An Explosion of Sorts

Okay, there has been way too much awesome in the past week to explain everything in detail, but I will do the best I can. The longer I wait to write my blog, more awesome things keep happening that are pushing the formerly awesome things to the back of my mind, but I will try to remember as much detail as possible.

Last Monday after I blogged, we played some volleyball in the afternoon and then Jackie came over in the evening. She had mentioned to us that she needed a large sum of money to acquire some official documents like her birth certificate, which is apparently a difficult process, and she had asked us if she could do our laundry or anything so that she could earn it. We talked about it as a team, and when she came over that night we gave her the money she needed and discussed ways for her to ‘earn’ it. We would have gladly given it to her without any payback, but she was insistent on it, so we arranged for her to give me and David cooking lessons and to help us advertise our English classes and Bible studies. We had set up a fund at the beginning of the summer that all of us contributed to so that if something came up and we felt that God was leading us to give, we could do it freely and as a team, so this was the perfect opportunity to do that.

Tuesday we got up early and hiked to Aucará, which was only about a thirty minute walk. We took this sweet awesome path instead of the road, and it was so fun. We had some interesting moments getting up and down a few things, but we arrived safely in Aucará. While we were just sitting in the plaza catching our breath and getting ready to go to the school, the assistant mayor and other town authorities came up to us and invited us to come into the municipal building to chat. So we did. We told them why we were here and how long we’d be staying in Cabana, and they immediately asked us to come to Aucará and minister there. It was so awesome because before we left that morning we had prayed for God to open doors in Aucará, and almost immediately we had this big fat door opened for us and the authorities welcomed us with open arms. We arranged for the Creative Ministry Team to come and perform on Monday and we also set up a weekly English class and Bible study on Wednesdays. Afterwards, we were super pumped about how amazing God was, and then we went to the secondary school. It was fun to see the surprise on the English teacher’s face who had invited us to come but didn’t expect us to. We took a tour of the school, which was really neat because they have all these greenhouses and agricultural projects, and they raise tons of guinea pigs, which is quite a delicacy here in Peru. Then we were told to come back in about an hour because that’s when his next English class was, so we decided to explore a bit and went out to the lake and then the boys tried to climb a gigantic rock. We didn’t have enough time for them to, though, so they came back after the class and conquered it. The class was fun because it was an actual classroom full of kids who actually wanted to learn another language (I contrast this with kids in the U.S.), and I taught them basic phrases and helped them with pronunciation. I really enjoyed it a lot. Afterwards we tried to find a restaurant that was open for lunch, but the only ones that were open were serving nasty food like cow intestine. So we went down to this pure spring that the Incas had built a tunnel and everything around, and we drank some of the clean water, which was really refreshing. Then we met this family who is from Aucará but lives in Lima, and we chatted with them a bit, and they invited us to come back on Thursday so that they could give us a guided tour of the ruins. We told them we would try, and then we took a Combi back to Cabana since we were pooped and didn’t feel like walking.

Wednesday we had our first cooking lesson with Jackie, and it was awesome!!!! She taught me to make Ají de Gallina (basically Pepper Chicken), and it was so delicious. We went and bought fresh ingredients and then she took us to her house and we cooked over a real fire, which was awesome. She and I got to talk a lot while we were cooking, and I’m so excited about getting to know her better and learning more delicious recipes. I can’t wait to cook for everyone when I get back! That was the main thing that happened on Wednesday, so I’ll move on to Thursday.

Thursday we got up early because we had to make an announcement at the secondary school about the Creative Ministry Team’s performance, and also we wanted to make it to Aucará to see the ruins with the family we had met. The boys went early and hiked down to tell them that we would be later than we had planned due to our appointment at the school, and then Kelly and I took a Combi down after we finished. We met up with the family, and the dad and the daughter gave us this amazing, personal tour of the Incan and pre-Incan ruins of Aucará. We hiked all over and saw the old Jesuit temple, and the dad, who had grown up in the village, led us through these hidden paths to see other ruins that you couldn’t just easily get to. We tried some more local fruit called hullo, which was so delicious that I ate like 6 of them. They took us to this old house which belongs to their family somewhere down the line and also to the lake. Throughout the whole tour, the dad was commenting on when this was built and when these people came, and it was really cool to hear all the interesting history. Finally, after walking around for about 4 hours, we were all tired and hungry, so we met up with the rest of the family and caught a ride back to Cabana. They came to our favorite restaurant to eat with us and we just hung out some more and invited them to the English class that night. However, the power in Cabana went out around 3 in the afternoon, and when it was time to have the English class, it was still out. We were a little concerned because people told us that the last time all the power went out, it was out for 5 days, and we were worried because the CMT was coming in 2 days and we had all this stuff planned. It came on around 7:30, though, but before then it was so weird to walk around in complete obscurity except for the little rings of light coming from our headlamps. It was pretty cool at the same time because you could see the stars perfectly. We didn’t have English class that night, but we rescheduled for Friday night.

