Peru baby!

The heat is hot and so am I.

2005-08-07T23:17:00.000-05:00

I just decided to write a new blog instead of editing the other one. Ok, so, now I am at home in sweltering Alabama and am really glad of it. I've been here for almost a week, and I am still noticing little things that are different from Peru. I have decided to compose a list of the things that I noticed the most, in the order that I noticed them.

1. In the United States, people speak English, as opposed to Peru where they speak Spechua.
2. People wear less clothes here, mostly on account of the weather, but not entirely.
3. When you go to a restaurant here, if you run out of drink, they give you more for free.
4. You can actually flush toilet paper in the States. Hard to get back in the habit.
5. Exfoliating is such a luxury.
6. The shower water stays the same temperature the entire time you are in the shower.
7. When you say you are going to be somewhere at 6:00, and you show up at 6:30, the other person will probably be mad.
8. Food is expensive! As is everything else.
9. Gas prices are actually cheaper here in the states. But, of course, Peru hasn't paid for their gas with bodies like we have.
10. Taco Bell is better than rice and potatoes. By far.

Strangely enough, I have a new-found affinity for the color pink. Maybe it's because being girly was next-to-impossible in Lampa and now I just want to wear dresses and pastel colors and flip my hair out. Like Farrah Fawcett in Charlie's Angels. Ok, not so much, but the ever-present ponytail is a thing of the past. And, I know it's hard to believe, but I actually wore eyeshadow to church this morning. Woowee! I'm a girl!

Well, lately I have just been laying around, sleeping late, and enjoying the air-conditioning. I've been shopping a few times because I am absolutely sick of all the clothes that I wore the past two months. They were gross and I am going to donate them to a clothes closet. But in all my shopping, I couldn't help but notice the incredible excess that we all think we need to live. Do I really need three pairs of tennis shoes? Of course not. I don't need a tenth of the stuff I own. I am much more aware now of the huge difference between needs and wants. That may be the hugest difference I noticed between Peru and the United States. In Peru, especially in the campo, people accept the fact that they don't own flashy possessions and they live with what they have. Kids are happy kicking around a beat-up old soccer ball for hours in the street. In the states, kids whine for the newest game system, and when they get it, spend all their free time glued to the TV set blowing up aliens or each other. And I am not saying that Peru is such a better place to live than the states, but priorities are definitely different. This realization hit me as I was carrying all my shopping bags into the house, and I was a little ashamed of myself. It's easy to let yourself believe that if you have the means to buy nice things, why shouldn't you buy them? Sometimes we even think that we deserve all the things we want, and that is a very dangerous idea to have. But now, for me, when I start feeling bigger than myself, I can just think of what I lived on for two months and how I was completely fine. And also, thoughts of that little family with the sick mother, and their humble home, really make me check myself and make sure I don't get greedy.

So, all in all, God is good and so is life. I hope everyone adjusts well as they get back home. Let's all make sure to keep Peru in our thoughts and prayers. And will I ever be back? I certainly hope so. After all, I haven't seen Machu Picchu yet, and I am such a sucker for archaeological ruins. Dork, I know. Adios!

Home Sweet Home

2005-08-03T00:24:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to say that I am safe and sound back home in Alabama. Really tired though. So I am going to edit this blog and write more tomorrow. Congratulations to Wade for getting engaged. How sad that I am too tired to think of anything witty to say. Ok then. Goodnight.

Gringo Infestation

2005-07-25T16:23:00.000-05:00

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

2005-07-18T17:04:00.000-05:00

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

2005-07-13T15:46:00.000-05:00

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!

2005-07-13T14:10:00.000-05:00

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

2005-07-10T15:46:00.000-05:00

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

2005-07-05T15:03:00.000-05:00

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!

2005-07-01T15:50:00.000-05:00

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...

Get thee back, Satan!

2005-06-26T19:58:00.000-05:00

Forgive me Father, for I am dirty. It has been 7 days since my last shower. Ok, that was my weak stab at Catholic humor. But seriously, it has been. My hair will almost hold itself in a ponytail. Taking a shower here is such an ordeal. Our hostel boasts hot showers. Sure you can get a little hot water to come out of the shower head, but as soon as you finish washing one body part and move onto another, that clean part gets cold very quickly. Being clean is just too much trouble. It is much easier to just change clothes every now and then and use a little extra deodorant. The climate here in the Andes is cold and dry, so we never really sweat. Stench isn´t much of a problem, with us gringos anyway. However, I have smelled a few Peruvians who were in dire need of a shower. My father is one whose day isn´t complete without having had at least two showers. Sorry, Dad. I hope I haven´t broken your heart with my uncleanliness. I promise I´ll bathe before I come home.

