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!