Today I finally experienced 3rd world medicine first hand. I fell on my ankle this morning and twisted it while playing soccer. I had to be carried off the court and after resting for an hour and my ankle tripling in size, I had to be carried back to the house as well. In general I hate going to the doctor but I've never had a leg injury, couldn't even hop on one foot and my ankle looked pretty scary, so I gave in and went.

Highlights of the Peruvian Medical System:

• It's a la carte. You tell them if you need an x-ray, what kind of doctor you need and if you want the cast now.
• Pay as you go. X-ray, doctor visit, materials, cast - each paid for seperately throughout the process.
• Go with the least common denominator. I'm not really sure I needed a cast and the doctor didn't examine me for more than 10 seconds. He touched my ankle till it hurt, said it was broken, looked at the x-ray and said it wasn't broken but that I "compromised the ligament" which I'm not real sure what that means. But there's no harm in a cast so why not go for it.
• Multitask whenever possible. While Hannah was buying the cast and materials (including the doctor's rubber gloves) another patient entered the room with a needle and medicine, took off his shirt and the doctor administered a shot right in front of me.

The cost of medical care:

• x-ray $3
• doctor visit $5 (I think we paid for this twice by accident)
• putting on the cast $8
• cast and materials $7
• prescription medicine $2.50

The whole time I felt I was in the DMV getting my licensed renewed and in the end, the process took only 45 min and cost a little over $25. We still have to rent/buy crutches which are only available at one particular hospital. I'm not in much pain and I'm improving my hopping skills by the minute. I have to wear the cast for 15-20 days and can either take it off myself or return for another $5 doctor visit.

Here are two of my favorite Peruvian ladies- Abuelita and Taza. They are really taking a liking to one another I think.

Abuelita, by the way, has to be the most fit 81-year-old I know. Yesterday she showed us some of the exercises she does in her daily morning class at the gym. I never knew she was so fast or flexible! I think she has Tim beat with her windmills and toe-touching.

You probably know that in lots of languages, nouns have gender that doesn't necessarily have much to do with how girly or masculine they are. In Spanish, for example, a dress (el vestido) is masculine but a tie (la corbata) is feminine. I learned today that men and women have some friendly arguments over what this all might mean.

• Women will be sure to tell you that all problems (los problemas) are masculine, and all solutions (las soluciones) are feminine.
• Men will mention that love (el amor) is masculine. Women will respond that hate (el odio) is too.
• Women boast that life (la vida) is feminine. Men retort that so is death (la muerte).

Another fascinating fact about the language that I learned this week is that much of the slang in Peru is derived from rearranging the order of the letters of a word. Sometimes they lose a syllable in the process.

• Beach: playa becomes yapla
• Bathroom: bano becomes noba
• Shirt: camisa becomes mica
• Pants: pantalon becomes lompa
• Lady/M'am: senora becomes norsa
• Cop: boton (button) becomes tombo

Doesn't that seem like a game you might play in 5th grade?

Her name is Taza (dah-sah), which is the Spanish word for teacup. Here she is with a bag of coca tea to show her size. She has been sleeping most of the day so we are a little worried that she's getting all rested up for a wild night. We'll see. She instinctively knows not to "go" in her crate, so she wakes us up a lot to get out and use the box of newspapers by her bed. I guess I'd rather have that than her making a huge mess in her crate for me to clean up.

For now, we've been taking her with us to school (where she sleeps during our classes), and I usually just carry her in my purse. We get lots of "Que liiiiiiindo!" and always a few people wanting to know if she is real. She looks a lot like a stuffed animal really. Diego asked today (as a joke) where we put the batteries.

I think she's out to be the most socialized pet in the world. She's getting to know a lot of people and places as well as the two dogs in our house, Chovis (something like a hot dog) and Sally (boxer). They are both fascinated by her, and as soon as Sally sees her, she starts slobbering like crazy. She must want to bathe her or something. It's a little gross, but I'm glad to have some affectionate dogs around to show her the ropes.

A note about COCA TEA since it's in the photo. This is just about the national drink of Peru. It's made from the coca leaf, which is also the source for cocaine. Because of that, it's illegal to bring any back to the US, either in leaf form or tea bag form. The coca leaf is somewhat of a miracle drug here. Either chewed or in tea, it helps with digestion, altitude sickness, fatigue, and a number of other common local ailments. It doesn't make you high in either of those forms, by the way. We drink it a few times a day probably. "Real coffee" is not too common here (more Nescafe), so it's a good alternative.

Here are the highlights from our last few weeks while my (Hannah's) mom visited and we traveled on the weekends.

LIMA: Not much of a highlight, but we did see a few interesting things and eat at two stellar restaurants. One was Astrid y Gaston, owned by the South American celebrity TV chef Gaston Acurio. The other was Huaca Pucllana, an open-air restaurant overlooking pre-Incan pyramid ruins. Wow. We also had a chance to taste some of Peru's fame: pisco sours and cuy (guinea pig).



PUERTO SUPE: A short-term team arrived the day we did so Mom got the "tour": the beach, the sandals microenterprise, Monica and Margot's cafetin. She also got to see my new house and meet my team and my Puerto friends.



AREQUIPA: I saw a lot of Arequipa's tourism highlights for the first time while Mom was here. We also toured the Monasterio de Santa Catalina by night, which was a real treat. More Peru dishes tasted: rocoto relleno (stuffed spicy pepper) and alpaca meat.



SACRED VALLEY: For the first time in Peru, I saw some green! The Sacred Valley of the Incas is everything I thought Peru should be- mountains, rivers, green . I think our taxi driver/ guide was half-senile but we managed to enjoy ourselves anyway.



