Well for the first time in two months traveling i have finally gotten sick. Believe it was the fault of the slightly smelly tuna, or maybe just the snotty kid i was holding the other day. Either way i was worshippìng the porcilen god for a few days.
Work is going well, only got stabbed and bitten once last week, making definent progress.
Planning a Macchu Picchu trip, which i have found is the most inaccessible place in Peru.
Sorry for the very brief update will add more soon, it`s pretty late here and walking around alone at night isn`t too appealing.

Having another disabled person here on this program has been very interesting and nothing like what i was expecting. Her name is Jade and she´s from Leeds, very sweet but we are so different that it is becoming very awkward when we are constantly put together. I have had to make it a point that even though we are disabled there is only so much time we can talk about what kind of tires we have or how many curb cuts we saw today. Facinating conversation, i must say it´s comprable to the last week i spent in Costa Rica. Learned some key things these past couple weeks, such as I have a real problem with people pushing me in manual chairs, i turn into the most horrid person. At the beginning they were dismantling the chair so it fit in the back of a regular car and so of course when getting out and in, it took too much effort to put it together and so they borrowed a manual chair. That lasted a day. I could literally feel my blood pressure rise and each time someone ran into the heels of the person in front i could just abiout kill someone. But we all have issues i suppose, mine just seem to be manual chairs and therapists. :) But Jade loves people to push her and actually left her power chair at home, she says it´s so social to have people around you all the time, i said my social life definently would not be improved by my being in a manual chair to say the least.
I have also learned that this Latin American male machismo works in my favor. Machismo meaning male superiority in strength and skill creating a male dominated society. But this creates guys who always help and want to show off. Like in Costa Rica i can go just about anywhere and men will always help. Last night went out with David and a pack of guys lifted me up the stairs in the wheelchair. I have stopped feeling bad about the poor guys backs and just think of it as strengthening their egos. Mind you i probably couldn´t be around guys like that too long, might have a similar reaction as the manual wheelchair.
I have had a difficult time at the Escuela Especial this week, not due to the kids or anyone in particular but the reality of the poverty and the abuse has smacked me right in the face. On tuesday i was helping this 7 year old girl in my class change her clothes and i saw the bruises and scars on the inside of her thighs. I was suspecting the abuse before because she was very inappropriate with showing her body and acting out but i have to say it was so so hard to see it. Probably the most difficult thing is that she is so poor and has a mind of a 2 year old that nothing will be done for her. Everyone is fully aware of it but can´t prove anything and there is certainly no prominant social services in Villa El Salvador, not to mention that 75% of the kids in the school are being abused in some way and so it is part of daily life. In fact the games and activities that we play with the kids are geared toward checking them for abuse or wounds that we can treat at the school. This was the first time i have actually cried for the kids i have worked with, i don´t think it was pity but just anger maybe.
Yet at the other end of spectrum there are parents who are the most lovely and caring people. They are wonderful with their children and hopefully i will visit some when we do home visits.
I am now teaching English on Sundays at the Casa de Panchia, for women factory workers who get one day off a week and they choose to take english courses. It is incredibly fun and they are so eager to learn that it´s just incredible how much they take in in the 3 hours. So i am there for the next three weeks so no big trips, though saturday will be free.
Finally cooling down a bit actually went from bloody boiling to merely boiling so making progress.
Love you all

Hello everyone,
Having a great time here and have to say I got into every college i applied to with everyones help, which makes it so much better!!
I am still very homesick for Costa Rica but i think i have found my nicht here, I go to the market everyday and my housemates are quite interesting. I heard from my friend Jess who is in San Carlos, Costa Rica and she said that they kicked out another 4 people. I suppose that is what you get when spring break and a beach country are combined. The people here are in general a lot older and definently here for similar reasons, which do include the novel idea of volunteering. I have been so exhausted lately from the kids, plus i have bruises up and down my legs from restraining them. Today i got peed on, it was quite lovely with the heat. But I am getting quite close to the kids and the teachers there and hopefully we will be able to go on a fieldtrip soon, just to get a change of scenery.
Went to the street fair in Baranco, a neighboring district, it was very Peruvian and also ate cow heart. Very hot but very authentic, probably saw the cow walking to work.
Lima is definently a unique city. On the way to work there is a lookout area where you can see a large part of the city and it was very much like a Middle Eastern City. Lima is basically built on sand dunes and the houses are either shacks built up on the side of a hill or a mixture of mud and rock. Anyway you would probably have to see it to know what i{m blabbering on about.
Three weeks till the election and things are getting heated. Lourdes, one of the three top contendors, dropped 10 percent from 38 to 28% in a mere three days so it is looking like Alan Garcia, who was president in the 80{s, will actually win.
Kate- here is the address for Peru..hope to hear from you!
Bartolome Herrera N 183, Surco, Lima 33, Peru
and i hope everyone is doing well and love to hear from you, I can use my email so if it{s too dificult on the blog drop a line..
soleilmeg hotmail.com

