Inertia

I was talking with Erin today about the challenge of going back to site after this awesome 10 day break. I'm still in Piura right now and it's difficult to get motivated to move back to rural Peru. I'm leaving tomorrow morning at 8 to Pambarumbe. I do not plan on coming into the city during the month of December which means that I'm going to be completely disconnected from the world outside of my town. It's all about the inertia though. Once I just get started, picking up speed will be easier.

I'm probably going to miss Christmas, essentially. I'm going to probably stay in my site during the holiday. They celebrate Christmas Eve with a nice dinner (they'll probably kill a chicken) at midnight. Then, Christmas day is not really celebrated in my site; there are no gifts, there isn't a priest which means no mass, no festivities. It's a relaxing day of doing nothing. It is basically nothing like the Christmas I'm used to in the states. It will be really hard not to be surrounded by family or friends during the holidays. Thanksgiving was great because I was surrounded by my friends who have become like family for me here in Peru. Here are just some of the people who I'm thankful for here in Peru:

These are the people I'm closest to in my South American adventure:


This is essentially my family in Piura (plus Jorge, our doctor). We were talking yesterday about how you can't choose your family, but you have to love them anyway. These are the volunteers from my group who were placed in my department, meaning that we have more interaction (face to face) than I will with other volunteers in the other departments. We weren't the closest friends during training but here, we've all grown to depend on each other and we are really close now:

(Pictured above back row first: Lebo, Vince, Jp, Alex, Elizabeth, Marian, Erin and Jorge. I'm taking the pictures)

And here is Pacasmayo where we got to spend three days with all of these people. And I'm thankful that I got the chance to reconnect with everyone.




So, here I sit in the hostel waiting until tomorrow morning to start the inertia and to get my work into gear. It is hard, but once at site my routine will re-establish itself. I will miss everyone during this month and hope that everyone has a Merry Christmas. It's weird saying that, but it may be my only opportunity before the actual day.