Adventures in Lima

Back in PA!

2010-07-23T16:26:00.018-05:00

I have safely arrived back in Lima after a 3 1/2 week vacation in Doylestown, which was relaxing, refreshing, and wonderful. It was probably my best trip home so far and just awesome to be with the whole family since Jay, Melody, Ella, and my Aunt Lisa all traveled to be there for a short period of time in order to mischievously throw a surprise 60th party for my parents! This would explain why it was harder than usual to come back this time. While Peru is becoming more home to me, there is something about being back home with family that keeps it from being an easier transition. It seems I am torned between two homes no matter where I am, but I probably just need to get used to that feeling! So far since being back I've been able to relax quite a bit. Yesterday my new roomie, Kandice, who will be here for 6 months as a student teacher, arrived so today we spent the day at the school, trying Peruvian food, and teaching her how to do basic stuff in Lima. Tomorrow my other 2 roomies will arrive.

Well, most of the time at home was spent walking into town, playing on playgrounds with Ella, playing Wii, eating my favorite foods, reading Karen Kingsbury books (on which I am now hooked), having picnics outside, going on a crazy hike, taking pictures of Ella, planning Mom and Dad's surprise 60th party, and hanging out by the lake in the Poconos. Here are lots of pictures of it all!

At a wedding of old friends from church.. the reception was awesome!

At the Pocono house, making a team effort to make the big bed Ella's tent and tunnel which she made us all crawl through. I think she was right when she insisted that we needed a BIG tent :)

Erin and Jay in the kitchen!We had one or two rainy days while on vacation so Jay, Dad, Mel, and I decided to play a little tennis while Mom and Er took Ella on the playground. We tried to at least look like we were playing awesome.. we were a little rusty.

Majority of our free time was spent playing our new favorite game, Bananagrams, which consisted of Er and Jay arguing over the illegitimacy of the Official Scrabble Dictionary. In Erin's defense, it did count ZZZ as a word meaning to sleep.. maybe a little bit of a stretch.

Playing lots and lots of Wii

Cheeburger Cheeburger for some good old fashioned burgers and shakes

Karen Kingsbury books.. what kept some of us just a little occupied during vacation ;)

The highlight of the trip home was definitely the party, considering how SHOCKED they both were to say the least. Here's the anticipation and the grand entrance..

60th Surprise Party Entrance Video from Lauren McNally on Vimeo.

Update from the last.. uhh.. 4 months :-/

2010-03-14T11:11:00.014-05:00

Well, believe it or not I am alive and well here in Lima in spite of my absence for, well, months. Life has continued at it's normal, rapid pace since my return from Cusco with family months ago. It's hard to believe almost an entire semester of school has passed since then and I am actually beginning to think about the next time I get to see my family, which is in a little over a month at the end of June! I am definitely looking forward to my "fix" of the States and my family.. I will be home from June 26-July 20.

This semester has seemed completely insane in that it has flown by and school has been anything but normal over the last few months. We have had a crazy amount of special events and schedules this semester so my attempt as a teacher to keep things in order, my classes flowing, and my students learning has felt rather futile at times. But God's work in our school has been so evident in a powerful, awesome way and so it's all worth it. Praise God for numerous salvation decisions within our middle school and elementary school in just the past 2 months and for how we have many high school students contemplating and wrestling over the choice of salvation that they know they have to make. I would rather that any day that apathy or ignorance regarding the gospel. I am particularly thankful for the opportunities He is giving me to be apart of this process in the lives of several precious high school girls. When all the work that this job requires becomes overwhelming and I begin to feel so overwhelmed and weighed down, these girls remind me of why God has called me here and that it is the Lord that I serve daily.. not only in my academic teaching but in my attitude, my example that I am called to set for my students, my testimony, and my relationships with my students. Please be praying for God to continue to grow my relationship with these girls and for Him to use these discipleship opportunities to bring one of these girls to salvation and for Him to grow and mature the faith that He has begun this year in the life of my other student. I am so thankful to be apart of His work and while I often take it for granted and get so caught up in the daily grind that comes along with this calling, He has recently been reminding me of the purpose of it all. He has brought 1 Corinthians 15:58 to my mind over and over again.. "Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves FULLY to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." Wow, that is so what I have needed to hear lately.. to be reminded that it's for His ultimate purpose.. both for the lives of my students and for my own transformation and sanctification.

So just to give a little glimpse of what this semester has been like, here are some snapshots of the last few months.. most recently (today) was my biggest / most stressful day of the year at school.. Science Fair. This is quite a grand production at ICSL and although it resulted in me taking Excedrin Migraine every day this week, I am thankful that all went well and all of my students finished their projects after months of work. Whew.. some were making me a little worried for a while!

Also, about a few weeks ago I officially ran my first marathon! It was an awesome experience and I am definitely inspired and motivated to do it again next year. Although training was not as successful as I would have liked due to strained muscles and a month-long, persistent parasite (the unpleasant part of living in Lima), I was able to finish all 26.2 miles 4 hours and 15 minutes later with tons of excitement as all my friends were waiting for me and cheering for me. It was definitely awesome having this experience in Lima and running with tons of Peruvians but it was a bummer not getting to share my excitement with my family. Guess they'll just have to fly out next May.. hint hint :)

My awesome roommates giving me entertainment & food along the way.. getting their run in for the day too!

Mariano running along with me... conveniently wearing an Adidas shirt like the rest of us, but don't be fooled, he wanted nothing to do with 26.2 miles!

All the ICSL runners in the 10k, 21k, and 42k (Rebekah, Megan, me, Melinda, Jessica)

All our awesome supporters who ran all around Lima for hours cheering us all on! With their donuts of course..

I also had a bit of a different Easter celebration this year as I didn't have Americans to share the day with and so rather than sulking in this disappointment I decided to share my American traditions with my favorite Peruvians. So I had Mariano's whole family over to celebrate and cooked them an American meal, which certainly came with some reservations on their part as they had never eaten cooked ham or pineapple stuffing before. While most of his family was polite in trying my food, little Maria Gracia showed no fear in expressing her disappointment and shock at the lack of rice at the table perfectly. In her words, "Dónde está el arroz?? No, en serio, dónde está el arroz?!" So my courageous attempt to cook for Peruvians (who take a LOT of pride in their own food, which is definitely awesome, I will admit) was a bit of a humble experience, but fun in all.

Here are some snapshots...

Las hermanitas... sleeping

Seventh grade frog dissection... some kids loved it...

and some gagged the entire time...

Well, I think that's enough for now.. more updates to come before the end of the school year.. hopefully :)

McNally's in Peru... Part 2

2010-01-28T14:46:00.012-05:00

So for the rest of our trip.. here are some more pictures and tidbits!

Hostal in Cusco

Qorikancha and Santo Domingo Convent in Cusco

Plaza de Armas in Cusco

Other happenings in Peru with the family...

For the few days that we weren't in Cusco, we spent one day touring Central Lima to see the main plaza and the changing of the guard and then took a treacherous ride up the lovely mountain San Cristóbal where all 4 of us were pretty much scared for our lives. We got to see the view of Lima, which unfortunately looks like a huge pile of dirt covered by a million houses and shacks. So I'd have to say the risking of our lives wasn't quite worth it on that trip, but thankfully we made it back down safely. Here are some pictures in Lima...

Cathedral in Central Lima

Changing of the Guard in the Plaza de Armas in Central Lima

In the Plaza de Armas in Central Lima

Looking out over Lima from San Cristóbal hill

We spent their first full day in Lima going to my church, Camino de Vida, where Erin and Dad got to put their spanish into practice and ended up getting a lot more than they expected! We then went to lunch at Punto Azul to give them their first ceviche experience...

Us at Punto Azul... from left: Erin, my roommate Amanda, Mariano, me, Mom.

Ah yes, meet Mariano.. a rather special Peruvian here :)

This has become one of my favorite Peruvian dishes, in spite of being raw-looking fish (actually cooked in lemon juice) but I don't think they would say the same. I believe their words were "good flavor, bad texture."

We spent the next day at the beach, which gave Mom, Dad, and Erin the full cultural experience as it became an American - Peruvian Extravaganza. Our family loaded in the rented van in the morning with Mariano's family, plus their close family friends (American missionaries actually), for a day at the beach! We had a lot of fun as his family got to practice their English and the McNally's got to practice their Spanish. After both families hit it off we ended up spending another night hanging out, in which mom kindly played Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders for a good portion of the night with Mariano's little sister, Maria Gracia.

