Gringo Infestation

More gringos! Lampa is veritably crawling with them now. The second Lithia Springs team arrived this morning. Their translator missed his flight, so we have to go pick him up tomorrow morning.

But I am behind and still havent told much about the first team, besides the fact that they were all sick at one point. This might be a little scattered, because a lot of things have happened lately. Let me backtrack a bit...

Ok, so I have posted about our trip into Puca Cuesta and our showing of the kid Jesus film in the Lampa school. After we got back to the hostel, several of us that were feeling up to it went into Juliaca to shop and do the things we needed to do. Wade took the new people to Tupac, the everything market, and Dave and I went to Internet cafes to blog and post more pictures. After spending more than two hours fighting with the slow and stubborn internet, I finished up and went looking for Dave, who had gone to a different cafe with CD-burning capability. I went in several cafes and asked about him, but couldnt find him, until he snuck up behind me and almost gave me a heart attack. I was very glad he found me because I sure didnt want to head back to Lampa by myself. We got a Trici-Taxi to the Lampa combi stop, and on the way we saw a dog get ran over. It was kinda tragic at first, but when the dog got up and ran off, it became funny. Ok, anyway...

When we got back to Lampa, we saw that our team had hung a sheet on the side of a building in the plaza and was trying in vain to hook up the equipment to show the Jesus film. There was actually a crowd of Lampans standing around waiting for the film to begin, and even though Dave came over and put in his two cents, no one could figure out why nothing was working. The projector wouldnt even turn on. I think it may have had something to do with the voltage difference here in Peru, but even with a power convertor, nothing happened. So we had to appologize to the crowd, and head back to the hostel. Even up until today, people have been asking what happened with the movie.

The next day, we went to Moquegache school and did the bead bracelets with them too. It was fun, and the kids really liked having more gringos around, I think. The gringos enjoyed it too. When we got back to the hostel, several people took naps while others of us worked up a drama to perform in the square. We took the story of Pauls conversion from the Bible, and delegated parts and constructed constumes. Rather, I should say costume, because Keith, playing King Agrippa, was the only one who didnt appear completely in normal clothes. Dave and I made a crown for him out of a vanilla wafer box, and I used my cheap asian crayons to draw jewels and color the whole thing yellow. Then we covered it with clear tape, and viola! A genuine shiny cardboard crown fit for an ancient king. I was the narrator, Wade played Paul, Dave played Ananias, and everyone else was either a persecuted Christian or a person who did the persecuting. That next morning, early, we went to the fountain in the center of the plaza and set up for our drama. I was a little skeptical whether we could draw anyone, but as soon as we started, and I lifted my voice to almost a yell while reading, here they came. We had drawn quite a crowd before we were through, and even got some applause at the end. Mike spoke afterward, with Luis translating, and then we passed out tracts like crazy. I really hope the people got something from watching our drama, and werent just there to gawk at the gringo spectacle.

Thursday night we all went to Juliaca for a nice dinner at the Royal Inn. Keith bought our dinner, and we had a good time just laughing and talking. I sat across from Patty, one of the translators, and I spent most of the night in conversation with her. What a cool lady. She lives in Lima, and I really want the chance to visit her again, if possible.

Everyone left early Friday morning, except Margaret, and we bid them all goodbye as they left in Jorges combi for the airport. They left behind so much food that we havent had to eat out in a week. That afternoon, we took some clothes to the family with the sick mother and saw that her condition hadnt really changed much. Please keep praying for her family.

Saturday morning, we went out to Moquegache for the mothers club meeting. Upon arrival, no mothers were there and so Wade and Dave went walking out in the campo to meet people while I stayed with Margaret in the combi. When they came back, we told them that the people who had come were having some sort of meeting and we really didnt feel good about disturbing them, especially since the president was in attendance, and he doesnt like us. When I said hello and asked him how he was, he ignored me. Anyway, we decided to pay Jorge an extra 20 soles to take us to the Cave of the Bull, which was a little ways away. After hiking a good ways up the side of one of the hills, we arrived to the "cave," a shallow hole in the side of a larger rock that looked slightly like the profile of a standing bull. The people had helped it look more like a bull by piling rocks to define the legs and lower body, and had also burned the walls of the cave to make them black so they would stand out more. Oh well. It was still cool and we have some good pictures from that little excursion.

