Little things

I have really begun to realize the little things here. These little things bring me the greatest joy at times and I wanted to share some of them with you. When people ask me how I am doing, when I say I am great, that is an understatement and I hope this will help shed some light on the enormous amount of joy in my heart and the smile on my face (yes, Kelly, I will have some pretty awesome smile muscles when I return).

The children. For example, today when I was leaving the home to go to the internet, a child that I didn't recognize and I am pretty sure I don't know came running up to me shouting "PUNTO CORAZOOOOON" how could that not make me smile? Every day, there are children who come to our house for water and are often quite intrigued by the gringa but nonetheless, they give some of the best hugs I have ever gotten in my life.

The people.Again, I still don't know everybody's name, but when people see me, they will often stop to say hi to me and remember my name. Pretty awesome that after just one time of meeting someone, we are friends. They also help me with my Spanish at times, which is nice.

My community. AWESOME. We are all really crazy in our own ways and don't take ourselves seriously unless we need to. In other words, there are a lot of laughs in our house. Also, the love that my community gives me blows my mind. For example, I was having a rough time last week with this whole language business and went to the chapel and just sat there one night for a good 20-30 mins before Edgardo came in to ask me something. He saw I was upset and asked what was wrong. I said I was ok but really just needed a hug. He didn't probe the situation much more and just stood there and hugged me which was really all I needed to feel better. He is also like my big brother and even though the communication is still faulty at times, we have an understanding of when the other one is frustrated or we are often on the same wavelength...kind of weird at times.

Prayer. The first and foremost aspect of our life. Every day, I am in prayer about an average of 3 hours. An hour of Adoration, Mass, and Liturgy of the Hours. The fact that I have drastically changed this aspect of my life is wonderful. I have been able to receive many graces from it and without it, my time here would be much more difficult.

There are a lot of other little things that happen every day so I am often amazed by them and can't help but think "man my life is awesome right now, how am I ever going to leave this place?" In other words, I am extremely happy and for now, this is my home.
Take care.
Kari

Comida

When I knew I would be doing mission work, I accepted I would have to leave behind some of my favorite food and it was a sacrifice I was willing to make. At orientation, I was talking with Nati one night and she said that everyone she has seen come back from mission has lost weight. Well, I can assure you, that that probably won’t happen for me.

The people here pride themselves on the food they have, as they should. There are some ingredients that you can only find in Peru, for example, aji. It is a type of pepper that is quite spicy, but I am a fan of a little bit of it here and there. When I gave my presentation at orientation about Peru, I included a slide on the food and really didn’t spend much time on it. I did mention that Peru is nicknamed the “Gastronomical Capital of the Americas” which is so true. Apparently, Peru has the most unique dishes second only to France, go figure. I encourage you to Google the ones below that I have tried because they are interesting and you probably wouldn’t think I like them, but I haven’t met a dish I don’t like (with the exception of onion soup from France…)

Favorite to date: Aji de Gallina-has aji in it some chicken and is a thick yellow creamy sauce typically served over potatoes with half a hardboiled egg. I forget what else we typically eat with this, probably some vegetables of some sort. I am determined to learn how to make this dish and try to find a substitute for aji when I get back. If you ever go to a Peruvian restaurant, try this.

Ceviche-made with pota (octopus) or pescado (fish) that is uncooked. Now, I am not a sushi fan by any means, but man this stuff is good. I like it more with pota because of the texture factor. It is made with a lot of lime juice (freshly squeezed by hand), a little aji, onions (I eat around them and then give them to Flo) and some little herb that I don’t know the name of. Typically served with canchitas (basically it’s popcorn that isn’t popped but way better in my opinion), and camote. Now, in the states I don’t typically like camote because really, sweet potatoes aren’t my thing. I didn’t like the sweet potato fries at the Hut or McNellies and never put them on my plate at Thanksgiving. I don’t know why, but here, I LOVE THEM. They are quite delicious, and yes, I plan on making sweet potato fries one day when it is my turn to cook.

Chicharrones-basically, chicken nuggets, or whatever meat you make it with nuggets. Fried, but made fresh with real, 100% chicken! It was what I made on my first day of cooking this past Thursday. You add some garlic, ginger, and pepper to pieces of chicken that you have just cut and prepared from the body of the chicken itself (something I have no idea how to do so Edgardo did it for me) roll it in what I think is corn starch (still learning the translation of ingredients) and drop it in some hot oil.

