There and Back Again

I've been posting notes on Facebook because Blogger stopped working about halfway through, but now I'm re-posting everything here since I'm home and it works.

Okay, I have a lot of days to cover, so it’s not going to be as detailed as usual. Last Wednesday was el Día del Campesino (Farmer’s Day), so we went and watched more parades and dances. It was very similar to Flag Day with all the parades and dances, but it was even longer. It was pretty fun because a little girl named Angela sat in my lap nearly the whole time, which was awesome because I got to play with her and she kept me warm while we were in the cool shade. The dances this time were a little different because most of the dancers were adults, and it was kind of weird watching them run around. To me, it wasn’t really dancing, but I suppose that’s just a cultural difference, plus it’s way more fun to watch the children dance. One of the dances, however, was disturbing because we were told that it was a dance for the devil, and it was a child this time who danced it. That was really saddening, and I just wish the people here would see past their traditions and realize what they’re doing. But once again I cannot judge. All in all, the festival was pretty entertaining, and I got to try tamales, which are not like the tamales you’re thinking of, rather, they tasted like very moist cornbread. It was delicious. Thursday I spent most of the day preparing for English class that evening, which was fun. I taught about how to tell time and reviewed numbers again, and we had some new people show up, which was awesome. The majority of the class is children, and we’re considering splitting up and having two classes, one for kids and one for adults, because they just learn in completely different ways. However, I did get to use the stickers that I had brought, which was fun because we told the kids that if they volunteered to demonstrate or if they behaved throughout the whole class, then they would each get a sticker. It worked for the most part, but I think maybe next week we’ll split them up. After the class that night, we went to reserve our tickets for the Combi that we needed to take at 2 am on Friday to go to Nazca. However, we were told that it was completely full already, so we were basically out of luck and had no way to get to Nazca. We decided to get up at 1 am and get to the plaza where the Combis leave at 1:30 just in case we could persuade them to let us on.

As we were getting ready to leave the hostel, Kelly and I accidentally set our room on fire. We had turned on the little heater that we had because it was freezing when we woke up, and the extension cord we have usually gets really hot when we use it. But typically it’s not a problem. This time, however, the cord was sandwiched between the cardboard under Kelly’s mattress and the mattress itself. So, somehow when the cord was getting super hot, it sparked and caught the cardboard on fire. Kelly was in the bathroom at the time, but I heard it sputtering and thought that the cord was just shorting out, so I quickly turned the heater off. However, then I saw this orange glow against the wall, so I ripped the sheets of Kelly’s bed and beat the mattress on top of the flames until it was out. What a way to begin a very early morning and a long day of traveling. After about 10 minutes, though, I was able to laugh about it, and I was thankful that it was nothing more than what it was. Our poor extension cord, however, burned in half. Anyways, we got to the plaza about 1:40 and saw the Combis just parked on one side, and it looked like we were the only ones there. So we huddled together for warmth and just waited. Soon, however, we realized that we were not alone. We saw something moving in one of the Combis, and I screamed as I saw this blob of blankets come alive. I calmed down when we realized that it was just the Combi drivers who we assumed had spent the night in the vans. I think my nerves were just a little frayed from the fire earlier : ). Anyways, somehow we convinced them to let us squish into the Combi, so we had quite an uncomfortable, 4 hour, bumpy, windy ride through the mountains to Puquio, which is like halfway to Nazca. We arrived in Puquio around 6:30 and found a station wagon taxi that would take the four of us to Nazca. We made it to Nazca a little after 10, and thankfully it was much warmer there. The taxi driver dropped us off at our hotel, but we couldn’t check in until 2:30. It was awesome, though, to see all the other student missionaries who had already arrived. [I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this already, but the reason we went to Nazca was because it was our midsummer ‘break’ when all the student mission teams came together to share what God had been doing in each of our villages and to just relax in a nice hotel for a while.] We dropped our stuff off in the big pile of backpacks (btw, the four of us managed to fit all of our clothes and stuff in one small bag), and then went with another group to go get some pizza. We were so ready for some American food, but when the pizza arrived, it wasn’t the cheesy, saucy pizza with pepperonis we had hoped for. It was this fancy gourmet pizza, which was good, but did not satisfy our pizza yearning. Afterwards we decided to go get some ice cream, which I was so incredibly excited about. And this ice cream was fantastic and satisfied all my expectations, so it made up for the disappointing pizza experience. We still had some time left before we could check in, so we walked around a bit and ran into our family group from camp at the beginning of the summer. They are all really awesome, and we were so excited to see them again! When we finally got our room assignments, we discovered that, unlike we had expected, Kelly and I were not rooming together, nor were Shane and David. Instead, they had divided everyone up intentionally in order to give us some time apart from our group, which I suppose is a good idea if the team is sick of each other, but we weren’t. So our brilliant plan to pack only one bag failed, but it wasn’t too bad. Unfortunately, I had never met my roommate and we were going to be sharing a full bed together, which sounded a little strange to me, I must admit. The first thing I did when I got in the room was to take a long, hot shower. It was heavenly. Anyways, we went to get dinner that night, and this time we were searching for hamburgers and hotdogs. These, too, were failures. I didn’t try the hamburgers, but Shane and David told me they were disappointing, but I did have a hot dog, or so it was called. We went to bed early that night, and got up the next morning for breakfast at the hotel and then the first worship/team share session time with all the student missionaries.