We met Rick and Kelly, along with the research team, at the Royal Inn that night for a thank-you dinner to show them how much we appreciate all that they have done for us this summer. It was a fun reunion, and we laughed a lot and reminisced. We split the cost of the familys dinner among the six of us summer missionaries, and took even more pictures. After we said good bye to them after dinner, and Margaret went back to Lampa, we three on the Lampa team decided to spend the night at the hostel where the research team was staying. We went out to a discoteca that night and danced the night away. Yeah, I know, we are Baptists, right? Not supposed to be dancing. I promise, we refrained from bumping and grinding and just danced crazy, causing a lot of laughs from the poeple watching. What a blast. We stayed out late and then went back to the hostel exhausted and giggly. Us girls stayed up awhile talking. The guys room was next door, and they said they heard a mumble coming from our room, and every now and then, a loud burst of giggles. It was so late that we laughed a lot, especially when one of us would fart loudly. Sorry. I have a theory. Digestive systems dont work correctly below the equator. Anyway, it was a fun night, and we sent them off in a taxi the next morning to the airport to return to Lima.

Yesterday morning, Sunday, we went to both our churches and gave them the Bibles in Quechua that we had left over. Margaret played with her kids all the rest of the day, and that night, we played our last game of Monopolio. Wade will tell you that he won, but really Dave got tired tired of playing and forfeited so he could go to bed. I had gone out hours before. So Wade, lover of Monopolio, is the self-proclaimed summer champion because he "won" the last game. Good for you, Wade. I hope Amy will be happy to see you pull that game out of your bag when you get home, because no doubt, you are going to try to make her play too.

Two more days here in Lampa. Weird. I will really miss this place. Will I ever come back? Who knows. Maybe. My next and last post will be from Lima. Thanks for reading all my adventures this summer and cant wait to see you all when I get back to the states! Chau!

Lots of Fun and Throw Up

It has been a few days since I´ve blogged and a lot has happened in the between time.

A few days ago, we journeyed once more to Rick and Kelly´s house to celebrate my birthday, as you all already know. However, the research team unexpectedly showed up and we had a nice little reunion. We had lots of fun talking and catching up. Rick kept us busy by cleaning out his large concrete water resevoir, which had a sad dead little bird stuck to the bottom that we needed to get out. I don´t have pictures of our water-pouring line up the stairs, but Dave does, so look on his picture page for a good laugh.

That night we went to get chicken for dinner at a little restaurant that Rick and Kelly suggested. While eating, a police officer came up to our table with a little girl and started asking us questions in rapid Spanish. Since it was just us six summer missionaries, none fluent (the Martinez family had stayed home), we didn´t understand what he was saying. Finally he left with the little girl and a lady at the next table helped us understand what had happened. She said, much more slowly, that the little girl must have seen us walking in the street towards the restaurant, gotten scared of six laughing white people, and started crying. The police officer must have found her, asked what had happened, and thought we had teased her or something. What could we have done? We didn´t even see the little girl in the street anywhere. It was really the fault of the girl´s parents for letting this 4-year-old wander about in the streets unsupervised. But that´s the way of things here. 5-year-olds taking care of their baby siblings. Pre-schoolers roaming around in packs. It´s craziness.

When we got back to the Martinez house, we finished our game of Risk (Heather and I almost won). Then for some unknown reason, I started to get queasy, and spent the rest of the night puking my guts out, five separate times. The last time was in the middle of the night and I couldn´t even make it to the bathroom. Luckily, someone had given me an empty garbage can to sleep with, but it wasn´t empty for long. Later on, I was a little embarassed that all my friends had heard me puking, but at the time, that was the last thing on my mind. Dave and Jen were awake, but they said they didn´t know what to do. Wade told me he covered his ears and started praying. Thanks Wade. How sad that I couldn´t enjoy the largest co-ed slumber party I have ever attended. It´s ok, though. I can laugh about it now. Sorry, Rick and Kelly, for defiling your trash can.

On our last night by ourselves in the hostel, Dave, Wade, and I cooked our own dinner in the microwave. Dave and I had just both gotten packages from home, and I heated up chicken and pasta, while Dave and Wade cut up fruit for a fruit salad. Gatorade to drink. Fudge rounds for dessert. It was nice, and we laughed a lot about how ¨fancy¨our dinner was. One last game of Monopolio (hateful) and I had my final victory. They made me play, and I told then if I had to play, I was going to win. Oh well, I gave them fair warning.

The group from Lithia Springs, Georgia arrived yesterday. We went to pick them up from the airport early in the morning (ok, it was only like 9:00am) and then headed back to Lampa with a combi full of Americans and two Peruvian translators. After we dropped all their stuff off at the hostel, we walked to Maranatha church, and mercifully, the service only lasted 3 hours this time. We were actually a little late in getting there, and no matter, because none of us understood the service anyway, which like always, was partly in Quechua. One 13-year-old kid named Malcolm came with his mom, and got bored and itchy during the service, so I walked him back to the hostel where his mom was resting. For lunch, we went to the mean lady restuarant and almost everyone got chicken. I think they all enjoyed it, but I saw a few noses turn up when I explained about the foot potatoes in their soup.

