I´m up to my ojos in frijoles

Hey! I´m alive!

So, I went to my town this week! I live in Ojo de Agua, which is about a half hour from Cuauhtemoc, with a widow named Paty and her 2 sons. Life is very chill, and settling into a routine of sorts has been awesome. I take it easy and I have a ton of time to read while I listen to "La Ranchera de Cuauhtemoc", which is a radio station we get out at my house. The radio is ALWAYS on when people are in the house. Though my house sucks any heat from my body, I get the warm fuzzy around my family. I love waking up and watching Paty make fresh tortillas every morning. I love my evenings where Paty and I sit in the kitchen (which is the warmest room in the house) and make small talk between my reading my book for class and her embroidery. I´m learning Spanish slowly but surely, but it sounds like I´ve come in with the most out of previous students. I still can´t wait to know enough to talk more to my family and my students!

Ah.... my students! As crazy as these middle school kids are, they are SO FUN! I teach English every lunes, meircoles, y hueves (Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday) from 8:30 to 1. My first day was pretty stressful because I wasn´t given any guidelines or instructions on what I need to use or whatever. The students are more advanced than I originally thought, so I was a little sad I couldn´t just sing ABCs to everyone. But I have more of a game plan for each class, and I enjoy going to the school.

My town is cute and really relaxed. The weather has been pretty cloudy (except for when I´m in Cuauhtemoc, which is surprizingly warm... and I wish I had my chacos here) so I haven´t walked around very much. But I´m hoping that I can this next week or so. There are dirt roads except for one main one, and when driving in you have top stop for gallinas y vacas crossing the road. I love it!

So... I think that´s it. I´m doing fine. I´ve heard from people that the first 3 weeks are usually the hardest, and I can see that. It´s weird to think about being here for so long. I have gone to Catholic church a couple times, and those are the times I´m usually home sick. I thought I was going to be with an evangelical family, but it didn´t turn out that way, which is fine. But I miss being able to worship corporately and share in sweet fellowship on what God is teaching me. I do have one other Christian in the group, which has been nice, but we can only see each other when we all get together every other weekend. So, I guess you can be praying that something will work out. But overall, everything is alright. Even my legs are healing! Oh... yeah... I didn´t want to worry any of you, but I got bite by a dog twice my first full day here. But now I just have some sweet bruises and a good story. The teeth didn´t even touch my skin, and the dog was up on all its shots. I told it to my students and showed my bruises, which they seemed to enjoy.

Continue to pray for Janine and her family as she is still trying to get back to a more "normal" state. She was wanting to be here by February, but now she can´t make it until end of March. Also pray for our safety here. Things are not that crazy, but you hear of things every now and then. And, of course, pray for the students in the program. They´re all so great, and I just want to be a good light to them when I´m around. Also my family, because my mom seems interested that I read my bible and take notes, so hopefully I can talk more to here about what we believe and such.

I pray for you all often, and you are in my thoughts!

Vaya con Dios,

Leah

I´m here and alive!!

I need to make this short, but I wanted to let everyone know that I am in Mexico and all is well!!

The two days worth of bus rides was pretty exhausting because both of my departures were very early in the morning, and I can´t really sleep on buses. So very sleep deprived I arrive in Cuauhtemoc yesterday evening with 4 other fellow students. Today we all slept in and then got a tour of the Mennonite part of the town. I don´t feel like getting into details, but let´s say I ate a lot of cheese... and there was a bunch of white folks who didn´t speak English or a lot of Spanish... and there was a dog. But I am well and things are going great so far. Tomorrow I meet up for class, and then I will be heading out Monday to stay with my host family! Very exciting.

Other than the area being beautiful and the people being more than accomidating and friendly, we´re all kind of learning things as we go along. Please continue to pray for safety and good health for me and the group. Also pray that the whole group will get here soon, cause not everyone is here yet. Okay.... that´s it! Adios!

Vaya con dios,

Leah

I know that good things come to an end, but I wish the great times were an exception

I have just finished eating a homemade cocnut popsicle I picked up from a convience store while I sit in a internet place across from my hotel in Quito, Ecuador. I have really crammed my stomach today with a lot of delicious things, along with things I'm still not sure what they were, but now I can settle down and let those who want to know what's been going on what's been going on in my life for the last few days (even though if I get hungry I bought an empanda for later to be washed down with a strawberry soda).

