What a CrAZy week!

Sunset at Monte Sion

Hmm, last week seems like it was years ago. So many things happened! Let me give you a brief recap.

Between Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday, we FINALLY finished painting and cleaning Monte Sion!!! It's was a glorious (as Melissa always says) moment when we set up the chairs for church and could sit down and be at peace. No more thinking about painting or cleaning, just enjoying. I'm excited to have it all done for MEADS, which will start on Friday. Hope everyone appreciates the change of scenery as much as we do. The old, white, dank box wasn't so fun to visit each week. The nice warm colors on the walls and full of people all weekend will be spectacular. 

Zombie Billy

Prudencio painting the trim.

Melissa tackling the back of the church!

Hard Working Folks

Wednesday was a less good day for Wilfredo. He left his house in the morning to run some errands and when he got home just a few hours later, his house had been robbed. All of the houses here have open roof plans and I always thought it was curious because it is prime access to getting into someone's house. I just assumed that no one took on the added obstacle of getting onto the roof and that was why people didn't have problems. Well, I guess not. None of his doors were broken and I don't think any locks were broken. Who knows how many people were there, but presumably they used the roof and managed to take all of Wilfredo's valuables. Fortunately they didn't use the door, or they might have taken off with his furniture too. So that was less than good news to get, especially coming the day before he headed to Colombia. Yikes!

To add to the pain, Karen and Graciela found his house flooded on Saturday. Billy and I went on Friday to give the dogs food and so Billy could say his goodbyes to Verbanita (the puppy). We had issues with the key, so that primarily occupied my mind while we were there, but I did walk in to check on things real quick and everything seemed fine. Not sure what happened between then and the next day, but apparently a pipe on the roof was broken and just flooded everything. Bummer dude. Bummer. I think they got it all cleaned up and hopefully the water is fully shut off until it can be fixed.

The good part to Wednesday was that it was Sandra's birthday. She was able to spend time with her family before they headed back home, which I am sure she appreciated. Sunday night, we celebrated her birthday with a yummy cake with lots of candles on top. I got used to seeing just 1 or a question mark, which seems to be the preferred candle. Age is a big secret here, partly because I don't think anyone knows how old they actually are. Details. Feliz cumpleanos, Sandra! 

La Punta - Beach Trip
Ana, Graciela, Sandra, Billy, Rocio,
Me, & Melissa. Karen took the picture.

Friday afternoon we said our goodbyes to Billy and Ana. They left at 3pm to begin their day and half long bus ride back to Pomabamba. Sandra is known to cry a lot. She always says she is a "llorona" or "cry baby" because everything makes her cry. One time, we were watching Esto es Guerra, which is a game show where scantily clad women and very muscular men compete in teams (Leones v. Cobras) in assorted timed activities. Well, one of the team members was leaving as his wife was about to have a baby, and both Billy and Sandra were sitting there watching it with tears in their eyes. It was both cute and hilarious at the same time that they got so emotional about it. Anyways, I digress. When we said our goodbyes to Ana and Billy, Ana started getting choked up and had tears streaming down her face. We know where Billy and Sandra got it from. And I am a contagious crier, so of course I got choked up. Goodbyes suck.

I promised Billy I would give him a call on Friday at 3pm to check in with him. I look forward to hearing about their trip home, which sounds like it was quite an adventure! Apparently, it rained a lot the few days before they left and the roads were HORRIBLE. Graciela told me they had to get out of the bus and walk for parts because cars and their bus couldn't pass. Can you imagine if that happened in the States?! Me either. They would have canceled the trip, no doubt. But we're in Peru and we persevere here! Otherwise, I hear they made it home safely. Also, I will have to ask about his first week of school. Apparently start date is just a suggestion, so he missed the first week of class. Hopefully his teachers showed up, apparently that is also just a suggestion.

This weekend was an average church weekend. Unfortunately, no one showed up for class on Friday night at Monte Sion. No kids showed up for class on Saturday either. So it goes.

