Comas, Lima

After returning from Chincha, the GO group had a day in Lima to do some sightseeing/shopping. Well, the night we got back, we went out to eat and someone stole Randall's wife's purse. She had her own passport as well as her son's and all of her credit cards and cash. Randall, then, spent the day of shopping and sightseeing in the police station filing an official report and applying for new passports and travel papers so that they could leave with the rest of the group. The problem is that he and his wife were the spanish speakers. Guess who became tour guide... :) me. It was alot of fun, but i was dead tired after the day. It's easy enough to watch out for yourself, but try watching every person on the street and make sure that no one is following one of the 12 people in your group. Trying to watch our for everyone as well as bargain for their shopping was quite the job.

Luckily, they were able to fly our of Lima and arrived safely in the states. After that group left, i joined up with another GO group ministering in Lima. This time i did some translating for a medical team serving in the outskirts of Lima. Unfortunately, i was only with the group for two days before my flight left on Tuesday night. It was incredible working with them though! I mostly helped by translating in the pharmacy.
One of the things i did in between the two Go groups absolutely blew my mind. I have to share. I went with a lady named Wilma to feed some of the street children in the outskirts of Lima. Not necessarily without homes, but definitely malnourished. I was advised not to carry a camera, but i really wish i would have had some pictures. Each child had to bring a bowl to eat from (although they weren't turned away without one) but i'm not talking a small cereal bowl. These children showed up with mixing bowls and wooden spoons to eat with. That in itself was shocking, but after they dished out the food... I can't even describe it. I saw children two and three years old putting down more spaghetti than i could eat in two meals. I mean, they don't weight more than what? 30lbs. and they were eating a mixing bowl full of spaghetti and potatoes. I don't even know how to describe it other than heartwrenching.

Chincha, Peru

Chincha is located roughly four hours to the south of Lima in an area where they recieve between 0 and 0.7 inches of rain during January, February and March and nothing for the rest of the year. Literally, nothing is green. Regardless of the not-so-attractive landscape, the people are very welcoming and generous.

I spent the week there under the care of Randall Morton, who was leading the GO group. We all stayed with the Guzman family, an incredible family that serves the Lord with everything they've got and more. They have a million outreaches including 5 churches (most pastored by Pastor Gerardo and his children/their spouses. While we were there, we were actually able to help them build the 5th church. Like most buildings in Chincha, it was nothing more than four walls made from bamboo mats and a tarp to keep out the cold. The people were so excited that we even had the elecricity installed! Consisting of two lightbulbs. :)

I spent the morning of my time in Chincha working in one of the two schools (also founded and run by the Guzman family). Pastor Gerardo Guzman has 5 children of his own and three are married. Of those eight, a whole bunch are pastors and the rest work at the school i think. Seriously, they are all involved! I told you that they give their all. So, i helping in some English classes. From preschool (which was so my age group! After teaching 16 of them in Guate last summer, 8 was a breeze!) to 6th grade. Since we were only in each class two times throughout the week, we couldn't really start a new concept and expect the teacher to continue that, so we chose a few things and played alot of games with them... basically forcing them to use English and have fun at the same time. :) They didn't realize how much they were learning, which is the best way.

Break: Have to acknowledge that Espana won the World Cup! We had a great time watchign the game, althoguh Pastor David was not so excited as some people. jajaja.

In the evenings, we jumped into the numerous outreaches. Twice a week, the Guzman family and members of the church go out into surrounding villages where there is no running water, no school, no church, no transportation, and only about 10 houses. In these areas, houses are nothing more than four walls. One of the incredible things was to watch the response. It's easiest to gain access to a village through the children. They are more open to learning songs and listening to stories. Little by little, the adults get curious and oh the coloring sheets! I have to tell you about the coloring sheets. When we went out into the villages to share teh Word, we would often have coloring sheets, balloons, and sometimes a snack for the kids. When we started passing out those coloring sheets, all of the adults approached us and wanted coloring pages too! For them, it's the only way to decorate the insides of their homes, so those coloring sheets are very precious and you see everyone painstakingly coloring their paper so that it can adorn their simple home. Honestly, the sight made me want to cry. I've been culturally shocked before, but never have i seen so closely a community of people, content where they are and quite happy, yet living in such poverty. The wastefullness of the states puts us to shame.

We also had a one-night vacation bible school at each of the churches. I loved learning the songs with the children. And i can't even begin to describe the frienships i made in those little towns. Friends i will never forget, but friends that i might never see again. Although a few have access to internet and i can email, many of the children do not.