Well, I throughly enjoyed my time in Cusco! I was sad to leave, and I feel like I still missed out on some things while I was there. A week wasn't enough, and I'm not the same. Get the jist? =) But I move on. I got to see Machu Picchu on Saturday, which was neat, and then Sunday I spent the day with my host family eating fritadas (which is pieces of fried pork, not like the Mexican fritadas) and listening to them go on in Spanish, which I barely understood but tried to follow along anyway. Sunday evening I said my goodbyes to Miguel and one of his friends I saw a lot during the week, then early Monday morning I was off for a new adventure to Ecuador!

This leg of my journey has been quite different from everything else I have done. Each country I've been to has been quite different from the next, but I never felt like a real tourist until yesterday! I ride in a tour bus with a bunch of gringos going from one tourist place to the next taking pictures of the same thing at the same time. That may have sounded crass, but it really hasn't been bad. Though it's a little weird for me, I have learned a lot from our guide and from the places we have visited. Yesterday we visited the equator, which has been my favorite part thus far! It was really cool to hear the science of the equator and doing experiments. I balanced an egg on a nail just like Anthony Bourdain did when he came to Equador! I was way stoked about that! We have also gotten to walk around Old Town Quito and see some old churches, a rose plantation, and an artisans market where our true American side came out to consume... ah, my favorite. =) Tomorrow we travel to Banos... I can't remember what we're doing there... oh well. I'm just enjoying the ride wishing that it wouldn't end.

This very well may be one of my last blogs until I get back to Durango! So sad! It's funny, because the first 3 weeks I was ready to go home at any moment, and now I don't want to leave. South America has grabbed my heart and won't let me go. I want to live here, eat here, speak here. I want the Latin lover who buys me Ecuadorian roses (which I guess are the best in the world or something). I want to read Neruda, Allende, and Vallejo while I hear the always present car alarm in the distance. Ah... te amo Sudamerica!

Vaya con Dios,

Leah=)

Yo Tengo Una Neuva Cabesa

Okay, not a new head, but I definitely have a new mind... which I can never remember the word for mind in Spanish... anyway.

Ah! I only have a few days left in Peru! So sad! It´s crazy on how fact this week flew by. In Chile the weeks seemed to pass by normally, but I feel like I just got here yesterday and I´ve been here for exactly a week. I´ve been enjoying my time here thoroughly.

Let´s see... what have I done since my last post...

Well, Sunday I got to paintball with guns for the first time on the highest paintball field in the world with Miguel and some of his friends. I only got hit twice, and hid for most of it squealing not to get hit... which later produced some mocking from the boys on the bus ride from Poroy to Cusco. A lot of fun! Between trying to understand the Spanish, speak the Spanish, while learning to play the games they throw at me, it´s been frustrating yet entertaining. The only day that I´ve had the worse time trying to understand and speak was yesterday when I went to ride horses to some ruins around Cusco. Long story, but in short the first 2 hours trying to figure what was actually going on left me feeling alone and on the verge of tears standing in the middle of nowhere. But all was resolved and I got the spend the morning riding horses with 2 nurses from California. Though this whole week I´ve been trying to avoid the tourists and be recognized as a tourist (which I can´t hide from and finally bought some ice cream and sat in the main square like all the other tourists today), it was really nice to be with some other North Americans. The advetnure yesterday ended up with the 3 of us walking down a million stairs from Cristo Blanco into town. I was exhausted, and yet I had to stay awake to go to class an hour later. Other than that I have been enjoying just walking around Cusco in the morning, going to class for 2 hours in the afternoon, then return home to read and watch Mexican soap operas over dinner. I also have the occasional evenings where I play card games with Miguel into the night.

Upcoming events include a welcome home party for a friend of the boys I went to paintball with, who is coming from Texas, and a going away party for me in one. I´m sure yet when this will take place, either tonight or Sunday. It should be entertaining to say the least. I also get to go to Machu Picchu tomorrow! Very exciting, but it´s going to be a long day. I have to leave at 6:20am and I don´t return until about 9pm. But at least I get to see it. Other than that I need to figure when I get to eat cuy and llama, but I´m going to try to soak up as much as Peru as I can before I have to leave. Already in my mind I am hoping to come back here for a longer period of time.

Welp, time to head home for lunch!

Vaya con Dios,
Leah =)

Leah, ¿te gusta Black Sabbath?

New country = new adventures to be had! I am in Cusco, Peru, and I am safe and well. I left Valparaíso, Chile, on Thursday evening and stayed the night in Santiago. OH! But on Wednesday in Valparaíso they had all the festivities for their Independence Day! So we got to see the different ¨protect the country¨people march around like Nazis and salute the president, Michelle Bachelet (I believe is her name). It was cool and fun to hear the marching bands and see the blue dot of Bachelet from my hostel window. It was the most Chilean thing I got to do my whole 3 weeks in Chile.