The whole crew, minus parents!

Burying Maria Gracia :)

From left: Mariano's mom, Mariano, me, Amanda, Erin

Mariano's family... From left: Adriana (sister), Andrew (best friend & soon-to-be brother-in-law), Flavio (brother), Samia (sister)

In Larco Mar, which is a nice shopping area in Miraflores, Lima

Making a trip to the Magdalena Market for good Peruvian coffee to take back to the States.. hmm, que rico.

Well I think that's about it.. awesome trip overall and soo thankful that they could come visit me in my little world here! Now my vacation time is just about up since classes start again this coming Monday the 8th and I'll be heading tomorrow morning to the beach until Saturday for a teacher's retreat before starting school back up again. Prayers appreciated, as always!

McNally's in Peru... Part 1

2010-01-25T23:30:00.014-05:00

After a few busy weeks back in PA (and several other parts of the country), I am happy to be back in Peru, especially because due to it being summer here right now, I still have a little less than 2 weeks of vacation until starting classes.. I definitely won't complain about that! I've been back now for about a week and a half, most of which was spent with my mom, dad, and Erin. It was an enormous blessing to have them here for a second time, although we were definitely missing Jay, Mel, and Ella. I think it's safe to say their visit this time was even more enjoyable than last year, partially because it helps as they are becoming more accustomed to life in Lima.. including the insane driving, traffic, fun taxi rides, no flushing of the toilet paper, and all of the other cultural differences that my life daily involves! We were able to make the well known trip to Cusco and Machu Picchu this time for 4 days, which of course was amazing! Pictures probably give the best summary of their visit, so here's the first set of pictures.. check back for the next round soon!

Plaza de Armas in Cusco

Plaza at night

Tiny streets in Cusco... Peruvian drivers are definitely impressive to say the least

After the bus ride up to Machu Picchu, waiting to walk up to see the sights

Starting out a little foggy

The fog was just starting to clear

Looking out over Urubamba River

On the treacherous path to the Inca Bridge in the mud with a straight drop down off the edge... shortly after this point Mom and I gave in to our fears and turned back with Dad and Erin continued on.. Guess we know who the brave ones are in the family!

Clearly it's rainy season

Overlooking Machu Picchu believe it or not.. apparently it was a little foggy

Terraces

Celebrating the Holidays

2009-12-04T17:04:00.012-05:00

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

2009-10-17T00:16:00.013-05:00

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

2009-10-03T13:57:00.003-05:00

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!!

2009-10-02T20:11:00.002-05:00

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

2009-09-22T20:39:00.003-05:00

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!

2009-09-05T17:14:00.004-05:00

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!

2009-09-01T18:22:00.002-05:00

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!

Back to school!

2009-08-09T18:40:00.005-05:00

Well tomorrow (Monday) is officially the first day of school, after being pushed back from swine flu, and I think I can actually say I'm ready! Maybe not to be waking up at the crack of dawn or lesson planning my life away, but I'm ready to see my students and get back into a routine. This past week I've been at school every day for inservice and to get ready, so it was a productive week and I already feel a difference between being a 1st and 2nd year teacher, which is a HUGE relief! I have been a little nervous that this year would still be super stressful with some of my classes changing plus getting new curriculum for my other classes, but I am definitely feeling ahead of where I was this time last year. I hear it improves more and more each year, so I'm just thankful to feel some difference at this point.. now I just pray that it continues! So if you think of me tomorrow you can pray that my nerves won't act up, that I can get my classes off to the right start, and that I will be able to relax so that my students have a feeling of calmness and peace on the first day.

One big prayer request I have for the year is actually related to the Bible class I'm teaching this year. I just found out about a week ago that it changed to a different class than I was expecting, and I will now be teaching a course that surveys the ENTIRE Bible.. ah! Talk about being stretched.. but I guess that's where God likes to keep us, right? I will certainly be learning a lot this year, but my need for prayer beyond my own knowledge of the content comes from the fact that almost 100% of my students in that class do not know Christ as their Savior, which is an incredible opportunity but also a huge responsibility. I am definitely relieved that I will have these students by themselves so that they have the chance to ask questions and so I can really spend time teaching the foundational beliefs of Christianity and God's entire plan for redemption from the beginning of time, whereas I might tend to assume that students know some of those things when the class is mixed with lots of MK's. So please please pray that the Spirit will be present in that class this year.. that He will give me wisdom to know where my students' hearts are.. that I will create an environment where those students feel comfortable asking their questions.. and that God will open their hearts to really hear what He has to teach them this year.

On another note, I got to get out of Lima on Friday when our staff went down to Pucusana, a little over an hour south of Lima, to stay at a house right on the water just for the day to relax and spend time together before classes start. I didn't get the best pictures, but I have a few that give you the idea of where we were. We go to go out on little boats to see the islands nearby which had lots of pelicans and sea lions. It actually reminded me of Islas Ballestas, where I went with my mom, dad, and Erin this past January.. just a scaled down version.

Mostly teachers here (from left): Jared, Nancy & her daughter, Amanda, Jenna, and Eden, + a new student at our school, Jesse, who is living with our director

Today I got to spend the afternoon with the Peter's, who just got back from traveling to Machu Picchu and Arequipa all week. They came to see my school and my house... in a combi of course to give them the full experience :) Then I took them to the open air Magdalena market to get a little cultural experience. But they'll be leaving tomorrow night so I won't see them until Christmas now.

Lindsay, Evan, and Mr. & Mrs. Peter's in my new house

Lots of visitors!

2009-08-01T23:13:00.004-05:00

This has been quite the eventful week, with arriving in Peru, doing lots of shopping after my first day back to get lots of stuff for my new room (finally making it feel like home!), starting school meetings, and seeing all of the visitors who are currently in Peru from PA! I got to see Aaron Henning, my pastor from ACF back at PSU, and his father-in-law (who happened to be my dentist in State College) because they came to Peru primarily to see Dave Mosemann down at the orphanage. So we had dinner the other night and they both came to my new house to see what my life is like here, and I'll be seeing them again at church tomorrow! Also, yesterday the Peter's arrived in Lima.. if you don't know, that's Lindsay, my best friend growing up and her family & boyfriend, Matt. We met in Miraflores tonight for dinner before they go to Cusco / Machu Picchu, and then Arequipa, tomorrow. They'll be back in the city next weekend for a few days before heading back to the States, so they're hoping to come see my house and school and get a little slice of my life in Lima. So it has been really fun having so many familiar faces here the past few days. It has definitely kept me from getting too much into the work mode.. which we know I can slip back into far too easily. So I can honestly say my last few days have been quite balanced and enjoyable. Well, here are some pictures of my last few days with my visitors and roommates...

Lindsay and me :)

The Peters.. out to dinner in Miraflores at the Huaca Pucllana ruins

Dave (lives in Peru), Aaron Henning, me, and Dr. Grant in my new house

Out to dinner at the amazing lasagna place Eden and Amanda discovered while I was gone!

Back in the City

2009-07-28T09:32:00.002-05:00

Well thanks to all of my faithful followers who I am sure have been reading my blog daily for the past 3 months ;) Ah, well, it's a new year for me here in Lima, so I will try to do better. I just arrived back in Lima last night (a few hours later than expected) and slept in my new room in our new house! Amanda, Eden, and I had to move a few blocks from our old house, still in the same neighborhood, because the family whose house we were living in was coming back and kinda needed their house back. So we actually moved to a bigger house and we're really excited about making it feel a little more like home this year, which we failed to do last year. Being my mother's daughter I of course unpacked all my suitcases and just about every box I brought here in June until about 3am last night after an already long day... not exactly what my sister would do :) I'll post pictures of the new house once it's set up and homey.

Now that I am here it actually feels good to be back.. the past few days you could say I have felt somewhat hesitant and it was a tough transition, even more so than at Christmas, which I wasn't expecting. I really enjoying being with my family a lot, seeing friends, and truly relaxing for probably the 1st time since Christmas, so that made it hard to say goodbye and come back. But I know God has me here for this next year to fulfill His purpose for calling me to this crazy city, whether I always see what that purpose is or not. So I'm looking forward to not being a 1st year teacher anymore (!!!) and actually having a little bit of experience to help me start off this new school year. I will start school just for teacher meetings this Thursday and classes actually start August 10th... it was supposed to be the 6th but I just found out it got pushed back for some Swine Flu thing.. who knows. So we will go on a staff retreat next weekend instead of starting school. This year will definitely be different from last year and I'm not quite sure what to expect.. my classes have changed some, so I will still have some 1st year teacher syndrome :( I'll be teaching 7th grade Life Science, 8th Algebra 1, 9th Bible, 10th Biology, and 11th/12th Chemistry... pray for me! :)

Well I'm going to go reacquaint myself with the city and the wonderful Peruvian food and do lots of shopping for my new house! Oh, and if you are interested in my new address here just let me know, since it has changed since last year.