Yesterday, we biked out to Moquegache to have our first adult Bible study. No one was there when we arrived, but since Peruvian time is different from American time, we weren´t worried. While we waited, we played frisbee, which I am terrible at. Finally some people started congregating near the road and we went over to talk to them. The president of Moquegache was there and he told us that no one was going to come to our Bible study today because they were all in Lampa, or at the Catholic church, or simply they couldn´t come because they were Catholics. Just excuses. It was very discouraging for me because several people had said they would come at the town meeting. But next Saturday is a mother´s club meeting, and if all else fails, we are going to crash that. Surely they will be willing to give us a few minutes. If not, I´m sure we can find a way to take a few.

On colonial point bridge, on out way back to the hostel, Wade tried to give a guy a tract. This sparked a huge discussion between us and him about the merits of Christianity, and what benefits it has in this life. The man told us that Christianity was a European and American religion, and had no benefit to him. He was more concerned about the current plight of his people, and asked us, why would he want to practice a religion of people that had persecuted his ancestors centuries before? It was a valid point. He also went on to criticize America and its foreign policies, especially the current situation in Iraq. I tried to tell him that, yes we were from the United States, but we didn´t agree with everything that our government did. He wouldn´t listen, and so finally we left him with the tract, thanked him for his time, and left. That is the first anti-American sentiment we have run into yet, and it made me very sad. Please pray for this man, and that we will have the oportunity to talk to him again.

Last night, we traveled to Juliaca to meet the Martinez family for dinner at our favorite little pizza place. They brought all the kids with them, as well as my new debit card that had somehow arrived at their house in Huancané by Fed-Ex. So now I have money! Wade treated me and Dave to dinner because he wanted to celebrate his future mother-in-law´s blessings over his and Amy´s marriage. I´m sure if you have checked Wade´s blog, you already know all about Amy. Anyway, it was good to see Rick and Kelly and the kids again. And the pizza was a welcome change from sopa, rice, potatoes, and alpaca meat. When we left, Kelly gave us some bread she had made. It is absolutely the best bread I have ever eaten. It smells like doughnuts too. I went to the ATM and withdrew my own money and finally paid Dave back for all he has lent me the past month. We took a motorcycle-taxi to the Lampa combi stop, and then climbed into the back seat of a 15-passenger combi that would eventually hold 22 people, with 2 others riding on top. Thankfully I was between Wade and Dave, and didn´t have to get all up next to the Peruvian man that Wade said kept trying to hold his hand. I really thought the combi was going to come apart. It kept cracking and popping everytime we hit a bump, but somehow we made it back to Lampa. The trip took 30 minutes longer than it usually does, but in the spirit of adventure, it was fun.

We showed up this morning at the church we attended last week at 9:00, like the pastor had told us. Again, we were the first ones there. The pastor finally came at around 10:00. I guess we must have misunderstood the time. We all waited around for 40 more minutes and finally one other lady appeared. We decided to go ahead and start church, just the five of us, and over the next hour, 4 more people trickled in. The pastor again asked Wade to bring a short message, and this time I got to participate. Wade preached in English, and I translated his words into Castellano. It was very cool, and Wade felt like he got his message across more effectively. He called it tag-team preaching. I hope we will get the chance to do that again. I think the people liked hearing English also. Three languages in one service: English, Spanish, and Quechua. I was in hog heaven.

Wade and Dave are now in the middle of a heated game of Monopolio that has so far lasted 3 hours. Neither one will give up. Wade had to make 1,000 dollar bills from the 1´s because he broke the bank. No telling what he´s up to now. Tomorrow we are leaving for our vacation time in Juliaca and Puno. We are going to get to the hotel early so we can take showers indoors!

Even though we have had a few setbacks these past two days, we can still feel God working with us and our people. I am confident that once we get them to realize that we are going to keep coming back and trying to hold Bible studies with them, they will comply and attend. Rick gave us a few techniques that we could use to get people to come. Hear that, you dirty old devil? You haven´t beaten us yet! Friends, please keep praying for our Bible study in Moquegache, and for all our efforts to bring the Lampans and surrounding people to Christ. Thanks to all for the prayers and thoughts. Chau!

The Gringos Went Over the Mountain

2005-06-24T14:00:00.000-05:00

This internet is really starting to frustrate me. One second it works, and the next it has lost the email that I just spent 20 minutes typing. Sigh. But I must remember that any internet at all in the middle of the Andes Mountains is a blessing. Let me tell you about our week.

