Drip, Drip, Drop, Little April Showers…

One of the first things I noticed about Peru when I arrived was that it was hot. Nope, maybe that was an understatement…extremely hot. At first it was not too much of a mental change because I had just come from experiencing a hot and humid Tennessee summer. As time went on though, the heat began to get a little old. When the first day of spring arrived down here, I joked around with my friends that it actually seemed even hotter. Ponytails, tank tops, and shorts became my every day attire. Day after day of visiting in the hot sun, I would pray for rain so it would cool off a little bit. For weeks and weeks none came. As I heard different people talk about the rainy season I thought it sounded like a wonderful, perhaps too good to be true, myth. In my mind, rain almost every day would mean less dust, cooler weather, and pretty much everything else amazing! Therefore, for a long time counted down the weeks until this special time of year would come.

People had told me that rainy season could start as early as October but as the days continued flying by, I began to wonder. That is until about two weeks ago…It all started when I woke up in the middle of one night to hear some intense rain coming down (or at least it sounded like it on our tin roof). I remember thinking how nice and cool it was and then crawled into my sleeping bag. When I woke up again in the morning, the wonderfulness continued on. We set out our water buckets and got a ton of free water. Throughout the day, I visited families and enjoyed the refreshing weather. It seemed like rainy season was everything I had dreamed it would be…at first, but towards the end of the day, it was getting a little old.

Day two I woke up, though, to once again find the rain coming down off and on. By this point in time, I was tired of the rain. During the night my lightweight fleece sleeping bag hadn’t cut it, and therefore it had not been a super restful night. I was not looking forward to another shower out in the cold, and I wanted to actually have a dry towel when I got finished. While visiting I got soaked and came back to find that our house was flooding. We had to put everything up on the beds and tables and there was no where to sit or relax. Water had collected on our floor and mud was tracked all throughout our room and kitchen. Our toilet hole was now full of a grand mixture of feces, maggots and water. Our garbage pit was quickly filling with water too and was beginning to smell since we were unable to burn it. When riding in the motor cars, several times I was convinced we were going to completely slip and tip over. For several days all of this continued on, and finally I concluded that maybe rainy season was not all that it cracked up to be.

Since then the rain has cleared out a little bit, but many things are still drying out. The other day it was hot again and for the first time I think I actually enjoyed it. But my question is, why can’t I just be happy with the way things are, when they are that way?

It is interesting to me that so often in life we focus on the good things that are ahead of us. We don’t enjoy where we are at presently. Almost constantly I find myself looking to the future instead of focusing on the present. When I am in one place, I always want to be another, when I am part of one conversation, I always want to be a part of another, when I am with one person, I always want to be with another.

For a while, conversations amongst us SMs frequently would turn to discussing what we were going to do when we returned to the States. Here we are in another country having an amazing experience, but way too often think, only so many more months and then we will be able to go back home and continue on with our lives! But I know this is not what I should be thinking! I feel like this is something that I would really like to work on…being completely content with where I am at all times. I want to learn to enjoy exactly where God has placed me every moment of the day. Only when I have this attitude or change of mindset, do I think that I will be able to enjoy life to the full capacity God created me for.

(P.S. Had a really appealing picture of our bathroom to go with this, but forgot to put it on my zip. Sorry I guess you will just have to imagine :)....

What Will You Give Me?

