1/4 over...some pictures

Hola! I hope everyone is doing well. Here are just a bunch of photos from training till now. I'm now through with a quarter of my service in the Peace Corps. The weeks go fast, the days go slow. Doesn't make much sense, does it? Welcome to Peace Corps life...a lot of it doesn't make any sense...but I guess that's part of the fun.


Beautiful sunset on Huanchaco, one of the beaches that is relatively close (8 hour bus ride). Great ceviche here, relatively relaxed, great atmosphere.

During our swearing in night - Frank, Drew, and myself smoking some cubans, drinking some scotch and celebrating the end of training. The guy with the teacup is Greg...I don't think his wife would let him smoke.

Who wants a mustache ride??? Tom and I on mustache day. Yes, I look ridiculous...

For the past three months, the kids have been on summer vacation and every Mon, Wed, and Fri, the kids in the community would come to our center to play with clay and learn a little bit about ceramics. They're great kids. For some reason, little kids speaking Spanish sounds much cuter than little kids speaking English. Subjective analysis...yeah.

Meet Eleodoro, one of the harder workers of our group. He's reliable for 2 things...making good products and always ready to down some beer, canaso, or whatever we can afford at one of watering holes or street corner.

This is the hostel we stay at when we go to the above beach. Hammocks...amazing. I don't know why everyone doesn't have one.

Tranquillo...

During Quechua classes, I was absent one afternoon and the assignment was to write a song or poem. Hence, my two best buds here wrote a song about me...

Since my initials are JED, and I have a country boy side, they enjoy calling me Jed...so this is "Merica!, The Ballad of Jed DeBear!" If I thought you could translate, I wouldn't put it on here...it's pretty raunchy.

It's impossible to take a bad photo here when the skies are clear. This is the town I live near, Huaraz with the world's highest tropical mountain pearing down at us. I'm about 4 miles north of the city. I use the word 'city' very loosely...it's an Andean city - which is much different than anything outside.

This is just a neat photo, in a city called Chimbote. Peruvian waters are very abundant with sea-life due to the current coming up from Antartica. These are all fishing boats heading out for the day.

I think I mentioned in an old post that I got a tattoo. It's hard to see the details in this photo, but it's a sun, a condor, and a snake, and a bunch of cool lines.

If you're curious about the symbology, I ripped this description from a website: "The Incas believed that to live completely in the present is the Inca ideal. Each day should be taken for what it has to offer, and this way of life can lead, the Incas believe, to an appreciation of the beauty in life. They believe that paradise is possible through simple appreciation of life in the contemplation of the current moment and of nature. The most important are Pacha Mama and Pacha Tata (mother earth and father heaven). Their main god is Inti...which is the sun. The snake represents intellect, knowledge and the past. Of course, the Spanish destroyed most of what they came across, but they left the snake symbolism intact, because they saw it as proof that the Incas were evil devil-worshippers. The condor represents what people should strive for -- balance, and also represents the future and the possibility of life in another dimension, free, balanced, and soaring the heavens." The puma is also an important part of Incan culture representing the present tense and strength, but the design didn't have a puma...so if I want a well-rounded tattoo full of symbology, I'll have to add that sometime. For now though, my dad has a tattoo of a puma on his shoulder, so between the two of us, we got it covered. .

Thanks for reading!

Much Love,

Jake