Weird ear

So, I suppose this day could be described as the day of the weird ear. Got water in my ear yesterday and have felt like I've been underwater ever since! Oy. So hopefully it gets better soon! More painting today and trying to help the dog (Max) get off the second floor where he got stuck. Lemon butter pasta for dinner tonight after we head to the market to pick up a few things.

Just want to say to keep sending me messages or comment on our blog! We are always looking for some connection to home :) If you're feeling really adventurous, you can text me short, one line messages so I can read them without opening them. That way they don't count against my text messages (I only have about 50 per month down here, so I have to conserve!). That's all! Time to go! <3

Oh! and more pictures to come soon...

The tomato that wasn't a tomato...

It's been a long time since I've last blogged, but don't worry, we've been busy.

Today our team has been busy working on the orphanage project. Some are painting while while others are roofing. I've been doing a little of everything and Mom I've even spent a few days learning how do be a plumber. :-) Our goal is to have three rooms completed by the end of the week so we can use them for the teams that will be coming down throughout the summer.

Last week we saw the ACF team off on Tuesday night with a trip to Lima. For dinner we were treated to the Peruvian favorite of pollo a la brasa (chicken and French fries).

Later in the week our group of 8 moved into our new apartment which is nice and cozy with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. We all like though and we've been playing settlers around the dinner table almost every night.

This weekend we had a relax day when we checked out the beach. The water was pretty cold, but if we get a warm day we might take a quick dip. Speaking of the weather, we've had a couple really nice days of sunshine which have been great.

Yesterday we spent another day in Lima where we went to church, got some lunch and hit up a Peruvian market. At lunch we got to try ceviche which is raw fish soaked in lemon juice until the acid cooks it. It is served cold with red onion, a sweet potato and corn. As you can imagine, the texture took a little while to get used to but it tasted fine. I also had quite an adventure with an extremely hot pepper that I thought was a tomato... I'm sure you can imagine. :-) Our Peruvian friend Mariano just laughed when he found out that I had eaten it. My mouthed cooled down after about 20 minutes. Overall though I've really enjoyed getting to experience the Peruvian food so far.

Until next time...

Apartment

Yesterday we moved into our apartment in Las Salinas! Yay! Ansley, Karina, and I did a lot of grocery shopping, too. Of course, I was in my glory grocery shopping! I LOVE IT! We buy a lot of our food from the local markets, which are all open air. You have to tell each vendor what you want and then they get it for you. So cool. We also got to check out a big supermarket called Tottus. It is very much like a Wal-Mart or Wegman's. Although, in Peru, they don't have as much of a selection of products. For example, most every cereal they have is sugary stuff with marshmallows. We bought Raisin Bran and Corn Flakes...:) Yay for fiber!!

Our landlady is pretty much the cutest thing ever. Her name is Manuela, and she is an older lady who would probably do anything for you. She is really nice. She introduced us to the milk lady, the fish man, and the lady who will be picking up our milk for us yesterday. We are going to have fresh milk delivered to us every day! Dave knows how to pasteurize it because he grew up on a dairy farm. I can't wait to try it! We'll also have fresh cream, too! Woop! I don't know about the fish man...maybe we'll get some fresh fish delivered, but it comes whole. Not sure any of us actually know how to clean and gut a whole fish! Ewww..... Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting to know Manuela.

Last night we were all pooped out and went to bed at 9:30. I have to say that I've been extremely tired after this week, 6 a.m. is an early morning for me! Hopefully we will have some time to relax a little now that there isn't a team here. I'll try to put up more pictures, but the internet is a little bit slow so it takes a long time. Hasta luego!

Saying Goodbye to ACF

When I woke up this morning, I realized that today is probably the real beginning of our summer here in Peru. The ACF team cleaned up the rooms and kitchen, and everyone packed up their suitcases to leave. It is going to be weird without so many of my friends around anymore, but I think it was a good adjustment to be with them for the first week.

Today was spent hanging out in Pucusana, a fishing town about 30 minutes away from Chilca. We ate lunch there, a typical Peruvian dish that I can't remember the name of. It was a cute little town, and there was a sweet little cove where the waves crashed in. It reminded me of Splash Mountain!!

Then, we headed up to Lima to check out a small cathedral where we saw the grave of Francisco Pizarro. It was interesting how positively they described him, because everything I can remember about him was that he was a very evil person. Weird. We also went to the Indian Market where they sell all kinds of touristy fun Peruvian stuff that I definitely plan on buying!! I want an alpaca blanket :) Kyle and I decided to take a walk around the area to find Starbucks and got a little lost in Lima. Oops! But we eventually found it! I guess I need to work on my Spanish a little more so I can understand directions!

