What Does “Orinar” Mean?

Funny that my next post after “A little raw fish never hurt nobody” would be about me getting sick in Peru, huh? I will note that I do NOT think it was the ceviche.

Anyway, I’ve been out of commission for the past few days so let me catch you up to speed. ­

Friday’s class went well. We finished up talking about prayer, focusing on elements essential to a “good” prayer and places that we like to pray. Until our Spanish is better, our classes will always be a bit rough, but considering the circumstances I think we’re doing the best we can.



Decked out for Fiestas Patrias

Saturday’s children’s classes and service was a little different because of Fiestas Patrias, Peru’s Independence celebration. Instead of the traditional classes, the children performed a dance and we played trivia games about Peru. It was a spirited night, despite it being positively freezing in the church (although, that may have just been me starting to get sick.)

 Sunday we went to Filidelfia for a service. This time around, Johnny and Karen took up the lead roles and I was able to sit back and enjoy (as best I could with my stomach bug acting up.) I do feel like I’m beginning to be able to understand a little more of the services every time around, but my Spanish is definitely still a work in process. 

Monday through today have been slightly blurry, because I have been doing a LOT of sleeping, trying to get rid of this bug. We did get to watch the Fiestas Patrias parade on Monday, then trek to Miraflores to watch Wolverine, which, conveniently, was in English with Spanish subtitles. We came back from Miraflores by “combi” which was where I discovered I had made a horrible mistake by thinking my stomach was ready for this journey. A combi is a van, sausaged full of about 18 people, that would comfortably seat about 10 people. Generally, there is someone in the back of the combi (who doesn’t always have the greatest odor) that keeps their head out the window, trying to recruit more people to get on the combi. The ride is ROUGH and the stops are frequent and sudden. There are no seatbelts, so the only reason you don’t fly across the van is because you’re sausaged in so tight you seriously can’t move. As soon as we got it, I threw a motion sickness pill in my mouth, and shortly after I took another, but I spent the grand majority of the ride holding in vomit. I’m happy to say I managed to make it home without barfing—but I did go straight to bed as soon as we got home.

Youth at Monte Sion dancing for Fiestas Patrias

Yesterday, I finally gave up and went to the clinic. Since Saturday night I’d been sleeping horribly, having hot and cold flashes, waking up the next morning exhausted and drenched sweat. My fever would fluctuate between totally normal and 102 without much inbetween. My headaches were constant and I was having the worst stomach cramps I’d ever experienced. And I’ll spare you the details, but the diarrhea wasn’t pleasant either. Anyway, after a long wait in the clinic’s reception area, Katrina, Wilfredo and I managed to get across to the doctor what was going on. I also learned how to say “pee” and “poop” in Spanish—because the doctor wanted me to give a sample of each. Tired of my frequent bathroom trips, I hadn’t eaten anything that day—so Wilfredo, Katrina and I got to play the game of Drive Around And Decide Which Foods Will Make Melissa Poop. We eventually settled on a chicken sandwich—which was a great success—and we’re going back to see the lab results Friday morning. Until then, I got an antibiotic which, thankfully, has been helping greatly.

Today I finally had the energy to do a few things that desperately needed done—namely, laundry and a shower. I’m still not at 100%, but I’m happy to be able to keep food in my stomach. I haven’t eaten a real dinner all week and I’m excited to finally have one tonight.

Looking ahead, we’re meeting tonight to continue planning children’s classes for the year. We haven’t gotten word on if we’re teaching anything this week yet (or perhaps we have and I was just asleep for it) but I’m sure we’ll have a busy weekend!

A little raw fish never hurt nobody...right?

I have a fantastic announcement to make: I have had TWO hot showers in a row! After Katrina and I’s run yesterday I went to the bathroom to rinse off and to my great surprise the hot water was working! Today, we had the same wonderful phenomenon. I think someone out there is rewarding us for working out.



The ingredients for ceviche: fish heads not included

Anyway, after yesterday’s glorious shower, I got my first chance to try a Peruvian staple: ceviche. Ceviche is super fresh, raw fish that is marinated in lime juice, spiced with some wicked hot peppers, and seasoned with salt, onions and cilantro. If you know anything about my taste in food, you’ll know that I found the meal absolutely delicious. The meal was a regular feast, we had sweet potatoes, corn, and this wonderful spin on popcorn that reminds me of corn nuts. I ate entirely too much, but I’m not overly remorseful about it.

