Chao a mi Peru... (para ahora)

I am currently in Lima, finishing up my summer in Peru. Although my time in Trujillo flew by, I know that what God taught me while I was there has changed me in ways I probably have not even realized yet. My last week in Trujillo was restful and gave me a chance to say goodbye to the people that had become important in my life over the summer. I am thankful for my time in Trujillo and I trust that God used me for his purposes, despite my weaknesses and failures. I will be in Lima until Wednesday morning spending some time with my very good friend Sydney and catching up on some much needed r&r. I am excited about getting a chance to process all that God has taught me this summer. I will continue my updates until I return back to the States.

One afternoon I went to the oldest cemetary in Trujillo and took pictures of the flowers and architecture there. These are some pictures from that afternoon.
I love daisies and so does my mom. They are such friendly flowers.

This is a picture of me, Sydney, Michelle, and the new interns: (L to R) Katie Gaylor (who is crazy and hilarious), Amanda (sweet girl), and Heather ( a very good friend from back home whom I already miss).
This is a picture of the gang at Roky's my last night in Trujillo. :( It was fun.

Last weeks in trujillo

During my last week in Trujillo, I was finished teaching my classes so I had a chance to relax and get some good fellowship time before I left for Lima last night. This is a picture of some of the flowers I saw at the market during one of my days off.
These are the flowers I selected for my room. They smelled soo goooood. I put them beside my bed and could smell them as soon as I woke up every morning.
This is my friend Heather Campbell. She just graduated from Covenant and will be in Trujillo teaching at SALI for the next year. We went out with Sydney and some of our favorite Peruvians for one last despedida. Heather ordered a piece of lemon pie and this is what she got---una montana de limon! This was by far the tallest piece of pie I have ever seen in my life.
This is Ludwig and Oscar. Ludwig is super sweet and sooooo much fun. They are both fun friends and I am thankful I got to spend time with them during my time in Trujillo. I will miss them.

This is right before we were supposed to sing. Michelle was a little surprised.
Here is a picture of one of the bands performing. They were really good and made the night a little more lively.
More pictures of the band performing.

This past Thursday night we had a Coffee House Night at SALI. The idea was to present to Peruvians a picture of what an American coffee house looks like/feels like/sounds like. So we had a planning committee (me and about 6 other interns) who were put in charge of publicity, food and drinks, and set-up. To make SALI feel like a coffee house, the decorators (Becca and Michelle) put up Christmas lights and set up lamps around SALI so we could turn off the lights. Joshua got some different musicians to perform (including all of the SALI teachers--we sang Holy, Holy, Holy and Be Thou My Vision). Matt played his guitar and some Peruvians performed some Peruvian music. For food, me and Sydney made several different "coffee-houseish" desserts. We made blonde-brownies, banana cake w/ cream cheese frosting, sugar cookies with icing and strawberries on top, chocolate chip peanut butter cookies, and Rosita made some popcorn for the Peruvians who were suspicious of our desserts. We had free coffee/tea/hot chocolate for everyone. We made back about half of the costs of the event so we were glad that the bake sale could help with the cost. The night was a lot of fun and we had a ton of people (150) come. Everyone seemed to enjoy the atmosphere and the food and drinks. These kind of events are always good because it gives all of the teachers a chance to have some conversations with their students outside of the classroom, which helps build our friendships with them. Seeing our students outside of the class and being excited to see them really shows our students that we care about them as people, not just as students. I enjoyed the Coffee House Night and SALI is going to make it a regular event on the SALI schedule.

This is Rosita making the hot chocolate for the Coffee House Night. It was really good. She used chocolate bars and sweetened-condensed milk.
This is the icing we made. It seemed like almost everything we made didn't turn out the first time. The brownies we made burnt the first time. This icing was basically like chocolate water. We spent a total of 2 full days baking for Coffee Night because we were expecting 120 people. Baking in Peru is definitely a lot more difficult than baking in the States b/c the ovens dont have temperatures but just a 1, a 2, and a 3. Also, the ovens here are all gas ovens and halfway through the day on Thursday, we ran out of gas so we had to call the gas man to come give us a refill. So... as you can see... baking in Peru is a little different than baking in the States. :)
This is a picture of the brownies that we burnt.
This is a picture of our bake sale. We earned almost $35! We covered a good bit of the cost for the coffee house night through our bake sales.
We had a very, very good turn out. There were over 120 people that showed up for the festitivities at SALI that night.

