my time in trujillo

the time i spent in trujillo, peru will be kept close and dear to my heart.  i did spend two months there, which allowed me to get to know the people fairly well.  i will miss them, as i already do.

this is a rather lengthy post, but please have patience and read through.  if you haven't time, take a look at the pictures and then make a note to come back.  then - i would love to hear from you!!

this is the wonderful family i went to live and serve with.  in the picture there is grandpa and grandma stilwell in the middle and two children and three grandchildren.  i stayed with david and his family and was able to get to know the girls so very well (especially since we shared a room and loved to stay up late chatting in the dark.)

what did i do while down there? well, let's see...

i saw many beautiful buildings, and many not so beautiful.  the house could get very run down and dirty, but yet others buildings would be very well kept up and painted bright colors.  all windows on the first level were covered with a barricade like the above picture. 

we were also able to take a very quick trip to ecuador.  we traveled up by bus and that took us twelve hours.  while we were there we walked around town, and then headed to this little port.

many people will drive a cart down the streets and sell things by speaking into a microphone.  this boy is the bread boy. he only used a bike horn to announce his presence and came by the house everyday.  sometimes mrs. stilwell would go down and buy some bread from him.

the peruvians love this dish.  what is it? they call it "ceviche" and is a mixture of raw sea creatures (fish, crab, octopus etc.) marinated in lemon juice.

the stilwell's church partnered with four other churches in starting a new church in the area of 'alto trujillo' - where the mountains are close and the ground is covered in sand.

the property looked like this when i first saw it. but after many hours of hard labor, the ground was leveled and a temporary roof was put in place.

we hold the services in this little area, while the kids are separated into two age groups and have classes in the two back rooms.

many of our days were spent at the seminary.  i loved spending the afternoon there after listening in on mrs. stilwell's health class.  there is always an abundance of children around, and they don't mind too much if you can't speak their language well.

when i went to peru two and a half years ago with my church group, the church only consisted of two floors.  however when i arrived this summer, they had nearly finished the third and fourth floors.  the windows needed to be put in and some painting and waxing was also needed.  so we helped with those things (not the windows). 

here we are waxing the floors with my two dear friends, bekah (back) and abi (front).

a group from iowa came down in july to work at the seminary and have a couple sports evangelism days.  the dining hall needed a new paint job, along with three class rooms.  i spent the whole day climbing up this ladder - up and down, move the ladder, up and down etc.  however i am a perfectionist, and enjoyed the work and didn't mind climbing a little higher than the rest.

the youth conference was just after peru's independence day and lasted for three days.  we spent many hours sitting in services and classes, which helped a good deal with my comprehension of the language.

we girls from church were able to bunk together.  this was amazing becuase i was able to get to know the girls so much better.  they also had more opportunities to talk slowly with me.

the only sad thing about getting to know someone on a short term missions trip is that it's much harder to say good-bye.  however, that is okay, because i am so thankful for all my new amigas! this picture was taken on my last sunday there - three days before my departure.

the day before i left we rode up into the mountains to the town of otuzco.  the scenery was stunning, but hard to capture on camera. 

the streets were narrow and the buildings painted with multiple colors.  the roofs were also pretty neat, as they extend further than the actually building.

i'll end with one of the trees in the park only a few blocks from the stilwell home.  the one we walked to often.  i do miss having a park nearby.

then again, i miss all of peru.