Arequipa - My First Week

I am now in my second week in Arequipa, so thought would update you on what I have been doing since I got here.

I arrived in Arequipa on Thursday 16th Feb and stayed at Ruth and Paul Turners house for two nights before moving in with my host family on the Saturday 18th. 

On my first full day Ruth and I had lunch with Linda Fox (a Strider in her second year, also from Northern Ireland) - so it was three Irish Lasses together. And then Ruth showed me where the post office was so I know where to pick up all the parcels and letters you lovely people will send me! And yeah, there was a letter in there for me already, so exciting - took me a week though to work out who it was from!! 

I got shown the Plaza de Amor where the Cathedral is - it is a spectacular building, but if you look closely one of the towers is whiter than the other, because it had to be rebuilt after it was destroyed by a huge earthquake in 2001.

On the Sunday I went to my first church service in the church I will be attending all year. It is also Ruth and Paul's church so thankfully they translated the sermon for me. During the service Paul brought me up to the front to introduce me to everyone, was slightly embarrassing. Everyone in the church seems lovely and have been speaking to me despite my lack of Spanish.

Monday was Ruth's birthday so all the Arequipan Latin Linkers (plus an ex LL Sybil Hogg - also from NI) gathered and had  a lovely lunch together. Then I was off to my first Spanish lesson. Not a good one for me,  but thankfully as the week went on I settled better at the school and despite tiredness actually started to enjoy it. Though having 3.5 hours of class then homework on top of that tires your brain out. But it is good to learn a new language and the important thing to remember is poco a poco (little by little) - don't try to run before you can walk.  Living with a Peruvian family and having to speak Spanish with them also helps.

On Monday night Paul had a little birthday party for Ruth with a few church friends. Despite being exhausted I enjoyed this, and was good to see what kind of games the Peruvians play at parties. When it is someone's birthday, after they blow out the candles in the cake, the cake gets smashed into their face.... not looking forward to this on my 30th!!! But it is all fun, very slapstick comedy.

On Wednesday I had lunch with Sybil which was nice and heard news from N.Ireland etc. She was a missionary in Lima for 10 years with Latin Link. 

Thursday saw me having my first mentoring session with Ruth (my mentor) - these happen every week and will be good sessions to have - as can ask more about cultural things that confuse me etc. Each month Striders have to do cultural projects to find out more about the country, so got my first one this week which was to find out about famous Pervuvians e.g writers/sports people - so as a researcher/information professional I will find these interesting. 

On Saturday I walked round my first Peruvian market, was interesting seeing the way the meat was hanging and also seeing different types of Potatoes - there were 10 varieties on one stall. Apparently there are 300 different types of Potatoes altogether in Peru. Despite the general belief that Potatoes are Irish, they were actually found in Peru and brought to UK by Sir Walter Raleigh. 

I also attended a launch event for Nuevas Fuerzas on Saturday. This will be the project I will be involved with once I have finished my language studies. Four people from last year turned up to the event, one was sick and there were eight new people as well - amazing. Think there will be about 15 people altogether this year (some new people were not there on Sat). 

On Saturday night, I went to the cinema with Paul and Ruth - was lovely just to sit back relax and watch a movie in English with Spanish subtitles, am sure that will help the learning of the language.

So that is my first week - nothing too interesting to report - language classes and homework are taking up most of my time these days. 

Here is a picture of the family I am staying with and their two cousins David and Darwin. And below is a picture of the family dog, Fred - he is hairless so wears coats to keep him warm.

Striders

Latin Link Striders 2012

Here are all the Peruvian Striders this year which includes those who have come to Peru as Striders from Switzerland and Britain and those going from Peru to England. It also included Paul and Ruth Turner who have the difficult job of keeping us all in line!

Left to Right: Christine, Sayuri, Pilar, Cecily, Linda, Ruth, Paul, Hannah and Jenny

Catrina, Me, Anna, Sarah, Mayte and Christina

NB: Mayte is in her second year and is going home in March, Linda and Hannah are in their second year as Striders, Christine and Sarah have been here three months, Sayuri and Pilar are going to England and the new striders are Cecily, Jenny, Anna, Christina, Catrina and myself.

LL Peru Talent Night

On the Wednesday night of the conference we had a talent night and each area of Peru had to do something.

First of all we had the team from Cusco who sang a song in Quechan (the language spoken by the Quechans, the indigenous people of Peru). The amazing thing about this part of the night was that Jenny (new strider) who could hardly speak Spanish was singing in yet another language... or maybe she was miming!

In Lima, there is a park in the area of Miraflores where all the cats in the city seem to hang out - it amazed me just how many there were  - everywhere you looked they were there even in the flowerbeds. And the team from Lima (which is the biggest team) took the idea for their sketch from these cats. 