Sunday, we attended a new church that we found off the side of the road by chance. We got there at 9:00 and everyone was eating. We just knew that they were going to bring us bowls of food, and sure enough they did. Let me tell you, there´s nothing like rice and potatoes in the morning, eaten in a barn area surrounded by sheep poop. Sorry I always talk about poop, but there´s a lot of it around here. After we finished eating, we went inside their tiny church building. Since we are probably the only gringos to have ever visited their church, we got prime seating, right up front. After singing some songs in Quechua (they gave us a songbook to use), Wade brought a short message and an old preacher translated his Castellano into Quechua. It was a good service and we left feeling like we can really help this church out.

Ok, about the festival, taking up Monday and Tuesday. It was Lampa´s 180th birthday, and apparently everyone in Peru wanted to celebrate it by crowding into our little square and watching the parades of marching bands from the surrounding communities do their thing. The marching style of those not weilding an instrument was slightly Nazi-ish, and a little freaky. Away from the parade, vendors were set up selling everything imaginable, from food to clothing to little nick-nacks that no one has any use for. It was fun, and we ate some good barbeque chicken with potatoes for lunch both days. One night we had alpaca shish-kebobs from dinner. After eating off the street both days, and getting ice cream out of little grubby coolers for dessert, I am surprised we aren´t dead. But I guess God was with our stomachs. We passed out so many tracts these past two days. Almost everyone we handed them to was eager to recieve and read them. In the US, if we passed out that many tracts, we would find half of them on the ground later, but here in Lampa, we only found one. It was great, and Wade got to practice his street preaching.

A few little kids picked us out of the crowd and kept following us around, asking for money. It took all I had not to clock one in the nose, but eventually he went away. Getting stared at constantly started to get old after awhile too. I had the urge to yell, "Yeah, we´re white. So what?" several times, but what would that accomplish? More stares. It is something gringos have to get used to, I guess.

Thursday morning we biked out to Puca Cuesta again and tried to tell the story of the Ten Commandments to a restless bunch of kids, but they got bored quickly and wouldn´t pay attention. So we tried the time-proven remedy of song, and it actually worked. They sang another song of their country for us, and we sang the chorus of "I´m proud to be an American" for them. They clapped for us, but it was an awful rendition on our part.

When we left the school, we went to meet Señor Valeriano to have a Bible study, but he wasn´t home. So me and Dave decided we wanted to climb a mountain. We scanned the range for the highest one we could see and headed that way. Wade really didn´t want to come with us, and even after our persuasions he stopped at the bottom and decided to return to Lampa alone. It was kinda sad, but we knew he would have died on the way up, and we would have had to drag his body back down, so I guess it all worked out for the best. The peak we chose seemed to get farther away the higher we climbed, but finally, after an hour of hard work, we made it. What a view. We saw what we thought might be Lake Titicaca in the distance, but we weren´t sure. Could see for a really long way though. Miles and miles. It was great and coming back down was much easier. It was good to get to talk and I really enjoyed the afternoon. Hopefully we will be able to do it again.

Today is Friday, and when we woke up this morning, Wade informed us that he wasn´t feeling too well, and his stomach was messed up. He really didn´t feel like biking out to Moquegache, so me and Dave decided that we could handle it by ourselves, and headed out. The ride out there was the best so far, and we didn´t stop for any breaks until we were almost to the community. I was kinda nervous about having to teach the class without Wade, but me and Dave taught them a new song and then we did the creation story. The kids were really attentive and even asked when we were coming back after we finished. We walked out of there feeling very good, and we think that Moquegache is our favorite community so far.

Tomorrow we are returning to Moquegache for a Bible study with the adults. We told the kids to tell their parents, and so we hope that people will show up. Please pray that this Bible study will really take off. Also, pray for our Spanish. It is much different speaking to kids than speaking to parents. And pray that Wade is feeling well enough to go with us. I can handle kids, but I don´t know about adults. We need all our forces healthy and ready.

I can´t believe that one month has already passed with us here. Time passes both quickly and slowly in Peru, and you never can tell how a day is going to go. Our Bible studies with Señor Mendez are going well. He always has a lot of difficult questions, testing both our Spanish and our theology. Hard stuff, but we enjoy it.

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.

