Mis aventuras con el Señor

Weekend Trip with Juana

2008-11-04T20:49:00.013-04:00

I went on a short weekend trip to the country with my friend Juana. She went to give a short talk on personal hygiene, things such as how many times to wash your hair or body every week, how many times to brush your teeth a day, etc. I went along for the ride just to get to know the country. It was about an 8 hour busride and we probably passed more or less 8 villages the whole time. It was a beatiful little town in the middle of nowhere. The municipal building actually played music, native to the town, on a loudspeaker loud enough so everyone in the town and the outskirts could enjoy it. I could never imagine that in the States. We arrived in the town, Colquemarca, late Friday night and went straight to bed at the pastor's house. In the morning we had breakfast with their family but I was really confused at first because in the same house, there were numerous rooms and a woman across the hall came in and seemed to know Juana well so I figured it was the pastor's wife, only to find out she was the owner of the house and down the hall was the pastor's family. We explored the country for a while, checking out a bull ring that's used once a year for the town's anniversary. That same weekend they have cockfights too. Again, I can't imagine that in the States. We came back to do the teaching on personal hygiene and then everyone set out sacks of habba beans, corn, and freeze dried potatoes. We just took handfulls and sat around the piles eating it all. After filling myself up, I found out that was just snack. Real lunch was to be eaten with the family. Luckily our bus came early and we weren't able to eat the lunch.

On the busride home, something interesting happened. Juana offered me this fruit that I had never had before and it actually made my mouth a little itchy so I was allergic to it. I told Juana and she made me stop eating it in case my throat were to close up so we stuck it in this bag, after I had taken at least 5 bites. But then a few minutes later, the bus stopped so we could all have dinner. Juana didn't trust the restaurant so we ate the snacks we brought, but sat on the bus. Juana noticed the person next to us was still on the bus too, a woman of probably 70 years. And then, Juana gave her my half eaten piece of fruit. Without hesitation, the woman ate it. I know Peruvians are perfectly fine with sharing food that's half eaten, but with strangers? I was just shocked. I would think Juana was insulting the lady, giving her a half eaten fruit, but the woman didn't seem ashamed or insulted at all, just hungry. So, that was a bit of a shock, especially because before we ate our lunch I prayed for those that don't have food, not noticing the woman next to us.

In the picture of me holding a rock, some of the rocks there were made of a different mineral that was especially light, so I was able to pick it up, but honestly, it was still heavy, just less heavy.

Catching up

2008-11-03T22:43:00.018-04:00

When I last updated, I only ended with pictures from the end of September. Here I'll finally start putting October pictures in, even though its now November.

I went on a hike with my bible study group, plus a couple of other good friends. The hike was the mountain that's behind my house, or I guess I really do live on the mountain, at the very foot of it, because that would be why I have such a hill to get to my house. We took a bus that dropped us off in the middle of nowhere to get us to the other side of the mountain where it's a bit higher up, a shorter hike up than it would be on the side where I live. There's not too much to tell about the trip except that it was awesome with a really great view of Peru, seeing little villages scattered all throughout. Going down was so fun because we brought cardboard with us and we were able to sled down the tall grass fairly easily, minus random rocks that shredded our boxes apart. At the end of our trail on the top, we stopped at the cross, then we slid down the rest of the way until the tree line began and we walked through some thin woods. In the very last picture you'll see the mountain from the viewpoint at the bottom. The reason I took the picture is because the lines all the way on the left (there are 3 sets of lines) are from us when we were sledding down the hill and pushing all of the long grass down. We made our mark without even realizing it so it was fun to see it and be surprised.

That next week we had a regional strike and some of us from the hike and a few extra people took a long bikeride out to one of the villages where one of the main churches is. We stopped there for a few hours and ate at the pastor's fishfarm where some of us in the group caught the fish with nets and picked out the ones we were going to eat. We watched them beat the fish dead on the head with the back of the knife and then scrape all the scales off before they got to the real dirty work. It was delicious. Unfortunately, it rained the whole time we were there and part of the time home. I also didn't bring my camera so I'm sorry you can't see some great pictures from the trip.

Praises:
~My parents and I had a great and SAFE time while they visited for a week.
~I continue to experience new things here, just learning and appreciating all that there is.
~God is trying to work in my life.

Prayers:
~That I would do all that God is asking me to do for Him.
~God will continue to help me adjust to the culture and strengthen my relationships with my students and friends.

Where did the time go??

2008-10-20T18:20:00.022-03:00

I apologize. I didn't realize it's been more than a month since I've updated. I've been so busy all the time and with my computer being unusuable with a virus for more than a week, updating has slipped my mind. We had an event called Mi Compromiso con Dios-an event to realize how important it is to stay pure until you're married (because in every culture and more so accepted here, it's a problem) and then we signed a paper and got a ring. It was a great event and it seemed a few people were really changed by it. You can see in the pictures Carrie and our friend Wendy and then in another picture my friend Lisi with her father, my pastor. In the picture with Wendy and I'm showing off my awesome ring and she's showing the book she got because it was her second year and you don't get two rings. The group picture is all the youth from Huacarpay where I go on Sunday mornings. There are three main churches and Bethany and I belong to the one in Huacarpay.

On Thursdays I hang out at my friends' Zaida and Yerson's house to help with their twins.

I hiked in Huacarpay with my three friends, Lisi, Karen, and Meche. Everything's still so dry here since the rainy season is just starting, but it was still beautiful. We hiked up a small mountain and entered a cave. I was a bit scared because Lisi and I had spotted a paw print that looked to have been from a puma. There are puma's around. A few here in the mountainous area and many more in the jungles but I haven't seen any yet. So in entering this Incan cave that's a minute walk from the pawprint, I was scared a puma would be relaxing in the cool dark cave rather than the extremely sunny, warm, and dry outside. It was pretty neat inside. We didn't go too far because of lack of time and the girls got scared but it was still cool. Obviously since you haven't heard of any crazy accidents or maulings, there was no puma. You can see in pictures as we were returning that a wildfire started up in the mountains. In this country when there's a wildfire on the mountains, you just pray for rain because there are no roads for firetrucks to take. No one really lives at the tops of the mountains but some of their farms are up there, which is what can start the fire, trying to burn the land to get richer soil but one hard breeze and the whole mountain's ablaze. The mountain was on fire until that next night. God brought the first big rainstorm of the season. What a blessing, even if I did walk home in pouring rain for a half hour at night.

