a couple weeks worth of blog. :)

January 3, 2011
After two weeks in the states for Christmas, I arrived back in Pucallpa this morning around 5:15am. It’s now 9:30pm and I haven’t slept since 11am yesterday morning. I’ve had a mini naps in the airport and on the planes, but that’s about it. Coming back is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I’ve really missed family and Jacob a lot, and in a lot of respects going home made it worse. I’m so grateful to have been able to go home, but I don’t think I would advise other SMs to do the same thing; it’s too hard to leave the states again. I’m okay with being back, and will be interested to see how this semester goes. I lost my debit card today! Thankfully, I was able to cancel it before someone was able to withdraw any money from it. It’s going to be a little hard to live on twenty bucks for the next three weeks though.  Here goes Peru, round 2!
January 4, 2011
We ate a regional food today, that is absolutely yummy! They call it Guanes (not sure on the spelling, but it’s spelled gwah-nays), and it is best described to be like a tamale except rice is used instead of the corn and it is wrapped in a banana leaf with chicken and a greek olive in the center. It has to be one of my favorites that I have tried so far. First, they cook the rice and then mix it with garlic and other seasonings. After that they wrap the rice, along with an olive and a piece of chicken, in the banana leaf and boil it the rest of the way. Que rico! I spent a good majority of today cleaning up the dental instruments and figuring out what supplies need replenished before the big medical campaign next week. There’s quite a bit missing, and since I lost my debit card as soon as I got back In Peru, I won’t be able to help replenish is. Haha. I left my debit card in an ATM in the Pucallpa airport, and when I went back to retrieve it, it wasn’t to be found. Fortunately, I was able to get it cancelled, but for the next three weeks I’ll be rather poor until my new card gets here. Rachel has been very kind, and will be spotting me for food until I have money again. We will start the campaign next week with eight of the original eleven missionaries. Laura was only planning on being here until January and then the two boys Caleb and Chris have decided it would be best for them to not come back. We’re going to miss them terribly! This next week will be quite the test of endurance. Praying for God’s strength.
January 5, 2011
We came back to Km 38 today on our day off. I found a lot of supplies in the boxes here for the clinic next week. I’m a little worried about next week just because I’m the only one from the original dental team. It won’t be too bad though, because Caleb and Chris taught Jonathan a little bit about dental and Hanna trained with us at the very beginning. I got a message from one of my professors today, and I possibly have a job next semester! That’s good news, I was a little worried about finding a job next year with so many students at Southern competing for jobs. The rest of the day today, Rachel made pumpkin cookies and bread. (yum!) And we just hung out the rest of the day.
January 10, 2011
Today wasn’t as stressful as I thought it would be. We started our medical campaign this week at kilometer 6, in a little village called La Gran Via de Manantay or Los Mangos. This campaign is different than other campaigns that we have done in the past. This time we have an evangelistic team that will be going to the houses of the people here talking to them and offering Bible studies. In the evenings we have meetings for the kids and for the adults separately. We didn’t have a great turn out tonight of adults, but there were at least sixty kids. I guess that this is how campaigns at AMOR Projects are suppose to be. We use the medical campaign to get to know the people and that way they feel more comfortable coming to the meetings in the evenings with us. The kids are going to be really fun to do VBS with. We are going to be doing VBS for about 3 weeks with them, I hope that we don’t run out of activities for them! This week will probably be one of my most prayer filled weeks that I’ve ever had. I’m really scared that something will happen while I’m doing an extraction that I can’t fix. Fortunately, Dr. Matthews can pull out pretty much any tooth, so if I get stuck he can help me. I’m tired at the end of the day, but I’m not worn out or super stressed. Praise God that today went well!

December is here! But it´s still ninety degrees...