I remember headaches when I first came to this altitude, but for some reason, the new people seemed to be afflicted with stomach problems. Yeah, I know. More about puke. Hostal Milam was upchuck central last night, and I spent part of it fixing endless cups of mate de coca, dishing out Pepto Bismol, and dodging pools of vomit. To spare them embarassment, I won´t name names, but please pray for the recovery and good health of certain members of our new team.

This morning, Jorge the stingy combi driver came by to pick up half the group and take us out to Puca Cuesta to show a children´s video about Jesus. It was me, Dave, Cheryl, Margaret, Malcolm, and Patty, one of our translators. When we got there no children were in sight, which is very unusual because Puca Cuesta is usually crawling with kids trying to "borrow" our bicycles. None of the people we talked to on the road seemed to know why the kids weren´t in school either. We assume it was because yesterday was a parade day in Lampa and Patty told us that public-school teachers here are very lazy and think of any excuse they can to cancel school. After putting a flyer on the school´s door about the video we are showing in the community center tomorrow, we headed back to Lampa.

Margaret had the idea to stop by the Lampa school and see if we could show the kids´ film there. She remembered some of the school directors from her last visit, and thought we had a good chance of talking them into it. We met with the main director and had a small chat, which revealed that he was a communist and very against the United States and its ideals. I hate it so much when we are trying to convince someone that we are just here to tell about Jesus and they throw our country´s mistakes up in our faces. It really makes me mad. I tell them, yes, we are from the United States, but we aren´t the United States. He started blabbering about Iraq and Cuba and all this other stuff. I really wanted to tell him what I thought about the bloody commies, but I held my tongue and he eventually agreed to let us come. I think I am going to start being from some other country, like Scotland, that just minds its own business.

When we got to the room where we were going to show the film, so started the trials and tribulations of hooking up speakers and the projector and the DVD player, all through a power convertor. It was pretty ghetto, but it worked, thanks to Dave´s electronical expertise. All I did was hang garbage bags in the windows to keep out the light. The kids started piling into the room, and on my last count, there were over 120 of them. I had to keep telling them to sit down and shut up, but they watched the entire film, for the most part. I remember seeing images of the ways missionaries out in Africa and other hard-to-reach places rigged bedsheets to show the Jesus film when it first came out, and it was cool to kinda be a part of that today. Tonight is our showing of the adult version of the film in Lampa´s plaza.

I can´t believe that I only have two weeks left here in Peru. It is a very sobering thought that I will have to return to the madness and commerciality of America very soon. I will definitely miss how laid-back the Peruvians are, not only about time but about all aspects of their lives. I really think that I have been changed in many dramatic ways during my two months here in the Andes mountains, some for the better and some for the worse. On the whole, I have grown closer to Jesus, which is something that has been a long time coming, and I have been told that I am a lot more outgoing and sure of myself than when I left the US. It will be weird to drop back into my old life. And I will miss living with Wade and Dave and seeing them everyday. They are two really great guys and I hope that we can continue to be friends after we get back, even though we all live far apart.

Completely unrelated, but relevant nevertheless, I have added more pictures on my Photobucket account, so check them out. There are more in the first album, and I also created a second album because the first was getting full. Chau!

New Pictures

I just created my own PhotoBucket account and am in the process of dumping all my pictures from my camera into it. You may have seen some of them before on Dave's picture site, but there are a lot of new ones too. Check it out! The link is to the right.

Feliz Birthday A Mi!

21 years on this earth so far, and I still feel like a kid sometimes. In perspective, I have used up one-fourth of my life. But I don't think I have done too bad for myself. And it is exciting to think of the 60-or-so years I have left and all the different things I can do with them. I am already thinking about where I am going to ship myself off to next summer, and hopefully bring my sister with me. World, look out.

