Finding Beauty in the Desert

Earlier this week I was blessed to wake up early and go to the market with my host family. While there, I saw many things that you don't see every day back in the states. One thing that I saw brought me back to my childhood. I did not play many video games growing up but one that I did manage to become decent at was Donkey-Cong. I am not sure if you have played or seen someone play this game. But at one point you can find hidden rooms filled with bananas. This was the highlight of the game. (Finding mass amounts of bananas meant extra points within a minute.) When I was at the market the other day I got the same feeling when I saw mass amounts of bananas was being sold. There were actually many things being sold in mass amounts, but the bananas just made me think of my past. I imagined the little monkey from Donkey-Cong running through the market pounding on the bananas, jumping to reach the high ones and all the while hearing the blrrrrr sound of the points adding up. A wonderful memory so early in the morning. It made me smile.

This week has flown by. It is Sunday and we just finished a lovely lunch. They made tacos, which I do enjoy. I will be making cookies for my host mom which I hope are good. All in all the weeks here seem like days. It is crazy to think this month is practically over.

I started the week by painting games (hopscotch and foursquare), for the children to play during the after school program.  Hopefully in the next week I will finish the painting and get started on a wonderful play house for the girls so they can have tea parties. This makes me remember a time when my family would set up a tee-pee in the living room. My cousin, sister, and I would bring all our dolls into it and have tea parties. Good memories.

This week in the English class that I co-teach we had a talented young man read some of his fairy tales to our class. They were brilliant. I can't remember the last time I was drawn into such vivid childhood books. It was a real treat to have them read out loud to us. I cant wait to see the pictures of the golden colored balloon with wings, that gives the "land without flavor" back its sweetness- all due to a mischievous princess and her dog Manga. It's brilliant. Right?

My photo this week is meant to show off the designs on the mountains.  I am not sure if everyone can see the designs clearly and I am not sure what all of the designs represent but they look cool. They are made from flowers and I guess it takes hours of time getting the design just right. These symbols are on most the desert hills. This is what I see from the roof of my house here in Tacna. I was told about them by the missionary before I left the USA but now that I am here and can see them from miles away I realize that they are shockingly beautiful.  I don't know what they stand for but the energy someone, or more likely multiple people put into the symbols, is astounding.

Spanish!

So I have decided to paint a little picture for you. I am sitting on the middle of my bed and I have surrounded myself with tools for learning Spanish. This is how I have past my last few hours of free time. Me, in the middle of the bed, with a notebook on one side and a pen ready to write all I am learning. I have a Spanish to English dictionary open and it is being used vigorously. I also have an idiots guide to Spanish open and I read it from time to time. Different stacks of flash cards are lying around - they vary from verbs, vocab, questions. All the while my computer is humming Spanish music softly in the back ground. This is how I am learning Spanish when I have a few hours to myself. So far, it is going better than expected. Advice... know the language before you decide to move someplace new. I think it would have helped me. Well, that is a glimpse into today.

As for this week it has been great - we started an English conversation class and people actually showed up and they enjoyed it. We just did introductions but I think it is going to be great for all of us. It never occurred to me that teaching an ESL class would help me learn Spanish.

On Saturday I got to work with Peru's Awana program.  For those of you who may not know what the Awana program is, it is a way to develop spiritual growth in kids through the use of games and memorizing the scriptures.  After I was introduced I was left alone to help the Peruvians run the class. I was taught how to play one of the games but on the first round I forgot to do one of the  steps.  They decided to let me watch one round and then I did the second one with them. After a rough start I would say that I did pretty good in the end. It was a lot of fun running around with the youth. This made me excited for next week when I will begin to work with the after school program.

At night I have been reading books set in Jane Austin's time - the 1800's. As I am reading I kind of feel like some of the characters. If you have ever read Austin or an author from that genre you know one thing that people used to do that we no longer do. They would travel to relatives or friends houses for weeks or months at a time. I was always shocked by that, it felt like an intrusion to have whole families living with you all of a sudden.  I just finished a book of that nature and all of a sudden it hit me. That is what I am doing! Don't get me wrong, I love it here in my Tacna home with my new family. I feel welcome and it is a blessing. I don't believe that they find me an intrusion. But, that changed my idea of this custom from Austin's books.  Instead of thinking of this as an intrusion I'm beginning to think of it as a fun idea. Who wouldn't want the people they love to hang out with them for several weeks if that was the only time of the year that you were able to see each other? I know I would like to have them with me for long periods of time. So I guess Austin had something going when her characters traveled to other places.

Okay, so to sum up the week I am still on an up hill trek to learn Spanish. The English class is going good. I will start working with the children's after school program next week. Awanas was scary at first but turned out to be really fun. Lastly, living with friends for long periods of time is good for the soul.

Tacna, Peru

It has been awhile since I have written but I have a few new adventures as of today. I am now living in Tacna, Peru. A quick geography lesson, Peru as I believe all you know, is in South America. Tacna is in the furthest southern part of Peru about a one hour drive from the top of Chili. This is a desert region which means it is hot during the day and freezing at night.

Why am I here?  I am doing another internship. I say another internship for my new readers because I just returned from a two month internship in Europe. If you would like to know about that trip then you can read my earlier posts. Well I arrived in Tacna a week ago - this is the first of  my weekly updates.

Praying for a lady on the streets.

I am living with the pastor and his wife at one of three churches I will be working at in the area.  They are two of the sweetest people. This week I have only worked at their church. So far it has been amazing. I spent most of my time painting with some of the members of the church. We are getting the children's classrooms ready for the new year.  One of the nights we had someone come and do a class lecture for the church leaders. One afternoon the youth and I went to the central city square and handed out food and prayed for people.  Starting next week I will get my schedule and be working with all three churches.

Those of you who know me may be wondering about the language barrier - yes there is one! My three years of high school Spanish did not prepare me for this.  I am trying my best to learn Spanish as quickly as possible. In my new home Spanish is the language spoken although the family knows a tiny bit of English. I will have to say that the fastest way to learn a language is by not being able to speak yours! I pray my Spanish will become more and more fluent as the time passes. There is another American intern that is working at this church and living close by so I am thankful for her.

This is a small glimpse into my new life for the next three months. I hope you enjoyed having a personal view into the Peruvian culture and the church family that I get to spend my days with.