Esta Bien

      It has been a great couple weeks since I last updated. Ill try harder to make it a great week before my next blog. Im having trouble keeping my eyes open as I type this from getting a face full of sand earlier today. Today was a great day which we spent at the beach for our day off. I had a very close and awesome encounter with dolphins at the beach while they were chasing baitfish and jumping out of the water infront of me. They are a lot bigger up close then they look by the way.
Heres a photo of us about to get smashed on shore by a large wave. The cause of a face full of sand.

     Heres whats new.
BIBLE STUDY
   Ive started going to a guys bible study with some of my peruvian friends, we meet once a week at John Marks house. It has been going really well, except that after about 20 mins my comprehension level takes a nose dive, and i cant speak a word of spanish until I have a nap. These spanish black outs are getting farther apart however, so that is a good sign. However from what I can see a couple of non-christians are becoming very involved in the study, so praise God.

FRIENDS
   I've made some very cool friends at a local surf spot that have been asking me about my faith from time to time, and I get a feeling from one of them that she is interested in knowing more. So please be praying for that. Also random people have been approaching me there with much curiosity. Hopefully I can begin to knock down the language barrier that keeps me from being able to have more meaningful conversations with them. It has been very interesting to learn about the culture that surfing brings. Many of these people are very open to religion but dont want to feel forced into anything. I've been happy to clarify to them that I do not want to force anything on people.

COMFORT
    The past few weeks have brought a new amount of comfort with my adapting to life in another country. I have found my self being completely relaxed in places where I used to feel a little out of place. For example standing hunched over on a tiny bus with a bunch of short people starring at me, I hardly even notice it anymore. Or being in a crowded room and looking at the top of everyones head. I have most especially grown accustomed to the food, which brings me to the next thing.

FOOD
I have eaten some strange things over the past few weeks, and most of it has been amazing. Heres a few of my favorites.
WINNER- Pollo a la brassa- Basically a rotisserie chicken that taste awesome!!!
1. Anitcucho- Cow hearts grilled on a stick. YUM
2. Chifa- basically chinese food, and its everywhere.
3. The Chicharon sandwich- Pork stewed in its own juice with sweet potatoes on bread. SO GOOD
4. Enchiladas- pulled chicken with onions papas fritas and avocado served on a tortilla like a burrito.
And now for something I dont like.
1. Ceviche that isn't prepared right-  Raw fish that makes you ill.
2. Fish Head soup- They boil a fish head in water, then serve you a bowl of the hot fish water with a few pieces of corn in it. WHY?  THATS GROSS!!

Thats all that I have for now. Please keep us in your prayers.
Blessings,
Kyle G.

Food, Fun, and Fuentes - Fountains

It's been a full couple of weeks since the last post.  Let me tell you all about it...
The first week:
Sunday we watched the Super Bowl after church with the families and a few Peruvian friends.  It was the second or third time that I'd heard one of us trying to explain football to the Peruvians, but it was still just as confusing and just as entertaining as the first time.

Monday was the first prayer and planning meeting with all four interns.  We went to the Mount of Olives with the team guys to pray over the week and what God has in store.  Then we sat doen together to plan out the week.  It's so great to see how each event we attend during the week has a purpose.

Tuesday I climbed to the top of Fortaleza in Villa Maria with Kyle G., Wes, Mark, and Carlos.  There are new homes being built along the top of the hill and down the other side.  It surprised me how many hills like Fortaleza there are, with little wooden shacks built on newly-made dirt roads.  The view was powerful, starting from the poorer parts of Lima where we were and reaching to the rich, touristy beaches.  I just had to stand there for a while to take it all in.  I really realized how small I feel and how blessed I am.

The view from the new houses in Villa Maria to the beach in Miraflores

Wednesday I went with Mark and Wes to a Bible study at our friend Eulogia's house.  This was the second time that I got to go and it was interesting to hear more about her life.  At first I thought that we weren't making a difference since we basically just sit in her living room talking.  Then I realized that God works in different ways than I expect or am accustomed to sometimes.  There were more people there this time, some Eulogia's family and some just friends.  This made us think that a small group could grow from what started out as a simple Bible study, which is part of the team's vision.  I can't wait to see what's in store for the rest of our time with Eulogia.  Please pray with us for Eulogia and the other people that God can reach through our time together.