On Saturday we had church for the second time. It was definitely a much bigger group than last Sabbath! We had about seventeen kids, around ten adults, and five teenagers. It made for a very fun kids Sabbath school. For the activity we taught the kids how to make a simple origami boat to go along with the story of Jesus calming the sea in Mark 4:35. Church went well and then afterwards we went to our friend Gady’s house because she invited us to come over for her church’s 4th year anniversary at Ivan Sikic, which is the church in the area where we did our first big medical campaign at the beginning of October. That afternoon they held a concert with 2 other churches to celebrate, and during the concert they asked if us Americans would like to sing too. Well, we did pretty good to come up with six songs on the spot. Lol. Then Sunday we returned to help them with a benefit that they were planning for their church. They had soccer games, and each church brought a soccer team that put in 10 soles per team and they also sold lunch to help raise money. It was good to see our friends again, they are always a fun group.

Km 8

Life at km 8 is going pretty good. We’re getting used to the twice a day water rationing. Whenever we here the water running, we run to grab our soap and shampoo so we can have a shower and not just a bucket bath.lol. We’re never quite sure what time the water will be turned on that day. Clinic is still going well, we started visiting our neighbors and began public health classes this week. Our neighbors are so nice! We only managed to get around to three families because we were having a good time talking and getting to know them. The people here are so hospitable, they freely welcome you into their homes and we’ve had so many people drop off fruit for us at our house. I’m so excited to get to know the people who live here! During our big campaign we had a malnourished one-year-old come in to the clinic, and he might have died within a few days if they hadn’t brought him in. We saw him this Monday and he looks so much better! They put him on a baby formula and vitamins and some other stuff to help him to grow and so far he’s gained 2 kg. His name is Wilfredo, and he is quickly becoming my favorite patient. He smiled and cooed at us this last time he was in to visit. This Saturday night I will be starting a youth night at km 8, hopefully to get to know the teenagers who live around here. Please pray that it goes well! We’ll also be starting English classes for the adults/youth and for the kids in January. I’m so excited about the possibilities that km 8 has! In other exciting news, we figured out how to cook steamed broccoli! I’m not really the hugest fan of boiled or fried vegetables, so we got a little creative and took the plastic bags that we use for meds in the pharmacy and filled them with broccoli and a little water. Then, we placed the bags into a pot of boiling water and voila! We had steamed broccoli! Creation of the week. God bless you in the Christmas season!

Family

One thing that this year has impressed upon me forever is family. Yes, blood family, I always have had the best family and have always know that they love me and will always be there for me, but the family I am talking about right now is the one that God has created for me here in Peru and my church family back home, they are becoming a very important part of my life and support that I didn’t realize before. My family here in Peru consists of Caleb, who is always there to lift people up and to thank them for their work, Chris always offers a witty little comments that makes everyone laugh, and he also has good spiritual insights anytime he gives worship, Jonathan is another one of the funny men and always is betting everyone that they can or can’t eat something be it a turkey foot or a large bowl of sweet potato casserole, Anthony is the one who always smiles and teases the chicos right back when they give him a hard time. Rachel and Stephanie are the team nurses when anyone of us is having issues; recently they’ve been getting calls late at night to administer meds for upset bowels and stomachs. And they are also my companions here at Km 8, and we have a good time together. Cecilia is the newest addition to our group, but she’s very helpful in getting bargains when it comes to shopping in the market and she is also a very fun doctor to work with. Jenessa is the organizer of the group and all of her many responsibilities and Rebecca is the other teacher who always has available time to talk to anyone who needs to talk. Laura is always teasing everyone and giving us a hard time. Hanna is the person who knows everything about everyone in the group, I guess that is her job, but she is also keeps us all together and is very concerned that everyone in our group is happy. Alfonso is the quietest of the chicos, but he loves to laugh. Elias is the little brother to everyone, and he hates Monday mornings.  Erick is also quiet, but when he does talk it’s usually pretty funny and good for a laugh, he is also a very hard worker and a leader for the group. Daniel Pua is Elias’ older brother, and very good at building stuff, like the majority of stuff we have here at Km 8. Daniel Ruiz is well-known for his love of music during worship times, and blasting his computer in the mornings with praise music, in Spanish of course. Doctor is most definitely the leader of the group, like the dad of the group, and I respect him very much for all of the work he does here. If a man ever had a full plate, he does. He makes sure all of us are healthy and happy first of all, then he does a lot of administrative work for Amor, he sets up medical campaigns, makes new connections to help Amor, and he has three kids. Shirley, the doctor’s wife, is like the older sister/mom figure of our group here. She doesn’t mind laughing at us girls when we mess up cooking in the kitchen, or teaching us better more efficient ways to cook for so many people. Hermana Welfa is a grandmotherly figure, and a very stable spiritual example for all of us. Her sermons are very good and personal. She also is great at teaching us how to make empanadas.  This makes up our family here in Peru, and I know that I wouldn’t be doing as well as I am here in Peru without having these people as my brothers and sisters.
Another group that has really been there supporting me every step of the way is my church family. I just recently received a package from the Women’s Ministries department there that had a whole bunch of letters and verses for my birthday and to give me additional encouragement. I have received several letters from my church family, and it never ceases to amaze me that in each letter there is a verse or a personal note that lifts me up and that I needed just at the moment that I read them. It’s about halfway through my time here in Peru, and I’m missing home a lot and sometimes I just want to go home and leave, but the letters I recently got in the mail have lifted my spirits considerably and reminded me of the important work that God has here and that he IS always by my side even when I mess up. In the New Testament it is written that as brothers and sisters in Christ we should take care of one another, be a family, fellowship together. This has become a very real reality for me this year, thank you. This is why God doesn’t ask us to be hermits and not talk to anyone, we need each other.
My family has become very big this year.  I love getting the calls from my family every week. I know that it has been very hard for them to have me so far away. They have given me so much love and support this year that I’m serving God, even though they would be much more comfortable to have me home. It boosts me every week just to hear from them and to know what is going on in their lives at home.
Thanksgiving was yesterday, and this year my biggest thanks to God is for Peru and the huge family that this year has given me.

