The Adventures of Life: iYo vivo en Peru!

Well, I’ve finally made it to Peru. I’ve been here 2 days now and I really do love it. My training group seems very nice. Health training has been separated from the other training groups. We have 30 trainees and only 6 are male. (Poor guys.) This should be interesting.

I just moved in with my training host family, The Morales. I’m living in Huscaran a neighborhood Chaclacayo about an hour outside of Lima. The father is a building contractor. They have a very nice home. Delia, mi mama, is very sweet. It was great. Looks like I’ll be running more due to the high carb diet here. The Morales have 2 sons. Oscar, who is almost 8…his birthday is soon. Or at least that’s what I think he said. Ha! The older son, Fabreseo. is 11. They remind me of Drew….they absolutely love their Playstation, Power Rangers, Spiderman, and Cars.

Mi familia

After lunch on my first day, we took a walk around the neighborhood visiting family and neighbors. My Spanish is better than I expected but still extremely limited. In only a couple of hours I’m pretty sure I had exhausted all the Spanish I know. Delia just keeps saying, “Poco a poco.” (little by little)

Training includes with intensive Spanish classes and job training for 4 weeks. The weeks following include site visits and job application. I’m excited. Delia walked me to the centro de Cuerpo de Paz (Peace Corps Center) for my “first day of school.” She’ll even pack my lunch. It’s like going to kindergarten all over again. J In 10 weeks, I’ll be a PC Volunteer and hoping to be a lot better in Spanish.

It has been a whirlwind week. I haven’t had a lot of free time but I am managing to stay in the Word. As far as I can tell the Morales are not Christians as well as most of the trainees I will be working with. Pray I can be strong and stay in the Word and also be a light to the people I am around for the next couple of months.

I read a little quote from Beth Moore today, “We make life so much more complicated when our approach to life is “all about me”…Life vastly simplifies and satisfaction greatly amplifies when we begin to realize our awesome roles. God is God. Frankly, it’s all about Him. Thank goodness, He is the center of the universe.”

I really liked that. I want to focus outward and help give hope to those who need it. Without Christ, we cannot realize our role. I pray I can make life NOT about me but about God and bringing Him glory and honor.

I hope to go to church in the next couple of weeks …but my Spanish will have to get better first. Until then I will have to stick to downloaded sermons. There is a Baptist Church down the road I just have to figure out what time it starts.

The stack of books I'm using to learn Spanish....yikes! 5 hours of Spanish class a day!

The food here is very good. Lots of potatoes and rice….practically with every meal. There are over 300 types of potatoes in Peru so there is a chance I could try them all! They also eat a lot of eggs. Mi mama makes this stuff I my mom would love. It’s called Cancha…it’s maiz (corn). It’s cooked like popcorn but it doesn’t pop but is still soft inside. It’s a great snack and is consider a protein. You can even make cookies with it. I’ll have to get the recipe for them. They were delicious. Juice is made fresh here every day. I’m hoping to bring back lots of recipes for everyone to try…though it does seem that many dishes take a while to prepare….don’t know about that !