Kids Will Be Kids

We were walking down a street that I had never been down before… now that’s no feat since we’ve only been here three weeks and Lima is a city of 9 million people. I’m looking for the amazing pink house that Sarah told me to look for on the way and I don’t see it. The neighborhood is a little more run down than ours, but not by much. It’s a little bit busier too: there are more cars and more people walking. Just as I’m wondering how much longer we’ll be walking, we pass a half open garage door and inside are some women shuffling through what looks like empty soda bottles and other recyclables. Lidia rings the doorbell, we’re here. Bre, Lisa, and I are all trailing behind Lidia and Lucha because we have no idea what to expect. We walk into the courtyard and there is a handful of little boys playing what looked like a Peruvian game of cowboys and Indians: their hands make pretend guns and they shout “pew, pew” as the pretend bullets fly and children duck behind furniture. Then the question is whispered, “do all these kids have AIDS too?”

Last Wednesday some of us went with Lidia and Lucha to a home for women and children with AIDS. There were definitely points where it was hard to wrap my mind around the fact that these women and children were sick. A lot of them just had tons of life in them. These women were such proud mothers and wanted us to know which beautiful child was theirs… some of these women didn’t look any older than I am. Some of the kids were more timid and stuck near their moms in the knitting room and others were in and out dragging in all sorts of toys. There was one little boy who’s mom died of AIDS a couple years ago and now his aunt and grandma take turns living with him at this home because if they don’t he will be taken to an orphanage. This little boy stuck close to his grandma while we were there. His legs were so tiny and his ribcage stuck out, Lidia later told me that he is commonly in and out of the hospital… he couldn’t have been older than six. There are a couple ladies who are pregnant and a couple newborn infants at the home. One of the ladies explained to us that they’re planning to so a c-section, that way there is a chance that her baby won’t contract HIV. After singing, knitting, and doing a devotional, it was time to go. Lidia pulls candy out of her pockets and offers it to the children who were still in the room on our way out the door.

I feel like my head is still spinning a bit from that visit. I have so many questions and I can’t find anyone with the answers. How big is the AIDS problem in Peru? Do all the children there have HIV? What kind of social assistance is in place for these people? How do they pay their medical bills? Do the older kids go to school and will the younger ones go eventually? I kept asking questions and all I got was, “that would be an interesting thing to research.”

Retreat!

The past 48 hours was a youth retreat. Since this is a small church without a youth budget (like so many of the churches that we’re used to at home) the youth retreat was at the church. It was like a big sleep over, girls in one room and boys in the courtyard. Pretty much the only thing that was asked of my team was that we build relationships with the youth. Most of the youth here (and youth is a loose term, ranging from 16 to however old) are pretty leary of taking a major step in their faith. They don’t want to be baptized, they don’t want to join a discipleship class, and they don’t want to be viewed differently than their peers.

We were all a bit skeptical about how much fun this youth retreat was going to be, but it was great. Yesterday Bre and I had a full conversation without using any English. Some of our Spanish was pretty broken but we got our point across. We ate together, sang together, prayed together, and played together the whole two days.

Dancing is a big part of the culture here. Last night some of the girls put on some salsa and were dancing before we started watching a movie. Jano, the pastor, lined us the girls on my team and some girls from the church and we mimicked their dancing. There was a lot of laughter and I’m not always sure if it was at us or with us. One of the girls could really move her hips so I asked her if she would teach me and she did. I apparently caught on decently well because Jano gave me a high five and then Italo did too. I was so embarrassed when I realized that everyone was watching me that I blushed and dashed into the kitchen. Italo told me that I danced like a Peruvian girl, I’ll take that as a compliment. But all through the evening I was told that I could dance well and that I had rhythm, who knew?

Today we spent the day at the beach. We had to leave Lima so we could get to a beach where it was clean enough to swim. I am proud to announce that I am, once again, the least sunburnt of all the girls! But as soon as we were laying our towel down we noticed some people our age that were also speaking English. It feels like it’s been quite a while since I’ve heard an American accent that isn’t on our team. I think they noticed us right away, too. We got to talking and they were from all over the states and studying abroad in Ecuador. It was pretty refreshing to be able to explain who I am and not have to ask “como se dice se?”

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things

I think that it’s time that I explain some of the quirky things about this beautiful country.

Sometimes we run out of water. We only get the amount of water that is in the cistern every day so hopefully you’re not in the shower when the water stops.

There aren’t hot water heaters here. At least not like we think of them… there is a small device that plugs into the wall and attaches to the shower head: it sends an electrical current that heats the water. Don’t touch the shower head or you’ll get shocked.

