2011~Ring It In...Bring It On!

Another year working for CONAPAC and living in Perú has come and gone. In February it will be three years since I first arrived and thought I might volunteer for a few months. Now it's my life and so it seems, my life's work. Keeping Adopt-A-School on track and building more clean water systems seems to have taken on a life its own. Much was accomplished last year and our donors continue to generously respond. As I see what's on the horizon of 2011, I'm already tired--but a day at a time, right? :) December was a great month. The first part of it I spent in the jungle doing student and teacher evaluations. As expected it's a mixed bag of results—some schools are just awesome and some barely function. But there's always hope and our team continues to search for new ideas and refinements of what works. The water plants are doing well and we continue to encourage communities to make the care and maintenance of the systems a top priority. This year we plan to build eight more—little by little, our goal of providing access to clean water for all our AAS communities will be a reality.

The end of December brought my daughter, Samantha, here for an eight day visit! She had been here in June of 2009 so this was a nice follow up visit. We had no particular plans but quickly filled the time with conversation, Christmas activities, excursions and a short visit to the jungle. Lots of tears were shed when she left town as she was not yet ready to leave her “mumzie” however, some good news awaited her. Out of Lima, her plane was late leaving the country by two hours thus she missed her connection in Newark back to Denver. This was when the great Christmas snow storm was just sorting itself out. She could not get a flight out until the next day plus she needed to get to La Guardia where her connection would be made. She knows no one in the area and had never been to New York City. Using her SmartPhone and Facebook, she put out the word and found someone who offered her an apartment in Manhattan for the night. Then she learned that her best friend and college roommate, Christina, (who lives in Cleveland) was going to be in the city for the night on business! They connected later in the day and hung out, caught up on news and generally enjoyed the unexpected visit together. To top all this off, when she got to the airport the next day, she found that the airline had bumped her up to first class! What a treat and an unexpected bonus—although I told her not to get used to it! She couldn't have written a better script for a nice way to end her vacation. She was able to make it home in time to get to work—she tends bar in downtown Denver and certainly New Year's Eve is the best night of the year for tips so it all turned out great. Thanks to social networking and a PMA, she rang in the New Year in a most delightful way! :)

While Samantha was here we checked out a really interesting NGO working in Iquitos. It's called AmazonCares. They pick up street dogs and bring them back to health. Stray street dogs with mange, injuries and severe illnesses run rampant here. Sterilization is almost unheard of and puppies are regularly turned out to fend for themselves. Internationally recognized AmazonCares, brings in vet volunteers to help with the process of neutering dogs and accessing care. Sam and I visited the remote shelter site where about 35-40 dogs are cared for and brought back to health while looking for a new home. Interestingly, here in the Iquitos, the stray dogs are as laid back as the people. They run in packs and sometimes fight among themselves but I've never felt threatened or uncomfortable around any of them. Many of the dogs at the shelter—all which are mutts of some kind—were so nice! I'm not much of a dog person but I could see they were just starving for a little love and attention now that they're regularly fed and cared for. Sam and I went in the common area with about 15 dogs at once. They were all over us but surprisingly well-behaved for street dogs. There are many needs here in Iquitos, human and animal. CONAPAC is looking for ways to assist AmazonCares in what its trying to accomplish. For more info check out: www.amazoncares.org

Thanks to everyone out there who continue to follow my blog posts. It's fun to do but sometimes I think I'm only doing it for myself--but when someone leaves a comment, I know I'm connecting somewhere! As I posted on Facebook, if 2011 is even the slightest bit better than 2010, my cup will not only run over but it will threaten to flood the floor! Thank you, life, for all the blessings you have bestowed upon me and know that I do not take any of them for granted—each day is a gift that I wake up to with joy, enthusiasm and acceptance. I wish nothing less for each and every one of my readers. Embrace 2011 for what it is—another year in your glorious life!