I am an angel!

As well as having a lovely Christmas lunch on Christmas Day, I also attended a service in my church in the evening. As I was meant to be in the drama for the kids, I got down to the church at 5.30 but was the first one there.... and I did not even take part in the kids drama, too much talking for my limited Spanish! 

However, all was not lost, I was drafted into the drama for the jovenes, playing an angel. Ok I am 30 years old and it has taken me this long to be an angel! (ok, ok so am always an angel!!) this year in Peru as seen a lot of firsts (being a clown, being an angel in the nativity etc)

The service was meant to start at 6.30 but by the time we had all stopped practicing our dramas it was 7.30 when the service started. We had some singing, then the kids did their nativity play - so cute. It was based on a mum telling her three kids the story and then acted out with a mixture of wee kids and big kids (not enough wee kids available).... they told the story of the birth of Christ including the shepherds and the wisemen.  And then they sang a little song. 

Mum and the kids

The wisemen!!!

Mary and Joseph

All singing

Then there was more singing from the congregation and then it was time for the drama for the jovenes, so my five minutes of fame! We also did the nativity scene, but unlike the kids there was no talking - it was done to music and Lidia and Airyn told the story via dance while Mary and Joseph acted their parts with the help of the Shepherd and me, the Angel!! Look at how big my wings were...... nightmare, tell you!

Lidia and Airyn - the dancers

Mary, Joseph and the Angel

All of us.

Ok, so there was a reason I told you about the size of the wings.... it is a funny but yet not funny story. But is this not what blogs are for, to tell stories of my time away and embarrass myself!

My wings were very big and I had trouble getting off the stage through the curtain without hitting things and people, so I thought it would be good idea to jump sideways off the stage, but what I did not know was that the string from the curtain had made itself round my neck, so when I jumped, I ended up with the cord around my neck and bringing the curtain down around me - always said I would bring the curtain down one day!! Ok, so it was very embarrassing for me, but actually instead of laughing straight away people were quite worried about me and someone asked me why I felt like killing myself on Christmas Day.... I could have actually died! but thankfully for you lot, I am still alive. 

Not actually quite a funny story but when you look back on it, it was funny and think its brought an end to my acting days, safer dressing up as a clown. Been in Peru 11 months and already have had 4 chances of showing my acting skills!! Why do we do silly things in Foreign Countries? 

To see more photos of the church service please click here 

Christmas Day

The Peruvians do not do anything special on the 25th December, instead it is a rest day for them (like the 26th is for us), as they have usually been to bed later due to the midnight celebrations. 

So this Christmas I spent the 25th with my fellow Latin Link missionaries in the house of Paul and Ruth Turner. There were 14 of us altogether - 4 from Ireland, 1 from Scotland, 2 from England,  1 from Australia and a English/Peruvian family (Roland and Jenny with their kids, Sammy, Ben, Hilda and Kati - visiting from Cusco).

It was a lovely day, we had the proper Christmas Dinner with crackers (and hats), melon, turkey, potatoes, many different vegetables, stuffing, christmas pudding and even custard (custard is a luxury here, you do not get it, this was brought from England).  We all helped prepare the dinner and it tasted great and the craic around the table was fun.

My Dinner

After the main course we decided to take a break before eating the desert - as we were all very full  - so we had present opening time. As there were so many of us, we did a secret santa which was a good idea. However, we all bought something for the kids, of which there were four of them - and this was fun seeing them all get excited and opening their presents, especially Kati and Hilda.

Kati and Hilda with their presents 

After present time we then sang some carols with Ruth playing the pianos for us. This was nice as we sang them in English - been singing carols in Spanish at church, but was nice to have them in English here. 

Rosemary and Paul singing their carols

It was a lovely day and was a little piece of home away from home. 