Now we have some free days to move to the apartment and get settled a little. Also, we need to do some serious laundry! :) Thankfully, I brought too many clothes, so I have plenty left! Haha.

Feel free to send us some e-mails and FB messages! I always look forward to those! Keep us in your prayers as well.

Love!

Lima

Hola amigos! Today was a great day of rest as our team ventured into Lima for the first time to attend church and do a little touring. We will be going to a church called Camina de Vida pretty much every week. It is a HUUGE church, way bigger than ACF or any other church I've been to. But it was really awesome. The picture above is of their "stage," where the worship team was. The worship was great, and the church is very modern. I am looking forward to going there each week and becoming a part of it while we are here.

After that we toured a little bit in Lima where we went to a mall in Mira Flores, one of the nicer parts of town. The mall was carved right out of the cliffs and it overlooked the Pacific Ocean. By the way, we got to head down to the beach as well and I saw the Pacific up close for the first time! Woo! But it is definitely NOT beach weather! Today was chilly and misty.

The rest of the day was spent hanging out at Lauren McNally's house in Magdalena (another part of Lima). She is an ACF alum and is now living and teaching in Lima at an American/International school.

On another note, I attempted to use my hair dryer and flat iron today and both failed. Boo. I guess I'll just have to get used to the curly look again, like when I was in Spain. Oh well! It takes less time to do that anyway.

Off to bed I go! Getting up at 6 a.m. tomorrow. Night night!

Parakeets

After 4 days in Papa Leon (that's the neighborhood we are living in here) I definitely feel like we are already seeing how God is moving is amazing ways. Just so many things have come together and are happening that can only be from Him.

Yesterday I went to the local school with a few of the ACF team members. We got to speak in front of the 10th and 11th graders, and a couple of people shared their testimonies. At first, the 11th graders only asked questions (to Jordan Bryan, one of the ACFers) asking if he had a girlfriend and how old he was. But it was the tenth grade class that was especially interesting. The students were asking us really deep questions like: Why did you decide to follow Jesus? Why didn't you follow Jesus before? How do you get in to God? What does God mean to you and what would you do for him? The questions were hard, but somehow the Lord was guiding our every word. Hopefully we'll have the opportunity to get to know the older kids as the summer progresses.

Hogar de Hannah (that's the place we are staying and where the orphanage is) has been partnering a little bit with our neighbors, Mario and Gisela, who are both from South America and call themselves missionaries. They both are trying very hard to make relationships and connections in the area and share the gospel with everyone, and that is why we were at the school.

Today, Kyle, Karina, and I visited the apartment we are going to move in to next week. Our land-lady is an older woman named Manuela, and I have a feeling that we will be getting to know her fairly well. She was such a nice woman, and she kind of reminds me of a grandma who always wants to feed you, haha :) She also keeps a couple little gardens on her property that really spruce it up and make it nice. If you don't already know, most every home in Peru is surrounded by a big wall that separates it from the neighbors and hides the home from being seen from the streets. Behind the main part of her home is where our living space will be. It is all open-air, and pretty small, but it is so cute. I think that we will be quite comfortable there, and I can't wait to get to know her better and to move in!

The weather here is pretty weird. Usually, it is pretty overcast and about 65-70 degrees. However, when the sun does come out, it is pretty hot unless you're in the shade, maybe about 80-85 degrees. Yesterday it was hot like that. Today, it was about 65 and misty/cloudy. So weird. I guess that Peru only gets about 1/4 in of rain per year!! Wild! But I really like how the weather is, because I prefer to take off a layer than just be unbearably hot. So the weather is great!

I am just loving it here so far, and I probably shouldn't do this, but I keep comparing it to the Spanish culture. But they aren't really alike. People here are just so much poorer than those in Spain, and it is pretty evident when we go to the market or walk through the streets. There are dogs everywhere (dogs here are pretty much as abundant as squirrels at PSU!), and most of the streets are dirt roads. In Chilca, the town we are closest to, there are no supermarkets. The only places to buy food are open air markets where the fresh fruit, meat, eggs, and anything else imaginable is all out to be sold. Flies congregate among everything and sometimes I feel a little bit disgusted by it, but I know that it is how they live every day and that it will be ok. So we buy the food and eat it anyway! Ha. One of the funniest things I saw was a bakery with an oven that didn't work, so they used it for storing plastic bags and to put their pet parakeets on top of. A little bit disgusting, but oh well! We ate the bread anyway, and it was fine.

