Saludos

Thanks y'all for all your thoughts and kind words, they have been very helpful in my quest to get acclimated to the culture here. I want to give you a very broad view of what it is like here in Arequipa. The first thing you have to understand is that everything revolves around the family and friends. Jobs are obtained only to make the money necessary to subsist, then the rest of the time is spent ¨relajando¨or relaxing, sitting and talking about the past day. Even the eating schedule is set up as such. My abuelita here prepares breakfast in the morning which consists of cereal, eggs, pañitos (little bread), coffee, milk, and juices made from blended fruits and sugar. A lot more time is put into this, as well as into the lunch, which at my house is prepared by Elle our ayudante de casa, essentially a maid that comes to prep food, wash clothes, and clean the house. She is only here during the day though. I have of course, my abuelita or mamita, the grandma of the house, with the two parents Cecilia and José who are right now seeking jobs in Dallas, TX, I hope I did not scare them too much with my extremely pessimistic view of American culture, and their son and my hermanito Sebastián who is 7 years old and attends the local colegio from about 7:30 until 3pm everyday. I have yet to get to know them really well. José is an accountant, and Cecilia used to work in some sort of business, but neither of them are working this week as they plan to fly to the US this weekend as long as Cecilia can get a visa. Please pray for her, I think she is at the embassy today! If she does, then they will probably move to the US within a few years, which in some ways I think would be really cool for them, but from my somewhat skewed since I am still in my ¨honeymoon stage¨ but I truly believe they have it right down here with their focus on the family and the true values in life.

My schedule as it stands right now. I plan to start running at some point, starting at 5am and finishing in time to shower and make it to mass by 6:30, which in Spanish is really cool by the way! After that I catch a quick breakfast at home, walk to pick up my friend Connie from her house as her mom will not let her walk otherwise, and we go to La Católica for classes at 7:45. The first will start on time, the second starts whenever our professor decides to show up, it´s pretty much awesome for someone of my personality!!! After classes, we´ll usually come home for the big lunch, then the afternoon is ours for now, of course leaving time for the homework that will increase with time. In my first class today I met a student by the name of Mauricio, the same as Joe´s given name by his birthmother. There you go Joe. Also, on the topic, I was told that Timoteo is a name often given to the poor children of farmers, so I finally know what I am meant to do with my life!!! Kidding of course. But in reality I look forward to helping out with the poor at Alto Cayma, we went there a day or so ago and saw that there is indeed much to be done. There is a huge gap between the rich and poor here, so we are going to try to help bridge that. In the meantime though, we plan to hit some games of fútbol (soccer), some concerts, like the classical one last night that put me to sleep, and some discos. Again, elections and the world cup both happen this weekend on Sunday and Monday respectively, so it should all be very interesting.

I´ll let you know when I am able to do so, but I plan to get all my pics up on a Yahoo account, but for now check out those above!!! May God bless and keep you all always, I¨ll remember you often in my prayers!!!

TM

Arequipa

So we have arrived, I love my family which consists of my grandma, my mama, my papa and a little brother named Sebastian who is seven years old. I apologize but I do not have a ton of time to say much, but today we went to the university where we will study and got some tips from our coordinators. This afternoon we go to take a tour of Alto Cayma where we will do service, and after that we will hopefully go out for the first time here in the White City.

I have slept very well and have attended mass three times so far. I love it, the people are so relationship oriented it is awesome!!! I cannot wait to tell more, but have to go so my friend Connie can get home for lunch, and I too I suppose. Entonces, vayan todos con Dios mis amigos queridos!!!

Lima!!!

So we arrived and now I want to speak solely in Spanish. It is incredible here!!! The people are so willing to help you, and are so willing to let you help them as much as is possible. I cannot get over drastic differences between here and America. I realize that I am flying all over the place but I want you to get a little taste of what is going on in my head right now. I cannot even think about things outside of here so consuming and inviting is the culture. I expect there will be a storming and normalizing period, I think I even had a mini one today where I tired of speaking in a foreign language and just wanted to sit and do nothing, but after that I had an hour and a half conversation with a Peruvian student of English in a park not too far from one of the local churches where I hope to attend mass tomorrow morning.

