POP TARTS!!

So I love pop tarts. I’ve always been a fan, but I can say I truly fell in love with pop tarts in Peru. I’m told it’s very common for missionaries to find a familiar food from home and that food becomes their comfort food while overseas. Well, mine is pop tarts, especially blueberry. And not just any pop tarts. I LOVE generic pop tarts. They just taste better! I can’t find any pop tarts here, so when I go to the States I make sure to load up.

The best pop tarts I’ve found are from a little store called Fred’s. I’m not sure how many Fred’s there are in this world, but I know there is one about 20 minutes from where my parents live. I make it a point to pay them a visit every time I’m at home to shop for a wide variety of things, the most important on the list being GENERIC pop tarts!!

In the last month, while I was home, I continued this tradition. Dad and I headed to Fred’s to stock up on my favorite comfort food. When I got there, I found that they were on sale! Five boxes for $5! What a deal! I started stocking up. I didn’t get just blueberry, of course, because I wanted some variety, so I started picking out my selections, all the while telling my dad just how much I love their pop tarts. (He knows this I’m sure, as I’ve probably told him the same story every time he’s gone with me, but he graciously listened, smiled, and nodded.) I was telling how I haven’t found a better generic pop tart. There is just something about Fred’s that makes pop tarts better. As I was telling my story, I noticed a lady standing near us doing her shopping. She seemed to be listening, but not too intently. I didn’t really pay any attention to her at the time; I just continued my praise. I got 10 boxes and figured that should be enough. I did, after all, need room in my suitcase for things other than pop tarts. As we walked away, the lady who was near us went over and started stocking up on pop tarts as well. Who knew I was selling pop tarts while talking to Dad!! Perhaps Fred’s should hire me as their pop tart advertiser … and then set me up with a lifetime supply of them!! ☺

Tree Climbing Finally Paid Off

Peruvian doors are built a little different than most in the States. When a front door closes in Peru, it locks automatically. There is no way to unlock it and then close it with it still being unlocked. Once it’s locked, it’s locked. This safety factor is a great blessing at times, but on this particular day it turned out to be a nightmare. I usually take my keys with me anytime I go out the front door in case it closes accidentally. This day, however, I was not planning to go outside. I was merely picking up the front doormat. Christmas had passed and it was time to get the reindeer off the front step. When I picked it up, I realized how dirty it was and decided to beat it against the tree in the front yard. I beat it a few times and then heard a very large SLAM behind me. As my eyes began to widen, and realization sank in, I turned to see that my fear was confirmed and I was in a world of trouble. The door had in fact closed on me.

This may not seem like a huge problem, but let me explain a little more about the situation. We have a front yard that is surrounded by a very large concrete wall. It also has a locked gate in the front. Without keys to get into the house, I also could not get out of the yard. Without a phone, I would be stuck there until someone happened to come along. This would likely be a very long time, as my roommate was out of town and the apartment above us was vacant. My only options were to wait for someone to walk by and allow me to use their phone, to try to find a way into the house (aka break into my own house), or find a way over the wall so I could get help. The other problem with this was that I was barefoot and had no money to make a phone call at a pay phone. I was baffled.

My first attempt was to try to break into my house. Windows here are covered with bars. My front window was open but the bars were in the way. I determined that there was no way I could fit through the bars and they definitely were not budging. If I ever got back into my house, I could rest easy knowing that no one was breaking into my house through the front window. The stability of the bars led me to my next option.

There are two windows, one right above the other, on the front of the house. There is also a vine going down the side of the house. Knowing that the bars were very stable and able to hold my weight, I decided to climb the side of the house, using the vines and the bars on the windows, to see if I could get onto the roof. From the roof there is a staircase that leads to the backyard. I knew that my backdoor was open and unlocked (this one would stay unlocked even when closed). It just might work. I should also interject here that I am slightly afraid of heights. Not completely afraid obviously because I did decide that climbing to the roof was a good idea. But afraid enough that one story off the ground, my legs started shaking and threatened to give out underneath me. Not good!! I prayed my way through this harebrained idea and discovered that there was no way to get up and over the front of the house and onto the roof. Between the plants in the way and the lack of a ledge to get a grip on, there was no way this redhead was getting onto the roof. Using the vines and the bars again, I climbed down. I found another window that could have been a possibility to climb and give me better access to the roof, but the bars guarding that one were not stable at all. Plan failed … what’s next?

I began looking around the yard for options for going over the wall. I found a little hole in the wall just a little higher than what I would need to use as a foot hole to scale the wall. I was still shaking from trying to climb the house, so I had to calm my nerves a bit. I then jumped up, locked my hands on the top of the wall, and used the added distance off the ground to put my foot in the hole. Using the hole as my step, I managed to pull myself up the wall and swing my legs over. Once I reached the top, however, I realized it was an incredibly long drop on the other side. I managed to hang down the other side and walk myself down the wall. (The wall had Sandi’s dirty little toe prints going down its nice white color.) Finally I was out of my locked yard. But now what?

