The Ups and Downs of Volunteering at Aldea Yanapay.

I have now been working at Yanapay for two full weeks and three days. Of course there´s a lot more to it than what I described in my first post on the subject and it is well past time for an update.





From Monday to Friday, 3 to 5 for two weeks I continued to tutor Yanapay´s younger children. Their prior education and attitudes were as varied as their personalities. Sometimes the poor quality of peruvian education, its inconsistency was really obvious... I taught a five-year-old who could read fairly well and a seven-year-old who barely knew their alphabet. Some days involved a lot of sighing on my part; trying to get my students to focus, not understanding a childs spanish, feeling completely useless and boring as a teacher. Others were fun and rewarding; finding a fun way to teach letters, having avid readers not want to stop for circle time, sharing smiles, hugs and high fives.

Every day after the first two hours we gather all the School One kids into a circle, holding hands, and march over to School Two for circle time. Sometimes we go as a train, sometimes we are dinosaurs, other days, jungle animals... Arriving at School Two I pry little fingers off my smock and cross the courtyard to sit with my family, who, all trying to get my attention at once, greet me with many hugs and shouts. Once we are all seated, Janek (or Raquel, or Yuri) counts to three and the school falls silent (well, most of the time). Once we start discussion it is a challenge to keep the kids quiet and focused on whoever is speaking. A lot of them are so busy raising their hands and, obsessing about what they want to say, that, when asked, they have no idea what the speaker has just said. We often get a good laugh from a little girl with Down´s Syndrome, Coral, who is prone to spout off nonsensical bits of information. For example, we were talking about birthdays yesterday and she raised her hand to tell us that on her birthday she would be turning Sunday years old. Alrighty then, Coral... Ylla is one of the youngest (and most adorable) girls. When it´s her turn to speak she uses the most hilarious, incessant hand gestures, causing everyone to giggle through her long and detailed stories.

me with some of my Uvitas

After circle time we have our family classes. I spent two weeks in the maroon smock of familia Uvitas with Natalie as my co-teacher. At first, I found my family overwhelming; they have a lot of energy, to say the least. A couple of especially loud and overbearing kids changed the dynamic of the whole class. Anderson always always wanted to be talking and sometimes would even raise his hand shouting, "¡Profe, profe!" the whole time, without having anything to say. When we called on him he would just umm and ahh incoherently! In my family I learned some important phrases very quickly:

Sientete. - "Sit down."
¡Cuidado! - "Careful!"
Calmense. - "Everyone calm down."
¡Chicos, silencia por favor! - "Kids, quiet, please!"
Escuchen su companero, por favor. - "Please guys, listen to your classmate."

A lot of the time it felt like the kids were paying zero attention and couldn´t possibly have taken in any of what we were trying to teach them... But when it came down to it, they were really excited to learn. Actually, I think that´s were a lot of the shouting and craziness stemmed from; everyone wanted to talk about our topic at once! I was constantly surprised by how much they would remember. The first week our theme was to sing a song in english, about nature. When we all put our heads together, we were able to create beautiful costumes and learn, by heart, the words of the song Natalie had composed to the tune of "You are my sunshine." When our Friday show came along, we presented what we had learned to the whole school and it turned out amazingly. The best part though, was the next week, when my family kept bursting into choruses of, "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make the trees grow. You make birds sing."  They wanted to sing it before tutoring, while making costumes for the next weeks show, on our walk from rock climbing... The song became sort of our family anthem. Even our next presentation, which was about Colombia (featuring Shakira´s World Cup song) and which I thought was a somewhat of a disaster, was a favourite of all the other volunteers.

presenting what we learned about Colombia

This week I am working with familia Sol (Sun), who are 11 and 12 year-olds. I miss my little Uvitas. Even though they were crazy and exhausting, I find Sol more frustrating. The problem is that they have Attitude with a capital "A". It´s easier (I said easier, not easy!) to get them to pay attention, but harder to command their respect. Sometimes they are sweet and affectioante, but it doesn´t feel real.  When I wait with Sol in line to wash our milk cups and the Uvitas come running out of their classroom to wash theirs yelling, "¡Profe Julia!", telling me how much they miss me and asking when I am coming back to them I can tell where I am wanted.

I don´t know how people can stay here only a week. Even after two and a half I still have so much to learn... In some ways I still feel like a newbie, yet at other times I feel I am an old hand; like when I translated for the english-speakers at our Friday volunteer meeting.