So yesterday was my birthday, and it started off with a bang. Literally. At 7:00am, I woke up to the sound of some really loud firecrackers. I thought, "Who in the heck is shooting fireworks in the street at this hour?" There is no sort of noise pollution law here in Lampa, and so I didn't think much more about it. Loudness in the morning is fairly common. I had just rolled over to go back to sleep when all of a sudden, music and singing voices started right outside my bedroom door. Then I remembered that it was my birthday, and this was probably some ploy Dave and Wade cooked up to give me a hard time. So I got myself out of bed and cracked the door open. My entire hostel family was standing outside my room, singing and holding a cake that said "Feliz Dia Yenny." I just started laughing and couldn't believe what was happening. The fireworks were thanks to Senor Mendez, our giddy hostel owner. Then they sang Happy Birthday to me in both English and Spanish. It was great. Everyone came around and gave me a hug, while I tried not to breathe on them with my morning breath. Then the senoras brought up hot chocolate and we all sat around the table and had cake for breakfast. They later told me that, traditionally, Peruvians smash eggs and pour flour on the head of the birthday person during the hug line. I was both relieved and a little disappointed that they chose to forego this part on my behalf. I have heard that raw eggs are good for your hair.

After everyone left to let us get ready for the day, we sat around and laughed for about an hour, and then headed to Moquegache. The ride out was nice and I sang Happy Birthday to myself the whole way. When we got there, the teacher told us to wait because the kids were doing something special and had visitor teacher in their class today. We finally got to read the Jonah story to littlest kids, who really didn't pay a whole lot of attention. We didn't get visit the older kids, and after waiting around awhile, we decided to just head back to Lampa. When we got back to the hostel, the senoras told us that they were cooking lunch for us, which they have never done before. Lunch was green soup with macaroni noodles in it, alpaca, potatoes, and something called pastel de semola which was very close to good ole southern cornbread. Wow, it was delicious, and free! After we finished eating, we packed and headed for Huancane to visit Rick and Kelly.

So now I am here at Rick's computer, hanging out with the coolest little kids in the world, Elijah, Olivia, and Gabriela, and digesting pancakes, lomo saltado, and more birthday cake. It is good to relax and be warm and clean. Only a few days left till more gringos arrive from Georgia. It has been a good summer so far, and even though I am looking forward to going home to Alabama, I still am a little sad about the thought of leaving. Senor Mendez says that Wade, Dave, and I are like a part of his family now. This little life we have made in the mountains of southern Peru, however uncomfortable it may be, will be missed. Maybe I'll come back someday with a family of my own. Wow, what a weird thought. Ok, that's enough for now. I am going to go eat some more cake. Chau!

God Works In Small Ways

To those with tender hearts i.e. Mom, there is some sad stuff in this blog and you might tear up a little. Just a warning.

Yesterday we biked out to Moquegache again for our third attempt at getting anything done on a Saturday. The whole Bible study thing is just not happening. We did talk to three ladies who showed up for the Mothers´ club meeting, and told them about the Jesus film that we are going to be showing when the people from Lithia Springs come. On the road back to Lampa, we kept passing this kid on his bike. Well, actually he kept passing me because, for some reason, I just couldn´t stay on my bike. I kept falling or running into one of the other guys. I really think that Señor Mendez secretly pumped up my tires more than necessary because my bike was very bouncy all day, and refused to grip the road like normal. Anyway, Dave finally stopped on the road and got the kid´s attention when he went by. For some reason, Dave very strongly wanted to invite the kid, whose name is Leonardo, to lunch, and so we did. He had a few things to do before he ate with us, so we all agreed to meet in the plaza at 12:00.

We got to the plaza a few minutes before noon and saw that the local 7th Day Adventist church had set up a small tent and were praying all in a clump. ¨Hee, hee,¨ we thought, and decided to bust it up a little. We started handing out tracts to people who were hanging around on the benches near the tent but weren´t involved in the prayer. Just as expected, the passing out of anything free always attracts a begging crowd, and so here they came in droves. We actually attracted the Adventist preacher´s congregation away from him, and so Wade took this opportunity to start preaching. He stated loud and clear that the only way to Jesus and heaven was by faith, and not works, as apparently the Adventists believe. I guess the Adventists that we attracted aren´t very strong in their beliefs, because after Wade´s "Amen, hermanos?" they all answered with a hearty "Amen!" The preacher eventually came over, smiling and grabbing our hands. He invited us to come pray with him. At this point, I think Wade went a little overboard, telling him that we wouldn´t pray with him because he worships a different God than us. I understand Wade not wanting to be associated with the Adventists, but pissing off the preacher wasn´t the best idea, in my humble opinion. And plus, I think that although the Adventists have a lot of wrong ideas, they still worship the same God as us. The preacher left in a huff, taking a lot of his people back with him. We continued passing out tracts to both Adventists and also to some of the Catholics who were coming from Mass. Wade went over to apologize to the preacher after awhile, and then we went to look for Leonardo, the little boy who was meeting us for lunch.