We had a nice service at Monte Sion. Prudencio and Marlene presided and Betzabe spoke. I like when Prudencio presides because he is a thinker and likes to share about his experience with the scripture. Marlene is good for music, but she doesn't plan ahead and is always searching through the computer while other people are sharing and it can be distracting, especially when songs start randomly blaring. Betzabe hasn't given a sermon in a while, but she gave a nice concise talk. I appreciated it a lot. Hermana Maruja, Hermana Elsa and her daughter Nicole, and Hermana Maria joined us.

I have a confession to make - well, it's really quite well known - I procrastinate. Like crazy. I try very hard to break the habit and I occasionally succeed. This weekend, I did not. So, I woke up at 7:30am (before my alarm) on Sunday morning to get to work on preparing my class and testimony for church in the afternoon. Don't get me wrong, I had been thinking about these things over the past few days, but just hadn't actually prepared anything. That is when my computer decided to give me hell, or rather it likes to freeze. I spent 4 hours talking with Windows tech support trying to get it fixed. Well, my computer is now bug free, but it still doesn't work properly! But that's another story. Computer problems and procrastination make for a long morning. 

We made it to church in time to get it cleaned-up and all set-up in time for class to start. I shared about Holy Attention per the information from the church website. We took a moment to think about who or what we would like to give our attention to and how we could do something for that person or thing. It was interesting to hear about what was on people's minds. Jhonny was thinking about the kids in the jungle (he recently vacationed in Iquitos), Gladys was thinking about people that are "forgotten" at church (she watched a movie about forgotten people), Melissa was thinking about the people on the Malaysia flight (it's all over the news here too), and I was thinking about the kids at Monte Sion (I don't get out much). We'll see if anyone continues to spend time dwelling in those thoughts and exploring ways to promote them. 

For church, the theme was Believe in Christ and Melissa gave the sermon. Gladys asked me to share as part of the service, so I shared the poem "Footprints." Mirtha sent me a message today asking for the poem, which was cool. Glad that the words of the poem touched someone else. I love it. 

After church, 10 of us loaded up into our very own combi (at least for a few minutes) and headed home. Oddly enough, this was the FIRST time we went home on a combi after church. Usually Wilfredo drives us. Then, we ran to the grocery store to load up on food for the week. Pretty nice when you can buy food for 9 people for a week+ for less than S/. 500 (~$180). We enjoyed some chicken and french fries for dinner and then cake for Sandra's birthday. To finish up the weekend, Melissa, Sandra, and I watched the movie "Nebraska" (I haven't decided if I would recommend it or not..maybe?). 

Now, onto a new week that will certainly be full and busy as well. Wilfredo, Steve, and Carlos arrive tomorrow! Buen viaje a ellos! 

(OK, not so brief, sorry.)

~nos vemos

Karen, Me, and Billy

P.S. 4 more months until we will be back in the USA! 

A Whole New View!

This week was incredibly busy and labor intensive. We took on the project of painting the church at Monte Sion! It was ridiculous, but fun and oh so worth it. 

Everything piled in the middle to prep for
painting - white walls in the background. 

We spent Wednesday through Saturday at Monte Sion. The first day was spent sanding down the walls to smooth them out. Supposedly, paint sticks better to smooth walls than textured walls. At the very least, it meant the kids of Monte Sion could help with something. They came in full force, about 20 kids, on Wednesday afternoon and we handed them a little piece of sandpaper and they ran around sanding everything in sight! It was great for me, because when we set out to start this project all I could think about was how sore my shoulders would be and how long it would take and how much of a waste of time it would be to sand down the walls. The kids did most of the work, so WIN! Yes, I do realize that in the States we probably broke a million laws, especially with all the dust from sanding down the walls floating around and no one wearing masks. But, we're in Peru. What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. So with that, we finished sanding down the walls. 

Melissa and Wilfredo kicking off the painting!

