Dia de Arequipa

A couple of week’s back I wrote about Fiestas Patrias which is the Peruvian Day of Independence celebrated on the 28^th July.  However the people of Arequipa do not really celebrate this day as the 15^th August is more important to them – this is Arequipa Day – and today they were celebrating their 472^nd birthday.

Each year they have parades and today I went to see these parades with my mentor Ruth Turner and another missionary from Costa Rica Brenda Darke.  We arrived at about 10.15 and got some good seats and then the parade started at about 11.40 (about 40 minutes after it was supposed to, but no worries as we had a good chat while waiting and ate some lovely ice cream)

It was a very colourful parade as there were many different costumes representing different parts of Peru as well as different parts of South America as well. There was much music provided by different bands (one of them being the band from the International Colegio – who recently won the finals of best school band – they are very very good). Other highlights included seeing dancing nuns, Harley Davidson’s (really wanted a ride on one of these but not allowed!) and the fire brigade who are known as the ‘bomberos’ (an interesting note here – the fire brigade here is voluntary so all who work for it are volunteers).

Dancing Nuns

Bomberos

International Colegio

After watching the parade for about 2.5 hours we decided we go would go in search of some food. We went to a place which serves typical Peruvian food and after six months of living here I finally got to eat cuy – guinea pig. It took a while to come and that is because they were killing it there and then. And when it arrived on the plate, wow it was a bit shocking. You can see for yourself in this picture:

The Cuy/Guinea Pig

I ate it and enjoyed it though had to not focus on the head as when I looked at the head it reminded me of my pet gerbils and hamster when I was a kid. I can hear people asking what it tasted like – well it tastes bit like chicken and pork. It was a fully intact cuy, as the kidney’s, heart and everything was still there – I ate most of it except these things and its paws and head. It is a dish everyone needs to try when in Peru and yes Mum that means you too in October (Dad has already had it many years ago) – am sure my sister is glad she is not coming out now, would have made her eat it too!!

All in all it was a good day, experiencing Peruvian dance and music as well as Peruvian food.

For more photos please click here

Best of British

As the Step Team are over from England they were given the job of organising Jovenes on Saturday night, which they did very well... and the theme of the night - Britain.

We started the night playing games from Britian - Splatz (don't ask me to explain it as still not sure I understand all the rules of it). Then we did a quiz based on the map of Britain - we had to mark on the map the capitals of England (London) Wales (Cardiff), Scotland (Edinburgh), where the team are from (Wewlyn Garden City) and where Paul and Ruth Turner, the Short Term coordinators got married (Rasharkin in Northern Ireland).

I was very proud of myself that I got all these places right but then was informed they were wrong, but actually what happened was that the person who was in charge of deciding who won got the places wrong... so after thinking I was useless at Geography, realised I am not that bad. 

After the quiz we had some food - English Tea which involved sandwiches - egg and cucumber, scones with cream and jam, victoria sponge and English Tea. 

The Spread

The Pastors Family enjoying their food

Alejandra and Eva enjoying their Tea

There was no food left so I think that the Peruvians liked what was on offer for them. I sure enjoyed the scones with cream and jam. 

After refreshments we were treated to Scottish Dancing from Marie, Harold, Jean and Steve  - and then we were all dragged up onto the floor to try it out as well - this took me back to school P.E days when we learnt how to dance to the Gay Gordens!! Everyone seemed to enjoy this although a lot us did not actually know what we were doing! 

We were also treated to a gymnastics display by Alice (a future Olympian maybe!) and then Rachel showed us how to do some Ballet dancing. Some of the Peruvians and members of the Step Team were brought onto the floor to try out the steps that Rachel showed them - think the funniest person doing this was Paul! A budding ballet dancer there!

Ballet Dancing

Saturday was also the wedding anniversary of two of the Step team members Harold and Marie so Jean sang a song for them which was a lovely Scottish song. 

After all this entertainment, keeping in line of the Olympics, the Step Team gave all the Jovenes a gold medal with the inscription 'Tengo la victoria en mi Jesus' - I have the victory in Jesus. And then there was photos and a lot of dancing afterwards to songs by S Club 7, Queen, Steps etc - thought had moved to a disco night! 

The Jovenes

To see more pictures please click here

Holiday Bible Club

As you know there is a Step team in Arequipa at the minute and the main reason they are here was to run a Holiday Bible Club in the church during the school holidays (they get 7 days off during Fiestas Patrias).

The Holiday Club last four days and was a great success. Over the four days we had around 100 children which was great.

The club ran from 9am to 12noon and started off with registration and various games including balloon tennis, or if kids did not want to play games they could colour in.  After registration, which lasted half hour to give the Peruvians time to come, though people still arrived throughout the morning,  we had singing, puppets and a drama. The week was entitled El Rey Pide - The King Said. And every day featured a different king but the one I remember is David and Goalith. 

Singing

Puppets

David and Goalith Drama

After this we all broke in to groups - the Lions, the Bears, the Monkeys, the Bears and the Elephants. I was assigned to the Monkey's group and am telling you some of the boys in that group thought they were monkeys. During the group time we did worksheets on the story of that day and did some craft as well which ranged from making booklets, faces, decorating cookies and making shakers. 

Monkey's making shakers

Every day there was a snack which represented something from the story - the first day was popcorn which represented the stones David used to kill Goalith, second day was grapes as the story that day was about the vineyard.... and am not sure about the next two days sorry. 

During group time the kids were also taken into play games in their groups as it proved to be much easier that way than everyone playing at the same time as there were so many kids for our church. One of these games was the parachute game and again it proved to be a real hit with the holiday club kids. A great choice of the Step team to bring that out. 

Monkey's playing with the Parachute

After group time everyone went back into the hall again for more singing, quizzes and a memory verse. The quiz time for a little bit noisy at times as you can imagine if you have ever done a holiday bible club before - this always seems to be the favourite bit of any bible club I have ever helped in.

All in all the four days went well, the kids enjoyed themselves, the church members who were to help with the Spanish side of things enjoyed themselves as well, the team enjoyed themselves and I had a great time as well.

Click on the days to see photos of each day.... Day One, Day Two, Day Three and Day Four.