Navidad in Peru

Yeah, I know. What an original title. But thats all I got. This entry is going to attempt to fill you all in on what it was like to be me, over the Christmas holiday here in Peru.

As you all know by now, I work with several churches here in Peru. Three of which I visit every week, and the others on a rotational basis. My Christmas celebration starts on Tuesday the 19th. Tuesday is normally my day off, but one of the churches with a Compassion site that I work with invited me to attend their Christmas party for the kids. They had hired a group who had music, games and prizes for the kids. The festivities were held on a soccer field near the church and all the kids in the neighborhood were invited. I'm bad at estimating, but I would say close to 200 kids. After all the games and music, they had hot chocolate and paneton, a bread like cake with raisins and those little pieces of candied fruit like in fruit cake. I blame Americans for the tradition of hot chocolate, because here, it is way too hot for consuming a hot beverage! Then all the kids in Compassion, went back to the church to await their lunches. I was excited because we were having Pollo a la Brasa, which is kind of like a rotisserie style chicken. But having to feed 150 kids with the food from one restaurant was a bit more difficult than anyone had expected. It ended up taking all afternoon to get everyone their food and I had my delicious lunch at 5 pm.

From there it was off to my second engagement for the evening...a dancing lesson at Primavera. This is the church that my host family attends. Flor, my host mom, teaches Sunday School and her class was involved in the Christmas service in a number of ways, two of which included me. They sang the Spanish version of All in All with my accompaniment, and they danced the Electric Slide, to another "country type" praise song. Tuesday night I met with the kids and Flor to practice the song and teach them the dance steps.

Wednesday was my normal work day at Collique, the same church I went to on Tuesday for their Christmas party and "lunch." There I participated in a gift exchange with the afternoon class. I drew the name of one of the girls and bought her a necklace, some earrings and two bracelets, all for 5 soles...about $1.80. One of the teachers drew my name and had a huge box for me. As I opened it all the girls laughed and smiled as I found another box. Opening it, yet another, and again, yet another. After the final box, I found a nice T-shirt. Of course it was too small, so we went to exchange it. That night was a very special night in the lives of the kids in nivel tres of this project. They were all to receive Bibles. This happens once every 5 years. They invited my up front to assist in handing out the Bibles. I felt very privileged to be a part of such a ceremony.

Thursday after my normal afternoon of guitar lessons, I was off to another Compassion project to participate in their Christmas service. Kori, another YAV, is in my guitar class, and was able to go with me to the service. Earlier in the week, I had taught the words of Away in a Manger to some of the kids I work with. After seeing some of the other kids perform songs and dances, it was time for our little trio to perform. It was actually pretty good. The girls had written out the English the way that they thought they were pronounced and it ended up being great! Too bad the room full of about 150 kids weren't really listening. They were there for one thing, the chocolate and paneton...so two things. We weren't able to stay for the whole thing, but I enjoyed the parts we saw, which was mainly the kids I work with, so the important ones anyway!

Friday was actually a pretty normal day, being my last day of "work" until January 10th.

Then comes Saturday. Most of the churches here had their Christmas services on the 23rd. In fact, I was invited to 4 services that night. But, by default, I am partial to Primavera, so thats where I went. The day started at about 5 when we arrived at the church. There were lots of last minute things to be done. A local organization had donated 100 gifts to be distributed to the kids of the neighborhood, along with enough chocolate and paneton to feed a small army...or 100 kids! We put up a note on the door of the church saying that the kids could come by at 6 to get a ticket for a gift, which were to be handed out at the end of the service. Now, I have described the Peruvian sense of time before, but apparently when you mention "regalos" (gifts) everyone is on time. We had 100 kids in the church by 6:30. The service was supposed to start at 7. And again, the rest of the church is on Peruvian time, so most of the kids and teachers who were supposed to perform the skits and songs were not there. So what did we do? Make the gringo sing! I was prepared to sing Away in a Manger, and ended up adding in the old faithful Open the Eyes for a time filler. My dancing squad was all there, so we also did our little dance, and sang our song. For the first half hour, I felt like I was in a gringo variety hour...coming to a channel near you! The other teachers and kids finally arrived and were able to do the cutest little skits and songs. We even had to cut out some of the adults because the 100+ kids were getting restless after 2 hours of sitting. We then distributed the chocolate, paneton and of course the gifts...all in an orderly fashion of course! It was quite a crazy night, but seeing the joy on the faces of the kids performing and the look in the eyes of the kids as they opened their gifts was worth it all.

