A window into the chaos

The view from my bedroom window. Yes, that is a circus that takes place every night, elephants included.





Taxi rides with the interns usually means cramming 6 or 7 of us into one car.











Another hard day at the office...

Rain in the desert

This past weekend brought the realities of culture shock. After a 5 day, 2 hour expedition with my roommate to find a new hairdryer, I was becoming disillusioned with Peru. It seems as though nothing comes easy here and my inability to speak the language really well just adds to the frustration. I found myself empathizing with Abraham when he was called to a strange and distant land.

Monday morning I woke up early to go running. As I stepped out onto the street I felt the unexpected cool mist of rain. Being that I live in a desert, this rain was an unusual occasion and I deeply breathed it in. The rain reminded me of God's renewal. Just as the dry earth needs God's renewal, so do I. And as God walked beside Abraham in a strange and distant land, so God walks beside me. I really enjoyed my run that day.

Pictures!

My house in Trujillo. We live on the second floor. The store downstairs is kept by the man who owns the house. He and his wife are retired and have 2 kids.








The Moche ruins, a civilization that existed from about A.D. 100-700. A mummy was recently unearthed here!








The Pacific Coast in Lima.









A huge sculpture in Lima entitled "The Kiss" by Victor Delfin. Every Valentine's Day a city-wide kissing contest is held here. The record is 14 minutes for one continuous kiss.

Plastic Lawn Chairs & Mozart

Tonight we went to the Trujillo symphony orchestra's celebration of Mozart. It was a 2 hour concert with solos by a cellist and violinist. It was a small orchestra and, I am assuming, not very well funded, yet the music was wonderful. What seemed the most odd was that the entire orchestra sat in plastic lawn chairs while they played. Even with meager means, there is something in man that strives to create beauty. I believe this is evidence of man bearing the image of God. And it made me love the musicians all the more for their stark white plastic lawn chairs.

Chaos

That is the word I use to desribe Peru. My hair is chaos (due to funky outlets that make my hair dryer do weird things), my room is chaos, the taxi drivers are chaos, the streets are chaos. I've been here for 5 days now and am slowly adjusting to the chaos. I've learned that you don't watch the road while riding in a taxi or else you will wet your pants out of fear every time. To require an American to give up control is an interesting thing...

The people here are so friendly and generous. I live in the upstairs in the home of a Peruvian family. They speak no English so it took a while for them to show us how to use the shower and other such things. I've already enjoyed some Peruvian icecream, goat, Inca Kola, and asparagus soup (Peru is the world's largest exporter of asparagus). And I'm already taking weekly salsa dance lessons from a suave Peruvian man...woohoo!

This week has been a week of orientation and exploring the city. Next week I begin teaching classes and working with the pastors.