School has started

Whoo Hoo. I am so excited. This is my last year in college before I graduate in May, and It has been a wonderful day and a half so far.

I just figured that I would tell everyone that I got home (obviously) and that I have started to settle back into the what seems to be the pampered life. I have noticed how little that things we thought we needed actually mattered after spending all summer in Peru. I mean...Who needs Air Conditioning (okay...with 105 degree weather, that was a bad example). But you all who joined me in PEru know what I mean.

Okay, it is off to class for me.

Chao,

Chris

Leavin´....On a Jet Plane

Well, I am off to the states tonight. I get to fly out with Brad, Logan, and Whit(one of the Equador Missionaries) to go back to the states. I am getting excited. All summer long, I have go with out too much withdrawls from my home land, but this week has been aweful. I really miss my computer, my bed, and my car. Oh...And the family too, but that is always a given.

So, yesterday, I went para-gliding. Yep mom...you heard me right. I hooked myself up to a parachute and jumped off a cliff. AND BOY WAS IT FUN. Got to glide over the ocean for a bit...see the sites of Lima, it was a blast.

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, adieu Perú.

Final transmittion from Perú
Choa,
Cristobal (who must now go by Chris again...dang it)

Help from Above

Help From Above

Small, confined hotel room,
No more than a bed and a chair.
Currently, I´m sitting here wondering,
Lord, What am I doing here?

Is this what You called me for;
Was it You who opened this door?
Or my own selfish desires are they;
Just an excuse to get away?

So many new things to learn,
So much stuff to do.
Lord, show me your will in my life;
Please show me what to do.

The people in this country, they hate me,
The food here, Lord help it down.
All I want is to go home now,
I´m so confused, I feel I´m gonna drown!

So as I sit on my bed now,
I remember the promise you made.
To never leave me or forsake me,
And to help me live through the day.

Lord, You knew of this moment for a while now,
Of when I´d leave my family, my life, my home.
But Your word I´ll keep in my heart and that´s how I know
In You, I´ll never more roam.

Just so you know, this is not how I am feeling right now, but it is how I felt this summer. At a time when I got really home sick and felt kinda useless in the whole grand scheme of things.

Today, we started debriefing. I got a chance to hear alot of good stories about the summer and all. It was also a relief to hear everyone else had some of the same problmes that everyone else was having. Bieng on the research team really had some perks. I got to see alot of the country side. I went to the jungle, the altiplano, through the mountains, and saw the beach. But it also comes with some downfalls too. The biggest one that I can think of is that I did not get to see the fruits of my labor. All of the other teams saw many saved in thier time in Peru, but it was not the case with our team. We did not personally lead anyone to the Lord this summer.

I know that we were doing the Lord´s work this summer. That is why I felt the way that I did when I wrote the poem. But we did not get to see it like everyone else did. But I have come to a realization. Alot of times when we do the work of the Lord, we may see fruits of our labor, but it is not all of them. The people that we lead to the Lord, the seeds that we plant, will all be reaped in due time. I know that the Bible says this many times. Some sow, some feed, and some get the glory of the harvest. But I really don´t think that it really sank in until this summer.

So, if God has shown me one impoortant thing this summer, it is that not everyone get to reap all of the time, someone has to be the one to plant the seed. I have been given a peace in my heart that lets me know that all of the seeds that I have planted will be harvested. The children that we taught to speak english, the hotel worker that we created a friendship with, the store owner who cried when we left. These are all seeds that we have planted over the summer, seeds that we have began to nurse. And I know in my heart that, one of these days, someone will come along to REAP the harvest.

Would you like fries with that....

Ah, Civilization. We arrived in Lima 5 1/2 hours late on sunday, but it is all good. We got a chance to talk to an archeologist at the airport and even split a taxi with her to the hostal. It was a blast.

The day before we left, we took the Martinez' out for a thank you dinner and said our good byes. It was a sad moment. When we left the house, I felt like I was moving away from home. They have been more than kind to us this summer. They have made us feel at home and been a big brother and sister to us. I will definatly miss Doni and Kelly's cooking and Rick's Cuban coffee.

But now we are back. When we arrived, we had to find another place to stay because the hostal that we had reserved rooms in was full. But we got to stay the next day though, so all is good. We meet up with Ann and Stacy too who have been here for a week now by themselves. After we got settled the first day, we went to Chillis and ate a Big Mouth Burger. I would have to say that that was the best burger ever had. It really was good though. I think what made it so good was that it was very anticipated. I have waited all summer for a burger and I finally got one. Then, we went to Dunkin Donuts and hung out for a while with Ann and Stacy.

The next day, after sleeping in till almost noon, we went out with Gladys, the translator from my trip last year. We really did have a fun time. We went to the mall and looked around for a while, at pizza hut and burger king, and then went back to the hostal. Gladys is leaving for Germany for a month to work with the schools there. She has been taking German classes and is getting pretty good. The whole time that we were out, Gladys would talk to me in Spanish because she knew that I have been having trouble with it. Before she left, she told me to stop biting my finger nails and shave my mustache and gotee because it looked aweful. Well, the fingernails thing busted about two seconds from walking in the door. If you have not heard all the stories about me and Gladys, there is this ongoing thing with her trying to get me to stop biting my fingernails. Last year, as a present, she gave me some nail clippers and a note to my mom telling her to bust my butt if I kept biting them. This was my present for the summer.

Well, based on Gladys request, I went to get a haircut after we left and then I went to shave. Afterwards, I went to star bucks and then back to the hotel. When I was there, I decided that I wanted to watch a movie, so I went to buy the tickets and got the wrong time, so I waited in the book store, bought me a book, and went to starbucks..AGAIN, for a coffee.

I watched the Fantastic Four. It was in english and was very good. I am watching it again tonight, but this time, I am going with the rest of the group. I have to say though, It was REALLY nice to get away from people. If you know me well, You know that I go all the time to the movies to get away and relax. That is the way I felt yesterday. When the movie was over, I was looking for my car keys. I guess that I forgot that I was in Lima in a different hemesphere.

Today, two more teams got in. I was relieved to find out that most of the people this summer have changed thier tickets. This makes me feel better about doing it. I found out that Brad and Logan are flying in on the same flight that I am. I am excited about that. And because Brad is from UALR too, we will fly from Atlanta to LR on the same flight too.

Well, Currently, we are trapped inside the REAP office doing reports. We have to stay till we finish. That means that I have to go so we can print them out and leave. It is about time that we finished with them. I think that altogether, we have over 20 pages of reports done.

Choa....Cristobal

District of Ayaviri

Note: This is the identical Post that is located on our PunoRST site. Also, you may notice that the education section was left out. It will be added later.

