The Secret to Weightloss

I don't know if I should say life has been going pretty slow or it's been really busy. Is it possible to have both at one time? I guess it's because things have become more routine with a few extra things in there sometimes. One of the extra things was Mother's Day. Dia de la Madre is a huge deal here considering most kids live with their mothers but not too many live with their fathers. I'm sure there are other reasons too, but all I know is that everyone makes a big fuss out of Mother's Day. Every year the school puts on a show for the mothers. The picture to the right is of 2 of my second graders who are cousins. Each
grade sings a song or puts on a short play for the mothers at the end of the day and then they give their moms presents they've made and we have dessert. This was the Friday before Mother's Day. On Saturday, the missionary women had a Mother's Day luncheon where the kids danced, played an instrument, or put on a small act after lunch. That's this picture on the right. Some of the girls are in a purple dress because they had previously danced to a worship song. Here the girls are singing a song Hannah and Ron made up to the tune of "I Just Wanna Be a Sheep" and it was about loving their moms.

On the actual day of Mother's Day, there was a cuy festival. Have I explain what cuy is yet? It's very simple. Guinea pig... baked. It's actually tasty but I don't enjoy looking at it unless someone has pulled the meat off, ready for me to eat. The mennonite churches joined the town of Tipon as everyone enjoyed cuy. Cuy's a delicasy here so it's a bit more expensive. I had previously eaten potatoes and cake with my church after the service so between being full and not having much money, I went for the lamb. I have had cuy before so it's ok. I didn't miss my opportunity.

This past Wednesday, the Millersville team arrived. They go to the same church that I used to go to when I lived on campus and that's how I found out about this place, from the assistant pastor, Jon, who had previously been here on a mission trip. Since they've arrived, Jon has kept them busy every minute of the day. I've been tagging along, evangelizing in a town square, helping at a retirement home, doing a couple hour vacation bible school in the campo (see photo), and eating lots of meals. For now they're on a 3 day trip in some village 2 hours away but they'll stay in Cusco for another week yet. The team decided to be nice and share something rare with me, some may even call it the secret to weightloss. It's called a virus. I was up ALL Saturday night sick so Sunday I just rested and didn't get out of bed to start my day until a half hour before the team came over for a nice little get-together. Two guys on the team had what I had but they're fine now so I know it's just a 24 hour thing. Ron still told me to stay home from school today so I could rest which was a great idea because I was dizzy and had a headache all day due to being dehydrated. One good thing about experiencing these things is you learn many new words that don't normally come up in conversation.

Praises:

~We're gonna start eating our roosters in 2 weeks!! (honestly, when I put the chickens in the prayer or praise list, it's not that huge of a deal that they really need prayer, but it exciting for our house or a little worrisome like when they were younger. Its just a bit random to put these one sentence facts in the long paragraphs.)

~I'm feeling better and I was able to rest today.

~I'm able to experience things with the UCF (Millersville) team here that I don't normally get to and it's been really great.

Prayers:

~That the UCF team would continue to be able to reach to people and that God would be preparing people's hearts for their encounters with the team as well as stir their hearts for the people they've already met.

~That'd I'd get more organized!

~That I'd continue to grow closer to God in my time here (7 more months left!)