roxana.

i believe that you can sometimes catch a little glimpse into a person's soul through a photograph.

thank you, sweet roxana,

for making our rainy afternoon bus ride home far more enjoyable. 

wander.

life is funny sometimes. 

when i think about my life and some of my happiest moments, i think of the carefree-- my days of travel and exploration and excitement. 

but then i think about the fulfillment and gratification i feel from accomplishment, from schedules and planners and mile-long to-do lists. 

i'm driven by my goals and dreams and passions, 

yet there's a part of me who'd love to buy a one-way ticket to who knows where and see who i meet, what i see, where i  end up.

that being said, i've had a dream for some time now of working in child/maternal health care in underserved populations.

aaaand, it looks like this dream is going to come true, seeing as...

i've been accepted to a second bachelor's/masters in public health nursing and nurse midwifery program at johns hopkins university!

i am so honored and excited and anxious to begin this next step in my education in the fall.

i am so grateful for all of the people who have helped me along the way,

for my professors and the individuals i've collaborated with,

for my friends who've handled me in my more stressed out moments,

and for my family and their endless love, encouragement, and support. 

really, i can't wait to see what the future has in store for me, out on the east coast! 

but until then, i'll just keep wandering. 

three years, you guys.

tell all your friends.

i'm open to traveling anywhere to shoot this summer, 

and depending on the package, i'll give 50-100$ commission for any of your friends who book. 

oh, mexico.

so i'm currently loving peru-- it's true!
but i may be a bit under the weather and continually exhausted and terribly filthy,
so i'm re-living a little bit of last month in mexico.

isla mujeres really is paradise.
it's gorgeous and relaxing and a little bit cultural.
there are white-sand beaches and golf carts and feral dogs aplenty,
fresh grilled fish and street tacos at every restaurant, too!

i loved all of the sunshine, the plant life, + especially the TURTLES!
for those of you who know me, you know i'm really into turtles.
like, i can really relate to this little guy.

so let's talk about my dream day?
mexico + turtle farm + coca-cola light on the beach.
plus, i had the incredible company of my wonderful family and closest family friends.

but really... what more does a girl need in life than this?

now accepting applications for isla mujeres crew 2013! 

¡CARNIVAL!

when we met our little students last week, the first thing they requested we play was "carnival! carnival!", and we had no idea what that meant.

this quickly changed, as we walked home from the bus with sandro, our host father, later that day, and two men in the back of a work truck drenched us with a massive bottle of water.

carnival is a huge cultural event, occurring all throughout south america the weeks leading up to lent.

and cajamarca just happens to be the capital of carnival in peru, go figure.

so we've already had a few too many run ins with all of this carnival business; although it's still only january, the madness has begun. 

children are running around the city with water guns (pistolas), water balloons (globos), and buckets of water, and there is talk of carnival everywhere.

naturally, being the only two white girls in the city, we are an easy target.

we've dodged buckets of water being dumped from balconies and rogue pistolas shooting at us as we pass; we even sprinted off a public bus (to the laughter of everyone on said bus) after spotting a mischievous-looking girl sitting at the front. and we looked back at the bus to see a very angry girl with her bucket full of water hanging outside her window.

today, we narrowly avoided two giant waterballoons launched off of a neighboring roof on the way to the market.

and the good news? it's only going to get worse from here!

anyway, we've been teaching hand washing at el bichito all week, so we decided to take avantage of all of this carnival craziness.

we posted that we were going to play games of carnival, to try and get more kids to attend the following day. and it worked!

we had about forty kids come for lunch, and then we taught a short lesson on the importance of handwashing. 

afterwards, we played a game involving two buckets full of water balloons-- "globos full of bacteria," and in order to get new balloons, the kids had to wash their hands. 

well, this concept worked for a solid 45 seconds. and after that, it was all out war. 

once it had escalated, anna and i ran out into the battle with a few kids' pistolas that we had previously confiscated, yelling, "INFLUENZA!! INFLUENZA!!" and drenching all the kids.

yeah, after that, we were done for. 

the kids launched a full-on attack, involving every bucket, plastic container, and pitcher of water they could find. 

before we knew it, they had stolen back their water guns and had opened the local tap to have endless access to water.

the men doing construction on the roof of el bichito even got involved and started dumping buckets down on everyone! i'm tellin ya, carnival is such a big deal here.

by the end of it all, we were drenched through and through. 

but do you know what's awesome?

every one of those kids washed their hands before lunch the next day (and many of them without us even asking... huge improvements here, people!)

also, it was really, really fun.

and we won a lot of cool points from our kiddos.

that being said, until ash wednesday...
pray for me. 

t.j. + rachel: wedding {salt lake city wedding photography}.

a few septembers ago, i had the chance to photograph a really exquisite wedding day.
rachel is so wonderful and comes from one of my favorite families on earth, so i was thrilled when she asked me to photograph part of her wedding!
a t.j. is one of the nicest people on the planet, as well.
so really, could it have gotten any better than that!?

their wedding really epitomized the beauty of late summer, with blue skies, incredible flower arrangements, and a gorgeous couple.
and you could just feel the love of all of the families there.
i really can't believe i haven't shared any of these photos until now!

now you see what i mean?
a (very belated) congratulations to rachel and t.j.! besos.

anna gleave photography
{salt lake city wedding photography}

el bichito.

so i guess it's about time i explain what exactly i'm doing here in peru!

for the next few months, i am a public health intern for an organization called eagle condor humanitarian. 

i am working with one other (incredible!) intern from the university of utah, anna... yeah, the peruvians are as confused by this as you might be. 

for the record, i go by anita, and she goes by ana maria. it helps... a little!

 we spend our days working in puyllucana, a rural community outside cajamarca, in a center called el bichito.

this center offers at-risk youth an opportunity for a hot lunch, supplementary education, and a safe place to spend time. 

so far, our days have consisted of the following:

1. take ridiculously crowded bus (humans! animales! crops! oh my!) through the city and up the winding dirt roads to el bichito.

2. pick rocks out of the lentils (!), cook lunch with feliciana (we love her!) and co. 

3. serve the children lunch, eat with them, laugh a lot.

4. lessons, juegos (games), activities, observation. right now, we are focusing on archiving files of all of the children's information (educational, familial, health-related, etc). we are also teaching lessons on hand washing all week!

5. say goodbye to the niños, return by bus to cajamarca, collapse from exhaustion. 

okay, the last little bit might be a tiiiny bit dramatic, but we are pretty wiped out after our six-hour days with the kids!
that being said, i can't even begin to explain the influence these children have already had on me. 

they are continually teaching me a new gratitude, perspective, and manner of achieving happiness. 

also, they are so, so darling. 

on top of that, the view from el bichito is incredible, and the rice and lentils are actually dang good.

anna and i are so excited for our upcoming work and are optimistic for the impact we can have on these children's lives. 

i am equally excited for the impact they will have on my life.