Well they´ve put me to work. I´m reading La serpiente de oro by Ciro Alegria, a well known Peruvian author. Normally when I read in Spanish, I pass over words I don´t know unless they keep me from getting the general idea. This time I am looking up all the words I don´t know and am shocked by how many there are! I´ve spent hours today working on less than ten pages, and have written down 200-300 vocab words. Here are some of the more random ones:

1. fulano de tal- Mr. So-and-So
2. mengano- another word for Mr. So-and-So!
3. acurrucarse- to snuggle up
4. coquear- to chew coca (leaves)
5. la acequia- irrigation canal

You can imagine that when I get into this kind of vocabulary, there are endless amounts of specific bizarre vocabulary that I haven´t learned yet.

PS- We had our first earthquake today. The epicenter was in the north of Chile. It was a pretty serious earthquake there (7.0?). Here the house, furniture, etc. shook, but nothing very interesting to report.

Plaza de las Armas at night

Santa sells in November everywhere

The view from our rooftop- Misti, an "active" volcano of 19,000 ft.

Sorry for no news in a while. I made a video tour of our host home and have been trying to upload it for a few days. No luck yet. Instead, I'll offer a few other thoughts:

There is another student now living in the room next to us. She is German but speaks Spanish well enough to communicate comfortably. For some reason, she keeps trying to speak German to us by accident. I think it's Tim's hair and height. Anyway, it's always a shock and a little bit confusing. It takes us a moment to determine whether she is speaking Spanish (she has a strong German accent in her Spanish too) that we don't understand or something entirely different.

Our first and second days of school were pretty fun! We started with 2 classes each, conversation and grammar. Tim is getting a little tired of conjugating stem-changing verbs but sees the benefit I think. My first grammar class was with a couple that was returning to the language school after a year for a review. We spent 90 minutes covering 11 questions about ser and estar. There is so much that I need to learn, but the pace definitely seemed slow to me. Fortunately, on day two, the principal told me that he thought I should drop that class. For now, I don't have a grammar class because there isn't a teacher available. Sooner or later I will start that again.

For now I am just in a conversation class (one on one), which has been AWESOME. We just spend the 90 minutes talking about Peruvian culture. It's an open invitation for me to ask all my random questions and find out more about what the heck is going on around me. Yesterday my teacher had me go out and buy two Peruvian novels, also, so maybe we will be reading those. I feel like I'm back in my college Spanish classes! I have asked for a second conversation class in the meantime (waiting for my grammar class), and I may soon begin with one on one pronunciation help also.

In our expeditions we have seen a lot of pirated material around here. DVDs and CDs are everywhere, and not just sold by street vendors. There are tons of permanent stores that just sell pirated stuff. I also discovered recently that half of the bookstores are "illegal." I bought Tim a Spanish-English dictionary for $2, but once he took a look at it, he noticed that it is missing a few pages. It also looks like the rest of the pages were photocopied or something. Yesterday when I bought my novels at a legal bookstore, they were more like $10-$20, which for a Peruvian would be outrageous. The bus costs $0.15, a taxi $1, so the gap is pretty huge. After thinking about it for a second, we decided that we need to stick to the legal stuff here. Besides supporting legitimate industry, we are also getting paid a decent wage in American dollars. We can afford to respect American laws.

Last note. I would love your prayers for spiritual renewal. It feels a little strange to ask for that, since I am here living out the dream God put in my heart, surrounded by precious, encouraging people who also want to put God first in their lives. Nonetheless, I kind of feel like these past weeks I've been living on the fumes of past friendship with God, not desperate as of yet, but approaching a problem. I am convinced that God has something new for me each day, that He wants to do a "new thing" here in Peru, even during this time in Arequipa. Pray that I would make myself available to fresh wind and fresh fire.

After our botched conference idea, we did a little touring today. This convent is from the 1550s and looks a lot like southern Spain (but with better weather). This afternoon we are going to a real, live Peruvian birthday party (actually our second, after Mama Cubas' the first day we were in Peru). Hope to get some good photos and learn some new fascinating thing about the culture!

Yesterday I went with my host mother to the ladies' meeting at the church that our host family goes to. It was supposed to start at 4 I think, which is when we arrived. No one else was there. At 4:15 or so, maybe 5 more people arrived. Another 10 trickled in over time. We spent the next hour knitting of all things, which made me quickly feel at home! Around 5:15, Tim called and asked me if we were finishing up. I let him know that we hadn't started yet! Anyway, the meeting was fun, it lasted about 4 hours, the women were gracious, and I was able to communicate fairly well.