Logistical:

Ayaviri is located at 14° 52’ 53s and 070° 35’ 26w and sits at 12,880 feet above sea level. It takes approx. 1 hour and 25 minutes to arrive in Ayaviri via bus from Juliaca. There are three checkpoints on the way to Ayaviri and a toll of s/ 8.50 when leaving on the main road towards Juliaca.

Living Conditions / Culture:

There are 9 total districts in Melgar. Ayaviri is the capitol of Melgar. According to the hospital, there is a population of 30,000 people in Ayaviri. There are many public telephones in various locations and there are two public telephones stores located in the plaza. Here at these stores, you can purchase 147 cards for the telephones. With the 147 cards, you can double the talk time if you call from the hotel phones. There are approx. 20 internet cafés with speedy connections. The cost of the internet cafés are 1 sole an hour. There are around 8 gas stations that sell diesel, gas, and kerosene. There are 3 gas stations as you enter the city from Juliaca. There are 23 total police in the province of Melgar and 12 of them are stationed in Ayaviri. We noticed that at any given time, there were 2-3 land rovers as police vehicles at the station. The station is located off of Puno and Cuzco and the Governors office is located next to the police station.
The rainy season last from October to March. In the rainy season, it is possible to travel but it comes with many problems. The coldest times of the year are May, June, and July. In July, the temperature drops below freezing.

The plaza is located 4 blocks by foot from the bus station. One could take a trici taxi to the plaza for one sole. In the plaza, there is a municipal building, many stores, and the Hotel Lumonsa. You can purchase just about anything you need in the stores here. We, however, found problems when purchasing milk. There is always a mini-market on the street adjacent to the plaza. Here, you can find personal hygiene, clothes, Hardware supplies, ECT. To the left of the Catholic Church, you can purchase fresh fruits, canned meats, kitchen supplies, fresh meat, ECT. Things are fairly inexpensive here during our time in June that we spent. We found that the majority of the fruits and vegetables are fresh (with the exception of the pineapples). The main market is on Wednesday.

There are around 50 restaurants in this city. Our team found ourselves eating at restaurant Johanna’s. We could eat the breakfast for 2 soles. IT usually consists of rice, potatoes, and meat of some sort. They would also fix us fried eggs and bread in the place of the breakfast. This would usually be 2.50 soles. This is a recommended place to eat. It is located on the street located on the other side of the plaza from the Catholic Church. The waiter’s name is José. There are also three other restaurants that you can eat at for under 10 soles for dinner (non menu). Los Americanos, Restaurant Vegetarian, and Doña Julias are all great places to eat. They are located either on the plaza, or a block away on an adjacent street.

There are a few things that you can do for fun around Ayaviri. There are the municipal hot springs that are located on the edge of town. There are numerous things to do in this municipal area. There is also Tinijana. This is located about 45 minutes outside of town. They are the natural canyons. They hold a festival there every July. This is the only time when you can enter for free. There is usually a cost to enter, but we do not know what it is.

Hotels and Lodging:

There are about fifteen alojamientos located in Ayaviri. Our team stayed in Hotel Lumonsa which is located on Grau in the main plaza across from the church. This is the most expensive place to stay in Ayaviri, but they have three different classes of rooms for different prices. All together there are thirty nine rooms and around seventy beds. There are only three workers, whose names are Sophio, Oliaska and Jessica. The staff is very kind, but they do not speak English. Jessica speaks a very small amount of English, and they are all very interested in learning from the Americans that come through. The following are the prices for the rooms:

Lumonsa serves breakfast, and it is free only depending on the type of room that you stay in. The kitchen is open for use at night, but only with permission; the oven does not work, but there is a stove and a microwave that are in decent condition. Heaters are available for the rooms, but at an extra price of three soles a night. The rooms with televisions have only three channels and they are all Spanish channels. Make sure that you ask for a room that the sun shines on because it is very cold in the hotel. Our room was overlooking the plaza which was nice because the sun shined in our room, but they also had a lot of parades and festivals that go on all night and we could hear everything.

The only other hotel in Ayaviri is Hotel Paradiso and is located a few blocks from the plaza. They have one hundred and forty beds, one computer with internet access, and for two soles a day they have a garage to put trucks or cars. There are two classes of rooms, one with community bathrooms and one with private bathrooms. The following are the prices of the rooms:

Class A (private bath) Class B (community bath) Extras
1 bed – S/ 8 1 bed – S/ 17 Color t.v. – S/ 4 night
2 beds – S/ 14 2 beds – S/ 30 Cochero – S/ 2 night
3 beds – S/ 21


The best hostal in town is the Hostal Imperio, which is located on Grau just past Hotel Lumonsa. It has a garage that is big enough for probably only two cars. There are seventy beds, community bathrooms and three hot showers. We bargained with them for better prices, so you should be able to get the price for only community bathrooms at seven soles a night; they also have rooms with private bathrooms that are fifteen soles a night. The sun doesn’t hit much of the hostel so the rooms are very cold, and they didn’t have heaters when we went. The beds are comfortable, but you will need a cold weather sleeping bag along with the blankets that are provided. There is also a Telfonica green public phone inside the hostal.


Medical:

There is a hospital that is located about two blocks from the bus station to Juliaca. The hospital was built in 1966. We talked to the administrator of the hospital for 30 minutes and they were very suspicious of why we were asking all of these questions. However, we did get the information we needed out of the staff. There is one hospital and 2 puesto de saluds. All together, there are 13 doctors. Of these, there are 3 family doctors and 6 O.B.s. The Puestos have no doctors. The main hospital has an x-ray machine and one ambleance. There are 5 nurses, 40 technitians, 3 dentist, and 50 beds in the hospital. You can reach the hospital at 051-863849

Churches/Religious Status of Ayaviri:

Catholicism alongside Adventist convictions make up the religious affiliation of the majority of the population. The Catholic Church is located in the central plaza and, we were told, it meets regularly on Saturday nights and Sunday mornings led by priest Ricardo Chavez Carderon. In addition to the church, there is also a catholic temple on a hill overlooking the city and is used for festivals. We also found a catholic temple in a small annex of Ayaviri called Millripata. We traveled there after being told there was an evangelical church in the area, but we did not find one – nor did anyone in the town know about one in the area.

