Orientation begins...

A good night's sleep was greatly appreciated last night - went to sleep at 8:30pm and got to sleep until 6:30am. I am the only girl sleeping in my own room, and I wasn't even afraid of the dark! I was so tired last night that I chose to wait til this morning to shower. BAD IDEA! The widow-maker is supposed to instantly heat the water, but apparently I did something wrong and had to take a cold shower in 50 degree weather. I absolutely hated it! In fact, I hated it enough that I think I might go to just one shower a week. It was miserable. And then I was shivering all morning because staying in a concrete building with tile floors & no heating is horribly cold. So this morning wasn't much fun at all.

We had morning worship together at 8:30. Jeremy L played a few worship songs on his guitar, and John told us a Bible story. I didn't realize he was demonstrating story-telling until almost halfway through. He told us about the beginning of the disciples' ministry & the early Church in Acts 2 after Jesus' ascention into heaven. We talked about the story after he had repeated it several times and I had told it back to him. Between morning worship & all our info sessions, I am really excited to learn more and then be able to use the skills we've learned to share the love of Christ in Conima. Our introduction time included getting to hear the testimonies of John & Sonia as well as learning more about the Aymara people. I love hearing people's stories. god works in such amazing ways!

Sunday is the big market day in Huancane so after morning worship John & Sonia took us through the market. John explained that it is important to build relationships with the people you buy from and then continue returning to buy from them. Sonia showed me how to buy fruits & vegetables and used 10 soles of ours to buy the ingredients for vegetable soup we will cook tomorrow for lunch. When you buy food you say "dos soles de papas", and you will get 2 soles of potatoes. So you ask for food based on how much you want to pay instead of saying how many items of food you want. The market in Peru is very different from Haiti - noone coming up to you bugging to come buy from them. After getting all our groceries we walked around for a bit just taking in the culture and scoping out souvenirs. The women all wear skirts and little hats. They sling a folded up blanket that looks like a pouch on their backs filled with things they bought in the market or even babies.

For lunch today we went to another restaurant and had a dish called lomo sal tado. It was delicious strips of beef cooked with onions & tomatoes served over rice & french fries. Peruvian food is fantastic!

I'm already learned so much and am looking forward to everything else that is to come. There is so much to know! Everything is different - grocery shopping, cooking, showering, making a fire, washing clothes, sharing the gospel, the language, Aymaran culture & beliefs, customs. But it is so fasinating! Well, I'm about ready for bed, and I'm sure we have another long day ahead of us. We are learning to cook tomorrow =) Adios, amigos! <