My New Home (for the next two months): Urubamba, Peru

For anyone who doesn't know: I'm doing youth development work with an organization called FutureSense for the next two months in Urubamba, Peru. I arrived in Urubamba on Monday afternoon, so today was my first full day in Urubamba. Some of my first impressions:

• The food! All the food we've had here is extremely natural, extremely local, and such a change of pace from what I'm used to eating at home. A highlight so far was a bar of Machu Picchu chocolate (the flavor I got was cappuccino and it was a winner). The bar is made with local cacao beans, which have a slightly different flavor than what I'm used to. So far, I really like the idea of getting so much of my food fresh and pretty unprocessed, and I'm interested to see if I feel any differently physically after eating this way for two months.
• The people. I've really enjoyed so far getting to know my coworkers at FutureSense, and all the people of Urubamba have been extremely friendly. I'm excited to get more involved in this community in the next couple months.
• The walking. While a common form of transportation is mototaxis (I'll add a picture sometime later), we've already walked around the town a good bit. So far, I like it - we'll see how I'm feeling on my more tired days.
• The mountains. There are mountains all around, since we're in the highlands of Peru in the Andes Mountains, and even a glaciar can be spotted when you're standing in the right spot.

Overall, I already like it here. I've hit a few roadblocks - like not knowing how to turn on the hot water in the shower, or suddenly feeling like my Spanish is a bit rusty, or even feeling a little bit of homesickness. These are all things that will work themselves out with time. But I'm excited to begin my job in earnest - managing a project in a local school, where volunteers will plant trees and run English workshops for students there. 

For now, I'm going to end this blog with a few pictures before I pack up and head home out of the WiFi zone.

My room. Small, but cozy and comfortable.

The entrance to the compound where my room is.

Right outside my room.There's a garden in the midde, and another building opposite ours.

My backyard, so to speak.

The second floor. My room is right there on the right, behind the laundry.

That's all for now! Many more pictures and stories to come in the next few months.

Cajon del Maipo: Glaciares, Camping, and Hitchhiking Home

Every weekend just keeps getting better and better.

Last Saturday, I went with three other ladies to Cajon del Maipo. While we had a great day exploring and hiking, we didn't quite make it to where we wanted to go; so this weekend was take two, and we were much more prepared. The adventure began on Friday night, when I stayed over with Carli and Liz, so that we could all be up and ready to get ourselves to the metro at 6:30 when it opened, so we could get to the bus station by 7:30 in time to get on the bus going to Banos Morales, our ultimate destination. I get up early here, but that was probably the first time I've been up before the sunrise in quite awhile, and while I was exhausted, it was actually kind of nice.

The campsite is down in that grove of trees somewhere... not to shabby, eh?

We made it on the bus, alright, but since we were the last group to get on (that one... we were relieved we made it, since there's only one bus that goes where we needed to go every day), most of us ended up either sitting on the floor or standing the entire threeish hour bus ride. I ended up sitting for most of it and was able to get in a quick nap on top of our backpacks, which was nice - thanks, guys. By 11:00. though, we had made it, and happily unloaded our backpacks and set up camp in the little campground where we would stay the night.

The entrance to the campsite

The ride there through the mountains and by the river, the views when we stepped foot off the bus, and the view from the campsite were all spectacular, and the best was yet to come. After we set up camp and had a chance to rest and eat some lunch, we set off on an 8km hike to Laguna and Glaciar el Morado. It was about a six hour hike in total, and the valley we were in had just enough of a breeze for it to be pretty steady going, albeit tiring. This was my favorite hike I've done here so far, because pretty much at every moment, the view was incredible.

With the glacial/snow capped mountains in the distance, the flowers and meadows in front of us, and the verdant hills on either side of the valley, it felt like we had stepped right into the Sound of Music. Totally different country/continent, I know, but it really did feel like that, and it was amazing.