Yesterday night, Katrina and I had a meeting with some church members, planning what we’re going to be doing the next year and specifically what we’re going to be doing next month. When the meeting really got underway and everyone started getting excited and speaking quickly, I was beyond lost in the conversation. I know that people from every language background can speak quickly, but some of these Peruvians can talk so fast it doesn’t even sound like they’re using words. From what I was able to gather, we shared some ideas and expectations, but didn’t get a ton of planning done. So I’m guessing we’ll be having another planning session shortly.  

Our wonderful feast!

Today Katrina and I have been planning and translating for an adult class we're in charge of tomorrow about prayer and the best ways to pray. The timing is pretty perfect for me, because I’ve been struggling with praying out loud. Here, before every meal, someone says a quick blessing. It’s never anything overly complicated, but when my first time to pray came around I realized something: I’ve never prayed out loud before. It turns out the prayer you say in church is very different from the prayer you say before a meal, which is very different than the more informal prayer you might say before bed. However, like everything we’ve been doing here, my prayers will be a work in process.

The approaching weekend should be an interesting one; we're celebrating Peru's independence from Spain! This year I get to celebrate two Independence Days in just one month--not bad, huh? I'll keep you posted on how the Peruvians celebrate--we're hoping to catch a parade!

Our First Classes and Service

I’ve got to start updating this more frequently—I feel like so much happens between postings! Where to begin?

Last weekend was full of highs and lows for me. Friday, we taught our first bible class, which I felt completely unprepared to do. Teaching your first bible class is one thing, teaching your first bible class in a language you barely speak is another. I couldn’t even remember the verb for “to pray” for half the class. Luckily, everyone here is very patient and willing to work with you—and I have to say, I don’t know that everyone would be so accommodating in the States. I’m also incredibly lucky that Katrina 1. Knows how to teach classes like this and 2. Has much better Spanish than I do. She took the lead on basically everything we did last weekend and I’m incredibly thankful for that. The class started a little slow, but picked up and I felt good about it by the end of it.

Saturday was a whole new challenge: teaching the children. The children’s classes here are split up into two groups—Katrina took the smaller kids and I took the more middle school aged kids. In all honesty, this is the event I was most stressed about the entire weekend—the thought of being alone with these kids and not even knowing how to speak to them horrified me. We focused on something easy for the first week, Jonah and the whale, and I have to admit—it took me about 10 minutes to even get them to know who I was talking about. Eventually I showed them the name in the bible and they all went, “Oooooh, Yo-NAHHHH!” Anyway, Laura, the World Service Corps intern, was a saint and helped me through the class. She probably spent at least 25 minutes of the class teaching them songs and I was incredibly thankful for that help.

Sunday we had workshops all day—which I have to admit—I understood very little of. The workshops were about how to teach classes better, and I could tell it was valuable information and all about interaction and excitement—but my Spanish just isn’t strong enough to follow a big presentation yet. We arrived at Monte Sion for these workshops around 10:00 a.m. and we were in workshops until about 6:00 p.m. Since we’d been at church all day, we just had a mini service to round out the day. Katrina, Laura and I were in charge of planning the entire thing. I took the sermon, Laura took the music, and Katrina took the rest. During World Service Corps training, I had written my first mini-sermon, but it was only 10 minutes long and in English—so this was still a very new experience for me. Throw in the fact that I only had one day to prepare for it and, needless to say, I was stressed. My Spanish just isn’t strong enough yet for me to memorize a ten minute long sermon, so I ended up just reading it. I originally wrote it in English, then spent time translating it into Spanish and had Karen look it over for me. I was nervous reading it, but I’d been pretty strategic about selecting the most simple Spanish words I could so there wasn’t too much to stumble over. Once it was over, a wave of relief washed over me (so much so that I forgot to stand for the benediction.) It certainly wasn’t the best sermon ever written or performed, but people reacted decently well to it and were understanding that I was just a beginner.



Thursday night we got to see Las Fuentes de Agua in Lima!