Catching up from a busy month!

2009-04-25T19:46:00.006-05:00

Since it has been over a month since I gave an update, I have lots to share, but the first bit of news is that Eden, Amanda, and I did finally name our kitty! Her name is Espie, short for esperanza ("hope"). We are also really excited because God answered our prayers about finding a place to live next year. Since we are currently living in the house of a missionary family who is just on furlough in the States, they will be returning in June so we need to move out. But one of the families from our school is going back to the States this upcoming year, so we will be moving into their house. It is such a blessing because it's a great house and they are a wonderful family to be working with. We will also be temporarily adopting their pets! We've decided to keep their boxer and their fish while they're gone, so I think we can officially consider each other family now that we will have 3 pets in our house :)

Other things that have been going on this past month... I (and the students) survived science fair! It was pretty stressful leading up to the event, but the day was actually pretty fun and went really smoothly. The kids did a great job and all went well, so I would say it was a success! Here are some pictures of the day and a few of their projects, some of which were really impressive... I loved it, being the science nerd that I am.

Jens and I looking all official before Science Fair!

It has been a pretty busy month overall, and we just started our last quarter of the year, which is crazy. The time is flying now and there really is very little time left until I come home for a month break at the end of June. The Lord also blessed me with providing a fairly cheap ticket home for a brief weekend trip to see one of my closest friends, Joy, get married. Joy and I have been really close since my freshman year at Penn State, and her and Andrew have been dating for over 4 years now, so it is such a blessing to be able to go and be apart of her big day! It will be a crazy weekend.. getting in Friday May 15th and leaving Tuesday to come back, with a trip to Virginia for the wedding in between, but it will be worth it. I can't wait!

Several weeks ago at school it was Spiritual Emphasis Week. This was an entire week where we only had classes in the morning and the afternoon was a special time to specifically focus on teaching our students more about the Lord and giving them chances to discuss and interact more with what they were being taught. Our entire staff was incredibly blessed to have a whole team from Tennessee come to minister to us by running that week. They had a ton of stuff planned... chapels with worship and a lesson, activities, discussion groups, and special seminars during the evenings for staff and parents. It was such an amazing week for everyone involved. I must say, it is absolutely true that Southerners are some of the most warm-hearted people you can ever meet. I just pray that some of the bonds that were formed that week between the team members and our students would be used in the hearts of our students, especially those who don't know the Lord or understand what it means to be a Christian. I was also personally blessed by one of the men who came... Oscar, or "Big O" as he liked to be called. He used to be a science teacher for 12 years and so he sat in on a lot of my classes and was able to help me, encourage me, and give me really helpful feedback. He even dissected a frog with me! He was seriously such a blessing to me because one thing I really miss here is not having an experienced science teacher to go to when I have questions. So God was so faithful in bringing "Big O" to Peru for that week. Here he is and then some of the other team members.

I think this picture calls for a bit of an explanation... It was "Twin Day" and although you cannot see my twins here, you just have to trust me that they were also dressed like they didn't make it out of the 80's! And Amanda was twins with another teacher Jessica, and they dressed up in the students' uniforms... clearly our love for our students is shown in how ridiculous we allow ourselves to look.

I also just got back this afternoon from visiting Hannah's Hope, the orphanage down in Pucusana (hour south of Lima), with several other teachers for the day just to help out with painting and other things they needed done. It was a great day and it was really fun to be back there. I am currently planning another service / outreach trip for our 7-12th grade students for May 14th to go back to Hannah's to serve in any way they need us to. We finally got the date on the calendar, and now it is time to start planning, so please pray for me as I seek the Lord with what we should do for this trip.

Meet ... our No-Name Kitty :)

2009-03-14T09:07:00.021-05:00

Our precious new addition to our lovely home in Peru :) Could there be a more perfect time to use my token phrase (that my roommates just love so much)??

She is soo stinkin' cute!

Last Sunday Eden, Amanda, and I got our adorable kitten, who still has yet to have an official name.. for now, kitty, or gatita (little cat). We have come up with quite a few but are struggling to settle on a specific one. Any suggestions are welcomed. We have been trying to give her a spanish name, which we had for a few days until one of our Peruvian students revealed that we didn't actually want to call our adorable kitten by that name based on its meaning here in Peru, haha. Yes, the joys of living overseas and not knowing the meanings of everything we say :) Humbling, as always! But she is soo cute and has brought so much fun to our house. However, I will admit that being woken up at 4am the first few mornings because she was ready to pounce on my bed and play got a little bit old.

Hopefully Noel back in PA won't see these pictures and get jealous!

Assisting me in my lesson planning...

Other than our new kitty, the past two weeks or so have been pretty busy here, and quite honestly this past week was pretty tough for me, in my motivation and ability to teach and also in my own spiritual and emotional life. I am thankful for the weekends to have a chance to rest, be refreshed, and be filled up by the Lord so that I can be ready for another week. This might sound ridiculous, but I am a little nervous for this next month because, by default, I am in charge of science fair this year, which is in 2 weeks. Now, in order to understand my anxiety and stress over this event you need to understand that over the past several years this has become a huge deal for about 4th through 11th grade. Thankfully, I have 1 other teacher who was willing to help me out this year, but this has been something that everyone stressed out over each year, including students, teachers, and parents. So this lovely job has now been passed on to me, whether I like it or not, and even though I have never myself had to completely my own science fair project :) So I am doing everything I possibly can to tone it down a bit this year so everyone involved doesn't lose sleep over it, but it is still a rather large task I've been given. Needless to say, my blogging this month might be lacking a bit as I try to juggle some additional responsibilities.. so please be patient with me and just pray for my level of peace this month!

Well, I have been wanting to show pictures of what I had the chance to do last weekend. We had a long weekend specifically for the high school retreat, so a bunch of 9th-12th grade students and quite a few teachers traveled about 2 hours south of Lima for the weekend to Kuwai, which is the 1st place I really traveled in my first month here. If you remember my pictures, it was the beach where we hiked up the big cliff. So we went there from Thursday to Saturday afternoon for this retreat. I always remembered loving youth group retreats when I was younger, but it was a little odd to realize I was on the other side of it this time. (Am I really old enough for that??) But regardless, it was great. Any chance I get to be with my students outside of the classroom is such a blessing, because that's when I really get to know them and they really get to know me, and relationships grow. It was nice and hot for those few days and we had both the ocean and a pool right there, so free time usually involved some sort of swimming, getting thrown in the pool, or just having buckets of water dumped on you :) We had several sessions with the kids for worship and a speaker, and some small groups for them to go to learn more about different topics, like prayer, relationships, or how to know God's will for your life. I think this was really good for them honestly. Even though we have Bible class at our school, those deeper conversations tend not to happen as much in the classroom.

About halfway through the weekend, I began to realize just how the Lord is working through our school to plant seeds in our students who we know don't know Christ. Since the retreat was optional, most of our students who came are believers, but there were a few there who are not. We were able to see them really asking important questions about God and Christianity and it just reminded me how right in our small little school, there is a spiritual battle over the souls of these teenagers. God is absolutely working in their hearts and causing them to think and ask questions, which is awesome. So it really was a reminder to me that I need to be praying every single day for those students who don't know Christ. We never know how long our students will be at our school since they come and go so frequently, so it is so important to be planting those seeds and showing them the love of Christ every day.

Well, here are some pictures of the weekend, mostly of the games we played with the kids.

Everyone on their tiny little carpet... having to flip the entire sheet over without stepping off.. quite entertaining I must say

Notice them stacked 2 high...

but don't be fooled... it wasn't without pain

Love the beautiful sunsets on the beach...

On Friday night, we tortured the kids by making them perform their own little "American Idol" or something of the sort. One of the benefits of being a teacher :) They complained the whole time until it came to actually performing their songs, which was hilarious and I think even they would admit was pretty fun. This is definitely when we get to see their true personalities come out!

Probably one of the best parts of this was the teacher "judges", which included Eden. For any of you who read herblog, you are quite familiar with her witty comments. One of her classics, "it was so hip, my grandmother broke it" was a pretty big hit with all of us, especially the kids... oh Eden.

