The Four in Lima

returning on a jet plane.

2011-06-22T00:20:00.002-05:00

howdy there!

i haven't done a blog post since the one right after i got back, so i am well past due. and considering that we fly home tomorrow night, it might be nice to put something up. jenny and taylor have done a great job with pictures, and i don't own a camera, so i'll stick with a few short words, and a few short stories.

agridulce is a new word that i learned a few days ago, and it perfectly describes how i (we) feel about coming back to the states. it is spanish for "bittersweet", and we are all in that state. the past several weeks have been much more relaxing since the aggies on the AFCSA trip and kyle headed out to brazil, but they have been perhaps my favorite time here. i had a blast with the ags here in lima, and we had some great adventures all over this beautiful country. between service work and good food in lima, a missions retreat and good food in arequipa, and lots of sand and questionable food in huacachina, we together had a packed two weeks. one of my favorite adventures of their time here was when we rented a large van to take to the ruins of pachacamac and to the beach. taylor and i went to pick up the van in a busy part of miraflores, and i was going to drive for the trip, which i was really pumped about, since lima is such a crazy place traffic-wise. as we walked up to the van, we realized that it had a manual transmission, and seeing as how it had been quite a while since i had driven one, we were initially a little stressed about the prospect of driving a big van in wild traffic with an inexperienced driver. but, it turned out to be smooth after all, and i only killed the motor once, though that was in the middle of a busy ovalo (roundabout). when we dropped the van off, full of diesel and with no scratches, i felt one of the most intense senses of relief of my life. but it was a blast getting to motor around the city, and i definitely have an affinity for using the horn now, like a real peruano.

as always, we all have many, many more stories than we can put on this blog, so please if you see us and you want to hear something about peru, ask! i (again, we) would love to tell you about life here, and how we can see God working in this country.

jenny mentioned our surprise party, which was a blast, but i'll finish with a story from last night (my ultrasound bone healer just finished, so i'm ready to crash). i have had the blessing of getting to do many things here in peru, but i got to visit with a few people that i will never forget last night. i have gotten to know a teenager here by the name of moises who lives in a slightly less nice part of town (in the district san juan de miraflores) near our friend from church christian. his parents own a restaurant in the house where he lives, and he seems like any other normal peruvian teenager, talking really fast in spanish and pal-ing around with his older brothers. but, moises has been battling leukemia for the past two years, and christian, several months ago, wanted me to meet and talk to him about my experience with cancer when i was in high school. as a cancer survivor, i definitely felt a bond with moises, and we were able to talk about how our relationships with the Lord were challenged by our sicknesses, but strengthened all the more by the experience. i ask that you will pray for his health, and for his treatment, as his family came to a point where they could no longer afford chemotherapy, so he is taking natural remedies and vitamins. as someone entering the health profession, i have some unease about those kinds of treatments, but he seems to be doing a lot better, and i have faith that God will provide. i am also so thankful for his mother, as she treats us to great food every time we visit. i will definitely miss her maracuya drink (passion fruit). one funny (and not so funny) story we shared together was when he showed me a cell phone video of one of his chemo meds, in the IV bag, draining into the IV in his hand at the time. it was bright kool-aid red, just like one of the most caustic chemo's i received, named doxorubicin/adriamycin. it turns out that we definitely received the same drug, and we both laughed about how it turns your urine bright orange, and how it freaked us both out the first time we went to the bathroom. after that visit, mark and i went to his apartment for a bible study. i have been so blessed to come to this bible study most every week since i have been back, and this was my final time. we began the book of luke, which is one of my favorites in the new testament, but what i will always remember is the time that we had laughing and reminiscing after the study. we had a bumper crowd, as nearly everyone who has come to the study was able to this week, and silvia made spectacular peruvian hot chocolate with a hint of canela (cinnamon), and roxanna brought a great keke (cake), which was full of dried fruit and nuts. they kept bringing me more and more slices of cake, and with all that sugar we all got a little hyped up i think! we told stories and was able to tell them about my medical school starting in august, and how excited i was that i was going to be able to see my family and friends soon, but also how pumped i was at the prospect of coming back to peru and lima, which i hope to be able to do some day soon. i will not soon forget the sweet peruvians that we have gotten to share the past months with, and i hope that we can mantener contacto (maintain contact) through skype and facebook and all of that.

i am going to miss this city and country, with its culture and food, but i am most sad about leaving these people, and i am so thankful for how God has blessed me (us) with so many wonderful friendships here in peru, and also for the team here, and for how they have taught me about the nature of our God not only through their words and mentoring, but also much more through their actions and love, in a 1 john 3:18 kind of way. but, that being said, i am so excited about coming home! in the next few weeks, i'll write another blog about what is going on, but as i was telling mark "selleck" clancy the other day, when you have so many things to look forward to, it is hard to be too sad about moving on. and i do have many things to be excited about: texas, mom, dad, and matthew, all of my friends, finding a place to live in downtown dallas with shelby, cars and coffee, two weeks of camp of this hills (whoop!), college station, beef bbq bigger than my face, schlotskys, playing nicer guitars, so much tex-mex, summer time (sweating and sunshine!), free refills, getting to use my spanish in a new context, starting medical school, and getting to continue to see God working everywhere. this has been a beautiful, sometime tumultuous, challenging, and blessed chapter of my life, but i am excited about turning the page.

keep us in your prayers today as we fly! and as always, thank you for your prayers for us, this country, and especially for the work of God here in peru.

-kyle w.

Despedida - A Saying-Goodbye

2011-06-20T08:01:00.000-05:00

Here you go, Mom. My post... finally.

If you've been reading our (somewhat sparse) posts you know that we...

view from the plane

flew over the Andes mountains to Puno,

The Yavari

stayed in a boat in Lake Titicaca,

Kyle W.

Peck, our English friend

Kyle G.

played "Capitan" in said boat,

Traci, Enoc, Alex, Trenton, Macy, David with Jakob, Alicyn, Kyle G., Shaley, Kyle W., Ariel, Taylor, Jenny

went to the Peruvian Missions Summit and brought the AFCSA,

David, Trenton, Alex, Enoc, Kyle G., Kyle W.

and tried to keep "cool" in the sand in Huacachina.

It was a fun, busy month with all our travels (three new places all in one month - Puno, Arequipa, and Ica/Huacachina) and with our great friends from the AFC. It was such a blessing to work with them picking up trash and laying a cement floor with some of our missionary friends, the Burgess family; to hear about the happennings of the last 6 months, and to be able to fellowship and worship with them in the true AFC style that we've been missing.

The past week since they left (taking Kyle G. with them) has definitely been one of rest for the Three(?) still in Lima. Surprisingly I've had a lot of firsts in our last couple weeks... my first time to eat at La Lucha (ask the other three about the oreo milkshakes), the first family group at Eulogia's house, the first scheduled time of open prayer with the team and Peruvians, my first haircut in six months (wow!).

Eulogia :)

There have been two meetings of our family group at Eulogia's house and both have been so encouraging and shown me the awesome spiritual growth that this family has had just since I've been in Lima. The first was with Eulogia, her daughter Graciela, and son-in-law Edgar. They had all these questions that made me think they are finally understanding what it means for them to be Christians. This week I heard Eulogia pray for the first time and it was so touching. She was so sincere in her want for God and her thanks to Him. I've always heard that seeing the fruits of labor in a faith sense is hard and that usually all you can do is plant a seed. But I was so encouraged to see the "fruits" that Eulogia, Graciela, and Edgar showed these past couple Saturdays sitting in their living room. Praise the Lord for His presence here!