Hello everyone,
Having a great time here and have to say I got into every college i applied to with everyones help, which makes it so much better!!
I am still very homesick for Costa Rica but i think i have found my nicht here, I go to the market everyday and my housemates are quite interesting. I heard from my friend Jess who is in San Carlos, Costa Rica and she said that they kicked out another 4 people. I suppose that is what you get when spring break and a beach country are combined. The people here are in general a lot older and definently here for similar reasons, which do include the novel idea of volunteering. I have been so exhausted lately from the kids, plus i have bruises up and down my legs from restraining them. Today i got peed on, it was quite lovely with the heat. But I am getting quite close to the kids and the teachers there and hopefully we will be able to go on a fieldtrip soon, just to get a change of scenery.
Went to the street fair in Baranco, a neighboring district, it was very Peruvian and also ate cow heart. Very hot but very authentic, probably saw the cow walking to work.
Lima is definently a unique city. On the way to work there is a lookout area where you can see a large part of the city and it was very much like a Middle Eastern City. Lima is basically built on sand dunes and the houses are either shacks built up on the side of a hill or a mixture of mud and rock. Anyway you would probably have to see it to know what i{m blabbering on about.
Three weeks till the election and things are getting heated. Lourdes, one of the three top contendors, dropped 10 percent from 38 to 28% in a mere three days so it is looking like Alan Garcia, who was president in the 80{s, will actually win.
Kate- here is the address for Peru..hope to hear from you!
Bartolome Herrera N 183, Surco, Lima 33, Peru
and i hope everyone is doing well and love to hear from you, I can use my email so if it{s too dificult on the blog drop a line..
soleilmeg hotmail.com

Have had a very interesting few days. I have a class full of children, who quite possibly could be the most caffinated and insane creatures i have ever met. They figured out how to disengage my wheelchair yesterday and also how to turn on the power, so as can be expected i had them on leashes today. The other teachers get great entertainment when i take my class out to recess. I have three five year olds with Downs on a connecting rope in front of me, a year old baby on my lap, a three year old attached to the side and a six year old with autism on the back. No matter how much i complain they are the most precious kids i have ever met. One little girl with downs called Cynthia loves to be held and she is the most loving thing in the world. There is another girl that is almost exactly like Sharri Ann, she trys to lock me in the classroom and she will squat right in front of me when I have everyone attached and going out to recess.
I realized that i really dont want to be in El Salvador past six. There is a danger here that definently wasn{t present in Costa Rica. Villa El Salvador is more of the country poverty and there is another district right near the house, La Victoria which is definently urban poor. La Victoria, is actually a place where i really was quite scared. In fact i have never been quite so scared of a neighborhood in my life. The district looks as if it was just hit by a nuclear bomb and there is trash and filth everywhere, there are no real structures but tin and scrap wood houses built on a hill. The people are very desperate and that in time morphes itself into violence, so by my being merely white would put me at a 99% chance of being targeted and don{t know what would happen. Luckily i was with Tony who chaperoned me. With El Salvador there is a different kind of desperation and quite frankly a less violent atmosphere. I still have to be so careful where i am during the day but I am getting used to the surroundings. The people are wonderful at the school and i get along so well with the teacher who guides me in the activity planning, her name is Leslie and love her to death. The parents are wonderful as well. I am starting to realize that there are quite a few young mothers, young being under 18, and more than one disabled child in the family. I spoke to Kique, the program director, and he said that statistics are showing that 6 out of 10 teenage mothers were raped and that 4 of the 6 were incestuous, thus resulting in numerous mental disabilities in the children. Needless to say, this is definently a lot different from what i saw in Costa Rica.
Elections are being held April 6th so not to go into the political historry of Peru but i will not be going out that day. The entire military will have to be out most likly but as said before they are forever present.
Learning so much and am enjoying every minute.
Twanis from Peru

