I have now been in Peru for over and week and gone from the States for almost 2. I have definitely had my share of rice, but I am loving it still. After a few days of cooking, I and the other volunteers have finally learned the secret to cooking rice in Peru (yes it is more difficult than it sounds and takes a much different technique than in the States). No longer are we eating burt rice with every meal.

I have found one of my new favorite fruits. It is called granadilla. It is a small fruit, about the size of lemons in the states (Not the lemon hunks that we have here). When you peel off the foamy, porous like outer shell the fruit is exposed. The fun thing is that the fruit is like a little pod of frog eggs - gooey jelley around a dark crunchy seed. If you ever have the opportunity to try granadilla I would definitely recommend it, if you never get the chance maybe go find some frog eggs, eat them and just imagine a fruity taste. The experience will probably be about the same.

On Sabbath afternoon we had our first machete accident. A few of us decided to journey out through the jungle to the nearby pineapple field and on the way back one of the dental volunteers accidentally sliced a small hole in his leg. It was just a small cut, but it still gushed a fair amount of blood. When we got him back to the mission, we layed him out on the kitchen table, gave him some local anesthesia and then our volunteer doctor stitched him up. 3 stitches later we cleaned everything up, then a few hours later ate supper on the table.

A fun thing about life down here is going to the market almost daily. I have been only once, but it is fun to go around from one little stand to the next searching for the best deals and the best food. It is a bit of a challenge right now seeing as I do not speak Spanish very well.

The other day I got a better picture of Peruvian life when I went out into the fields with the guys. Our only weapons were machetes and our goal was to cut the grass - to mow the lawn. The grass grows fast down here, so we must chop it down regularely. The best way to accomplish this is to hack at it with a machete. When the machete goes dull you have a short break, while you sharpen it. Then its more hacking at the grass. As they say down here, the machete is definitely my new best friend. With a little bit of muscle and machete, you can get through almost anything.

If any of you would like to send me mail here is my address:
Mindy Schreven/ Andrew Vizcarra
Casilla 202
Pucallpa, Peru

Make sure to include both my name and Andrew´s. I will never be picking up my mail. Only Andrew will be in town to pick up packages - Customs is only open about 4 hours a weeks and those times are when I am working.

Chao!