Joanna's Journal: Gira Prep

This morning (Monday) for breakfast we had…unique Peruvian fruit. Here are a few pictures. The green one wasn’t the greatest. The papaya turned into a papaya smoothie was really good! It’s best when all the ingredients are cold though. One looked like fish eggs, and tasted like goo with crunchy centers. The peel cracked and felt like styrafoam. It was very very unique, and I have had nothing like it before!

We got kid prize bags and other things ready for the Gira meeting. Ariel, Juan, and I are doing the puppet show that I helped with for the class with Wendy. I’m doing Milka’s part, which is longer, but Ariel can do the shorter part. At the meeting we practiced our kids songs, which I really like, and our puppets. Rachel also explained the packing situation. Pack as light as possible. We are taking a lot of things for Pat’s class, bedding/clothes, guitar, prizes, water, and other needed stuff. We are going VERY rural. Like, not even on the map. :-) Rachel says that we will be filtering our water from Lake Titicaca. :-) We will be sleeping on the floor with maybe a sheep skin under us to keep us off the ground. We will have our down comforter and a sleeping bag. And you layer and layer more clothes. :-) I got my grade for my class finally. I don't really know what I got on each assignment, but I got a 19/20. (their whole grading scale is out of 20) 3 other students got 19/20 also... Milka, Marco, and Yanet. :-) I really enjoyed that class, and I'm glad I got to take it!

Yesterday, 7/7, was Raquel’s birthday, and Sunday, 7/6 was Roxana’s birthday. That morning for breakfast, Juan and Alfredo (Raquel and Roxana’s brothers that are both here at the seminary) went together to buy them a cake. That was really sweet of them to do for their sisters. :-) Since Roxana’s birthday was Sunday, and she goes to another church for the weekend, I left her her birthday card on her bed for when she got back that night. I looked up all the Spanish that I could think of, and wrote a card for her and put in a picture that I got printed. She came up to me the next day, and I could tell that she really liked that I thought of her! I gave Raquel her card and picture too, and she really liked it too. I asked her how my Spanish was, and she said beautiful. I think she liked the words, but I’m not sure if my Spanish grammar was beautiful. :-)

We cleaned the house, mopped the floor, and did the dishes. After not even a week, the floors get really gross. If there is any water on the floor, it immediately turns into mud water. We all wear our shoes, and they are really dirty.

I had lunch with the students, because I’m leaving 90% of the students in 3 days. :’( I really enjoy their company… I got pictures printed out for everyone, and I’m going to give one with a card to all the girls.

Ariel and I helped Wendy again with the kids’ club that she does for the kids that live on campus. I taught/read the lesson in Spanish, and my pronunciation was… I thought terrible, but oh well… I tried. We sang songs, and did a little color sheet that Wendy brought. The lesson was on the passage where Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. I really like that story, and so they did this color sheet that had 2 feet, and said walk with Christ. That was really quick, and I made up a sheet too, so we did both. I put the verse John 13:15 on the top and “Jesus es mi ejemplo”. They traced their feet on the paper, and I think they really liked it! They ate some cookies, and then we played some games. Wendy had these parachute type things that we threw balls into, threw balls up and down, and played some games with those. The little girls really liked those. After club was technically finished, Ariel and I took turns and played with a plastic kids big ball with the little girls, or played Frisbee with Miguel. I really like to play Frisbee, and it was a lot of fun to play that again. I brought one, but haven’t used it, but he really liked it! It was a good afternoon.

I had dinner, while the 2^nd year students had their weekly meeting. It wasn’t my favorite, but I ate most of it. Rice with noodles cooked into it which I like, cooked plantains, and a fried egg. I really like the plantains in the DR, but they cook them very differently here. In the DR they were cut vertically and fried into little circles, but here they horizontally cut into 1/4^thsand are kinda gooy. At my house, we only eat scrambled eggs, dry, burn them if you have to… last night’s dinner wasn’t quite cooked that way. I have eaten the whole thing before, and ate %60 last night… I wasn’t too hungry, and I didn’t have an audience.

I got to go practice the piano for a bit. For one class (2^nd and 3^rd year) they are practicing “administration” in the church, or something like that. They had the Lord’s Supper in class, had a funeral last night, and a “wedding” Wednesday. Raquel asked me to play the wedding march, so I found some music on the internet, and set out to practice. 2 girls from kids club were there, so we talked a little, and they marveled over my brown hair, and I ended up getting very little music done. People started coming in for the “funeral” with their tissues and such, and it was pretty hilarious. I was talking to this one person, (in Spanish), and he said that my talking in Spanish was getting better/I was doing well! I was so excited! (Praise the Lord! I have learned so much, maybe not like in Spanish class, but usable Spanish) I went back to the house, because I got to skype with my family for a bit. :-)

From 9:00-9:30, we practiced out hymns for the Gira. I played the piano for that, and I think they are going really well! I need to lower one another key, so I need to work on that.

After, I went to talk to Raquel, because she wanted to talk, but I had to go right then for music. She is soo sweet, and I think I’m going to miss her the most. I’ve mentioned before, but she dries these flowers and then puts them on cards. We were going to make cards together, but I just don’t think it’s going to work. She gave both Ariel (Lydia) and me these beautiful bookmarks with a verse and a flower on it. It is a treasure! We were just talking and sitting there, because we know there won’t be much more time together. I gave her my email, and told her why I had the 1031 at the end… because of my favorite verse (1 Cor 10:31) On her notebook, she had her 4 favorite verses written… I told her my other favorite was Isaiah 41:13, and then she looked so excited and pointed to her notebook… That was one of her favorite verses too. Wow! That’s pretty neat! She wrote it on the back of my bookmark for me too. She had to go to devotions, so I left too. I just walked outside, and looked up at the stars (which are soo beautiful) God has given me a love for the people here, y no quiero salir mis amigas nuevas. But, as we were talking Monday evening, we said that even if we don’t see each other again here on earth, we WILL see each other again in heaven! That’s a wonderful thought!!!

Tuesday, we had our Gira meeting, and in the morning, I tried to work on this overdue post. :-) Meeting is at 10. Rachel had to finish up with Bethany, and Wendy was meeting Pat because he was coming home right about then, so I told everyone that we would start with songs. I hadn't heard of most of these songs before I came here, but I can play them pretty well now! I really enjoy playing, and playing for our trip. I might not be able to teach a whole lesson in spanish, but I can play the piano! Elena taught her SS lesson for us, and Raul taught his missioanry story, and then we were done with meeting.

Right away, we started getting ready to go to Cusco. The main thing was we needed to get money out for the seminary, and get the red car that we will be taking on the Gira that was in the shop. We got those done yesterday, and went to lunch. (Papa Johns is pretty amazing!) When Rachel went to get the car alligned, Ariel and I went around the corner to the shopping mall. We both had a few things on our list for people. (she got some alpaca fur slippers, and they are pretty awesome!) I like it there, because it is low stress! You don't have to get it if you don't want it, or don't like the color/pattern.

We got to go by their Bible book store and look around, and also we met some friends for dinner. If we went to the mall, they could get whatever they wanted, so we ended up there again. It is sooo full at nights. Ariel was craving mashed potatoes, so we went to Popeyes. Very Peruvian I know. It was pretty amazing stuff, and different than what you get everyday here. Then we headed back to Urubamba. We got in about 10, so hit the sack soon afterwards. When we go to Cusco, it usually doesn't mean any great stories, but we get some stuff done that we need to. :-) So far on Wednesday I'm typing this...

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers! Only a little more time here! I'm really enjoying!