Picarones-pretty sure this is God’s gift to me in Peru. It is kind of like a funnel cake but a little crispier and is served in circles, like donuts. They are quite scrumptious by themselves but with something very similar to syrup but not as thick, they are amazing. There is a lady that makes and sells them on the street in Pro where we go to mass at night if there is no mass in La Ensenada or we didn’t go in the morning. We have even gotten them free one time because it was late and she was closing down. Win.

Lunche-really this is the name of the hour at night when we eat. It isn’t dinner like I am used to, pretty much just finger food and appetizer type stuff. However, I have a new favorite and ya’ll should try it because everything is in the states. Bread (but not like sandwich bread, you need fresh rolls, ciabatta is good), avocado (my new fave thing ever), lime juice (again from freshly squeezed limes), salt, fried egg (I do over hard to avoid a mess), cheese if we have it, and ham (which is really bologna but sometimes we have the real stuff!). It sounds weird, but if you want a piece of what I am eating a few times a week, here ya go!

Cuy-aka Guinea Pig. So, the one time I have had this so far, I didn’t know beforehand that this is what we were going to eat. We went to the house of a friend and there were 3 decent sized cages of guinea pigs. Then I realized, that is where my “lunche” (it was supposed to be lunche for us but she prepared dinner) probably lived earlier that week. I tried to not think about that when served because I wanted to give it a fair shot, after all, these Peruvians know how to prepare their food. It wasn’t that bad. I lucked out and got a leg so it was like I was eating chicken. Slightly different texture and taste, but chicken in my mind.

Side dishes-Fresh veggies (yes, I am eating my veggies more here than I did in the states). Typically a mix of green beans (I have no idea how to say it in Spanish and forget the name every time because it is not “frijoles verde”), carrots, choclo (corn but not Iowa sweet corn that’s for sure), every now and then broccoli. These are tasty with a Chinese sauce that I thought was soy sauce but when I tried it, it was much sweeter. Puree aka MASHED POTATOES! I enjoy these in the states so every time we have them (at least once or twice a week) I feel a little more at home. However, I am going to make it a point to not eat these on my birthday this year since last year, mashed potatoes were my birthday cake because of my wisdom teeth coming out. Rice delicious. I love it in the states, but here I have learned a new trick to making it even more awesome. Adding a little bit of garlic to the pan. I love garlic and I love rice (they were always in my apartment last year) but I never thought of putting them together! Genius.

I am still learning my way around the market and how to cook with various ingredients. Also, I learned the hard way Wednesday night that I need to make sure we have the ingredients in our market for what I want to make so I am not scrambling the night before to find something to make. I had every intention of making lemon pepper chicken for my first day. Simple, easy, delicious. Well, we don’t have yellow lemons in our market. It was suggested I make it with lime but I wasn’t sure how it would taste so I ex-nayed that idea. I am hoping to find a simple recipe for how to make glazes out of fresh fruits because really, I think that ______ glazed chicken will be my specialty. For example, I have oranges and pineapples here. Both would make delicious glazes but I don’t know how to prepare them. So if any of you who read this have a simple recipe (I am talking real simple we don’t have fancy things and ingredients down here) please send it my way!

Well this is quite long so I am going to head out now. Take care!

Time to air you´re (insert adjective here) laundry

Hi friends!

I hope you are all doing just fine. No worries, I am still kickin it down here in Peru. Life has started to get somewhat normal (a term that really has no meaning in a Heart’s Home because every day is different and you just go with the flow).  I have begun the lovely adventure of doing laundry last week and today. Let me tell you, I still hate it.

The first time I did laundry I realized how exhausting it was and it made me rethink the definition of dirty. Thankfully, being a college student taught me it is ok to wear a shirt at least twice before washing it, however I am pretty sure my definition is quickly changing. There is a lot of dirt around my house, which I don’t mind at all, but that means my clothes are “dirty” after just one time. If I only wore something once, I would quickly run out of pants and would have a mountain of laundry every week. So, “dirty” is also a relative term here. Don’t get me wrong, I am still conscious of how I present myself to our friends and don’t wear the same thing day after day, I just think twice before throwing something in the dirty laundry.

So, you may be asking, how do I do my laundry now? Well friends, by hand. It has made me appreciate washing machines more in some areas, in others, I am thankful for having to wash it by hand. For example, in a washing machine, the work exerted to actually clean the clothes is minimal. However, I am able to load it full, which means I have more clothes to fold and put away. If you saw my room last year, you would understand that I hate doing this and clothes often shared my bed or a clean spot on the floor. Washing by hand, I don’t have as many clothes to put away at one time, it is kind of nice. Plus, here I don’t really have a floor or a bed big enough to put my clothes when I don’t want to put them away, so it has to be done asap.

