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.

The Secret to Weightloss

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

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

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

Praises:

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

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

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

Prayers:

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

~That'd I'd get more organized!

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

Labor Day in May

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!

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.

Mister Esteve

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.

Pascua

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.

Little moments of life in Peru

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.