Today I woke up and shared a delicious breakfast with my host mom in our restaurant- homemade toasted coffee with cinnamon, chicken soup with fresh cilantro, and perfectly toasted corn. After chatting over breakfast, I headed to the health post to meet my counterparts. Interestingly enough, the orthodontist has been one of the most receptive people I´ve found to work with. Although he is the orthodontist, he also works in health promotion in a variety of capacities and is really involved in the local community. We piled in a mototaxi and headed to a local pueblo in the district of Poroto called Shiran. I was able to meet with the director of the primaria school there and explain Peace Corps as well as some of the projects I may like to coordinate in the upcoming months. He seemed pretty open, and like most other people, excited at the prospect of someone who may be willing to help teach some English. Afterwards we walked over to the local kindergarden and I introduced myself before he gave a hygiene session to the parents there.





Everything about Peru involves waiting, and they are known for the ¨hora Peruana¨which essentially means that things happen at a much slower pace and people show up when they can. Throughout the day we were waiting for parents, teachers, and others to join us for our introductions and sessions. In the meantime, my counterpart happily shared his wealth of knowledge about Peruvian folklore, which definitely made the time pass more quickly.





After our morning expeditions to local schools I came home to a feast: I don´t think my host mom knows what I like, so she just gives me a little bit of everything. After lunch I met with a few women who are working for a Peruvian NGO called Circulo Solidario. They´re hoping to do a lot of similar work, so hopefully we should be able to collaborate and share ideas. I walked with them to visit the president of the ¨Club de Madres¨and hope to coordinate more in the future.



Later, I joined the Consajeros de Salud for their weekly meeting, which is a group of teenage health promoters who are supported by a Peruvian NGO. The group is composed primarily of girls, which seems to be the case for almost any youth-based event I´ve seen or heard about. The group talked about some of the issues they think hinder the youth of Poroto including limited technology, few teachers in the schools, limited resources, alcoholism, and child labor. The girls in the group seem empowered and excited about their involvement in the community, so hopefully their enthusiasm will transfer to other youth.