We're on our way back up the river tomorrow morning. I wanted to give you guys a lot more than I can right now because other people are waiting to use this computer but...
Ok, like I said, our first village was amazing. When we were leaving Abuelita -grandma- (who I adopted pretty much the first day I met her) told me I should just hide in the other room while my team got on the boat so she could keep me. I told her I would. If there's anyone I could put in my pocket and take home with me it would be her. Or Mama. She's fantastic.
Second, third, and fourth villages were tough. Just really spiritually dark places, rude people (one place in particular), and a lot of us on the team were dealing with a lot of personal crap... The last village made up for it though. Well kind of. It just made the next river trip seem less scary because I remembered how much I really could fall in love with these people.
So a few other things that have happened since my last post or I forgot to mention... I've seen a few monkeys (and touched one), eaten alligator, and my new favorite juice is Camu Camu.
Since I have to leave in a minute, prayer requests...
-energy
-sleep
-migraines (had one at the pastor's house last night which was no good because then everyone else had to eat my food)
-my patience is really running out for everyone which sucks. I really miss alone time. like a lot.
-that we would all feel like we're doing something actually worthwhile and productive even if we're doing a lot of hurry up and waiting.
I'll be back in the city on the 10th I believe so I'll try to update when I can!
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
There´s A First Time For Everything...
And pretty much everything so far has been a first. I don´t really know where to begin and I doubt I have much time to write everything in detail, but I spose I´ll start with the new things I´ve done.
I´ve seen pirahnas, pink dolphins, a giant guinnea pig (capybara. look it up), and a snake chasing a frog on the path in front of us. I´ve been bathing in the river or in rain water for the past two weeks. I´ve totally forgotten what the word privacy means. I´ve walked through the jungle in the dark with no lights at all. Yeah that was not the most fun time for me.. Well actually it wasn´t that awful. My new favorite bird makes a noise that sounds like water dripping. My new favorite food is yuca. My new favorite meat is jungle boar, but only fresh because otherwise it´s sooo salty. I´ve slept in a room with chickens, cats, dogs, spiders as big as my face, bats, rats, and frogs all in the same night. By that I mean pretty much every night spent in the jungle. I´ve had to face literally every single one of my fears since being here, not saying I´ve conquered them, just saying I´ve had to deal with them. Umm I´ve been rescued by pecky pecky when our boat got stuck because the river was too low on the way to our second village. I´ve slept in a hammock for the first time and then the second and then the 14th time...
So basically there´s a ton of stories, but I´ll just give a basic overview of what we´ve been doing.
Our first village was San Jose. It was amazing. We did a youth camp there, all of us taught, and I survived one of my first fears of the list, public speaking. It actually wasn´t that bad because Luke was translating and it gave me time to think in between what I was trying to say. Speaking of which, I´m pretty much translator number 2 on our team because other than Luke, I´m the most fluent here and my Spanish has increased immensly. shoot shoot shoot I really want to finish this but we´re leaving the internet cafe now so I´ll try to finish this tomorrow.
I´ve seen pirahnas, pink dolphins, a giant guinnea pig (capybara. look it up), and a snake chasing a frog on the path in front of us. I´ve been bathing in the river or in rain water for the past two weeks. I´ve totally forgotten what the word privacy means. I´ve walked through the jungle in the dark with no lights at all. Yeah that was not the most fun time for me.. Well actually it wasn´t that awful. My new favorite bird makes a noise that sounds like water dripping. My new favorite food is yuca. My new favorite meat is jungle boar, but only fresh because otherwise it´s sooo salty. I´ve slept in a room with chickens, cats, dogs, spiders as big as my face, bats, rats, and frogs all in the same night. By that I mean pretty much every night spent in the jungle. I´ve had to face literally every single one of my fears since being here, not saying I´ve conquered them, just saying I´ve had to deal with them. Umm I´ve been rescued by pecky pecky when our boat got stuck because the river was too low on the way to our second village. I´ve slept in a hammock for the first time and then the second and then the 14th time...