Thursday Taylor, Kyle G., and I went to look at language schools that will fit with our new schedule.  We had some good choices, but found out that none of the classes start til March.  The plan now is to study with a personal tutor for a couple weeks until we can start at one of the bigger schools in the area.  We also got our yellow fever shots so a trip to the jungle is totally possible in the near future!  You will definitely hear more about that when it happens because we are all super excited!

Friday Kyle G. and I went with the team families to Cieneguilla, an area about 45 minutes outside Lima that has plenty of opportunities for rest and family fun.  We ended up at a resort with a pool, water slides, a play area, and plenty of sun.  It was a relaxing and entertaining day.  All the kids loved the pool and slides and trying to kill Kyle with their water guns.  We had lunch there, which for me was cuy (guinea pig), a Peruvian specialty.

Cailyn and Parker enjoying the playground



Maddox loved these water guns!

Saturday morning Kyle W. left for Texas and that night the jovenes went to the Parque de las Reservas to see the water fountains and the light show.  Some of the fountains were just to look at, but some were for playing.  In one fountain, the point of the game was to get to the middle without being wet... no one succeeded haha.  Afterwards we went with some seasoned Peruvians to eat anticucho (cow heart) and picarones (fried donut-and-honey deliciousness).

Trying not to let the water touch you looks really hard in this fountain



Part of the light show



One of the biggest fountains

The second week:
Sunday we went to Villa Maria.  After some fun songs, a Bible story, and a coloring page, the kids got to play a fun game... John Mark covered the interns' faces with shaving cream and the kids got to throw cheetos at us to see who could stick the most to our faces.  Like I said, super fun!

Taylor getting shaving creamed



Kyle is ready to go, with Fatima and Sumi in the background



Me at the end of the game

Monday brought an early wake up since the team girls exercise together and with Peruvian friends at 6:15!  We go out to a park on the malecón and work out in the crisp, (sometimes fishy) cool morning air.  It has been great for me to get to know the girls better and to just have fun with them (all while getting some endorphines!).

Tuesday we had another jam session and some new people came!  We worked on learning a new Spanish song for church so hopefully we can teach people starting in a couple Sundays.  It was cool to see the group grow a little in such a short period of time and to see us working toward a better church experience too.

Wednesday I went to Eulogia's house again for Bible study.  This time the conversation naturally flowed into reading verses.  It was such an easy transition and it was encouraging to me to see just how easy sharing faith can be.  I think Eulogia was even more open and interested than last week.  My hope is that she will continue to be interested to learn more and will act on her interest.

Thursday the interns worked on our first official responsibility: planning the lessons for Sunday mornings at Villa Maria.  So far our time there has been planned at the last minute and ad-libbed, but has worked out great.  We got to thinking about how much better it could be if we could be more organized and prepared.  That afternoon Kyle, Taylor, and I sat down with Alison and planned a lesson and activities that we were really excited about.  Hopefully this planning and more preparation in the future will be beneficial to the team and the kids in Villa Maria.

Friday is our day off and we put it to good use with a trip to Punta Hermosa (Beautiful Tip).  The beach is about 30 minutes from the city and had some great waves for surfing so Wes and Kyle practiced while Taylor and I got some sun.  That afternoon Taylor and I spent some time with our friends Carmen and Katty who are graduating soon to become doctors.  They are excited to graduate and share their happiness with us.  We've even been invited to their graduation parties!

Saturday the Davidsons invited us over for an American lunch (hamburgers and hot dogs) and to meet their friends who are part of Food for the Hungry.  It's always cool to meet other Americans living in Lima doing what God has called them to do. 



Hopefully this hasn't been too long and boring.  We'll try not to keep you waiting so long next time, but until then, chau!

-JLD

brokenness.