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were painting days. It was quite a headache picking out the paint. Jhonny was in charge of the colors, but apparently all he did was pick some random colors he liked and put them into a picture for people to pick from. He didn't actually pick paint colors and brands or any of that sort of helpful information. We went to Sodimac, spent about an hour thinking about which color most closely matched the color in the picture of the picture we pulled up from Facebook on Wilfredo's phone (so you know that it was very easy to match, NOT). While we waited for the paint to get mixed, we had to run through the materials we had and that which we may find at Monte Sion to paint. For people that have done this job so many times, you would think they would just know. Instead, we had to play 20 questions and ask Wilfredo, do we need this? do we have that? Finally, we set off to Monte Sion and got the paint brushes rolling. 

As close as the little ones got to the paint.

We started painting Thursday afternoon. Wilfredo, Billy, Melissa, and I did the painting that day for about 4 hours. We finished a first coat of the main wall color. Wilfredo kept saying he didn't want the kids to help because they would mess it up. By the end of the day Friday, he had given in and let the older kids, about 8-12 years old, help paint. Carmen, Shirley, Elias, and Gaby were the lucky (or not-so-lucky) kids to pitch in with the work. There were moments when some adults Miriam, Maria, Doris, and Maruja, from Monte Sion also dropped in to help. All help was greatly appreciated! 

Saturday, things really started to come together once we got all of the first coat done and some even a second coat (btw, in Spanish, they say a 2nd hand - "segunda mano", not 2nd coat). What a difference paint makes! 

Gladys preaching in the freshly painted church.

Church that night was all the more pleasant. It feels so homey and warm with some nice colors on the walls. :) 

Unfortunately, we are still not done. What was planned to take 3 days, is now going on 5 days, with hopefully only 1 more day. We ran out of paint and sunlight to finish the outside today. Once that is all done and we do some inside touch-ups, then we just have to wash the floor and all will be well. 

Now, we have to start planning on how they want to decorate and personalize the church. In the past they taped up styrofoam arty things, which is not necessarily bad, but not so permanent. Any suggestions? 

Billy and Elias playing dress up with
the used blue tape. Very resourceful.

Some Memorable Moments/Notes: 

- I have listened to more music in English in the last week than I have in the last 8 months. 
- We ate a whole lot of greasy food and drank a whole lot of soda. It was awesome, but I can feel it now. Must keep exercising. 
- Got bossed around by Billy, who is 10 yrs old, btw. He couldn't stand not being in on the action. 
- Blue tape kind of sucks when it pulls the paint off the wall and is pointless if you only use it for part of the way. 
- The ladders we have may be horrifyingly unsafe, but they have been effective and thank God no one fell. 
- Children make great volunteers/helpers! Just gotta keep 'em reigned in. 
- Billy "fell in love" with Maricielo and has sought her out every time we got to Monte Sion. He wants to write her a letter and give her a ring. Ah, young love. Haha.  
- Prudencio calls Inca Kola is water. *SMH* 
- Monte Sion is a BIG church building. 
- Prudencio and Wilfredo are painting machines. I don't think I ever saw them take a break, other than for a quick gulp of soda/water.

Well, I think that's all for now. I hope we finish painting ASAP and convince people to  get it decorated ASAP, so we can just enjoy the finished product and get to the important stuff - reaching out to people in the community! 

~nos vemos~

Billy and I enjoying a little gaseosa.

Baking and Church - Community Service of My Favorite Kind

This week was fairly ordinary, but I learned and taught a few interesting things, so I will share about that. 

I love baking. With a recipe in hand and some measuring devices, I'll give it a shot. Apparently, people are a bit more reserved when it comes to the baking. Every time I bake something, everyone is just in complete awe. It's hilarious, but it also makes it even more fun to bake. Almost since the first day I got here, people have been asking me about cupcakes. What are these little pastries? How do you make them? Is it hard to make? They watch Cupcake Wars and assorted other Food Network shows about cupcakes, which has sparked some curiosity. So, the other week I was poking around Tottus and found a cupcake pan and figured I could finally make some cupcakes and muffins. Yum! 

