Somos Iguales

If I’ve learned anything at all while I’ve been here, it is that no matter how much we put up borders or have our opinions of things, we humans are much more alike than we are different. As much pain and suffering goes on in the world over differences of religions, color of skins, gender, sexuality, personal preferences, sports teams, nationalism… it’s often just our egos saying we are better than the other.

We all feel hurt.

We all want to be comforted.

Friendship, among Peruvians.


Friendship, among Americans.




We all love. We all, at some moment, let down our guard. We all make mistakes.
We cry, we laugh, we wonder, we know.

We eat, we drink, we sleep. We all worry. We trip on sidewalks. We want to belong in groups. We all find a purpose.

We have moments of strength, and moments of weaknesses. We care for our young, we find ways to have fun, we are attached to the love of our mothers.


Peruvian women caring for their children.


American women caring for their children.



There are so many things that we all share. We often get so distracted in the details that we forget the overall truth.

We have different education levels, we have different backgrounds, we have different cultures, experiences, and habits. Some of us are rich, some of us are poor. The color of our skin is different. Everyone has their own story. Everyone was randomly given their set of cards.


My Peruvian mom.


My American mom.



But on a very basic level, we all share so much.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.”

Elephants, Not Hamsters

"Being busy doesn't necessarily mean bring productive."

I am awake for about 16 hours everyday. So let's say I spend 3 hours in the morning exercising, eating breakfast, getting ready for the day; an hour eating lunch; another hour with dinner. That now leaves a total of 10 hours left in the day that are all MINE.

I used to fill that time with rushing, stressing, meetings, programs, being frustrated, fake conversations, not enough time to really get all the juice out of the certain activity. I was often tired, usually stressed, and never satisfied.

In plain terms... I felt like a hamster spinning in her wheel. Working hard, but not seem to be getting far.

Somehow, after over a year of pain and frustration, I finally understand how to maneuver. At a steady, calculated pace with each step leaving a clearly defined footprint. More like an elephant.

So for a week and a half now (ever since I've been back) I have been working as so- at a steady pace, taking my time, following through, preparing well. And I like it. I am so much more happy!!!!! I also treat my relationships so much better with friends, family, and people within the community. Ahhh, very nice.

Being so, I now have more time on my hands. I have been thinking about a few books that I really want to dig into. If anyone has them lying around or sees them in the bookstore, send 'em my way! I am STARVING for more stuff. I will reimburse you in either money or llama hugs and kisses.. whichever you prefer.


"More Than Good Intentions" - Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel
"The White Man's Burden" - William Easterly
"PATHOLOGIES OF POWER: Health, human rights, and the new war on the poor" - Paul Farmer
"Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered" - E.F. Schumacher
"The End of Poverty" - Jeffery D Sachs
Any National Geographic Magazine, Scientific American, etc.


Alrighty, I hope to hear from y'all soon. And remember... take the day like the Elephants, not Hamsters. ;)

Quick Trip

Tears streaming down my face, eyes open wide open, unable to form a single word. One would think that I was stepping into a foreign world, lost and confused beyond all belief. And in a sense I was. One year and four months of living in another country, coming back to America, my home, was a deeply impactful experience for me. (I now fully understand “culture shock”). Being amazed and curious about almost every other thing I saw. Not to mention the emotional reunion of seeing my family again. I have never meant a hug so much in my life. It was as if in that moment they were extracting all of the pain, hardness, and negativity that I had felt the previous year and were washing my soul clean with their love, simply wiping it all away.

Two weeks of fun, relaxation, adventures, shopping, eating, enjoying, laughing, crying, conversing, driving, learning, reflecting. With family and friends. At home and at the beach.

















I honestly couldn’t have asked for a better break. I ended rejuvenated, recharged, and focused on what I need to do. Now I am here back in Nasca and am happier than ever. I have cut out negative parts of my life and have been focusing on the positive. I have been setting specific goals and working for them. I am on my way of really coming into myself. It’s amazing how much we still have to learn about ourselves. As long as we continue to push ourselves out of our comfort zone’s we will continue to explore our beautiful selves. It’s not easy, but the rewards are vast.

One Down, One to Go

So, yesterday we completed one year in site. One year?!?! 365 days!? 8760 hours!? 525,600 minutes!? 31,536,000 seconds!? One year of my 23 years on this Earth has been spent in Nasca, Ica, Peru. It’s really crazy to think about. I feel like I have been through so many different experiences, emotions, situations, challenges that I have never even dreamed about before, that it’s almost like “stepping outside of your comfort zone” becomes a daily activity here. But... it’s quite amazing. Everything is just kind of stripped away (family, friends, culture, comfort) and leaving only me, myself, and I to work through life and all its surprises that it presents. So, what are some ways that I feel like I’ve changed this last year? Let’s see...