After a long day of church, we came back to the house for some delicious Peruvian tacos, then took Laura to the airport. Sending Laura off almost made Katrina and I feel like it was our first day again—a little of our security blanket was removed. It was good to see her on her way though—Laura was fairly sick for the last part of her time in Peru. Thank goodness Katrina and I have been in pretty perfect health!



This week our schedule is a little less full and Katrina and I are trying to establish a routine for ourselves. Yesterday we went on our first run in Callao and I was fairly convinced we would get hit by a car or chased by a dog—but we survived just fine and I am phenomenally sore today. Nonetheless, I’m excited that we will have a release like running during our stressful times.

Q/A for Rachel

First, excuse this very long blog post. I'm planning to post again later today about events that have been going on, but I can no longer ignore my sister's repeated requests for a question and answer session. If these small details don't interest you, feel free to skip to the next post! If they do interest you and you have more questions, feel free to leave them for me in the comments.

1. What do you eat? Who cooks your food?

Katrina and I eat our meals with our host family every day. For breakfast, we usually have some bread from the market. Most days, we have this really good cheese that I like to put on it. We also have yogurt—but in Peru, you drink yogurt, it’s more liquidy, so you just forget the spoon. Humorously enough, we keep drinking this brand similar to Activia that is full of fiber. It's the only one that is strawberry flavored! Generally, we eat some of the same things for lunch and dinner. A large portion is made, then reheated later that night. We usually have white rice and a vegetable, like peas. Potatoes are big here, so sometimes we usually have something with potato mixed in. Chicken is really big here and if we don’t have it at lunch, we’ll typically have it for dinner. We also have a lot of soup because everyone is always chilly! There’s always fruit around for snacking on, mainly bananas and oranges, but also some stuff we don’t have in the states. I love bananas, so that’s usually my go to choice.

 2. What are your living arrangements? What are the people you live with like?

Katrina and I share a room that’s small, but has space for everything we need (afterall, we each only brought one suitcase and carry on items here.) I sleep in a bunk bed, but right now, nobody sleeps on the top bunk (Laura slept there when she was here.) We live with the Paz family. I don't remember everyone's ages, so I'm going to give you some estimates here. Graciela (60) and Gumercindo (70) live on the bottom level. Graciela is the mom of the family and serves most of our meals, but other people cook also. The second floor is where Graciela's children live. Rosio (40) has her own room, Karen (22)  and Sandra (20) share a room and Jose (37) has his own. Sandra is actually a cousin, not Graciela's daughter. Katrina's and i's room is on this level. We all share a bathroom and living room area. Generally, we can only get internet in the living room, so it’s our hot spot at night. There’s a TV in there, but there isn’t cable on it—it’s just used for movies. The other day, Katrina and I were able to hook my computer up to it and watch Netflix, which was wonderful (and a much more greater accomplishment than it sounds like.) Everyone works during the day, so the house is usually pretty quiet, but at night it comes alive. Dinner is my favorite meal here because it’s when the most people are home and we usually get to watch a telanovella. The third floor of the apartment is rented out to other tenants, and I've never actually seen them (though I hear their music every night and day.)

3. What do you do on a daily basis?

We don’t have a routine nailed down yet. Last week, we spent most our free time doing some touristy things—checking out Lima, Miraflores, etc. Then our weekend was packed—we taught a women’s class on Friday, two children’s classes and an adult class on Saturday, then had a workshop all day and were in charge of the service (sermon included) on Sunday. This week were doing a bit of recovery from all of that. Soon, we’ll set more of a schedule, but we can generally assume we’ll be highly involved in the weekend activities and visiting church families and planning things during the week.

 4. Does anyone else speak English?

Yes and no. No one is completely fluent in English, but it seems like nearly everyone knows a few words and phrases. A few people, like Karen and Gladys (a church member), know quite a bit of English—probably more English than I know Spanish.

 5. What’s the weather like?

It’s COLD. Okay, it’s not that cold—but it’s a type of cold that creeps into your bones and doesn’t leave. I’ve felt truly warm twice since I’ve been here—once while running and the other time while walking up the HUGE hill at Monte Sion (thankfully, we usually drive up this hill.) The thing about the cold here is that not many places have heat so even though it never really gets below 57 degrees here, you feel every bit of cold in the air. I FaceTimed a friend the other night and they said, “Are you wearing two hoodies right now?” Yes. Yes, I am. Sometime else interesting about winter here is that it’s always foggy—not so much in the roadways, but up in the sky. Lima is a desert, so it never rains, but what I didn’t expect is that it’s never sunny here either. So when the sun does peak out—you celebrate it. Anyway, spring gets here in October and we’re definitely ready for things to warm up! Until then, we're bundling up with layers and blankets and drink lots of hot tea.

