galapagos

After Quito, we flew to the Galapagos Islands! Our trip to the Galapagos was by far one of the best vacations I’ve ever gone on in my life. We visited 3 islands, staying on the largest island, Isla Isabela. We saw just about everything: volcanoes, endemic plant species, blue footed boobies, land tortoises, sea turtles, sting rays, mantarays, penguins, pelicans, flamingos, sea lions, frigates, land iguanas, marine iguanas, tons of other birds and fish. It was amazing how close we could get to the animals. They didn’t mind human presence at all. One of my favorite parts of our trip was swimming with and playing with the sea lions. We also swam with sharks and penguins. I’ll let the pictures show you all how amazing these animals were!

ecuador

After our visit in my site, my parents and I traveled up to Ecuador. The Ecuadorian border is about one hour and a half away from my town. From the border, we traveled to Loja, a quaint town in the mountains. After spending a day in Loja, we flew to Quito and spent a few days exploring the city. Quito is a nice colonial city in the middle of the Andes Mountains. It was nice to explore another big Latin American city. One day we traveled about 40 minutes outside of the city the Ecuator. We participated in the typical tourist activity of taking pictures over the Northern and Southern hemisphere.

visita de mamita y papito

At the end of the May my parents came down to South America to visit me at my site and travel around Ecuador. It was so nice to have my parents spend some time with my Peruvian family and friends. Everyone here was also so excited to meet the gringa’s parents. My parents got a chance to see some of my projects and help out. We went to the two preschools and talked to the little kids about dental health and then handed out toothbrushes and toothpaste to all of them. They also came to a few of our sessions in the high school for the adolescent health program. Other than work, we walked around my valley, played with all of my host family kids, cooked with the family, and “enjoyed the company” of all of the farm animals. One day, they helped us with the construction of two improved stoves. I’m so glad that they got to get involved in the project. It was very special for me to have my parents live with me for a week and experience my very different life here.

charlas para adolescente

This year I am continuing my work in the high school with a group of adolscents in a peer health promotion program. The teen health promoters and I are doing a campaign on adolscent health. Each week, we visit all of the classrooms to give a talk about an aspect of teen health including self-esteem, communication, teen pregnancy, sexuality, sexual health, STIS, HIV, etc. Being the second year of my peer health promotion program, the school has been very receptive and hopefully the kids and I are making a difference!

danza de la selva

Since I’ve arrived, I have been meeting with a group of teenagers from the high school to do a dance class. It has been really fun to share dances with them, as well as learn some traditional Peruvian dances. For Mother’s Day, the school held a show for all of the mothers. We performed a traditional dance from the jungle of Peru. Here is a video of our performance (The tall white girl in the back will be hard to miss)