Cold but Happy

2005-06-18T17:00:00.000-05:00

What a week. My muscles have really been objecting to all the biking that we have been doing lately, but I am going to be hard-body Ginny when I get back to the States, so yay! We have visited several villages this week, and have really established a good connection with one in particular, Moquegache. We taught some songs in the school there last Wednesday, like "Yo Tengo Un Amigo Que Me Ama," a song that I learned while doing Hispanic VBS last summer. It definitely went over better than my bad translation of "Jesus Loves Me". The bike ride out to this village is only 6 km and pretty flat, so it´s not too bad. The scenery is amazing. Everytime I look around, I think, "Wow, I´m in the Andes Mountains, in South America!" It is an incredible feeling, and I finally feel the distance. One of the teachers in Moquegache invited us to come back for the town meeting which was held today. They gave a Catholic prayer before the meeting started, and I thought, well, at least they are religious. We were invited to speak and we proposed a weekly Bible study to be held in the community center every Saturday. We made sure they knew that we were evangelicos and not Catholics. They seemed open to us coming. Now the real test is whether anyone will show up next Saturday to study.

Everyone is getting ready for the great Lampa celebration, to be held on Monday and Tuesday of next week. All the Lampans feel the need to re-paint their houses this weekend in preparation. Their methods of painting are a little different from ours in the US, though. All they need is a bucket of watery pigment and something, such as a bowl or a rag, to splash it onto the walls with. I would imagine that Jackson Pollack would paint his house like this. It is a messy messy technique, and random bits of pink paint wind up everywhere. Yes, all their houses are pink. It is really a funny thing to watch, and they don´t seem to care that their lovely blue and green doors also get covered in pink paint.

Yesterday we biked out to Tusini Gande (all 9 km) to see if we could set up a time to come back to the school next week, but when we got there, we discovered that none of the teachers were there. All the kids were lined up in formation and clutching wooden guns and flags. The director beat his drum to keep time, and we sat there and watched the kids march all over the field, practicing for the parade that we suppose will take place during the celebration. We decided to leave because we didn´t want to disturb their practicing and as we got on our bikes to head back to Lampa, the director yelled "Otro dia!" at us over his shoulder. We hope we will be able to talk to him Monday or Tuesday at the celebration.

As we were almost back into Lampa today, returning from the Moquegache meeting, Wade stopped to talk to a man on a motorcycle, and Dave and I spotted an evangelical church that we had never seen before. We went over to talk to some men who were...can you guess?...painting the building, and they invited us inside where they were also having some sort of community meeting. Wade came over to join us, and was asked to speak a message from the Bible. He preached a very basic gospel message using John 3:16 in Spanish, while another man translated into Quechua. It was so cool, and they were so excited for us to be there. We are going to attend their service at 9:00 tomorrow morning. We really feel like God established a connection there, and we want to focus on helping that church out.

Tonight we are heading to Juliaca in search of big greasy cheeseburgers, and to get some groceries at El Tigre, the supermarket. I have really been craving some barbeque lately. Too bad you can´t ship barbeque to Peru. The charm of the ever-present soup and rice dishes has worn off, and variety, whatever it may be, is always welcome. The restaurant with the mean lady offers a quarter-chicken with fries, but it costs twice what a regular dinner costs. Every now and then, we suck it up and shell out the whole $1.50 for the chicken, but only when we are really tired of sopa.

It is getting colder. Rick and Kelly Martinez let me and Wade borrow sleeping bags, and that has really helped us at night, but the temperature is still dropping. If anyone who is coming is July is reading this, let me advise you to pack lots of warm clothes and a sleeping bag. 5 or 6 alpaca blankets piled on top of you just doesn´t cut it. Also, some soft tissues will come in handy when your nose runs and you are tired of rubbing it raw with the cheap one-ply toilet paper they sell around here.

Thanks to everyone who is sending care packages. They will be recieved with much joy and gratitude. Also, thank you for your prayers. Keep praying for our studies with señor Mendez and also for the new ministry we have started in Moquegache. The comments you leave are wonderful. Keep em coming!

Talk about a weak stomach...

2005-06-14T17:12:00.000-05:00

GROSS-OUT ALERT: This post contains some descriptions that may not be suitable for people with weak stomachs or kids with active imaginations. Parental discretion is advised.

What a good weekend we have had. We left Friday morning to journey to Huancané and visit the Martinez family, Rick and Kelly, and their three kids, Elijah, Olivia, and the baby Gabriela. They are a missionaries to the people around their town, and to the Aymara-speaking people who live at the foot of the mountains. So here´s what happened:

We took a taxi to Juliaca and spent a little while there. We shopped and ate pizza for lunch, which was a little different, but still American enough for us. Then we hopped aboard a combi and headed toward Huancané, 45 minutes from Juliaca. When we got there, we asked where the gringos lived and one guy and his daughter finally took us to the Martinez house. Rick was only semi-expecting us because I failed to send him an email saying that we were definitely coming. He and Kelly recieved us warmly, though, and made us feel immediately at home. The guys went with Rick after a little while to their local church for some sort of choir practice while I stayed and took a shower. I cannot even begin to describe the shower. It was hot and actually had pressure and was completely wonderful. The greatest pleasure of my life. And I take back what I said about not having seen any tacos in Peru, because Kelly made tacos for dinner that night. Delicioso! We watched a movie after the kids went to bed. I had some stupid fever that night, which was the beginning of my so-called sickness for the weekend.