They all dressed up as cats and came in on tiptoes and purred that they had decided to leave Latin Link and start a new organisation called Lima Link which reached out to all the cats living in Lima. It was such a hilarious sketch and had us in stitches. 

Kerstin Abbas as a Cat

Margaret Saunderson, Hannah Wilkinson and Marion Burke.

NB: Marion Burke actually works in Moyabama not Lima, but she joined this sketch because she always wanted to be a cat!!! Ha Ha

The team from Huaraz decided they did not have any talent but instead tested our talents by hosting a quiz. Unfortunately my team went out in the first round so we did not even get to win any of the prizes which consisted of sweets, crisps etc - very nice, but thankfully the teams who won shared them with us.

Finally, it was the turn of the team from Arequipa (saving the best for last). Our sketch was dreamed up by Ruth Green and Rosemary Gibson and was funny. The tag line of the sketch was "Arequipa, the place which has all the perfect missionaries" because we were all the same height (this involved us all trying to be the same height as the tallest person in the group, and saw Ruth Green getting on a chair... funny), we all wear glasses (at this point I had to borrow some... though I do wear glasses for reading), we all get on so well (two of our team started fighting at this point), we all helped out when asked (at this point Ruth Turner asked us to help wash dishes and we all came up with an excuse), we all dressed modestly!, were all young (though, I am actually the youngest by 12 years), and we all spoke perfect Spanish with perfect accents (cue Rosemary talking in her broad Belfast accent and Ruth G in her strong Australian one).  As you can probably tell the sketch was full of irony.

Roland Brown measuring us all to make sure we are the same height!

The Oldies!!!!

The Belfastian and Australian speaking perfect Spanish with perfect accents!

I enjoyed the night and came away thinking that the whole bunch of the LL Peru team are nutters, but that is good because it means I will fit in well!! Looking forward to getting to know the Arequipa team better

Latin Link Conference

My second week of being in Peru was spent at the annual Latin Link Peru Conference.  

It was great to be at this conference, if a bit daunting and frustrating at the same time. It was great to learn more about how Latin Link Peru works and meet all the Peruvian Latin Linkers and hear more about their work. 

It was daunting because, here was me, a new Strider, in the midst of all these missionaries who have been in the mission field for years. There was me, not really knowing why I am in Peru and questioning whether I should be there, and there were all these people who have been  in the field for over 20 years and have experienced more than I have in the last 20 years or probably will in the next 20.

However it was great to be with these people for different reasons. One was because I could put faces to names I have heard about growing up within the Latin Link family. And the second reason was because I could listen to their stories and hear about their experiences and realise that they were once in the position I was in  - a newbie in a foreign world. 

The week was also frustrating for me, because I was ill during it, but also because the conference was in Spanish and my understanding of the language was limited to asking where the toilet is?!! A useful phrase  question to be able to know though. 

People did translate for me and Jenny (the other strider with very limited Spanish), so that was good, we could understand what was going on in each session, but having a conversation with those with no English only Spanish or German was not easy. However, one thing I did take away from the week was determination to conquer the language.

On the last day of the conference I felt broken, alone and doubted my ability to be able to stay in Peru and learn the language. I knew I was going to the airport that night to get a plane to Arequipa, but I was all ready to get the next plane back to London instead. You will realise by now I did not do that, and that was because of the encouraging words I got from the long-termers and second year striders who have all been where I was. It was good to know that other people have struggled and have come through the other side. As one person put it, instead of Step, Stride and Stay - the three stages of Latin Link are actually, Step, Stumble and Struggle. So, I now feel as if I have permission to feel like am stumbling. And even if I stumble, God is there to pick me up.

And not only can I lean on God if I feel like am stumbling, I came away from that week knowing that 

 even though I am in Peru away from family and friends and can lean on them. I feel that I  have an extended family here in the shape of all the LL missionaries. I thank God for them all and the work they do in Peru.

The Convent where the Conference was held

View from the Convent 

The View from my room

Another view from the Convent

Water Fountain Park

As promised here are some photos of the night we spent at the Water Fountain Park - enjoying the show and getting soaked from running through the fountains - was a great night for me.

This is Me

Ruth and Catrina having fun

Dancing in the Rain

Jenny, Anna and Catrina all looking a bit soaked

The Light Show

A Dancer  - amazing light tricks

More photos can be found here:   https://picasaweb.google.com/100676954376098189077/FountainPark?authkey=Gv1sRgCKmR44WPubSEDg

Luz en la Roca

I promised on last post to talk a little about La Roca where we went last Wednesday with long-termer, Sharon Jones and also post some photos.

The full name of the Church is Luz en la Roca which means Light on the Rock and is in a 'pueblo joven' (shanty town) in Lima. It was set up by another long-termer Margaret Saunderson and now is run by Sharon. Her work there involves working with children, young people and adults, Bible teaching, discipleship and helping to meet practical needs.

