One Year Med Checks

This past week I've been in Lima for our one year medical checks and meetings. Everyone from youth development went down the first week, and business is here the second week, with one night of overlap. I went down to Lima a day or two early to help out with a basketball clinic that was at my friend Ali's hogar south of Lima. This organization was here in Peru giving shoes to thousands of kids. A few of us went down early to help with translating. The night before I actually went to the training center and then to visit my host family from training. Peru 11 had just found out their site assignments that very day, and were going to visit their sites in a couple of days. There are 14 or so people going to Cajamarca which should definitely change the dynamics in Cajamarca considering after Peru 7 left, we only had about 14 volunteers from groups 8, 9, and 10 combined. More importantly, I'm getting a volunteer close to me in Llapa. By close, I mean a 1.5-2 hour hike, but it's better than nothing!

It was nice to have all the youth volunteers together again. A few people I hadn't actually seen since reconnect, 9 months ago! We all stayed at the same backpacker hostal all week and just chilled in between our medical appointments and in service training sessions. It was a pretty uneventful week but there are a few things worth mentioning. First, I had to give my first ever stool sample and then carry it around in my purse until I had the chance to drop it off at the lab. As Peace Corp Volunteers, we quickly learned that no topic is too gross to talk about. There were several discussions on the best method for pooping in a cup, with the veterans, giving the novices some advice. Unfortunately I also had some more cavities, but not nearly as bad as the ones the dentist filled in June. I also tried sushi for the first time ever. It wasn't that bad, it just tasted like rice and avocado to me! Finally, I spent a whole afternoon browsing all that Polvos Azules has to offer, picking up the entire series of Planet Earth for less than 5 dollars.

At the end of the week the business volunteers got into town and we were able to have one big night out all together. Unfortunately, I somehow ended up tripping on my own two feet and as a result I rolled my foot and can no longer walk. I'm on a bus headed back to Cajamarca right now and it is throbbing. I spent all of today hobbling around but hopefully it will get better soon because it is really a pain when you can't walk!

All of Youth Development, minus one, with one year left in-service. As you can see, the guys in our group have gotten rather scruffy and are enjoying growing out their hair. The girls actually spent the entire day shopping and getting dolled up. I'm wearing someone's heels but it was an awful idea because I couldn't walk. At All.

One day we had a business capacitation. Our group decided to sell gigantic paper airplanes to the PC staff. This wasn't as successful as the massages that the other group offered.