Dos Semanas en Peru

Wow. It's been two weeks already- halfway there! It's tough to find time to blog, but here I am on a Friday night finding time to do so. It's really wonderful to have time alone because alone time is difficult to come by here at Casa de Aguila. In fact children are hovering over the computer as I type. yessica jalixto mahacacuantos(8 yrs) ( that's her wanting to type her name) is sitting here with me by the computer taking tons of pictures on my camera and running up the battery. These kids are fascinated with technology. They walk around with my iphone in their hands, playing Justin Beiber over and over again. I think they have "El fiebre de Justin." Everyday our friend Yazmin (14 yrs) comes over to our house to just be with us. Our Spanish is horrible and I don't think we're that interesting, but she loves being in our presence. Last Friday, they didn't have school, but our Spanish class meets from 2-5, so she went to class with us! She has been a good friend, and I hate to leave her at the end of the month!

The last weekend we went down to the thermal baths in Cconoc, and I decided it wasn't worth getting in them because the water was lukewarm and getting out was brutally cold. Mary, Bailey, and I just hung around and took pictures while everyone else got in. The mosquitos here are terrible! At one point I looked down to find about 50 mosquitos on one leg. The bites(picaduras) last quite a while, as I am still experiencing pain a week later. I have tons of bites, and get more and more everyday even after dousing myself and bug spray. I guess they love that fresh blood because none of the people here seem to have bites. Pray that I will be healed from the bites and will be kept from getting more because they are so painful, and keep me from going to sleep at night. I'm not going to miss the insects here, that's for sure! We have found so many spiders in our beds and in our clothes, and one day we found a brown recluse hanging from its web in front of Cindy's face. That was terrifying!

Every morning we have breakfast at 7, and then work at 8:30. Last week I was in the kitchen, but this week we were down in the field digging holes to plant posts for a fence to hold the horses. We can not use post hole diggeres because there are giant rocks in the ground that we have to dig around. Instead we use these 30 pound iron rods to jab in the ground until a perfect 2-foot hole is formed. This task seemed impossible with all the boulders we ran into. I kept referring to Matthew 17:20 and having faith to move a mountain- The bible is so applicable in theses circumstances, ya know? On Wednesday we took a break and drove up to the villages in the surrounding mountains to tell them about the eye clinic we are having in a few days. Our first stop was a visit to an older Quechuan man with liver cancer. Luz (the nurse @ CDA) has been occasionally visiting him and checking on his health. He lives with his daughter and her husband and kids, and their living conditions are unbelievable. We entered the house made of mud and dirt and there were cuy (guinea pigs) everywhere and meat hanging from the ceiling. Yes- they eat guinea pigs here in Peru, and they were not contained, but running around the house. Greg, the missionary here, was telling us all about the health conditions and how hygiene is foreign to them. Their work is primarily agrarian work, and when someone is not able to do their job, as when one becomes older and helpless, they are not valued any longer, and are neglected. They literally don't feed them or give any attention to them, so they will die sooner and be out of their hands. I could not bare to hear this, and began crying. Fortunately, this family has been taught the value that God has for each and every one of His children, and they love and care for this man. I don't believe he was a Christian, and so Greg presented the gospel right there that he would accept Christ; however the gospel was presented in Spanish and the man did not understand it because he speaks Quechuan, but he prayed the prayer in Spanish anyway. This whole experience was wearing on my spirit, and the sadness lingered with me the whole day. You truly have to rely on God and trust Him to do what he is going to do- to know that you can do nothing to save these people is terrifying, but God is in control, and He is sovereign- I can't say anything more.

Tomorrow we are off to Machu Picchu, and I can not be more excited! Pray that the trip goes well and that there are opportunities to witness and glorify the Lord.

Los dias primeras en Peru

Estoy aqui en Peru! By the grace of God we made it to Cusco early Sunday morning after traveling all day and night. We spent the night in the aeropuerto in Lima, but we hardly got any sleep. The lack of sleep coupled with altitude sickness had us feeling pretty lousy when we arrived, but that didn't stop us from taking in all the beauty that Peru has to offer. It was an hour and a half drive up the mountain from the airport to Limatambo, and it is CRAZY to see how differently people live from us. Many live in small homes built from clay, and you see stray dogs about every five seconds. We arrived to CDA and the orphanage is actually a lot nicer than the homes in the other villages. One girl was telling me that the kids that are not orphans that go to the school are jealous of the orphans. Life is tough for them here, but they are well taken care of at CDA. We have running water, but in order to take showers, we have to make a fire to heat up the pipes- and we didn't quite get it right the first time. Sorry, but I can't deal with ice cold showers! I can learn to do without right? =) Our diet consists of rice, potatoes, green vegetables, and occasionally a hint of meat on our plates. For breakfast, we have bread, which is really hallow and some sort of interesting concoction in liquid form. My favorite part of this trip is sitting down at meals and talking in Spanish with the teachers and farmers employed by CDA. They are so kind, and are willing to help me as I try to perfect my Spanish. Of course, I love talking with the kids too, but they are a little bit harder to understand because they don't exactly speak Spanish well either. I am unable to upload pictures on the blog because it takes too long to upload them, but trust me when I tell you that it is so beautiful! The houses are all bright blue and white with clay red roofs. It is so green here in the mountains and there are beautiful red poinsettia flowers in front of most of the houses. Yesterday was 4th of July, so us Americans celebrated with a huge campfire down by the river, just off campus. The stars are beautiful! I could NOT get over it! Even with it being cloudy, you could still see so many! It's supposed to be the dry season, but there's been light rain since we've been here. It's starting to clear up, and when the sun's out, you can FEEL it! Everyday, we have our volunteer work (today I was helping in the kitchen) and in the afternoon we have Spanish class, which is where I should be heading now! Hasta luego!

Amy