War Zones, Yellow Underwear, and Luggage ... Feliz Ano!

Well, this New Year's Eve has been an interesting one, that's for sure. The evening started with dinner at Mike and Kathy's with some friends and some of Kathy's wonderful cooking. I'm still on this bland diet, so it wasn't as exciting as I would've liked ... Kathy had set aside a little bit of everything before she seasoned the food, so I got all the sad little bowls of food with no flavor ... but I still enjoyed it. We sat around and chatted for a bit after dinner and then started watching football (that's the way to ring in the New Year, for sure!). As it started getting closer to midnight, however, the number of people shooting off fireworks began to increase. If there's one thing Peruvians love, it's fireworks. By the time Mike and Kathy were walking me home, just a little after midnight, it sounded like it was a war zone. If another country ever decides it wants to invade and/or bomb Peru, all they need to do is wait until New Year's Eve. No one will ever know they are being bombed ... they'll just think it's more fireworks. Crazy!!

Also, as we were walking towards my house, amidst the crazy fireworks going off everywhere, there were people out walking with their suitcases. I had heard, though I hadn't seen it until tonight, that Peruvians take their suitcases and walk around the block if they want to travel in the new year. Apparently, this midnight stroll around the block with an empty suitcase is good luck and will bring lots of traveling. Hmmm, now where did I put my suitcases?

Another tradition that I find incredibly entertaining is yellow underwear ... I'm not exactly sure of the significance of the yellow underwear, but I believe the idea is that you wear yellow underwear on New Year's Eve and/or New Year's day for good luck. Just think, all these years, that's what has been missing in my life. Well, let's see if this year is any better because of the yellow underwear. :-)

On another note, though still related, I had another moment today where I was immensely grateful that I don't speak the language well (I've had a few of these in the last few days). When I say I am grateful that I don't speak the language, I mean I am grateful that they can not understand what I am saying. As I was walking home tonight, right after Mike and Kathy had turned off to head back to their house, about a block from where I live, I saw a kid leaning out his window with a firecracker. It looked like a sparkler and I was really hoping that is what it was. But as he let it fly and it went whizzing just above my head, I discovered that it was not. He saw my momentary frustration with the fact that it had just missed my head and decided that screaming "Feliz Ano" to me would make it better. As I said "Feliz Ano, don't shoot your stupid fireworks at my head!", I realized that, if for no other reason, God has allowed me to struggle with this language so that I would not shout at people in words they can actually understand. I'm so glad God has a sense of humor ... and that He protects me even from silly things like fireworks.

Bland diets are BORING!

In my Christmas post, I mentioned that I couldn't eat a lot at breakfast because of my bland diet. I've been having some stomach problems lately and am in the process of trying to figure out (with the doctor's help of course) what is wrong with me. While we're trying to figure all this out, the doc has put me on a 'bland' diet. By bland I mean pretty much no taste whatsoever. The list of what I can't eat is rather depressing. Things I can not eat or cook with:

- fried food
- greasy food
- olive oil (or any other kind of oil)
- dairy products
- spices of any kind
- junk food
- raw fruits or veggies (which means no fruit juice)

Basically, I can only cook with cooking spray.

I've been eating a lot of plain bread, seasonless chicken, dry potatoes, boring veggies, butterless noodles, and regular oatmeal. Food without flavor just isn't too exciting. There has been, however, one saving grace through this whole ordeal ... BUTTER FLAVORED COOKING SPRAY! Who knew that one little can of cooking spray could be so exciting. Little did I know it in the beginning, but it has now become my best friend and my one shot at flavor for every meal. Haha Praise the Lord for butter flavored cooking spray. Despite the feeble attempts to flavor my food with cooking spray, I'm still missing out so much on flavor right now and missing some of my staple foods ... please tell me, how do people live without milk and cereal, and orange juice?? I think it's gonna kill me!! It's gotta so bad I'm actually considering using soy milk so I can have cereal again (did I really just say that?? SOY MILK????). Never thought I'd see the day, but desperate times call for desperate measures. And these sure are desperate times ... haha.

I have no idea how long this 'diet' will last, but I'm hoping it will end sooner than later! I don't know how much more of this I can stand! :-)

Oh yeah ... Christmas pics!

I forgot to include this link in the last post. This is my Christmas album, full of pics of the various Christmas activities throughout the last week or so. There are pics with Santa, our team Christmas party (complete with documentation of our newest Christmas party tradition), the ESL Christmas party, and the girls night out to see the Nutcracker Ballet. Hope you enjoy!

http://ufl.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2434159&l=bd78b&id=2045616

Christmas in Peru

Well, I survived my first Christmas in Peru. I must say that it was wonderful. I got to keep some family traditions and experience some new things. I talked to my family on Christmas Eve and got to listen to Dad read our traditional Christmas Eve stories: The Christmas Puppy, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, and the Biblical account of the birth of Christ. It was officially Christmas once that tradition was finished. The next morning I woke up to my Skype phone ringing. Ryan was calling to wake me up so we could open presents on the phone together. I got up, washed my face, and called them back. Of course, as is tradition, Ryan and I were sitting, chatting, staring at our presents, waiting to open them, all the while waiting for Kate to finally get up and get out of bed (she’s not a morning person :-). We finally got everyone around the computer and started opening presents. It wasn’t quite the same as being at home in the midst of all the wrapping paper, but it was a close second.

After opening presents, I headed to the Weavers’ house for breakfast. Breakfast consisted of all kinds of good food (most of which I couldn’t eat because of my ‘bland’ diet) and plenty of people. I hung out the rest of the day with the Weavers. Madison and I worked on some Sudoku games, played house, painted fingernails, watched movies, practiced her new ‘skip it’ toy, and really just had a good time. It was so nice just to be able to hang out and play. And really, who doesn’t love going outside on Christmas day to play with their new toys? I know I enjoyed it, even if they weren’t my toys. :-)

Christmas really was wonderful for me this year. I am so thankful that the Lord provided me with so much peace during this time while I was away from my family. I definitely missed them very much, but He was so gracious to remind me of what Christmas is really about. It’s not about opening presents or eating lots of food or even being with my family. It’s about His birth and ultimately His sacrifice. And I amazed at how much peace He gave me about the sacrifices I am making by being here and the things I am missing out on. He helped me to see how I can truly love and cherish some traditions and still be completely at peace a world away from all of them. It’s really all about His love and helping others to see that love no matter where I am.

Finally done with language!

Well, as you can tell from the title, I made it through language. Hooray! Being finished with language means many things, one of which is that I don't have to get up early every morning. Oh, how wonderful that is! Besides getting up later, though, it opens me up for more ministry activities, which is even better than getting to sleep in. I still have to take my proficiency exam. I'm slightly nervous about that ... if I don't get to my level, well, I don't know what'll happen. But it won't be good. So, please pray that I remember what I need to remember when I finally have my proficiency exam.