There were three sessions on Saturday and three on Sunday, and it was really encouraging to hear about the other teams’ successes and struggles, because we had been feeling kind of discouraged at our seemingly slow progress. We had a lot of free time to just walk around and be tourists, and that day for lunch we finally had a satisfying American food meal. This restaurant had been recommended to us by others, and we went and got cheese burgers and fries, which were pretty good. It definitely satisfied our quest for hamburgers, so that night we went to find some good pizza, and were somewhat successful in that. All in all, though, the “American” food in Nazca was rather disappointing, and by the time we left I was ready for some good rice and potatoes and meat from our favorite restaurant in Cabana. I did get to do a little souvenir shopping, but I was ready to get back to the village because I had this tourist mentality that was really annoying me, and I just felt absorbed with eating and shopping. Saturday and Sunday were fun times though because we hung out with our family group and other friends and just chilled. Also, we had individual interviews with REAPSouth staff and just talked about our struggles and what had been going on with everything. It was good to talk to someone about everything and to receive encouragement and advice. We also had team interviews and got some good advice there, too.

Monday we left Nazca around 11 in another station wagon taxi and arrived in Puquio about 2:30. Unfortunately, we were told that the Combis leaving for Cabana at 4 and 6 were full, so once again we just kind of had to wing it. We tried to get a decently priced taxi ride, but all the drivers gave us outrageous estimates, and we suspect that it was because we’re gringos. We waited, though, because one of the Combi agencies said they would confirm with the other passengers just in case there would be no-shows, and by the grace and providence of God there were exactly 4 seats open. So we bought our tickets and left for Cabana at 6:30. Once again, the ride was pretty rough. I have never gotten car sick, but I was the closest I’ve ever been by the time we rolled up to our hostel at 10:30 that night. We were all so exhausted that we just when straight to bed.

We slept in a bit Tuesday and spent most of it getting all of our stuff sorted through (I bought some groceries in Nazca to replenish my dwindling snack supply) and getting ready for the second half of our stay. In the afternoon we went to the primary school to watch the secondary school teams play some volleyball against a neighboring village, but we didn’t see much of it before they finished. Still, though, we played with some children, so that was fun. It was pretty cool yesterday because a lot of people asked where we went and how our trip was, so it shows that they realized we were gone, which is good. That’s pretty much all we did that day, and that night we got together as a team and talked about what Nazca and our time there meant for us and also about what we want to accomplish and do this week. We are in the process of planning activities for the Creative Ministry Team because they are coming to Cabana the 11th of July, and we’re really pumped and excited about their visit!