An Adventist woman shared with us that there were four Adventist churches in Ayaviri. The one we visited is on Pacheco Secara. The people were very welcoming and what I understood of the message and music, it seemed fairly sound, but when the service was over, they began asking me if I knew their prophetess, Elena White, whom I heard from a missionary, Ricardo Martinez from the U.S., includes some unbiblical doctrine in her writings. We arrived at about 11:15 on a Saturday morning (the typical day for Adventist to meet) and estimate about 100 to 150 people were attending that morning. Chris made the observation that many people did not join in the singing and seemed to be inattentive as they sat/stood in the church. This includes adults as well as children. Neighboring the Adventist church we attended is an Adventist school. Later, we also found a second of the four Adventist churches located on the outskirts of the town near the bridge (heading toward Juliaca). Apparently they send out people to talk with people in the town because as our team stopped to minister to a woman about Christ, she mentioned she had been visited by Adventists. Another reason to conclude they are active is because they are widely known in the town. People often do not know exactly where the church lies, but they are well aware of the denomination.

Another church active in the community, the Movimiento Misionero Mundial (MMM) more info about this denomination can be found at www.mmmperu.org, is a Pentecostal church headed for six years by Pastor Edgard Cari A.and his wife Marleny Huarsaya de C. They can be found at Av. Manco Capac # 311 Barrio Manco Copac. Their telephone number is 051 – 301044 and their email is marleny4910@hotmail.com
106.3 FM Radio Bethel and Radio de Luz (for which we do not know the frequency) are sponsored by the MMM Pentecostal movement of which we were told are about 60 churches worldwide. The church in Ayaviri meets every night with the exception of Monday nights at 7pm. We estimate 15 youth and 40 to 50 adults. Our team was graciously invited into the pastor’s home at which we were able to talk with the pastor’s wife about their doctrine. They seem to be very sincere people and serious about God’s word. The services are held in both Quetchua and Castillano. According to the pastor’s wife, the IEP church in Ayaviri separates themselves from their (the MMM church) because they are more rigid in their rules and are often labeled legalistic. The most obvious difference in their believes is evident in the women’s clothing. They do not wear the traditional skirts of the region, but instead wear skirts that are ankle length. It is my understanding that they do not desire women to wear pants at any time, but they did not seem to hold this against the girls of our team when we were with them in pants. The pastor’s wife looked through our gospel tracts and agreed with the doctrine represented in them. They were basic representations of the Gospel. According to her, the problems of the area include alcoholism (which our team witnessed first hand) and teen pregnancies. From this family we were also given a name of a possible Baptist contact in Araquipa, Juan Haursaya.

Annexes of Ayaviri

The small town of Milliripata, according to the teniente, has about 35 houses and approximately 80 people. Besides the houses, not many other buildings exist in the town besides a preschool consisting of about fourteen children between two and six years old. Their nearest primary school is located in a nearby annex called Umasullo Alta. Malliripata is located at 14°53’07s and 070°28’53w at approx. 12,900 feet.
Another town in Ayaviri called San Luis, may also have an IEP church according to the pastor of the IEP in the city of Ayaviri, but unfortunately our efforts to get there were thwarted because there is also a San Luis in Nuñoa which is where the Combi driver brought us. More about this annex of Nuñoa will be written with the rest of our reporting concerning Nuñoa.

Logistical, Living Conditions, Culture : Chris
Medical, Hotels and Lodging: Jen
Religion, Annexes: Heather

Two months later...

Well everyone,

This is it. Today, we finished our field research when we went to a church meeting in Santa Rosa (really a community of Santa Rosa, but I cannot spell the name). So what is left. TWO WEEKS OF WRITING REPORTS, PACKING, AND LOST PASSPORT STUFF. We are going to go back to Rick and Kelley´s for the next week and write out our reports. We are gonna type them up at Mike´s office because Rick has been having trouble with his computer. I also get to help him be "handyman" for the week. Have to fix the sidewalk and get ride of some birds that have made a home next to the bedroom window.

It really is nice to begin to settle down. We as a group figured that we have spent the majority of the summer traveling. No, this is not a joke, we spend most of our time on a combi, bus, or taxi. So the week at Rick and Kelley´s is gonna be a welcomed change.

We leave for Lima on the 24th. I am starting to crave a TGIFriday´s burger and a Starbucks Caramel Macciato. But it is just not that, one of my spanish translator friends is going on vacation on the 27th, and I get to go and eat lunch with her before she leaves. Originally, she thought that she was gonna come to Juliaca this week, but her vacation stopped her from that. But it will be nice to go and eat with her in Lima.

Speaking of food, As requested by Chef Kathy, the one thing that we as a group thought of to eat as a homecooked meal is Breakfast. Yep...sure do miss the good ole´southern breakfast. Biscuts, gravy, scrambled eggs, and BACON. We will leave it up to her when she makes it (but we will even get up at 4 in the morning to eat it).

Choa,

Cristobal

Leaving Juliaca

We are currently leaving Juliaca to go back to the provence of Melgar. We will be going to two cities that we passed over before we left for R&R week, and then we will go back to a few others that we need additional information on.

Health Report:

Currenly, Heather is the only one who is feeling on top of the world. Jen thinks that she has the flu, and I am not so hot myself. I don´t have a fever atleast, but Jen had a pretty good sized one from what we could tell. We are thinking that the cause of the sickness is because we just returned from the jungle which had a little bit of humidity and was fairly HOT. Then we took a 13 hour bus ride to Juliaca and it was about 15 degrees. I don´t think the weather change was so great. Plus, we are having to re-adjust to the altitude because the jungle was 3900 feet above sea level and we were there for a week. Now we are back at 13000 feet above sea level again.

Well, I got to go now. We are about to catcha combi to Ourillo in melgar. We are leaving on the 24th to return to Lima, and then I leave on the 4th to go back to the states. I got my ticket changed today. This way, I can take care of school stuff before I leave on a road trip with my friends to Chicago and Detroit.

Figured out last night that I will be able to graduate in May WHOO HOOO. So, I started to look for help in getting into Grad School. I am really excited about it all. I signed up to recieve help in preparing for my entrance exam and all too. UALR, where I go to school, has a MBA program for full time employees. So this way, I can go to MBA school and Work full time as well. And to think, All of my grad school work should be over with by the age of 21. YEAH.

Choa for now.
Cristobal

It´s Raining....It´s Pouring....

Yes, you heard that right. It is going to rain here for two days here in the jungle town of Sandia. It is a good thing that we came back when we did. Now we know we have a place to stay in the rain. The only thing is that if it rains too hard or too much, it may wash some of the roads out. But we have until Sunday to see what happens. It is kinda neat that it is raining in the dry season. We figured that we would not see rain all summer long. Of course, we never thought that we would wear shorts the whole time eiether because it is winter here, but it is kinda warm/hot in the jungle area.