Preparation for the Coffee House Night at SALI

(1)This is Becca and Sydney stuffing bags with popcorn.
(2) Me, hiding behind a massive stack of cookies.



(3) These are some of my students that came to the Coffee House night. I practiced some conversational English with them and it was fun to interact with them outside of the classroom. (left to right: Iris, Joselyn, Me, Cesar)

Coffee House Night at SALI

This is me and Sydney right after we finished baking all of the goodies for SALI Coffee House Night.

Everyone, check out my new pet, juan pablo carlos. You can feed him if you want. Enjoy.

adopt your own virtual pet!

Fun Facts ...

So I have some fun little tid bits of info that I thought some of you would enjoy

(1) A dog lives on top of our roof at home: Here in Peru, most of the people dont have yards so a lot of the dogs live on the roof. At our house there is a tiny little white dog that lives on our roof (actually it is about 20 feet of space b/c the house is open and so the roof is divided into several parts). However, I have the pleasure of having the room right below the dog. So ... as a result of this, I get to go to sleep to the sound of little toe nails clicking above me as our little dog walks around on top of the roof. I have also heard several dog/cat fights late at night and that has definitely been pretty fun.

(2) To make transportation cheaper, Peru has collectivos. A collectivo is a taxi that 7 different people ride in together but only have to pay one sol (which is about 30 cents). So every Tuesday and Thursday I take a collectivo out to Arevelo to work with the children b/c it is about a 20 minute ride. Everyday I have no idea who is going to get into the collectivo so it is kind of an adventure to see who is going to pile into the collectivo next to me. It is pretty packed b/c Peruvians try to get 7 people into a regular size car so it is kind of weird getting squished up against some stranger but you learn to get use it.

More Later..

I feel like I need to tell everyone a little bit about my friend Sydney. You know those people you just instantly click with? Sydney is definitely one of those people I just click with. She has been a huge blessing to me and I am so thankful that she is here while I am here. I love talking to her and hearing about what she is learning. God has used her to encourage me and to make me feel at home here in Peru. I can't even remember how we became so close but after my first week here, we were instantly close friends.

Sydney's brief bio: Sydney is a rising junior at Texas A&M. She took a year off between her sophomore and junior year to live in Peru for a year. She is studying History (like me) and wants to teach high school history and be a volleyball coach. She is very good at volleyball and has a wonderful laugh. Te Amo, Sydney!

Teacher Appreciation Day is today!!!

Today is Teacher Appreciation Day in Peru and my Basic 6 students bought a caramel cake for me (along with some popcorn :)) They are a fun class and I am glad that I am their teacher. Left to Right? Migel, Connie, Guillermo, me, Gabriela.
This is a picture of the whole class. Gorge (the guy with his eyes closed) was gone when we took the first picture.

A little taste of home...

So I was little sad that I was missing July 4th festivities back in the States but I had decided to just suck it up and be ok with it. My friends Sydney and Becca (two of the other lovely interns here) and I were invited to go out to eat with two other Peruvians (Oscar and Ludwig who are super nice and super fun) to go eat pizza. So we went to New York Pizza for a quick bite to eat. Much to our surprise, we arrived to the pizza restaurant and there were red, white and blue balloons hanging from the ceiling with streamers. When we walked in, the owner of the restaurant said to me and my friends, "Happy Holiday to you!" When we got our pizza, our plates had red, white, and blue stars on them! I know that these decorations might seem like a minor detail, however, it definitely made me feel like I wasn't so far from home. I am so glad that we went to that restaurant and got to celebrate our holiday here. It was kind of neat b/c I was feeling a little home sick but I just feel like God really provided some good encouragement through those decorations. Praise God for his constant provision.

