if you didn't catch my blog yesterday, go back and read part one first. do as you're told. gracias. and you can check out my photos from the trip here.
we got to peru late afternoon on monday. it felt so good to just BE in peru. what i was not prepared for was our first bus ride...or really any of our bus rides. when i say they drive like maniacs down there - i mean, take the volume of cars in new york, add the aggressiveness of new york drivers and then take out all of the laws, rules, road surveillance, patrol cars, common decency & logic. americans beep and scream obscenities for cutting them off. peruvians just beep. all the time. it never stops. it's their way of telling you their cutting you off. when you wanna switch lanes or a lane ends, it's really just a matter of who gets there first. i could reach out and touch another car at almost any moment. that first ride was terrifying. and people laughed at me for freaking out. imagine that. :)
we got to yeyas, our hostel and ate dinner and had a meeting and prepared for our work days. the guys that were already there went to our scheduled site for monday and did what they could with who and what they had. our entire children's team was in chile. we had a lot of the medical supplies. but God can do much with little. and i know they reached the people they were called to that day.
the next day we went to the freys' church. alan and diane frey are some of the best people i've ever met. they've been in peru since 1984. and they have the kind of hearts i hope to have. {annnnnd, i'm tearing up. didn't take long. never does ha!} we met the most beautiful and loving people that day. we met little stephanie who is 7 and shocked us all by being bilingual. i hired her as my interpreter for about an hour. ;) she's bilingual because of time she spent in new york last year. her dad lives in new york and works there to support her, her mother, and her baby brother in lima. heart = broken. she was funny and she was beautiful and she was wearing yellow. no coincidence there. :)
i got to meet and talk to some of our team that day too. there were people with us from mansfield, ohio and from the freys' home church {our connection is that chad, our leader from origins, grew up knowing the freys at the same church outside of chicago}. everyone that was with us was amazing. and david, a college kid from chicago, guessed my age at 21 so we quickly became best friends. obviously. :)
i met a woman, whose name i couldn't pronounce, when i was doing her nails. she knew a little english and i could tell she was trying hard. she ended up coming back 2 days later to another site we were at with juice she made for me {that i felt awful not being able to drink because there's no way to know if she boiled the water but she doesn't know i didn't. whew!} and asked me write on the back of a picture of us so she could practice her english even more. i told her i hope to see her next year and that she knows more english...and that i know more spanish. :) she is a sweet, sweet woman. and i hope i get to hug her again.
that night, we were going to the mall. i didn't feel great that afternoon, but i was okay. by the time we got to the mall, i knew i wasn't feeling well at all. the final nail in the coffin was when everyone got ice cream and i didn't want any. if you know me, you know that i never pass on ice cream. it just doesn't happen. so then i knew i was sick. i just needed to get back to the hostel. well to do that, a typical peruvian bus ride was in order. and that bus ride did me in. i rode with my face covered and dalene's voice in my ear telling me we were almost there {and we never were ha!} and because i'm me, i started crying. i just didn't want to get sick on that bus. we pulled in front of yeyas and people cleared for me to run in. my room was locked so brandon and tara ran up to theirs with me and {bless their hearts} i got sick in their bathroom. thought it was over. it wasn't. i was sick all night long. and devastated. the next day was the orphanage and i was dying to go.
so i went. sick or not. and lasted half the day before i got sent back to yeyas to sleep it off. which i'm so glad i did. by the time i woke up from that nap, i was good to go. thank you Jesus! my short time at the orphanage was great. i saw some of the most beautiful children in the world. and got to love on them. doesn't get much better than that. we went to the fountains in downtown lima that night. make sure you check out the pictures of that. so beautiful.
the next day was very much like the first. the doctors saw a bunch of patients, which was awesome and we got to love on the people. peruvian people are so loving. it was hard to say goodbye to them that day.
and the goodbyes continued. we had our final meeting that night with the groups we worked with in lima. addy, a 29 year old angel with a vision to reach her people, shared that vision and her needs with us. the men from origins laid hands and prayed over our peruvian friends and partners {i cried. like a baby.} and they gave us gifts for coming to them and hugged us goodbye. a woman i hadn't even talked to all week brought me a gift, hugged me, and in english said "i love you". {weeping over here.} and i know that she meant it. and i love her too. i can't tell you how quickly my heart was won by these people. what little we did meant the world to them. and their smiles meant the world to us.
