“The Taxi driver is here to take us to the bus station!” My teammate exclaims as I walk out of the bathroom in the airport. We arrived in Peru at 12:00am and slept on the floor in the airport the night before. We still had a full day of traveling ahead of us in taxi’s and various buses. I had just gone to the bathroom to change, put my contacts in and brush my teeth…remembering not to use the water in the sink. Sleeping bag and sleeping pad still rolled out and clothes strewn over my stuff, I rushed over to the ATM to withdraw money for the taxi’s and then to the counter to pay for the taxi rides for my team. Almost everyone else was loaded into the taxi’s as I packed up my sleeping bag, sleeping pad, and remaining things. Sheeeww, ready to go. This was just the beginning of the adventure that would become Peru.
We arrived at our ministry site which was much nicer than I was expecting…training camp had us prepared to camp for 11 months in our own tents and be self sufficient. We got this. Showers, normal toilets, beds, and cooked meals prepared for us every day sounded like heaven compared to training camp! Only a little different than we were used to…cold showers without curtains or in some areas no door, toilets with shower curtains and trash cans for the toilet paper, and beds with foam mattresses that crater where you sleep and depending on the night…slats that fall inserting you into the cracks between! It’s only risky if you are sleeping under someone or if you are sleeping on the top bunk! (People have actually fallen through the slats before!) Like I said…only a little different. All of that said though, we are spoiled. We knew we weren’t going to be in a 5 star hotel for the race so we are so thankful for all of these things and the many blessings that have come with them.
We also wash our own clothes. By Hand. This is new for a few of us. You know you need help when your ministry host looks at a “clean” sock hanging on a clothes line with ants on it and says, “Did they want their clothes clean?” Apparently at first, we weren’t scrubbing our clothes good enough so the ants got to the clothes to harvest the salt and dirt from our clothes…yikes! But…we got better. This morning, I was washing my clothes again…the right way. First, soak your clothes for about 30 minutes in water with soap. Then, thoroughly wipe each item down with the soap. Scrub them with a scrub brush and your hands….for real. Scrub. Then rinse in a small tub. Then rinse in another small tub a second time. Dump and refill the rinse tubs as they get soapy. Then voila! Clean! Or should I say, “Esta Limpia!” My arms are more sore from washing my clothes by hand than they have ever been by doing push ups!
It’s fun to experience new countries and new ways of living. All of these things have been monumental for me. God is working in me a thankful spirit for what I have taken for granted in the past and for what we have now. I will never look at the following things the same: washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, my mattress, a hot shower, and a shower with a curtain. I am so thankful for: clean water to wash my clothes in and a clothes line to hang them on as opposed to the dirty rivers and lakes used around the world by people without clean water, dishes to use and soap to wash them in as opposed to the places people have to minimize the amount of times they wash their dishes because of a lack of water, a bed to sleep in as opposed to the ground that so many sleep on, and a shower to wash off in as opposed to the buckets or “sweat baths” many other people have to take for lack of water. Even here, I am rich and have so much to be thankful for. This entire experience is a blessing and an opportunity that not many get to have. I thank the Lord for teaching me this and through this lesson, making me more rich than I was three weeks ago in the USA.
