Valentine's Day in Peru

Valentine’s Day in Peru is probably up there in my top three all times Valentine’s days…possibly top 2 (Ok, so I can’t remember any SUPER great Valentine’s days, but I like to think that I’ve had good experiences with this lovely holiday).

Here’s how it happened:

The morning started beautifully. I got mucho amounts of laundry done and hung out, I did Ab Ripper X and I took a cold shower. So Far so Good!

Also, we got two sets of flowers :) Perfect!

Almost no kids showed up today.. maybe like 40 total, which is a lot less than usual. We made them each Valentine’s with really yummy suckers. Brit took the boys to go play futbol and a lot of the girls ended up going with them. Abby and I were left with just one little girl.

I was pretty tired, so I came upstairs, did some blogging and sacked out for a good 20 or so minutes. When I woke up, it was time to go to into Cajamarca. We had with us Alecksi and Ricardo and were going to meet up with Robert, Jorge and Daniel at the movie  theater in the Mall.

We watched a movie called Los Illusianauts. It was Peruvian made and only in Spanish (no subtitles). Even though I didn’t catch all of the dialogue, I know for a fact that it is a movie I will never have the desire to see again. Pretty much it was a cartoon about a boy with deadly flatulence and his friends. Super gross.

Our Movie theater snacks: We go into the Peruvian store and come out with all things American...lame

After the movies we walked over to Capilla Aueropuerto and met some of Ricardo’s family. We waited there until it was time to walk over to the Capilla Pueblo Libre for our first Peruvain YSA dance.

While waiting for the dance we delivered our Valentines to our friends (we gave them homemade chocolate chip cookies!) We also told them all about American Dancing customs….like how you dance in a big circle to the fast songs as opposed to with one partner and you know…just the other basic American customs: Dancing while combing our hair with forks, dancing on our knees at REALLY elegant dances,(girls wear knee length dresses to these dances, and boys cut off their tux pants at the knees) and the really cool kids dance without shoes. We are so bad.

And the dance began! With an opening prayer, spiritual thought and a hymn.

Latin music, Reggatone, Brasilian Music, Columbian Music and a bit of unedited “I Want to Be a Billionaire..” American music.

It was SO much fun! We pretty much got paired up with one partner for most of the night and they taught us the ways of latin dancing..Salsa, Merengue etc.  I asked my partmer where he learned and he said that pretty much everyone is born just knowing, “It’s in my latin blood”. And that’s when I got jealous because this girl has not an ounce of latin blood and even less rhythm so dancing does not come easily for me!

But our friends were more than willing to teach us and help us learn. The last hour of the dance is called “Hora Loca” and it started with confetti being thrown in our faces, balloons and streamers being thrown and an hour of upbeat music where you aren’t allowed to sit down!

While we dance, people come around offering you small treats on silver platters and if you sit down, you are lazy. Towards the end of the dance, the DJ started playing a slew of popular American music. We of course were rocking out to these songs and singing them at the top of our lungs. The DJ thought it was super hilarious to blast the music and then turn the volume off so that it was just us singing. He did that multiple times. While we were dancing to this English stuff I looked around and found that we were the ONLY ones on the dance floor. Everyone else was sitting and just watching us…laughing of course J But we’re used to that and continued with our interpretive/crazy dancing.

Oh it was sooo fun! We took lots of videos, but alas, they would take forever to upload here, so if you’re curious, find me when I get home and I will show you Stake Dances, Peruvian style.

Also, there is a really formal YSA dance next week…it’s a big deal, and translated into English it’s called Prom!!! And it just so happens that I got asked to it during this dance! At first I didn’t really realize what was going on, but it looks like I’ve got myself a date to the fancy dance!

We came home that night exhausted but happy. It’s how we’ve been ending most of our days recently. I think it means that they day was a grand success!

Hope yours was too!

-Elia

A Bible, A Bible, We Have Got a Bible and We Need No More Bible

Church. In Peru. Always an adventure... even more so today than most Sundays.

In Sunday school we studied 1 Nephi 19-21 and were talking about how Nephi was commanded to make the two sets of plates to keep the record on and what not. Miguel is our awesome teacher who knows his stuff and does a great job teaching the lessons.

I was following along with the lesson pretty well until… the arguments broke out. (when Peruvians, and most other people I suppose, get riled up, they speak much quicker making it hard to follow). The high councilman (our 24ish year old single friend) and our Relief Society President started going at it! I couldn’t tell what they were arguing about, but other members were piping in their two cents as well. By this point, Miguel had kind of given up. He seemed to be in shock and a bit disgusted with his class.

