Pics

Eating Tamales

Lenny and Ludwigs Indian Folklorica Music at Church

Girl's Bible study and French toast- Thanks Gillian

Oscar, Ludwig and Sydney

Cheese

Still up to my old tricks

Amanda and Michelle

Heather and Caleb

Heather and I

Hi everyone.

It’s hard to know what to say. Time has been flying by so fast. I have been very stressed out at times, and very emotional. You never quite feel like you are good at anything when you first start a new job and speak a new language. You can’t find your identity in what you do either. The only thing I HAVE been able to take pleasure in is cooking for my fellow interns. Cooking to me makes anywhere feel like home. It’s hard to feel settled in when you are eating out all the time or eating sandwiches. Everyone enjoys it and that makes me happy. Food has been quite a comfort. We have the opportunity to cook desserts for our Mission lunches on Sundays and my roomie Gilian cooked us a big French toast and bacon breakfast on Saturday before our girls bible study.

More about cooking… I have joined a women’s league at the church in Arevalo. My Spanish teacher is the wife of the Pastor there. Her son Juan is also one of my star advanced students. He is a wiz at English at the early age of 15. SO after class on Friday he accompanies me to his home in Arevalo- a 30 minute collective ride from here. These are inexpensive shared taxis- kinda gross sometimes but to cheap to pass up. Any time after dark I must take a taxi. I taught the women’s league how to make Eggplant Parmesan last week and this week will be Mexican Chicken Enchiladas. The ladies are very excited. I also started my first Sunday as a new member at Arevalo. Our parish church is Larco but I feel my heart is in Arevalo. I am helping my other roomie Amanda teach children’s Sunday school. The children are a big draw for the church as it is a new church and under construction. We went from 21 children to 30 children this week.

Classes have been a lot smoother. I had a rough first 2 weeks. I spent most days just struggling to day everyday things, but I found it would take so much longer. Mind you the water doesn’t work around here sometimes and little things you take for granted take much more preparation. I have a schedule going now…

I get up at 6am and get ready, then walk 20 minutes to work. My first class is at 7:30 and my second class ends at 10:30. I eat breakfast then- hard boiled egg, and a piece of fruit or a pastry. Then I take private Spanish lessons for an hour with Noemi. We are reading a Horse and His Boy in Spanish among other things that we’re doing. I plan for my last class until lunch at 1pm when Rosita our cook serves lunch at SALI and all the interns eat together. Great fellowship. It was sunny yesterday so we pulled the table outside and ate in the courtyard.

Some of out weekend activities include: Reformed University Fellowship at SALI on Fridays nights, with a short sermon and group discussion.

Saturday at some point we have the girls Bible study on How People Change. This week we talked about Jeremiah 17 comparing the shrub in the desert and the tree planted by the river.

17:5 Thus says the LORD, "Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind And makes flesh his strength, And whose heart turns away from the LORD.

17:6 For he will be like a bush in the desert And will not see when prosperity comes, But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, A land of salt without inhabitant.

17:7 "Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD And whose trust is the LORD.

17:8 "For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream And will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year of drought Nor cease to yield fruit.

Last Saturday our Peruvian friends Lenny, Ludwig and Jack invited us over for lunch. Of course Jack’s wife Tatiana, Lenny’s fiancée Janette, and Sonya cooked. Peruvian men don’t cook and clean much. We had lemon chicken, rice and a salad with beets, carrots, and broccoli. For dessert we had strawberries and sweet condensed milk.

Saturday night we showed a film in the courtyard projected onto a big screen. We showed “O Brother Where Art Thou” per the request of out resident southerner Joshua. It was really fun but kinda cold.

Coming up soon we will be moving into our new apartment. The girls will live on the fourth floor. We’ll have a washer and drier and a kitchen here. We’ll also have roof access, a good place to eat in the Spring. Moving will be relieving as many of the interns are scattered about town. It will simplify things- especially since we’ll be closer to work. We can actually run home, rather than stay at the office all day!

