One year in Country!

I Have officially been in Peru for a year. I have had to change my goals drastically over the last year, and in no way would of thought that I would be so content with what little I have done. On paper I have not done much, but I have created an enviornment for change. The poeple are ready to turn the corner. With that said I am going to tell you exactly what i have done, why and where I am hoping we go.
First: Biohuertos
I am in the prosess of constructing 11 home gardens. I am not going to recieve funding until next year so it is coming out of pocket and being thrify now. The gardens will feature a compost system and a liquid fertilizer (organic). All garden have to be in closed. They have to have some kind of protection against roaming goats, chickens, donkies. The idea is to provide a cheeper way of living while increasing nutrition. I would like thirty by the time I am done. We will see. I am working with a NGO from Spain called CIPDES. They have promised funds for next year but who knows.
The idea is when we get funding we will complete the first phase of gardens. The will put in gardens at the schools, teach the children how to cultivate at thier homes. Then will will put in green houses for the reforestation project. We are planning to reforest 1000 hectares. So it will take a carful approch to this we are in the planning stages of this.
Second: Waste Management
The district captial has a truck that collect waste, but it only serves the pueblo. The plan is to expand it to the casarios that are in route to chaparri. We will start by putting trash barrels trohu out four casarios. and then go housde to house teaching people the bennifits and how to use them. This is in corrdination with the muiniciple goverment. Once we have gotten the people accoustomed to that we will attempt recyling. I have a huge meeting for this today. I hope it is in place by december. The idea we will end up with a clean route to chaparri. So when people comne visi the reserve they wont wade through trash to get We all know it is better not to live with garbage everywhere but the obvious reasons are not always considered here.
Third:Eco tourism
This is my most successful project. My sitemate, Heather Pack and I start a club for the youth of the area. We invite speakers from Chiclayo, Universities and guides to come talk to the children. During the three month corse they recieve a buch of lectures and native plants, birds aanimals, what is tourism, sefl esteem, basci science, and touristic zones here in chongoyape. Then we also go on excirsioins to different places in the area to see them and hear experts talk. I wanted to dso this project because the guides are aging in Chaparri. They are having a difficult time recuiting new ones. It is the most sustainable and well paying job in the area, but none of the youth really want to commit to staying in Chongoyape. Well soime do but we are discovering them through the club. We started with 50 and ended with 13. I was really sauprised to see that many finish. We are revising the ciriculum for next session right now. I want to include community service projects in the next cycle.
The pictures you see hewre are from our club. The first is from our excursion to ¨La Cascada¨. I want our first sirvice project to be to better this area. The second is from our graduations. Heather is to the left and left of her is opur diustrict mayor. To the right are the secrataries of education and tourism for our district. The rest are our alumnos. The third is from Chapparri. We are sitting on a rock that was used by local shaman to give a yearly prayer for rains. The fourth isd also from Chaparri. It is my favortie part of the park to take fotos. The lkast is from when Heather´s boss, Kitty came to visit. The students where given a touristic zone and told to research and present. They did wonderful.
That is all for this blog. In the next couple look for new news on my work and fotos from my up coming trip to the Jungle.
Chao

Santo Domingo to Vice

It is a little strange to pass Sept. 11th in a place where time stnds still. I only know dates of paydays and concerts. To think tht everyone will be subjected to hours of propaganda and forced to tell stories of 2001. I on the other hand realized the date because it is two buddies birthday (yan and Ian). I am in a very new phase of my service. I am in the process of getting funding for my projects, and AND I m getting it. So work is looking good.

I have been on the road seeing new places and visiting sites of successful volunteers. Finlly I made it to alta piura. The first four picutres of the road to nd Santo Domingo. Thier we visited a enviornmental volunteer who is closing her service in a couple of months. She was a replacement volunteer and after four yer it is amazing what they have accomplished. They have a waste management system in place. Including home pick up and a recycling center. I look t my community nd it is hrd toimgine the change. It is really beautiful there. The people re extremly beutiful in her small town. The hydrology there was also very interesting. s you can see in the second to last picture the clouds are in the valley below the town. during the day the sun heats up the clouds and the raise to block out the sun. During the night they cool and go bck down. For this it is known as a equtorial cloud forrest.

The lst photo is from the souther most mangroves one the pacific coast. We hve a volunteer there working with a group of healthy living premoters. It is also very beutiful there. They have lmost as many bird spicies as I do in my site. Mine are much pretier. His are all gulls. I hope everyone is getting back into school and ending the summer well. I will post again next week with some great pics from our secudariy schools anniversery. I am going to judge a beauty contest fridy.