Not sure what to call this...

I have never really considered myself a person that gets home sick. When I was attending Southern I never got sad or home sick. This doesn’t mean I did not miss the people that weren’t with me; I just never got full on home sick. When I worked at camp I missed my family but I was never homesick. I have found that while here in Peru as a student missionary I got a little homesick on Friday nights. I miss my family every day but on Friday nights I would say I actually get homesick. If I had good Internet I would make Friday nights my Skype day. Unfortunately Friday’s are too unpredictable, and don’t have good internet. That is all I have to say on that.

Once again I am reminded how I am not a Peruvian workhorse. The guys from km 38 have been coming to km 8 to do some work on the fence and other odd jobs around the clinic. I am amazed at how good they are with a hammer and nail. I thought to myself man that looks easy. I tell them I am going to give it a shot, I probably bent around 30 nails, and got blisters on my hand. Man it was embarrassing, but it gave the guys a good laugh. I enjoy working with them, I hope I can get a chance to spend some time at km 38 before I leave.

Pretty much every kid here in Peru is a beast with a slingshot. Most of the boys are walking around with a slingshot around their wrist or slung across their chest. They aren’t the kind that I am used to, on a “Y” shaped stick. It is just the rubber band, and you use your fingers to anchor the band as you shoot. I recently purchased one at the corner store. I am not very good to say the least; I have never been so scared of hitting my hand with a rock before. It hurts so much! While trying to learn and practice I usually have 3 of the regular sling shooters that hang around the clinic laughing at me. Rolando, Jerson, and Jr are the boys I shoot with; they are all way better than me. It blows my mind how content these kids are to just hang out and shooting rocks at different targets around the clinic. We can easily spend over an hour shooting at random things, but I resist the temptation so that the guys from 38 don’t think all I do is shoot rocks with kids all day. They are beasts with slingshots too; one of them made me a little “Y” stick sling shot so I wouldn’t hurt my hand too much. I enjoy my slingshot time with the kids, makes me remember how easy it is to make a kid smile, just spending some time with them embarrassing yourself shooting rocks.

On to some medical/dental stuff, this past week I broke 2 teeth. Very frustrating! One of them they had to come back so Martin could get it out. The other one took a very long time of carefully working on the root and LOTS of little prayers. Those were my first two broken teeth thank the Lord, unfortunately they were both in the same day. I helped the doctor remove two sebaceous cysts, it was pretty cool, and He let me stitch her up. It was much easier on a pig head, having the doctor there watching me and the patient perfectly aware of what I was doing made me super nervous. The first one took me a little bit but the second one was much easier cause the nerves had gone away.

I had an exciting weekend last weekend. On Saturday afternoon we all decided to go to San Jose, which is pretty much a lake off the river. The previous Saturday we had gone and I saw a tree, which would be a prime spot for a rope swing. Robbie and I bought some rope and Russel put the rope up in the tree. I was not sure what would happen when we actually swung on the rope, so naturally I let Robbie go first. It turned out to be petty stable. We spent the afternoon swimming and swinging off the rope swing. Hayden made some friends with some people near by that were jet skiing and wakeboarding. It was a fun Saturday. The next day we went to Aguatia, not sure if that is how you spell it, it is a town right near the Andes. We actually went to Velo de la Novia, which is a waterfall right at the start of the Andes Mountains. The trip out there was a lot of fun, and beautiful the mountains are just majestic. It was pretty far so a lot of the day was spent on the trip out and back, but that was ok with me since it was good scenery. On the way back it got dark before we made it back to Pucallpa so I had a chance to do some stargazing. We were about 120 km away from town, so there were not many lights. It was beautiful, left me speechless and made me feel so tiny and loved. Tiny because the sky is so immense and I have no way of being able to fathom what is out there, and loved because God made the world beautiful as a reminder of His love. It just blows my mind; it was the perfect way to end a great weekend. A good trip to recharge before the medical group from VA gets here.

Something that is very frustrating to me is how I can read a book that is not abut God in two days, but have a hard time sitting and reading the bible. I am about half way through reading Steps to Christ, I don’t know how many times I have started this book but for some reason or another stopped reading it.  I have been reading different part of the bible and every time it is a struggle to finish the chapter. I don’t really know where I am going with this but, I have been trying and struggling with that. A case of spiritual ADD, that is all I have to say on that for now. It is a work in progress, baby steps; a little progress forward is better than no progress forward. I think.

            I wish I could stay longer in Peru, I was thinking about how fast time here has been flying. Pretty soon I will be on a plane back to the states. One thing that my time here in Peru has revealed to me about what I might want to do more of when I’m an adult is more mission work. I can see myself doing this for a couple years, not forever but defiantly do more.

         I saw an Asian man on a make shift road bike this past week. I miss my bikes, I love you Adrianna and Emma, and soon we will be together again.