This is a picture that one of my students at Arevelo made me. I am the girl in the middle. This picture's purpose is twofold: to celebrate America's Independence Day and to celebrate Teacher Appreciation Day in Peru (which is tomorrow and apparently it is kind of a big deal). Some of my students told me that I had to leave the class for a couple of minutes today and on my way out I heard two words that normally mean good things: sorpresa (which means surprise) and chocolate. We shall see how things turn out tomorrow. My favorite part is that I have BLONDE hair.
This is the Orbegoso family wishing my mom a happy birthday b/c her birthday was on Saturday (when I went to eat lunch with them). Cheers! Feliz Cumplenos, Mommie. I got you a really cool present yesterday!
This is a close up of the ceviche that I ate. Looks appetizing, doesn't it?

This is Gabriela's mom. She was super fun and sweet. I enjoyed being in their home.
This past weekend I went to one of my student's house b/c she wanted to make me my favorite Peruvian dish (lamo saltado) and some ceviche. It was a lot of fun and not I can come back to the States and make it for my family and friends. Check out that sweeeeettt apron!
This is a picture of the ceviche. Ceviche is made using lots of different types of seafood--octupus, shrimp, fish, and some other things I had never seen before. Instead of cooking the seafood, you leave it in about 2 cups of lime juice for about 2 hours and the acid in the lime juice cooks the seafood for you. Ceviche is served with canche (corn) and sweet potatoes. There are onions and pimiento in the ceviche to give it some extra flavor. Ceviche isn't my favorite but it was fun to make and taste. Ceviche is one of the most famous dishes in Trujillo. Anyone who comes to here has to try it.

This is Joselyn, (left) and her mom, and Elizabeth, my conversation partner and good friend. This was taken at the pollata. A pollata is the equivalent of a church picnic. Our church had one today to raise money for a mission trip the youth group is taking. The food is cooked throughout the day so you have to wait in line for a good hour to get your food.
The boys played soccer while all of the women were cooking.
This is a picture of Joselyn, me, and Eliabeth waiting for our plate o' food.

This is matt, stealing some chocolate chips. Chocolate chips are hard to come by in Peru. We have one big bag for all the interns for the interns to share but it has to last us a long time so we always try and make people feel bad when they eat them.
Fanny packs are totally in! Peruvian men sport them all the time. Matt and I reminisced from our childhood (the early 90s) when fannies were in style in the States and New Kids on the Block had the #1 cassette.

This is a picture of me and my roomie, Michelle. She is a good roomie. We don't get to see each other much b/c our schedules are completely opposite of each other. However, what little bit of time we have spent together has been really good.
This is a picture of the political science department from the university protesting. The man in the suit is directing the protest, telling professors to walk slower or faster. hehehe.

This is a picture of Gabriela, Olgie, and me on the steps in SALI. They are two of my favorite students. Gabriela and I decided that we are twins today. She wants to be a lawyer and we both think that Torta Alemana is the best kind of cake in Peru. Lomo soltado is also our favorite Peruvian dish.
This a picture of the professors protesting for higher wages. They have been on strike for a couple of weeks now. Here, the professors go on strike pretty frequently. However, they never get more money. Classes are canceled and students just go on vacation until the professors decide to return. The Peruvian government can't really force them to go back to work so many students just get behind in their school schedule. The protest was kind of funny because all of the professors were divided up into their different departments. It was a lot more organized than I had ever pictured a public protest.

Some good noticias...

So, I went to Oviedo, a nearby coffee shop, with my students today. I definitely got to share a little bit about my faith when one of my students asked why I was in Peru. I told them that I came to Peru to share the good news of the gospel with Peruvians and they asked what I meant by that. I explained a little bit about why I am here but I definitely couldn't answer their questions about the difference between Presbyterians and Catholics. I know how Presbyterians are different than Catholics but I couldn't explain it very well in Spanish. Two of my students told me that they really wanted to convert but weren't totally sure about it yet. Since I felt pretty inadequate to answer their questions, I told them that there are Peruvian pastors at SALI that they can meet with and they are going to meet with them probably some time next week.

In the mean time, one of the students, Gabriela, invited me to her house for lunch. She is going to teach me how to make her (and my) favorite Peruvian dish---lamo saltado. It has meat, rice, french fries, peppers, and onions in it. It is all mixed together and it is very good. Although the June cycle of classes is over, I will have Gabriela again in July in my Basic 7 class. I am excited that I get to continue to build my friendship with her. So please be praying for Gabriela. She seemed the most enthusiastic about Christianity.

