Day after Mother's Day

The rain, after four months, has stopped. The rainy season usually runs from Dec. to Apr. and when it finally clears up the weather is amazing. I’ve got a buddy staying with me who came up from the coast (Trujillo) that is going on the Huaywash trek, which is supposed to be in the top three extended hiking trips in the world. I haven’t done it yet and regretfully I can’t go this time. As much as I feel like I should take the opportunity to go on such an incredible excursion, at this point I’ve only got three months left. I think I’ll leave Peru with a much better sense of accomplishment if I keep doing everything I can with the association before I leave on August 5th.
Fortunately, I was fated to become that rare volunteer that had the opportunity to change sites during mid service because of a serious work problem in their original site. And the site change was a god-send because I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be here if it were not for a change of community/project. It wasn’t that I had work problems in my first site, I just didn’t have any work. What this means, however, is that I have only been working with my current job for less than a year and am still playing catch up.
My current project is small business development with a group of local pottery makers. I have been helping them with basic organizational development, marketing and many random other things. They are a group of 16 and on any given day about half of them show up. The association is a secondary source of income for just about the entire group, so keeping all of them focused and motivated is half the job by itself.
Today, I am in Huaraz, which is the departmental capital and I am looking into a phone connection for the center that we work in. Until now we have depended on the cell phone of the president of the association for orders, questions from clients, ect. Yeah well, usually he’s working potatoes in the field, or getting drunk, or just doing his own thing. So that’s my job today…