Hola from the sweet city of Cusco! I can't believe that I've already been at the Healing House, a holistic living center, for almost one month. Time really does fly. 5 months ago I was at orientation feeling jittery with anticipation for my group semester and contemplating various options for my FVP. Now, my group semester is over (still kind of in denial) and I'm almost one month into my FVP. Craziness. Sometime I have to stop what I'm doing and express gratitude for where I am in life. Not many young people in this world get to travel and volunteer. I feel really blessed. Whenever I start to feel down I just think of all of the things I have to be grateful for.
Anyhow, my days at the Healing House have been very low key. In India, I was constantly on the go, always experiencing something new. I had my group members to fall back on for support, to entertain me 24/7, to provide me with unlimited hugs. Being in Peru is a for sure change of pace… Yeah, I'm surrounded by an incredible community of people but I'm not constantly on the go like I was in India. I've slowly come to realize that's it's okay to spend days reading in the garden, cooking, deepening my yoga practice. It's important to learn how to embrace stillness. I've had a lot of time to look at my thought patterns, emotions, and internal dialogue thanks to my slower pace of life here in Peru. There is definitely an ever present energy lurking in the Healing House, an energy that brings up a lot of emotions… The past few weeks have had a fair share of ups and downs but now I finally feel like I'm settling into a routine. I meet with my amazing volunteer mentors on a weekly basis to check in and brainstorm potential project ideas. One of the many cool things about the Healing House is that I get to create my own volunteer project!! Oftentimes I have trouble expressing my emotions with words so instead I use photography to express myself. I hope that I can help others express themselves through photography. To accomplish this, I have created a photo healing group. The themes for the series is chakras. Each week we will focus on a chakra and will take pictures that represent that chakra. On Sunday's we will come together to share and discuss our pictures. At the end of the 7 week series, the Healing House is going to help me put together a gallery in the garden. I will get to share all my photos with the community!! I've never really gotten to share my pictures to the public. I'm very excited!
In addition to my photo series, I'm going to do something with sustainability. I'll hopefully get to make a rain catcher to make the house my sustainable. It's rains a lot here so why not take advantage of the rain and put it to good use?!
Other than spending time planning out my volunteer projects, I've been presented with a lot of other cool opportunities. I got a babysitting gig! I watch a 5 month boy named Ash while his mom goes to yoga class. I love getting to snuggle and laugh with him. Babies are so wonderful. I've also restarted the healing house creative kids program with the other two carpe diem volunteers at the house. The first meeting was such a success! We had the kids decorate the sidewalk with chalk. In addition to babysitting and the creative kids program, I get to teach photography to two sweet women. They love it!
Overall, the healing house is wonderful and I'm really happy to be here. I'm learning how to embrace the flow and how to be self motivated. My goals for the rest of my stay here include meditating everyday, developing my projects, deepening my yoga practice before my getting certified to teach, reading everyday, learning more spanish, etc.
"…But I still must learn to lead my life with no regrets. All the time it all moves in the same direction, so don't let it pass by 'cause it moves so fast there's no time for perfection. So make the most of this life…" -Brett Dennen
Much love,
Nina
