Site placement!

by Micah

Dust off your world atlases because Alisha and I found out last Friday where we'll be living for the next two years! (Sorry we didn't update the blog sooner; we haven't had much opportunity). We'll be Youth Development Volunteer in the beautiful city of Chota in the department (Peru's version of a state or province) of Cajamarca. Cajamarca is a mountainous department in nothern Peru (it borders Ecuador on the north), and Chota is a rural city with a population of about 30,000 located 160 km (read: 7-hr. bus ride!) from the departmental capital of Cajamarca (where Pizarro first encountered the Incas in the 16th Century). Chota is at an elevation of about 2,200 meters, and we're told that the climate is pretty temperate all year long with heavier rains from January to March.

This week we are actually visiting Chota for a few days to get some first impressions. We we in Cajamarca City earlier in the week to meet our community partner (the person who will help us get connected with entities that work with youth in Chota), and last night (Wednesday), we arrived and met our new host family. We'll spend the next few days exploring and hopefully meeting some people with whom we might be able to develop projects over the next two years. Stay tuned for pictures...