I completed a marathon (albeit very slowly)

I haven't written in a very long time but my life has lately been filled with exciting events so I thought that I would update everyone back at home. I only have about 4 months left in the Peace Corps and then I will be returning home to Portland to figure out the rest of my life. That is all up in the air but it is still very exciting to daydream about all of the possibilities. Along with thinking about which law schools to apply to and drafting a personal statement that will hopefully get me into these law schools, I have spent the couple of months since my last blog running. I had to complete my intense marathon training schedule which means that I have run over 600 miles since January. The culmination of all this running was the fourth annual Pacasmayo marathon, a Peace Corps founded event that has since been continued by the municipality and other volunteers in the region. The event was relatively small with somewhat bleak surroundings meaning that the majority of the race I was by myself in the desert. Despite this, I got to run along the coast with some beautiful ocean views along the way and upon finishing (in a somewhat embarrassingly long time) I was rewarded with an overwhelming sense of accomplishment. I had a killer sunburn, a pretty massive headache, and was seriously fatigued but one of my first thoughts upon finishing is that I want to run another marathon next year only this time I will try and run it in a time I am proud of rather than just finish. Any sport that generally starts off with a pasta feed and ends up with an expo offering free massages, snacks, and gear is alright in my book.

The day after the marathon I headed to Lima for a Women in Development Committee meeting. After a long session of planning, we made significant progress on our calendar for 2012. For those of you who don't know about the calendar project, it is the second annual “Peruanas Poderosas” (Powerful Peruvians) calendar featuring women nominated by the volunteers they work with to be featured in a calendar. The success of last year's calendar in recognizing women who work diligently to improve their communities without any reward has made it a main priority of the committee to repeat the project. The calendar will be distributed to all volunteers, staff members, and important contacts, and we will hold regional ceremonies and leadership workshops for volunteers, the women selected for the calendar, and any woman who wishes to accompany them. We are currently writing the grant proposal which will be funded by generous donations from friends and family. I will definitely be hitting all of you up for contributions as soon as our grant and budget has been approved by Peace Corps. This is a great cause and all donations will be tax deductible so I urge all of you to get involved. I will post on my blog and on Facebook when we are ready to receive donations.

As I reach the final stretch of my Peace Corps service, I have found myself with many conflicting emotions. I am nostalgic, homesick, and excited about the future. Although it is increasingly difficult to motivate to start new projects, I am satisfied with the projects that I have underway and I am enjoying pulling everything that I have accomplished thus far together. The 2012 calendar will be a great way to end my service and, since the woman that I nominated was selected to appear, I will leave a beautiful finished product behind for my town to remember me by.