Peruvian hearts and time

We’ve been here one week now and there is so much to tell already!! It’s been great getting to learn about their culture and just to hang around these people and to see how they live and how they spend their time.
Their greetings are a fun way to make first impressions. Its practically a kiss on the cheek. When you walk into a house or a group of people, the first thing you do is make your rounds and put your right cheek to their right cheek and kiss the air. Girls greet everyone this way, but guys only do it to girls, not guys. This was hard and fun to get used to. It was a bit awkward at first, kissing a stranger, but after you get used to it, you cherish the old greetings I’m used to at home. Just an old fashion hand shake.
The youth and church members here are great. They are so loving and so kind and take to heart every minute you spend with them.
Saturday we started our day with a breakfast at the church with anyone who wanted to come. It consisted of bread, ham, and cheese served with coffee, milk, or water. People came as they pleased and they stayed as long as they please. After breakfast we had a devotion with Jackie. They guys went off and had one on their own. It was some what difficult sitting through it when all you understand is a word here and there. But it was amazing.
After… a lady in the church, makes a living on making jewelry and she brought stuff and helped us make earrings and a bracelet. It was so much fun to work with little kids and to see how she makes her living.
That whole afternoon the youth hung around here. They just grabbed chairs and set and talked. They didn’t have anything else to do besides to sit and chat with us. It was an experience. Never did I see more people who just want to hang around and time didn’t matter. Their time doesn’t have a hold on them. They will sit around for hours and just talk to you and get to know you. They live to love.
At 7, us TREKers were in charge of games with the youth and to help plan things. Coming up with games we could explain to non English speaking people was a number 1 drawback. But with the help of Otto, Lydia, and Kevin, things were done. We played: 4 on the couch, up set the fruit basket, and Dutch Blitz and spoons! They seemed have fun and we enjoyed it as much as they did. We just played each game until things got out of control!! Chairs were flying, bodies were flying, and we just decided to start something else.
Yesterday we had our first church service. As on Saturday, we didn’t understand much of the message but Otto did a good job to talk slow for us and he told us about it later. Rule #1: if you say to be somewhere at a certain time… it won’t happen! Church started at 10... People didn’t really start showing up until 10:30 or 11. There is no such thing as being late! This has been a challenge for me already. I love to have set schedules about how the day is going to happen and what time we will do this. That’s how it was at the MARK Centre in Canada and that’s not how it is here. We never know what is going to happen. We have to be flexible with each and every day. There is NO set plans for the day.
Rule #2: on Sundays, if you don’t go our for lunch after church, people will stick around all day if you don’t leave. It’s kind of a unspoken rule around here. So we went out and got some Chifa ( Chinese )!! It was so good. I hadn’t had Chinese in over 2 months and it was high time!! The Jano, Angita, Angita’s mother, and Jackie went along with us. They are so much fun!! We have so many good laughs and we don’t understand a word they say!! Its still so much fun to hang out with them.
I love our family here and I am enjoying every minute we have here.
Oh and just a note: we have a pet monkey now!!! That’s right!!!!… a pet monkey!!! Its amazing!!!