Don't hold razors up to the shower head...ever!

Nothing says time to get up like animals crawling on your roof and enthusiastic soccer fans blowing horns in the stadium on a cool, overcast Sunday morning. Well it’s been, not even a week yet and it has been jam packed with lots of new experiences, some good, some unpleasant. Top of the unpleasant would for sure be learning how to change a poopy cloth diaper, yeah my gag reflex almost won in that war. I have learned so much the past few days and know that I have so much more to learn. Lesson #365, don’t hold your razor too close to the shower head, you will electrocute yourself. Haha the shower water is warmed through an electric shower head and apparently you cannot hold metal close to it while standing in a pool of water. Yeah my whole right side felt it, all the way down to my toes!

But I have been here long even to start sort of figuring out a schedule. I eat my meals and spend my free time with the families in the homes. Here on the compound there is a two story house where the children live with their house parents. On the bottom floor the house parents are a Peruvian couple [Rosa and Alberto], they don’t speak any English so sometimes it is hard to communicate but they are so sweet and do a great job with the children. They have three children of their own [Eli (my roommate), David and Dafne] plus they care for five boys who are 9yr-9months old [David, Niem, Jorge, Edwin (who is also in my class) and baby Solomon] and two girls [Maria and Rita]. They are a fun clan to be around, I am used to big crazy meal times with my own family so I feel right at home with them. Plus the kids are learning English in school so they will help me with my Spanish as I help them with their English. Upstairs the house parent is Shula and she cares for two girls [Perla and Claudia] and two little boys [Daniel and Andrew] plus there is another volunteer [Rachel] who is currently living with them and since they both speak English it is nice to hang out there as well.

                My first two days of teaching could have gone better but could have gone a lot worse. All in all I am pretty happy with how they turned out and I was even able to learn all my three year old class names [which is an accomplishment because they have different names and each one has at least four names] but praying that I get over this allergy/sinus thing quickly because it makes hard to teach when I am sneezing and blowing my nose every few minutes. On Friday we had parent teacher meetings, thankfully all I had to do was sit there and smile while the three year old helper [Rosa] talked with the parents about how their children were doing and introduced me as the new teach for the rest of the year. Even though I only understood maybe 25% of what was said, it was good to get to meet each child’s parent(s) in order to better understand that child and their home situation. I still have a lot to learn about teaching though and have more lesson planning to do today for the rest of the week [lookie there, I’m using words like lesson planning…what has the world come to?].

                Yesterday I got to get off the compound and go to the city [Chiclayo] for some shopping. We crammed into a taxi and settled in for the twenty minute ride. Once out of the town of Peublo Neuvo, there is a paved road that leads into Chiclayo. Along the sides of the road there are piles of dirt and trash and beyond that there are rice fields, sugar cane fields and factories. Also, the closer we got the city the better I could see the many mountains lined up in the distance. Once in the city, the traffic was not nearly as crazy as I thought it would be. Intersections aren’t really marked, lanes are a suggestion, and who needs a turn signal when you can just have one of your passengers hang out the window to signal for you? I was surprised that it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be and the part of the city that we were in was nice and fairly clean. A huge surprise came when we went to the Supermarket and it reminded me of a Publix/Walmart/Best Buy combined. It was very neat and clean and felt like I was in a store back home. It was very large with an area for food, clothes, toiletries, electronics, etc. You name it, they probably had it.

                Today I will get to experience church here for the first time and it is a special Sunday for the community as well. Each Sunday school has prepared a dance/song or skit that they will perform after the church has their usual service. I am excited to see what they have prepared because I have heard and seen many of the classes practicing each day after school.

                So things are going well, I am already getting attached to some of the children and am slowly adjusting to life here. Some things you can pray for are, 1) Many of the children in the school and homes here have been sick with a fever and stomach bug so pray that they get over it quickly and that it does not continue to spread [because the greeting here is a kiss, everyone is constantly in each other’s faces so the only way of protecting against sickness is really just prayer], 2) For the adoption of the children here at the home [that is why I have included names as well so you can pray specifically, as much as we love having them here, the ultimate goal is to be able to place them with a family of their own], 3) For me to continue to adjust, to learn Spanish and to build up my immunity to the area [it is VERY dusty here], food, water [it is very salty], etc. Thanks y’all, prayers are much appreciated!