1) I’ve become more practical/ realistic/ less emotional. I’ve never been the extreme emotional or dramatic type, but even more so here I have somehow honed a certain way of viewing the world in a more practical sense. I like it – having the ability to make decisions with a wider scope of view, not being bothered by minor scrapes n bumps, and I feel like I more quickly understand things to a deeper, more critical sense.

2) I understand suffering more. So I guess the other side of this is that I have become even more grateful for the life I have grown up with in the States... because we have it S O G O O D.


((Making ourselves beautiful))

3) I have learned a lot about developing countries and the various issues that come along with that: in depth on all water and sanitation issues, the corruption (on every level), and the social/political/economic dynamics. It makes me feel a certain deep and sincere empathy for people living in developing countries. That being said, I have also learned a lot about the action of development. And how incredibly intricate its processes are. (also, the seed growing in me is a more focused passion for working on issues in developing countries as a career)

4) Peru has now become my second home. I have learned a lot about the culture and have experienced many different things from all around: the food, music, dance, clothing, accents, rhythm of life, history, etc. This country has so much to offer. Their culture is so rich, and culture is something that can only be understood by experience, not words.

5) I have been learning the art of persistence. Being so, I have also continued to culture a more sure sense, or confidence, in my abilities to be successful in life. It’s all just one big mental game. Learning to play is part of the fun.

6) Being HOT now carries a new definition. I live in the desert where the “winters” are just “summers” with a different name.


((This is me at our halloween party some of us volunteers had, currently making hween cookies!))

Journal entry from the month of October

Living in a site that attracts tourists from around the world, I’ve met quite a few travelers passing through on their individual journey’s from here to there. After a while they mostly seem to fade together slipping through space in just a flash; however, every once in a while I may somehow bump lives with one for a moment – at least long enough to exchange a few words. Some are on excursions as if on a mission to witness as much of the world as they can, sucking the sites through the lens of their cameras, leaving just as quick as they came. Others are adventurers who trek through, soaking in the surroundings, attempting to dive into the culture and their surroundings. And others… are wanderers. Wanderers in which somehow a certain flame within them has been blown out leaving them with the sole craving to light it up again.

Traveling does give a certain fulfilling sensation, for sure. Taking in the new sites, learning new things about the world, and being warmly greeted by interested people noticing the bulge in your wallet. Although exciting, this adrenaline wave does not stay forever- only lasting until the wanderer gets their next fix in the town 420km away. Traveling serves for temporary escape for many people- leaving their current lives for the sake of fleeing, leaving their current lives in search for something else. I cannot even count the number of wanderers I have spoken to this last year of people traveling through, on a journey to leave something or find something. Many people’s flames have been blown out or dimmed and they are looking to light it back up again.

(I always wonder if they eventually do find what they were looking for or if they gained a better perspective to view their reality… or do they stay in a similar state of discontent?)

I’m starting to believe that maybe there’s a bit of wanderers in each of us. Maybe we all have some sort of hole or empty space that has formed somewhere along our journey. Especially in today’s world where many people do not simply take up the same professions or social roles as the parents. It leaves us with much more room for the unknown, for searching, for wandering. Many times we flounder around a bit until we trip upon something.

I hope so much that I my flame stays lit til the moment I die. And if it dims, may I find a way to stoke it up again, with just as much heat as before.

Lately I have been feeling a bit weathered, even jaded to many things. I am not sure what has caused it or when it will end… but it is real. Some say it is so exciting to live in another country, to be independent, to work in something that is really doing Good in the world. Yes, it is; however, it just becomes normal after a while. The new things that used to be so exciting are just a regular part of life. Somewhere along the line I quit jumping out of bed at the crack of dawn. Somewhere along the line I found myself slightly dispassionate, disconnected, and dry. The daily trials of work and living in a developing country and handling situations with people who often are rather apathetic… I sometimes feel like a pair of old sneakers- worn by the daily grind.

I know I chose this path. It’s not that I want to go back or stop doing what I’m doing (because overall I am pretty content), but I want to figure out how to stop the jadedness and how to find the raw passion once again. It just doesn’t feel right when I’m not puppy Caitlin!

Celebra La Vida

How cool would that be if your loved ones got together to celebrate you on your birthday even after you're long gone.



They would visit your grave to share their stories of memories about you, serenade you with your favorite songs you used to love, and pass a bottle in honor of your name until the sun goes down.



Afterwords they would dedicate a mass to you to send their hopes and feelings on High.. following with a large, home-cooked dinner with all of your loved ones together. Music, food, and sharing goes on late into the night.



Well, in Peru, it's not too far fetched of an idea...

Jeremiah was a Bullfrog

I am alive!


