My friend Rosa and a few of her kids. She, without fail always has a smile on her face and is just someone who is genunely happy about life.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
This was part of my breakfast this morning! PAPAYA!!I just have to say that I love living in a tropical country, this morning for breakfast I had a bunch of guaba, watermelon, papaya and 3 big mangos, plus a little potatoes and eggs. Normally we do not get this much fresh fruit, but since it is practically the end of the campaign all of our friends are bringing us tokens of gratitud. So right now we have tons of free fresh fruit and I am absolutely loving life!
This is Dora. I would have to say that she is one of my best friends here in Nuevo Amazonia. She was baptized two Sabbaths ago. She owns a little store and we buy much of our food from her. She is the one who taugh us how to make empanadas and also loves to share her Chichamorada (a delicious drink make from purple corn)
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Your eyes are fortunare enough to be looking at a marvelous sight. This wierd long delicacy is in fact the wonderful fuzzy cocoon like Guaba. The white part is the only edible part and must be chewed off the little black seed. Nothing like a fuzzy butterfly snack in the midst of organizing the pharmacy.
It has been many a day since I have been in town, my deepest apologies to all of my devote blog followers. I have miserably failed you all in consistently updating my blog. But get used to it, because we have now practically finished our campaign at Km 8 and in about a week will be moving out into the jungle to start our next campaign. But anyways enough of these announcements and now for a recap of my life… or as it is said – and now for the rest of the story…
My team has helped build up quite the church group at Km 8. We baptized close to 40 people over the past two Sabbaths in a little dolphin swimming pool and will be baptizing many more after a mass wedding on the 22 of October. Last Saturday night, the nurse squad moved back to Km 38 for a week. Thus began our crazy quest of organization. We worked like mad to turn a messy room that liked to think of as the medical abyss, into a neatly organized pharmacy. We spent many an hour in our little medical cubby hole, but after sweating enough to mop the floor, we finally are about done and now I feel comfortable calling our abyss a pharmacy. (We are doing all this prep because soon we will be starting our next campaign which will begin with a weeklong medical clinic.) I have also spent lots of time translating Bible stories into Castellano for our kids meetings during the next campaign. It has also been a blast to be back at Km 38 because we have an oven here…which means that I can bake cookies and other delicious munchies each and every day. Another great thing about baking goodies is that they have to be eaten quickly or else they will be devoured by ants. What a crisis.
Actually the ants have now moved up several inches on my hate list. I have been rationing out my beloved ABC almonds lovingly sent to me by my father (Almonds cannot be found down here…sad thing it is) Bad news is that the ants chewed their way into all of my almonds - the nasty little critters. Not too big of a deal though, I simply roasted my almonds in the oven to kill all the little buggers. Then I carefully hung them up in a safe place and sprayed the surrounding area with bug spray (which kills the ants instantly and prevents them from returning), but then to my horrible discovery this afternoon, the ants had braved all odds and had fought their way through the clouds of bug spray (with 49% deet) and were again munching happily on my almonds. Thus war began and I roasted them once more. Now I get to enjoy my twice baked ants and almonds in one big smorgasbord.
My team has helped build up quite the church group at Km 8. We baptized close to 40 people over the past two Sabbaths in a little dolphin swimming pool and will be baptizing many more after a mass wedding on the 22 of October. Last Saturday night, the nurse squad moved back to Km 38 for a week. Thus began our crazy quest of organization. We worked like mad to turn a messy room that liked to think of as the medical abyss, into a neatly organized pharmacy. We spent many an hour in our little medical cubby hole, but after sweating enough to mop the floor, we finally are about done and now I feel comfortable calling our abyss a pharmacy. (We are doing all this prep because soon we will be starting our next campaign which will begin with a weeklong medical clinic.) I have also spent lots of time translating Bible stories into Castellano for our kids meetings during the next campaign. It has also been a blast to be back at Km 38 because we have an oven here…which means that I can bake cookies and other delicious munchies each and every day. Another great thing about baking goodies is that they have to be eaten quickly or else they will be devoured by ants. What a crisis.
