Psalm 119:32

"I run in the path of your commands,for you have set my heart free."







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Moldable like putty


Abel-this is his smile...it is enough to make you laugh!

I think the title sums it all up. Is there really a need for me to go on any further? Well ok if you really want me to. So right now, at this point in my life, here in Peru, I feel rather like putty. You know silly putty. The stuff we all used to play with in our childhood. Ok and yes in our adulthood as well. According to dictionary.com silly putty is: "a brand of children's clay like modeling substance that can be shaped, stretched, rolled into a ball and bounced, etc".

So I would say that is also a definition of my life here at the alburgue. I am put in the most random places to do work. Some have even said that I have the weirdest job here. This week not only am I training Kevin to work, practicing with Juliana on rolling hair, gardening, and helping out in the kitchen, I am also helping my dear friend Becca do her job. She is covering the Amigos' house because their madre is out for 2 weeks on vacation. So Becca needs help with homework time, laundry, taking 2 of the kids to school, and many other odd jobs. I am her silly putty. I go, stretch, and mold into whatever she needs me to do. Including controlling the kids for 30 min so she can take a small nap. I guess I know somewhat of how my mother felt when we were all in the house running around. Cleaning in the morning and picking up after kids all day, the constant never ending laundry, helping with homework, gardening, and cooking these are difficult jobs. Really. Honestly. It has been a good experience for me though. I am growing. Learning to be more and more flexible in life. I am molding to where people need me to be.

Today was a WILD day! This morning came bright and early at 5:45 when I had to be in the Tesoros' house to cover for Milagros until lunch time. Got 10 kids up and out of bed and struggled to get them all dressed at 6am. We just got 2 new twin boys in that house. They are 4 or so. They are still getting used to things so I had to help them get dressed. They didn't know where their underwear was. So I did the only thing I could think of. Let them wear Abel's. He was so mad that I did that. He threw a fit and wouldn't put on his shoes, and when I was struggling to help him he hit his head on the wall. That made it all worse. Finally I was able to get the twins dressed, and Abel had calmed down, when from the living room I heard a scream. Kevin had blood pouring down his nose. I had to deal with that. Got him cleaned up and then I found Dante running around naked! So I had to yell at him to hurry and get dressed, it was time for breakfast. I finally got everyone out the door or so I thought. I had to go back to the house and get on to the older boys for playing around and not coming. Then at the table Abel threw another fit because I didn't give him the cup he wanted. I think it was only 7 at this point. After breakfast some kids left for school, the others brushed their teeth and cleaned their ears. That is when I found out that Dante and Danni tried to sneak an extra snack in their backpacks. Lost them. They were not happy about that, and I thought I was going to have to pick up Danni and bring him to the bus. Finally they were all off to school, and before I went into the kitchen I had to do their laundry. I was glad when Milagros got back early and Luce let me leave the kitchen early as well. I went to the Amigos house to help Becca. We had a good afternoon. The children behaved mostly. She even got a nap in! I was glad I could help out. It really wasn't a bad day, just a wild one. My favorite part was at the end when I had to pick up Yen and Paul from school. While waiting for Yen to get his notebook, Paul hit a window screen and it fell on top of us! We were able to get it back up thankfully. Then I got distracted talking to Manuel and when I looked over at the boys they weren't there. They were already running home, and they were halfway there! I went racing after them wailing my arms about. Finally caught up to them at the door and they were laughing hysterically. They mimicked me waving their arms about screaming mi Tia mi Tia! Then we raced to see which could get changed into their pj's the fastest. I think Yen won by a good minute or two. We laughed and had so much fun!

This is just one way that I am like putty. And even though it is only 7, I am more than ready for bed...tomorrow afternoon I have the girls from the Chispa house.


love to you all.


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Pescado y Aji...something sure is fishy around here!

