Celebrating the Holidays

Since it's been a little while since I last updated, my first update is that it's official.. I renewed my contract to stay here for another year! God had been changing my heart and confirming this for several months now but I finally got up the nerve to sign the paper and turn it in several weeks ago. I'm super excited, even though it means being away from my family for a longer period of time. I can honestly say I have a ton of peace about the decision and I know this is where God wants me for this next year. I am so thankful for His guidance when I don't have a clue what the future looks like and I can just take it a year at a time. But thankfully I have been able to come home twice a year so far to spend some much needed time with family and friends.

Before I give an update on thanksgiving, I think a kitten update is long overdue. Unfortunately these pictures are actually a week or two old, so they're even bigger now, but this will have to do. We were able to find owners for 2 of them, so we have already given one away and will be giving the 2nd away tomorrow. But thankfully my roommates were sensitive to my attachment to these kittens and agreed that we can keep this little grey one, which is the most timid and least annoying of the 3, and we're hoping it stays that way. But here are some other pictures of them on my bed, where they have enjoyed peeing quite a bit over the last several weeks.. I'm trying to take it as a sign of their love.

Well, ironically enough, the zoo that our house has been recently with so many animals represents quite well the way the last month or so has been for me... crazy. This can be expected when the end of the semester is nearing, but for some reason I always seem to be amazed at all there is to do. We now have less than 2 weeks left until the end of the semester, Dec 18th, which is the same night that I'll be flying back to the States. Now that I am actually taking the time to think about being back home I'm getting super excited, especially after hearing that it snowed yesterday! It is the opposite here.. sunny and getting warmer.. but it's funny how much more normal that feels this year. Listening to Christmas music while running in shorts outside and spending Thanksgiving by a pool is beginning to feel like tradition, but I definitely still long for Christmas at home in Doylestown. I will be home for about 4 weeks before coming back and shortly after my mom, dad, and Erin will be visiting for a little over a week to go to Macchu Picchu and spend some time in Lima, which will be awesome!

In an effort to really have the holiday spirit this year, Amanda, Eden, and I decided to have 2 Thanksgiving celebrations this year. We went to Cieneguilla again (same place I went last year.. about an hour from home) for a few days to celebrate with about 10 American teachers from the school, which was a great time to relax, cook, eat, and sit by the pool.. and pretty much nothing else. There are a few pictures here, but I was feeling rather lazy with the camera so there aren't many. But we also decided we wanted to share this American holiday with our Peruvian friends, so we had about 10 Peruvians over the Sunday before to have a big American feast. I must say I am quite proud that we pulled off our first Thanksgiving dinner without our mom's to help! It was a lot of fun to share with them, even though they pretty much thought we were crazy for making so much food. I think they liked most of the traditional food, even our sweet potatoes with marshmallows and my pineapple stuffing (even though it's so not a Thanksgiving dish.. but they don't know that). However, we compromised somewhat by allowing the Peruvians staple, aji sauce, at the table to put on the turkey. So maybe they didn't have gravy all over their plate, but they still had the American experience. Here are some pictures of our cooking extravaganza and the group.

This is almost the whole group, but well, Peruvians aren't exactly known for their punctuality

The whole group.. feasting :)

Here are some pictures of Cieneguilla. We got off to an awesome start when we were picked up by a man with an awesome airport sign that said:

Only in Peru.

These are Rachel and Jeremy's adorable twin girls, Esther and Joy. They are precious and remind me a lot of my baby niece, Ella! They also have amazing hair, thanks to Amanda..

And of course, it wouldn't have been complete without Jeremy bringing his Slingbox so we could watch football and the Macy's parade on Thanksgiving. We might be away from home, but our holiday still manages to be quite typical, with the girls in the kitchen and the boys on the coach in front of the TV. I'd say that makes it a successful trip!

Monkeys.. caimans.. capybaras.. and kittens. Life in Lima is certainly not dull

First things first, my cat, Espie, just had kittens the other night. She is still really young herself so we're just thankful that she only had 3 since we have yet to find homes for them, but they are so stinkin' cute. I'm secretly hoping we don't find homes for all of them because they're going to be pretty hard to give up. She had them during the evening so we got to watch the whole process, which of course was awesome but equally gross. She had 2 calicos just like her and one little grey boy.. adorable.

Well I guess it's about time I post some pictures from my wild adventures in the jungle! It actually wasn't all that wild, but it was definitely fun and a great weekend to get out of Lima and see a gorgeous, WARM part of the country where I could actually see the stars instead of the nasty haze.

Our adorable lodge! Mosquito nets and all :)

Bungalows where we stayed

Our toucan friend that greeted us within minutes of arriving

Piña!

During our stay at this lodge in Puerto Maldonado, we did a lot of walking through the jungle to see the animals and plants. We went on the river the first night in a canoe to look for caiman, which is like a Peruvian crocodile. We saw a few, but I couldn't get any pictures because they flew into the water once we spotted them. I did get some pictures of a capybara though, which is one nasty animal. Apparently it's the largest rodent in the world.. basically a huge guinea pig. Try not to be too grossed out...