My first day at the new volunteer placement, it was excellent. I am working in a district on the outer region of Lima called Villa El Salvador, it has quite an interesting history. In the mid seventies a group of about 200 families squatted on the eastern region of Lima to escape the political unrest and terrorism within the city and literally built this district from scratch. It is incredibly unique in the way the entire district is organized and how they have managed to build this self sustaining society from sand dunes. Though i have to say that it is very much a shanty town and one of the poorest in Lima. I wasn´t quite prepared to see this level of poverty, even in the poorest areas of Costa Rica could not compare to where i am placed. I am working in the Escuela Especial (Special Ed. School) and i have a class of about 4 to 7 students, all with developmental disabilities. They are great, the youngest, Michael, cannot walk so he rides on my lap all day and I try to contain the others to the classroom. Again, the school is public so it is incredibly underfunded and the classroom looks as if it is a renovated barn house. I have to say my one fear of going to the bathroom in a hole in the ground came to pass today. Had to go so bad that i couldnt wait, so with newly learned manuvears and a balancing act I actually went without falling in. Quite impressive i must say. Peru is like a huge polluted fire hole. Sorry for the description but i am sitting in the cafe without air conditioning and its 95 degrees F. The heat is somthing i really have to get used to. there is no air cond. in the school so I am wearing as little clothing as possible.
The people here are wonderful though still homesick for Costa Rica. In Peru it seems a lot more dangerous and hostile. Politically there is still very violent groups, and with the military very prevelant everywhere it´s a little disconcerting. Especially when you walk into a market and there is military with huge rifles walking about. Supposedly it is illegal to take photos of them so if i get arrested you´ll know why. Or actually if i drink the local cocoa tea i could test positive for cocaine. Fun times, always up for an adventure.
My housemates are great, very very different from Costa Rica. I think i´m going up to Maccu Piccu on the 1st so we´ll see.
Love you all.
Twanis

Hola,
Arrived in Peru last night and am totally exhausted. Lima is huge!! Very built up as well. I am completely homesick for Costa Rica, i miss the staff and adrian so much, even the horrible sidewalks of Cartago. Lima is absolutly incredible in their accessability, it is completely flat and at least 90% of shops are accessible. Quite a change from Cartago where i was scaling mountains. The staff before i left gave me the most beautiful card and they all said good bye. Love them so much! Last thursday i visited Marianne and her family, it was really incredible how loving her family was. We had tea with the most delicous sweet breat and of course fabulous costa Rican coffee. Talked about a miriad of things, mostly about ticos. It was quite wonderful to go into an actual costa rican home, i think then i truly felt part of the culture. I realized my spanish has a costa rican accent to it and now that i speak spanish in Peru everyone looks at me very strangely so have to work on that. It was really hard to say good bye to Javier and the kids Friday. Though it was a perfect day. Got to crawl around on the floor after a little two year old, pretty sad that he out crawled me 90% of the time. Tought the sex ed. class on tuesday and thursday, that was interesting. My spanish held up well though used lots of sign lanuage. The parents we more open than i thought and the teenagers with disabilities knew a lot more than their parents thought so it was a great time.
Needless to say Costa Rica es mi hogar. (is my home).
I am enjoying Peru though it is hard to adjust to a completely new country after getting so attatched to another. The people here are wonderful, a lot older than the last group and mostly from the UK. My roomate Jade is also a wheelchair user and we are having a great time together. Though as we both have said , we hope we are not isolated from the group because we are the two disabled. But dont think either of us will let that happen. The staff is agin wonderful and tomorrow i will go see my volunteer placement. Again it will be at a Special education school so im very excited.
Its bloody boiling here though, its somewhere between 90 and 95 degrees and with 85 % humidity, so lots of agua.
Well anyrate, i hope everyones well and happy. love to hear about your lives. Feel quite narcasistic talking about myself all the time
Love you all