As my friend Lauren was trying to decide this last spring where she should go as a SM, she also was determining which college to go through. She was finishing up with Pre-PA at SAU and after her year down here she was planning to head out to start Union’s PA program. So after much debating, she decided to kind-of go through both schools. Since being down here, Union has sent her several packages, e-mails, hand written letters, etc.
I also have several friends down here that are from Walla Walla. School just started for them a few weeks ago, and yesterday the SM coordinator from there faxed a wish list down here for my friends to check things they might want in a box.
For a long time, those of us from SAU heard nothing.
As of now SAU has been in session for about two months and has sent one e-mail asking for us to write articles for them and another saying a brief hello…no “how are you doing, tell us about life”…nada. Needless to say, as of lately, many of us from SAU have bitterly discussed our school’s support, or lack of. The other day, I even went as far as saying, “What is the point of a SM office if they don’t support the SMs while they are out!” After voicing that thought though, I was reminded by a fellow SM, with a slightly better attitude, that perhaps the office staff is often busy with more important stuff, like fundraising or preparing for the second semester SMs to go out. Wow, bull’s-eye, she was right on and had totally called me out. Whether the SAU SM office is in the right or in the wrong, my reaction to the situation had been really egocentric.
As I thought about this, I realized that often in life I look to see what I can get out of things, not what I can offer. I was dismayed to replay numerous situations in my head and realize how many times I have actually done things that outwardly seemed selfless, but have underlying selfish intentions…
*What can I get from sharing? I will give you some of my precious chocolate from the States, but when you get your next package you better give me some of your goodies…
*What can I get from helping others? I will visit that family with you, but when I need help with cooking supper you better jump at the opportunity…
*What can I get from being compassionate? I will listen to you and act as though I care, but when I need someone to be a sounding board for me after a rough day you better have the time to listen…
*What can I get from being a hard worker? I will work hard, but you better reward me and praise my work…
It was discouraging to see how in my daily life here, I could find so many examples where my every action perhaps were so self-centered. But the next question really hit me…
*What can I get from my relationship with God?...Wow, that was a solemn thought. Did I really do the same thing with God that often?
I catch myself way to often being ungrateful for what God does give me and spend my time griping about what I don’t feel like He is addressing quite the way I think He should. But in reality, it is amazing how much time the creator of the universe takes for me. He takes time to listen to all of my concerns and constantly is guiding me through life. How do I over and over again get discouraged and ask God why He is not doing more for me? In the whole scheme of things, He puts a lot more into the relationship that I do, He should honestly be the one feeling short changed! I need to spend more time thinking of ways that I can bring happiness to the One who gives my life purpose. I need to focus more on bringing glory and honor to God. He is doing way more than His part so it is probably about time for me to start pulling my part of our working relationship too.

Close, but No Banana

Well, I survived our first evangelistic series here. I am not quite sure I like the way that sounds, as if it was a really awful experience, but I definately feel like it was another one of those character building accomplishments…

Over the past two long weeks we have been holding a real deal evangelistic series. This would not have been too much work if it had been in place of our regular work load, but it actually was in addition to our daily work. After visiting people all day long, talking about health, giving out meds and glasses, and trying to complete evalutions, every evening us girl nurses were in charge of leading out a kids program for at least 40 kids. With all of us working together, at first the task was not too tiring, but as the evenings went on, the kids bécame more comfortable around us and a bit harder to manage. On top of that, I was, on a regular basis, being asked to lead out in the songs and talking at the beginning of the meetings as well. The program would start at seven every night, which really meant closer to eight, and then would go on til nine. Afterwards, goodbyes and taking kids home would easily drag into 10 or 11. If you would have talked with me before coming down here, I would have said that is actually getting to bed at a pretty decent time, but since being here I have become accostumed to crashing no later than nine.

So keeping this all in mind, this past Friday night once again found me pretty tired and fighting a cold. Three of the five girl nurses down here were not here for various health reasons so as I returned from my day of visiting, I knew my day had really just begun. As I tried to sort out last minute food shopping before Sabbath, dinner, kids program prep, picking up kids, etc. I honestly felt slightly overwhelmed. I recruited two other people to help out with the kids program, but by the end I really felt like in general it had been a one person effort. It was at this point in time that I ran into my all time favorite local, Caleb. Let me tell you a little about Caleb…Caleb is a guy that is about 20 years old that constantely is outside our fence peaking in through the cracks trying to talk to any white girl that will respond to him. At first, we tried to be nice to him because he is a little mentally slow, but now try to ignore him altogether. Well, after finishing the kids program Friday night, I was corned by Caleb and forced to be friendly even though he was the last person I wanted to talk to right then. Luckily, if that would be a good way of putting it, I was summonded by a girl because she said her friend was very sick. I went the girl and found that she was having an extreme anxiety attack. The next hour was full of trying to calm her down, talking to the doctor, and explaining things to the parents. Also, had to put up with a random evangelic pastor who snuck into our room and started yelling in prayer for her (a wonderful tactic for calming her down of course).