(As told by kyle westbrook to taylor green, since he can't type very well)

(also, i'll scatter around pretty pictures throughout the post, before the awesome & raunchy x-rays and stuff at the end!)

well, as pretty much everyone has heard, i broke myself a week ago today. it's been exciting at some times and disappointing at others, and painful most of the time, but it's always been an adventure so far. here's kind of the story as it happened, as it's been, and as it's going to be for the coming weeks.

at the awesome/insane alianza soccer match.  i am an international fútbol convert!

amazing seafood in miraflores.  i'm going to miss this for sure!

A week ago today, on Saturday the 29th, us interns along with the Fletchers and the Yoakums made a morning trip to the beach in barranco about five minutes from our house. We spent the morning playing in the sand and surf, and just generally relaxing. Around noon, Wes and Kyle G. had spent the past hour trying out their new skimboards, which they had made themselves. A skimboard is a piece of wood formed kind of like a boogie board that you throw down on the tide coming in, and you jump on to glide on the water. This is something that requires balance, which I am sorely lacking in. Anyways, I went over to them and tried it once, and was semi-successful, mashing my toe into bleeding in the process. Just as they were finishing, I decided I wanted to try one more time. I ran out, threw down the board, and stepped way too far to the front of the board. the front tip dug into the sand and shot the board out from behind me, and I fell shoulder first straight onto the hard, wet sand. Right as I fell a wave crashed over me, so I couldn't hear anything, but I felt a crunch in my left shoulder. It didn't hurt too bad right away, but after the wave receded I rolled over on my back and looked down and noticed that there was bone poking up, but not through the skin. I felt the spot and could feel pieces moving around. Not good. So Kyle came over to me and I told him I broke my collar bone. He thought I was joking at first, but then he saw and believed, like thomas haha. So I got up and walked about 2/3 of the way to our spot on the beach and it started hurting pretty bad, so I sat down to avoid passing out. At this point, two peruvian life guards came running up in awesome baywatch style, red speedos, long hair and all. One of them tried to grab my shoulder, but everyone yelled and thankfully stopped them. I tried to walk again to the Fletchers' car with the two lifeguards on either side of me, but I was starting to get woozy, so they decided to grab the surf board/backboard and carry me up the rocky incline to the car. (Taylor: I was freaking out the whole time they were doing this. He was about to fall off.) They did successfully get me into the car though and Lee drove Wes and I to the hospital, Clinica Anglo-Americana, while everyone else waited at the beach.

sunday morning hanging out with kiddos in villa maria.  perhaps my favorite times so far in lima.

singing God's praises

The hospital was super nice and was the location of the second chapter of my adventure. First, since I was COVERED in sand from head to toe, the small Peruvian nurses tried to give me a sponge-bath/shower sort of thing. Basically I stood naked in a blue rubbermaid storage bucket while she splashed ice-cold water all over me. This caused my muscles to tense up, leading to PAIN. Then when she was drying me off after not very much success, she pushed right on the brokenness, more PAIN. All told, the shower didn't really do anything other than PAIN. Soon after this, I had x-rays done, and after some short discussion with the doctor, it was decided that surgery was the best option. I had two compound fractures of the clavicle and a dislocation from the shoulder, so there were 3 individual pieces floating around. At 5:00 pm I went into surgery and it lasted about 1 1/2 hours. I took a little while longer than expected coming out of the anesthesia, but other than that everything went very smoothly. Apparently I was convinced when I was waking up that I was speaking really good spanish to all the nurses, so I was clearly delusional. :) I spent the next two nights in the hospital for observation, and I was blessed to have lots of visitors, and Wes and Mark spent the two nights with me. Thanks also to the Davidsons for the awesome brownies that everyone but me ate :) The two doctors I saw, including my surgeon, were both trained in the US and spoke pretty good English. However, all the nurses only spoke Spanish, so I got some good practice in. In the procedure, they lined up my bones, cemented them together, and then put on a titanium plate and 6 screws. I have two 1-inch long incisions on each end of the plate where the two sets of 3 screws went in. So far there have been no problems at all with the incisions and they are healing up nicely, with no infection and decreasing swelling. I should have some awesome scars :) On monday, I went home, with a rocking new denim sling to secure my arm.  Pretty stylin'.

beautiful lima sunsets during tuesday music night.  can't wait to be able to play again!