On Wednesday night, Billy and Karen and I got to work on the cupcakes. I found a simple recipe for banana and vanilla cupcakes on the allrecipes.com app. Bananas are a very easy to find ingredient here and I love bananas, so seemed like a good combination. I brought measuring cups with me, but as they weren't getting any use here in Lima, I left them in Huanuco last year, so back to baking without measuring cups...keeping things interesting. Haha. I found that we have a small glass cup that seems to be approximately the size of a 1 cup measuring cup, so it has become my go-to measure. Fortunately, I do have a bit of experience with measuring, so I can sort of eyeball it. Billy assisted with measuring, cracking eggs, and cleaning the pan. Karen got home in time to fill the pan. Then, we mixed up some frosting while we waited for the cupcakes to cool. 

Banana Muffins!

Around 8ish, we had a church leadership meeting, so I had to leave the cupcake madness for a bit. After a while, I was anxious to try out the cupcakes, so I ran back downstairs so we could put the icing on the cupcakes and dig in! I figured it would be cool to pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes, turns out, not the best plan, but got the job done. Ended up being a nice experience to spend time with Billy and Karen and then a delicious dessert for our meeting. Pretty much everyone said they were good. 

Then on Sunday morning I wanted to make banana muffins, which Billy and Ana helped me prepare with Karen and Sandra supervising. I think Billy officially knows how to mix ingredients together now! Use that elbow grease! Mmm, I love me some banana muffins. As it turns out, muffins are more popular than cupcakes because they are not as sweet. Billy is convinced that eating the cupcakes gave him a cold because they were too sugary. I don't think that's possible, but at any rate, the muffins were more to his liking. I got a few other comments in kind, so I may stick to the muffin making...now to find baking soda and shortening to stick to the recipe. Know any alternative names for baking soda other than el bicarbonato de soda? No ones knows what it is and I'm not sure how else to ask for it.  

On a completely different note, I had a pretty good week in terms of church things. We have had some butting heads and conflicts of the sort of late that have made things way less than desirable at times. I don't know what happened, but this week had a whole lot less tension. With that, I was able to do more planning before the weekend got started. For once, I wasn't running around trying to figure out what I was going to teach for my classes. Also, I can respect a well-planned class that doesn't require a bunch of parts and prep. 

On Friday night I taught the Monte Sion adult class about the 4 Spiritual Types. I am sure I didn't do it justice, but it was good to introduce them to the subject and get them thinking about it. I think they enjoyed learning about them nonetheless. I learned that I have moved more in the 4 category, surprise surprise. [To oversimplify, 1s are head/intellectual church peeps, 2s are heart/emotional types, 3s are mystical/meditative types, and 4s are the doer/action types.] Also, Wilfredo seemed to think it was interesting and hopefully something we can bring to the Filadelfia congregation where we are currently trying to switch up church. Oddly enough, their idea of switching up church is moving towards the bulletin style service that we've been trying to move away from in the States. Whatever floats their boat. The one nice thing is that you know what will happen next and have a better idea for when things will end. The downside is that people don't know how to estimate well and don't compensate for things running long, so I think church will continue to be loonnngg. I know, I know, there shouldn't be a time limit on church, but I'm from the 1-hr church upbringing. Change is hard! 

Bigotes! (Mustaches!)

On Saturday, I had my usual kids class. Only 6 of the kids showed up, but they made up an amazing class! Like the kids, I most enjoy the activities. Having a "discussion" with 3-7 year-olds is not easy. I thought they would like to talk about the places they like to explore and go and they all said they liked to play with their friends on the soccer field. At least they talk, right? Anyway, we played Simon Says and Musical Chairs. We had a good time. Also, school starts next week, so I thought I would get the kids a back-to-school gift. Working with my budget, I opted for decorating pencils. So, I bought some pencils and then taped a mustache and the scripture Philippians 4:13 - "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" - on them and handed them out to the kids. They all seems pretty excited to get back to school and have... recess! 

The good thing that did come from said church service was that I was introduced to a pretty interesting scripture from Romans 12:1-2  (MSG), which says: 

Place Your Life Before God

12 1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

So, as we move in to lent, I will keep this in mind. I will have to work on the "readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it" part, but whatever better time than the present and the lenten season to do so?! Otherwise, I thought it was a cool scripture and am glad Jhonny brought it to my attention in his sermon, even if it was a 50-minute sermon. Oh Peru. 