This Saturday we had a surprise despedida - going away party at Carla and Carlos's house. We thought it was going to be a simple dinner with the family and walked into a room full of balloons and painted signs. Pretty soon most all of our friends were there and we were having a blast. I don't think we'll be forgetting that night anytime soon. It was such a fun way to get everyone together at the end of our time here.

the girls at our despedida

Interns with the Flores family

Kyle W., the new intern Brad, and Mark

-JLD

novo lugar (brazil)

2011-06-13T18:23:00.000-05:00

I havent posted a blog in over a month and for that I am very sorry. Ill try really hard to make this one mind blowing. So the last month in lima has been pretty busy for me. The interns and I worked hard to prepare for the arrival of our fellow AFCers. Their arrival was exciting, as they immediately jumped into action. over the next couple of weeks they tore through service projects traveled around peru, and adventured through the local gastronomy. Overall their adventure was a huge success. I was excited to get to see friends and build new relationships with people from home. If you would like to read more about the AFCs time in peru go to www.afewinperu.blogspot.com and read some of their post.

Its been a strange feeling the past couple of weeks, knowing that our internship is almost over. Ive never been a big fan of saying goodbye to people. However having the AFC here to help transition back to the states has been a huge blessing. We have had the opportunity to spend lots of time together through multiple bus rides, devos and all sorts of service projects. We had a blast in a town called ica, a place that I have been wanting to visit since I arrived in Peru. In the middle of the dessert in Ica is a small oasis called huacachina (wakacheena). We got to go on adventures in the sand dunes in buggys, and slide down them on snowboard shaped boards. It was a great time for sure. Kyle and I walked around the oasis on the second day looking for the smallest fastest buggy we could find, and hired the guy to tear through the sand dunes with us. It was an adventure I wont forget.

On friday night, I said goodbye to many of the friends I have made over the past 5 months. I enjoyed seeing everyone, and looking back on the friendships that we have built. Its fun to compare our abilities to communicate compared to when we first arrived. It was hard to say goodbye to everybody, but there is always a sense of excitement for what is to come. The next day I left peru with the AFCers bound for my next door neighbors, Brazil. My first impressions of brazil have been really good. I love the city we are in, called porto allegre. We have already been off to a busy start as we went to a profesional soccer game, and cleaned out a house thats getting ready for some new missionaries to move into. Im excited about the rest of our time in Brazil, and im sure that God will bring us some blessings, and great stories. Ill be back in the states on the 1st of july, so give me a call. If you bring the barbecue ill come.

God Bless,
Kyle Glaeser

Senioritis

2011-06-01T14:11:00.001-05:00

Well I guess we've gotten our version of senioritis with our trip here when it comes to this blog. We now have less than a month left, and we haven't posted in about a month either :/ Oops!

Here's a quick update:

Kyle W and I went to the hometown of one of our friends who recently graduated as a doctor and Kyle got to help her with a medical campaign. We went to Canta, a small mountain town, and eventually to Lachaqui, a smaller town outside of Canta, and it was beautiful! I have lots of photos on my facebook if you're interested.

Panoramic view from Lachaqui

Kyle in Canta

Kyle G has been surfing his face off the past few weeks trying to fit as much in as possible before we leave and has almost died a couple of times... no worries...

Classic

The four of us flew to Puno with our friend Peck to visit Lake Titicaca and it was AWESOME!!!! but short. I wanna go back. We slept on a boat the first night, Kyle G got sick and had to go get an IV and eventually head home early, we visited some man-made floating islands made out of reeds, saw some traditional dances that were strange and sometimes a little inappropriate, ate some great food, and bought a TON of presents for family and friends :)

Kyle, Jenny and I on one of the floating islands

We had a missionary women's retreat a couple of weekends ago that was headed up by Stacy Yoakum and was AWESOME as well :) She did a great job. We spent the weekend resting and reconnecting with God through worship, prayer and study. It was a very refreshing and rejuvenating time for me and I think for everyone else that went as well.

The group :) We're silly

Currently the Aggies For Christ: South America (AFCSA) group is here for 3 weeks and we've been having a blast working with them, showing them the city, and just getting to hang out with friends we haven't seen in a while. Our mentor Traci got to come with them too, so we've also been enjoying spending time with her and having deeper conversations about our time here. They will be here until June 11th, when they head to Brazil. While they've been here, we've worked on a few service projects, seen a little of the city, shopped for souvenirs, and passed out fliers for and participated in La Gran Fiesta! This was a party that the church put on to celebrate a season of outreach in the church. There were over 100 people there!! Which is huge for us :)

Before cleaning up at a school in Villa Maria

Currently we are in Arequipa for the annual Peruvian Missions Summit (yes, that makes PMS and it is a constant source of laughs). The mission teams from Lima, Arequipa and Cusco get together once a year to catch up and have a time of encouragement. The AFC team and interns all took a 15 hour bus ride last night and we arrived this morning and have been resting and playing with the alpacas that live here :)

Until next time!
Taylor

Departamento de Voluntarios - Intern Apartment

2011-05-07T15:26:00.000-05:00

I've got several exciting things to share in this post. The first is about a Bible study I've been doing with Stacy during our mentor time. The English speaking women's group was reading Discerning the Voice of God by Priscilla Shirer when Taylor and I started going, and Stacy and I decided to finish the parts that the group had done before we joined. It has been a great study making me rethink my ideas of the Holy Spirit and the voice of God in my life. God has used this study to break down my wrong beliefs and to teach me so much about Himself. I totally recommend this study to any group of women, small or large.

The team had some visitors during Semana Santa that the interns were espeically excited about: Kelly and Sara Davidson! I'm sure John Mark and his family were excited since their grandparents were in town, but they weren't the only ones. It was so great to have the leaders of AFC, who have been wonderful mentors to all of the interns over the past four years, in town for a while. On a Monday we got to have a special time of conversation and yummy food from "the goddess of homemaking" that was reflective and encouraging. Thanks Kelly and Sara for being such great role models for us on so many levels. We love you!

AFC love!

Speaking of AFC love... the AFC South America group will be here in a little over two weeks. It is the interns' "job" to hang out with them while they are here doing ministry, encouraging the team, and learning about the culture. The team has been planning for their few weeks here and we are really excited about it. We would love for you to follow their blog while they are traveling and to pray for their preparation, fundraising, travel, and growth.

Now about the title of this post... I'm writing this blog sitting in the new intern apartment! Taylor and I moved from the Fletcher house to the apartment on Thursday after spending about a month furnishing it with help from the whole team. We will finish our time in Lima living in the apartment then in August, four new girl interns will move in for their 9 months with the team. Two of these girls, Lyndsay and Chelsey, have a blog already. Please pray for our preparations for them and for the time they have left in the states and the time they'll have here in Lima.

The chair I'm sitting in now in the intern apartment.

Big things are happenning in Lima!
Until next time,
JLD

Aventura

2011-05-02T23:08:00.000-05:00

It has been a while since I have posted a blog, and for that I do apologize. It has certainly been quite a few weeks and there is a lot of great stories. So lets get started.

The jungle.