We found him after a few minutes. He had taken off his distinctive orange sweater, and so it was a little hard to distinguish him from all the other little Peruvian boys, but we eventually did. We took him to eat at Señora Delia´s restaurant, a little begrudgingly because we have been boycotting Delia´s as of late. She has recently had the habit of quoting us a price before we eat, and then, after the food is gone, she raises the price 50 centimos or so. It is really very shady, and we don´t want to give her any more of our business than absolutely necessary. She was the only restaurant open Saturday, and so we had to visit her. The food was good, and Leonardo had immaculate table manners. He ate everything that was put before him, and after we were all finished eating, he asked very politely if we could come visit his sick mother. We thought, why not? So we got our bikes from the hostel and followed him to his house, a little past the colonial point bridge. On the way there, he told us his mother had been sick for 9 years. I can´t imagine that. When we got to the house, we waited outside until he beckoned us in, and then we entered. His mother was laying in bed, and I could tell how much this kid loved her because he sat down beside her and brushed her hair off of her sweaty forehead. It was heartbreaking. We three gringos gathered around her bed and prayed for God to heal her, me in Spanish, Dave in English, and Wade in both. While we were praying, her husband and another daughter came in. We recognized the daughter from the Moquegache school. Turns out, the woman didn´t understand Spanish, and Wade just so happened to have a Quechua Bible in his backpack, so we gave it to the family. Leonardo placed it on his mom´s stomach in bed, and her hands were so weak, she could barely move it to where she could read the words. I hope they use that Bible to read together. Please, please, pray for this family and for the mother to be healed. Her name is Maria, her husband is Santiago, and the daughter is Matilde. We told them before we left that we are going to visit in two weeks with other the other gringos that are coming. Maybe we can bring them a food package or something. I don´t know what kind of sickness she has, but if it is God´s will, I know He can heal her. Just please pray.

Looking back, it is strange to think of all the small things, that when strung together, led us to praying over a sick woman we had never met before. God does indeed work in small ways.
On a happier note, I am excited about the Lithia Springs team that will arrive in a week. I know that the rest of my time in Peru will fly by with them here. Also, I am excited about the opportunities that showing the Jesus film will bring. It has been awhile since I myself have seen it, and the prospect of seeing any movie soon is thrilling. Well, on second thought, there is an advertisement on the wall next to this computer for a movie called "Lucifer" that is supposedly coming soon to Lampa. I am going to make it a point to miss that one, and actually, if I can get away with it, that poster might not be there much longer.

I learned how to say "I can´t speak Quechua" in Quechua today. Mana ateneechu quechua parlaita. That´s probably not spelled right, but it really makes the little Quechua ladies in the market laugh when spoken loudly.

Thanks for all your prayers, and please keep the sick woman and her family in them. We don´t have much time left here in Lampa, and we are really trying to make what we have left count for as much as possible. God is good, though, and I am confident that He will continue to bless our efforts, in whatever small ways He chooses. Chau!

Makeshift 4th of July

This is my first American Independence day away from home, and we three tried to celebrate as best we could, but seeing as we´re in South America, things were a little different than normal. The morning of the 4th, we got up and biked out to Puca Cuesta. Some days are just harder than others, and this was a hard day for me. The road to Puca Cuesta is very hilly, and I almost died a couple of times, but eventually made it. The kids of this community are little heathens, especially since the teachers put the two classes together, younger and older, which makes it so hard to keep anyone´s attention. There is this one kid, named Ricardo, who likes to cause trouble whenever he can. He takes other kids´ attention away, and even hit me in the arm when I walked by him. I almost hit him back. He´s a pain, and I am always glad when we finish with that school and can fly down the hill back toward Lampa.

When we got back to our hostel, we put our bikes up and went to lunch. Our town has been invaded these past two days with loads of professional-looking people carrying around briefcases and such, and so Señora Delia´s restaurant was a little more crowded than usual, to the point of it taking me five minutes to get past people to leave when we were done eating. Then I took a shower and got ready to go to Juliaca for our 4th of July celebration. When we got there, we walked to the food market and asked around for a watermelon, but I guess they aren´t in season right now. Then we went to Tupac, the everything market, and bought a children´s story Bible at the same place I got the Quechua Bibles. The lady gave us a deal, because we had bought so much from her already, but it was still expensive. 60 soles. That´s like 20 dollars. Sheesh. But we needed it because the stories we have been using aren´t meant for children, and if they are, the person who wrote them was smoking something. The pictures are very vivid and the stories are short and easy to read. We each pitched in a 20 sol bill, and then headed off to find something to eat. We eventually decided on returning to our favorite pizza joint, Golosa, and stuffed ourselves with pepperoni pizza while we watched ER, in English! I have never actually seen an episode of this show before, but I enjoyed it because it was American, and I only had a little trouble swallowing my pizza during the gory parts. We went to Meli Melo for dessert, and I bought an apple pie to take home. Yes, an apple pie. Wonder of wonders. I then went to the phone place and called my boyfriend, Robert, to wish him a happy 4th. He was in the middle of a game of Shanghai (a really fun card game) with his friends, and the poor boy was losing terribly when I called. I think I may have cheered him up a little. I hope so anyway.