The process: I am still figuring out the best way.

It is NOT: wash, rinse, hang for 2.5 days…I learned this the hard way and had to re wash most of my clothes after the first time I did laundry because they smelled a little sour (which I noticed after I put them on…fail)

It IS: (I think…) wash in sink, pre rinse in a bucket of water, rinse under the faucet, ring out well, soak in fabric softener for at least 10 mins, ring out REALLY WELL (I’m talking, my hands hurt after ringing them out), hang on the line (I have a strategy so that my unmentionables are concealed from Edagardo and any visitors we might have), right now, they are on the line for at least one day since there is a lot of moisture in the air, usually they hang for a 1.5 to 2 days. In the summer, apparently one day is sufficient since there isn’t a lot of humidity. During this whole process, it is essential to have music playing. I still keep my American tastes close at all times and play my ipod instead of the radio (even though Katy Perry is on it…). This means I often dance while doing laundry or Lore will come out and ask me the name of a song and then proceed to hum it because she knows it in Spanish or is familiar with the guitar part in it.

I am trying to laundry once a week so that I can have clean clothes and not run out, but also so I don’t have a lot of clothes to wash. We’ll see how well I keep this strategy up…

Si, soy una Gringa

So… I knew I would be out of place here, but it is just now hitting me how strange I am. Whenever I am out walking with someone on visits or to run errands, there are constantly whistles and other forms of catcalls, most of which I don’t yet understand…nor do I want to. One of our friends, Victoria, and others as well, constantly greet me by telling me how beautiful I am and things along those lines. That type of flattery I can handle, it’s respectable and I understand that a lot of our friends have probably never had an American talk to them.

However, on the other hand, I am also a freakshow down here. People will see me and gawk at me. Some kids in the neighborhood will say hi to everyone else but me…pretty sure it’s because I am blonde and extremely pale. Even the dogs will only bark at me instead of the others…which is no good since I am terrified of stray dogs (something I am quickly getting over).

I forget at times that I am quite the sight here since I am not constantly looking in a mirror. At mass this past Sunday, there is another volunteer here with some other organization, but he is from Germany and is just as white as me and more blonde. I was looking at him and thought of how strange he looked among all of the Peruvians. I am determined to go up to him when my Spanish is better (not even going to try to speak German…) and hope we can form a bond over being so out of place. However, we don’t typically go to that mass on Sundays so we will have to see if he is at a daily mass someday.

There are some areas where I am not so out of place. One includes El Centro, which is close to the other Punto. It is the historic part and a little touristy. Apparently, I will not be out of place when we go to Miraflores (if nothing else, I am asking to go for my birthday…). Edgardo informed me that there are a lot there. Hooray for not being alone!

Its all something that I am just going to have to get used to because it will be my life for the next 13.5 months.

Week 1

A lot happened this past week! I am starting to remember people´s names but I have met so many I can´t keep up! Right now I am at the sister´s house about 2 hours away for our day of rest. It is so beautiful out here. I want to go climb the ¨hills´´ that i call mountains but its quite cold so i´ll pass. I did my first attempt at laundry, yep, still don´t like it. I am not sure I was able to get my clothes dry enough to line dry by the time I retrun home tomorrow. We´ll find out.

Please keep the letters and emails coming, its a nice surprise whenever I am able to get on. Sorry this isn´t longer, the internet isn´t the best here.

Much love.

es mi vida...

y me encanta mucho!
i apologize for improper grammar and misspellings. its a new keyboard, give me time. i arrived safely, american airlines had a broken plane once we stopped in dallas (just like in rome!) so i was delayed there for about 1.5 hours. i made it to miami in time, but then realized i had to go back through security! thats ok right? its a latin american country and they´re always late...no, when i got to the gate ten mins before the boardin time on my ticket, it was almost all done! what is this! i wanst able to call home which really sucked but i called the next  morning and it was good.

i got home around 1 in the morning with the rest of my community. there are 5 of us!
lore-argentinain..speaks super fast...but has learned to slow down for me. she loves maroon 5 even though she has no idea what the lyrics are. shes the musician...i think i´m becoming the singer...who´d a thunk!
edgardo aka chipo-also argentinian that speaks fast but slows down for me. always with matte...which is my new fave form of caffeine...me gusta mucho!
seve-french permanent member of hearts home. she is currently on her way to spain for world youth day with a group of friends of hearts home from here. knows english! its been nice to have her help
florencia aka flosh aka flo-also french super helpful and knows some english too! she makes sure to keep me in the loop when i am lost!

