The food

Before the trip I seemed to be most concerned with Peruvian cuisine! I had heard rumors of guinea pig and random hairs! I must say that I feel like God took good care of me in the food department. However, there was guinea pig WITH hair!

We started every morning with breakfast at the hotel. We had bread with strawberry jelly (my favorite) and scrambled eggs. There was also the most amazing fresh-squeezed orange juice every morning. I don't even like orange juice and I could have had that to drink all day long! One morning, Yolanda (the hotel owner) played a little switcheroo and gave us Papaya juice...eck! Apparently she was offended that nobody was drinking it so I did my best to chug it down. I'll be good if I never drink that again. Rumor has it that our scrambled eggs were actually quail eggs one morning too. Luckily, I didn't find that out until much later.

For lunch and dinner we ate at local restaurants. At lunch we started with soup (complete with random chicken parts)...I usually passed! The main meal consisted of white rice and some kind of chicken or beef. I didn't take pictures of everything we ate but occasionally I remembered.

We ate this twice...Lomo Saltado (basically steak fajitas with french fries mixed in)...


Oddly enough there was a bit of Chinese influence. I don't remember what's it called, but it's just chicken and noodles...


This was just some kind of grilled chicken with rice and potatoes...


This was my favorite Chavin meal, it's called Aji de Gallina (shredded chicken with white rice and some kind of sauce)...


On our last night in Chavin we made like the Peruvians and celebrated with Cuy (guinea pig)! This picture was taken a few days before on our first trip to the same restaurant, it's Trevor and I with the real-live guineas...right in the restaurant...



They normally eat this on special occasions and I think it's almost always fried. We ordered one and anyone who wanted to try it was going to take a bite. Going into the meal I had absolutely NO intention of even trying it. Then I decided it would be handy if I ever got the old "What's the strangest thing you've ever eaten" question someday. I had a really hard time even wanting to pick it up for a picture...


You can see that someone was having to steady my arm because I had just discovered that one of it's intact feet still had fur on it...


Finally, they passed me a bite on a fork and it really did look like chicken! Here's Haley and I taking the bite together...


Here's my reaction to coming to the realization that I just stuck guinea pig in my mouth...


When we arrived back in Lima at 9:00 pm we immediately went to Chilis....


And all was right again! Other Lima meals included Fridays, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, and Chili's again!

The task

Once we got to Chavin our main task for the week was to spend time in the local schools teaching English. This isn't necessarily a great need, it's just an opportunity to meet kids and develop relationships with them. We spent two days at the elementary school in Chavin, working with a total of 8 classes if I remember correctly. Then, we spent two days at the elementary school in San Marcos, working with about 10 classes.

We taught them the song "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes" to teach body parts. The kids really enjoyed the song and it was cute to listen to them say choulders and choes instead of shoulders and toes! I have no idea how many times we sang the song but it was so many that by the last day Haley and I totally couldn't remember how it went. The kids in our group didn't understand what we were laughing so hard at! After we got the body parts down we (by we I mean the people who actually spoke Spanish) went on to explain that God made them and made them each unique and special and that He loved them. It was cool to watch them all sit (in a public school) and be totally captivated by a story about Jesus.



The entire school takes a 45 minute recess in the middle of the morning (this includes a snack bar) so we hung out with the kids and played games with them. These girls let me play Jacks with them but I totally stunk and they just kind of looked at me like, "why is this so hard for you?"


This girl wanted to show off her new song...



Jordan (Brian and Jenn's oldest son) was telling the kids about Jesus right there on the playground...



One afternoon we took a bunch of balloons, face paint, beads, bubbles, and toys out to the little park by Brian and Jenn's house to have a little "fiesta" with the kids. At first there were just a couple kids but it wasn't long until there were a bunch of kids and quite a few adults hanging around. This was definitely a highlight. It was was so neat to see the kids so excited about something simple like a balloon! There were several opportunities for the Spanish speakers to really talk to some of the adults and explain why we were there and explain why Brian and Jenn live there.


We also spent some time just playing with the kids. Here I am taking part in a serious game of Hide-and-Seek:



The kids were all really excited to see us around town and pretty much treated us like rock stars. They'd run up to you and give you a hug and then just follow you around all day. When we were leaving the San Marcos school on the last day several kids got out their notebooks and asked us to sign them! If only they knew how ordinary we really are! It was some good times. It was interesting seeing how schools in Peru take care of business (very relaxed) and it was neat to see that "playing" has no language barriers!

And, because I keep talking about Brian and Jenn, here they are with Jordan and Trevor...

Travel

In an attempt to keep things organized, I'm going to blog by category! Since traveling to Peru was where the trip began I decided I'd start with that! Clever, huh! On this trip we traveled by air, van, land-bruiser, combie, taxi, and foot!

On Tuesday, July 6th we flew from DFW to Houston to Panama City, Panama to Lima, Peru! The total travel time was about 12 hours, in other words, it was a LONG day! Upon arriving in Lima (and praising God that all our luggage made it) and getting the "green light" we met Brian and began the even longer trek to Chavin. By the time the van ride began, it was about 2 a.m. on Wednesday!

(Side note-when going through customs in Peru you press a big button, and those who get a green light walk right through. Those who do not, stay and un-pack EVERYTHING to make sure they're not sneaking anything in. We were a little worried about this because we had 3 extra suitcases of random stuff for Brian, Jenn, and the boys...we didn't want to have to unpack or lose any of their much needed stuff. We pressed the button three times for our group and got a green light each time!)

