ABC Language School

Location: Arequipa, Peru

Class Dates: febrero 6- marzo 3 (if everything goes as planned)

Class Structure: 4 hours a day, 5 days a week

Living Situation: With Julio O'Brien and family

Yay! It looks like its really going down. Hopefully we can push through into the realm of being able to have complete converstaions after this is all over. Now all we've gotta do is find some cheap tickets to the beautiful south of Peru. Sarah might come with me to visit some friends. I'm looking forward to learning and to reconnecting with a friend I knew in Lima on my servant team who is now living in Arequipa near her family.

Welp, just wanted to let you in on the good news... more to come later!

Ahhh, tiempo, no?!

The common greeting with my friends on the street has been as follows:

Me: "Hola!" (Hello, in that excited voice when you're seeing someone you're really excited to see)

Youth: "Ahhh, Monica, tiemp, no?!" ("Ahhh, Monica, been a while, eh?!" very casually with a smile)

and then we hug and both smile and catch each other up as best we can. sometimes just for a second other times we sit for a bit. a lot has happened in a year but sometimes there just aren't words to say.

A little over a week in Lima and loving it. It has been a week of observing and taking it all in. Two nights on the streets, visits to the homes of friends who have returned to their families, and my first encounter with the younger generation of the streets. My emotions are definitely mixed. There is struggle in the adjustment in a world that I knew so well a year ago so much has changed. Much of the change is for the better, nonetheless, it is change. Yet so much joy in reconnecting with friends who are doing well. Girls who used to be on the streets who are now part of the work to help others break the cycle of street life. Amazing.

The way ministry is being done here is being restructured and refreshed all for the better which is an incredibly exciting thing to be a part of even if it does mean saying goodbye to some of the things that I was used to including the Casa Job which was a big part of my time here before. I am excited to learn from the staff here and to be able to transition into this new way of life. So many beautiful things are happening in Lima right now and I am honored to be able to join in any way.

Also found out that I like olives if they have cheese inside, and artichokes steamed and dipped in garlic butter. Who knew?

love, love, love to the home front-- your prayers and your encouragement are a blessing beyond blessings to me and to the one who hears all. peace out for now...

Good Morning Lima!

Wow. Here I am. Sitting at Sarah's computer (which is in LIMA, PERU) that she is so graciously letting me use to let you all know that I made it safely from Des Moines, IA to Lima, Peru. Whoa. Repacking bags, going through customs in Lima AND Mexico City, eating my last Palmer's sandwich, and 15 hours later I arrived. The whole of the American staff was there in bright colors to welcome me back and settle me into an adorable room at Sarah's place where I will be camping out for the next couple weeks at least.

I don't really know what more to type at this point. Our day starts soon. We ate mangos for breakfast and sweet canela y clavo tea (no roaches, Jane!). All the girls on staff are going out for lunch, I'll probably run to the Metro to pick up some deodrant (yep, I knew there was SOMETHING I was forgetting :) and then out to the streets tonite to see my dear, dear friends and meet others for the first time.

Saddle up your horses, we got a trail to blaze, this is a great adventure :).

love, love, nothin' but love.

T-minus 6 hours...

until we hit the airport... 12:20 am we touch down in Lima

love, love, love-- keep in touch

i'll pray for you, if you'll pray for me :)

see you on the other side.

I might have left a piece of my heart in Chicago and Happy New Year to all...

I got in the trusty Lumina (borrowed from my oh so gracious sister) to start the annual holiday trek to the Windy City and into the arms of my beloved Taylor friends and I had to laugh at how the cornfields and open rolling hills along I-80 brought me to tears. Haven't cried about leaving since that Hallmark commercial last month. I guess the time has come. The proverbial "they" seems to think its not healthy to hold it all in anyway. So I mourned the open spaces that I will soon be trading for the sad city and then prayed for my friends who have spent all their days on those streets. I felt deeply thankful for this place, but also that I will soon be going to be with my friends in Lima.

And you can laugh at me for loving Iowa but its home and "they" usually say thats where your heart ends up.

Its not so much Iowa itself as it is the memory and the familiarity of it all. The feeling of space and beauty that is a secret kept between me and my favorite spot along the drive where the sun makes the hills sing just as it sinks behind them. Its the fact that these are the roads to thrift stores with my sister, to the movies with my buddies, to a sandwich and conversation with the bf and back home again to sit at the fireside with my parents. Its the fact that the people I love live just around these bends.

And then I arrived and heard the hearts and laughs of treasured friends. We did nothing, and that was everything. I was blessed by their presence. So many surprises and so much love mixed in with some tears. I couldn't feel more supported. So I left a part of my heart with them to take care of for me while I'm gone.

Let the count down begin: 8 days

and tomorrow I enter my early mid-twenties, look out world...

Happy New Year-- may it be full with a beautiful balance of the familiar and the mysterious.

love, love, nothin' but love.