To see more pictures of Christmas Day please click here

Its Christmas Eve

In Peru the big day of Christmas is the 24th December  - this is when all families come together to celebrate. The celebrations take place usually by having a turkey dinner at midnight, though some families would just have hot chocolate and panettone. And at midnight fireworks are set off as well.

So this Christmas Eve, I spent the evening with my Peruvian family and friends of theirs. We started the evening at 9.30am with time of singing, reading the bible and praying. To me this was very interesting because I thought back to my Christmasas in Ireland where we just come together to eat and don't do this - however we do go to church Christmas morning. For me it was a special time to sit and think about the true reason of Christmas - the birth of Christ. 

After this time, we then sat down to eat our dinner, which was turkey, rice and different kinds of salads - no starters and ice cream for desert - but for that time of the night what we ate was sufficient - have never eaten my dinner that late at night. 

My Dinner

While we were eating fireworks were going off outside, it was a very loud and colourful display. One thing about the Peruvians, they love their fireworks - always going off for different reasons even during the day, which is weird since you can't see the display just hear the noise.

We finished the meal about 1.30am and were in bed at 2am... I was exhausted but enjoyed the evening. Despite the fact was missing my family back home, it was great to experience Christmas in a different culture and see how they do things here.

Christmas in Peru is very different - they get 24th and 25th off work and then back to work on the 26th.... and some people even have to work on the 24th/25th - not just those in NHS etc, but even those in the mines have to work. And its not all about presents or material things either, its about family and time spent with them - there is no commercial pressure which was nice to see. But the one thing I did miss was Carol Services which they don't have any of here.

Christmas is for kids

I came to Peru to primarily work with disabled young adults, but have also been able to experience other types of work alongside this with my church - for example going to Maca last weekend. Today was another one of these experiences - after the morning service today (Sunday 23rd) I went to a kids home with a few other people from the church for a little Christmas service.

We arrived at about 1.45 but there were no kids there yet, they were at another place, but by 2pm they were all there - about 35 of them. 

What did we do? Well we sang songs, and a drama (the same drama from Maca) however some changes were made, it did not include the kid like last time- we focused on Christmas being about food, papa noel, the tree and presents - and then we were told that that was not what Christmas was about, its all about Jesus. Again we finished it off by singing a song about the importance of Christmas. 

Singing with actions!

The boys singing

Marilla

Then Pastor Abel gave a short talk - again in this talk he emphasised that Christmas might be fun with presents, food etc but that is not what its all about. When we had finished speaking he invited the kids to pray a pray asking Jesus into their lives - which some seemed to do with joy.

Praying

After that we finished with another song and then we said our goodbyes. It was a lovely afternoon. On the way out someone introduced me to a little kid of 12 years old who spoke fantastic English -  I told her that at 12 her English was better than my Spanish....it is easier to learn another language as a child. She learnt it in America. She went to America and visited 24 different states in a few months raising money for herself and the other children in this home.  I must confess I did ask her, her name but my memory is failing me and have already forgotten it. Not good at all. But it was good to have a wee chat with someone in English - even though when I was first introduced to her, I could not think of one single English word to say, how strange!! 

To see more photos please click here 

Christmas in different countries

I left language school in September, but as an ex student I got invited back to their Christmas party today (Friday 21st). Everyone who was going had to bring a dessert which represented their country - I made and took trifle with me as this is a dessert we have every year at Christmas time.

The morning started off with us singing Christmas carols, then we had a short talk about Christmas from Peter, a student from England, who is going to Lima in two weeks time to be a missionary there. Peter and his wife were finishing their three and a half months of language school today. 

Singing

Peter 

After that the current students talked about the different traditions at Christmas time in their country - we heard about America, Switzerland (Santa Claus came out at this time), Norway, Germany, Denmark - but the funniest of all was Great Britain.

Anne (Peter's wife) who is Scottish stood up and started talking about Christmas in Scotland first of all and then the rest of Britain (so N.Ireland, England and Wales! in case you did not know). She talked about how it was tradition for the Queen of England to give a speech every Christmas Day at 3pm - then she said and wait a minute today is Christmas Day and it is 3pm - and in walked the Queen of England!

