Photos of Peru

A few weeks ago Peru Mission had  a team visit from Savannah, GA and were blessed to have Nate Henderson photograph some amazing pics of everyday life in Trujillo.  Take a look at where we will be living and working!

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Beach Weekend

Not exactly the same as checking into a hotel in Destin.....

This past weekend we decided to join our friends Steve and Dianne for a getaway to a nearby beach town.  They were celebrating their anniversary, but ended up having our family and five other fellow students join them!  Altogether this was a different sort of beach trip!  We rode a bus (my first time to ride one for travel other than for a school or church trip) for about 2 1/2 hours to get to the beach town...hmmm...village is a better word!  And we were looking for landmarks for the homes we would be staying in, and we found them we quickly had to yell "baja" to get off.  So we all pile off the bus, grab our luggage, and look at each other with thoughts of "now what"? as the bus drives away!  We thankfully choose the correct dirt road to walk up to arrive to our homes for the weekend, but tried to laugh about our long walk on a dirt road with lots of backpacks and bags.  

 

Our house on the "campground".... we did have a great view of the Pacific ocean from our porch!

Our friends enjoying spaghetti prepared by Dianne!  

Possibly the BEST part of the trip... chocolate roasted bananas!!  Our German friends taught us this... you split a banana down the center and slide in small pieces of chocolate.  Then you roast the bananas over hot coals.  The German version of campground food.  Yummy!  Hint:  Best to eat with a spoon!  

Laura and Lisa preparing the bananas.

Although by far this was not the most luxurious trip we've ever had, it was a great break for the kids!  There was a large farm around the Norwegian mission campground where we stayed, and the kids were free to roam around and play and scream, without worrying about getting run over in the city streets or bothering our nearby neighbors in our apartment.

Sam thought it was a little cold... he's running back to shore!  The water was FREEZING!! 

The boys helped Mr. Steve build a castle.

Sarah Caroline enjoying the sand at night

It was COLD... actually much cooler than in Arequipa.  We are at 8000 feet above sea level in Arequipa, so we had the idea that being at the beach would be warmer.  But we didn't do our research well before we went - it is only warm at the beach for three months- in December, January, and February.  So, lesson learned!  We did have about 4-5 hours of sun on Saturday, which we loved!

We also toured the lagoons of Mejia, by walking about 5km.  We saw lots of birds, but the most interesting were Chilean flamingos!

The best part was the fellowship with our new friends, getting to know about other cultures, and having worship together.  Sam liked it - tonight he started crying because he wanted to go back to our house at the beach!

Poco a Poco...

We continue to study Spanish, "poco a poco" (little by little), or maybe it's a lot??  We are covering 6 months of curriculum in 3 months, so it's pretty fast, I suppose!  It is fun learning a new language, but not necessarily an easy task alongside caring for four children!  I'm not sure that I am absorbing all of the Spanish that I hear and learn every day, but I am hoping that one day it's going to all come out a little easier!  It's in my head somewhere!  But we are progressing....  And we have only four more weeks of school until we move to Trujillo!!

The kids are learning too!  Today I heard each of them speaking Spanish phrases without realizing they were doing it.  Some things are becoming more natural for us all.   Some of the children have had some homesickness, and we've all had our share of culture shock and adjustment.  There are days it seems normal to live here, and others my spirit is rebelling against all of the changes.  I struggle with feeling like we have so little, living so basic, but then am so thankful for what we have!  We see so a lot of poverty here, even in our little bubble of going to school and not ministering directly to others right now. We pass by homeless men every day, one who cleans his feet in the running water in an open water line under the sidewalk.  I think he may have some open sores he is trying to care for.  Others have enough to get by, but every day they wonder how they'll make ends meet.   Not in the way we all worry in the US - can I buy a new car, or a tv, or some new clothes, but truly - can I eat today?

We will have a lot of thoughts to process while we serve here in Peru... thankfully God led us here to serve, but we are also learning so much ourselves!!

Fiesta De Primavera! and Fiesta De Familia!

We have been busy celebrating the many "fiestas" here!  It seems that they Peruvians like to celebrate!  On Saturday, Sam's "jardin" (preschool) had  a "fiesta de primavera" (party of the springtime).   The Saturday before that, the other children's school had a family day (possibly also to celebrate spring?).

