Makin´ it happen.

As a part of my New Year’s resolution to write more to my friends and family at home, here it is, an unprecedented second updated within the month of January.

Since being back, things during this rainy season have been going great. There have been more people than I’ve expected, or at least this year I know who is willing to work with me of the people who are here. We’ve been hitting the theme of garbage management hard, and it looks like it is going to pay off. What does that mean, to hit the theme of garbage management? Let me tell you.

As you know, I live within the boundaries of the Reserva Paisijística Nor Yauyos Cochas. This is a protected landscape reserve, which according to Peruvian law means that people still live within the area in harmony with nature. The RPNYC was created in October of 2005 and each year it makes many advances to achieve this goal of harmony between man and nature. This year the push with the park service (SERNANP) is to build sanitary landfills in each of the nine districts of the park. That is where Peace Corps and I come in handy.

Since the first of January, we’ve located a place in my town to build the landfill (a challenge to find a flat space 50 meters from the river), we’ve had a solid waste engineer come do a site evaluation, and we are in the process of studying the garbage that we produce each day per capita so we know what size of landfill we need. We have the support of the Municipality (very important, since they have the funding), SERNANP, a local NGO called Instituto Rural Valle Grande, and the conservation committee of Tomas. All these players are helping, and I am specifically working with organizing all of these and helping with the logistics of moving a project like this forward.

The plan is to have all 9 districts of the RPNYC have a sanitary landfill before July of this year. This is an ambitious goal but with the right amount of push from many players, it is possible. Tomas is in a great spot since we have already acquired most of the resources that we need to get this project done. I’ll keep you updated. It is exciting.

Besides this ambitious garbage project, we are slowly moving with forward with planting the 4,000 eucalyptus trees we have. We are having weekly showings of the series Planet Earth by the BBC as a part of environmental education on the community level. I have 2 English classes each week, and a few other small projects always seem to be popping up here and there (such as restoring Andean Terraces). I’ve been busy, and except for the Vikings NFC Championship game loss on Sunday and a depressing amount of rain, I’m really happy with my time here. I’d love to hear from you all in emails or whatever form you choose!

And now some pictures for you viewing enjoyment…

My family coming home from the cows one day. Notice the shoes of my cousin Angie (blue pants), she stepped a little deep in the mud.

A meeting with all the Mayors of the RPNYC and the park service (SERNANP). Makin´it happen.

My dog, Oso. He´s grown quite a bit since the last picture.

One of the two rivers in my town. This is the same afternoon that further up the mountain there was a large landslide, which turned the water the color of hot chocolate.

Notice that little white oven on behind Brad? That allows for such bonding times as cookie baking here in Yauyos. I can almost guarantee those were the first M&M cookies baked in the region. MMMMMM, delicious dough, too.

My host borther, Dany, crossing a small landslide on a small road. Lots of landslides make things a little dangerous.

Some Andean Terraces up the hill that we are restoring. To make the restoration complete we need to plant something...

Fellow Yauyos PCV, Sarah, posing with a model of trash recepticales that her town´s schools are getting.

My first and only trout caught in Yauyos. Fishing in a lake is much different than the river. My host brother caught 11 and my host dad 9...i just need a little more practice.

Working with my community on the Terrace restoration.

Happy New Decade!

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…

After a three-month hiatus from blogging, I’ve re-entered the blogosphere from the Southern Hemisphere. MUCH has happened during this time, much more than I’ll be able to say in this blog. I’ll put some highlights up here and I promise (maybe I should have made this a new year’s resolution?) to update this my blog often.

1. On November 28 I completed one year as a Peace Corps Volunteer! This is a big milestone for many reasons, including the fact that I’m over halfway done in Peru. It is scary and exciting because now I’m counting down days instead of up, but I fear that I won’t have time to accomplish all that I want to here in Tomas.

2. The Peruvian school year ended. Surprisingly, that was not my doing, but it does mean that I made it through an entire school year of English club, helping with science classes when teachers weren’t around (essential I am my town’s substitute teacher), and doing a few other projects such as making micro landfills and working with students in our tree nursery.

3. I’m a Padrino! No, I didn’t agree to take responsibility of a Peruvian child as their godfather (although I am asked to do that a lot). Rather, my niece, Elsa Jean Lee, was baptized on December 27^th, 2009, while I was home visiting over the holidays and I was given the honor of being godfather. In case you’re wondering, she is super cute and a ton of fun. Luckily, she’s more like her mom than her dad…

4. I visited one of my favorite places on Earth, MINNESOTA! (it really was Mjnnesota nice) I was home for 12 days over Christmas and New Year’s, which was a great time. I got to see almost all my family and many friends. The time went REALLY fast, but it was well worth the trip to the States to be back to my own holiday traditions. If you are reading this blog from the USA, remember how fortunate you are to live where you do. Peru is an amazing place that I highly recommend visiting and experiencing for yourself; although we have SO many opportunities and comforts in the states we really are lucky.

Those are the big events, although daily life continues to be busy and always full of adventure. Recently, since there are no classes and it rains every day, this is what I’ve been up to. I’ve been teaching a new set of English classes, this time to anyone who wants to come, not just students.We are working of planting some 4,000 trees, which involves finding places to plant and people to do the work. We are starting compost piles with a few individual families, and I’m even learning the tricks to cultivating potatoes (hard work, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!)

I promise it won’t be another three months in between blog updates! Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Peace and Happy New Decade, Jared

And for you viewing enjoyment...

This is my families dog, King Kong, climbing into the sink to look for food scraps. He only goes in there when he thinks nobody is looking. Unfortunately for him, I caught him from my balcony.

Heather and I on our first official date. Ice skating in Rice Park, St. Paul.

Who's excited about being and Uncle/Godfather? This guy!

A teacher in my town: "Yared, can you be Santa to pass out these gifts?"

Me: "why don't we have a fat person play Santa?"

Teacher: "Because Santa is white."

Honestly, how can I go against that logic?

My family's new puppy, Oso (means bear), which I convinced my family to keep because he is SO cute.

Some other PCVs and I on top of Volcan Misit, a volcano 19,119 feet above sea level, which we climbed the day after Thanksgiving. It was tough, but a worth it.

This picture is the kindergarten graduation. I took their pictures. For some reason, if you put gowns on a 5 year olds, they behave like little angels!

The primary school kids took formation for Tomas' anniversary party on October 16th.