Because I am an occasional victim to motion-sickness and because I knew we would be traveling in the mountains I took dramamine before we left the airport. I believe I was passed out about thirty minutes later and the entire 12+ hour ride to Chavin was very much a blur. This was a blessing and a curse! A blessing because hello, who wants to be awake for 12 hours of bumpy van ride?? And a curse because Haley and I were teased quite a bit for sleeping the entire way and not knowing about anything that happened during that leg of the trip! They were all just jealous they weren't in a drug-induced coma too! All of that to say, I don't have many details about the ride to Chavin. I do know that it took us 12+ hours to go approximately 200 miles away from Lima (if you were traveling in a straight line). CRAZY!! I also managed to come out of the fog long enough to snap a picture or two of this pretty lake up in the mountains...


These kids were looking cute and charging money for you to take their picture!


Once we got to Chavin we mostly traveled around town on foot. You could get just about anywhere in Chavin with ten minutes or less of walking. Occasionally, we all piled in Brian and Jenn's car, affectionately called the Land-bruiser. The people of Chavin didn't really know what to think about 13 gringos all piled in one car! If we had to travel to the next town, San Marcos, we split up and rode in the Land Bruiser and a combie (imagine a mini-van taxi with 12 seats that you can pile approximately 20 people into)! Most of the roads were paved but because of land-slides a lot of them are covered in dirt and rocks which makes for a very BUMPY ride! They also do this thing where they swerve to avoid pot-holes and other extra-bumpy parts of the road. It's all good until you see yourself swerving towards the edge of the road which also happens to be the side of a mountain!

After a week in Chavin we loaded up the same van and began the trek back down the mountain and back to Lima. We had our fingers crossed for a shorter return trip, but alas, it was even longer this time! The highlight of this day was probably a little unplanned stop for construction (when they're working on a two-lane road there is no-where to pass it). I was kind of sleeping (of course) and I heard someone in the back tell everyone to look out the front windshield. I open my eyes to find a man peeing at the back of the van in front of us, totally facing us! I couldn't believe it and shielded my eyes immediately!! I did manage to stay awake for a good portion of this trip and that allowed me to do a little video-ing. This is very rough but hopefully gives you a little idea what the road was like in places.



In Lima, we either walked or traveled by taxi. I have never seen traffic like that in my life! They turn right from the left-hand lane and left from the right-hand lane. They pretty much ignore stop signs and squeeze about 8 rows of cars into 4 "real" lanes! Everyone kept saying it was even worse than New York City traffic. I could not believe that we didn't witness a single accident! I tried to do a little more video-ing in a taxi...not sure you get the full effect because this was a Saturday...



Sunday morning we loaded up on a plane out of Lima, and after stops in Panama City and Houston we were home!

Home again!

Well, I made it home safe and sound yesterday evening and have been working hard to restore my Diet Coke levels. Everything pretty much feels like I'm back to normal. However, I'm not sure you want to be normal after experiencing a trip like that. It never ceases to amaze me that when you go on a mission trip you sort of pray and hope for God to use you in some way that will make an impact on other people. I have never once planned for the way my own life would be changed by the experience. All of that to say, going to Peru was a great experience and I'm still kind of processing all that God did in me over the last couple weeks.

There was plenty of fun, crazy, random stuff that I'm excited about documenting here but the task is overwhelming! I don't really know where to begin! I promise I'll get right on it...soon!

Hola from Peru!

I'm currently enjoying a little downtime in Lima, Peru! Everything has gone really well both here in Lima and in Chavin. I really enjoyed spending time in the elementary schools and it was neat to teach kids English. They were so excited to learn new words, and it was quite the experience to communicate with them in Spanish. I've definitely picked up a much better understanding of the Spanish language and I think I'm going to try hard to really learn to speak it!

There is much to tell about this trip, it will probably take several blog posts!! I'll be home on Sunday afternoon and then I'll get right on it. For now, I'll leave you with a picture...


I ate the guinea!! Ok, really I just tried the guinea! Yuck!!

Oh dear...

I think going to a foreign country is definitely an out-of-comfort-zone experience. I haven't even left yet and the whole food thing seems to be an issue already. Here's a picture of a meal served to a group that just left where we're headed...

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts."

~Isaiah 55:8-9~

I'm not really sure what God is thinking on this one, but I'm just going to trust Him!

Yummy

I'm about 3 days away from the big Peru adventure. You'll be glad to know I received my passport in record time, totally worth the crazy day in Dallas. I've also been vaccinated for several diseases I probably wouldn't get anyway, but it's always fun to throw a hundred bucks away. Anything for a little peace of mind, right?

Right now, my biggest worry is the food situation. The town we'll be going to is about 9 hours (by car) north of Lima in the Andes Mountains. It is called Chavin de Huantar. The missionaries we'll be working with, Brian and Jennifer, are long-time family friends and I feel certain they'll keep us on the right track food-wise. However, I just read this on Brian's Facebook page and now I'm a little worried...

"If I had found the 2 hairs in my food in the States, I would've barfed. But here, I'm like, "Hey, I live in Peru."

And this little piece of food information from Wikipedia also has me rattled...

"Cuy chactado: A dish more popular in the highlands is this meal of fried guinea pig. Often the indigenous women of the Peruvian Andes will raise the guinea pigs in their huts where they run around loose on the floors of the dwellings. Prior to consumption they can reach a surprisingly large size."

I think it's safe to say I'm going to be living on Peanut Butter Crackers for a couple weeks!