True Trujillo

Ok, a couple of people have been asking me about more commentary about Perú. Unfortunately all my energy has been spent on catching up on school stuff. You are all lucky readers though because now you get two posts, some Perú comments as well as a new short story to critique. The following post is my short story, and I must ask for forgiveness if it needs editing. I am finishing it now at 3am.

Perú! Was awesome, let me tell you. It is taking a lot of willpower not to go back. Just yesterday I was browsing airfair back to Lima for next week. After all, being a missionary doesnt require a degree! But seriously, I was being heavily recruited by Wes Baker and John Ferguson to come back down there after I graduate. They seemed to think it was very possible for me to do the RUF internship down their with John and la Sociedad de San Agustine (RUF in Perú). But now that I am back, we are rethinking its feasibility. I do not want to be down in a foreign country trying to do ministry unless I am a) getting some training on HOW to do ministry and b) being discipled well by a specific person (like and RUF minister). Those two things would not be guaranteed at this point, so it looks like I will probably get to do the internship here in the states. I still have a strong desire to return to work for the Perú Mission at some point, but doing the internship here is not dissapointing at all. I am excited to see where I will be placed (that comes in April).

Okay, I realized I haven't been talking much about Perú. Let's see. Yesterday on my way home to Dallas I had a Perú flashback. I was turning left at an intersection where their are actually two left turn lanes. The guy in the other lane did not see that I was also turning left and he started to cut me off. Without hesitating I leaned on the horn to let him know I existed. This happens all the time in Perú. In fact, it would be considered abnormal to not honk your horn every 2 or 3 minutes. There, it is more a common courtesy to let others know you are coming to pass them. There are no traffic laws (at least any that anyone goes by) in Perú. There aren't real lanes to drive in, everyone just goes wherever they want on the road. Stoplights are ignored. We, of course, did not do any driving around. We took cabs to and from the hotel and the missionary homes. Many of the cab drivers had good working relationships with the missionaries and their families. One of them I rode with quite a bit was named Ronald. He befriended Paul and me and from then on made us ride with him any time we were going somewhere. Paul spoke not a word of Spanish, but I did my best to communicate for the both of us. Overall I was very pleased with my ability to speak with the Peruvians. Though I am sure my language was horrible, it did the job and I was able to speak with pretty much whomever I wanted. I think this was a huge factor for how good this trip was. I had prayed a lot about being able to communicate with the Peruvians before the trip and God was faithful in answering my prayer! Even if I had trouble speaking at times, I was so encouraged by the success I was having that my face was lit up with smiles constantly. I think I found that a smile communicated more to the people I met than anything else. Oh I loved those people so much! The children in the neighborhood of Arrevalo (the community where we worked every day) were so precious. It was easiest and most enjoyable to talk with them. In the afternoons I helped with the youngest Vacation Bible Class (Escuela Biblia de Vacaciones or EBDV). I knew that even if I said something in broken Spanish, it wouldn't matter at all because the kids would be talking fairly simple Spanish themselves. And some of them were so young that I could just babble nonsense to them and it wouldn't matter as long as I was smiling.

Okay, I think that is all I can update for now. One last thing about Perú: even though I bought the t-shirt, Inca Cola is completely overrated. It's only a glorified Big Red. The CocaCola down there, however, was quite supurb with its unrefined sugar. Yum-my.