After I got off the phone, we walked around Juliaca for about 20 minutes, asking anyone who looked even slightly mischievious where we might be able to buy some "bombas por el cielo" I thought "bombas" was the generic word for anything that blows up, and so we added the "por el cielo" part to help explain. We visited several party stores, but none had anything. So we went back to Lampa a little sad, but knowing that we tried. When we got off the combi in the plaza in Lampa, Wade headed off to the Internet cafe (go figure). On a whim, Dave and I stopped by the libreria (which also doubles as a liquor store) and asked about fireworks. At first the lady brought out balloons, but after much waving of the hands and making of explosion sounds on our part, lo and behold, she reached beneath the counter and brought out some firecrackers! We bought two packs, grabbed Wade, and headed off the the colonial bridge to shoot them. It was pitch black and cold, and my Explorer House lighter was being stubborn, but we eventually lit them all and enjoyed the loud popping and flashing like little kids. Dave recorded it on his camera, and so we have a few pictures of our ghetto fireworks display. It was fun, and when we returned to the hostel, we sang some classic American songs, like "American Pie" which we only knew the chorus to, and a very soulful version of "America the Beautiful." So that was our makeshift 4th of July celebration. I missed hanging out on the lake with my family, eating barbeque ribs, baked beans, and I even missed the potato salad. But this Independence Day is one I´ll never forget, and one whose memories won´t get mixed in with all the others.

Today, the 5th, we biked out to Moquegache, and when the kids saw us coming, they got all excited, and even came in from playing to hear what we had to say. We used the story Bible and I told the story of Jonah and the Big Fish. I think they liked it, and afterwards we sang "Cristo Me Ama" with all the motions. They remembered everything from the past times, and really listened to us, unlike the stinkin Puca Cuesta kids. We had fun, gave them John 3:16 to memorize for next time, and they all asked when we were going to come back. We talked to the teacher and decided that Tuesdays are going to be our Moquegache school days. After we left the classroom, all the kids came out and we went to play. The boys played soccer and I went with the girls to play volleyball and basketball. I am actually getting better at volleyball for some reason, not that I care to. Next Tuesday, I think I am going to play soccer with the boys. At one point today, I stole the soccer ball from some kid who wasn´t expecting me to, and passed it to another kid. They got a "kick" (ha, ha) out of that, and it really made me want to play more.

Oh yeah, about Sunday. We went to Maranatha church again, the same one that we had attended with Kevin and Tom from Lithia Springs. This time, the pastor, Brother Bartolomé, was there. Of course, when we arrived at 10:00, we were the first ones, but about 10 minutes later people started trickling in. Ok, so we got there at 10:00, right? There is an order of worship on the wall, and it lists times next to each part of the service. According to the schedule, the service is supposed to end at noon. Well, the Peruvians ignore the times completely. I checked my watch at 1:00, and there was no sign of the service winding down. We took part in our first Peruvian Lord´s Supper, and although we had no way of knowing how many dirty hands had touched the bread, or what the heck we drank that represented Jesus´ blood, it was nice. After the service ended, they started up some sort of business meeting. We three gringos kept shooting each other worried looks because we wondered if we were ever going to leave. We had just decided to slip out, (yeah, right. We were sitting on the front bench.) and Dave barely got the words, "Tenemos que..." out of his mouth, until Bro. Bartolomé saw what we were about to do, and motioned us to wait. Sigh. He finally wrapped things up, and we walked out of the church at 2:30, four and a half hours after we first entered it. We went to lunch with him and two other elders. We talked about what we are here for and taught them a few English phrases. It was kinda fun, but I was glad when we finally said goodbye. We are still not sure if we are going to go back next Sunday. We know we ought to, but really.

I just really want to thank Gethsemane for the money they have given my team. Those 25 Quechua Bibles we bought are really needed. Also, thanks for your prayers. Even though is seems like the whole Moquegache Bible study thing will never pan out, we still have hope. The kids love us, and who knows? Maybe God will use the kids to bring the adults. Please keep praying. We only have one month left. It seems like a long time, but I know that it really isn´t. Just keep praying. Chau!

