Dogs, Volleyball, and Chacra

Howdy, everyone!

Friday afternoon I went with David and Shane to the primary school playground, and while they played basketball, I ran. I knew it was going to be difficult because I can barely run in Texas where the altitude is basically 0, but it was harder than I thought. I probably ran a total of about ½ a mile (I walked in between some of my laps, though), but I feel like it was a good start. Anyways, Friday evening we went to this traveling dog show thing that we had heard about. I was expecting it to be kind of lame, but it was worse than lame, honestly. The crowd was mostly children, and the few adults besides us were there only because of their kids. The people had various acts (most of which did not include dogs, by the way, which was disappointing), and although I could not understand all of the skits, I understood enough to know that the material wasn’t exactly appropriate for children, and one act even had a girl just dancing around in basically a bra and super short skirt. Even the acts with the dogs were pretty lame, and you could see that the people verbally and physically abuse them. The only redeeming factor of us going to the show was the fact that we were surrounded by kids who just adored us, and we got to play with them a bit.

Saturday I spent most of the day just reading and preparing for that night’s English class. However, we discovered that the people who put on the dog show the night before were staying at our hostel, along with their dogs, which was interesting. It was so sad, though, because up close the dogs looked even more pathetic and starved. I watched as the humans bought beer and cigarettes with the money they earned the night before, while the dogs scratched around in the dirt and dug in the trash for food. It was angering and saddening to say the least, both because the people were lost and because the dogs were starving and abused. However, all I did was watch and judge and do nothing to help either, so am I any better, really? No. Nobody is righteous and nobody is justified, which makes the message of the Cross so amazing and so perfect, that God would still want a relationship with us enough to send His Son to make up for our imperfections. I pray that that message would be my driving force and would motivate me to do everything to make Him known. That night we had our English class, and quite a few people showed up. It was once again a blast, and we’re hoping to use that to get to know and reach more people. I must also add that Kelly, who thus far has not like any of our American food snacks, tried the Slim Jim beef jerky and cheese combo, and liked it….a lot. Needless to say, we were shocked and delighted.

On Sunday, Father’s Day, I got up at 7 am to do laundry. Bad idea. The water is cold enough during the heat of the day, but at 7 am it turns your hands into icicles. By the time I finished, my fingers could barely work the clips to attach my clothes to the line to dry. That’s the last time I do that, I hope. Anyways, Kelly, David and I had planned to go get breakfast and coffee at Deciderio’s restaurant and then call our dads to tell them happy Father’s Day, but the restaurant was closed due to the fact that Deciderio, a dad, was taking el Día del Padre off. We were disappointed, but we just decided to go on to the telefonica and call. So I got to talk to my dad briefly because the line was funky, and I talked to my mom and my sister for a bit, too, which was great, but it made me miss home even more. By the way, Mom, I’m totally down with your idea to have a huge family dinner (plus David) when I get back. Anyways, when we got back from the telefonica, we had church in the boys’ room, aka, First Baptist Yuly (the name of our hostel). The boys even got “dressed up” for church by cutting out paper ties and taping them to their necks with duck tape : ). We listened to and sang along to worship songs on our iPods and then listened to a sermon by Tim Keller, our church “guest speaker,” that David had on his iPod. Between my iPod and David’s, we have enough sermons to have church every Sunday until we leave, so we’re going to make that a regular thing. It was really awesome because it was a time for the 4 of us to just be fed by the Word together and to worship together. Right as we finished church, though, we heard some people arguing and a baby crying outside. Kelly and I went back to our room, and we saw a girl whose husband is in the dog show crying and another one of the girls trying to comfort her. So, we went out and started playing with her 1-year-old baby girl, and we introduced ourselves. We gave her some Kleenex to wipe her eyes and her baby’s nose, and she told us her name is Ruth and her daughter’s name is Nazaret. Let me just say Nazaret had some major energy. Most of the time, I was just holding her hands and walking around with her in the courtyard while she explored and played in the dirt. It was tiring but so wonderful because we got to talk with Ruth and another girl named Deysy, who was also in the act, and they’re 19 and 20 years old, so we could relate pretty well. We found out that Ruth and her husband had been arguing and that he had kicked her head, so I went and got my med kit (thanks, Mom) and put some Neosporin on her cut and gave her some pain reliever. It was an awesome time to just talk to them and get to know them. When we went to lunch, Kelly had the idea to bring Ruth some lunch back because when we left we saw the rest of the people in one of the rooms eating while Ruth was outside taking care of Nazaret. We didn’t get to talk to them much after that because Nazaret was napping, but we did get to say goodbye to them the next morning when they left, and Kelly gave Ruth a copy of the New Testament in Spanish. Around 3 in the afternoon we walked down to the plaza to play some volleyball. It was really fun, but after about the 5th game or so, I wanted to cry every time the ball hit my forearms. They kept wanting to play, though, so we played about 8 games, and my reward was a smattering of busted red blood vessels up and down my forearms. It was fun, but we played way too long, and David actually twisted his ankle but kept playing on it. When we looked at it later that night it was swollen and bruised, so he just elevated and iced it as best he could in a place where there is no ice.