There has been a rather long respite in my blog entries due to a lot of action happening in my life. I am long overdue to give y’all the update that you deserve! Here are some interesting things that have been going on:

-Switched houses: I currently live in a different home than before. I used to live alone for a long while (renting a room in a vacant house) but as it turns out, Peace Corps/Peru has a rule that all volunteers must live with host families during their service. The reason for this is the cultural sharing that we bring, the safety that it provides us living with people in the community, and to evade loneliness in this foreign cloudy dream in which we live. I welcomed the change. It is nice living with other people to share experiences, talk, and also eat their yummy cooking! Hehehe. In this new house lives the mom, dad, and a younger 6-year old brother.



-Camp ALMA: This is a camp that the Peace Corps in my region put on for female adolescents in middle school. It was a huge success… we had speakers present on subjects of motivation, self-esteem, nutrition, sexuality, and career choices. We played games, had dynamic activities, and just provided a very open space for them to learn, meet new people, and have positive role models of us volunteers around. In a few weeks we will be having one with adolescent males, so we will see how that goes! We need donations for that so if anyone is willing, let me know!


[[Me with some of the girls that came to the camp. They made up a chant about my name, Catalina, it was really fun!]]

-Basketball game: My region held the monthly Peace Corps meeting in my beautiful city of NASCA a few weeks ago. I believe my favorite part was the basketball game that we had: USA vs PERU! It was quite a show. There were 3 different Peruvian teams that showed up, and we scrounged up one USA team. We won 2 games and lost 2, so it was a fun and challenging night! Also, we had 3 girls on our team, which is pretty much unheard of for women to play sports WITH the boys… so there’s some great girl power for ya! They were so impressed… and wanted to marry us all. hahaha



-Peru is Beautiful: I love hiking. I try to hike as much as possible. Here are some sites I've been taking in.


[[This is Puquio, which is about 4 hours east of Nasca. Amaaaazing lanscapes. The beauty is everywhere.]]


[[Camping trip in Laramonte, Ayacucho. During the day- incredible hiking, during the night- bonfires with s'mores!!!]]

-In-Service Training in ICA: We had 3 days of technical training for all the volunteers in my year’s Water and Sanitation Program. Each volunteer brings a community partner to the training sessions. It’s a great time to expose the community partner to a variety of water and sanitation technical things to better the health of their community. We learned about trash management, water chlorination techniques, eco-banos latrine system construction, and how to construct a “cocina mejorada” (“healthy stove”) to lower the amount of smoke that the moms and children inhale through the days. It was awesome to see all of our group’s volunteer friends and goof off like usual on our time off. It seems that everyone is having a very interesting and positive journey out of all of us. There are 19 of us who entered the WatSan program for Peru in September of 2011, and we are all still 19 here! We are very proud of that as it’s a very unusual thing for all the 100% of the entering volunteers to remain… let’s just keep our fingers crossed.


[[This is what a lot of the stove set-ups look like in the rural areas. This is one of the specific houses we were making a cocina mejorada for.]]


[[Me with some fellow volunteers working on the construction of a Cocina Mejorada.]]

-New volunteer arrivals: Group PERU 17 has arrived in site! There are now about 50 new volunteers in Peru working for the programs of “Adolescent Development” and “Small Business Development”. The city of Nasca has received one of the volunteers from “Adolescent Development”. Her name is Keaton. An artistic, independent 23-year old from Chicago. It’s been fun teaching and guiding a bit to introduce her to this community. It reminds me of when I first came into the game as a rookie and how I knew NOTHING at all. She’s adjusting super well and we may even be able to collaborate on some projects in the near future… which would be awesome to share the work-load on. It reminds me how so incredibly naive I was when I came into this! Wow, I have grown quite a bit...



-R-E-C-Y-C-L-E : IT BEGINS WITH YOU AND ME
So, I have been crowned The Queen here… that is, the Queen of Trash. Hahahah! It’s a joke amongst the Peace Corps because I’m working on a big city-wide project of trash-management. I’m working with an NGO called “Ciudad Saludable” (or “Healthy City”) from Lima. It’s been a really interesting experience working with an NGO, facing all the unending problems, and beginning a project that needs to continue to be sustainable from now until forever. It’s really delicate sometimes and well, most the time is a head ache. But as Time flows, we work… and hopefully something sticks. Right now we’re doing a city-wide recycling project. Hopefully within the next 2 years we will become a cleaner, healthier city with an established recycling program, composting program, and a nationally-approved landfill. I’ll keep y’all posted how it goes!


[[Here's a shot of our team doing the trash characterization study: sorting samples of trash from almost 200 different houses from the entire district of Nasca... talk about dirty business.]]


[[This is the Kick-off of the recycling project in Nasca! That's the mayor in the middle in white. Eeee!]]


Well, I hope you enjoyed the update. PS-- Jeremiah being a bullfrog doesn't really have a lot to do with this blog... except for the fact that it's really important for us to always remember to find time to smile and laugh, even when things are rough.
(listen to Creedance Clearwater Revival)