Lima!

We have finally seen the ¨real¨Lima. And I´ve found the apostrophe and quotation marks, thank you very much. Actually, we are at a different internet cafe and they are where they are supposed to be so Monday, we are back to being lost.

Our babysitters told us they had a surprise for us today. They took us to the Lima city center and we had a blast. We had our first bus ride, not quite as scary as a taxi but you get to share it with some interesting people! The city is so different than the area where we live and work. Much of the center looks like it could exist in any European city. Huge plazas surrounded by official palaces, Catholic churches, interesting architecture, and palm trees. We toured an ancient building where the Spanish catholics imprisoned, tortured and killed Jews 2 centuries ago and a Catholic church complete with catacombs and bones. There were many Americans walking around in this area and it was good to hear our native tongue. You forget how much you miss it when you are surrounded by another language 24/7.

After we had toured for few hours, we found a place to have a rest and some ice cream. Erin and I shared a banana split, each ordered a hot chocolate which, unknown to us, came with a huge slice of cake (we saved it for breakfast) and the bill was a whopping 12 soles, about $4. We bought lunch for the 4 of us plus our 3 babysitters and the bill was about $10. This was in a nice Peruvian restaurant and the servings are huge. Every meal that we eat at our cook´s house, quit whining Kelli Maynard, costs us less than $2/person and that includes appetizer, huge meal portion (always includes rice!), and dessert. You can quit worrying that we might go hungry! Of course, nothing is staying with us very long as we are still having some stomach issues. Are you still praying?????

We went to the supermarket this morning again. We bought some things so that we can eat at home some this weekend. We got what we are pretty sure is ground beef, chicken breast, and cream of mushroom soup. I know the cans are sweet peas because it says so in plain English! We are scared of most of the fruit. Much of it looks like something that lives at the bottom of the ocean and would eat you if given the chance. We have probably tried a lot of it at the cook´s house without knowing what it looked like raw.

Please keep the comments coming on the blog. I am enjoying them immensely and usually sharing them with the team by reading them loudly in the internet cafe while the place goes totally silent and all of our Peruvian neighbors are listening in while we crack up! They must think we have the most hilarious friends in the world.

We miss you all. It´s hard to be caught between counting the days until we can come home (which we do!) and wanting to be here long enough to really get to know these people and the culture. I encourage each of you to try to find a way to spend more than one week on a mission trip. It is a completely different experience to actually live in another culture instead of just visiting. I am treasuring this blessing of time alone with Erin while my heart is bleeding from missing Pat, Em, Cowboy, Elvis, and the rest of you! I know there will never be this kind of opportunity again to have her to myself.

Thanks for the prayers! A month from tomorrow, we will be on the way to Dallas for our endmeeting, then home to you. See, told you we are counting!