Rest and Relaxation? Hah!

Ok, this is a long one. Lots to tell about the last few days. You might want to go get some popcorn.

What a wonderful 4 days. I have had a lot of fun being a tourist during my R and R weekend. My Lampa team and the research team met with Mike Weaver and Ryan and Amanda Bush (two other missionaries from Lima) at Hotel Maison in Juliaca on Monday. We all went out to eat at the Royal Inn restaurant for dinner and had a good time just laughing and sharing our adventures. After dinner, our two teams went next door to a karaoke place and had a blast singing all kinds of awful old-school songs, like "Can You Feel The Love Tonight," "Born In The USA," and "I Will Always Love You." At first we were the only people in the karaoke room, but then some Peruvians started coming in and watching us. Bad thing was, on some of the songs, the background images that came up with the words on the the screen were extremely inappropriate. During these songs, we all kept our eyes downcast, and when we didn´t know the words, instead of looking up to find out, we usually just made something up. The Peruvians who were listening couldn´t tell the difference. Some drunk guys sang songs in between ours, and they were always funny. Now, I know someone is thinking, what were we doing in a karaoke bar in the first place? I mean, that´s not a place Christians should be, right? Well, we feel like we showed everyone there that we could have fun without drinking beer. And we also made it very clear that we didn´t like the inappropriate images. At one point, Jenn from the research team yelled, "No me gusta desnudo!" which means "I don´t like naked!" It was funny, and eventually the images stopped.

After the karaoke, we went back to the hotel for some sleep. Ahh. Warmth. I actually took my socks off at one point in the night. Then, the next morning, I TOOK A SHOWER! It was a long one, not only because I enjoyed it so much, but also because it took awhile to get all the dirt off. At one point, I looked down, and the water around my feet was brownish. I am not exaggerating. Gross. It was so nice to be clean again, though. Sigh. I thought that needed its own paragraph.

During breakfast the next morning, we all had bread and weird omelettes while we watched Star Wars: Episode Three on the TV in the restaurant. All you wannabe Jedis know that this movie isn´t even out of theaters yet. Piracy is huge here in Peru, and vendors very blatantly sell copied movies and CDs for cheap in the markets. They are usually bad quality, though. Our evaluations after breakfast were good. Mine was with Amanda Bush, and we just talked for a good 45 minutes about what all we had been doing in Lampa and how well our team was working together. After all the evauluations, we had chifa (Chinese food) for lunch, then went roaming around Tupac the market until late. Jenn´s friend from back home had dared her to drink a glass of frog juice and so we went to the part of the market with all the "health food" and got a lady to fix her one. Several poor little frogs were swimming around in a fish tank and the lady grabbed one and chopped its head off. Then she skinned it and tossed it in the blender, along with papaya chunks and lots of other weird herbs and grains, making it more of a frog juice cocktail. Supposedly, frog is good for your brain. Jenn chugged two glasses of the stuff, got it all over her face, and much to our surprise she kept it down. I wanted to try some too, but didn´t want to be a copycat...yeah...right...

Wednesday morning, everyone minus Mike got up at 5:30 and went to catch a combi for Puno. We all piled in the back of one and headed out. As soon as we got off the combi in Puno, a very eager travel agent practically ambushed us. He said he would take us to a restaurant and then arrange a boat trip for us onto Lake Titicaca. We got to the restaurant in one piece (nine people in a small car) and then he gave us his price. It was too high and so Jenn and I slipped out to find another travel agent with a better price. We did find one, and she followed us back to the restaurant. The other guy got mad and left, so we ended up with a great deal with the lady: A boat trip to the Uros floating reed islands, a night on Amantaní island, and then a day trip to Taquile island, all for 45 soles a person, which is less than 14 dollars.

The Uros islands are man-made from reeds that grow in the lake. I´m not sure if people still live on them, but when we visited, they were all there selling their wares to the tourists. Walking on the reeds is a strange feeling. They are kinda spongy but firm enough so you don´t sink through. We actually got to taste the reeds too, kinda like organic styrofoam. Chris from the research team got the bright idea to try falling straight backwards onto the reeds. He said it didn´t hurt, and so me and Jenn tried it too. My spot must not have been as soft as Chris´s, but it didn´t hurt too bad and we laughed a lot about how stupid we were for falling backward voluntarily.