Our toilet is a bit funny. We’re not allowed to put toilet paper in the toilets and sometimes when you flush it you can hear a gurgle come from the bathtub. But if for any reason the toilet doesn’t flush you have to walk up to the third floor, fill up a bucket of water, walk back down the stairs, and pour the bucket quickly into the toilet to “flush” it. We learned the hard way that you’re supposed to pour the bucket quickly but not turn the bucket completely upside down… that gets water everywhere.

You can’t find a carton of milk if you tried. Milk is always in a bag. Also, yogurt comes in a jug and you drink it.

When you buy eggs at the store or corner market they’re just sitting out on the shelf as if they were any other dried good. You also buy them buy the kilo, if you ask for a dozen eggs you will either be laughed at or not understood.

Seatbelts really aren’t much of an issue. One day the cab driver said we could put four people in the back… it saved us fare for another cab.

Honking your car horn is a necessary part of driving. When someone is driving too slow, if a bus stops in front of you with no notice, if there’s a j-walker, if you just feel like it… lay on the horn!

Instead of having a dog that barks when the doorbell rings, we have parrots who squak. Well Panco is quite boisterous Pepita is a lot quieter. We’re really trying to teach Pancho to say “party on” before we leave.

It’s apparently culturally appropriate for men to whistle at women when they’re walking down the street, no woman ever turns her head to it. We get whistled at a few times whenever we go out. We’ve also heard many variations on the whistle, everything from “my precious”, “you are pretty buy a map”, “oh my goodness…”, and one time a bus even whistled at us, we’re not sure how that worked.

We also kiss numerous people every day. When ever you greet someone to say good bye you place your right cheek against theirs and kiss the air… except some of the older men who kiss you right on the cheek, watch out for them.

Hips Don't Lie?

Last night was a fun adventure. One of our new friends, Alysia, came over to show us some traditional Peruvian dances. She brought cd’s of the music and pictures in her traditional dress. The music was wonderful and the dresses were bright, like it seems everything is in Peru. When she showed us the steps, we watched and tried and laughed as we realized just how white we are. After that Jano, the pastor, and his wife and daughter stared dancing with us. They showed us Salsa and the Merange. I could help but chuckle to myself and think “this would never fly in a Mennonite church in the states!” It was just so funny to be dancing in the church courtyard with the pastor and his family. It’s always so interesting to see the cultural differences of what’s appropriate and what’s not. It was a good time with a lot of laughter but none of us girls quite figured out how to move our hips.

Miscommunication

Today is really where the rubber has met the road… last week everything was simple and now, let the chaos begin! Once a month, the whole church comes together for a Saturday morning breakfast and devotions. It was supposed to be last Saturday but they pushed it back a week so we could be here too. We met everyone and greeted them with the tradition Peruvian cheek to cheek and kiss the air. Then we ate breakfast together. People asked me what my name was and if I spoke Spanish. I replied “me llamo Laura… un poco espanol”. Simple enough.

Where things got a bit trickier was when we split off to have a devotional time with the women. I figured out that we were in Ephesians 6 and thanks to a bilingual bible I followed along while Jackie read but then I got lost. She spoke for a solid amount of time and all I could pick out was a word or two from each sentence. I felt really confused but little did I know that the confusion was only beginning. After that a woman from the church was going to teach everyone how to make jewelry. She explained everything in Spanish so I just watched her movements. I counted out the beads but there weren’t enough to mine got passed to someone else and I had no idea what was happening. No one around me could really help so I just sat there, confused. Otto walked by and commented that there weren’t beads in front of me and I tried to explain that I had no idea what was going on. I eventually finished my bracelet but the lady spoke in incredibly fast Spanish.

It was time for the worship team to practice and Lydia said it would be fine for us to make our lunch then. Somehow there was a miscommunication and we thought that we were supposed to eat then to… but we weren’t. We ate our lunch after we finished cooking it and then people tried to feed us more. We decided that it would be best if we made ourselves scarce while the rest of the church ate so not to be rude. I think it’s about time for me to head outside and be social…

It's really hard not understanding anything that is going on. I’m so glad we start Spanish classes on Monday… I hope I learn quickly.

Touristas!

On Tuesday we got to be Touristas! We took a cab and got downtown. There aren’t any seatbelt laws or rules about how many people can go in one cab. We piled 10 people into 2 cabs and were off. We made it to a city square where the president lives and where there are other government buildings.

We also went to the museum of congress and the inquisition

Then we went to the Catacombs that are under a huge catholic church. Back in the day, people who died in Lime and were Catholic were buried here. They excavated the first level of the catacombs in the 1940’s and 50’s and arranged the boned in neat orders. There are also two more levels of catacombs below but they are afraid to dig them up for fear that the church will collapse.

We also went and saw what used to be the wall that protected the city from pirates

It was a good day and we got to relax, enjoy ourselves, get to know some of the girls that go to the church, and explore a new part of the city. Below is a picture of the whole crew that was with us (minus Otto and Lydia).

