Andean Knitting Adventures: Poncho #1

I know that I've been writing an insane amount of blog entries but it's just because I have so much to write about!

Welcome to Chapter 1 of Carrie's Andean Knitting Adventures

Poncho #1
I just finished my 3rd knitting project: a poncho! This being my 3rd knitting venture, I wanted to try something simple again that was not a scarf. A poncho seemed like the perfect option. I didn't have circular needles to do one complete peice so I found a pattern that used two different peices that would be put together. I found some fun brown yarn on Lana Lane (that's not really what the street is called but there are several yarn stores like Palacio de Lanas (Yarn Palace) there). My pattern was a little fancier with eyelet holes so I had to pay more attention to what I was doing. Sometimes I would stop in the middle of what I was doing and say..."wait did I just do a yarn over or a double knit??"

In the end my peices looked way shorter than I thought they should be. My faithful Spanish profesor and avid knitter explained that I knitted them too tightly. Whoops! I have so much to learn. In knitting there is something called gauge that I'm not sure that I get yet. Making tassels took a long time but was fun. The sewing together was a little stressful. I did a backstitch like the pattern said but found that it left too much of a bulge. So I took out the yarn I used to sew it together and tried again with something else that I made up. Probably an experienced knitter would gasp at how I sewed it together but thankfully the yarn itself is inconsistent in makeup so it hides any bad stitch up job.

Thus my poncho was finished on Wednesday night. I proudly wore my creation to work the next day only to discover that my poncho likes to leave a part of itself behind when you wear it! Hee hee... I guess if I knew more about yarns, I would have figured that out beforehand. Ah well, I still like it and it sure is cozy and warm...almost like wearing a blanket. I think I'm gonna appreciate it a whole bunch in the next couple of frigid months!

¡Feliz Dia Mami!

Mother's Day is a big deal here!

It's so big in fact that our school decided to do a special "Mother's Day Program" last Friday. This program had each class preparing weeks ahead for a special number. The four yr. olds did a "dance" to a song that we all got to know sooooo well. I did actually get put in charge of coming up with something but I did help with the 5 yr old class. They sang "Mothers, We Love You" (to the tune of "Yes, Jesus Loves Me"). I got to help teach them and to sing the verse. The night before our performance, Miss Wendy decided to add another element to the number by making 13 present costumes complete with head and arm holes.

Besides the numbers by the classes, there was a special introduction, a talk by a dad and a song by the teachers (we sang a hymn in 4 prt harmony English). At the end of the program the students gave their moms special presents that they had made and then we passed out cake to everyone! Phew, there was a lot of preparation that went into the program but thankfully it went pretty well. The day of the program was craziness trying to get the kids ready and the program actually started a half-hour late because of the tardiness of many parents!

Whew! I'm glad it's over.. thankfully we only have 3 big programs throughout the year! Our next program is in July for Peruvian Independence day and the last is in December for Christmas. pheww.....

Enjoy the pictures!
The 5 yr old production (I'm singing in the background)
Carlos Daniel, you make a great present
First Grade waits in the "wings" for their turn.
Second Grade presented a song and drama about the 99 sheep and the one that ran away.
The second grade kids also shared sweet words for each of their moms.
This is my buddy Reynaldo (4 yr old class) who somehow had to sit through all the numbers. Pobrecito!
The third grad class presented a sock hop dance to Petra's song "Friends" (in Spanish).
The two boys in the 3rd grade had their own special roles in the dance!
The 1-3 grades also sang a song in Spanish and English for their moms.

Adventures in High Altitude Cooking: High Tea Scones

Last Friday night all the missionary ladies and daughters were invited to Regina's house for a Mother/Daughter Tea. I don't have a mother or daughter here but since I am a daughter, I was included in the event. I wanted to bring something tea-like so I decided to bring cucumber sandwiches and scones.

The cucumber sandwiches were no trouble because cream cheese is currently available at the grocery store close by. White "north american" style sliced bread was also available (despite the popularity for fresh bread instead of the prepackaged kind). So, I created a lovely tray of cucumber sandwiches and decorated it with grapes.

Now for the SCONES!
Here are the steps to Scone Making in Peru:

1. Find scone recipes and translate them to Spanish...all the while learning new words for "flatten", "triangular peices" and "cookie sheet".