THE HILLS ARE ALIVE.... with the sound of gringos

One of the things I loved about this hike was the variation in the ecosystems we passed over the course of the three hour hike to get the glacier. One moment, we were walking through a very dry landscape, like the one pictured above - pretty dusty, lots of rocks, and plants like cactuses and other succulents. The next moment, we were walking along a damp muddy path with lush green meadows surrounding us. The next, we were walking along barren, rocky hills up to the pieces of glacier scattered around the mountain. All through the valley there was always a stream running beside us, water coming down from the melting glacier at the end of the hike.

frolicking so hard in this meadow

las flores!

la laguna y mis dedos de los pies

We took a rest at the lagoon, where we saw a bunch of birds and ate some Toblerone (S/O to Carli), before continuing on to the glacier itself. We got out to the glaciar, rested, touched the ice, watched it melt and run off into a stream, drank some fresh glacier water, and after a while, made our way back to our campsite.

Glaciar El Morado

It was nice to get back and relax, which is what we did for awhile. We made a campfire - it was a process, but it happened eventually - in an attempt to heat up the pasta and sauce we had brought, but we eventually ended up using a travel stove a nearby group of campers lent us (they probably took pity on our fire building attempts). We did, however, get a good enough fire going to roast marshmallows on and caramelize some bananas in tin foil, so all in all I'd consider it a success. 

peaceful morning joys

After dinner, we sat around, played games, and talked while we waited for night to fall and the stars to come out. Having a chance to go deeper with people is interesting, especially when people in this group come from such diverse places and backgrounds, so I like having the chance to learn more about everyone and the experiences they've each had. It'd been a long day, though, so before too long we were all ready to sleep. I ended up sleeping in my hammock in my sleeping bag, and I learned a couple of things. One, it was pretty cold. So I'd probably bring a hat, blanket, and a sweatshirt in the future, but with all those things I think I would have been fine. Another thing, though, was that falling asleep under more stars than I can remember seeing in a long, long time, was pretty amazing. There are very few lights in Cajon del Maipo, so it's easy to see the stars, and the sky really was beautiful. It wasn't the best night of sleep I've ever had, but waking up in the morning to the smell of the outdoors and the campfire, and the quiet in the campsite, and best of all, snuggling up in my hammock for some Jesus time with the sound of the river in the background and the mountains in view through the trees in front of me was a pretty grand way to start the day.

A couple things I'd like to share, regarding that. I've really settled into a good rhythm with my Jesus times here, and I feel like God has been teaching me a lot just about faithfulness and steadiness in his love. I kind of skimmed through my Bible this morning before landing on Psalm 36, and it was a perfect passage for how I've been feeling, and especially how I was feeling this morning when I read it. It says:

"Lord, your constant love reaches the heavens; your faithfulness extends to the skies. Your righteousness is towering like the mountains; your justice is like the depths of the sea. People and animals are in your care. How precious, O God, is your constant love! We find protection under the shadow of your wings. We feast on teh abundant food you provide; you let us drink from teh river of your goodness. You are the sources of all life, and because of your light we see the light. Continue to love those who know you and to do good to those who are righteous. Let not proud people attack me or the wicked make me run away." (Psalm 36:5-11)

How precious is his love, indeed. An especially apt passage, considering today is Valentine's Day! To go along with that, I have two songs which have been hitting me especially hard this weekend that I'd like to share: Holy Holy Holy, by Audrey Assad, and Love Changes Everything, by Red Rocks Worship. Give 'em a listen, if you're so inclined.

Yum

After a lovely peaceful start to the morning, I finally got myself up and set about making the fire with Mackenzie, with decent success. Not one, not two, but three people took pity on us this time (or were annoyed by the smoke billowing from our tiny fire) and offered us wood and use of their stove again, which was really nice of them. We cooked up some eggs and ate a leisurely breakfast around the campfire. Once we finished, we packed up camp, and then split up - Mackenzie and I headed down the road to find our way home, while the rest of the group got ready to go to Banos Morales, hot springs, and then take the bus home later in the afternoon. 

While I felt really confident about the safety of it (it's pretty common here in an area where tons of people are hiking/backpacking/camping without necessarily having access to a car and when buses are sometimes pretty infrequent), I didn't know what to expect from my first time hitchhiking, but it could not have gone better. We walked a little ways down the road and were treated to some more spectacular views, which is a pretty good way to start out any journey.

This view though!

Then, we only walked along the road for maybe five minutes or so before a very nice couple stopped and picked us up. We chatted a little, and I learned that the guy had been born in Maryland, which is a pretty funny connection to have when you're 5,000 miles away from home! They told us that they were heading to Santiago, but were planning on stopping by a river first to swim a little before heading back, and said we could go along with them if we wanted. So, in the spirit of our continued adventuring, we did.

