I'm a Late Bloomer

I've always been a little behind the times. I was still wearing spandex when baggy jeans were popular in the 90's, I didn't go on an airplane till I was 14 and I didn't try sushi until I was 21. I'm probably the most modern and stylish person many Peruvians have ever met, but in some aspects of my life in Peru, I'm the last one to hop on the band wagon.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. Most of my Peace Corps friends in Peru have had at least one strange illness or problem. When my parents were here, we took out a girl that had worms, giartia and bacteria all at the same time. Most PCV's have had at least one parasite so far. For the first year of my service, I've been relatively healthy, only having a few food related bouts and a cold or two. But I think my body has finally succumbed to all the evil bacteria around me.

For the past 6 weeks I've been having on again off again nausea. It was never severe enough for me to take immediate action but it became apparent that whatever it is, is not going away on it's own. So today, I experienced a rite of passage for all peace corps volunteers. I pooped in a cup to have my stool tested for intruders. As awkward as the act might sound, it was actually easier than I expected. I have friends who are in the double digits for stool samples, so I feel like I'm entering the game relatively late. The weirdest part was having to carry around my own feces in purse until I could get to Lima and drop it off in the lab. After I had finished, I felt very accomplished.

The other trend I have been reluctant to engage in, is romance in Peru. I have recently reentered the dating pool. I haven't fully submerged myself but rather just stuck my toes in. I've never been some one dive in head first but have always preferred to ease myself into unknown waters. Okay, enough with the analogy. I think I was the last Peru 9er to go on a date, kiss, or have a relationship with some of the opposite sex (or same sex for that matter). In the past few weeks I have gone out with 2 different guys. Neither of these gentlemen are full-on peruvian, but I do get points because they hail from latin american countries. I just had my very first all spanish date and it was an experience I'll not be forgetting anytime soon.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) depending on how you look at it, neither one actually live in Lima/Peru. So, my brief stint in the dating pool may have ended just as quickly as it arrived (hopefully like my brief stint with the parasite or whatever I have). There are definitely some exciting details about both new adventures if you can stomach it. I'll be home in California in less than 3 weeks and I'm sure you'll all get an ear full!

My Mom on Peru

Even though I have yet to post my Machu Picchu trip and pictures, I am posting something my mom wrote about her trip. My mom is probably my most avid reader as well as my personal editor and I asked her if she would write a little something about her experience. Hope you all enjoy it, I certainly did. My trip to Peru was actually two trips of different natures. The first trip was as a tourist and the second was a visit with my daughter to experience the places and people she serves as a Peace Corps volunteer. There were many contrasts between these two aspects of my vacation and I will try my best to put them into words.
During my two weeks in Peru, I was able to. . .
--experience the grandeur of the Andes and Machu Picchu. . .and sit at a fly-ridden juice cart Lurin town drinking fresh squeezed pineapple/orange juice.
--wander the cobbled streets of Cusco with its historic city center. . .and traipse through dusty streets of Lurin to visit Ali's hogars.
---visit with travelers from England, Australia, Mexico and all parts of the US. . . and meet Candace, Jake, Danielle, Bron, Dennis, and Carrie, Ali's peace corps and Lima buddies.
----watch the sun rise from behind the Andean peaks at Machu Piccu. . .and watch the faces of little girls light up as the screamed "Ali!!
----At the Inkaterra hotel, ponder the query,"When would you like to schedule your massage?". . . and ponder the query from the cook at the hogar, "Would you like chicken or guinea pig for lunch?"
----chug up the amazingly spectacular canyon on the backpacker train to the base of Machu Picchu. . .and jostle and bounce through the streets of Lima and Lurin in exhaust belching taxis and mini-busses.
----shop for Peruvian treasures of silver and alpaca. . . offer to buy Ali anything she wanted to make her life easier and she politely declining every offer.
----marvel at the magnificence of the Incan civilizations, all accomplished without the wheel. . .and understand the respect and admiration I have for my daughter for her humanitarian and loving spirit.

Thanks mom for writing this. And for the record, I didn't refuse every offer. I've been cuddling up everynight with the baby alpaca blanket my parents bought for me and it is awesome!!!!

More Pics from the Marathon

This is a photo of mostly Peru 9ers and a few other friends posing on the steps of a hotel on the boardwalk in Pacasmayo. The different colored shirts pertain to the different races. The blue shirts are Marathon, the yellow are half marathon and the green is the 10K.