The other student that was very interested in Christianity was Olgie. Olgie is super sweet and although she is traveling to the States next month, we are going to have dinner next week sometime and talk a little bit more about Christianity. She speaks a good bit more English than Gabriela so I might be able to explain things better. She is also going to meet with a pastor (hopefully before she goes to the States). Overall, today was very encouraging. I feel like God has given me a connection with Gabriela and Olgie. I am really overwhelmed that these students are interested in my life and actually want to spend time with me. I am thankful for these opportunities and actually really feel like I am supposed to be here for the first time all summer. Before now, I knew I was supposed to be here but I couldn't understand why yet. Now, I can clearly see that God does have me here for a reason. I don't know exactly what that reason is yet but I know that he is definitely working. I also know that his timing is perfect and his plan for me will be revealed exactly when it is supposed to be revealed. Please continue to pray for these students and that the Holy Spirit would be present and evident in my life and my interaction with every Peruvian (and American) I come into contact with.

Please Pray!

Today in class, one of my students asked me if I was a Christian and this question started a series of other questions concerning Christianity. Two of my students said that they have been interested in Christianity but didn't know how to convert and wanted to find out how to do so. Tomorrow is the last day of the June cycle of classes so we had already planned on going to coffee tomorrow after class. I told them that we would discuss their questions tomorrow when we have coffee and they looked very excited. I am so thankful that the one student asked me about my faith and I know that it was definitely an opportunity from the Lord. Please pray that somehow, when I meet with my students tomorrow, I can communicate with them clearly and that God would break through the language barrier b/c I definitely am not fluent in Spanish. I am thankful for an opportunity to share with my students about why I am in Peru and I just pray that God would use this opportunity to further his kingfom, if it be his will. I know that without his Holy Spirit, I can't accomplish anything.

We plan on meeting tomorrow at 10:30 (9:30 Eastern time) so I would appreciate your prayers. My students's names are George, Olgie, Connie, and Gabriela. I will write a post tomorrow and let you know how our time together goes.

This is the postre de platano that me and Sydney made. Que rico! It was really good.
This is the process of us making the banana pudding. It was touch and go for while there, but it all worked out in the end. *Sydney is one of my favorite new people. She makes me laugh really hard and she is a good friend to me. I am thankful that God allowed our paths to cross.
This is some corn bread that I helped Rosita make. I can't wait to make it for my family back in the states.
This is a picture from the ladies meeting last Wednesday. We met in Sydney's house (she lives with the pastor's family). Some of the missionary wives came and it was fun to have them there.
This is Mateo (or Matt). He came with Elizabeth, Anna, and me today on our mini-adventure to Poroto. He is super fun and a good big brother. He makes me smile.

Noticias de Peru

So I have been in Peru for a month now. Time has definitely flown by but I am excited I still have another month here. My schedule has definitely picked up so I am thankful that God is allowing me to get involved with a lot of different ministries going on here in Peru. I will give you an overview of my daily routine to give you an idea of what my life is like here in Peru. I normally get to SALI around 7:00, eat some yogurt and cereal (the milk here is not refrigerated and I can't bring myself to drink/use warm milk), and then I teach from 7:30 until 10:30. I have 2 classes and God is definitely encouraging me through my interaction with my students. At SALI, we have RUF on Friday nights. I wrote a note on the board last week for my classes but none of my students seemed interested at the time. However, at the meeting, at looked over and saw one of my students at the meeting. Her name is Joselyn and I am not sure if she is a Christian or not. She told me that she grew up Catholic but she does not go to chuch anywhere. She also came to a Monday night Bible study the following week. Please be praying that God would be working in her heart. I am excited to see what he has in store for Joselyn. Joselyn also invited one of my other students, Marli, to the meeting. Marli came to the RUF meeting last night and afterwards I went out with both Marli and Joselyn and Anna and Elizabeth (my two Peruvian friends who are strong Christians). Joselyn is going to go to church with me tomorrow and we are going to have lunch together tomorrow. I have no idea what God is doing but I am trusting that he has a plan.

