We arrived safely in Pucallpa on Friday morning, after learning a thing about Peruvian bus rides. Here is a summary of our lessons:
1: If you haven´t been served dinner by 11 that does not mean it´s not going to be served. It probably means it is getting closer to being served.
2: The bus company is like a stubborn date. Let me explain. Even if some things get messed up, and the schedule is a little behind, they will still provide you with dinner and a movie (even if that movie starts at midnight and you just wanna sleep).
3: If your bus drives away while you are using the bathroom don´t worry it will probably come back for you.
4. THE BUS WILL BE HOT. THE BUS WILL BE HOT. THE BUS WILL BE HOT.
In our time in Pucallpa have been very productive. We have 6 churches mapped out so far. Tomorrow we are planning an ambitions itinerary, including 6 churchs and several hundred kilometers. Dario Santa Cruz (the Disrict Superintendant for Pucallpa) has been an amazing guide for us the last couple days and kindly agreed to accompany us tomarrow. We could not have been so productive without his help.
Thanks for your prayer and support!
Ryan and Chadwick
Monday, June 29, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
On the Move
First matter of business:
When the word ¨the¨ appears in a title should it be in caps? Help me out here people! And if You were my former English teacher, and you are following this blog, I am sorry that I have let you down. I am also guilty of starting a sentence with the word ¨and.¨ Oh dear, I better just say what I need to and log out before this gets any worse!
In other newz:
We made it to Lima (15 hr bus ride from Arequipa) and tomorrow we head to Pucalpa (20 hr bus ride). That should be LOADS of fun! Our ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) in Pucalpa is around 9:00 a.m. Friday morning. We should be to work shortly after that.
Random facts about the last few days:
Ryan and I have broken 2 pieces of glass in the last 3 days. Ryan stepped on a skylight, on the roof of the office, and I shattered a piece of glass that was attached to the stove (it´s a weird setup and hard to explain). I also managed to chip a tooth by biting my fork at dinner tonight. Ryan says that this is evidence that I need to slow down when I eat. We are destroying things at an alarming rate but, as always, we are staying safe (this last bit is mostly for those of you who like to worry about us: moms, grandmas, etc.).
Thanx for all of your prayers and support.
Yours truely,
Chadwick and Ryan
When the word ¨the¨ appears in a title should it be in caps? Help me out here people! And if You were my former English teacher, and you are following this blog, I am sorry that I have let you down. I am also guilty of starting a sentence with the word ¨and.¨ Oh dear, I better just say what I need to and log out before this gets any worse!
In other newz:
We made it to Lima (15 hr bus ride from Arequipa) and tomorrow we head to Pucalpa (20 hr bus ride). That should be LOADS of fun! Our ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) in Pucalpa is around 9:00 a.m. Friday morning. We should be to work shortly after that.
Random facts about the last few days:
Ryan and I have broken 2 pieces of glass in the last 3 days. Ryan stepped on a skylight, on the roof of the office, and I shattered a piece of glass that was attached to the stove (it´s a weird setup and hard to explain). I also managed to chip a tooth by biting my fork at dinner tonight. Ryan says that this is evidence that I need to slow down when I eat. We are destroying things at an alarming rate but, as always, we are staying safe (this last bit is mostly for those of you who like to worry about us: moms, grandmas, etc.).
Thanx for all of your prayers and support.
Yours truely,
Chadwick and Ryan
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Another Last Days in Arequipa
Alright folks, we had hoped to be off and on the road by now, but unfortunately that has not been possible. A small town on the road to Cusco has been maintaining a road block, keeping all buses from traveling to and from Cusco. The town in protesting the government's treatment of Indians and demanding the resignation of President Alan Garcia, among other things. As the prospects of President Garcia obliging them seems unlikely, and the determination of the town no longer in doubt, Chadwick and I have made plans to travel to Lima on Tuesday and head to the jungle city of Pucallpa directly from there. This week we made 7 church plant videos for future churches in and around Arequipa. Here are some pictures of where those future churches will be.
Thanks for reading,
Ryan (with editing help from Chadwick)Note: these are not the ACTUAL locations only the neighborhoods that have been designated for a church plant. There are no current plans to plant churches in the middle of the street, as these pictures might suggest :)
Monday, June 15, 2009
Last Days (in Arequipa that is)
Yes we are still alive. My appoligies that we have neglected to update our blog in over a week. I will get you caught up to speed with a Sparknotes version of the last week.
Monday: Last "free day" (or so we thought). We decided to do touristy stuff. We went to the Santa Catalina Monastery in the center of Arequipa. It's a huge monastery/convent that dates back to the 1600's. It is the size of a complete city block and took us over 2 hrs to go through. We had lots of fun exploring the compound.
Tuesday: We were introduced to the pastors that we will be interviewing and staying with for part of the time. There was nothing that we needed to do in the afternoon so Ryan and I hiked in an awesome canyon by our house. We spent the afternoon tracing the river through the canyon and walking through the terraced fields that lined the canyon. We spent a good 3 hrs in the canyon and climbed out just after the sun set. Side note: we also found some cool caves and Ryan fell into the river with all his clothes on and his backpack with his camera and such. Everything was fine, he was just wet for a while.
Wednesday: We had meetings with the pastors and plotted out around 50 of the future church plant locations using Google earth. We also found that we wont be traveling to all of the 120 locations because some of them are too far out there (ie a 4-day boat ride each way for one location).
