Holy 2 months of Perú Batman!!!!

First, I do want to apologize for my lacking as of late in blogging. I am sorry to you, but for me it has been a good thing. Wow, has it relaly been almost a month since I last wrote you all. oops. But as I was saying, for me it was a good thing because that meant that I have been busy. In that time, I have worked at a couple fairs (one on climate change and another was with the fair trade part of the Red), been all over Lima, been to Huanaco, and so much more. Therefore, in order to try and keep things to a reasonable level of length, you will not be recieving a complete update on everything that has happened in my life. Sorry. If you want to know, send me an email (jtobiason08@gmail.com) and whine about it.

I do find it interesting how deeply involved with my email I have become this year. I would say that this is one of those little things about growing up and working. I have always considered the "working world" to be the ones who are sending emails to clients and people all the time, but now I am there. Does that mean I´m a grown up too? During our YAV retreat, Anna and I had a good conversation about how it is strange to now be a couple years out of college and to be seeing our friends moving on and really doing good things with their lives. I have friends who are teaching, others who are business people, some who are working with kids and others who are doing things that I don´t even understand. My google reader is filled every day with blogs of friends who are all around the world serving people and looking at how to create a better world. Whitworth, this is a fact that you should be proud of, right now, out of my good friends in the class of ´08 college (Andrew, Cory, Scott, Caleb, Shannon, Lindsay, and me) are ALL ACTUALLY WORKING IN THEIR FIELD OF STUDY. How does that happen with that many liberal arts degrees? It is just something that I have been thinking about and it just makes me happy.

A week ago, the YAVs all got together to have our first retreat. It was a great time to get together and to hear more about what is going on in people´s lives than the few texts we send each other when something crazy happens (which honestly happens pretty often, so far my favorite comes from Anna: 10/3/09 "there are dead cuys hanging in my veranda..."). It was great to hear Alissa describe her real interactions with her family and the true pleasure/pain relationship that comes with living with kids. To hear how Alta is starting to feel the vibe in Huancavalica. To see Sarah Baja break all language barriers with local girls with volleyball. It was a really heartening experience. Also, we got out of Lima. Don´t get me wrong, I love Lima. Every day this city feels a little more like home, but there is so much more of Peru than this not so little smog filled city. I personally was challenged to be more intentional in my interactions and more present. This may also be a reason that blogs haven´t been coming lately too because I am trying to limit my evening internet usage because (as before mentioned) I use my email and therefore the internet a ton.

As a group, we are reading a book called Binding the Strongman by Ched Meyers. It is a socio-political look into the book of Mark. I am really enjoying it, but it also puts me to sleep due to its depth. When I can stay awake, I'll share more on it. Maybe you would want to read it too?

I do want to point out that today is November 2, that means that I have been down here for over 2 months. That is crazy. It has gone quite fast. That is kinda scary because I do have a fear that I am going to be back in Seattle wondering what happened and why everyone is speaking English. I am at home here, but I am still seeking to integrate myself more. As for personal changes, I do find myself waking up in prayer more than when I left. I am going to sleep reading more (Gracias! by Henry Nouwen, READ THIS BOOK , it is a journal of his experiences in Bolivia and Peru and often expresses my feelings better than I know how). My Spanish is better and I am getting my languages mixed less often. I so love being on buses or walking down crowded streets and just feeling a part of the humanity (and seeing over it all). I will never fit in, but I hope to feel more at home every day.

Ok, I´m going to call a end to this post. I am getting a new camera today. Going a month without it has been hard, but has taught me to live in the moment and thrive in it more than just try to capture it for someone else. But it will be great to be able to share more (the pictures in this blog are from my film camera, which was not stolen, but I don´t take that many pictures (art or life) with it because developing has had some issues). I´ll write again soon. Oh, yea, the beard went away. As cool as it sounds, beard dandruff is not cool.

Photos:
1) The Remnants of a shelter above the granja (farm) we were staying at in Huanuco
2) The door to my bedroom at the granja. Figurativly a door we're all walking through to some future or something
3) Sarah Chancelor (Sarah Baja) in the bus
4) Self pic of me with my beard
5) One of my coworkers at CENCA, Jesusa, explaining the ecological sanitation systems

Ending question:

Have you noticed changes in me during the last 2 months? Have you noticed changes in yourself in the last 2 months? If so, what? If not, why not? Is that a good thing?

CENCA

FYI: if you click on the blue words, there are links to related articles, pictures, and such. Just making sure everyone gets the full experience.

Well, I hate to make this be my normal reason for writing blog postings, but I have nothing else to do and am waiting for a meeting that supposedly will happen this afternoon. Since last thursday, I have been working at CENCA. They have been around for almost 29 years and have a very solid history of internal development. I am working on the ecological sanitation (ecosan) team. Our main focus is that we are helping to host an international conference on ecosan next November here in Lima. We are also doing various projects with helping people to get ecological toilets. The ones that we do are dry toilets. Inside the toilet there is basically two areas. In the front, is a funnel that diverts urine into a jug and then a hole that allows feces to fall into a bucket. Then a drying agent (we use a dirt/lyme mix). From there, the urine is left for 3-4 months to ferment and lose it's smell (though there are some who add mint to make it smell good0. Then it is a great fertalizer. The dry feces is then put in the compost pile and used as good soil. We have a section at a reserve in the southern part of Lima for research and demonstration of the system. It is cool because that reserve also takes the hand washing water from the neighboring school and diverts it into a constructed wetland for greywater treatment. Then we store it to either be sent back to the school for watering their garden or for watering our garden. The goal is to try and find ways to close the loop.

I am enjoying my time here at CENCA because there are more young people. We went to one of the guys houses last friday night and it is great just hang out. Also, there has been a couple hours of sun every day for the last few days. Not a full day, but I read today that we are looking at highs of 70 instead of 66. So we're picking up a little.

I got to cook dinner for my family on sunday afternoon. Creamy pasta, fried veggies, and garlic butter for bread (the latter was a HUGE hit).

This weekend is a 4 day weekend because tomorrow is a national holiday celebrating the Battle of Angamos during the War of the Pacific with Bolivia against Chile. I'm going to spend the afternoon playing soccer.

One thing I wanted to when I left, was to build a community between me, Peru, and you. How am I doing? What could we do to do better? Let me know. Love you all. Also, getting a camera soon is high on my to do list. I hate not being better at sharing what I see with you.