From 10:30 until 1:00, I grade papers and tests and plan for my next day of classes. From 1:00 until 2:00, I have lunch with the other interns. This is always a lot of fun and a good break in the middle of the day. After lunch, I go to one of the churches that our mission sponsors (it is in Arevelo and it is the church that the short term team I came with last year helped). At Arevelo, two other female interns and I do some children's ministry in the afternoon. We have about 6 children that come on a regular basis. We teach them a little bit of English and then play UNO (they LOVE Uno) or color some pictures to help them learn new vocabulary. Most of the kids here don't have anything---and when I say they dont have anything, I mean literally, they dont have one single toy or game or a soccer ball. They normally make up games that dont require any kind of props so I think they are enjoying a chance to color and do something a little different. I am also teaching one Peruvian lady some English. However, it is hard to invest time into these people when I know that I will be leaving them in a month. I know that the new group of interns wont have extra time to go out to Arevelo so pray that God would somehow continue this minstry through someone else, if it be his will. After Arevelo, I come back and go for a run or eat some dinner. After that, I have different things everyday. Two days a week I meet with my conversation partner, Elizabeth, to work on my Spanish. Other nights, I catch up on my e-mails or just go home and relax for a couple of hours since I get up pretty early during the week. Next month, my nights will be spent at Wichenzao teaching English to some older children.

I am thankful for my time here. God is definitely drawing me closer to him and I am finding out how much I need to rely on him. Being in a third-world country, I think it is a lot easier to get aggrivated with things that are out of my control. Here, Peruvians take their time to do everything so I find myself losing my patience. Most Peruvians are at least 20-30 minutes late for every single appointment and it is difficult not to get frustrated. Also being a gringo, I am automatically a target for every Peruvian to take advantage of me financially and this is probably my biggest frustration. For example, taxi drivers will charge me more than they would a Peruvian simply because I am an American. Just today, I took a bus to a town about an hour away with Anna and Elizabeth and the bus driver wanted to charge all the other people on the bus 2.50 while he told me I had to pay 3 soles. Thankfully, Anna and Elizabeth objected to this and he backed down but this is a regular occurence and it is hard to want to minister to a culture that I feel like is just trying to deceive me or take advantage of me. Please pray that God would somehow give me love for the people that I want to love the least.

Other things that I have done during the week include:
(1) Last Saturday, we took our students on a field trip to some ruins here in Trujillo and this gave all the teachers some time with our students outside of class. It was fun to see my some of my students in a different setting and I enjoyed getting to know them better. It also gave me a chance to show them that I want to know them as individuals, not just as my students.
(2) Last Wednesday, I went to a women's Bible study for the church in Larco (the church where most of the interns attend). I was put in charge (w/ Sydney) of providing a postre (or dessert) for the meeting. Sydney and I found a recipe for some banana pudding and threw it together. It was different than the banana pudding in the US b/c we cooked it in the oven. But it was just as good. The meeting was very encouraging b/c it was all in Spanish and I understood almost every word. I was encouraged that God is enabling me to understand more Spanish so that I can be a better communicator while I am down here.
(3) Today I traveled about an hour away with Anna, Elizabeth, and Matt (he is another intern) to Poroto. We took a bus to a little town and walked up several flights of stairs and got to see a beautiful view of the countryside. The pictures are on Matt's camera so I will post them later. We had a lot of fun and had the chance to eat some guavas.

This is the guide telling us about the ruins.
Me and Luz, one of my students.

The guide blowing into a conk shell. The Chan Chan people used to use a conk shell to tell people to come somewhere.
This is me helping Rosita make some pan de maiz (which is corn bread but this cornbread had red peppers and fresh corn in it).

These are 3 of my Basic 5 and Basic 6 students. They came to the field trip at Chan Chan. Their names are Saul, Guillermo, and Christian.
Me and my students.
This is Sarah Story, Caleb (the administrator of SALI and our boss), and Becca Angle. Check out Caleb's sketchy smile.
The Chan Chan ruins. Back in the day, people would put sacrifices in those little holes you see.
More ruins. I can't remember which part this is a picture of. All of the piles of old sand started looking alike by the end of the tour.