Well hola! Our N Squad got to Trujillo Peru last Sunday morning after 2 overnight buses and a day at a border town. We got some down time on Sunday and Monday and quickly discovered the Huanchaco beach, about 45 min away by combi van. So, we decided that Mondays for the month of February will be spent on the beach, eating ceviche, and drinking coffee and taking advantage of Wifi at The Chocolate Cafe. Good times. Since our whole squad is together we're paired up into 4 groups instead of our 8 teams and we swich ministry sites every week. Last week my team worked at a local day care in Trujillo, playing with kids, teaching English songs, painting, cleaning, etc. This coming week we're going to be working with the Inca Link sandboarding ministry. We'll go out to the giant sand dunes and spend some time with the teens from the community who go to sandboard (think snowboarding in the desert). Every week is a new adventure.
We live on the Inca Link concrete compound, however, we prefer to call it the "castle" or "fortress". Our scenery is WAY different here than it was in Quito. We're living in the middle of the desert, on the outskirts of Trujillo amongst an extremely poor community living in mud brick houses and trash. Our "fortress" resembles a contruction site, unfinished brick and rebar everywhere, and I cannot, I repeat, CANNOT keep sand out of my toes for longer than 2.9 seconds. Mosquitoes are an evil, evil presence here in Trujillo and they have feasted on the flesh of World Racers for a week. But you know what? I live with 60ish people who love the Lord, and push me everyday, and fight for me, and sneak up on the rooftop to watch Friends at 11pm overlooking the village
. I will be the first to admit that I was not crazy excited to live with the whole squad for a whole month. Too much laundry. Too much noise. Too many people to become best friends with. Too little space. Too much crap lying all over the "dorms." Too little bathrooms. Too much. This living in "community" is far from normal. But I didn't sign up for this year expecting normal. Not normal at all. I'm in such a place where God hasn't really shown me exactly what He has for me this year. But I don't think He ever would show me everything at once. He know's I couldn't handle it. So we'll take it day by day. And some days the waters are calm and some days the waters suck. It's way harder to trust Him on the stormy days, but that goes without saying. I shrug my shoulders in the meantime and walk alongside my team/squadmates. There's a song that says "I will climb this mountain with my hands wide open." That's how I see it. We climb alongside each other and help each other do it with our hands wide open.