Actually the ants have now moved up several inches on my hate list. I have been rationing out my beloved ABC almonds lovingly sent to me by my father (Almonds cannot be found down here…sad thing it is) Bad news is that the ants chewed their way into all of my almonds - the nasty little critters. Not too big of a deal though, I simply roasted my almonds in the oven to kill all the little buggers. Then I carefully hung them up in a safe place and sprayed the surrounding area with bug spray (which kills the ants instantly and prevents them from returning), but then to my horrible discovery this afternoon, the ants had braved all odds and had fought their way through the clouds of bug spray (with 49% deet) and were again munching happily on my almonds. Thus war began and I roasted them once more. Now I get to enjoy my twice baked ants and almonds in one big smorgasbord.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Lots of craziness this past week. We are in the heat of our Evangelistic campaign and many have already decided to be baptized. It is so amazing to think that just 8 weeks ago my team was a complete group of strangers to the invasion, but then over though a few weeks of studying the Bible with people, visiting them in their homes for health lessons and just being their friends and now we have a booming church of about 100 (50 adults and 50 kids). It has been a pretty cool transformation. We have two more nights of the evangelistic campaign and then just next week of teaching health classes, then that is it for our mission here at Km 8 and we will be off to a new location.
Last Sunday, Lauren and I were invited by a lady to learn how to make yucca empanadas (yucca relleno) in her house. We willingly abliged. The first task was to peel the yucca. So we grabbed some big knives, kinda like small machetes, and started literally hacking away at the outer peeling of the yucca. They taught us that if you hack at it just right the peel quickly slips off rather that slowly peeling it around and around like you would a cucumber. Then we boiled the yucca until it was squishy. Over the next hour and a half, we joked around as we make our little yucca pockets and filled them with purple olives, garlic, little peppers and a few other native vegetables. After sealing up this little pocket of yumminess we fried them in a little pan over a fire. Then came the best part - we actually got to eat warm-freshly-made-Peruvian-yucca-empanadas! I must say they are quite delicous. We also learned how to make Chichimorada (a purple corn drink, that is very typical of this region of Peru) and Cocona Juice (a drink of a yet another wierd orange-tomatoe looking fruit) It was a crazy cool experience to be in a little house, with our Peruvian friends, learning how to make Peruvian food, joking around and also cooking over a little fire. An even better part is that she invited us back next week to learn how to make potatoe empanadas! Mmmm....Our chef, Dora, has become a great friend of Lauren and I. She always greats of with a big hug and a kiss on the cheek, we visit her often becuase she owns a little store where we like to buy our food from. Eduardo has also been studying the Bible with her and she has decided to get baptised this Saturday! Yet again it is amazing to see how God as worked in this community over the past 8 weeks.
Last Sunday, Lauren and I were invited by a lady to learn how to make yucca empanadas (yucca relleno) in her house. We willingly abliged. The first task was to peel the yucca. So we grabbed some big knives, kinda like small machetes, and started literally hacking away at the outer peeling of the yucca. They taught us that if you hack at it just right the peel quickly slips off rather that slowly peeling it around and around like you would a cucumber. Then we boiled the yucca until it was squishy. Over the next hour and a half, we joked around as we make our little yucca pockets and filled them with purple olives, garlic, little peppers and a few other native vegetables. After sealing up this little pocket of yumminess we fried them in a little pan over a fire. Then came the best part - we actually got to eat warm-freshly-made-Peruvian-yucca-empanadas! I must say they are quite delicous. We also learned how to make Chichimorada (a purple corn drink, that is very typical of this region of Peru) and Cocona Juice (a drink of a yet another wierd orange-tomatoe looking fruit) It was a crazy cool experience to be in a little house, with our Peruvian friends, learning how to make Peruvian food, joking around and also cooking over a little fire. An even better part is that she invited us back next week to learn how to make potatoe empanadas! Mmmm....Our chef, Dora, has become a great friend of Lauren and I. She always greats of with a big hug and a kiss on the cheek, we visit her often becuase she owns a little store where we like to buy our food from. Eduardo has also been studying the Bible with her and she has decided to get baptised this Saturday! Yet again it is amazing to see how God as worked in this community over the past 8 weeks.
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