But yesterday I flew out of Santiago at 6:40 in the morning, then caught another flight to Cusco where my host mom met me at the airport and we took a taxi through the crazy streets to her house. But I really like Cusco so far! The city is surrounded by mountains and the place just looks more like Peru. Though, of course, this is a huge tourist spot, but the things that make me go, "Hot dang, this is a tourist town!" is when I see all the white people around. They walk the streets in their hiking boots and their cameras, which a lot of people here depend on. Many people dress up like indigenous Incas so tourists can take pictures of them for a small price. I have also seen more beggers in comparison to Chile. But the people are very friendly and, as my host brothers told, most Peruvians like Americans.

Ah, my host brothers... there are 2 of them. Luis, who is 24 and I´m not too sure what he does, but he looks like the Peruvian version of a friend of mine in Durango. Then there is Miguel who is 21 and speaks Enlgish and is learning French along with his native Spanish. He has been a lot of fun to hang around and also a huge help. Yesterday he helped me get around this part of Cusco where my house and language school is, and then we would just sit and he would help me with my Spanish and tell me about life in Peru and such. He also taught me how to play the digerido and some playstation game that I am terrible at. Last night we went to his friend´s house to play the playstation and then listen to 3 of his friends sing "Electric Funnel" about 10 times. The like a lot of the rock from the 70s, like Black Sabbath and Guns N Roses. But I had a good time just hearing them joke around and such. So far everyone I have met don´t think I look like I´m from the States, but apparently I look more Argentinian. I´m taking that as a compliment, expecially since I´m trying to blend in more than the other tourists around here. And Miguel told me I don´t have much of an accent when I speak Spanish! I was stoked about that.

Well, I need to wrap this up. I should probably head home to see if I´m getting fed or if I need to do that myself. And then I also start my Spanish class today! I´m so freaking excited to learn better Spanish! It´s frustrating not being able to talk to anyone, so I´m hoping I can get to a piont of being able to talk normally by the end of my stay here.

Prayer Request: Continue to pray for the my Chile group, because I had a couple more chances to talk to them about Christ, and I left very encouraged because the were telling me how I made an impact on them, which I knew wasn´t as much me as it was God working through me! There was no way I could´ve done or said anything to them if it wasn´t for God and His way of being so awesome!
I don´t think my family is Christian or go to church or anything. Pray that I will stay strong and not fall into any traps and that I would continue to seek God in everything. But more importantly, pray that there will be opportunites to share the Gospel with someone, or that God will just do His work in their lives to lead them to Himself, as I know He is already doing.

Vaya con Dios,

Leah=)

Adventure isn´t my middle name, but maybe it should be...

Oh my. Where to begin?

Well, this weekend Erica and I did go on our Adventure to Bariloche! First leg of the trip was a 5 hour bus trip to Osorno and staying the night. That night in and of itself was an experience. It was pouring rain, but the hostel in the guide book said it wasn´t too far. Wanting to save any money we could, we decided to walk. About hour later we found out that the hostel didn´t exist and the other one was about 10 blocks the other direction. Not having a choice, we make the trek with our sopping clothes and Erica´s crap piled in her arms because the paper bag she had earlier dissolved by the rain. About 20 minutes later we arrive at Hospedaje Sánchez tried, soaked, and sore from carrying our heavy stuff on our backs. The places was about 5,000 pesos, and you could tell... oh my. It wasn´t the best place, but seeing the hell we had been in for the last hour anything was better than walking around more. The bathroom smelled of smoke with a hot water heater that you had you light yourself. Erica tried to light it for a hot shower... but 10 matches and a half of her arm hair singed off, she settled for washing her hair in cold water.

I won´t even mention the dog... there might be children near by that would throw-up... or even adults...

But we caught a bus the next morning to Bariloche, stayed the night in a posh place filled with bohemian British and Americans. We walked around a lot, which Bariloche is BEAUTIFUL, even with a ton of rain. So I had fun, plus I can say that I´ve been to Argentina. The Andes are quite pretty, even if I saw them only from the bus. Anyway, after the one night stand with Bariloche, Erica and I took a 5 hour bus ride to Osorno, then an 11 hour overnight bus to Santiago, then an hour or so bus ride from Santiago to Valparaíso. So that´s where I am now.