Queen Elizabeth!! aka Peter!

It was so funny, Peter (the same guy who gave the talk and was all serious, was now the Queen!).... I have never laughed so much at the Queen before in my life. Peter gave the Queen's speech and included bits about the four nations, the commonwealth nations and Peru! Then he said goodbye, made us all stand up and sing God Save the Queen - the English, Scottish and Irish (even me) sang this whole heartily but the Americans mocked it.. not every nice from our 'friends'! Ah well. The whole act was so funny.

We then heard about Christmas in Peru, had some Peruvian food and all shared the desserts from each different country - from the British Isles there was two trifles (one irish, one scottish), mince pies, shortbread and scones with jam.... lovely bit of home.  The plates were all full and there was hardly any food left.

It was good to go back to the school and see everyone especially my teachers. They had a hard job when it came to trying to teach me, but was pleased to be able to understand everything there today and have conversations with my teachers without being nervous. 

For more pictures click here

Its all over....

Last Tuesday (18th December) was the last day of Nuevas Fuerzas for the year which also meant it was my last day of Nuevas Fuerzas as it won't be starting up again til March and by that time I will be in Britain - where in Britain I have no idea, but will be there!!

For the first two hours we watched Madagascar Three.... well I did not see much of it as was doing other things, but everyone who was watching it seemed to enjoy it. 

We did not have many people from the start but more people and parents started to arrive at 3pm as that was when the chocolotada was due to start. During this time, we sang some Christmas songs and Pastor Abel spoke about the importance of Christmas, we gave out Christmas presents to the members of Nuevas Fuerzas, they swapped their secret santa presents, gave presents to helpers, had some hot chocolate and panettone as well. 

Singing

Pastor Abel

Miss Elva getting her present from Kati

Paul giving out Hot Chocolate

Alejandro and Manuel enjoying their Panettone

Diana getting  a hug from her secret santa Alejandro

This is my third chocolotada and as said in previous post apparently panettone grows on you, and I would like to say that it has, actually like it now. Not sure how many more chocolotada's I have left to experience but do not think its too many.

For me it was a bit of emotional day as it was my last day at Nuevas Fuerzas and last day seeing many of the young adults, though will be visiting some of them in January. I mentioned to Hermana Bethsaida (the pastor's wife) that I was sad as it was my last day and she said, do not be sad, be happy that you have had the opportunity to serve here and get to know the young adults and the mum's - she is a very wise person.

To see more photos of the Chocolotada please click here

Christmas means Chocolate!!

Every country has traditions at Christmas, and the tradition in Peru is Chocoltada's where you have hot chocolate and Panettone. 

On Thursday 13th December I experienced my first one at Didache, the school I teach English in.  The Hot Chocolate was lovely as it contained cinnamon as well - was not a big fan of the Panettone but have been told it grows on you - and as there will be many opportunities to taste it with all the chocoltada's am sure it will grow on me! We'll see. 

Tables were laid out and the kids sat around the table while the chocolate was given to them with instructions that it was hot and to blow on it first before drinking from it, was so cute watching them all blow into their hot chocolate. Unfortunately some people ended up with the hot chocolate all over the table and them - that was not so cute as it looked sore.

The kids were all given little individual Panettone's as well with the covers featuring different cartoon characters, as usual with kids there was the chorus of I want the one he has not this one, so there was some Panettone swapping done - not that the covers made them taste any different and at the end of the day the covers ended up in the bin anyway!

Blowing on the hot chocolate

With the hot chocolate and Panettone's

It was nice to see the kids enjoy their Chocoltada and experience my first one as well. 

To see more pictures of the kids enjoying their Chocoltada please click here

Maca

Last weekend (15th/16th December) I went to Maca with four others from my church (Daniel, Lidia, Rocio and Marilla) to hold a Chocolatada for the children of Maca.