Ok so that was a really bad one, but I couldn't resist! I work in the kitchen 2 mornings a week and most everyday before lunch. Today it was just Luce and me in the kitchen until lunch. When I walked in at around 9 am she was picking out all of the bad peas, so I joined her. That didn't take too long, but that is when she told me we didn't have water (a common thing around here, but I think it may be fixed for a long time). Without water it is hard to cook. Mateo did bring us some water from a hose. I can certainly say that I have never cooked with hose water. I guess you really try something at least once! We also used some of the drinking water. (For those of you who aren't familiar with Peru, you do not drink the tap water...AT ALL!) Once the water problem was solved we were able to really start cooking.
First she had me chop onions and tomatoes. I almost started crying, because chopping onions for 70+ people is a lot of onions. After that we had to sort through the rice to get all of the bad rice out. I know this seems to be a common thing in this blog, but that is only because this rice was cheaper so someone got it....Elias..ha! So we sat there for a long time going through rice, and I know we didn't get it all. Then we made aji (pronounced ah-heee), which is a very Peruvian pica sauce that they use on evrything. This was for the fish. I looked over and Luce asked me if I could take the fish and marinate it in the aji. I told her I could help out that way. So she got the fish out. Now remember that while yes we do have access to the supermarkets, the real market is more inexpensive. And when you are feeding this many people you need fresh and inexpensive. So this means no freezer packaged Sysco fish like at camp or school...no this is fresh stinky fish. Heads, fins, tails, everything but the eyes. I looked over and she was taking the head, tail, skin, ect..off. It was no big deal to her. She then proceeded to throw some cut fish into my hands! I almost lost it. My stomach turned upside down and I think it did some break-dancing or something like it. I could feel the bones. GROSS! So with a blank expression in my face I started the marination process. I was so glad when we were done. Also very glad the aji was so spicy it drowned out the fish smell...well for a while.
After that it was time to cook the fish and she had me make more aji on the stove for the onions and tomatoes. It burned my nose, the pica was so strong! Finallly I was done and had to go lie down to not get sick. Then it was time for lunch....I went in and got rice with onions on top and then beans on the side. Then there was the fish. And it just stared at me, so did Luce. SHe smiled at me and looked happy that I was eating what I had helped with. I sat down at the table with my food and took a bit of the fish, when my stomach started its party again. I looked at Becca across from me and told her, "I can't do it. I can't eat this fish. I watched Luce chop it up and I helped cook it." She laughed and so I gave it to the girls. Thank goodness for girls who will eat anything!
I am sure I will have better and worse experiances in the kitchen but for now that tops it! Tonight me and Becca are making SWEET TEA!!!! We are stoked :)
Love from your onion and fish smelling hands!
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Running thoughts

This is Lariza, I think she is so beautiful and she didn't want her picture taken. Alot of the kids are like that. We have so much fun hanging out and playing together.

Ok so I have been super busy this past week and have been very tired. I fell asleep during movie night on Friday with Paul in my lap and Rosario asleep next to me. Saturday morning I had to cover the Chispas house from 6am-12. Took a quick nap had lunch then spent the afternoon with some friends at the mall. Later met other firends for a really late dinner and an awkward party. Ha! Was so tired when we left and fell right to sleep. Woke up today for church and after lunch took a 3.5 hour nap! It was amazing, but I am suffering now because everyone is asleep and I cannot get to sleep. Thanks nap. Now tomorrow I will be tired, and I have Kevin in the morning and working with him is very tiring in itself. I am sure I will be fine, but lying in bed I have started to think. I sometimes wish I couldn't think. I have been thinking about how strange we all are here in the alburgue. We all have our on little quirks and weird things about us. Even the kids. I personally think it is being in these walls all week long. But I do love it even inside the alburgue's walls. :)

I have most recently been thinking about home and Jackson and things I thought I wouldn't miss or didn't miss at first.
1. Running with friends - we walk on the dunes here
2. Playing in the park with Kasey and our amazing yet sometmes lame bonfires
3. Dance parties with my girls - dancing here is so much different
4. Eating sandwiches ALL the time - we eat a TON of rice everyday
5. Tanning - I have the sun here but I miss my tanning bed and the people I love there
6. College friends
7. Hanging out with boys - this is silly but here you cannot just chill with boys the way you can at home
8. Clean feet
9. Cheerleading - this is one of the biggest ones, I REALLY miss stunting and throwing Jen in the air. LOVE you girls!
10. Camping and exploring the woods and creeks
11. Driving
12. My nephew Parker!!!! And all of my family. :)
13. My old apartment it is so beautiful to me.
14. Weight lifting

