Back In Action!

Hello DHF Family! I realize this is my first blog entry after spending just over a week in Cajamarca. Nora and I have been busy at work between site visits, sewing classes, and meetings. So by the time I looked at the calendar and realized I hadn’t posted an entry, I decided to glue myself to a chair and write down some thoughts. So where do I begin? Peru feels like my second home after living here for almost three years as a Peace Corps Volunteer. In 2005 I served as a Community Health Volunteer in the small coastal town of Salas, located in northern Lambayeque. It’s about a six hour drive from Cajamarca. In 2008, I returned to Texas to start graduate school at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. In August of 2009, I had the good fortune to participate in the Curtis W. Meadows Fellows Program, where I met Maggie and travelled to Cajamarca to complete an internal audit of DHF’s village banking program. The experience was life changing and as a result, I became an active DHF volunteer back in Austin. After completing my Masters in May of this year, I decided to take a leap of faith and spend three months shadowing Nora and exploring the adventures of international nonprofit management. So here I am… certain that this experience is the beginning of a new and very exciting chapter in this journey we call life. I must say that life in a Peruvian city feels quite different but surprisingly, the food still tastes great, the people are just as friendly as can be, and the Hope House women continue to be just as dedicated than ever before. These next three months I hope to share my insights into life in the Hope House and the stories behind the faces that make DiscoverHope what it is today. Gotta run so I can watch the women in our crochet class finish their ponchos and scarves! Stay tuned!

~ Desy