I left this update too long to give a full account of all the joys and frustrations of working at Yanapay (fun kids, working with limited supplies), but I will say that it is both uplifting and frustrating, energizing and exhausting, but most of all wonderful, just plain old wonderful.

Con Amor,
Profe Julia de Canada

Walk Like a Cusqueñan.

    When I arrived in Cusco I took a combi, which merits a story for itself, from the airport to what I thought was the main plaza. That day I got lost and took a much longer than necessary walk to find El Hostal Magico. I could have been really frustrating considering my pack (fortunately it isn't very heavy), all the terrible directions I was given, the shock of the altitude on my lungs, the confusing street names and the crazy traffic, not to mention my ever-increasing hunger and general plain-old-tiredness. Somehow it wasn't though. The magic of Cusco's streets had me from my first steps off that over-crowded van. By the time I made it to the hostel the spring may have faded from my step somewhat, but the smile was still firmly on my lips and heart.

Walking in Cusco is... enchanting? Is that too airy-fairy a word to use? It's the one that comes to mind. For one the streets are all cobblestone. Not just one or two for the postcard pictures. ALL of them. The sidewalks cling to the walls. The walls cling to the shoulders of your shirt or jacket. "You have wall on you," is a common remark among my friends. You know that space between sidewalks and buildings called a yard? They don't have those. Or even that little patch of grass between sidewalks and roads? They don't have those either. I know because today I got clipped by a cars side mirror. Okay, I'm not making this out to be too "enchanting" am I? But honestly, I really didn't mind the whole sideview-mirror-to-the-thigh thing...

In my neighbourhood the street dogs all have their blocks. The mean-looking little one with the squashed face guards to corner of Chaparro and Vitoque. A few, less fiercesome, ones squabble playully over the bottom of Calle Fierro. A couple of walls are held up by posts wedged into the street. Most of the walls in the area are faded and crumbling. An interesting thing about this city is that there are barely any visibly isolated buildings, just a single tall wall (stone on the bottom adobe and plaster for the upper) for each block with doors for each store or home. You get a completely different perspective when you get above street level.  In San Blas the streets climb up and up and up, providing such perspective. You can see into the separate courtyards; laundry lines, tin and clay roofs, trees... the moguls-course-like roof of the cathedral. In San Blas flowers spill over the freshly painted white and yellow walls. Pretty wrought iron designs bar the windows. Cusco spreads out below you, the view changing with every twist and turn.

The Plaza de Armas is the touristy-est place in town. Hands thrust leaflets at you from all sides: "Excuse me, lady. Massage?", "Happy hour, 9-11.", "Tourist information?". If you stand still for more than a second the vendors close in... paintings, touques, jewellry, watermelon, sunglasses. Locals and tourists alike relax around the fountain and on the cathedral steps. Come nightfall there is almost always someone thunking out a lazy rhythm on a bongo drum. The glowing Cristo Blanco watches over the city from the hilltop.

Everywhere you go, ladies with colourful bundles slung over their backs waddle along. On the corners, they stop and unbundle their loads, settling onto the paving stones to sell their cargo... They carry everything; from jewellry to choclo (and the stove to cook it on), bread to babies. The babies aren't for sale though. Sometimes I wish they were; Every baby here is gorgeous. Kids chase balloons down the street, jumping and giggling. Others sell gum and candy to passers-by, tearing my heart out each time I see one of them.

I just want to grab their hands and take them with me to Yanapay, but we are full to bursting and can´t invite any more kids. We have anout 80 coming to the schools each day.

An update on my volunteering at Aldea Yanapay is coming up next. :)

With LOVE,

Julia

Sick.