OK i will stop now 14 things are plenty to miss and the longer I think I will come up with more. Don't worry there are so so so so many things that I love about Peru.
1. I love getting funny looks for being the only gringo with 8 kids.
2. Hanging my clothes up on the clothes line to dry.
3. Playing like a kids with the kids
4. Most everything here is sooooo inexpensive.
5. Nice breezes and warm sun
6. New experiances and learning new things
7. Getting told I was going to marry the pastor's son whom I have never met - some things just make me laugh and I enjoy laughing
8. latin music
9. the access to fresh fruits
10. CHURROS!
11. the beautiful mountain and beach view from the roof
12. Patty will be here in one month!!!
13. Saying that I actually am doing what I have always wanted to do - live in a spanish speaking country working with kids.
14. I am going to miss winter in MS! YAY it will be summer here!

now time for sleep.
thought of 2 more things about home i will miss...football and christmas
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Dirt

I was digging a hole with Segundo, we had lots of fun!

Segundo putting his shoes on after cleaning them with sand.

Sebastian lying in the sand. We had a great play day!



Feet, they get dirty.

Ephesians 4:22-24
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Trujillo and most of the area around the coastline is very dirty. The people are very clean and keep their houses and things clean, but this part of the country itself is sandy and dirty. There isn't much grass. By the end of the day we are very sandy and our feet are usually black. The other day after playing outside with some friends I had sand in my hair, up my nose, in my ears, just everywhere! I couldn't just use a baby wipe and clean myself, I had to shower to become completely clean. We can look at our lives in sin that way. Sometimes it seems easier to pray a quick prayer to clean ourselves from our sins or change one or two things in our lives, but is it sincere? Or are we just doing it to make us feel better? Are we really becoming clean? I mean totally clean. We need to emerse ourselves into HIS arms, cry out to Christ and let Him know that we need Him to clean us. We cannot clean ourselves. We have to become clean in order to put on a new self. A clean self. I think I can look at the dirt from playing and the dirt from gardening as sin and at the end of the day I have to become clean, so instead of changing just clothes I have to become completely clean in Christ take off the old and be washed and put on the new.
The newness and excitment of being here is starting to wear off and I am tired some days from work, translating spanish all day, and the kids can be a handfull. Please pray that each morning will be a new morning in my eyes and I will look to Christ for help and not myself. Love to you all!
Susanna
1

Father I am running, Father I am coming home. Back to where I belong

Strip away my calloused heart
Set Your arrow hit Your mark
Bring me back to where love starts
Bring me back to where You are

Father I'm running Father I'm coming home
I cannot go onYour child is running, Father I'm coming home
Back where I belong

I know You've heard this all before
When I'm down and crying on the floor
Saying I want You and nothing more

But I'm breaking in my heart tonight
I've tried to stand I've tried to fight
But I cannot see without Your light
No I cannot breathe without You

-This is a song by Phil Wickham called Home. I am not sure if any of you are familiar with his work, but he is truly an amazing and honest song writer. He hits you where it hurts. As I was listening to this song I realized that God is bringing me home, not my home with my family or even my new home here, but to His home. To His heart. That is my home. Everyday He reminds me that this life is not my own, it is His and I have to let Him lead the way, fight the fight, breathe for me, because without HIM I can NOTHING!!! I cannot go on without Him, so I have to run to Him. He is truly leading me back where I belong.

This week has been more challenging for me. It has been because God wants me not to lean on and trust in man, but in Him. Yesterday was my first day of working with Kevin. Kevin is one of our 15 yr olds. He goes to school until 9am then works with me until noon. He has the mind of about a 9 yr old and has to be prodded and you have to watch him always to make sure he gets his work done the right way and without playing around. So yesterday we dug 2 compost holes and filled them with rotten vegetables and weeds. Then we started to till the soil in one of the gardens. It was hard work and I had to constantly get onto him and keep telling him to work. It was a long morning but we got alot done. The gardens still need much much work.

