Appleton

Well, I spent about 4 days up in Appleton, WI seeing friends and attending my friend Beth's wedding. It was a great time and I was able to see a lot of friends that I haven't seen in a while. Beth's wedding was beautiful. It was such a blessing to be able to attend her wedding. I was able to help her out with some of the last minute details. One of them being the programs for the wedding...we spent a good chunk of Thursday night printing and folding them. =) The happy couple!


I am now getting ready to head back to Peru. I have done all the shopping I will be able to do and I am now trying to find room for everything. I am really wishing they still allowed 70 lbs for each bag, it would help me out a lot! But I am sure I will be able to get everything into the bags and back to Pucallpa. So those of you there...don't worry! I will get everything to you. =)

Mini culture shock

Well, the past few days have been busy. I got here Saturday and have spent the past three days doing shopping. I thought I got tired shopping in Pucallpa...it is just as bad if not worse here. Yes, I have a car to get to each store and I don't have to go to as many stores, but still, it has been a marthon. It has been interesting to see how I have changed and adjusted to the Peruvian way of things. For example, yesterday I did all my shopping by myself and I noticed that every time I would go up to the counter to buy my things I would smile and say good morning to the person there. I am so used to doing this because everywhere you go in Pucallpa the people in the stores greet you. Well when I would smile and say good morning, most of the people just kind of looked at me and weren't really sure what to do. It was funny to see how something so simple as a greeting (or the lack there of) can throw you off. I wouldn't say that I have had much culture shock coming back here, but there are definitely little things like the greeting that kind of have me thrown. It makes me realize once again how much I love the culture in Peru and thankful that I get to go back on October 3rd.

Today I head into Chicago and will get to spend some time with some friends there. Tomorrow I am heading up to Wisconsin for my friend's wedding and the Open House at my church. It has been a huge blessing for me to be able to see all my friends and catch up with them. I am also hoping that the Open House at my church will help connect more people to my ministry and SAM. I have made some new prayer cards since being here...they are very simple but do the job. Here is what they look like, for the most part. There was a slight problem when they printed them off so the South America Mission and my email address were cut off. But that is a what a pen is for...to write it on the back!

The adventure to Chicago

Well, yesterday I started my journey back to the States for a two week visit. My trip was suppoesd to originally start at 12:50pm yesterday, but the flight from Pucallpa to Lima got changed to 4:55pm instead. I was ok with that because it meant less time to wait around in the Lima airport. So at about 3:30pm I headed to the airport (which is very small and only 2 minutes from my house) to check in. I was planning to just check in and stay that way Rosemary wouldn't have to make two trips to the airport. So Rosemary and I are standing in line waiting to get me checked in and after about 30 minutes of standing there we only moved about two spaces in line. By that time I figured there was only 55 minutes until my flight was supposed to leave, so I really wasn't going to leave and come back. Rosemary got talking to a guy that works for the travel agency we usually use and he told us the flight was running late and wouldn't be leaving Pucallpa until 6:30pm. I was still ok with that because it still gave me plenty of time before my flight was supposed to leave Lima. So this guy was kind enough to check me in so we could go back home and not have to waste more time at the airport.

So he got me all checked in and I came back about 5:30pm to wait for the plane to get to Pucallpa. I finally left Pucallpa at 6:30pm last night and made my way to Lima. I arrived in Lima about 7:30pm and only had to wait about half an hour before going to check in for my flight to Miami. When I checked in for my flight to Miami I noticed that the time was 20 minutes later than what it originally was supposed to be. I was ok with that, but knew that if it was much later I would really be pushing my luck with my connecting flight to Chicago. I went through security and immigration and finally got to my gate at about 9:45pm to wait for boarding at 10:30pm. Well, boarding did not start at 10:30pm like the boarding pass said, in fact it didn't start until about 11:15-11:20pm. Now my flight was supposed to leave at 11:30pm (according to the new time) and they didn't even start boarding until 11:15pm! Yep! You guessed it! My flight was late! We didn't leave Lima until about 12:05am for the 5 1/2 hour flight to Miami. By the time we finally took off, I was wondering how I was ever going to make my connection to Chicago. I figured I would have to try and get on the next flight because there was no way I would be able to make it through immigration, baggage claim, customs, get my luggage checked back in, go back through security and to my gate in the hour and 20 minutes I had before my flight to Chicago was supposed to leave.