Christmas Eve was quite an eventful day as well. It started out with an hour bus ride into Lima to spend some time with the other YAVs and out site coordinators. It was good to see them all and be able to hang out with some familiar friends (and a phone call from mom too!). We even were able to go to a good old Christmas Eve candle lighting service, in English! After the service I had my first of two dinners for the evening. We had turkey and stuffing with all that YAVs at Ruth and Hunter's house. Then after a short rest it was off to my second party of the night. I met up with Eduardo and we went to his aunts house for the traditional meal of turkey at midnight. As the clock struck twelve, we had a toast and all embraced and wished everyone a Feliz Navidad and sat down to our meals. After dinner the elders in the family exchanged words of wisdom, encouragement and tidings of joy, as the rest of us listened intently...or tried to anyway. Then we headed home at the early hour of 3am.

Christmas day was spent with the family of my host mom. We went to her families house for lunch and then participated in a gift exchange. I received another T-shirt...apparently, everyone here is tired of the 5 shirts that I have! After a movie, we came back to Eduardo's parents house, and to my surprise, his brother was watching LOTR: The Two Towers, in English on TV. I gladly joined and napped through most of it. After receiving another call from my mom, and a call from my brother, I was ready to head home and go to bed.

While I didn't have a whole lot of time to miss my family, or to think about what I was missing at home, those feelings did come up as expected. This was my first Christmas away from my family and it really doesn't seem like Christmas without all our traditions. But living in a culture different from my own, and living with people who aren't poor, but not as fortunate as I am, I was able to rediscover what Christmas was about. Not only about the birth of Jesus, but also about bringing family together. Why were Joseph and Mary so far from home for the birth of their son? Because Joseph had to return to the land of his ancestors for a census. He had to go back "where he came from." The families that I was blessed to be a part of this year weren't big on gifts, and no one cared. It was more about having your family, the people that you love, there with you to celebrate. And they all welcomed me in as one of their own.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

A weekend in the mountains

First let me apologize for the lapse in blogs. Things for me have been pretty busy, and I haven't had my normal Tuesdays for typing. I also had to write an update for the PC USA's website, so that took one of my computer days and can be found at http://www.pcusa.org/missionconnections/ along with updates from other YAVs and PC USA missionaries all over the world.

Today's issue is going to get pretty long so go grab yourself a cup of hot chocolate and maybe some fruit cake and then we'll get down to business. I'll wait for you to get back.

Ready?

Ok, so I spent this last weekend outside of Lima for only the third time since I have been here, and what an experience it was. This was my weekend with a church in Lima that is pretty much one family. They have close connections with another presbytery in Junin, about 5 hours north of Lima, which was having a convention Friday through Sunday so I was invited to attend. I was warned that the weather there was pretty cold and that the altitude was pretty high, about 4,100 meters or 13,000 feet. To put that in context, the highest point in North Carolina is about 6,600 feet.

Since I was going to have to adjust to the high altitude, we decided that it would be best if we went up to La Oroya, which is at a mere 3750 meters or 12300 feet. The problem with La Oroya is that it is one of the most polluted places in all of Peru. There is an American run company there that operates a smelter for copper, lead, zinc and other precious metals. The emissions from this plant contaminate the air, water and earth surrounding the city. The mountains surrounding La Oroya are now white with pollution and there is a high content of lead in the drinking water.

There were 5 of us that left Lima early Thursday morning for the 4 hour trip to La Oroya in a collectivo. These cars gather at a certain point in Lima and drive back and forth between various places in Peru. Arriving at our destination at about noon, I was pleased to find that I could breath pretty normally. Danny, one of the people I came with that lived in Lima with his uncle, was from La Oroya and we were staying at his house with his parents and 2 little sisters. After lunch he took me out to see the sites of the city (there will be pictures to follow at some point). Being a town in the mountains, there was lots of climbing to do. This would be when the difficulty breathing came in. It was hard for me to climb more than 15 stairs at a time without having to stop and catch my breath. Then the headache started. Now, I've had headaches before, but not one that lasted for more than 12 hours. We visited a nice little park, a cemetery where you could see all of the city, and the main plaza of the city. Finally making it back to his house where I could relax and breath, I was given some Aguita de Coca. Now, while it may sound like Coca-cola, its not. It is a kind of tea that is made with the leaves of the coca plant...yes, the same plant that is used to make cocaine. It is a natural remedy to help with altitude sickness and is not illegal. I was able to relax the rest of the afternoon and watch some TV which was good because I had quite a night ahead of me.