that same night, back at yeyas, a few people shared their hearts. if i thought i had cried before, i hadn't even started. a man named tim that goes to our church got up to share his heart. i'm not going to tell his story because i wouldn't do it justice. but it's the beauty of my time in peru. i was encouraged and inspired and changed by the people we met. and that night, i was encouraged and inspired and changed by his daughter lauren, a girl i already know.
that night back in our room, we talked about our week there. God had provided money for people in his last-minute way. he didn't for me. not that i didn't have an incredible help from the people in my life, i did. but i paid a lot of my trip myself. and there were expenses outside of the money we needed that were costly and difficult and came at a time when business was slow and expenses were high. i wasn't bitter about paying it, it was just hard. and that night, sitting in that room, i realized that i would pay it all again for that experience. i almost think God wanted me to pay it. because he knew i didn't have the money. but he also knew peru was where i was supposed to be. and now, in hindsight, he has repaid me in full. and i'd spend twice as much next year for half of the blessings from my week there.
the first night, scotty {my incredible pastor} challenged us to pray over the question, "why am i here?" and there are easy answers there. "to change lives", "to change me"...and while they sound cliche, they're true. but i had to get specific with my prayer. and in no time he showed me. the change that needed to happen inside of me was more than i think i had even realized.
and he changed my heart last week.
and a little bit of that heart {okay maybe a big part of it} is still there in lima. and very well might always be. i'm okay with that. :)
i came back to the states with a new appreciation for my american life, with a deeper love for my savior, a newly found love for his children in peru, an intense gratefulness for the people i'm blessed to serve with at origins, and a beautiful reminder of hope. my entire time there screamed hope. hope for the people of peru, hope for all of us - the hope we have in Jesus Christ.
it would be impossible for me to walk away from my time there and not know that life is yellow.
it is so, so yellow.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
i left a little piece of my heart in peru {part TWO}
if you didn't catch my blog yesterday, go back and read part one first. do as you're told. gracias. and you can check out my photos from the trip here.
we got to peru late afternoon on monday. it felt so good to just BE in peru. what i was not prepared for was our first bus ride...or really any of our bus rides. when i say they drive like maniacs down there - i mean, take the volume of cars in new york, add the aggressiveness of new york drivers and then take out all of the laws, rules, road surveillance, patrol cars, common decency & logic. americans beep and scream obscenities for cutting them off. peruvians just beep. all the time. it never stops. it's their way of telling you their cutting you off. when you wanna switch lanes or a lane ends, it's really just a matter of who gets there first. i could reach out and touch another car at almost any moment. that first ride was terrifying. and people laughed at me for freaking out. imagine that. :)
we got to yeyas, our hostel and ate dinner and had a meeting and prepared for our work days. the guys that were already there went to our scheduled site for monday and did what they could with who and what they had. our entire children's team was in chile. we had a lot of the medical supplies. but God can do much with little. and i know they reached the people they were called to that day.
the next day we went to the freys' church. alan and diane frey are some of the best people i've ever met. they've been in peru since 1984. and they have the kind of hearts i hope to have. {annnnnd, i'm tearing up. didn't take long. never does ha!} we met the most beautiful and loving people that day. we met little stephanie who is 7 and shocked us all by being bilingual. i hired her as my interpreter for about an hour. ;) she's bilingual because of time she spent in new york last year. her dad lives in new york and works there to support her, her mother, and her baby brother in lima. heart = broken. she was funny and she was beautiful and she was wearing yellow. no coincidence there. :)
i got to meet and talk to some of our team that day too. there were people with us from mansfield, ohio and from the freys' home church {our connection is that chad, our leader from origins, grew up knowing the freys at the same church outside of chicago}. everyone that was with us was amazing. and david, a college kid from chicago, guessed my age at 21 so we quickly became best friends. obviously. :)
i met a woman, whose name i couldn't pronounce, when i was doing her nails. she knew a little english and i could tell she was trying hard. she ended up coming back 2 days later to another site we were at with juice she made for me {that i felt awful not being able to drink because there's no way to know if she boiled the water but she doesn't know i didn't. whew!} and asked me write on the back of a picture of us so she could practice her english even more. i told her i hope to see her next year and that she knows more english...and that i know more spanish. :) she is a sweet, sweet woman. and i hope i get to hug her again.