Yesterday I woke up early enough, but a fever kept me in bed tossing and turning until about 9:30. I felt like I would vomit if I got up. Sure enough, as soon as I stood up I was on my knees in front of the garbage can. The spanish couple in my dorm took care of me, holding back my hair and offering me water. I drank some more, took out the trash bag and went right back to bed until 11:30. I showered to rid myself of the previous days rock-climbing sweat and the gross, dirty feeling of being sick. I ate a mango to try to regain some energy. The shower was more successful than the mango; I still felt extremely weak and achy. I helped Natalie do a bit of research about Colombia (our family is studying it this week), tried to go buy something with electrolytes from one of the tiny convenience shops beside the hostel, both of which were closed (on a Monday at 2!?) and finally (imagining all the kids jumping on me) decided I couldn´t go to school. At about 2:30 I crawled back into bed fully clothed and didn´t wake up again until 7:00... a.m. I think it must have been something I ate the night before; Jen was sick too and she had supper with me. I will have to talk to Marla and ask whether she was ill. We all had the same thing... It has been a bad day for many of the volunteers; Janek and Lucy are in hospital with something similar and I heard of a few others getting sick too. This morning I´m feeling a lot better (I should hope so after 16 and a half hours sleep). I had a real breakfast, got dressed and feel like I could walk more than the distance between my room and the bathroom. For which I am very thankful; I already missed one sunny day in Cusco! And actually, though it is another beautiful day, right now I wish I were home. Or that you were here. I miss my real friends...
Con mucho amor, te extraño,
Julia

"You have a drunk drivers tan."

I just got back to the hostel after a day of rock-climbing.
Apart from having fun, the reason we went was to prepare ourselves to take about 25 of the older kids from Aldea Yanapay climbing on Saturday. ¡Que locuro! What madness! I think it will be a really fun opportunity for them, though. My peruvian co-teacher from familia Uvitas, Natalie, arranged it with a guide she has climbed with before. There were four of us volunteers there; myself, Natalie, Sam from Manchester and Marla from Alaska. Alex the rock climbing instructor´s paramedic friend Fabio was there too, because he will be teaching a first aid class on Saturday. We met in Plazoleta San Blas just after 8:30 in the morning. I put sunscreen on for the first time since arriving in Peru as we waited for Alex and Fabio in the glorious sunshine. I put on a good hearty dose too, because it exploded out of the tube thanks to the air travel!

The taxi ride out of the city took us by the ruins of Sacsayhuaman and Q´enqo. Driving out of Cusco, weirdly, reminded me of Australia... because the hills on the outskirts of the city are covered in Eucalyptus trees. When we got out of the car I felt like dancing! It was such a relief to be out in the hills and  fresh air, with Cusco just out of sight. I really do enjoy Cusco, but I am a country girl and definitely need a break every once in a while. Our climbing spot was just a few minutes´ walk off the road, a small-ish, lumpy, rock face with a fang-like protrusion sticking out from of the green hills. The whole area was grassy, with jagged grey rocks sticking out  everywhere and purple flowers scattered accross the hilltop. Alex and Natalie set up the ropes for rappelling while the rest of us took in the view and breathed deeply. I was excited to strap on a snazzy tuquoise, purple and neon yellow harness, knowing I was about to climb "real live rocks" for the second time in my life. The rappel was an uneven vertical face at the top and then a "negativo" at the bottom, which just meant that the face angled back, preventing you from touching it. On our second rappell we waited at the bottom and then set ourselves up to climb. Fabio made it look easy (and sylish, with his pants tucked into his socks), but the wall was actually quite challenging. I was the first to try it (tucking my pants in too, of course!) and fell off trying to get out of a sticky spot. Swinging on the rope is fun, so I didn´t mind falling. That is, until Marla made it up first try! Though she is more experienced... Sam was facing a fear of his (heights) and did really well, making it up to where I fell the first time. The second try I made it a lot farther, but still not quite to the top. We spent a while learning our knots, then gathered up the gear, ate our lunches (avocado and tomato sandwich and chocolate cookies) and started our walk back in to Cusco. It was a beautiful walk through the rolling, emerald hills and past various lesser-known ruins. At one point we saw lots of horses being ridden and grazing. I wanted so badly to hop on one and gallop through one of those fields in the rain, which was falling gently though it was still sunny. At one point there was a lost in translation sort of moment discussing the different expression for farmers tan in our respective languages. Marla had zoned out and asked what we meant by a "drunk driver´s tan". :) We spent a while bouldering at some pre-Inca ruins. Moving sideways along a wall barely as tall as yourself, with minimal footholds, is harder than it looks, especially when the ants who live around your handholds start climbing on and biting you. I managed to do both walls I tried; the ants were just motivation to do it faster. The walk back to Cusco was along a grassy path flanked by low, stone walls. The sun was so powerful today that despite two applications of SPF 55 my skin is displaying evidence of the beautiful weather. I had a late afternoon meal of salad, soup, rice, peruvian soy-meat stew and cool chamomile tea with Marla and Natalie on our way home. The whole thing cost 5 soles (about $1.80). The combination of sun, rock-climbing, food and a long, long walk left us completely "knackered" (as Sam said). Time to go nurse my sunburn and maybe take a little nap before maybe going out tonight.

