Perspective

So, I didn't win the Truman. 

When I heard the news, I threw myself a 15 minute pity party. I was sad and disappointed. And then I decided to move on and checked in with a couple of friends to see if they'd like to join me for a funny movie. My friend Kaylie agreed and asked how I was doing with the news. Only after I answered did she tell me that her grandmother had just passed away! Suddenly, that helped me put things in perspective. Kaylie was so supportive and pulled together, and she was going through something so much harder than losing a scholarship competition! We went to that movie ("This Means War" which was surprisingly good) and spent the evening laughing and remembering that life is good!

When where you are is this pretty, how can you stay sad? 

I'd already had a bit of a perspective check earlier in the day. Ava and I had ridden out to Villa El Salvador, a poor district of Lima. Villa El Salvador was settled through land invasions beginning only about 40 years ago. It is definitely not the comfortable, pretty Miraflores that I've been spending so much of my time in. In Villa El Salvador, many of the streets are unpaved, the houses don't have adequate roofs, and nearly all of the inhabitants live in poverty. I'm going to be working with a nonprofit, Building Dignity, in this neighborhood and I am so grateful that it will give me the reality check I need: with or without a big scholarship, I am incredibly lucky!

We arrived in Villa just in time to witness a protest connected to the Vasos de Leche program.

Friday I spent hanging around Miraflores. I went for a long run, ran some errands, and went to game night with Kaylie's host family.  On Saturday, we got up really early for a trip to Caral, the oldest known civilization in the Americas, dating back about 5,000 years! That kind of time just boggles my mind (in the same way that staring up into a starry sky and thinking about infinity does). After visiting Nazca and now Caral, I've been thinking a lot about what I'm going to leave behind, what our entire civilization will leave behind. And it gives me, once again, perspective. It was so interesting to see the ruins and afterwards we went to a restaurant where we ate a good lunch, swam in the pool, and got to pet an alpaca! 

The whole amazing group (:

Pyramids at Caral. 

Llama lovin'

This past week has flown by once again. I had my first test and presentation for my classes at PUCP, celebrated Ava's birthday with a party in her host family's home, and registered for a half-marathon in May! In just a few hours, I'm heading to Ayacucho for some of the best Semana Santa celebrations in Peru! All in all, it's been a good, good week. I hope you all have a happy Easter weekend! Love & miss you!