I've got 2 more days to figure out what exactly I'm going to do for lent. The church has a "schedule" that will come in handy. What are you going to do/not do? Ideas? 

~nos vemos~

Good Times...and Rock Slides

We successfully and safely made it back to Lima from Huanuco! 

The one person directing traffic...

Being that the events are most recent in my mind, today's rock slides are becoming the biggest part of the weekend. It is rainy season and rock slides are common, so it was not completely out of the realm of things we were going to encounter on our trip. However, it was a new experience. The first rock slide we encountered only delayed us for a few minutes. The rocks were still falling - yikes! I'm not sure what the situation was, but the semi-trucks couldn't pass so we had to go around them. Then, we get to the front and a group of guys yelled when it was safe to go, but to go quickly. So we did and prayed that rocks wouldn't fall on us. Obstacle #1 down! 

Where's the road?!

Then, we come upon another stop and we wait a bit to see what's happening, then we move up a little bit, then we wait a little more, then we get directed over to a side path, at which point I was thinking it was a way to go around. Well, no. It was just a way to squish more cars together. We got stuck there for about 2 hours. It was a hot mess of mud and rocks, and like the first one, they were still falling. There were a handful of tractors and lots of workers on hand trying to clear it up. Everyone was getting out of their car to watch. Lots of waiting. In the end, we had to get 2 very long lines of traffic into 1 lane and deal with on-coming traffic. We left the house at 5am. We arrived at Obstacle #2 at 6am and finally got moving around 8am. What was supposed to be an 8-10 hr trip, depending on stops, became an 11.5 hour long ordeal. It's gonna take me a few days to recover. Haha. 

However, don't misconstrue the primacy of the rock slide  for things not going well in Huanuco, because they did! We got together last Tuesday to figure out what ministry we were going to bring and we had this great plan. Then we showed up, and the plan quickly started falling by the way-side. I was a bit worried that all of the things we planned were going to get the boot. I felt they were important things, but everyone kept putting things off, later and later. Overall, everything came together and worked out. I never did the class with kids that I planned, but oh well, maybe when we go back I can do it. Everything else we had planned, we did though. I felt like we had some good discussions and people had a few takeaways from the weekend. We'll see if anything gets taken to heart or not. Only time will tell. I know it's been nearly 8 months that I've been working on Peru-mode, but I still like lists and plans. I just have to keep reminding myself that it will all work out like this weekend. It was really a very enjoyable and productive time. 

At any rate, I had fun being back at Huancachupa (I never left the house) and seeing the family. 

Something like Picante de Pollo...nom!

I definitely appreciate Carolina's awesome cooking!

 I only have a couple of bug bites. 

It was nice to spend time with Eynor again, though he mostly just wanted to play Plants v. Zombies on my phone. He did let me take turns with him playing Minion Rush. 

Tingo Maria!

Yimi had another break from work and finished an art project - he painted one of the photos we had from our trip to Tingo Maria. 

We also got to play with the dogs, which is now down to a count of 3 - Oso, Loki, and Mojada. 

They promptly got my clothes all wet and muddy when we arrived as they very excitedly started jumping up at us, but it was good to see them healthy again! 

Mojada and Loki

And in initiation to Huancachupa fashion, we went on a hike to introduce Marlene to the hill. 

Marlene and Eynor taking a break at the top of the hill.

 

We are all set to head back mid-April to spend one more month with the Huanuco congregation. :D 

~nos vemos~

Beach Church Success!!

I haven't figured out why, but some of the people here are the freak out types. If they aren't in control of something, they freak out. Because of that, beach day has been a source of contention for the last few weeks. 

At one of our leadership meetings, Marlene volunteered Melissa and I to organize Beach Day. Give something to us to plan, just us. We were excited at the prospect because everything we have helped with but not been in charge of has been second guessed - oh that won't work, but it's too late to change, so we'll just go with it. (Btw, those things have ended up being a hit, not to toot my own horn, but they were.) We figured that if we could be in charge, things will be easier on us. 

Well, one the one hand it was. We just talked to people a couple of times to help organize things and get the details sorted out. Actually, it was super easy. People are so willing to help and they have the experience of been there done that, so they can voice their concerns and we moved forward. 