Our first cycle ends next Wednesday so after grades are in we will move, then I hope to go to Arevalo and help paint or do whatever they’ll have me do to further their construction efforts. We also plan to spend a day in Huanchaco at the beach for an intern day retreat. I want to have seafood for the first time since I’ve been here. Hope for a warm day for us!

Please pray for …

The church at Arevalo. If you choose to donate extra money to the mission aside from my support please designate it to the clinic at Arevalo. This clinic will do wonders for the people of Arevalo. It may employ enough people and get enough people well to turn this ghetto around. This town needs healing. Children roam the streets not going to school, people are jobless and hopeless. Pray that they find hope.

Here is a peru mission letter on he people of Pisco, and Ica:
http://www.ymlp.com/pubarchive_show_message.php?perumission+39

Earthquake in Ica, Peru

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

As many of you know, a massive 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck Peru Wednesday evening at 6:40pm, killing hundreds in the southern cities of Pisco and Ica. One church in Pisco collapsed during a memorial service, which alone has left an estimated 200 dead.

The quake thankfully did little damage in the capital city of Lima 90 miles away, a city of nearly 10 million where many more might have perished. The mission's own RUF pastor John Ferguson, with his wife Heather and their children Colton, Jason, Justin, Kevin and Miranda, and our SALI director Caleb Sutton, all happened to be in Lima at the time and experienced some of the panic that occurred there. In northern Peru where our mission works, we felt the tremor, but did not suffer any damage.

The people of Peru are responding to the disaster and sending aid to the affected regions. As a mission, we will also be sending aid through the local church and/or the National Evangelical Council of Peru, which has already taken steps to collect needed items. If you would like to give to our brothers and sisters in need, you may send your contributions to the following address:

Christian Missionary Society
Re: Earthquake Relief Fund
PO Box 53363
Knoxville, TN 37950-3363

We will pledge to use 100% of any contributions received by Thursday, August 23 toward buying emergency supplies for those left without water, electricity or shelter, and 100% of any contributions received afterward toward ongoing care of the victims of this natural disaster.

Thank you again for your prayers.

In His Grace,
the Peru Mission team

Care packages

My care package wishlist:

Glucosamine Chondroitin and Fish oil complex ( my joints get sore)
The Office DVD's any season.
GOOD COFFEE. It's hard to find here, and I need it with my job.
the list is growing.....

Terremoto en Peru

Hello everyone,
I want to assure you all that all is safe in Trujillo and the rest of Northern Peru in case you heard about the earthquake on the news. The 8 magnitude earthquake centered around Chincha Alta in the south.I did, however, experience a 10minute tremor around 6:30 on Wednesday night. Please pray for the families of the more than 300 people that died and for the reconstruction of homes and restoration of property. This is devastating to the people. Perumission is mobilizing efforts at this moment to help in any way possible. Pray that we find the time, energy, and resources in order to do this. I have included some pictures and an article.

Earthquake in Peru Kills Hundreds

By LAURA PUERTAS and JON ELSEN

Published: August 16, 2007

LIMA, Peru, Aug. 16 — A powerful earthquake shook Peru Wednesday night, killing at least 337 people, Civil Defense authorities said today. Another 1,350 were injured, according to Peru’s Health Ministry.

Most of the repo

rted dead were in the Ica region, south of the capital, which emergency workers said appeared to be the area that was hardest hit. The earthquake, whose magnitude was variously estimated at 7.7 to 7.9, was centered off Peru’s Pacific shore near Ica.

Many people were killed in the rubble of their homes, and some 300 people were in a cathedral when it collapsed. Emergency workers said the overall death toll from the quake, which struck at 6:40 p.m. local time, might be even greater.

It was not immediately clear how many foreigners may have been among the casualties. News agencies carried reports that at least one American was known to have died.

The city of Ica was blacked out, as were smaller towns along the coast south of Lima, and many of the areas hit lost telephone service. Rescue workers reported difficulty getting to Ica and the coastal towns because of cracks in highways and downed power lines.

Three hospitals and a clinic in Ica were flooded with people seeking aid, and some of the injured were being attended to in hallways, according to local media reports.

A cathedral in the hard-hit port city of Pisco was destroyed, according to local media reports, which said some 300 people were inside attending mass at the time the building fell.