We set off at 8am on Saturday morning arriving in Maca at 1pm. For me it was a very horrible bus ride as I get travel sick and the roads to Maca were very very bumpy. I have done this route three times before but this time was the worst, must have been the bus or the driver!! I was glad to reach the end.

When we got to Maca, with loads of luggage we had to trail everything through the village to get the church and the place we were staying, this was funny and I felt like a cart horse!

Lidia, Rocio, Marilla and me with the luggage

The Cart Horse!

We got the luggage safely to the church, had lunch (fish with heads on and all), and then proceeded to set up for the evening. We had to clean the place, unpack the clothes we had brought to give to the children, set up the chairs, make the chocolate, practice the drama and set up the tent in which we would be sleeping. We were staying in a little house but we put the tent up inside so as Lidia would not have to sleep with the mice!!. I can you tell it was very cosy in that tent with the five of us, and poor Rocio never got any sleep due to being between Daniel and me who snored very loudly. 

We had told the kids to come at 6pm for the evening activities, but they turned up at 5pm - we were not totally ready for them, but let them in anyway as it was cold outside. Maca is high up in altitude. Roico, Marilla and I painted the nails for the girls while Lidia cut the boys nails for them.  The Mum's soon came looking for their nails to be painted as well.

We started the evening about 6.30pm with Marilla, Lidia, Daniel and I all dressed as clowns. It is the first time I have ever dressed as a clown, and am still not sure what clowns have to do with Christmas, but the kids enjoyed it, so that was alright.

The Clowns -Lidia, Daniel and me

We sang some songs and then did a drama about the importance of Christmas.Lidia was the kid at Christmas, and Marilla, Daniel and I represented things that Christmas was about - presents, food and the Christmas Tree - but then Rocio came in saying no Christmas is not about these things, yes these things happen, but really Christmas is all about the birth of Jesus. It was a good wee drama and the kids all listened, well most of them!

After the drama and the singing, we gave them hot chocolate and Paneton and gave out the clothes as well. For me watching this was heart breaking as they were all clambouring over each other to get clothes and we had told them one item each but some took more and at the end some kids were left with nothing.

Rocio pouring the hot chocolate

Looking for clothes

After that they all went home and we went to bed exhausted at 9.30pm. However we discovered a problem...we had closed the church doors but could not find the keys - they were in the church! So next morning, we had to break a window of the church to get the keys in order to clean the church up and hold a service for the kids as well. 

We had told the kids to come back at 10am on the Sunday morning for the service, but at 7am when we were still in bed, we heard these little voices saying 'senoritas, its 10am'.... Lidia and I both looked at our watches and went 'what?' and back to sleep!!

It was actually 11am before we were able to do the service for the kids. At this there was more singing and another drama... this time telling the story of the birth of Jesus. Lidia again was the little kid asking the questions and Marilla was Mary and Daniel was Joseph, and they together told the story. Afterwards we all got on our knees to pray.

Telling the story from Matthew 1 vs 18-25

We needed to go and get our bus but the kids did not want to go home so Rocio played a couple of games with them while the rest of us tidied up.

Playing Games

After about 20 mins of games and a goodbye prayer, we said goodbye to them, finished tidying up and left to get our bus back to Arequipa at 1pm.

It was a great weekend for me, good to spend time with the others and also to work with the kids and see the smiles on their faces and have chats with them. It is a weekend I will remember for a long time. I came here to Peru to work with disabled young adults but have been able to have different experiences as well, and this was one of them, it has been a great and varied experience. 

To see more photos of the time at Maca please click here

And the teaching comes to an end

Last Friday (14th Dec) was the end of year/Christmas show for Didache, the school I teach English in. I say end of year because December is the end of the school year in Peru as December - February is the summer here and now its time for summer holidays as well as Christmas celebrations.

