65 days is a long time. (sort of)

I have now live in another country for 65 days.
     When I imagined what it would be like living in lima, my head was full of dreams of how different I would be in just a couple of months. I tried my best not to come into this with too many expectations, but by this point in my internship, I was supposed to be a gallant tan spanish speaking super intern, that was leading bible studies and saying beautiful spanish prayers that brought tears to peruvian eyes all while working into the pro surfing circuit. It looks like Im going to have to settle. Now I know thats a little over the top, but it is true that despite my best attempts not to, I made some expectations that may have been a little far fetched. That being said, here are some things that I feel like have developed or changed as a result of my living here.
Adaption
  I have always felt like i had the ability to adapt to any situation, whether it be roughing it in the jungle for 3 months with only a pocket knife and a bag of gummy bears, or living in the lap of luxury with a leer jet and a house on three different continents. ( one of which would be antartica by the way). However I have found parts of that to be true and parts to be not true. The first thing I discovered once the initial excitement of being here wore off was that I am most certainly an American, and I do have a desire for things that are American. For instance BBQ is very American, and is something I struggle to live without. As silly as that sounds, in ways it is true. There are certain standards of cleanliness, and security that come along with being an American, and breaking through those has been uncomfortable at times. However I am proud to say that faced with a situation in which I am required to adapt I have succeeded in the overall.

 My spiritual life
      I dont spend much time talking about my spiritual life. Whether I should spend more doing so I really dont know.  That being said I definitely had some notions on how my spiritual life would be developed from being here. But once again as the first stages of being here passed I realized that there is still a good deal of effort that must be put into maintaining my spiritual disciplines. Thankfully with some guidance from a new dear friend of mine, I have been able to push the boundaries on developing new habits, and seeking them daily.

Finally: My crazy story for the week
       While we were in fortaleza (or villa maria) on sunday, me and Wes went in search of a service project opportunity for our church. We climbed to the top of the mountain to ask the newest residence what they needed the most. When we got up there we saw a group of about one hundred of them gathered for a meeting on the continued construction of a road for the water trucks. As I am very tall and very white, they immediately noticed us and sent over a slightly drunk messenger to query upon our presence. When we told him what we were doing there he insisted that we come tell the group. When we got to the group they gathered around us and were cheering and clapping and yelling whatever words they new in english from, "hello" to, "I love you". When the "leader" asked Wes a question everyone went silent and listened intently to the response. Wes went on to tell a little bit about the children's church we offer on sunday mornings, and we received a fair response from the crowd. We were invited to stay with some people, but had to decline due to "prior engagements". They also invited us to stay with some women for a different kind of visit. (again we obviously had to refuse. There will be no gringo kids running round that place any time soon.) The whole situation turned a little awkward at that point, so we made our great escape to the sound of more applause. It took a little bit of time to digest what had happened, but it was certainly an experience.

Thats all for know,
Blessings,
Kyle Glaeser