If you read jennys post then you saw that we went to the jungle. This was an amazing trip, and I wish you could have been there, whoever you are. We went to a town called pulcalpa in the amazon jungle. While we were there we built the foundation for a church in a village of people who mostly spoke shipebo, a local amazona language. It was a little frustrating that after all this work we have put into spanish, there was a large group of people that we could not communicate with because they didnt speak spanish either. Overall the trip was a success as we were able to complete the project at hand, and also spend a lot of quality time with the kids and people of the area. we also had a half day were we went to the river and went swimming off a boat. I climbed a tree with a sloth also, which was a pretty sweet adventure in itself. When I got up in the tree i realized that it was covered in the largest black ants i have ever seen, and they were getting on me. I tried really hard not to move too much as I was hanging over what looked to be prime real-estate for anacondas and crocodiles. After trying to keep my cool for a while, a local told me they dont bite, which really wasn't very comforting.

Mens Advance.

I decided to bring a little AFC tradition to Lima. Last week the guys and I loaded up for a 2 day trip to get as far into the mountains as we could. We were far more than successful as we left sea level that morning and set up camp a few hours later at 14,800 ft. I was blessed with good health for the night, but i wasnt blessed with warm clothes in the well below freezing temperatures. Everything became well worth it just to see the stars from this place. THEY WERE AMAZING..... I have never seen anything like it in my life. I could not tell where constelations were because they were overwhelmed by clouds of stars. Later that night 3 of our 4 guys had to evacuate the mountain side to to major altitude sickness. Some cookies were lost, some heads were pounding, but all in all they managed to make it back down to 5000 ft were they could survive. When I woke up in the morning the end of my sleeping bag were my feet where was coated in ice. This gave me the impression that it had gotten very cold the night before. John mark and I woke up early, and being the adventurers we are we decided to set out for a nearby summit of 16000 ft. After one and a half breathless hours we reached the goal and stood at the highest point of our lives. It was a good, but very short of breath feeling.

Ministry,
We were able to organize a service project to do with the peruvians, in the neighborhood of Mark. We repainted an alleyway that had been covered with graffiti in support of a local soccer team. I was a little discouraged at first as not as many peruvians showed up as we had hoped, but the project turned out to be a blessing as we attracted the attention of some of the locals.

One of my friends at the beach came up with a great idea, and I would like it if you guys could be praying for it. He suggested that we get some of the older kids from the villa maria area, where we do our sunday morning kids church, and give them surf lessons. The surfing class here is for the most part dominated by the upper class. The kids in villa maria, will likely not have a chance to enjoy things like the beach very often. Im hoping that by taking some of them out there we will be able to deepen relationships, and maybe find a good niche for them.

Thanks for your prayers and support,
Kyle Glaeser

i'm baaaaaaaaaaack!

2011-04-22T14:53:00.000-05:00

well howdy!

as of yesterday at 9:30 pm, i am a peruvian again! it is such a blessing to be back here in lima, and i am definitely not going to take the rest of our time here for granted. i feel like i have a lot of catching up to do with so many people, and i'm really glad to be getting back here during Semana Santa (Holy Week), so that i can be involved with all of the activities and gatherings. but first, i'll catch y'all up on my adventures in physical therapy (aka pain) land and my time in texas.

i just completed three weeks of therapy in rockwall, and i have recovered full range of motion! this is really exciting, because it's now just a matter of time until my bone is fully healed, and i can have complete confidence that i will recover full use of my shoulder and arm again. it will be september or october before my bone is completely healed, and i'll be able to do whatever i want in terms of physical activity, but it's just nice to be able to use my arm. God gave us two for a reason, i figure. i had my last appointment with my doctor on wednesday, and while i have gotten fantastic reports from my therapists, my latest x-rays showed that my bone is about 60-70% healed, which is slower healing than expected. so, i got fitted for this cool ultrasound bone stimulator thing that i wear once a day, which will hopefully help my bone heal a little quicker. long story short, my arm feels pretty good, i can use it again, i just can't lift too much weight. not a bad deal, all things considered.

my last several weeks in rowlett were great! over my time at home, we got to go some great concerts (sister hazel and yonder mountain string band), some great games (a couple of mavs games, including the first playoff game), and eat some great food. i definitely got my fill of all of my favorite foods, everything from chile rellenos at pancho and lefty's, to fish tacos at flying fish, and loads of bbq and burgers from all over the place. it was so much fun getting to spend so much time with my family at home, both mom, dad, and matthew, and my church family at heritage church of christ in rowlett. it's been since high school that i've spent so much time at home, and it's always good to be back. i got to make several trips to college station also, to see folks and go to aggie baseballs games. i love it down there! also, last monday, my grandmother audrey westbrook (my mawmaw) passed away at the age of 80, and we had a graveside service for her last wednesday in foulke, arkansas. it was really difficult, but i was so glad to be home for all of that. she was an amazing woman, and i am looking forward to spending time with her again someday.

my flights yesterday went very smoothly, which is always nice. actually, there was one interesting thing that happened. i was really excited about the flight from miami to lima, because i figured that i would be able to hear lots of spanish conversations and stuff like that. but, it turned out that there were about 40 middle schoolers from a catholic school in quebec on a weeklong mission trip to lima all around me on the flight, and those kids could rapid fire speak that french. so instead of spanish, i was surrounded by crazy french-speaking kiddos. it was very strange.

anyways, thanks so much for all of your prayers over the past few months. it was challenging to be away, but God took care of everything, and i'm just happy to be here now! if you could keep us in your thoughts and prayers over the next two months, we would appreciate it. thanks so much for everything that you do!

hasta luego!

-kyle w.

La Selva - The Jungle

2011-04-19T15:40:00.000-05:00

I finally got to go on my first trip outside of Lima last week! Jenny and Kyle have both been out of the city to go to Cusco/Maccu Picchu, but this was my first time to see a different part of the country. From Monday to Friday of last week, the 3 of us together with Wes, Gaby (Peruvian friend), Mark Burgess (another missionary friend in Lima), his interns Allison and Peck, Allison's mom Robin, and a friend of Mark's wife, Catherine headed out to Pucallpa, about a 2 hour flight from Lima. Mark has been to Pucallpa and worked with the village we went to several times before this trip. Our goals for the trip were to help them start building a newer, sturdier building for the church there and, because Allison's mom is a doctor, have a small scale medical mission as well.

The hotel where we stayed was in the more urban part of Pucallpa and was very nice. It had a pool and AC and everything! haha The village we worked in was about a 30 minute mototaxi ride from our hotel. We drove out there every morning around 9 after having a devotional and breakfast, worked until lunch when the ladies in the village would cook us food (it was always great!!), then started work again until around 5, showers, dinner, swim.... That was the basic schedule for every day.

Peck, Kyle and Wes squeezed into their mototaxi

Gaby with our monkey friend! We loved him :)

The sky there was beautiful! Very different from the pollution in Lima.

On Thursday we took the morning to do a little sightseeing and shopping. We went to a market (mainly for fish) and walked around, looking very out of place as a huge group of gringos. It was really fun and interesting though to see all the fish and fresh vegetables and fruit for sale. Some of us bought machetes, hammocks, and Wes bought a few crocodile skulls haha. After the first market we went down to the river, where there are more markets and more fish and a great view from the clock tower there. The river is called the Ucayali and it is one of the largest tributaries to the Amason. Then we drove over to the Laguna part of the river for a boat ride! We saw a couple of perezosos (sloths) in their natural habitat and the boys decided to climb up in the tree to take pictures of them. Also, there were houses that were half way underwater because it is the wet season right now, and a few of us went for a swim off the side of the boat! (video)

Day at the market. Here we have some crocodile, medium sized fish, and really large fish...