We just finished CuyoCuyo today. It is about 2 hours away from Sandia. So we are now back here and waiting to go to Quiaca on Sunday. Then, we take another 8 hour trip back to the Altiplano (juliaca area), to finish up some work. Then we go to Lima on the 24. I am kinda looking foreward to it though. It has been a nice summer and I have seen lots of things, but I am ready to get back to civilization alittle bit.

I have been thinking of what I am gonna do on my vacation time (August 1-10). I really think it would be neat to go to the jungle (the amazon basin...not where we are now) and do some stuff and take LOTS of pictures, but it is gonna be like $500 to go and that is too expensive. It is also alot of travel and we have done plenty of that this summer. So I think that I am gonna take in the sites of Lima for a while and eat Pizza Hut pepperoni pizza. Then I am gonna take a three hour trip up the coast to some ancient ruins. This will be fun and relaxing.

Well, I am gonna go take in the sights of the jungle now before it rains too hard. There is a waterfall on the back side of the town I want to go to. To bad I have no more film left. Shame.

More Update....

Hey everyone. Just a little news.

We will be heading out at 2:00pm today for Sandia on an 8 hour ride.

Will be there for two weeks

Leaving the field on July 24 for Lima to get passport for Jenn and finish reports

Gonna take a vacation up the coast in August to see some Incan Ruins

Lost 33 lbs so far (when I convert KG to LBS)

New Pictures and Link on the right. YES....THERE ARE EVEN MORE PICS

Got married the other day to Jen (see the pics) (don´t worry mom...Rick was showing some peruvian pastor how to wed people)

Choa

Cristobal

Time for some rest and relaxation....

Hola everyone,

Well, It is about time that I updated with a real update. It is Friday, July 1, 2005. Happy Birthday Amanda and Happy Early Birthday Rick. Our team, along with the Lampa team, just finished our R&R week. We spent a few days in the Hotel Maison here in Juliaca with Mike Weaver and Ryan and Amanda Bush. Then we went out on a tour of Laco Titicaca.

We went to see the floating reed islands. For those of you who do not know, those are islands that have an unknown origin and are nothing but reeds. It was interesting because it felt like we were walking on a water bed. Anyways, after buying TOO many things here, we went off to another island on the lake. The second island we went to was Mantani. We stayed the night here. The tour guide took us up the mountain about 2,000 meters up from the lake. This made the altitude like 5,000 meters I think. Anyways, it was a hard climb because it was straight up. On the way down, we got to see a really nice sunset.

Then the locals dressed us up in Peruvian dress stuff and we went to a dance. This was really funny but we had a good time. We got to see all the stars, most of which we did not know. (we did see the big dipper and the north star). Supposidly, there were loads of shooting stars when we were there, but they always occured when my head was turned (go figure).

After the night was over with and we finished our funnel cakes for breakfast (yeah...I said funnel cakes), we went to Ticile island. This was smaller than the other one that we spent the night on, but it was the most touristy. I got a Peruvian costume that acctually fit, and ate a good lunch. They tried to charge us 10 soles for lunch (it usually cost 2 for the same thing, the menú.) We asked the kid at the door how much the peruvians pay and he told us that it was 7 soles (I think that he got in trouble for that one later on). So we told him that we were not tourist and that we live in Peru as missionary students and we ate at the discounted rate. It was nice.

Well...I have to go now, but I will update later in the weekend. The teams are going to the market. Keep an eye out for another update.

Choa,

Cristobal

New Pics on the Link...

There is a whole nother link to the right for pictures. There are some new ones on picture link number 2 also...

Enjoy,

Cristobal

Psalms 15

O Lord, who may dwell in your sancuary
Who may live on Your holy hill?
He whose walk is blameless
and who does what is righteous
Who speaks the truth from his heart
and has no slander on his tounge
Who does his neighbor no wrong
and cast no slur on his fellow man
Who dispises the vile man
but honors those who fear the Lord
who keeps his oath
even when it hurts
who lends money without usery
and accepts no bribes against the innocent

He who does these things will never be shaken.

--Psamls 15

Been here a month now. WOW

Just a little while longer I wanna pray
Can't get You off my mind so I came to say
Thank You Lord just for loving me
Many times as I do forget
Every need that You have met
Oh thank You Lord, I know You're showing me
You are there when I am down and out
You're holding me, Your love is so amazing
Oh it changed me

Chorus:
Here I am with all I have
Raise my hands to worship You
I wanna say thank you, oh thank you
For everything, for who You are
You cover me, You touch my heart
I wanna say thank you

I could have died in my sin but You saved me
Didn't have any hope at all
You gave me peace divine, strength to carry on
I should have been the one to pay
But instead You took my place
Amazing Grace, it´s more than just a song
Even though I don't deserve Your love for me
You look beyond my fault and You showed mercy

Fiesta en Ayaviri

Whoa...what a day it was yesterday. Where do I start?

Well, to begin with, yesterday was the 50th anniversary of one of the schools here. So there was this huge formal march of the schools (all of them) and a huge ceremony. This is nothing for us because these people march all the time. They always play the same two songs too. One is the school Alma Mater and the other is Eye of the Tiger. It really is kinda funny.

Well after the 6 hour ceremony was over with, all the alumni stood around and drank for hours on end. These are 50 year old that are standing in a circle and around a case of cervesa grandes. We happened to meet with a few of them who congradualted me on bieng with two women(my team mates) and told me good luck. Then we went to the plaza where everyone else was standing and we talked with a few of them. One of them happened to either be the Mayor or the Governor of Ariquipa. He was an alumni of the school in Ayaviri. For some reason...I don´t know how, everyone of the alumni knew my name and was calling me to join thier circle of beer. It was extrememly funny. Everyone would pose for pictures when I was taking them. I even got this really nice shot of the Governor/mayor´s class with thier teacher and thier highschool banner. We went inside after that because it was getting dark and we were scheduled to meet with the pastor of the Iglesia Evangelica Peruana (IEP).

So, we talked with him for over an hour and found out some interesting stuff. He was able to tell us where all the churches were in Melgar (the provence where we are staying). He even offered to go with us for the next week and visit them. So I am gonna be very fluent in spanish by the end of the week because my room mate will not speak english. Kinda exciting. We were also invited to a conference that is being held by the IEP in Macuri. We will be going there on wednesday and thursday with the pastor. We hope to get alot of the contact info from the other churches here. Then the pastor will join us to Nuñoa and visit the other churches on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We also met a man named Jaime that has a car and would be willing to take us to the outlying villages. This is HUGE blessing. If you only knew how time consuming and expensive it was to take taxis to these other villages.

