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I know, it's not the best nickname or title I could think of but "Señorita de Los Baños" is the name I've grown used to these past few months. "Jamie" is too difficult of a name to pronounce for some and "The Señorita" just isn't specific enough. Since coming to site, I knew continuing the work of the previous volunteer would be a good place to start my work. Gina, had worked in a small community called 15 de Abril just outside of the center of Guadalupe connecting 23 families to the sewer system and providing them with basic bathrooms. Her counterpart, an enthusiastic health promoter in that community, was set on continuing their work and wasn't going to let me off the hook until I agreed to help her. My counterpart Blanca. She's a force to be reckoned with. Way back in August, I began the grueling grant proposal process to fund the installation of 20 more bathrooms. Blanca found families to participate in the project and I wrote...

Though I wouldn't consider myself the most adventurous eater I do believe that you won't know if you like something until you try it (with the exception that if what you haven't tried makes you feel like you lose whatever's already in your stomach beforehand, maybe you can skip out on new things this time around). Coming to Peru, I knew I would encounter many new and interesting foods, flavors and tastes so I set out to try everything at least once. Pushing myself outside my eating comfort zone has been an adventure in itself throughout my Peace Corps experience. In training, we were scared. Well, I'll speak for myself and say I was scared, though that shouldn't come as a shock you you, and maybe the general feeling of the group was more cautious than scared. So much of the advice given to us by trainers, language teachers and previous volunteers seemed more like warnings, how could we not be? Always treat your water, don...

During the summer the municipality organizes summer school classes which we call Vacaciones Útiles which basically translates to useful vacations (kinda cool, right?). Last year, Amanda and I taught English and led an art class focusing on the use of recycled materials as seen here . This year my site mates, Ben and Lucia, and I decided to lead a class about different countries and cultures called Recorriendo el Mundo , or Traveling the World. We made each student their own passport, stamping it after learning about each country we were "visiting". We played games, tried food and learned interesting facts from places all over the world. Despite our often last-minute class prep, the kids really enjoyed themselves. Lucia in teacher mode, she's amazing with the kids Enjoying some pancakes and maple syrup after our lesson on Canada During our lesson on Japan, the kids wrote the most adorable haiku poems! Working on a St. Patrick's Day word search f...

With my dad and sister volunteering to guest blog and recount our crazy Perez family adventures from last June, I'll admit, I've become just a little bit lazy. Looking back on the past few months' blog posts I realize it's time to pick up the slack and catch you all up on the actual work I've been doing; the nitty-gritty of my life as a volunteer and the reason why I came here in the first place. After my Mid-Service Training in Lima with the rest of my lovely WASH 20ers this past December, I returned to site just as we started to head into summer. Peruvian summer is nothing like the summers I spent growing up in Pacifica, summers that inevitably ended in a city-wide festival of our notorious fog [Fog Fest 2015, I'm ready for you!]. In Peru, the type of extreme weather you experience in the summer depends on your location. Sierra folks enter the rainy season and are often rained in for the entire day, bundled up tight and are even affected by landslides. On ...