So on Friday we had celebrations for Christmas including a nativity drama, Christmas songs in Portuguese, Spanish and English. For the past few weeks I have been teaching the kids how to sing Jingle Bells in English (if I ever hear the song again I may scream!), it has been good hearing them sing with enthusiasm, especially the 5 year olds. They sang it in front of their parents - they did it with enthusiasm as usual especially the Jingle Bells part but the line 'On what fun it is to ride In a one horse open sleigh' was a bit hard for them. Think they found the Portuguese song easier (the languages are similar after all). But it was still fun to hear them sing.

Singing Jingle Bells

You can see some of them are dressed in little white costumes, these are the sheep for the nativity play, they were so cute going across the stage on all fours. 

As it was Christmas and my time had come to an end at Didache, I was presented with a present along with the Portuguese teacher who is also leaving this year to go back to Brazil. It was a lovely picture frame with a photo of all the kids, teachers and the pastor and his wife (the school is connected to the church). Another lovely reminder of my time in Peru.

Talitha and me with our cards and gifts

There was also a clown there who did some party games. Then the kids all got their report cards given to them along with a Christmas present (why did that never happen to me, all I got was the bad reports!)..... 

The 5 year olds are going to big school next year so there was a special presentation for them and the three of them did a little dance piece.... Hayley and Julietta both took it in turns to dance with Christopher. 

The 5 year olds

It was lovely to be part of the end of year/Christmas show. I enjoyed teaching English there and getting to know the kids and the teachers and learning a new skill - teaching. Though am not sure I will be changing profession to teacher just yet!! 

To see more photos of the day please click here

So its time to leave...

So my time at Nuevas Fuerzas is coming to an end which  I am very sad about as I have loved working with the young disabled adults there. The last day is not until 18th December, but the focus on this day will be Christmas, so Paul (the boss) decided to hold a goodbye for me last Thursday (13th). This was a nice surprise for me, but something I was actually not wanting to do - say goodbye, there were tears but it was lovely time as well.

There were pizzas for everyone and Ruth (my mentor) even made some traybakes - sticky jimmies (those who don't live in N.Ireland might have to google that) and some Fifteens (my favourite traybake). This was a lovely treat for me as have been missing my fifteen's. Think everyone else enjoyed them, and the mum's even asked for the recipe so that was a good sign. Good to bring a bit of the Irish culture over to Peru.

Paul with the traybakes

There was another surprise for me as well - a lovely present for a photo frame with different photos from my time in Nuevas Fuerzas, something for me to take home, put on my wall and treasure. Some of the young adults gave me presents as well - including a lovely heart shaped photo frame made for me by Kati. So got a photo of me and her to put into that. Was touched she would do that for me.

Me with my present

Kati and me

I had to give a speech as well in Spanish, am hoping I got the words right and did not say anything wrong. Then Hermana Julia (Alenjandro's mum) gave a wee speech which brought more tears and Hermana Rut (a helper) prayed for me. It was all lovely and emotional. 

Hermana Julia and me

Hermana Rut

It was a lovely afternoon, very special and one which I will remember forever. Those people in Nuevas Fuerzas are very special people to me and will always be with me. Will miss them lots.

Everyone

To see more photos of my despedida (goodbye) please click here (warning there are quite a few photos!)

Time for a BBQ

Saturday 8th December was a bank holiday in Peru - it was the Day of the Immaculate Conception. As on other bank holidays, our church had a BBQ or Parrillada as they call it here. The BBQ was held at the drug rehabilitation center which is linked to the church.

We were told to be at the church at 9.30 to get the bus - as usual I arrived at the correct time and was early... I for once was not the first person to be early so that was good. We waited and others arrived and eventually the bus came at 10am to take us.... even in Peru I still run on British time (sometimes I run on Peruvian time - that might happen more when I get home!)

We arrived at the center at 10.30 which is early for a BBQ but someone still managed to eat their BBQ'd food at 11am... way to early for me.