Thanksgiving Day in El Peru

The night before thanksgiving the Doc told me that Alfonso had turkeys at his house, so we asked him that night when we got to 38 about it and he said that he didn’t have turkeys and never had. Not sure where those wires got crossed, but it was kind of funny. Lol. At first, when we were going to get the turkey from Alfonso, I thought I was going to have to de-feather it and season and cook it. Good thing I didn’t have to de-feather it because number one, I don’t think we had a pot big enough to boil it in so the feathers would come off, and number two, I would have been guessing on how to do it. Lol. I was kind of excited to figure it out anyway. I called my mom the night before and asked her how to season the turkey and how long to cook it and all that cuz I was really worried about messing up the Thanksgiving Day Turkey. So, Rach and I ended up going to Pucallpa the next morning to buy one because you can’t buy one in Campo Verde. I assumed that it would be like every other meat you purchase here, freshly killed that morning, but surprisingly the lady who sells the turkeys sells them frozen. Who knew you could buy a frozen turkey in Peru? Lima, yea, but here? Anyway, I got worried because I didn’t think there would be any way to get it done before dinner that night. Anyway, so as not to bore you, I’ll cut this short and tell you that I seasoned it and took it to Campo to be cooked by a lady because our oven needs a little help in the consistency department and then I carved it and everybody thought it was the best thing ever! I was happy that it turned out. We also had sweet potatoe casserole, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, apple pie, and pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, gravy gluten for the vegetarians, stuffing. We got a lot of the stuff in a box that Jenessa’s mom sent here, otherwise I don’t think it would have turned out as nicely. We worked really hard and it turned out amazing! After dinner we all went around the table and said one to three things we were thankful for, it felt like a real thanksgiving with a family!

21st Birthday!