Sam's party was a typical Peruvian children's party!  We arrived about 10 minutes late, which really was about 30 minutes early for them.  We were only the second family there, and the clown was just beginning to set up.  Each child was asked to wear a costume, and thankfully we had packed a few for the boys to play with!  There was a clown to provide entertainment, and he kept it going for three hours! He had a puppet show, lots of dancing, and story telling.  He included the parents in the dancing, so we were sure not to get bored either!  It is also interesting how they have food at a party... you don't fix a plate of food at a party.  They pass around bowls and plates of snack food throughout the party and you take one bite of each thing.  They had a lot of food - chips, cheetohs, rolls, tiny sandwiches, waffles (no syrup), chocolate cake, little pizzas, jello, and popcorn.  They drink was chichi morado, which is a Peruvian drink made of purple corn, pineapple, limes, and sugar. It looks and tastes a little like grape koolaid.  Most of this is pretty traditional for a child's party.  They also had a beautiful cake, but they never serve the cake at the party!  They slice it and send it home with the child.  They also gave Sam a cute little bag and a pin with his name on it, and a bag full of candy and more snacks.

Miss Sondra, Sam's teacher  (she is bilingual, but is now speaking only Spanish to Sam) 

Miss Lula, in the floral shirt, she picks Sam up every morning for school, and owns the "jardin" with Miss Sondra 

This is the clown trying to "present" Sam  - they had  a little parade "desfile" of each child in their costumes. 

The other blonde haired children are from Norway... so for Sam, he still has to speak Spanish to communicate with them.  I enjoyed visiting with the moms, who are able to speak English as well as Spanish, and Norwegian.

The family day was also fun at Rey de Reyes (King of Kings), where the older three children go to school.  They had a cookout and lots of food for sale, volleyball games, dance shows, and we enjoyed visiting with parents and teachers.

 Miss Edith, Luke's teacher - she is syrupy sweet!! 

this is how they were frying huge batches of chicken

a "bunela" - a special treat of Arequipa - think funnel cake... yummy!

the playground with some of their friends

the men grilling some pork - this photo is for my dad who loves every kind of grill invented

Sarah Caroline's teacher, Miss Fatima, is on the far left (she is so sweet) and Miss Maggi on the far right has helped translate, especially our first week getting the children adjusted in the school.

Also last week was the "dia de estudiante" (day of the student), and the children actually had two days of celebrating at their school.   One day they had special treats, volleyball and futbol (soccer) games, and no classes.  The next day they had more special treats - Luke's class had a clown for entertainment and a party all morning, and Sarah Caroline's class went to the movies for the day.  They got out of school early as part of the celebration.  

No Water!

It is very interesting to us that an entire city of one million people can go without water for  a day!  Yesterday our guard for the neighborhood, Julio, (or "watcheman" is what they call him) came about 6:45 AM  to tell us that the water would be turned off for the entire day.  For the ENTIRE city.  So we quickly gathered water in pots, took our last showers, and washed the last dishes for the day.  And there was no water anywhere in the city the rest of the day.  No toilets to flush, no dishes to wash, and no showers.  Thankfully, the water came back on about 8:30pm.  Evidently they turned it off at the treatment plant for some type of cleaning.  The kids were excited they got to skip showers last night - this is Sam's least favorite part of the day.  He is praying for a bathtub in our next house.  Not only does he hate a shower, but there isn't very much hot water in our apartment.  Bathtubs aren't very common in Peru, so will you pray too, that Sam may have a bathtub one day??