Panoramic of the Ucayali River

Gaby, Jenny and I on our boat ride :)

Other fun adventures from the trip:

There was a parade for one of the presidential candidates, Ollanta, while we were there and we saw him drive by in his truck. Very cool except we don't want him to be the president.

That cute monkey that Gaby is holding pooped on me :( He was so cute though. I want a pet monkey.

The last day that we worked, Friday, it rained all afternoon, so we just played in the rain and mud with the kids from the village!! I hadn't seen real rain since we got to Lima. It was awesome.

I accidentally ordered chicken feet for dinner one night... I do have some boundaries when it comes to food haha

Gaby learned how to swim! She didn't know how before the trip but we practiced in the pool and then she swam in the river :)

Kyle, Gaby and I got temporary tattoos! But by "temporary" they meant "the next time your skin touches water, this will come off." Not exactly the 15 days I was promised haha

Random update from Lima: We have officially started renting an apartment for interns and Jenny and I are working on getting it furnished and set up for the 4 new intern girls that will be coming to Lima in August!

AND Kyle gets back this Thursday!!! WHOOPP!!!!! So excited about that :)

Love and miss you all!!

Taylor

¡Sube al Bus! - Get on the Bus!

2011-04-06T13:40:00.000-05:00

Forget the plans that I told you I had yesterday. This is what happens in Peru... plans change. This time for the better, in fact, the new plans turned into awesomeness.

When John Mark picked us up for jam session we realized that there was only going to be one Peruvian with us. So Kyle and John Mark, being the adventure seekers that they are, decided to check off something on their list of crazy things to do: be on Peruvian TV. The lucky show that was graced by the presence of JM, Kyle, Taylor, Gaby, and me - El Último Pasajero (The Last Passenger), a game show where high schools compete to win a free end-of-the-year-trip.

We basically just walked into the studio and the workers with their fancy headsets asked if we were there to be part of the show. We decided that we were so they gave us shirts to wear and a free Sprite, that we were supposed to hide until they told us. The theme song of the show is Sube al Bus (Get on the Bus) since the schools are competing for a trip. At the end each team gets to pick a key to try to start their bus and win.

Gaby with her shirt. Go azul!

So we joined with a school from Miraflores to cheer for their team of students. The audience was completely students from three different schools and they were all going crazy. Right away three members of each team had to play a game of slip-n-slide mixed with darts, where they slid from one end of a giant soap-covered target to see how far they could get. Blue won that challenge yay!

So that's what the studio of a TV show looks like!

Then there was a commercial time where we all took out our hidden Sprite and drank it. The slogan for Sprite right now in Peru is La Verdad Refresca (The True Soft Drink). So the team leaders competed in a true/false game of high school knowledge trivia and the red team won. Later there was a challenge where two girls got haircuts to see who would cut the most grams of hair off. It was intense and one girl even cried!

After the last commercial break there was another trivia game. Each team member who got a question right got to get on the bus. In the end, the green team's bus started and they won the trip. It was an exciting hour and a half for all of us gringos... a definitely Peruvian experience!

Chau!
-JLD

A Medio Camino - Halfway

2011-04-05T12:42:00.002-05:00

As of today we've been in Lima three months. That's half of our internship! So we've really setteled into our schedules here. A big schedule change, though, was when our parents visited over spring break. My parents and sister got to be a part of some of the normal activities like kids' time in Villa Maria on Sunday morning and women's Bible study on Saturday. We also went to Machu Picchu for a big change in scenery and schedule.

Durham family at Machu Picchu

Speaking of schedules, let me tell you what today looks like for me. At nine I walked to Starbucks to meet Kyle, Wes, and our British missionary friends to plan our mission trip to Pucallpa, a city in the jungle. The trip will be next Monday through Friday and we'll be laying a concrete floor for a church there (hello memories of high school mission trips to Mexico!) as well as doing a small medical campaign. You would think that a meeting about building materials would be really boring, but with the language jokes (mixing US and UK English and Spanish all together) and the general laid back personalities of everyone involved, it was a rather entertaining time. Now I'm taking my designated "communication/administrative/fit-whatever-needs-to-be-done" time to write this blog. Around 2 I'll take a bus to Ele Latina for Spanish class with my teacher Mary. We have a one-on-one class and it's great because we can just have conversations and I learn so much. After that I'll meet up with Taylor, Kyle, our friend Gaby, and John Mark (with whoever can fit into his car) to go to jam session to practice songs for church, learn new ones, and have a bit of musical fun with everyone there. I'll go home for dinner after that, do a bit of homework, read some of When Helping Hurts (the book our team is currently reading and discussing together), then get to be early for the girls' 6am work out tomorrow morning.
Each day has something different, but that's just a small look into my life right now.
Chau!
-JLD

I saw real llamas in Cusco and at Machu Picchu!

Video

2011-03-26T15:33:00.002-05:00

Heres a short video of some times we been havin.

VIDEO

Lots happening around here.

2011-03-23T17:19:00.000-05:00

I never though that I would eat lunch in the same room as a dead man, but we can get to that later. First off My family came down to visit this past week, and we had a grand ol time. They flew in at the wonderful hour of 4:30 in the am on Monday, and I met them in the airport at 6:30 am(still too early) to fly to Cuzco. We got to Cuzco and found our hotel, which was a beautiful little place built in the mid 1600s. The next day we took a tour of the amazing sacred valley in the cuzco province, and visited some pre incan ruins that were scattered about it. Pictures dont do justice to how large and stunning the mountains are in this area. Ill try to pick come good pictures, but it just doesn't compare to the real thing. On wednesday we woke up at 3:30 in the morning (my family is a little intense) to catch the fist train to the incan trail. The train dropped us off in the middle of the jungle with two other people we met on the train and our guide. Together we went off into the wilderness and hiked for hours and hours through amazing scenery and huge ancient ruins. After all this we made it to the entrance of Machu Picchu, called the Sun Gate. It was really cool to get to hike on a religious trail made by the Incan people a very long time ago. That night we stayed in a hostal in Aguas Calientes (Hot Waters). and as to be expected we were off again sometime in the early morning. we hiked around Machu Picchu some, then me and my brother conquered the infamous Huinua Picchu wich turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip. The next day we went back to lima for some R&R. I got to take my brother surfing on saturday morning and after I gave him a quick lesson on land, we went out and he caught his first wave on his first try, and rode it all the way out. It was pretty incredible.

On the Incan trail

Machu Picchu, and behind me is Huainu Picchu.

My fam and a waterfall.

Just Thinking (about how bad it would be to fall)

   All in all we had an amazing vacation, but I got back to Lima to the news that Wes, Justin, and I were making a trip to the jungle the next day. Which leads me to my next story.