 6. What do you do during down time?

We haven’t really gotten into the routine of having free time yet either. Katrina and I are trying to get on a workout schedule and that’s definitely something we want to do in our free time. Other than that, we’ve watched a few movies on Netflix, work on our Spanish with an app called DuoLingo and get on the internet. The internet here is patchy, but it’s been really nice to be able to communicate back home with it.

 7. What are church services like?

From what I can tell, they’re pretty standard—but do remember that I don’t speak Spanish yet and I have left more than one sermon a little unclear on what we were talking about. The main thing that is different, from what I can tell, is the music. My home congregation's music was centered around the piano and we don’t have one at either congregation I’ve been to in Peru. Here, they’re really into clapping and doing hand motions with the music and let me tell you—it can be a little hard to sing words you don’t know or understand while trying to stay on beat with the clapping and hand motions (especially if you already had no sense of rhythm.) Regardless, music has been my favorite part of church so far, because it transcends the language barrier.  

 8. Have you seen dogs?

Yes—we see multiple dogs every day. There are quite a few that live in the streets here and even more when we go to Monte Sion. People also have dogs as pets and a lot of them like to hang out on the roofs—so at least once a day I’ll glance up and notice a pair of eyes looking down at me. Sometimes when we drive the dogs bark and chase the car, but really we’ve had no problems—and I prefer to keep it that way.  

9. Is there a Wal*Mart or McDonalds?           

I’ve seen at least three McDonalds and the ones here serve fried chicken too—and speaking of chicken, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) is a big thing here. Like I said--they eat a lot of chicken here. I’ve also seen a few other American food places—Chiles, Papa John’s, Burger King, Tony Roma’s and Starbucks. I haven’t seen a Wal*Mart here, but we’ve gone to a place called Tottus, which is pretty much the Chilean version of Wal*Mart (and also happens to be in Peru.)

10. Other Tid Bits:

-Our host family has a cat named Tommy, and when I don’t finish my meal he gets my table scraps. I like Tommy, but he has a tendency to “MEOOOOOW” during the night—and in those moments, I don’t love Tommy.

-IncaKola is my favorite drink I’ve had here. It’s a Coca-Cola product that I believe is exclusive to Peru. It’s bring yellow, like Mountain Dew, and has a bubble gum-ish taste to it. I’m not big on soda, but it’s pretty good.

-There is a lot of American music on the radio—Pitbull, Beyonce, Ne-Yo—you never know what you’re going to get. Monte Sion is about 40 minutes away and Fildelfia is about 20 minutes away, so we spent quite a lot of time in the car listening to music. The only thing I don't enjoy that I've heard on the radio is Gangnam Style--that song can just go away.

-Cell Phones are supposed to get stolen like hotcakes in Callao, so if I seem like I don’t post a lot of pictures, it’s because I'm not carrying my phone on me. A member of our congregation said she’s had three cell phones stolen here, one while she was using it! That being said, Katrina and I went on a run with our cell phones in our hands and we didn’t have any problems.

-Fanny Packs seem to be more socially acceptable here. I’ve seen more than one man wearing them, including Wilfredo!

-Katrina and I bought a pack of these candy bars called Sublime on one of our first days here and I LOVE them. I have to limit myself on them because they are just TOO delicious. If you get a chance to try Peruvian candy, that's definitely my recommendation.

-I’ve taken more cold showers here than hot—Katrina and I have come to accept it as a fact of life, but that doesn’t mean that we like it. Generally, your hands start to get a little numb by the time you’re done in there. Also—the water here turns off at 10:00 p.m. So all showers must be taken before then. Hand washing? Get some germ-x. Brushing your teeth? Use bottled water. Can’t flush the toilet? There’s a bucket of water in the bathroom—dump it in and hope everything goes down!  