2. Leave recipes for your faithful housekeeper.

3. Come home to find your poor housekeeper (who never even heard of scones) having some difficulties.

4. Help out your housekeeper and end up with scones that actually look like scones (instead of burnt cookies).

5. Enjoy the scones during the tea (and the "scone cookies" for the rest of the week).

The Cream:
The second step to the tea time snacks was to create a fake Devonshire or clotted cream. I used cream cheese instead of the rare cheese (from the cream cheese family) that I'm sure is only available in the United Kingdom. I mixed the cream cheese with cream, sugar and vanilla. The result was delicious but unfortunately I forgot the cream at home for the tea. Ah well, I enjoyed eating it all week with the left-over scones and scone cookies. We even made another batch of it this week to eat with fruit salad!!! YUM!! I also took some scones and cream to my hard-working and faithful housekeeper who had to put up with this gringa's strange recipe!!!

Our tea was lovely! There were about 18 moms and kids and we had lots of yummy finger foods and deserts. Afterwards we had a little program with dances by Destiny, Hannah & Orianna, a poem, a reading of a letter and a piano duet. It was a very sweet evening and a wonderful way to spend my first TEA in PERU!!!

Sheltering One

I recently was studying the book of Ruth. It's such a lovely story of redemption and I always enjoy reading the story of how God took a widow who was a foreigner without hope (or children) and made her a part of the Messianic lineage. This time however I was struck by the godly character of Boaz!! What a hunk!

I guess I should explain that since I was a teenager, my friends and I have referred to great godly "guys" as trees. It really comes from Psalm 1 where the righteous man is described as a tree. A slightly immature "guy" might be a sapling but the really godly ones are OAKS!!

Boaz can definitely be classified as an oak. The Bible calls him a "man of standing"....someone who was rich and influencial and yet closely connected to his workers and his land. It's beautiful to see how Ruth finds herself under Boaz's "shade." This is how Boaz shows Ruth kindness:

1. PROVISION
Boaz provided work and food in abundance for Ruth and her mother-in-law. He had the workers pull out extra grain for her. He invited her to eat with him and provided water and more than enough food. He became Ruth and Naomi's source of food and provision and he was generous!!

2. PROTECTION
Boaz made sure that his workers treated Ruth with respect, he gave her a place among his servant girls and by inviting her to stay in his fields, he kept her from any harm that she might have suffered from men wanting to take advantage of a foreigner in dire straits.

3. RESPECT
Boaz spoke life to Ruth and he respected her. He told her how much he admired her for leaving her land/people and coming to Israel with her mother-in-law. He did not treat her like a "filthy foreigner" but he saw her character and respected her. He even said at one point that his fellow townsmen know that she is a woman of noble character.

As I studied this story, I realized that there is someone who is better than a billion Boaz's!! It's Christ! He is the ultimate tree in whom I find perfect SHELTER!!! In Christ, I have:

PROVISION:
"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness." 2 Peter 1:3

PROTECTION
"You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance." Psalm 32:7

RESPECT
"Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine." Isaiah 43:1

Wow! He is the ultimate Sheltering One and in his shade we find complete peace and blessing! Yay!

"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty." Psalm 91:1

Cusco: Quaint and Exciting

I know that my title sounds like some sort of tourist advertisement but this blog entry is honestly going to seem like it was paid for by the touris industry of Cusco. It all has to do with the delightful Saturday that I spent discovering the aforementioned town.

It all started out as a trip to the post office to try to reclaim another package. Yes, it was one of the dread #3 type of packages and the woman at the post office the day before had told me that I could come the next day at 9:00 to pick it up. She must have been confused because I discovered that the office was only open Mon-Fri (something I was pretty sure about but was hoping was wrong). The next thing to do was to find a notary for the letter that my housekeeper was going to take on Monday. I wasn't really sure where one was so I wandered up and down the cobblestone streets. I didn't not feel hurried or stressed and it was an excellent opportunity to explore a fascinating downtown. I happily discovered a couple artist supply stores but no notary. I found myself in Plaza Regocije and since it was such a beautiful sunny day and the fountain was splashing and happily calling me to come and stay for a bit, I took out my knitting and sat down to enjoy my favorite plaza. Besides a few people trying to sell me things and the men who were waiting for shoes to shine, I was pretty much left in peace. It was then and there that I decided that I had yet another reason to like Cusco: Pleasant plazas with happily dancing fountains...ahhhh....

Well, in case you are wondering, I found a notary and got home on the right combi (the last time I was downtown by myself, I got on the _wrong_ bus going somewhere I totally didn't want to go: UP!). Today, even though Marga had to wait for 3 hours, she was able to get my package out. I think the problem is mainly the people in the package area.... hummm...

