State Side

Welp, as of about a week ago. I finished my journey to the states. Thus concluding my adventures in Peru. There is no longer a Schreven roaming the jungles of Peru. Instead Now I am back, and just as busy as ever. Even though I left Peru, my service has not ended. I look forward to many more years of serving my God.
CHAU!

I have become more Peruvian tan I realized. During this past week everyone has been bustling about during the mornings and evenings all bundled up in long sleeves and pants. No longer is the sun beating down on us, scorching us before we even have a chance to get out of bed. Infact, the temperature has dropped enough that we are actually sleeping with blankets, instead of sweating all night. Normally there comes a slightly cold season during June; but unlike everything else in Peru, this cold weather was actually a little early. The first day this crazy weather hit we all grabbed our sweatshirts and huddled in a room with only one small window (glass on windows does not really exist here, if you are lucky you will have screens to keep the bugs out, therefore cold air can enter the house freely). There we were all bundled up, avoiding any moving air, thinking how odd it must be for Peru to have nearly freezing temperatures. Then we stumbled upon a thermometer…only to find out that the temperature was really 72 F.

So turns out that we all had to go out and clear jungle land, so that we could plant some Palm trees for Palm oil. This is what I looked like at the end of the day. We had burned the area previously so we were working with ash. Working with a machete is great fun...even if it does give you blisters. As the say here in Peru - a machete is your best friend. :)

Brittany and I taking a coco brake while we were working on the contruction site in Inahuaya.

Now that we have officially entered dry season, leaving the rainy season in the dust, we have begun to have rain. Crazy. Normally with April showers come May flowers; but here with April showers come gripes (colds). So we found ourselves once again heading up another medical clinic. This time we were lucky to have a large group from Michigan and Texas help us. This was by far one of the busiest clinics we have had with attending 1500 patients in four and a half days. Thankfully we had 5 doctors. My main job this clinic was to work as a translator for some of the doctors. Kept me busy…and by the end of the week I had talked so much that my voice was completely alienated. My voice is still somewhere off in space, lost in translation.

No matter where you go, you’ll find it. In whichever restaurant you dine, it will be there too, perched atop every table. You see, here in Peru every table not only has the standard red, white and yellow bottles half filled with ketchup, mustard or mayonnaise, but accompanying this triplet is the glorious green bottle. This magical green bottle is filled with an uber tasty aji sauce (a slightly spicy sauce usually made from yellow peppers). Any meal can always be dressed up with aji sauce. Sure the food is good without it, but drizzle a little aji on your food and the world is a better place.
Just the other day while happily chewing on the standard white rice, converted to the tasty side by aji, I was struck with an epiphany. Life can be a lot like food and God like the aji. We can live our life day to day and do alright. Our lives have a little bit of flavor, but then one day God comes along. All of the sudden our lives are bursting with flavor and spice. Looking back we can see that we were just living, but now, with aji, we are alive. Never again will we want to go back to plain old rice, we will be continuously seeking the aji. Once you’ve tasted life with God, you’ll be seeking him for the rest of your life. So drizzle on the aji and let your life come alive.

Lauren, Josh and I chillin on a Pekipeki...cruzing around on the mighty Ucayali river.
We spent a month in Inahuaya, a little village on the Ucayali river, doing some clinics, health lessons, rebuilding a collapsing church, evagelistic meetings and socializing with the local villagers. It was a great month and a cool new eye opener to more of the peruvian culture of the jungle.