Another 26 people were killed when part of a hospital in Pisco collapsed, many of them patients in their beds, the DPA news agency reported. Fernando Barrios, the president of the hospital, appealed for the injured to be taken to Lima, because the remainder of the Pisco hospital is without water or electricity and is unable to treat them.

Andina, the state news agency, said that a special flight path had been established to s been set up to ferry badly injured people from the hardest hit areas to Lima by air, to relieve overcrowding in local hospitals.

Mayor Juan Mendoza Uribe of Pisco said that 70 percent of the city of about 60,000 people, located 135 miles south of Lima, was leveled by the quake.

“So much effort and our city is destroyed,” he said, crying audibly, in comments broadcast on radio station RPP in Lima. The city remained without electricity this morning. Hundreds of families slept on the streets outside ruined houses, according to Andina, and 25 bodies were placed in front of municipal buildings after the morgue filled to capacity.

The president of Peru, Alan Garcia, arrived in Pisco around late in the morning to view the damage firsthand, the agency reported.

A wall collapsed at the Tambo de Mora prison in Chincha, another town hit hard by the earthquake, and about 680 prisoners escaped, according to Manuel Aguilar, vice president of the National Institute of Penetentiaries. About 29 were recaptured and transferred to another jail, he said.

Office workers in Lima fled tall buildings that shook in two waves that lasted around 20 seconds each and cut power lines, Reuters reported.

“I was in class on the fifth floor, and suddenly everything started to shake and glass began falling,” said Carolina Montero, 37, a banking administrator and finance student who lives in Callao, a coastal city near Lima. “People got extremely nervous.”

Fernando Calderon, an American in Lima, said he was in his hotel when the quake struck. He described the scene as unreal, with buildings swaying from right to left, and the ground shaking.

“We realized everybody was out, and the ground was shaking for a minute,” he said by telephone in an interview with CNN. “Finally we started hearing glass breaking, and things falling out of the building and that’s when everybody started screaming, praying, children crying. It was just awful.”

Electra Anderson, another American, told CNN by telephone from her apartment in Peru that it seemed when the quake began that many people had no idea what was happening, and ran into the streets screaming and crying.

“We’re used to earthquakes,” said Ms. Anderson, who is from California. “But it just didn’t stop; it kept going and going, and it kept getting stronger and stronger.”

She added that she counted about 70 aftershocks: “It’s just been non-stop.”

Her belongings in the apartment went flying and the glass windows appeared to be bending in. “People really thought they were going to die,” Ms. Anderson said.

Peruvian officials said there had been a total of more than 320 aftershocks, the strongest reaching a magnitude of about 6.

Offers of aid quickly poured in from many countries, including Spain, France, Venezuela and Colombia. The state news agency said that Chile, which recalled its ambassador to Peru, Christian Barros, earlier in the week because of a dispute over maritime boundaries between the two countries, would send Mr. Barros back to Lima immediately to help coordinate rescue and aid efforts.

Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for President Bush, said in Texas this morning that the United States was ready to provide aid and assistance, and that a team from the Agency for International Development was in Lima assessing the situation and coordinating with the Peruvian government. American search and rescue teams were standing by to go to Peru if they are needed there, Mr. Johndroe said.

The United States Geological Survey said the earthquake struck about 90 miles southeast of Lima at a depth of about 25 miles. Four strong aftershocks ranging from magnitudes of 5.4 to 5.9 followed.

A tsunami warning was issued for coastal areas of Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Colombia, and a small tsunami was detected, but it posed no major threat and the warning was later lifted, news services reported.

The last time a quake of magnitude 7.0 or larger struck Peru was in September 2005, when a 7.5 magnitude earthquake rocked Peru’s northern jungle, killing four people. In 2001, a 7.9-magnitude quake struck near the southern Andean city of Arequipa, killing 71 people.