My Saturday afternoon was spent planning for the next school week but on Saturday night I got to experience another face of Cusco: Cusco nightlife. Don't worry, I wasn't hanging out a discoteca! One of the teachers at my school, Luz invited me to come hang out with some of her friends from church. Since they usually hang out after youth group, I was invited to go to that first. It's a big church and the youth service was very exciting with great music and message. There were lots of jumping youths and since no one there knew that I was really too old for jumping around, I joined in!

After the service (it took a while to get out of there since several of the people were leaders), we headed downtown to La Nomade which is a quaint coffeehouse type of place. It had couch type chairs, low tables and games. There was live music that was a mix of jazz, blues and traditional Peruvian. Several of the band members were Christians and knew the people I came with. The music was very fun and besides the silly dancing that we were doing, we also got to dance with some of the band members. It was a small place and even though we were probably the only people not drinking, I think that we were the ones having the most fun. Those crazy Christians, they don't need alcohol to have fun! I taught them how to play Uno but one guy (who knew some English) kept saying: "One!" instead. It was great to actually have the chance to go out on the town! I was glad to get to know some other people and experience more of this quaint and exciting city.

The Package Ordeal

I got my first package here in Peru!! Yay! You would think that getting a package here would be a thrilling and exciting event. It is exciting but as I found out, it can also be quite an ordeal.

There are three types of packages that you can get here:

1. Small envelope packages that fit in the PO box
2. Bigger packages that are less than 1 kilo (2.2 pounds)
3. Packages that are over 2.2 pounds

The first is simple: you just get it out of your box. The second requires you to take a slip of paper to a window where they give you the package. The third is the tricky one. You also get a slip of paper in your box but you have to go to a different section of the post office that is only open certain hours.

My first package was over 8 pounds and thus found it's way into the third category! I never realized what a pain it would be to actually get the package. First of all, the certain hours happened to be during the week and during school hours. So, I tried to send my housekeeper with my ID and a letter giving her permission to pick up the package. She came back from the post office without the package because my letter had to be notarized! By this time it was Thursday afternoon and I had no time to find a notary before Friday. So, my package waited for me...

Thankfully, we had off on Monday so I thought I might be able to get my package out in the morning. I was told by others that the package room was open at 8:30am which was perfect because we had a missionary meeting at 9:00am with our administrator who was in town.. Unfortunately, when I got to the post office at 8:30, I discovered that the hours had changed from 9:00-12:30!!! Augh!!! So, since I was there I decided to wait... Unfortunately the room didn't open at 9am either! A woman came and got our papers and lined them up and we were told to wait for some "señor" who was coming. So, I waited impatiently and talked to my roommate on my cell about whether it was worth it to wait or just leave the center for our team meeting. I asked the woman if it would be less than 15 minutes. She said: "yes, yes the señor is coming!" Okay, so I impatiently waited over 15 minutes. In the end I knew that I couldn't wait any longer and that I needed to get my paper back and somehow try to send Marga again with a notarized letter. But when I went to ask the woman for my paper she said that I was next!! PHEW!!! So, I got my package. I had to pay a little for it being there since the 20th (I really don't think that they put my paper in our PO box that quick but it was only about one dollar and I was just soooooo glad to finally get my package).

Are you dying of curiosity to know what was in my 8 pound box?? Was it worth the ordeal?? YES! After all that trauma, my package was a very exciting box full of yarn, needles and knitting things. It came from PA from Suzanne who taught me how to knit. I foresee many exciting knitting projects in the future! The missionaries were laughing at me because of the contents of my package. We had been going through our personality profiles and most everyone is (in Myers Brigg) an SJ (sensing/judging). There are only two of us who are different and I'm totally different with my INFP profile. We were joking about my package fitting my personality. I guess they don't think that yarn is a normal package material. hee hee...

Here are pics of the famed package. Maybe I should check into DHL. I'm looking forward with excitment and trepidation to whenever my next package comes..... aughhhhhh.....

A Beautiful Day for Paseo

Sunday was a wonderful day! We had a joint service with the 9-10 groups associated with the Mennonite church here in this region of Peru. There were about 500 people from all over: Santa Teresa, Colquemarca, Cotabambas and more. There were people that were from communities over 5 hours away and stayed the weekend. We met out on the ground that we are believing (in faith) that God will provide for the school. It's a little more out in the campo (country) than even San Jeronimo and it was such a beautiful walk and wonderful to be out of the city for a little bit! The land & buidings are currently owned by the Presbyterian mission but they are willing to sell it to us at the original price that they purchased it at (which is a huge blessing but still a challenge at $250,000).