Shopping in the Market

Each Saturday, I head to the "mercado de antiquillo"  to shop for fruits and vegetables.  What a treat to shop there!  The produce is so good and fresh, and I have made some friends there.  Here, they have little stands set up (similar to a farmers market) and you buy potatoes from one person, fruit from another, and vegetables from another.  They also sell meat, eggs and cheese there, but I buy all of that at the real grocery store.  Adela is the lady I buy vegetables from, and she always greets me with smile!  They all are so friendly and know who we are now, and are very helpful and patient as I am learning spanish.  It is custom here when you buy from them they give you a small gift.  Adela gives me fresh herbs every week - basil, mint and/or cilantro.  The fruit lady gives me extra bananas.  At the grocery store last weekend, I bought sausage and hot dogs from one vendor, so they made me a sausage sandwich!  I didn't eat it there - I think one of the kids ate it when I got home.  Here is a picture of everything I bought last week at the market for $18!!!  (mandarins, bananas, pineapple, apples, kiwi, peaches,tomatoes, avocado, lemons, peppers, cauliflower, carrots, green beans, peas and a cucumber)

Marcus went on a tour of the larger market in San Camillo (near downtown Arequipa) as part of his conversation class last week.  We don't make it a habit of shopping there - it isn't in safe part of the city.

We wouldn't buy our meat here - but Marcus did say he saw people bringing the meat in fresh.  As in the entire animal... there are some really gross pictures of parts of all sorts of animals, but I will spare you the details!

Happy 12th Anniversary to Us!!

Today Marcus and I celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary!!  We never would have though 12 years ago that we would be celebrating in Arequipa, Peru!  We had never even heard of it.  But we are so thankful to be here together with our family, and so grateful to the Lord for bringing us together.  One of our teachers commented playfully - "lots of patience"!  We weren't sure if he was talking to me or Marcus, but we said it certainly has gone both ways over the last 12 years.

We were so happy to celebrate on Friday night by going out to dinner!  Our new friends, Rick and Suzie, from Colorado, came over to keep the kids for us.  They are in school with us and will be serving in the jungles of Peru with Pioneers.  Marcus and I had a wonderful time together, and had a great meal!!  We had a meal for two of a variety of meats served on hot stones, including ostrich and alpaca!  It was actually very good, and we had a great salad and dessert too!  Eating out here is surprisingly inexpensive, so we had this fabulous meal for very cheap!  What a treat!!

Happy Anniversary, Arequipa!!

On the rooftop of a restaurant in the Plaza de Armes in Arequipa, with the cathedral (built in 1612) and El Misti (volcano) in the background.  

This last we took part in celebrating the birthday of our host city, Arequipa.  In 1540, the Spanish conquistadors founded this city as part of their conquest of Peru.  After 470 years it is now one of Peru's most prosperous cities.  On Sunday afternoon, after church we went to the parade in the Plaza de Armes (town center).  It was a huge parade, lasting from 9am until late in the evening!  We always thought the Tupelo Christmas Parade was too long, but wow, this one is really long!  We didn't get to the parade until about 3 and stayed a couple of hours.  There were dancers and floats, with natives from all over South America dressed in beautiful costumes!  It was amazing and we had a fantastic view from a rooftop of a restaurant in the Plaza.  It was a great day until we tried leaving, and in the massive crowd Marcus had his wallet stolen!  We are having to learn what we can safely do here, and have to think through every step differently than in the US.  This is partly because we are in a large city, partly because we are in South America, and very much because we are white and stand out as minority! 


Aside from the parade, the people here celebrated with fireworks!  They had a fireworks show on Saturday night, which we did not attempt to go to.  We did hear the fireworks at midnight, and also individuals shot fireworks at random times of the day, including 5:30 am.  In Arequipa it seems that fireworks are a way for people to celebrate birthdays, special Catholic saint days, and anything else they can think of!  We hear fireworks often any time of the day or night!  

First Week of School

We have officially completed our first week of school!  Marcus and I are officially students in ABC Language school as well as all four children are now students at Rey de Reyes (King of Kings).

Marcus and I love our school, which is a Christian organization designed to teach missionaries spanish.  We have fellow students from Korea, Sweden, Germany, and of course several others from the US.  We have grammar class together with a man from Korea, then we separate and each have one on one conversation class.  Our teachers are very kind and encouraging, and we are thankful for the friendships we are making!

Sarah Caroline's school uniform (she says she looks like a waitress!)