Monday morning we got up to go to a woman named Norma’s chacra, which is basically like a terrace on the side of a mountain where people crow crops (they’re everywhere here and I have pictures that can show them better). She had invited us to come with her a while ago, so yesterday we went. Unfortunately, David was not able to go due to the fact that his ankle was still swollen quite a bit, so it was just Norma, her lamb named Pepe, Kelly, Shane, and me. Anyways, we had a very interesting descent down a mountain, and I can only describe it as perilously awesome. Surprisingly, I wasn’t scared at all, and I really feel that God completely filled me with this spirit of adventure yesterday because I was so excited and ready try everything the whole time. So, about 40 minutes after we started our descent, we finally made it to the chacra with our knees and thighs a little shaky. We rested a bit, and then helped Norma herd some cows into a field so that we could pick choclo (a type of corn). We picked choclo for a while, and then sat down to shuck it. Every time we started making a dent in the huge pile, though, this woman, who I assume works for Norma, would bring another huge sack of choclo and pour it on top. We shucked for several hours, and I actually kind of enjoyed it, except when I shucked one that was partially rotten and sticky and buggy….that was kind of gross. Norma was wonderful, though, because she kept arranging these sacks to make shade for us and she had bought a 3 liter of Coke for us to drink. It was a lot hotter down in the valley where the chacra was, so we were very glad for the shade and the Coke. Around 2, Norma’s mother came down (which amazes me because she’s like 70 or something and goes down to the chacra every day) and brought lunch. Do y’all remember that cow stomach that I mentioned the other day that was not my preference? Well, that’s what we had. Once again, I will say that God definitely filled me with an adventurous spirit because I actually liked it. It was in a different sauce with potatoes and rice, and I made sure that every bite had plenty of potatoes and rice with it so that I wouldn’t notice the texture too much. I ate everything on my plate, which was a mistake because then they gave me more. Also, we had boiled choclo (mota) that we had just picked and shucked, and let me just say, it was the most amazing corn I’ve ever had. The kernels are a lot bigger than the corn we’re used to, and it’s so sweet and juicy! Kelly was sitting next to me on the ground while we ate, and once when she bit into one it squirted both me and Shane, who was on the other side of me! I could eat that all day, and we had fresh cheese with it, which was a strangely delicious combination. I had all the choclo, cheese, and stomach that I could stomach, and then we went to milk cows. We watched while Norma and a few other people milked the cows, and then they let us try it. It was really fun and more difficult than I expected, but I did it and milk actually came out. And then we drank it, which was even weirder. It tasted good, sweeter than what we’re used to, but it was really warm, which was weird. Even though I liked the taste, it was hard to swallow because it was so warm, so Shane drank the rest of both mine and Kelly’s cups. Altogether, it was a very neat experience to milk a cow and then drink what you milked (and thankfully, my stomach handled it very well). And then we went back to shuck the rest of the choclo, which took forever. When we finally finished around 5:15, we packed everything up and started our ascent. Once again, I will say that God filled me up because I knew I could not climb that mountain on my own. So, while we were going up, I was constantly praying and repeating Philippians 4:13 to myself (but in Spanish, which was even cooler). God fulfilled my requests even more than I expected, which He has a way of doing, I’ve noticed. Instead of just making it up the mountain, I had tons of energy (despite our long and tiring day) and I was excited to actually climb a mountain. We videotaped some of the things we did while we were on the chacra, so hopefully I can show y’all when I get back. Anyways, we got back to Cabana right at dark and went to collapse on our beds. All I wanted to do was wash my hands and my face because they were so dirty from shucking and milking and walking up and down dusty mountain paths. I really hope we get to go again so that David will have a chance to go and because I had a blast. The whole day was an awesome opportunity to just get to know Norma better, and we actually had amazing conversations about what we believe and about God. We’re hoping to further that relationship with her and her family and continue to share Christ’s love with them. When we got back to the hostel, we recounted our adventures to David. Then we were surprised by a visit from Wilder and Daniel, who had heard that David hurt his ankle and had come to see how he was and to bring him a cream to alleviate his pain. It was so thoughtful and awesome of them to do that, so we were excited because we could see that we were growing in our relationships with them.

I know that was a long one, but it doesn’t even begin to describe everything we felt and experienced, so I’m just going to have to tell y’all when I see y’all. Also, on a side note, Friday night I experienced a huge bout of homesickness and doubts about myself. I cried, prayed, and talked to my team about it, but I still felt pretty down. The next day, I opened up a letter from my friend Cristina, and her letter was so encouraging and she had written 2 Corinthians 12:9-10. I looked it up and read it, and I knew that God had just spoken through her letter and through that verse. This is what it says: “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” It was just what I needed because I had been feeling so weak and imperfect, and once again God reminded me to look not at my weaknesses but at His strengths. Then, Kelly told me that her dad told her the same verse on Sunday when she talked to him. And today I checked my email and read one from my friend Brooke, and she too had written that verse at the bottom of the message. How cool is that? I think God really wanted to get His message across.

So, here are some prayer requests:

- Pray that God would heal David’s ankle so that he’ll be back to normal and be able to do everything
- Pray that God would heal Kelly, who’s been sick with a cold for a while, and pray that no one else would get sick
- Pray that we would continue to build relationships with Norma, Wilder, Daniel, and all the people here
- Pray that I would not be homesick and that I would focus on God instead of myself
- Pray that we would be bold and would follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit in all that we do
- Pray that the conversations we have had with various people would just prompt them to keep searching and wondering about God so that we would be able to share with them even more
- Pray always for team unity
- Pray always for all the missionaries
- Pray that each of us would grow closer to God throughout our time here


I love y’all, and I’m praying for y’all, too! Please comment, and if you don’t have a Google account, please make one so that you can comment because I love reading hearing from y’all : ). Thanks, Gig’em, and God bless!