With love,
Julia

Chicken Feet and Hospitality

On Thursday I visited Alberto and Teresa Vera Flores. They are the parents of my high school spanish teacher´s husband.

It took me twenty minutes to walk from Hostal Magico to their house in Calle Pavitos. The walk took me through a crowded, bustling area where I was the only foreigner in sight. Actually, there aren´t a ton of tourists on my usual walks either, but you could tell that this was a part of Cusco for the people of Cusco. A curious thing about shops here is that they tend to be grouped together by what they sell. You will walk past four or five mattress stores in a row, with all the exact same things displayed on their doors. About half a dozen party shops surround the Mega (supermarket). There are a lot of fried chicken restaurants near the Santa Clara arch... there are a lot of whole, plucked chickens (feet and all) displayed on a certain block on the way to the Vera Flores´place. They are an awkward yellow colour (the chickens, not the Vera Flores´).

Alberto and Teresa welcomed me so warmly. They asked me all about my stay in Cusco and wasted no time letting me know that I should treat their house as my own. We enjoyed looking at the photos of Zoila and the family that Joanna and Lucho Vera Flores had sent with me.  Maria Teresa, their daughter, answered my questions on how I should go about plannng my Machu Picchu excursion and made me fresh papaya juice. They were also very concerned for my safety, suggesting an alternate route to walk to their house. 5-year old Analy showed me her drawings. The Vera Flores have taken Analy in because her widowed mother can´t support her 6 children. She is a sweet little thing and not shy, that´s for sure. Though she was eager to chat with me I had trouble understanding her, because until recently she lived in the mountains and only spoke Quechua. I talked to her while Alberto and Teresa prepared lunch. She taught me to say "snake" in Quechua; matchakweiy. At lunch, I also met Tio Ivan and Maria José, Maria Teresa´s daughter. Lunch was one of, if not the best meal I have had in Peru so far. Again concerned for my safety, Señora Teresa was scandalized that I had eaten at San Pedro market the day before and told me I should always come over to eat at her house instead. We started with soup, which Peruvians eat almost every day. Then we had a salad of avocado, tomoato and onion, which we ate as sandwiches on the yummy, flattened little oval breads which you can buy on street corners. The main dish was a massive plate of starch; rice, tamale (corn meal) and a delicious Inca dish made of yellow potatoes whose name escapes me. Top it off with frehly made limonata and wonderful company and you have a winning meal.  I am so glad to have met the Vera Flores family and that we were able to understand each other nearly perfectly. There was no awkwardness and I did indeed feel right at home, as they said I should. I think one of the best signs that you know a language well is that you can understand and make jokes... which I did! Tio Ivan explained this pun to me:

If you say in spanish, "Tiene un ojo verde y el otro a su lado," it means "He has a green eye and the other is beside it." The pun is that "a su lado" sounds like "azulado" which means "blue". So you could be saying that someone has one blue eye and one green!

 The Vera Flores´ have invited me to stay with them, so I will probably move to their house soon. I mean it when I say that they are some of the sweetest, most generous people I have ever met.

With love,
Hoolia

Profe Julia de Canada.

As I approached the door with some of the other volunteers, two girls eagerly waiting to go in greeted us; "¡Hola, profes!" ("Hi, teachers!"), hugging and kissing each of us in turn. I stepped inside to find a courtyard whose dirty walls were crumbling, held up by posts leaning on the uneven stony ground. A pair of dirty white ducks drank from a faded plastic water basin. A handul of equally dirty dogs darted around our ankles. I ducked to avoid the laundry hanging low on wires strung across the space between houses. The next door led into the school. Colourful murals and neatly kept walkways, wash basins with towels hanging at the ready for little fingers, hand-painted signs over every door, "Arte", "Biblioteca", "Baño Yanapitos"... A place for every thing and every thing in its place. An oasis in the crumbling side streets of Cusco.

