Peru 2009 - Entry 2: ¡El Mirador!

¡Hola!

We just got back from El Mirador, a retreat center/park in Peru. (El Mirador means viewpoint.) It was our team, the full-time missionary family, and the barrio leaders and we spent the day doing all kinds of things, many of which were way out of our comfort zones.

A huge bus came to the hostal to pick up our team and about 35 people from the barrio. On the way to El Mirador, my team leader, Mitch, said, ´Okay, I have your first curveball of the trip - I want to do a devotion when we get there and you need to interpret it.´ Most of you know that I´ve been speaking Spanish for a long time now, but it is completely different having to interpret on the fly, English-to-Spanish, without any resources. (I know that I can generally communicate in Spanish, but vocabulary is always the iffy part.) Nonetheless, we did a devotion on creation because the retreat center is gorgeous and has huge trees and wonderful views of the mountains and fields of sugarcane. I´ve got some great pictures that I wish I could post! But they´ll have to wait until we get back to the states.

After the devotion and a quick prayer, we did a few icebreaker games. And, for the first time, we didn´t do gringos vs. Peruanos. It was interesting to see the teams paired up for a number of reasons. One of the games was where each team had to balance an apple between their foreheads and that was hilarious for me because I´m well over a head taller than everyone native to this country. There were also various communication issues, as I was playing the games and therefore unable to translate for my gringo compadres. Next, we played a few games of soccer and had lunch. (I´m already tired of french fries and it´s only day two in country.)

After lunch we played volleyball, and you know who is really good at volleyball? Not me. The Peruanos are overall very good and also super competitive. I´m just happy when I get a hit... my arms are ridiculously sore, so I must´ve done something right.

We finished the afternoon with Dan (one of my team members) sharing his testimony and me interpreting. I think it was a great connection point for the people from the barrio and my hope is that we are all able to connect more as the week goes on and we are able to share more of our stories.

It´s tough getting back into Spanish after this last year of Portuguese, but I can tell I´m getting there because I´m subconsciously trying to translate everything I´m typing and the things people around me say.

¡Hasta luego!

Spanish of the Day = to do a belly flop is ´darse un planchazo´
(Never thought I´d be asked how to say that--but I was.)