The day was not just about food, it was about getting together as a church with the members of the center, chatting and having fun. Fun was had in the shape of sports - volleyball, football and even rugby..... rugby is not heard of in this country much (the only Latin American team which play rugby to competitive standard is Argentina).

Volleyball

Football

I did not participate in the volleyball and the football was only for men, no fair... but while the football was going on, Lidia, Ely and I started our own game of rugby, it was not a fair game as it was them two against me - but then Marylin took pity on me and joined in to help me - however being rugby and all the game was a bit violent and somehow I ended up on the ground most of the time and more than any one else....

Lidi and Ely celebrating a try while I am on the ground

Trying to get the ball from me

It got worse later on as Daniel and Jozue joined us and it became girls v boys.... it was very funny and lots of photos were taken, actually during the day I took 133, but most of them are of us playing rugby ... not taken by me obviously. 

Ely trying to catch Jozue

Poor Jozue!!

It was a good day  - I enjoyed playing rugby despite now having a very sore body as I used muscles I had not used in a long time and I wrecked my knee. Yesterday at church, the day after, Lidia, Ely and I were all complaining about sore bodies... women hey!

I also enjoyed getting to know more people from the church and talking to guys from the drug rehabilitation center. Its a great project and the guys are all lovely  - some of them come to church on Sundays so I do see them there as well.  Drugs are a huge problem in Peru, and its great to see these guys coming to the center and wanting to change and its good seeing God work in their lives as well.

To see more pictures please go here and here - do not worry I did not upload all 133...... 

We're going camping now!!!

After spending three weeks with my parents, they left on 31st October, and I was not to have anytime to 'mourn' their leaving as on the 1st November I went off to camp for four days with the young people (Jovenes) in my church. 

This camp was not just for my church but for all the baptist churches around Peru, so I got to meet people from Lima, Cusco and other places as well. I have not been to a youth camp since I was 17 so was bit nervous about going as am not really that into camps, never have been. 

We did not go far, just to a place call La Joya which is an hour outside Arequipa but higher in altitude than Arequipa is. It was a lovely tranquil location which changed dramatically when about 50 of us descended there!

The sleeping arrangements were fun as well  - there were two rooms, one for the boys and one for the girls and in the girls room there were 30 of us... and what made it fun as well was only two toilets and three showers for 30 girls.... leading to many a queue! 

What did we do at camp? Well there various talks from different Baptist pastors, we had worship sessions, did group devotionals, rode horses, played water polo (which ended up in a couple of people being thrown in afterwards fully clothed!! 

Lidia being thrown in

Marylin being thrown in

As well as water polo there were other games including an army style obstacle course, hockey, volleyball, football etc. On day one the boys could not sleep that there were up playing football at 5am. That is dedication to the sport for you - maybe if Newcastle Utd were that dedicated we would have more points by now!!

We also had competitions, dressing up like twins etc. On the Friday night we had to answer questions and if we got the question wrong we got shaving cream pies in the face (this humour travels all around the globe)... I got my question wrong, but instead of getting the pie in my face, I thought it would be funny to put the pie in the face of the person answering the question  - I got an applause for that!

Lidia after the pie in the face!

It was a good few days, but I had to leave early due to ill health - I was completely exhausted after two weeks travelling with my parents, and just needed to go home and sleep. But I enjoyed the time I had there, and wish could have understood more of the talks, but it was great getting to know new people and spend time with the young people from my church. And for once was not the only 'gringa' there as there was another girl from Isle of Man and one of the Pastors (a missionary in Cusco) was from Scotland. So got to speak some English as well.

To see more photos please click here

Footnote: For those of who you do not know what a Gringa/Gringo is - it is someone from outside South America, it came from Mexico when a long time ago the American soldiers in their green uniforms were in Mexico and all the mexicans shouted Go Greens Go and it turned to Gringo and applies to all white people!!  I get called it all the time by one of my friends, so nice!!