Saturday morning we got up and had pancakes for breakfast (Hooray for Americana!) Then we all piled into their truck (literally-Olivia sat on my lap) and headed to the church for their worship service. The church building is really the local community building, used for everything. It is small and dirty and very primitive. The service was mostly in Aymara and since I wasn´t feeling great anyway, I didn´t pay much attention. After the service, we had "dinner on the ground" which consisted of bread, chuño (foot potatoes), and habas, which are like fat lima beans that you peel and eat. I know you are all thinking "foot potatoes?" Well, let me explain...The people here eat so many potatoes that I guess they needed a way to spice things up a bit. So, they take some of their potatoes and mash them up and then set them out to freeze at night. In the morning, they take their shoes off and mash them around with their feet and roll them into balls. Since the potatoes are frozen, sometimes they cut their feet and they bleed on the potatoes, but when they cook them, apparently it´s ok to eat. Since we found out what that stuff was, we haven´t been so gung-ho about trying new things. Anyway, after "lunch" we all piled back into the car and headed toward Puno for a real meal. I got my first glimpse of Lake Titicaca! Oh, wow. I can´t wait to go back there on our R&R weekend. We ate dinner at a very gringo-cized restaurant (I had a burger and fries) and then we headed back to Huancané.

We were supposed to head back to Lampa Sunday morning, but I didn´t really feel like moving much. The fever somehow changed to nausea, and I learned that I could reduce it by staying still and horizontal. I ate almost nothing (no sense in antagonizing my stomach) and tried to sleep the day away. The guys went to the Sunday market and saw all sorts of strange things. They said that there were piles of llama fetuses the people use for some sort of magical purposes. Too bad I missed that. Also, as they were passing out tracts, some man came up to the guys and called them "basura de los Estados Unidos" or trash of the United States. That´s the first anti-Christian thing we´ve heard yet. That night we watched a few more movies and I started to feel better.

By the next morning, I was ok to go, and so Rick and Kelly drove us back to Juliaca. I got my first taste of "Chifa" or Peruvian Chinese food, which was good but I didn´t eat much. We put the leftovers in bags and gave them to a little girl selling toilet paper and to a shoe-shine boy. We walked through Tupac Amaru, the everything market, and I bought a hair-dryer. Yay for modern conveniences! We looked in some DVD stores, and they don´t make any effort to hide the pornography for sale. It is disgusting and sad, and I wonder if they just don´t care that it´s in plain view of little kids. After we said goodbye to Rick and Kelly, we headed off to find a taxi for Lampa. We wound up crunched in the back again, but were glad to get back to the hostel. David had bought a box of 50 games and we played a few of them last night before we went to bed, like Bingo (so boring that it was almost funny) and Snakes and Ladders. He also bought a Spanish rip-off of Monopoly called "Monopolio." It was definitely not made by Parker Brothers, but is kind of funny as well in it´s lack of quality. We might start that game tonight, after Señor Mendez comes up for his Bible study. We bought him a study Bible in Spanish this weekend and we hope that he uses it to come up with more questions to stump us with.

One last gross-out: At lunch today, at the restaurant with the mean lady, we found what looked very much like turds in our soup. I thought that they might be playing a joke on us or something, but then we decided that it was just more foot potatoes. It just goes to show how much we don´t care anymore. Turd soup would not go over very well in the US, but we ate around them. Dave took a picture and we might post it soon.

For those of you who have already found the picture link, check it again because we´ve changed it and now you can access more pictures. We will keep adding more as we go, so keep checking. Thanks for all your prayers.

The language of the heart...

