Hey there amigos!

Hope life is treating everyone well back home.

We are getting into the groove here and it is now spring!
We are really enjoying our adult English class ALOT (the kids, not so much!) and it gives us a chance to connect to some adults here too from all walks of life. I think I'd really like to pursue teaching ESL more seriously once we get back to Canada....I really love it. We are getting along pretty well with the other volunteer and have also started to know a few more people in the community which helps it to feel more like home. We're getting better at communicating in Spanish and having longer conversations, which is fun.

My command of the Spanish language is not without its flaws however! My funniest (and most embarrassing) mix up here to date was the other night when, after a nice dinner out with our Spanish-speaking friends, I exclaimed "¡Estuve delisioso!" which means "I was delicious!" rather than "Estuvo delisioso" which means "That was delicious!" Ok, so who knew that one little mis-spoken letter could turn a crowd into uproarious laughter! ;) Hmmm...better look into some more spanish lessons and work on my past-tense verbs!

I am also learning alot about Peruvian cuture! One of the students in our adult English class was telling us that she had recently been in Lima to fight roosters. Being a city girl and all, I had this image of her in some sort of protective suit with a big stick trying to fend off attacking roosters! I told Shelly that I thought that was a rather odd sport for a person to fight with roosters and Shelly said to me "you're kidding, right?" and explained to me that it's actually just the roosters that fight against each other! So much to learn here! ;)

The list of possible projects here is incredibly exciting and also a bit overwhelming at times. I waiver almost daily it seems between "wow! we are going to be able to do so much in a year!" and "wow...what difference can we really make when the need is so great". So much could be done here...social service projects like sexual health education and pregnancy prevention, classes on nutrition and health for pregnant women, school improvement projects, water purification projects, recycling education, all kinds of small businesses, etc. We hope to start connecting to some of the local groups around town and partner with them on some community improvement projects. There is a youth group in town that is more of a community action type of service group, so we are exited to hook up with them to see what they are up to. We also just recently found out that the kids from the special needs school in town collects bottles for recycling, so that is exciting to think about expanding on. There's a local conference here on the weekend about environmental issues like recycling, so maybe they'll have some good ideas for us too about how to go about expanding the project.

We took a day trip to the big city of Tumbes on Friday but it wasn't anything to blow your socks off. We took a little boat tour out of a place called Puerto Pizarro and saw a million (well, a lot!) of birds swarming overhead, which was cool, but slightly creepy (you know how much I love birds!)

There were a few neat things we experienced though. There was a man on the street selling bags of bread fruit from the Amazon Jungle. I am quite excited to go there later this year. During our boat tour, we stopped at a little island called "La isla de Amor", which is "The Island of Love". This struck us as funny because it was anything but (as you can see from our photos) and it was filled with kids from nearby schools. As we disembarked from our little fishing boat, the kids sort of swarmed us and asked where we were from and asked how to say "Welcome" in English. Then one kid proudly announced in English "Welcome to the Island of Love!" It was quite cute. We ate lunch here on "the island" and Shelly ate a really disgusting shrimp during our lunch that made us both lose our appetites! Then a Peruvian kid asked to get his photo taken with us. They are quite fascinated by white people. I guess Puerto Pizarro isn't really the tourist hot spot. Anyway, the day did have some adventure!

Will let my girl get a word or two in edgewise now. Hope you all are well. Send photos and notes to us....we get homesick some days and miss you!

Love,

Stacy


Hello everyone! Hope this finds you all healthy and happy. The last couple of weeks have been a little easier with our routine and we are not running around like chickens. We are doing more planning during the week and having more time on the weekends to ourselves.

Project Robin Hood has settled into a flow. Things come easier and we are working together as a team better this past couple of weeks. I am really starting to enjoy the students and find a comfortableness in seeing them and hanging out with them. We work with color groups and we have started to notice changes in the students we work more closely with. Some who have been known to be selfish and aggressive, are starting to respect what we have been modeling and expecting from them. It is encouraging to see what a little guidance can do. There is a lot of impulse actions with many students and children here. I find that difficult to handle at times. It is understandable though, many have FAS, fetal alcohol syndrome. Others are looking for that extra attention and care. I have become quite attached to many of them.

The pilot is into its 4th week. On Tuesday we do our Discovering Me scrapbook, and quieter games in the classroom. On Thursdays we do a hands on project like making bracelets, drawing, etc., and the Survivor style group games outside. It is a great mix and the students love it. We are also learning more about them by the way they answer the questions in the scrapbook, and hopefully will be able to offer some advice to the teachers on what they need from the school end. We had a balloon theme and a shoe theme the past couple of weeks. Kids eat them up...any ideas send our way.

We start our second group of adult lessons tomorrow night. We still have 8-10 students from our first group who are coming faithfully. We go out occasionally afterwards for a drink and a chance for them to practice more English. They really are a great group and we are going to have a Bunko party with some of them soon. They are really doing well in their lessons too. Hopefully this next group will be equally successful.

We have been doing some remodeling around the volunteer house. We have painted the kitchen and hung up some paintings we will bring home with us. We will start the living room this week and hope to be done soon, that is if we can find a ladder:) We found a nice cactus green, so it will feel a little like home. They also rewired the house, so less chance of the power surges blowing out our laptops and printers.

Things are settling in a little more as we make the place more homey. Please keep us in mind as we continue to deal with the cat situation in the house. They have certainly been a challenge and a pain in the butt at times, They drive me a bit crazy when they are on my stuff and wreck things that we have put up and chew cords etc. So maybe one day they will just disappear......

We are starting to plan our first trip to Ecuador to renew our visa in November. Other volunteers have recommended some great places that we plan to visit, like the town of Vilcabamba. It is considered the valley of Longevity. People there have been known to live 120-135 years. They attribute their longevity to 2 things: low animal fat diet and physical exercise. It is not uncommon to have 80 year old men working in the fields all day. If I live to be 80 I hope I am laying on some beach somewhere!

Speaking of which we have had an ongoing tradition for the past month or so....Sundays at Pocitas. We love it. It is our chance to get away once a week from the noise and stares and dust of Mancora. The staff let us come there, hang out on the beach near the hotel and then later come up to the pool area and lounge around. We usually stay there for supper which is my favorite place to eat, and watch the sunset. Last Sunday some others came out to join us, and they asked how did we just get to hang out there all day. I think they like us, and we talk with them and know their names. It hasn't been too busy there yet, so maybe in high season they will kick us out, but if we keep up the good tipping maybe we will luck out.

We are gearing up for summer and summer camps and hot nights. We wish you well as you enter the winter days. I hope that it is mild and temperate for you, and we will try not to rub in our beautiful weather too much.

Take care. Please drop us a note a let us know how you are doing, Either through the message board on the website, or to our email. [email protected]
We miss you and talk about you all of the time, with smiles on faces.

Shelly