crazy cabs and ancient ruins

hola from peru! I've been here almost a week and everyday has been a new adventure. If you check facebook you can see all the pictures i've taken so far. it's actually not safe to bring my camera around (you're just asking someone to rob you) so the pictures might be somewhat limited.

I arrived in Lima at about 11 p.m. monday night. I had met up with 6 other SALI interns at the atlanta airport so that made traveling more pleasant. I didn't get motion sickness too bad at all!! (unfortunately the medicine that made that possible made me really sick wednesday and thursday). we stayed at a hotel in lima (where they were selling a book about Chuck Norris) and took a tour of lima during the day Tuesday. We saw the major plazas, some museums of artifacts of pre-Incan civilization, and even the Love Park (which has a giant sculpture of a man and a woman embracing and kissing). Apparently every year on valentines day they have a contest there for the longest kiss; last year's winners went over two hours or something extraordinary like that. we also chilled at Larco Mar, a really fancy shopping plaza, where we ate at a really nice restaurant called Mangos and got our last starbucks for a long time. the only american chain in trujillo is radio shack.

tuesday night we took the short flight home to trujillo and moved into our lodgings. for about two weeks (one of which has now just about passed) ill be living with two other interns at the house of Amelia, a lady from the Larco church. We each have our own rooms with huge windows. They tell me my mattress is made of sawdust- which means that since the first time i slept in it there has been and will continue to be a large dent where i sleep. i'm used to a hard mattress tho so it hasn't bothered me too much. Amelia is so nice and makes us breakfast every morning.

Wednesday we got the tour of SALI and downtown trujillo. the major part of the city is encircled by Espana Av. which used to be the site of the wall around the city. SALI is on a major corner, the intersection of Larco, Pizarro, and Espana. To get to our house we go away from downtown down Larco, and to get to downtown we walk up Pizzaro. From where i now sit in the SALI intern room that one of the students named 'Gringolandia' I can hear the constant beeping of horns. The first time I rode in a taxi i feared for my life, actually more like the first 3 days. I've gotten more used to it now and understand that there is a method to their madness, tho this type of driving would never be acceptable in the US. there are very few lights or stop signs, its all about whoever has the most speed and who sticks the nose of their taxi out far enough to stop the flow of traffic. the taxis themselves are tiny and there are very few private cars. I spend an average of 7 soles a day on taxi rides (1 dollar roughly equals 3 soles).

wednesday night i started feeling really sick while we were out at the fanciest bar in trujillo, Hops. the drinking age is like 16 or something tho no one cares but peru mission has a rule that you can't drink if you're under 21 so i will be ordering lots of coca-colas at bars this summer. I continued feeling really sick (i'm pretty sure it was a side effect of the motion sickness medicine i took to get down here) thursday but went on with our activities anyway. we visited the 3 churches peru mission works with- 2 of which they planted. I went back out to Wichanzao, a barrio on the outskirts of greater trujillo and location of one of these churches, to observe a microcredit orientation meeting. i'll be heading back out there as soon as i finish this entry to meet with the same ladies again. right now we have 2 groups that are considering taking out loans. Charlie and Lawson have been working on this project for a long time now, tho charlie is going back to the states in a few weeks. John just arrived and will be working on this project too.

thursday night we had game night at one of the longterm missionaries' houses, the fergusons. Heather Ferguson actually let me borrow anna karenina which i had been reading at home. she said its one of her favorite books and we should discuss it when i finish. all the missionaries and interns were there and we had some great food. stepping into their house was like walking back into america. that's definitely the place to go if i get frustrated or start missing home.

yesterday morning, friday, we visted the Huaca de la Luna in Moche. It was so amazing to see how the adobe bricks have been so perfectly preserved since the early first millenium. The Moche were the dominant civilization in northern coastal peru from about 100 to 800 a.d. The temple we visited had been expanded 5 different times. they said that when a certain very high official/leader died they buried him in the temple and then built a new temple on top. Since they just covered the old walls with adobe, archeologists have been able to scrape away the newer mud to reveal perfectly preserved colored frescos. it's really amazing the entent to which the artwork remains in such good condition considering its age. of course all this is made possible by the fact that we're in the desert and it hardly ever rains. the city really can't handle it when it does; theres no drainage system and many houses and buildings have openings in their roofs.

after moche we went to a nice restaurant that serves very authentic peruvian food. i had tacu taca with lomo saltado romano (steak with peppers, onions, and french fries served on a platform of fried rice and beans) and ceviche (raw seafood "cooked" in the acid of lemon juice). Everything was really good except i didn't like the fried rice/bean stuff. Next time I'll just get the lomo saltado romano alone. Friday night we went to their RUF meeting and afterward I went with a few other interns to watch Pirates of the Carribbean 3. It cost me 7 soles. We got out pretty late and i saw trujillo like ive never seen it before: quiet with almost empty streets.