And then there was one. It seems as if the shit hit the fan thursday, excuse the language, in the Cartago house. So it looks like i am flying solo for this next week, except for the staff. Thursday some of the volunteers got way out of control and well lets just say there were naked body parts and chocolat. All of this in front of Adrian and the poor nightgaurd who had no idea what was going on. Then friday morning Doña Flor, the housekeeper found bottles of vodka and tequila stashed in my room. As you may guess it was from my roomates.. wanted to get that clear. So when we all came home from work Jose the country director talked to all of the volunteers and gave them the option of going home, but some like my roomates were not given the option and basically forced to get out. Mark, Jess and I of course were in the clear since we have been watching all of this stuff happen the last few weeks, so both Mark and Jess reached the end of the program so Jess went to San Carlos and Mark to Spain. Lots of yelling and screaming occured and most blamed the staff, of course taking absolutly no reponsibility. The CCS staff were incredible and absolutly amazing in the way that they handled the situation, they even drove them all to San Jose so they ´wouldn´t have to pay for a taxi. Amazing after they all said F*** off to the driver Allan. Anyway, Mark, Jess and I felt horrible since that was CCS Cartago´s 2nd anniversary, so we bought streamers and balloons and decorated the house. Even bought a piñata. Great fun, and i still wake up to confetti in my bed.
I´m actually finding being alone in the house not so bad, Jose and Idioneth and i had ice cream and cookies, plus i get to use the laundry room, absolutly fantastic. Though i think the locals are going to miss laughing at a gringa dragging a garbage bag down the road to the laundretta. Also get to use the internet, so you will be hearing from me a bit more often. Plus at the risk of sounding totally concieted i find myself quite interesting to talk to : ).
My work placement is absolutly fantastic, i´m learning so much and find it facinating. This week i´m going to be cooking with one of the classes, still have to find a dish to make, possibly somthing that i can´t catch on fire. They are also having me teach disabled sexuality on Tuesday and Thursday, I have no idea where this came from, most likly Javier who i still won´t let practice therapy on. Told him i will let him do a physical therapy session on me if i get to practice this new Californian type of physical therapy on him. He laughed. Anyway, i get to talk to about 5 disabled students and their parents next week, in `Spanish, so they may leave enlightened or very very disturbed. Love working with the childen who have autism, they are great fun and it is facinating the way each childs mind looks at the same activity. The hardest class is the one with fully competent teenagers yet with severe physical disabilities. Maybe hits too close to home. But this week i am visiting Marianne at her house and hoipefully we will have a nice time, think i´ll bring music, watch some movies, talk about guapo ticos.
I am gathering resources for parents and Javier about possible organizations that give equipment, ie wheelchairs, communication devices, etc., and who can provide resources to the disabled in developing countries. If Barb or Melissa reads this, i was wondering if you had any idea where to look for this, you have both been so wonderful in helping me!
Also trying to wrap peoples head around the idea of independent living, though i have to say it fights against not only the mindset on people with disabilities but also the whole costa rican culture. Many of the staff here who are in their late 20´s early 30´s still live with their parents, so this is totally beyond anything they would discuss.
Leave for Peru in a week, i am having mixed feelings about it. I do believe i may get a little tired of talking to myself by then , but Cartago has really become my home. I have a favorite bakery, favorite coffee shop, the laundry lady knows me (as well as everyone on that road), and my favorite market. So it´s going to be hard to start all over again, though i am very intersested in Peruvian culture. Definently going to miss my friends here.
Well have to get back to stimulating conversation..
Love to all!

