The Spinny Rainbow Wheel

When I’m pushing my Mac’s processor, a little rainbow hued circle appears, spinning where my cursor should be. It lets me know that the computer is working, but it’s going to be a moment before I can do much else. Sometimes I have the feeling that little icon is hovering around my head. We have a couple of things in the works here that are just waiting for the processor to catch up. 

Let Me Explain

If you had asked me one year ago what I thought my life would look like today, I would have said something like “I’ll be speaking Spanish, but otherwise, I have no clue!” I’ve wanted to do mission work for a long time, but there are always facets of culture and personal skill that define which part will be handled by whom. So we came with some ideas, but generally willing to be influenced by what would be best here. Between the fact that Peruvians expect male leadership, that I knew almost no Spanish when we arrived, and that when Shaye was born, I signed up to be the stay-at-home mom, much of my “job” has fallen in the realm of making friends and becoming an expert on “translating” what we have known as home life into a Peruvian version that we can embrace. 

14 Peruvian Cultural Quirks

I thought it would be fun to share some “Peruvian Quirks” that I feel we have gotten used to in the past six months. If you are planning to visit, these are some things that will get on your last nerve or that you will find to be blatantly different from the U.S. I know that I have left so many things out, but here is a list I have tried to compile over the month... 

Holy Spirit Park

January has been a month of new experiences. Two such experiences stand out most clearly in my mind. In our last newsletter Greg shared with you about our new office location in a part of the city called Alto Selva Alegre, but as of that newsletter we had not actually obtained the office. Shortly after the new year, we signed the lease and began work on our office space. Painting, sanding, and cleaning are not special things, but being a part of a community, that is special. That’s the first new experience we had in 2009. 

Starting from Scratch

Some of you may know that I was the rookie linguist on the team when we arrived three months ago. (Yes, really, we have been here that long.) I could almost order my own meals and knew that I should say “Mucho gusto” (basically “Nice to meet you”) when I met someone. Other than that, I was pretty much at a 1- year-old’s level, knowing a few numbers, colors, concepts, but really unable to do much with it. 

What's Next?

Well, I've finished with Spanish language school. It's a strange feeling being "done." I haven't really studied Spanish since I finished my minor in undergrad., so I've been looking forward to brushing up for a long time. It's come and gone, and I can hardly believe it. With three weeks of budgeted schooling left, I decided that I would be better off to study at home what I'd learned and let the rest of the field workers have an extra week of class. So my week off has been one spent at home reviewing and trying to establish a self-disciplined schedule.