¡Weekend Numero Uno!

I gave ryan the weekend off and so this post will be my first of the summer.

Disclaimer: I am a horrible speller and this thing doesn´t have spell check so bear with me.

We began our weekend at 6:00 AM Saturday with a game of futbol sala (a mixture of indoor soccer and futsal) with some locals and other members of our Extreme Nazarene family. On our way home from playing, we had an unexpected adventure. The first taxi driver picked us up and dropped us off in the wrong neighborhood, the second taxi driver told us he knew where to go but then had to ask 2 other people for directions to our house. The kicker was that the second taxi driver also feeced us for 15 soles when the rate is 3-4 soles. After it was all said and done we had used 2 cab drivers and spent 20 soles to get home. I guess it is just part of the learning process of being a foriegner in a different country. That afternoon Ryan and I walked to the market. We are starting to figure out were things are so we don´t feel lost all the time. Before dinner our family took us to La Plaza de Armas (the city center). We walked through a bunch of little tourist shops and visited 2 beautiful old cathedrals.

Today we decided to try something new and sleep-in a little bit. We had church from 10-12:30. After church we talked with the other missionaries and members of the congregation so that we could give the taxi drivers better directions to our house. We left church feeling good about our chances of getting home now that we were equiped with a hand drawn map to our house complete with street names. We hailed a cab and asked him if he knew how to get us home. He said that he knew where we were going and could take us there but I am begining to think that if I asked a taxi if he could drive me to Europe that he would still respond with an enthusiastic ¨Si¨. It was no surprise when he had to ask for directions at a gas station and then we finally told him that we had reached our destination when we recognized that he had driven past where we were supposed to go. We decided to walk home using a stadium near our house as our guide. We have now taken more taxis to no where than we have to where we intended. We are learning though because this time our ride to no where only cost us 4 soles (what a bargin) and we were at least close enough that we could find our way home on foot. For lunch we went with our family to our Peruvian Mamama´s house (apparently in Peru Mamama = Grandmother). We had dinner with our families aunts and cousins. We enjoyed a wonderful 4 course meal of tuna salad, noodle soup, beef and rice, and fresh fruit with ice cream for dessert.

We are not looking forward to starting language school at 9 AM tomorrow but we are willing to take the good with the bad. If you ask me, language school started when the plane landed in Lima. Our family is very patient with us and try to help us all they can with our Spanish. We speak only Spanish unless we are totally lost and then they stop and explain to us in English.

Well that´s probably more than any of you wanted to know about our weekend. Ryan has just declared that I am now an ¨official blogger¨ after spending 20 minutes on this update. Oh well, I guess I am what I am.

--- Chadwick