And the night wouldn't be complete without the teachers embarrassing themselves, of course

Our history teacher Kyle and I with 1 of our 10th graders Angela (left) and 1 of our 9th graders Laura... both of these girls never cease to amaze me. I can't wait to see what the Lord will do with their gifts and their hearts for Him.

So overall, it was a weekend full of blessings and growth. I am really thankful for those opportunities we have here at our school. It definitely puts things in perspective and reminds me of why I am here... to minister, love, teach, and encourage these teenagers. God definitely does bless us when we follow His will.

And lastly, I thought you might enjoy seeing my students in action... and embarrassing themselves... so you can get a taste of the fun I have with them!

Retreat Video 1 from Lauren McNally on Vimeo.

Back in the swing of things..

2009-02-22T18:50:00.006-05:00

I know it appears as though I disappeared when Erin and my parents left Lima, but I am still here and finally getting settled back into my routine with school, church, and my friends here. It has been a pretty uneventful few weeks since my family left, but the first 2 weeks of school have gone pretty well, even though it has actually felt much longer than that. I am finding that this semester is going much better than the last.. it's amazing how just a few months of experience have made me so much more comfortable with my students and in my classes. But my prayer for this semester is just that my focus would be aligned with the Lord's and that I would be led by the Spirit as I get up in front of each class each day. I pray that I wouldn't miss any opportunities He places in front of me to minister or to spread His light and His joy to those kids. I am finding that the more time that goes by here, the more I realize that He did not call me here because I am some great science teacher, haha.. yea, it definitely can't be that. His calling is much greater than that and as I allow Him to change my heart and my way of thinking, I begin to see that the academic part of my teaching is such a small part of why I am here. I just pray that I can live up that calling! The Lord is so gracious though to remind me that all I need to do is humble myself, remain in Him, and seek His face, and He will do the work through me.

Well, I love to take advantage of any opportunity I have to snap some pictures of my students just to give you a glimpse of the precious faces I get to see every day. So last Friday, Amanda, Eden and I had some of the junior and senior girls over just to bake cookies, watch TV, and hang out. It was such a blessing just to be with these girls outside of the classroom because that is really where the relationships can grow, although I can't imagine why not in chemistry ;)

Apparently we have a glass with a hole in the bottom.. who knew?

And I thought I would save this for last so that I wouldn't scare away any of my readers...

another cucaracha that Amanda and I had the pleasure of killing about 2 weeks ago. This was a nasty persistent one... about half a can of Raid wouldn't do it, so we eventually had to resort to dropping the Yellow Pages on him (you know, so we wouldn't have to ruin the bottom of our shoes), which are now the designated cockroach yellow pages :) But I am happy to say we have not had any cockroach sightings since!

McNally's in Peru Part 2

2009-02-01T14:22:00.054-05:00

So the second half of their visit was wonderful... definitely exciting and interesting to say the least! But then again, that tends to be the life of a foreigner in Peru. We left Tuesday afternoon to head down south a few hours on a bus to Pisco, which I didn't realize was heavily impacted by the earthquake in 2007. Much of the town was still destroyed, with rubble all over the street and houses that clearly had not been restored even a year and a half later. We were able to stay in a nice little hostal, where we met Ademir, who turned out to be our amazing tour guide that we got to know pretty well. He set up a tour for us for Wednesday morning to go to Paracas, where we got a ferry that gave us a tour of the Ballestas Islands.

Erin, me, and Ademir

This is a mototaxi, which aren't as common in Lima because you just might die in one in the city, but they are really common in the smaller towns in Peru. This was actually my first ride in one in the 6 months I've been here, so I was pretty excited to take a ride for 2 soles (66 cents) everywhere we went in Pisco. It lived up to all of my expectations.

In the mototaxi... I can't remember the last time I sat on my dad's lap!

Hostal San Isidro, which we loved!

This is the Candelabro (meaning "Chandelier"), which we saw from the ferry on our way to the Ballestas Islands. It's this big mystery how it got there because it looks like it is just etched in sand, but there are actually only a few centimeters of sand on top of solid rock. There are some theories about how it got there, but no one knows!

This is one of the Ballestas Islands. It was really beautiful and very interesting to learn about the wildlife that thrives there, including lots of birds and pelicans, penguins, and tons of sea lions. This view is of an entire colony of sea lions on the island. Aside from being really loud, they didn't seem real nice because we saw a fight between 2 male lions (below). They were doing this for a little while but we didn't get to see if one would surrender or not because our boat eventually left, but it typically wouldn't end until one surrendered or died.

Notice the difference in color on the rocks... the rock is naturally the reddish color at the bottom, but the islands appear to be almost completely white. Why? Because of poop. It is completely covered in poop. The real name for this is guano and it is a huge industry here because it goes several meters deep and is mined to be used as fertilizer. So I guess if this whole teacher thing doesn't work out, I could always go digging for poop!

Humboldt Penguins! (also known as the Peruvian Penguin)

So I'll keep my science lesson brief, but our guide explained that there is a cold current, called the Humboldt Current, off the west coast of South America that comes from Antarctica. These penguins are adapted to the temperature and minerals that exist off these islands due to the Humboldt current.. hence their name :)

Another fun ride in the back of the bus.. I think my family was starting to get used to this by the end of the week. After seeing the Ballestas Islands in the morning we went back to the port (El Chaco) and went on an afternoon tour of the Paracas National Reserve, which was really beautiful along the water. Lots of sand, rock, and cliffs :)

La Playa Roja... The Red Beach, which is red because of the minerals in the water coming from a nearby island.

This rock formation is called La Catedral and was partially destroyed during the 8.0 earthquake in 2007. See the before picture below.. notice the bridge between the 2 rocks completely collapsed. There were also crazy cracks in all the rocks from the earthquake, where the formation is likely to be destroyed again whenever there is another big earthquake.

The man said there was salt in the rocks, but we felt it necessary to be sure :)

After our tour of Paracas, we went back to our hostal in Pisco, where we got to go into the town with our friend Ademir. That is another story in itself and an awesome testimony of God's faithfulness and sovereignty because He so clearly opened the door for the name of Christ to be lifted up and shared with someone who is absolutely searching for truth.

Thursday morning we got on another bus to go one hour further south to Ica, where we got an exciting tour of the sand dunes! We rode on dune buggies and tried sand-boarding down the steep dunes. The dune buggy was basically like a natural roller coaster in the sand, which was awesome. By the end, Erin was of course the only one who could have stayed on for another 3 hours.

A view of Haucachina, which is specifically the tourist spot outside the town of Ica

Us with our dune buggy and guide/instructor.. plus a guy from Tokyo

We did our best to capture the real experience...

This was an oasis in the middle of the desert because apparently there is water about 3 meters under the surface

So this is sandboarding, which is basically snowboarding, just on sand. We clearly didn't look experienced enough to go down the dune standing up on the board, so we did the tourist thing and rode on our stomachs.. yes, all 4 of us because my parents are amazing! And at this point at the top of the steep dune I was petrified, and attempting to tell him so in spanish, but he pushed me anyway :)

Erin flying down the dune

Proof that my mom was brave enough

So we left Ica to come back to Lima on Thursday afternoon, stopping at the orphanage for dinner on the way. It was great for them to see it and get the official tour from Dave. We spent the next two days around Lima going back to the Inca Market to do some more shopping, the open-air market, a jazz club in Miraflores, and taking a long walk down by the ocean. Saturday afternoon we walked to Larco Mar, which is a nice outside mall down by the ocean, where my mom and Erin were very excited to buy their Lima Starbucks mugs :) Yes, we have Starbucks in Peru.

Buying coffee at the open-air market.. a few rows down from the hanging pigs and beef carcasses :)

Inca Kola! Peru's national soda.. a cross between cream soda and bubble gum flavor (interesting, but good)

At Larco mar

The Love Park (Parque de Amor), hence the famous statute :)

This was one of our last nights, when we went into Miraflores (nice part of Lima) and went to a jazz club, literally "The Jazz Zone."

So overall, it was an awesome week and such a blessing to have them here and experiencing Peru. Now it's back to reality.. blogging as I take a break from lesson planning, once again! It's a little hard anticipating going back and having the crazy schedule once again, but I'm also coming back incredibly refreshed with a new perspective of what the Lord has me here for... to spread His light, His love, and His joy. I'm excited for what God has in store and what He is going to teach me through it all, and I just need to remember that I can do NOTHING apart from Him. It's all done by Him and for Him.

