I don't want the title of this post to suggest that I haven't been enjoying my sixth visit to Lima, Peru, but in all reality, it has been a lot more emotionally challenging than past visits.

    For one, I've been half-searching for a job...a task which has never been known for its laughs.  Also, my interview schedule has been very "I-don't-know-what-I'm-doing-when-until-the-very-last-moment."  For a planning-oriented person like me, this has made my days and weeks nerve-wracking.  I haven't been able to make any plans apart from research ("plans" read: time with friends, time touring Lima, time doing ANYTHING) until about a day before the day in question.

    Uncool.

    Also uncool is the fact that soon, the church I consider my "home" church here in Lima will be no more, and that is just depressing.

    You might say I've been in kind of a funk ever since the AIM project folks went home.

    However, these past few days have been better--God's been helping me a LOT, and getting around PEOPLE has helped me a lot, too.

    Friday, I travelled to Miraflores to help Liz teach her English language students better pronunciation.  It was a fun evening of question-asking and answering, interspersed with plenty of off-topic rabbit trails.

    Like the woman student in Basic 2 who mercilessly needled the army cadet whose soccer injury kept him from attending his military science classes at the national army academy.

    "Our tax dollars are going to waste!" she proclaimed.

    "No," he parried. "I'm still doing my lessons.  The teacher comes to my house every day."

    "WHAT?!"  The woman student saw red.  "So our government, our wise and noble government, is paying custer fare for the teacher to go to and from your house every day???"

    "I can't go up and down stairs with my leg the way it is."

    "Well, I can break your other leg for you, if you'd like!"

   

    After the classes, I splurged and went to Bembo's, where I had a "Huachana" style burger (like a Whopper but with a sausage-egg omelet and crispy-fried shoestring potatoes on it, too).    Oh-so-yummy...

    THEN, on the first of the two buses I had to take home, I missed my stop and I had to jump off in a hurry.

    "How many blocks did we go past Canada?" I gasped to the cobrador.

    I thought he said "two" ("dos"), but apparently he said "twelve" ("doce").  So I banished any doubt if I had gotten my exercise for the day. 

    Saturday, I spent pretty much the entire day at the Morales home.  (The Morales family was my old host family when I studied Spanish here in Lima in 2006).  I arrived in the morning and had breakfast (tamales and Quaker, a warm, oatmeal-thickened milk).  Then I went to the market with Sra. Maya and helped her carry back the ingredients for the day's lunch: seco de res with cau-cau de pollo (beef in cilantro sauce and a slightly-spicy chicken stew with veggies and potatoes).  We finished off lunch with a mousse de maracuyá (passionfruit mousse) that Cynthia had made.

    All the while, we talked and laughed.  The Morales' 30-something cousin Elmer was over for a visit, which made the conversations that much more interesting.

    "Estelita," Karina said, "If you come to live in Lima, that means you'll have to marry a Peruvian.  But it won't be hard to find admirers.  You're very pretty."

    "I'd be the first member of your fan club," Elmer said.

    Which was extremely awkward.  To say the very least...

    The conversation continued like this, whenever I couldn't steer it immediately onto another topic.

    "Maybe," I said. "But right now, I am very busy with my studies.  Too busy to think about romance.  Tell me, Sra. Maya, how is your mother doing?"

    "How many children would you like to have?" interrupted Elmer.

    "What?  I'm not even married yet!" I laughed.

    "You mean that you'd have to get married before you'd have children?"  He gazed at me intently.

    "What?"

    "Not everyone does wait until they're married to have children."

    I just looked at him.  I was speechless because I could tell that he wasn't joking.

    Yeeeeeah.

    No.

    At just the right moment (no; scratch that. An hour after just the right moment), Cynthia came down the staircase and asked Karina and me if we'd like to go with her while she got her hair and make-up done for her big graduation party.

    Thank the good Lord for timely escapes!

    We took a taxi to one of Lima's best-known salons, Corte y Café.  The prices were about six times what my friend Eliana's prices are, but then the prestige and interior decorating of the place were also about six times higher than hers, too.

    So Karina and I read Peruvian fashion magazines and listened to rave-style electronica for about two hours while Cynthia got all made up.

    The make-up job was perfect, if a little bit heavy, and we were quick to speed her home to wait for her beau to come and pick her up for the party.

    Sra. Maya and Karina hustled Cynthia upstairs to put on her dress, and the cousin and I were left downstairs to watch Cuba beat the Peruvian volleyball team by five points in the World Championship.

    And the Peruvians weren't the only ones staving off unwanted volleys, let me tell you...

    -extreme discomfort-

    After about 20 minutes, though, the other women came back down, Cynthia and her Edgar took their pictures and left, and the rest of us decided that 10:30 pm was too late to head to the theater to see Transformers II: Revenge of the Fallen.

    So we ate a light dinner, and I headed back home to Salamanca.

    Sunday, I went to Camino de Vida in the morning with the Cooleys and their friends Bruno and Joel.  The visiting preacher was from Hillsong Church in Australia, and he preached an excellent sermon on why Christians cannot stand alone--we need "the power of two."

    Afterward, the Cooleys invited me to stay for lunch (ham and cheese sandwiches).  It was refreshing to be able to talk about national issues from a Biblical perspective.  Becky and I played a rousing game of dominoes, and Joel and I played with Sammy (we had a fun time keeping him away from his grandpa's beloved chess set!  "No, Sammy!  Look!  Here's a toy cow!  Moo!  Moooo!" said while holding the chess set at arm's length and the cow right in front of his face).

    Finally, however, I had to leave for Shalom Christian Fellowship for their first service.  I would set up interviews with Pastor Levis immediately after.

    At least, that was the game plan.  Pastor Levis didn't actually show up until the start of the second service, so I had to attend both services.

    Don't feel too bad for me, though.  Shalom isn't the type of church you want to escape as soon as possible.  The second service's sermon was on intimacy with God--it was short and poignant, and it was followed by ministry that involved just the words I needed to hear--

    You're not alone.  God sees you and your needs even when there's no one else around.  He has a purpose for your life.  Lord, fill the empty spots that hurt so much.

    There was also dancing--and not just "oh so purtiful, delicate" dancing.  We're talkin' swing-you-around, jump with all the strength you have, be crazy fo' Jeezuz dancing!  The people who felt led to come up and dance could have been the only people in the room.  They obviously weren't dancing for anyone but One. 

    I met the senior pastor of the church, Pastor Moises, and set up the next third of my interviews after the service.  Then I split a taxi back home with Robert and Becky, who had come for the second service.

    It's been a good few days, a blessed few days.

    Thank You, God, for Your love, for Your Words, for Your Truth.

    I love You!