Exploring Peru

2008-08-10T19:23:00.018-03:00

My uncle and I started our vacation by going to Machu Picchu. When I had gone with Steve, we had too much time, but when I went with my uncle, we had too little. We arrived at 2:30pm and the park closed at 5:30. We hung out in the main town that's a busride away from the ruins until our train around 9pm. We got back late Sunday night and Monday night we were off for Lake Titicaca, the 2nd largest lake in South America. Our bus ride lasted until 5:30am where we hung out in the bus terminal until 7:30. I got to take a picture of the sun rising. Later, we met up with our tour group and started our journey. The first stop was a man-made island. People used roots from reeds because they float, and then they piled reeds one way, then perpendicular the other way, and again and again until the island became high enough to live on. That's when I found out that only 30% of the people living on these islands actually want tourists. How is the government not protecting these people if majority vote says no tourists? So, I wasn't into being there as much after I heard that.
Their boats are made of reeds too and we got a little ride from one island to the next. The wierd thing about the islands is that your feet sink down a bit everytime you take a step, but you're feet don't get wet. It took a bit of getting used to. We explored a bit more and then headed to a God-made island where we stayed the night with some locals. We really only conversed with them when we first got there. We had dinner and breakfast with them, but we sat at a table with a couple of other people that were spending the night, and the family sat on little benches on the other side of the kitchen. The family was cute. Very happy people. Always smiling and laughing. The next day, we went to a different island and were able to see a festival going on with people dressing up and dancing around the plaza. We headed home after a bit less eventful things and arrived at the house around 3am I think. The pictures are of Uncle Dan's side of the room that we stayed in and also one of the arches that signified the entrance of a different town on the last island we visited. Then a picture of me hanging out on the boat with the only spanish speaker in our group, playing with the tour guide's son.

We took a couple days to relax in Cusco and then headed to Puerto Maldonado, a jungle just a 50 minute plane ride away from my house. We again were with a tour. We did a lot of riding in the boat, looking for animals. We saw capybaras (sp?), which are the largest rodents in the world, coming from the guinea pig family. We also saw caimans (a type of aligator), birds, turtles, and a snake. That night we went on a short walk through the jungle to look for bugs and animals of the night. We saw a lot of big spiders, somes lizards, and moths. The next morning we woke up at 4:15 am and took a boat ride to a clay lick. Every morning, parrots, macaws, and parakeets go to clay licks to eat the clay. The clay cleans our their system because in the winter (now) they eat fruit that isn't ripe and they have a lot of poisons for the birds. The clay takes the poisons out. It was beautiful seeing all these colorful birds and hearing them all make so much noise. We sat there for a couple hours in silence just appreciating it all. (more to come but, as I said in my last post, I need to be planning for school)

Feliz Dia a mi!

2008-09-06T16:53:00.017-03:00

So this past week, we had 2 different strikes. One happened Monday and no one had expected it but we woke up in the morning with no transportation so no means of getting to work. Monday was Labor Day for all of you Americans so my team decided to throw together a barbeque like we did for the 4th of July. This time, there weren't many stores open or time to plan anything exquisite but it all came together and was delicious and everyone had a good time eating and playing games. Wednesday we knew a strike was coming because it was national and had been planned a week in advance. I went for a hike with my friend Uri and his cell group and we cooked potatoes under dirt without water and they were actually yummy and very soft. We also had some beef. You would not believe how all out out we went. Knowing there was no transportation and that we'd be traveling up hill the entire time to get to the field, I don't know why they were so ok with bringing so many heavy things. It was exhausting getting there but we had a lot of fun once we could sit down and relax. The first pictures are cooking the potatoes. First you make a cave of rocks and stick a lot of timber inside to heat up until its really hot. Then when everything is piping hot, you take away the rocks, stick potatoes in and cover it all up with a bunch of dirt. When its all cooked, you just peel the dirty skin off and eat whats inside. The last picture is from when the guys took my camera and took a bunch of pictures of them doing bike tricks.

To go backwards one day, Tuesday was my birthday. Transportation was fine so I went off to school where my kids were ANGELS. I mean it. Angels. They've never listened so well and been so quiet the entire 6 months that I've taught them. I don't know why but it was a blessing from God. When I went home at 2, my friend Lisi met me there and we hung out for an hour until Eric, her brother, showed up, eventually Wendy and Uri, and finally, Meche. My 5 friends joined me for lunch with Marga and my 2 roommates and I and we enjoyed lasagna, yes, the American, or actually Italian lasagna. After lunch, we took a break from eating where we experimented with Coca-Cola and mentos. When put together, they explode like a volcano. Unfortunately, I only have pictures of the spectators and not of the actual event because I was videoing. We then had cake and hung out, just talking. Eventually we put a movie in and other people started joining us, Hannah, Destiny, and Oriana. We had ice cream. More people came. Teachers. Ron, Nancy, Marisol, Leo, Damaris. My friends that stayed for lunch all left except Wendy because she's a teacher. We had ANOTHER birthday cake that Wendy and Uri had bought me along with more ice cream and singing. We hung out, I opened my presents from my roommates and the teachers, a couple more teachers showed up, along with another friend, and slowly people started fading, getting tired, and eventually left. Knowing we had a strike the next day, no one was too worried about leaving early, so the last person finally left at 11pm and I was already in bed. It was really an awesome birthday and I was so blessed by everyone who celebrated with me (including all of you who sent birthday messages, cards, and packages. Thanks!!!).

Anniversary party

2008-09-06T15:54:00.023-03:00

So life has been fun the past month. After the half-way point of me being here, I've really been able to be more social and get involved with more activities. Life has become pretty daily, but far from mundane. Always last minute changes whether that means the city is on strike and we don't have school for the day or someone couldn't show up for an English lesson. I'll give you an idea of what I do during the week. Mondays I help a friend of a friend learn English because he takes an econ class at the university that's only in English. He's actually helping me learn some English words reading all these big worded articles. Tuesdays I meet with Regina Shultz, my mentor here in Peru, and then in the evening her oldest daughter along with the oldest Kreider girl come over and we do arts and crafts. Wednesdays is team meeting with the 4 missionary households. Thursdays I go to my friends' Zaida and Yerson's house and hang out and help with their twins they just had a couple months ago. There's a picture of me holding the boy the first time I saw the babies. They were premies and no one except their parents was allowed to see them for the first month. Fridays my friend Wendy comes over so we can speak an hour in English and an hour in Spanish to help each other with our second languages. There's a picture of us after speaking in mixed languages, eating fruit salad that we made. Then at night, Carrie, Bethany, and I head to the city to try a new restaurant where we ask accountability questions and make goals for the week. Saturdays in the morning a couple of the teachers from my school come and we go over what they're learning in their English classes. Starting tonight, I'm going to help lead a cell group with a friend of mine so that should be interesting. Sundays I head to Huacarpay, my church, and help with the nursery. There's a picture of one day where we mixed the nursery kids with the sunday school kids and they made a little puppet show. Sunday nights I go to a cell group that consists of my roommates, Carletta (another missionary I've mentioned in my blogs before), one of the teachers from Promesa, my school, some other friends, and my dentist. Did I tell you? I got braces on my bottom teeth! I'm only keeping them until I leave though.

So that's what my week should look like but I don't think in the 3 1/2 months I have left there will ever be a week that actually looks exactly like that because there's always a change of plans.

Last Sunday was the anniversary of the church and so to celebrate, we had our church service a truckride away from the church in the country and were able to enjoy picnicking, exploring, and playing volleyball the rest of the afternoon. In the pictures, its the church service, then us hiking up some ruins and seeing the view from up high. The picture of 2 girls and me, they're my friends Lisi and Meche and they both have braces so I said we needed to get a picture of our mouths. You can't really see my braces, but that's ok, I really don't mind that its not obvious. :) Some of the pictures are really bright and that's because I played around with the pictures. It's not THAT hot playing volleyball. The picture of someone serving the ball, that's the pastor.