When we got to the place, we hiked up this big hill, and then down the other side of it, and found ourselves at a flat campsite type area, where a bunch of people had set up tents and awnings, and to the side, a beautiful grotto type area with running water, several different pools to swim or wade in, and even a pool that was deep enough for people to jump from ledges several feet above down into the pool. We weren't prepared to swim, but we decided it was definitely a place we wanted to go back to. It was cool being taken there, because it seemed like the type of place that Chileans go to, rather than a very touristy spot, which is something I really liked.

Not the best pic, but the deep pool is in the back there

We left not too long after we got there, and made our way back to Santiago. Before we parted ways, they taught us a new word: apanar (pretend the n has a tilde). It basically means the same as acompanar, which is to come along with, to accompany. It was a great word to learn, and I love that they taught it to us, and what that said about them, and maybe a little bit about Chilean culture, too. They let us crash their Valentine's Day, so picking us up and taking us along was pretty dang nice of them to do.

We made it back in the afternoon, and parted ways at the metro station to go to our respective homes. Walking into the metro station with the other commuters, I realized how dirty I was - covered in dust, sweat, campfire smoke; sunburnt, tired and sore; and a perfect joy settled over me. It was a stellar weekend, and I really couldn't have asked for a better adventure. For the first time, I felt an inkling of falling in love with this country and these people, which, uh-oh. If you know me, you know I have a tendency to fall madly in love with every place I go and all the people there, and it's always awful tearing myself away from them. I have four or five places I've promised myself I'm going to return to and spend the rest of my life at by now. It's a blessing and a curse, I suppose.

Either way, I'm looking forward to more adventures to come. I'm going to try to be better about blogging more to keep up with them all! (Shoutout to Mr. Holl, thanks for reading and commenting :) ) Stay tuned!

TBT: Helado, Valpo, y Más(po)

Hey friends!

{Full disclosure: I began this post two weeks ago, and never finished it. So I have lots to tell from the last two weeks, but that'll just have to come soon in another post! But the time specific phrasing is out of date, and I don't feel like changing it, so just bear in mind it's all actually about two weeks ago. :) }

It's only been a week since I last wrote, but man, there's already a lot to talk about! I'm thinking I'm going to do a whole separate food post, because there's just too much to say, so stay tuned for that.

I'll start with my Friday adventure. Fridays, I finish with classes at 11, and so I decided to take the day to finally do something fun in Santiago. It had come to my awareness that there is an icecream shop in Santiago which is rated one of the top 25 in the world by The Daily Meal - while I'm not sure what that means, exactly, I had my heart set on finding it and getting me some of that icecream. So after finishing our classes, some friends and I made our way over to Emporio La Rosa and got ourselves some icecream. It was definitely delicious, and the flavor selection is supreme. I sampled flavors such as rose, lemon mint basil, and mango passionfruit before deciding on frambuesa mente y chocolate araucano (raspberry mint and bitter chocolate), both of which were supreme. Rest assured, I will be making return trips to Emporio La Rosa.

After icecream, we made our way through a park to Museo Bellas Artes, one of the free public museums in Santiago. The museum currently has an exhibition of art done by Mexican artists, the only one of which I had heard of before (I'm not very educated when it comes to art, I admit) was Diego Rivera, who was the husband of Frida Kahlo. All in all, good people, good art, good icecream, good day!

El Museo Bellas Artes

El interior

"Maternidad" - Diego Rivera

Un barco

Upon getting home from the museum, I immediately packed up my things and headed off with my friend, Ellen, and her host family, toooooo.... Valparaiso! Valpo is a city along the coast of Chile, and is famous for its colorful buildings and murals/graffiti everywhere. We arrived late on Friday night, and then on Saturday, we spent the day exploring. We walked around the city, and made a trip with Ellen's host mom to Viña del Mar, another beautiful seaside town. As we walked around Valpo, we came to one walkway with a slide going down it to the lower platform! There are also ascensores all around the city, which are basically elevators which move down an incline rather than vertically.

Valpo from close to our house!