Today was my 21st birthday.  I’ve been anxiously awaiting it all week because I got two packages from my family for my birthday that I had to wait to open. I love surprises, but I’m horrible at waiting for them! So, the first thing I did when I woke up was to open the packages that they sent me. My parents sent me a “party box” that had noisemakers, a party balloon tablecloth, napkins that said “Happy 21st”, and matching plates, and also cupcake mix with Hershey’s flavored frosting!!! That was the best frosting I have ever had. Lol. Tonight, I got banned to my room for a couple of hours while they set up the other house for my birthday dinner. So, I watched a movie and got all prettied up with the new hair things my mom sent me and the eyeliner and mascara thought I bought here in Peru. Then, right before the party I got to talk to my little brother and my mom and my grandparents!! I got a little teary when talking to them, but it was good, and I hadn’t talked to my grandparents since I left last August, so that was very exciting. Then, Rachel came and got me and blindfolded me for the walk to the other house. While were walking I could hear the noisemakers blowing in the other house and then Daniel came up behind me as a was walking blindfolded and blew one of the horns in my ear. Scared me to death! I had no idea he was there! Lol. Anyway, I got to the party and everyone started singing “Happy Birthday”, and then after that Daniel, Alfonso and Elias had three more birthday songs in Spanish to sing to me. It was so funny, because they thought that the noisemakers were the greatest things, and continued blowing them for a good twenty minutes. Lol. The girls had gone full out on the meal, and made tortillas with all of the toppings, but while we were eating the boys kept singing “Quieremos comer la torta, quieremos comer la torta” to the tune of “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow”. Which means “We want to eat the cake”. Hehe. Fortunately, I made it through the night without getting a egg smashed on my head.  Guess they forgot about that little tradition for one night. 

Moving Day!

So, we have officially moved to Km 8 for the rest of this mission year. We brought all of our stuff on Tuesday and immediately started a clinic after we unloaded everything. Then, after a very busy clinic, we started to get settled in our rooms. And of course, we had to kill at least one more of the same spiders that we killed during construction that just happened to be the size of my hand. So, the spider killings in total add up to 5, all the size of my hand, not counting all of the little ones. Lol. They seem to have moved out of our house for the most part because we’ve disturbed their home. Clinic had gone well so far this week. I’ve done triage, pharmacy, and dental extractions so far this week. Rachel and Stephanie have even been doing consultations to help the new doctora out. We met her on Monday, her name is Cecilia and she is very nice. She’s about the same age as Dr. Matthews. Rachel, Steph, and I are going to be living here with her for the rest of the year. I actually kind of wish we didn’t have to move here because the rest of our team lives at km 38. We’ve grown so close together, it’s kind of hard to leave. Although, we will be able to go back every Sunday to do our laundry and take a day off. We’re not quite sure what we are going to be doing next week, but I think they would like to start a regular clinic here at kilometer 8. Something interesting happened yesterday, a lady came in for a tooth extraction yesterday, but she had some sort of panic disorder. We knew she was nervous, but we didn’t know it was that bad. Caleb had anesthetized her and was in the process of extracting her tooth when she started to shake uncontrollably, like she was shivering really bad. Caleb didn’t realize it at first, but when I looked over at her, I knew something wasn’t right, I thought she was having a panic attack. We called Dr. Cecilia and it turns out that the lady was having an attack. The doctor got her to focus again and to calm down. She pinched her and applied pressure with a pen to her figure to get the lady to snap out it. After she calmed down, Caleb was able to extract the tooth just fine. Today was kind of slow as far as patients go, but I still pulled quite a few teeth. I saw several patients who had very few teeth, one lady was 48 years old and only had six teeth in her whole mouth and no molars! Towards the end of the day we had no patients, so I was just chilling in the pharmacy, then Hanna came and asked me if I could do a cleaning, so I said , Yea, sure. It was an 11 year old girl with about 3 younger siblings. I started cleaning her teeth and all of the kids started asking her if it hurt, she of course said no, because it was just a cleaning. Next thing I know, I had at least six kids hanging over my shoulders watching my every swipe of the scaler on her teeth. After they figured out that it didn’t hurt, I was soon cleaning the teeth of every single one of them. Lol. They were very cute. After clinic we had to go to someone’s home because a lady had a high fever and couldn’t walk. I was curious to see what the average Peruvians’ home looked like, and I wanted to know what was wrong with this lady. Their home was a one room, with 3 children and the parents, it was very cramped. And they had their kitchen and their laundry hung up in the same room. It made me think of the little one room houses that you read about when Americans had a big push towards the west, like Little House on the Prairie. Something very exciting happened today! I got my packages for my birthday! I’m so excited, but I’m trying to wait very patiently to open them. Also, I heard Christmas music for the first time today. It made me miss home a lot and at the same time seemed out of place here because it is So Hot! And at home, it’s pretty cold by the time Christmas season rolls around. I can’t wait for Christmas!