After we left the floating islands, we headed off for Amantaní, a natural island where we were going to spend the night with a local family. The boat trip there was 3 hours long, and in that time we talked to many of the other tourists that were on the boat with us. Many different countries were represented on our trip, and we talked to people from Mexico, Spain, Japan, Canada, England, and other parts of the US. We talked a lot with two girls from London, named Angeline and Katie. They were cool and we all kinda hung out together the whole trip. When we got to the island, we were divided out and given to various "host moms." Me, Jenn, and Heather from the research team were together. Our host mom was only 23 years old, the same age as Heather. Our room was small with three very hard beds, but at least we had electricity, unlike the boys´ room. After a lunch of soup, rice, and potatoes that our host mom made for us, we went climbing up to the top of the island. The view from the top was incredible. We would have been able to see the lake at 360 degrees if there hadn´t been some forbidden temple built right on the peak. It was still cool, and we got some great pictures. The pictures just don´t do the view justice, though.

That night, after dinner (same as lunch), our host mom came in with armfulls of local clothing and dressed us up for a party that was going on that night for the tourists. We looked and felt a lot like nuns, and as we were climbing up the side of the island for the party, it felt like we were going to Mass or a funeral or something. The boys showed up in ponchos and chullus, those knit hats with the earflaps. A three-man band started playing eventually, and the dancing was more running around in a circle holding hands than actual dancing. Fun though. After awhile we all went outside to look at the stars. Unbelieveable. We could see Venus and the Milky Way easily. We left the party early because we wanted to get in bed and also the party was kind of dead. We found our host mom and asked her to lead us back to the house. These island women must have night vision or something because the hillside was pitch black and she flew down it, leaving us to poke our way along. Our little room was surprisingly warm when we got back, and I was comfortable all night, temperature-wise anyway. My bed was a slab of concrete with a reed mat and a thin matress. I woke up with a horrible neck-ache. Breakfast more than made up for it though. We had what she called tortillas, but were really little fried blobs of funnel cake, minus the powdered sugar. We put granulated sugar on them, and were in heaven for at least five minutes, which is about how long they lasted.

The boat ride to Taquile was cold and took about an hour. We had to hike the length of the island to the other side where we were going to eat lunch. The tour guide told us that lunch was 10 soles in all the restaurants and the prices weren´t negotiable. Not used to tourist prices, I thought this was terribly unfair. We could get the same food in Lampa for 2 soles, and so when everyone else went to the restaurant that the tour guide told them to go to, my little group went to a different restaurant. Some young kid was working there and I asked him how much lunch was. He told us 10 soles. Then I asked him how much Peruvians pay, and he said 7. So the owner came out and we told her that we didn´t think it was fair that we had to pay more because we´re white. She gave in and served us for 7 soles apiece, but told us not to tell anyone else. We heard the kid getting chewed out in the kitchen after we sat down at a table. I still think the price was too steep, but at least we didn´t have to pay 10.

The boat ride back to Puno was long and filled with good conversation. When we got to the mainland, we said goodbye to our English friends and went to eat dinner at the same gringo restaurant that Rick and Kelly brought us to. On the way there, we took Trici-Taxis and got the drivers to race. Wade left to go back to Juliaca and get a nice expensive room at the Royal Inn for the night, so the other five of us each got hamburgers and pizzas for dinner. We ate sooo much, and even after all that, when we got back to Juliaca, we went to Meli Melo, a pastry shop, and all got huge slices of cake and milkshakes. We ate a ridiculous amount of food, almost made ourselves sick, and had great fun doing it. Then we went off to find a hostel for the night. We found a very cheap one, but it wasn´t to Chris´s liking, and so he left to get his own room at the Royal. We pulled an extra bed into one double room, and me, Jenn, and Heather stayed there, while Dave had his own room. The bathroom at the hostel was absolutely the nastiest room I have ever been in. The toilet wouldn´t flush, so over the course of the night, almost everyone staying in the hostel added to it, and in the morning, the smell was taking over the entire place. I guess that´s what we get for being so cheap. We had a good laugh about it though.

This week has been great. It´s so good to be able to hang out with other girls again, especially ones as cool as Heather and Jenn. We have had a lot of fun and laughs over the past few days, and I am sorry it is ending.

This evening, I am going back to Tupac to a Christian bookstore and buying a box of Quechua Bibles with the money that my church has given me for such things. I am looking forward to distributing them, and am also going to buy some little prizes for the memory-verse contest that we are going to try to hold at Moquegache school. Please pray that our attendance at the Mother´s Club meeting tomorrow yeilds something. Also, continue to pray for our health, not that we´ve been doing a whole lot to preserve it ourselves lately. Thank you, Gethsemane, for the money. It will be well used. Tonight, it´s back to Lampa and the daily grind. Like there´s such a thing here in Peru...