The first area is School One, for the kids aged 4-8; the second, School Two, for the 9-13 year-olds. The other volunteers and I went up to the supply room to deposit our stuff and put on our smocks. While we were doing this many kids had come in and were now bouncing around the courtyard in School 1. As soon as I walked in I was jumped on by one kid after another, each giving an enthusiastic hug and kiss on the cheek. Yuri, the projects director and founder, practically had to pull them off me and shove me into the tutoring room so I could have a few minutes to get acquainted with my work space for the week. I didn´t have long, but then again, it doesn´t take long to get to know a 5 by 9-ish room! I was especially glad to discover that there was a paper lantern hanging at exactly the right height to hit your head on, just like in my Sunday school class at home! Sarah, the other girl working in tutoring, gave me the briefest of lessons on what to do and before I knew it, little Flor Evelin was sitting next to me, waiting for me to begin! I started by asking whether she knew how to write her name (she did) and then whether she knew the alphabet (some of it). We spent the rest of our time together reviewing the alphabet by laying out flashcards in order and matching upper and lower-case letters. Flor, naturally, asked me every ten seconds whether it was time to go to games yet... at last it was and my second student came in. Angela was also six but barely knew any of her letters... so we started at the very beginning, "a very good place to start". Where Flor was bubbly, confident and unfocused on her work, Angela was quiet, timid and studious. It was amazing to see her smile as she wrote a "B" after my example!

After our first class time we have the "Circle of Expression", so all of School One made a "train" and marched over to the School Two courtyard to sit with our "families". The families are divided by age group and assigned a pair of volunteers each week. This week I am with familia "Uvas" (Grapes), who are mostly 8. Since it is summer vacation here and the beginning of a new year, Monday´s circle was mostly a revision of some rules and an explanation of some differences in the program for vacation time. When it was time to introduce the new "professores" a boy named Josué was practically jumping out of his skin to be the one to do it. He went around the circle and asked each of us our name and where we were from. There are volunteers here from England, Spain, the United States, Denmark, Australia, Holland, Peru and France. When Yuri asked the kids what they knew about Canada a ton of hands shot up! They mentioned maple syrup, bears, languages spoken and our flag. Apparently they studied Canada a few weeks ago. After circle time we piled into the library at School One (in an orderly fashion) to watch "La Princesa y El Sapo" (The Princess and the Frog). Sitting on a wooden bench in that darkened room filled with childrens laughter, a girl from my family cuddled up on my lap, I was so grateful to have found a place with so much love in it and to have the opportunity to serve passionately at Yanapay. Entering the school through that dank and decaying yard was a perfect metaphor; You can emerge from the squalor to find another way of living.

I look like a vegetarian in Peru too.

In Canada, I have been mistaken for a vegetarian a great many times, most memorably by just about every person in my Peak class last spring. This morning, in Lima, Señora Cabrera said, " You´re a vegetarian, right?".
This was after I had eaten raw fish, octopus and cow´s heart... in a single meal.

My first and only day in Lima (that is Saturday the 8th) was Señor Cabrera´s birthday, so the family (plus me) went to a buffet lunch to celebrate. The whole thing was laid out beautifully and the food was both delicious and foreign. The only famliar things on my plate that meal were a few green beans and a plain salad of lettuce and carrots. There must have been dozens of seafood dishes; ceviche (fresh, raw fish marinated in vinegar, lime and seasonings with onions), pulpo (octopus prepared similarly), shrimp, different types of fish, oysters... prepared in as many ways as you can think of. Then there was the grill, where you chose a skewer of meat (or fish!) for one of the guys behind the buffet wearing chefs´ hats to cook for you. I didn´t learn ´til later that just because something looks like beef, doesn´t mean it is. I may not sound especially enthusiastic, but the anticucho (cow´s heart with traditional seasonings) was pretty yummy. Milenka was pragmatic enough to inform me what I was eating after I had eaten a piece... though I might have preferred if she told me after I had finished it all (which I did). I could probably describe the food for many pages, but I will spare myself some trouble typing and say that there were also large selections of traditional dishes from the mountain regions, desserts, ice cream, drinks and pasta made to order with (you guessed it!) seafood. I had a jolly time chatting with (and trying to understand) Milenka´s cousins. Later we went back home and played card games (they like rowdy ones, we also did a slightly less fun version of that "The Coo and Can" due to comprehension issues). Oh yes, also when we arrived back home from the buffet they all had me do about a quarter shot of Pisco, "To digest to fatty food and help my cough go away". Pisco is potent stuff and unless I eat a dozen deep-fried Mars bars and have a cough like a Howler monkey I will not be trying it again. Happily, I managed to keep it down (gag reflex going strong!) and my eyes only watered a little bit (okay, maybe one tear fell...).