One mural of many

The Little Prince

Later that day, we walked around some more and went to a palace which had been turned into an art museum. It was a beautiful building, and interesting, but far MORE interesting was our visit to Pablo Neruda's Valpo house, La Sebastiana. It's a beautiful house, and full of interesting artifacts that Neruda collected from all over the world. Neruda, in addition to being an incredible poet and an international liaison for Chile, was a pretty quirky person, and the inside of his house reflected that. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the house, unfortunately, but the view from the house was incredible - you could look out over the entire city, the port, and the ocean. 

Found a portrait of myself as a child at the art museum #thathaircuttho

 

Valpo at night

 

Mango chocolate cake for breakfast, mmmm

 

View from Neruda's bedroom... can I live here?

 

Empanada of the day: cheese, tomatoes, pineapple, fried dough

 

Mango juice + scenic overlooik

 

This really doesn't do it justice, but we saw the most AMAZING sunset on the drive home

 All in all, it was a fantastic weekend, and it was followed by several more! Stay tuned for more of my extremely belated blog posts, friends. Hope those of you in snowy regions are weathering the storms with few problems!

Week One: Santiago!!

As of tomorrow morning, I'll have officially been in Chile for a week! And what a week it's been.

Pretty light packing job, for me. Success!

My first view of Chile was a spectacular view of the Andes mountains from the window of my plane, which was a dang good start to living somewhere for four months.

I successfully made it through immigration and customs, and met up with the rest of the group of students in my program. USAC has been really great about setting everything up for us and getting us all the information and resources we need to be successful in Santiago, which is great, and a definite relief when I felt like I was kind of floundering around at first, not knowing how anything worked.  The group of about 45 students stayed in a hotel all day Wednesday and Thursday morning for orientation, and then that afternoon, we met our host families! I'm currently living with my host mom and her adult daughter, and they couldn't be more delightful. They're always saying things like "Que rico!" (how rich, literally, but basically how wonderful) and "Que lindo!" (how cute, how pretty) about everything - food, views, art, things in stores, etc.

My room

The view from in front of my house! Las montanas!!

Also, my host mom is an amazing cook, and I love to eat good food, so that's always nice. Chileans eat a lot of bread with cheese and ham and/or butter and jelly, they drink a lot of coffee and tea, and since it's summertime here, they have the most amazing fruit with basically every meal. And, Chileans love icecream! Those are basically all of my favorite foods, so I fit right in. Seriously though, the fruit; from a purely fruit-based perspective, it seems that Chile is basically the Garden of Eden. Every piece of fruit here is amazing and more delicious than most fruits I've had before in my life.

Helado!!

Tomatoes, plum, potatoes with ahi, lemon chicken, egg. Yum!

On Friday, we had another day of orientation activities, including a tour of Santiago. We saw La Moneda, which is sort of like the White House in DC, except the president doesn't live there. There was a museum underneath with art and a samurai exhibit, which was interesting. Something you quickly realize is that there are just dogs everywhere; as one of my professors said today when there was a dog in our school building, dogs being everywhere is just a part of normal life in Santiago. One dog which accompanied our group for part of our tour followed us into La Moneda; it was strange to see a dog walking around a museum, but such is life here, apparently. There seems to be a different culture about stray dogs here than in the U.S. Rather than trying to get rid of them, they're somewhat taken care of. As a dog lover myself, there has already been more than one pup that I was seriously tempted to snatch and keep!

(Crooked) picture of La Moneda

Algunos de los perros

We also went to Plaza de Armas, which is the center of the city. We saw a cathedral, ate some icecream, and listened to some musicians playing in the square. Several people were dancing to the music; I'm taking a dance class this semester, and maybe one day that'll be me! (That will never be me. But the point is that it could be!)

Catedral Metropolitana de Santiago

  

After that, we went and walked around a sculpture park. There are parks everywhere in Santiago, and plants absolutely everywhere. It's a delight to the eye, and most certainly a delight to the soul!

Friday evening, my host mom told me they were going to take me to their cabanas near Isla Negra for the weekend, which was, needless to say, fantastic. It was beautiful; I think I can let the pictures do most of the talking for me! Isla Negra is where Pablo Neruda, the famous Chilean poet, had one of his homes. While I didn't get to visit the house on this trip, I can definitely see where he got the inspiration for his poetry!

 

 

Yesterday (Monday, January 11th), I had my first day of classes. Classes seem pretty good so far, everyone is very nice, more on that later!