Well, after we talked to the pastor, Jessica, the hotel worker who we are friends with, took us to a concert. We went to this concert at 8 at night and it finished at 1:30 in the morning. It was a wild party and there were tons of drunk people and a dangerous mash pit. It was really good music though. After we finished the concert..The band took us behind the stage. This band was facinated with us or something. It was like they have never played for Americans before. Either that or I just stood out too much. When I jumped in the air, everyone clear the way for fear of thier life and I would be twice as high as the average peruvian. They played all of these spanish songs that we could not understand. When the crowd called for an encore...The band broke out with a "song for our American Friends". These people played Jerry Garcia almost as good as he could himself (if he were still alive that is). "Come together". All these people around us thought that we were crazy because we were really getting in to it. It was a blast.

So we went backstage and talked with the band for an hour and a half (until 2:30). Just to give you an idea of how good and popular this band was, We have decided that they were like the Areosmith of Peru. We had a chance to share what we believed with them and then just had some fun. We went and they payed for us to drink hot water. It really is not as bad as it sounds. It was flavored with limon and sugar. Then they wanted to take us to a discotecha and dance for a while. But we decided to return to the hotel and go to sleep.

We woke up today and went to thier hotel. They were gonna give me a CD and I was gonna get my guitar signed by "Jerry Garcia" as they called the guitar player. But the only person that was there was thier promoter/manager. So he said that he would bring the CD by our hotel. We pretty much figure that the band was still asleep and that they told the hotel owner to not let anyone know that they were there.

The whole thing last night was video taped. I would almost bet to say that we were videotaped more than the band or the rest of the audience. They even videotaped us talking to the band. It is supposed to be playing on the television station in Ariquipa. That would be interesting.

Like I said...WOW...what a night

Cristobal

P.S. Update on the last prayer request list. My Uncle Don passed away on saturday...The day before father´s day. Please pray for his family durring this time. I know to his wife and children, it was kinda a bittersweet moment. But they said that he went to see his Lord with a smile on his face.

P.S. 2: I hope that all of you fathers had a great fathers day. I know my dad did. Also...congratulations to all of those who had thier first fathers day (Brandon Scaife)

Just Another One Of Those Ùpdate Things

Greetings All,

Well, I hope that you are all having a great summer so far. I know that I am. I was beggining to miss home alittle bit, But my group and I have began to find things that reminded us of home. For one, we have a NICE hotel that we call home for now (just another 4 days though), We eat fried eggs for breakfast and we eat steak for dinner. So it has really been good. In just 5 days, I will have been gone from my home in the States for a month. That is a really wierd feeling. I have never been gone from home that long before. AND I STILL HAVE A MONTH AND A HALF TO GO!!!!

Well, Yesterday, on our way to Nuñoa(about 1 hour and 30 minutes away) we gave away Sergento (our pet dog). The lady who we have been teaching English and who works at the hotel wanted the dog if we could not take him any more. But I must say that it was a nice pet for the four days that we had him. You can see pictures of him on the picture link if you like. Anyways, he served as a great icebreaker. Heather would take him to do his business in the park and she would start talking to the people will she had the time.

Yesterday, we spent the day in Nuñoa to begin some of our research there. We found many (6) smaller villages around there that we need to visit. And because we did not visit the municiple building yet (it is closed on Saturdays), we will be traveling back before rest and relaxation week fo like 6 days. We will finish our research there and then it is off to Juliaca for four days of fun.

For R&R week, we will be spending the week with one other team (Wade, Ginny, and Dave) and we will also get to see Mike, Ryan, and Amanda (the Lima Missionaries who run the REAP program here in southern Peru). Ryan emailed me the other day to ask what our group wanted from "civilization". Our only request were granola bars, homeade trail mix, and cold Pizza Hut pepperoni pizza. (The last one was my idea).

I know that I might make it sound like I am in the middle of nowhere. But what I really mean is that there are no amminities that we have in America. There is so much more to offer here and to experience here in Peru. It has been a very interesting experience so far and I am glad to have a part in it.

Well, I will be going now. We are gonna make French Toast for dinner tonight (YEAHHHH). I also don´t want to forget to tell my DAD happy Dad´s day. I love you.

Here are some specific prayer request if you would be interested:
1. My Great Uncle Don and Great Great Aunt Francis
2. R&R week...That all the groups would be safe (June 27_29, 2005)
3. The recovery of Jen´s passport (or the replacement of)
4. Health of the teams. Everyone is feeling fine, but just for continued health
5. The hotel workers in Ayaviri who we are teaching english and gonna witness too
6. Heather´s friend who just lost her mother
7. The contact that we are making in these villages
8. Safe Travel
9. Rick and Kelly Martinez´s work with the Aymara people in Huancane (WAN-CAN-A)
10. Mike and Kathy Weaver, Ryan and Amanda Bush in Lima with the REAP Program
11. Gladys Montalvo, translator friend who is going on a mission trip
12. Geyer Springs First Baptist(current church family) and Holland Chapel Missionary Baptist (Former church family)who will both be on mission in Peru this summer. Holland Chapel is already here with Todd Calaway and GSFBC will be here in July with Marty Mote and Judy Davis leading.

Because He Said Go,

Cristobal

p.s. I finished my book that I brought WAY too early. So now I have nothing to read. This is just a useless bit of info. But just so you know. I NEVER finish the books I started...And this one was 500 pages long. WOW

Not to Break the Mood...

Okay, so I have been posting really nice post, in my opinion, but I had a terrible day yesterday.

Well, to begin with, we were heading out to the village of Nicasio. This is about an hour away from where we are right now. We did some research on the ways to get there and the police officers that we asked said that no buses go directly there. They said that we would have to go to Picara (about 30 min away) and ask from there. So that is what we did. When we got there, no one but the taxi driver knew how to get there. (go figure). The only thing was is that he wanted 50 soles for an hour drive. So the only other option was to go back to Juliaca and then backtrack on a combi to Nicasio. So that is what we did. So when we got to Juliaca, we found the combi that would take us to Nicasio. It took us an hour to wait for the combi to fill up. When it did, we finally arrived in Nicasio at 2:30. The last bus left Nicasio at 2:45 to go back to Juliaca. There were no restaurants, hostals, or anything there, so we had to go back to Juliaca.

When we arrived in Juliaca, we decided to go to the store/market to find some cereal and boxed milk to eat for breakfast. On the way there...The unimagionalble happened. We were on this one street next to the Train tracks and there were dried unborn llamma babies for sale (DON´T ASK ME WHAT THEY ARE FOR). Then we walk alittle bit further down the same street and I was SPIT on TWICE in 1 minute. Then the next minute, this guy accused me of stealing his bicycle. We RAN out of the city to the nearest taxi to get us to the bus station. Jen and Heather were lauging uncontrolably and I was about to hit someone. I know it is not the best thing to think of on a mission experience, but if you have ever been spit on and the person run away before you could see who it was, you might think the same thing too. Anyways, We arrived at the bus station to find that the trici taxi drivers over charged us by one sole apiece. Yes, I know that it is only $.30, but it is the prinicple of the thing. The whole city of Juliaca was after me yesterday.

