Since coming to Peru on our survey trips with little 4 month old blue eyed Jake, we knew that making contacts wouldn’t really be the hard part of being here in Peru. We do stand out from the crowd simply by appearance an our terrible spanish.
We haven’t had any kind of outreach effort or done anything special to try to meet new people… just going through life has been more than enough. We are still taking things slowly and getting adjusted, but I wanted to introduce you to some of our new friends…
Every Monday night we get together with some guys for some soccer fun… this outing started out from John Mark’s friendship with one of the guys that works on his street washing cars and doing stuff like that. The usual crowd lately has been David and Eli, who work on the Davidson’s street, and several of their friends Carlos AKA “Pituco”, Angel, and Julio AKA “Gringo”. These have been the regulars and it is a joy getting to know them better all the time. Every Tuesday John Mark has been meeting with Elí to read the Bible and eat ice cream… you know, nourishing the body and soul. Also, last night we were joined by Ronald, a neighbor from across the street and Mirco our friend that works at a church here in Lima and has helped us with all kinds of stuff, most importantly getting our visas.
Another relationship that has been a blessing is getting to know one of the security guards that works on our street, Ephrain. While there are 4 guards that work on our street, depending on the time of day, I’ve connected best with Ephrain and he’ll be joining us for soccer soon, too.
Through the process of looking for a house we met tons of great people, some we’ve been able to follow up with but most not yet. We have been blessed by the friendship of our landlord and his wife, Manuel and Mercedes Sanchez. They are a really kind and friendly couple with kids about our age. One of their children, who lives in Florida, was recently visiting and had a birthday party for their little boy that just turned three. In Peru, birthdays are a big deal and they do the parties up right, inviting everyone that’s important to them to share in the event, music, candy, piñatas and games and music… did I already mention the music? The really, really LOUD music? Also, not so much for 3 year olds I don’t think, but parties last late into the night (or morning) with really LOUD music. Anyways… It was really a nice gesture that we were invited to their grandsons party and we were really looking forward to going and to meeting more of their family. But, at the last minute Stacy came down with a stomach bug and weren’t able to make it. We will jump at the next opportunity to do something like it, that’s for sure.
There are many others, but at the risk of rambling on and sucking away your time like the guys that are always trying to sell us stuff on the sidewalks and won’t ever shut up, I’m going to save more for later.
While our spanish is still pretty limited and makes deep and heavy conversations difficult, it is a joy getting to know our new friends. If you’re feeling so inclined, a few prayers for our new friends would be much appreciated.