   One of my peruvian friends who I have connected very well with is named Luis. Luis's Grandfather had been sick for a while with cancer. Now Luis works as a security guard outside of Justin's house, and his grandfather lives in the jungle, pretty far away from us. When we heard his grandfather didnt have much time left we got pretty upset that he could see him, so we all decided to take him and his brother on a bus with us to Oxapampa, which is a jungle town started by german immigrants in the 1890s. We got to the bus station at 7 pm on sunday night, and drove from sea level to almost 14000ft in about 6 hours. I hardly slept at all on the 10 hour bus ride. When we got there, we took Luis to the hospital, and he got to visit with his grandfather as we all met his family. The rest of the day was a pretty fun adventure, as we borrowed Luis's Cousin's motorcycle taxi, and explored Oxapampa. We also ate at his cousins, and his grandmas house. Which was an adventure in itself. We had coffee that was grown dried and brewed at their house, that tasted pretty great.
   The next day, we awoke to the news that his grandfather had just passed. we went to his grandmas house where they were preparing the body. We weren't sure what to do so we just sat around as everyone went about their business. About one hour later were told to pass into the room were the body was, so that we may view it. we went in, and were able to comfort Luis during this sad moment. Not long after that they all left the room, asking us to wait there. The brought us sweet milk with coffee, and some bread to eat while we waited. Im not sure why we had to wait there, but we sat there for a couple of hours in the presence of a dead man not knowing what to do. I have to admit it was pretty awkward at times. I think somewhere in my subconscious I decided to make it more awkard, as I accidently knocked my sweet milk all over the floor. I tried to handle it quietly, but the towel they gave me to clean it up was made out of leather, and didn't do one thing to help the situation but to spread it around. It became quite an ordeal, and the daughter wound up coming in to re clean the entire floor. I leaned over to Wes at this point and asked him, "How is anyone in the states ever going to understand what this is like". He said," We dont have the words to describe the awkwardness of sitting in a room before the funeral of a man we did not know, and being asked to say a few words to everyone. They will simply never know". I wish there was a way to describe the strangeness of such a situation.
   Later that night we caught a bus back to Lima, another 10 hour trip, but this time we were on the top front row of the double decker bus as it passed other busses on the mountain roads with huge cliffs the whole way. You can imagine how well I slept.

Me, Luis, and Justin in Oxapampa.
Blessings,
Kyle Glaeser

65 days is a long time. (sort of)

2011-03-10T23:55:00.003-06:00

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

Cosas Nuevas - New Things

2011-03-09T21:12:00.000-06:00

First of all, I would like to apologize for not posting more often... I have no excuse haha Basically everything that everyone has been saying applies to me too, so I'm just going to update you on some of my favorite recent activities.

Kids Club in Villa Maria
So I know we've talked about this before, but recently the interns have been given the responsibility of organizing the activites for our kids' time in Villa Maria on Sunday mornings. We've been doing a different Bible story every week with games and coloring sheets and lots of great songs, and it's been going really good. It seems like the kids are getting more and more excited every week to be there and hang out with us, and that is making us more excited as well :) The kids are really sweet and attentive and great about participating in most everything. It has also been a good opportunity for some of the team kids to interact with the Peruvian kids! Here is an awesome video, made by the talented John Mark Davidson, of one of the mornings :) most of it is in Spanish, but you'll get the gist of it...
El Tiempo Para Niños En Villa Maria del Triunfo

Bible Studies
Pretty much as soon as we got here, Jenny and I jumped into a women's Bible study that was already going on with Stacy, Alison, 2 other missionary wives from England and another intern from Oklahoma (staying with one of the families from England). We are studying Discerning the Voice of God by Priscilla Shirer, and I must say, this has been an inspiring experience, both from the encouragement that the text itself is giving me and from the different points of view that I am getting to see from the other women. We have all been pretty open with each other about things that are going on in our lives, and just getting to hear some older (by a little) and wiser women discuss things that are pertinent to my life right now has been a great experience for me.

Also, starting this Saturday, March 12th, we are going to be having another women's Bible study with several of the Peruvian girls in our church!! I'm am SO excited about this. It is something we've been talking about for a while, so I'm glad it's actually going to be happening! It's only going to be once a month at first, because it was difficult to coordinate everyone's schedules, but this first time, our Peruvian friend Carmen will be organizing the discussion :) She is definitely one of the leaders among the women that I've met so far, and one of my best friends here. I'm so glad to be working on this with her, and I'm excited to dive into the Word with my new friends!

Adventures with American Food
Although I LOVE the "comida peruana" here, I have definitely been looking for ways to keep a little American-ness in my diet. One such thing is I have found the Peruvian version of Frosted Flakes! They are called Zucarias (I think because they are covered in sugar - azucar) but they really are just like Frosted Flakes :) and I love them!! and I eat them almost every day!
Also, I recently decided to try and make a recipe I got from my grandmother called "Chicken in the Floor." (The story behind the name is long and not the point, so ask me about it sometime haha) I shopped for the ingredients and cooked it with my Peruvian friend Gaby, and it was fun helping her practice her English through cooking! I had to make a few adjustments to the recipe, but surprisingly it turned out great! Not exactly like Lana's, but close enough for me :)
There are also restaurants like McDonald's, Pizza Hut and Chili's that I can resort to if I get a hankering for some "American" food.

Ejercicios (exercises)
One thing that I have been really conscience of since coming here is my over-all health and how easily it can be affected by changes in diet and location, etc. Every Monday and Wednesday morning and sometimes Thursday, we have a girls work-out time. And when I say morning, I mean MORN-ING! We get to the park where we work out close to the beach around 6 am.... ugh that is so early!! But doing this has most definitely helped with my health and getting adjusted and my energy during the day as well. But man it is early! haha I am personally so proud of myself for sticking with this, but I have a bunch of really great encouragers that get on to me if I sleep it :) Stephanie and Tara were both exercise instructors when they were still in Texas, so we are getting some intense workouts! But yeah, working out has never been something I have really been dedicated to or really even enjoyed very much, but I love this time to spend with the team girls and some new friends that joined the class!

Families!
This weekend starts the crazy week of visitors! Kyle G's family (extended as well), Jenny's family, my family, Lee's parents, Stephanie's mom, and John Mark's sister and brother-in-law will all be here in Lima this week!! It's crazy, but we are all SOOO excited for them to get here. I know personally, I am looking forward to showing my parents and sister where I work and live and hang-out and introduce them to the people I see every week, and at the same time have a fun vacation with them and show them some of the really cool parts of Lima. Kyle and Jenny's families will also both be going to Cuzco to see Machu Picchu, so that's exciting! I think this will be a great time, especially for us interns, to take a little break from normal every-day life and do some different fun things! I'm hoping this will be a refreshing time for us :) SO EXCITED!!!

Language School
One last thing: after a much-longer-than-planned break from language school, we are starting that back up again this week on a less intensive schedule than before. We will all be doing 6 hours a week of one-on-one study with an instructor as well as a couple of hours of focused practice with a "language partner," one of our new Peruvian friends. Mine will be with Gaby (the girl I mentioned cooking with) and the time will be spent half in Spanish and half in English. I think this will be a great way for us to grow our relationships with these particular people, and it will be great practice for both parties.

Ok, that's all I had! Thanks for keeping up with us and keeping all of us in your prayers :) I know that it means a lot to all of us to know that we have SO many people supporting us while we are here! After being here for over 2 months now, I can say that this experience is going to change us and grow us in ways that we don't even really realize yet, and I am so excited! Thank you all for partnering with us in this crazy adventure!

