Peru

A lot happened in Peru....some that was on the agenda, and some that wasn't in my wildest dreams.  I hope you enjoy the story!

Monday, January 3
After one quick trip back to Chris' house for a missing passport, he got me to the airport where I met my traveling companions for the first time.  There were 12 of us total...Mike, Mary and Tommy and Will (dad, sister, brother, and roommate), Peggy, Lucy, and Mandy (staff from the synod), Mindy and Tom (Campus Pastor and boyfriend), Matt and Marie (Peggy's son and girl friend), and me.  Interesting group already, si?  Si.

The flight to Lima, Peru was rather uneventful (especially compared to the flights to come...).  We left at 4 pm and got there around midnight.  Peggy warned us that Peruvian people are very friendly, but I didn't really understand until we got there.  Now, keep in mind that it's midnight.  After we made our way through immigration, got our bags, and then pushed the magic button that gave everyone the green light (aka customs), we made our way to the airport exit.  We were met by about 30 smiling, singing, hugging, and kissing Peruvians!  Pastor Dana (a missionary from Minnesota) had a guitar and led them in all some sort of welcome song.  They even had a sign that said something like "Welcome to the people from Texas!"  It was quite the welcome.  Then, in true Peruvian style, they hugged each one of us and gave us a kiss on the cheek.  To our American bubbles it was quite the shock, but such a warm welcome.

We headed back to the hotel and promptly fell asleep.  My roomie was Mary and she had a cold (aka she snored the whole night).  Bienvenidos a Peru!

Tuesday, January 4th
Our hotel was pretty amazing.  It had a beautiful courtyard with a covered patio inside the middle of the hotel.  We ate delicious breakfasts here each morning with fresh mango juice and an array of semi-american good (like hotdogs as sausages and "corn flakes" with milk).  It was delicious.

Here's a shot of some cute girls playing in the courtyard of our hotel.

This morning we met together as a group for really the first time.  We've had two conference calls together, but it's hard to get anything done.  Our trip was different than anything I've been a part of.  The trip was supposed to be a group of artists from our synod to be artistic and bring back artistic ways of representing the Lutheran church in Peru.  Ultimately the artistic results of our trip are going to be used to raise support, money, and interest in traveling to Peru to meet our Lutheran brothers and sisters.  Our meeting this morning was to discuss what art projects we were going to do with these people.   Nothing like last minute right?  Each artist brought some of their favorite media (I brought my computer, 2 cameras, and 3 lenses) and we discussed a plan.

Walking away from the meeting, I had no idea what our plan was.  I decided I would just document the whole thing and go with the flow...I do not use the word "artist" to describe myself.

We went on a short walk to a money exchange place.  In Peru they use soles (soul-lays) and the exchange rate is 2.78 soles = $1.  Then we walked to an Italian place and had lunch.  No joke, I had pizza! haha.

That after noon we piled into our 2 buses and drove to our first congregation.  I think this one was my favorite, if I'm allowed to have favorites (maybe it was because of the lighting of the afternoon and the blue sky so I got great pictures).

First, they had a little band that played some worship songs.  We actually recognized one of them so we sang it for them in English...when I remember which song it was I'll tell you.

Then we went outside to play and do some art.  I got some pictures of some beautiful people.

I found a fun friend to talk to.  His name is Jonathon and that's his sister Celeste.  Between his broken English and my broken Spanish, we had a nice conversation about movies, food, college life, and family.  Pretty fun!

They fed us some delicious food, and then we all went back inside to talk a little with the whole group.  We got to listen to their dreams and concerns for their congregation.  They have some great programs at their church, like a soup kitchen type thing on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for the kids of the neighborhood.

We said goodbye, hopped on the bus and headed to another congregation.  We did a different art project at this church - each person drew a "map" of their life.  This congregation was a little more difficult to photograph because we were inside and it was dark outside.  They really need some good lighting engineers in Peru...they only use fluorescent lights without any real fixtures or lenses or anything.  Yeah, I definitely think the Peruvian people need a lighting engineer.....or something.

We went back to the hotel late that night, but it was an awesome day.  I really felt like I could leave after today, that I had enough fun for a week.  Little did I know what was going to come....(aren't you just biting your nails in suspense?  yeah, I thought so.)