los días buenísimos

hola y buenas noches from peru!

i'm sorry that it has taken me so long to get up and going.  the days here in peru have been incredibly packed, and have been awesomely blessed.  having never travelled outside of the states (which is how pretty much all peruvians refer to the usa), i had never had the chance to God's faithfulness in action in hugely different cultures.  i mean, having spent beautiful summers at camp of the hills, i've gotten to see God working in environments different than the one in which i grew up, but this has been totally different already.  and we've only been here a week!  i know that God has tremendous opportunities waiting at every street corner and panaderia (a bakery full of goodies), in the language school and in paraíso, the poorest neighborhood i have ever been in.  since this is just the first of many blog posts to come, and because it is late at night and i have homework (tarea) and school in the morning, i'm going to keep this relatively short, with a few teaser pictures of everything we have experienced so far, and to tease you just a little.

a kinda blurry picture of the church in the plaza principal in barranco, the austin of lima.  pretty.

another cool church in barranco.

for starters, one of my favorite aspects of the past week has been the people of lima.  more specifically among many other things, i absolutely love how expressive they are.  even in the most mundane of conversations, such as asking if a certain restaurant is close by, peruvians (peruanos) will experience drastic changes in pitch and level of voice, as well as acute use of hands to describe what they are saying.  haha i tried to sound like a doctor, and failed miserably.  anyways, the point is that you will never have a dull conversation with a peruvian, because they are ridiculously expressive.  i imagine that even the teenagers get excited when they talk about school around the dinner table.  i know that my mom would have appreciated that years ago.  some would say that i like to break out the falsetto/mickey mouse voice in everyday conversation, and in the states that might stand out as a little strange, but here, i fit in just fine.  in fact, i could probably stand to crank it up a few notches, just so i don't sound like a mumbling monotone american.  not that i would stand out as an american anyways, with the hair and height and all.

us four before tuesday music night overlooking the beach in barranco.  how cool is singing worship songs in spanish, with peruvians, overlooking the pacific ocean, as the sun sets?  very cool.  we are blessed.

note the awkwardness of the skinny gringo on the cajon, which is the official percussive instrument of peru it seems.  it's basically a wooden box with a hole in the back, and it sounds pretty sweet, and serves as a semi-comfortable seat.  but, it is clearly not made for someone excessively long of limbs and body.  despite this, tuesday night worship was a tremendous blessing!

also, the food here is just as good as described (gracias carolina!), if not better.  for some reason, and this shows you just how clueless i am, i thought that i would come down here, and be able to eat super healthily or something dumb like that.  horrible, and impossible idea.  i reckon you could eat healthy here, with all of the amazingly fresh (and cheap!) fruit, particularly strawberries (fresas), but why would you want to?  the local food (comida) is AWESOME.  ¡que rico! (basically, super delicious!)  already, we have gotten to sample many of the tastes of peru, from ceviche (lime-y and awesome), ensalada criolla (lime-y and awesome), and tacu tacu (not lime-y and still awesome), to lomo saltado (a specialty of sorts), and my personal favorite so far, seco de pollo con frijoles.  it's basically bone-in chicken covered in a cilantro-dominated seasoning rub, baked and served with beans, white rice (which comes with pretty much every meal), and the ensalada criolla, which is essentially red onions cut really thin and marinated in a lime juice concoction and sprinkled with cilantro (super bright and fresh tasting).  i had it at a menú yesterday, and it was incredible.  a menú is a lunch menu that most local restaurant put out, where you get an appetizer (entrada), the entree, one glass of a refresco (which is usually a fruity juice sort of thing), and if you're lucky, a dessert (postre), all for around five to eight soles, which translates to about $2-2.50.  it's a ton of incredible food for really cheap.  and most places have these little fried corns called canchitas with a sauce to dip them in.  peruvians are super good at making awesome sauces, covering a lot of dishes and coming as dips for lots of things.  also, as in the lomo saltado, which i recommend you look up on google, but only if you want your mouth to water, a lot of things here come with papas, which are thick french fries, in addition to rice.  peruvians love their starches, which goes back to my original point of eating healthily.  just straight up dumb.  but i couldn't be happier :)  they also love avocados (paltas), in which i heartily approve.  but at the same time that the food is super cheap and super good, contact solution is definitely expensive.  random, but it's interesting that since there are so many things, such as contact solutions and cars, that peru has to import, there is a huge difference in the cost of items, in comparison to the states.  using examples i already made, the same plate of food in the states might cost 10 bucks as compared to two here, but a bottle of solution that would cost maybe three dollars is about twelve dollars here.  so that's interesting, and nice overall, because i definitely eat a lot more than i take out my contacts.

my semi-eaten seco de pollo con frijoles.  in this picture, you can see the chicken, rice, and beans, in addition to the ensalada criollo, the refresco in the glasses, and taylor's tacu tacu con un filete de pescado in the top right.  at 1 am, this is making me hungry as i look at it.  so good.

to finish up this entry, i'll tell you about the next entry, which hopefully should happen tomorrow or the next day.  i will address, in a far less business-like manner than this list appears, the weather, the transportation, our education, the work of the lima team here (which, despite my love of food, is the most excellent aspect of life here in peru), the city of lima and it's general feel and architecture and coastline and such, what it is like to be blessed by God at every turn, and what it is like to feel like a foreigner, which i had never felt before.  it's a little crazy to be walking around a packed city of more than nine million people, and to hear nothing but a language that you vaguely recognize.  i have a new empathy for people who come to live in the states without any english speaking abilities.  i'm fortunate to be at a place in my spanish speaking where i can make a conversation, albeit one filled with bad grammar and a lack of vocab, but i can't even imagine what it's like to know nothing that anyone trying to talk to you is saying.  frightening.  so please be patient with people in america who are genuinely trying to learn english.  maybe a little of your love will pass down to peru, where four gringos from texas are trying to learn a little (slash lot) more spanish, and trying to be Jesus in this beautiful country which desperately needs his grace and love.  we so appreciate and need your prayers and thoughts, but like jenny said, prayers of safety are needed, but please pray that God will show us people to whom we can be light towers, reflecting the beacon of Christ which has been given to us, and which we are called to shine onto others.  we want to guide others to the shore of the Lord's grace, and together endeavor to bring us all more into the image of He who loves us.  we need each other, we need you, and we need the whole body of christians to cast aside petty differences, and to embrace each other and Christ, and to live out the kingdom of heaven on the earth.  from everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted much, much more will be asked.  we've gotten to see a slice of that kind of life here, and brothers and sisters, it is beautiful.

a breathtaking peruvian pacific sunset.

we love y'all so much, and we are looking forward to continuing to let you know how God is working and using us in peru.  and i am looking forward to tell you more about this wonderful city!  and it's insane taxi and combi drivers.  there are many more pictures coming :)

chao!

- kyle w

ps:  just kinda a little fyi, my thoughts are usually super scattered, so i'm planning on my entries being a little spazzy and random, all over the place.  it's hard for them not to be at this point, when so much is new and exciting :)  i hope you don't mind too much!