Love, Taylor

ps Sorry I didn't have any pictures... there just weren't really any related to my topics haha

La Vida Diaria - Daily Life

2011-03-05T13:16:00.000-06:00

Over the past couple of weeks I've been making a list of things that I think would be interesting to tell people about. I just realized that it's a pretty long list... consider yourself warned. :)

Some of the smaller moments are what I think makes life so interesting. This probably has something to do with the fact that my primary love language is quality time (take the quiz and find out what yours is, you know you want to). Take a haricut, for example. Everyone gets them, but not always at 11p.m. in the middle of a kitchen. Well that's what Kyle decided to do a couple weeks ago. We've started watching Survivor (my new favorite show haha), so one night after it was over Kyle came into the living room with the clippers and got Wes to cut his hair while Taylor and I laughed the whole time. I'm sure you can see why:

Another one of those small moments is watching a movie. And here I mean a kids' movie: animated, Disney, usually about 15 years old. Something as simple as sitting on the couch or the floor with Sofia and Maddox and watching a movie is so fun and makes me feel like a little kid again. I love it. Something else I love: competition, which is great since I'm surrounded by boys who have to name a winner for whatever situation may arise. Recently, after acting like the grown up 30 somethings that they are at a team meeting, the team guys decided to have an impromptu arm wrestling tournament. And after the next meeting, there were races on the beach. I was included in these (and obviously lost haha) and it was great to just have fun with the people I work with everyday.

Some of the small things have a stronger impact in the moment. I feel like we mention the sunsets here in almost every post, but they really are great. And we see them way more than I ever did in Texas. Each time I'm reminded of the power and greatness of God. It amazes me that He made something so beautiful and unique for our enjoyment.

One of the most recent sunsets over the Pacific

Last week a group of us went to a praise night at a local church. I've been to lots of events like that before, but I was really touched by this one. I have to pay so much more attention to the words of the songs, prayers, and messages. So I am more invested in the words God is speaking to me in those times. Also, the church was started years ago by missionaries and it has grown into a huge group of believers. It was so encouraging to me to know that the work of missionaries is impactful here in Lima.

That saying is so true: you learn something new every day. A lot of what I learn is about the culture including the Catholic wedding I got to go to, complete with traditional little kid Peruvian dancers, and that there are people everywhere trying to sell you things. In fact, last time we had a beach day I had the option to buy scarves, swimsuit cover-ups, sunglasses, jewelry, ice cream, sandwiches, and even books. And that was just at the beach! All of these vendors (and hailing taxis) has taught me about bargaining skills that I never thought I would know. I've also learned so much about how a team of people works together. It's a longer process than I first thought and it involves more meetings than I expected. Through a couple of our most recent team meetings (one at the beach and one with our mentor David) I've realized that the meetings help me to know more about the people I work with and about myself. I'd like to ask you to pray for our continued patience and that we would come to find out even more.

I love making connections with people here. Last week Kyle, Taylor, and I got to meet and have dinner with our good friend Carolina's family. Carolina was so helpful in our preparation, we asked her so many questions about Lima before we left since she grew up here and now lives in College Station. We had a great time and are so thankful for our friends everywhere.

The interns before we went to eat with Carolina's sister (and nephew) and parents

We've almost always got something to celebrate here Just yesterday it was Maddox's 4th birthday. The interns and the Fletchers went to Cieneguilla to play at the pool, let the kids ride horses, and enjoy the sun. For dinner the whole team got together at Pizza Hut (which is considerably nicer here than any I've been to in the states). We had a great time and everyone enjoyed the blue cake!

the healing process.

2011-03-04T16:16:00.000-06:00

howdy from texas!

first off, i thought that it should be known that this is being typed with two hands! this might not seem remarkable, but let me tell you, when you've only been able to do everything with one hand for four weeks, it is incredibly liberating to be able to use the other one too. bunches of people have asked me how things are going in texas, and how the healing is going, so i figured that an update might be nice. this one won't have any interesting pictures, because i am in dallas. haha there are interesting things here, but i reckon that y'all can visualize what i'm talking about.

so, texas. i came back to the states two weeks ago last saturday, and it has been an interesting time back. on the monday after i arrived back, i had my first visit with my orthopaedic surgeon here in rockwall, and from the x-rays he took he said that everything looked good in terms of the surgery that i had in lima, and at the time he advised me to keep the sling on pretty much all the time, and to limit movement as much as possible. i had a follow-up visit two weeks later (which was this past monday), which i will get to later. so, the first appointment was encouraging, but not very informative. oh side note, first impressions upon coming back to america. it smells so ridiculously clean here. my point of entry back was miami dade airport, which isn't known as a particularly sterile place, but as soon as i got off the plane, there was this indescribable sense of cleanliness and sterility to the terminal. it was very strange! i reckon that it had been about six weeks since i had experience any air filtration, so that was a peculiar shock. anyways, my first week back in the states was excellent, and mostly spent relaxing with my sweet mommy and daddy, american food (whoop tex-mex!), and all of the car magazines that had come to the house since i had been gone. fortunately, the weather was pretty nice and warm when i got back, so i got to spend some time outside strolling around too. it was definitely a little bizarre to be back. you know how if you plan for a week-long trip, by the end of the week it feels like you've been in that place for a really long time? i have learned how powerful expectations are to our brains, because i was in lima for exactly five and a half weeks, but it felt like i had hardly left the states, and i think that it's because i had my mind psyched up for a six month trip. when we were preparing to go to lima, we worked intentionally on not making expectations about what our trip would be like, but we hardly realized that we had made one crucial expectation: that we/i would be there for six full months! anyways, all that to say that it really wasn't that weird to be back.

the next weekend, my best bud shelby anders came up from college station to visit me in rowlett, and we had a grand time hanging out, driving around dallas looking for places to live next fall, eating taco bell, and playing gran turismo 5. i was hoping to come the college station the next weekend (this past weekend) to visit everyone, but since i am not supposed to drive yet, i was at the mercy of others for transportation. my parents were going to bring me down for the weekend, but there turned out to be stuff at church they had to be around for, so shelby and i were talking, and since i didn't have anything going that week, we decided that it would be awesome if i just rode back to cstat with him, and chilled there for the week! so i did. and it was one of the best weeks of my life, full of good food and the best conversations ever. i was so blessed to spend really extended amounts of time with people that i love in deep conversation, and it was cool water for my soul. and being in college station with no class or anything hanging over your head is pretty sweet. so that was an unexpected blessing, and it was so great to see everyone back home in aggieland. i will be back for a few more weekends once i can drive again soon, and i am already looking forward to the one college station fav food that i missed, a good ole half-pound burger from koppe bridge.

on monday, i had my second visit with the doc, and i got a lot of interesting news. first off, the x-rays showed that i am having great healing of the bone and is grows back together. this was somewhat of a concern, considering the radiation that i had during my cancer treatments years ago. radiation is known to brittle bones by frying the blood vessels that promote circulation, and because my bone appears to be healing at a normal rate, it would seem that i have good circulation to the break, so hallelujah it ought to heal nicely! so that was good news. but interestingly, i will not begin physical therapy for my shoulder and all for three more weeks. but in the meantime, i am able to not wear my sling all the time, and i am allowed to do any movement of my arm that keeps my elbow below my shoulder, and with minimal weight lifting, like five pounds max. so that's why i can now type with my left hand, sort of play guitar, and generally be a little more useful. but i'm still hurting a little, especially as i am starting to move my gimpy shoulder around more and loosen it back up. so the healing process is well underway :) also interestingly, my return date of april 13th looks good, because that will be about 11 weeks from surgery, and the projected healing time of my injury and surgery is 10-12 weeks. but, that time allows for recovery of full range of motion, such that i can do normal life activities with no worries. but, it will be july or august before the bone itself will be fully healed, so for the last two and a half months that i'll be back in lima, i won't be doing any flag football or rock climbing or anything too intense, which is a little sad but probably a good thing :) ill stay in one piece this time around i reckon! i am looking forward to being able to use my arm with no worries in august though, lifting weights, playing basketball, and not skimboarding anymore haha. that will be grand. but, just being back in lima again, even with limited abilities, will be most wonderful.