Friday we had planned on cooking again with Jackie, but when we went to her house she told us that her grandfather had died and that she had to be at the house all day cooking and preparing stuff. She invited us to come too, which we felt was an incredible honor and a sign that we were close friends. So we went for about 45 minutes, and it was a slightly uncomfortable experience. More than half of the family and friends there were completely drunk and made us very uncomfortable with their behavior and comments, and there was a lot of Catholic rituals and superstitious animism that we didn’t understand. But, we were glad to be there to support Jackie and show respect to her family, and I wrote out 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 for her because it’s my favorite passage about God’s mercy and comfort. Friday evening we had our make-up English class, which was kind of a disappointment because I only had 3 students due to the fact that there was a meeting about the swine flu going on simultaneously. But, I taught nonetheless.

Saturday we slept in and did stuff that we had been needing to get done around the hostel, and we didn’t have anything planned because we were awaiting the arrival of the CMT and didn’t know exactly when they would get in. They arrived around 4:30, tired, dusty, and travel-worn, and we showed them to their rooms so that they could unload and rest a bit. Then we went to dinner, and it was interesting walking around because a huge group of gringos sure does attract a lot of attention. That night, our team wrote out the church ‘bulletins’ for church the next morning and then went to bed.

Sunday morning we all got up and had church, and all 11 of us squished into David and Shane’s room because it was our ‘sanctuary’ with the cross and everything. The CMT was excited about having church because they hadn’t been to church or been fed by a sermon in a long time, and we were excited to have live worship again. We sang, took Communion, and listened to the last Tim Keller sermon of the series. Then we all went to lunch and then started to prepare for the performance that evening. Arturo, the awesome Peruvian translator for the CMT, showed Kelly and me a skit on his laptop that they had been wanting to do but couldn’t because they didn’t have enough Spanish speakers. So, we decided to do it, and I was a little nervous because I would be up on stage in front of a bunch of people, speaking in my second language. As we were rehearsing in the auditorium, in walked Catie and Molly with their backpacks and everything. I flipped out. I was up on stage, and I screamed and practically flew down the steps and flung myself into their arms. It was just too much happy, and I couldn’t keep myself from crying. It was a wonderful, wonderful moment. After we all calmed down, I took them to the hostel and they put their stuff in my room because we didn’t think there were any open rooms due to the CMT and this huge group of men that had arrived on Saturday. And guess what my amazing, angelic friends brought me!!! Dark chocolate and peanut butter M&M’s!!!!! They couldn’t have brought a better gift. Anyways, later we all went to the auditorium for the CMT performance. A surprisingly large crowd showed up, the largest the CMT had ever had, and the performance was great. We sang songs, acted out skits, and at the end they acted out the Creation to Christ story while Arturo narrated. It was really awesome because every single act had a Biblical message to it, and after each one someone would come up and explain how it applied to us. Unfortunately, right at the end of the performance, Molly, who had been feeling pretty weak and tired since they arrived, got sick. So, she and Catie went back to the hostel while I got something to go from the restaurant for us to share. Even though we didn’t get to hang out with everyone at dinner, it was fantastic to just sit and chill with mis amigas and talk and try to comfort Molly in her nausea and sickness. That night, the 3 of us all slept in my bed, which was interesting, to say the least. I hardly slept at all, mainly due to the fact that I too got sick for a bit, probably because of the massive amounts of peanut butter M&M’s I had consumed in my excitement.

When we got up Monday morning, Molly was feeling much better and I was still a little iffy in the stomach. We tried to get on the internet, but it was closed, so we went back to the hostel and I showed them the video of our day at the chacra, and we just chatted and hugged a lot : ). Then we went to lunch, and afterwards went exploring. I showed them basically all of Cabana in a couple of hours, and then we went back and did some stuff until we left for Aucará for the CMT performance there. We set things up and waited for people to get there, and once again we had an incredible turnout. The performance was awesome again, and we stuck around and talked to people afterwards. We announced about the English class and Bible study we were going to have on Wednesday, and then we piled into a truck and rode back to Cabana. The restaurant was closed by the time we got back, so we just all ate snacks and stuff and hung out for a bit. Thankfully we found an open room in the hostel for Molly and Catie, and so we went to bed pretty early because we were rather tired from the lack of sleep the night before and the excitement of the day.

