Adventures Are Fun

First of all, for those of you who don't know Spanish, my blog title translates to mean "My adventures with the Lord". Secondly, today I learned a lot of new words. 'Arana', 'viuda negra', and 'scorpiones' which translate to mean 'spider', black widow', and 'scorpions'. I learned those words after I found each of those poisonous/deadly creatures. I went to a church in a town called Huacarpay and the pastor had us over for lunch (Bethany, the Shultz', and a group of people from a church in Lancaster who are here for a week to help build Promesa because there is lots to be done before school starts in one month exactly). We went for a hike across the street to some Incan ruins and I wasn't expecting much but Jeremiah Shultz was up ahead and found scorpians, caught them in a soda bottle, made them fight, and they all were dead in the bottle by the time we found them. That was the beginning of what I realized would be a bit of an adventure. In my Sunday Best I hiked up to the ruins, took some pictures, and started kicking under rocks to find more scorpions. I found a really huge black spider and yelled for Jeremiah to come over and see. He informed me that it was a black widow and I doubted him because I saw no red hourglass on it's back. I then found out that it's on it's belly as Jeremiah's friends started touching it with a stick. My oh my, we probably saw about 10 more black widows without flipping over many more rocks. I found a new scorpion but the thrill seemed to be the deadly black widows. As we kept walking, we found so many huge (harmless) colorful spiders and one ended up on my leg!!! I screamed, swatted it off, and jumped around a bit, screaming more. It was only a white one, but it was huge. Everyone was paranoid and there were a couple more screaming fits made by the rest of the women and girls, but we all left the ruins alive without poison running through our bodies. I had no idea we had these scary creatures around but really they're just in the rural parts. You'd consider me more in the 'suburban' area. Yeah, if you get a chance, remember to pray for me that no black widows end up biting me while in Peru! Also, if you want to get a better view of the picture, just click on it and it should take up the whole screen. To go back to the blog, click back with the arrows up to your left.

So as for other adventures with God's tiny creatures. We have mice! Bethany and I have tried to catch them with no luck (Double click on the play button below the picture to watch a video of one of our attempts) and then we tried mouse poison but those cute little critters are still alive!



Friday night we were coming home from making pottery when it started pouring rain, so off we went running up our hill, into our house. The storm was awesome. There was a bright flash, a very loud boom, and suddenly, not only did the bright flash go away, but so did all the lights. I was worried we wouldn't have electricity for a long time considering we're in a 3rd world country but 10 minutes later, there was light. The next day we woke up with no water running, which was the 2nd time since moving to Cusco, but this time, the water didn't come on all day. Still not sure why but maybe because of the black out the night before. We entertained 3 people for lunch, hoping they wouldn't use our bathrooms and thank God, it started pouring again. We ran out with buckets and filled them up quickly so we could flush our toilets with dirty rain water, but water the same. We then entertained about 15 other people that night, cooking mini pizzas and roasting hotdogs and s'mores on the fire, again, no running water but at least there was the rain water. We had a good time with the youth from the church in San Jeronimo. They asked me how I say 'hot dog' in English and when I said "hot dog, which would be perro caliente in spanish" they cracked up so much that I felt I should be a little offended for my language, but it was still funny. It was their first time having s'mores also so they enjoyed those and I'm sure it's not our last time roasting marshmallows with them.

So, as I said, Adventures are fun. Between poisonous creatures, cute mice running around the house, and entertaining about 20 people on a day we didn't have running water, things have been quite exciting here this past week! Hope you enjoy the pictures and video.

On a more normal and not thrilling note, I've been taking Spanish classes the past week and learning many words. Some days I'm able to come home and talk up a storm but then others, it's almost the last thing I feel like doing. I'm still adjusting being here, needing a nap everyday or I'm almost useless in class the next day, yawning every 2 minutes, and their coffee doesn't seem to do anything for me. I'll be taking Spanish classes for the next 2 weeks as well so please pray that God would continue to help me learn the language easily because that prayer is so important right now.

This weekend was the beginning of Carnival which is some festival that I'm still not familiar with but all I understand is that kids are supposed to throw water balloons or spray you with foam on the streets. Really, you can't take offense because it's just the way it is here. Gringos are more of a target from what I hear but that's not what I observed. I had been indirectly sprayed with foam earlier in the week and this weekend, as a convey (van) passed by, Carrie, Bethany and I were sprayed while we walked along the road by kids in the convey. Today on the way home from our adventures in the ruins, Bethany and I walked up the road to our house and were pelted with water balloons, one hitting Bethany right in the eye and she saw double vision for most of the afternoon. Things have been quite an adventure! What an appropriate title!

Prayers:
Ease in language learning
Safety
Continue to understand the Cuscanian/Peruvian culture

Praises:
I'm no longer overwhelmed by this new culture and language!!
God is good, even if things aren't going well.