I tried ringing the doorbell for the neighbors. We have an apartment building next to our house. I tried ringing every apartment. Either no one was home or no one wanted to help the shoeless girl who had just climbed over the wall. I tried the neighbors on the other side, also with no luck. I finally found the security guard that rides around the neighborhood and explained, in my horrible Spanish, what had happened. He called others that he works with who came with a ladder. They went over the wall again, used the ladder to climb onto the roof, went down the stairs and through the unlocked backdoor, and let me back in. Praise the Lord for security men and their ladders!

It was quite the adventure. I came away with lots of bruises and scratches from climbing walls, not to mention dirt all over me from the vines and plants I encountered during my climbing. But I learned a very important lesson … always take your keys with you, even if you’re just going outside to pick up a doormat. You never know when you’re going to get locked in your yard!

Prayer Request

Please pray with us for the family of one of our summer missionaries, Greg Gomez. Greg arrived here in Lima the end of May with 60 other summer missionaries to serve on the REAP South Team. Since then he has traveled around southern Peru with a team researching unreached micro people groups. Yesterday afternoon Greg was traveling on a public transportation van near the town of Abancay with another summer missionary and a Peruvian national who also serve on the REAP South team. The van was in an accident and Greg died of head injuries.

Greg is from Illinois and recently graduated from Old Miss University with an engineering degree. Greg’s family was on a trip and weren’t notified until late last night. Please pray for peace for his family and friends. Also, please pray for the two young ladies who were in the accident.

Please pray for the other summer interns. Many of them are in hard to reach places and don’t even know about the accident yet. Pray for the REAP South team and our mission leaders who are ministering to the family in the U.S. and working with Peruvian officials here.

Chicken-something Soup

So yesterday, Claudia, Brad, and I went to a menu to eat lunch. A menu is a small restaurant that serves a small variety of things. Usually at a place like this, one can get an entree, a main dish, and a drink for about 6 soles ($2). It's a pretty good deal and the food is usually great. Yesterday was no exception. The food was good. It definitely wasn't what I was used to though.

They brought out my soup first. I'm not sure what I was expecting, or if I was even expecting anything ... I've learned to be pleasantly surprised by all sorts of random things. As I was slurping up my soup, I noticed one of the 'chunks' didn't look quite normal. So I scooped it up, only to follow it up with the question of "what is that??" There were a few other things like that in my soup. We started analyzing and determined that they were random chicken innards. The first one was either a heart or a liver ... or maybe both stuck together. The gizzard was in there somewhere. I had part of a foot and the neck bone. The neck bone actually had some decent meat on it, so I ate that. I didn't eat the other parts of the chicken though; I'm not a huge fan of heart ... it's a bit chewy for me. :-) I did enjoy the broth and the noodles.

So, next time you order some chicken soup and find a bone, don't complain. At least it's only a bone.

PS - The soup was REALLY good. The random parts definitely add just the right touch of flavor.

What in the ... is that?? IT IS!!

Okay, so we've determined that end of the world as we know it is coming soon. 'Why in the world would you say such a thing?' you wonder. Well, I'll tell you ... it actually rained in Lima! No joke. We were headed to church on Sunday, walked outside, and discovered that RAIN was falling on us. Now, it wasn't a hard rain ... in fact, under normal circumstances, you would barely call it a drizzle. But, the fact that it was happening in Lima was unbelievable.

Perhaps I should explain why I'm so excited. You see, I'm a Florida girl, born and raised in hot, humid summers that brought afternoon thunderstorms everyday during the summer. One of my favorite childhood memories was sitting on the front porch watching the storms and listening to the rain. And I still LOVE the smell of rain. So, given all that, just think of what moving to one of the driest deserts in the world and not seeing rain for 7 (count them -SEVEN) months can do to a person. I was just like a little kid at Disney world when I walked outside and found it raining. (Had I stopped and thought about it, I probably would've rushed out of the rain because of the amount of pollution that I'm sure was falling on my head. But I didn't want to think about it and ruin the moment.) It was definitely a great way to start off the week (and probably one of the most exciting things of the week).

You know what's funny is that I actually prayed for rain not too long ago. Silly request? Perhaps. But look at what happened. Just goes to show my God can do anything ... even make it rain in Lima!! Too cool!!

(The picture above is one my friend took ... that's RAIN on the windshield of our taxi!!)

Yep, it's true!

Well, I should point out a fact that most of you have already figured out ... I am a TERRIBLE blogger. Right about the time I get into a routine of writing on my blog (well, as much of a routine as I seem to be able to muster), something happens and I lose it all. All that hard work and effort, gone! Haha Perhaps that is a little dramatic of me, but I do feel I should apologize. I will work at getting better ... promise!