2005-06-09T14:22:00.000-05:00

We made our second trip to Puca Cuesta today. Señor Mendez bought a new chain for Wade´s bike and, praise God, it held together the entire way. As we putt-putted on our lowely bikes toward the school, we were passed by the teachers on their motorcycles. We have been joking around about buying a motorcycle for two of us to ride and pulling one of the bikes behind for the other person to ride, but don´t worry Dad. It´s just a joke. Anyway, when we got to the school, the teachers put their classes together so we would have a full hour, instead of 30 minutes for each class. We were only prepared for 30 minutes, and so when the creation story was over, we had to wing it for another half-hour. We decided to teach the kids "Jesus Loves Me" in Spanish. I had to translate the main part of the song myself, because I only remember the chorus in Spanish. Needless to say, it didn´t rhyme and the timing and beat was all off, but the kids enjoyed it. We even taught them the sign language for the chorus. They made us sing it 5 times so they would remember the melody. Also, all the kids wrote the words down in their notebooks. It was cool. After the hour was up, we said chau to the kids and went flying down the hill on our bikes to the community center where we met the Moms´ club. We passed out gospels of John in Spanish and tried to tell the story of the Samaritan woman, but mine and Wade´s Spanish finally failed us. Between the two of us, I hope the women got the gist of it, but even if they didn´t understand completely, I think we made it understood why we were there. Although our Spanish wasn´t up to par today, we used the language of the heart (as Wade likes to call it) to connect with the women. Señor Valderiano, the former president of Puca Cuesta, was there because his wife is the president of the Moms´ club. He told us that the women learn best visually, and asked us to bring a video for them to watch. I have no idea how he plans to run power to a TV out in the middle of nowhere, but if he can get it done, we can do our part too. We think that there is a Christian bookstore in Juliaca that may sell videos, and so we´ll check it out tomorrow. We may need your help. Can someone send us a copy of the Jesus video or some other video like that in Spanish if we don´t find anything? If possible, it would be good to have a copy that the community could keep and use again later on if they wanted. Let me know if you can help. Another "Praise God!": Señor Mendez has been coming up to our little apartment almost every night to do a Bible study. He is very excited about learning, and this makes us excited too. Please keep praying for our efforts to have an impact. Muchas gracias y hasta luego!

Uphill Both Ways

2005-06-06T20:51:00.000-05:00

Total body exhaustion. It has been a while since I have felt that feeling. Today we pedaled out to Puca Cuesta to do a little visiting and see if we could help out in the school there. There are only 5 kilometers between Lampa and Puca Cuesta, but I swear that it was uphill both ways. When we got to the school, the teacher wanted us to come in and teach a little English to her kids. First, they sang their national anthem for us in Quechua, which was a scene right out of GlobeTrekker (for those unfamiliar, that is my favorite travel show). Then we sang our national anthem for them, a little off-key, but I betcha they didn’t notice. It was culture exchange right before our eyes. Very cool. After the singing, we taught the English alphabet to the kids, and it was funny to hear them trying to pronounce the G, J, and Z, because they don’t really have equivalent sounds in either Quechua or Spanish. We had our turn though, as we tried to pronounce the Quechua alphabet. Not too easy. The whole teaching thing was a lot of fun, and I really hope we get to that a lot more. After we taught the other class of littler kids too, we said “chau” and “hasta luego” and then headed back toward Lampa. We must have been feeling a little too pleased with ourselves, because 3 kilometers down the road, Wades chain broke again. Oh boy, I wish I could post the pictures of what resulted from a desperate situation and a little improvisation. Dave and Wade put their belts together and tied one end to the back of Daves bike while Wade held onto the other end. Dave pulled Wade behind him for a good km, until the road decided to go uphill again. When we finally made it back to our hostel, we could barely walk up the stairs. That sounds kinda wimpy on my part, since I did none of the pulling or hanging-on, but believe me; the road was against us today. I think Dave might still be sleeping it off. Oh yeah, we had our first gringo sighting today. A whole group of them came in last night and were very loud in the room underneath mine, so I had a little trouble falling asleep, partly on account of the excitement of hearing English, and partly because I was irritated that they wouldn’t shut up. Also, there was a drunken fight in the street outside my window, and I couldn’t help but watch. Who could sleep with all that going on? This morning we got to talk to one of the gringos, a guy from Ireland. It was great. Yay for the Irish! Ok, time to go eat another 60 cent dinner. Adios!

I´m a missionary!

