What do you do when...

These are some of the things I have been faced with while living in Peru. The other night in Adoration, I was overwhelmed by the amount of trials and struggles I have been presented with and overcome because of the prayer life I have promised to live here. If it weren’t for the life of prayer or my faith, I am sure I would have broken down by now.

What do you do when:

-you hear a priest is essentially leaving his vocation

-a child tells you her dad beat her with a broom

-a child cries because you have to leave the orphanage and you are the only that visits her

-hear a permanent member has left the life of compassion because she fell in love

-hear a priest committed suicide

-a drunk knocks on the door at 6am wanting to show you a piece of wood

-live with someone you don’t always understand

-someone knocks on your door or waits outside almost every morning to invite themselves to breakfast

-you meet someone who has been bed-ridden for 14 years

-get a call at 630 am that a friend was cut in the face at a party

-are in an uncomfortable situation

-a friend is thrown out of their place

-lose patience

-you have to say goodbye

-you miss the people you love

-find it difficult to pray

-you have no choice but to face the day

-can’t communicate

-are stressed

-you have silence

-you’re confused

-can’t communicate

-want to help but can’t

-a child can’t get into their house because their mom left for the day

-you get jealous

-you’re exhausted

-at the end of every day, you realize your life is beautiful

Sr. De Los Milagros

Señor de los Milagros is a big deal in Peru and the entire month of October has been declared a 2nd Easter in honor of it, that’s how big of a deal it is. The story comes from way back when (not in a galaxy far, far away) when a slave painted a picture of Jesus, Mary and an angel on the inside of a cave. The painting has survived many natural disasters such as earthquakes which destroyed everything else, except the painting. Naturally, a devotion to this painting grew. Today, the entire month of October is dedicated to this painting. It is currently housed in a church in downtown Lima, Church of the Nazarenes (not sure on spelling). During the month of October, the painting leaves the church 3 times in procession. One of these times was October 18 and my community and I went to watch!

We left the house at 5 am to make the 630 mass. Just before the mass, the painting left the church in a solid gold frame that was carried by faithful men taking rather small steps. At the mass, there were numerous priests, seminarians, and the bishop. Communion was crazy and beautiful at the same time. There were so many people wanting to receive communion, but there was no organized manner of doing so, so there was a lot of pushing, yelling, and some people were using their elbows to push their way through, something my stomach didn’t appreciate too much. The crowd was ginormous. After the mass, the procession continued throughout the city streets, which has pictures made of flower petals decorating them. It was an interesting experience for sure but definitely worth the little sleep and bearing the crowds.

Lets Go Fly A Kite

Heart’s Home has been around for 21 years now, however, no house has ever reached 20 years of existence…until now! On October 16, we celebrated our home’s 20^th anniversary, the first house to reach this milestone! We didn’t have a big celebration because that is coming later in the year when Fr. Thierry is able to come. Instead, we spent the days beforehand making homemade kites to fly with the children on Sunday, being a Theta, I was definitely a little excited about this kite thing. It was an interesting process of trial and error as we figured out what worked best and what didn’t. We used a bamboo type material, string, and plastic bags. Very simple, but they flew better than any kite I have ever bought from a store. The kiddos made their own kites and on Sunday, we made our way up one of the giant hills near our house. Below are some pictures of the process and the flight. I hope you enjoy.

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.