So we found the bus station and got on a really nice bus, but it took an hour and a half for the bus from Juliaca to Ayaviri to leave (fill up with people). We finally arrived in Ayaviri at 8:00 at night. We had spent all day on the bus and accomplished nothing. We did however talk to a lady from Nicasio on the one of the combies while we waited. So I cannot say that we accomplished nothing.

So, today, we will be going to a few of the annexes here in Ayaviri and researching them. We will try to go back to Nicasio probably tommorrow. But this time, we know what the bus schedule is like and we can spend more time there. We will have learned from our mistakes. I guess that is part of the fun anyways...Learning from our mistakes.

Oh yeah. For those of you who were looking forward to seeing me cook, you will have to wait a little bit. We cannot find an internet cafe here that has a USB connection that we can use. They all have the main CPU locked up where you cannot get to it. But I promise, you will see them by the weeks end.

To sum everything up, I did have a bad day yesterday, but don´t get me wrong, we have been blessed beyond belief and we are bieng taken care of. I guess these things happen. I just have to remind myself that Jesus went through the same trials and I need to follow his example by "thinking the same way, having the same love, sharing the same fealings, focusing on one goal". Just please pray for me that I will fullfill this if the fullest way possible.


Because He said Go,

Cristobal

Having a Blast in Ayaviri...

We have been in Ayaviri for almost 4 days now, and we still have 2 weeks left.

We are still staying at the Hotel Lumonosa. The girls have a nice two bed room room and I have a nice one bed room. I really like it because it is a queen sized bed and it is the only bed that I have found that I fit in here in Peru. All the others, my feet hang off of. I have my own shower, which I rarely use, and a nice window view. The only thing is that with all the windows, it gets really cold at night. I have gone through two heaters so far. It think that this one will work better.

Everything here is the same. By this, I mean that you eat meat and rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It is not bad, but it gets kinda tiresome. So, We got permission from the hotel to use thier kitchen at night. So last night, I cooked pasta. It was very good. It had bow tie pasta, eggplant, tomatoes, garlic, and roasted bell pepper. It was fun to cook because we have been teaching three people english while we are here in Ayaviri. They are two girls from the school and one of the people who work at the hotel. So we thought that it would be a good idea to bring them up to the kitchen and teach them the english words of the things found in the kitchen. It was nice because Heather taught english while I cooked and Jen did a little bit of everything. When we finished, it was dark, so the school girl went home, but the hotel worker sayed and ate dinner with us. She remembers so much english, It will be amazing to see how much she will learn at the end of the two weeks.

So our plan is to head out on day trips to some surrounding villages from Ayaviri for the next two weeks. All we have left to do is to visit the hospital tommorrow her in Ayaviri. We have gotten so much done here so far. We have found all of the churchs and talked with most of them (exeption of the Catholic church which is currently under renovation). So, tommorrow, we will visit the hospital and then head out to a surrounding village. Not sure at the moment which one it will be, but we have plenty to choose from.

Because He said Go,

Cristobal

P.S. If you want to see pictures of me cooking and ready for a good laugh, visit the picture link to the right.

Prelouge to the "Official Report" pt.1

NOTE: IF YOU READ THE PUNO RESEARCH TEAM BLOG SITE, THIS IS JUST A COPY OF THAT

Greetings All,

It has been 10 days since we embarqued on this research trip and oh what a 10 days it has been. Jen is recovering well from salmonilla poisoning, Heather had a 3 day bout with some bad food, and Chris has not gotten sick (by the Grace of God). We have had to deal with lost passports, I.D., money, ect. We have stayed on everything from straw mats to NICE cusioned beds in the hotel. We have stayed in villages that have no showers, to hotel rooms with hot showers, and we have filled up on Lomo Saltado for desayuno, almuerzo, y cena. But everything that we have gone through has been blessed by God. He has never left us nor forsaken us, as He promised.

We are currently in Ayaviri, where we will stay for 17 days while we research this village and 5 others. We have already been to Putina, Quilcapunco, and Janansalla. We are staying at a hotel for these 2 1/2 weeks while we accomplish this research. It is very nice and the owners have been more than helpful. We have warm beds, hot showers, and laundry service. We have been accepted very well in this city. I call this a city because it is the largest we have been in. It has approximatly a population of 23,000. We have found the Catholic church (which if you know anything about Peru, you know that the Catholic church is the easiest thing in the city to find). We have also found the Penticostal church and the Mormon church in Ayaviri.

Today, we spent the majority of the day talking to the Governadora de Melgar, The Penticostal Church (the youth pastor and the head pastor's wife), and the school. We have found out more today than we did about any of the other villages. We have also began to teach two of the school girls English. They had special permission from thier professor to come and learn some of the language. This should tell you how accepted we have become here so far.

Durring our chat with the Penticostal church and the preacher's wife, we found out many interesting things about the religious status of Ayaviri. The Catholic church has a huge hold on this community. The schools all teach the Catholic Religion as a subject. There is a huge problem with teenage pregnancy(13,14,15 years old). There is a big problem with alcholism here, and everyday Idolitry. There are not many Christians here in this city according to the Penticostal church. The other religions that are here in this city include: Mormons, Assembly of God, 7th day Adventist, Penticostal, and Catholic.

While talking to the preacher's wife, we let her go through the tracks we had and see if the church was teaching the same doctrine. We were glad to find out that they were. Also, we were given 2,000 free bible stories (tracks) in Quetchua (the indian language). They were given to us by a 7th day Adventist book store in Juliaca. Because none of us speak Quetchua, we gave them to the preacher's wife to read over and she gave her approval after consulting her bible. This also gave us some encouragement. We will not be using all of these bible stories, but will be giving them to either Mike or Rick to use for future groups. There is a large presence of Quetchua here and they will be good to use eventually. However, they are not tracks, but bible stories. Therefore, we want to wait to use them for new believers in thier learning of the bible.

We were also glad to find out that there are three christian radio stations here in Ayaviri. The one that the Penticostals run is 106.3 Radio Bethel. Even though we are glad to hear that the Penticostal church is active, there are only 40-50 believers that attend services. In our opinion, there needs to be a bigger movement of evangelical churches in the area. It seems to be that the 2.2 % evangelized in the city is not accurate. There is a need here and people are very open to listen.