Tuesday morning, Catie, Molly, and I got up pretty early and got some coffee and breakfast down in the restaurant. It was so crazy because it actually rained in the morning. It had sort of kind of misted once, but this was pretty legit rain, and it was so cold and windy. I blamed Catie and Molly for bringing nasty Chilean weather with them, but thankfully it didn’t rain long. We tried once again to get on the internet, but it was closed because the secretary was gone, so we went back to the hostel to try to figure out what we wanted to do. We hung out there for a bit, and then we decided to hike up to our ridge where we stargazed and had our 4th of July celebration, and we just sat there, gazing on the beauty and wonderful creation before us. We sat in silence; we talked; we cried; we hugged; and we just thanked God for each other and for who He is. I cannot even begin to express how much I love these two amazing girls and how thankful I am that God has blessed me with them. I had really been needing some familiarity and some wisdom and comfort in person, and they have and continue to help me so much. After lunch, my team and the CMT went to the primary school to tell kids to come back in about an hour to see them perform on the playground, but not a whole lot of kids showed up. So, we just played with them, and the four of my team went to start setting up the surprise we had planned for the CMT. We planned to have a campfire and hotdogs and just hanging out that night, so we went to see if we could find somewhere to buy wood and we went to buy the food. I think we bought nearly every hotdog in Cabana to have enough for all of us plus our Cabana friends we invited. Around 4 in the afternoon, we all went to the secondary school for a performance there, but then the principal told us that the government had canceled all the schools in Peru due to the swine flu, so there weren’t a whole lot of students there to perform for. So, we ended up just playing some more; some of us played volleyball, some basketball, and some soccer, and around 5 we decided to do a couple of songs and skits for those who were there, and it was a fun time. Afterwards, we told the CMT about our surprise and told them to wear warm clothes and get some snacks and drinks, but that we would provide the rest. Everyone left around 7 to go get firewood and then head up to the ridge, but Molly, Catie, and I had to finish packing stuff up to take up there, so we stayed behind a bit. Then the 3 of us headed up the hill, and we got there before everyone else because I guess they were still getting everything. It was fun, though, because we just sang Disney songs and danced around and looked at what stars we could see through the cloudy night. When the others arrived, the boys started on the fire and we got everything set up and the hotdogs a-cooking. It was so much fun because we just sat around the warm fire, eating hotdogs and telling stories, and then some of us went back to the hostel to get Hayes’ (one of the CMT-ers) guitar so that we could sing songs. By the time we got back, though, most of them were heading back to the hostel to pack and get some sleep before their 6 am bus the next morning. There were 7 of us left, and it was such a fun time. Hayes played and sang, and we sang along to the songs we knew. Catie, Molly, and I laughed and talked and sang and cuddled next to the fire together, and it was a glorious time. We could see a few stars and I actually saw a couple shooting stars, but we definitely decided to come back on another night when it’s clearer. We lost track of time out there as we just enjoyed everyone’s fellowship and friendship, and when we finally headed back it was already past midnight. But it was so worth it and was probably one of my favorite times since I’ve been here.

This morning, we all got up early to see the CMT off, and it was really sad to say goodbye because we had all had such a good time and had enjoyed performing with them and doing everything, but they had to head off to the next village. Tonight we have our first English class and Bible study in Aucará, and hopefully I’ll be able to blog again on Friday or something.

As for now, here are some prayer requests:
- Once again, that we would be focused on God’s will here in Cabana and not on the short time here
- That we would make the most of our time here
- That Catie and Molly would have a safe trip to Cusco on Friday and that they would have an awesome time in Peru and a safe journey back to Chile in a couple of weeks
- That I would daily cling to God’s grace and love for me, and that I would focus solely on who He is in me and not on my own shortcomings and weaknesses
- That God would continue to teach and change me and mold me to who He made me to be- That God would continue to open people’s hearts and minds to Him, and that He would embolden us to share His love

I love y’all and I miss y’all so much! Thank you for your prayers and comments; they mean so incredibly much to me!

P.S. I think Molly and Catie have written some Facebook notes about their time here, so if you want more details and everything about what we’re doing, check their profiles.