that night, we were going to the mall. i didn't feel great that afternoon, but i was okay. by the time we got to the mall, i knew i wasn't feeling well at all. the final nail in the coffin was when everyone got ice cream and i didn't want any. if you know me, you know that i never pass on ice cream. it just doesn't happen. so then i knew i was sick. i just needed to get back to the hostel. well to do that, a typical peruvian bus ride was in order. and that bus ride did me in. i rode with my face covered and dalene's voice in my ear telling me we were almost there {and we never were ha!} and because i'm me, i started crying. i just didn't want to get sick on that bus. we pulled in front of yeyas and people cleared for me to run in. my room was locked so brandon and tara ran up to theirs with me and {bless their hearts} i got sick in their bathroom. thought it was over. it wasn't. i was sick all night long. and devastated. the next day was the orphanage and i was dying to go.
so i went. sick or not. and lasted half the day before i got sent back to yeyas to sleep it off. which i'm so glad i did. by the time i woke up from that nap, i was good to go. thank you Jesus! my short time at the orphanage was great. i saw some of the most beautiful children in the world. and got to love on them. doesn't get much better than that. we went to the fountains in downtown lima that night. make sure you check out the pictures of that. so beautiful.
peruvian people are so loving. it was hard to say goodbye to them that day.
and the goodbyes continued. we had our final meeting that night with the groups we worked with in lima. addy, a 29 year old angel with a vision to reach her people, shared that vision and her needs with us. the men from origins laid hands and prayed over our peruvian friends and partners {i cried. like a baby.} and they gave us gifts for coming to them and hugged us goodbye. a woman i hadn't even talked to all week brought me a gift, hugged me, and in english said "i love you". {weeping over here.} and i know that she meant it. and i love her too. i can't tell you how quickly my heart was won by these people. what little we did meant the world to them. and their smiles meant the world to us.
that same night, back at yeyas, a few people shared their hearts. if i thought i had cried before, i hadn't even started. a man named tim that goes to our church got up to share his heart. i'm not going to tell his story because i wouldn't do it justice. but it's the beauty of my time in peru. i was encouraged and inspired and changed by the people we met. and that night, i was encouraged and inspired and changed by his daughter lauren, a girl i already know.
that night back in our room, we talked about our week there. God had provided money for people in his last-minute way. he didn't for me. not that i didn't have an incredible help from the people in my life, i did. but i paid a lot of my trip myself. and there were expenses outside of the money we needed that were costly and difficult and came at a time when business was slow and expenses were high. i wasn't bitter about paying it, it was just hard. and that night, sitting in that room, i realized that i would pay it all again for that experience. i almost think God wanted me to pay it. because he knew i didn't have the money. but he also knew peru was where i was supposed to be. and now, in hindsight, he has repaid me in full. and i'd spend twice as much next year for half of the blessings from my week there.
the first night, scotty {my incredible pastor} challenged us to pray over the question, "why am i here?" and there are easy answers there. "to change lives", "to change me"...and while they sound cliche, they're true. but i had to get specific with my prayer. and in no time he showed me. the change that needed to happen inside of me was more than i think i had even realized.
and he changed my heart last week.
and a little bit of that heart {okay maybe a big part of it} is still there in lima. and very well might always be. i'm okay with that. :)
i came back to the states with a new appreciation for my american life, with a deeper love for my savior, a newly found love for his children in peru, an intense gratefulness for the people i'm blessed to serve with at origins, and a beautiful reminder of hope. my entire time there screamed hope. hope for the people of peru, hope for all of us - the hope we have in Jesus Christ.
it would be impossible for me to walk away from my time there and not know that life is yellow.
it is so, so yellow.
we got to peru late afternoon on monday. it felt so good to just BE in peru. what i was not prepared for was our first bus ride...or really any of our bus rides. when i say they drive like maniacs down there - i mean, take the volume of cars in new york, add the aggressiveness of new york drivers and then take out all of the laws, rules, road surveillance, patrol cars, common decency & logic. americans beep and scream obscenities for cutting them off. peruvians just beep. all the time. it never stops. it's their way of telling you their cutting you off. when you wanna switch lanes or a lane ends, it's really just a matter of who gets there first. i could reach out and touch another car at almost any moment. that first ride was terrifying. and people laughed at me for freaking out. imagine that. :)
we got to yeyas, our hostel and ate dinner and had a meeting and prepared for our work days. the guys that were already there went to our scheduled site for monday and did what they could with who and what they had. our entire children's team was in chile. we had a lot of the medical supplies. but God can do much with little. and i know they reached the people they were called to that day.
