And so the race begins…
Many tears have been shed, but many laughs have already been had. Walking away from mom and dad at the Columbus airport was no fun at all, and I’m sure there are many homesick tears to come, but as for now, on this second day of the race, I am absolutely ecstatic to be here and to be a part of such an incredible journey with God, alongside a group of people who are on their way to becoming a family.
A bit of what we have been doing…
Flights went accordingly yesterday, just a slight delay, everyone got their bags, and we made it to our hostels in Lima around 2am all ready to tuck in for a good nights’ sleep. Or so we thought. However, the folks in Lima like party well into the night, and certain roosters think the sun comes up at 4am. But other than that, we were well rested after our day of travel!
Day one on the official ‘race’ began with breakfast and an itinerary for the day’s destinations. We were dropped off in the center of Lima, with a sizeable list of things to do and see and eat before the day was over, and then we were to ultimately conclude in our final destination of Chincha.
Team 3, my team, which has yet to come up with a name, got to a solid start. (The people on my team are Patrice Deaton, Angela Tibbo, Jen Fodor, and Nate Evans, in case you would like to check out their blogs as well!) We found out names of major founders of the city, made our way to China Town, went on a tour of the catacombs in a monastery, tried to hail a horse-drawn carriage but were rejected due to an oncoming parade, took several taxis around town to have an authentic meal, play in the Pacific, and find a bus station, then boarded a two-hour bus ride going to a place we weren’t entirely sure of to go white water rafting. (Don’t get too excited though, because our team was a half hour too late to go, yeah, it will never happen again, team 3 will prevail in the end). But we did make several friends along the way who were loving the group of Gringos that happened along their path.
The taxi rides of the day were some of the most entertaining parts of the day. We, as a team, unfortunately are a little slow in the Spanish department, so we never quite know where we are going or if the cab driver really has any idea what we mean. But I would say for the most part, we did very well today for our lack of communication skills! We even got a free taxi ride and sang Celine Dion in a van with a group of Peruvians.
A few thoughts…
Today has been a really great way to dive into working as a team. It was a day where we were able to have fun while trying to collaborate our different skills to make our way through a scavenger hunt, all the while being crippled by a language, culture, and geographic barrier. It was really quite humbling though to realize that we were at the complete mercy of the kindness and help of the people in Peru. God provided in every situation though and showed us along the way that those barriers are not really all that great, that people are people, and that He really can accomplish His work through us even with barriers and hurdles.
