Sunday, August 31, 2008

La Punta

My second night here, I was talking to Tara about how lonely I was feeling. I was saying that I really miss home and that I didn´t even feeling like trying to begin work. When I hung up the phone and walked into the living room, I was surprised to see my community partner sitting there. He was eager to discuss ideas for the future and plans for my week. It was a gift from God because since then I have been too busy to unpack, let alone think about being alone.

I have met all of the teachers and the director of the high school, attended a youth group meeting at the health post, and been introduced at a parent teacher meeting. I was invited to join the juniors and seniors on a field trip to the district capital to watch a soccer game. Afterwards, a few of the girls invited me to go running on the beach and we have plans to eat desserts and chat this afternoon. I had dinner with my extended family for my grandmother´s birthday on Friday and yesterday I went to a wedding.

The only down side is that I am having to exercise a great deal of patience with my new family. They are having a hard time allowing me my independence. Which, in turn, is making me feel trapped and overwhelmed. I´m sure, with time, we will work this out.

I got sunburn on my face... I think everyone liked me better when I was whiter. haha.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Here I Sit

in my site... After all that training, I´ve finally made it. I´m not going to lie, a part of me really wants to go back to the safety of Chaclacayo. It´s a scary thing to start all over again from scratch. I have a good family, though. I´m sitting next to my new host sister right now who also likes to use the internet. At least I won´t be coming here alone. I have a cell phone for the first time in 3 months. Its a strange feeling... and I have yet to really use it. I guess I didn´t make such close friends in training that I feel like I can call just to chat. It was quite a trek getting all of my crap here but I fell in love with Arequipa in the process. I really lucked out. This place is amazing.

I don´t have so much to say, yet. All I did today was unpack, watch the Sex in the City movie, and accompany my mom and sister to a dance class. Tomorrow is another day... I don´t even know where to start here!

I think my homesickness was a little bit magnified today.
I love you and miss you all!!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Last Bit of Training

Life right now is a bit crazy. All I can think is slideshow slideshow slideshow and these are my last couple days here. I suppose it keeps me from getting sad about leaving. I'm pretty sure, I'll be pulling an all-nighter tomorrow night. Maybe I'll do it just for old-times sake. Last night, we had a party at our APCD's apartment. We sat around and read a "fortune quote" and we really bonded. It was almost a surreal feeling of closeness that I've only ever felt a couple times before in my life. My quote...

“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that things are difficult.”
-Seneca

I haven't figured out how this applies to my life, yet.

I just had a really weird coincidence with Jesica. Someone started singing 2pac, Go On Keep Your Head Up on the bus last night and I told them about the memory I had involving that song... Jes and I were sitting in her car behind the old design studio right before one of our final crits. I was in shambles and so upset about something trivial (but horrendous to a person that has only slept 5 hours in 1 week). I was crying and, all of a sudden, that song came on the radio. I remember Jes saying, "Just listen to Tupac." haha. It was perfect timing. If you go on my myspace right now you will see that Jes just said she was telling Jeremy about the significance of that song and the day that it came on the radio. It's a funny world we live in.

It is going to be a big weekend.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Pray for them

I copied this from my sister´s blog on myspace. Hopefully, she doesn´t mind. It is a tragic thing that has happened to someone from my childhood. I feel a similar hurt to that which Tara expresses...

death
unfortunately, a text message at work today from kara has thrown me visciously into reality. and i cant help but to think about what was.
every once in a while something happens, good or bad, that causes me to think about when i was young. today i think about growing up with the kids in church. we were a small, tight knit group. our parents had play dates, we saw eachother in sunday school or childrens church, then finally (because it took us forever) got to jr high youth group. the days of melody and me, kelly and heather palmer, aimee kugel, austin hess, colt weiss, lindsay and brad mensch, and dj and zach innocent. by default according to our age and our circumstances, we were friends.
it's funny to think of the days when we were constantly together. and how far we've all come from sitting in Aimee's mom's sunday school class, or listening to Rosy and Bob teach in childrens church, or playing at dj and zach's dad's car dealership. all of us have gone through good times and trials, some of us have lost touch, others became closer throughout the years. most of us have let the friendships slip away throughout the years and settled into being mere acquaintences. however, we'll always have the memories (and pictures!) of our younger years, and they will always bring a smile to our faces. we will always have our childhoods to bring us together, and we will always know we can find a friend in eachother if we need it.
well, the point of my blog. last night we lost one of our own. dj innocent died in a motorcycle crash. i dont know the details, i simply got a text message stating the tragic event. i feel overwhelming sadness, especially for zach.. because i can sympathize so well. i can't imagine what i would be feeling if i lost melody. i cant imagine what karen is going through, to lose her oldest son at the young age of 22.
but we will always have the memories. whether it's the times of being crammed into a van together and me telling dj every time we pass a call box (every mile for the 150 mile or so trip), calling him at midnight on new years from new jersey just to yell into the phone, playing soccer after youth group, or writing notes during childrens church. nothing, not even death, can take away the memories.
please keep the innocent family in your prayers.
rest in peace dj

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

All You Need is Love

You have been my friend. That, in itself, is a tremendous thing. I wove webs for you because I liked you. After all, what’s a life anyway? We’re born, we live awhile, we die. A spider’s life can’t help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone’s life can stand a little of that.
-Charlotte, “Charlotte’s Web” by E.B. White

I remember my mom crying when she read this book to me and my sister. The truth is that we can all be inspired by the words of a fictional spider. Which tend to lead my thoughts toward the question: What is our purpose in life?