2005-06-04T12:09:00.000-05:00

Today was our hardest day so far. We got up this morning and headed out to Tusini Grande on our bikes. We definitely didn´t realize how far away it was, but as the kilometer markers kept passing, we began to realize what we were in for. All together, one way from Lampa to Tusini Grande is 9 kilometers, or over 5 miles. At around 6 km away from Lampa, Wade´s chain broke on his bicycle again. As we were trying to walk it on into Tusini Grande, a man stopped to try to help us and rigged the chain using my camera strap. Unfortunately, about 50 feet down the road, it came undone and so Wade had to walk it the rest of the way. When we got to the village, we told the teachers of the school what had happened, and also that we wanted to tell a Bible story to the kids if they would allow us to. One teacher called all his kids in and let me and Wade have at it, while they tried to fix Wade´s bike. David stayed outside with the other kids and played soccer and basketball with them. I read the creation story in Spanish to the kids in the classroom, and Wade talked to them about the story and asked them questions. The kids laughed at us a lot, especially when Wade tried to pronounce all their names. I think it went well though, for our first time, and in the middle of the story I was thinking, ´Wow, we are doing what we came here to do. We are being missonaries.´ It was a crazy but very cool feeling. when the story was over, we taught the kids a few words in English (hello and goodbye) and then went outside to play. All the other kids were crowded around David, laughing as he read from his Spanish phrasebook. Then the boys started playing soccer and I went to play volleyball with the girls. After being out of shape and pedaling 9 kilometers and having less oxygen to breathe because of the altitude, I was a little worse then usual. Those little Peruvian girls sure can play though. I mean, 7-10 year olds kicking my butt. It was sad. After Wade´s bike was fixed, we said goodbye and promised to return. On the way back to Lampa, we stopped for lunch (crackers and water), and then with only 3 km left toward Lampa, Wade´s chain broke again, and so we ended up walking our bikes back into town. We were exhausted when we finally got back to the hostel. I collapsed into bed, raising a big poof of dust from my jeans as I did so, and took a good nap. I got up a little while later and took my 2nd shower in Lampa. After dinner we came back to the hostel to chill out and reflect on today. David and Wade played a little on the guitar, and I learned two chords: D and G. I figure I can learn to play at least a little in two months.
To anwer some previous questions: I haven´t seen a taco yet, and Quechua is the language of the ancient Incas, still spoken widely around here.

Chicken feet and other wonders

2005-06-02T18:44:00.000-05:00

Today was our day on the town. Woowee, and craziness ensued. We got up this morning, ate a cup of oatmeal (good ole Quaker Oats), and set out in search of a taxi that would take us to Juliaca. There is a saying here in Peru: How many people can you fit into a taxi? The answer? One more! We wound up three of nine people squeezed into a five passenger car. It was actually kinda fun. On the road to Juliaca, the driver had to steer off the road several times to avoid hitting the gigantic rocks and shards of broken glass remaining from the Paro several days earlier. The Paro was a protest on the price of gas, and people blocked off the roads the best ways they could to keep people from driving. So, anyway, we got to Juliaca ok, and paid the driver our fare of less than 50 cents apiece. He let us off in the food-market part of town, and just cause we were curious, we walked through the Mercado Central, an indoor bazaar (or bizarre) full of every kind of food that a Peruvian could want. We three gringos, however, did all we could to keep from holding our noses. We saw all kinds of animal parts laid out everywhere that I had no idea people even ate, like piles of chicken feet, pig heads with hollow eyes (creepy), and oh my, the fish. It was a good three hours later till we were ready for lunch. After emerging gasping into the sunshine at the other end of the market, we headed off to change money at the bank and go the the clothing market to buy warmer clothes. Things are so stinkin cheap around here. I got everything I needed for a very good price. Its funny how the Peruvian women talk to us when they are trying to get us to buy something. They take an almost whining tone, like...Señoreeeeeta, es muy baraaaaato...which means: Miss, its very cheap. It is a little annoying sometimes, but most of them think since we are Americans, we are rich. Compared to them, we are, money-wise anyway, and so I dont let it bother me that much. Well, after we finished shopping (Dave bought a guitar!), we ate lunch at a really nice restaurant and had steak. It was great. Then we found a taxi heading back to Lampa, and we squeezed in the back. It was cramped but we got some funny pictures out of it. Tonight we are going to chill out and play some music, Dave on the guitar, me on my harmonica, and Wade with his shaker. Tomorrow we are heading out to visit Tusini Grande, our first village visit by ourselves! Pray...hard...

A little R&R

2005-05-31T17:36:00.000-05:00

Well, folks, I think that I have finally acclimatized because I didn´t wake up this morning with a headache. Praise God! Kevin and Tom left early this morning to head back to the United States, and so now I have my own room in the hostel with a chiffarobe and everything. Señor Mendez even brought us a microwave to use. He is a very nice man and is doing everything he can to make us comfortable. We hope that eventually he will let us hold a Bible study in the hostel. The four communities outside of Lampa that we will be focusing on are called Puca Cuesta (pooka quest-a), Tusini Grande (too-see-nee gran-day), Huayta Central (white-a central), and Huayllani (why-ah-nee). The people are extremely excited about us coming and I am excited too. We have bicycles to use and are going to use them as often as we can to travel to some of the closer villages. We have also established a good relationship with our favorite combi driver, Jorge, and he said he is willing to let us lead a Bible study in his home also. I don´t think that I told ya´ll about the church service that we attended on Sunday morning. It was 3 hours long and partially in Quechua, so it was a real test of our patience. Not sure if we are going to go back there very soon. But after church we went to eat lunch with two of the church elders and talked to them about what we are here for. Today is our designated R&R day, because we feel like we have been going nonstop since we got here. We got to sleep late this morning and have just been hanging around Lampa making friends. It is good to relax, and I think we are all feeling a lot better now. Please pray that my language understanding skills will improve as that is the hardest part of this for me right now. Thanks for all your offers of help, and we´ll let you know if we need anything.

