Week 1

Well, we have survived our first week in Peru. Getting here was an adventure. To save money we decided to sleep in the Lima airport rather than get a hostel for our 9 hour layover. Bad idea! After going through customs, finding out we had been ripped off on the exchange rate in Houston, and walking around aimlessly for a few minutes, we found the "perfect" place to put our stuff down and sleep. We got our sleeping bags and pillows out and were settling down to sleep when this Peruvian family comes and stands literally 1 foot away from us, talking loudly and pointing at the airplanes. We had mistakenly set up camp in front of a big window looking out over the tarmak and for the next 3 hours, various people came and stared out of the window for 30+ minutes. They were all so excited to see the airplanes take off. And these weren´t just kids. Grown men were giggling like little girls and counting the windows on the plane. Not only was it strange, but it was also extremely annoying at 4 in the morning. Finally we were able to check into our next flight around 5 am and we went through security where it was much more quiet. 

We landed in Pucallpa and were picked up and immediately driven to the clinic site and put to work. I went to the clinic and Brett went to the work site to help dig a hole for the foundation of the church. The community we are in is extremely primitive. No running water or electricity whatsoever. I´ll be living here for the next 2 months teaching English and doing Vacation Bible School with the kids and doing community outreach programs with them. Brett spent his days outside in the 95+ degree weather (not including humidity!) doing manual labor. He seems to be enjoying himself though.

I slept at the clinic site in a tent while Brett was shuttled back and forth from the worksite to the base camp (38 as they call it here because it is 38 km from Pucallpa) every morning at 7. He along with the 8 other manual labor workers are squashed in the back and on top of this tiny pickup truck (aka the camioneta) and they drive the 34 km to the worksite like this. It is actually a lot of fun! I got to ride on the top of the truck on the way back to 38 this weekend.
Brett has been assigned a church near the base camp and he will take turns preaching at the church on Sabbath. The church was pretty cool though. About three quarters of the people are kids so the service is quite fun. In the afternoon we put on a program for the kids and got to know them a little bit. I haven´t really started my job yet. The clinic part lasts a week and then we stay in the community and put on various programs for the people there. I´m looking forward to getting started though. So far we have been having a good time despite the rustic conditions and millions of bugs. The people here are really nice and have made us feel like part of the group already. It´s going to be a great semester.