Onto the third chapter of recovery, which is still being written.  I've spent the past week at home at the Yoakum's house and increasingly moving about.  It has been nice to regain a little autonomy despite the fact that I can't use my left arm much, as I can get up and down, take a shower, make a pb&j, and stuff all by myself.  Pretty much all that is left is putting on a shirt, tying my shoes, and putting on my sling, as I still need help with these things.  Here's the plan going forward. On Wednesday the 9th my dad is flying in, and we're going to have a day of fun around town and gringo church that night, and then we are flying back to Dallas on Thursday morning bright and early.  I still have two more weeks of immobilization, but following that, I will have a currently unknown amount of time of physical therapy and rehab in Texas.  During this time, I plan on resting a ton, eating lots of Tex-Mex and BBQ, and working diligently at getting back full range of motion as efficiently as possible. I have tremendous motivation to do this because I really really really want to get back to Lima as quickly as I can. I absolutely love it here and the ministry that God has in this place, and so I'm going to put one foot in front of the other and get 'er done. But, in the mean time, in addition to eating wonderful Texas food, I'm planning on making a trip or two to College Station during my time in Texas. So that'll be fun :) My goal for returning, at this point, is around the beginning of April. I have no experience with physical therapy like this, and so this could either be super optimistic or easy to accomplish. But at this point, it's hard to tell. My body has always responded well to recovery from fractures, so I'm hopeful that healing will come soon. Already, I can tell that my pain has gone down and that some small amounts of movement are becoming easier. But, I trust God's will for my shoulder and I'm looking forward to what he has in store, whether that's in Texas or Peru. When my doctors have more of a time table for recovery, I'll get another plane ticket and I'll be coming back! So I'm excited about all the things in store over the coming months. I've definitely had to deal with some disappointment as I wasn't planning on having to come back to the States a month after getting here, but I know that the other 3 will get plugged in various exciting ministries and that they can help me out when I get back. I covet continued prayers for myself and for everyone here in Lima, and especially for the Peruvians that we've had a chance to work with. Thank y'all so much for everything that you've done for me so far, including encouragements and prayers, and I'm looking forward to seeing y'all while I'm back. John Mark has impressed upon me the idea of "living the story" and I feel like this has just been another exciting and crazy twist in the story of myself and our team. It definitely hasn't been boring. :) I'm looking forward to sleeping on my side, and playing flag football in no time!  If you have any other questions or anything, shoot 'em my way.  Thanks again and God bless!

man, i love this city.

Taylor: Ok now another side of the story. I've been on nurse duty for the past couple of days, but I honestly love taking care of people, especially Kyle, so it hasn't been a burden for me at all. Really, the stress of worrying about him and his recovery has been the only thing that has been hard on me. I must say that I am very sad that he is having to leave, but I know that it is the right decision. I am going to miss him, but most of all I hate that he is having to miss so much of this trip that we all have been preparing for for so long. I also hate that I won't be there to help him in is recovery, but like Kyle, I know that God has a plan for all of this. It is just sometimes harder for me to accept that as easily as he can. But we are all going to be ok, and we're already excited about one-up-ing the mariachi band for Kyle's return!

Thanks for listening to our long story! We figured everyone would want to know all the gory details :) Now for some cool x-ray pictures!

2 compound fractures of the clavicle. notice the 3 jagged pieces and the dislocation from the shoulder. it kinda hurt.

another x-ray of the same spot

comparison: normal and broken

progressive shots during the surgery. bottom right is the final product

same x-rays: top left is bones lined up, top right is initial application of the plate and 6 screws

further alignment and final placement of the plate

outside: 5 days after surgery. notice awesome lack of swelling. thank you Dr. Torres.

the two incisions, with some residual bruising and swelling

shouldn't have too much scarring! kinda a bummer haha

Un Mes - One Month

Yup, that's how long we've been in Lima as of today.  It has been such a great experience so far!  I've been trying to take pictures of all the things that we do so that you can see what you're reading about each week.  Hope this post helps you actually see the things that we do daily.