i feel like i am naturally predisposed to being a positive person, so this whole episode hasn't been a huge hit to my happiness or anything like that, but there has definitely been some dealing with disappointment. but, i am confident that i will look back on this time, and be thankful that i was here in texas rather than lima. i don't know how yet, but i know that god makes all things work for the good. i think that my week in college station played into that. so as i'm here, god has already been showing me, and teaching me so much more about his nature and about how he works. i still feel like im on serve abroad, on in texas i figure. im speaking lots of spanish with people i meet here, reading my handy spanish bible (thanks mark!), and trying to keep an open eye for god's leadings here in rowlett. all that, plus healing and eating great american food too :) but oh man, what i would do for some good aji de gallina right about now!

anyways, thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers, and i'm so excited about getting to spend more time here in rowlett, but also getting to head back south to that country i love. i covet your prayers for healing, and also for the three who haven't broken and all of the work in lima. god is good!

¡chau!
the other kyle (kyle w)

Esta Bien

2011-02-25T21:31:00.003-06:00

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

2011-02-20T13:04:00.000-06:00

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.

2011-02-05T14:46:00.003-06:00

(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

2011-02-05T09:59:00.001-06:00

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

Whats new.

2011-01-30T22:54:00.000-06:00

Hello again from lima. The forefront of my news to you this week is of a more somber nature as one of our own has been broken. Kyle Westbrook has broken his collar bone in 2 places, so will be recovering for the next month or so. Please keep him in your prayers while we continue working. However on to better news. We have completed three weeks of school and all of our spanish is improving. This adds a level of confidence to what ever we do with the people here. Another huge boost to our team has been the return of all the missionaries from the states. Here is a short rundown of what last week looked like for us, as it was rather exciting.

Tues. Jan. 25

   We went to the bluffs near the ocean of barranco and had a jam night with some of the peruanos. I can't imagine a better place to play some instruments and enjoy each others company than the beach at barranco. It's very beautiful. Ill be sure to add some pictures that Matt( our canadian friend from language school) took that turned out great. In the mean time here is a video.
   Wednesday Jan. 26
   Wednesday was a particularly exciting day, we all went to a futbol game. If there was one thing I took away from it, it's that futbol fans go all out for their team. Even it that means shining a laser in the other goalies eyes.

Thursday The Thompsons arrived back in lima, and we made sure they felt welcome. John Mark had the great idea to rent a mariachi band to welcome them in the airport, and it certainly made a splash. Hopefully i can have some pics of that up soon.

I was planning to write more but I need to Sleep, So another post will be soon to follow.
Blessings,
Kyle Glaeser

Aprender - to learn

2011-01-22T13:25:00.001-06:00

We've been in Lima a little over two weeks and I feel like we've learned a TON already. Obviously, the culture and language are a big part of that. And a huge part of Lima's culture is food... delicious food. I probably eat chicken, rice, and potatoes everyday, but never in the same way twice. Limeños love chicken and serve it so many different ways that I can't remember all of them. Same goes for potatoes... I've had your typical french fries, big chunks in "estofado de pollo", slices with "aji de gallina", baked in butter sauce, or covered in "papas a la huancaina." All of it is so good and we eat so much that I better start exercising before I look like a potato.

One of the most delicious lunches I've had so far, including butter-soaked potatoes :)

Another part of the culture is the greeting/goodbye. If you're a boy greeting a boy it's not very much different from the U.S. - a simple handshake will do. But if a girl is a part of the greeting you give a kiss on the cheek... even to people you haven't even met yet. This is one of the small differences I've learned to accept rather quickly since it happens so much. When you enter a room yo say hello to everyone and when you leave you say goodbye with a kiss too. At first it seemed super awkward, but it's slowly becoming less awkward, and I'm sure it'll get better with time.

Spanish. Even though I have studied it for over 6 years, I still don't feel totally comfortable speaking it. Being totally immersed in it has helped so much. All four of us are at the point now where we can have a whole conversation and it's so exciting! Our language school is also a huge help with castellano (did you know there was another name for Spanish?). We go from 9 to 1 every week day and learn in small classes. But I don't just learn Spanish in class. I've learned all about England, Brazil, Canada, and Iceland thanks to my new friends Cally, Mariana, Adriana, Matt, and Kristine. I love being around people from different countries. The things we have in common are sometimes unexpected. And the small words and ideas that are different are so funny to me. For example, Canadian people really do say "eh?" all the time!

On our first day of Spanish class

Some more fun things we've learned are surfing and salsa dancing! Kyle G. and I took surfing lessons this week at the beach in Miraflores. It was pretty fun, but man do you have to paddle a lot! Way more effort goes into surfing than I thought... I think I should be in better shape next time I try. The next day Kyle W., Taylor, and I took salsa dancing lessons after school with some of our other classmates. I don't know if it's our CoC background or what, but none of us were very good at it! We had fun trying, and I know I laughed the whole time.

Kyle, pre-surfing

We'll keep on learning more as we go along and fit into our roles here in Lima. We hope you can learn along with us, so your questions are always welcome!
And see more pictures on my album on facebook.

Chau y cuidate
-JLD

los días buenísimos

2011-01-13T00:54:00.003-06:00

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!

2011-01-11T22:31:00.000-06:00

Hello again from Lima.
This is my first post since we arrived six days ago, and there is already an impossible amount of information to tell. We were able to watch the cotton bowl at the Davidson's on friday, however the result was not favorable, so i will not go into it much. On saturday we had youth night, which went very well. I felt a good connection with some of the youth despite a massive language barrier. Once again i felt the frustration of a language barrier on sunday when we went to Villa Maria to talk to the lowest class of lima. It was an amazing community built on a steep hill in the very sandy desert. Lima is situated in the Atacama desert, which just so happens to be the driest desert in the world. As soon as you get out of the heavily irrigated city, there is evidence of this lack of water in that there are no trees, plants, grass, animals, or even bugs. For these people to build their shacks out on a mountain side in this desert is an extremely desperate act. I wanted to talk to the people very badly, but as I was the first gringo some of these people had ever met, they did not know any english.
Monday morning was refreshing as I began to knock some dents into learning spanish. I was able to put it to the test tonight when we went to a jam session with some of the youth, to learn new songs and enjoy good company. After that we went to barranco to eat, and stumbled upon a pizzaria that turned into a huge blessing. The man who owned it was a christian and we were able to have a long talk with him, as he gave us lots of free food. Over all this has already been an amazing experience.

Till next time, Chau,
Kyle Glaeser

We're Here!

2011-01-09T08:20:00.000-06:00

Sorry everyone for the late update, but we made it to Lima! With no problems whatsoever. It was amazingly smooth and we are so thankful for that. John Mark Davidson and Mark Clancy met us at the airport and brought us Inca Kola, which is an extremely popular drink here. See picture below :)

We've been very busy getting settled in here. We are all moved into to our houses and we have local cell phones and copies of our passports to carry around with us for our ID. We've also ridden in several taxis and one bus but always accompanied by someone who knows what they are doing. The four of us are figuring out how to get around pretty quickly though. As long as we have a map, we can pretty much walk wherever we want!

