These are the taxi rides

these are the girl interns but more are coming on sunday...

Working Hard

I feel like not a lot has happened and at the same time everything is happening. All I have really been doing is teaching for the past few weeks. I know that I have said this many times but it is a lot of work. We have to write out lesson plans and tests and grade which is very time consuming. It is also a lot of work just to get things done in Trujillo. No one is ever on-time and no one ever follows a schedule. Which is a nice way to live but it’s a hard way to work. For example the hairdryer that I use broke and my roommate and I needed to get one. It took four days to get one. First we had to figure out where to buy one. Then finally one of our students said she would take us to get one but she never showed up. She wasn’t being rude it’s just the way things work down here. I think for them life is like abstract art. It follows rules but know one really knows what they are and they can be broken at anytime. For Americans life is not like art at all. It’s a set of rules that you have to follow and we generally get really upset when you break them. I don’t think either one is correct they’re just different. We finally got the hairdryer this morning it took about 2 hours. The first place we went didn’t really have what we needed but the second place did. The line however was really long because they only had one person on the register even though they had two people. Here in Peru they believe it’s better to have one person take the money and another person bag whatever you just bought. In the U.S. I would have driven to Target 4 days ago and bought a hairdryer.

It sounds like I don’t like it here but that is not the case at all. I love it here its just different. One of the missionaries said that there are three phases of culture shock
1. Honeymoon where everything is new
2. You really start the hate everything about the new place that you live in and they way they do things.
3. You assimilate and start to appreciate they way they do things.

I think I am in between one and two.

Weekend Pictures

What a Great Weekend

Things were hopping in Trujillo this weekend. A lot of new interns came and many of the old ones are leaving. They are very sad to go and that gives me hope. If they love it this much after one summer I know that Ill also grow to love it much more after one year. An old friend from college is going to be an intern this year also her name is Sarah Joy. We are going to be roommates and I think that we will become very good friends. It’s kind of hard not to become very good friends with all the interns because we spend so much time together.
Classes are going to start on Monday and the real work has already begun. I am teaching two classes, and I had to make my lesson plans for the month. I am also going to be part of something called the street kids ministry. This is where I and another intern teach English to some of the street kids around our building. We teach letters and numbers and colors, sing songs, wash their faces, brush their teeth, and give them a snack. I think that this is going to be very rewarding and challenging. This is the kind of thing that gets me very excited because as we impact kids’ lives with love they will grow to be women and men of integrity, and Peru needs more men and women of integrity. Before classes begin on Monday all of the interns had a funfilled weekend. It started off with an unexpected concert on Friday night. It was the Trujillo city Orchestra. The music was great and the theater was beautiful. Then on Saturday morning we went to Mocha which is a 1,500 year old native ruin 20 min. outside of the city of Trujillo. It was very impressive. The picture of me with the scary face is from Mocha. Then we went to Huanchaco Beach and went surfing. It was all a lot of fun but now my muscles are very sore. There is a picture of the interns that went surfing and a picture of me in front of the house that we stay at. I am having a great time. Please pray that my classes go well on Monday.