Big tree :)

Check out the jumping frog that freaked me out when it jumped in front of my face as I was rummaging through my suitcase

This is where castañas, or Brasilian nuts, come from. This things was seriously heavy.. which apparently is one of the reasons these nuts are expensive because it's a dangerous job gathering these in the jungle because they can fall on your head and do some damage.. I certainly wouldn't want it falling on my head.

Parakeets

Bright green/blue lizard

Monkey Island, where we got to feed the monkeys bananas :)

Monkey on the move.. try not to get too dizzy.. he/she was a little hard to follow.

Monkey! from Lauren McNally on Vimeo.

Canoeing down a little stream to get to Sandoval Lake, where it definitely felt like I was in the middle of NOWHERE...

Bats.. gross.

And lastly.. meet Pedra.

Pedra was our pet monkey for the last day or so that we spent at a different lodge when we went to do some kayaking. She was awesome, but had some attachment issues.. in the sense that she literally would NOT let go of me!! She literally hung around my neck or Amanda's neck for a day straight. The only way we could even go to the bathroom was if we passed her off on each other. When we wanted to go into our bungalow we had to pry her off of us and spring to our door and slam it shut. It was pretty entertaining, and she chased after us on the last day as we went to the airport. She was one cute monkey, minus the time she peed on me, which was probably several minutes after taking this first picture.

The Joys of Teaching at ICSL

I know that I have mentioned how my attitude towards teaching and living in Lima has drastically changed this year, which calls for many thanks and praise to God! Here are some recent reasons for this...

- Spiritual Emphasis Week went well. Praise God for two brothers, one in 4th grade and one in 6th grade, who accepted Christ within the last week. One was during spiritual emphasis week, and one a few days later. There is not much that can compare to seeing God at work in the lives of these kids. I am excited to see how He is going to use these two boys to speak truth and be a light to their parents who are not believers.

- I am really excited about the creation & evolution unit I am starting with my seventh graders. They are SO interested and have tons of questions, and it is awesome seeing my students taking out their Bibles on their own to highlight verses that we talk about in class because they want to remember them. I'm looking forward to the next month or two as they do some of their own research in order to defend God as Creator. It is interesting to think back to the beginning of last year when I was so anxious and apprehensive about the idea of integrating my beliefs into my science classes because of my background with secular education, but God has really grown a desire and passion within me to teach these topics and to continue asking my own questions about how science supports my faith.

- I got to teach in my pajamas last Friday :) Doesn't get much better than that, although it is VERY difficult to stay motivated to teach all day when you feel like crawling into bed.. imagine how the kids feel. Needless the say, the attention spans were a little shorter than normal that day.

- This morning my house is finally quiet again after have 12 high school girls sleep over our house last night. I love having the freedom to build relationships with my students outside of school. They are so sweet and completely crazyy, but they definitely have a way of making me act like I am in about 7th grade again.. leaving me wondering how I'm the one in charge!

- Lastly, living in Peru has some serious perks, like traveling to incredible places that I would never see otherwise, such as the AMAZON! I am super excited because Amanda and I are both flying to the jungle this Thursday - Sunday because we have a few days off from school. It will just be the 2 of us going to a place called Puerto Maldonado, staying in bungalows in the middle of the Amazon, taking hikes through the rainforest, visiting Monkey Island, and taking canoe rides down the river to see some Peruvian alligators! Then on Saturday we are going to a different lodge, called Anaconda Lodge (ah!), to do some kayaking. This kind of trip is definitely at the top of my list of things I need to do while I am in Peru, probably even more than Machu Picchu, so I'm hoping it lives up to my expectations :) So be looking for some pictures after I get back!

Please read!!

As many of you have discovered, my roommate Eden has an incredible blog, which gives an amazing and hilarious picture of a day in the life of a gringa here in Peru. Please read her blog post.. Song of Peruvian.. I promise you will laugh out loud :)

Spiritual Emphasis Week

This will just be a quick note and request for prayer, but this week is Spiritual Emphasis Week at our school, where we have extra chapels and take class time away to focus on specific areas of study from Scripture to discuss and apply to the students' lives. This year we are studying Deuteronomy 6:4-6 (and also the passage in Matthew), focusing on what it means to love the Lord with all our heart, mind, and strength. I feel like God has been at work, with having 2 great sermons in chapel so far that seemed to be relevant to the kids, and then some good discussions and questions in my small group time with 5 high school girls. Please pray for the Spirit to be present for the rest of the week, to be stirring in the hearts of our students, especially those who don't know Christ personally. Today we talked about loving the Lord with our minds and we really challenged some of them in the beliefs they have and why they have them, which seems to stir them up quite a bit. But pray that this would cause them to seek the Lord and seek answers to the questions they have, rather than lead to frustration and doubt. Also, there is no doubt a spiritual battle going on in our school and we have had many students out with sickness over the last week or so, so please pray for health and for those students who really need to hear from the Lord this week to be healthy and at school, despite how the Enemy wants to keep them home and not hearing the Truth. Thanks for the prayers and support.. more updates will come soon!