Then there are the freak out people who can't let go. We had people freaking out about not having posters done, that were in fact done. People freaking out about games not being planned and that we didn't have all of the supplies we needed to play the games, but those too were all coordinated and ready to go. Then we had people freaking out that we were incorporating things that didn't have anything to do with the theme because they didn't involve fish. Tranquilo (calm) and Fe (faith) became my go-to words. 

So, with that sort of stressful background to planning this day at the beach, I was surprised and thrilled how fun it was! (Again, not to toot my own horn, but it was a success!) 

The theme we chose was ¡Vamos a Pescar! (That was as close to Go Fish! we could get in Spanish.) A few weeks before in the lectionary the theme was Follow Jesus and it used the scripture from Matthew 4 about Jesus calling the fisherman to go and fish for men. We wanted to expand on that and talk about how to go about fishing for men. We focused on Luke 5:4-6 and the imagery of the nets.  

4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”

5 Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”

6 When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.

For the church part, we started with some peppy songs and got people moving. Then Jhonny welcomed everyone and introduced the theme. Betzabe and Eder were in charge of music and selected great songs to reinforce the theme. Marlene did a scripture reading. Mirtha gave a short sermon. Melissa and I incorporated a net activity. Wilfredo wrapped the service up with a benediction. It moved quickly and smoothly. The part I fear the most about church in public is that people will get self-conscious and not want to participate or won't participate as fully, but there was definitely participation and the awesome presence of God moving through and in everyone. It was beautiful. 

¡Vamos a Pescar!

After the service, Gladys and Karen took over games! It was kind of interesting how they planned the games because they were all quick games, but we only played them once each. It was fine and it kept us moving, which was necessary as the sand got hotter and hotter. In the end, they even incorporated a game with fish! 

With that, Melissa and my responsibilities ended. Everyone enjoyed some lunch and then hit the water! 

I have to admit, I was a little bit wrong about the ocean here. I kept saying that it is the same as in California, I mean, it is the Pacific Ocean still. And while not incredibly different, it still was more different than I expected. The difference is probably just unique to the shore structure, but I am not sure, I'm not a scientist. Anyway, the waves here are fierce! You have 2 options. Wade in to your knees and just hang out there for the water to come in and out. The other option is to go play in the waves, where you need to be alert and know how to jump or swim under a wave. It was just huge wave after huge wave. It was a blast, but I definitely got a good thrashing around in the water. I swallowed a whole lot of salt water too. I saw a news report saying that this particular region has very dangerous beaches, now I know why! Plus, lots of people here don't know how to swim. Makes things interesting. 

The other major difference is the number of beach umbrellas. In the US, we work on being as tan as possible and there may be 1 umbrella for a family, especially if they have kids. Here, everyone has an umbrella and everyone is under it. Good for them. I have just never seen so many umbrellas at the beach before! 

From talking to people and recapping with Melissa, we have decided that everything went smoothly and everyone had an enjoyable time. People just need to not freak out so much as it would save us all from a lot of unnecessary stress. I needed 2 whole days to recover from them. But to be sure, I had a blast at the beach! :) 

Now, on to the next thing! We head back to Huanuco (just for the weekend) this Friday. We have some classes to plan and coordinate, so better get to it. I look forward to seeing the people there again! 

~nos vemos~ 

The MIGHTY Jungle

When Timon and Pumba sing about Simba in the jungle, they aren't kidding when they say "the mighty jungle." It is hard to believe all of the things I saw, all the stories I heard, and all the things I didn't see and hear in the 5 days in the jungle! 

From Feb. 3 to 7, we stayed on a small island in the middle of the Amazon River called Libertad. We flew in to Iquitos, where we were promptly met by our guides from the Libertad Jungle Lodge. And so the journey began... 

I am going to break this blog into sections, rather than a play by play of the week.. 