Turns out that they were arguing over the importance of the Book Of Mormon!! Our Relief Society President straight up said that she has the bible and that’s all she reads because it’s all she needs. She says the Book of Mormon is a nice book, but she doesn’t read it. And guess what? A lot of the members were right there with her! Our high councilman beautifully explained what was taught by Tad R. Callister last General Conference with the dots on the chalk board. He explained that with just the bible there are endless amounts of interpretations, but when paired side by side with the Book Of Mormon, there is only one possible straight line of truth. I also heard the 8^th article of faith thrown out there and a couple of good scriptures that supported our cause.

But Ooof. Talk about crazy!

Afterwards in Relief Society, the RS President (Hermana Sephora) got up and said somethings that I didn’t quite understand. But then an AMAZING young sister in our ward (26ish years old, R.M. and Single… seriously boys, why have you not snatched this woman up??) got up and bore sweet witness of the Book Of Mormon. She is one of the fastest speakers in the ward, but her words spoke right to my heart and I knew that what she was saying was true.

So it seems that our ward is struggling a bit. Not to mention that we don’t really have a Bishop, because over a year ago he was called to be the Stake President and nobody has accepted the calling to be the bishop since then… and this man had a baby two days ago….

We've Got Work to Do!

So pray for our little Banos ward…there Is work to be done!

On a brighter note, the sister missionaries have asked us to come teach investigators with them! How cool is that? They just want one of us at a time, so on Thurxday I will be a mini- missionary and I’m rather excited to see how that all works out here!

I also have a new friend (27 year old, single, non-member Esthel) who we met on a bus ride home. I have a really good feeling about her and if I ever see her again (which I intend on making happen) I will invite her to church and ask her if she’d like to take the discussions in my home. That’s my plan, how cool would that be?!?

Ahhh…. In other news, I love Peru and I love life!

-Elia

A Lesson In Photography

I’ve taken my fair share of pictures while here. Thousands. Of the people. Of places. Of everything. It’s expected right? I am in Peru after all.

Here’s what’s not expected:

People here LOVE taking pictures of us! One day we were walking home from the store when a van full of men pulled over. We thought they were offering us a ride, so we waved them along their way, but they all pulled out their camera phones and were taking pictures of us! So, we followed our immediate instincts and posed for them.

Another day, we were walking home from an art studio when we passed a group of teenagers. One girl ran out with her camera phone and took a picture of us, and then asked to take a picture with us! We felt like celebrities.

This is not an uncommon occurrence. Well today, while I was eating my lunch on top of Santa Apolonia overlooking the beautiful Cajamarca, four of my little ninas ran up to me waving a camera phone in my face, saying that they needed a picture of me. It turns out that a Peruvian boy, also on the mountain had seen me and wanted a picture, so he had given his phone to my ninas with the orders to go get a picture of me. Now this might have been flattering if this were the first time something like this had happened, but I’m starting to get smarter. So I did, what my dear friend Liz taught me and I told my ninas to tell the boy that sure he can have a picture, but it’d cost him one Sol.

Not bad eh? He agreed, but I felt bad taking his money, so he got his picture of the sunburnt, dirty, blonde gringa.

 Update: The night after I typed up this blog, we went out to eat with our new friends and sure enough, before we left the restaurant the waitress and the cook had asked our friends if it was ok for them to get a picture with them. Of course we said yes and made two more new friends. We’re ALL about making friends.

We’ve also been teaching Peruvians the art of picture taking. No, not the rule of thirds or the lighting/composition/contrast etc. We’re teaching them that 1^st you take a nice cute picture and then you MUST take un foto loco! They get really confused and then we demonstrate how to take a silly/goofy/crazy picture. Sometimes they will imitate exactly what we do, while other times they will just stand there looking confused.

A Day To Remember

I feel like everyday I start each journal entry with the following line:

I LOVE PERU! Today was the best day ever!!!

Because it's true. Everyday is the best day ever. But today, was EXCEPTIONALLY awesome and here's why.

1. We saw the sun. We haven't seen it in days. It's been raining and raining and raining, but we saw it this morning on our run.

2. We went on one of our “hill run”, straight up and enormous hill and then all the way down the long way followed by P 90 Ab Ripper X. 

3. After a delicious breakfast of eggs, tomato, garlic, gouda and avacado we showered and became clean!

4. We had an awesome day with the ninos. We split up into three teams and did relays. I had team Anaranjado and let me tell you, we were bomb. I loooved my team and they did so well at just about everything (except they pretty much stunk at leap frog :).

We decorated our score sheets/banners to promote team spirit

Here's what we played: (I had to make up spanish names for all of them...so they're kind of odd :)

-Piedras y cucharas:  Where you carry a rock on a spoon and run with it.

-Salta como un conejo: Sack race

-Lava Caliente: Where you have to get from start to finish using only two pieces of paper and without touching the ground

-Matematicas Maestria (something like that): See which team could complete the most math flash cards in two minutes. Abby TOTALLY cheated for her team, but it was needed :)

-Rana Rapido: Leap Frog

The kids loved it and totally got into it. And my team came in second place overall! I was so proud :)

After all the points were tallied up, we gave out the trophies. By this time it was only about 2pm, so we still had another hour with the kids, but we were worn out! So we sat and let the girls braid our hair while we read stories. 

