Hi! So I´ve finished teaching all my regular courses, I just have to go in on Saturday. It was a pretty sad and heartfelt goodbye. I got an awesome toque with a tail, bag, scarf and a party and it was very nice! :) It´s been an awesome experience because I´ve met so many great people, I´ve taught between 4-500 different people and earned a level of respect here. It´s lovely to have people come to you with questions, asking advice. 2 of my students are going to study in the USA with full scholarships and 1 other is pre-selected. I will definitely miss seeing all these lovely faces everyday. However, when I go to Canada I get to see other lovely faces everyday so really it´s a win-win situation! Yesterday I went to have lunch with Rosanna, and I am going back again on Thursday. She was telling me about a project she is working on in one of the shanty towns in Lima. Sounds like awesome work! Apparently on the national education survey Cajamarca scroed such a low grade that it ísn´t even on the bar graph. Pretty sad when there is a billion dollar gold mine so close and the development in education and health is 0. The only thing that has changed is the number of trucks, and the introduction of franchises like Pizza Hut and KFC. Not exactly susttainable development. Of course, that is not only the fault of the mine but also the fault of the governments not having infrastructure and ability to distribute the money sensibly. On Monday I had lunch with some students to say goodbye :( On Thursday there is going to be a strike again by the pro-miners and on Friday by the anti-miners so the roads will be blocked. I am not sure how that will affect my ability to leave the city, so Cuzco will have to wait.!

So yesterday my taxi had a seatbelt for the first time in a few weeks and I had forgotten how much they restrain you while moving, it felt like a huge constraint which is obviously the point but it´s the first time one has felt odd to me. In other news, César´s 5 yr old cousin got hit by a car and fractured his ankle. The car belonged to Yanacocha the gold mine so the family is starting to look somewhat suspicious. At least they get hit by cars that have insurance though! It seems that Conga, the new gold mine project will go through much to the anger of many people (although not really surprising) land has come to an all time high with sales at $1-3000 per square meter. Ridiculous! Turf wars have begun, a recent news story says that a rich -(though humble at first sight) land owner left his family for his lover and then died. The lover claimed that she had land rights and the family said she didn´t. So she plotted to brutally murder the family with an aunt and chopped them up. I guess money makes people go mad. In other headlines, a drunk cop hit a woman with her two kids in his car and then drove away. Since Cajamarca recently installed 40 security cameras it was captured and all over facbeook within a few hours. Controversial is that there were other cops in the car and then didn´t even lose their jobs, only the driver. Good thing I own very few things of value and don´t walk very much during rush hours. Dad´s birthday was last week and Mother´s Day is on Sunday. Happy day Mum! It´s huge here! Students keep missing classes for dance practices and dinners. Apparently Father´s Day is not nearly so big, which doesn´t seem fair really. Well apart from that I keep teaching which is usually wonderful even though I lost my favorite groups :( I went to see The Avengers after work on Tuesday (cheap night) but I was so tired that I couldn´t pay enough attention. Looked like the same earth invasion prevented by superheroes story as always though. However due to all the hype I may have to see it with both eyes open sometime. Last night César´s friend Wesley came back from his months working in the desert with the new perspective on life that one gets when they have to work. His baby is getting big! There appears to be some kind of dying cat next door, it´s very loud! Well I only have about 6 weeks left here, which is a mixture of saddness of leaving and excitement to see everybody again! Here are a couple of goofy pics of us! See ya soon!