There are good days and then there are bad days

For all you out there following my adventures in Peru, I´ll give a quick review of this crazy weekend. On Friday I was chosen along with Alsion to accompany Sara to Huancane with John in his truck. Before we left, John & Emily talked with the director of one of the schools about using the school building to do a VBS-type thing the week out other church team joins us. Then we ate lunch, and John drove all of us except Alsion to place 10 minutes away & up a mountain where there sits a whole village of pre-Incan Aymaran ruis - homes, burial sites with bones, remnants of gardens & livestock pins. That mountain ride rattled up my stomach and made me miserably carsick all the way to Huancane & the whole rest of the evening. After a long night´s sleep of over 12 hours, I woke up on Saturday feeling better.

On Saturday the rest of our team arrived in Huancane on a crowded Peruvian bus. That afternoon Alison, Heather, Emily & I took a combi into Juliaca to do some intense grocery shopping. We grabbed some souvenirs along the way and ate at The Royal Inn´s restaurant where we all got pizzas. Jeremy Stanley joined us for the pizza after e & John dropped Sara off at the airport, refilled our gas tank for the heater, and met us in front of the grocery store to load up all the groceries in John´s truck.

Sunday was July 4th which meant cookout! The Moho team came in to Huancane on an early bus to be part of the festivities. John grilled burgers. Sonia made salsa, chocolate cookies with peaut butter in them, and apple pie. The Huancane girls brought over banana pudding. It was all delicious and left us stuffed to the brim with food. Later that afternoon Jeremy Lou had planned ¨The Ultimate Showdown¨, Texas team vs Georgia team competing in all kinds of races & competitions. There was a frozen t-shirt race, timed cracker-eating competition, potato sack race, mandarine roll, apple bobbing, and massive put-on. After the 6 events Texas & Georgia were tied so the tie breaker was an egg drop. We had 15 minutes to use whatever we could find outside in the Grady´s yard and make a contraption to protect our egg when dropped one story. Neither group needed all 15 minutes so once we were ready everyone went over to the hostel. We dropped the contraptions made byboth teams, and neither egg broke. So we used the eggs to have an egg toss. The Georgia team won the egg too making them the victors of our 4th of July Ultimate Showdown. After the games the Moho team took a bus back to their house in Moho, and we spent the rest of the day relaxing.

Monday morning I woke up feeling odd, a little queazy. We packed up our stuff, cleaned the hostel, and prepared to go catch a bus with Pastor Rueben. I got to talk to my parents on the phone one last time before we left for the bus stop which was greatly appreciated. I miss them so much! We sat outside by the bus stop for several hours, but no bus to Conima. Finally there was a bus going somewhere else, and the bus driver said there weren´t anymore buses coming for the day. So that meant we wold just have to wait another day and try again tomorrow. Emily, Alison, & I have sat in the Huancane team´s house all afternoon. My stomach hurt, and I was going in & out of the bathroom with diahrea all afternoon. I prayed that things began looking up soon because I was starting to feel really discouraged in our work here. Because we weren´t able to catch a bus out to Conima, we missed 2 storying dates we had for Monday, one at 4pm & another at 6m. There was supposed to be a bus going out through Conima at 6am this morning so our plan was to get up early to take that bus out there.

But wait, there´s no bad news. I was sick throwing up all night. I kept tossing & turning trying to relieve my stomach pain long enough to fall asleep, and then I felt it. It was coming, and there was nothing I could do to stop it so I jumped up out of bed, flipped the light on, and grabbed a plastic bag just in time. I cried myself beyond the point of complete exhaustion as my night went on like that - toss & turn, sit up in bed, grab a bag, throw up until my body was satisfied to stop, and then get up to wash my face & blow all the stomach content outof my nose. Yeah, gross. I know. When I throw up it always comes out both my mouth & nose. Being here it was even worse because I´ve already had problems with my nose bleeding from the dry air & high altitude. So every time I threw up and then blew my nose, it started a nose bleed that was hard to stop.

After that horrible, long night I got upat 5am to get ready to catch the bus. Come to find out, Emily & Heather had caught whatever bug Alison & I have had, and they feel horrible. So we called a team meeting wondering what to do about taking a bus this morning. With the possibility of having to stand the whole 2 hours surrounded by smelly, unconsiderate Aymarans on a bus that wasn´t about to stop for a white American to get sick on the side of the road, we thought it best that Heather & Emily not go. Jeremy Stanley, Alison, & I were going to try to make it back to Conima so we set out for the bus stop in the freezing cold morning air. After sitting in the cold for an hour with no bus in sight, Emily called to tell Jeremy that she & Heather didn´t want us to leave them here. So we came back to the hostel. We do´n´t want to be at the Huancane team´s house or the Grady´s and run the possibility of getting them sick so we are stuck in the hostel feeling miserable & useless. Emily & Heather were both throwing up earlier, but as of now they are feeling somewhat better. After a light lunch of soup & crackers they are going to see how their stomaches are feeling. If they are up to it then we are going to pay to take a combi out to Conima this afternoon so we can be back in a place that feels a little more like home.

Even though these past 2 days have been discouraging & I have been doubting our effectiveness in being here in Peru, my confidence in the Lord remains steadfast because His will & His ways are so much greater than I know.