Cosas Nuevas - New Things

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