One of the first things we did when we got to Lima was Noche de Jovenes (Youth Night).  Youth in this case is anyone from the later years of high school to college to post graduate age.  These people have turned out to be some of the ones that we hang out with the most and who are really connected to the mission team and the church that is growing as a result of their work.  They have made a point to come over or take us out to show us more of Lima and to make us feel as comfortable here as we can.  We've become great friends over the past month and I am excited to see where these friendships are headed during the next five months.

Our first Noche de Jovenes

The first full week we started language school.  We went for four hours Monday through Friday for three weeks and we learned a ton.  It worked out that we could take this week off to rest and really jump into the work that the team does.  I'm missing all the people at school a little bit and hope to see them again soon if we start more classes.

A few of our new friends from language school: Kristine from Iceland, Shaun from Korea, Ariana from Brazil, and our teacher Irene

Probably as a group one of our favorite times of the week is Sunday mornings at Villa Maria.  Since we've been here, the team has started having a kids reunión (meeting or get-together) in Fortaleza, a barrio (neighborhood) in the Villa Maria area.  We sing songs, play games, pray, and act out Bible stories.  The kids love that we're there just to hang out with them.  It's so great to see how happy they are to have "cool older people" who come specifically to see them.  

A small part of Villa Maria

Kyle G. and his new friend from Fortaleza

Last week we had a truly cultural experience... a fútbol game in Peru!  Alianza Lima is one of the city's two major teams and we got to see them play a team from Mexico.  People kept staring at us since there were 13 very tall gringos (the average Peruvian is about 5'2") at a soccer game between two Latin American teams.  But we had a blast yelling, jumping, watching the fireworks (yes, shot from people in the stands!), and cheering for Alianza.

Kyle G., Taylor, Kyle W., and Mark before the game started



Go Alianza!

Sometimes we get a chance to be tourists and see all kinds of new (or really old) things.  We've gone to the beach several times with the team families and by ourselves.  It's great to be having summer weather in February.  We also love that there are beaches within walking distance from home and school.  The water is pretty cold, but if we're surfing or playing with the kids it's worth it.  Last week we took a photo tour with a guide from our language school.  We walked all through Miraflores and took pictures of it's parks and cool buildings and even a lighthouse.  One of the parks was the Parque de Amor where there is a huge continuous bench covered in broken tiles made into all kinds of pictures.  Each section of the bench has a quote about love so it is a very popular park for couples to visit.  Just yesterday we finally had time to go to the center of Lima, basically the historical downtown.  We walked throught the Plaza de Armas just in time to see the changing of the guard at the Presidential Palace.  After that we went to the Iglesia de San Francisco and took the tour through the monastery and catacombs.  But don't ask us anything about it... we took the tour in Spanish and definitely haven't learned many historic monastery terms so you wouldn't get a very good explanation.  :)

Beach in Miraflores



Parque de Amor in Miraflores



Band playing after the changing of the guard at the Presidential Palace

Our days wouldn't be complete without at least part of the mission team.  About two weeks ago, the Thompsons got to come back to Lima after four months of being in the U.S.  I think they were pretty surprised to see a mariachi band among their welcoming party at the airport.  We had a blast and definitely caused a scene while we embraced our loud, obnoxious American stereotype for the night.  The team as a whole has 10 kids, all five years old and younger.  This is great since the four of us love kids and don't mind entertaining them.  Just one of the many times we get to act like kids ourselves is at the beach with the families.  We build sand castles, run from the waves, and get sand all over ourselves.  We're so blessed to be surrounded by such great people!

Excited to welcome the Thompsons back to Lima

 

Kyle W. building sand castles with Derek and Liam

Now that you've seen a lot of the things we get to do, I hope you have some creative ideas for prayer.  We depend on your prayers and can't thank you enough for them.  One more thing I want to add to your list is Kyle W.  He broke his collar bone just after the picture above was taken, had surgery here, and will return to the U.S. Thursday to continue treatment and do physical therapy at home in Dallas.  After that, he can return to Lima and finish the internship with the rest of us.  This is a tough surprise for our team and we would love prayers that are specific to the situation.  Thanks again!
Chau -JLD