Praises:
I had an awesome birthday.
I'm able to make real friendships now.
God continues to work through my life.

Prayers:
The cell group I'm going to help with.
God would continue to show me how I can help work alongside Him in what He's doing here in Peru.

The Second Jungle Trip- La Selva Alegre

2008-08-13T23:15:00.014-03:00

Monday when I got off the plane from Puerto Maldonado (the first jungle) with my uncle, I called my friend to double check the time we'd be leaving to go visit her family in a different jungle. I was expecting the answer to be 4pm but it ended up being 1pm. Considering it was 12:55, I saw that as pretty much impossible. So, my uncle and I rushed home, unpacked and repacked, stuffed some lunch down our throats and we were off in different directions, him the airport to return to the States, and I went to catch a ride with my friends in a later van than the 1:00 bus. I went with my friend, Wendy, the 2nd grade teacher I work with, along with her brother (Uri), sister (Nilda), niece, and family friend, (David). We took a 6 hour van ride to Quillabamba and it was extremely nauseating, the whoooole time. I sat in the back row with the girls and 2 of them got sick on the way. We wound around mountains until finally we drove straight, but the rest of the time was on unpaved, very bumpy roads. We stayed the night at Wendy's aunt's house and woke up early the next morning to take a 5 hour busride to the jungle, where Wendy and her family used to live on a farm. When we got to the main city, we had to take a taxi up a mountain and the taxi dropped us off in the middle of nowhere. It turned out with all of our luggage that we had to hike down a hill to get to a river. There was some sort of cable car the family owned that took us to the other side of the river and there we landed at their cousin's farm. They have a type of bird that make nests that hang from the tree, rather than sit on the branches. Look at the picture. Its really neat. It was a really good experience to go and live with Peruvians, ones that live in the jungle none the less. They weren't any sort of tribe people. You can see in the pictures, they look just like the rest of the Peruvians, but the cool thing is, they live almost entirely off of their land. They grow all kinds of fruits, bananas, plantains, oranges, lemons, sweet lemons (they call them the poor man's lemon because you can make lemonade without sugar), some other sort of citrus fruit, coconuts, and papaya. They also grow coffee beans, cocoa, other beans, some sort of Chinese potato, and plenty of yuca. As for animals, they had turkeys, chickens, ducks, guinea pigs, pigs, and goats all living on their property, along with dogs, but they don't eat them. They had a really cute pet monkey too. Their family lives on a really huge farm and you need to hike or take some trails to other family members houses so they have their own privacy, but at the same time, everyone's close, physically and relationally.

We headed back to Quillabamba, but not empty handed. It's a tradition they have to give a lot of gifts when they leave so we left with 3 HUGE sacks of oranges and other citrus fruits, a bushel of plantains, and 3 hens. We stayed in Quillabamba for a couple of days and hung out with their cousin who works at a sandal store. We kept her company one night as you can see in one of the pictures. It was an 8 hour busride back to Cusco, 2 hours longer than the van, but no one got nauseous that time. That left me a day and a half to recooperate before heading back to school on Monday!

It was a beautiful place and I'm so grateful that Wendy invited me. That's an experience that not many people get to have and I had a really great time.

what happened to august 5th?

2008-08-10T17:37:00.002-03:00

I sent out an email saying to make sure to check this website on august 5th to see all that I did on my vacation, but it turned out that I was invited to go to another jungle with some friends the day I got back from the first jungle, also the day that my uncle left. I just got back yesterday and today I have a lot of school planning to do for next week, which gives me no time to update with pictures. But, just so you guys aren't wondering what happened to August 5th, now you know! Hope you're all doing well enjoying the end of your summer vacation!

Independence Day-Peruvian Style

2008-07-28T13:39:00.011-03:00

I'm on my winter vacation for 2 weeks. It's wonderful. It's Monday morning and I'm actually free in the morning to get organized, update my blog among other things. Friday was the last day of school and the students had a show they put on for all of the parents. Independence Day is today so they put on the show before the vacation to learn and teach about the country. Two grades teamed up and did a mini-show on a region of Peru. There are three regions, the jungle, mountains, and coast. They did dances and the older grade of each group explained a little bit about each region. My second graders (red and white outfits) did the coast and they did a great job. They looked super cute. Five year olds were teamed up with them. You can see Ella, the Brubakers daughter, dancing in the middle.

First and fourth grades had the mountain region. This is the region I live in so it's very typical to see these outfits whenever there are parades. Third grade and the four year olds had the jungle. Carrie decided to have the four year olds dress up like jungle animals and do a really cute jungle song, then while the third graders danced (pretended to be native americans hunting and collecting food), the four year olds came back out and snuck around until some of the 'hunters' started carrying these little 4 year olds of the stage. Everybody loved it. It was really adorable.

So far Uncle Dan have checked out this beautiful building from Incan times that I always pass when I'm in the city but never took the time to go inside. Yesterday we were in one of the 7 wonders of the world all day- Machu Picchu. It was neat going a second time and still seeing some new things, and its always different going with a new person. We were stuck in the city until our train at 9:30 but we managed to entertain ourselves with restaurant hopping (dinner one place, dessert another) and checking out stores and the market. After a train ride from Machu Picchu to Ollantaytambo, a crazy taxi ride from Ollanta to Cusco and another from Cusco to my house, it was 1:30am and I was happy to be home.

My cute little bunnies, dogs, and annoying rooster.

2008-07-22T21:39:00.004-03:00

I'm teaching first grade about animals and the words long, short, and then body parts. So one day we made either long ears and a short tail for a rabbit or short ears and a long tail for a dog. They has so much fun chasing each other around the room and I decided to get a pictures of all of them with the tails and ears. I thought I'd share the pictures cause it is too great to keep to myself.

I've had a bit more patience with my students lately. God has taught me that I really just have to work hard at it, having a calm voice and not letting myself get upset as easily as I have been. So, even though the kids had trouble listening today, I stayed pretty patient. I have a 2 week vacation starting on Friday so I hope to come up with some good lessons for the kids to learn respect for their teachers, their friends, and adults in general. If you have any ideas, let me know! Anyway, thank GOD, for real, God, for the patience I'm learning. This is a really good life lesson that I need to learn more of!

Also, we have one rooster left and so I took a picture before Marga kills it. It's big and still noisy, even though it doesn't have any friends to sing along with. Anyway, its pretty and cute when its not being noisy. Uncle Dan gets here Thursday morning, bright and early, so I'm excited for the adventures to begin!!

4 down, 3 to go

2008-07-05T18:42:00.010-03:00

We've been killing our roosters, and my goodness, how I've been waiting for it. Those roosters are no longer these cute little chirping birds, but these cock-a-doodle-dooers and they do it everytime they're hungry or they hear a loud noise no matter what time of the day, night, or morning. We originally thought there were 3 hens but we misjudged by a lot. All of them are roosters. Tomorrow we're donating one of our roosters to the church, so we'll only have 2 left. I have learned to dislike my roosters so I haven't taken any pictures of them lately but it'd be good to show you our full grown roosters before they're all eaten.