The meeting was at the church building, and there was a sign inside about a conference for leadership with young people ("jovenes," which I think includes late teens to 30 or so). I told my host mother, Miriam, that we might be interested in going if possible. It was for today (Saturday), so I wasn't sure we would be able to sign up so late. She made a million phone calls and determined that we should be able to go Saturday morning around 9 or 9:30 with Pedro, the church pastor and her cousin.

This morning we were all ready to go. We went out to buy sunblock and bug spray (per Miriam's recommendation), and while we were out, she had to leave. When we got back, she had already left for a physical therapy appointment. She called to apologize for not staying to say goodbye, which seemed a little odd to me for some reason. As we were getting off the phone, she told me to have a good weekend. Weekend? Hmmmm. I thought we were only going to be gone today. I discussed it with Tim for a minute, and we decided that maybe in Peru you can say "Have a good weekend," and only mean one day.

When Pedro showed up (at 10:30, not 9), he asked us where our sleeping bags were. Oops. As I tried to communicate to him that I hadn't know it was overnight, I had another one of those moments where I felt like I couldn't speak Spanish. We definitely are not interested in an overnight trip at this point since we are still adjusting to the altitude and the culture. It's an adventure we're not quite up for yet if we have a choice.

So we're back home now. In general, we mostly don't know what is going on around us, partly due to the language and probably more due to the cultural gap. So please pray for us to continue feeling comfortable in the dark and to have the patience for flexibility. So far so good, but I could imagine this eventually getting frustrating.

We explored the Plaza de las Armas this morning and were thoroughly impressed. I felt like I was in Spain. Except when the "demonstration" came by. The police escorted the strike people around the Plaza, and the riot police stood to the side with very threatening looks on their faces.

We also bought some electronics today- much more expensive than we thought. An entree at a fairly nice restaurant seems to be $3-6. Tim's electric razor was $100, my hair dryer and hair straightener were $50 together. Not bad, really, but probably unaffordable to the general population. Nonetheless, we're glad to have them and have bought them here. Otherwise the process of getting electricity to our American electronics is a little cumbersome.

Lastly, we went YARN SHOPPING. I don't know that I have been so excited in a long, long time. The store we went to was attached to a factory that dyes the yarn, I think. Then they export it to all different places around the world. If they don't have enough left to fill a half kilo-ish bag, they package it and sell it for cheap at the attached store. The first yarn I found was the exact one I just bought to make my mom a shawl (there is a picture of it in an earlier blog). It was $8 per skein, I think. Today I bought 12 skeins for $10. Another package of 12 that I bought was $4- again, American elite brands like Debbie Bliss and Plymouth that cost $8-$10 per skein at home. They are all blends of Alpaca and silk.

Enough about money. Don't worry, I won't have any reason to go back to the yarn store for a long time. I've got a lot to keep me busy. Soon we begin language school and I will have something other than shopping to keep me busy.

To begin with, we got the cell phones! Two more hours of waiting in the cell phone store. We thought we were going to miss our flight. In the end, the lady let us go without checking all our papers, and I got a call later on from her about something she will have to send me. Oh my. Anyway, they returned my $700 (in cash) and then we paid a much more reasonable price for cell phones and a deposit to guarantee that we won't cheat them.

We are in Arequipa now, further south and higher up. It is very dry and pretty sunny here- 76 degrees when we arrived at 2 pm. It is spring right now, so I suppose it will get a little warmer soon. We are living with a host family, Julio and Miriam and their oldish children Diego, Pablo, and Daniela. Also Joni, who lives on the roof, but I'm not sure what's going on there. I think she is one of the maids. The house is super fun, and our accomodations surpassed our expectations. We have a comfortable room with plenty of space and a double bed. I think right now I am on some other house's internet, but there is internet nonetheless. Everything is provided- food, laundry, cleaning, etc.

To be honest, we're a little lost about what's going on in the house, not due to language barriers, but rather lack of orientation. The privacy and mental space is kind of nice, but I am also very curious about what the heck we're doing. We don't start school until Monday. Is there anything we have to do between now and then? What will we do tomorrow? What time are meals? Do we eat with the family or does everyone come as they please? What do people eat for meals? As you can imagine, food is of utmost importance to me right now. Are other people sharing our bathroom? Are we expected to spend our time in the family living space? I probably should make a list of questions for Miriam and ask her tomorrow.