Weather

As per typical, small-talk, lets start with the weather. It's the jungle. Humidity and rain are to be expected. However, because it is winter right now, it was only in the 80/90s rather than the 100/110s. It only rained during 2 of the nights, but man did it rain! It probably started sprinkling around 8 and continued into the wee hours of the morning. There was usually a breeze too, or we were on a moving boat creating a breeze, which kept things comfortable. 

Jungle Creatures

Just chatting with my sloth. She is very polite and looks
you in the eye, regardless of which way her body is facing.

The jungle is full of an incredible array of animals and insects. Scary and quite dangerous, at times, but still awesome. Within the first hour of arriving in Libertad we were introduced to the three-fingered sloth. I didn't realize how sharp their claws would be or that they can turn their heads so far around. Other creatures I got to hold were a pink-toed tarantula, a piranha, a baby alligator, and a capuchin monkey (which really came and just sat in my lap). In addition to these guys, we saw pink and grey dolphins, an anaconda, viper snake, iguanas, banana spider, Goliath tarantula, leaf frog, colorful grasshoppers and spiders, bullet ants, normal ants, white termites, and tons and tons of mosquitos. At a nature reserve (on our way to the airport), I also got to touch some manatees. The capuchin eating its banana in my lap was my favorite! The ridiculous number of mosquitos (and bites) was the worst part. 

Food

Piranhas are served.

I love food. I love trying new foods. I love traveling to try new foods. :) Every single meal we had was accompanied by fresh jungle fruit juice. We drank cocona, camu camu, maracuya, and more. All delicious and if you have the chance to try them, do it. The main meat there is catfish, which I wasn't expecting. There are various types, the most popular is called doncella. I had it fried in 2 different ways, both delicious. We also ate the piranhas that we caught when we went fishing. Not delicious, but not bad. All of the food was great, but I hadn't had those ones before.  

Jungle Medicine

Not to drink, but the Amazon River is full of water.

The tribes that live in the jungle have a resident shaman and sometimes even a witch. I guess you go to the shaman for healing and the witch for more negative desires. At any rate, they know all about the crazy plants you can find in the jungle and what their purposes are. Victor, our tour guide, taught us about a few that we passed. There is a bark of one tree that has this red moisture that looks like blood, called Dragon's Blood, that is used for clotting. Another bark is steeped in tea and is used to get rid of the cold/flu. As it turns out when you put it in the crook of your elbow and hold it there, it burns, so I can only imagine what it does to your insides to heal you. Also, Victor showed us a tree that you can get water from if you are lost in the jungle and are dehydrated. Water, the medicine of all medicines.

Transportation

Headed to Libertad!

Being winter and the water levels are on the rise, the main mode of transportation in Libertad is by boat. You could see the line on the trees where the water will rise up to, which seemed like a good 10 feet higher than it currently is. We passed by this house that is the marker for where the water normally stops during the summer, but is currently about 25-30 ft deep. To get from Iquitos to Libertad, we drove for 2 hours, then boated for 2 hrs. Thankfully, the boat had a motor, so we didn't have to switch off rowing. Haha. In the city of Belen, there are floating houses, so they probably boat year round. 

Lodging

We had cabins to sleep in at Libertad. We had running water in the shower, toilet, and sink, but not heated. There was electricity supplied by a generator between 6-9pm. Our beds has mosquito nets on them, which are amazing. I never want to sleep in a place with mosquitoes without one again. The people there came in and made our beds everyday and also put down petroleum on the wood floors. The petroleum either keeps the ants from eating the wood or straight up kills them, so then they can't eat the wood. I could be wrong though. The dining room was right across the walkway from our room. There was also a hammock room, by far the best place to be to relax. I love me some hammock time. 

Jungle Stories

My climbing feat!