We plan on researching Ayaviri for another two or three days because of the mere size of the village. We then plan on bussing to and from the other villages and researching them on day trips. We will spend about 3 days in each of the other villages and research them. But we will be comming back to Ayaviri every night because of the availability of resources and hotels/hostiles.

Even though this is a long post, this is by no means the summery of our research so far. We will be posting the Putina and Quilcapunco summaries tommorrow. We will post Ayaviri within the next week.

Choa,

Cristobal

It´s my party and I´ll cry if I want to...

No..I am not really crying. But I really liked the title. So today I turn 20 years old. This is nice because up until today, I was the only teenager in the group...NOT ANY MORE. Wow...You have no Idea how wierd it is not bieng a teenager. I mean...I have been a teenager for half of my life.

So today, my teammates, Jen and Heather, bought me a birthday cake. It was the neatest cake ever. I have pictures up on the picture link number 2. So they sang happy birthday to me and then the hotel gave me a present. I got a clay pottery thing from cusco and a chocolate bar (for those of you who know me really well, the chocolate bar will be given to my friends as a thank you) :)

Oh yeah...about my friends. Yesterday, we went to the doctor for Jen and found out that she had salmonilla poisoning (spelling problems..yeah yeah yeah) She was told to take Tetracylene for three days. The irony of the thing is that we were all told to take the medicine before we ate questionable things. Jen thought that she was allergic to it so she did not take it...not that funny, but it kinda is.

We are gonna stay in Juliaca for one more day while Jen gets better. The doc said that it would take about a day and a half. So we will be leaving tommorrow morning. We are staying in this nice hotel too. It is called the Royal Hotel and we pay S/. 110 a night. That is about $10 a person. It is worth it though..HOT SHOWERS AND GOOD TOILETS. Last night, I had steak fettuchini and jello. Heather had Steak and potatoes and crepes for dessert, and Jen had a bite of pizza and jello. This was of course before she threw it all up. Hopefully she will be better by tommorrow. We have a 2 hour bus ride.

This has been a GREAT birthday so far. I was kinda dissapointed leading up to it because I have never been away from my family for my birthday before. But it has been great. I really do have some awesome team members with me.

Choa,

Cristobal Santiago

Leaving Huancane....Again

First of all...In my last post, I added a link to a site with more pictures. It was wrong, but I fixed it now. You can see the link on the side of the page here. Puno Research Team Photo Album #1 is full, so all the new pictures will be on the other one.

We are about to leave to Juliaca where we will spend the night. Jen is gonna visit the clinic and get some test run to make sure that she does not have food poisoning or amoebas or anything. Suposedly, they are quite common around here. Hopefully, with some medicine or something, she will be feeling better. Tommorrow morning, we are gonna leave for Ayaviri. This is a provence capitol with a population of about 25,000 people. We are gonna base out of here for about three weeks and research the surrounding villages and annexes. There are about 6 main villages we will be researching. There is a possiblity that we will have to come back for R&R week (the last week in June) and then go back to finish the villages there. This will probably take the whole month of June to do. Then we will be going (more than likely) to Sandia. This is further up north where the Jungle starts. There are a cluster of villages there that we will be researching. This will take us to the end of July.

We will be leaving back for Lima a week early to get Jen's passport situation fixed. Yesterday, we went to the radio and television stations. They will be making commercials that will run for 15 days every hour of the day. We also went to all of the bus sations here in Huancane and posted signs. We did find the combie driver who's combie the passport was lost in. He was no help at all... He acted guilty and all. He would not help us. We have been told that the people are very superstitious here and that they feel guilty about taking things that are not there's. Hopefully this is the case and they will return the passport. We also found out the The insurance that we were all required to pay for before we left handles "Medical, Legal, Passport and Baggage Assistance". Hopefully there is some sort of coverage for lost passports from the insurance agency.

On another note. I got a haircut today by this guy down he road. Not bad for a $.30 haircut. I also bought a guitar the otherday too. It cost me 220 soles for the case and guitar. That is like $70 american dollars. In the states, the same guitar would cost me like $250 dollars. Very nice huh?

Update:

Okay...Now that I have a little bit of time to write an update now, here I go:

We are back in Huancane now. We have finished with three villages over this week. Putina, Quilcapunco, and Janansalla. We spent most of our time in Putina, which is the district capitol of San Antonio de Putina. We got to meet the governor and talk with him for a while. After that, one of his men took us to the natural hot springs to eat and take a bath. It was very hot, but it was nice because it was the first time in three days that we could bath. The 16th anniversary of Putina is all this month and they want us to come back for some of the festivals. One that we would like to go to is the opening of El Parque Sirpikaka (that is Quetchua for Snake). It opens on June 8th. Hey I turn 20 on this day. :)

We have noticed that even though the Catholics are not very active, they still take up more than 60% of the population in all of the villages so far that we have visited. There are also alot of Adventist churches and a few Mormons and Penticostal(?).

Quilcapunco is a ghost town. 70% of the people work in the gold mines 4 hours away. So there is no body in the town. We were stepping over animal skulls in the middle of the street and we saw more animals than people. We tried to get to one of the outlying villages , Janansalla, but they were gonna charge us 50 soles to get there. Luckly, one of the nurses in Quilcapunco goes there all the time and he gave us all the info that we needed.

The health of everyone is not the best. I am the only one who has not gotten sick (knock on wood). Heather had some bad food the first of the week, but she is over it now. Jen has got really bad stomach problems right now. We are not sure what it is. She had some chicken eat, but we are not sure if that is the cause or not. but she is in REALLY bad shape. She is gonna wait for a day and see if she gets any better before we go to the hospital. Please pray for this.

We also have to figure out what to do about a lost passport and money too. Jen lost both on a bus ride. Luckly, her mom canceled her debit card and is wiring money. We should be getting back to Lima and the US Embassy sometime and getting her a new passport. This should take about 4 days to do.

If you havn't already, check out the link on the right of the screen that says Puno Research Team 2005 Pictures. This is a link to the pictures that we have so far. They are not all of them because we ran out of room on the free site. So we will have another site up and running soon with the rest of the pictures so far.

Hasta Luego,

Cristobal Santiago
(christopher james)

In Putina

I am just writing a quick post today. Not really in the mood to do much because I have not been able to breath very well. The altitude is starting to get to me. We have finished our first village today and we will be moving on tommorrow morning to the next one.

Leaving Huancane

To the best of our knowledge, the transportation strike is over with, so we will be leaving Huancance and going to Putina. Putina is the first town that we have to research out of twenty.