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” All the law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.
Matthew 22:37-40

Love is the answer
At least for most of the questions in my heart
Why are we here? And where do we go?
And how come it’s so hard?
-Jack Johnson

My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return.
-Maya Angelou

Life is love.
Life is smiles.
Life is people.
Life is trials.
Life is not here to be wasted being mild.
-Brian Rowe

So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they’re busy doing things they think are important. This is because they’re chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.
-Tuesdays with Morrie

Sometimes that mountain you’ve been climbing is just a grain of sand. And what you’ve been out there searching for forever is in your hands. And when you figure out love is all that matters after all, it sure makes everything else seem so small.
-Carrie Underwood

It is not that magnitude of our actions but the amount of love that is put into them that matters.
-Mother Theresa

They all say it a little bit differently but there is the same underlying concept of love in each quote, song, or excerpt. All of these people come from different backgrounds and have different belief systems but they manage to agree on the same very important thing- we are here to love each other.

As it is, my Peruvian life is a bit of a rollercoaster of emotions. It is when I am in the “valleys” that I need to remind myself of this. To be selfless is not to wallow in loneliness. It is to focus on showing love to others no matter your own situation.

And if you’ve never read Tuesdays with Morrie, I highly recommend it. There is definitely wisdom in years.

Much Love.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Washington Street

I've been informed that Mommom and Grumps are moving into a different house. It would be so unlike me to not write a nostalgic blog entry about all the memories we had there. So, here goes...

My Favorite Memories from Mommom and Grumps' House
-Playing Barbies in the black and white shag carpeted game room with the manly "Tammie" doll that, due to a lack of males, we used as a Ken
-Dressing up and putting on shows to entertain the adults (that time we impersonated everyone was such a hit)
-Summer days in the swimming pool (throwing detached barbie heads onto the beams overhead. Clearly, we were strange children)
-Eating celery and peanut butter
-Watching thunderstorms on the front porch swing
-The brown and white nativity scene that Mommom sets up on the chest near the front door every Christmas... and the boots that hang up the stairs
-Shoefly pie hiding in the old microwave
-All the nights that we had Tony's pizza set up on a card table in the middle of the kitchen... followed by someone blowing out candles on Mommom's famous chocolate cake
-Capturing ants on the brick driveway that we would try to keep in plastic butter containers but they always ended up dead
-Watching Anne of Green Gables on the old TV (her hair looked green even before she tried to dye it black)
-Playing Now You Have It, Now You Don't every Christmas and watching Mr. Bean even though we've all seen it a thousand times
-Grumps clearly falling asleep on his chair while we are watching a movie but claiming to be "resting his eyes"
-Throwing keys into the pool to dive for... and all the boxes of keys in general
-The magnificent, giant weed that grew in the bricks
-Grandma always watching her Gianni tape and Laurence Welk
-The scary set of stairs in the bathroom closet that led nowhere
-Bead hunting for the leftovers at the playground
-Feeling completely happy surrounded by the best family any girl could ask for

I'm sure that there are plenty more memories that I can't think of off the top of my head, but this list will suffice.

Much Love.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Dime porque lloras

Over the course of the average lifetime you meet a lot of people. Some of them stick with you through thick and thin. Some weave their way through your life and disappear forever. But once in awhile, someone comes along who earns a permanant place in your heart.
-The Wonder Years

First of all, Maureen is probably estatic that I used a Wonder Years quote... Afterall, she did force us to watch it all of final crit week (not that I minded). Also, you must know that every little thing is reminding me of people from home.

The reason I used this quote, and the same reason I cried last night, is because I am really going to have a hard time saying goodbye to my host family in Huascaran. I´ve only been living there for 2 months but they are amazing people. I can´t express in words how it feels to have people open their home to me like they have. I wish I could live with that family for the next two years. It´s almost harder to leave them than it was to leave my real family... only because there is not the promise of seeing them for the rest of my life. These are the people that will disappear forever except for in my heart.

On a happier note, my site is literally a paradise. I have huge rocky mountains, green fields, and a beach. I live in a town that has everything, not too far from a very accessible capital city, surrounded by rural farm country, with a very caring family and a supportive community. I spent the afternoon riding around in a car with the alcalde (local municiple officials) chewing on sugar cane and enjoying the surroundings. I´m not too far from the famous Machu Pichu or Lake Titicaca. There are horses to ride during summer on the beach! I´m a short ride away from Kelly, another volunteer (about 20 km). The tiny barrio nearby is known for alfajores (really fabulous cookies) and, for a coastal town, this place is really safe. Can someone pinch me?

Much love

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Blessed

Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails. Proverbs 19:21

Yesterday, I was given my site assignment for the next two years. For those of you who did not know, I was given an opportunity to voice my opinion on where I wanted to go. As usual, I was okay with anything and so I told my APCD that I could go anywhere and have absolutely nothing, if need be. As it turns out, I will be living on the beach for 2 years with a cell phone, internet, running water, and a toilet. I was willing to "rough it" but, instead, I was blessed with everything I could possibly dream of in a site. I've always wanted to live right at the shore. To be more specific, my site will be La Punta de Bombon in Arequipa. I am the southern-most volunteer in all of Peru which, sadly, makes me far far away from a good number of the people in our group. There are already a few people there from about a year ago, 6 of us from Peru 11 going there, and I am only about half an hour from another volunteer... So, I'm definitely not completely alone.

Tomorrow, I am leaving for a week to visit my capital city (Arequipa) and my site. So, I'll tell you a lot more about it when I know more about it. Also, I'll work on having some visual aids, too.