I woke up Sabbath morning, not feeling overly refreshed with my five hours of sleep and wishing for some extreme alone time. After preparing a quick breakfast for everyone though, I ran to check on the girl, then came back to prep for the kids Sabbath school. Sabbath school went okay, and getting the kids up front to sing for the adults went pretty smoothly. During church though, pure caos seemed to hit. Our little church was packed, probably with over 200 locals. With little direction, the other SMs and myself ran around frantically getting baptismal areas ready, doing crowd control, running the sound system (even though we had no clue how), and leading songs up front. At twelve the baptisms finally began in our little borrowed swimming pool. I was excited to see so many people lined up for the baptism, but was too busy to dwell on the fact for too long.

Finally, after everything was over and in general taken care of, I sat back during lunch and reviewed the days activities. At first, all I could think of was how unorganized and unefficient the whole thing had been, my initial reaction was pure frustration. It was about this time though, that one of the Bible workers informed me that 32 people had been baptized and that 20 more wanted to be baptized the following weekend. I could not believe it, what an huge amount of people had decided to make a decisión to be baptized just because of the work that we had been doing here! It was at that point in time that I realized how selfish I had been about the weekends events. Here I had been so focused on myself, that I totally overlooked the amazing work that God was doing with the people here. All along since being here, I had been praying that we would make a difference here, and had recently been discouraged with our progress. Here God was giving me actual concrete affirmation, and I had almost missed its significance.

It is amazing what God can do with those who are nothing, but offer themselves for His service..... But it is even more amazing what God can do when those people truly focus on their work and not themselves. I praise God that so many people chose to follow Him this weekend and appreciate His reassurance of the importance of our work here. But most of all, I appreciate God reminding me that it is not all about me. Life is always going to have its ups and downs, I just need to learn to constantely look a the big picture and remember what my actual purpose is, not only while I am here, but when I return to my normal life as well.

Things I’ve Found Are Not So Good To Do Here:

*Initiate a handshake-one should pretty much always give a hug or a kiss on the cheek (well, minus young guys and men…)

*Clap after someone gets up front during church-the correct way to applaud is to wave at the person (have decided it is better just to keep my hands in my pockets during programs to help me remember…)

*Give a high-five or a pound (kids will stare at you blankly)-thumbs up are definitely more popular. Working on it, but the kids are still missing the point a little, now they give high-fives for everything even if it is not appropriate for the situation…)

*Say hello as a greeting-people say it occasionally but usually stick with good day, afternoon, or evening depending on the time of day (usually I get mixed up and go through all of them before I get the right one…)

*To be on time-if so you might surprise people and throw them off guard, 10-15 minutes late will usually just about do it (see, I am not the only person who thinks being fashionably late is a bad thing…)

*Trying to correct people when they say your name wrong-American names are always slaughtered (I have decided to embrace the name “Brigny”, at least I am that now instead of gringa!)

*Ever admit to being single-everyone here is just as excited as to try hook you up with someone (maybe even more so than my friends and family in the States…)

*Bring up the topic of the weather-it doesn’t matter that it is roasting hot here everyday, if you bring up the weather, a local is bound to go off about how incredibly hot it is for at least ten minutes. (Usually this leads into the topic of the importance of you wearing more sun-block so that you won’t get any more tan, gotta keep that beautiful white skin…)

*Outwardly show too much interest in one child-you will inevitably be asked to be the child’s madrina (or godmother) which means that you will support a child the rest of their life, largely with money…

*Think that shorts and a tank will always cut it-last Sunday went to a youth social in my sofies and old navy tank top and found that everyone else was wearing banquet style of dresses-oops...

*Volunteer to pass out crayons during the kids part of our evangelistic program-no matter how you do it, having 50 kids fighting to get to you to get different colors of crayons is never a fun job (have found that grabbing a little cute kid and holding them in your arms usually exempts you from this job…)

*To spend too much time with the people-because you will learn to love them…