It's Been a Great Summer!

SPECIAL GUESTS

The 2012 student travel season kicked off in June here at Explorama.  We started with a group of 90 people, mostly students, from Indiana.  Our next group was the most important one, well to me anyways!  June 14 my mom’s Fremont Rainforest group arrived with 17 kids, my mom, and Rachel (a teacher leader/my mom’s substitute daughter).  It had been almost a year since I had seen my mom, so needless to say I was looking forward to their trip.  They arrived extremely tired after over 24 hours traveling, but we still hit the ground running!  We spent 6 nights in the jungle and one night in Iquitos.  Overall they were a wonderful group.  We saw a lot of wildlife, had a great service project painting a school that had been flooded, and had a wonderful afternoon interacting with my students at the library.  Cliver was one of our guides so it was a great opportunity for my mom to get to know him a little better.  (She did meet him last year but only briefly).  It was hard to say goodbye again but now I have my October trip to Michigan to look forward to!  I worked with another Global Explorer’s group in July, they were another great group of students!  

Mom and I at the Library

Cliver, Mom and I Enjoying the Amazon Mud!

Mom Stealing a Ride with Cliver

GROWING

Also in July, we started a construction project at the library.  We disassembled a building that used to be used for our library sewing co-op, and moved it to our main branch.  The new building is about finished, plus a new porch on the library.  We also had a canoe made for the library, although now the water in the small river is so low that we can walk across on a log!  I have been spending a lot of time at the library cataloging the new books we received from groups this summer, mostly donated by an awesome organization, REACH 4 Books.  Its kind of a tedious process, but putting the new books on the shelves is a great feeling!

Our New Addition and New Porch

Pirata in our New Canoe

LIFE IS GOOD

I am happy to share that last week Cliver asked me to be his wife, and that we will be getting married in October in Michigan!  We couldn’t be happier, Cliver is a wonderful man and I am so glad that I get to spend my life with him!  It is going to be a bit of a challenge planning a wedding in MI from Peru, but luckily I have a great family and wonderful friends helping get it all together!  We also plan to get married in Peru, but we have not set a date for the big event here, one wedding at a time! October has been a good month for me the past few years.  October 2010 – moved to Peru. October 2011 – I became a Peruvian resident and officially employed by CONAPAC.  And now, October 2012 – I get to marry Cliver!  Who knows what’s in store for October 2013… 

Cliver and I in the Canopy