So far this town seems very different. Lima has 9 million people, Arequipa 2 million, Puerto Supe 12,000. Puerto is quiet and friendly and something like summer camp in the sense that everything is close together, there's not much of anything, you walk in the middle of the road, and people all greet each other when they walk by. Lima is a booming metropolis, not fancy like New York but more like San Jose, Costa Rica or something. If you have traveled in Latin America, I'm sure you can imagine the place. Arequipa is supposed to be more of a European city, but so far we haven't seen that part (maybe tomorrow, when we plan to go to the Plaza). What we've seen so far reminds me more of the poor parts of Bejing, really. Or of some other impoverished place that also has a lot of people. Also there are a lot more Quechua people here- descendents of the Incas who still look the way you imagine they did 500 years ago when the Spaniards came.

Five trips to the cell phone store, $700, and 7 hours of waiting later.... We still have no cell phones. We are going back this morning with Cesar. At 7:45 last night (the place closed at 6), they said it would work out this morning the way we want it to. I'm a little suspicious, particularly regarding our schedule, which involves a flight at 12:30. Please pray! When we get on that plane, we would love to have cell phones and the $700 be put toward something useful at least, maybe a credit on our account.

Here's what we accomplished yesterday:
1. Made some color copies of our passport.
2. Got them notarized.
3. Bought maps of Lima.

That's all. It took all day. I knew to expect this, but it is humorous nonetheless to see how everything takes a million times as long here as I think it should. Also I had some delicious ceviche for lunch- raw seafood marinated in lemon juice and a few other things. Scallops, fish, octopus, (cooked) shrimp, and some other unknown specimen.

Today we are getting cell phones, going to the tourist market, and dropping off our paperwork for resident visas. Maybe. Tomorrow we fly to Arequipa to begin language school.

We returned today from a short trip to Puerto Supe, the town where we will move after language school. I think at first Tim was a little shocked. The town is pretty much just like the photos we've been showing everyone, but seeing it "in living color" (not too much color really, mostly brown and gray) was a new experience. By the time we took a nap that afternoon, I think we were both in a daze. Tim slept, which renewed him significantly, and I sat down to remember why it was that we had come. By the end of that time, I felt like a new woman. I am so thrilled that God has called us to this place and have real hope for the work we will do in Puerto Supe.


That night the Comunidad Cristiana had a welcome reception for us. We realized that even people who live far away and in conditions like this are made of the same stuff we are- hearts and hopes and broken dreams. It was reassuring to gather together with a group of men, women and a few children who really aren't that different from us. Everyone was of course surprised by our age (thinking like the rest of the world that we were more like 17), and they were super excited I think to hear that we had come to work with our peer group. So far there has not really been ministry in that area, apart from a sweet and small group of guys that our teammate Kyle has befriended.


I got to have a great conversation with one young woman in the Comunidad Cristiana about the work I want to do- both a ministry with those exploring faith from the outside and a ministry equipping Peruvian young women for leadership. We talked some also about the idea of working toward sustainability within the culture, making sure that the contributions we are making as missionaries are beginning something that can continue on just fine without us later. That has been a big issue for me in the last few days. It's a difficult thing to do. Anyway, I was encouraged by my conversation with this girl and hope to be able to share my vision with other women later. We will be returning for a week or so at Christmas, I think, which is actually not all that far away.


Language is going well. We have new names here- Timo (Deem-oh, short from Timoteo) and Ani (ah-nee). I feel like I am pretty much able to communicate whatever I want, but it never sounds as good as I want it to. I am increasingly excited about the prospect of working on accent and trying to become as Peruvian as possible in my language. Tim is also communicating with people and is able to have short conversations about basic things. His vocabulary is always surprising. This morning he woke up and said to me, "Soy una langosta" (I'm a lobster, referring to his sunburn). When did he learn that word? My funniest moment I think so far was trying to thank Monica yesterday for not selling me rice pudding when she realized it was old. I said to her, "Eres una mujer integra" and then reflecting on it realized that I had told her she was a whole woman when I had meant a woman of integrity. Oh dear.


The weather is interesting- very humid, which I didn't expect at all. I have seriously wavy hair around here. It's a little chilly right now, which wouldn't matter except that none of the houses have heat or air conditioning. Nonetheless, with a light jacket, we seem fine. It's definitely cloudy. Except when we went to see the 5000 year old ruins outside of town and got sunburnt. I felt like I was in Egypt.


Oh, there is so much to say, but surely you are getting bored by now. Please pray for us if you can- emotional rest, language ability, connecting with our teammates, health, encouragement. We are having a great "vacation" so far, but eventually this whole thing might sink in! I do feel grateful for the international travel we have done before in the developing world. It is making this country seem more familiar and predictable in a comforting way.


I have taken a lot of photos so far. If you want to see them all, look on my Picasa web album.