That afternoon, a few boys from the Tesoros house came to work in their garden and they were so good at digging up all the veggies. They then were supposed to start digging up the soil when they found worms. They were so fascinated with the worms that they made homes for them, and they founf the mother and father worms for all the tiny children worms. It was soooo funny! I let them keep digging for worms because not only were they having the best time, they were actually getting the soil dug up! After that, I had hair practice with Yuliana. She is in regular school as well as cosmotology school. She needs alot of practice with her motor skills. I am her new doll. She gets to practice styles and rolling my hair 5 days a week. Yay me. I was miserable yesterday. It hurt really bad, and I don't like people touching my hair. As I sat in the chair I thought about how God is making me flexible, and also I heard kids playing outside and how much I wanted to be out there playing with them, than sitting there getting my hair done. On the brightside, my hair will look nice for the end of the day! HA!

This morning a few of us newbies went on a tour of the city of Trujillo, it was pretty good but I fell asleep in the post office. I was really tired from walking and the work I did the day before. But on the bus ride home I sat next to a woman named Matilla. She is from Salaverry which is right down the road from where we live and she was really nice. So nice she gave me her phone number. We talked about kids drinking and how many cows there were, what her family did for a living, where I was from, how many schools there were in Moche. It was a good bus ride. I was very thankful I could understand most of what she was saying and was able to talk to her the entire way! It was good! God id good!

Time to use my muscles in the garden again! I think I may start to get stronger by working there everyday! YAY! haha! Love to you all :)

Susanna
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Carrots carrots and more beets

Dante and me, I promise he smiled later!

Franklin and Pierro!

This is Segundo one of the newer kids...he always asks me to play with him

Everything has been going pretty well so far and I was thinking that things weren't going to get tough. HA! What was I thinking. I mean I am here to serve the Lord so of course satan is going to attack me all over the place.
Yesterday was a tough day. It was cold and I wasn't able to communicate much with anyone. Spanish just didn't make sense to me at all. I knew that I shouldn't have been getting frustrated because I have only been here for one week, but I was. Everyone I talked or tried to talk to in spanish would just make me tired.

This morning I was listening to a sermon of Chip's (my pastor in Jackson) and he was talking about how God wants us to be faithful to Him when the going gets tough. Satan is going to try and make us turn against God but we have to stand firm in what we believe. God will bless us like He did Job and he will give us more than we ever could have asked for. I have been thinking about this and so I looked at today with a new perspective. Today is a blank page that I can start over on and make up my own story, and satan is going to try and be the main character in that story but I cannot let him. Christ is the only main character in my life. Without Him I am nothing. Nada.

As I went to work today in the kitchen I went with a new attitude. I went in there not thinking about the laguage barrier but how can we work together to serve the Lord. Luce was the olny cook that was there today and we sat down and made spaghetti and grated carrots and beets for 3 hours! And we talked. We talked about our families and what I went to school for and so much more. She was such an encouragment to me today and she tols me that by the time I leave here my spanish will be perfect! I doubt it will be perfect, especially since the cooks talk alot of slang, so much more than I do at this moment. Thank goodness!

This afternoon I spent my time in the garden with the girls from the Chispa house and it was good. We had to dig up all the plants in their section and start to till the land...by hand shoveling and raking. Alex one of my bosses said it should take a few weeks to get the soil ready. I have never really gardened before and will be doing the majority of it here, it should be good though!
After my duties were done I went out to play with Segundo who was too busy playing with Dante for me, so I went to hangout with Arnold and the other boys who were playing with their "trompo's" or spinning tops. Jhonathan (11), who is a punk kid, always calls me Tia Mala, for no reason might I add. He was being himself, being tough, and I grabbed him up in my arms and told him I loved him and I felt his body loosen up and go almost limp. He loves me too :) I love moments like those. Those moments when you can take a kid in your arms and show them love that they never saw as a small child and let them be loved and they want it so bad but are so bad at letting people know it sometimes. When I told him I would be here for a year his eyes lit up too! And when Pierro asked if I would be there for his birthday in December and I said yes, he smiled the biggest smile and jumped into my arms like a little boy of 5 would. I loved and cherished that moment. There is so much love that needs to be given to each child specifically and there isn't enough time each day to get to every child one on one to give it to them.
Pray that God would allow more of those tender moments where we can show them love like Christ loves us. And Pray that those who can be adopted would get the chance to be adopted before it is too late ( Josue, Kevin, Yuliana, I know there are more too) and that for those older kids that they will get the attention from us that they need and the guidance. Pray that God would comfort those kids who are homesick and new to us. Pray pray pray! I have to remind myself of this daily. Love to you all!