To be honest, I had a profound moment on the plane where I wondered what in the world I was doing flying across the globe to South America for four months. While that fear subsided, I definitely had a good bit of homesickness the first few days, especially. I was tired, scared, and felt totally disconnected (holla no phone life. This was a good exercise for me, but dang it was hard! I even had internet and my laptop, and I was only without a phone for two days, but it definitely magnified the feeling of being far away from everything that was familiar to me). Happily though, after being here for a week, I'm already feeling a good deal better. I'm still feeling some homesickness, but I think I'm finally adjusting! Looking forward to many new adventures!

Also, shout-out to Shereadstruth for giving me an easy way to stay on top of doing devos every day, and also for having a bunch of great lockscreens like this one to the left. Even just the small fact of seeing it every time I unlock my phone gave me a small comfort in its reminder of God's constancy and goodness! Looking forward to what he's teaching me now, and what he'll teach me while I'm here. I'm already pretty far out of my comfort zone, so the door is wide open and I'm excited to learn to lean on him in all things and whatever other lessons he has in store for me!

Please continue to pray for me and for the rest of the students here; if you have any comments, advice, or verses you'd like to share, I would LOVE LOVE LOVE if you left there here at the bottom of this post!

Much love to everyone, hope everyone is well and (assuming most of you are in winter climates) staying warm!

On the road again

Hello, friends!

In case you (like me) didn't know where Santiago was

I write to you once again from the terminal of an airport. The adventure continues! I haven't written since this past summer, so just know, the summer ended well, it was a happy homecoming when I returned, and the past semester was a whirlwind of learning, growing, and getting ready foooooor...... studying abroad in the spring semester in Santiago, Chile! WOO!

I have everything packed and ready to go, and I'm excited (if a little nervous) to touch down in Santiago - and start four months of speaking mainly Spanish. Eep. I'm staying with a host family down there, and attending Universidad Andres Bello. I'm hoping to get really good at Spanish while I'm away, and I'm hoping to do some good traveling while I'm there. I haven't quite figured it out yet, but I'm hoping to connect with churches or missionaries down there and see something about what that's like, too.

This is pretty much it for now! I'm starting the blog back up while I'm abroad, so expect updates and lots and lots of pictures! Keep me in your prayers!

Weeks 5 onward: Work, travel, and many adventures

Man, the summer is really running away with me! Apologies to anybody who's still reading (Mom Mom and Dee Dee, looking at you) for the lateness and the skipping of several weeks! Things have been crazy busy, which is equally exhausting and wonderful at the same time.

Since I last posted, we had our event at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, drove from Tulsa to St. Louis, from St. Louis to Johnson City, Tennessee, and then from there to Cincinnati, where we're looking at our second event at Xavier University this coming week and where I'm writing this from right now. [Correction: Didn't end up posting last weekend. We're in St. Louis now, looking at our second week here at Harris Stowe University!] It's been nonstop, so it was great to have a day to rest today and be rejuvenated for the next couple weeks.

Each event is pretty similar in a lot of the jobs we do, the set up, our individual jobs during the week, tear down, and so on, but each week also has a very different character depending on the group of students who come and the locations we're serving at. Tulsa, for instance, was a smaller group of students, and a lot of them were serving at local schools doing work like painting and improving the outside of buildings, playgrounds, landscaping, etc. One of my favorite moments from that week was the very last night at the end of the very last session - the band finished playing their last song and turned to leave the stage, and the students started chanting "Encore! Encore!" and with the go ahead from our production manager, Austin, they went and played another song. Despite it being a fairly small event, the energy in the room was incredible, and it was just amazing having a night of such excitement filled worship. The band was also great, and played a Hillsong song that I hadn't heard before somehow called Sinking Deep, which is now one of my new favorites. I definitely recommend checking it out, which you can do here. One thing that really stuck with me from that week was the devo that Caleb did for us. He talked about when Jesus healed the ten lepers - nine walked away healed in body. But the one who returned to Jesus and thanked him and worshipped him, was also healed in spirit. What he ended with, was this statement: sometimes we don't need only to be obedient to God. We also need to stop, come to him and praise him for who he is and what he's doing.

