Gringita (Little Gringa)

Great books I have been reading:

• Heaven is for Real (Super cute, read it in two days)
• Little Bee (Sad but very interesting story about Nigerian villages being killed for oil)
• Gracias (Interesting perspective of missionary work in Latin America)

Every Saturday in Huánuco starting at 5:30 am is a faria (Saturday market) where all the people from the mountain pueblos bring their fresh vegetables, fruits, meats, and bread to sell. The market takes up the entire street, and most of the people who bring their produce are people who speak Quechua (one of the indigenous language of Peru). My host mom Cathy decided we would go to the faria at 6:30 am, yep bright and early for a Saturday, but it was an amazing experience to just listen to the women speak their native language and admire their colorful dress. Cathy told me that sometimes the produce can be more expensive at the faria than at the store, but it’s important to support the people in the mountains because they are the ones that lack the most basic necessities.

Saturday night I went to a service for young adults at one of the churches close to my house with Joana and Ingrid. It was similar to the Wednesday night services we use to have in high school, except this one was two hours long. I didn’t mind that it was so long though because I was so incredibly happy the whole time that I could actually understand the pastor and the lesson he was giving. I also love all the songs that they sing here in church. Most are about (If I understand correctly!) the difficulties in life and how their faith in God is the only thing that gets them through the dark days. It’s so passionate and heartfelt.

On Sunday I went to the church that my host family started. It is basically just an open room that they have made into a church for themselves and a few other people who didn’t enjoy the other churches. It was quite an experience for me because the whole family ran over at around 9:30 to set up chairs, the projector, Sunday school, etc. My whole life I have never ran to help set up church even though my dad is a minister. In fact, my mom and I are usually late! At 10:00 the service started with only about 15 people, but it was wonderful and reminded me of the small group I always went to church with at Allegheny. My host father Luis is the pastor and he gave a great sermon on love and the characteristics that people who know God have. Again it was a two-hour service. I’m going to have to adjust to sitting for long periods of time and not fidgeting the entire time. While sitting for those two hours I did acquire approximately 15 bug bites (picaduras) on my feet. As Trent, one of the other missionaries in Huáunco says, that’s what we call suffering for Jesus!

So all in all it was a great weekend! Roxana and I even decided to start working on English/Spanish together each Sunday after church. This past Sunday she wanted to work on pronunciation, but all we had was our bibles. So for about an hour she would read a passage in English and I would help her, then I would read the same passage in Spanish and she would help me. It turned out to be a good way to practice and we got a few good laughs out of it as well.

On Monday, Medalid and I walked one of the women to her doctor’s appointment because she was having pain in her stomach. She then needed an x-ray and other tests (which can only be found at different parts of town) so we spent the whole day going from place to place in order to get the medical attention she needed. Medalid and I mainly just sat and waited at each location for her, but the women was so grateful just to have someone to go with her that it was worth the time we spent. I’m finding that most of the time all I can give is a smile or hold a hand because I can’t fully express myself yet, but I’ve also found that it seems to be more than enough.

One of the main ideas of the YAV program is “Being, not doing.” A hard concept to follow when you have been going non-stop your whole life. So my goal for this year: Learn to do nothing, but just be

Abrazos a todos (Hugs to everyone)