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Weekend and dancing

Saturday night most of us volunteers went to Salaverry (which is only maybe a ten min walk from us) to eat dinner. We had a good time there and they had the best tres leches torta with whipped cream. Yumm! Then we went back to the alburgue and there was talk about dancing, I wasn't really up for it because we were going into Huanchaco the next day after church, but Sam conned me into it. So I went. What an experiance! First of all it was only 5 soles ( about $1.70), at home we pay about $10 to go dancing. I was speechless ha! So we were early, but people came in fairly soon after. It got crowded fast. The music is mostly reggaeton and salsa. We went with some of our Peruvian friends and they taught us some moves. It was really cool how the guys there can really dance and not just move from one foot to the other like at home. II think the guys could dance better than the girls! So with much laughter and apologies we made it through the night. I like to think that I did a decent job of learning the salsa/other dance moves but who knows...hahaha! My legs, mainly my calves are sore from dancing. What a great workout! They did play about three english songs. They were the oddest choices I thought, some songs from the late 90's and then of course the ultimate song "Apple Bottom Jeans" hahahahahha! I about fell on the ground laughing when I hard that song (reminds me of those good ole cheerleading days)!!!
The next day we went to Centro Biblico Church (the Elliot's church). Yes as in Jim Elliot's brother started this church! How cool is that! Then we went to Huanchaco to see the beach (it's much prettier than ours here) and grab lunch. We ate at this Mexican place that tasted like weird peruvian mexican and it was over priced. Then we looked at jewelry and walked along the board walk. I was hoping it would be warm by then, but I think it only got colder as the day went on. We had a good time but I left my camera battery in the charger so I will have to get pictures next time I go. We are thinking about camping on the beach! Then we went back into Trujillo to buy fruit and I have to say it is so nice to buy fresh fruit that doesn't have a sticker on it or been enhanced.
I will tell more about the kids later. Thanks for your prayers!
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Week one


Ok so I am going to give blogging a try...maybe it will be easier than journaling. Although something tells me they are the same thing.

I have officially been here in Trujillo for ten days. I was really disorriented at first and it was frustrating. I had a hard time understanding anyone who spoke spanish and everything about the culture and country of Peru is different from home, but after the first days were over I started to settle in and feel more at home.

There are about fourty kids here at the alburgue, ranging in ages from 2 - 15 years. There are four different houses for the kids; two boys (Amigos y Tesoros) and two girls (Luces y Chizpas). They each have a house mother who is there 24/7. Props to them because I couldn't do that! The kids have chores and help out around the alburgue to keep it looking nice. When they aren't in school or doing other activities they just run around and play like kids do. It is nice to hear the sounds of laughter and singing and all of the noises that children make.

Today they went to Pizza Hut in town so it is nice and quiet here! I did my first load of laundry and wow does it make me appreciate what I have at home in the US. The washer trickles water in so we have to pour buckets of water into it so that it won't take hours. Then we go onto the roof and hang our clothes on the line. But be sure to wipe it down or you will get black sand on your clothes! It is very much a different world than I am used to but I do love it here.

The kids were on vacation this week so we had activities for them in the morning. I was incharge of art and crafts. They were nuts, but we had fun! I am beginning to uderstand more spanish and they are helping me learn more.

Thursday at lunch I was able to have a decent conversation with some of the boys at my table and their house mother! It was actually a funny story. So I was sitting next to Arnold and Kevin and we were almost done eating lunch. I took a small bite of my salad which consisted of cucumbers and beets. I made a funny face and didn't eat anymore. The boys asked me if I liked it and I said no. They told me if I didn't eat my salad I wouldn't grow to be strong and well. They told me to eat 2 more small bites and that wouls suffice. So with horrible faces I ate my two bites. By then most of the other boys had gone to wash their dishes so Milagros (the house mother) came over to finish lunch with us. She told me to eat all of my salad so I could be strong. I was about to fall out laughing. She said she doesn't like some of the food but she makes the kids eat it so she must eat it also, and so must I! I tried not to think about the beety taste and finished my salad. After I did they clapped for me and told me that now I will be strong. It was really funny.

I miss you all and think of you often! Write more later :)