Our Time in Cusco

A few things we’ve learned in Cusco:

1)   Earplugs are really important. Especially when the neighbors have a full-on rave until 3am. On a weeknight. With a live mariachi band.

2)   Traffic is no joke. Plan for it.

3)   Neither are mountain roads. Especially in an overcrowded van.

4)   People are serious about their festivals. To the point of men picking up cars on the streets to make room for parade processionals.

5)   People in Cusco have lots of festivals in June. Like the whole month. See #2

6)   It’s cold. All the time.

7)   You can always pick out the gringos (white people).

8)   Guinea pig is a delicacy. {And they have teeth & heads that look at you}

9)   It’s customary to greet others very warmly & often with a kiss on the cheek.

10) Church services last 3 hours. Maybe longer.

11) Popeyes & Papa Johns are cheaper {and oh so delicious} here.

12) Rice is a way of living. You eat it twice a day. Every day.

13) It’s common to not cook on Sundays. See #11

14) Sometimes you really miss hearing English.

15) The generosity of a family opening their home & lives to you is something you can never repay.

16) We love the jungle much more than the city.

17) A southern pound cake doesn’t cook the same at 11,000 feet.

18) It’s common for parents to force their young children to work to support their families.

19)  Many parents leave their children to raise themselves.

Since our time in Cusco has come to an end, we just want to graciously thank those who have supported us financially, through prayer & encouragement. What a crazy month it has been being completely submersed in another culture & learning a new language. We have come so far & couldn’t have done it without our heavenly Father & the support of those who love us.

I was thinking tonight about a Spanish class I took online during my last year of college. I remember one of the final assignments was a live chat with a native Spanish speaker who had to assess me orally by asking a list of questions. I remember FREAKING OUT about the assignment, dreading it all semester. Before I logged on (with sweaty palms), I was just praying it would go quickly & be over soon. Looking at where I am now, I can truly say I have come a VERY long way. Yeah, I’ve still got words that I forget in conversation & an unending list of verbs that start with the letter ‘p’ that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to differentiate. I still get nervous when I speak & forget how to properly conjugate or use the past tense. It’s still hard to understand children, & I definitely have a long way to go. But I will say that my understanding & literacy of the Spanish language has grown leaps & bounds over the past 4 weeks. I can finally smile at myself because I can order at a restaurant fully in Spanish. I can make small talk with the taxi driver about where I’m from  & why I’m in Peru. I can tell my teacher about my plans for the weekend. I can correspond with the family we live with about their day. I find myself doing something & trying to describe it in my head in Spanish. 4 weeks ago I could barely form a few sentences, & today I am telling full stories in a language different than my own.

In case anyone was wondering why we left our lives, jobs, & home to come here, it all comes down to 40 sets of beautiful brown eyes & 40 pairs of dirty hands deep in the jungles of Peru. I know some will never understand the love God has given us for the precious boys of Iquitos, Peru. But that’s okay- I don’t expect you to until you meet them. They’ve changed us. They’ve made us realize that our time here on earth should be invested in service to the Kingdom, not the American dream. God has given Titus & I a vision to reach these children & more just like them right where they are in lives of abandonment, filth, & hopelessness. And in order to make that possible, we have to be able to speak their language. Yeah, it’s a little crazy but we’re willing to be crazy- crazy for our Jesus because of the crazy love He has for us.

Love makes you do crazy things.