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Hello again to all my faithful followers (overly ambitious assumption?).  Since my last entry, I´ve seen some volunteers go and a plethora of new ones arrive.  As of today we have me, Jean Gabriel (England), Andreas (Germany), Christina (Germany), Mariajose (Nicaragua/Canada), Igor (Bosnia/Canada), Erin (Wisconson, USA), and Nicole (Austin, TX, USA).  It´s proving to be a good mix of people who all get along very well.  As of now, only JG, Andreas, and I are living at the NeVo house, with the rest of the volunteers living with families spread throughout Urubamba.

For my teaching work, we recently began a new theme of Family issues.  To introduce the theme I had the students answer a series of questions on home life and the problems they face.  They then got into groups and chose a situation from one of their answers to perform a role play.  Sadly, at least half of the plays dealt with either physical violence, alcoholism, or both.  It´s clear that these issues are prevalent in many of the homes here in Urubamba (and probably throughout the country of Peru).  Because of this, I decided to extend the discussion on this subject to include further depth into family violence.

For the environmental work, JG and I gave our Climate Change presentation again, this time to a group of older (Superior) students at a school here in Urubamba called La Salle.  It went very well.  We also held a formal ¨swearing in¨ event for the various Ecological Clubs in Urubamba´s Plaza de Armas.  At this event, there were well over 200 students present who each received a t-shirt we had printed up to help solidify the group.  Basically the event was to outline the major reasons for having such clubs, the members responsibilities, and to give them a sense of empowerment in numbers.  Urubamba´s Alcaldai (mayor) was present along with some other local politicians, so I would chalk that up as a success.  The following day was the Urubamba trash clean-up day that we helped to organize as well.  There was a massive turnout and a lot was accomplished (although it would probably take years of weekly events like this to fully clean the trash our of all the rivers, streets, gutters, etc.).

I fear that my luck has finally run out on avoiding illness here.  Over the past couple weeks I´ve been battling various stomach issues (one of which was clearly my own fault in consuming street chicha offered to me by an old, scraggly woman) and have just been feeling generally not great.  As I write this I currently have a little fever, headache, and stomach problems.  I suppose it was only a matter of time before I had to deal with the usual traveler´s ailments.

On the Peruvian news front, some serious conflicts have recently erupted in the northern Amazon region of the country where the local people of Bagua, Yurimaguas, and other communities had been protesting the proposal for international mining and oil extraction for 2 months.  After 2 months of road blocking, the Peruvian government made a push to break through the barriers which resulted in an extremely violent and unsettling affair.  Reports differ depending on the source, but it seems clear that at least 60 people were killed (mostly the indigenous people, but also some police).  Some reports say that the police intentionally dumped bodies into the river to conceal the true number of dead.  Whatever the true story is, it was a very sad day here, clearly upsetting the majority of Peru´s residents.  This past Thursday was a nation-wide protest to voice the extreme disapproval for the events that occurred in that conflict, the disagreement over rainforest exploitation/deforestation, and general resentment of the current President Garcia regime.  Although I was initially uncertain about doing so, I ended up participating in the protests in Cusco by marching with some of the teachers I work with at the school here.  It was an amazing experience that I will not forget and I am very glad that I decided to attend.  Aside from the human rights atrocities that occurred, the state of the Amazon rainforest is something that concerns us all.  Being one of the planets greatest carbon sinks that soaks up much of the carbon we emit around the globe, we all have a stake in issues like these.  I truly believe that sometime in the future, a world carbon market will be set up that rewards countries that maintain their forest lands.  If only the governments of these countries can resist the temptation of short-term oil profits to boost their economies…  That´s not something that many countries have shown they are capabe of thus far, incuding ours.

For the cultural activity this Friday, we visited a local ceramic workshop here in town and made plaques in a pre-Incan style.  Everyone´s looked really great; I´m eagerly awaiting the final results that we´ll see this week.  In other miscellaneous news, yesterday, I led a group of some of the other volunteers on a hike up Tanta Marka (the small mountain behind the NeVo house) which was very nice.  It was a beautiful day and the views from up there never get old.

A sincere congratulations goes out to my dear friends Matt and Amanda who have decided to tie the knot after many years together.  I couldn´t be happier for them – two great people very deserving of eachother.  My best wishes on the wedding plans.

I hope all are well back home.  Can´t wait to see everyone.  I´ve also started thinking about some of the things I miss from time to time here that I will have to indulge in upon my return.  Thus far, I note the following: a great cheeseburger, Mom´s manicotti and/or meatloaf, Newcastle and/or Sierra Nevada 6-pack (better make it 12), parmasean couscous (random, I know), 1 full day of being a couch potato and watching useless t.v., Maisy.  More to come…

Scott

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