My last blog was during training camp and that was a month ago.
I am so grateful for the people that have been asking me when my next post will be because it has kept me in check. So, here is my update post from the past month.
When I wrote my last post I was in Cusco, Peru and now I’m in a cute little town in Chile named Melipilla.
You probably want to know where I went and what I did in the middle of these two places. I’m going to tell you.
In Cusco my squad got split up into three teams. My team was team refined, Miranda, Denae, and good old me. This story isn’t about the other teams, but I can share them with you because they are pretty amazing too. There was team Amor with Allison, Alyssa, Sabrina, and Savanna. And we can’t forget about the boys! Cohesion consisted of David, Josh, and Micheal.
My team moved from Cusco to Arequipa.
This was our first time without training and without our leaders. My team had booked our first Air BnB but when we got into town and arrived at the hostel, we QUICKLY realized we needed to leave and find a new place to stay. After getting a refund we started to walk around town looking for a new hostel. It was early in the morning and the three of us were really tired after a ten-hour bus ride. After visiting a few different hostels, we were ready to just find a place. Finally, we found one and after checking in and settling in we spent the rest of the day relaxing as a group at a coffee shop. Team refined spent about five days in Arequipa. While there we got to connect with the other people in our hostel. The people we meant were amazing one of them is from brazil another was from Australia and another from Germany. It was so great to get to know the other travelers we were living with. Now team refined has friends from all over the world.
Ten days pasted and the next thing I knew I was in Iquique, Chile with the squad for our first mini debrief. It only last three days but in those three days we went to the beach and plot twist got new teams! Instead of three teams we are now two. My team is now team church camp with Alyssa, Allison, Miranda, Sabrina, and of course me. The other team is team leftovers (funny names aren’t they) with David, Michael, Josh, Denae, and Savana.
After debrief the two teams went separate ways. My team headed to Viña del mar. After a few days walking around a busy city that felt like home for a few days we moved to our second stop as a team. Now my team is in a small town called melipilla.
While we were in Viña del mar my team and I found ourselves in a slump. We were all very tired and almost felt defeated in a way. The plan was to go to Isla Negra and camp for a few days, but things changed. When we got into Isla Negra, we walked to our campsite that was only a few minutes away from the bus stop. It didn’t take long before we realized that our campsite wasn’t really a place. We called and called and finally the people we booked with blocked our phone number and canceled our booking. Lucky for us there was an amazing man working in his yard and he helped us find a place to stay. God knew exactly what we needed and when we needed it. That night we stayed in a cabin and the very next morning moved to melipilla.
From the moment that my team arrived in melipilla we have all felt something so different. The slump that we were in is now gone. It has already been an entire week in Melipilla and so much has happened. Day one we became amazing friends with the lady and her daughter that own the coffee shop we go to every morning. The longer we are here the closer we get with them. Just yesterday we met a lady in the mall that is opening a new restaurant across the street from the mall. Tomorrow she wants to make all of us dinner!
My team and I have really seen the hand of God in the people we have met, the places we have stayed at and gotten coffee at, and normal everyday things like plans being changing last second.
We also had fun getting amazing tattoos!
This is just a very short recap of the past month. I will be posting more about what is going on and with more detail soon! I will be posting this blog on my facebook with all the pictures. sorry for the inconvenience I couldn’t get the pictures to download to the blog.
