Spanish Classes (and food)

This is really just an effort to not blog exclusively about food.  There is sooo much variety, and it features in nearly every conversation.  But it will sneak it's way into this post too, so don't you worry.

It's been great having Spanish classes - the first week was a scrambling catch-up with the subjunctive sentences the others had been doing (I joined part way through a group course).  It was good because I had actually studied it before so probably didn't need to learn it all over again, but it was a useful challenge to dredge it all up and start using it again. So a mix of revision, new words, new rules I never knew, and some words to forget because I learned them in Ecuador and they don't make sense here (or, with some, people might get offended).

Here I am with 2 of my teachers and the obligatory certificate when I finished on Friday.  Oh, and the bell they ring to signal the end of class:

The bonus of studying at 'El Sol' has been that they also run extra activities for the students - like visiting museums and forts ...

(where the main event seemed to be a Spanish pirate)

  

...and having cooking  classes!  I learned to make 'humitas' which were a favourite on my first trip here. They're made from maize, with the assistance of garlic and a liquidiser (both indispensable in Peruvian cooking)

 

And, as promised, here are some more food photos from the cooking classes, including: chicharron de trucha (deep-fried breaded trout), mazamorra (a purple gloopy dessert which I ate multiple times on my visit last year), and locro (a stew made with squash).  All delicious.  All involving many different flavours and herbs and spices! So far I have discovered at least 4 different types of pepper.  I just managed to avoid eating a slice of the strongest one yesterday when I realised that, no, it wasn't a slice of tomato...

    

Baking my way around the world...

I spent Saturday helping to prepare for a pastors' conference which is happening this week.  The theme is 'llamados' or 'called' and it's about mobilising churches to send and support missionaries.  So the preparation involved making 300 cookies and icing them to look like maps of the world!

It was fun to be back in the world of mass-producing biscuits.  Skills from Fellowship Afloat stood me in good stead.

And it was great to have a day of making some new friends in Lima, and chatting and joking in Spanish.

I also had to concentrate hard to draw the continents from a southern-hemisphere perspective, and sadly realised that the UK wasn't big enough to show up.

   

But ultimately it was lovely to know that we are part of a whole global network of Christians wanting to follow God and support each other as we learn to serve him.

In Lima

I arrived on Friday morning after a long (but easy) journey - the decision not to go via the USA meant not only that I didn't need to sort out a visa waiver, but also I didn't have to collect my (significant amount of) luggage again until I got to Lima.  Also that I could sleep for a whole seven hours on the plane - unheard of! So I was surprisingly lucid when I arrived.

Only a few photos so far (click on each for a larger image), but here is the area around the SIM guesthouse:

  

The city itself is pretty flat, but to get to some of the suburbs you have to go round the dusty hills which are the very beginnings of the Andes.

  

And the guesthouse itself - the SIM office is on the top floor and there is a nice green park opposite:

So far I've visited:
 - a prison ministry - we went shopping in Lima's chinatown with a lady on parole
 - spanish-speaking church - with familiar songs!
 - Anna, my neighbour of 2 years ago at Bible college
 - various SIM missionaries in Lima

I'm looking forward to seeing more of the SIM ministries, as well as meeting up with recent friends (from my Reading church), and long-term friends (it looks like the engineers I worked with in Moyobamba 11 years ago may be in Lima in the next few weeks).

Next week I start Spanish classes - and hopefully also a couple of peruvian cooking lessons!

2 weeks and counting

This has been a great summer of planning, preparation, visits and relaxation.  I leave for Peru in 2 weeks.

Highlights:
 - saying goodbye to the British mountains before I go to live among their taller cousins

 - being at my sister Hannah's wedding

 - 2 days at New Wine in Somerset with old friends - listening to God and to stories of how he is at work

 - relaxing with my parents on the Isle of Sheppey

 - running a holiday for single parent families at my favourite lightship

 

 - visiting lots of old housemates and friends

I've also managed to get the UK side of my degree paperwork completed in time with the right things signed by the right people - great news!

Officially a missionary!

Good news! In June I was accepted as a full member of SIM - and I have also reached my fundraising budget for the first year and have almost reached my target of prayer partners. This means I am ready to go (well, nearly), so I have stopped work with Motts and am looking for flights in September.

In the meantime

In the last few months I've been working part-time so that I can give a good amount of time to preparations, raising support, and visiting family and friends. 

It's been great to resurrect some of my schools-worker skills, and plan and teach various lessons at primary schools on water, disease transmission, South America, and Christian mission.  I first became interested in overseas work when I was that age, so I love to give other children the same opportunities to be excited by it.

 Practising making water-wells with my god-daughter and her brothers.  Jesus said: "...but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life" - John 4:14

         Ecuador-themed display by children at Croscombe school             Disease-transmission and how engineering can help! (cawst drawings)

I've enjoyed the mixture of raising support and visiting friends Of course it's often the same thing! - which is lovely.  I'm about halfway to my financial and prayer targets now, and nowhere near that far through all the people I'd love to see.

Next (apart from some more talks and schools) is a final interview with SIM and my sending church in Shrewsbury - this has been set at the end of May.  Then I plan to give notice, book flights and pack up my life!  I am keen to go and get started, but the great news is the extra time means I will be around for long enough to go to my sister's wedding in the summer.

God has been good - well of course that's not surprising!

A map!

Just so that you know where I'm going, here is a map of Peru, with some key areas highlighted (like where I'll be!)