Playing in Peru

49 hours in airports/on planes

8 different planes

3 hours on a train

17 hours in cars

4 stamps in my passport

Worth every bit of travel, every penny (and hundreds of dollars) spent!

It's hard to know where to begin, how to scrunch such a full week into a short post (or several short posts) and where to find the time to do it (could life really be busier than when I left?). I took a journal with me just for this trip and now I look back through it wondering what to include and what to skip and how to summarize all that writing. So much pressure . . . so here is my day of rest, blogging.

SLC Airport - early morning (thanks for playing taxi Kara!)

Lima Airport 17 hours later. Actually this was taken at the Lima airport on the way home but we didn't get a picture of them when we arrived. Shawn did a great re-enactment of our first airport meeting!

We arrived in Lima one hour late (12:40am) and by the time we got through immigration, customs, baggage claim, arrived at Shawn and Kellie's house and climbed into bed it was nearly 4 am. And church started at 8:30. It was an interesting experience sitting through a Sacrament Meeting that was all in Spanish and listening to the English translation in my ear while my head was swimming with a jet-lag hangover. In the end I found that I understood more than I thought I would, gave up on the translation and really enjoyed the day. Sunday school was the best I have ever been to and Brendan's baptism was the icing on the Sabbath cake! (Kellie's blog will fill you in on that).

Sunday was also our first exposure to the Peruvian sun. After the baptism we went outside to take a few pictures and after only about 15 minutes I felt like I was on the verge of a sunburn. It isn't necessarily hotter there, just a more direct burn to the skin. I spent the rest of the trip smothered in sunscreen.

On Monday we went to the Embassy. Not a whole lot to see and not at all glamorous but kinda cool that we could enter because we were with Shawn and Kellie. As we came out the gates of the embassy Kellie took our picture really fast - we already knew we couldn't take any from inside or the Marines would come and get us, but we weren't sure on the outside. So Kellie quickly snapped a couple of shots, just as a guard waved his finger at us and told us no photo's. The idea of "better to obtain forgiveness than permission" still got us in trouble.

This one is for you Gymboree fans! Across the street from the embassy there was a Gymboree sign, a daycare not the store but still, Gymboree. So for all of you loyal shoppers out there I attempted to catch a quick photo without the guard noticing. Well, he did and we got an earful of angry Spanish and finger waving. Evidently we aren't supposed to take pictures of anything across the street from the embassy either. The really funny part is that there is a 10+ story building going up next to the Gymboree and the exterior is all glass. I wonder how they will monitor pictures being taken there?

Monday night we went into downtown Lima and saw a gorgeous cathedral, the town square and the building (in this picture) that is equivalent to our White House (not sure what it was called). We took a picture of it from across the street since we didn't know if we could get in trouble for taking pictures of that building too, and because there were guards all around with big guns - just a bit intimidating - we also didn't dare take pictures of them.

Levi is saved - he went to confession. Doesn't he look a little nervous?

Tuesday was a day to catch up with Kellie. We walked to a breadstore (which was Fabulous!!), waited for the boys to get home from school, worked on a craft project, watched "Secret Life of Bees" together and of course talked, talked, talked. It was so nice to have some downtime with Kells to just hangout and be sisters instead of tourists.

Wednesday night we went to see the Fonseca's. Hugo and Megan were in our ward in Rexburg (Hugo was Levi's YM president and a really great friend) and they had moved to Puerto Rico about 1 1/2 years ago. In January they moved to Lima and through another friend (Thanks Silvia!!) we were able to connect with them on our trip. It was so fun to visit with them again and let the kids play with Dominic. I admit that I got a bit homesick hanging out with them because they were asking so many questions about people from Rexburg. Also, watching Megan take care of their baby girl brought on a little mothering homesickness for my own little boys. However, when you hang out with Hugo for a while you end up laughing so hard that worries are soon gone. It was great to be with them!

Dominic was having to much fun playing and refused to be in the picture. Though I took some of him I think my camera must have been set on "fuzzy" because that was all I got.

We spent Thursday afternoon at the beach/ocean. I stick with my previous theory (and fear) that water should be watched and listened to, not played in. Levi and Jeremy both went out to far and though Kellie was able to rescue Jeremy, we had to leave that up to a life guard for Levi. He didn't think that he was in any real danger and didn't think that he was out that far but from watching on shore we saw how each big wave pulled him further and further out, almost past the buoy. I'm just so grateful that there was a lifeguard there to do what I wouldn't have been able to do to save my son.

Levi waiting for the next great wave.

On a happier note, Andie, Kellie and I had a great time just playing in the sand on the beach. I have never applied so much sunscreen in one day! Even after applying it faithfully several of us still managed to have burn spots. The boys did have a great time in the water. Shawn and Levi spent a lot of time riding the waves and we managed to get video of both of them riding in on one of the big ones (but that takes more time to upload so pictures will have to do for now).

My overall impression of Peru is that it is very dirty. I'm talking garbage in the streets, everywhere. The cleanest, most secure place that I saw was definitely Kellie's house. The neighborhood is nice, the streets clean. But even just a few blocks away and it seems like a totally different city. There is also poverty there that I have only previously seen on TV but until we were driving past it my mind didn't really acknowledge that it exists. I wanted to reach out to do something, to take in the little kids in the median who's parents were selling stuff among the traffic or to toss my sandwich out the train window to the little boys reaching their hands out to us. Unfortunately, there was nothing that I could do in my week long visit that would really make a difference. However, I feel more of a nag to do some humanitarian work through the church.


And the rest will have to wait. There is more to come, just not today.