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.