Carrie's friend was visiting for a week and so we had motivation to do touristy things again. This time we went to the Sacred Valley which is a whole area of ruins. It's a whole day trip because you need to drive to all of the different locations and for some of them, hike as well. I only went to 2 places and left early with Bethany though. The pictures are from a place called Chinchero. The picture of the women sitting in the field, they are sorting potatoes (those dark piles) that are 'freeze-dried' potatoes. I don't actually understand how they're freeze-dried but I know that I don't enjoy eating them. Quick story... I was eating lunch with the UCF team back in May and I didn't have a cup so I just used my friend's cup who was finished with it and my friend, Bani who lives in Peru, said to me, "Wow, you're a real Peruvian recycling his cup. Oh wait, no, you're not a real Peruvian unless you like chuno" which is the freeze-dried potato. So, needless to say, I'm not the only one who doesn't like these potatoes.

The next day, we took a hike in Huacarpay, where my church is. I had never gone past a certain point on the road so I was in for a surprise when I learned there's a big beautiful lake as well as ruins. You can see it in the picture of my friend who 'got stuck' going through the entrance of the ruins. We walked to a different part later that was known as the 'door', a portal to the future I think. I could be making that up, but not entirely. It was cool because you could walk up the stairs they built into the big walls that make up the door. The stairs are spaced out and not that wide so going down was a bit of an adventure but we made it safely.

Some of you have asked me, How do they celebrate the 4th of July in Peru? I'm sure after you've gone to your 4th of July barbeques that you realized the decoration theme is the US flag and so we don't celebrate this holiday here, but I did make my students celebrate it yesterday with cake and cookies and we made US flag hats. I'm not really that creative, but the kids had fun. I had a barbeque with my EMM team today (since everyone had work yesterday) and it was exciting, all traditional food. It's interesting realizing how many traditions we have in the states but it seems so normal that you don't even realize it. How many of you had hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, potato salad, and an american flag cake at your 4th of July party? Anyway, it's a neat way to look at the way I've grown up when Peruvians ask what the 4th of July traditions are.

Praises: ~I'm able to make better friendships now that I'm becoming more fluent.

~I've been able to see more of Peru and my Uncle Dan is coming at the end of this month and we'll be able to see even more of the country.

Prayers:

~That God would teach me self-discipline because I'm still disorganized in all areas of my life.

~I'm taking Spanish classes again (in the evenings for 5 1/2 weeks) and I have 1 1/2 left. Please pray that I'd get the most out of it that's possible.

~That now that I have the ability to make better friendships, that God would give me the time and motivation to do that.

Special note: I'm losing touch with everybody from home! Email me. Let me know how you are. I really do care, I just lose track of time and before I know it, it's been a couple months since I've talked to you. And thank you to those who really did send stickers and other school supplies. They're being put to good use and the kids love it all. Also, thanks to those who continue to pray for me. This year has been pretty rough, even if I am enjoying myself, so I appreciate all the help I've been getting/can get. Blessings to you all and Happy 4th of July (a day late).

I can dance!

2008-06-13T23:47:00.012-03:00

Don't worry, I'm still here. Just busy mingling with Peruvians and the such. A couple weeks ago was the Culto Unido (united church service) where I, along with Bethany and the youth from my church did a typical Peruvian dance. We had been practicing twice a weekend for a while until the week before the 'show' and then we practiced every night. It was really nice being able to actually make friends with these people rather than awkwardly try and make conversation after church. It was such a good experience culturally, and as I said, relationally. We plan on doing another typical dance at some point this 'winter' but I'm not sure if it will be the same dance or a new one.

The Culto Unido was great. All of the Peruvian Mennonite churches got together to put on acts, dances, or songs as well as Merv Charles giving the sermon. Merv works with EMM and came down for a jam packed 4 day trip to see how things were going with the church and with us missionary folk. You can see him, in the photo, giving the sermon as Pastor Ruben is translating into Quechua. Most of the church services are spoken in Quechua except for the largest church that is closest to the city of Cusco. If I haven't mentioned before, the pastor at my church preaches in Quechua and our friend Juana translates into Spanish for us (Bethany and I) although since Bethany's been studying Spanish for probably 10 years of her life, she's got it down pretty well and informally, has been learning quite a bit of Quechua in her free time. Besides the dancing, singing, acting, and preaching, the leadership of the Mennonite churches here in Peru changed. The president and treasurer had stepped down to start a new chapter in the history of the Peruvian Mennonite church and 4 pastors stepped up for the challenge. It was a big day and you can see in one of the pictures all of the people blessing/praying for the new leadership. In the other picture, the 2 men up front were the pastors receiving plaques to show our gratitude to all that they've done to help the church grow. The four men in the back are the new leaders of the Mennonite church.

The Secret to Weightloss

2008-05-19T20:41:00.012-03:00

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!)

Labor Day in May

2008-05-02T23:35:00.011-03:00

So the first of May is considered Labor Day here. Mostly everyone has off of work and they party all day... sounds familiar. The team (of missionaries) decided to go to Pisac for the day. Pisac is a city with Incan ruins, a club/resort, and an artesian market. We left our house at 9am after already having adventures before we set foot out the door. I had been baking bagels in the kitchen when Bethany realized the hot water wasn't working. This is normal. We just go get another gas tank, the same kind you use for a barbque, and attached it to the tube upstairs above our bathroom. When Bethany tried to get the shower warm, it wouldn't, so Carrie kindly goes upstairs to fix the gas tank, only in the process, pulled a tube that had lots of dirty water in it. This water preceded to seep through the cracks of the wooden floor onto Bethany's head and all over the bathroom below. It didn't just trickle. It sounded like the shower had turned on. She screams, I think it's because she's so excited the hot water works but I realize that scream is no happy scream, nor is it a scared one. It's a scream of complete surprise. Well, anyway, it was quite funny and Carrie and I were laughing about that and the fact that the wax paper had baked right onto the bagels later that morning. As I'm trying to scrape it all off, I notice that the burner for the kettle has lit my wax paper on fire. Don't worry, it didn't get bad before I blew it out. But what a morning we had.

So as I was saying, we left around 9am in the Brubaker's SUV with the other half of the team in the Kreider's. The trip was only an hour long and then Bethany, Carrie, and I went straight for the market. It's neat to go around to markets and see what different kinds of things they make or sell. It's usually pretty close to the same though. We picnicked for lunch. It was really nice the whole team together for the first time since I arrived in Cusco. It was a mini vacation. We spent the day at the club swimming, playing games and for the men, playing sports. After everyone was rounded up again we took our first team picture and then the Kreiders left with Bethany and the rest of us went on a short hike to the sun and moon temples that the Incans had made.

It was pretty hot earlier in the day but by the time we left the resort it was very windy and chilly. Going on the hike was my exercise for the day. You would not believe ruins here. I have not been to one ruin yet where I didn't have to walk up a big hill. That's ok because being up high makes for good pictures.

After the ruins we went to a German cafe for dinner. Some of us made a puzzle and the other half of the group played Mexican dominoes. Carrie and I rushed out after dinner and caught a taxi home along with these 6 Europeans and some random person in the front seat. Somehow Carrie managed to fall asleep laying on my lap in the backseat with 4 people. She must be used to living in Peru where 4 people in the backseat is expected.

Oley Oley Oley Oley!

2008-04-13T23:53:00.016-03:00

I went to a futbol game last week. Baseball and football (american) are unheard of in this country. Basically, if you want to be a sports fanatic, you're choices are limited. Imagine if you didn't have basketball, football, or baseball to get excited over. You only had soccer. You're energy level would be so much higher going to the only sports game there is with every one of your friends who all obviously are fans about the same sport as you. Now you can imagine what it was like to go to this Cienciano (team name) soccer game. I went with all of the teachers that I work with, along with Hannah and Jeremiah Shultz and Jeremiah's friend who's actually our neighbor. Their family is from western Canada, working with Wycliff. We sat behind a really huge group of fans who wouldn't stop jumping, wouldn't stop singing, and wouldn't stop playing their instruments. Their drums had the Cienciano logo on it, but no, they were no official Cienciano band. On the other side of the field there's a huge fan club called Red Fury that is always there playing music, jumping, throwing confetti and lighting red flares at every game. Needless to say, I think I watched maybe 10 minutes total of the game and the rest of the time, just took in all the excitement, and of course, did 'the wave'.

Last Saturday morning, I went and bought a guitar. It only cost $100 and it was handmade. I started taking classical guitar lessons about a month ago. I'm enjoying it so far and it's teaching me self-discipline, having to practice everyday. On my way to the Kreider's afterwards, I decided to run there along side of the main road but without sidewalks, I ran on the dirt. This dirt is like any dirt you find when you go on a hike. It has lots of pointy rocks sticking out. Can you guess what happened next? I tripped, skinned my knee, and sprained my ankle. I just sat there in the dirt, trying to pretend for the cars passing by that I enjoyed sitting in the dirt, listening to my Ipod. Crazy gringos... When the pain subsided, I tried running again but to my dismay, the pain started up again. I ended up taking a taxi to the Kreider's and as the day went on, there was more swelling and pain. Thank the Lord because by Tuesday my ankle was almost totally better, no limping. But no sprained ankle would prevent me from going to a baptism the next day, Sunday. The Brubakers took us in their car to this remote field where we had our church service. Afterward, we walked along the rocky creek until we found a deep enough spot for people to be baptized. In Peru, they're not too worried about working on things ahead of time to find and set up this spot but of course, no one cared or complained and soon enough they had found a spot, taken the rocks from under the water, and made a dam so that the area was deeper and the water would be blocked by the rocks and the blue tarp. Seven people were baptized that day. I didn't know any of them, but in the picture, you can see the pastor and my friend Illari in the water baptizing.

When there are baptisms, people bring their dogs so I was able to meet Marga's new puppy. Her other puppy, Nacho, died in a 'freak accident' that includes poison that was meant for a different dog who had a contagious sore and needed to be put down. This new dog's name is Escrappy, just like Scooby-Doo's little cousin, minus the 'e' of course. I jokingly asked Marga if her family was willing to share the puppy with me since I couldn't buy one or pet all the ones in the street. She actually told her kids and they said that they would be glad to share Escrappy with me so I needed to come up with its second name since everyone here has a second name. In the states, we have a second name as well, but we call it a middle name and rarely use it. Here, it's very common to write out all 4 of your names (first, second, dad's last name, mom's last name). Well, I decided to add a 'Doo' in there, so I now half-own a puppy named Escrappy-Doo. He's in the picture with Kiersten, one of the Kreiders.

This past week we celebrated birthdays. Bethany's birthday was on Wednesday and she turned 25. Carrie, who's full of random fun facts has a friend from somewhere in Europe who said on your 25th birthday, if you're single, you need to wear a really crazy hat. So, Carrie made a nice balloon hat. Then on Friday, we had our team birthday party. Six people have birthdays in April so we had quite a bit of food, cake, ice cream and toppings to go along. In the picture, most of the Kreider's are missing and so am I.

Praises:

~I've been feeling closer to God lately.

~My Spanish continues to improve.

~Our chickens are almost full grown and we still have all 7 seven.

Prayers:

~That I would continue to learn self-discipline because that's always been one of my weak points and I feel that is what God is really trying to teach me at this point.

~That God would help direct me to know if I should be helping at an orphanage nearby.

~That my Spanish would improve. It's still difficult to hold a real conversation, therefore I haven't been trying that often lately.

Thanks so much for all the prayers and support. I can definitely feel and see God at work in my life. It seems it's a bit too sutle at this point to really share anything but I know that God is faithful and if He's sent me here, He has great plans for me.

Pascua

2008-04-08T21:32:00.007-03:00

Sorry that I'm updating Easter 3 weeks later. My friend, Steve, has been here for the past 2 weeks and I've been too busy taking pictures rather than showing them to everyone.
So some of you may have guessed, Pascua means Easter. It also means Passover which makes it a bit more difficult to explain the difference between the two when discussing it with the children. We had off Holy Thursday and Good Friday that weekend and I woke up Friday feeling so ill that I only got off the couch to eat or dye a few eggs. Our friend Luz, the 3rd grade teacher, came over and helped us. She'd never experienced this sort of craziness before. Why would you decorate eggs and what does it have to do with Easter? It really did start with good intentions, eggs signify new life which in turn means Jesus. It wasn't until it turned into a Hallmark Holiday that the Easter bunny started laying those eggs, at least in the States that is.

So here's Easter. After church, we all went to the Kreider's, had a huge dinner with the whole team (minus Derick who was in Lima), had an Easter egg hunt, and sang some songs. It really was a very nice Easter and if I had to spend it away from my family, this was the way to do it. It was a great bonding experience.

Here's a picture of some of the kids plus the Kreider's dog who's flea free and very friendly.
The picture of the whole group is the egg hunt towards the end when we're all together trying to figure out how many were left. We had a total of 113 eggs for 9 kids. All sent from the States. They don't sell them here.

I just liked the picture of the 4 youngest kids on our team 'flying'.

I'm sorry this is sideways, but it shows how much fun we had.

Mister Esteve

2008-04-08T22:23:00.019-03:00

One of the difficult things for Spanish speakers is to say is a word beginning with an s and a consonant afterward. There are no words in the Spanish dictionary that begin with s and a consonant unless it is an 'h' because they always put an e in the beginning. So, in order to say the words 'slow' or 'stop' or 'Steve', the kids really need to work hard at practicing the word without putting an 'e' before the word. It became a cute nickname Steve had here, Mister Esteve, even said by Bethany, the Shultz's youngest who can definitely say it correctly.
While Steve was here, we did a lot of touristy things. It was great considering I hadn't done anything touristy up to that point. We tried to go ride horses after school one day around some Incan ruins but we got there too late and ended up wandering around until we found "Cristo Blanco" which is this big white statue of Jesus that's lit up at night so that the city of Cusco sees this white Christ glowing on the hills. It gave us a really good view of things as well. Later that next week, my first graders put on their 'show' that we have each Wednesday-one grade a week. They sang If I Were a Butterfly in Spanish and I can't tell you how many times I caught myself singing that song for the past few weeks.

Well, we ended up going back to ride horses and this time it worked. We had a nice tour of some ruins called Sacsaywaman, which yes, sounds like a couple words in English. Our guide that walked around as we rode showed us hidden caves used by the Incans and some places where they made shelters and whatnot. It was only a short ride but very beautiful and educational.

After our horseback ride, we went on a hike, the muddy hike that we went on a month ago. Only this time, without the mud, we were able to travel what seemed to be a third of the time, maybe just half, but it was quick and of course just as beautiful. Exhausted and knowing we had to get up early, I went to bed at 8.

On the left, notice the doorway is in the shape of a llama head. Next to that picture, we climbed out of a cave with only a little light from the whole to get out. It was only this bright because of the flash.

I woke up at 2am, quickly got ready, and Steve and I were in a taxi for Machu Picchu by 2:15. We had to then get into a different taxi which is made for a long ride to a town called Ollantaytambo where we would get on our train. Our taxi had 8 people in a one station wagon and it was a bit difficult to take a nap because the whole ride was going over a windy (as in it winds a lot) mountain. We got to Ollantaytambo early and had an hour to hang out at a little place where we had hot chocolate. Finally at 5:30 we were ready to board the train. I'm considered a resident here as I mentioned in one of my first blogs so I was in the 'local' train and Steve was in the 'backpacker' train. I definitely got looks and all of the men working on the train thought I was confused and asked for my ticket and ID, then they'd apologize. Steve met a girl named Claire, with an English accent of course, on his train and she was traveling by herself so we hung out with her all day. Hanging out with British people makes you want to talk like them. It's just too fun. When we got off the train, we then needed a bus to get up to Macchu Picchu. It was only 7 something when we finally arrived and it was very foggy. We thought we'd wait it out with breakfast but it was still pretty thick fog and we decided to wander. We walked up to one part that was pretty high and that's where we got a really good view of the lost city. The place was absolutely beautiful but after eating a snack, I got really tired and stopped appreciating the beauty. We went and had lunch and then took a nap right there in Machu Picchu and thank goodness no one yelled at us. After we were energized, we just wandered a bit more and then headed back to the city with the train and bought some last minute souvenirs. Claire and Steve's train was an hour before me so I hung out at a restaurant and had dinner by myself. Very relaxing. I didn't get home until 11:00pm though. Moral of story: Don't buy the earliest train to Machu Picchu and latest train to Cusco because it's really not worth it. After 2 weeks, Steve just left today and I was finally able stop taking pictures but start sharing them. Cusco is beautiful.

In the top left picture, its to show how cloudy it was when you were high up. We were engulfed in clouds. In the picture directly above of some sort of statue that you can't tell what it is, we hung around for maybe 10 minutes waiting for tour groups to come around so we could know what it was for. We figured sacrificing. It looked perfect for it. Turns out in the airport today Steve read a book that said it just was some sort of sun dial for the times of the year. Below, the statue of the man, he's the Incan sun king. On the right of that, Clair in the city where we got our train.

Little moments of life in Peru

2008-03-19T23:54:00.005-03:00

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful... this is what I've learned about the weather in Peru. It will always be warm during the day, no matter what season, but at night, at least in the winter, it gets freezing. It's just like the desert in the dry season with-you guessed it-no rain. Not only that, but hot days and cold nights. We had a preview of a winter night just this past week so as we were all busy typing away at our lesson plans, we enjoyed a warm room with a fire made by moi. It was my first one I ever made so I was quite excited, even if I had used up a half a box of matches. Look, Dad, I did it! Eventually I'll get down one match, I know it.

On Monday, we had a surprise party for Gloria, the first grade teacher that I work with. I told her I wanted to practice Spanish and I could help her learn English but after I made the plans and then found out her birthday was the same week, it seemed just too simple to turn it into a surprise. Carrie made an unbelievably yummy cake. She is a great cook/baker so it's been fun
learning new recipes with her around all the time.

I took pictures of Gloria taking the bite out of her cake. Even though it's tradition, everyone acts as if it's their first time having to go for this daring move. The pictures are different steps of Gloria's triumphant and clean bite. Luz, who sat next to her, made her nervous and you can tell. She holds her arm, she tries to look brave, she holds her arm and dives in.

Celebrations of birth, marriage, and God's creation

2008-02-24T23:07:00.017-04:00

Only a day later and I'm blogging again. Too much excitement on the weekends, I just can't help it. Saturday afternoon we went to Marga's birthday party. Incase you didn't make the connection, Marga is our empleada (maid). In the picture to the left you can see the Peruvian tradition- The birthday person is supposed to take a bite out of their cake but usually someone stuffs it in their face. Here, Marga politely denies the cake in her face.

Being stuck in a house for 2 days with only English being spoken made it a bit tough to have conversations with the adults since I wasn't in "Spanish mode" as I call it. So, I tagged along with the little girl in the top of the picture who kept taking pictures with my camera. We walked around outside and Marga's daughter came along too with their puppy. They live a bit more in the 'campo', or country, so it was beautiful to be outside. Kids are more willing to teach you Spanish and usually the conversations are pretty surface level, so I enjoyed talking with the two girls.

Later that evening we went to a wedding for two people from the large Mennonite church in San Jeranimo (a town 5 minutes from my house in Larapa). The invitation says it would start promptly at 6pm but Peruvians know better than to be there exactly at 6 unless they want to chat for a couple hours. The wedding began at 7:20 and it was much like an American wedding except in the beginning when there was some worship dancing done by a dance team of 5 people. It was really neat. Also, rather than having a maid of honor and best man, they have 'padrinos' which serve kind of as those positions as well as spiritual support and they buy the wedding rings for the newlyweds. Ron and Regina Shultz were their padrinos you can see in the picture below.

I was told it was very 'upper class'. There was no 'I do' as far as I could tell, but they did have a nice little speech to give to their future husband/wife. As a side note, fiancée and girlfriend are the same word in Spanish so when I explain my last name, it may not be understood as well. I'm glad my last name is not McGirlfriend though. That would have taken longer to learn to spell in Kindergarten. So the wedding reception was pretty much the same, even if it did start more than an hour later than the invitations said. The reception itself was pretty similar as well but instead of just catching a bouquet, there's also a part where the women pull a ribbon from a glass and whoever ends up with a ring on the end 'wins' although, I'm not sure what all entails with 'winning'. The reception hall was shaped like a C and I was on the other side of the wall so I didn't know everything that was going on. Dinner did not come out until midnight but I didn't mind waiting because from eating all the junk at our Anne of Green Gables party, my stomach still hurt. As our party favors, we recieved light-up dolphin decoration things. You can see Carrie and Oriana Kreider amazed by the excitement of our new toy, as well as our huge plate of food. We left pretty shortly after that and everyone was exhausted. We heard the party ended around 3:30am.