Tender Mercy: It didn't rain one single drop during our whole time outside. Seriously this is remarkable and we were so grateful. However, the moment our festivities ended today, the rain came, and it poured and poured and poured! Coincidence? I think not.

5. We went to a bake-sale-ish type fundraiser. We didn't know what was going on really and ended up sitting around for two and a half hours (when in reality, we could have been in and out in 10 minutes) Oh well! We got these yummy fried things called Picadoras? Something like that. They were delicious!

6. While we were sitting and waiting during the aforementioned bake sale, we met three new friends. Jorge, Robert y Charlie. Robert and Charlie were both R.M's studying in Cajamarca. Kayla Starbuck, if you're reading this, tell your brother that I met a boy who served with him! Jorge! 

We found out that they are going to the same YSA convention later this month as us, and we decided that we wanted to make friends with them, and so we did! It was so fun talking to them, and then it was time to go. So they left and then we left maybe 30 seconds later.

This is where the story gets good.

7. While we were walking out, we noticed that it was a little after six, which is about the time places to eat start opening in Banos, so we decided we wanted to treat ourselves to Pizza! Brittany says, "Lets invite our new friends!" who at this point were several hundred feet in front of us. Without much thought, Brittany runs down the road to stop our friends and invite them to pizza. As she was leaving she yelled to us, "Is it, 'Nosotros Pizza Comer?' " Before we could tell her that, no, that is not how you properly invite someone to eat pizza, she was off and running.

Me and Abby started busting up laughing. Then we noticed that we were right in the middle of a bus stop with people all around us. And guess what? They were all cracking up too! There was a tall, white, blonde girl blabbing off some random Spanish words and running down the side walk after three Peruvian guys. EVERYONE was laughing. I was dying. 

8. Well, a minute or two later, Brittany returned! With our new Peruvian friends! They had miraculously been able to decipher her message and off we went to get pizza. The pizza cost us about ten bucks, and it was probably half as good as a $5 Little Caesars Hot and Ready. Peru and pizza? Not the best combination, but it was so much fun! 

And here's what else, we're counting it as a date. Now, don't get too excited, because 1. We Planned it 2. We were Paired off (well not really, but there were three girls and three boys) and 3. We Paid for it. 

So the three P's of a date were there....but we were the boys in the situation. But we justified it because we're south of the equator, things are all sorts of scrambled up down here :)

Over all, it was a way fun day! We loved every minute of it!

Also, Happy Birthday Trav! We have a present for you, but didn't have time to ship it off to you today!
-Elia

Peruvian Family Reunion

Today, a family reunion was held in our home… we really had no idea what was going on, we just knew that Feliciana and Melchora were cooking up a storm with all sorts of fancy food and that our kids were not being allowed to come eat or play with us.

Well at around 1:30 a family of 10 or so Peruanos (Old and Young) came and sat themselves at our finely set table (we brought out the good stuff, nice plates and lacey table cloths!). After figuring out that we were allowed to eat with them, we were treated to the Peruvian meal of a life time! I wish I could tell you the names of all the dishes, but I have no idea… I do know that it had 7 courses, 4 of which contained potatoes, all cooked differently, and one course that was fried guinea pig and another that was pig intestines!

Egg and potato soup. So good!

Rice, Potatoes and Guinea Pig. Also Delicious

Potatoes with pig intestines and onion, chili pepper salsa. My personal favorite.

Dessert!

Giant corn

We ate like queens today as we crashed this Peruvian Reunion. At first I kind of felt bad because we didn’t help out a whole lot with the cooking or the cleaning, and we didn’t even know these people, but we justified it by the fact that we were the entertainment for the afternoon. They had a great time laughing and things that we said, or rather tried to say. They also loved watching us try the guinea pig and took pictures of us while we ate it! We made some awesome friends and loved talking to them! They were visiting from Lima and we just loved them!

Side note, we asked Melchora if we could help her with anything. She promptly told us to go upstairs and not come down until we looked pretty. Apparently she doesn’t dig our make-up free, pony tail look. Oh well!

You Can Run, But You Can't Hide

One very comical part of this trip thus far can not be written in full on this blog. However, I can say this: We can run, but we can't hide.

We thought that we'd left boys/dating/anything of that sort back home in the states. But they have found us is some of the funniest most bizarre ways. Let's just say that the Peruvian way is hilarious.

Don't worry, we're on a strict no dating while in South America policy, but it's quite flattering to be pursued even when we are looking at our absolute worst and unable to communicate with 99.9% of the population.

And that is all I have to say about that.