We will be going to the village of Huatasani, about 30 minutes away from Huancane. From there, we will wait for the bus to Putina. That trip will take about one and half hours. We will be based out of Putina for a bit while we research three other surrounding areas. From there, we will probably be going to Sandia. This all depends on when the buses leave and from where. From the looks of things, we will have to be traveling back and forth to Juliaca to go to every city. But it is possible that we could find other ways of transportation that will get us from city to city. This would be nice because if we had to travel back and forth to Juliaca, it could take two or three days between cities. If we could find other ways, it would only take two to three hours. I like the last way the best.

Today has been the coldest day we have had so far. It is 7:30 right now and is 36 degrees(Farenheit). It will get warmer throught the day. The bad part is that we will be going nowhere but up from here and gets colder and colder.

I have started getting sunburned already. Yesterday, we went on a boat ride on Lake Titicaca and spent the time shoveling water out of the boat. This was the largest and clearest lake I have ever been on. There are no motor boats or industry on the lake so it is very clean. We were able to see 15 feet all the way to the bottom of the lake. My arms are red from this trip and my lips are cracking...ouch. Don't worry mom...I used sunscreen :)

The food here is very interesting and we have had the chance to taste all of it (unfortunate is some cases). Some of the things that we have eaten are Octopus, Chica Morrado (purple corn juice), Bull's heart, Reed (from the water), and Chuno(small potatoes that are frozen, smashed with bare feet, and keeps for like 10 years). I think that even for the 8 days that I have been in Peru, I have witnessed many of the country's uniques foods(I have eaten regular foods also from Peru, but it does not sound as bad as the others).

The Mountains are Breathtaking....

NO REALLY THE MOUNTAINS ARE BREATHTAKING. We are already at 12,600 feet right now, but today, we traveled to the top of one of the mountains to about 14,000 feet (We did not take the GPS with us unfortunatly so we did not know for sure. But we are fairly positive.) From the top of the mountain, we had the most awesome view ever. To one side, we could see ancient, pre-incan ruins and snow capped mountains. To the other side, we could see Lake Titicaca, the highest lake in the world. It was more like an ocean and is comparable to the great lakes in size. On the other side of the lake (which we could barely see), was Bolivia. In one of the villages that we will be staying at, Bolivia is only an hour away.

This morning, we has pancakes for breakfast with homemade syrup. We had Lomo Saltado. This is a Peruvian dish that is very good. It is basically Bistek (thin cut beef), tomatoes, onions, and cilantro. And we are having Sloppy Joes for dinner.

I have really adjusted well to the altitude. Basically, it has just been shortness of breath. But today on top of the mountain, I started to feel dizzy and faint and get this major headache. It is finally beggining to go away now though. This summer, we will be traveling to a village where we will be almost 5,500 meters (18,000 feet). We will not actually be staying there, but it is on a mountain that goes that high.

Hello from Huancane

Hello all.

I have made it with my team to the department of Puno in the village of Huancane. It took us 21 hours to reach our destination and we went from sea level to 13,000 feet above sea level in that time. The weather here is nice. It is the beginning of winter here and it will get to about 20 degrees at night and up to 75 degrees in the daytime.

There is about to be a major transportation strike here in Puno. On the way from the bus station to the missionaries house here in Huancane, we came across many large boulders, glass shards, and other obsicles in the road that were placed there for the strike. Because of the strike, we will stay at the house here for about 3 or 4 days. We will have a chance to plot what we will be doing this summer

Our job this summer will be to visit 12 main areas and research them. Because no one is expeciting us here, we have to find out where the hostiles(guest house), restaurants, and hospital clinics are. This is the kind of information that we will send back to Lima in a report. We will also be seeing how many people are true believers and if there is any active church activity within the villages.

How we get to these villages and how long we stay in each of them is totally up to the research team that I am apart of. All we know is that there are 12 main areas(20 villages) that need to be covered and we have two months to do it.

The group that I am a part of includes Jen Kennedy from Oklahoma Baptist University; and Heather, who has just graduated from the University of Indiana with a major in German and African Studies. It will just be us three this summer, but it truely is a great group and we all seem to get along well. It will be interesting to see how the language barrier pans out because, even though Jen is our spanish translator, the people here speak alot of Ayamara( and indian language)

I Have Arrived....

Hey everyone....I am in Lima. I made it in last night about 10:30. It is so nice to be here again. Thanks Dad for the comment....I realized that I forgot that the last night about the time we landed.

By the way...This was the most interesting plane ride ever. Some lady in the row behind me has a stroke and I was very hectic. But it was a unique experience. We had to stop in Birmingham, Al instead of Atlanta for like an hour before we could take off again. The firefighters and ambliances all ran to meet us at the terminal to get the lady. It was like something out of a movie. I did learn one thing. EMERGENCY LANDINGS ARE NOT FUN. We dropped like a rock once they tried to get us down.

Anyways. I have a fun day of playing around in Lima before orientation tommorrow. I finally figured out where I will be based out of for the summer. It is called PUNO and it is a 25 hour bus ride from Lima (where I am now). It is at the border of Peru and Chile around Lake Titicaka.

Thanks everyone for your support so far. The summer is about to start...

Because he said go,

Chris (from here on called Cristobal)

P.S. If I type wrong, It is because I am getting used to a spanish keyboard. Some of you may laugh at this because you know it is not true and that I cannot spell...But I have an exuse now.

Mailing Address

Some people were wondering how to get ahold of me while I am in Peru. Well...Here it is:

Mailing Address:

Christopher Davis
C/O Mike and Kathy Weaver
Aptdo. 18-0765
Lima, Peru


E-mail:

cjdavis@ualr.edu


Off to Peru in 23 hours

Almost There...

Well...The time is almost here. Tomorrow will be my last full day in the US for almost three months. God has blessed me with all of the money needed for this trip plus some. And all that worrying I did was for nothing. Sometimes, I have a problem with just letting God handle things. But it never fails...God always pulls through.

The next day and a half will be full of fun. It includes packing, banking, paying bills for the summer, packing, saying goodbye to friends (even if most of them are out of the country right now), packing....(did I mention packing).

I am really excited about everything now and am just wanting to be there. There is so much that I have been waiting to do since I returned from Peru last summer. I am looking forward to God showing me great things.

Hasta luego,

Chris

Preparing for Peru

Hello everyone...Welcome to my blogsite.

Wow, It is hard to believe that Peru is three days away for me.
What seemed like an eternity October when I signed up is now here. God has really taken care of me over these past couple of months. He has gotten me through school with a good grade, prepared me for Peru, and also given me the financial needs required to go as well. What more could I ask for.

For all of those that are reading this who will be joining me this summer, I will be praying for all of you (with all of you) that we will have a great summer and be changed in unexpected ways by God.

Hasta Luego mis amigos,

Chris Davis