Jimena

With my family on top of the Basilica

In the Cathedral with my family

Visiting my old host family in Otavalo! My little brother is so big now!

Beautiful street art in Otavalo

Otavalo, where I did a 3 week long internship when I studied abroad. 

With my best ecuadorian friend in Otavalo, Maricruz

My friend's awesome hippie van

In te Metropolitan park in Quito with my family.

My lovely friend Adriana doing art in her yard

I visited the school where I studied abroad. Lots of memories there!

Visiting the orphanage where I use to volunteer :)

At the orphanage

I love Ecuador

My goodbye dinner with my family. They are so good to me!!

In Peru with Abby!

Welcome back to Peru for me :) 

And now I am back in Huallanca and back to work with my kiddos! I will post another update soon!