One thing i'm pretty excited about is having some clothes made. apparently it's pretty cheap to have a tailor sew clothes if you bring them fabric and say what you want. i've also been told that one of the pastors' wives likes to make skirts so I might ask her too.

today we can do whatever we like so that's a nice break from the hectic pace of the last week. if anyone wants to send me mail my address is:

100 Larco Av.
Trujillo, Peru
South America

Apparently there are no zip codes down here. I think i'm adjusting pretty well so far. we couldn't flush the toilet paper in brazil either so i've been doing alright with that. it's a pain that we can't drink the water (only bottled) or eat fresh food from street vendors because it looks so good! I am understanding a surprisingly large amount of spanish so that's encouraging. I'll be taking spanish lessons twice a week and meeting with a conversation partner another 2 days a week so hopefully that will help me improve. When I figure out how to post pictures i will but all the buttons on blogspot are now in spanish so it's making it more difficult to figure things out. All my pictures are on facebook anyway. To those who are, thanks for your prayers! Stay tuned for more adventures and musings...

"be still, and know that I am God" psalm 46:10

So I'm home now and feeling a bit at a loss. It was such a hectic semester with more work than I've ever done in any previous one, but now it's over. I already have a long list of all the things I need to do for Peru, but those things are easy and painless compared to all the research papers- so I guess it's happy summer to me. I feel like I'm forgetting something.

I went to boston on saturday to hang out with a bunch of swedish ladies to get my scholarship for study abroad. they really got me all excited about going and now i'm looking into swedish lessons for the fall. if you know anyone who gives swedish lessons or speaks swedish at uconn, let me know.

on a more spiritual note, i'm really looking forward to the atmosphere at SALI. I know being a Christian is not about "feeling" spiritual or pious, and it's a good thing because I don't. Still, I know I'm not depending on God like I should and desire to, and if I'm honest with myself, I'm really holding Him and His plans for me at arms length. I don't trust that He is good. I know my sinful heart, and I know I deserve wrath- so accepting His love is difficult. Why is it so hard for us to accept grace and mercy? Because they're free? I'm an earner and not being able to earn God's love is an alien concept to my nature. I really hope that this summer I will have some time to just be still, and know that He is God, and to just dwell in His free love and mercy.

I've been wondering about this for the last few days- why does everyone see themselves as victims? I think I'm a victim because so-and-so hurt me, meanwhile so-and-so thinks he's a victim because I hurt him. Our culture tells us to shift the blame, so it's not surprising that we view conflict this way, but how will we ever get over it if we're both harboring bitterness?

a little procrastination

Only 1 more final (latin american history in the national period- sooo much information). It's sad packing up my room here and saying goodbye to friends, though I feel like I'll be back in the blink of an eye.

For those unfamiliar with the song, I named my blog after a song we sing at RUF sometimes. Aside from liking the song, I think "let us love and sing and wonder" is appropriate because those are three of my favorite things to do, and things I always think I should do more of. Here is the song, for those who haven't seen it before:

Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder
from 1 Cor. 6:11, 20; Rev. 1:5

Let us love and sing and wonder
Let us praise the Savior’s name
He has hushed the law’s loud thunder
He has quenched Mount Sinai’s flame
He has washed us with His blood (x3)
He has brought us nigh to God

Let us love the Lord Who bought us
Pitied us when enemies
Called us by His grace and taught us
Gave us ears and gave us eyes
He has washed us with His blood (x3)
He presents our souls to God

Let us sing though fierce temptation
Threatens hard to bear us down
For the Lord, our strong salvation,
Holds in view the conqu’ror’s crown
He, Who washed us with His blood, (x3)
Soon will bring us home to God

Let us wonder grace and justice
Join and point to mercy’s store
When through grace in Christ our trust is
Justice smiles and asks no more
He Who washed us with His blood (x3)
Has secured our way to God

Let us praise and join the chorus
Of the saints enthroned on high
Here they trusted Him before us
Now their praises fill the sky
Thou hast washed us with Thy blood (x3)
Thou art worthy Lamb of God

genesis

this is the beginning of my little blog experiment. ive never been good at keeping a journal but i spend so much time on the computer that this might have more success.

so I'm leaving for peru in less than three weeks. i'm excited but it doesn't feel real. i have so much to think about (note to self: reschedule dentist appt., refill allergy spray perscription, find out if my cell phone gets service there) but I also just want to relax and have some fun for two weeks. i also have to decide which books to bring to peru. i wonder if i'll even have much time for pleasure reading- i hope so. i want to finish the collection of dostoevsky's short stories sitting on my shelf before i go.

may 21-aug 31 is a long time. shall be interesting. i think it's good practice for my study abroad next spring (at Uppsala University in Sweden). I hope I don't get too homesick.

well there really isn't much to say at this point. i'm nervous about running a classroom and being charged with other people's education. i'm excited to practice my spanish and meet lots of Christians my age. in any event, this summer will be full of new adventures- hence this blog. i don't promise it will be interesting, but it will serve to keep you informed about how I'm doing and what is going on with me. and to those who are praying for me, thank you so much. It's so comforting to know I don't travel alone.