Different churches and groups presented songs and dances in traditional outfits. Here you can tell where someone is from because of the way that their traditional outfit looks like. It was a wonderful morning of giving praise to the Lord for the work that He is doing all over. Our mission jefe (boss) was there to give a word of encouragement and faith. We officially installed three new pastors who were already working in that type of role in various places. In the Latin culture the recognized role is so important for people -- they want strong leaders in place. So, it was good to recognize these men! Some have been sent out as missionaries from different places (one couple went from a warmer climate to a place up up up in the mountains). There was also an invitation and about 25 people responded. Please pray that they will grow in their new faith!




The dances and songs really were such a treat to see! One woman from one of the far places wrote a song of praise in Quechua and 4 people danced. I also had the opportunity to experience some of the Andean dances first hand! I danced with the girls from San Jeronimo and it was so much fun. We danced with the typical costume, sandals made from tires (they will last me for 50,000 miles - well, a looooong time!) and even yarn braids. A lot of the Andean woman will add on to their braids with black yarn. Most of us had rather short hair so we were really ADDING ON those braids. My braids were brown to match my hair of course! Our dance went well even though our leg decorations (ribbons wrapped up our legs) fell down and one girl lost her braid in the end! Don't worry, a little boy named Diego ran out to get it in the end. Hee hee... I've seen lots of people lose things during dances: ribbons, veils, flags, and even shoes but never before a braid!!! What an experience!







After the service we had lunch on the grass (chicken, potatoes, yucca from Santa Teresa & salad) in the hot sun. After lunch was a time of playing futbol (soccer) and volleyball or just sitting around and chatting with the hermanos (brothers). There was such a feeling of unity! Hallelujah that God is building the church of Peru, that He is using the country folk and the city folk and that many are being reached with His message of hope!!! Hallelujah!!!

Guess what??!!! It's Friday!

One of the things that I do in class every day is "Calendar Time." I have a little song that I sing, we talk about what day it is and put up a velcro number on our ladybug shaped calendar. Sometimes in order to get the kids to repeat the day I go up to each one and say: "Guess what?! It's Friday (or whatever day)!!" I find that touching each child and saying words is an excuse for them to hear the word several times. I'm not sure if it's an effective method but it is fun and they get such a kick out of it (saying "a mi, prof!" until they get their turn).

I really do like Friday! I think it's because it's a day in which I don't have to think about my class for the next day! It's a time to rest and rejuvenate! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.... It's not like I don't think about my classes all weekend long. In fact, so far Saturdays seem to be the day to plan for the next week. And next week is exam week so I need to start planning for my test. I've realized that tests are actually sort of scary for teachers too! We have to worry about whether the kids are actually learning anything or not. I think for me as an inexperienced teacher that it's especially scary because I don't necessarily know if my teaching methods are the best and etc. Thankfully, last month's exams went surprisingly well and the kids did alright with remembering.

I guess I should catch you all up on how teaching is going! Last week we were studying the letter "I" so we talked about insects, iguanas and ICE CREAM!! Some of the missionaries here have a plug-in ice cream maker so I decided to try to make ice cream in my classes. You had to put the container in the freezer for at least 24 hrs before and then add cream, milk and sugar in order to make the ice cream. I don't know what happened the first day but my ice cream didn't freeze and we just ended up with a chocolately sugary drink. The kids in the 4 yr old class were forgiving and obliged me with "que rico" remarks about the "ice cream." I tried to figure out what I did wrong and found out that it was better to mix the ingredients ahead of time before putting in the machine. So I turned the freezer at the school all the way up and put the container in to try it again for the next day. The second day it went much better and we actually had ice cream in the end (which is good because i think the kids in the 5 yr old class are less forgiving - funny what one year does). The only problem was that the day was cloudy and sooooooooo cold. After the ice cream, one little boy kept saying "tengo friiiiiiiiiiiioooooooooo" (I'm coooooooooold!).

This week has been the letter "O" (which is way easier for them because the Spanish "O" is closer). So, we talked about the color Orange, made owl puppets from importated lunch bags (they don't have them here) and otter tp roll crafts. We also learned some other colors and reviewed our shapes. I had a child who threw up, a child whose leg was peed on by another and several runny noses... yay! Today we had a birthday cake for Alex who loves cake (because he's more from the campo/country where cake is not a common occurence). He usually just has fruit for his snack time. You should see what some of these kids bring for snack!! One little boy always seems to have a 5 course meal and another brings things like lollipops or chocolate. Today during morning devotion time (we have it with all the grades together on Monday and Friday) it was the 4 yr. old class' turn to lead (each Fri. is a different grade). They had been working on it all week long but when it came down to it, only 3 of them wanted to really participate. One little boy, Reynaldo just sat on the stage looking angry while the drama (that he was supposed to be in) went on. He is only 3 and he is a child of extremes: joy when he's greeting you in the morning ("Hello Miss Carrie!" - he loves to say "Hello!") and anger when he doesn't get his way (he was angry yesterday because he didn't get a prize and he refused to pray before snacktime). Thankfully his moods don't last too long and he can quickly switch from one to the other. Ah, the life of a 3 and 4 yr. old!!!