One of Danny's sisters had her promotion that night. This is kind of like a graduation from middle school to high school and is a pretty big deal. Everyone gets real dressed up and goes to the school for the ceremony, food and dancing. I was invited to go, even though I had no nice clothes with me. So I go in my jeans and American Eagle hoodie, with everyone else in suits and prom type dresses. It was supposed to start at 9 pm, but being in Peru, it didn't start until after 10, which was good because we didn't leave the house until 9:45. They ceremony was very nice. They read out the names of all the kids, sang the national anthem and had a lot of speeches. After this they had a band play so that the kids could dance with their parents teachers, and each other. I also got to share a dance with the graduate. Then we took lots of pictures and the party really started. The band, which played pretty traditional Peruvian music, wrapped up and on came the "dance music." First song, Daddy Yankee, yes the same one you hear in the states. Then finally at about 1:30 we got our dinner. I think I mentioned something about a headache before...yeah, that was still going on this whole time.

We left the school at 2 with the party still going strong. The plan was to put me up in a hostel since there wasn't much room in the house, but at 2 am, they were all full or closed. So it was back to the house to find a place for the gringo to sleep. We moved the couches, put the cushions in the floor on top of some sheepskins, and there was my bed. It didn't matter if it was comfortable or not, because my head wasn't going to let me sleep that night anyway. We were getting up early to leave, so after 4 short hours of trying to sleep, we were off for an even higher altitude. After breakfast, some more coca tea, and some aspirin, the headache finally went away.

We hopped in a collectivo for Junin, now with one extra person, the recent graduate. Upon our arrival in Junin, the mother of the family decided it would be best if we visited the hospital for a hit of some oxygen for me and her granddaughter. I felt much better already, but risking another 12 hour headache was not something I wanted to endure, so I gladly sucked on the oxygen tank for 30 minutes.

Then it was off to a nearby town called Sasicucho, situated on a plain between the nearby mountains. There was a lake nearby which I didn't see, but it definitely brought in a cold win. This was the first time since I have been in Peru that I could answer yes when someone asked if I was cold. It almost felt like I was at home for the winter, the only difference being that there was no escape. In the US, there is always a building to go in with heat to warm up, but here, you have to try and find a stove or a bunch of blankets.

The weekend was all planned out with Bible studies, worship services and times for food. There were two different leaders for the Bible studies, the pastor of a church in Huancao, where another volunteer attends, and the president of the Iglesia Evangelical Peruana. The worship services were lead by a musical duo, filled with traditional hymns and music, and preaching by the pastors in attendance. And then there was the food. I can now see how the two volunteers in the mountains have been able to lose a total of 40 pounds. While the food wasn't bad, it definitely wasn't the heaping portions that I have grown accustomed to in Lima. On the menu? Sheep, sheep, and more sheep. The hills were filled with sheep. The family whose house I was staying at raised sheep, so that's what we ate. I even got to see them kill, shin and gut one. Somehow, it seemed different when I was killing the little mice in the lab.

The house kind of reminded me of something you might see in an old western. It was a small walled compound with several little stone and concrete buildings with wood or dirt floors. There was a building for cooking, 2 for sleeping, and one for storage and hanging the sheep carcasses. They all faced inward on an open space where we gathered to eat. And of course, there were dogs.

The conference was well attended with upwards of 200 for the worship service on Sunday. I was able to participate a few times with my guitar and the songs that I know in Spanish. Sunday morning there I went with the youth to their Sunday school class where we talked about Spiritual gifts. The lesson really spoke to me. I have been wondering for a while now what the next step in my life is going to be. Wondering if I was cut out for mission work, or where God was leading me next. While I still have those questions, I was reassured that everything is in His hands and when it is time for me to know, He is going to reveal it to me.

I spent the afternoon on Sunday playing with some of the kids in the family from Lima that I was there with. It was pretty fun to see the games that they play and what makes them happy. Being from Lima, they had never experienced lightning, and were so excited to see some in Junin. They also got about an hour of fun out of sliding down a small hill on 2 liter plastic bottles. It was fun to be able to connect with them and talk with them and just play!

As the weekend was winding down, I received two invitations. One to attend a youth conference near Huanuco, where the YAVs had our first retreat, and another for another presbytery meeting in Junin in March. I don't think I will be able to attend either one, but to be invited let me know that I was at least doing something worthwhile and they wanted me to share in their ministry.

We left Junin for Lima at about 11pm. We caught a bus and arrived back in Lima at 4 am. After a few short hours of sleep at Abdias's house, I headed back out to Carabayllo to drop my stuff off and head out to work. It was nice to get back to a normal life here in Lima after an exciting weekend. It was also really nice to get back here where I could wear a t-shirt and shorts. It is a little weird to me, however, that my normal life now includes going and talking with teenagers in Spanish all day!

I hope that you have enjoyed this "brief" summary of my weekend. There is much more that I could share, but my time is growing short. If you have any questions feel free to email me or leave a comment.

I hope you all have a great Christmas! I miss you all and will be thinking about you. I'll have a nice long blog next week about Christmas here in Peru, which I have already experienced some of. I can't wait to share it with you all!