Only 1 Week Left...

Hello Everyone!

It is really hard to believe that we will be home so soon. We finished up our last day at the clinic in Yanahuara today. We will be spending Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday next week in another rural health clinic. We leave for Cusco on Thursday and fly out on Friday. I think we are both looking forward to getting home. We have had an unforgettable time here, but I am ready to get back to the American way of life.

It has been a pretty slow week in the clinic this past week, but I think it would have been pretty hard to top last week! We really enjoyed working with the nurses in Yanahuara. Since it was typically pretty slow, it allowed a lot of time to talk and learn more about life and medicine in Peru. They were great women!

We had biscacha for lunch yesterday, which is like a wild rabbit here. She made chicken for Megan and I just in case we didnt like it. It really wasnt bad, but it did not compare to the chicken. Our mom still hasnt been feeling well so we have been eating in the house. It has been a little more relaxed and meals have been less formal. She has been letting me cook with her, which has been a lot of fun. I am really excited to try out some of the new recipes when I get home.

Tomorrow we are going horseback riding in the morning and then to Maras to see the salt mines nearby in the afternoon. Since it is our last weekend we are staying in Ollanta. Our host family here has not let us forget that we are leaving on Thursday. They are getting very sad and talk about how life is going to be so different for them when we leave. We really have spent a lot of time and grown really close to them. They keep asking when we are going to come back and it has been hard to explain that we dont have plans to return. They have been absolutely wonderful! It will be hard to say goodbye, but I think it will be much harder for them. Let´s just say there lives will be much quieter when we leave. I think our parents have really enjoyed talking with us, because they have a 14 year old son who doesnt talk much and a very difficult 8 year old daughter. We are planning on having a big lunch on Sunday and watching the World Cup Finals together on Sunday. Another local family of a volunteer is having a going away dinner and bonfire for us on Monday night. We are looking forward to that.

We just finished the menu for their restaurant today. We created a completely new layout with correct Spanish to English translations. We havent gotten it printed yet, but Alicia looked over it with us on the computer today and she is really excited about it. My hope is that it will bring more business into the restaurant because tourists will now be able to tell what things are. I wrote down the ingredients to some of the more traditional plates so more people will be more likely to try new things.

Thanks for keeping up with our trip. We have really enjoyed sharing our experiences with you. This is the last time that we will blog until we get home. We will return home on Saturday July 17th. Please keep us in your prayers until then and please continue to pray for our family and the other volunteers in Ollanta.

Thank you and God Bless,
Kelly and Megan