the next day we went to the freys' church. alan and diane frey are some of the best people i've ever met. they've been in peru since 1984. and they have the kind of hearts i hope to have. {annnnnd, i'm tearing up. didn't take long. never does ha!} we met the most beautiful and loving people that day. we met little stephanie who is 7 and shocked us all by being bilingual. i hired her as my interpreter for about an hour. ;) she's bilingual because of time she spent in new york last year. her dad lives in new york and works there to support her, her mother, and her baby brother in lima. heart = broken. she was funny and she was beautiful and she was wearing yellow. no coincidence there. :)
i got to meet and talk to some of our team that day too. there were people with us from mansfield, ohio and from the freys' home church {our connection is that chad, our leader from origins, grew up knowing the freys at the same church outside of chicago}. everyone that was with us was amazing. and david, a college kid from chicago, guessed my age at 21 so we quickly became best friends. obviously. :)
i met a woman, whose name i couldn't pronounce, when i was doing her nails. she knew a little english and i could tell she was trying hard. she ended up coming back 2 days later to another site we were at with juice she made for me {that i felt awful not being able to drink because there's no way to know if she boiled the water but she doesn't know i didn't. whew!} and asked me write on the back of a picture of us so she could practice her english even more. i told her i hope to see her next year and that she knows more english...and that i know more spanish. :) she is a sweet, sweet woman. and i hope i get to hug her again.
that night, we were going to the mall. i didn't feel great that afternoon, but i was okay. by the time we got to the mall, i knew i wasn't feeling well at all. the final nail in the coffin was when everyone got ice cream and i didn't want any. if you know me, you know that i never pass on ice cream. it just doesn't happen. so then i knew i was sick. i just needed to get back to the hostel. well to do that, a typical peruvian bus ride was in order. and that bus ride did me in. i rode with my face covered and dalene's voice in my ear telling me we were almost there {and we never were ha!} and because i'm me, i started crying. i just didn't want to get sick on that bus. we pulled in front of yeyas and people cleared for me to run in. my room was locked so brandon and tara ran up to theirs with me and {bless their hearts} i got sick in their bathroom. thought it was over. it wasn't. i was sick all night long. and devastated. the next day was the orphanage and i was dying to go.
so i went. sick or not. and lasted half the day before i got sent back to yeyas to sleep it off. which i'm so glad i did. by the time i woke up from that nap, i was good to go. thank you Jesus! my short time at the orphanage was great. i saw some of the most beautiful children in the world. and got to love on them. doesn't get much better than that. we went to the fountains in downtown lima that night. make sure you check out the pictures of that. so beautiful.
peruvian people are so loving. it was hard to say goodbye to them that day.
and the goodbyes continued. we had our final meeting that night with the groups we worked with in lima. addy, a 29 year old angel with a vision to reach her people, shared that vision and her needs with us. the men from origins laid hands and prayed over our peruvian friends and partners {i cried. like a baby.} and they gave us gifts for coming to them and hugged us goodbye. a woman i hadn't even talked to all week brought me a gift, hugged me, and in english said "i love you". {weeping over here.} and i know that she meant it. and i love her too. i can't tell you how quickly my heart was won by these people. what little we did meant the world to them. and their smiles meant the world to us.
that same night, back at yeyas, a few people shared their hearts. if i thought i had cried before, i hadn't even started. a man named tim that goes to our church got up to share his heart. i'm not going to tell his story because i wouldn't do it justice. but it's the beauty of my time in peru. i was encouraged and inspired and changed by the people we met. and that night, i was encouraged and inspired and changed by his daughter lauren, a girl i already know.
that night back in our room, we talked about our week there. God had provided money for people in his last-minute way. he didn't for me. not that i didn't have an incredible help from the people in my life, i did. but i paid a lot of my trip myself. and there were expenses outside of the money we needed that were costly and difficult and came at a time when business was slow and expenses were high. i wasn't bitter about paying it, it was just hard. and that night, sitting in that room, i realized that i would pay it all again for that experience. i almost think God wanted me to pay it. because he knew i didn't have the money. but he also knew peru was where i was supposed to be. and now, in hindsight, he has repaid me in full. and i'd spend twice as much next year for half of the blessings from my week there.
the first night, scotty {my incredible pastor} challenged us to pray over the question, "why am i here?" and there are easy answers there. "to change lives", "to change me"...and while they sound cliche, they're true. but i had to get specific with my prayer. and in no time he showed me. the change that needed to happen inside of me was more than i think i had even realized.
and he changed my heart last week.
and a little bit of that heart {okay maybe a big part of it} is still there in lima. and very well might always be. i'm okay with that. :)
i came back to the states with a new appreciation for my american life, with a deeper love for my savior, a newly found love for his children in peru, an intense gratefulness for the people i'm blessed to serve with at origins, and a beautiful reminder of hope. my entire time there screamed hope. hope for the people of peru, hope for all of us - the hope we have in Jesus Christ.
it would be impossible for me to walk away from my time there and not know that life is yellow.
it is so, so yellow.
