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.
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