So basically there´s a ton of stories, but I´ll just give a basic overview of what we´ve been doing.
Our first village was San Jose. It was amazing. We did a youth camp there, all of us taught, and I survived one of my first fears of the list, public speaking. It actually wasn´t that bad because Luke was translating and it gave me time to think in between what I was trying to say. Speaking of which, I´m pretty much translator number 2 on our team because other than Luke, I´m the most fluent here and my Spanish has increased immensly. shoot shoot shoot I really want to finish this but we´re leaving the internet cafe now so I´ll try to finish this tomorrow.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Are Content and Sweaty The Same Thing?
I´ve never produced so much consistant sweat before, and that´s saying something for me. But after missing 2 out of 3 of our flights to finally get here, I am sincerely in love with Peru. First a night in Lima, and now our second night in Iquitos, this place is exactly where my heart is happy. I love the city, I love the culture, I love the people... I´ve even loved the food.
I guess I should explain the flight situation so nobody freaks out. Our first flight from Minneapolis left an hour late. not because of anything they could explain, they just didn´t plan enough time to pack the cargo really. our next flight was 45 minutes after we landed...which we then missed. we sprinted (seriously) across the atlanta airport to try and catch it because the flight attendants on our first plane told us they knew we were coming. yeah they left anyways. so then it was a while before we got things figured out, and while luke and kirstin were at the customer service counter, the rest of the team ..by that i mean jo and timra, sang songs. we got some funny looks and some hardcore stares. it was entertaining really.
Delta then set us up with a hotel and food vouchers to last us till the next afternoon when we would be able to fly into Lima. it was actually a really good restful time for our team, we needed to be able to sleep in and not stress for a while. in Lima, we spent the night with some YWAMers and flew to Iquitos the next night. we were about to miss that last flight too, miscommunication of the take off time, so after some more running across the airport, we made it. we spent our first night at the YWAM base here, went out and saw the city, and hung out today, practicing dramas and stuff. i can´t say enough times that i love it here! but i´m such a city girl, this life appeals to me so much. it also really helps that i have a heart for the latino culture. other than my leader luke, i´m basically the most fluent in the language, so i do a lot of translating and talking in between people. i don´t mind though :)
we have to go back to the base now, so i´m sorry this isn´t a very great update. but we´ll be leaving for the river in a couple days, then i´m gone for 2 weeks...then i´ll try to update again. peace out friends!
I guess I should explain the flight situation so nobody freaks out. Our first flight from Minneapolis left an hour late. not because of anything they could explain, they just didn´t plan enough time to pack the cargo really. our next flight was 45 minutes after we landed...which we then missed. we sprinted (seriously) across the atlanta airport to try and catch it because the flight attendants on our first plane told us they knew we were coming. yeah they left anyways. so then it was a while before we got things figured out, and while luke and kirstin were at the customer service counter, the rest of the team ..by that i mean jo and timra, sang songs. we got some funny looks and some hardcore stares. it was entertaining really.
Delta then set us up with a hotel and food vouchers to last us till the next afternoon when we would be able to fly into Lima. it was actually a really good restful time for our team, we needed to be able to sleep in and not stress for a while. in Lima, we spent the night with some YWAMers and flew to Iquitos the next night. we were about to miss that last flight too, miscommunication of the take off time, so after some more running across the airport, we made it. we spent our first night at the YWAM base here, went out and saw the city, and hung out today, practicing dramas and stuff. i can´t say enough times that i love it here! but i´m such a city girl, this life appeals to me so much. it also really helps that i have a heart for the latino culture. other than my leader luke, i´m basically the most fluent in the language, so i do a lot of translating and talking in between people. i don´t mind though :)
we have to go back to the base now, so i´m sorry this isn´t a very great update. but we´ll be leaving for the river in a couple days, then i´m gone for 2 weeks...then i´ll try to update again. peace out friends!
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