Thursday: Exciting stuff in Peru. The government has been trying to kick the natives off their land in the northeast of Peru (Amazon area). The natives aren't exactly thrilled about that so the started to clash with police (and by "clash" I mean kill them). Anyhow, they picked Thursday to stage anti-government protests in the north and Lima. There were a few small protests here in Arequipa but nothing big (we did get to see one of about 50-60 people but they were fairly low key or as low key as protests come). We went to work and plotted some more locations using Google earth. On an unrelated note, our little sis down here, Ema, had a fever of 104. We found out that when you call the hospital here in Peru they send an ambulance of sorts out to your house to make a house call. It was pretty cool and convenient.
Friday: We tried to make our first video and it's not quite as easy as we thought it would be. We went to a plaza and tried to get some interviews. It's tough because we have to listen closely to try and figure out what the people are saying. We learned a lot from our first day on the job. For example, we learned that it's not a good idea to try to interview someone who speaks softly right in front of a busy road. You might have thought that we would have seen that problem beforehand but practice makes perfect (or at least better).
Saturday: Very anticlimactic. I played football (soccer) with a bunch of locals, most of who attend church here, as we do every Saturday. Ryan was feeling a little bit under the weather so he stayed in all day. I don't remember doing much that day so we will chalk it up as a day of rest and relaxation.
Sunday: We went to church in the morning and in the afternoon we went exploring. Ryan was feeling better so he, our family that we are staying with, and I went for a drive. We end up on the other side of the Cayma Canyon (the same canyon that we hiked on Tuesday).
Monday: We planned our next 6 weeks of travel. We will be hitting Puerto Maldonado, Cusco, Iquitos, and Pucallpa to gather information. We also planned for a couple vacation days in Cusco and Lima so we can see Machu Pichu and such.
Chadwick & Ryan
Monday: Last "free day" (or so we thought). We decided to do touristy stuff. We went to the Santa Catalina Monastery in the center of Arequipa. It's a huge monastery/convent that dates back to the 1600's. It is the size of a complete city block and took us over 2 hrs to go through. We had lots of fun exploring the compound.
Tuesday: We were introduced to the pastors that we will be interviewing and staying with for part of the time. There was nothing that we needed to do in the afternoon so Ryan and I hiked in an awesome canyon by our house. We spent the afternoon tracing the river through the canyon and walking through the terraced fields that lined the canyon. We spent a good 3 hrs in the canyon and climbed out just after the sun set. Side note: we also found some cool caves and Ryan fell into the river with all his clothes on and his backpack with his camera and such. Everything was fine, he was just wet for a while.
Wednesday: We had meetings with the pastors and plotted out around 50 of the future church plant locations using Google earth. We also found that we wont be traveling to all of the 120 locations because some of them are too far out there (ie a 4-day boat ride each way for one location).
Thursday: Exciting stuff in Peru. The government has been trying to kick the natives off their land in the northeast of Peru (Amazon area). The natives aren't exactly thrilled about that so the started to clash with police (and by "clash" I mean kill them). Anyhow, they picked Thursday to stage anti-government protests in the north and Lima. There were a few small protests here in Arequipa but nothing big (we did get to see one of about 50-60 people but they were fairly low key or as low key as protests come). We went to work and plotted some more locations using Google earth. On an unrelated note, our little sis down here, Ema, had a fever of 104. We found out that when you call the hospital here in Peru they send an ambulance of sorts out to your house to make a house call. It was pretty cool and convenient.
Friday: We tried to make our first video and it's not quite as easy as we thought it would be. We went to a plaza and tried to get some interviews. It's tough because we have to listen closely to try and figure out what the people are saying. We learned a lot from our first day on the job. For example, we learned that it's not a good idea to try to interview someone who speaks softly right in front of a busy road. You might have thought that we would have seen that problem beforehand but practice makes perfect (or at least better).
Saturday: Very anticlimactic. I played football (soccer) with a bunch of locals, most of who attend church here, as we do every Saturday. Ryan was feeling a little bit under the weather so he stayed in all day. I don't remember doing much that day so we will chalk it up as a day of rest and relaxation.
Sunday: We went to church in the morning and in the afternoon we went exploring. Ryan was feeling better so he, our family that we are staying with, and I went for a drive. We end up on the other side of the Cayma Canyon (the same canyon that we hiked on Tuesday).
Monday: We planned our next 6 weeks of travel. We will be hitting Puerto Maldonado, Cusco, Iquitos, and Pucallpa to gather information. We also planned for a couple vacation days in Cusco and Lima so we can see Machu Pichu and such.
Chadwick & Ryan
Sunday, June 7, 2009
School's Out!
Paco and Ursula, our Peruvian parents
Me with Chadwick and my Spanish teacher Roy
My spanish teacher CarlosExciting times here in Arequipa Peru. Chadwick and I both completed our time in language school and got our "diplomas" Friday. We bid our family farewell and began our stay with Scott and Teri Englund. We are also enjoying being stand-in "uncles" of sorts for the Englund girls, Kayle (age 9) and Ema (age 5). They are never short on energy and they are filled with mischief. The last few days have been a welcome celebration of American food. On Friday night Mike and Sydney Drinkwater invited us over for a midwinters bbq, and then today we got the chance to enjoy some amazing burritos. Saturday we went to the same mission outside Arequipa and got to have English Day with the kids. We had a fantastic rendition of "head, shoulders, knees and toes" and the kids seemed to really enjoy it. Thanks for praying for Chadwick, he is doing a lot better and his appetite has returned with a vengence.
This week we will be meeting with pastors from all over Peru. The pastors are coming to Arequipa for a leadership conference to give all the pastors a detailed plan for what will be happening in thier districts over the next several years. Later in the week we will start making videos in the areas surrounding Arequipa so we can get some practice while we are still near our tech people.
Thanks for your continued prayer and support,
Ryan and Chadwick
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
