Santa Maria of Something

You´re never too old to become younger.
-Mae West

I´ve been dancing around town in a fabulous outfit of every color and pattern imaginable. This is a week of fiestas, not much different than any other week in Peru. There are always fiestas. This week we are celebrating Mary. I´m not sure which one. Apparently, in the Catholic Church, there are quite a few versions of the same people.

Yesterday, the whole school was sitting in the church and they started singing this song with the same tune as Bob Dylan´s Blowin´in the Wind. Which is quite possible, as I have just researched, that the tune could be borrowed from Dylan, which he borrowed from an old slave song. Who knew? Either way... I sang it in my head instead of worshiping Mary. Catholocism in Spanish is hard to follow.

I´m about to leave for Mollendo to meet up with Kelly.
I hope we find something good to eat.

Peace Out.

Everything

I have become obsessed with knitting, one of many new hobbies I´ve decided to try.

I don´t know if this could be considered a problem, but I want to...

be everywhere.
see every place.
have every hobby.
study everything.
meet everyone.

I want to experience it all.

Also, I´ve decided to add Visit the 7 new wonders of the world to my list which include...
The Great Wall of China, China
Petra, Jordan
Christ the Redeemer, Brazil
Machu Pichu, Peru
Chichen Itza, Mexico
Roman Colosseum, Italy
Taj Mahal, India
Great Pyramid, Egypt (honorary candidate)

Just Another Monday Night

Actually, I wish it was just another Monday night. I miss them. Right now I would be going to my yoga class at LA Fitness (I really miss that gym considering what I have to work with here). Jenn would always be there, too. We would meet up after our workouts and hang out in the pool and hot tub till we were good and wrinkly. Afterwards, we´d grab some food and head over to her house to watch movies and chat. I would like to spend just one more Monday night doing that.

Quick Announcement

I, finally, have an address for everyone who´s been asking...

Melody Turner/Cuerpo de Paz
Casilla Postal 84
Arequipa, Peru

It´s that easy.

I´m in the city and I´m spending the night. So for anyone expecting phone calls, you´ll have to wait till tomorrow night. I´m finally gonna see Batman in english!! Love you all and miss you tons.

In a Room of Yellow

A fellow volunteer proposed an activity with our youth group that required us to fold a piece of paper into 3 parts. He told us to write love, like, and hate in each of the sections and, below them, to write the things in our lives that fit into those categories. He, then, had us fold the paper so that only the lists of love and hate were visible. “These are the things you should write about,” he explained.

It’s true. As much as I like Mountain Dew and soccer, they don’t make for as good of a story as a passionate love affair or a bitter dispute. I am keeping this in mind as I finally sit down to start the novel I have talked so much about writing. It seems to me that I will have no problem coming up with insanely interesting material from that which I call my life. I’m thinking of calling it In a Room of Yellow. I joked about how I am living in a room that is completely yellow inside a house that is completely yellow, with Bridget the other day, and so came this name.

I have the paper out that I wrote all my ideas on during church one day, all the chapters of my life; funny times, serious times, sad times, happy times, ridiculous times, memories that are almost forgotten, and things long ago that feel so recent they could’ve taken place only yesterday. I must’ve shown this to my mom, although I don’t remember, because there is a question scribbled down the side in her handwriting. Good question, Mom.

“What would you be if you didn’t go? If you stayed home, the easy way?”

I would’ve spent more than just one night curled up in a ball on the couch crying. I wouldn’t have put all my faith in God, like I did. I would’ve been open to apologies that I am too wise to listen to, today. I wouldn’t have met the rebound guy, as much as I didn’t believe him to be the rebound guy at the time. I wouldn’t have realized how much I love to travel and how much of the world I have yet to see. I wouldn’t have grown as close to my sister as I did on that fateful journey. I wouldn’t have had the guts to be right here right now. I would’ve settled for a boring life of safety because, truth be known, one trip changed my life forever.

On the back of the paper, is the church service that I had barely listened to while I was working out my thoughts. How ironic that the gist of the message was…

Recognition of God as Sovereign Lord brings peace.

It occurred to me, today, that the world is not standing still, while I am here for 2 years. I know it is fairly obvious, but people are growing older. Some people are growing old so fast that they may not even be there when I get back. This is the hardest part of being here. It’s not the culture shock or the fact that I have to learn a whole new language. It’s not the food I choke down or the giant workload I have awaiting me. It’s not being able to visit one of the most important people in my life before theirs comes to an end. I recommend not taking time with a loved one for granted before it is too late.

It has been a day of extreme emotional highs and lows… eating pizza next to the ocean with a grin I could not wipe off of my face and sobbing into the telephone on a long distant call to my mother. Such is life.