McNally's Meet Peru

2009-01-25T23:06:00.014-05:00

Well we're here! We arrived late Saturday night and I have been giving my family the tour of Magdalena and Miraflores so far, but we're getting ready to leave in the next hour to head down a few hours south of Lima to Pisco and Nasca, where we will take a tour of the Islas Ballestas in Paracas and then head down on Thursday to see the Nasca Lines.

On Sunday they got their first experience on the bus on our way to church, where they were warmly welcomed to Peru :) We spent the day getting settled in, trying the amazing Peruvian cuisine (aji de gallina, palta rellena), and going to the market and grocery store. Yesterday we visited my school, where they thoroughly enjoyed being students once again and playing with all of my classroom toys...

This is the wonderful fire extinguisher that came crashing to the floor from the wall right next to my foot in the middle of class one day.. notice it is still sitting on the floor :)

Dad wishing he could go back and take chemistry for the third time :)

First taxi ride!

Outside of the Inca Market

This man enjoyed showing dad how to play the cajon, (a Peruvian drum)

and as usual, he was great at it

But probably the highlight of the trip so far has been the initiation Mom and Erin had into Peru last night when we saw our first 2 cockroaches, which are TWICE the size of their cousins in the States. I may live here, but yes, I also freaked out and ran. We were so grossed out that we didn't even think to take a picture, but I'm sure we'll have another chance this week :) And as usual, after killing it we left it for Dad to sweep up this morning, after which he proceeded to serenade us with La Cucaracha (click to see history and lyrics of this lovely song) :)

Home :)

2009-01-14T20:58:00.045-05:00

Peruvian bongos... a hit with airport security personnel (in their words, "un buen instrumento"), the family, and even with baby Ella. Looks like she's following in her Pop's footsteps...

Dad's Bongo Skills from Lauren McNally on Vimeo.

Ella's Debut from Lauren McNally on Vimeo.

And yes, the whole family was required to play

So my time back in PA has been great so far, especially getting to see and squeeze baby Ella (when she lets me, that is) and my adorable cousins. Having 3 crazy boys in the house plus the baby creates quite some excitement and is anything but boring.. now I know what Aunt Lisa's life is like every day :) Here are just some pictures from the last week or so.

Who needs presents when you can have boxes??

Ella's Peruvian "chompa"

Ella might not be smiling with me, but please notice that she is not crying

Now if I remember correctly, Erin and I were often asked if we were twins while growing up, especially when my mom would match our outfits (Erin in pink and me in purple of course). Apparently we both have a subconscious longing to return to our childhood and dress like twins once again. This was us after we realized halfway through church on Sunday that we were dressed identically. Something tells me it's not quite as cute as adults, but we tried.

Possibly looking alike once again, but this time we didn't care. We decided to shop in Wanamakers to kill time on our cold, snowy trip to the city :)

So the countdown until I'm back in Peru begins.. just a few more days until mom, dad, and Erin are flying back with me and I will be wearing flip flops again and getting burnt by the hot Peruvian sun :) I have mixed emotions because God has blessed me in so many ways during this break, but I am excited to get back to see my roommates (in spite of Amanda's horrifying cockroach sighting in our house this week), see my adorable students, go to my church and worship in spanish, eat some pollo saltado and aji de gallina (two of my favorites), give my family their first Peruvian combi experience (see below),

and most importantly to fulfill the purpose for which God sent me :) He is filling me with excitement and motivation for this coming semester, not just to teach but most importantly to enjoy HIM and to worship Him in all that I do. He seems to be speaking over and over again to me these last few days that His desire is not for me to grow tired and weary as I strive to succeed by my own standards, but instead for my life and my work to be worship to Him... after all, if it doesn't bring Him glory and praise, what's the point?

"Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain." Psalm 127:1

So that will be my prayer for these next five months, and I will gladly welcome your reminders that glorifying and worshiping HIM is the ultimate purpose to which He has called me.

My amazing roommate

2008-12-12T23:52:00.002-05:00

So I know some of my readers have discovered my incredible roommate's blog (I have two incredible roommates of course, but this would be in reference to Eden), but for those of you who have not I would encourage you to check it out.. especially those of you who know me well. It's amusing how Amanda, Eden, and I have now been living together long enough to have picked up on all of each other's quirks and... individuality, to put it nicely :) Amanda and Eden have especially enjoyed picking up on all of my weird sayings. I am beginning to get used to the fact that I say weird things... and pronounce them with my strange Jersey/Philly/NY accent, and apparently they have too. So Eden has recently posted a special little feature of my odd sayings and I encourage you to read it for a little laugh.. The Blog of Eden.

First Peruvian Hospital Experience.. yayy

2008-12-06T05:47:00.013-05:00

Hopefully you can sense the sarcasm, because heading to the hospital last Friday with my roommates was a little less than enjoyable, though not terrible. It probably sounds worse than it was, but I got a nasty bacterial infection that has been spreading around a lot of the teachers and students and school and it made me bed-ridden and home from school with a real high fever for several days last week. Thankfully Eden speaks the most Spanish out of the 3 of us in the house, so she was able to help me where I couldn't fully express my symptoms.. and that's not exactly something you want to mess up. But after a few hours of waiting, and being stared out as the only "gringas" (ah yes, the lovely slang for American) in the hospital, I left with lots and meds and am feeling much better. Thought you might want to see catch a glimpse of a Peruvian hospital, since Eden had to take along her camera to document the moment :)

Eden brought along a horse she found on the street for some comfort... I don't know, I don't ask

So, I guess it's about time I show some pictures from my Thanksgiving trip last weekend. (Was that really just last weekend??) It already feels like it was 2-3 weeks ago. School is just getting crazier and crazier these last few weeks as we're wrapping up and preparing for finals that it is going soo fast. In 2 weeks, I will have officially finish my first semester teaching and will be home wrapping presents and eating my mom's Christmas cookies!! I don't remember the last time I was this excited to go home. Anyway, here is where we stayed last weekend in Cieniguilla (don't trust me on the spelling..) on the other side of the city. We literally just relaxed and sat around the house we rented for 3 days. It was so nice to get away and be with what felt like family for several days for Thanksgiving. We played games, watched movies, and swam in the pool on Black Friday!! That's definitely a first and something I can get used to. It's really amazing how quickly you can adjust when you're overseas to different traditions and how friends quickly become family who you celebrate holidays with. I'm definitely happy to be coming home for Christmas, but for Thanksgiving, this was pretty nice.

Rachel carving the bird =)

Our little "Peruvian" family.. before stuffing ourselves

...after stuffing ourselves. See, Thanksgiving is still Thanksgiving, even in Peru

By the pool on Black Friday!

The adorable Hollie family..

Makin' guacamole.. my new favorite since coming to Peru =)

The adorable Hollie twins we got to play with for 3 days!

My Daily Entertainment...

2008-11-24T23:18:00.011-05:00

So if I haven't mentioned this before, my students are pretty much amazing and they are definitely my entertainment every day. Here's a little taste of what keeps me laughing and loving my job on a night before a project is due in my tenth grade biology class, in which my inbox becomes flooded (ok maybe not flooded considering I only have 10 students, but you know..) with student emails...

EMAIL #1

Miss!!! I forgot to put the WORKS CITED PAGE in my Powerpoint!!

so I am sending you the corrected one!! I'm sorry!!!

And..... ahhaha ("INSERT NAME HERE"... yes, this is my attempt at keeping my students' identity hidden) told me to tell you her e-mail and she wants to know what should she do for the interaction of the audience!

She just told me like that so if you want, send her an e-mail!! I am really sorry!!!!

Thank you!!!!

EMAIL #2 (After not responding to one student soon enough)

EMAIL #3 (after my response...)

gotta love 'em :)

Outreach Trip!

2008-11-19T17:16:00.013-05:00

Well I still can't believe we actually just went to the orphanage Wednesday as a school. It was awesome. Honestly, I am so excited about what God is doing between ChildReach and ICSL. He is up to something.. I'm just not sure exactly what yet :) But I really think this is going to be a place for our students to invest their service and talents over a longer period of time, which is really exciting. Dave and the Peterson family at the orphanage are really interested in growing this relationship so we will definitely be looking to make another trip in the near future. I don't know exactly what God has in store, but He is definitely working in it all!

