Lomas de Lachay

This past week was a very enjoyable one. I´ve been advancing with my photography project and now have five of the eight final photos that I need for my project. I have printed a lot more, but the final photos need to be ¨basically perfect¨ according to my professor. I have really grown to respect the art of photography because it is such a long process to come up with even one great photo. I´ve also been coming along on my group project for Peruvian Social Reality. Our 21-page paper is due this coming week so we were getting a little worried about finishing it, but split between the work of eight of us it shouldn´t be a problem.

Other than classes, I went to my volunteering again on Thursday and Friday. In the hospital on Friday I switched between the wing of Medicine D and Neumology. I am starting to get attached to the kids, and when I left the hospital on Friday one of the girls, Lady, look up at me from her wheelchair and said: ¨Michelle, por favor no te vayas a tu país. Tienes que quedar en Perú!¨ which means ¨Michelle, please don´t leave to go back to your country. You have to stay here in Perú!¨ How could you not want to stay in Perú after hearing that?

On Thursday I went to the movies to see 2012, the movie about the end of the world, and I left the movie a little more frightened than when I entered! Last weekend and the past few weeks my chapel chorus has been practicing to sing in a confirmation mass. The mass was held this past Friday and was a really nice ceremony. It was really cool to be a part of the service, and the twelve of us got to stand up at the front right next to the bishop each with our own microphone! Although I was a little nervous to be singing songs in Spanish in front of a large group, it was a good experience and it turned out well. There were 61 students who got confirmed! On Friday during the day, Meg and I had to interview our friend Deyver for our Social Reality project. He has lived in los Olivos for his entire life,which is near Mega Plaza and is in the Cono Norte - the area of Lima that we are studying. He was very insightful and enjoyed helping us learn a little more about the area. That night after the confirmation mass some of our house and Holy Cross friends and I went with some of our Peruvian friends to a house party. When we entered the house we heard a big group of Peruvian boys singing Backstreet Boys which we thought was histerical.

On Saturday the girls and I decided we wanted to do a day trip out of Lima, so we went to Lomas de Lachay, a nature reserve about 2 hours outside of Lima. We first had to take a bus to the little city of Huaran, and then we went from there in taxi to Lomas. It is strange because all the surrounding area is desert overlooking the coast, and it suddenly changes over to greenery in the mountains instead of sand when you enter Lomas. It was beautiful, with beautiful mountains and hills covered in interesting trees and nature. We went hiking for a few hours, took lots of pictures, and then returned back to Huaran in taxi. We then took the bus ride home, which turned out to be a three hour trip due to traffic. It was an all-day event, but the trip was well worth it and a good change of scenery to see something outside of the city. All in all the trip probably cost me a grand total of between 10 and 15 dollars!

On Saturday night Meg and I did a second interview, this time with our friends Fernando and Juan Pa who also live in los Olivos. On Sunday morning I had to wake up early to work on our project for Peruvian Social Reality with the group. We all worked on it for about 5 or 6 hours! It´s always a little difficult to put so many people working on one thing all together, but it was nice to spend time with our group and we are all certainly getting to know each other pretty well. After, Guillermo came with me take take my last two roles of film for photography class in the Magdalena market area. I went to mass later near my house and then made sure to get to bed early after a busy weekend.

We only have these two weeks left of classes and then the week of finals, so I am going to busy busy finishing up projects and preparing for exams. Of course, though, I will also be busy trying to enjoy the time I have left here!

Chau,
Michelle

Photos from Lomas de Lachay: