The Second Jungle Trip- La Selva Alegre

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.

Exploring Peru

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)

what happened to august 5th?

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

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.

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

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!

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.