Monday, January 23, 2012
i left a little piece of my heart in peru {part ONE}
i blog about what shoes i'm wearing so we all knew i'd blog about this.
this might be long - just a warning. not only because i have a tendency to talk/write/communicate more than the average bear but because there is so much to tell you. i'm going to tell you about the first few days today. tomorrow, you get the good stuff. :)
the first few days of the trip feel like a blur. we knew that the travel portion would be difficult. long layovers, red-eye flights, bored children. we knew it would take a lot out of us. we didn't know we'd end up in a travel nightmare. {okay that was dramatic but i checked out the thesaurus and really, i couldn't come up with better than nightmare.}
we left Cincinnati at noon and got to NYC around 2. we didn't get on our plane for Lima until 10:45...and we were in the lamest terminal ever. but finally, we lined up to get on the packed out red-eye for Peru {who knew so many people would be on that flight?? i didn't.}. as i waited, i met a girl from england. her name was emma {making her all the more british} and she was simply lovely {there really isn't a more perfect british description}. i had no idea i'd spend the next 30 hours or so with emma but i'm glad i got to. she was sweet and had a beautiful accent and even looked like princess kate. she really did. when we got on the plane, lo and behold, she was sitting across the aisle from me. we talked many times over the next day and a half and when i didn't get to say bye to her 2 days later in Lima, i really did get sad. God lets us meet angels sometimes.
we were supposed to land in Lima around 7:30am saturday morning. well, we didn't. the pilot told us there was fog and he could circle for an hour and then he would have to take us to Ica, Chile which was a bus-ride away. alright, alright. i can deal with that. but an hour later when he was done circling, instead of taking us to Ica, he took us to Iquique, Chile which was even further away. of course, none of the staff could speak english and we were confused as to what was happening but i thought, "okay, we'll go to Iquique and get on another plane later today and go back to Peru." false. we got to Iquique, they wouldn't let us off the plane, they refueled, restocked, switched crews {took about an hour} and then flew us another 2 hours to Santiago, Chile which is just about as far south as I ever want to go. we were only off the plane about 10 minutes when we got the news - we'd be staying in Chile overnight.
it was only about 2pm their time when they told us. we didn't leave the airport for about 3 more hours. mind you, they had fed us breakfast at 6am and absolutely nothing since then. and for those of us who were scared of the breakfast, it had been a long time since we had eaten. we filled out customs and immigration forms since we were leaving the airport and then they told us we had to let them keep our passports at the airport.
umm, no.
first rule about your passport {rules according to rachel spears, that is}: don't let someone else keep it when you're in a foreign country. or really, ever. six countries had entry fees into Chile. US citizens were 3 times as much as anyone else's. interesting. and unless we wanted to pay them that money, we had to hand them over. this is where i started to freak out {hopefully, only internally but who knows what my face was saying}. it's one thing to get stuck at LAX. you're on American soil. it's all good. getting stuck in a country where no one speaks english and people are trying to take your passport is terrifying. maybe not to everyone in our group, but absolutely to me. taken, brokedown palace - all of these movies were popping into my head and i about lost it. i knew there were 21 of us {the rest of the group had come early, come from Cleveland, or come from Chicago} and the chances of something bad happening were slim but still - one too many lifetime movies will freak you out.
they ended up letting us keep our passports {thank you Jesus} and taking nearly 200 of us on buses through Santiago to our hotel. as we drove through Santiago, the pit in my stomach grew. i couldn't help but wonder where in the world they were taking us. through the entire city was a river. i honestly have no idea how it was even moving. it was the sludgiest {made that word up maybe?}, blackest, most garbage-infested "river" i've ever seen. along it's shores were piles and piles of garbage. in one place, i saw the river, a mountain of garbage next to and flowing into it, and a horse. just standing there. thinking about him drinking that water makes my stomach turn. i saw signs for hotels and hostels and the pit grew even more. we had kids with us, we have a lot of money's worth of supplies with us, we had...ME with us - we needed a safe place to stay. the bus ride took over 30 minutes and finally, the crazy bus driver turned us into the driveway for our destination for the evening.