Yesterday we walked to the beach. It was a little more than the ten minute walk that we were told about. Some other people from the church came with us and the whole way there people would teach me new vocabulary and then point at thing and I would say it in Spanish. I’m getting to the point that I can make some really simply sentences. I can’t wait to start Spanish classes next week! But here’s some of us at the beach, it’s quite rocky.

It was really neat to think that this is the same Pacific Ocean that I play in at Pismo or Santa Cruz.

After we left the beach we walked to a park to have a picnic lunch. We sat in the shade for a while and then walked until we caught a bus to take us home. All five of us girls are varying shades of red and pink. Surprisingly enough, I’m one of the least burnt! The sun here is quite intense because it’s a tropical sun so I even burned through my SPF 50 sunscreen a bit.

We Made It!

After a 26 hour travel day we have finally made it to our new home for the next three and a half months. We had an extra hour and a half delay in Houston and I think I accidentally left my cell phone in Seattle but other than that, it was an uneventful trip.

We all made it through customs and immigration without being asked a single question. No one asked us why we were here, how long we were staying or what we were planning on doing. That was a huge answer to prayer because some of the girls were a little nervous with the idea of going through customs.

We regrouped after getting a bit separated going through the customs lines and then we saw Otto. Another answer to prayer! We realized in Dallas that we hadn’t sent him our travel itinerary and when we tried to call to tell him we were delayed, the phone wasn’t working. But he was there, he greeted each of us girls in the Peruvian way (right cheek to right cheek and kiss the air) and shook Dave’s hand. We saw Otto’s son and an entire entourage of people. We met and spoke with what little language skills we shared between us. But the first thing some of the people said was, “You know Jesse?” I smiled and said yes and explained that we go to university together.

We fell into bed at about 3am with five girls and five beds in one room. We don’t have much floor space and we’re trying to figure out what to do with our suitcases and clothes but we decided that we’ll deal with it later. Our room is right off the courtyard between the church and the house and directly outside of our window are two large parrots that whistle and say “hola” and “Otto”. In fact we woke up to those parrots this morning. They’re sort of like a “guard dog” in the sense that they go crazy with some screeching noises whenever someone rings the doorbell.

This morning we all got to sleep in, all the way until about 10am… and that was only 7am according to the time our bodies are used to. We took our time getting ready and spent some time up on the roof. The weather here is amazingly beautiful. The sun is shining and there are flowers blooming everywhere. Some of the flowers are just like at home and some are very tropical, it’s wonderful. But we spent some time talking, singing, and praying as a team before we had lunch. Lydia made us a fantastic meal. In Peru, the biggest meal of the day is in the afternoon and not in the evening, I think I’ll like that.

After lunch Otto took us to the market so we could exchange some of our money and we could generally get acquainted with things. We walked for a while and it got a little warm, but what a fantastic feeling to finally be warm again! There is a lot of fruit grown around here so there were things I had never seen before like starfruit and even the things I have seen before were a little different, here the mangos and avocados are almost the size of your head!

This evening we had a meeting with the pastoral staff. We went over everything and hopefully I even picked up a bit of Spanish vocabulary. We were given all the information we should know about living here but we’re still praying for an easy transition. We’ll be cooking three times a week with the pastor’s wife. When we’re cooking with her she will also help us to learn Spanish and common recipes. She is wonderfully sweet and told us that we could call her “mommy” if we wanted to. Everyone here just wants us to feel comfortable so that we can feel at home here.

This week they’re going easy on us. They’re going to show us around the city and next week we’ll start teaching English and learning Spanish and doing everything else that is on the schedule. There’s a chance that we might go to the catacombs tomorrow so that should be really interesting… Sarah told us all about them and all the bones that are in them.

In a little while we might go down to the park and just spend some time there with the guitar and sing. Otto was saying that it is a dream of the church that we may be able to be more of a presence in the neighborhood.

My letter was just pleasantly interrupted by the pastor’s youngest daughter coming to play with me. We ran around and I said “commo se dise?” and she would tell me what things were. We ran around the house with me pointing at thing and her telling me answers. I think that Annie and I will become good friends, she’s been helping me a lot with learning vocabulary. Well it’s getting late and I’m going to investigate what’s going on down in the court yard before I head off to sleep.

Celebrate!

Yesterday one of the girls on my team, Breanne, was baptized! It was wonderful that we, as a trek community, were able to come around her and celebrate with her. Her sister as well as a member of the Trek staff baptized her in the hot tub, here at the mark Centre. Joanna, one of Breanne’s roommates here, led us in some songs and John gave a mini sermon. After she was baptized we all went into the Great Room and had the opportunity to pray over Breanne and just read scripture over her. Such a blessing! What a way to start our trek assignment.