Well, God is good and I was able to make it. We were the only flight that had to go through immigration and customs. And once I got through that I was able to get my bag checked back in right away. Security didn't take very long either which was really nice. I was able to get to my gate about 10 minutes before they started boarding. I am so thankful that everything worked out well. No missed flights, no missing baggage and I am here in Chicago safely.

"Fall" vacation

For all of you who might be wondering what happened to me...don't worry! I have just been busy the past couple of weeks. But amongst the craziness that has been my life lately, I am taking a moment to write a brief update.

Last week was my first week of actually teaching for this school year. It has been so good to finally have my class. But it has taken up a lot more of my time. I am trying to do better than last year and actually be fully prepared for classes before they start. ;~) It has been different and challenging to have a 1st grader. It is the only grade I haven't taught before and so it is going to be a year of learning for me. It will be exciting however to see how much he learns and grows during this first year of being in a school setting. So far he is doing pretty well and I think once we get into a good routine he will do great! My other student, the 1st grader's sister, is in 3rd grade. This is a little easier for me this year because I taught 3rd grade last year and so I am mostly familiar with the curriculum for the grade. There are only a few that I have more work to do for since I either didn't teach that class last year, or we have gotten new curriculum. I am still trying to figure out what to do for Spanish with them. We were supposed to be getting new curriculum but I don't think it ever got ordered. Teaching them Spanish has already been good for me though. It forces me to use my Spanish more than usual and I am able to learn more vocabulary words. In all, classes have been good. Right now I am trying to get everything ready for while I am gone. It is hard to plan two weeks ahead when you only have 1 student in each grade and they fly through things. The challenges of small schools!

Well, I leave for the States this Friday. I leave Pucallpa after school and then fly out of Lima at 11pm. If everything works out and I don't miss my connecting flight in Miami, I will be back in Chicago by 10:30am on Saturday!! I am looking forward to seeing all those that will be close enough for me to spend some time with. I am praying these two weeks, even though they will be busy, will be a good break for me. I never really got a vacation this summer...I spent my summer in school!

New things

I will be flying to the States in 2 weeks! This is exciting and yet a little scary. I think it might be very overwhelming to go from Pucallpa to Chicago. To go from not having driven for almost a year to driving 4 hours, by myself, through boring Wisconsin, at night! To go from ordering clothes online and not really knowing if they will fit to being able to try things on in the store. Seeing new changes that happened while I was gone...it is going to be hard. But, I am so glad that I have the chance to go back for Beth's wedding and to see my other friends and family.

Since I will be attending a wedding while there I realized that I didn't have a dress to wear. So I decided to get one made. It is amazing what the ladies here can do...I bought the fabric, the zipper and printed a picture of the dress and poof! They made a dress for me! Amazing! I went in Tuesday to be measured and give the lady my fabric. I was then able to go in Thursday and try the dress on. And I get to in tomorrow, Saturday, and pick the dress up! Now you might think...wow that must be pretty expensive...but nope! The grand total for fabric, zipper and having the dress made is about 80 soles or $28. Who can pass that up? I think I might need to have a few more dresses made.

I have made another new friend. Her name is Katie and she works with the Baptist mission. It has been nice to have another young FEMALE adult to hang out with. I don't mind hanging out with the guys...but it is so nice to have a girl to hang out with too. She has joined our weekly Tuesday night dinners and even offered to cook for us this next week. I am excited because I get to learn how to make a very yummy Peruvian dish...Aji de Gallina. It is one of my favorites and Katie is going to teach me how to make it. =)

Monday I finally get to start teaching. The Kooistras get here tomorrow and the kids will start on Monday. I am excited and I know the kids are excited too! It will be nice to have my days full again with classes. We have finished three weeks of classes already...the mangoes are starting to grow and soon I will be dodging the falling mangoes once again. It is amazing how this year has flown!