I made fast friends with a girl named Leslie. Teh start of our frienship resulted in discovering that we share a birthday. She turned 14 this year on the 14th of July. :) It was absolutely wonderful sharing the day with her. Made it bareable. I didn't tell anyone for the first few days of the trip that my birthday happened to be during our time in Chincha. I almost couldn't stand the thought of those people who have so little giving anythign to me. Accidently let it slip, 1. to Leslie and 2. to Leo, one of Pastor Gerardo's sons and a really good friend. Anyway, during the goodbye service on Wednesday night, they called Leslie and i up to the front and sang to us. There was a cake involved of course and we were each told to chose the piece of cake we wanted. well, that escapade resulted in our faces being shoved into the cake. Sticky icing everywhere and no water to be found in order to wash off. Good times. :)

Hello from Florida!!!!

I'm currently sitting in the Ft. Lauderdale airport. Safe after my travels to Chincha, Peru and then in Comas, Lima. I'll definitley write about each of those as soon as possible, but i will be boarding soon. This is basically just to say that i had a wonderful time (other than the fact that my dictionary was stolen... i guess it could have been worse) and that i'm safe in the states before i head to Guate. Internet access in Guate will be limited, so don't panic if you continue to not hear from me.

The plan is to travel a bit first. No idea where, rita and i plan to just wing it. We'll go to antigua, stay in a hostel maybe adn just jump into a group traveling somewhere. (no worries, it will be guided... probably) Depending on what trip we take, we'll get back to La Senda after five days or so...

:) psyched! Talk to you soon!

Pucha!

Germany lost. :( My team went to semifinals and lost. What a terrible day. Just kidding, but i guess i want Espana in the finals. (Merely because Barcelona is in Spain and not the Netherlands...)

bout time...

I don't have to think about final exams!!!!! Yay! I finished my last final exam on Monday, slept basically all day, woke up, ate some food (for the first time in like 26 hours) and went back to bed. lol, it was beautiful.

So, for the record, i successfully wrote an 11 page paper (13 if you include the bibliography) in 26 hours. That is so a new personal best. I love to procrastinate, but this is def tops. Anyway, i have one paper left to write, but it's only 5 pages and there is basically no research involved. it's basically a book review which should prove quite easy (yay for being an x-English major!).

yesterday, i had promised Danielito a full day of play. So when i woke up at like 10 adn went to have breakfast, i was met by a three year old boy. Raquel! Raquel! Raquel! Quieres jugar?? jajaja, i loved it! So we played for a few hours in between Julianna teaching me how to make pollo con pina as it's like my favorite meal here. Unfortunately Danielito got in trouble for hitting Denisse after lunch, so he had time out upstairs. I watched the soccer game while he was upstairs: Uruguay :( What happened?

(P.s. Can't wait for todays game... 20 minutes countdown! Vamos Alemania!!!!!!)

So, plans for after the semester. I just finalized those plans this morning. I will be leaving on Friday night to join a group through GO International. We will be heading to Chincha, Peru where we will be ministering to kids at a school. :) If that doesn't sound like me, i don't know what does... I'm quite excited to be going. I'm so ready to serve instead of being served all of the time! When i return from Chincha on the 17th, i will meet up with another GO contact in Lima and work with her. From what i know, she has a ministry with street children, but i will be helping more with a medical team that comes on the 17th. Meds... never thought i would be helping in that area, but who knows, maybe i'll go into medicine... (just kidding, i don't think i could prescribe medicine when i'm always the one who is like... no, don't take pills! jaja. although i have to admit, pills are better than shots and i've learned that pills don't exist as much here... they give injections for everything here! how strange. I'm just glad i haven't gotten really sick, i'm not sure how well i could argue with a doctor in Spanish.)

I think that's about all for what i've done. After lunch adn the soccer game, i am going to try to crack down on the one paper that is left. I want to finish it today/tomorrow. Time is ticking and i have so much to do in Peru still. I didn't think the semester would ever end and now i'm panicing cause i haven't done half the things i wanted/needed to. I have to somehow fit all of my stuff into one suitcase. hmmm, should prove interesting, so i'm sure i'll post pics later. :)

AHHHHH

I SO saw a John Deere backhoe today in the streets of Lima. Made my life, basically. jaja. Nothin runs like a deere!!!!! (unless of course it's my mind when i have a 12 page paper to write in 1 day... back to work!)

cena de despedida... y mi cumple

As the ISA program is just about over and the first student was leaving on Thursday, ISA planned a going-away dinner for us. It was quite fun... until the "surprise". Cake for my birthday which obviously meant singing and all that jazz. I was not thrilled. I was slightly miffed at the ISA staff who claim to "know me really well" yet throw me a surprise party. Either they don't know me at all, or they don't really care and just do what they want.

It wasn't terrible and after everyone stopped watching me like a hawk, i did actually enjoy myself. It's only the second time in my life when three guys have sung happy birthday to me (the first being a group of counselors at Mantowagan during the mail call) and not just English but Spanish too. :) And this will be the second year in a row where i have been in a different country on my birthday. We'll see how long i can keep it up!

P.S. on Saturday i will finalize plans for after the semester (hopefully), but with a paper and exam Monday morning... i'll let you know Monday after a nap. :) Till then....