The jungle is an incredibly interesting place. Having grown up in the jungle and doing tours for a decade, Victor had an abundance of crazy stories to share with us. For instance, he told us about his encounter with not one, but 2 jaguars. Also, he went on a tour with a snake-lover that wore perfume that attracted snakes. (That makes my skin crawl just thinking about it.) Then there are the legends that dolphins are demons and if a man touches a sloth while his wife is pregnant, their child will have the face of a sloth. By far the most outrageous and interesting is the mystery of the demon of the jungle that has one leg longer than the other. Victor told us that a year ago, his grandma went out with his grandpa to check on their crops in the jungle and they got separated. She continued on in search of him, and at one point the road forked 4 ways. The way she picked ended her up along the river, where she found someone fishing. The fisherman asked her to help fish some more then they would both go look for her husband. The grandma thought she was there for maybe 3 hours, but lo and behold, she had been lost in the jungle for 15 days! Apparently, the jungle demon creates these visions in your mind that confuse you. It also has a whistle pattern, that if you repeat it, you will die. *woogie woogie* 

I had an incredible time in the jungle. It is so interesting how different of a place it is and how different the people think. A completely different way of life from any I have experienced before, for sure. I could write for days about the things we experienced, but I will stop at this. Let me know what questions you have. 

Victor, Erica, Melissa, Dave, and Me .. departing from Libertad.

~nos vemos~

Celebration of Puno Culture

A couple weeks ago, Betzabe invited us to go see some dances and a parade in Lima that celebrated Puno culture and tradition. It didn't sound terribly exciting as I have been to a couple other such events in the past, but it had potential. Betzabe and her family go every year. Her dad Maximo is from Puno and his mom was named after the Virgin Candelaria, so it is a particularly special occasion for him. 

Unfortunately, things with church were a bit crazy this week and Melissa and I kept wavering on going or not. Melissa ended up having an interview and to submit job apps, etc. I kind of felt bad that I said I would go and then wanted to back out at the last second, so I stayed up until 3:30am and finished my dang sermon so I could go. 

Tikus Costume

And I'm glad I did! 

The hestitation and lack of interest were ridiculous. This was one of the best parades I have ever been to. 

We left the house around 10 am to catch a combi to Lima. I thought it was much farther away than it actually was, which was a pleasant surprise. Now I know! 

Zampona Player

First thing, we passed by all of the groups starting to come in and get prepared for the parade. People were lining up the costumes, adding feathers and other adornments to masks, and practicing their dance moves. We headed over to the cathedral where the mass to start this special day was. We wandered in to the service for a moment. It was the most full I have seen a cathedral, not that I frequent them, but they had a good showing. Outside, the zampona groups were organizing. It was incredible to listen to them. It was probably my favorite part of the day. 

After that, Betzabe took my around to all of the groups so I could get a picture with people in their awesome and sometimes bizarre costumes. So fun! Not really any time to learn what all the names of the dances or costumes were, but they were just beautiful. So many colors - bright oranges and blues and greens and reds. So many weird masks - monkey bears, devils, donkeys, pointy noses, blonde beards. Everyone was very nice about letting me take a picture with them and they all knew the right poses and props to incorporate. Good times. 

Mr. Donkey Mask Man

We headed back over to the cathedral to wait for the mass to end. I put my camera away to put on sunblock. Less than 5 minutes later I was looking for my camera and it was gone. :( So much for all those awesome pictures we took. 

Have no fear! I still had my phone. So we set out to start retaking as many pictures as we could. Only the donkey guy gave me a hard time for taking another picture, but when I told him my camera got stolen he felt a little sorry and obliged to take another pic. 

Around 12pm we headed over to watch the parade. It was great to be right in front and not have to stand on my tip toes and peer over people's heads to see. The only downside was that they really didn't mix the types of groups in the parade. We basically watched the same dance and heard the same song for 3 hours. However, it was still amazing. The costumes were great. The masks were great. Each group had a personality and they all seemed very happy even though they had probably been waiting a long time to get going. Also, it was pretty warm and everyone was sweating bullets. This, however, did not deter any of the guys from jumping higher and enjoying their dance routine. Talk about some big smiles and genuine enjoyment and pride. 

Unfortunately, we had to get going so that we could get to church on time, since I was preaching and all. I didn't get to see the Tikus dance. Betzabe said it was her favorite. It was some sort of battle-style dance. Their costumes were really cool. Feather plumes on some of their hats and lots of bright patchwork style clothes. Maybe we will get to see that and more when we make it down to Puno. :) 

Tikus - Line Leaders

Time to plan another trip! 

~nos vemos~