So, let's see ... where did I leave off?? Oh yes, the colonoscopy. Well, I got the results back from my colonoscopy. The doctor was a bit vague about things, but did say things were normal. When I asked what samples he took and what they were if they were 'normal', he said, "Well, they're not cancer!" Well, gee thanks Doc ... that's good to know. Didn't know that was an option. Apparently, it was, they just hadn't told me. Yikes! I'm very, very thankful they decided to withhold this tidbit of information. I imagine I would've been a bit concerned the whole weekend had he mentioned this in the beginning. So, a praise ... I don't have cancer!

Now, as far as the rest of the stomach story goes ... it's actually still going. I went back to eating normal food when we headed to Chile (a blog about Chile is still to come, I promise!), and for the most part, things went well. I had about a day where I thought my stomach was relapsing, but then it settled down and things were fine. We came back to Peru and things seem to be staying fairly normal. Then this week hit and suddenly my stomach decided it couldn't contain itself anymore. So sad! Why can't it just behave?!?! So right now, I'm actually at home, opting out of the day's activities because of my sick feeling stomach and eating plain noodles. How boring!!

So, all that to say, please keep praying for my stomach. It needs it. And for my sanity during this whole process. I'm sure I need that too! :-)

Colonoscopy

Well, I had my colonoscopy yesterday. Let me tell you how they do colonoscopies here. They aren't too much different than the States, except for one minor detail ... you are fully awake, able to see what's going on, and feel the pain. Yes, that made this whole event quite exciting.

Kathy went with me to my appointment because we weren't sure how drugged I would be when I came out of the office. We got there, found the doctor's office (thanks to Kathy ... me being the space cadet that I was that day left ALL the information at home ... I didn't even know the doctor's name ... smart, huh?), and checked in. They called me back, had me put on the very comfortable, open back hospital gown (gosh, I love those), and had me lay on the bed. I was looking around the room, intrigued by the differences between here and the States. The room was quite warm, not like the typical operating or testing room in the States. The nurse put an IV in my hand, but instead of attaching it to a bag on a pole, she just attached a syringe. She told me, in Spanish, of course, that this would make me sleepy. Well, it's more like she acted out 'sleepy', but I got the idea. The doctor came in and talked to me (in English!!), telling me that he would be back when the medicine had kicked in. I could feel the medicine as it started to take effect and I started to fall asleep. But then they started the procedure and I got to watch the whole thing on the TV screen. I was definitely groggy because I don't remember everything that was said to me (though I do remember them talking to me and me asking questions ... it's a homeschool moment even when I'm drugged up and having a colonoscopy! Mom would be so proud!). I saw (and felt!) as the camera moved through my colon. It was pretty cool to see (not fun to feel, but can't have it all, I guess).

When the test was over, they rolled me into the 'recovery' room, which was really more of a passage between two rooms. It really had the feel of privacy to it, as the nurses passed through to the office and back. (Yep, love Peru!) As I layed there, Kathy came in and sat with me, and I mentioned yet again that I was STARVING! I guess I should've mentioned this earlier ... I hadn't been allowed to eat since midnight the day before ... that means, I hadn't eaten since Tuesday night and the colonoscopy was Thursday at 11am. I WAS HUNGRY! So, Kathy whipped out a bag of M&Ms and handed them to me. I was laying on the bed, still feeling groggy, snacking on M&Ms when the nurse walked in, saw the candy, shook her head and just sort of smiled. She didn't try to stop it or anything. That's my kind of recovery room!! (Way to go Kathy ... those M&Ms were a life saver!) She asked me to sit up and see if I felt dizzy. My head sort of spun when I sat up, so she had me lay down for a little while longer. Once I finally got up and got dressed, Kathy and I had to walk the specimens that he removed from my insides over to the lab for testing. I can honestly say it was a first having to walk my own innards to the lab. :-)

After we finished up with everything at the hospital, we headed to Chili's to meet up with our team for lunch and I enjoyed a nice, juicy BBQ Bacon Burger. But Sandi, that's not on your diet! That's right it's not ... but I figured after NOT eating for over 36 hours, a hamburger is just what I needed. (Hopefully my doctor doesn't read this blog ... I promise I'm back to the diet now!)

We don't have results from the colonoscopy yet. The doctor that performed it said there were two places where things did not look normal. Those are the places he took samples from and we are now just waiting to find out what exactly "not normal" means.

During our team meeting today, I was once again reminded of the verse that seems to be coming up so much during my time here.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

"9But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

As I was considering the frustrations of being sick and the frustrations of waiting to find out what might be wrong with me, I was reminded that I need to delight and boast in my weaknesses, for in this Christ's power may rest on me and then I will be strong. That's not really the first thing that comes to mind for me when I think about being sick. I tend to think more along the lines of 'man, this is annoying', 'gosh, I hate bland food', and 'why does something have to be 'not normal'?' But then I remember that I am called to rejoice in even these things because then will I be made strong.

So this is me rejoicing ... I know God is big and going to do great things even through me being sick. And, one day, I'm pretty sure I'll be telling my grandkids about Peru and God's faithfulness ... and how cool it was that I got to watch my own colonoscopy on a video screen. :-)