My Spanish speaking abilities are definitely being challenged, but I think that they will improve as time goes on. I can understand most of what people say, but I have trouble when I try to talk myself.

Kyle and I are having a great time being here and having many new and exciting experiences. Please keep us in your prayers!

Much love.

First Saturday

This is our first a Saturday (sabado) and it's hard to believe that we've been here for the good part of a week already. It's so good to be back down here and the many of the memories from my first trip have come back to me over the last few days.

Much has changed, however, since my last trip and it's exciting to see all the things that God is doing down here in many, many ways. The orphanage project is coming along very well and we're hoping to have some finished rooms withing the next week or so. Theses rooms will then be used to house some of the staff throughout the summer.

Yesterday part of the team spent some time sharing testimonies with a group of high school students from the community. Today we've invited them over to play some volleyball and soccer in the backyard, which should be a lot of fun.

Though the landscape is mostly dirt and mud, I can't get over how beautiful the country is. From the roof of the orphanage there is a clear view of the gorgeous mountains to the east. The people here are beautiful as well and their strength and joy is very evident.

Yesterday I had a quick lesson in plumbing and today I'll be helping to finish up the showers and sinks for the rooms we need to finish in the orphanage. So far everyday has brought something new and exciting, and this morning we got much needed time to sleep in.

Breakfast is calling my name. :-)

Peru...

Hello all!

Just want to let you know that we are safe in Peru, and that God is really doing amazing things already! And it's only been 3 days! I can't wait to see what else is in store. For now, I am exhausted from some very long days and look forward to having a more relaxing day tomorrow as we are playing volleyball and soccer with some locals and hanging out with Lauren McNally and some of her friends who are teachers.

Goodnight!

Dios les bendiga! :)

Off to a rough start...

Well, it's Tuesday and Kyle and I are still in Newark, NJ. In an unexpected turn of events, Kyle's passport was left at our hotel in State College after the flurry of graduations that we attended this weekend. And we didn't even realize it until we were in line to check in at the Newark airport! With Kyle's ID 4 hours away, it was impossible for him to fly out yesterday, so we both stayed behind to fly out today. Praise the Lord that we didn't have to pay any fees to change our flights!! The Continental staff was very accommodating and helpful. We were rebooked to fly out today at 2:35 p.m. and will arrive in Lima at 9:30 p.m. (Peru is in our same time zone).

So, yesterday involved some very stressful moments, but in the end, all was well. We hung out in Newark for the rest of the day....not something I would ever choose to do again (Newark is really scary!!). But it was really cool to see the NYC skyline from the highway. I guess we'll have to just come back to tour NYC in August!! ;) Anyway, Kyle's passport arrived this morning at 7:30 and now we can head out and begin the adventure with the rest of our team!

Please keep us in your prayers as well as the rest of our team who is already safely in Peru.

Counting down...

So we are less than a week away from our trip to Peru! And it seems like there is so much yet to be done. We're working on packing up all of our stuff that we just moved home from State College. Talk about disorganization! Ha! Hopefully I don't go nuts trying to remember everything I need. I've made a bunch of lists, but those are only helpful if I remember to put everything on them!

Anyway, off to shop for veils today with my sisters :)

Keep us in your prayers especially this week as we travel and as the ACF team prepares to come down as well!

Preparation!

First of all, many, many thanks to those of you who contributed to our trip financially! You have made it possible for us to make a difference in the lives of so many people in the name of Jesus Christ. PTL!

And so the countdown begins...we leave for Peru in less than two weeks! It's hard to believe that we'll be in South American for 2 1/2 months. And not only that, but we've been planning our wedding as well! But the Lord has a plan for all of this, and he will work all these things together for our good. Here are some details on our trip that we know...
Our SVP (Summer Volunteer Program) team consists of 7 awesome people, who are listed at the end of this post.

We are leaving from Newark, NJ, on Monday, May 17th. Arriving in Lima, Peru, that night, we will begin the journey down to Chilca with the short term ACF team (that's our college church).

From there, we will be staying at Hannah's Home for the first ten days while we get accustomed to our surroundings and our duties. While Kyle will be focusing more on the completion and construction of the orphanage, I will be working more with Vacation Bible School.

That's all for now, since we're busy moving out of our housing in State College and preparing for what is to come. Please keep each of us in your prayers throughout this summer.

Some specific prayer requests...

• Safety in our travels and in Peru
• Jesus Christ would be glorified through us
• Peace among our teammates
• Anxiousness to be gone
• No lost luggage!
• And an AWESOME trip for everyone!!!

More to come! :)