Higado

It was no secret that Becca had had a rough start to her Peace Corps service, or perhaps it was to some, either way, times had been less than desirable in those early months. But a strange sort of shift had started within her that she couldn’t have seen coming. 

The day that she did finally notice it left her in a brilliant mixture or glee and total shock. Sitting at lunch with two friends, Monica and Gina, during vacation, Becca ordered a menu which consisted of soup, a main course and a drink. As they chit-chatted, the truth came out.

“I really like this place and it’s so sunny, I feel like I never---,” Monica began.

“Score!” Becca exclaimed staring into her soup. Sifting through with her spoon for a moment, she revealed a small, smooth, brownish blob. “I got higado*! I love higado!” She plopped it in her mouth and grinned wildly as she chewed.

“Becca...” Monica began, but stopped short, running out of whatever thought she’d had as she watched Becca, still enjoying her soup while bopping about to the loud peruvian music playing in the street.

“Oh sorry, I cut you off, what were you saying?” Becca said innocently.

“Are you dancing?” Monica asked, still confused.

“How can you not dance to this music? It’s so catchy, I love this song,”

“Becca...” Monica began again. “Who are you right now?”

Becca paused for a moment and looked at her grinning friend and found herself confused for a moment as well. In a matter of months the girl who never danced and would have blanched at the thought of higado was...well, this...? “I have no idea, I’ll keep you posted,” she answered and finished her soup.

*Higado = Liver

Frazzle Dazzle

She felt it coming on slowly, crawling under her skin and scratching at her senses every day until she could no longer deny it. Her slightly lumpy bed had become the ultimate destroyer of comfort and rest, power outages turned from daily distraction to grand ruiner of work, slight aches and pains transformed to debilitating diseases and undeniable ailments, delayed home-skype dates ate away at her sanity. There would be no more denying it: it was time for a vacation.

Luckily, the final days of July brought a long awaited return to Ancash where Becca would trek, explore, and generally laugh her face right off with her two amazing friends, Gia and Michelle. As the final days passed, she tried to finish strong. She presented her project plan to the schools and formed a committee to move forward her teen health promotors project and she visited the houses of the moms in her healthy homes project, which lucky for her meant some seriously cute kids. And nothing helps a frazzled mind more than adorable children:

Except of course....a vacation.

Out-takes

As part of the English Teaching Committee, Becca was part of a project to make video vignettes for English lessons. She made two stunning videos covering colors and weather with the help of a group of silly and seriously awesome kiddos, but those aren't really important - more entertaining are the out-takes: 

Progress

            Becca sat at her desk and glancing at the time found that it was already nearly noon. She wondered absently where the morning had gone but really more importantly, what the bejeezus had just happened. She was exhausted and honestly working on what was going to be a spectacular headache but underneath all of that was this beautiful feeling of accomplishment.

            She had her very first committee meeting for her Healthy Homes project. People showed up, were interested, stayed the whole time, and had a discussion about the possible problems and good points of the project. Granted only four people saw her presentation but eventually more came and eventually they talked.

            She would have to have another meeting to present to more authorities but she found that once she had some of these people on board, she had help with getting more. They had shown genuine interest, they’d told her her ideas were not only valuable but crucial, they’d laughed at her jokes.

            It took nearly seven months and a site-mate, but dan it if things weren’t coming together. Now it was just a year of constant work for the project plus all of the same things for her second and third projects. No big. She took a breath and reveled in a moment of progress.