the Crowne Plaza.
thank you Jesus.
it was beautiful. it was clean. and it was a mad house. they hurried us through registration and pushed us to the restaurant for dinner before it closed. i was so excited to eat! this was not American food however, but you wouldn't have noticed anyone was leery. we were too hungry to care. after dinner, i went up to my own room {which after being on a plane for a million hours was much needed} and for the first time in about 12 hours, there wasn't an ounce of frustration in me. the room was gorgeous. and when i opened the windows, i could have cried. Santiago was beautiful. it was surrounded by the Andes moutains on every side and from the my 24th {maybe it was 22nd. i was tired} floor view, i could see people still sunbathing on roofs at 8pm and the hustle and bustle and streetlights coming on far below. it was then that i realized, i probably would never go to Santiago, Chile in my life. and if did, it would probably be for something similar to what we were trying to get to Lima to do and it would most certainly not include me staying in the Crowne Plaza for free in a room with a view.
what an opportunity.
i took the best shower of my life and slept hard that night and woke up early to get ready for the airport. the Santiago airport was craziness and LAN {the airline. ugh.} had brought in a plane just for the 200-ish of us from the day before. we all spent that entire 30 some hours together. emma was there. and so were sonny and his cousin - 2 guys we met {that spoke english!} on the plane. and there was rafael. remember how i said God lets us meet angels? no exception here.
one of the guys with us, tim, was sitting next to rafael on the plane the day before. he was a Peruvian national living in America. so at the Santiago airport, at the Crowne Plaza, at the Santiago airport, all the way through when we walked out of customs in Lima and out of the airport, he translated for us, intervened for us, and saw us through. then he just said, "have a great time." and walked away. because of that language barrier, we most likely would have had an even harder time realizing what was going on, doing what we were asked, knowing what was coming, getting through customs. i believe God placed him next to tim on that plane. i hope years down the line, he remembers the 21 people traveling from Ohio to Peru to reach his people. we will surely remember him.
so we flew 4 hours to Lima and by the grace of God, and with the help of rafael, made it through customs easily. when you're carrying 42 army green duffel bags, they could make it really difficult for you or not want the headache. i'm so grateful they didn't want to deal with us that day. we were already so tired.
we walked outside into the heat of Lima. and then life got really yellow.
part two...tomorrow. :)
this might be long - just a warning. not only because i have a tendency to talk/write/communicate more than the average bear but because there is so much to tell you. i'm going to tell you about the first few days today. tomorrow, you get the good stuff. :)
the first few days of the trip feel like a blur. we knew that the travel portion would be difficult. long layovers, red-eye flights, bored children. we knew it would take a lot out of us. we didn't know we'd end up in a travel nightmare. {okay that was dramatic but i checked out the thesaurus and really, i couldn't come up with better than nightmare.}
we left Cincinnati at noon and got to NYC around 2. we didn't get on our plane for Lima until 10:45...and we were in the lamest terminal ever. but finally, we lined up to get on the packed out red-eye for Peru {who knew so many people would be on that flight?? i didn't.}. as i waited, i met a girl from england. her name was emma {making her all the more british} and she was simply lovely {there really isn't a more perfect british description}. i had no idea i'd spend the next 30 hours or so with emma but i'm glad i got to. she was sweet and had a beautiful accent and even looked like princess kate. she really did. when we got on the plane, lo and behold, she was sitting across the aisle from me. we talked many times over the next day and a half and when i didn't get to say bye to her 2 days later in Lima, i really did get sad. God lets us meet angels sometimes.
we were supposed to land in Lima around 7:30am saturday morning. well, we didn't. the pilot told us there was fog and he could circle for an hour and then he would have to take us to Ica, Chile which was a bus-ride away. alright, alright. i can deal with that. but an hour later when he was done circling, instead of taking us to Ica, he took us to Iquique, Chile which was even further away. of course, none of the staff could speak english and we were confused as to what was happening but i thought, "okay, we'll go to Iquique and get on another plane later today and go back to Peru." false. we got to Iquique, they wouldn't let us off the plane, they refueled, restocked, switched crews {took about an hour} and then flew us another 2 hours to Santiago, Chile which is just about as far south as I ever want to go. we were only off the plane about 10 minutes when we got the news - we'd be staying in Chile overnight.