In Lampa

2005-05-30T17:52:00.000-05:00

Here I find myself in Lampa, a little town 30 minutes outside Juliaca, Peru. This is where I am going to stay for the rest of my time here in Peru. My team is staying in a hostel that is only costing us 12 dollars per week. It isnt the swankiest place Ive ever stayed, but it is livible. We have visited four small communities outside of Lampa so far, and we are going to be concentrating on those places, returning in the coming weeks to visit the schools to tell Bible stories and teach conversational English. We are also going to lead some Bible studies in homes of several prominent adults in the communities. I am very excited about this and think we can make a big impact. Today, when we visited Huyca Central, our combi (bus) broke down and so we had to wait for an hour while the driver went back to town on a borrowed motercycle and got a new battery. While we were waiting, we climbed up the side of one mountain over some rocks and the view was incredible from there. It was a lot of fun and made my head feel better. I have been waking up in the morning with headaches because of the altitude (12,000 feet!) but I am really ok. Lampa is nice and all the people are very accepting. The kids do sometimes laugh at us though because some of them have never seen a gringo before. It is really cold here right now. Peru is in winter and I have heard that it is only going to get colder as the months pass. Water already freezes at night, and I am not looking forward to any more temperature drops. I am going to have to adopt the local dress in order to keep warm, I guess. I have already invested in alpaca socks and gloves. This Internet is very unreliable and I tried to post a blog Saturday but just as I pushed submit, Internet Explorer broke down. So I hope this one goes through. Please post comments as often as you can. Thanks.

¡Estoy aquí!

2005-05-27T19:48:00.000-05:00

After what seemed like the longest flight in the history of mankind, we finally arrived in Lima at 11:00 pm last night. For some reason, our bags made it to the plane that we missed, and so they were waiting for us in storage in Lima when we got to the airport, having arrived the day before. Weird. Mike Weaver and Wade Arthur picked us up from the airport, and took us to the hostel where we are staying till tomorrow. It was ok. I kinda got stuck in a cot in the corner of a closet-tpye room because we arrived so late, but I got moved to a real room today, so all is well. I am not exactly roughing it yet. Today, during lunch break, Wade, David, and I walked around downtown Lima and ate lunch at a little chicken place that was cheap and good. We are practicing our Spanish every chance we get. I found out that our team is going to a town called Lampa, near Lake Titicaca, with five small villages surrounding the town, and we are going to spend the summer traveling through these five villages and trying to start small-group Bible studies. We are also going to help teach new Christians how to lead other people to God. It is a huge responsibility, and we have no supervisor or anything like that. We also have no translater. Wade and I are it. David has next to no Spanish, but he is picking up words and phrases pretty quickly. Tonight we are going to the Weavers house to have dinner, and then tomorrow morning, we are flying to Juliaca, which is about a 30 minute bus ride from Lampa.
I am going to try to put some pictures on here, if I can figure it out. I brought a USB cable for my digital camera, but I am not sure if that will be enough. I will try my best though. I am loving Peru so far, and I am sure I have many crazy adventures during my two months here. Stay tuned...

Houston, we have a problem.

2005-05-25T21:14:00.000-05:00

Here I am, sitting in a little computer lab in the Clarion Inn in Houston, Texas. David (my flight buddy) and I missed our connecting flight to Lima because one stubborn man tried to force his oversized carry-on into the overhead compartment of our first plane, broke it (the compartment, not the plane), and thus delayed our flight for an hour and a half. There happens to be only one flight to Lima from Houston per day, and so we have to wait until tomorrow to try again. Continental was very nice and put us up for the night and gave us meal vouchers and such, but here we are with nothing to do for 24 hours. Sigh. This is the second time something like this has happened to me, but it's only the third time I have flown. Ha. Welcome to the world, baby girl.

2005-05-22T01:07:00.000-05:00

Here I am. Yay!

Post Numero Uno

2005-05-19T21:30:00.000-05:00

Only six more days till I ship myself off to South America. This is my first blog. Blog, blog, blog. Ha ha! Good word. Anyway, I hope this works and if all goes as planned, my next post will be from Peru. You guys can leave me some messages on here too, I think. Chau!