Hey all!
I had a pretty fun day of hiking up a mountain and washing tanks of water for WATSAN! We used some pretty strong chlorine. It was gas-ing me while I was in this huge tank. There were 7 of us in there at a time. It was probably 3 meters diameter and 3 meters tall. Crazy! This took place in Yanacoto, one of the communities that voluneers live in. It costs 50 sentimos to get there from Huascaran. After cleaning the tank, we set the water loose, going down the mountain, and it flooded some lady's house. She was pretty pissed. Though its kind of funny to think that a bunch of gringos flooded her house. We had to go and clean it up. The guys in the community that run the cleaning of the tanks said that they had never flooded anyone's house before. Who knows if that is true.

After, I went to a "club" which is basically a country club that you pay 5 soles to get into. They have two pools and lots of grass to sit and play on. The grass was a pretty big deal, because I never see it here. And frankly, I really miss it. I really miss seeing green. I miss hiking mountains, looking at the leaves, looking at all of the trees, and stopping in the grass just to hang out on my way home. I miss riding my bike, riding to friends' houses, riding home, and grilling on porches. I guess there are lots of things that I didnt even realize that I missed. I even completely forgot that they existed. Almost like I forgot a huge part of myself. For example, our APCD (Assistant director) came and talked about sites with us. He asked where we wanted to go, and I said I could go anywhere. But he asked if I liked mountains, and I had a flood of memories of hiking the AT, hiking with my family, canoeing in Minnesota, all of these outdoor activities that I hadn't thought about in 6 weeks. I told him that I had forgotten how much I liked these things. Its kind of crazy to think that I forgot about how much I love the outdoors, something that was such a big part of my life, and something that was so important to me.

Well, I am not going to forget anymore. And besides, I do spend time outside here. But its just all in dirt and dessert. No grass. So it was refreshing to see some grass today. I had a nice break from dirt roads and crazy dogs that are starving, have mange, and bark at all hours of the day.

Hope you jerks in the states enjoy your grass and trees! (Its not fair) :)
Happy Travels,
Teigan