whenever we go anywhere, we take a bus....but bus drivers here are crazy and its scary at times. i like it when its not crowded. when it is crowded, it stinks...literally, everyone is dressed warm and then everyone is giving off body heat...gross.

the last two days i have been going to the city with others for whatever reason. i´ve learned, shopping is def not my thing. i dont have the patience to even really accompany when we go shopping in el centro. but i love the market! its exactly like the movies.

i feel super spoiled right now...the popular soda here...tastes like bubblegum soda! the food is awesome, everyone is patient with me. the only down side is i sometimes forget i´m very gringa and much desired here. catcalls are plenty along with the stares...i kinda want to dye my hair...
my spanish is coming along quite well in only 2 days. i THINK i understand most of it, who knows! i still have issues forming my own sentences...its kinda like stage fright...

my address is different than in my first letter. that is the physical location of the house but the mail isnt super reliable...send letters to here:
Kari Stender
Puntos Corazon
APDO Postal 4607
Lima 100
Peru

there is so much more i could write but i´m a little hungry and want to go eat...love you all!

Good times and Goodbyes

Bear with me if this gets lengthy.

The last two weeks have been extremely hard but extremely joyful. I've learned that no matter how at peace I am with leaving my loved ones for at least 14 months, I can't do goodbyes. I have cried a lot and it's not always because I am sad I will miss out on these peoples lives while in Peru, but because I am just now truly coming to understand the love these people have for me. It can't be easy for DJ to always have his big sister running off on some adventure whether its to Tulsa for school, Colorado for the summer, or Peru for mission. My parents are letting there little girl go into the real world. Scary for any parent, however, my "real world" is not in a city with a job, but a foreign country among the poor. This love has brought me peace and has brought a different meaning to my life and the relationships I have in it.

As I was driving across the Midwest with my friend Beth, I also came to realize how much my friends are my family. I am having a really difficult time leaving them, especially since most of them are starting new adventures too that I want to be present for at all times. Whether it's planning a wedding, joining a religious order, doing mission work in Chicago, continuing in seminary, starting a job, going to grad school, I want to be there. I tell people to please write me and keep me updated. Even if I'm unable to reply quickly, I want to know what's going home. I'm sure when I leave Peru, I'll ask my friends there to do the same. This hit me especially at Abigail and Tim's wedding in July and especially yesterday at my sending forth mass. I was surrounded by people who have seen me at my best and happiest and at my saddest and my worst. Yet they love me and were there to celebrate the Eucharist and send me off to Peru. This was all emphasized by the fact that the sending forth mass was celebrated by Fr. Matt who has been with me the last 3 years and has helped grow and mature in my faith, answer my questions, and be a friend to me. It was at the Newman Center (Catholic student center) at TU. My home. I walked into the chapel yesterday and felt like I was at home. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, even to places. I was flooded with memories of sitting with Liz on the left hand side with some other Thetas and a few Chi Os and Lambda Chis when I first started going to mass again, and of sitting in the front with my brothers and sisters from Newman. I could keep going on about the Newman Center, but I'll get moving.

I finally have my visa! Praise God that adventure is over. The consulate was closed Friday when I tried to go get it (Peruvian 4th of July) so Marcel and I drove from Tulsa to Chicago Sunday night, got to the consulate, was there for 3 hours and, after a few more obstacles, frustrations, and a few tears, the Consul General gave me my visa. We booked it out of that city and I don't ever plan on going back except for a Cards Cubs game in Wrigley. That's it.

Even after having my visa, it isn't really hitting me that I'm leaving. It's like I'm saying goodbye but I don't know where I am going. I have no picture in my head of my home or new community. I can't even fathom what the Andes look like, what the food will be like. The only thing that keeps making its way into my head, is that in less than a week, my whole world will be in Spanish. YIKES! I've been practicing, but I feel I'll still be a fish outta water come Monday.

This week I am hanging out in Tulsa and not really thinking of leaving. I am doing my best to fit all of my friends in, if I don't give you a proper goodbye, I'm sorry, this week is crazy busy, I'm surprised I've had time to write this entry. Know that I love you and will be praying for you. I leave Sunday at 1030 am. My mom is coming to Tulsa and taking me to the airport (probably no the best way for us to leave each other but I couldn't imagine anyone else taking me) and I fly to Miami then Lima. Altogether it is about 8 hours in a plane so not too bad.

Thank you for the support. Next update most likely will be from the southern hemisphere where it's winter (not like Iowa thank God!).