The Gateway to the West

The next location we were at was St. Louis, MO. I enjoyed seeing the arch, even if it was from a distance and we didn't get a chance to go up into it. We're going back though, so maybe next time! CIY partners with an organization in St. Louis called Mission St. Louis, which is a little bit different than most of our other events where we don't have one main partner in the city. Mission St. Louis is a cool organization, because their focus is on empowering people to improve their own neighborhoods. We're fortunate to be able to partner with them, so that while our students are volunteers from the outside, they're able to see this community and relationship centered approach to alleviating poverty firsthand this week and learn from this experience, all while serving people mainly by doing work to improve their homes. (If this sounds interesting, check them out here!)

We climbed a waterfall!!!

After St. Louis, we drove to Johnson City, TN, to Milligan College. That weekend, I got to see my family when they drove down for the Fourth of July. We went to a fair of sorts and watched the fireworks together, and I got to see them the next day as well. The team also went on a hike Sunday morning - wilderness church! - along a trail to a waterfall, where we got to swim and climb, which was a fantastic adventure and one of my favorite parts of the summer so far. Our event in TN was one of our largest, and probably also one of my favorites. It was just a great week - the groups were great, Milligan was great, the weather was great - just the overall atmosphere was fantastic. We had our sessions in the chapel, which was beautiful and a great venue for worshipping together and gaining truth each evening. One of the things I liked about this week, also, was all the chances I had to have good conversations with our emcee that week, Caleb (not my fellow intern... a different Caleb). One of my favorite things is always getting to learn about God from the many wonderful people I've met this summer, and this week was full of that, which was awesome. One thing that kind of blew my mind, was something along the lines of: people are sometimes confused, because Christianity is full of paradoxes, like finding strength in weakness or finding life by dying to ourselves. But we only think of these things as paradoxes because we live in an imperfect world, where things are backwards from what God created them to be. So these things actually make sense - just not to us based on the expectations of our society. That's crazy to me to think about, and so cool. There were a lot of other things like that, but I'll have to come back to them in a future post, if I remember what they are. I also developed a slight obsession with the song Touch the Sky - highly recommend. Go listen to it. Here you go.



Snapshot of one project, before...



Am I ready for Pinterest yet?

and after!

Eating Austin's birthday cake... life as a community at its finest

The next week was Cincinnati, which was last week. This was our second week in Cincinnati, and it was similar to the first week - if anything, it just went a lot more smoothly, since we actually knew what we were doing a little bit more. I really do enjoy Cincinnati as a city, and it was great being back somewhere I was already familiar with. Having some level of familiarity with where we were living, where we went to eat (more icecream! more donuts!), and with driving around the city was definitely something I enjoyed about last week. Not to mention that the food at Xavier University is by far the most excellent of any campus we've been on. I also enjoyed getting to spend some time talking with our emcee, Mark Worley, who knew some Spanish - my first Spanish this summer! and told me about some of his trips to Guatemala, which was fascinating for me since that's the sort of work I'd like to eventually do (missions work in Latin America). We also had a lady as our speaker this week, which was awesome, and I enjoyed getting to hear from her at the evening sessions.

And now, we're looking at our second week in St. Louis. It's been a pretty good weekend of prep work and relaxing - we went and saw Ant Man, and had some misadventures trying to go to an outlet mall. Truth be told, I'm still loving the work I'm doing, but I'm also starting to be really tired, and it'll definitely be nice to have a few days off next week in Joplin. It's hard to believe the summer is already almost over - just three more weeks left, then I head home. Pretty crazy.

Anyways though, it's late, so this is all for now. I'll leave you with a short story... This lovely addition is courtesy of Sully, who probably didn't think I'd leave this in here. But here it is!

I just have one dog named Copper. His best friend Todd wasn't allowed to talk to him anymore cause Copper is a hunting dog, and Todd is a fox.  They were destined to be enemies, but they could have been such good friends.  Why did their friendship have to be so impossible?  Why couldn't they be left alone to hangout with one another, being the best of buds for all times?  Todd pondered this from the window, looking outside towards Copper's house.  Sadness welled up inside of him, for he knew that he would never be able to have the friendship with Copper that he had always wanted, and knew was possible.  Poor Todd, he has no friends but the old nameless lady with a garden.  His only acquaintance was a kooky old owl, and two other birds that were total tool bags.  Todd was alone, alone and friendless...