Today we went to church and then had lunch at this outside restaurant that was so wonderful, making me feel like I was on vacation in the summertime. We came home to take a nap and after a big storm passed, we went for a hike. It was beautiful, even if it was the most muddy walk I've ever taken. I didn't realize there was such beauty hidden close to my house. I need to take more walks. Carleta went with us. We've spent everyday this weekend with her. I'm pretty sure you'll be hearing about her more often. She's a lot of fun.
I thought this dog was absolutely adorable and as soon as I tried to take a picture, he went nuts. He looks like a raccoon in the photo.

Praises: Awesome weekend, able to experience more of the culture, see God's creation, and make better connections with missionaries and Peruvians.

Prayer Request: That our chickens would stay safe- We found one killed this morning and we think it was a cat or a rat who must have been fat and sat on it's head. I should make it into a poem.
I would be more self-disciplined about learning Spanish on my own.
All teachers would be motivated to plan and decorate for school since we only have one week left.

Adventures Are Fun

2008-02-03T23:24:00.001-04:00

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.

Lucre

2008-03-18T21:44:00.016-03:00

It's my third week of school and things are much better than my first. Not where I want the kids to be, but definitely better. The sticker deal is good, both the kids and I like it. Some kids are very quick learners and shout out the answers all the time and other kids couldn't tell you the answer even if you just finished going over the word. But then again, that's how any classroom is, right? In the picture to the left, we made pizza in class last Friday.

This past weekend I was hoping to plan out the whole week and get myself all organized but then I came down with a cold. I took Friday night easy but Saturday morning we got up early to go hiking in Lucre, out in the campo with all the mountains and valleys. With my headache and all, we headed out at 7am and met up with youth from the Huacarpay church (Huacarpay is a town name) in the town of Lucre and explored, looking where to buy chicken and choclo (corn that was put in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids machine and grew 75%. The pieces of corn are bigger than the states) and hiked for part of the day, crossing big creeks, collecting berries, taking pictures, and cooking on an open fire. I felt like we were on vacation with my shoes off walking in the grass in the middle of nowhere basking in the sun. We didn't get back until 6pm so by that time, I did not feel like doing any work. The following pictures are all mixed up, but they're all from the hike. If they're in the trees, it's something all Peruvians do, climb trees to collect these things that are like small cherries only they're too strong of a taste for me. One woman is washing her sheep. She had a whole flock that her and a couple other women were washing in the creek. It was really cute to hear the sheep baa-ing like crazy while and after being washed.

Sunday we had church and then a married couple came over to simply ask if they could get something shipped out with my friend when he comes, but this lasted from 2pm until 7pm. Luckily I had the idea to put a movie on so I was able to do some work while we watched Narnia in Spanish. That's how things go in 'warm-climate' cultures that are so 'warm' to others, focusing more on relationships than work. The States is definitely a cold-climate culture. Once when I came home and found my 2 roommates along with our empleada and 4 other Peruvians, I only kissed the Peruvians hello and one of them commented about how she noticed I didn't "say hi" to my roommates even though I said hello. Yes, I guess Americans are pretty rude.

First Day of School- September... no wait, March 3rd

2008-03-07T21:11:00.007-04:00

I apologize for not writing in a while. Things have been a bit stressful getting ready for school and actually starting it. We began on Monday and I learned that the first graders remember nothing from last year, so my activities were way over their head, therefore, they didn't want to listen. So, I adjusted my lesson for the next day and it was much better. Except for on Tuesday, second grade stopped listening. So then I became discouraged. I feel like the week's kind of a blur already but I do know one thing, everyday, one of the classes went really well and the other class, not so much. So far I've learned that if I want to teach them a different language, I need to play games almost constantly. The games have worked out most times so I'm encouraged that that's my way to go, but with first grade, I still feel like I'm not sure how to keep them on task and sitting in their seats constantly. I'm thinking I'll be giving out a lot stickers this next week. They absolutely love stickers. Anyone want to donate some? Sorry this entry isn't the most exciting. I'm a bit burnt out at the moment but I figured you guys may be wondering how my first week went. Prayers would completely be appreciated.

I'm really starting to appreciate the temperature here. Random thought, I know, but I saw on my alarm clock/thermometer last night that it was 59 degrees in my room and I'm thinking, wow, I remember in the States when I needed it to be around 73 or something. Yes, my toes are cold at the moment, but if I would just put socks on, I'd be ok. I'm used to the cold now, but from what I hear it gets a lot colder in the winter, so then I'll be writing about how much I appreciate our fireplace. Another thing I now love is the view from the classrooms. We're on the third floor and the view is priceless, just a long line of mountains close by.

On the left, this guy was on the third floor working on putting in windows, not scared at all that there was nothing to keep him from falling 30 ft.

Below, before picture of the second grade room.

Top left, Hannah and Destiny cleaning the school. The rooms were completely filled with all that dust. Top right, after picture of second grade. Left, first grade class.

As a side note, for anyone who is completely generous enough to send me a package, PLEASE do not make it more than 4 pounds or more than $100 worth of stuff. Making it one or both of the above means that I need to go into a special room and I can only get there between 8:30 and 12:30 in the morning/afternoon and I'm not able to do that with school. Plus, if it's over $100, I have to pay tax, half of whatever the box costs. Thanks!

Call me Anne with an 'e'

2008-02-23T11:25:00.011-04:00

This past week we started teacher in-service days to perpare us for school. I met the Peruvian teachers that will be teaching each grade and then I already knew my two roommates who are the other 2 English teachers. In the photo, the two women on the right are the teachers I'll be working with. The lower one is teaching second grade and the one above her is teaching first grade. The second grade teacher is very willing to learn English and knows quite a bit already so it is fun when we get together because she doesn't mind working through the language barrier.

Thursday and Friday we had Paros, or strikes, again. The region was protesting a law that was recently passed allowing hotels and restaurants to build right next to sacred ruins and archeological sites. That meant that we had no teacher meetings and the three of us stuck around the house preparing for the school year that begins March 3rd for a couple days. Friday night we had an Anne of Green Gables night with the missionary girls, young and old (well, not old, but moms). Taxis were around so everyone was able to get to our house around 6 and we began with 'Ann of Green Gables desserts' and the finding of the perfect hat for the movie. Carrie is nicknamed "The Hat Queen" and so she brought down her probably 20 something hats so we could all feel part of the movie. I've seen Anne of Green Gables once in my life whereas everyone else has read the book or seen the movies numerous times so they were all very excited for this evening. After we picked our hats and had our plates full, we started the movie. When the first movie ended, the younger girls left with the moms. Destiny (15), Hannah (12), Carleta (a missionary here through Wycliff), and the three of us were left to watch the rest of the 4 hours. Destiny and Hannah slept over and we had a really great time.

Today we're going to Marga's to celebrate her birthday and then this evening off to my first Peruvian wedding. It's more Americanized with actual invitations and who knows what else but I'm sure it will still be different than what I'm used to. More on that later!