it was only about 2pm their time when they told us. we didn't leave the airport for about 3 more hours. mind you, they had fed us breakfast at 6am and absolutely nothing since then. and for those of us who were scared of the breakfast, it had been a long time since we had eaten. we filled out customs and immigration forms since we were leaving the airport and then they told us we had to let them keep our passports at the airport.
umm, no.
first rule about your passport {rules according to rachel spears, that is}: don't let someone else keep it when you're in a foreign country. or really, ever. six countries had entry fees into Chile. US citizens were 3 times as much as anyone else's. interesting. and unless we wanted to pay them that money, we had to hand them over. this is where i started to freak out {hopefully, only internally but who knows what my face was saying}. it's one thing to get stuck at LAX. you're on American soil. it's all good. getting stuck in a country where no one speaks english and people are trying to take your passport is terrifying. maybe not to everyone in our group, but absolutely to me. taken, brokedown palace - all of these movies were popping into my head and i about lost it. i knew there were 21 of us {the rest of the group had come early, come from Cleveland, or come from Chicago} and the chances of something bad happening were slim but still - one too many lifetime movies will freak you out.
they ended up letting us keep our passports {thank you Jesus} and taking nearly 200 of us on buses through Santiago to our hotel. as we drove through Santiago, the pit in my stomach grew. i couldn't help but wonder where in the world they were taking us. through the entire city was a river. i honestly have no idea how it was even moving. it was the sludgiest {made that word up maybe?}, blackest, most garbage-infested "river" i've ever seen. along it's shores were piles and piles of garbage. in one place, i saw the river, a mountain of garbage next to and flowing into it, and a horse. just standing there. thinking about him drinking that water makes my stomach turn. i saw signs for hotels and hostels and the pit grew even more. we had kids with us, we have a lot of money's worth of supplies with us, we had...ME with us - we needed a safe place to stay. the bus ride took over 30 minutes and finally, the crazy bus driver turned us into the driveway for our destination for the evening.
the Crowne Plaza.
thank you Jesus.
it was beautiful. it was clean. and it was a mad house. they hurried us through registration and pushed us to the restaurant for dinner before it closed. i was so excited to eat! this was not American food however, but you wouldn't have noticed anyone was leery. we were too hungry to care. after dinner, i went up to my own room {which after being on a plane for a million hours was much needed} and for the first time in about 12 hours, there wasn't an ounce of frustration in me. the room was gorgeous. and when i opened the windows, i could have cried. Santiago was beautiful. it was surrounded by the Andes moutains on every side and from the my 24th {maybe it was 22nd. i was tired} floor view, i could see people still sunbathing on roofs at 8pm and the hustle and bustle and streetlights coming on far below. it was then that i realized, i probably would never go to Santiago, Chile in my life. and if did, it would probably be for something similar to what we were trying to get to Lima to do and it would most certainly not include me staying in the Crowne Plaza for free in a room with a view.
what an opportunity.
i took the best shower of my life and slept hard that night and woke up early to get ready for the airport. the Santiago airport was craziness and LAN {the airline. ugh.} had brought in a plane just for the 200-ish of us from the day before. we all spent that entire 30 some hours together. emma was there. and so were sonny and his cousin - 2 guys we met {that spoke english!} on the plane. and there was rafael. remember how i said God lets us meet angels? no exception here.
one of the guys with us, tim, was sitting next to rafael on the plane the day before. he was a Peruvian national living in America. so at the Santiago airport, at the Crowne Plaza, at the Santiago airport, all the way through when we walked out of customs in Lima and out of the airport, he translated for us, intervened for us, and saw us through. then he just said, "have a great time." and walked away. because of that language barrier, we most likely would have had an even harder time realizing what was going on, doing what we were asked, knowing what was coming, getting through customs. i believe God placed him next to tim on that plane. i hope years down the line, he remembers the 21 people traveling from Ohio to Peru to reach his people. we will surely remember him.
so we flew 4 hours to Lima and by the grace of God, and with the help of rafael, made it through customs easily. when you're carrying 42 army green duffel bags, they could make it really difficult for you or not want the headache. i'm so grateful they didn't want to deal with us that day. we were already so tired.
we walked outside into the heat of Lima. and then life got really yellow.
part two...tomorrow. :)
Friday, January 13, 2012
two years.
quick. go to facebook. read my last note i wrote on january 14, 2011. then come back.
awesome. now we both know what i'm about to talk about.
awesome. now we both know what i'm about to talk about.
it has been two years since i decided to change my life. hardest & best two years of my life.
