Last night around 7 we headed out to Sodimac (Home Depot) to pick up another slew of necessities. We filled up two carts with cheap ugly light fixtures, 25 light bulbs, an ironing board, blinds, etc. As we headed out the door at 9:20, we realized we were ferociously hungry from all our shopping (and because we hadn't eaten dinner yet). Tim suggested we roll our carts right into the TGI Friday's next door, so we gave it a shot. Success. The hostess guarded our things as we ate our first American meal since arriving in Peru November 1. The highlight was onion rings.
We spent most of the evening laughing, a common theme in the last week in particular and the last 5 months in general. We rolled out of Friday's with our two shopping carts and a balloon and patted ourselves on the back for making it through another of these brutal shopping trips. It's either laugh or cry. I feel like we've come to that point so many times since we've been here. We keep coming back to two reminders. One is Kyle Y's advice that the most essential ingredient to missionary success is a sense of humor. The other is the example of Buddy the Elf (played by Will Ferrell in Tim's favorite movie Elf). If you set out to enjoy everything and everyone you encounter in a big new foreign city, life is a lot more interesting and most situations bearable.
keep laughing - it goes a looong way.
love,
the Slates