Overall, the trip was great. We were thrown a few curveballs when it came to doing our programs at each school, which led to it not going quite as planned, but it's okay... it was Peruvian style :) We did the best we could under the circumstances and it was awesome to see so many of my students step up and show their gifts in that setting. They did a great job working on different jobs around the orphanage.. shoveling stone, painting, priming, peeling... and they seemed to really enjoy it. It was a really special blessing for me to be able to get to know some of my students outside of the classroom and spend time with them doing some of the same work that I did in January. I just felt like it was a personal blessing from God to be able to see the vision and desire He gave me in January carried out. Here are some pictures of my crazy students...

Dave giving the kids a tour of the site... reminds me of my Penn Staters from January :(

They LOVED painting.. especially getting it all over themselves, haha

Filling up the second water reclamation system for Hannah's Hope
Notice that this was the "man job" ... They loved it
Peeling the front wall to prepare for Eden & her art class to do a new mural next semester!

More boys doing some more shoveling!

Prepping for VBS on the porch

At the school... my 11th graders, Carolina, Natsuko, & Soo Min teaching the kids their choreographies

The drama, which was SO good.. I had no idea I had little actors & actresses in my classroom

and the bus ride home...

I'm thinking the day wore some of them out, what do you think?

Even Mr. Schlak!

Lindsay and Eden

haha and finally.. Jessica showin' off her guns

So overall, it was an amazing day! Thanks for all the prayers leading up to the trip and throughout the whole day. God was definitely faithful.

God is at work in Peru :)

2008-11-14T18:36:00.006-05:00

Well, it has been a little while since my last update and that is because so much has been going on here in the last 2 weeks. As you know, I've been praying about how God could use the connection between the school and the orphanage and it was just really on my heart after my last visit there a few weekends ago. Well, the entire 7th-12th grade, along with 15 other teachers, will be making a trip down there this coming Wednesday!! It is so exciting, but it has also been just slightly overwhelming to plan in less than 2 weeks :) (If you know me at all, you know that is quite an understatement, considering how I am plagued by OCD and perfectionism...) Anyway, it's hard to believe it is actually happening this week. God put this on my heart to take my students there since January when I was still deciding whether Peru was where God was calling me. It has been crazy trying to figure out how to pull this all together in such a short period of time.. organizing 63 students to run 2 VBS programs and do construction at the orphanage. But I have been pretty humbled during it all to say the least. It's amazing just how many times God needs to teach me the same lesson, and I STILL don't even get it. I still manage to let my pride get the best of me and think that I am capable.. and that it is about what I am able to do to make it all work. As a result, I have been pretty stressed and feeling a lot of pressure to organize this whole thing. But God is still merciful and He is so patient with me. I kept being reminded of Psalm 127:1 this week: Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain... So my prayer this past week is that that wouldn't be me or our school... that we would be doing only what God is calling us to do and that we would be working and serving completely inside HIS will.

I was amazed after the first few days of planning when I asked for a few student volunteers to help me with planning for the music and dramas, and about 20 students showed up on the first day. God just so clearly chose each individual student to use his/her gifts to bless the group and to serve next week. I was blown away to see how we had SO many students willing to put together dramas, even though it meant practicing every day after school. And we had students step up and offer to give their testimonies and even give a message to 200-300 Peruvian students their age or even older. I was amazed. There is no way I could have done that at their age. There have been a lot of ups and downs through the planning, and lots of disorganization, but today I finally have a lot more peace about it all. Only God can calm my nerves and anxiety, that's for sure.

To give you an idea of what we're doing Wednesday, all 75 or so of us will take a bus down to Pucusana and we'll split into 2 teams. One team will be going to a k-12 school of about 200 students in the community where the orphanage is, while the other team will stay at the orphanage and do physical labor all morning... painting, digging, peeling walls, etc... all the fun stuff :) Then, in the afternoon, they will switch and one group will go to a local secondary school (grades 7-12) of about 300 students and put on a program with singing, dancing, dramas, and a message. I'm really excited. My students and the staff have been praying every day for our own hearts to be prepared and for the hearts of those students to be prepared to hear the truth of the gospel next week. I feel like God has changed our plans a lot from what we were originally expecting, which gives me even more faith that He has something in store. So please please please be praying all the way through Wednesday. This is going to be such an opportunity, not just to spread the Word of God to the Peruvian students at those schools (although that is a huge part of our ministry there), but also to challenge and reach out to the students in our own school. Sometimes it is so easy to forget that we have so many students within our own classrooms who claim to be Christians, or who will outright say they are not, but will still recite their memory verses or pray even though they have no faith of their own. I am praying for their hearts to be open during this trip.. to allow God to do His work in them, which only He knows.

I guess overall, this week was pretty stressful, but it definitely had its sweet moments. I think one of my favorites of the week was Thursay during my 7th grade Bible class. I was having a rough morning, just feeling overwhelmed and not at all filled up spiritually. That became evident immediately when I lost my patience with them within the first 2 minutes of class as they came in my room asking me 3029384 questions (nothing out of the ordinary). So we took some time to pray and I just confessed my need for prayer for patience and for God to ease my anxiety. It is always awesome listening to my students pray, but it just overwhelmed me when one of the boys prayed for me in a way that just got to me in a way I can't even describe. It was such a humbling moment, realizing that I have so much to learn from those 7th graders and that God is able to use them in such powerful ways, even when they don't know it. That was definitely a moment that put it all in perspective as to why I am here. This is not just a job. The relationships I am able to have with so many of my students here is what sets this place apart. I wouldn't trade it for anything right now.

Well, that's what has been going on here the past few weeks. Classes have gone on as usual, but this coming week we have very little school. Wednesday we won't have school due to the trip, but then we also have off on Thursday & Friday!! There is a big conference, APEC, going on in Lima so it is a government declared holiday. And then, one of the beauties of working in international education is that we get to celebrate American AND Peruvian holidays.. so we will have off Thursday & Friday the week of Thanskgiving too :) Yes, you are allowed to envy me for the next 10 seconds.

Okay, done.

I will definitely be posting lots of pictures and stories from the trip on Wednesday, but then I am planning on heading out of the city again from Friday-Sunday with some of my Peruvian friends from church.. which means Spanish for 3 days in a row.. ah! I might have a headache when I get back, and will probably make an idiot of myself for 3 days sounding like a kindergartener, but it's okay.. it's all part of the cultural immersion :)

I think that's about it for now. I am getting really excited to come home in about 5 WEEKS! The closer it gets, the more homesick I get. I am just beginning to realize all the things I have missed, and I am imagining being home for Christmas with family and getting to see all my friends, and I just can't wait. These next few weeks are going to fly as I prepare for finals and for the end of the semester, which means I will be home before I know it!

Random Updates

2008-10-28T21:35:00.010-05:00

So in case I haven't reassured you all of this lately, I really do love it here. I can't get over how quickly Peru has become a new home for me. Don't get me wrong.. there is plenty that I miss from home. I really miss being able to actually hug my family and not just skype them. I miss sitting in the living room of my Nicholas Towers apartment with all my old roomies eating funfetti cake while watching Friends. I miss going for a run through Doylestown. I miss Jules pizza and Rita's water ice. I miss playing Wii (especially cow racing) in Erin's apartment, practically dying laughing while watching my mom play. I miss the changing leaves this fall. Now that it is less than 2 months until I come home for Christmas, I am getting anxious for the things that I miss and can't wait to do once I am home. But at the same time, I am so comfortable here. I am so thankful for how my roommates and friends here have so quickly become my family away from home.

With Thanksgiving coming up in just a few weeks, about 10 of us teachers have made plans to get away for 3 or 4 days (not far, just to another part of the city) and rent a house to have Thanksgiving together. We are planning to cook a nice big dinner.. well, I should say Rachel will probably be cooking most of it. Rachel is our business manager's wife, and they have 2 twin baby girls who are about 7 months (close in age to Ella). I am just so excited to be able to be in a family environment during the holiday even though I'm away from family. It's amazing really how God provides for exactly what we need.

I also am getting excited about some new possible ministry opportunities, but I want to share them so that you can be praying for God's direction. While I was at the orphanage on Saturday, I saw so many different possibilities for taking some of my students there to serve and I got SO excited. There are ways to integrate a service project into my science classes for a field trip, or into Eden's art classes to paint a mural there, or to just take students down for an outreach trip. But since Saturday I haven't been able to stop thinking about getting my students down there. Please be praying for God's guidance and direction because I am so afraid of being led by my own motives, and not by the Spirit's leading. It is just so exciting seeing how God could possibly want to use the connection between ICSL and Dave at the orphanage to do His will.