My first week in Trujillo

The church at Arevalo

the rooves of houses tend to be unfinished for future upward expansion

A little girl we met at Arevalo, she fell oops

Two boys at Wichanzao who have befriended the missionaries over the past 2 years

The courtyard at SALI

Here is Gillian and Fabian at the Office

Hello Loved ones,

I am here in my apartment in Trujillo with my 4 current roommates and colleagues getting ready to watch a movie on my laptop after a long day of orientation in Culture Shock, Evangelism, and History and Philosophy of SALI and Peru Mission. Oh and I forgot to mention that we went to the all new Peruvian equivalent to Wal-mart: Plaza Vea. I’d like to recap some of the highlights from this past week:

My flights from Tulsa to Lima went smoothly. I arrived in Lima expecting to be greeted by my now friend and colleague Heather Campbell, however her flight was late and I was instead greeted by the hotel shuttle man with a sign in his hand bearing my name. I would then wait another 2 hours for my friend suffering from extreme thirst until I made friends with the other Hotel cabbies who offered me drink and company. Heather arrived and our stay in Lima was short lived, lasting from 1am to 6:30 am when we received the wretched news of our impending return to the airport for our national flight to Trujillo. Navigating through the airport was interesting as we thirsted yet again waiting in “line” if you can call it that, to pick up our tickets. We did not realize the importance of potable water until we were forced to purchase bottled water. This is not always convenient when you are carrying 150 pounds of baggage. Finally we made it on to the plane to Trujillo where we were greeted by a fine crew of interns.

Our first day we rested and ventured out into the town for amazing chicken, cheese and basil sandwiches with aji, a hot-pepper spread used on everything. We later joined our Director Caleb Sutton at his temporary home at the Missionary family the Smith’s for Black bean soup and red pepper cornbread. This house is amazing folks. Houses in Peru tend to have gates that open in to an indoor/outdoor garage area, with tile suitable for the indoors and very tidy perhaps with a yard or plants. The Smiths Home has 3 split levels, arched windows and doorways, and Peruvian Mahogany furniture. The backyard is a beautiful place to read a book or in our case play cards, while the birds chirp in the background. The neighborhood where the Missionary families live is the safest and most affluent part of town. There is a park on every block and everything is well groomed. This is not true for all of Trujillo, however. Outside of SALI there are vendors from all over selling their wares, juicing every fruit, imaginable, and you can buy just about any pirated DVD you want for under 2 bucks.

My first evening in Trujillo, we went to Youth Group where we played many games. Peruvians love playing games whether it is at Church or birthday parties. This is how they mingle. This was hard for me, as I do not yet understand their fast speaking and ambiguous pronunciation. I had to pay much attention during these games. One game asked me to assume the name of my neighbor, switch seats and when my new name was called state “I Esteve, have no stripes on my face.” Each time I failed to recognize my assumed name or how many lines I had drawn on my face I received a mark right on the cheek. I ended up with one line on my face. Pretty good I thought. Also a wonderful way to learn names.

The Church experience on Sunday was interesting, considering the building was in the process of being renovated. It IS winter, mind you and the huge semi circle window over the altar was shielded only by a sheet. The Pastor’s voice was drowned out by the sounds of cars passing by and roosters crowing. Each Sunday afternoon we dine with a different missionary family and Sunday evenings we listen to a sermon in English at the home of John and Heather Ferguson.

This past week, the other interns and I have been in orientation. Here we have learned how to teach reading, writing, listening, and speaking in English. We also learned how to plan lessons and take our jobs one step further into evangelism. We pray at the opening and closing of each class. This helps us to get to know the needs of each student and keeps us all mindful of God’s presence in our lives each day, several times a day. We invite and encourage our students to attend Sociedad San Agustin/ RUF, the college ministry here on Fridays evenings and our Parish Church la Iglesia Larco.

Orientation has also allowed us to tour the National University, other parish churches and clinics that are supported by the mission at Arevalo and Wichanzao, and an orphanage Hogar de Esperanza nearby with which we are closely associated. The people we have met are very warm and inviting. They greet with a kiss on the cheek and are genuinely interested in our presence there. This is refreshing.

Well there is so much more I could say about my first week here but I will have many more stories to share later. I am going to love it here! I miss you all very much and I am praying for you.

Love,

Katie