First Month in Salacuim

We have been in site for about a month now. We're pretty well settled in and basically have everything we need for living. We're hopefully about to end our 3 week search for some shelves to put things on...

Our time is being spent getting to know the communities, people, their needs, and improving our language skills. We've already been able to get involved in some interesting stuff: helping out a youth group to write a request for donated computers & planning computer classes for the community, Kari is working with a group of women that weave traditional fabrics, Corby was asked to help out with a "engineering inspection" as part of the paperwork to start a new school in Salacuim as well as give comments on a preliminary concrete bridge design, we met the prime minister of agriculture when he came to the area for a visit, as well as some other fun stuff.

There are 45 communities surrounding the National Park that our counterpart (Proyecto Lachua) works with. We've been trying to travel to several of them for visits, but transportation is limited & dificult at times. We're becoming excellent hitchhikers and have taken some interesting rides. Perspectives change: somehow riding a few hours over a rough gravel road on the luggage rack of a minivan sounds pretty appealing or even comfortable. We will be getting our Peace Corps issued bikes in a week and that may open up some more opportunities for us to get around a bit easier.

Below are a few pictures of our house and life here. Check out our picture link as well. We're caught up on uploading.