It was really fun taking Eden, Amanda, and Jared there this past weekend. Here are some pictures of our trip. We dug all day and almost finished that hole I'm so fond of that I started digging in January with several PSU chicas. It's almost ready for the septic system.. finally! :)

Dave and Jared racing...

still racing... I think they pretty much tied.

Little Carlita from Hogar, the orphanage across the street

Proud of my Teams :) ...and some more Arequipa!

2008-10-26T13:22:00.013-05:00

I may be living in Peru for a while, but I am still so proud of my Pennsylvania roots, ESPECIALLY when I can brag about my teams :) It's a little lonely being the only Penn Stater here but I have been keeping my friends here well informed about how INCREDIBLE PSU is doing this season. I didn't make it to see the game against OSU last night because I was visiting the orphanage all yesterday with my roommates and Jared, but I was screaming and yelling for them in spirit! It sounded like such an exciting game, so I was bummed I didn't see it, but now I can look forward to a bowl game while I'm home. It's a little sad this season couldn't have been last year for my senior year, but I will try not to be selfish and just be happy for them. Check out how ridiculous PSU fans are though! This is on Beaver Ave, downtown State College.. notice the light post about to come down.

And for those who didn't catch the game either, you can read about it here.

And for my other home team.. I will not even try to pretend that I have been an avid Phillies fan all my life, especially compared to my brother Jay (check out his Phillies spirit all the way from LA) But it is really exciting that we are 2-1 in the World Series right now against Tampa Bay. It's been 28 years for the Phillies, so I'd say it's about time. So of course, now that I have moved out of the country, PSU AND the Phillies are having incredible seasons.. hm, maybe they were just waiting for me to leave. Regardless, I'm so proud of my teams!

Okay, now for the long awaited pictures from Colca Canyon. I know it has taken me forever to get all of these posted, but better late than never, right?

Condor!! We got to see about 4 condors, but they left within about the first 5 minutes of all the tourists arriving.

Gorgeous view of the terraces

This is one of my favorites.. I think it could be a postcard!

Lindsay and I on the cliff

Another one of my favorites

While we were on our 2-day tour of Colca Canyon, we stayed in a town called Chivay in a hostal. These Peruvian dancers were our entertainment at the restaurant one night.

And of course, who gets picked out of the whole restaurant to dance with the Peruvian man?? yes, that's right, I got to make a fool of myself. It was slightly embarrassing to say the least, but at least I got to show my PSU spirit and wear a pretty stylish hat :) And for those of you who are convinced I will marry a Peruvian.. please just take note of how I am several inches taller and probably twice the weight of him.

Back in Arequipa.. my favorite picture of Plaza de Armas

Arequipa Part 1

2008-10-17T22:35:00.011-05:00

My apologies for the delay in posting pictures from my trip to Arequipa last week. Since we returned really early last Sunday morning, it has been a whirlwind trying to catch up with my classes. It was a rough week transitioning back into my daily routine, which tends to revolve around school, but I have definitely been able to find humor and laughter in the midst of it all.

Tuesday night in particular provided my friendly reminder that although I may feel pretty settled here, I am still in a foreign country where it is blatantly obvious that I am the outsider. As a first year teacher, everything I do tends to be last minute, so I was heading out Tuesday night to Sodimac (which is what I would consider to be a Peruvian version of Home Depot) because I needed to buy plywood, cut in various shapes, for a lab I was conducting in Wednesday's class (next day of course). Thankfully, Amanda came with me so I at least had someone to laugh with during this little adventure. Now, I must confess that I would hardly know the procedure in the States for buying plywood and having it cut in specific geometric shapes, let alone in Peru in another language. I thought I was prepared with my little pictures and measurements of what I needed, along with what I thought was the word for plywood in Spanish. But, after 2 hours of wandering around a big warehouse, I was quickly reminded that I am still a foreigner here in Peru. I must confess that if it were not for Amanda and I being young and American we probably would have walked out empty handed. However, a nice young gentleman was more than happy to help us find alternate material, buy a knife, and actually cut it for us in the warehouse, as he continued to tell us that this was not normal procedure. Ha, it was a humbling moment to say the least, and I wouldn't mind if I didn't experience that helpless feeling again for a while. But I must say that the ability to laugh at yourself is essential to surviving overseas. At least these experiences give me a good story to tell if nothing else!

Now, for my trip to Arequipa, which unfortunately already feels like it was 3 weeks ago instead of just 1!

It was honestly wonderful. It was a time to relax, get away from the humidity and haze in Lima, actually see some mountains and stars, and have lots of time with my roommates and Lindsay and Kathy (also teachers at ICSL) without worrying about school. We were there for about 4 days, 2 of which were spent in Arequipa and the other 2 on a guided trip to Colca Canyon. It was really beautiful there and I took hundreds of pictures, so it was hard to choose just a few here, but I did my best. These are just pictures of what we did around Arequipa.. pictures of Colca Canyon will come in my next post. There are just too many to post all at once because it was so beautiful!

This was the view when we stepped off the plane at 6 am

The center square of Arequipa, Plaza de Armas, which we fell in love with. We hung out here during the day...

... and again at night.

Me, Eden, Kathy, & Lindsay, who is acting crazy as usual :)

Our first lunch, where we tried alpaca.. eh, I have to say it was not the greatest.

Mmm, palta rellena (stuff avocado). This was really good, especially since avocado has become one of my favorite foods in Peru.

Check out bird boy! Haha this kid was pretty content believe it or not

Ah yes, and who greeted us on our first day in Arequipa? Spiderman!

Here are just some pictures around Arequipa. We did a lot of shopping, eating, sitting in the park, then some more eating, then some shopping, then some more eating... you get the point :)

These were some guys in the park showing off for us.. I thought I would at least give them some fame on my blog since Amanda and I laughed at their attempts to impress us!

Beer Ice Cream! (Cerveza = Beer) Sounds gross, but I had to at least taste-test it and it was good! I can think of a few family members who might be jealous of this :) Moroccan restaurant, Res el Hanout, which was amazing to say the least. This is just a really pretty view of part of the city...

This is in the garden at our little hostal (from left, me, Eden, Lindsay, Kathy, Amanda)

That's just to show a little bit of my time in Arequipa, but I'll post lots of pictures in the next few days of Colca Canyon, which is where we spent the other 2 days of our trip and was just gorgeous!

Update coming soon!

2008-10-14T11:01:00.002-05:00

Just want to let you know I'm back from Arequipa and had an amazing time, but I haven't had time to post pictures or write all about it yet. So this is just my "coming soon" post. This week is crazy at school getting caught up after the break, so pray for me until I have the chance to write more this weekend!

I'm still alive :)

2008-10-04T21:11:00.008-05:00

I know, I know.. this is long overdue! Needless to say it's been a little busy here for the past few weeks. I am doing well and finally feeling like I have SOME sort of a life outside of school (although school still manages to occupy the majority of my life), so it's all keeping me nice and busy. It is hard to believe but this Tuesday is the end of the first quarter, which means Christmas is going to be here before I know it. Time is really starting to fly by, especially now that I'm really enjoying being here in Peru and teaching. Not to say it is easy, because that is certainly not the first word that comes to mind when I think of my time here, but I am experiencing more and more blessings the longer I'm here! Tonight in about an hour I'm actually going to meet Dave Mosemann at the airport because he is coming back after being home in the States for the past 6 weeks. It seems like it was only 3 weeks ago that he left here. Crazy. It's exciting to look back on and realize that when he was leaving I was in a place of being so homesick and wishing I could go home too, but God has done such a work in me in these past 6 weeks. I am definitely looking forward to coming home for Christmas, being with my family, and seeing all the friends I'm missing so much, but I really feel at home here. I'm excited about my church and I've been going to a Saturday night group to get to know more people my age. The first week I was there two Peruvian girls, Rosanna and Paola, really welcomed me in (despite my poor Spanish) and that was a huge blessing. Please pray that I would really work at building those relationships because it will be important for me to be connected at my church. I got connected to this church through one of the pastors at my home church and I also found out that my head pastor, Pastor Andy, has been to and actually preached at my church here in Peru and plans to make a trip back here within the next 2 years. It's so comforting to picture him in front of the church preaching! I think several other members of my church at home have been there on previous mission trips, so I'm trying to convince them to get back down here sometime again soon.