Wednesday morning we went to the internet to blog, and I wrote most of this, but for some reason Blogspot would not post it. It was infinitely frustrating, but I emailed it to myself and now I’m updating with what has happened since then, so it’s all good. We also talked to the mayor about the Creative Ministry Team performing in the auditorium, and he was all for that. That evening David and Kelly went to talk to this boy named Jhoannes, who absolutely adores David, about Christ, and they used the Wordless Book (with colors that each represent something). When they came back, they told us how Jhoannes had just completely understood everything and how he had prayed to receive Christ! It was awesome! They helped him make a bracelet with colored beads that corresponded to the ones in the Wordless Book, and they told him to share the story with everyone. It was amazing to see the joy in David and Kelly when they came back, and we all agreed that even if no one else accepts Christ this summer, this whole trip would be worth it just because of Jhoannes. Afterwards, Wilder and Daniel came over, and we talked for a while about Jhoannes and also about what having a relationship with God is all about. They were a little bit uncomfortable talking about that, but we could all tell that they were seriously thinking about it and just needed more time. We played cards with them and made some plans to teach them basketball. Also, we invited them to partake in our Fourth of July celebration tomorrow, and we plan to have a fire and cook hotdogs and shoot off some firecrackers, which are the only “fireworks” you can really find here.

Thursday morning we got up to walk Jhoannes to school, and some other children walked with us, so Jhoannes showed them his bracelet and explained what each bead represents. It was awesome because he is such a new Christian and is already sharing the Gospel with his friends. Then we went to the secondary school to talk to the principal about the Creative Ministry Team coming and performing in the classrooms. Unfortunately, he said it was against the rules, but that in the afternoon when school is out they can come and perform in the courtyard. Later that day, David and Shane went to play basketball again, and I went with them to run. It was a little easier this time, but I didn’t run for long before I was ready to stop. I’m working my way up, though : ). We were supposed to have English class last night, but there is this big conference on taking care of and protecting the vicuñas like wild alpacas) that’s been going on, so they were still meeting in the auditorium. It was a little frustrating because I had prepared a lesson and we had planned to share a Bible story, but we got to play with some kids again, so that was fun. I felt bad, though, because a couple from Aucará (a village really close by) had come all the way to Cabana just for the English class, and we didn’t end up having it. It turns out, though, that the man is the English teacher at the secondary school, and he invited us to come and teach a class next week, so we’re planning on going on Tuesday. Since we couldn’t have class, we decided to go drink some hot tea and got to draw pictures with a couple of boys. Well, David and Shane drew pictures while Kelly and I watched….but still, it was fun : ).

This morning (Friday), we got up to try the internet again, but the vicuña conference was still going on and had taken over the municipal building. So, Kelly and I decided to check out the conference and see what it was all about, and Shane and David went back to do some laundry. Then we went to the primary school to see when we could meet with the principal to talk about the Creative Ministry Team coming, and we set up a meeting for next Wednesday. After lunch, the boys went to work out and I read some more out of La Casa de los Espíritus. We were visited by a couple of girls who always come by and talk to us, so that was fun because they were really excited about the walkie talkies and kept playing with them. I think I got the order of the last 2 events mixed up, but I don’t feel like fixing it. We have a pretty busy weekend, what with our basketball plans and awesome Independence Day celebration on Saturday and church at FBC Yuly and volleyball on Sunday.That’s about it so far, but I’ll keep y’all posted!!!

Prayer requests:
-Pray that we would put into practice what we heard and received in Nazca and that we would not get discouraged
-Pray that we would make the absolute most of the little time we have left here and that we would go all out for God’s will here
-Pray that God would open the hearts and minds of the people of Cabana to hear and accept God’s Word
-Pray for Wilder and Daniel, that they would not be able to shake the Gospel from their minds
-Pray for Jhoannes, that even though he is young he would just grow in his faith and have a passion to share it
-Pray for the other student mission teams, that they would be effective and just faithful to God’s guidance
-Pray for all the missionaries around the world
-Pray that I would continue to decrease so that Christ would increase

Thank y’all for your prayers and your comments! I love y’all and miss y’all!Peace out.

P.S. Mom, I meant to tell you this a long time ago, but one day we were eating in our favorite restaurant, and I ate about half a plate of black-eyed peas….and loved them! Aren’t you proud of me??Also, I have now tried cow intestine (gross), several local fruits (good), and boiled quail eggs (surprisingly tasty), in addition to the other strange foods I’ve eaten.

P.S.S. I really hope someone gets my title’s allusion.

P.S.S.S. Holy freaking moly I'm pumped that Catie and Molly are coming!!!!! An inbox message to y'all is forthcoming.