Where in the world is Meghan Large?

When I woke up this morning, I had no idea where I was. It took me a full minute... was in Slovakia? Charlotte? Cary? Ohio? Asheville? And then, I remembered, "Oh yeah, I live in Peru now."

The city in which I am staying is Arequipa, in southern Peru. You can see it on this map.



Arequipa has about a million inhabitants - so it is the size of Charlotte. In fact, Charlotte and Arequipa are sister cities. Who knew?

In Arequipa, I live with a host family - a host mother (Mama Charito), and two host sisters (Pia who lives with us and another sister I haven't met yet because she studies at university in Lima, the captial of Peru). My host sister, Pia, is the same age as my own sister, Lauren. Pia speaks wonderful English - but after today, she and I are only going to talk to Spanish. My host mother speaks no English, and our conversations at the breakfast table are fabulous.

My work is in Alto Cayma, which is a suburb of sorts of Arequipa. I have just begun to get to know the people and the settlements of Alto Cayma. I am hoping to sit down this week and share with you pictures and descriptions of my first impression of this place. Stay tuned for much, much more.