- Being with family - Safe tap water - Being able to cook for myself - Hot showers - Safe food in restaurants - Mexican Food - Gluten-free cookies (I know, I feel terrible saying it...) - Being able to drive - Being able to speak English to more that just the people I live with - Did I mention food? - Not having to worry so much - Being with fri...

- All of the stray and starving dogs everywhere - Getting stared at, whistled at, or cat-called wherever I go - The depressive atmosphere of extreme poverty - Not being able to communicate effectively - Cold showers - Unsafe tap water - Either being constipated or having diarrhea - never in between - Watching ****** medicine be practiced day in ...

- The mountains - Anne - She has made this place feel more like home than anyone else, and I donīt know if I could have survived without her! I have some amazing memories with her (though a few I wouldnīt mind forgetting...hahaha) and I will miss her dearly. - Being able to walk everywhere - How cheap everything is - Having ridiculous things hap...

Well this last week in Ayacucho has been really nice, and I canīt believe that it has been 7 weeks! My last few days at work have been slow, but it was nice to spend my last week at the clinic, when I spent so much of my first month out doing the vaccine campaign. (Not that I am complaining.) Yesterday I was with one of the doctors, Betty, and ...

On Thursday night I laughed harder than I have in a long time. The CCS interns (they live in the summer house here in Ayacucho) were drafted to do a dance in Gringo Plaza for some sort of celebration, and it was absolutely hilarious. Anne, Vera, Sophie and I went together to cheer on Sheelah (one of the nicest people I have ever met, seriously)...

So. Shortly after I wrote my last blog entry, I tried to call my dad for his birthday. Long story short, he was in bad shape after months of being in bad shape, and was in the hospital. He couldn't breathe well, and passed away that evening. After hours on the phone, and lots of pleading I'm sure, my mom was able to change my flight, so I'll be ...

For the last few days, I have spent time feeling very useful at work. They placed me in the Farmacia (pharmacy) at the clinic and I have gotten to help the woman, Leena (sp?) a lot. After getting the hang of where the medications were, what they were, and how to get the patients to fill out their forms, I am now being allowed to do it all with ...

So yesterday a group of 4 of us volunteers went on the llama trek with Pancho the tour guide and his son, and I must say - it was one of the most intense things I have ever done my entire life! We left Ayacucho at 8 in the morning and drove for 2 hours through the mountains, climbing to 13,000 feet. As soon as we stepped out of the van we felt ...

As it turned out, the days of strike went pretty smoothly. On Tuesday morning, I woke up to the 6:20 pre-dawn and decided to go see what a city put on freeze looked like. I bundled up, and brought my book and blanket up to the roof. Speaking of which, I did something this week that I haven't done since middle school: I finished three whole novel...

Well the strike went by without much fuss - they gave some speeches saying that the marines should leave and they burned a few American flags, but no tear gas or rocks thrown like in Cusco last year. So in my opinion, pretty mild. But there werenīt any cars on the roads, and nobody went to work, so I just hung out and read and ate endless amoun...