We finished class up today with talking about what we have learned and shared our poetry that we have written since we´ve been here. Man, I´m so sad that we´re done. I can´t believe that I´m not going to be with these wonderful people while I´m in South America. But we´ve already been talking about making a reunion thing at the end of the summer to catch up and such. But keep praying that I will get more opportunities to share Christ with them before we all go our seperate ways. OH! Speaking of which, I had an AWESOME talk with Erica in Bariloche about what we believe. It was great! Anyway, but I´m so glad that I got to know these people and get to pray for them and such. I´ll get to see them later in the States and all too.

Alrighty... so... what next to say... oh, what is to come.

Well, I plan on leaving Valparaíso on Thursday so I can stay in a hotel by the airport so I can make my flight early in the morning on Friday to Cusco, Peru. Then I have language school and hopefully a run in with Machu Pichu before I leave for Ecuador. Wow... I don´t even know what to say...

Welp, that´s it. Vaya con Dios,

Leah =)

¿Una completo gigante? Sí, se puede!

Hello all!! My last post being slightly dull and more on the "Leah was a bit homesick" mode, I am happy to report that things have gone on the up and up! Temuco ended up being not that great. A girl in my group got her wallet stolen along with some earings she had bought. But she got her credit card cancelled right away and her mom wired her money. Hay no problema. We took a minibus to the Chol Chol Foundation (www.cholchol.org) to hear about the foundation, which now today helps the Mapuche women better their lives through making weavings and selling them for fair trade prices. Very cool, and my little desricption did NOT do them justice, but if you´re interested in that, you can go to the website... which I´m pretty sure I gave you the correct one. The Mapuche are a BIG deal down here. They were a NEVER conquered indigenous groups who adapts to their sorroundings (is that spelled right....?). You can go to www.mapuche.info and read up on them if you would like. It´s worth a look into since it´s such a different situations to how dealt with the Native Americans in the states, AND in the countries around Chile as well.

Okay, moving on from the Mapuche...

So we took the bus from Temuco to Villarrica on Wednesday (I believe... the days are running together). And all we had to do is step off the bus, take a huge breath of unpolluted air, and let out the stress of Temuco. It is BEAUTIFUL here! It´s right next to Lago Villarrica (Lake Villarrica) with a VOLCANO right next to that! Seriously. Way cool! We stumbled upon a chocolotería with the neatest little chocolate owner ever. He gave us free chocolate after we finished our delicious tortas and the BEST hot chocolate! Super sweet man. Anyway, yesterday we went to Pucón and did some class stuff and also checked out the town. I also decided to try a Chilean meal that is loved, which is called una "completo", which is a hot dog covered in tomatoes, guacamole, and mayo. It sounded fine enough, but I made the mistake of ordering the completo gigante.... which was about the size of my arm... not even exaggerating. I ate about half of the weird tasting mess before I felt like I was going to be sucked into abyss known as obesity. But Chileans LOVE it, so I try it. As a friend of mine said on this trip, "If the national dish is a hot dog, you kind of have to wonder..."

Anyway, after our little class time meeting with ecologist and a Mapuche writer, we split up to do our ethnographies, which is going to different places in Chile and getting a sense of the place in a couple days. I am doing my ethnography on Villarrica with my friend, Erica... which we are finishing today before 4:30 so we can catch a bus to Osorno, and hopefully from there we can get another bus to Bariloche, Argentina! It´s a grand scheme, but we´re hoping for the best. If that doesn´t work out, we want to go south to maybe Chiloé, which is an island where all the evacuated people from Chitan where the volcano errupted are going. And they have a penguin colony on the island! ¡Muy interesante! Anyway, we´ll see what ends up happening. We have to be back in Valparaíso by Monday night, which is located all the way towards Santiago. CRAZY!

OH! So, I have been still getting into good conversations with people in my group! It´s such an awesome situation to be in, because I get to hear where they come from, and they have no choice but to hear what I believe in! YAY! Keep praying that their hearts and minds will be open and willing to hear exactly what Jesus came for, and that I get more opportunities to share with them. It´s hard since I´m not around all of them for 4 days, but I AM with Erica and I´m excited to maybe talk to her more and get more of a sense of where she is coming from. After this weekend, I only get 4 days with them! So sad! BUT, we have been making plans to get together back in the States and such. So, if not here, hopefully back in Durango. But keep praying! Seeing God provide opportunities has seriously been the best part of my trip so far!

So, a week from today I´ll be in Peru! I can´t believe I´ve been here for almost 2 weeks. I can´t believe that I have over 3 weeks left before I go home as well. I guess we´ll see what happens from here, huh? Well, I better get back to doing my ethnography, even though this internet/phone shop was a good place to be in. A lot of people have been coming in for me to observe. What luck! Anyway, until next time....

Vaya con Dios,

Leah =)