-If you want to stay in touch, there are lots of ways! I’m still posting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Vine. If you’re into Apps, you can get What’sApp, Voxer and SnapChat—all are great ways for me to stay in touch abroad!

It's not Juan--It's WWW-uan.

The last few days in Peru have been FULL and wonderful.

First, since I last wrote, we’ve been able to visit both Monte Cion and a different church—Filidelfia.

Monte Cion is about a 40 min drive from where we're staying. The church is a large, white building that is fairly new and overlooks a new soccer field that the Peruvian government recently built. Monte Cion is up on a hill, so when you're up there you can just look and see streetlights all around you, which is a nice breath of fresh air (literally.) Friday, we attended a women’s class there, then Saturday, we watched two children’s classes and a service. Both were good experiences, but both were big reminders that I have a lot of Spanish to learn before I’m going to be able to understand a full sermon...or even half of a sermon.

Sunday we headed to Filidelfia. This church is a bit smaller, but just as full of life. Katrina and I got up and said a few words about why we’re in Peru and what we hope to accomplish, and everyone was very accepting of any Spanish mistakes we may have made. After we spoke, everyone sang a song and came up and gave us hugs. Even though I’ve been rather shy with my new surroundings, everyone has been continually welcoming like this.

A few nights ago, Laura, the World Service Corps intern, arrived in Lima to check up on Katrina and I and learn a little more about our site. Laura is pretty full of life and has definitely brightened up the last few days for everyone. One of my favorite things about her is that, though she is still learning Spanish, but she’s pretty fearless when it comes to trying to converse with people—definitely a trait that would be good for me to pick up.

Yesterday, we spent a lot of the day roaming around Callao on foot, checking out the produce market and shopping for a few necessities. By the way, we now have coffee with caffeine: yay! Today was definitely an exciting day, because we got to check out Lima and Miraflores. In Lima, we got to poke around La Mayor Plaza de Lima (where I might have bought a postcard or two to send to the States), tour El Museo San Francisco, grab a bite to eat and see the changing of the guard. We also took a little bus tour of San Cristobal, which is a big cross on a really big hill. When I found out we’d be going up some winding roads for that, we dropped by a pharmacy, where, to my pleasant surprise, I was able to buy just one motion sickness pill for only one sole. Can we do that in the States please?

After that tour, we checked out Miraflores, just after sunset, which is a chilly time here (fyi, it’s winter in the southern hemisphere.) Miraflores felt a little more like home—like walking around the mall in West Des Moines or something—if West Des Moines was on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Anyway, we grabbed some hot drinks from Starbucks and strolled around taking in the sights and relaxing.
 

Tomorrow, we’re figuring out some small details about World Service Corps, like our budget and our cell phone, but I’m sure we’ll have some fun side adventures to add to that. Friday, Katrina and I are teaching our first class—wish us luck!

Bienvenidos a Peru

I made it to Peru! I’m here a day late, due to some storms in Atlanta, but I eventually got here in one piece. Despite my anxieties about flying alone, I made it from Kansas City to Atlanta to Lima fairly easily, and thankfully, my suitcase arrived and I made it through customs without a hitch! From there, it was the moment of truth: walking out into the area with taxis and people holding signs, and hoping that I’d find my partner, Katrina, and Wilfredo. Luckily, it didn’t take long for them to flag me down. We hopped in Wilfredo’s car and were at our apartment in no time.  

For the last few weeks, as I dealt with checking out of my apartment, moving back into my parents’ house, and getting all my affairs in order I’ve been continually thinking, ‘Yeah, I’m just ready to be there.’ Now that I have all those small details completed, it’s time to start worrying about what lies ahead of me: primarily, learning Spanish.

I can tell that everyone here is incredibly nice, but I’m struggling to comprehend everything that is being said. The most difficult part is conveying what I’m trying to say to those around me—whether it’s because I don’t know the words in Spanish or because I’m afraid to speak and make a mistake. Either way, today is only my first day and I can’t put too much pressure on myself—the Spanish will come, I just need to continue to work at it. In the mean time, Katrina’s Spanish is a lot better than mine and I’m thankful to have her skills on my side!

Tonight we’re going to a congregation in Monte Cion to attend a class. My partner, Katrina and I are going to introduce ourselves to everyone—so I should probably start practicing what I’m going to say in Spanish now!

Adios,

Melissa