The children did well this week starting their new school. This is probably the biggest adjustment they will have to make, and overall they have handled it really well.  The teachers are very kind and helpful to them, although they do not speak English.  There are a couple of teachers in the school who do speak English, and they have been kind to help our children adjust.  What a blessing to us that Sam can go with the others to school!  We thought he would need to go to a different preschool, and were praying about our different options.  There were some good schools, but the locations were going to be difficult with our schedule and where we live.  He is pretty overwhelmed by his class, but they are allowing him to stay with Luke until he gets a little more adjusted.  Luke has been a great big brother to take care of Sam, although he is ready for some independence!  The biggest difference for Ben and Sarah Caroline is that all handwriting is required to be in cursive!  Even in first grade the students write in beautiful cursive, and so at night we are practicing handwriting with the older two.  This is hard for now, but will be something we will be thankful for later.

Sam wears the "blue thing", or a "maudil" over his clothes to school (like Madeline).  Luke wears a "buzo" which is gym pants, t-shirt and jacket.  All children are required to wear these hats when they go outside.  We don't have a photo of Ben - he wears navy pants, a white dress shirt, a navy tie and red sweater.  On gym days he wears the same type outfit Luke has on.

We walk a lot each day to and from our schools, which is our only way to exercise right now.  We take a taxi to take the children to school, because it is a long uphill walk otherwise.  After we get them settled we walk to our school, about 10 min away.  After we finish school we have about an hour, and we work on our homework until time to get Luke and Sam at school.  We walk them home (downhill, so not too bad), which takes about 15 minutes.  After being home for about 30 minutes, Marcus walks back to the school to get Sarah Caroline and Ben.  We then have "lunch", or you could call it an early supper I guess??  It is tradition here to have the big meal of the day at lunchtime, so we just go ahead and eat then.  The kids take a small lunch to school, but they have that at about 10:30.  This is just one of the many adjustments to living in South America!  We all work on homework, handwriting, and maybe have time for playing in the park.

Sarah Caroline's new friend, Alli (her mom teaches at our school, and they are in the same class at Rey de Reyes)

This week the Lord has certainly watched out for us....  on Wednesday we had a gas explosion in our kitchen.  Our oven and stove is gas and a little on the old side, and sometimes doesn't light well.  I had gone to light the oven and when I went back later to check it, realized it had not lit.  When trying to check on it (obviously without thinking through that gas may have leaked), it made a huge explosion and blew out the kitchen window!!! Sarah Caroline was standing right there with me, and Ben was in the doorway.  Thankfully none of were hurt, and the glass from the window went all around in the kitchen but did not cut us at all.  I didn't realize until later that the hair was singed off of my arms, but no burns thankfully.  Marcus and I were pretty overwhelmed with thoughts of what could have been, and gratefulness that the Lord was watching over us.  Our window has already been replaced (at a price of only $30!), and the oven suffered no damage.

One big prayer request for this week is that we could find a Christian, trustworthy cab driver to take us to school in the mornings.  It is a safety issue to take any cab that comes along (there are certain companies that are considered safe).  We know we need a driver every morning, and we also would like to have someone to call when I need to run errands or if we all need to go somewhere further than walking distance.

More updates to come....

Welcome to Arequipa!

Our first week in Arequipa we spent most of the time learning our way around the city, shopping for the apartment and gathering school uniforms for the kids.  In-between all of the adjustments, we were able to do a little sight seeing.
Arequipa is a large city of 900,000 people in southern Peru.  The altitude is about 8000 feet:  higher than anything east of the Rockies in the US.  It doesn't seem that high, although we do have a view of three mountains/volcanoes outside of the city.  The climate is very dry (dusty and dirty) and we have arrived in winter!  I know you Mississippi folks may be jealous, but our weather has been pretty cold at night - down to the mid 30's or low 40's.  In the afternoon it gets warm (highs around 65-70), and is very sunny and beautiful!  The hard part of having lows in the 30's is that we have no heat!  We have heavy wool blankets on our beds and fleece ones over that for the kids.  

Plaza de Armes - the town center, with this cathedral being built in the early 1600's 

an overlook from outside the city

guinea pigs (at a guinea pig farm): otherwise known as "cuy", a delicacy to the Peruvians, and yes, our children have now all tried to eat cuy, and said they liked it  (it will not be a staple on our menu at home!)

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