Me and Greg before the race. Greg went on to win the men's marathon. He trained at 3,800 meters. I trained at sea level.

This is the beginning of the race all starting out in a big clump






By the end of the race the only people I saw were people working the water stops. This is me 50 feet away from the finish line. I was TIRED


This is after a crossed the finish line, eating an orange and drinking really really bad champagne.

















These are some of my friends from Lima who came down to hang out and cheer me on. They also helped me drink the bottle of really really bad champagne. Such good friends :)

26.2!

I did it! I finished my first marathon. The greatest part of this picture is that it was taken at mile 23. I somehow managed the energy to jump for a random Peruvian who was working at one of the water stops. I saw him pulling out the camera and something in me told me to do something silly and the flash went off right as I was in mid air, I knew that would be a cool picture but I figured I would never see this stranger again and not get to see the picture. As I was sitting at the bus station to go back to Lima later that night, a guy came up to me with his camera and this picture. So I gave him my email address, took another picture with him and two days later he actually sent them to me!

My whole marathon weekend was amazing. The event was organized by a fellow 9er Peace Corps volunteer at his site. His site is an old fishing town with a pretty sea front, good surf and not much else. The Marathon was designed as a way to bring in visitors and help boost tourism. There were around 150 participants running the 5K, 10K, 21K and marathon. About 50 of those were Peace Corps volunteers. So naturally, the race was especially fun for me, not only because it was my first marathon, but because I knew half the runners and the volunteers working it. Running a marathon is a long process (it took me just over 5 hours), but every two kilometers there was a water stop with a few Peace Corps volunteers there to give me encouraging words and a cup of power aid.

I had been training with a friend in Lima for over 4 months. My friend was back in the states for a wedding for during the Peace Corps marathon, so she ran a race in Seattle. Unlike Lima where we had been training, Seattle was hot and hilly and the race ended up being tougher for her than she would have liked. Lucky for me, my race course was flat and the weather was a perfect, overcast 65 degrees for the entirety of the day. I was rightfully nervous before the race. I had done a really good job training up until the end when I kind of slacked off. I felt great during the race up until mile 23-24. It probably took me 45 minutes to finish my last 3 miles. I was certainly happy to see the finish line.

Aside from lots of PC friends, 4 friends from Lima came down to hang out and cheer me on. When I finally did finish, I had a huge crowd of friends cheering me on. They made me speak in Spanish on the microphone to the crowd a minute after I was done. I had to ask my friends afterwards if what I said was remotely coherent. They said it was, but I can´t remember a thing I said.

I really look forward to next years race. Whether or not I will run the marathon again, time will only tell. I am so proud of steve and ashley, the two volunteers who worked tirelessly to put on such an amazing event and thank them for the great things they are doing their community.

I Do It To Myself

I have yet to post my Machu Picchu trip. I have it half written and I'm still so excited to share my stories and pictures. I haven't posted cause I have been so busy. I can't believe how overwhelmed I've been lately. It's a good kind of stress but I miss the tranquility of having nothing to do as well.

I got invited to go to the 4th of July celebration at training today. Me being me, I got really excited and said yes before I really thought about it. In order to go, I had to be at the Peace Corps office before 7 AM to get to training, which meant I had to leave my house really early. I realized after the fact that this was probably a really bad idea. Tonight I am getting on an overnight bus for the norther coast of Peru where I will run my marathon on sunday. I realize taking an overnight bus two nights before I run 26 miles isn't the best idea, but I really didn't have much of a choice with my vacation schedule.

I had already been to training twice this week and was feeling so exhausted from traveling around. Last night I could barely sleep. Partly cause I knew I had to wake up early and partly cause I was starting to get really nervous for the marathon. I finally decided around 3 in the morning that I was not going to go to training, and after that I was able to sleep a bit more soundly. I still had to get up and go to the office really early, cause I was responsible for bringing a whole bunch of Macaroni and cheese. Nobody could believe that I showed up so early just to tell them I wasn't going. I went home and slept for a few more hours then spent the rest of the day in Lima running errands trying hard not to think about the race.

Life has been really busy but great and I can't wait to find time to write about it all. My mom wrote a beautiful little something about her trip to Peru that I can't wait to share it as well. I will also of course have pictures from the marathon. I hope everyone had a good 4th and keep good thoughts in mind for me on sunday.