the first year was mostly about change. this year has been mostly about adjustment & opportunity.
things that have happened since january 14, 2011:
i moved to landen.
i opened up the studio.
i went from a "photographer who does weddings" to a "wedding photographer". {totally different}
i went to LU for the first time since i graduated.
i visited jon in utah and alexandra in florida.
i became friends with people i've admired professionally for years and established myself among them.
i went from sometimes attending origins to plugging into a small group, being in the band every other week, and something else i'll touch on in a minute. :)
i finally got some tattoos. eek!
and obviously a lot more. those are my highlights. oh, and i'm sure you're thinking, "but how much more weight have you lost?" we'll get to that.
2011 in many ways was the best year of my life. moving to my little apartment with kennedy - no roommates - no family - has taught me so much. for instance, i really like living alone. but i really hate being alone. so obvi, the next apartment will be solo...but very close to people i love. :) i had a good deal of heartache this year. and there were times i sat in that apartment crying for hours. literally. when i couldn't rely on someone to distract me. i had to truly deal with my pain instead of locking it away like i've always done. that was terrible. and the best thing for me. i see that now. the time i've had to spend alone this year has been something i hated...and now am grateful for.
professionally, i couldn't have asked for a better year. the business grew and it grew the best way - word of mouth. i still don't pay for advertising on the websites that bring me the most business {and oh, how they call so that i will). in late 2010, i got overwhelmed and remember telling a friend, "ok fine. i'll do the weddings i've booked. but i'm not booking any more." and it was like God heard that and laughed at me because it was mere weeks after i said that when the weddings started pouring in. and they haven't stopped. i don't say that to brag. i am humbled by this opportunity to do what i love and am good at. to say both of those is rare, i know.
all of the good that has come this year, professionally and personally, i truly believe has come because of that decision i made on january 14, 2010. what does losing weight have to do with all of this?? everything.
i told you guys that i lost 114 pounds that first year. i truly think telling you that was more difficult for me than actually losing the weight! :) pride has always been a stumbling block for me. not being prideful in the cocky, holier-than-thou way but my pride has always hit in the form of a hard heart, a inclination to be funny instead of vulnerable, a decision to keep people away instead of letting them in. and when i started my journey to change physically, change emotionally, mentally, and spiritually came along for the ride whether i wanted it to or not.
year two has dealt with adjusting to those changes mostly in the demon commonly known as insecurity. this physical change brought every insecurity {that i didn't even know i had} to the surface and 2011 was a battle against those. but i won. well, correction, am winning. i'm not too sure when this battle will go away but i'll fight it to the death, believe that.
losing 114 pounds in a year just with hard work and wise choices was hard. i knew year two would produce less "astonishing" numbers and i was okay with that. i'm not in any rush. i just like getting healthier. my emotions got the best of me for a few months and i gained some weight back. that was difficult. but in year two, i lost 43 more pounds making the total 157 pounds {and again, my heart is racing telling you guys that}. still a ways to go, but i've got this. i've got this.
i know it's not january 14th. but i couldn't write this to you guys then because of that thing i mentioned earlier about origins. i leave on the 14th for Peru. we're going down there for a week to meet needs, share the gospel, and love on the Peruvian people. the fact that i am leaving to do this on the 2 year 'anniversary' of my life change is no coincidence. i can tell you with completely certainty, that i would have never done something like this before. that girl before was scared and apathetic. this one is free.
the two tattoos i got this year pretty much sum up this journey i'm on. i got tikvah - which is hebrew for 'hope' on my foot. hope is everything to me. hope is what gets me up in the morning, it's what let's me sleep well at night. romans 5:2-4 - through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. more than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope. <-- that is the desire of my heart.
the second tattoo i got is on my wrist so i can see it every day. it says kitpivos. people that don't really know me look so confused when i tell them what it means. anyone that does know me just smiles when i tell them. regardless of what this life brings to me, what mistakes i make, what opportunities i have or opportunities i miss, what goals i reach or which ones i fall short on, what progress i make or the times i stand still - i will forever look at my wrist and be reminded that this life is so yellow.
i so deeply appreciate all of the love and support i've been given the last 2 years. it is a humbling process. and one that i wouldn't take back. and so here's to year 3. i won't write a blog at the end of this one detailing my progress and successes - this is life now. a constant process of change and health - physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. at 26 years old, i am starting life over again because i choose to. come along for the ride?
it's going to be a yellow, yellow life.
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