Life here is so great already, there are some adjustments, obviously, but the best of these is having to speak a foreign language at all times. In that way you are fully immersed in the culture and all there is. I want to give a quick overview of all that has transpired and so I will, but there will be much more to read later. The flight from Ohare to Atlanta went so very fast, probably because I slept for most of it, then I explored Atlanta which is a tremendous place during my 8 hour layover there. I met up with almost our whole Peru group at the airport and we flew out together for Lima at about 5pm. We arrived, survived customs, baggage check, and finding our bus to the hotel, then collapsed. I awoke around 9am, ate, and jumped on a bus tour that ultimately led us to a tour of the Convent of San Francisco where there were paintings, sculptures, yet most importantly las catacumbas or catacombs. Bones everywhere, and the strangest part was that it made sense, in truth there have been few times that I have felt uncomfortable here. From there we explored the shopping places, the coast, ate for 1.50US, then proceeded on the hotel. After a brief respite, fully recharged we went out where I bought and consumed my first Inca Kola which is excellent by the way. The other bebida here is Pisco sour, but they supposedly serve them daily in Arequipa so I await that to find out what it is like. After that we ate in an excellent restaurant, which again was quite cheap, then proceeded on to the park where we encountered Denny, Antonio and the other students of English and had a long and fruitful conversation amidst those who solicited our money. There are a lot of those by the way. And you definitely need to take care with your papeles.

There is so much to say, but all I can say for now is I am off to bed, there will be more to come. May God bless you all, ¡hasta pronto!

Prepping for Peru..

So I haven't blogged in a long while, leaving school will do that to you I suppose. Anyway I hope you all will check up on this periodically as starting on Wednesday I hope to make it my primary means of communication with y'all. I must say that it is strange that just as I am getting acquainted with being at home in Rockford again, I prepare to go where I have never gone before. Not only on a plane, nor even on a plane to somewhere in the US, but instead to a faroff place in Latin America that I hope will be a dream come true. Still the uncertainty creeps in like darkness at the corners of your eyes while you lie in bed praying and preparing for sleep. Yet the reality is that you will wake again and the darkness will have departed, beginning a new day of opportunities, hopes and dreams. This journey will be one not only of the body, but also of the mind and soul; what I find there I will hold in my heart forever, and it will ever impact every single decision I will make in the future to come. Unbelievable!!!

As to the facts, I leave on a Delta flight from O'Hare airport in Chicago Wednesday at 5:30am, that gives you some kind of idea when I'll be leaving Rockford as we lie an hour and a half away from the City, and then will arrive in Atlanta, and after an eight hour layover exploring the supposedly largest airport in the US, I will leave for Lima arriving at around 10:30pm Wednesday night. From there, we stay in a hotel for two nights, leaving ample time to explore the country's capital, then bus down the coast for four days until we arrive at our destination in Arequipa. There we will stay for the following seven weeks. I may not get an opportunity to add to this before I arrive there, so I look forward to telling you all about Peru then! God bless and keep you all, I would appreciate your prayers!

Passion

What makes you come alive? St. Irenaeus tells us that the glory of God is shown in a man fully alive, so how do we figure out what that is? We live life, we cling to friends that touch our hearts no matter how long we have known them or how little we know about them, we engage ourselves in whatever captures our heart and live for those moments that fill us with passion. We seek to do the Lord's will, put our trust in Him and know that everything will turn out according to how He would have it. There is great peace in this, as well as great challenge. I have struggled with this seeming paradox as of late in that on one hand we are called to seek out our passions and follow them, but on the other to trust in the Lord and let Him take control, take the frustrations out of our hands. In the little things this can be easy to do, well Lord you can have this particular event, it's in your hands. But with larger questions, like what you are going to do with the rest of your life, well it's a little more difficult to give that over, especially in a society that encourages us to do everything we can to achieve the American dream; wealth, a beautiful spouse, a couple children, and at least two houses: one in an suburban area near your job with a white picket fence, and a summer home on the lake several hours away. Yet these take us nowhere. When do you feel most alive? It hits me when I go running, when our team has just come together to win a game or accomplish a task, when I see the smile on the face of someone who just before looked bewildered and alone. To see the light go on when understanding hits, to learn and give back, to love. These all make my heart pulse with life within me, I do not know where it all fits, but with God there is a way. I know I often leave these blogs wide open, but I challenge you to find those activities that start the fire in your heart. These are God's signs and cannot lead you wrong. Trust in Him and follow your heart, for with these you will never forget to love, and you will always be loved, and we will ultimately find peace.