And then there was one. It seems as if the shit hit the fan thursday, excuse the language, in the Cartago house. So it looks like i am flying solo for this next week, except for the staff. Thursday some of the volunteers got way out of control and well lets just say there were naked body parts and chocolat. All of this in front of Adrian and the poor nightgaurd who had no idea what was going on. Then friday morning Doña Flor, the housekeeper found bottles of vodka and tequila stashed in my room. As you may guess it was from my roomates.. wanted to get that clear. So when we all came home from work Jose the country director talked to all of the volunteers and gave them the option of going home, but some like my roomates were not given the option and basically forced to get out. Mark, Jess and I of course were in the clear since we have been watching all of this stuff happen the last few weeks, so both Mark and Jess reached the end of the program so Jess went to San Carlos and Mark to Spain. Lots of yelling and screaming occured and most blamed the staff, of course taking absolutly no reponsibility. The CCS staff were incredible and absolutly amazing in the way that they handled the situation, they even drove them all to San Jose so they ´wouldn´t have to pay for a taxi. Amazing after they all said F*** off to the driver Allan. Anyway, Mark, Jess and I felt horrible since that was CCS Cartago´s 2nd anniversary, so we bought streamers and balloons and decorated the house. Even bought a piñata. Great fun, and i still wake up to confetti in my bed.
I´m actually finding being alone in the house not so bad, Jose and Idioneth and i had ice cream and cookies, plus i get to use the laundry room, absolutly fantastic. Though i think the locals are going to miss laughing at a gringa dragging a garbage bag down the road to the laundretta. Also get to use the internet, so you will be hearing from me a bit more often. Plus at the risk of sounding totally concieted i find myself quite interesting to talk to : ).
My work placement is absolutly fantastic, i´m learning so much and find it facinating. This week i´m going to be cooking with one of the classes, still have to find a dish to make, possibly somthing that i can´t catch on fire. They are also having me teach disabled sexuality on Tuesday and Thursday, I have no idea where this came from, most likly Javier who i still won´t let practice therapy on. Told him i will let him do a physical therapy session on me if i get to practice this new Californian type of physical therapy on him. He laughed. Anyway, i get to talk to about 5 disabled students and their parents next week, in `Spanish, so they may leave enlightened or very very disturbed. Love working with the childen who have autism, they are great fun and it is facinating the way each childs mind looks at the same activity. The hardest class is the one with fully competent teenagers yet with severe physical disabilities. Maybe hits too close to home. But this week i am visiting Marianne at her house and hoipefully we will have a nice time, think i´ll bring music, watch some movies, talk about guapo ticos.
I am gathering resources for parents and Javier about possible organizations that give equipment, ie wheelchairs, communication devices, etc., and who can provide resources to the disabled in developing countries. If Barb or Melissa reads this, i was wondering if you had any idea where to look for this, you have both been so wonderful in helping me!
Also trying to wrap peoples head around the idea of independent living, though i have to say it fights against not only the mindset on people with disabilities but also the whole costa rican culture. Many of the staff here who are in their late 20´s early 30´s still live with their parents, so this is totally beyond anything they would discuss.
Leave for Peru in a week, i am having mixed feelings about it. I do believe i may get a little tired of talking to myself by then , but Cartago has really become my home. I have a favorite bakery, favorite coffee shop, the laundry lady knows me (as well as everyone on that road), and my favorite market. So it´s going to be hard to start all over again, though i am very intersested in Peruvian culture. Definently going to miss my friends here.
Well have to get back to stimulating conversation..
Love to all!

See that everyone is ignoring me now except for my lovely narotic sister, who last time i knew her never wanted children, Ms minch what have you done with her?
Anyway i promise to reply individually now that the cafe is only 2 miles away and there are not too many dark allys to go into.
Had a rough day today, i was talking to a 15 year old girl named Marianne today in my class, she has cerebral palsy and is pretty spastic yet so so intelligent. We got on the subject of the future and what she wants from it and i realized how incredibly lucky i am. She truly is trapped in her body, she can see, smell, comprehend everything and yet she can`t quite reach the outside world. Everyone around her completely ignores her writing her off as an invalid and when they do listen they dimiss everything she says. I talked or pointed at letters and words for some time today and she wants a husband, family, sex as everyone else yet she has absolutly no hope of achieving those goals. Then i realized that i not only had hope but i took it as a known fact of life that i was going to achieve these things. If Marianne was born in the US she would have an opprotunity to be independent, and i feel that is the sadest part, that she can be so close to programs and services yet so far away.
Anyway, Javier is still trying to get me on the floor to do some physical therapy, you can guess my response. I enjoy him though, we are talking in French now, his english and my spanish combined creates conversations like.
Will you help me with her?
Yes it`s 10:00 in the morning
Really, thank you
Though i have not told him i was pregnant yet. So i`m making progress.

Adrian came back! For three days anyway, i`m spending the weekend with him in San Jose again, so that will be fun. It`s only going to be Phillip and i in the house next week, all the other volunteers left, For a joke Idioneth and Christina (the cooks) are going to lay out a candlelight dinner for the two of us because they have never onl cooked for two people before. Hopefully we will have a lot to talk about or i may have to get friendly with Don Santiago, the nightgaurd.
The culture here has really grown on me and even after only a month i see Cartago as home. The smells of rice and beans in the morning are going to be hard to leave. Everthing here is so wam and inviting not to mention calm, even going back to Grass Valley will be a culture shock. I`m getting quite brown and am already on >Tico Time, so i may have to stay a bit longer... ;) Leave for Peru on the 11, i am extremly excited get as said before i`m living the Pura Vida life in Costa Rica.
Todo mi amor