MACHU PICCHU: What can I say? I'm still overwhelmed by the experience. I think more than the ruins, the mountains were what stole my heart. If only I could have a house there!



CUZCO: We had a brief visit here but enjoyed the terra cotta roofs and beautiful artwork. Unfortunately it was rainy and Sunday morning, neither of which made for a great time.

Surprise! We have a puppy! We have been planning all along to get a medium/large guard dog and a small friend for him or her, maybe a little poodle that we will not groom like a show dog. Well this morning we saw a precious toy poodle and after asking our host family again, bought her! I can hardly believe it's real. She is the softest, sweetest little thing ever.

Here's what we have learned so far about toy poodles. They grow to be about 10 inches tall and no more than 7 lbs (smaller than miniature poodles). Right now ours weighs about 1 lb. They are very smart, telepathically intuitive, and easily trained to do just about anything (think circus). They're good watchdogs although obviously not good guard dogs. If you don't shave their bodies or faces, they stay puffy and soft and won't ever look like the poodles with bracelets and pompoms on their tails (ours has a clipped tail and ears anyway).



The only problem now is what to name her. Originally we were thinking of naming the dogs as a pair: Abbott and Costello, Merry and Pippin, Sherlock and Watson. There is always Don Quijote and Sancho Panza. Then we could shorten one to Don-Qui (although no one here would get the joke). My other thought is naming both or one after something here, but so far I can't think of anything good except maybe Oui/Ouisita (two of Abuelita's nicknames).

SO we need some help ASAP. Please comment or email to tell me what good names you can think of for our precious little (female) dog!

Hannah just asked me who Abbott and Castello were and I couldn't even begin to think about knowing how to answer that question, I just had to show her. So those of you who don't know who I'm talking about, watch the video. I believe my mom gave me a video of this for Christmas one year and I still laugh till I cry everytime I see it.

Ten minutes ago I was lying in bed with the lights off attempting to fall asleep when my phone (which is also my alarm clock) beside my ear started vibrating and ringing. When a man started speaking to me in Spanish, I first thought it must be Cesar and was a little confused in general. Turned out it was Mom's cab driver who had made a wrong turn and was trying to figure out how to get to the South America Mission Guesthouse. I guess I explained it well enough because five minutes later he called back again (I think after he dropped her off) to ask me if Mom had wanted him to return to pick her up at 5:30 am or pm tomorrow! Glad he called. That sort of detail matters.

This is all good news for my progress in Spanish. I have never been so hot at talking on the phone in Spanish (heck, or English for that matter) and talking long distance about driving directions with someone I don't know had potential to be a real disaster!

Today Tim and I got new schedules. He finished grammar classes last week and started today with 2 conversation classes. I added a grammar class to my existing conversation class. One day in, I'm pleased with how it went. I think my teacher understands my issue: that I can explain all of the information, but I need practice working out the finer details without having to think (so that I can say things correctly and not just write them correctly).

Mom left today on the 3:55 flight to Lima. I haven't heard anything yet, so I'm assuming she made it safely there. She is staying overnight and leaving at 7:50 am to return to Greensboro. I'm sad to have her go. I expect the next few days will feel lonely before I again get used to the idea that Tim and I are here on our own. I guess one thing I have learned is that loneliness provides an opportunity to grow in intimacy with God. When I feel alone, it's because I'm living with limited vision and forgetting His presence.

I still intend to give a report of our trip when I have a chance to breathe, but for now I want to mention one thing that impacted me during the last two weeks. It didn't hit home until I was reading my Bible on the plane yesterday and came across Jesus' criticism of the Pharisees in Matthew 23: Everything they do is done for men to see.... [but] whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. All of the sudden I was acutely aware of my desire over the last two weeks to convince everyone around me that I am not a tourist. I'm too embarrassed to explain all the ways I have attempted to do so, so let it suffice that I have clearly been counting on the wrong things to lend me value and self-worth. What is so intrinsically valuable about not being a tourist? Why would the fact that I speak Spanish make me immediately more than someone else?

To know my value as a daughter of God is to find a peace that sets me free from self-exaltation. How I long for that kind of confidence and security.... The truth is that I can't drum it up for myself. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23

Saludos de Aguas Calientes--

We arrived outside Machu Picchu today on the train from Cusco. The town ("Aguas Calientes" translates to "Hot Waters") looks somewhat like a ski town for hippies and tourists. No skiing of course. It sits at the feet of several tremendous mountains, almost in a deep and narrow ravine really. Breathtaking. Tomorrow we will visit the Machu Picchu ruins themselves.

I’d like to describe our time here in the sierra in detail later, but I wanted to mention two things today. One is that I had the spiciest food of my life for lunch today. I could barely eat any of it and certainly didn’t want to after the first explosion hit my tongue. Tim had a bite and let loose more than one tear. I think that was two hours ago and my lips are still tingling. At the time there was no “tingling” about it. It was just pain. We tried everything on the table to satisfy it- beer, sparkling water (the worst), lemonade (the best), guacamole, steamed vegetables. Nothing really worked. I was considering drinking the garlic sauce that went with the bread (already eaten) but decided against it.

Second, yesterday Tim found something he has been searching for since we arrived: artisan pottery for dishes in our new Puerto Supe home. In a whirlwind tour we picked out 8 dinner plates, 8 little plates, and 8 bowls from this beautiful and charming ceramics shop/ studio in the Sacred Valley. It came recommended by Lonely Planet and for good reason. The dishes really are works of art, coordinating but not matching, colorful in an earthy Peruvian way. I know we will love them always, and that if and when we leave Peru, they will be a lifelong reminder of the joy we have found here.