Chirp Chirp Chirp

2008-02-15T09:52:00.010-04:00

So we've had fleas, problem solved. Then we had mice, problem solved (we think). Now, we have baby chickens. This time we WANT the little animals. We had a chicken coop already made in our yard when we moved in so we knew we needed to get chickens so we can have fresh eggs everyday. They're only 3 weeks old so they still chirp. They're so adorable. Some let me pet them but others run around in circles to get away. We bought 8 and we decided we're going to name them all "Chicken" only in 8 different languages. We've got English, Spanish, Quechua, Pennsylvania Dutch, Albanian, and German so far. At this age, it's probable that some could die so we make sure to put them in a little box with holes at night so that they can cuddle and stay warm. You'll be getting updates when they're all grown. I don't know how long that will take. I'm learning many things here. We also started a tiny vegetable garden that's right outside of the coop so sometimes the chickens get loose and have a field day eating veggies.

Buying the chickens was fun. We were a little confused how to find the market and then we we did, it started pouring rain. One of the tarps was full of water and when I walked in, it dumped right on my head. Then the rain got harder and the wind grew stronger and everyone frantically covered their animals with tarps or stuck them in crates. My pants got soaked as well as my head previously been dumped on. It got quite cold. It was total opposite of the morning though because we had gone shopping and it was sunny and hot out. Then the clouds rolled in and changed the rest of the day. That's what the rainy season's all about I guess. Check out the video of the storm in the little animal market. Reminder, double click on the play button. The chirping you can hear is the same chirp in my backyard. Quite cute.

Language classes ended yesterday. I'ts 9:00am and I'm in my pajamas still. First time since I got here. I'm now able to focus on planning for the school year but I have to discipline myself to study Spanish as well. My teacher is going to tutor me once a week in the evening and I hope to find a college student at the University down the street and we can help each other learn our native tongues. Yesterday after lunch I was talking to Bethany and made a completely correct sentence in Spanish and Marga says to me in Spanish, "You're Spanish is getting better." and I'm all excited and thankful and then she goes "I can actually understand you." It was really funny. A compliment and insult in one. I'm still laughing about that. God has helped my ears open and I can understand more of Spanish now which has been my prayer for the last week. Almost every night, Bethany, Carrie, and I pray together and if you can believe it, which I hope you can, God has answered EVERY prayer we have prayed. Not only has He answered them, but things turn out better than we could have imagined. Prayer is so powerful and it's really building our faith seeing how things turn out better than we expected and we know it has to be God.

Tomorrow begins me being an official teacher. We're going to be meeting all of the Peruvian teachers, I know 3 of them already, and we'll just have a day to get to know each other. Monday we start in-service stuff and we'll be having Peruvian speakers come to teach us how to be better teachers. Prayer is definitely needed that I won't be overwhelmed since this will all be in Spanish. The other part of our morning we'll be planning for the school year.

Random side note. Last Friday I used my credit card (from EMM that has my budget's money on it) and Monday when I went to look for it in my bag, all my cash was there, but no credit card. I figured it's ok because I still have my personal credit card so I can use that until the other one comes in. So, I use the personal credit card on Wednesday morning and I went to look for it Thursday night and again, cash was there, but no credit card. Two credit cards in one week but whoever is taking them, isn't stealing my money which makes me think I'm going crazy and just misplacing the credit cards. But I was very aware of this last one and I know I didn't misplace it. So, we cancelled both credit cards and I'll be borrowing from my roommates for a month it seems. Other than that, things are going well and I'm excited for school to start. My friend Steve from Millersville is coming for two weeks in the end of March to help with construction and any ministry stuff he can get himself into so I'm excited to have my first visitor!

Peruvian Snowday

2008-02-08T17:44:00.001-04:00

We were warned on Tuesday that there would be a 'paro' or strike/protest on Thursday which means no public transportation or most stores open between 9am and 4pm. The strike was for the cost of living- that prices can't be raised anymore. There was a chance that transportation really would not happen at all in the morning, even before 9. My spanish school told us that there would be no classes on Thursday but Heather, the other student in my class, would be leaving Friday morning to Bolivia and already missing one day was too many. Maria, my teacher, Heather, and I decided to tough it out and have class anyway, even if it meant taking an expensive taxi or walking all the way to school. I left at 6:30am (as opposed to my normal 8:15am) hearing nothing but dogs barking. Usually there's vans driving constantly since two of the convey systems begin/end just down the road from me, about a 45 second walk downhill, 2 minutes uphill. The silence was my answer to how I'd be getting to school. I started off down the hill, a woman passing me in spandex and a backpack, jogging down the road. This is unusual. I didn't even know Qusquenans wore spandex. It took me 2 1/2 hours to get to school but how fun it was.
There were a few taxis driving by but everyone was desperate for a taxi and instead of standing at the window and asking how much, they dove in before others beat them to it. I was not about to join in this chaos. I also passed a huuuge pickup truck that again, people charged and dove in to get a ride, all squished, some people hanging off. As they kept driving, the road was blocked by small rocks in a line and they were forced to turn on the other side of the road where lo and behold, was where all the taxi drivers who weren't driving that day were parked, hanging out with one another. When they saw the load of people, they ran with a huge bucket of water and splashed everyone on that side of the truck. I have a picture of the taxi drivers after they splashed the truck.

Kids were playing volleyball and soccer in the street. As I entered the main street of the city, I finally saw people protesting with flags and a loud speaker. I arrived at school an hour late. I was saying to Maria that we don't have these sort of strikes in the States but my whole time walking to school, it reminded me of a snowday with kids playing in the streets and most businesses not opening. I found out when I came home that missionaries actually call 'paros' Peruvian snowdays so it must be true that this is a Peruvian snowday. After class, Maria took us to the Plaza de Armas, the main town square. It was completely filled with spectators and picketers (sp?). They were burning a tire and I saw one man was almost attacked but the police that were everywhere protected him. That was the extent of the violence though. In Cusco, it's peaceful but in Lima and some other parts of Peru, there is a lot of violence. I was lucky to be in the middle of a paro and not be afraid for my life. Maria said the man who was almost attacked was probably part of the government. Next, we headed to a store where Maria's daughter works and then headed to find a place open to eat lunch. There was no way I was walking home after walking all morning so I knew I'd be in the city till 4 when transportation started up again. Heather left us before lunch, my last time seeing her until I make a trip out to Seattle to visit her sometime. She was my first friend here in Peru, but fortunately, not my last. After lunch, we headed to Maria's friends house where she works/lives 3 months of the year. She works for a millionaire whose from Spain and is aging quite a bit so needs some help at home. They were very hospitable and helpful to translate when I didn't understand what was going on. At four, Maria and I headed home to catch a convey. It took a while to find some means of transportation, but on the way I helped Maria practice her English and then we switched back to Spanglish when English became too hard for her. We had a long and exhausting day but one where I really got to know Maria very well and I know it's a day I'll remember for years to come.

Below is a video. Double click on the bottom left triangle.