Edible cells!

Well this past week I got to have my seventh graders do one of my favorite projects to assign.. the edible cell! For both years now the kids have gotten really into it and this year was even better than the last. It's amazing how creative kids can be, especially when it comes to food. So on Wednesday all my seventh graders came in with their "cells" made from completely edible materials.. or as they like to say, "eatable" or "editable" :) Here are some pictures of them and their creations as they went around to judge their classmates' cells for the most creative, most edible, and most like a cell. Some, although made from edible materials, were definitely NOT edible, unless you like to eat jello, nerds, mentos, chocolate, green peas, mayo, and onions together.. yeah, disgusting, but that didn't stop all the boys from digging in during lunch and spilling jello all over their nice white shirts. Ah yes, boys will be boys. See if you can guess which ones were made by the girls and which were made by the boys.. it probably won't be too hard. But overall, I was really impressed and they had a lot of fun.

This one was really well done but the boys were pretty bummed when they got to school and discovered that their manjar blanco (Peruvian version of caramel) had melted all over their cell.. hence the puddles in their cytoplasm :)

This one definitely won most edible, if you can't tell. I was happy to get a taste at lunch, just to make sure they deserved their prize, of course.

Well, I do have some other interesting news, but I need to preface it with a little explanation of the condition that my house was in about 2 weeks ago. If you remember, Amanda, Eden, and I got a kitten, Espie, during the second semester of last year. She is still practically a kitten, or looks it anyway. She's less than a year and looks tiny so we really hadn't even thought about getting her spayed yet. Well we certainly realized it was time to do that when about 2 weeks ago she went into heat and our house quickly became a zoo. I had never realized just how annoying and disruptive a cat in heat can be because I've never had an inside cat, but it was just awful. She was crying obnoxiously for about a week straight during all hours of the day, and night. Needless to say, Amanda, Eden, and I were losing quite a bit of sleep that week due to our highly hormonal cat. Well, I thought that was bad until I woke up one morning to what sounded like cats killing each other. Amanda and I ran out of our rooms, frazzled of course because it's 5am and still dark, and completely freaked out because we knew there was a strange animal in our house. Now, you need to realize that we live in Lima so our house has a ridiculous about of security.. multiple doors with locks, dead bolts, and an electric fence. Well, this didn't stop our little male cat friend from getting onto the roof and climbing in through one of our bathroom windows. Eden came down after hearing all the commotion to tell us that she had been chasing this strange grey cat around our house for half of the night. Ugh. Needless to say, our dog was about ready to tear out every plant in the garden because she was so traumatized.

So, after a visit from this male intruder I think at least twice that week, we were pretty sure what used to be our innocent little kitten, had now become a promiscuous, soon-to-be mommy. And sure enough, about 2 weeks later, she's showing the pudgy signs of kittens. After researching cat pregnancy, I was surprised to discover that the gestation period is only 65 days, ah! So we need to find a home for some adorable little kittens in the next 2 months. It will definitely be fun to have some adorable kittens in the house for a little while. Life is never dull here though, that's for sure.

Not even one month into school and already slacking!

Well it's about time I updated. Things have gotten a little bit busier now that school has really picked up but it has still been going really well lately. This year is soo much different from last year and it's true that 2nd year teaching makes a huge difference. I actually have time to have a life outside of school (well, somewhat.. I guess it's all relative), but it's pretty exciting. I also just had my 2nd birthday in Peru this past Friday and it was great. We actually had a school holiday, in honor of me, of course. My roommates made sure the day was special for me. I woke up and got to have an amazing waffle breakfast they made me, and then got to relax for most of the day since I refused to read a single page of a textbook or even look at a lesson plan. I actually have a birthday twin here, Rebekah, so we have now gotten to celebrate together 2 years in a row. About 20 of us went to a hibachi restaurant for dinner and then came back to my house to hang out for the rest of the night. I definitely enjoyed it and just realized how much God has provided within this last year. It really does feel like 3 years have passed in just this last one because so must has happened, but Peru has definitely come to feel more like home for me this year. As anxious as I was feeling about coming back just a little over a month ago, I have been amazed at how settled and comfortable I feel now that I'm back. That's definitely a blessing because it makes teaching and just living a lot more enjoyable. It also helps that the sun has made an appearance almost every day this past week. Since it's technically winter here it's a huge deal that it's getting warmer during the days. That's one very good thing about living in the southern hemisphere.. the weather gets better as the school year goes on, for a good portion of the year at least.

Well please keep me in your prayers as I know the next few months are going to go by more quickly than I think and December 1st is the looming deadline for all of us second year teachers to give our notice of whether or not we will be returning. About a month ago I would have said that my decision was made, but I have recently felt the need to seriously be in prayer about this because I need to be sure that my decision is within God's will. So I would definitely appreciate prayer for this over the next few months!