When we went, it was the third day of a Children's club, think about 40 children turned up and were aged from 4 to about 16. A group of teenagers from another 'pueblo joven' came to lead the afternoon and it consisted of singing songs (in Spanish so I could not join in really), listening to the story of Nehemiah and doing crafts.

They were split into three different age groups for the talk and crafts and I went with the under 6's. As my Spanish is practically non existent I could not join in and chat with the kids, so I just used my other skills of glueing, sharpening pencils and handing out drinks as well as smiling to the wee kids. Even with no language you can still prove helpful in other ways, which is always good.

The afternoon started at 4pm and finished at 6pm, the kids seemed to have a really good time and enjoyed themselves which is the main thing. I enjoyed my time there as well and love the fact that even though the kids do not have much they are content with what they have and are happy wee buddies with smiles on their faces.

The views of the Shanty Town were pretty amazing as well, but hard to take the sights of people's living conditions in, it reminded me of my time in Africa visiting my sister.

Here is some pics:

Week One

Well I have been in Peru for over a week now - so thought would update you all on what has been going on.

I arrived on Saturday 4th, and the weekend was just spent relaxing, sleeping, chatting to each other and eating. All Striders arrived during the weekend except Anna who had already been there a week.

Monday morning saw the beginning of our orientation week - which saw us cover different topics like Peruvian culture, churches, living with a Peruvian family, Health issues, Safety issues including what to do in an earthquake etc. It was a busy week with lots to take in and all of us were coping with jetlag as well.

We also experienced Peruvian food, drinks (Inca Cola - tastes like Irn Bru and is lovely), and had some fun as well. I discovered Pinkberry, an American frozen yoghurt place which sis gorgeous - unfortunately there is none in Arequipa, just Lima.

Inca Kola

On Monday, I had to go and get my documents signed so that I can apply to stay in the country for a year, and then on Tuesday had to get my finger prints done, teeth counted and photo taken so I can apply for my carnet which will be my ID for the time I am here. It is being processed at minute and will have to come back to Lima to get it. Another excuse to visit Pinkberry!

All week I was staying in a place called Miraflores in Lima which is a nice area. On Tuesday we went into the center of Lima, to see the Cathedral, Government Offices etc - very nice architecture.

On Wednesday, we went to La Roca, one of the projects of two Latin Link team members, but will talk about that in a separate post.

On Thursday night we went to a Water Fountain Park which was fun - there were fountains everywhere (you don't say) and we ran in and out of one trying to dodge the spurts of water, but I did get a bit soaked, was fun though. Loads of kids there having a fantastic time. Then there was a light show in one of the fountains, was like a water firework display, was amazing, Will post some photos on another post.

On Friday, I was not feeling great and tired so I stayed back at the flat whilst everyone went on the first electric train in Lima.

Saturday was a day off, so just chilled  - rushed home from lunch for 3pm to watch the Ireland v France match only to discover it was called off, was very annoyed but probably not half as annoyed as the 80,000 who turned up to the stadium to watch it. Gutted.

That is the end of week one. Was a good week spent getting to know the other Striders, pity we will all be separated next week when we go to our different places, Also good getting to meet other Latin Link team members who are in Peru. Good to hear what everyone else is up to.

I have arrived

Well I am now in Peru, it is quite exciting yet scary too. I still cannot believe I am here after talking for so long about going, but am glad I am here.

My journey started on Friday morning, left home at 11am, arrived at Belfast City and checked in. For Belfast to London you are only allowed 20kg but I thought I would be ok as I was booked the whole way through and I would not have to pay. Unfortunately that was not the case and I had to pay for the extra 4.3 kg, was annoying but had to do it.

Arrived in London at 2.45pm to be met by my friend Miranda, was lovely seeing her after 7 weeks. Good to catch up. She walked me from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3 where we met Cecily and Jenny (my travel partners)... and we checked in. Was still feeling calm at this stage and happy which was great. Thought wow this is it, am off on my adventure.

We were meant to fly at 18.50 but we actually left at 8.30 after sitting on the plane for ages. This delay meant that when we got to Madrid we only had half hour to get from one plane to the next plane, was quite a rush but we made it. We did not think our bags would make it but they did which was great news.

The flight to Lima was 12 hours, such a long time to be stuck somewhere you cannot leave from. Watched two movies that I wanted to watch in a long time, Ides of March (might have title wrong) and Real Steel - Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds easy on the eye so helped pass the time. Slept a bit but not a lot.

We eventually arrived in to Lima at 6.30am and when we arrived the whole plane clapped, never experienced that before was weird. But suppose they were just so glad to have landed and arrived safely.

We got our luggage and were met by Ruth Turner, the Latin Link Stride Co-orindator for Peru, was so good to be there. We then made our way in to Lima where we will be staying for a week. Will update on first week later and add some pictures.