Last night was Youth Night at the Davidson's. "Youth" is basically college age, all about 20 or older. This happens once a month and we just got together and played games, watched a Nooma video, and sang some songs in Spanish! It was so fun to hear familiar songs but in a different language as well as some new ones.

We start language school on Monday morning at 9:00 and it will be Mon-Fri from 9-1 for about a month. We are all really excited about this because the language barrier has been very frustrating at times. So we have lots of motivation to learn as much as possible!

We have some pictures of our adventures around town as well as from Youth Night that are on their way :)

Chao from Lima! y mucho amor!

Taylor

"...but we travel for fulfillment."

2011-01-03T00:07:00.002-06:00

-Quote by Hilaire Belloc.

Since our last post two of us have graduated and we've had lots of family and friend time! I'll show you a little bit of my fun...

Graduation

W11OOP!

We're leaving in two days! I nearly can't believe that it's actually here. You'd think that since the four of us are so excited to go that we would have started packing... but the procrastinator in all of us won out, I think. I know my room still looks like it did when I moved in all of my stuff from College Station (or worse)! Tomorrow will be a busy day for me.

We leave from Dallas on Wednesday and we would love prayers. I know that so many people have told me they pray for us every day and that is so awesome, but some extra attention on Wednesday would be greatly appreciated. Saying a prayer for safety is generally the most common reaction to a day of travel like this, but I am asking for a different kind of prayer. I've heard a couple times recently that safety may not be the thing that God wants for his people and it's probably not the main goal of the four of us (especially since we're leaving our "safe zone"). Instead, please focus on our work in Lima. Our influence on the people there. Our impact for the kingdom of God. Our peace in sharing the love of the Lord.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
-JLD

We're getting closer...

2010-11-22T01:53:00.001-06:00

So much has happened in the last couple weeks and the Four of us are so happy about it all!

First, our parents came to College Station to meet Traci and ask whatever questions they had for her or the four of us. We all got to hear the issues that they were worried about and the things that they are looking forward to hearing about from us. It is nice to know that they are all so supportive of what we're doing and they're beginning to be nearly as excited about it as we are. That same day we were called to the front during church with our families and introduced officially as the Lima interns. Looking out at the crowd, it hit me just how many people are behind us in our mission. It was awesome to see all the people that are a huge part in making it possible. We are so thankful that we have such a great group of people at A&M CoC supporting us!

After we heard all of our parents' questions, we got a chance to ask some ourselves on our Skype date with Wes Yoakum and Stephanie Fletcher! They are part of the team in Lima and our internship coordinators. Let me tell you that these two are funny! We were laughing even before we started since the daylight savings time change caught us all off guard and they were waiting a full hour before we even noticed. But after some first date like introductions it was smooth sailing. We can't wait to be in Lima working with Wes and Stephanie and the rest of the team!

We have all been so super blessed by the love and support that the rest of you pour on us. As of now, Taylor, Kyle W, and Jenny are completely done with fundraising, and Kyle G is getting very close to being finished.

To help with the fundraising, Kyle G set up a great profit share last Friday night at Muldoon's (a coffee shop in College Station) and we raised money by getting people to order a "Peru Latte". To help with awareness and to get people to come, both Kyles, Philip Murtaugh, Shelby Anders, and Mace Williamson all performed from 8:00 to 11:00 playing guitar, piano, ukulele, and harmonica and singing! It was a great time for us to get to hang out with Aggies for Christ people, enjoy great music and coffee and let everyone know about what we are doing! (and a great way to make money too) Also, the Davidsons and the Thompsons, two of the families we will be working with in Peru, happened to be in town this weekend and they were able to come to our little concert! Here are some pictures from that night.

The sign letting people know what they should order.

We had some great friends there to support us!!

The Musicians :)

We also handed out lots of our magnets!

Some of the over 100 Peru Lattes that were sold

Tip Jar - with nuevos soles from Peru (Thanks John Mark!)

We're so excited to get to spend more time with these guys!

(Thompsons on the left and Davidsons on the right)

Another great thing that happened this weekend was Kelly and Sara Davidson (they are John Mark's parents and Kelly is our college minister) had a breakfast at their house on Saturday morning to celebrate John Mark and Tara being in town. There were lots of people there to just visit and catch up. We had a ton of fun playing with the kids and just getting to know their families better.

Kyles playing football with the girls

Jenny and her new best friend, Corbin Thompson

Kyle got to be friends with Corbin too :) he was such a sweetheart

We discovered that Kellan Davidson is an amazing baseball player!

And to top off that great weekend, we got to be at the craziest football game ever last night where we BTHO Nebraska!!! Whoop! It was so much fun, but a little bittersweet because it was Jenny and Kyle W's last game as students.

Hope you've enjoyed this long post! Only a few more weeks of school left and then off we go!

Coming soon to a computer near you

2010-11-18T01:05:00.000-06:00

Here's a teaser for the next blog post...

For an explanation and more updates, check back soon!

We're leaving on a jet plane...

2010-11-05T20:28:00.000-05:00

...because we just bought our plane tickets! It is now official that the Four will be Lima-bound in January. During the first few weeks of our internship we will start personalized language school so we can be the best we can at speaking Spanish. The plan is to continue language school as we start our work with the Lima Team and keep learning as we go. We're so excited and we've made a lot of progress over the past few weeks with logistical and relational stuff:

Nearly all of us have gotten physicals (which I thought I was done with after high school sports... guess not) and have been declared "fit for foreign travel." So travel we will!

Last week Taylor, Kyle W., and I met Justin Thompson (of the Lima Team) while he was in College Station. His family is in Texas for a while and we love it because we get to hang out with a part of the team we will be working with and get to know them before we leave.

Since we started fundraising, donations have been pouring in. We've made so many trips to the bank that the tellers at the front desk know us and are even praying for us! We cannot express to you how much it means to us that you are willing to support us with your money and your prayers. You all deserve a huge thank you (and more). We love you!

In our training sessions with Traci we have been learning about international missions and adjusting to a foreign culture. One of our goals for the week is to learn about Lima, it's food, religion, politics, weather, anything. We would love to hear from people have been to Lima before, so if that's you leave a comment please.

Until next time - Jenny

First Post!

2010-10-07T18:42:00.001-05:00

So this is our blog. We are going to Lima, Peru in January 2011 and we wanted to go ahead and get this started so that those of you who want to keep up with us and what we are doing, can!

Right now we are doing all the nitty, gritty business stuff trying to get ready to go. Fundraising, working on our Spanish, learning about missions and the culture in Peru, and praying for everything along the way. We have been meeting every other week with our new friend from Lima, Carolina, as well as another friend, Victor, and doing English/Spanish practice. It's been really fun getting to know them and I think everyone is benefiting from it!

All of us are also very busy with school right now. Jenny and Kyle W are getting ready to graduate in December, and me and Kyle G are trying to figure out how to leave and come back to school next fall.

We recently had a photo shoot for the magnets we are planning to send out so here are a few pictures from that!

Kyle Frame!

Kyle G: "I will not be a part of this"

Practicing with the flash...

We're so excited to go to Peru!!!!

Thanks and Gig'em!

Love! Taylor