That night, four of Milenka´s friends from medical school came over and as each arrived I understood less and less of what was going on. After and hour and a half they had decided where to go, so we crammed six bodies plus the driver and a wheelchair into a regular five-seater taxi. We went to a party given by an older colleague of theirs, which was strange for me because he had hired waiters, musicians and bartenders for a party in his house and because the majority of the crowded (and it was crowded) seemed to be over forty or under thirteen. I´m not even sure there was an occasion for a fiesta. We were back just after midnight and then it was off to bed for my nine-thirty a.m. taxi to the airport. The nine-thirty a.m. taxi was very punctual, arriving about ten minutes after nine. So I said a rushed goodbye to Mile and Elda and was off.

This is the part where I explain to my mother who Milenka is and why I was staying with her; There is a website (CouchSurfing) where you can connect with people all over the world and request for them to host you on your travels. It was the perfect situation for me, because I am low-budget, solo and looking to get a not-just-tourist-stuff experience of Peru. Milenka and her family were very kind and helpful, and I am grateful to them for welcoming me and making me feel at home. The reason I didn´t tell you before, parents and people who might tell my parents, is that I knew you would worry. I decided to tell you afterwards so you wouldn´t have to. Check out the CouchSurfing site for all the info about safety, trust etc.

Cusco. ¡Ahhh, Cusco me encanta! I already like it better than Lima in so many ways, not the least of which is that my transportation from the airport cost twenty-one cents rather than forty dollars.  Of course today I was squatting in an overcrowded van with my pack on; lurching and swaying rather than cruising along in a shiny black sedan with air-conditioning and a suit-sporting driver, backpack comfortably in the trunk.

I will tell you all about the joys of Cusco another time, since I am parking my butt here for five whole weeks and I´m sure you are just about ready for me to shut up now. My cold has almost gone, hallelujah! Must have been the Pisco... and I am very excited to begin working with the kids tomorrow! If you have gotten this far in reading, you are just amazing, thank you!

Love and hugs to all!
Julia

4, 14, 34, 26

I leave for Peru in four days, fourteen hours, thirty-four minutes and twenty-six seconds.

Actually, 4, 4, 16, 19 might be more accurate now that I am flying to Vancouver, but I'll just let the little ticker on the right have its say. Even in the time it took me to write that (and figure out the updated countdown) I have come that much closer to what feels like my impending doom. Despite my usual optimism, you could say my enthusiasm has fizzled somewhat since October. I feel more like I'm about to walk off a cliff than onto a plane. Why!? This is what I've always dreamed of; I have been waiting to travel, really travel since I was like, twelve... so what is wrong with me?! Maybe it's just that I have forgotten to look forward to all the amazing things I will experience and am clinging to all the good times I have here at home. (My stomach churns when I think of leaving all you amazing people for so long!) Maybe I'm afraid of being forgotten. You know... out of sight, out of mind. What about when I get back? Will I be able to get everything I need together for university? Will I be able to find a job? Don't get me wrong, especially you people who are prone to worry (Mom), I have everything I need as far as passports, vaccines, insurance go. I have confidence in my own travel smarts and God's plan for me. I'm not worried about missing my plane in Mexico City or contracting thyphoid in the Amazon. I just seem to have convinced myself that I'm not going to have fun. That everything happening before and after my trip is more important than what I will do during.

I believe that once I get on the plane in Vancouver (or it might take until I get off the plane in Lima) I will be filled with the joy of possibilities and the excitement new places. I know that I will. And then my journey will start fresh and I will embrace it with open arms and a smiling face. You can expect many happy reports from me in the next few months. I already feel better in writing this; releasing all my negativity, admitting I have doubts but also remembering that they shouldn't be given so much importance as to affect how I anticipate my trip or, more importantly, my focus on Jesus, who died so I could live life to the full! (John 10:10)

Please pray for me as I go and for Aldea Yanapay, where I will be volunteering. Please don't hesistate to comment on my blog posts (it lets me know that someone reads them!) and stay tuned for said happy reports of my adventures! :)

with love,
Julia

 ^"So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."
Matthew 6:31-33