I still have moments when I stop and say "I really don't know what I'm doing!!!" but for the most part I'm feeling like I'm falling into the rhythm of teaching these classes. I do hope that I'm teaching them what they need to know but at least it's kindergarten. Kindergarten has less pressure than the other grades because they still need a lot of play time and most of what you teach is just groundwork and something that will be repeated in the grades to come. phew! So, I guess I should be glad to have the kindergarteners than the older kids. Good thing God knows we He's doing even when I'm half confused!!!

Chile: Desert, Wildlife & Mountain Lakes

While we were in Chile we had the privilige of take a day tour up north to the highland area (called Antiplano). It was a gorgeous trip through the desert up to the Lauca National Park. We stopped several times along the way. The first stop was to view some ancient grafitti created in pre-Incan times with volcanic rock. We were quite a distance but you could still make out some of the figures on the dusty tan hills. There were figures of people, llamas & condors. Then we stopped at a little village to check out a small church and old cemetary.





The view along our drive was amazing! Of course we had to stop and take pictures at every overlook along the way! (In case you didn't figure it out yet, this post is going to be mostly pictures) We stopped at a "rest stop" to have a breakfast of bread & cheese with coca tea (for the altitude). We were going up and up and up!!




At one of our rest stops we were visited by some animals who were pets of the rest stop owners: an alpaca, a llama and a goat. They were really friendly and followed us around. The llama butted himself up against me (I think it was in a friendly manner) and the alpaca though also friendly was spitting (yes I kinda got spit on!). The goat made himself at home on our bus. He climbed up and proceeded to look around for a snack. I had to close somebody's backpack that held a tempting bag of chips. It was so funny!





After a couple hours of driving up, up, up we finally entered Lauca National Park and began to see a change in the terrain. There were more green things growning and much more water than the desert we had been traveling through. We also began to see many different types of interesting wildlife!

Guanaco

Vicuña
Vizcacha

Finally we made it to Lake Chungara, the highest lake in the world (at 4510m or 14,000 some feet)!! It was gorgeous and surrounded by several large snow covered mountains and volcanoes. We were so close to the Bolivian border that at least one of the mountains was actually located in Bolivia. It was such a serene scene with vicuña grazing and flamingos (yes, there are high altitude flamingos!). Well, you can take a peak at my pics that don't even begin to capture the beauty of God's creation! What a wonderful day!

Tables that Creep in the Night

Part of our day trip to the Antiplano in Chile was a stop at the high altitude pueblito called Parinacota. Parinacota is a veeeerrrrrryyyy small town that only has six families. I think that the town still exists only because of the tourists who come through town and buy snacks, souvenirs and snap pictures. The town boasts a main square complete with gazebo and dumm... dummm...dummm: a foosball machine! Yes folks there's not much to do in the middle of a national park so you might as well play foosball!


Dawn and Sunny the monkey try their hands at Parinacota's foosball. Woohoo!

Another very important part of the town in a 17th century church in whitewashed adobe. There are several churches that look very similar on the outside to the Parinacota church. The unique part about the church is the inside where the walls are covered with paintings. Among the paintings is a depiction of the crucifixion which uses Spanish conquistadors as soldiers! Another unique feature of this church is a small wooden table that is tied to a rope near the front of the church. The story is that this table likes to roam around at night and whenever it stops in front of a house, someone from that house dies. Over the years they've had to replace that rope but there the table stays tied up so that it doesn't creep around the town at night.

Now you and I might laugh at that story but it is really sad if you think about it. These people call themselves Catholics and yet they live in fear of a table that might creep by their house at night. There is such a mixture of Andean religion and catholicism in South America that binds people up in fear. The God of all creation is bigger and greater than any possessed table! God did not call us to live in fear but to be free as His people. The sad thing is that the people don't know this God, the God whose love casts out all fear. They choose to live in fear because it's all they know... what their parents did, what their grandparents did and so on. They need to know the truth of who God is so that they can be set free from the false traditions and deadly trap of fear. My prayer for the people here is that they would know this freedom!









And finally a picture of the famous table! Don't worry it's tied up.