Other exciting news is that this week I have 3 1/2 days off! Tuesday is a half day, and then I have off until the following Monday =) So, I will be heading out of Lima at 4am on Wednesday to fly with my roommates and 2 other teachers, Lindsay & Kathy, to Arequipa! Arequipa is another city in Southern Peru and we'll be staying in a nice little hostal there until Saturday, when we'll fly back late at night. I really have no idea what to expect yet and haven't had much of a chance to think about it, but I'm just excited to have a few days to get away, get some sun, and relax. Here are some pictures of Colca Canyon, which we are planning to see. It was in the running for one of the 7 Wonders and is said to be deepest canyon in the world! It is also known as the home of the Condor, so I'm really hoping to see them and get some good pictures (yes, the science teacher is coming out in me). It looks beautiful from the pictures, so I'm excited! Definitely check back next Sunday (or sometime soon after, hopefully) to see if it really looks like this!

Teaching

2008-09-20T10:59:00.009-05:00

So, as a first year teacher about 6 weeks into my first year, I am beginning to discover how teaching can be extremely rewarding, but it is also the type of job that I may NEVER master. I have heard from so many experienced teachers that you are always a learner, even when you have been teaching for 15 years... (unless of course you become like those teachers we all dreaded in high school who should have just retired 10 years early because they can hardly call what they do teaching)... and I am beginning to see how true that may be. As the perfectionist that I am, it is so difficult to realize that I can always do better than what I am doing. There are days when I know I definitely need to do better, but even on days when things go well, there is more that can be done and better ways to teach. This past week I became pretty overwhelmed with this idea of never being fully satisfied with how I'm teaching. Am I always going to feel like I'm not doing enough? Even after I've been teaching for 6 or 10 years?! Part of me doesn't know if I can handle that feeling all the time. This week I struggled some because I have felt like I'm just beginning to take some time to breathe, but when I take a step back and look at my teaching, I'm not satisfied and feel like I'm not doing enough. It can be a pretty defeating feeling.

But last night I was talking and praying with a good friend here, Melinda, and we realized that I am placing ALL of my worth in my ability to teach. I want so much to teach my students effectively and in a way that they can enjoy, which can be a good thing except for the fact that when I don't succeed in that, I fall apart. So it was a much needed wake-up call last night.. realizing that I am placing my confidence and my worth in my abilities, not in who God says I am through the power of Christ in me. According to John 14:8-14, it does not matter that I don't feel capable.. It was God who did His work in Jesus, and now it is God doing His work in me through Jesus. That is not something to take lightly... because of that power, I can find my confidence in Him and trust that He will equip me to do the work He has called me here to do.

On another note.. my whole family was on vacation at the beach this week, including Jay, Melody, & baby Ella, so it was hard to not be there with them. We had the chance to skype the other night so I could see Ella and she is getting SO big. But I know a lot of people were praying for me this week, that it would be a good week at school and that I would be comforted despite being away from them. I was able to have little blessings this week to get me through and confirm to me that this is where I am supposed to be... like hugs from my students that can just make my entire day, and having a lot of fun with the staff who is really becoming like family here. Here are some pictures of our staff volleyball game the other day.. you'd be amazed how much trash talking can go on when there's some competition between a bunch of Christian teachers!

Looks like a pretty nice shot, right? Well...

...until it went over the net into the neighbor's yard. We honestly tried knocking on their door for a while, but there comes a point when resuming the game is just too important, so the guys went into stealth mode to retrieve them :)

And here are some pictures I have been meaning to post for a while now.. my awesome 9th grade class! They were working for several days to build parachutes to protect an egg dropped from the 2nd story of our school and all the parachutes were successful! Told you they were awesome...

Moment of truth...

Here are some videos of the drop...

Birthdays and the Beach!

2008-09-06T18:12:00.035-05:00

I know, I know, I'm WAY overdue for a new post, so hopefully you haven't completely given up on me by now :) I'm still alive here and doing quite well. These last few weeks of school have been much better than the first few, so that's a huge answer to prayer. It has been an eventful couple of weeks, so I have lots to post about.. birthday fun, staff picnic, and my trip to the beach this weekend, which was basically pure awesomeness :)

So my first birthday in Peru last week was wonderful! It really was a great day.. thank you for all the birthday messages & emails. It was so wonderful to know I was being thought of at home. My friends here and my students made sure it was special for me, which was just awesome. This was definitely my first birthday where I was sung to in 3 different languages! It was the best when my students sang Happy Birthday to me in English, Spanish, and Korean. They knew it was my birthday and made sure they sung to me in almost all of my classes! I loved it. Some of my students gave me cards and ice cream.. it was really special. I just soaked it up all day :)

Rebekah, the 1st grade teacher, and I share the same birthday, so we got to do a double celebration with all the teachers. So we all went out to dinner after school at Siam, which was an amazing Thai restaurant not far from school. After they brought out Maracuya Creme Brulee (which was a fantastic dessert).. we went over to Rebekah, Laura, & Kyle's apartment for MORE dessert. (Someone must have told them about my sweet tooth..) Here are some pictures of us all digging in!

Hmmm.. this was some sort of fried banana deliciousness :)

The whole group toasting with our lemon-grass lemonade :)

My entree! I forget the Thai name for it, but it was chicken, rice, veggies, and cashews.. SO good!

Lemon-grass lemonade.. sounds gross, but really good

Fun with Rebekah and Megan on our taxi ride home

We also had a second b-day celebration the next day at Yvonne's house.. she cooked for all the August birthdays and made an incredible meal..

This is homemade, which means she's an amazing chef in my book

Me, Rebekah, & Betty

We also had a staff picnic a few weekends ago, and the SUN came out! It was such a treat to be out in the sunshine, which makes a huge difference in the temperature. Since it's winter here, most days are pretty grey and blah, and lately it has been "raining" quite a bit... now let me just explain that this Peruvian "rain" is what I would call "misting" or "spitting", but this past week the ground has actually been wet almost every day. Still no need for an umbrella, but the taxi driver has actually needed his windshield wipers, which is rather unusual for Peru. So anyway, having several warm days where we needed sunglasses was pretty exciting, so we soaked it up and grilled burgers outside at the house where the only 2 single guy teachers live.. Jared, and well, Jared. Yes, both Jareds. As you can see, they're really roughin' it with a mini pool in the backyard and an entrance to a gated park. So this just means their house is declared the party house!

My roomies.. Eden and Amanda

Okay, and now for my trip to Kawai!

Yesterday I left straight from school with most of the teachers to go to Kawai, which might just be my favorite place in Peru so far (although I still have a TON of places to go!). It's a nice little beach resort about 2 hours south of Lima (past Pucusana, where the orphanage is). We rented out a few bungalows just to get away, stay for the night, and enjoy the beach & the ocean. Even though it wasn't nearly warm enough to be out in bathing suits like you would think of the beach in the States, it was SO nice to be out of the city and just hanging out with so many of the teachers. It felt like a 24-hour retreat. Last night we just relaxed, got a little wet in the chilly ocean, and made smores around the bonfire :)

Lindsay, Kathy, & Amanda.. attempting to stay dry, but not really succeeding

Jared finger-roasting a marshmallow.. I barely got this picture before he yanked it away because it burned, so don't be fooled!

The resort

These were the cute bungalows where we stayed. We could walk out the back door to go straight to the beach.. does it get any better?!

haha I love this picture.. Debbie sitting in the drained pool on a mattress

haha Jared being Jared and trying to balance out Eden & Laura on the see-saw

Little Oliver.. the youngest of our 5th grade teacher, Jens, and his wife, Annie

Going for a ride on the beach.. Peruvian style

Horses on the beach!

This morning a bunch of us went about a mile down the beach to hike up a cliff, which was awesome. It was definitely a LOT easier going up (although it gave me a good workout and my legs will probably be sore tomorrow) than it was going down, which was a little scary since heights aren't exactly my favorite thing in the world. We basically had to do a crab walk the entire way down because it was so steep, but it was definitely worth it. Here's the view and some pictures of us hiking..

Megan and I

So here were some Peruvians swimming in the ocean right at the bottom of the cliff. I was excited to take a picture of them when I was at the top, plus they seemed to be having fun in the cold water, but then I zoomed in and realized some of them are in their tighty whities, ha! So you might not want to blow this picture up!

Melinda, our Kindergarten teacher, and I at the top

The Jared's

Great view... and an accurate picture of the haze that likes to plant itself over Peru all winter

Hi Mom :)
The trip down, which was quite difficult, but thankfully at this point I was safe on the ground
Here are 2 Peruvian teenagers helping Juanita down the cliff

haha crazy teachers wrestling.. good blackmail for the students (which is why you don't see me in that picture!)

The whole group :)